A Little Harmless Ride

by Melissa Schroeder

“He’s walking into the kitchen wondering just why you seem to have taken up time with Crysta again.”

  She tried to hide her reaction but knew he’d seen it. Whenever he was around these days she tensed. She was worried he would sense her attraction.

  When she glanced at Eli, she tried not to sigh, but it was close. He wore just ordinary clothes, his every day work gear, but damned if they didn’t make him drop dead gorgeous. His jeans were soft and worn and molded to every bit of that perfectly rounded ass.

  Jerry chuckled breaking into her thoughts. “She makes the best coffee around. Plus, it’s oatmeal day.”

  “Oatmeal is good for you,” Crysta said as she opened up the fridge. She had planned on eating some cereal but she knew what Jerry wanted.

  “I’ve got stuff to do,” Eli said, grabbing his travel coffee mug and filling it up.

  She set the bacon on the counter and grabbed the egg carton. “You’re going out without eating?”

  He nodded but didn’t make eye contact.

  “You need to go check the fence on the far east side, next to Sam’s place. Mike over at the Sunshine Plantation said he saw some of it down late last night.”

  “I was just out there yesterday morning.”

  Jerry shrugged. “You want me to send a hand out there? I know Danny would be keen on going.”

  “Nope. I’ll take care of it.”

  He walked out the door without another word. It slammed shut behind him and silence descended for a few moments.

  “Did you two have a fight?”

  She shook her head as she turned the heat on the stove. “Not that I know of.”

  He patted her on the shoulder. “Eli’s like that. Deep waters and all that.”

  “It’s not my fault he fell out of bed this morning.”

  As soon as she said it, she wished she hadn’t.

  “Is that so?”

  “Okay, I am assuming he fell out of bed.”

  “So you didn’t witness this?” he asked as he studied her over his coffee cup.

  “Witness?” Then she realized what he meant. “Oh, no, not witnessed. I wasn’t in his room.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yes. I was up and getting ready and I heard a thunk. Maybe he didn’t fall.” Now she realized she was making him sound like a klutz. And more than likely, the man who ran a ranch didn’t want to be seen as a buffoon.

  “Ah, alright.”

  “Still, he’s been grouchy since I knocked on his door. Maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed so to speak.”

  Good lord, she was getting worse. She decided not to say anything else and applied herself to the bacon.

  “Boy just needs a trip to Oahu. Then, he’ll fix himself right up.”

  She said nothing to that. Jerry probably had no idea she knew exactly what he was talking about. Eli needed to blow off some steam and the best way to do that was sex. Sex meant Rough ‘n Ready.

  And why did that make her sad?

  The bacon had started to sizzle and because she knew Jerry liked his eggs scrambled, Crysta pulled out a bowl and started to work on them.

  She really shouldn’t be bothered by the fact that Eli would end up at the club at some point. She had a right to go there too, a personal invite from one of the owners. But for some reason, she didn’t want to go there—not unless it was with Eli.

  Shit. Crysta knew that was a mistake. Even thinking about him dressed in leather, a crop in his hands…she sighed. He wouldn’t be there for her. He would be there for another woman, another sub. Eli would enjoy that sub for a night.

  “I think those eggs are scrambled,” Jerry said, amusement filling his voice. She looked down and realized she had been beating the hell out of the eggs. She laughed.

  “Yeah, they look pretty much scrambled.” Knowing that she needed to get her mind off Eli, she asked, “When is a good time for my father to come back over?”

  “Every day is a perfect day, as long as you’re in Hawaii.”

  She chuckled. “That’s true.”

  “So, what does your father like to do? We have a few festivals he might enjoy.”

  And as the sun started to rise and heat the kitchen, she talked about her father and tried to forget the other man in her life.

