by Em Petrova
While Dane gave a rundown of what they’d discovered in the field, Kinsey listened with half an ear. So this was one of the brothers her friend Kelly had spoken of. And yes, Dane looked as hot as she’d been told.
Glancing around, she didn’t know if she hoped to see Asher or not. Avoiding the man seemed best under the circumstances. They’d parted with no promises to see each other again. Just her luck, though, to be called to the Moon Ranch while she still sported all the red marks of his thorough pleasuring.
Tingles stole through her at the reminder, but Dane started across the yard, leading them to an ATV.
“You two can take the four-wheeler and I’ll go on horseback,” Dane said.
Branson nodded and before she could gather enough wits, he’d climbed on first to drive, leaving her seated behind him.
“You’re living to piss me off today, aren’t you, Branson?” she drawled out as she settled in the portion of seat he didn’t take up.
He chuckled and started the ATV.
At least it afforded Kinsey the chance to look around more at the ranch. In one of the spacious pastures, she noted a pair of horses, and judging by the way the stallion tossed his head, the mare would be bred within the day—maybe even the hour.
They rolled behind Dane, who trotted through the field. With their cattle herd scattered, she didn’t immediately glimpse the downed calf.
No, she spotted the man standing over it first.
She might be too far away to make out his features, but she’d know that body anywhere. She’d felt it moving against hers in the throes of the most ecstasy she’d ever experienced in her life or likely would again.
Unless I get another chance with him.
* * * * *
It never once entered Asher’s mind that the woman he’d slept with the night before would be the game warden coming to investigate their dead calf today. When he set eyes on the woman, he didn’t immediately recognize her either. With her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and her wearing the shapeless uniform, no wonder. But the minute he saw her face, memories flooded in.
She rode on the back of the ATV, behind a big, beefy guy wearing a cowboy hat. As they drew to a stop, she slipped off. Not waiting for her partner or Dane, she headed straight for the calf.
Asher watched her. She didn’t look him in the eyes or acknowledge that she knew him in any way.
That rubbed kind of wrong.
He moved forward, scanning the lines of her body. In that uniform, he could see little evidence of the curves he’d loved on the previous night. But knowing they were cloaked in ugly tan fabric gave him a small thrill.
“When did you discover the calf?” she asked him without turning her head to meet his gaze.
Did she mean to act as though they were strangers?
“’Bout forty minutes ago.”
“And you haven’t moved it at all?”
“No.”
She leaned in to look at the bite marks on its throat. “Have you guys been seeing any predators around? Bear?”
“Not that I know of. I just got here. Look, aren’t you going to say anything about last night?”
She went still and then very slowly pivoted her head to look at him. The depths of her eyes shocked him. Green. Not any green—a pale olive, as serene as a forest at dawn. And that whiff of peach body lotion brought to mind the taste of her sweet arousal.
“Hi, Asher.”
“Hi.” Goddammit. For a guy who spent his entire life laying low to avoid as much notice as possible, he didn’t like being ignored by her.
“This is Game Warden Cody,” she introduced the big man as he and Dane approached.
Asher eyed the guy. The guy eyed him back. Thrusting out his hand, Asher took the high road. “Asher Moon.”
“Heard about you being back in town.”
He didn’t miss the dirty look Kinsey threw him. What had she said to him? Did Cody know everything about their interlude? Better question—did Asher give a damn?
“We didn’t find the calf this morning on the first run. We found the calf this afternoon while doing a head count. I just had a bad feeling, I guess.” Dane looked down at the calf and shook his head.
Kinsey stood from her crouch and peered around. “I don’t think the calf was killed here where it lies. It was dragged before the predator ate it.”
“Think it’s coyotes?” Dane asked. “We heard from some other ranchers they’re having troubles too.”
“Most likely coyotes. The bite marks are too small and close together to be bear jaws, and it’s similar to the steer we saw earlier today.”
“We heard about it and a few others too,” Asher said.
She compressed her lips. Shame, because the plump lines should never be hidden from sight. Asher glanced away.
“We just came from Drover’s place. Walked all over the property and found a few tracks in the wet soil next to the creek.” Cody swung a look from Dane to Asher as he spoke.
“If the coyotes are following the creek, no wonder they ended up here.” Dane kicked at some grass, and Asher tensed, waiting for an explosion. His brother had ranted from the time he rode out of the field to the time he made the phone call to the game commission office and until the wardens showed up.
Of course, Asher had tried to calm him down, just like old times—picking up the pieces of their fractured lives and trying to make some peace for his brothers. But Asher’s attempts to raise his spirit with a few jokes fell flat.
Even the more levelheaded among them, Zayden, had saddled up and was now out riding the property, angrily searching for the predator that had taken out one of their herd.
Kinsey took off walking away from them, her gaze on the ground. Asher watched her for a moment, noting the sway of those hips. Hell, he’d put that sway there. What sort of marks had he left on her pale flesh to go along with her slippery hips?
His cock twitched in his Wranglers, and he set off behind her. She paused to look down at something at her feet. Sure enough, he spotted a scrap of flesh from the feeding frenzy that had taken place on the poor calf. Sometimes nature got ugly, and this proved to be one of them.
