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CHAPTER1
Cody
My gut crashes to the ground when I look at the numbers yet again. Jesus! There’s no way I can make that damn balloon payment on the ranch.
I lower my head and ram my hands into my hair, clutching it hard. This is my inheritance thanks to my father. The ranch has been in my family for generations but my father had tried so many new things for the land that he couldn’t make ends meet and he applied for a huge loan that is now coming due. And, just like when he was alive, he left me to clean up his damn mess.
He couldn’t just apply for a regular loan. No, he had to get this one. With a huge fucking balloon payment due two months from now. And then he died a year later. And left me with this ax hanging over my head and nothing to take care of it with.
Because of course he took that money and put it in his next risky venture that didn’t pay off.
I stand and move to the window, my heart aching when I stare out at the land that’s been in my family for as long as I can remember and longer still. The paddocks are empty. The men hanging out in the bunkhouses and the Iron Hills looming over the edge of my land like a doomed prophecy waiting to take it back. Back to the beginning of time when we weren’t here. No men were.
The door crashes open and I flinch slightly, trying not to let the person invading my privacy see that they startled me.
“Hey, Cody! How are you doing today?” Her chipper voice makes me smile even though I try to hide it.
“Heather. How many times do I have to tell you to knock?” I growl at her even though I want to turn around and hug her to me. My hands itch to touch her sweet curves, bend her to me and take those damn cherry-red lips with my own.
All of which she doesn’t know. I sigh and turn to find her smirking at me. My eyes dart quickly down her body and my dick immediately jumps to attention.
Down, boy!
She shrugs her narrow shoulders and it lifts her full breasts underneath the soft green dress she’s wearing. My mouth waters and I almost reach up to wipe the saliva I imagine pooling at the corners.
She throws her head back and laughs and the light from the watery sunlight outside glints on her glasses. She comes into the room and smiles at me. My heart races in my chest. I hate that I can’t control myself around her. Hate that she only seems to want to be friends and I want so much more.
“If I waited on you to tell me to come in, I’d expire right outside that damn door. You don’t pay attention to anything when you’re in here working.”
I turn back to the huge window behind my desk. “I’ve got a lot on my mind, Cricket.”
I smirk when I hear her low growl even though my dick is straining in my tight jeans. It feels like the zipper teeth are imprinting on the steel pipe and my jaw clenches at the pain. It’s torture having her this close and not touching her.
But I prefer that to the alternative. I tried for awhile to keep away from her and let both of us move on. She’s obviously not interested in me as a man and I guess I hoped that she’d find someone and take the dreams that I knew were foolhardy out of my hands. Or feared.
But it was the worst time in my life and I just couldn’t handle not seeing her. I made it three months and then I went looking for her in town to offer her a job working for me.
Little knowing that my dad had already managed to bankrupt my business and kill the family legacy all in one shot. Not realizing that all the people that depended on our family were about to be thrown out into the cold with no job.
I lean my hand against the wall and touch my temple to the glass, stiffening when I hear Heather moving towards me. Her soft, little hand touches my back and I grind my teeth together to keep from turning and slamming her into the nearest wall to fuck her until I forget my troubles.
I can’t do that. Can’t lose myself in her body at the expense of our friendship. Can’t use her to hide from all the trouble that’s about to land on my doorstep.
I shrug my shoulder, dislodging her hand and she mutters something under her breath. I turn my head to see her stormy grey eyes glaring at me.
“Why are you pissed at me?” I groan and turn back to the window. “I kinda don’t need that right now, Cricket. I need you to…”. I need her to make me happy, keep me sane, build a life with her and a family I long to have. Only with her though.
“You need me to what, Cody? What do you want from me? Anything at all and I’ll do it. We’re friends, right? Good friends. I would do anything for you.”
I would do anything for her as well. Except ruin her life by claiming her and dragging her down into my disaster of a life.
“I just need to think. The ranch is….struggling. I’ve got to figure something out.”
She sucks in a sharp breath and once again, I can picture her breasts lifting in my mind’s eye. I almost groan out loud.Why does she have to be so damn tempting? Why can’t I just accept that we’re friends and leave it at that?
I lost track of her after we got out of school. Then one day there she was and from the first moment I saw her in that little cafe in town, I’d been hooked. Her soft, silky, long ash-blond hair lit up with little strands of copper through it. Her dark glasses perched on the end of her petite nose. The lush hourglass curves that were so tempting to see standing in front of me. The full hips and thighs and large, rounded breasts pushing against whatever little dress she happened to be wearing.
My best friend is very much a girly-girl. She likes to wear soft, swingy dresses that float around her thick thighs and hips, falling to her knees and the cowboy boots she inevitable wears. Today’s pair is a beige color with a floral print that’s outlined in gold. The soft green dress has a golden daisy print on it and it looks so smooth and silky that it takes everything in me not to reach out and touch it, slide it between my fingers.
