Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
elena
One Week Later
Paradise Valley, Montana
Isaac still hasn’t returned to the ranch. Still in Wild Canyon “clearing his head,” which I’m ninety percent sure is code for “get away from the off-limits actress who won’t stop staring at him like he’s her last meal.”
Maybe Wild Canyon is full of wild women and that’s what he prefers.
At first, I thought maybe I needed the space, too. Thought the quiet would help. But all the silence has done is make my feelings louder.
I miss his voice. His smirk. The way he says my name as if it tastes like honey on his tongue.
Ugh, I miss his tongue.
But more than the physical connection, I miss the way he looks at me. The secret smiles. The winks.
Damn those winks.
I glance at my phone again. I don’t even know if he has my number. But Ivy has access to it, so he could get it if he wanted it badly enough.
I’m standing near the stables about to check on Star, who Isaac abandoned after his Fight Club scene, wondering whether I imagined all of it, when I hear Mikayla’s voice cut through the air.
“I don’t care if they fire me,” she’s saying, low but clear. “I’m going to hook up with him before this is over.”
I freeze.
“I mean, it’s not like they could actually enforce the fraternization rules,” she continues, laughing. “How would they know unless they were, like, in the vicinity? And honestly? Worth it. That man looks like he could wreck me and make me say thank you afterward.”
Another female voice chimes in. “There is definitely something about hot cowboys.”
“Right,” Mikayla purrs. “The things I would let that man do to me…”
I don’t hear the rest.
I turn and walk away before I can vomit or punch something. Or both.
She’s not wrong. About any of it.
Isaac could ruin a woman. With a single look. With one of those quiet, deep-voiced words that slip under your skin and stays there for hours. I think he became part of my DNA the night we met.
He’ll flirt and tease but then he just watches. Waits. And when he speaks, he puts his cards on the table face up.
I should’ve seen this coming.
Of course, someone like Mikayla would go after him. She’s beautiful. Somehow adorable and sexy at the same time—which pisses me off a lot. She’s the kind of perfect that makes you hate your own reflection a little. And she doesn’t care about rules or consequences. She just takes what she wants.
And the worst part?
A dark, ugly part of me is terrified she might get it.
It’s not like he owes me loyalty or fidelity or anything. We’re not a couple.
I swallow hard, pulse thrumming in my ears as I duck into the shadow of the stables. I close my eyes and remember how he ravaged me after the storm, the way his body owned mine. His hands on my hips and his mouth on my neck like he couldn’t breathe without me.
I squeeze my eyes shut, but the memory doesn’t fade.
It’s been a week without him. And I’ve barely slept. I’ve been edgy and restless and altogether unwell.
And now?
Now I feel like I’m breaking.
Because he didn’t even say goodbye.
Because some other woman is circling like a vulture before he’s even returned.
Because I am jealous.
Unreasonably. Irrationally. Inconveniently.
And worse?
I’m hurt.
I didn’t expect this. Didn’t realize how deep I’d sunk into this until now. Until the absence of him felt sharper than any rejection ever has. Until the idea of him with someone else makes me want to scream.
I’m jealous. I accept that.
But it’s more than that.
I’m territorial. Something I’ve never been when it came to any other man. My philosophy was always if another woman could get him, then she could have him.
I’m halfway to safely hiding out in my cabin when I run smack into a wall of muscle in a black T-shirt.
“Shit—sorry,” I mumble, stumbling back a step.
Then I look up.
And my heart does a stupid traitorous flutter.
Isaac’s returned apparently. Back from Wild Canyon. Looking sun-worn and a little rough around the edges in the most maddeningly attractive way possible. Hat tipped low, jaw shadowed with scruff, eyes impossibly green.
“Hey,” he says, slow and steady.
The word rolls through me.
“Hey,” I return, sounding more breathless than I’d like.
I force myself to stay still. To not show how rattled I am. Not just because he’s standing so close, but because I still haven’t recovered from Mikayla’s comments.
“You okay?” he asks, eyes narrowing slightly.
“Yep. Totally fine.” My voice is two octaves too high. I nod like a bobble head.
“You sure?” he presses.
I clear my throat. “Yeah.”
He lifts a brow. “Something happen?”
I cross my arms and look anywhere but at him. “I overheard something. But it was nothing.”
His brow dips inward. “Was it something or nothing?”
“It was nothing. I hear Mikayla talking about hooking up with you. Or someone. But it’s none of my business so it’s whatever.”
“First it was something, then it was nothing. Now it’s whatever?” His lips quirk. “I see. And her talking about hooking up with me was a problem for you because…” He drags out the last word then waits with raised brows.
“Exactly,” I say quickly, then curse under my breath because I’m doing nothing to help my case. “Right? I mean, it’s not. At all. You’re free to hook up with whomever.”
Isaac studies me for a long moment. Not moving. Just watching. Like he can see right through me.
“Why do you look like you’re about to burst into flames?”
“It’s really warm out,” I lie.
“Elena.”
I glance at him. Big mistake.
“You gonna tell me what’s really going on?” he asks quietly.
I let out a breath. “I was just…surprised is all. You left. Without saying anything. And now you're back. Just in time to hook up with Mikayla, so yay for you.”
His jaw tightens, and for a beat, he says nothing. Just drags his eyes from me to the horizon like the land might give him clarity.
“For the record, I just got back. And for what it’s worth, I wanted to say goodbye. I just couldn’t,” he finally says.
“You couldn’t?”
“Wyatt thought after what happened with Eli, I needed some space,” he continues. “That getting away for a few days would give me perspective.”
“Did it?”
He gives a slight shake of his head. “All it did was make me realize that space doesn’t fix shit when the thing I’m trying to avoid is the only thing I want.”
I swallow hard. “Isaac . . .”
He holds up a hand, his eyes serious now.
“I’m trying, Elena. To do the right thing.
To keep my hands to myself. But when I’m near you,” His voice drops to something that feels like a confession.
“I can’t stop remembering. The way you feel, those sweet sounds you make when you come.
How much I fucking ache to please you and see that breathtaking smile on your beautiful face. ”
Speaking of breathtaking, breathing is becoming increasingly difficult.
But before I can say anything, a familiar voice cuts through the air.
“Well, damn,” Lane Colter drawls, sauntering by like he didn’t just interrupt the hottest moment of my life. “What are you two doing over here? Were we supposed to be working tonight?”
Isaac straightens.
I take a step back.
We both blurt, “No,” in urgent unison.
Lane smirks. “I’ll just be moving along then. Have a good night, folks.”
Then he keeps walking, muttering something that sounds like, no fraternization policy my ass, and I swear I want the earth to open up and swallow me whole.
Isaac shifts his hat, rubs the back of his neck and shakes his head.
“For what it’s worth,” he says conspiratorially, leaning closer to me. “I caught Mikayla sneaking out of the bunkhouse visiting him recently. So, I think you might’ve overheard her talking about hooking up with that cowboy, not this one.”
Relief eases the tension in my chest. I work extremely hard not to let it show on my face.
“Oh. Well, like I said. Whatever.”
He meets my eyes with a knowing look. “Okay, then.”
We might be pretending nothing’s happening.
But something is. And when this lie we’re holding together bursts open at the seams, I don’t know what it’s going to do to us, Isaac’s family, or this show.
My guess is nothing good.