Page 3 of On His Ranch

Chase allowed himself a chuckle. “That’s where you’re dead wrong, darlin’. This here is my property you’re trespassin’ on, so I reckon I can call the cops anytime I want. Unless you can give me a damn good reason that I shouldn’t.”

For a moment, she just looked at him, fear written plain on her face. Then, inch by inch, she slowly lowered her hands.

“Well?” he prompted, folding his large, strong arms over his chest and tapping his toe, the sound echoing menacingly throughout the barn.

“I… I was tired,” she said in a tiny voice, ducking her head, abashed. “That isn’t a crime, last time I checked.” At her sides, her hands balled into fists.

So she had some spunk to her. He liked that. “Uh-uh.” He reached over, hooked a finger under her chin and tilted it forward so that she looked him square in the eye. “When you’re talkin’ to someone, pay them the respect of lookin’ at them.”

“Yes, sir,” she near whispered. He could see that she was beginning to tremble, but she didn’t look away again.

So she could follow rules. He liked that, too. But something niggled at the back of his brain, reminding him that if she was a wolf in sheep’s clothing as he suspected she might be, he couldn’t afford to stand here liking her at all. “You were tired, and so you thought to yourself, ‘I know what makes a good bed. I think I’ll go sleep in that horse shed over yonder’?”

To his surprise, a smile curved her full lips. “No. Well, not exactly.”

“Well, why don’t you explain it to me,exactly.”

“I don’t have anywhere to live!”

He arched an eyebrow at her outburst. “Is that so?”

She nodded fervently. “It’s kinda a long story, but the long-and-short of it is that I don’t have any money so my landlord kicked me out. Well,” she let out an embarrassed giggle, “I guess that’s not so long after all.”

“And you had nowhere else to go?”

“Well, I was actually going to live with my aunt—or ask her if I could, anyway—when I got so tired that I just couldn’t walk another step. That’s when I saw your barn, and I just thought…”

He looked her up and down, trying to decide if she was a woman used to charming men to get out of trouble. Or was it possible she was telling the truth? Was she really as innocent as she appeared? “I have to tell you, darlin’, I’m startin’ to lose my patience. I have chores to finish up so I can go have my breakfast.”

At the mention of food, the girl’s stomach rumbled and she looked adorably embarrassed. “That sounds wonderful,” she said, her longing evident.

Chase chuckled without humor. “So you’re thinkin’ you should get to sleep on my property and have me feed you too? I have to admit, I don’t normally see such a large pair ofcahoonason someone so young.”

She at least had the decency to blush.

He thought the color in her porcelain cheeks suited her. “So, mind explaining to me how you found yourself homeless and subsequently in a life of crime?”

“Look, are you going to call the cops or not? Because if not—”

Chase’s brows shot up. It was an interesting combination, these alternate displays of embarrassment and fire. His cock was starting to stir, but he did his best to ignore it. “Oh, all of a sudden you have somewhere to go?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could get a word out, the hairs on the back of his neck and the ones on his arms stood.

Danger.The air seemed to crackle around them.

Chase shoved her to the ground, covering her slight form with his body, and not a moment too soon. As soon as his fingers splayed against the barn floor, he heard a whizzing sound before a bullet lodged into the wall, perhaps half an inch from where her head had been.

“Why… why did you do that?” she gasped.

His expression was solemn bordering on fierce as he answered, “Rule number three: protect those weaker than yourself, whatever the cost.”

Chapter 2

Piper Larson winced as her hands burned from the sudden impact with the concrete. One minute, she was being lectured and made to feel like a naughty girl in serious trouble, then, without warning, she found herself being thrust to the ground. That alone was enough to make the average person’s head spin, but to top it off, Piper was pretty sure she’d had a close call with a bullet.

Which probably should have been her main concern, but she found that she could barely think about it at all with the sexy cowboy’s face mere inches from her own. In fact, she was struggling to hold onto a single thought that didn’t focus on his hard jaw. She was close enough to see that it was rough with stubble, and all she could think about was stroking her finger along his jawline, or better yet, licking it.

The thought made a little shiver run through her as her eyes flitted over his tanned face, taking in the cleft in his square chin, the fullness of his lips, the long, Roman nose.

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