Chapter 5
Hudson
Olivia was holding the boots in front of her with a wounded, panicked look on her face. When I mentioned Jessie the first time, she acted surprised and almost jealous. But that made no sense. She had broken up with me. What did she care if I had dated other women?
Not that there had been many steady ones. Most had been short-lived, and the few who stayed longer had thought they could change me. Turn me into the settle down and start a family type. But I wasn’t. There’d only ever been one woman I’d wanted that with, and she’d thrown me away.
Jessie had tried, but after nine months, she realized I hadn’t lied to her. That my words at the beginning were the same as they were at the end: I wasn’t the marrying type or the loving type.
Olivia still had a cornered-animal look. I contemplated letting her fester in it, but some part of me, the same idiotic one who had invited her into my house, felt bad.
“My ex,” I said. Relief flashed across her features, and she lowered the boots.
A response that seemed juxtaposed to how she had left me all those years ago.
Head high, no emotion…unless she’d masked those emotions.
I tipped my head, studying her. Seeing cracks in her facade and wondering why the mask was there in the first place when it never had been.
Her nose crinkled, and she dropped the boots to the floor.
“I’m not wearing another woman’s boots. Especially your ex’s,” she hissed, removing the sense of doubt that had snuck past my defenses. I wanted to snap back that she was no different. Just another ex, even if she was the one who overshadowed all the others.
“Just put the damn boots on, Olivia.”
Saying her name tugged at my chest, and I scratched my cheek as I watched a myriad of emotions shift through her eyes. With a huff, she bent to take her heels off. I caught a flash of cleavage and looked away. I didn’t need any temptation. Not from her.
But I couldn’t keep my eyes from slipping back to her and watching her gingerly take each heel off, dropping her down a few inches and reminding me of all the times I’d towered over her, lifted her chin, and kissed her.
Those hazel eyes jumped to mine as if she’d read my mind, and I rolled my neck, hardening myself to the beautiful temptation in front of me. The lethal one.
I grabbed my coat and hat from the hook and thrust the coat at her when the other boot was on.
“I have a jacket,” she said, pointing to the fancy one she’d brought in with her.
“That’s not a coat. Put this on. The weather’s turning early this year. We’re due for a storm.”
Shit, I snatched my phone from the island and pulled up the weather. It hadn’t changed since that morning. I glanced up at her, contemplating if I should have dumped her on Russ and Bridget after all.
“Hudson?” God, my name on her lips took me back, sending prickles over my skin.
I cleared my throat. “There’s a storm heading this way. Should be here tomorrow.” I looked at the time. Eleven-thirty already. “Damn, that’s really all you brought to wear?”
“Yes,” she said, her head going back. “I’m the COO of a billion-dollar company. This is what I wear.”
“Long way from the T-shirts and jeans you once wore,” I muttered, tossing my phone back on the island.
“Put the coat on, Olivia. When I get done taking you around, I’ll take you into town.
” She winced before her mask went up. “We’ll grab something to eat at the diner, and then you can spend that money getting some useful clothes. ”
She crossed her arms, her eyes turning a fiery blend of hues.
“I’m not wearing hick clothes.”
“I can’t very well have you wearing my clothes to tend to the ranch.
” No, seeing her in my shirt like she used to do with her sweet ass cheeks peeking from where her panties hugged it was the last thing I needed.
I turned, hating the reaction that thought caused in my pants.
“There’s a storm coming, and your brother stranded you here with me.
I’m going to take advantage of the extra hands.
” And try not to take advantage of any other part of her. She was dangerous.
“Put the fucking coat on, Olivia.”
I threw the door open and stalked out, staring at the storm clouds in the distance.
Storms this time of year weren’t unusual, but this wasn’t snow.
It was rain and with an anticipated fall of several inches an hour for the next two days, it was a storm to worry about.
Just my luck, the woman I detested yet still harbored emotions for would be locked up with me until it passed.
I heard her grumbling behind me and peeked back at her. My coat engulfed her. I’d always adored how tall she was with legs that seemed to go on forever, but I still towered over her. I fought my smile as she tromped past me toward the barn.
What had I gotten myself into? Selling the ranch I’d spent every dime on, facing disinheritance, turning my back on my family legacy to pursue my own dreams, and now saddled with the one woman I’d told myself I hated for what she’d done to me.
