Smooth-Talking Cowboy

by Maisey Yates

  She would have said that a lot of this couldn’t have possibly excited her before Luke. That the absolute possession of his body, the sweat and heavy breathing, wasn’t appealing at all.

  Except with him it was more than appealing. It was a craving.

  “You’re probably cold,” he said, curving his arm around her and rubbing his hand over her arm.

  “Not really,” she said.

  The moment he said that, she became more conscious of the chill in the air, but before that she hadn’t noticed it at all.

  “Still, I’d better get you home,” he said.

  Those words sat funny in her chest, all while she got dressed, and while he adjusted his clothes. Then when they got back into the car she realized why.

  “Are you... You’re taking me to my home?”

  “Yeah,” he responded. “I have to be up early tomorrow. And it was great to bring you out to look around here, but I expect you’ll want some time to yourself.”

  He hadn’t asked her if she wanted time to herself. He was just assuming. Well, that made her wonder some things. If he was just giving her time, or if he had got sex so didn’t need anything else from her.

  She didn’t want to beg, though. Well, she did want to beg. But she also didn’t want to make it all about her. Because this reaction had something to do with him. Him and his emotions. And the woman that she had been with Bennett, the woman who had wanted a very specific relationship that served her very specific needs, would have badgered him. She would have tried as hard as she could to get her way. To finagle a sleepover invitation so that she wouldn’t have to be uncomfortable.

  The way she had done with Bennett and the marriage proposals.

  She wasn’t going to do that now. Even though it hurt her feelings a bit to have him put her off, she also wanted very much to make sure that he got what he needed.

  She wished that what he needed was her, holding him all night. Talking to him. Being with him.

  Clearly it wasn’t what he needed right now. So there was no point making an issue.

  “Okay,” she said, “that’s fine with me.”

  They were silent the rest of the way, and when he dropped her off he kissed her, which made her feel slightly more at ease. Just slightly.

  “See you tomorrow, Liv,” he said.

  That confidence filled her with a sense of happiness. That he figured he would see her tomorrow. That he hoped to. Maybe things weren’t so dire after all. Maybe it really was just a matter of giving him his space. After all, the conversation they’d had about his mother had been quite intense, and he probably needed a chance to deal with it. She didn’t have the right to be upset about that.

  He had given her what she had asked for, and now she needed to give him that unspoken thing.

  “See you tomorrow, Luke,” she said, getting out of the truck.

  Luke walked her up the porch steps and stopped her at the door, leaning in and kissing her again. Chaste. Sweet compared to the other times they’d kissed. And then he tipped his hat, like he hadn’t just ravished her silly on the floor of a barn.

  Like he was a real, old-fashioned gentleman and she was a lady.

  She sighed, trying to ignore the tender feeling in her chest. Just tender. That was all. It wasn’t painful. Not really.

  Well, it was a little bit painful. Being in love was a little bit painful all around.

  She walked into the house, closing and locking the door behind her. Then she walked to the window, pushed one of the lace curtains to the side and watched Luke drive away. Watched until she couldn’t see his truck anymore.

  She fought the urge to text him. Right away. To make sure he was okay and everything was okay and he still liked her and wanted to make love with her again.

  Instead, she sent a text to her mother to let her know that she was home, and then gave her a call and chatted with her idly, trying not to let her mind stray back to the intimate few hours she had spent with Luke at his property.

  She would love to talk to her mother about Luke, but right now she didn’t really know what to say. Because she couldn’t find a middle ground between keeping it all to herself and wanting to shout that she was in love from the mountaintops.

  Being in love was strange. And a whole lot different than she had thought. She had been completely rational when it came to her feelings for Bennett. Completely able to talk about them to people.

  With Luke, it felt so important it seemed like something she needed to keep to herself. And so big she wasn’t sure that she could, not without exploding.

  There was nothing simple about love. There was nothing controlled about love.

  As she got into the shower, the words that had struck her yesterday after she and Luke had made love for the first time rolled through her head on repeat.

  She had been right to be afraid of this. But she was pretty sure she was going to embrace it anyway.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  LUKE HADN’T TEXTED Olivia or called her that day, and he was starting to feel a little bit like an ass. But, he hadn’t wanted her to come spend the night at his place after that conversation about his mother. He had never told anyone about that. Had never talked about the money, the complex blame that he felt. The complex anger.

  The way that he blamed his mother and himself for everything that had happened.

  The way the money felt like more of a curse than a blessing, but a curse that he had to use to try and fashion it into something of a blessing, because if he didn’t, it would just be another failure as a son.

  Then that encounter in the barn, which had been explosive as hell, Olivia dropping to her knees in front of him and taking him in her mouth.

  Beautiful Olivia Logan, on her knees for him. Yeah, that was an image that was going to live in his mind until he was dead.

  Maybe even after.

  If you got to watch a reel of your greatest hits in the afterlife, he was pretty sure that one was going to be on his.

  And then he slid inside of her and the whole world fell away. It had just been the two of them, and it had been so raw and focused that he hadn’t been able to handle the idea of going to sleep with her, too.

