Page 31 of The Outlaw and the Heir

"Hasn't yet," I said with a snort.

His retort came in the form of water splashing, finally drawing my attention enough to open my eyes. It was then, with widening eyes, that I discovered what all the rustling had been. He had been stripping down to nothing before slipping into the water. He had walked to the deepest part of the river, which only reached the middle of his thighs, and dropped down, the water coming up over his head before he surfaced.

Now, I’d always known Ambrose would look good without clothes on. The guy already looked good with them on, even with his scowls. But it was always nice to have confirmation staring me right in the face. The years of hard labor had worked its magic, and despite how much he could eat, there didn't seem to be a trace of it on his body. Every bit of him was covered in toned, tanned muscle that shifted noticeably under his skin as he stood up to wipe his face and let out a contented sigh.

He was standing with his side facing me so I could seeeverything. It certainly wasn't the first time I’d let my eyes tracethe admirable curve of his ass, but now I could see it wasn't pure muscle from the way it bounced when he came back up to the surface. Which, of course, left his dick, which, despite having been in below-body-temperature water, was still impressively thick as it lay against his thighs, drawing my attention.

"Well, damn," I said before I could think of anything else to say. "It's been a good while since I got to see a show this good for free."

His wiping stopped, and he glanced over at me, brow furrowing. "Quit."

"Don't tell me to quit joking," I said with a snort. "Because there isn't a trace of joking in this body right now."

As a matter of fact, I could feel my body stirring to life at the sight. It had been a long time since I'd been alone with a good-looking, naked man like Ambrose, and while it wasn't as long, it had been far too long since I'd had the opportunity to release some steam. Being crammed into a single-room building with two other men who slept lightly, were always there when I was, and being watched intensely whenever I was out of the building hadn't afforded me much privacy or moments to take care of it.

"Just stop," he said with a weary sigh. "And you need to get in here too. Don't think I haven't seen you ready to fall out of the saddle. The hottest part of the day is coming up, and you need to cool off.

"What, we're not going to endure it?"

"No, that's stupid. At least on the ranch, you have places to cool off, but out here, you just have the boiling heat, and there's not a breeze to be felt. It'll just last an hour or two, then we can move on and see if we can't find those wolves, or at least some evidence that they're around."

"Seriously?" I asked, not so sure it was a good idea for both of us to get naked and slip into the river. Especially because just looking at him was going to make it difficult to take off my pants.

"I'm not jokin', and I'm not takin' any excuses or a no either," he said. "Don't be an idiot. Get in the river and cool off, or I'll do it for you."

There was a joke about enjoying him stripping me of my clothes, but it didn't feel quite as funny as it might have a few minutes ago. "Fine, but quit staring at me."

He rolled his eyes. “Now you're gonna be shy?"

The man seemed to believe I was screwing around, and there was no option but to do what he said. Which meant peeling my shirt off and wiggling carefully out of my pants. The process had been irritating enough that my body had calmed down, and I wasn't sticking straight out, but it was obvious I’d been hard.

That immediately changed as I slid off the rock into the water and looked over at him. As someone who’d intended not to get hard while I was with him, it was a poor choice on my part. All it took was for him to stretch as he rubbed water on his face for me to feel my groin stir to life all over again. Of course, that was the moment he looked over, probably to confirm I’d done what he told me to. From the look on his face, he wasn't expecting to see what he did.

"What in all the..." he trailed off as I dropped down to sit in the water and stay there with a smirk.

"Did I or did I not say I wasn't joking?" I asked with a snort before submerging myself.

His face started to color as he pulled his eyes away from me. “I didn't think you were?—"

"What? Like that? Like you are?" I asked with a raised brow.

Honestly, if his eyes got any wider, I’d start worrying they would fall out of his head. "Excuse me?"

"Seriously? Do you think I don't know?" I asked with a snort. "You'realwayscareful to make sure you're never close to me, and don't think I didn't see the way you were fucking me in your mind that first day when I was getting my first bath in weeks.And right now, you're doing your hardest to hide the fact that because I'm hard, you're getting hard."

I couldn't actually see if he was getting hard because, in his attempt not to stare at me, he had turned his back to me. But the way his hands came down to cover himself told me my guess was a bullseye.

His jaw tightened. “If you?—"

"Tell anyone? Why would I do that?"

"To cause me trouble, to get rid of me, to make me look bad in front of my father and everyone else."

"First of all, I only cause trouble when it's fun, not when it could get someone seriously hurt...even if they are an ass like you. Secondly, I don't want to get rid of you, which is weird. You're no fun, and you try to work me to the bone, but it's better than some people would do to me...and it's nice to look at your ass while you're working. And finally, you need to let go of this issue with your dad. The man trusts you more than anyone else on the ranch, as far as I can tell, and everyone who works there respects you too. Oh, and if you think you can hidethatthing when it's hard, you're either overestimating the size of your hands or cursed with one hell of a small penis, which would be unfortunate."

"My...it's just fine," he said with a huff, dropping his hands and turning to face me. He was indeed growing hard, but before I could see that he wasn't going to be able to hide it with his hands without looking ridiculous, he sat down quickly, stirring up the dirt from the bottom and clouding up the water. "I didn't think you were...well, like that."

I shrugged, scooping water into my face as the sun shimmered intensely off the river's surface. "Well, you’d know better than anyone that you shouldn't go around announcing it. You figure out if there's someone else like you around and go from there."

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