by Melody Anne
To top all of that off, she’d finally begun speaking to her father again, and he was going to show up in a couple of weeks. Great, and not so great. If she didn’t appear to know what she was doing, he was going to be royally disappointed. A few months ago, that wouldn’t have mattered to her. Now, it did matter, more than she cared to admit.
Feeling anything but confident in her new position as owner of this ranch, Brielle felt that she’d rather stay in a women’s shelter than live one more day on this ranch with the men hating her, and with Colt who knew where.
“Please, Tony! I’ve been reading those books you gave me, and I’ve been working with Joe, the only guy here willing to work with me, but I still need to figure this all out.” She hoped to high heaven that he’d cave in just a little.
And maybe it was working. Tony sighed and got ready to speak.
And was interrupted.
“What does a city girl know about working a ranch? Actually doing something around here might make you break a nail. You wouldn’t want that to happen, now, would you?”
Brielle stiffened as a voice she knew all too well assailed her ears from behind.
Colt!
He was back, and not only back, but he’d dared to mock her with the first words spoken between them since he’d climbed from her bed. As she took a few deep breaths, she debated whether to use a choke hold on the rage consuming her or just to unleash it.
“What’s the matter, Princess? Cat got your tongue?”
“That’s it!” She whirled around and took menacing steps toward the miserable man who was so warm one minute and then cold as ice the next. Thank goodness she had her rage as protection — otherwise she’d have been completely immobilized by the way his jeans were clinging to him just right, and the way his shirt hugged his pecs and his abs.
But no. She didn’t notice that this time, because everything was coming through as a bright, vivid, blistering red. How dare this man leave her bed, not speak to her for two weeks, and then come back and talk down to her?
“Where in the hell have you been? Do you think you get to just come and go as you please? I don’t think so, Colt! You are so beyond fired.”
She’d had it with this place and she’d had it with him and all the crazy feelings he inspired in her. Yes, she’d been through with Montana before she’d ever arrived, but right now, she wanted to do nothing more than take a match and burn the entire place down. If she didn’t get some help real soon on making this freaking ranch work, she refused to be held responsible for the outcome.
“I don’t think I’ll let you fire me,” he said with a cocky smile. “Nah. It’s not a good day to do your bidding.”
“You pompous, self-serving, worthless son of a bitch!” While speaking, she jammed her finger into his chest hard enough to make him flinch, though she didn’t notice that. “If you even think you get to come around here after being gone for two weeks and then speak to me that way, you are sadly mistaken. I swear by all that’s holy and unholy that I will take one of these pitchforks and drive it straight through that smile on your face.”
When the stupid, stupid man had the nerve to laugh, she turned and made her way to the damned pitchfork. Before she was able to get her fingers around it, she felt steel arms wrap around her from behind.
“I missed you, too” was all the warning she got before he turned her around and pushed her against the wall, then lowered his head and kissed her. Her shock allowed him to keep their lips connected for a few seconds. Then her body stiffened with horror.
“How dare you?” She didn’t even recognize her own voice, because it was on such a new register. “Do you honestly think you get to manhandle me? Do you think I won’t rip you apart?”
Some of her anger drained as she looked at him. Yes, he turned her on — not at this moment, but obviously he’d gotten to her a couple weeks ago. But that didn’t matter. He had no right to grab her that way, not after the way he’d treated her.
“Sorry I haven’t called, sweetheart. I was stuck in Seattle for the past couple of weeks. It’s too boring to even talk about.” He threw her a sheepish grin as he drew back only far enough to look into her eyes, his body still pressed against hers.
Taking a moment to get herself under control, Brielle lifted her hands and pushed hard against his chest, making him take a step back. “I don’t give a damn where you’ve been, Colt. But if you throw yourself on me like that again, you won’t like the results.”
“Are you upset?” The way he asked the question stopped her in her tracks. Was the man blind or just very, very dense?
“Are you really that brain-dead? Seriously? After what we did, do you think you can just disappear without so much as a word, and then strut back in here as if nothing is wrong and pick up where we left off?”
At the look in his eyes, she had the awful feeling that that’s exactly what he’d thought. Counting to ten in her head, and then to twenty-five, Brielle took a few more calming breaths. Maybe all cowboys were just that clueless. How would she know?
Maybe she too was an utter and absolute fool. Because as she stood there toe to toe with him, more of her anger began dissipating. And in its place was a deep longing in the pit of her stomach. A longing that she had no business feeling. A longing to feel more of what she’d felt while in his arms. How dare he make her want him when he was so crude, so rude?
This man was trouble with a capital T, and she’d do best to remember that. “We’re going to forget all about what happened two weeks ago,” she began, and she glared when she saw the protest forming on his lips. She waited and hoped the next words from his mouth weren’t as idiotic as what he’d been spouting so far.
“I can’t forget what happened. I haven’t for the last two weeks.”