  He had never thought of himself as a coward. But he was beginning to question that.

  “You interested in going out drinking tonight?” Wyatt asked.

  They had just wrapped up a long day out in the field, and it was only four o’clock. Still, Luke could barely walk after a whole day spent riding, and then fixing the fence, which was worse than a day of squats in the gym. He assumed. He’d never had a need to go to the gym, since he spent all day, every day, doing hard labor.

  “Not particularly.”

  “I talked Grant into going out,” Wyatt said.

  Damn. Luke could hardly turn his friend down in that case. And he ignored the part of himself that whispered in his ear that he was rationalizing, that he was trying to get out of doing the right thing, which was making contact with Olivia, by pretending that he needed to be there to hold Grant’s hand.

  But, in fairness to him, Grant hadn’t gotten out there and done a night out in a while. And the guy needed to get out.

  Having known Grant for the past eight years, he knew that he wasn’t as mired in his grief as he had been back in the beginning. But it was bad enough.

  “How did you do that?”

  “He just said that he wanted to. So, far be it from me not to oblige him.”

  “Hell, no,” Luke agreed.

  “You might have to play designated driver,” Wyatt said.

  “Oh, come on,” Luke said. “You’re gonna do that designated driver crap on me?”

  “We can draw straws, but I think we have to let Grant drink. He can’t go out for the first time in who knows how long and have to be DD.”

  “That really is bull
pucky,” Luke said.

  “I’m a bad friend,” Wyatt said, shrugging.

  “You really are.” Luke took a deep breath, looking around the property. At the guest cabins that were coming together nicely, at the flower beds that had been prepared, the wood chips that had been laid down to create clean, easy walkways between the various outbuildings.

  This place was getting ready for a whole new life. One that didn’t require him. It was a good thing. Especially all things considered. But it was strange, too. The end of an era in his life.

  The first time that had happened the choice had been made for him. His mom had killed herself and there had been no other decision for him to make. Nothing that he had a say in. He simply had to do something. Anything. Had to move on, because there was no place to stay.

  But this was his decision, and it was twenty years in the making.

  “I got the property,” he said. “Cole Logan agreed to sell.”

  “Really?” Wyatt looked at him in surprise. “Well... Congratulations. Really. I’m not psyched about losing you around here. But, I’m happy for you.”

  “You don’t sound that happy.”

  “I figured we would do this together,” Wyatt said, looking around the spread. “Make this place new again. Because I know that you love it as much as I do. Because I know that you...” Wyatt cleared his throat. “You put so much into this place, Luke. You’re right. I left. I left, and I didn’t spend hours working the land. I didn’t spend all my time working with Dad. You did. Grant got married. Bennett went off to school. You’re right. This places is in your bones. And if you really hate what I’m doing with it...”

  “I don’t,” Luke said. “I don’t hate it. It’s just not me. I need a place of my own. And it was more than kind of your dad, of you, to make this place feel like home to me for as long as you did. But I just need to move on to something else. I need something that’s mine.”

  “Then I’m glad you have it.”

  “It doesn’t mean I’m dying. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to visit.”

  Wyatt looked at him for a moment, then nodded. “Glad to hear that. Anyway, if you weren’t planning on visiting, we’d hog-tie your ass and drag you back for family barbecues even if you didn’t want to come.”

  Luke barked out a laugh. “Good to know.”

  “We love you,” Wyatt said, his voice getting sincere. Just for a moment. “But not so much that we’d respect your wishes if they were in opposition to ours. Our wishes that we get to see you still.”

  Luke laughed. “That is very good to know. So, should we go get that drink?”

  “Well, you get to have soda.”

  “You’re an awful friend.”

  Wyatt clapped his hand on Luke’s shoulder. “I’m really more of a brother.”

  * * *

  WHEN THEY WALKED into the bar, it was full of people. Crowded because it was Friday night and half the town was there to drink off the long workweek. Head into the weekend in style. Or, they were ranchers who had to get up early the next day no matter what, which was an even better reason to drink, as far as Luke was concerned. And certainly the reason they were all there drinking.

  Wyatt was scanning the room, probably looking for his type of woman. Buckle bunnies who wanted to ride a cowboy and nothing more. Grant looked grim, his hat pulled down low over his face, his eyes fixed firmly on the bar, and on Laz.

  Obviously Grant had been more interested in alcohol than sex.

  Luke didn’t have an interest in alcohol, not really. And he didn’t have an interest in generic sex at all. He wanted Olivia. Wanted to be in Olivia’s quiet house with her, or in his cabin. Or on the floor of a barn.

  Again, guilt tugged at him for not making contact with Olivia. He should have. But then, she hadn’t texted him, either.

  Probably because you told her that you didn’t want her to spend the night.

  Maybe. But he’d also told her that he would see her today. And, he had kissed her good-night.

  Still, she hadn’t contacted him. So, maybe she really did need her space, like he’d suggested to her last night.