No matter who I’d been with, it was Olivia Icinda who continued to cage my heart.
Inaccessible, frozen over, waiting for the right woman to thaw it, but there never had been one after her.
“Do I have to start walking slow and moving slow because I’m in the country?”
Then she went and reminded me she was no longer the woman I’d loved. This spoiled, demanding rich thing was nothing like my Olivia. Yet there had been flashes of her back in the house, and that was what worried me as I stalked past her to the barn.
Both horses needed tacking up, so I gathered the equipment we would need to prepare them for riding.
“You take Ivy. Get her saddled while I ready my horse,” I told Olivia, throwing open the stall door for my horse, Honey.
There was no way I’d admit that was her name because Olivia would recognize it immediately.
No one else understood the meaning behind it, but she would, and I cursed myself for being sentimental that one time.
I peeked back at her, expecting to see her getting to know Ivy, but she stood outside the stall with her arms crossed.
“Saddle the horse, Olivia.”
Hazel eyes that almost melted my hard edges met mine. Her finely manicured brows pulled together.
I scratched my cheek, the scruff of too many days without shaving rough against my fingers.
“What now?” I asked.
“I don’t ride.”
My jaw hit the floor. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
She cringed. “Don’t use that language.”
With a snort, I said, “I’ll use any fucking language I want. Now answer the question.”
“I don’t ride.”
“The hell you don’t. We used to go riding all the time.”
A flash of emotion had her eyes dropping from mine.
“Well, I don’t anymore. I haven’t ridden…” She stopped, and my chest tightened at what I suspected she was going to say.
“Since when, Olivia?”
Her head snapped up. Proud and beautiful, she swiveled and sauntered away.
“Damn it,” I muttered, backing from the stall and closing it up.
I ran after her, grabbing her arm and turning her to me.
Vulnerability sat in her features, and suddenly she was no longer the spoiled woman but the girl I’d fallen in love with.
I wanted to reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear, to ignore the screams from my mind that said I hated this woman for what she’d done to me.
Don’t do it, Hudson.
I gripped my fist and asked, “When, Olivia?”
She swallowed, her eyes shifting from me before they refocused and she said, “With you.”
I dropped her arm. The currents that the initial contact had sparked dimmed.
She hadn’t ridden since she left me. She’d loved riding.
It was a time when she’d seemed free, unburdened by things that haunted her.
Her mother’s death had been one, but I’d always suspected there were more she never shared.
And I never pushed because she’d once told me I was her safe space, where she could forget everything else.
Sighing, I said, “You’ll remember once you get on.”
“But I can’t saddle her, Hudson. It’s been so long.”
“Like riding a bike,” I told her, but doubt was rife in her eyes.
“Shit,” I grumbled, looking back at the horses.
She needed to see the property, the potential it still held so her brother would continue to fund it.
That’s why she was here, to figure out operations and determine how much they would need to set aside before I could have the ranch back up to where it had been when I bought it.
As much as I wanted to say screw it and turn the deal down now that I knew she was involved, I couldn’t.
I had signed the papers, and the only other offer was from the neighboring ranch.
People I suspected would only bulldoze the house and barn to use the pastures for grazing.
I scraped my hand through my hair. “Fine.” Damn, I couldn't believe I was contemplating this. “Stay here.”
The wind gusted, blowing her hair and causing her dress to rise. She tugged it down, and I stalked away, cursing myself as I saddled Honey. Once I had her ready, I led her out of the stall.
Climbing onto her, I put my hand down for Olivia.
“What?” she asked, her nose scrunching. “I’m not riding with you.
“Then saddle your horse. Make it fast. I’ve been up since four, and I’m starving.”
I urged Honey forward.
“Fine,” Olivia said, and I stopped my horse.
She came over with slow, prissy strides and put her hand up.
Looking down at it, I said, “No whining, no complaining, or I’ll leave you a few miles out and make you find your way back.”
Her lips pouted, and the urge to kiss them surged through me. She glanced at my hand before giving me a demanding look, emphasized by her impatient foot stomp.
“Agreed?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“See, that was better.” I grabbed her hand, hating how the contact sent those currents snapping through me again. “Just like a good girl.”