Page 15 of Snowed In with the Rancher

“I’ve already called Uncle Nate and he’s going to take a detour on his way up from Texas and pick me up. No sense flying home to my apartment in Manhattan when I can’t do anything for myself anyway. So I might as well come to you guys and have you wait on me hand and foot, right?”

Triss and Asher snorted at the same time, their gazes locked for a long, awkward moment before he averted his eyes and picked up half a sandwich.

“Maybe go to your mother’s?” Asher offered, though his tone said everything. They all knew that Hannah’s mother had absolutely zero maternal instincts and even in her compromised state, Hannah would somehow end up catering to her mother and taking care of Wynonna rather than the other way around.

“You’re hilarious, Uncle Asher. I’ve always said of all my uncles, you’re the funniest,” Hannah quipped, everything she said dripping with sarcasm.

“I’m going to tell Nate you said that.” Asher dunked his sandwich into his soup.

“So I’ll be there when Nate gets there.” She paused for a moment. “Triss, take me off speakerphone, please.”

Triss did as she was asked and put the phone to her ear. “What’s up?”

“You bone my uncle yet?”

Triss’s face flooded with heat and she abruptly got up from the table and wandered into the living room, bringing her voice down to a forced whisper. “Hannah, knock it off.”

“What?” Hannah whined. “It was just a question. And I could have asked it while I was still on speakerphone.”

“And I would have died from embarrassment and you would be a murderer, so it’s a good thing you didn’t.”

“You’re so dramatic. I told Asher he has my support to hump away your heartbreak, so he knows …”

“Knows what?” Triss yelled into the phone, forgetting that she’d been whispering.

“That you’re available and expecting to be humped into happiness.”

“Quit saying humped and oh my God. Why would you do that?”

“Because you’re sad, he’s lonely, why not kill two miserable birds with one stone and set them up together? Besides, I’m not going to be having any sex for a while with this busted old lady hip, so—”

“You’re going to live vicariously through me sleeping with your uncle? Do you have any idea how messed up that is?”

“Hmm …” Hannah mused. “Yeah, when you put it that way, it kind of is. But I still support the union, even if I can no longer live vicariously through your vagina.”

“I’m hanging up now, you psychopath.”

“Love you, too.”

“Love you. Behave.”

“I never do. Tell Asher I love him, too.”

“Goodbye.” Then she hung up and stared out the living room window at the snow-covered field, her eyes wide, face on absolute fire.

Hannah had given Asher permission to hump her. What the hell?

And so now, Asher knew that not only had Triss been dumped by her boyfriend but that he was supposed to have sex with her? Could this get any more awkward?

Did she even want to ask that question? Or should she just walk out into the blizzard without a jacket on and not stop until she got hypothermia, fell asleep, and died in the field. That would probably be less painful than dying of utter embarrassment, which was most likely how she was going to go, and quickly, too.

“Soup’s getting cold,” Asher said, his voice a deep, throaty rumble that had her nipples pebbling beneath her black T-shirt. Oh yeah, and she’d gone with a pad-free bra today, too, so her headlights were on for everyone—which meant Asher—to see.

Inconspicuously, she rubbed her arms over her chest to get her nipples to soften, but it barely worked, if anything, she liked the friction a little too much, and her pussy clenched.

When she figured her nipples weren’t going to cut glass anymore, she turned around, plastered on a stupid smile, and joined him in the kitchen.

“Everything okay with Hannah?” he asked, dunking another sandwich half into the soup.

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