Chapter 6
HAYES
I watched Cassidy enter the bunkhouse in her jean skirt and one of my flannels–her top was in the trash since it’d been ruined. She’d tied it at the waist so it didn’t hang down past her skirt and rolled up her sleeves. She looked adorable, and mine.
Once she was safely inside, getting changed before heading to the stable, I strode away from my truck and toward the paddock where I’d seen the guys working when I drove up.
The sun was high and it was a warm day. Not even a breeze stirred the air.
Buck was leaning against the fence as one of the men from the night before was working a horse on a lead. Another guy was brushing another down by the water trough.
I set a foot on the rail beside Buck.
“Hey,” he said, turning his head my way. He had on his usual uniform of jeans, boots, and Stetson. To battle the heat, he had on a white t-shirt, already sweaty and dusty.
“Hey. Got a beef with your boys.” I tipped my head. “Those two.”
“Oh?” He put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Finishing with their horses, they came over.
“Grady, Mike, you know my brother Hayes.”
They nodded. Grady, on the left, tipped his hat off, wiped his sweaty brow, then set it back in place.
“You took Cassidy to The Roadside last night. Got her drunk and let her leave with a man without checking on the situation.”
“She left with you,” Mike said, tugging off his leather gloves.
“Did you ask if she wanted to go? She was in no condition to make a safe decision.”
I wasn’t going to tell them she threw up and passed out. I was trying to teach them a lesson, not shame Cassidy.
“How’d she even get in there?” Buck asked.
“My cousin Randall’s a bouncer,” Mike explained.
“You take a girl out–” I began, but Grady cut me off.
“She’s one of the guys.”
“She got tits?” I asked.
They grinned. I glared, wanting to punch them in the face. They stopped smiling.
“She’s not one of the guys. You take a girl out, she’s your responsibility.”
They weren’t much younger than me, but I felt like I was Pops talking to us boys when we were teenagers first taking girls out on dates.
“Got it,” Mike said with a serious head nod. GradyMike agreed, too.
“Back to work,” Buck told them, and off they went.
“What’s this really about?” he asked me once we were alone.
“She’s mine.”
He turned to face me. He must’ve seen me frowning and laughed.
“Cassidy. You’re woman’s Cassidy?”
I nodded, feeling heat rise up my neck.
“She’s eighteen.”
“I’m well aware.”
“Eighteen,” he repeated.
Buck and I turned at the sound of her footsteps across the packed dirt. She’d changed into jeans and her sturdy work boots, a blue t-shirt. A baseball cap was on her head, her hair pulled back in a braid.
“What time you done?” I asked her, leaning against the rail.
She frowned, then glanced briefly at Buck.
“Um… six.”
Buck slapped me on the shoulder and headed into the stable, giving us some privacy.
“Why?”
“I’ll be back to pick you up then.”
“Why?” she repeated.
“To take you home.”
Her eyes widened and her face went white as if she’d seen a ghost. “Home? He fired me? I thought you said–”
“He’s not firing you,” I reassured her. I took a step toward her. “Tell me why you’re suddenly scared.”
“Because you said you’re taking me home!”
She set her hand on her chest, as if her heart was beating so hard she was afraid it was going to bust out.
I didn’t like what I was picking up. “What’s wrong with where you’re from?”
She tipped up her chin. “I… I’m not close with my family. My dad’s a jerk and my brothers are just like them.”
I took another step closer, set my hands on her shoulders. Leaned down so our eyes were level. “They hurt you?” I had seven brothers. If they so much as made her cry, we’d set things straight.
She shook her head. “No, but I didn’t want to be around them, so I got the job here. Trying to make my own way.”
“You’re safe here.”
With a nod, she said, “I know.”
“But when I said I’m taking you home, I meant my home. You’re coming with me.”
She cocked her head and her braid slid over her shoulder. “Why would you do that?”
The answer was easy. “You’re living with me now.”
Her eyes widened to saucers and her mouth fell open. Then she began to sputter. “No… nope, no way. I’m definitely not.”
“You sure are, princess. No way in hell is my girl staying in a bunkhouse full of horny guys.”
“But… but, I’ve been living there for the past month!”
“You became mine yesterday.”
“Hayes, this is ridiculous.”
I shook my head, reached into my pocket and pulled out her tiny panties I ripped off her the night before. “Whose panties are these?”
She gasped and tried to reach for them. I held them out of her reach. “Give those back.”
I shook my head and tucked them back away again. “They’re mine. Just like you are.”
“I am not.”
“You let me spank you last night because you needed it. Needed someone to take control.”
“I do not,” she countered, which only made me know I was right.
“I’d have stopped if you weren’t into it, but you took it like a good girl.”
“Hayes, this is, I… no way–”
“You called me Mr. Wilder,” I added. “You could’ve told me to fuck off or knee me in the balls or even screamed.”
She shook her head. “You can’t–what are you doing?”
I took her hand and tugged her back to my truck, to the far side where Grady and Mike couldn’t see from the paddock. I pressed her against the passenger door, reminiscent of the night before. This time, she was sober.
Her eyes were wild as they darted around. “Hayes, what are you doing? I have to work.”
I reached out, stroked her cheek, then tipped her chin up.
“I can understand why you’re confused and acting a little bratty about this–”
“Bratty?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
I smiled. Definitely bratty.
“–but that’s on me since I didn’t make myself clear.”
Setting my free hand on my truck, I kissed her. A soft brush against her lips, then more. She gasped, her arms falling back to her sides, and I took advantage, my tongue invading. Claiming.
My hand slid down to cup her neck, gave it a gentle squeeze.
She moaned and I imagined giving her a hand necklace as I fucked her.
I kissed her deeper, let my free hand roam. Over her tit, down to her hip, between her thighs to cup her over her jeans.
Fuck, she tasted good. Minty, like my toothpaste. She smelled like my soap, like me, but also something light that was all Cassidy.
When she rolled her hips, wanting more, I stepped back.
My dick was hard and telling me to take her into the bunkhouse and fuck her.
Then she’d know she belonged to me. Hell, Grady and Mike would, too, since she’d be screaming my name loud enough for anyone around the stables to hear.
Plus, she’d have the scent of my cum on her.
“I’ll be here at six,” I murmured, kissing the tip of her nose.
Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes blurry, this time not from drink, but from arousal.
“What do you say, princess?”
She licked her lips, swallowed. “Yes, Mr. Wilder.”