Chapter 2
two
Knox
It’s her.
The girl.
She’s riding up my fucking mountain.
I lower my binoculars to the window ledge, my hand wrapped around the black cylindrical barrel. Squeezing until I hear the metal begin to bend. I release the binoculars, leaving them sitting in the window—and I snatch up my shotgun, instead.
Of course.
Of course, this wild child is the first resident in the area to approach my house without advance warning.
She has zero self-preservation skills, does she?
Nope. Not a single one. The girl lives in the closest ranch to the foot of the mountain.
I happened to spy her through my binoculars one afternoon approximately six months ago, and I’m pretty goddamn sure I witnessed her fly off the back of a horse and break an arm.
And then, she attempted to get back on the horse.
With a broken arm.
Gun in hand, I stand in front of the entrance to my house, waiting for the sound of hooves in my gravel.
I’m not sure why my pulse is moving in such an erratic pattern, but I don’t care for it at all.
Am I excited to finally come face to face with this little hellraiser?
Or am I…nervous? The latter would be ridiculous—and surprising, since my nerves are long dead. They’ve been that way since prison.
I throw open the front door of my house and cock the shotgun, pointing it square at her pretty, freckled face and she has the good sense of go pale.
Only I know the gun isn’t loaded.
She doesn’t know that.
“The fuck are you doing on my property?” I boom.
Not a flinch.
She doesn’t even flinch.
Her chin only notches higher.
Goddammit, that gets my blood pumper faster.
And that ain’t good. I couldn’t determine her age from a distance, but she appears to be young as fuck.
Not yet in her twenties, even. But I pray she’s over eighteen, because I can’t stop myself from noticing her.
All of her. Her tight jeans and thin, white T-shirt give me no choice.
She’s not wearing a bra.
The sunlight beats down on her and kisses the puckered pink peaks poking against the front of her shirt, sending the majority of my blood rolling south. I have half a mind to drag her off the horse and into the house, stripping her naked right here in the foyer and…
No.
Uh-uh.
Not this girl.
Something tells me to stay the hell away from this girl.
My own sense of self-preservation, maybe.
She’s too much of a force. A presence.
There would be nothing quick and easy about her.
“I came to speak with you about my parents’ debt,” she says, her voice even. Mostly. There’s the tiniest hitch at the end that sours my stomach. “I want to make you an offer.”
I’m caught off guard. “What could you possibly offer me, little girl?”
She stays quiet.
That quiet stretches until the answer is obvious.
Son of a bitch.
Is she…did she come here to offer sex in exchange for the forgiveness of her parents’ late mortgage payments? Did her father send her to my doorstep on this mission?
I lower the gun, slowly, mainly because ire has caused my arms to shake. “If your father sent you here to do this, I will kill him with my bare hands.”
She’s rapidly shaking her head. “My parents don’t know I’m here. They never would have let me come and do something like this.”
“Then they’re smarter than they look,” I bark.
A sharp light flashes in her blue eyes. My dig at her parents pissed her off.
My lord, her spirit is fierce.
That, and that fact that she’s a fuckable little thing, have me considering…
just for a split second…accepting the offer.
Slaking my hunger with her body and cancelling the overdue payments.
It would be so easy. Hell, I don’t need the money.
I’m richer than Midas. Thanks to the high stakes riverboat poker game that made me a multi-millionaire straight out of prison, I couldn’t spend the money I have in the bank in two lifetimes.
But I wouldn’t be satisfied with one tumble in the hay with this one.
My gut is ringing with that truth.
She’d…sink in deep. Get her claws in me.
I will not allow that.
“Invite me in, so we can discuss this properly,” she says, dismounting her horse. “Or are you not a gentleman?”
Christ, she can’t be more than five foot two. “I’m not a gentleman. That’s why you shouldn’t want to be alone in my house with me.”
“Why? You might try and have sex with me?” She cocks an eyebrow, as if to say, try and keep up. “That’s why I’m here.”
“I could take the sex and still refuse to cancel the debt. Have you thought of that?”
Her lips part on a tiny gasp. “You have no honor?”
“Not a fucking ounce, little girl. Get back on your horse and go home.”
“Nope.” She saunters toward me, this wild brat in painted-on jeans, cowboy boots, her juicy nipples, so pink and succulent. “I’m coming in.”
“Get gone!” I roar. “Now!”
She swallows audibly, her chest dipping.
After the briefest of hesitations, her expression turns defiant and she ducks past me into my house.
Unbelievable.
Is this really happening?
I should hogtie her, throw her face down over my horse and deliver her back to daddy’s doorstep, so he can see what a reckless idiot he raised.
So do it, then.
Do it.
I will. As soon as I satisfy my curiosity.
I want to make deadly sure her father didn’t put her up to this.
I want to know…what all that breathtaking audacity looks like up close.
I’m just going to give myself a few minutes to acquaint myself with the girl I’ve been reluctantly marveling at through my binoculars for six months. Then I’ll send her packing.
I slam the door behind me on my way into the house.
“There is no point in having this discussion,” I say, stomping after her.
She’s already halfway to my study, which is located at the back of the house.
Of course, she waltzes right in without waiting for permission.
“My answer is no,” I growl, entering the dark room behind her.
I freeze when she turns around and looks up, up, up at me, shaking her dark hair back. Totally unfazed by a man twice her size. Twice her age, too, if my aim is right.
Dear sweet lord, she is utterly stunning, though. Again, I shouldn’t be noticing.
But there’s unpolished natural beauty here. Character. Determination.
And after another one of those courageous gulps, she strips off her T-shirt, tossing it on my desk, leaving herself bare breasted in front of me. “Don’t you want to see what I’m offering before you say no?”