Chapter 6
Cash
It’s the kind of day that promises spring is right around the corner. The sky is bluer, the wind a little warmer, and the sun shining on everything, making it feel new again.
Damn. This woman really has done a number on me.
I have no choice but to laugh at myself.
After all, if my brother or Travis caught me starting out across the paddock staring at nothing like a lovesick schoolgirl, that’s exactly what they’d do.
Thankfully, Travis has been gone on a rodeo circuit for the last little while.
And I’m not an idiot, I’m sure Wyatt’s noticed the change in the relationship between Kali and me.
But, he’s smart enough not to press me on it.
Because the truth is, I have no idea what I’m doing with my city girl, except whatever it is, I don’t want it to end.
My thoughts keep replaying the way I’d woken her up a few hours ago, rubbing her ass until she snuggled back into my raging, hard cock. That sweet, not-so-innocent smile she’d given me over her shoulder as she thrust herself back at me in invitation.
It was an invitation I’d gladly accepted.
I took her just like that, holding her tight against me, while my cock filled her up from behind. I had her moaning my name within minutes, pulling multiple orgasms from her before finally taking my own release. She’s just so damn receptive and eager. Like she was made just for me.
My cock is hard again, just thinking of her all breathless and flushed.
I force myself to focus before I get killed. I pull my attention to the stallion who is being a little extra difficult today.
I run a palm down Diesel’s muscular neck, trying to calm him as much as myself.
When was the last time I’ve been so twisted up about a woman? The short answer, never.
And fuck, I never should have touched Kali at all. She’s a reporter of all things. Hired to write a story.
I should never have let it get past flirting. And that kiss…
But that night…in the cabin…the way she’d looked at me. Well, dammit. I’m only human. And now that we’ve crossed that line, I don’t think I can go back.
Hell. I know I can’t go back.
Especially not when I’d realized she’d been untouched. Christ, the possessiveness that had flooded through me was almost violent. No other man had ever had her. No other man had been inside her, filling her with his seed.
In that moment, I’d felt it—she was mine. Completely and utterly mine.
The problem is, it’s been three days, and not only do I still feel that way, but those feelings have only grown.
“That’s a pretty big grin. What’s got you so happy, cowboy?”
I recognize that sweet, subtle city accent and the slight tease in the way she talks to me. I don’t need to look to know my city girl has finished up with her work calls.
But when I do, she takes my breath away. She’s wearing jeans, boots, and a thick jacket, which I know Anna lent her. Her dark hair is twisted up in a knot on her head, and she looks so damn good it physically hurts.
“Hard not to smile when my cock feels so damn good, city girl.”
I love the way she flushes a little when I talk dirty.
“Such a good girl for taking all of me first thing this morning.”
I love it even more knowing that her pussy is already soaked from my praise.
Judging by the way she instinctively rubs her thighs together, I know I’m not wrong.
“Cash,” she warns, glancing around to make sure no one is in earshot. But she’s smiling, and I know that later, when I get her alone, she’ll be more than happy to hear whatever dirty things I have to say.
“So what brings you out here?” I lean against the fence post, completely relaxed now. It’s easy to be with her in a way it’s never been with anyone else. “Don’t you have reporter things to do?”
“I’m doing them,” she says, moving closer to the fence. “Tell me about him.” She points to the horse. “For the article. Are you training him for anything specific?”
Of course. The article. It will serve me well to remember that’s exactly why she’s here. To get whatever story she thinks will sell the best.
Although I have to admit, Kali is different from other reporters I’ve met. She asks insightful questions and actually listens to the answers. She’s never trying to put words in my mouth or twist what I’ve said.
I didn’t think it was possible, and maybe it’s that my common sense has been compromised, but spending time with Kali is making me start to believe that maybe not all media is trying to destroy you. Some of them just want to tell the truth.
As requested, I spent the next twenty minutes telling Kali all about Diesel.
He is being trained for a special role in a new western drama that’s set to be filmed in the next few months.
One of the few studios that believed me when I insisted I didn’t have anything to do with the rumors. I was lucky to get the contract.
She asks thoughtful questions, and the horse even seems to settle in her presence. As do I. Of course, other parts of me are doing exactly the opposite of settling. I just want to get my girl alone again. Soon.
I release Diesel’s lead, give him an apple as a reward for his hard work, and send him off to the other side of the pen, finished with our work for the morning. I wait while Kali jots down a few more things in her ever-present notebook. “You get enough for your story, city girl?”
“I think I’m getting some good stuff here.” She winks at me as she clicks her pen and tucks it along with the notebook away. “I bet you can’t wait to read it.”
“Ha.” I shake my head. “No. I’m not interested.”
Her face falls, and I immediately regret it. “That’s not how I meant it,” I add quickly.
“You know, I’m not writing about you and your trust issues with reporters,” she says, putting a hand on her hip. “And I’m not writing anything about that ridiculous scandal that gave those issues to you.”
“No?”
