Page 6 of Rugged

A woman stood on the doorstep, offering me a soft smile. “Hello.”

Holy shit, talk about fucking gorgeous. Dark hair, almost black, cascaded down her back. Her eyes were equally dark, wide set, and framed with thick lashes. She had high cheekbones, a pert nose and… holy hell, full lips that would look amazing wrapped around my dick.

She was small, a half foot shorter than me, but not breakable. Through her simple jeans and white v-neck t-shirt, I couldn’t miss the meat on her bones, curves I could grip and hold onto. She was… perfect.

When I didn’t say anything, only stared, she cocked her head to the side and added, “Can I help you?”

I un-swallowed my tongue and yanked off my cowboy hat, held it against my chest. “Hey there. I’m here to see Mitch Chapman.”

For a moment, her eyes widened. “I’m sorry, he’s not here.”

I didn’t doubt her. Every expression seemed to flit across her face. Surprise, concern, definitely a hint of interest.

“Oh. Do you know when he’ll be back?”

She shook her head.

Chapman was in his fifties. Could she be his daughter? There was no mention of one in his file. No mate either. Girlfriend? The idea made me want to track the bastard down and kill him for that alone. Whoa, that was a new one, this… aggression. Why was I drawn to this shifter?

I leaned my forearm against the doorframe to get a little closer to her.

She didn’t step back. Her gaze traced the muscles inmy arm and came back to my face with her eyes slightly wider and twin spots of color on her cheeks.

I inhaled deeply and learned two things at once. She wasn’t a shifter. She was human. And, considering my body’s instantaneous reaction to her scent–this beautiful human was my mate.

4

EMMA

Um,wow. There was a very hot cowboy at the door. Snap shirt and all. Was he flirting with me?

I wouldn’t know, since I hadn’t been on a date in–I didn’t know–two years? Not since I dated Josh, another guy in the production company, for a few weeks. Basically, we’d hooked up while working late one night and had ended things two weeks later, so I didn’t know if it was even considered dating. It had been lame with a capital L. Like no orgasms lame. I’d had to get myself off in the few minutes I had before he came… and left.

No, this guy was stunning. Like a model stepped off the pages ofRugged Magazine. Was there such amagazine? If not, there should have been. Because I could look at cowboys like thisall. Day. Long.

I did know there were cowboy calendars. He’d be Mr. January. And February. Every month of the year.

Were these the kinds of guys who frequented Chapman’s ranch? I hadn’t been here long enough to scope the place out. It was huge, and I knew less than nothing about cows other than I liked my beef medium rare. As for cowboys, I liked themjustlike this guy. If the others on the ranch looked like him, I was going to talk Lyssa into twin-swapping with me like we did when we were younger. I’d excelled at math, and we had swapped for all of her tests for Pre-Cal. I’d stay here and work her job, which didn’t seem to be all that hard or demanding, especially since she wasn’t even here. She could go gallivanting off on whatever her next adventure would be, and I’d sit back and ogle the man candy. According to Lyssa, Chapman rarely even came to this ranch. No one even needed to know I was the wrong twin.

He leaned in the doorway like he’d wanted to get closer to me, and I was into it.

Sointo it.

He had thick, bulging muscles that couldn’t be contained by his shirt. A five o’clock shadow covered his jaw and upper lip, adding to the “out on the range” look that I never saw in L.A., and bushy eyebrows framedbrown eyes that looked haunted. Like this guy had seen things that aged him beyond his years.

“Did you just say,um wow?” His lips quirked in a sexy grin.

Oh shit! Had I said that out loud?What a dork, what a dork, what a dork!

“I did? Oh. I mean…”

I wracked my brain for something interesting to say. Something flirty. Something cute?

What would Lyssa do?

Before I could figure it out, an ear-splitting alarm erupted throughout the mansion. I jumped about a foot in the air–enough that Hot Cowboy thought he needed to reach out and catch my elbow for support.

I wasn’t sorry about that. Not sorry at all.

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