When You Love a Rancher: Ranchers Only Series

by Elle Christensen

  “I have a feeling you’re going to fit in great here, Kyle,” he said after our mirth died down. “You actually remind me of my neighbor, Stone Kensington. Which is ironic, considering you have the same last name.”

  I cleared my throat and decided it was time to be honest about that. I didn’t want them thinking I’d lied by omission. However, before I could, James jumped into the interview. After a couple of hours, he stood and grabbed his hat off the desk. “I’m not one to play games, Kyle, so I’m not going to make you wait while I pretend to hem and haw,” he said as he plopped his hat onto his head. Then he held out his hand and smiled big. “Welcome to Locke Creek. Let me show you around.”

  5

  Kyle

  I shut the truck off and stared at the barn that had been converted into an office and apartment for the manager at Locke Creek Ranch. I wondered if I should be nervous about seeing Maddie again, but all I felt was determination. Things were going to be a little uncomfortable for a while, but I was sure it would eventually smooth over. Since she’d agreed to hire me, I assumed she was on the same page.

  A knock on my window startled me, and I jerked my head around to see my brother standing next to my door. I gave him a chin lift, and he stepped back, allowing me to exit the vehicle.

  “Hey, Brother,” I greeted him with a warm smile. He grinned and pulled me in for a back-slapping man-hug.

  “Welcome to Locke Creek Ranch.”

  “Thanks. What are you doing away from Rebel K?”

  Stone shrugged and grinned. “I’d like to tell you that I just came to wish you luck on your first day, but the truth is that my wife is nosy, and I can’t say no to her.”

  I laughed. “Nosy about what?”

  “You and Maddie,” he responded simply.

  My jaw dropped slightly, and I shook my head. How did he know about Maddie and me? It hadn’t been me... “She told you about us?”

  “Not really. Just that you knew each other and didn’t part on the best terms.”

  I searched his face for an indication he was unhappy that I hadn’t shared our meeting and subsequent story with him. Ever since Stone showed up in my life, he’d always been there for me. He’d never let me down, and I did my best to make him proud. He was my best friend, and usually, I had no secrets from him. But my situation with Maddie was the first time I held back. It wasn’t Stone specifically, though; I hadn’t talked to anyone about it.

  Stone placed a hand on my shoulder and met my gaze. “You can tell me anything, Kyle. But I respect that there will be times when you don’t want to share.”

  Relieved, I nodded and exhaled slowly.

  “That being said”—Stone smirked—“Helena has accused me of being the worst gossip ever. So, now that I know about you and Maddie, you’re going to have to give me something to prove my wife wrong.”

  I barked a laugh and eyed my brother with fake sympathy. “You really are whipped, aren’t you?”

  Stone shrugged and smiled, seemingly unaffected by my teasing accusation. “Perhaps I am. But she is so fucking worth it.”

  A small pang of envy seared my heart. There’d been a time when I’d hoped to have what my brother had with his wife. After everything blew up with Maddie, I decided it just wasn’t in the cards for me.

  When I’d seen Maddie’s name on the listing for the full-time veterinarian position at Locke Creek Ranch, I’d almost passed on it. However, I ultimately decided that I wasn’t going to let her take this opportunity away from me. The reputation of this ranch was impeccable, the pay was excellent, and the fact that it was so close to my brother was a huge perk.

  A thought suddenly hit me, and I frowned. “Wait…why did Maddie come to you about me?”

  Stone shuffled on his feet, looking uncomfortable. “It doesn’t matter. I’m sure—”

  “Why, Stone?” I pressed.

  He sighed, folding his arms over his chest with a resigned expression. “Maddie wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t hurt the relationship between our ranches if things don’t work out.”

  My eyes narrowed at his answer, and my brow furrowed low. “That seems a little premature. I haven’t even started yet.”

  Stone grimaced and cocked his head to the side. “Yeah…I got the impression she never intended to hire you in the first place.”

  My head reared back in surprise. “How did I end up with the job?”