“No.” She shakes her pretty head. “I’m getting the real story,” she says. “The comeback of Rock Creek Ranch, and how you’re building something important here.”
I close the distance between us, and duck through the rails to her. “You’re dangerous, you know that?” She doesn’t resist when I pull her close.
“How’s that?”
“Because you make me want to believe you.”
Kali
The kitchen smells like garlic, onions and…smoke.
Well, mostly smoke.
Because the garlic and onions are burnt beyond recognition. Again.
Apparently, helping with dinner is not my strong suit.
But Wyatt and Anna have been so generous with hosting me and feeding me for the last ten days, I wanted to do something nice for them. When Anna mentioned she had a full day of veterinary appointments, I jumped at the chance to have dinner ready for them.
Although at this rate, I wasn’t going to be able to offer much more than toast.
Anna always made it look so easy, but I’d never been much of a cook. Growing up and living in the city where it was easier to grab take-out and keep working, I’d never had much of a reason to learn.
I take a quick peek in the freezer and find a couple of frozen pizzas that are starting to look less like the backup plan and more like the actual plan, when my phone buzzes on the counter.
Brooke:
Get the real story yet?
My stomach tightens. I know exactly what she’s asking. She’s been sending me encouraging texts about how to get Cash to start thinking with his dick so he’ll open up and give me the dirt that Brooke is convinced is waiting to be found.
Before I can send back a response, another bubble appears.
Don’t underestimate the power of the pussy.
My cheeks flush as I stare at the message. She makes it sound so simple. So cold and transactional. She’d lose her mind if she knew that I actually was sleeping with Cash. Especially if I told her it had nothing to do with the story or trying to get the dirt.
She also wouldn’t believe me.
But she doesn’t know Cash.
She doesn’t know what it’s like when he looks at me like I’m the only one in the room, or how safe I feel when he touches the small of my back, or helps me up on the horse.
This thing between us. It isn’t a strategy. It’s not a technique. It’s the first thing in my life that’s felt real and authentic. And I don’t want it to end.
I set the phone face down on the counter without responding. I flick the burner off and toss the burnt pan into the sink to keep me from causing any more damage, before pressing my hands flat on the countertop and inhaling as deeply as I can.
I work to breathe through the knots in my chest, but it doesn’t work to dissolve them. The guilt is still there.
Technically, Brooke’s not wrong. I’m here to get a story. I’m a journalist assigned to a job. That should be it.
Yet, every time he touches me, every time we’re alone together, I somehow forget there’s supposed to be an ending to this at all.
And how I don’t want there to be one.
The back door opens, letting in a rush of cold evening air. The day was warm, but as soon as the sun goes down out here, the mountains are quick to remind you it’s still winter.
“Smells…interesting in here.” The corner of Cash’s mouth tells me he’s trying hard not to laugh.
I put a hand on my hip and shoot him a look. “I’m making dinner.”
“Is that what you call this?” He lifts the burnt pan from the sink, sparing it only a quick glance before he looks at me with raised brows.
“Well, I’m trying.”
He laughs and crosses the kitchen. “City girl, you do a lot of things well.” His eyes blaze with desire as he speaks. “But I don’t think we can add cooking to that list.”
I swat at him, but he catches my wrist easily.
His fingers curl around it, sending a jolt up my arm, as he pulls me into his chest. “But you do so many other things very, very well.” He leans in just enough so that his breath brushes my cheek.
“Now, be a good girl and put that spatula down before you decide to hit me with it.”
I laugh at the same time heat flares between my legs. He’s not wrong. I would hit him with the spatula, but he knows the effect his words have on me. “You’re distracting me,” I protest. Still, I do as he asks.
“That’s kind of the point.” His lips brush my neck, sending shivers through me.
The air thickens, my pulse racing as he pushes me back against the counter. His hips press into mine, pining me exactly where I want to be.
The kiss starts soft, almost hesitant, as if he’s giving me a chance to change my mind.
It’s not going to happen.
Not with him. Not ever.
My hands find his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart. He deepens the kiss and the world narrows to nothing but my cowboy and me.
When he lifts me onto the counter, I forget to breathe.
I also forgot that I’m in the kitchen of a house that’s not mine. A house that I’m a guest in.
That is, until the sound of footsteps breaks the spell Cash has on me.
“Smells like something—oh hell!”
Anna’s laughter follows Wyatt’s groan. “We’ll just…eat later.”
I drop my forehead against Cash’s shoulder, totally mortified. “Perfect timing.”
We haven’t exactly kept our relationship, or whatever it is, a secret from them. But having Wyatt and Anna think something is a whole lot different than having them know it.
Cash chuckles against my hair, his arms still around me. “Welcome to ranch life, city girl. There’s no such thing as privacy here.”
I laugh even as my heart twists. Because he’s right.
And as much as I don’t want to think about it, privacy isn’t the only thing we don’t have. We also don’t have time. Or guarantees about what will happen when I’m done with the story, and I have to leave.
But for now, with his arms around me, I let myself pretend that it’s enough.