Chapter Three
Victoria stood, wiped the sweat running down her face with a rag she kept in her front pocket, and leaned on the shovel she was using to clean out the chicken coop.
It had to be one hundred degrees out today, and to make it worse, the heat was making the already disgusting job miserable, but she wasn’t about to give up.
“What the hell are you doing?”
A scream tore out of her mouth as she spun, almost falling into the vile pile of chicken poop.
“Why do you continue to want to scare me?” A shiver of unease raced down her spine at the anger and something else in his face.
He wrapped his hand around her upper arm. He pulled her out of the coop, leaned the shovel against it, and latched it before dragging her toward the house.
“Hey! What are you doing?” She noticed his hand went all the way around her upper arm, making her mad. It was another example of what he’s been saying about size.
He didn’t say anything until they were in the cool confines of her kitchen. He sat her in one of the chairs at the table in her kitchen and turned toward the sink, grabbed a glass, and filled it with water.
“Sit down,” he said when he saw her start to stand out of the corner of his eye.
She sat, too tired and hot to fight him right then. She knew she was probably red from the heat.
He set the glass in front of her before sitting down across from her.
“Drink,” he said as he nudged the glass closer to her. He scowled. “I’m concerned how red you were from the heat.”
She took the glass and sighed when the cold water hit her parched tongue.
Her body felt like the sun and humidity had baked her.
The coolness of the water slid down her throat.
She almost moaned when it hit her stomach, making the coolness spread through her.
When she had emptied the glass, he stood and refilled it before setting it in front of her again.
She gripped the glass in front of her and raised her eyes.
“What are you doing here, and why are you so mad?”
****
A muscle ticked in his jaw. His teeth almost hurt from gritting them so hard.
His eyes hadn’t stopped running over her body.
She was trim, but he could see the muscle definition in her legs and upper arms. Her legs seemed longer in the shorts.
The top she had on molded to her breasts, making his mouth water.
He wanted to lick the drops of sweat that continued to slide down her cheek, at the same time, he wanted to get his hands on her.
Every time he saw her, his desire for her grew, making it harder for him to leave.
“I want to know why the hell you are outside in shorts and a sleeveless shirt, so short I caught glimpses of your stomach?”
She looked at him, confused, and flung her hand out toward the back door. “What are you talking about? It’s a hundred degrees out.”
He sat back as his fingers started tapping the surface of the wooden table to keep from reaching for her and laying her on the table, to touch and taste her like he craved.
He couldn’t prevent his gaze from taking her in, from her head in a messy bun, to her shirt that pulled tight across her chest, to the shorts that showed her lightly tanned legs, to her little feet in dirty white tennis shoes.
“I didn’t take you for being one of those women who crave male attention.” His anger grew sharper at not being able to have her and the jealousy that other men saw her this way.
“Excuse me?” she asked in disbelief.
He sat back, crossed his arms over his chest, and stretched his legs out in front of him. “Some people call those types of women whores.”
She gasped and stood suddenly, trying to take a step away from him.
He pulled her back down into the chair. “I’m not done.”
“Get out,” she gritted and tried to pull herself from his grip as she tried to push the tears back.
“Shut up and listen to me. Have you considered that your ranch hands probably haven’t been off the ranch in weeks, so they haven’t had a chance to get any female attention, and you’re out there walking around half naked?” His voice deepened in anger with each word.
Victoria froze, her chin dropping to her chest, and her fingers covering her eyes. “I never considered ... didn’t think.”
“No kidding,” he snorted sarcastically, then his eyes narrowed. “Are you sure you don’t like that kind of attention?”
“God, no.” She looked at her glass in front of her, using a thumb to wipe the condensation off the outside of it.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make any trouble.
I never considered they would look at me like a woman, but if they were really desperate, I guess any woman would turn them on. ” She shrugged.
He sat back, confused. Was she saying a man wouldn’t look at her as a woman? What the hell. Where would she get that idea from? This woman was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. And she thought she was unattractive?
“Thank you for bringing this to my attention. The last thing I want is to make things harder for the men. They work so hard.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. He believed her and saw the regret in her face.
“So why did you stop by, Mr. Conley?”
“Call me Cole, for God’s sake.”
She didn’t say anything.
“I wondered if you had considered selling me the ranch?”
She took in a deep breath. She flexed her hands under the table, trying to get some of the stiffness from shoveling the manure out. She knew she had a few blisters from work, but that would help toughen up her hands.
“I’m still not selling, Mr. Conley. And I thought you were going to wait for me to call you?”
He didn’t expect anything different, but he was still disappointed. He stood and pushed his chair in. “Remember what I said.”
She was still looking down at the glass as she mumbled something.
He was almost at the door when he heard her say something too quietly for him to understand.
“What did you say?” he asked.
“I said I’m not a whore,” she said softly and kept her eyes down. “I’m not a whore,” she repeated, then stood and walked out of the kitchen.
He caught her arm. “I’m not calling you a whore. I know you’re not,” he kept his tone gentle.
Victoria kept her face down, turned away from him. “You don’t know anything about me, but one thing I can tell you is, I’m not a whore.”
She pulled her arms from his grasp and walked away, leaving him staring at her back.
Cole bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Why did he have to say that shit to her?
He’d never treated a woman the way he was treating her.
Fuck, if his mother ever found out, she’d skin him alive.
Was it all jealousy? Yeah, it was, but it was unlike anything he’d felt before.
The possessive need he felt for her was scaring him a little, and nothing in his life had ever really frightened him like this before.
Cole berated himself as he got into his truck and drove home. Things between them had to change. He didn’t know how.