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A moment passed between them as they sized each other up. He kept his cool gaze trained on her as she quickly thought of something to say. Her nerves got the better of her and she diverted her eyes.
“Are we still on for tonight?” Teagan asked Fianna, the middle Ryan sister, hoping to find a safe topic she could chat about and lose this unsettling feeling of being scrutinized by Devlin.
Before Fianna could answer, Devlin said in a gravelly voice, “Where are you going?”
Instead of responding to her stumbled, “Girls’ night,” he got up from the picnic table and strode off in the ranch house’s direction. She wondered what kind of sight he would make, standing in her mother’s frivolous kitchen in his biker boots, dark faded jeans and Iron Vikings leather jacket.
Oh, but what a delicious sight he would make in her twin bed up in the attic. Teagan had heard once before about the oldest half brother of Fianna, who had said nothing about Devlin being a biker. She’d heard that he was well over thirty. Way too old for her. But in her fantasies, that didn’t matter.
Fianna’s sister Gwenn smirked at her like she’d read her mind. Heat traveled over Teagan’s cheeks before she excused herself. She placed the other two plates on the other tables and picked up her pace over the dirt path to the field furthest out, needing a moment.
How annoying that out of all the guys that had shown interest in her over the years, she had to get nervous belly flutters with a much older, rough and perhaps even dangerous man.
The feeling he triggered inside of her by holding her eyes and demanding her attention had felt exactly like she’d felt during her audition to enroll in the new Dance Academy. She connected to her inner soul through music and expressed herself through rhythmic flows of her body.
Surrendering to the music and letting her body almost move on its own accord felt liberating. Everything would fade into the background up on stage. She ached for that feeling of freedom.
Gazing into this older man’s dark brown eyes did exactly that. She couldn’t place her reaction to this enigmatic man. Why now? After years of successfully ignoring the other sex and shutting down any interest guys showed her.
She ran away as fast as she could over the dirt road to the one spot at the Moore farm that never grew old: the Texas redbud tree. It offered rosy-pink flowers in spring and rich, heart-shaped leaves that turned golden in the fall.
From a distance, she spied Flint hovering in the shadow of the yellow leaves. She was glad her brother Ryan wasn’t here to chase Flint away. He hated how Flint and his fellow boars would damage the fences and rooted under the ground with their snouts and tusks to forage.
“Hey Flint! If I’d known you’d be here, I’d brought you something.”
“Who’s Flint?”
She halted mid-step, not daring to turn around.
He’d spoken only a few words to her back at the picnic table, but she could pick out his dark voice from over a hundred voices, she was sure of it.
She didn’t move, her eyes trained on Flint as she heard his footsteps draw near.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as Devlin’s wondrous scent of motor oil mixed with cigarettes and a hint of rain engulfed her from behind.
She jumped on the spot when he joggled her behind him, his wide back blocking her view. “Stay back!” his booming voice thundered.
“What are you doing?” she screeched as she tried to look past him.
“Don’t move,” he whispered. “There’s a dangerous animal stalking us like we’re his prey. But don’t worry. You’ll be safe with me. I’ve got this.”
He sounded like that famous wildlife narrator as he described the danger lurking at them. She furrowed her brows in confusion. She’d been born twenty-one years ago in the same attic room she now slept in back at the ranch. These fields were her home. She knew every tree by heart. They stood six steps from the spot where the crooked fence had tumbled over her when she was three years old and she needed her leg in a cast.
There was no need for him pulling out a gun from his ankle holster and pointing it at—
She knew those pointy ears and beady eyes. His tusks stood proudly as Flint surely smelled Devlin’s scent.
She slammed her fist against his shoulder. “Stop it! Who even brings a gun to a family reunion?”
Her fist to the back of his shoulder didn’t deter him as he tried to hold his gun steady. This man wasn’t about to back down, so she did the only thing she could think of and jumped on his back.
“Leave him alone!”
“What the fuck?” Devlin roared. He danced on the dirt path, trying to get her off of his back, but she held tight with all her might, one arm even slithering over his throat and making it hard for him to breathe.
“Let… go… of me.”
She felt how he tried to relax his stance, but she needed to be absolutely sure. “Are you going to put away that thing?”
