Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Haven
It’s the middle of the day, but there’s the ripest, juiciest full moon in the ditch. And it’s encased in the skimpiest pair of lacy red underwear. I pull to the side of the road and let my brain come online when my dick so badly wants to take over.
I consider the sight in the rearview mirror. A small blue car takes up half the lane and all of the narrow shoulder. A woman is in the weeds in the ditch, looking around.
Did something fly off her car? Out the window? Can the wind blow her skirt up again?
I should check on her. I can’t drive by someone possibly stranded on the side of the road and go about business as usual. Shutting the radio off in the middle of the weather report, I back my pickup closer to the car.
I don’t recognize the vehicle or the woman, though I haven’t seen much other than long, creamy legs, a full ass, and that unforgettable lacy red underwear. What does the rest of her look like?
After I flip my pickup into park, I grab my cowboy hat off the passenger seat and climb out. I stuff the hat on and cock my head at the sound of her voice. Who is she talking to?
“Here, kitty, kitty.” Her soothing tone rolls over me, a caress along my skin.
The closer I get, the clearer the woman becomes. She’s tall. The grasses in the ditch don’t reach to her knees, but it’s early in the season. A mop of coppery hair glows almost orange under the sun and swirls over her head in a large bun. Strands that frame her face flutter in the breeze.
“Kitty? Come here, hon.”
I could record her cooing and replay it all night and day long.
She turns, and a cry rips from her. She cartwheels her arms, and I rush to the edge of the road. Her eyes go wider. Blue. Clear, like the sky above us.
I pull to a stop at the edge of the ditch to keep from scaring her even more, and she recovers her balance.
Planting her bare legs wide, she looks ready to sprint in either direction. “Who are you? What do you want?”
I raise my hands like I’m getting mugged. “Sorry, ma’am. I stopped to see if you need any help.”
She blinks at me. “Ma’am,” she whispers to herself. “Isn’t that just the cherry on the day?” Giving herself a shake, she lifts her chin. “Did you, um… Did you just drive by?”
I nod while carefully reining in my expression. Nice and neutral. I can’t lie to her. I’m better than that, but she won’t know how the sight affected me. I was unmoved. My pulse did not beat through my dick .
Her “figures” is inaudible but still clear from her lips. Mine twitch as I hold back a smile. Better she doesn’t know for certain that I can describe the exact shade of her panties. Ruby red, like a precious jewel that should be thoroughly inspected.
She looks around her feet. “I swear I saw a kitten out here. And where there’s one, there might be more.”
It is prime dumping season for spring batches of kittens. “You got something to put them in?”
She lifts the green material of her skirt. Paired with her brilliant hair and matching top, she looks like just another wildflower mixed into the ditch weeds. “I can make a pouch out of this.”
Depends how many there are, how big they are, and how dirty she wants to get that outfit. “Let me see what I have.” I start for my pickup.
An “oh my god!” spins me right back around. My boots scrape on the pavement as I rush through the grasses.
“I found them,” she says in a loud hiss. “A puppy too!”
My stomach drops. Kittens and a puppy? Just tossed on the side of the road? It’s more of a wonder that I’m still shocked it happens.
I peer over her shoulder. A pleasing floral scent amplifies the other smells coming from the grasses around us. I catch myself leaning into her to sniff. Damn. Don’t be creepy.
In front of her is a puddle of fur. One of the two gray tabby kittens lets out a halfhearted hiss, and a little black Lab puppy thumps its tail.
She squats. Her skirt catches on some of the grasses, but that doesn’t stop her.
Her soft words fill the air. “Look at you. And you’re all tame, aren’t you?
” The little tabby hisses again. “Oh, I know. You’re a tough one.
You’re the protector.” She scratches its head, and the whole guardian role goes out the window.
The kitten’s eyes roll back, and a second one bumps its head into her hand, wanting its own pets.
When she reaches the puppy, it rolls to bare a round little belly. To be fair, if this girl put her fingers on me, I’d bare a lot more if she wanted me to.
She looks back at me. I’m pinned in place by shrewd sapphire gems. “Did you find a box?”
Shit. I forgot about that. I’m not usually so useless. I make a point of it. “No, you called out, and I thought something was wrong.”
“Oh.” A tiny frown passes over her bow-shaped mouth, like she isn’t sure what to think about me checking on her.
Meanwhile, I have too much to think about. Like how her top lip is a little thinner, making her bottom lip perfect to nibble on. Her figure is full of curves, but what’s the boxy outline by one of her breasts?