“Your brothers didn’t hear any howls around here? The horses haven’t been snorting or pawing the ground because they scented coyotes?”
He shook his head. “Not that I know of.”
She gave him a sidelong look.
Damn, he wanted her mouth again. This time he’d use it to his best advantage too.
She turned to walk back to the others. Out of reflex, Asher caught her by the forearm. Under his fingers, her warm flesh robbed him of control for a heartbeat. In that moment, he thought up half a dozen ways to make her cry out his name, and all of them ended with her juices on his tongue or on his cock.
“Darlin’, you really were fantastic last night.”
A light flush covered her cheeks—the only sign she wasn’t completely immune to him. Seeing it made him want her again. He lightly tugged her closer, but she pulled from his grasp and stepped back again, her professional decorum in place. Or was that indifference he read on her beautiful features?
“Asher, you don’t need to say anything more to me about what happened last night.”
He stared down at her olive—or was it sage?—eyes. What the fuck? This was new to him—he was the guy who let the ladies know from the start that he didn’t want more than one encounter with them and that he definitely did not do relationships. Then if they weren’t into that, he gave them his signature wink and smile and walked away. But here Kinsey stood, telling him what happened was nothing.
He watched her walk away from him. Damn if he knew how to respond to a woman not begging him for more. Hell, sometimes after a one-night stand, he got tracked down to his apartment by women wanting more from him.
With a shake of his head, he eyed Kinsey. She definitely wasn’t like those women, was she? Actually, she seemed to be different from any woman he’d ever been with in the long history of su
ch encounters.
Well good. He wouldn’t need to think up a way to let her down easy.
He looked at her again. Goddamn, he wanted to peel that ugly uniform off her banging-hot body one more time.
She returned to where her partner and Dane stood talking. Asher looked over the partner. Could it be Kinsey had some connection to him and that one-night stand had been a woman on the prowl who didn’t want her indiscretion to see the light of day?
She didn’t stand next to this Game Warden Cody, and he didn’t give her any of the looks a lover would give his woman.
Asher relaxed a little.
Wait—why do I need to relax?
Because I don’t want in the middle of their bullshit—that’s why.
There didn’t seem to be any bullshit happening between Kinsey and her partner. She continued to walk the field, searching for signs, and Dane filled Cody in on the wildlife they regularly saw on the ranch.
For a moment, Asher stood fixed to the ground. He wanted to go after Kinsey, but she clearly stated she didn’t want to discuss their night together.
Fuck it. When had he ever cared about propriety?
He strode after her. She crouched to study something on the ground. As his shadow fell over her form, she glanced up. Was that the wisp of a sigh he heard coming from her lips? He’d heard it several times the night before.
“Look, Asher, this isn’t going to work for me.”
He crouched next to her and shot her a crooked grin. She did a double-take. Now that’s more like it.
“Tell me something, Kinsey.”
She lifted a nervous hand to her temple. “What’s that?”
He stared into her eyes. “Are you wearing my marks today?”
She sucked in a sharp breath and then shot to her feet.
He stood more slowly, aware of the way she angled away from him but the hard blush covering her throat, and if he unbuttoned that ugly blouse, the tops of her soft breasts too.
Moving in, he said, “You are, aren’t you?”
“Please stop.” Her words came out as a throaty plea he’d heard in very different contexts in that apartment over the garage.
Before he could say more to her, she walked away at a fast clip to her partner’s side. They spoke a few more hasty words and then departed on the ATV again.
Asher walked over to Dane, who swung into the saddle. “What’s the plan?”
“Calf’s too big to haul out on horseback. I’d go after the tractor, but we still haven’t replaced it after those fuckers took it to cover Dad’s mess.”
Asher arched a brow. “The cops didn’t recover it?”
Dane shook his head, looking off into the distance at the ATV fading out of sight. When he looked to Asher, he could guess what he had coming.
“What the hell did you say to that game warden?”
He rubbed at his chin. “What makes you think I said anything to her?”
“She was with you then made a beeline over here and said they had to get on the road now.”
Asher shrugged.
“And she was blushing—a lot.”
“Women don’t always blush because of me, you know.”
Dane grunted. “But she did.” They stared at each other for another second or two, and Dane finally chuckled. “Leave it to you to hit on a woman while she’s out in the field doing her job and wearing the ugliest uniform known to mankind.”
“I’ll give you that regarding the uniform.” He didn’t add that underneath the stiff tan cotton was a body any man would hunt through enemy territory to get home to.
Suddenly he realized that included him.
* * * * *
Why did she let that man get under her skin like he did? One look from him at Kelly’s party and she’d been panting for him. Then today in the field, she could only think about stripping down to the buff and letting him have his way with her.
Have some integrity, she told herself as she walked up to her dad’s house. The place looked closed up—had he even opened the blinds today to allow some sunlight into the dank house? Good thing she checked on him daily, because she couldn’t trust him to take care of himself. Since her momma died and Trent’s first signs of trouble, her father had become a hermit and only went to work, but she suspected if he didn’t need the money to stay afloat, he’d call off a lot.
