“Yes! Of course I’ll marry you!” I replied. “But we gotta stay together for three months, first.”
“Agreed. And you gotta let me buy you some art supplies.”
I sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to let me pay for anything ever again if I married him, but I didn’t mind that much.
“Fine.”
His face broke out into a huge smile and he picked me up, spinning me around in the air then holding me to him. The love passing between us was probably visible from space.
“C’mon you two! These pancakes won’t eat themselves!” Clay called from the entrance.
We giggled like naughty kids and began moving again, still holding hands.
“You sure you’re ready to be tied down to a country boy and his ranch?” Lawson asked with a twinkle in his eye.
“Lawson, you can tie me down any way you like, and I’ll still scream your name when I come,” I replied. He laughed loudly, and Clay, who hadn’t heard our conversation, rolled his eyes impatiently.
“C’monnnn! You two are moving like a pair of elderly tortoises!” he grumbled, but we knew he wasn’t serious.
He just needed a girl of his own to get him to slow down a little.
The End.
Thank You!
Thanks for reading Tie Me Down: Arizona Heat Book 1. Book 2, Make Me Stay, will be out on April 12th.
Keep reading for a sneak preview!
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Sneak Preview
And now a sneak preview of Make Me Stay:
Barrett
There had been quite a lot of rain last night, which was unusual but not unheard of for this part of Arizona in November. I got up at five, checked on the steers, then headed out to check the land. I’d been about to turn right into the southeast field when I had to hit the brakes. Some damn hippie had parked over the entrance to the land with one of those VW campervans.
Irritated, I decided to inconvenience them as much as they’d inconvenienced me. I double parked the VW with my truck, got out, locked the doors and headed toward the stables. Jake wasn’t up yet, so I saddled up Foghorn, one of the horses, and headed off to do my work on horseback.
Most cowboy work was done in trucks like my Ford, these days, but I had a job to do and it wasn’t the first time I’d had to do it on horseback.
The land was looking mostly fine, no flash floods, except around the edges of the fences, where water tended to accumulate at this time of year. I made it full circle back to the van in about an hour. Whoever was inside was still asleep.
I decided if they wanted me to let the van go on its way, they were going to do some work on my ranch, to make up for the trouble they’d caused. I could use another man today, because I had to take the horns off twelve new steers.
“Hey! You get up right now, you hear?” I tapped on the glass in exactly the way they tell you not to at the zoo.
The drifter sat up and my jaw fell open. She was a she. And when she sat up and reached across to lower the window a little, her sleeping bag fell away, showing her innocent white bra, and her huge, round breasts. One nipple had popped out of the cup in the night and it sat pert above the white, soft fabric, like a little bunny nose poking out of its burrow to explore.
My eyes moved lower to her flat belly and the cute piercing with a sparkling blue rhinestone.
Oh, jeez. Was she a hooker?
I forced my eyes upwards, taking in her tousled hair, bleached light blonde like Bebe Rexha, with dark brows and the slightest almost-black roots showing at the top of her parting. For some reason, I’d always found that kind of hair sexier than natural blonde on a woman.
“You done?” she asked, and when I finally reached her eyes I saw they were narrowed at me angrily. They were also the prettiest shade of dark green I ever saw.
I fought against the hardness trying to fill my cock, and pulled my mind back to the fact this cute little thing had messed up my day by illegally trespassing and parking on Lemon Tree Ranch land.
“You parked on a farm entry.”
“I’ll move. Yeesh, what time even is it?” she crawled across the van, apparently oblivious to the reason I’d been staring, and her pert, heart-shaped butt was revealed, in pink panties that didn’t match her bra. They were those boy shorts that revealed just enough to make a man like me itch to spank an ass like hers.
This girl might have traces of last night’s makeup under her eyes, but she wasn’t no road whore, that was for certain.
“Six a.m.? Shit. I got three hours’ sleep and I forgot to set my alarm. I’m sorry. I’ll get going.” Three hours’ sleep? Didn’t seem like she was looking after herself so good.
“Missy, you ain’t going nowhere until I say so.” I don’t know why I decided to push my point, but I guess I was still sore about the fact she’d been so inconsiderate.
“What d’you mean? Move the truck and I’ll get out of your way.” She dragged a T-shirt over her head and I felt like someone had turned out the light that had been illuminating my mood. My mouth became a hard line.
“You’re going to spend the day working on the ranch, to make up for the nuisance you caused.”
“Oh, hell no.” She dragged her jeans on and started the engine. Looked like she was going to ram my truck and all I could do was sit on my horse and watch. Instead, she steered to drive through the slight hill of sand between where she was and where the dirt track and fence were separated.
“Don’t!” I yelled, but she didn’t seem to understand. The sand wasn’t stable. It collapsed. The van got stuck. The front bumper was suddenly buried under sand and the girl swore loudly.
“I hope you don’t speak to your grandma with that mouth,” I scolded. “Now stop being silly and get out of the van.”
She just sat there, as if she didn’t know what to do next, so I dismounted, walked around to the driver door and pulled it open before her hand could hit the latch to lock herself in.
“Driving without a safety belt,” I remarked. I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her out of the van, hoisting her over my shoulder. I slammed the door, locked it and pocketed her keys, then I deposited her over the horse, mounting behind her before riding back to the stables.
She was swearing at me the whole way, but she didn’t dare kick the horse. At least she was considerate of animals, even if she didn’t seem to be so good with humans. Can’t say I was much better, in that regard, but at least I tried not to inconvenience people. Except her. Her day was mine, and she was going to think twice before she ever blocked someone’s land access again.
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