The Treasure Read online

  Miss Wickham, however, was quite wet from the ordeal. So wet her dress clung to her curves like a second skin, and her nipples puckered with the cold. A jolt shot through Ray’s body, like somebody poked him with a sharp stick. When his gaze clashed with hers, it seemed she read his thoughts.

  She frowned. “I’ll just go put on a clean dress. Mr. Malloy, would you please keep Melody company, and clean, for two minutes while I change?”

  Without waiting for an answer, she exited the kitchen.

  “You look right nice, Mel.” He removed his hat and coat, then sat in one of the kitchen chairs.

  “I don’t wanna look nice, Pa.” She stuck out her lower lip. “I hate her.”

  Every time he looked at his daughter, it reminded him of his past follies, of his wife’s betrayal, of the miserable hell his life had become in the past five years. He knew he wasn’t doing right by Melody, which was the main reason he decided to hire a housekeeper and governess for her. Folks in town called her “wild thing”. Some even called her a bastard since she didn’t favor either of her parents. She was, however, the child of his heart regardless of whether or not he was truly her father, and he loved her more than life itself. It cut him to the bone to see the other children, and adults, whisper nasty rumors about his little girl. He hoped Miss Wickham would help Melody become more civilized, more accepted, and in turn, a proper young lady.

  “That’s not a very nice thing to say.”

  Melody blushed slightly, but didn’t relax her combative stance. “I know that, but Aunt Nicky says sometimes things need saying.”

  “I don’t think she meant being rude to people, Melody.”

  “Was I rude?”

  “Yes, honey, you were. You owe Miss Wickham an apology.”

  She wrinkled up her nose and scowled. “Don’t wanna.”

  Ray sighed. “The hardest things in life to do are the things that we want to do the least. You will apologize.”

  Melody’s lips pinched even further and her scowl deepened.

  ———

  Ray was sure of one thing. Lily could make biscuits twenty-four hours a day and he’d be happy. It was like biting into a little bit of heaven with butter on it. He had to bite his tongue to keep the moan inside as it rose up his throat.

  The beans were tasty too. She must have added a few things to make them a little less plain. The unfortunate result of his usual cooking was plain food. Too plain. This was the best meal he’d had in his kitchen in years.

  Melody dug in with gusto, sopping up the beans with her biscuits and shooting dirty looks at Lily.

  “Mel, do you have something you need to say to Miss Wickham?”

  She turned her scowl on him and shook her head.

  “Get it done, girl.”

  She sighed heavily then proceeded to open her mouth, stuffed full of dinner, and apologize to Lily. He had all he could do not to slap his forehead.

  “I appreciate the apology, Melody. Please remember not to speak with food in your mouth.” Lily’s response reflected a level of class he’d never achieve.

  God, she was such a lady. Too much a lady for a Wyoming horse ranch. He was about to discuss her return to New York when she started talking.

  “I’d like to start Melody’s lessons the day after tomorrow. I thought it would be a fun idea if she showed me around the ranch tomorrow, perhaps introduce me to everyone. Maybe even take a ride into town to get some supplies. What do you say, Melody?”

  A trip to town was a treat for Melody. He hadn’t taken her there in years, not since she was three years old and some old biddy in the general store had pulled her skirt aside when Melody walked past. Ignorant bitch. He had decided then and there to keep Melody away from town as much as possible.

  Melody’s eyes lit up like stars in the sky.

  “Town?” She turned to look at her father. “Can I, Pa? Really?”

  “I don’t see why not.” Lily plowed on, heedless of anything but the sound of her own voice. “We definitely need to purchase supplies, and I need a new pair of shoes. We can also look into some material to make new clothes. Do you want to learn how to sew, too?” She talked as if he wasn’t even there.

  “Sewing is women’s work,” Melody scoffed.

  “Oh, but the things you can do if you know how to sew. Not just clothes, but dolls, toys, maybe a new neckerchief for your father. The possibilities are endless.”