She let herself into the house and glanced at the dim surroundings. “Dad?”
“In the kitchen. Trying to open this goddamn can.”
Kinsey meandered through the cluttered living room that spilled into the kitchen area, where her father stood at the counter struggling with an old-fashioned crank can opener and a can of baked beans.
Juices squeezed out of the cuts he’d made in the top of the can, but the aluminum still hadn’t been opened.
He glanced up at her, a curse on his lips. “Damn this cooking gig. I’m no good at it. Your mother always did it.”
“I know. Let me help.”
“I got it, goddammit. I’m a grown man—I can open a can.”
“All right.” She leaned against the counter. He didn’t appear to have changed out of his stale clothes from the day before—either that or he’d put them on again. She wrinkled her nose. “Dad, have you done any laundry lately?”
He glanced up. “No point in washing clothes every day if you didn’t get sweaty in them or go out.” He sniffed himself. “Besides, I don’t stink.”
“In other words, you haven’t done the laundry.”
He gave a doleful shake of his head. “I’m not good at this homemaker crap. I don’t know how women were saddled with the work for entire generations and survived it.”
She leaned in and kissed his scruffy, unshaven cheek. “They only did long enough to tell their daughters not to put up with it. You’re lucky I’m willing to help. I’ll go do some laundry while you fight that can.”
“I’ll use my teeth if I have to!”
“That’s the fighting spirit.” Laughing, she walked into the laundry room, only to find the space in a state of mass chaos. Not only were dirty clothes scattered on the floor and spilling from baskets, but the dryer door hung open and some items lay on the floor, mingling with the dirty so she had no idea what to wash.
Concern pinched her brows. Her dad really wasn’t handling life very well right now, and she had no idea how to help him. The hardest was knowing her momma wouldn’t want to see her loved one in this condition after her passing, but Kinsey’s dad had given up on life in his deep grief. And that only compounded exponentially once Trent landed into trouble.
“Aha!” she heard from the kitchen and smiled to herself. He’d finally won a victory with the can opener.
Quickly, she dumped the rest of the dry laundry still in the appliance into a basket and added towels to the washer along with detergent. When she straightened up as much as possible for now, she returned to the kitchen. Her dad had emptied the can of beans into a saucepan to heat on the range.
“What’s for dinner?” she asked.
“Beans and franks. I’ll cut up a couple extra wieners into the pot if you’re stayin’.” He eyed her.
“Sure. I’ll have beans and weenies. It’ll feel like camping.”
He chuckled. “I’m going to buy one of those electric can openers.”
She nodded. “Good idea.” Pausing, she thought over how to broach the topic of him getting his life back on track. But who was she to dictate the time period of his grief? It had only been a year. Maybe time would show improvement. She could only hope.
“You adopt a dog yet?” He stirred the contents of the pot.
“Not yet. Haven’t had time to research enough. But soon, I hope.”
“That’s good. I know you’ve been wanting a dog for a while now. How was work today?” he asked.
She poured herself a glass of sweet tea and took a seat at the counter. “Difficult. We had two attacks on cattle on two separate ranches.”
His brows shot up. “Where?
“Drovers’ and the Moons’.”
All of a sudden, the color drained from his face—and flooded back in so fast, his face grew almost purple. Her heart jerked, and she jumped off the stool.
“Daddy, are you all right? Are you feeling any pain?”
He waved a hand. “I’m fine. Just mention of that name got me.”
“What name?”
“Moon.”
For a painful throbbing heartbeat, she stared at her father. How had he found out she left the party with Asher Moon? And how much more did he suspect?
She cleared her throat. “Moon?”
“Yes. That bastard’s back in town. The youngest—what’s his name?”
Her fingertips tingled in response to the stress and anxiety she faced right this second. “Asher,” she managed weakly.
“Yes, him. The bounty hunter. The one who caught Trent and put him behind bars again.”
She blinked. Her mind spun a three-sixty. “What?”
Her father met her stare. “Yeah, that Moon guy caught Trent back in Denver and now he’s in prison until trial, instead of free, where he should be.”
Mouth dry, she managed to say, “Well, it’s the job of a bounty hunter to catch people who jump bail and—”
He cut her off with a slash of his hand in the air. “You’re defending that pig?”
“N-no. I’m just stating facts. He might not even know Trent and…” She trailed off. But fact was, she had no loyalty at all to Asher Moon and all the love in the world for her brother, who claimed innocence. Surely he wasn’t lying... He just didn’t make the best choices, had gotten tangled up with bad friends and took the fall for them. Then jumping bail…
Her heart pounded in her ears. Her father stomped across the kitchen and dumped the beans and weenies on two plates. Meanwhile, her stomach churned.
The man she’d slept with—who’d occupied most of her waking thoughts all day—was responsible for her brother being back in jail. No way could she continue to give him another thought. She’d just have to pretend their night together hadn’t happened.
But how could she forget the hottest, most exciting night of her life?