His eyes grew dark beneath the brim of his hat while he glowered at me.
I raised the bottle to him before taking another sip.
Why hadn’t he found another job yet? This had to be as miserable for him as it was for me. To see the person I hated with a passion every time I came home. To watch those hands mend fences, wrangle cattle, and train colts, all the while knowing exactly how those calloused fingers felt between my thighs.
“Ugh!” None of this was helping me de-stress. If anything, it was making me horny as fuck.
I capped the bottle and stepped out of the tank, letting the water slosh over the sides. Grabbing the towel off the fence, I dried off, wrapping it around my waist before I stuffed my feet back into my boots.
“Fucking shit,” I grumbled, feeling my swimsuit cling between my legs. It wasn’t just wet from the water, either. Now I needed more than a shower.
I could feel everyone’s eyes on me when I scooped up the liquor bottle and jacket before walking away, my toes squishing in my boots.
Reed thought I had no business helping with night watch. Well, fuck him. This was my ranch.
4
reed
She beat me. I thought I’d get out to the pasture early enough, but she fucking beat me.
“Took you long enough,” she chided, her saddle creaking when she turned to look my way. “You cowboys eat four-course meals now or something?”
She was such a smart-ass. My mouth twitched, fighting a smile.
I pulled up on the reins, stopping Warrior, my gray roan stallion, beside her in the dark, overlooking the eastern fence line where we’d moved the herd. Some of the cattle were still lumbering around while others were settling down for the night. It was a clear evening, the full moon and stars casting silver light across the pasture.
“Does your dad know you’re out here?” I asked, my eyes dropping to her lap where a shotgun rested across her thighs. “Know how to shoot that thing?”
Lina huffed. “Any more questions,daddy? Who do you think I am? I don’t need anyone’s permission to be on my ranch, thank you very much.”
She turned away from me, the moonlight glowing off her profile. She looked like an angel with a halo, but there wasnothing angelic about her. And fuck, her calling me daddy instantly made my zipper tight, even if she was being a smart-ass.Especiallywhen she was being a smart-ass.
“But I told him anyway. He reminded me to bring the shotgun.”
I chuckled.
Her head whipped back to me, her features shadowed by her cowboy hat, but I could see the whites of her eyes, and she was looking at me weird.
“Did you just laugh?” she asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“I’ve never heard you laugh before. I didn’t think you even knew how.”
I scoffed and shook my head in disbelief. “I laugh.”
“No, you don’t,” she argued.
Of course she was fucking arguing with me about whether I laugh or not. I could say the grass was green, and she would say it was blue.
“All you do is grunt.” Lina flipped her long braid over her shoulder.
“I’m a man of few words. What can I say?”
“You could start by saying you’re fucking sorry.”
Oh, here we go again. I rolled my eyes. The last time I tried to apologize for what happened back in Joseph, it turned into an argument and then my hand went down her pants. We didn’t get very far because that was the night Frank Miller and Junior Matheus let the horses out.