“There’re only two gray tabbies and the puppy here.” She rips me out of my inappropriate perusal. “The one I saw looked like an orange kitten, about the same size as these. They’ve got to be together.”
I squint at the strays, struggling to concentrate.
I’m not usually this distracted by a woman.
It’s the range of emotions she’s put me through, that’s all.
First, I got flashed. Unintentionally, but my libido doesn’t care about the motivation, just that it happened.
Then I thought she was stranded and inadvertently scared her.
Now I’m ready to do whatever bidding she needs from me.
She lifts a kitten and inspects it all over while giving it some love. “I can carry them all. I’ll put them in my car and look for the other one.”
She’d get that pretty dress dirty. “No need. Hand them here.” The animals look fairly healthy. There’s no matted fur or watery eyes, and their sides haven’t sunken in. They’ve been recently unhoused. “Then I can look for the third.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Why would I?”
“Do you have somewhere to be?” She adopts that slight frown again.
“Not at the moment.” Is it my willingness to help that’s throwing her? Hasn’t she experienced a hand-up from a passerby? Is she a city girl?
She considers my answer for a heartbeat, then gives me the wiggly cats. The velvety black puppy gets cradled in her arms. “I think it’s a Lab.” She checks the backside. “A little girl.”
“Good huntin’ dog.”
She arches a manicured brow, and I steel myself to get berated by a girl who thinks hunting is cruel when it’s how my dad fed me and my two brothers for years. “She’ll come in handy for all that hunting I do.”
The dry sarcasm in her voice somehow fits the strong vibe she puts off. “Duck hunting can be addictive.”
“I’m afraid I haven’t had the pleasure.” She scratches the puppy under the chin, and there’s barely a smile despite the faint trace of humor.
Hell, she’s pretty. Her cheeks are flushed, and her eyes sparkle. Her breasts are more than a handful, and thanks to the view I got earlier, I can picture her naked too easily.
There goes my blood flow. Control yourself, dammit! I’m better than this base reaction. I never get in over my head with a girl, and I don’t even know her name. I tip the brim of my hat instead of laughing with her, and her smile falters. “Where do you want them? ”
The humor’s gone from her eyes, and the loss is acute. “In the trunk, I think. Just so they’re a little contained while I move everything around and make space for them.”
I get a better look at her car. Plastic bins are stacked high in the back seat. Is that bedding in her back window?
“Got it.” I climb out of the ditch, and she’s right behind me.
I should be sidled up to a bar by now, helping my brother Durban with his wedding prep.
Since wedding planning is his future wife’s thing, I know exactly what I’m in for, and it’s not much.
But just because I don’t have many tasks doesn’t mean I’m going to slack.
Durban and Campbell deserve a dream wedding.
The woman’s reassuring tone reaches me where I search. The cattle in the field watch me like they’re not sure why I’m out here at this time of day. They’re in their summer pastures farther away from home, and they don’t see me as often as during the winter months.
A tiny mew reaches me, and I find the third kitten hiding by a fence post. “You’re coming with me, bud.”
It tries to get away, but I’m too quick. It quiets down when I cradle it to my chest. She’s bent over the trunk of her car where the critters must be. The wind is fluttering the hem of her skirt. I lift my gaze skyward, just in case. My mama didn’t raise me better than that, but my brothers did.
As I come up behind her, she’s taking pictures. Her trunk is full of plastic totes, and she has the kittens nestled between them. The puppy is at the edge, tail wagging so hard it could concuss one of the kittens. “Look at you. So photogenic. You were made for the big screen.”
“Are you going to get them an agent? ”
She jumps. “How are you so quiet in cowboy boots?”
“I’m usually on a horse.”
Instead of looking impressed, her lips turn down. She rakes her eyes down my body like she’s just registering how I’m dressed—boots, jeans, and a plain black T-shirt. Distaste curls the corner of her mouth. “You’re a cowboy. Rodeo?”
My ego isn’t inflated, but it shrivels at her flat tone.
Not the usual reaction from women, and perhaps I’m a little spoiled from working the tasting room.
And from the dive bar in town. And from getting groceries…
Women don’t look at me with distaste. Usually, I’m trying not to earn too much of their attention.
“No to the rodeo. Sometimes a cowboy, yes. I was exaggerating. I’m not always on a horse.” I lift my chin toward the cattle. Some are still watching us, their smaller calves at their sides growing nicely. “Those are mine and my brothers’.”