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“Let me feed you first,” he says.
I shake my head. “I really think I need to go.”
He clears his throat. “I’ll walk you to the truck.”
He holds the coat with one arm and his other drifts to my lower back. Is this normal? Clint usually walked up ahead, his legs much longer than mine.
We stop outside his truck and he opens the door. I turn to say goodbye and he takes a step closer, pinning me between his big body and the front seat.
“Sure I shouldn’t take you down the mountain, redbird?”
I stare up at him. My mind is an empty slate. I’ve never felt such a magnetic attraction to anyone. It doesn’t help that one of his hands rests on my hip, and it's making me wonder if he could break me in half.
He has the kind of body I’d like to curl up with on a winter’s night. And I’m feeling so cold right now in my thin dress with frost melting on my shoes.
I swallow, lowering my lashes.
“Why do you want this?”
“This?”
“You said you wanted me,” I rasp. “As your submissive. Why?”
He’s silent and when I look up, he’s gazing over the cab of my truck. That’s how tall he is. After a moment, he clears his throat and narrows his ice blue eyes.
“It’s not complicated,” he says. “You’re a beautiful woman.”
His guard is back up, and I know he’s using it to hide the truth. Does he want me because Clint died on his land? Is this some kind of honor code where he feels an obligation to care for me and this is his odd way of doing it?
I don’t put much weight on that theory.
With one arm, he lifts me into the driver’s seat and spreads my sweater over my lap. Before I can react, he turns the car on and slips something into my passenger side. I glance over and scowl. It’s a folded envelope.
That damn contract.
“Just read it, redbird,” he says.
He shuts the door, and I watch him head back to the barn. He’s in his work pants, boots, and a Henley the color of his eyes. The morning sun glints off his dark hair.
My hands grip the steering wheel until my knuckles go white. I guide the truck down the driveway and around the bend, going slow down the hill in case there are patches of ice.
The road is scraped and salted.
I glance around as I drive, taking in the pastures of clean, healthy cattle and horses. I’ve spent my life on ranches and I’ve never seen one so well cared for. He’s meticulous and he has a firm grip over Sovereign Mountain and all the surrounding counties.
There’s natural dominance and care to the way he does everything.
Is that why he wants a submissive and not a girlfriend? Because that way everything is spelled out for him in a contract? Maybe he really does just want to sleep with me, but he doesn’t do the messiness of hookups. That’s too bad for him because if he’d been straightforward and never brought up a contract, I’d have fucked him stone cold sober.
It doesn’t occur to me until I’m back at Garrison Ranch that despite him not being able to name his horses or dogs, he found a name for me without trouble.
Redbird.
CHAPTER NINE
GERARD
I can’t sleep. The night she leaves, I lie in the same spot she slept in my bed. When I turn my head, I swear I can smell the soft pomegranate scent of her hair.
