The Tycoon's Tender Triumph Page 0,44
Jessy, letting her know that he’d be gone for the night and not to hold up dinner for him. He then turned off the bedside light, pulled the blanket over their naked bodies and pulled her closer, rearranging the sleeping beauty against him. He then stared up at the ceiling and tried to work through their previous conversations, looking for clues that might have led to this turn of events.
Sam woke up and reached out to find Chloe, wanting her close to him again. But as his hand moved across the sheets, the sensuous beauty who had turned to him over and over again during the night was no longer there. He woke up fully and looked around. It was just before dawn and a hazy light was shining through the windows. But no Chloe.
He looked through the rest of the house, but she wasn’t in the shower or the kitchen, or even her father’s bedroom. When he looked out into the driveway, he realized that even her dad’s truck was gone and her coat was no longer tossed over the sofa where she’d left it last night.
“Damn woman!” he growled and stomped to the bathroom to shower before pulling on his clothes, cursing the cold water he endured for less than the five minutes it took him to clean up after the passionate night.
He drove like a mad man over to his house, slamming the door as he walked through to the kitchen and damn if Jessy didn’t glance at him like he was a lunatic.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
Jessy turned back to continue stirring whatever it was she was cooking on the stove. “I was hoping the ‘she’ you’re referring to was Chloe and ‘she’ was the woman you spent the night with and ‘she’ might have put you in a better mood.” She glared back at him and said, “Obviously I was completely wrong on all my assumptions.”
Sam didn’t even bother to correct her before he stormed out of the kitchen and into his bedroom to change clothes. He only took the time to throw on clean clothes before he was out the door again, this time heading down to the stable to find out if she had been there.
Several of the ranch hands he questioned had seen her, and he realized that Pepper was gone from his stall. So he was slightly relieved that at least Chloe was on his property somewhere, but she wasn’t where she was supposed to be, he growled as he went back up to the house for breakfast.
“Did Chloe at least stop and get breakfast?” he asked Jessy when he entered and tossed his coat onto a hook.
“She took one of my famous muffins and I made her she had a thermos full of hot coffee. I also packed some extra muffins and some fruit for her, but I’m not sure if she knew what was going on. She had a kind of dazed look in her eyes.”
“Still?”
Jessy laughed, completely delighted with his reaction as well as the confused look on his face. “Again, at the time, I assumed that was because you had spent the night with her. But from that dumbfounded look on your face, I’m guessing there’s a different reason. Care to tell me what happened and who you were with last night?”
Sam ignored her jibe and ate up the distance between the kitchen and Chloe’s father’s room, taking two cups of coffee with him. Jim was getting more mobile, but Sam didn’t want him to push it too much. Chloe already worried about her father too much.
“Have you seen Chloe this morning?” Sam asked as he handed the older man one of the cups of coffee.
“Sure,” Jim replied, taking a long, fortifying sip of the brew. “She brought me the newspaper, but she was in a big rush. Didn’t mention where she was going though.”
“And you didn’t ask?”
Jim chuckled and shook his head. “Chloe has been all over this ranch several times over so I’m not worried.” He paused for a moment. “She did have an odd look about her though. Not sure what that was about.”
Sam forced himself to stay and talk business for a few more minutes, ignoring the pain in his gut as he worried about Chloe but not wanting her father to think something was up. Sam had always suspected that Jim wanted Chloe and him to get together, but there was a big difference between a father wanting his daughter to marry