  “James chose you, and I’m guessing Maddie couldn’t come up with a legitimate reason to change his mind.”

  “Shit,” I muttered. This meant she was being forced to work with me, which made things a hell of a lot more complicated. I scrubbed my face with my hands before staring up at the sky. Then I dug out my determination again and shored myself up for the coming confrontation.

  “I’m sorry to disappoint your wife, Stone,” I drawled. “But there is nothing between Maddie and me anymore. Trust me. She moved on a long time ago, and I’m not going to let our past interfere with my job. I’m sure she is professional enough to do the same.”

  Stone grinned and slapped me on the back. “Atta boy.”

  I grunted and started walking toward the manager’s office but stopped when I noticed Stone keeping pace with me. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  Stone didn’t pause his steps when he answered, leaving me staring at his back. “I promised my wife some gossip, and honestly, I could use a little entertainment.”

  “Forget it,” I growled as I hurried to catch up to him. I grabbed his arm and yanked him to a stop right outside the door.

  He rolled his eyes but nodded and gestured for me to continue inside. “Fine. I’ll let you tell Helena all about it when you come to dinner tomorrow.”

  “Sure,” I lied. I had no intention whatsoever of talking about Maddie and me to anyone.

  “Great. You can deal with her tears instead of me,” Stone stated bluntly, looking mighty relieved. Then he spun on his heel and began to saunter off.

  “Pardon? Wait…tears?” I called out to his retreating form. I hated it when my sister-in-law cried, and since getting pregnant, she seemed to do it at the drop of a hat.

  Stone’s only response was to laugh heartily as he climbed into his truck, which I somehow hadn’t noticed was parked a few feet from mine.

  “Just fucking great,” I mumbled, my mood darkening even further. It was time to get this the fuck over with.

  I jerked open the door and stepped inside. My eyes instantly swept the room as I removed my hat. It didn’t take long for them to find the tall, lean redhead seated at a desk with her head bent over it as she wrote something on a piece of paper.

  Damn. Maddie was even more gorgeous than the last time I saw her. I swallowed hard as the attraction I thought I’d buried deep rose to the surface with a vengeance. After a second, I tried to shake it off, disgusted with myself for wanting someone I had no business seeing in any way other than a colleague. It wasn’t fair to the other person involved.

  The door swung shut behind me with an ominous click, and Maddie’s head jerked up. When she met my gaze, she looked calm and collected, which pissed me off for some reason. Until I noticed the tiniest widening of her beautiful, hazel green eyes. At least she wasn’t entirely immune to me. It was all kinds of wrong to feel a little victory at that, yet I did.

  She stood, and I barely suppressed a groan of frustration when I noted how her body had changed, filling out and becoming womanlier.

  Fuck! I mentally punched myself in the balls. I shouldn’t be thinking about her like that. She would never be mine, and it wasn’t right. I was not—and would never be—the other man.

  To get my head on straight, I opened my mouth and said the only thing I could think of to remind myself of the reality I was facing.

  “Hello, Maddie,” I drawled. “How’s the husband?”

  A subtle tightening around the corners of her mouth was the only indication that she was affected by my question—until she spoke.

  “Gone,”
she snapped. “It seems I have a weakness for men with one foot out the door.”

  6

  Maddie

  I thought I’d grown up and quit making stupid choices in my life. After I graduated and things fell apart with Sam, I’d set myself on a new path and taken it seriously. I put all of my focus into my job and school, basically forgoing a social life al-together.

  Now, looking at the ridiculously gorgeous jerk who just entered my office, I had to wonder if I needed to re-evaluate because obviously, fate was pissed at me for something. Kyle had only gotten better looking over the years, and it just seemed really unfair. Why couldn’t he have lost his hair, grown a pot belly, or become horribly disfigured, so I knew I wouldn’t be subjected to his panty-melting dimples?