  She spoke with such enthusiasm. Her whiskey-colored eyes shone with warmth and practically jumped with excitement. Lily had an aura of light around her. It was like looking at a force of nature. A force of nature who ran roughshod over him as he watched.

  “Dolls are for girls.”

  “Yes, they are and I played with mine for hours on end. I even made them a little bed out of some scrap wood and sewed a blanket and clothes for them.”

  Ray could just see Lily as a young girl, putting her doll to bed, dreaming of being a mother some day. She said she was twenty-six. He wondered why she had never married. She obviously loved children.

  Melody was interested in what Lily was saying, but he could tell she was trying to stay away from her. It wasn’t going to be that easy.

  “Dolls are for girls,” Melody repeated, a little less strongly.

  Lily shrugged. “Perhaps we can make something else then. I will need some help finishing my list of supplies though. Will you help me?”

  Melody thought about it, then nodded. “You might ferget something or add stuff we don’t need. Girlie stuff.”

  “You’re absolutely right. I don’t want to overrun the ranch with girlie stuff. Your father may end up with pink shirts or a purple feather on his bonnet. Imagine how the horses and cows will react to that.”

  Ray bit back a laugh, watching Melody do the same. Lily was going to be good for her. Then Lily turned her smile on him and his heart beat for the first time in over five years. A great big thump that echoed through his body like a rumble of thunder.

  “Would you mind escorting us ladies to town tomorrow?”

  Without realizing what he was doing, Ray nodded.

  He should be scared. He should be terrified. He knew, without a doubt, Lily Wickham was going to change his life.

  ———

  “I still don’t like her.”

  Ray swallowed the sigh that wanted to escape. He was trying to put Melody to bed but she resisted every move he made with ridiculous ease. Made him wonder how the hell his five-year-old daughter knew how to outwit him.

  “You don’t have to like her. You just have to listen to her. She’s going to teach you all kinds of things, like how to read and cipher.”

  Melody sat on her bed in her small white nightdress, arms crossed, with a pout to her lips like any other little girl. Her dark eyes were full of sadness, anxiety and unknown deeper emotions. She wasn’t like other little girls, yet she was. So damn young and vulnerable, yet possessing a strength inside no one her age had.

  “I can read.”

  “The name on a bag of seed doesn’t count. You can’t read books yet. Miss Wickham will teach you.”

  He tried to tuck her in, but she sat back up immediately, dark locks flying.

  “I don’t want her to teach me. I want it to be just you and me, Pa, like it always was. She made me wash and she scrubbed me raw.”

  He didn’t see it coming. Melody burst into tears, shocking the hell out of Ray. She was not a child who cried often, and here she was with great, gusting sobs, shaking like a fall leaf in a winter storm. He scooped her up and put her little body on his lap. He rubbed her back and crooned nonsense words into her ear until the shaking subsided, and her sobs reduced to little hiccups.

  “It’s okay, honey. Everybody gets scared and upset sometimes.”

  She snuffled loudly and wiped her nose with one hand. “Even you?” she said into his chest.

  He smiled at her. “Even me.”

  She lifted her tear-stained face and looked at him suspiciously. “When?”
>
  He rubbed his thumb on her cheek to erase the tears. “I remember once when Uncle Jack and Aunt Rebecca were lost in a blizzard. I was plenty scared even after we found them, because they were very sick from being outside in the cold so long.”

  She tilted her head and seemed to be contemplating his answer. “Okay. I believe you.”

  Melody tucked her head back under his chin. It was a good thing too, because he couldn’t keep the smile back if he tried. She was way too smart for a five-year-old. Sometimes he wondered if she was fifty instead of five. She had an old soul, one who had seen much and carried those lessons deep down in her heart.

  “If I ask you to, will you make her go home?”

  “That’s not a fair question, Mel.”

  Although he wanted to send Lily home the second he saw her, he found himself convincing his daughter to let Lily stay.

