“Mmmm. Yep. Just about, at least. Robert was showing me some stuff.”
“Awesome. You getting settled in?”
She sighed. “I have the last load of stuff in my car. I hope it’ll be okay in the parking lot. I didn’t have time to take it all into my house before everybody started showing up. Then I was on show-newbies-to-the-cabins duty.”
“It’ll be fine. You sure you don’t just want to bring it all into my house?”
“Logan . . .” Moving to Bolero and taking the job at the ranch had been a big enough step. One day—maybe even one day soon—she would take the next step and move into the big house with Logan. Her boss, her Dom. Her boyfriend, crazy as it seemed. But for right now, she had more than enough change to deal with, and she wanted to hang on to a space of her own just a little longer while she adapted to life back in her hometown.
“Maybe just one box,” he teased, plucking her name tag up and giving it a suggestive rub. Or maybe it was his expression that made it suggestive. “As a placeholder.”
“We’ll see.” She already had a small box set aside for that, in fact. But she didn’t have to tell Logan that yet. Extra toiletries, a few changes of clothes. It made sense; she was at the main house all the time anyway. “Did you get your paperwork taken care of today?”
Big Gerry interrupted them, holding out the tin of fireplace matches. “Hey, boss. It’s time.”
Logan gave her an apologetic squeeze and took the matches, then went into his spiel for the crowd. Welcoming them for the weekend, giving the thirty-second history of Giddyup, and then striking the match and starting the fire. The usual cheer went up. Mindy fingered the tie on her dress, waiting for his attention. He caught her eye but shook his head. After everybody broke into their separate conversations again, he took the end of the bow between his fingers.
“I did get my accounts taken care of today,” he told her, grinning smugly. “New loan is a done deal. And it’s a fuck of a lot smaller than the old one. For which I have you to thank. Have I thanked you for that today?”
She shook her head, glad the firelight was hiding the blush she could feel. “I’m sure you’ll find a way, though.”
He nodded and tugged the bow loose, then nudged the dress off her shoulders. Always a gentleman, he caught it before it landed on the ground.
“I have a few ideas in mind,” he confessed. “Say, eight o’clock in the old barn?”
“Why, sir. In front of all these people?”
They shared a laugh. Logan reached out boldly, fondling her breast, tracing his fingers over the spot where he liked to leave his mark. “That way they all know how much I appreciate you.”
“Eight o’clock it is, then.” Mindy shivered in the night breeze, breathing in heat from the fire and the even warmer regard from Logan’s eyes. “I’m all yours.”
Want more Giddyup?
Keep an eye out for
ROPE ’EM
Available January 2017
From Lyrical Press
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Delphine Dryden has written contemporary and erotic romance for Carina Press and Harlequin, and mainstream steampunk romance for Berkley Publishing. She has also self-published. Her writing has earned an Award of Excellence and Reviewers’ Choice Award from Romantic Times Book Reviews, an EPIC Award, an IPPY Gold Medal, and a Colorado Romance Writers’ Award of Excellence. She was the also the inaugural winner of the Science in My Fiction contest. When not writing, she can be found editing for various freelance clients and for Riptide Publishing. Visit her at delphinedryden.com.
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