  When he asked me about Sam, I spoke without thinking and immediately berated myself for reacting. If this was going to work, I needed to keep things professional, which suited me fine because I didn’t want him to know how much I still hurt over him walking out on our friendship.

  Kyle looked taken aback by my response, and I took advantage of his apparent speechlessness to steer the conversation in another direction. “Anyway, let me show you around—”

  “What do you mean ‘gone?’” He interrupted. His eyes never left me as he hung his hat on a hook by the door and took a few steps in my direction.

  Don’t go there, my brain warned me. But seriously, my mouth had a mind of its own. “Gone as in left, departed, went away”—I narrowed my eyes and stared at Kyle with accusation—“and never looked back.”

  Kyle didn’t respond at first, and I wasn’t sure where to go from there. So we stood in awkward silence, the air so thick with tension that you could cut it with a knife.

  Finally, he sighed and moved forward a little more. My first instinct was to back up, but I didn’t want to be seen as weak. I had a reputation for being strong and confident, tough but fair, and I always assessed the facts in any situation before making a decision. Yet after only two minutes in Kyle’s presence, I felt like that impulsive, directionless kid I’d been when we saw each other last.

  “I told myself to be an adult about this,” he said, breaking the silence, “then when I saw you, the indignant punk inside me somehow surfaced.” He shrugged and gave me a self-deprecating smile. “That little shit is still pissed that you chose someone else over him. And he was ruling my mouth when I walked in. I’m sorry.” My eyebrows shot up to my hairline, and my mouth opened into an O of surprise. His next words nearly knocked me on my ass.

  “I’ve owed you an apology for six years, Maddie. I broke my promise to you. And I have no excuse, other than being young and stupid.” He took another few tentative steps toward me, and I continued to stand my ground even though I desperately wanted to run behind my desk, just to have some kind of barrier between us.

  “My only explanation is that I was too immature to handle the situation the way I should have.” Kyle shook his head and held his bent arms out at his sides. “I was so in love with you, Maddie.”

  I winced at his use of the past tense. Even though I didn’t feel the same way I had six years ago, it was still hard to hear that he’d moved on. From the way he was studying my face, I doubted he missed the reaction.

  “You’re right, though. I did have one foot out the door. It was my way of protecting myself, and when you rejected me, I didn’t know that to do with the hurt and anger. So I ran away like a coward rather than staying and fighting for us. I shoved my feelings aside, and the only way to keep them locked inside was to remove any reminders of them from my life.”

  I wasn’t sure what to do with his revelation and apology. My heart was beating a mile a minute, and emotion was bubbling to the surface. Do not cry, Madeleine Pierson. I took a deep breath. “It doesn’t matter now,” I stated, proud of myself for lying with a straight face and hoping to end this conversation.

  Fate’s a bitch.

  “I think it does matter,” Kyle said, shortening the distance between us by a few more inches. There was a knowing look in his blue eyes, and I hated that I wasn’t able to hide the truth from him altogether. “You don’t seem very broken up over your relationship with what’s-his-name. Was it because you were still in love with someone else?”

  “I think we need to keep things professional, Kyle,” I tried again. Then he was in front of me, so close our toes were almost touching.

  “Why did your marriage end, Maddie?”

  “It’s none of your business.” I attempted to make my tone final, but either I failed, or Kyle just ignored it.

  “Why, baby?” My insides melted a little when he called me baby, which pissed me off, and the anger steamrolled my good intentions.

  “There was no marriage!” I shouted. Son of a bitch. I mentally slapped myself on the forehead. Way to lose your cool, Pierce.

  Kyle’s face was a mask of shock and bewilderment. “Pardon?” he rasped.

  I sighed. I’d opened the can of worms—there was no getting out of it now. “We never got married. He left me when we were still engaged.”

  “Why in the fuck would he leave you?” Kyle snapped, sounding indignant on my behalf. He reminded me so much of the best friend who’d always made me feel like any man with me should feel lucky because I was way out of their league. The memory almost made me smile, except reality pushed its way in, and I grimaced at the idea of telling Kyle what had happened with Sam.