  “She came a very long way to be your teacher. We can’t send her back two thousand miles because you got mad that she made you wash. Give her a chance, okay?”

  Melody was silent, curled up in his lap like a kitten. He was beginning to think she fell asleep when he heard a little sigh escape.

  “One chance, no more.”

  He shook his head. “Let’s take it one day at a time.”

  She sniffed and didn’t respond.

  “Now you need to go to bed, it’s way past your bedtime, as usual.”

  He stood and laid her back down on the bed, tucking the blanket and quilt up around her chin. The chin that stuck up like a weapon when she was angry. The only part of Melody that reminded him of her mother, Regina. A fact he was heartily glad of.

  He leaned down and inhaled her scent, a fresh scent, a smell that invoked so many memories. Restless nights, sloppy kisses, little hugs, and a million reasons why he would never have traded being a father for the world. A surge of love for his daughter nearly overwhelmed him.

  “You’re squeezing me too tight, Pa.”

  He released her and kissed her forehead. “Sorry, Little Note.”

  “I’m not a baby anymore. Don’t call me by that baby name.”

  Ray chuckled and stuck his nose in her neck, sniffing like a puppy. Melody giggled and scrunched up her neck, trying to get away. He just dug further, sniffing harder and faster. She giggled louder and started pushing at his shoulders.

  “Stop it, stop it!”

  He pulled back and landed a big, noisy kiss on her cheek. “Even if you want to be called Mel, you’re still my Little Note, my Melody.”

  Melody rolled her little eyes. “Okay, if you want to.”

  He gave her a quick hug and dropped a kiss on her forehead, then stood and gazed down at her. She looked so damn small lying in that bed.

  “Good night, honey.”

  “Night, Pa. I love you.”

  Ray’s throat pinched every time he heard his daughter say that. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  ———

  Standing outside her room in the hallway, Lily hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but she heard part of their conversation anyway. It was obvious Ray loved his little girl a great deal. She wondered why Ray didn’t tell Melody he loved her. A simple response, one Lily had never heard herself. Why Ray didn’t tell his daughter was none of her business, of course.

  She was walking down the hall toward the bathing room when he popped out of Melody’s room like a dark shadow. She stifled a yelp and jumped a good foot off the floor.

  “Holy sh-sheep!” she squeaked. “You scared a year off my life.”

  “Holy sheep?” he asked in a whisper with amusement in his voice.

  The gloom of the hallway hid his eyes, but she saw his mouth. He had very sensual lips for a man.

  “It’s, um, better than other, less appropriate words,” she whispered back.

  That sounded stupid even to her own ears. She’d better control her outbursts and that included her choice of vocabulary words. He had absolutely no idea where Lily was from and she was determined to keep it that way.

  He grunted and went to move past her.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I suggested a trip to town.”

  He stopped right next to her. They were practically shoulder to shoulder. She felt the body heat leap from him to her.

  “I wish you had asked me first, but done is done.”

  He certainly didn’t sound happy about it. She didn’t know what to say to that. It had seemed like a good idea when she thought of it. Perhaps Ray didn’t like to go into town. That was obvious by the state of his pantry.

  “We can do it another day if you’d rather.”

  He rubbed his hand down his face. “No, tomorrow is fine. Doesn’t matter what day you pick. It will be the same.”

  Ray moved away and Lily felt the loss of heat. She swayed toward his wide back—her body seemed to have taken over where her brain stopped working.

  She watched him walk away, admiring the long-legged stride and firm steps. He walked like a man used to the world getting out of his way.

  Chapter Four

  Ray walked away from Lily like his ass was on fire. He had to move quickly or he was in danger of slamming Lily up against the wall and wrapping himself around her.

  He had felt an almost violent urge when she’d come so close to him—a primal reaction to her nearness, something he’d never experienced before with a woman. Even Regina. With her, he’d been led around by his dick without a thought in his brain besides her.