  Chapter Eight

  Eli was irritated. Hell, he was spending most of his days that way. And he knew, he didn’t have a right to be. It wasn’t Crysta’s fault he was so attracted. As a Dom, he had never had this problem. Now, it was interfering with his judgment. He had been jealous of Jerry. He hated to admit it, but Eli had wanted to spend breakfast alone with Crysta. When he saw Jerry, it took every bit of his legendary control not to boot the manager out of the kitchen.

  He was sitting on the hill above the ranch trying to figure out a way off the island. If he went to Oahu, he would raise Cyrsta’s suspicions. In the past, he wouldn’t have cared, but for some reason, he didn’t want her to know he was going over to Rough ‘n Ready. But if he stayed, he was going to continue to be a total ass to her.

  Worse, he had no right. On the day-to-day business, she did a good job. He thought she would be a pain in the ass, but she had stepped back and let him take control.

  Just that phrase had his body reacting. Knowing she was a sub wasn’t helping.

  A few of the men glanced his way as he rode up to the barn. He knew he’d been a bastard, but he didn’t give a bloody damn. The last few days he’d been out of sorts and he knew the reason. He gave up avoiding her and trotted down into the yard. He was going to have to talk to Jerry about the fence being down. It was quiet for an afternoon, but he knew they had moved some of the cattle over to another pasture so almost everyone would be out there working on that. Still, he expected one of the hands to be around in the yard.

  Eli dismounted and made his way over to the barn.

  “So, you like to ride, yeah?”

  He heard the question and his mind came up with all kinds of different scenarios. He didn’t even stop to think before storming into the barn. She was standing there with Kana Bentley one of the best men on the ranch—not to mention married. He was devoted to his wife, but apparently, that didn’t matter to Eli at the moment.

  Stepping into the barn, he found Crysta talking to the younger man.

  “I competed when we lived in Texas.”

  “Wow. I had no idea. I mean, Joe talked about you a lot, but he never said you competed.”

  “Barrel racing. I was top racer in a three county area.”

  “Bentley, don’t you have something to do?”

  Bentley turned around and his face turned red. The boy was all of twenty-one and married to his high school sweetheart. It didn’t matter to Eli at the moment, he just wanted the little bastard gone.

  “Yes, sir. It was nice talking to you, Crysta.”

  He scurried out of the barn giving Eli a few worried glances. Crysta waited until he was gone to confront Eli. If he had thought she wouldn’t fit in at the ranch, he had been mistaken. She was wearing a worn pair of jeans that hugged her generous hips; the red shirt and cowboy hat completed the outfit.

  And she was looking at him as if he’d grown a second head.

  “Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”

  No, he didn’t. He didn’t want her to know exactly why he wanted to rip both of Bentley’s arms out of their sockets and beat him over the head with them.

  “I just think he has better things to do.”

  “I was talking to him about the festival you have here at the ranch every fall. That’s part of being a half owner.”

  With that statement, she folded her arms beneath her breasts and gave him a stony stare. She was ticked off, but he didn’t know why. Worse, she probably thought crossing her arms like that was a form of protection. Instead, it pushed her breasts up so that he could get a better peek at them. That just made him want to see more.

  He hadn’t been this out of control with his needs in years.

  �
�Eli.”

  He looked up at her face. “What?”

  Okay, not very bright but it was the best he could do at the moment. He had been walking around half cocked and ready for action for the last couple of weeks. Eli figured he was bloody lucky he hadn’t passed out yet.

  “I said, do you have an issue with me getting more involved.”

  He wanted to scream, yes. But he couldn’t. Because then she would want an explanation of what the hell he was going on about. He wanted her in her room away from him, away from the hands, and strapped to the bed…shit.

  He had to stop thinking about that. Knowing she was a sub was tempting him like never before. He didn’t like initiating a sub. It was involved and many times they tended to get attached to their first Dom. Eli was never around for the long haul. So someone like Crysta would be perfect. That is if she wasn’t his business partner.

  “I’ve no problem with that, but make sure you’re careful around these men. They could easily take your openness as an invitation.”

