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“Son of a—” Andie snatched the leather off so she could assess the damage and was mildly horrified. Blisters, some bloody, some already busted and oozing covered her hand. There were the scrapes and tiny punctures from the barbs, and what was left of her manicure after yesterday’s endeavors was toast.
“You hurt yourself?”
Andie screeched like a banshee. She also jumped about three feet in the air and came down on uneven ground with all the grace of an elephant. If Luke hadn’t grabbed her, she would’ve landed face-first in the dirt for sure.
“God!” she exclaimed as she purposefully took a big step back from him. “I didn’t hear you come up. You scared the crap outta me.”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” he said, not looking the least bit sorry in her opinion.
“Where did you come from?” she asked. Andie told herself she was not going to notice how handsome he was today in his rugged beat-up jeans and snug navy tee with a plaid button-up over it. He had a baseball cap on backward, and she decided it wasnotsexy on him, nor did it showcase his eyes. Nope, not a bit.
“I’m riding our fence just over there.” He pointed to a spot not far in the distance. “When I saw you fighting with this, I thought I’d come see if I can help.”
Fighting was a good word for it. When she decided to take this chore on, she had no idea it was such strenuous work.
“I’m fine.” Last thing she wanted to do was accept help from him again. Last night had completely thrown her for a loop. After the way he treated her before, his kindness last evening and now was confusing her and mixing up everything she thought she knew about him. “Thank you, but I’m fine. It’s harder than I thought it would be is all.” She picked up the wire after slipping her gloves back on. “I’ll get the hang of it… eventually.” Her joints throbbed from the strain, and her blistered skin ached. Andie wanted to cry, but no way in hell would she let him see her fall apart. Again.
He’d seen her cry too many times already. She cried when he ranted at herthatnight. And she cried when he carried her out of the graveyard. Then cried again as he massaged her butt, for Pete’s sake. He probably thought she was the biggest whiner on the planet.
“Thanks for checking on me. But you can go,” she grunted and couldn’t help the whimper that came out when yet another metal thorn pierced her skin. He didn’t leave. He just stood where he was, with his arms crossed, staring at her with a frown on his grumpy face. “Now.”
“Shit.” He crowded into her place and made quick, easy work out of what had been an unbeatable task for her. It made tears prick the backs of her eyes, and she hated him a little right then.
“You’re not cut out for this kind of work, city girl. You should sell and go back where you came from.” She didn’t know if he realized what he just said was the exact thing that would hurt her the most, but then again, he had a knack for that.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Andie heard the frustrated anguish in her own voice and hated him a little bit more for bringing it out in her. “God! I didn’t ask for your opinion or your help. I know it’s hard work. And I got news for you, Mr. Big Shot High and Mighty. Icando this.” She wiped angrily at the tears of frustration that were escaping from her eyes without her permission. “It may take me a while to learn everything I need to learn, and if that means I have to hire more help until I do, then I will. But you—” She jabbed a finger into his chest so hard her aching joints throbbed. “—don’t get to tell me to go anywhere. You, you mean, cold-hearted asshole, don’t get to tell me anything.” Then she yanked her wire and the pliers he was holding out of his hands and threw herself back on her quad with all the furious, righteous indignation she felt.
As she started the engine and sped away as fast as she could with a satisfying roar, Andie wished she had the skill to peel out and cover the insufferable, condescending jackass with dirt. She didn’t though, so she settled instead for just being happy she didn’t fall off or run into a tree… because she’d done both today. More than once.
* * *
“Hey! Those are my pliers!”Aint this a bitch? Luke stood where she’d left him and rubbed absently at his chest where she’d jabbed her bony finger. He wasn’t a ladies’ man; this he knew very well. But he also wasn’t a moron. He had a mother, didn’t he? Luke had been raised to always treat every girl like she was his sister and every woman like she was a lady. So why was it, he wondered, that the one woman he was most attracted to managed to bring out the worst in him every time she was around? “Shit.”
Walking down her fence line, Luke easily spotted her attempts at repairs and cussed some more. Damn, fool, helpless city woman just had no business taking on these chores no matter what she thought. She wasn’t cut out for this. And he was going to be out here all day re-fixing her crappy attempts at repairs.
He didn’t question his determination to help her. He wasn’t the kind of guy to sit back and let her fall on her ass without pitching in. Even though he knew, if he let her take that fall, it would give him exactly what he wanted. With a frustrated kick at a dirt clot and another venomous curse, he marched to his own quad. Resigned, he went after his pliers.
As Luke pulled up behind an unfortunately familiar convertible, he told himself to remain calm as he cut his engine. As soon as he did, he heard Andie, still seated on her ATV, filling Jax in on their encounter. “And then I jumped on my quad and roared out of there so fast I almost fell off.”
“Roared?” Luke couldn’t help himself. Andie startled and had to grab onto the handlebars to keep her balance, while the only indication that Jax gave to even acknowledge his presence was to briefly flick his eyes in Luke’s direction. “You call that roaring? I could have jogged and caught up with you.” He pushed off his seat and marched toward the two of them. “And let me tell you something. This machine you are riding has a two-stroke engine. They are tricky to maintain and can gum up on you if you don’t run them full-throttle occasionally. Riding it the way you did is going to ruin the engine within a month. So, like your fencing, if you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, stay away and let somebody experienced do it.”
She had a mutinous look on her round face. Those lips that were so plump they reminded him of plums were pursed in a pout. And as hard as she tried to fight it—because he could see the struggle plainly—those jewel-bright eyes of hers again filled with tears.
“Shit.” He did it again. On the entire ride in from the field, he told himself he was going to be a gentleman, but he’d taken one look at her with Jax, heard her ranting about him, and all his good intentions went right out the window. “Look,” he said, desperately trying to think of something, anything he could say that could help. “I didn’t mean it like that. I know you can learn to do this eventually; it’s just that—”
“I thought I told you I didn’t want to hear your opinions on me or my abilities.” Her voice was husky from pent-up emotion, and it sounded achingly close to how she sounded when she was aroused, and the reminder of that night made him feel even worse.
“Andie, I’m sor—” He reached out, thinking if he could just hold her, then maybe the tears would stop. But she jerked back out of his reach so fast and violently that she jolted herself right off the seat and into the dirt.
“I think you should go, Luke.” Jax shoved past him and crouched to help Andie to her feet.
Luke moved before he thought. One second, he was standing with one arm hanging uselessly in the air where Andie had been moments before. Then, he saw Jax with his hands on her, and his vision went red. “Get your hands off her.” Luke grabbed the other man by the shoulders of his stupid, pansy-ass vest and yanked him three feet away to land on his ass before Jax knew what hit him.
“Hey!” Andie shoved up and hurried over to Jax even as he got to his feet. “What the hell is wrong with you, Luke?” she demanded in outrage.
“Don’t worry about it, Andie,” Jax said. He brushed her hands aside and righted his clothes as he shook his head at Luke with a resigned expression on his face. “This is about him and me. Things go way back between us.”
“Oh shut up, Jax.” Luke glared at him and briefly pictured punching his smug face. “There is nothing between us. I just don’t like watching you put your hands all over every woman who gets within ten feet of you.”