  With Lily, a jolt had shot through him, an impulse to lay his hands on her. There had been a moment when he was sure his willpower would fail him. He practically ran away like a yellow-bellied coward. Who knew what she thought of him now.

  Ray marched into the cold night air and slipped his coat on. His breath puffed out in a cloud in front of him. He cursed himself for not bringing his hat and gloves, but there was no way in hell he was going back in the house yet. After he stepped off the front porch, his boots crunched on the hard-packed snow as he stalked into the night.

  Ray needed some time to wilt the raging hard-on in his trousers. He walked toward the barn and corral, listening to the soft whinny of horses and the whistle of the wind in the bare trees. He looked up at the sky and saw a million points of light twinkling in the velvet blackness. The moon hung low in the sky, so close he swore he could reach out and touch it. It was a brilliant white, lighting up the front yard and bathing the night with a soft glow.

  Why her?

  Why Lily?

  No question she was beautiful, but no more beautiful than other women he’d known. Lily was also smart, but godawful clumsy. After making two horrendous messes in the kitchen, which she’d cleaned up, she broke a candlestick in the living room. She also seemed to trip over her own feet a lot.

  Aside from all that, Lily was there to teach his daughter and take care of his house. Not service his carnal needs.

  Ray reached the barn and opened the side door, slipping inside as quietly as he could. He let his eyes adjust to the blackness of the barn, then made his way over to Shadow’s stall.

  The big stallion had belonged to his younger brother, Logan, who had been murdered nine years ago. Although heading toward twelve years old, Shadow was still the best damn horse Ray had ever owned. The gray equine was part Appaloosa, part something else.

  Shadow whickered when he scented Ray. He moved closer to the horse, laying his head against his great neck and sighing.

  What the hell was he going to do about Lily? Keep his distance, that’s for sure. He hoped Melody took to her. It had taken him nearly a year to find a woman willing to come out to the Wyoming wilderness. At the time it seemed like a fluke that a governess from New York was coming. Unbelievable enough he kept expecting her acceptance of the position to be a joke, so he’d let her come.

  Now he felt like he was worse off than before she arrived. If that were possible.

  He stroked Shadow’s neck until he felt his self-control reasserting itself. Being around horses always had a ca
lming effect on him. With one last pat, he moved away from Shadow and walked down the rest of the barn, doing a quick check on the horses.

  When he was satisfied all was well, he went to the door and stepped back outside. The moon had risen a bit higher in the sky, illuminating the rear of the house.

  And Lily.

  Shit.

  She was leaning out her window. Probably gazing at the sky as he had been doing. She wore something white, probably her nightdress, which glowed in the light of the moon. Her unbound breasts pushed up against her arms as she leaned on the windowsill.

  Sweet Jesus.

  Something else hit him even harder. Her hair hung down around her like a dark, lustrous curtain—wavy, full, and as tempting as any sight he’d ever seen. His dick was suddenly awake again with a vengeance, straining against his pants and snarling.

  As he watched, she leaned a bit further out the window, twisting her head to see more of the sky. Then she leaned out too far and fell out the window.

  ———

  Lily tumbled outside and landed on her nose, which immediately made a popping noise, and a warm gush of blood bathed her face. The snow was absolutely freezing and her scantily clad body started shivering from tip to toes. She pushed up on her elbows and ended up shoving her hands deeper into the snow.

  Yes, indeed, her fine graceful self just had to make itself known. Hopefully she could climb back into her window without anyone seeing her.

  If only she hadn’t been so hot, she wouldn’t have opened the window. After the incident with Ray in the hallway, her entire body had been flushed and she felt a bit feverish. Odd, really, that reaction to a man. She had never had it before and hadn’t expected it.

  While she tried to cool off in the frigid air, she noticed the moon was bright in the dark sky. Naturally, she opened the window a bit more and leaned out to get a better look.

  Then her natural grace took over, and she fell out the window into the snow.

  The sound of boots rapidly running through the snow toward her dashed her hopes that no one had seen her.