  He walked past her then. He needed to get his horse unsaddled and fed before he lost control. If he concentrated on that, Eli wouldn’t think of how she would look on all fours as he slapped her ass with a riding crop.

  Fuck.

  “Elias St. John, I’m not done with you.”

  “Bloody hell, woman. Will you give me a break?”

  She stopped marching toward him and just stared.

  “I’ve kept my hands off you for two weeks now, but you keep yammering on at me, then I’m going to lose it. Seriously lose it.”

  “What on earth are you talking about?”

  He dropped his horse’s bridle and stalked toward her. Her eyes widened as she started to back up. She came to an abrupt halt when she ran into the wall. He crowded her up against it, placing one hand beside her head.

  He pulled his hat off with his free hand and dropped it on the floor, then leaned closer to let her see just what he was talking about. He was no longer half cocked that was for sure. Surprise brightened her eyes, then, they darkened.

  Fuck.

  “I know you’re a sub and before you pretend to ask—as if you already didn’t know—you know I’m a Dom. Having you in my house, under my protection, is a little much for me to take. I’ve controlled myself—barely.” That scared him more than anything, and the fact that every night it had been a battle to keep from walking to her room. “I want you more ways than you can even imagine and I can’t deal with fighting. It just makes me fucking horny. Especially since you have that full, sexy mouth. God.”

  Finally, he gave into the need that had been building since he first set eyes on her. He slammed his mouth onto hers. At first, she didn’t react. Then, she did, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. The heat of her body, the smell of hay and leather and his head was spinning. He wanted her then, right then. He wanted to pull those jeans off her and fuck her right there in the barn, up against the wall.

  The sound of men approaching had him pulling away. She followed him, moaning her displeasure.

  “Crysta, we have to stop.”

  She opened her eyes slowly. “What?”

  He tried not to be satisfied with the way her eyes had glazed with pleasure. Just knowing that she was as attracted to him as he was to her was only going to make matters worse.

  She lifted her hand and touched her mouth with her fingers.

  “We can’t do this. It just wouldn’t work.”

  With that he turned around and went back to his horse. He might have appeared not to be paying attention to what she was doing but he was. Even with the noise in the yard and the sound of the animals, he was so in tune with her that he knew exactly what she was doing.

  She hesitated, then slowly walked out of the barn. It took all his control not to run after her and take back what he said. He went through the motions of settling his horse in and then headed to the house. Jerry stopped him in the yard.

  “I think you need to start being a little more professional around here, boss.”

  It still bothered him that a man old enough to be his father called him boss. In the military, he had no problem with it, but now…after so many years of Joe being the boss, it seemed wrong. But no matter how many times he told the foreman, Jerry wouldn’t listen to Eli.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Well, seems that Kana got the impression that you’re hung up on Ms. Miller.”

  Not good. And he knew better than to lie outright to Jerry. He could sniff out a liar.

  “She’s attractive, I give you that. But Bentley’s upset because he was in there flirting with her and I kicked his ass out to work.”

  The older man studied him for a moment then nodded. “Just make sure you behave yourself. Joe wouldn’t want any harm to come to his niece. He loved that girl.”

  He wanted to argue that he wouldn’t hurt her, but then it would be admitting that he was more than just a little attracted.

  “I know he did. Don’t worry, I’ll keep Crysta safe and sound.”

  “Did you get that fencing fixed up?” Jerry asked as he walked side by side to the house with Eli.

  “Yeah. We need to call up Mitch Smith at the county. Looks like it was cut.”

  “You don’t think it was Sam do you?”

  “That was my first thought but it’s on the opposite side from his ranch. Well, the second one I found was.”

  “There was a second one?”

  Eli nodded. “If he were smarter, I would say that it was a diversion, but we both know Sam isn’t that bright.”

  Jerry chuckled. “Yeah. Brains sort of missed the train for both of them. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, boss.”