  Blowing out a deep breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding; I gave in to my need for space and retreated behind my desk. I pretended to study my nails and willed my cheeks not to heat when I admitted, “He ran off with the stripper from his bachelor party.”

  Kyle was quiet for so long that I finally looked up. He was standing across from me, feet planted shoulder-width apart, arms crossed over his chest, and he was watching me with an unreadable expression. “Tell me the rest of it,” he commanded, though his tone was gentle.

  I huffed and glared at him. His ability to read me had always been annoying. “He said I was boring.”

  “What the fuck?”

  “Ironic, isn’t it?” I commented dryly as I dropped into my leather swivel chair. “Apparently, he thought that the string of guys I’d dated before him meant I was a wild one, and he didn’t want boring and predictable.” I cocked my head to the side and lifted an eyebrow at Kyle. “Funny, since you seemed to see me as the complete opposite.”

  Kyle’s expression finally cracked, and he narrowed his eyes before uncrossing his arms and putting his hands on the desk. He leaned forward and stared straight into my eyes. “Don’t ever compare me to that bastard, baby,” he threatened. His dark tone and the way he called me baby again caused a flutter in my tummy that made its way down to my center. “You have no idea what I saw when I looked at you.”

  “What…” I gulped hard, forcing myself to ask the question despite being afraid of the answer. “What did you see?”

  Kyle pushed off the desk and came around to stand in front of me. His blue eyes turned dark and stormy as he bent down and caged me in by placing a hand on each armrest. “I saw the woman you were destined to be. A woman who was steady and strong, someone people could rely on. A woman with a kind and generous heart, but a deadly streak when it came to protecting those she cared about. Those were the traits that made me love you.” He moved in so close that I could feel his warm breath on my lips, and I swallowed hard. “But it was the wild woman I saw was lurking inside you who I wanted to fuck.”

  7

  Kyle

  Maddie gasped before snapping her mouth shut and trying to hide her reaction to my declaration. She managed to smooth out her expression, but her hazel eyes were swirling with desire. My mouth tilted up smugly, and my body flooded with a pang of hunger so intense, it almost brought me to my knees. Fuck. I’d wanted her when we were in college. I had to continually try to hide my body’s physical reaction to her. But the burning need I felt for her now was nothing compared to that.

  When
I’d thought she was married, I’d been consumed with guilt and enraged at myself for wanting someone who belonged to another man. Then she told me she wasn’t married, and I stopped fighting quite so hard. It wasn’t wrong anymore, but I still didn’t like that I was lusting after a woman who wanted nothing to do with me.

  I knew I had to apologize to her, and I meant every word. I’d hoped those words would give us both some closure. Then I began to see through her mask of indifference. My words were affecting her far more than I’d expected. Instead of severing us from our past emotions, they were growing into something more profound. When I realized she still had feelings for me, the dam I’d built inside cracked. I wanted confirmation, so I pushed her to admit it by inferring that I was the reason her marriage hadn’t lasted.

  But it was the way she revealed the truth that gave me my answer. She wasn’t angry that Sam had left her; she was pissed that he had characterized her as dull and predictable. And when she tossed that barb out at me, trying to put me in the same box as her dirtbag ex, I wanted to smile in triumph. There was a vulnerability in her eyes that told me my response would make or break our future. And I definitely saw a future.

  When that dam finally broke, I wasn’t surprised by the wave of desire, yet I was a little shocked at the surge of love because I’d thought I was finally over her. Not only was I still in love with her but it had also grown into something mature and immoveable. That was the moment I knew. Maddie was mine. She would always be mine. And no matter what, I would never stop fighting for us.

  I just had to convince Maddie that I wouldn’t leave again. I was here to stay and would always be by her side.

  But at the moment, I was lost to the sight of her sweet, plump lips and dying to see if they were as soft as they looked. I wanted to force Maddie to admit to her desire and show her how physically compatible we were. There would be time for words later.