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“Tickle her nose. Take a clean piece of hay from the bale behind you and gently tickle the inside of her nostril. Trust me.”
Randal did just as I said. As soon as he wiggled the piece of hay in its nostril, the calf cried out its first breath. Randal’s face lit up with genuine happiness and he roared with a hearty laugh of relief and joy, as he turned to look at me with eyes sparkling. In that instant, whatever scars he bore on his face vanished, whatever ugliness he might have had on the surface disappeared. And he transformed into the kindest and most handsome man I had ever seen.
At my instruction, he helped the calf find its way to Nellie, who set about happily cleaning it from head to toe. And with both calf and mother safe and healthy, I breathed a sigh of relief. Without thinking, I shifted my leg and a shooting pain made me nearly double over, first in simple agony and then with a nauseating realization that I hadn’t let myself even think about until now:
Everything on the farm depended on my being healthy enough to work. And if I couldn’t keep things running, we’d lose everything.
Chapter 3
Randal
I carried Iris out of the field. I fucking loved the way she felt in my arms.
At first, she was stiff and awkward, but as we went along, she melted into me like she was made for me to hold her. I’d never been so close to her before and it took all my fucking strength not to lose myself in her gorgeous eyes, not to get wrapped up in memorizing every freckle and dimple.
And her tits.
Fuck almighty, those tits. The way her cleavage bounced as I carried her made my mouth actually water. Her hips against my arms drove me wild. I was so fucking close to her pussy I could almost taste it.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
Still though, I kept my shit together. Even when I asked her name, it was part of a plan I didn’t even realize I had. I knew her fucking name of course, but I didn’t want her to know that.
I wanted to soothe her, and it seemed the safest question to ask.
I wanted to ravage her right then and there. A casual, unguarded few words from her as I carried her, a single mention of me showing her what it meant to be protected, sent a shiver down my spine. Was it possible that she had the same desires as me? But all that would have to wait until she was ready. To take her the way I needed to, she would have to be healthy and strong.
She’d be worth the fucking wait.
I carried her to a makeshift bench that stood outside the milking shed. Once I’d set her down on the simple plank of wood, I knelt before her and untied the laces of her left boot. She had her skirt hiked up far enough to make me imagine the way my fingers would feel on the inside of her smooth, creamy-white thigh.
Fuck.
Her lower leg was swelling. It looked serious, but she was playing it cool.
“Thank you again for helping me,” she said, smiling, but also wincing in pain. I could tell she was trying to be brave; admirable, but I wasn’t buying it. Not even close.
“I’m fine now, really,” she said. “It’s just a bruise. I’m certain you have better things to do than look after me.”
Fuck that. Nothing on earth was more important than her. There was no way in hell I was leaving her now.
Fate had given me the shove into the mud I’d needed for the last year and a half. Now that I was here, I felt my resolve turn to stone. Somehow, someway, I would be with her, no matter what the rest of the world—or my family—would say.
Carefully, I slipped her boot off her foot and her sock along with it. She hissed in pain when she saw the deep purple swelling that bloomed from her ankle.
“I’m no medical man, but I don’t think that’s just a bruise.” I grabbed a milking stool from beside the bench and positioned it under her foot to keep it elevated.
“Not to worry. Honestly, thank you so much,” she said, again putting on a brave face. “Surely you have other places to be…?”
Kneeling before her, I looked up into her dark eyes. This is where I fucking belong, I thought to myself. But I had to think quick—I needed a good excuse for “passing by” her farm, as I’d said before.
The place was pretty much in the back of beyond. I also wanted an excuse for staying as long as possible. I was usually a shitty liar, but this time it came easy. Necessity and invention and all that shit. So I glanced around at the property, as if for the first time.
