by Em Petrova
He groaned. “I said grab a towel. I’ll take over.” He took the towel out of her hand and began working Beauty’s wet coat.
He wasn’t prepared for the blow that glanced off his back. “What the—” He looked up in time to receive a shove in the side. He braced his legs and lowered his head. “Did you just throw a horse brush at me?”
“Yeah.” She looked as surprised as he felt.
“And hip check me?”
“Yes, I did.” Her lips curled in a sneer he burned to wipe off her face—with his mouth.
He stopped what he was doing and stalked toward her, gathering his control with each boot fall. “Look, woman, I don’t know where you come from, but we don’t solve our problems with our fists here.”
“Is that why your knuckles were scabbed over a week ago and Witt had a green bruise on his cheek?” When she settled one hand on her narrow waist, his cock stiffened painfully.
After she removed her hat and raked her fingers through her long, wet hair, he couldn’t take it another minute. He lunged forward. Wrapping his arms around her hips, he lifted her. Slammed his mouth over hers.
Her eyes flared wide a split second before she locked her hands on his nape, angled her head and kissed him back with all the pent-up passion he felt raging through his system. Teeth, lips, tongue. He stabbed deep, drawing moans from her. Her sweetness permeated his head and shredded the last of his control.
He’d been about to tell her to keep her hands to herself and now all he wanted was her touching him. Need mounted. He rocked his hips against hers, pulling another earthy groan from her sweet pink lips.
Wild for more, he backed her against the nearest wall, pinioning her between his body and hard wood. He wasn’t ashamed to grind his hips against hers in a primal dance as old as time.
She ground right back.
“Fuck, you taste good.” He claimed her mouth again, cradling her face and drinking deep. Using her arm strength, she levered herself up to place her legs around his hips. Desire attacked his system. He had to taste more of her. Had to sink into her.
With a groan, he tore his mouth free and kissed down her delicate jaw. Bit her chin. She cried out as he moved to her delicious throat and creamy breasts. He licked the wetness from her skin, aching for the moisture between her thighs.
Her ragged breathing spurred him on, along with the scorching heat of her body through her very wet clothes. “You aren’t shivering,” he said between kisses.
“Neither are you. Girls…” gasp, “…aren’t much different than boys.”
He pulled back to look into her eyes. Dark green with gold flecks. When she came, what color would they turn? Hell, he couldn’t think of that.
He shouldn’t even be touching her. He had no right.
Realization scalded his chest and he carefully lowered her to the floor. As soon as she touched down, she scampered a few feet away, arms over her chest. Rain lashed and thunder cracked, but inside Kade there was a bigger storm.
He scuffed his boot on the floor and shook himself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“No.”
He snapped his head up to see her looking more defiant than ever. Chin lifted, eyes blazing. Good—anger was easier to deal with than wild, willing female.
His cock pushed against his fly, demanding more play time. Dammit, why did she have to be the ranch hand? If he’d spotted her at the church picnic, he wouldn’t have wasted a second making his move. When he kissed her, she was so untamed.
Running his hand over his face again, he attempted a cool tone. He couldn’t let on that inside his hormones were raging and he was two seconds from pinning her against the wall again.
“Why don’t you go to the bunkhouse and get changed for dinner? There’s no need to do more outdoors.”
She drifted farther out of reach. “I’ll just wait out the storm, thanks.”
Yes, he was right. His feisty little ranch hand really was afraid of storms. He didn’t know whether to laugh or take her in his arms and soothe her.
Figuring neither would end well, he opted for the easy out—tormenting her. “The horses are good company, but the storm might last for hours. You know, if you duck and run for it, your chances of being struck by lightning are one in two hundred million.”
Green fire. Yes, that’s what he’d hoped for. He bit back a smile and sauntered toward the door, prepared to make a hasty exit in case she decided to shove him again.
He left the barn. Damn, she was a spicy little cowgirl. Not many men would chance getting physical with him, but Ryan wasn’t afraid of him at all.