  He watched the old man walk away. He’d been with Joe longer than anyone and Eli knew he could trust him. But, unfortunately, he was about the only one. There were a lot of new faces around the place and while he knew many of them, he didn’t know how far he could trust them.

  With a sigh, he knew he had to call Dillon and see what he had dug up and now he would have to have a background check on everyone working there.

  At least it might keep his mind busy and off Crysta—but he knew that was a lie. At least it might help a little. It would also give him an excuse to pop on over to Oahu and everything could get back to normal.

  As he made his way up the stairs, he was stopped by a shout. Danny Aiona was riding into the yard along with Freddy, another hand.

  “Boss, we have a problem,” Danny said, barely waiting for his horse to come to a halt before dismounting.

  “Slow, down Aiona,” Eli said. He noticed Jerry was already making his way over too, a grim expression on his face.

  “We got some cattle missing, boss.”

  Jerry sighed and gave Eli a look.

  “Damn, and I thought I’d have an early night of it. Let’s call it in.”

  “And you need to go tell your partner,” Jerry said.

  “Yeah. You call, I’ll tell her.”

  He just hoped she would ignore what happened earlier and focus on the present. Knowing Crysta, she would and for some reason, that pissed him off. He brushed those thoughts away and made his way into the house. Rustling wasn’t usually a problem, but when it happened, there was usually an agenda.

  He had to go tell his partner her family apparently hated her enough to steal from her.

  The day just kept getting better and better.

  * * * *

  Hours later, they were sitting in the kitchen and Eli wanted to beat the hell out of the Kaheakus. It had more to do with Crysta than the ranch. She looked washed out, beaten. He knew it wouldn’t be long before she was back up fighting, but knowing someone you’re blood related to pulled this shit, well, it had to suck.

  “Will they find the cattle?”

  He nodded. “I bet they’ll be on our land before we know it. That or they’ll claim they came over of their own free will.”

  “Jerks.”

  “Not much we can
do about it; although, I am pretty sure someone cut that line. Looked like it.”

  She sighed and rose out of her chair. “It’s been a long day. I’m off to bed.”

  “Are you going to tell your father about this?”

  “Yeah. No avoiding it this time. Not that he has to be kept up with everything I am doing, but I think I should tell him about this. Hopefully, he won’t feel the need to pop over on an unannounced visit.”

  “Don’t you want to see him?”

  “Not if he comes over pissed off. Then he will be all about making Sam cry. While it would be entertaining, it could kill the man. He’s barely hanging on by a thread as it is.”

  Eli nodded. He watched her turn away and wanted to say something. Do something. She looked so sad.

  “Hey, Crysta.”

  She looked back at him again. “You shouldn’t let it get to you. Sam’s a bastard to everyone. Even his own son.”

  She gave him a small, tired smile. “Thanks.”

  He watched her walk around the corner and disappear upstairs.

  It was a sad day for a man when that little, pathetic smile was more of a turn on than a naked woman…unless it was that woman naked.

  He really needed a trip to Rough ‘n Ready.

  Chapter Nine

  Several days later, Crysta was walking down the aisle at the grocery store not any happier with the situation. Her father had tried to insist on traveling over and missing his upcoming appointment at Bethesda. She’d fought with him, something she rarely did. Eli had finally gotten on the phone and ensured him she was safe. Which ended up in an argument with Eli. It pissed her off that Eli could get on the phone and tell her father she was safe.

  The tension had gotten worse every day. Truthfully, she was over the other argument but they couldn’t seem to be in the same room without getting into a fight about something. Just that morning it had been about shopping. Eli hadn’t wanted her to come alone, and she had insisted on it.

  Of course he’d won that argument. He always seemed to. And that made her even angrier. She got so irritated with him hovering over her shoulder while she shopped, she’d found the feminine hygiene aisle. It had worked just like it did with her father.