“Nope. Not going to even talk about it, Colt. If you don’t release me in the next three seconds, I will be pressing assault charges against you, though.”
He looked into her eyes, most likely trying to assess whether she was serious or not. When he did let her go, she felt better. At least he wasn’t all-the-way foolish.
“So, Colt, where have you been?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your concern.”
“Then get out of my barn.” She was dead serious. He was a slacker and she had no room for him at her ranch. She turned to leave.
“Wait!”
She paused in her step, but didn’t turn around. She also didn’t speak. She was waiting for his next words.
“I had family business,” he finally told her.
“Are you going to tell me about it?”
“I can’t.” The way he said it almost constituted regret. That she could accept.
“Well, then, I guess I’ll give you a break this time, and this time only, but only if you teach me what I need to do in order not to look like a birdbrain when my father gets here in two weeks.”
She turned back to him, and they stood in a face-off for several tense moments. When a smile finally appeared on his lips and he lifted a hand to tip his hat, she knew that she’d just had her first small victory where Colt was concerned.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said in a tone that had her narrowing her eyes.
Had it been a victory? Was he mocking her even now?
“You’ll teach me?” She wanted clarification.
“I’ll teach you anything you want to be taught. But you have to go along without question.”
The look in his eyes told her he had a few lesson plans on the agenda that she might not be able to afford.
“Let’s just keep this about business, Colt. And nothing more,” she said, hoping her voice came out as strong and assured as she wanted it to.
“Brielle, nothing between us is just about business.” He stepped forward so they were again too close for her comfort. When his breath rushed over her lips, a shudder ripped through her, but she managed to resist him. She hadn’t the least idea how she was doing it, though.
“I will never just follow
along like some lackey, Colt. You should learn that right now. But,” she said, “if you keep to your word and help me, I will be willing to learn anything you can teach.”
They eyed each other for a little while, neither willing to back down. Neither willing to give even a single inch. This was a battle for power, and Brielle honestly didn’t know which of them had more of it right then. She’d be better off without him, but then she might never be able to make this place a success.
“I’ll teach you,” he practically purred. “Give me time to come up with a plan.” Then he edged another inch closer.
She was done with this game. She’d gotten what she wanted, and now it was time to leave. “Colt, get out of my way.” Her voice was stiff. She was too afraid that if he pushed the issue, if he leaned in again and took her lips now, she would be all too willing to surrender to him.
He looked down at her as if contemplating his next move. Finally, he took a few steps back. Brielle didn’t know whether she was relieved or disappointed. But as she got her legs to move and was able to walk away with minimal shaking, she decided it was relief.
Until she got into her house, that is, and flopped right down on the nearest couch. This night would most likely prove to be her loneliest one yet. Because now she knew that Colt was back. And now she knew that the feelings he’d inspired in her two weeks before weren’t just a fluke.
She had no idea whether she wanted to dig herself out of the mess he brought to her life…
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
YOU SURE YOU’RE up for this?”
“I said I wanted to learn, dammit!” She was so tired of being looked at that way. Enough was enough.
Yet two more days had passed. It was coming closer and closer to the visit her father was paying her, and Brielle was failing epically.
“All right. Just remember that you asked for it,” he warned her.
“I can handle whatever you decide to throw at me, Colt.” She was wearing the dang jeans, a T-shirt she wouldn’t be caught out in public in, and the boots. Though she wasn’t going to tell him this, they were becoming more comfortable. That was a relief.
“Here ya go, Princess.”
Brielle looked at him with suspicion when he gave her a pitchfork and a wheelbarrow. “What is this for?”
“You want to work? You get to muck out the stalls. It has to be done every single day. Since you and Joe have become chummy, he’s going to teach you what needs to be done.”
“That’s not teaching me anything,” she snapped, emphasizing every word. She knew freaking well that it was a ridiculous thing for her to be doing.
“You said you’d listen to me, that you wanted to learn.”
“I want to learn how to run the ranch, not do the chores.”
“Chores are part of running a ranch.”
She faced him, seething. He wasn’t holding his end up to the bargain, but the stubbornness in her made her decide she was going to do this. No, it didn’t give her what she needed, but maybe if she did this, he would give her what she really needed.
That thought led to the wrong place in her mind, and she quickly moved on, knowing she didn’t want to go there, not with Colt, never again!
When Colt walked away and Joe approached with a tentative smile on his face, Brielle sighed in resignation.
“Have you ever mucked a stall before?” Joe asked her.
At least he wasn’t nearly as rude as Colt.
“No, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn,” she told him as he took hold of the wheelbarrow and moved through the horse barn.
“All you have to do is scoop out the messes and then we’ll come in and lay fresh straw.”
Brielle felt a chill go through her body. “What kind of messes?” When she looked down, she said with horror, “I’m scooping poop?”