She was like a schoolgirl tripping the boy she had a crush on.
Good, because he was goading her for the same reason—pure, unadulterated lust.
* * * * *
Ugh. Kade Dalton was the biggest ass she’d encountered in a long time. That was saying a lot when her father hadn’t been picky about the cowpokes he’d employed. He took everyone from cocky small-towners to suave rodeo guys who’d never stopped believing they had an audience of willing buckle bunnies hanging on their every word.
After Kade had jogged through the storm as though it was afternoon sun, she’d waited ten full minutes for him to come back. When he didn’t, she breathed a sigh of relief and stripped off her outer shirt.
She draped it over a stall door to dry and sank to a hay pile to think. His kiss had dizzied her, but her response had been something out of a sappy chick flick. Guy showers girl with attention, girl acts as if he’s the only man who will ever look her way again.
She’d tangled her legs around him, for God’s sake.
Ugh. The syllable sounded so good in her mind, she said it aloud. A barn cat jumped onto the bale beside her and Ryan spent long minutes stroking its back. Then it collapsed on its side and presented its very fat stomach.
“You’re going to have babies soon, aren’t you?” Under her hand, she felt the movement of several kittens. It reminded her of holding Emma. Such an adorable girl. And Cash was a dream man—taking her out onto the ranch with him so his wife could sleep in? Ryan hoped she could find a man like that when she was ready.
For all her tough-girl ways, she did want a family one day. There was no reason why she couldn’t be all things—ranch worker and mom. Despite Kade’s beliefs, this was the twenty-first century. Women did it all, and Ryan intended to. She hadn’t compromised up until this point—why should she now?
Her breathing finally slowed with every stroke she gave the cat. Kade’s kisses had sent her pulse pounding and her brain spinning like a twister. Her body still felt the effects of his caress. Beneath her tank top, her nipples were tight knots. And her jeans were strangely warm even though they were very wet.
Thunder cracked and the cat lifted its head off the hay in lazy acknowledgement of Mother Nature. But Ryan gave a squeak of surprise.
Damn Kade. He’d seen right through her—he knew she was afraid of storms. Well, he also knew how she looked in nothing but panties and a T-shirt.
Her brain darted back to the moment he’d entered the kitchen to grab first breakfast. Without his hat on, he was even more rugged. Dark, messy hair begging for her fingers. When she’d dropped her gaze to find his fly open and bright white cotton distended by pure Kade, she’d almost swallowed her own tongue.
Catching him tucking in his shirt, zipping his fly and then buckling his belt had almost been more erotic than that patch of white. Strong fingers as nimble for small tasks as manhandling a one-ton steer.
They didn’t even like each other. But lust had entered the equation and she could still feel his warm, slick tongue moving over hers.
She shuddered, wanting it on other body parts.
She’d stopped petting the cat and it pawed at her thigh. Suddenly, she was cold. “I’ll be right back,” she said to her furry friend and got up. She shut the barn door against the rain and the worst of the thunder and grabbed a horse blanket on her way back to the bale. Slinging the blanket ar
ound her shoulders, she felt her sleepless night steal over her.
The goosebumps on her arms had more to do with memories of those sinful moments between her and Kade than cold. But the minute she curled up with the cat and blanket, she got drowsy.
If she fell asleep and Kade found her, he’d never let her live it down. It was a wonder he hadn’t fired her for that hip-check. She smiled.
As she stared at the window awash with rain, she tried to make sense of the whys. She could begin with why her mother had given up the family ranch, but Ryan had beaten that horse enough. So she moved on to the whys of Kade Dalton.
Why had he kissed her though he didn’t like her? Why did he make her heart drum and why had he worn such a soft, burning expression?
In the few weeks she’d been on the Paradise Valley Ranch, she’d seen a lot of emotions pass his handsome face. Most of them she didn’t understand. A few she did but wished she didn’t. But that deep, hungry look?
It had a big question mark on it.
