Page 24 of Feral

I froze. Oh God! What had I said? I wasn’t Willow Johnson, the orphan. I was supposed to be Natalie Shefield. I had to think fast. “It was just a few years,” I said quickly. “While my mom was going through some stuff. She didn’t want the rest of the family to know I’d been taken away from her.”

Oh. My. God. I really fucked up.

I guess it showed how much this man had gotten under my skin. How much I wanted to show him the real me.

Rob seemed to absorb the information without any doubt, which made me feel even worse about deceiving him.

He blinked at me. “Have you had to use the gun?”

“No.” I let out a forced laugh. The lie tasted like ash in my mouth. “But I keep it close. You know, for when strangers barge in on me masturbating.”

That distraction worked. His eyes crinkled and lips curved up. He studied my face like he wanted to memorize it. “I’m sorry about your childhood.”

I was unprepared for the sharp blast of emotion that followed his words.

I never allowed myself pity, but it seemed some of it had been bottled up all these years because tears suddenly popped into my eyes. I instantly rolled away from him to hide them, but he caught my arm and turned me back.

“It’s okay,” he said softly. “We all have wounds.”

“Yeah?” My voice wobbled. “How about you, cowboy? What are your wounds?”

I didn’t expect him to answer. He’d been nothing but cocky and self-assured with me. No hint of vulnerability for miles. But he stared into my eyes. “I took over running the ranch and raising my brothers when I was sixteen. It wasn’t so bad—we made it through. But I never got to choose my life. My future got decided for me the day my parents died in a car crash.”

I reached out to run my clipped fingernails over the soft curls of his chest hair. “Your future’s still in front of you,” I reminded him softly.

His gaze traced my face. He reached out and ran the backs of his fingers across my cheek. “Yeah. It is.”

A shiver ran down my spine although I couldn’t identify its source. It wasn’t a warning—although I got that kind of prickle sometimes. It wasn’t sexual. It was more like… recognition. It scared the hell out of me. I pulled away, and he let his hand drop, as I pushed up to sit.

“Well,” he said lightly, climbing out of the bed, “if you want to target practice, we have a makeshift range on my property.” He picked his boxer briefs up from the floor and pulled them on, which was a shame. Rob, naked, was a sight.

I was here on a job not to date the cowboy next door. But target practice was part of the job, wasn’t it? So was finding out what Rob knew about Markle although that excuse was flimsy, and I knew it. From what he’d made clear the night before, Rob held no positive feelings for the guy long before I arrived. That meant they had some kind of beef between them. I doubted Rob knew his neighbor was a drug runner. Knowing how black and white Rob was, he’d have turned him into the law. He knew something about Markle, and I wanted to know what it was.

“I’d love that.” I climbed off the other side of the bed and went hunting for my clothes.

“Great.” He zipped up his jeans then grabbed his shirt off the floor. “Tomorrow? One o’clock?”

Little bubbles of excitement fizzed, even though I was telling myself this was for work.Work.“I’d love that. I’ll see you then.”

He grinned, then looked down to do the snaps, covering up his gorgeous chest. Sex definitely put a smile on this guy’s face. He was not the grouchy grumpy guy Audrey had described. Not at all, at least not now. Of course, he’d just come in my ass, so I had a feeling I was going to beat anyone in a making-Rob-smile competition.

He pointed at me. “Stay off your roof. You take a risk like that again, you won’t sit down for a week because you won’t get the fun kind of spanking. I’m serious, Natalie.”

The threat was high-handed and ridiculous, but the sexual charge between us made it totally sexy. I suddenly found myself wanting to defy him, just to get the promised punishment, although the good kind.

“I can take care of myself.” I fastened my bra and went to grab a new shirt from the dresser.

He finished putting on his boots. “I know that, angel. But you’re not invincible, and you don’t have to do it all on your own.”

That wasn’t true—I did. Or was that just what I preferred? It was hard to tell. Still, the idea of letting this big fierce cowboy think he was taking care of me had a strong appeal.

Too bad I wasn’t the real Natalie Shefield, here to stay. Once Markle was behind bars, I’d be back to my desk in Phoenix. Back to a new bad guy… which was definitely job security. Neither the bad guy or my desk in the desert sounded all that appealing right about now. Living on a ranch with a sexy neighbor seemed so much better.

Too bad there was zero chance for us because there was arealNatalie Shefield waiting to move to the house she’d inherited. I actually liked this guy beyond what he could do in bed, and it should have made me feel amazing, but it just… sucked.

12

WILLOW