Page 40 of Barbed Wire Hearts

But the clouds grow larger and angrier quickly. They roll in like a warning and when the first crack of thunder echoes, I flinch. Levi doesn’t react at all. My silence suddenly seems silly.

“Um, Levi,” I hazard, looking up at the sky. “Should we head back?”

“I gotta finish these posts,” he grunts, trying to move a little faster. “The cows are due to be in this pasture tomorrow.”

Lightning dances across the sky and I shift uncomfortably. Levi is using metal tools. What if we’re struck by lightning? There’s no way I can haul his ass back into the truck. It’s too far down the fence now after we’d unloaded the posts. We’re replacing at least a hundred feet of fencing.

The smell of fresh rain fills the air and I glance at Levi nervously. We’re closer to the lean-to than the truck. It’s got a small tin roof on it and more tin on the sides, but it’s mostly made of wood and full of hay. That’s probably safer than the truck, right?

In the distance, the clouds begin to purge their water onto the mountain, and I stare with wonder at the way it looks. For a second, I forget that that torrential downpour is headed our way. When I’m reminded of that as it grows closer, my chest squeezes.

“Levi,” I try again, my eyes wide. He doesn’t answer. “Levi?”

“What?” he growls, before looking up at where I do. His own eyes widen. “Fuck!”

We don’t get a chance to move before the rain drops on us. And when I say drop, I mean it. There’s no gentle sprinkle and then spattering of rain. It’s like someone drops buckets of water on top of us and never runs out. I screech and take off running, choosing the lean-to as my shelter because of its proximity. To my surprise, Levi drops his tools and runs after me, the rain beating down on us like the gods are angry. It soaks me clean through within a few seconds, my clothing sticking to me as I run. I slide to a stop beneath the lean-to and watch Levi come rushing in behind me, dripping as much as I am. The rain’s so heavy, we can’t even see the truck or the fence we’d been working on only a moment before.

“Jesus Christ,” I pant. “I’ve never seen rain do that.”

Levi takes off his hat and hangs it on a nail before pushing his hair from his face. Only the ends of it seem to have gotten wet thanks to his hat. “You don’t get downpours like this in the city?”

I shake my head. “Not very often.”

He takes a deep breath. “It’s my favorite type of weather.”

I glance over at him, studying his profile. He really is beautiful. Levi is a large man, built in the shoulders and tall as fuck. I have to crane my neck to look up at him. Right now, his button-down shirt and jeans are sticking to him like a second skin, highlighting just how pretty he is beneath those clothing.

He glances over at me and sees me looking. “What?”

“Just admiring the artwork,” I muse with a smile.

He scowls. “I’m no artwork. If anything, I’m shards of broken glass.”

I shrug. “Still art in the right setting.”

He stills, those pretty eyes spearing straight into me. “I ain’t the one, Kate.”

Frowning, I brace my hands on my hips. “What do you mean?”

“Wiley, I understand. He’s always been charismatic. And Dakota is great in a no-nonsense way, but I ain’t the one to be flirting with. I’m not like them.” His eyes flash with something dangerous, a warning.

I shift back a step and shrug. “I was under the impression that you liked me and that it was okay to act on it. But if you’re not okay with it, that’s fine.”

He watches me silent for a few seconds. “What makes you think I like you?”

I open my mouth and close it again, not sure what I should say. “I just thought?—”

“That I like you,” he says, taking a step closer, forcing me to back up. “I don’tlikeyou, Kate. You’re a city girl who at any moment could up and leave. You spend too much time befriending the animals instead of working. You smile all the fucking time,” he growls. My back hits the wall behind me and he stops just before me. “You sparkle in the sunshine like a fucking sunflower. You smell like vanilla even when you’ve been working all day. You don’t look at me like a fucking monster.” His words cut off as he braces his arms on either side of me. I’m staring up at him with wide eyes, his words slamming into me.

“No, I don’t fucking like you,” he repeats, his words thick with anger. “I fucking yearn for you. And it pisses me off.”

My mouth pops open in surprise. “What?” I croak.

“Every smile, every laugh, every time you convince some animal that has no business being friendly to be your friend, I fight the urge to throw you over my shoulder and carry you away,” he rasps. “Because I think you do the same to me. I’m just another animal to tame, just another monster, and you keep reaching out despite that.”

“You think so little of yourself,” I whisper.

“No,” he says. “I know what I am.” He presses his forehead to mine. “Did you know sunflowers thrive in Chernobyl?”

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