When the cat pasted itself against her side and began purring, she let her eyelids droop. The next thing she knew the barn door was opening and Kade was standing there with another confusing expression on his face.
* * * * *
Kade wasn’t prepared for walking in to find Ryan curled on a hay bale fast asleep. His breath punched from him and his heart turned over painfully. She lay on her side, red hair tumbling over her freckled forehead. Her long, auburn lashes skimmed each cheek and her pink lips begged for his kiss.
Desire wasn’t a hot coal in his gut—it was a raging inferno. As she slept, he continued to study her.
A scratchy horse blanket couldn’t feel good at all against her tender skin, and he locked up the urge to glide his hands beneath it and draw her into his arms instead.
The blanket moved. He blinked. It fluttered again. What the hell? Either she was birthing an alien baby or something was under there with her.
The possibility of every type of vermin paraded through his mind, but when he saw the white tip of a tail poke out of the blanket, he knew it was Mrs. Jones, the pregnant barn cat.
As the animal burrowed out of the blanket, Ryan stirred. He skipped his gaze from the rise of her hip to the swell of one creamy breast and landed on her arresting, heart-shaped face.
She batted the sleep from her lashes, recognition flooding her features. She jerked upright, and the cat skittered away. Kade’s gaze locked with hers. Heat clawed its way upward from groin to chest to face.
He bit off a groan. How she continually shoved him off-balance, he had no idea. Every preconceived notion he had about her ended up wrong. At first he’d doubted she could keep up on the ranch, but in a few hours she’d proven herself. He’d also thought her a Cowgirl Barbie, coming from the Sky Ranch and big money. But she wasn’t afraid to be a grease monkey or shovel shit alongside the rest of them. She was great with the kids and his family loved her.
And she kissed like a wildcat.
Except I shouldn’t know that. If he kept looking at her like this, he’d never be able to turn away.
With an extreme force of will, he tore his gaze aside. “Storm’s past. You can quit hiding.”
In a blink she was throwing off her blanket and the cat and on her feet. Fists curled, waves flaming around her face, she twisted her lips. “I’m not hiding. I was waiting out the storm, same as you, but I didn’t have any chocolate cookies.”
Surprise curled his lips. “How’d you know that?”
“You have crumbs all over your shirt.” She shoved by him and peered outside. The rain had vanished and seemed to have dried everything already.
“This weather’s unsteady,” he said. As much as she is. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see a dust storm this week.”
When she pivoted on her boot heels, he found her close—way too close. She smelled of hay and female and, how was it possible? Sunshine. Skin warmed beneath the rays that fed the Dalton land.
Need slammed him and his eyes hooded.
“Oh no, you don’t, Kade Dalton.”
“No, I don’t, what? And why are you using both of my names? I’m Kade. Just Kade.” Maybe he’d bypass kissing her and go straight to turning her over his knee.
Hell, that thought was worse. Her round, denim-clad ass under his hand—
He pressed his lips together and counted to ten before he could even process what she was saying. Apparently she’d been going on for some time, because her face was pink and words he couldn’t hear were flying off her sugar-sweet lips.
“—know-it-all—”
“You about done?” he cut in.
Her mouth snapped shut and she settled a hand on her hip, the sassiest he’d ever seen her. Maybe he should make her angry more often. Then he could set her straight on some things.
“You’re wrong about me, you know.”
She stared, tiny freckles spattering her nose standing out sharply under her pink anger. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I’ve seen women rope and ride so well, it put more seasoned cowboys to shame.”
She opened her mouth to spew more.
“And you’re one of them,” he interrupted.
The shock stealing over her was a sight to behold. Like the sun rising after a long, sleepless night. Or watching a foal gain its feet for the first time. Damn straight, he liked looking at Ryan too much. She was knotting him up inside.
She was also a pain in the ass. “Don’t get cocky, Miss Hunter. I said you’re a good rider—roper too. But that doesn’t mean you’re good at your job.”
Looking as if she wanted to hip-check him again, she flushed a deeper shade of pink. Okay, tomato red. She was mighty pissed.
