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Liam
I sighand drop the bale of hay that I’m hauling around in the barn. Really, everything’s perfect but I just can’t leave it the fuck alone. I’m exhausted. I can’t sleep and I feel like something’s missing from my life. Which is stupid.
I mean, I’ve got it all. A tidy little nest egg left over from my rodeo days so that I don’t have to rush out and get a job. I fixed up the ranch that I’ve owned for years but barely saw while I was riding the circuit. Now I just need to do the day to day grind.
But it feels wrong. I’ve got what feels like freaking spiders crawling up and down my spine. I can’t stop doing things even when they don’t need done. I can’t relax. I can’t be still. Maybe because I’m used to traveling non-stop during the rodeo tours. Maybe because I can’t do it now. The decision was taken away from me and I wasn’t ready to leave.
Grunting, I shove another bale over and straighten the things that don’t need straightened.
Bang! My head whips around when the loud crash catches me off guard.
What the hell was that? The few horses that I have jump around nervously, whinnying and tossing their heads.
I stick my head out the door but see nothing. At least until I step outside and look over at the east pasture. A trail of smoke drifts on the breeze. Not large enough to be a fire or anything like that. But it’s out of place.
I don’t like unknown quantities.
I grab my cell and jump in my old Ford truck, rolling down the windows by hand. It’s the same truck that I used for years riding around to every rodeo I could find. I have a newer truck but I rarely drive it preferring my old friend.
Whipping out onto the beat-up old trail, I floor it and hang on. She’s still got some horses left in her and in no time I’m slamming on the brakes, swearing when I come up alongside the road.
“Shit! God-damn it!” I slam my hand on the steering wheel.
Jumping from the truck, I slap my hat on my thigh, staring at the old tree that’s fallen across the road. From my property. It’s so big that at first I don’t see the little car.
Until I hear a moan and lean down, groaning.
“Aw, shit! Great! Just what I need.”
I pick my way across the broken limbs and densely-packed tree. When I finally reach the epicenter, my heart stops. My eyes catch on the long brown hair trailing over a feminine form barely visible through the branches.
“Are you alright?” I call, praying that she answers me. Nothing.
I move closer, being careful not to move the tree too much so that it doesn’t shift over the car. As it is, the top of the hood is crunched all the way back to the windshield, which is shattered. Steam is pouring out of the front end and I’d say the damn thing is totaled. Which means that my insurance is probably going to be buying her a new car. Or I am.
I shove some more tree out of the way, eyeing the woman in the front, hoping she moves, turns her head, something.
But she doesn’t. Dammit!
Pushing and shoving, I finally manage to clear a path to the driver’s side door and shove it open. I squat down beside the woman and lightly touch her arm, surprised when a jolt of something whips through my body like an electric shock.
What the hell!
She moans and her head turns slowly, so slowly that I can’t help but hold my breath. There’s a long trail of crimson blood down her forehead and cheek where it looks like she hit her head. The airbag didn’t deploy. Which is sometimes a blessing.
But all those thoughts skitter out of my mind as soon as she fully turns her head to look at me. She’s fucking gorgeous! A tiny little thing with pale, golden skin and long chestnut hair that’s tangled around her perfect face. Like a dang Venus.
Her eyes open and deep blue pools of pain stare sightlessly at me. Her smooth forehead crinkles and she eyes me like I’m familiar to her.
“You.” She sighs and her eyes close and it’s almost too much for me to bear. I desperately want to look into her eyes again. Want to wallow in the pools of blue, lost and helpless under her spell.
“Hey,” I whisper, unwilling to frighten her. “Hey, what’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Candy,” she sighs and my hand reaches out of its own volition to wrap around her cheek, satisfaction roaring through me when she tilts her head and cuddles into my hand.
“Candy.” I groan and shift on the ground, my damn dick aching. What the fuck is wrong with me? I’ve never wanted a woman like I want this one. Not even the rodeo groupies that offered themselves up on a platter at every event.
I’m not a monk. But it’s not like I was out every night either. And none of them made me as hard as this woman.
