Page 11 of Possessive Cowboy

But instead of quieting that need, it magnified it.

She wasn’t what I expected her to be. She was innocent and sweet, warm and kind. Way too good for a guy like me, and that’s exactly why I can’t get her out of my damn mind.

It’s been a month. A whole fucking month since our hookup and I still think about her every fucking night. Every time I’m in the shower, or in bed.

Pretty much any time I have some solitude…and as a solo cowboy on a massive ranch, I tend to have plenty of solitude.

Plenty of time for my mind to wander from the task at hand and think back to that night, those big beautiful eyes, the way she tilted her head back and sighed when I touched her. The warmth of her embrace, her fingers raking through my hair and waking up every nerve ending on my scalp, her soft thighs squeezing my hips, welcoming me inside of her…

“Hello? Maverick, liven up, dude,” Levi claps his hands in front of my face. “See? It’s this right here that I’m talking about. You’re out of it. You’re not here. Abigail will be here any minute, and she needs to see two competent men in front of her. Not you and that stupid vacant drooling expression you’ve got on your face.”

“I wasn’t drooling,” is all that I say in reply.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you lately,” Levi shakes his head. “But you need to fix it. You’re fucked up. You need to un-fuck yourself, and you need to do it…right now.”

Levi is looking past my shoulder, out of the stable doors. I hear the distant sound of a small engine and look in the direction he’s staring to see a small Volkswagen Beetle meandering over the uneven ground. It’s one of the older types, with the bubble-like shape, and the chipped paint is lime green.

“Jesus Christ,” Levi groans. “Why the hell is she riding in that thing? She’s going to get stuck in the mud, no question about it.”

“This is your business partner?” I ask flatly, watching as the little green car drives slowly over the rocky trail that leads to the large red barn next to the horse stable.

“Abigail Henderson,” Levi says. “She’s a little nutty, I know, but give her a chance. She’s got some good ideas. And she has a head for business. Went and got her MBA from some fancy city college.”

“Right,” I say, still eyeing the green car, which has crawled to a stop, still about twenty feet away from the barn. “Well, she might have a fancy MBA, but I take it she’s not a mechanic. Sounds like her car just died.”

“Better than getting stuck in the mud,” Levi sighs, striding out of the horse stable. I trail after him.

A red-haired woman gets out of the driver’s seat, all smiles, as though she’s completely unaware of the potential plight she’s in.

“Hey handsome,” she says to Levi with a megawatt grin. “I think my battery just died – again, ugh – you don’t mind giving me a jump start when it’s time for me to leave, right?”

“You shouldn’t even be driving this thing all the way out here,” Levi grunts in reply. “How many times have I told you to get that damn truck of yours fixed?”

He strides to the little car and pops the hood as if he’s done this many times before, surveying the slightly steaming engine parts with a furrowed brow.

Abigail leans against the side of the car and shrugs.

“Like I said before,” she replies. “The shop told me it’ll be four thousand dollars just to get it running.”

“That’s bullshit,” Levi mutters, still looking at the engine. “They’re ripping you off. They see a pretty girl come into the shop all by herself, they see dollar signs.”

“So now I’m a pretty girl, huh?”

Abigail looks at me now for the first time and winks.

“I’ll come by your place later and get the truck,” Levi says, shutting the hood and standing up straight. “Tow it back here to the ranch. See what I can do.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Abigail says quickly.

“Yeah. I do,” Levi says. He gestures to the little green car. “This thing is a road hazard. I don’t want to see you in it anymore.”

Abigail’s cheeks are pink now, looking bashful for the first time. She busies herself by turning back to the car, talking to someone in the passenger’s side that I didn’t realize was there. They appear to be a blonde-haired woman, but it’s hard to tell with her ducking her head down, her hand over her face.

“Come on Raina, don’t be shy,” she says, beckoning her towards us. “You already know Levi, and now you can meet…what did you say your name was?”

“Maverick,” I say. “But you can call me Mav.”

Abigail’s eyes widen, the smile sliding away from her face.

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