“Give me one reason, Kade Dalton.”
It niggled, having her use both of his names. For some reason he wanted to hear “Kade” roll off her sweet lips between sweeter kisses. “You don’t take direction. You go about things your own way, even though you know it’s not how we do things on the Paradise Valley Ranch.”
“Are you referring to earlier when you wanted me to rope that calf?” She nudged an errant wave off her face, temporarily halting his mind.
He had to work with this woman, and he couldn’t be stealing kisses every five minutes, even if that’s all he could think about. For the sake of the ranch and his family, he had to get tough.
“I gave you a direct order to rope that calf and you hesitated. Which meant Cash had to get in between it and its mother, who happens to be twenty-five-hundred pounds. Now, I don’t need to tell you that’s a dangerous situation.”
“The calf was moving up to feed from its mother.”
“But it was favoring its back leg. Didn’t you notice?”
“Not at the time, no.” She dipped her head. “Look, I know I should have just done as you said, but you weren’t seeing things from my angle.”
He nodded. “A woman’s view.”
Her eyes shot bullets. Hot lust pounded through him. Hell, yes, she was pretty when mad. Before she could say a word, he went on, “You saw a baby cow needing fed and I saw some of our income compromised. If that calf is lame or a hoof gets infected early, it’s worthless to us.”
Her throat worked. “I know,” she said quietly.
“If you know, why don’t you just do as I tell you?”
The lift of her jaw sent warning alarms blaring through his brain. “Maybe I like to piss you off.”
“You do a damn good job of it.”
“Never thought I’d hear you say I’m good at anything, Kade. You’ve done that twice in the same conversation.”
His chest felt as if it had caved in. The way she talked, sassed and even said his name dug far too deep into his system. What was he going to do with her? Rather than lunge for those peach-ripe lips, he chin-nodded toward the barn door. “I’m heading to Vixen to the feed and seed store. Do you need anything?”
“Are you asking if I need seed potatoes? You’re every woman’s dream man, Kade Dalton.”
So he was back to having two names. He sighed. “I’d ask you to go with me, but I’d end up dumping you along the road between here and there.”
At that, she tossed her head back and laughed. When she laughed, she did it with her whole being. Her eyes closed, lips turned up, hair waved around her breasts.
A wave of need thickened his throat—and tightened his Wranglers.
“I’ll pass on Vixen. And no thanks on the seed potatoes.” She started out of the barn, hips swaying as if powered by her giggles too.
“We need horse treats.”
She stopped midstride and looked over her shoulder. “What kind of treats?”
“The stock favors the oat and honey ones.”
As she started back to his side, his chest seemed to burn and swell. “On the Sky Ranch, we made our own. Well…” her eyes were golden brown, “I did.”
He arched a brow.
“Your momma never made them? I figured a rancher’s wife would be on top of that.”
“She had enough to do feeding us. Besides, she needs to rest more.” His voice was gruff, but Ryan didn’t move away. She leaned closer and placed a hand on his forearm. Electricity zapped up his arm into his shoulder and settled in his chest. Whatever emotion lived between them, he wasn’t quite ready to throw a rope around it and stop the momentum.
“Will your momma mind if I raid her pantry and use her kitchen?” she asked.
“As long as we clean up after ourselves and don’t eat what she had planned for supper, she won’t mind a bit.”
Ryan’s smile filled him with a heat that was far more than desire. “C’mon, cowboy. I’ll give you a cooking lesson.” She gripped his forearm and towed him across the yard to the house.
* * * * *
Since the age of five when a trio of tornadoes had ripped through the Sky Ranch, Ryan had been afraid of storms. Hiding in the cellar, wrapped tight in her daddy’s arms had been comforting but still wasn’t her fondest memory. When they’d emerged, the house had been standing but some of the fencing was wiped out and an outbuilding completely vanished.
So watching the sky blacken and a greenish tinge cloak the ground filled her with dread.