  He’d made his decision. He’d gone out with Wyatt and Grant, and if nothing else, that promised to be interesting. So he was going to focus on that, and not on the fact he had to spend a sober evening away from the one person he wanted.

  He walked across the distressed barn wood floor, passed a few vacant high round tables toward the back of the room where people were gathered around the pool table, the TVs and the dartboard.

  And that was where he saw Olivia. For a second, he thought he was hallucinating because he couldn’t figure out why the hell Olivia would be there. But she was. Leaning up against the wall with Bennett right in front of her, his face scant inches from hers.

  Then Bennett raised his hand and brushed a piece of Olivia’s glossy brown hair back from her face.

  And Luke saw red.

  There was no rational thought. There was nothing but pure male rage that drove him forward. He grabbed Bennett by the back of the shoulder and pulled him back. “What the hell is going on here?”

  Olivia’s eyes flew wide. “Luke.”

  “What the hell is this?” Luke asked.

  “I’m sorry,” Bennett said, “you don’t have any right to come in here and question my actions with her.”

  “I sure as hell do,” Luke said.

  “Why is that? Were you her boyfriend for a year? Did you plan on marrying her?”

  Luke grabbed hold of Bennett’s shirt and slammed him up against the wall. “I’m her lover, asshole,” Luke said. “And you wanted to know what I would throw a punch for? You’re about to find out.”

  Bennett shoved him back and Olivia screeched. “Luke,” she said. “Stop it. We were talking.”

  “Then he should’ve said that,” Luke said. “But he’s been spoiling for a fight for weeks now, so maybe this is a good time.”

  “Why should he have to say it?” Olivia said. “I said it. I don’t need you to act like a posturing ape. You should listen to me.”

  But he couldn’t listen, because the ring in his ears was so loud. Because the anger so far surpassed anything he had ever felt. The possessiveness. She had been his. Finally. And now to see her standing there with Bennett—Bennett, who he had already taken her from... He couldn’t handle it.

  She was his. Olivia Logan was his.

  Finally.

  And he wasn’t going to lose her to another man.

  “Olivia can speak for herself,” Bennett said, “and you need to back off.”

  He was torn then. Between throwing that punch he promised and hauling Olivia out of there. He figured that since Wyatt was there, he probably shouldn’t start a bar fight with his younger brother. Because that was going to be weighted decidedly in Bennett’s favor. Wyatt and Grant might be his friends, but they were going to have to stand with their brother in a fistfight. That was just how it was. Luke didn’t even begrudge them that.

  He also didn’t want to be in the middle of it.

  So, he did the only logical thing there was.

  He picked Olivia up, like he was Kevin Costner to her Whitney, and carried her toward the bathroom.

  “You’ve lost your mind,” she squeaked, clinging to his shoulders as they crossed the bar.

  “Maybe I have,” he said. “But I’m starting to think I didn’t lose it soon enough.”

  He opened the bathroom door and carried her in, then slammed it behind them before locking it and setting her on her feet.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded, facing him with furious brown eyes, her hands on her hips.

  He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her up against him. “Maybe they’ll carve your name up there, next to mine, what do you think?”

  “Luke Hollister, I swear.” She was loo
king at him angrily, but she didn’t push him away.

  There was a heavy knock on the door, and he had a feeling that it was Bennett.

  “Hang on,” Olivia said. She whirled around, unlocking the door and cracking it. “We’re busy.”

  He heard a muffled male voice. Definitely Bennett.

  “No, I don’t need you to come in. We’re fine.” She slammed the door and locked it again, turning her focus back to Luke.

  “Why didn’t you go with him?”

  “Because I don’t want to,” she said. “You are the stupidest man, Luke. Seriously, the stupidest one.”

  “I’m not used to being an overachiever,” he said. “So I’ll take that.”

  “You shouldn’t be proud of it. What did you think was happening when you came in?”

  “He was touching you,” Luke said.

  “Yes,” Olivia said, “but not... It doesn’t mean anything with him. It doesn’t even feel like anything.”

  “You’re in love with him.” He didn’t even believe that, but he was angry, and he was looking for ways to justify that anger. Anger he could see now was just pure jealousy. Like he’d never felt before. Oh yeah, he’d felt twinges of envy when he’d seen Bennett with Olivia, but that had been different. This was an all-out testosterone-fueled jealous rage.

  “I don’t love him,” she said. “I never did. Luke, I chose you. I chose to sleep with you. I... After last night how can you doubt that?”

  Because he doubted everything. Something about her made him feel more certain of things than he had ever felt his entire life, and more unsure about other things. The kinds of things he was usually confident as hell in. Like his ability to hold on to a woman as long as he wanted to. And the fact that he would be fine if she walked away.

  He had no idea who in the hell he was, or what in the hell was going on with him. Except that she was in his blood, and she was some kind of crazy madness that he couldn’t reason out.

  He didn’t have anything to say, so he just kissed her. Because he didn’t have the right words, and he didn’t think he ever would. He kissed her until the ringing in his ears stopped. Until the anger was replaced by desire. Until he forgot that Bennett—or a whole bar full of people—was on the other side of that door.