Joe’s cheeks turned red. She wanted to run in the opposite direction, but she knew this was some sort of test. Yes, it was a waste of time, and yes, she knew Colt was putting her in this position just because he was an ass, but she was going to do this, and do it well.
When she got a good whiff of how the horse manure smelled up close and personal, however, she started thinking this wasn’t something she could do. Her stomach began heaving. Then, an hour later, her back was burning, and her eyes and nose were running. Colt had to have given her the worst possible job there was on the ranch. Joe had done three stalls to her one, and she still wasn’t finished.
Every time she managed to scoop some of the disgusting poop onto her pitchfork, half would fall back off because her arms were shaking so badly. Another half hour passed before Joe declared the stall clean and pointed to the next one.
Nope. This wasn’t happening, not even with her determination to prove Colt wrong about her. This crap was downright demeaning — did he really think he was being funny? She was through with Colt. It was time to hire someone who would listen to her, who wouldn’t make a joke of her requests for honest help.
“I’m done,” she told Joe, wiping her brow with the back of her hand as she lay the pitchfork down and moved toward the door of the barn. Guilt followed her outside, but this wasn’t the life for her. She couldn’t do this. Who in their right mind would choose to live like this, work so hard for so little money?
Her arms felt as if they were on fire, and her lower back ached in a way it had never ached before. She had to get away from this place. In addition to the pain radiating through her body, she was sweating buckets. Reaching up, she pushed back her hair and was disgusted when her hand came away wet.
“That’s it.”
She should go take a hot shower to ease the aches, but she was close to tears and needed to be far away from the house, from the barns, from any chance of running into anyone. That meant she was going to the lake for a swim.
Marching out to the shed, she found a quad bike that already had the key in it. Luckily, she knew how to ride one because her last boyfriend, whom she’d dated while working at the mall in D.C., had found great pleasure in the things. At first she hadn’t been interested in riding, but the freedom of cruising on roads that standard vehicles couldn’t handle, plus the sensation of the wind rushing through her hair, had quickly gotten her addicted to the sport.
Not even pausing to see if Colt was around, she fired up the ATV and took off through her fields. She knew the way to the lake, and she also knew that the men were occupied mending fences on the other side of the property. She knew this only because she’d overheard them talking with Tony — no, no one had actually told her. But it meant she had at least two hours before anyone would even miss her.
Upon arriving at the lake, she stripped off her clothes without hesitation, then walked out on the short dock and dove into the water, its coldness cramping her muscles for only a few seconds before a welcome sense of relief spread through her.
This was exactly what she’d needed, a day away from Tony and Colt, and from all the other little boys who were so willing to do Tony’s bidding, but not hers. At some point she would learn to assert her authority, but it wasn’t going to happen today.
She was just fine with that, she thought as she lay back in the water and let herself float on its surface with her eyes shut and the sun beating down on her.
She wouldn’t even mind when she woke up the next day with a sunburn, because this was close to pure bliss. To hell with the wrinkles in her fair-skinned future. Before moving to Montana, she would have been terrified to swim in a real live lake, much preferring the clean but chlorinated pools owned by her family and friends. Those pools had no chance of snakes, fish, or who knew what else lurking below the surface. But, since she was in this place — did the people of Sterling have any idea what an in-ground pool was? — she had to adapt.
Her hair spread out behind her atop the water, the sweat of the day was washed away, and her limbs were already feeling better from just drifting in the pristine lake. Best of all, it was private, and she didn’t have to worry about a swimsuit.
Not that she minded the tiny bikinis she owned. They were showpieces for her best assets. When she put one on, she knew she looked good, and that was a feeling any woman enjoyed having. Still, there was nothing like being in the water without even a trace of fabric blocking her from the cool goodness.
“I see you didn’t really want to learn a damn thing!”
Brielle sank below the surface of the water when Colt’s furious voice startled her from her “happy place.”
She came back up, coughing and sputtering water. Then she turned and glared toward the dock where Colt was standing, hands on his hips and breathing fire and brimstone.
“What are you doing here, Colt? I thought you were off with the guys, that you were too busy to mess with me,” she said, when she was able to speak again. Her own fury easily matched his. He had no right to be mad at her for leaving when the task he’d given her taught her nothing!
“I didn’t tell you what I was doing, but when I came back to check on you, I found Joe working alone. Had I known you were going to take off at the first sign of real work, he would have had another hand to help him so he didn’t have to do all those stalls by himself.”
“Oh, boo-hoo. Joe is just fine! He was moving much quicker than I was. And, I didn’t ask to clean up horse dung. I asked to learn how the ranch ran. We both know you gave me that task because you thought it would be funny to have the little princess shoveling shit. Well, you know what? I started to play your game, and then real quickly I decided you’re just an arrogant ass who enjoys power trips. So I stopped.” Brielle dogpaddled to stay afloat. There was no way she was swimming back toward him, not when she was naked.
“That’s part of running a ranch, Brielle.”