Page 26 of Rugged

Instead of having colleagues who were friends, we were more like war buddies, commiserating with each other about what we had to do for job survival. And, to make it worse, I’d been a doormat to Stan. A few days away, and it was so obvious. Ugh.

Colton wasn’t done with his tale. “We start up along the road, and he’s still all good. Holding the reins like you’re supposed to, feet in the stirrups.”

I smiled, loving this past Johnny. It fit with the image of the guy I already knew. The one who’d come right into Chapman’s mansion and taken the burnt cookies out of the oven then disarmed the alarm. He was a can-do kind of guy. The kind who was right there when you needed him, pitching in with a panty-melting smile.

“And then Rob saw something–I don’t know–a hole in a fence up ahead or something, and he kicked his horse into a canter. Johnny does the same thing–or at least he tries to, but he’d never buckled the saddle in place. So as soon as Chester starts to canter, Johnny’s whole saddle is sliding to the side.

“He hangs onto the saddle horn, which, of course, doesn’t help at all, and the next thing you know, he’s on his back on the ground where he gets kicked in the head by my horse!”

I clapped a hand over my mouth. “Oh, no!”

“Oh yes. He was okay, though. You should know that kid has a hard head.”

I laughed. “Noted.”

Johnny emerged from the hallway and shot me that signature grin. It went straight to my pussy, and I heated from my core up to my neck. I didn’t know how he made me feel so incredibly sexy. So worthy of his attention. With just a smile.

It wasn’t a feeling I was used to, but damn if I didn’t want it to be.

“I heard about Chester,” I told him.

“All lies.” Johnny grinned, coming over to stand beside me, setting his hand on my shoulder. “Want to meet him?”

I frowned. “Who, Chester?”

He chuckled. “Yeah. We’re best buds now.”

I got down off the stool and set my mug in the sink. “I would love to meet Chester.”

Ooh. Another adventure. It wasn’t Ibiza, but I was with my hot cowboy doing new things. I wasn’t stuck in a cubicle getting shat on for most of the hours in the day.

After saying goodbye to Willow, Colton, and Marina, Johnny held his arm out, and I stepped under it, allowing him to escort me out of the ranch house and down the gravel drive. “Do you ride?” His fingertips rested lightly at my low back–a sensation I relished.

“Me?” I squeaked. “No. I’m telling you now I don’t know how to put a saddle on a horse.”

Johnny laughed at that. “Noted. But you work on a ranch. Doesn’t Mitch have horses?”

“Oh. Um…you know, I’m not sure, but I definitely wasn’t hired to ride them.” My voice raised in pitch. I was a terrible liar.

Johnny rubbed his forehead under his hat. “It’s okay,” he acknowledged my lie. “You don’t have to tell me the details of the ranch. Did Mitch have you sign an NDA about his business dealings or something?”

I looked up at him in surprise. That would definitely be a way out of answering questions, but I doubted if the property had horses would fall under that kind of document.

He studied me.

I shook my head. I didn’t have a choice but to answer. “No, it’s not that. I just–I honestly don’t know his business dealings. I’m a little embarrassed, but all I do is bring in the mail and take deliveries,” I admitted. “It’s a pretty cush job, to be honest.”

It was, and I hated Lyssa for finding such arrangements, especially if it included going off to Ibiza in the middle of it. Maybe she would get fired for ditching her work, but she’d bounce back and find something else soon enough.

“How’d you end up there?”

“Oh.” More lying. I didn’t love lying to Johnny. And was it really necessary?

Probably not.

But I’d started down this road of pretending to be Lyssa, and it would be awkward as hell to explain that I wasn’t her now.

By the way, my name’s not actually Lyssa, the one you called out when you came deep inside me last night and this morning. Whoops!

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