Page 3 of Some Cowboys Fight for Love

Realization flooded her countenance. She palmed her forehead and groaned. “You’re totally right. I completely forgot.”A pretty flush highlighted her bronzed cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I’ll get my things ready and head out. Sophia told me to take her room.” She scurried toward a bedroom door.

He leaned the gun against the wall and followed. “If you need some help?—”

She glanced toward him as she threw some of her things haphazardly into a suitcase she’d already placed on the bed. “No, it’s fine. I’ve got it.”

“I didn’t see a car out front. Don’t tell me you plan on walking.” He stepped even closer.

Aria flashed him another smile, but it was strained. “I’ve got two legs, don’t I?”

He shook his head. “I’m not going to let you walk all that way in the dark.”

She stiffened, but the irritation in her eyes fled just as quickly as it had come. “Whatever. Do what you want.”

2

Aria Rivera

Aria could feel her walls coming up. They were these invisible barriers that she had a knack for constructing whenever a member of the opposite sex tried to order her around. Cayden had been that way. He’d insisted that he knew better—not just for things they did together, but for how she lived her life.

There was a reason she’d decided to visit her cousins in Copper Creek, and it wasn’t so she could be bossed around by someone like Daniel.

One look at him and she could tell he would feed off the control he could have over others. He was big—so big even her five-foot-eight height had to look up at him. He had to be at least six-four. He was probably a football player in another life. Or a hockey player. He was all muscle with a sharp jaw and shrewd eyes.

She wasn’t about to show him her fear, though. Aria had done that enough in her lifetime. It threw men off when shesmiled prettily at them and flirted with her touch—not enough to invite them to flirt back. Just enough for them to realize she wasn’t a weak, simpering fool. She knew her confidence pushed a lot of men away, and that was how she liked it.

Aria glanced at Daniel out of the corner of her eye. Thankfully the ride to the main house would be short—and he hadn’t touched her.

She hated it when men thought they could touch her—manhandle her. Just because they didn’t leave bruises like her father preferred, controlling men still liked to show who was in charge.

Daniel didn’t talk as much as Cayden did. He was quiet. She could practically see his calculating nature beneath the surface, planning on how to get the better of her. Maybe she was paranoid.

It was a possibility. Mateo trusted Daniel. He wouldn’t have invited someone who could harm her onto his property.

She pressed her lips together and breathed a sigh through her nose as the main house came into view. He’d show his true self eventually. If he was controlling, she’d notice the signs—just like she had tonight when he insisted she wasn’t going to make the trek across the property toward the house. Who did he think she was?

Weak, apparently.

The second the truck pulled to a stop, she launched from the vehicle. “Thanks,” she muttered, flashing him one of her smiles. He reached for the door handle, and before she shut her door, she snapped, “Don’t worry about it. I’m a big, strong girl. I can get my luggage out of the back of the truck all by myself.”

His eyes narrowed and he shoved the door open.

What a jerk.

She scurried toward the bed of the truck, but he was faster. He pulled both suitcases from the bed and placed them on theground. She ground her teeth. “Thank you,” she said between them. “I’m good from here on out.”

Still, Daniel hesitated. She reached for the suitcases and kicked them onto their wheels. “I’ll see you around.”

“He’s dreamy,don’t you think?”

Aria jumped, then flushed deeply over being caught staring at Daniel. It was just yesterday that he gave her a ride back to the main house. She glanced toward her youngest cousin. At twenty-two, Isabelle hadn’t become jaded when it came to the opposite sex. She could look objectively at a man like Daniel, see his muscles, his dusty blond hair, and his piercing blue eyes, and her heart would flutter.

Once upon a time, Aria’s heart could do the same. Even after she’d felt the blows from her father. Even after she’d witnessed how he treated her mother, she’d still believed that men could be good.

Romance novels were the escape she’d needed to keep herself going through her teen years.

And then she’d met Cayden.

Her jaw pulsed as she swung her focus to her young cousin. “If you like that sort of thing,” she said dryly.

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