Page 27 of Ash on the Range
This wasn’t how I expected this morning to go, if I expected anything at all, but fuck was I here for it.
I milked her nipple with my fingertips, swirling and tugging until her body shuddered. Her thighs tensed and heat flushedmy fingers over her jeans. I pressed those to her body as she rode the waves of her orgasm out, leaving me hard and aching, but fucking pleased that she’d come for me.
“So beautiful," I murmured, gliding her back up my body from where she had pooled into the middle of my chest, to meld our mouths together in a long, slow kiss.
And then we lay there together until the sun broke across the far ridge line, painting Red Hart’s fields in a perfect display of crisp golden light without a flicker of smoke in sight.
If the house filled with people too fast for me to detangle from Cassie an hour after I woke her with kisses that turned too much, too fast for both of us, then the yard and the field beyond became something chaotic within minutes after the full rodeo crew descended in all their glory the moment we all caffeinated after Eve pumped us full of food and let us roam free.
For the first time in years I wasn't part of setting up the arena. Instead, I rounded up the herd, moving them into fields away from the crowd where they wouldn’t get hurt or spooked by the noise of us all in the next hours.. The stink of the bulls freaked the poor critters out so damn bad that I had leaping fawns, some who were just losing their spots and separating from their mothers, bounding about everywhere. Worse, I got to be in charge of Austin who had returned from his trip for a short rock with a short stop when he crashed back first into agranite shelf the night before, wandering about lots in the smoke because he couldn’t follow directions.
Or refused to.
Hell didn't come close to covering it.
“Catch him. That one,” I called to Luke, who swept his arms wide and used the fence line like a pro to herd the bouncing fawn into the next paddock. He grabbed the gate and ran it in, closing the deer in, catching another on the way through and sent me a thumbs up.
“Fucking brilliant. That leaves us…” I turned to count heads in the large paddock we were in. We’d moved nearly ninety of the suckers, and I was shattered. I’d better draw a bull calledDriving Miss Daisyor else I had no chance tonight of making points on anything.
At least I knew I’d score with a pretty girl afterwards. The thought of holding Cassie in my arms held me in place for a moment, just long enough to miscount one of the damn fawns who slithered under my knees and knocked me on my ass.
“Good practice for tonight,” Austin groused at me from his place at another gate where he did what I’d expected when I got lumped with him—fucking nothing.
He’d been cleared for all signs of concussion. No injuries, breaks or bruises, except maybe to his ego. But the moment Denver heard about it, he refused to have him on the rodeo set up. And so, he was officially my responsibility. The man who hated me more than anyone in the world, and now I was dating his sister.
Fucking brilliant.
“Be better if you helped,” I snapped back, “than stand there and direct.”
“Someone has to do it,” Austin drawled.
And shut up.
I seethed, squeezing the fence with my gloved hand and wished it was his neck. My eyes shut for a second and a shadow fell over me. Hell, maybe he had actually moved his ass like I demanded. I waited for the punch to the face that habitually followed but when I opened my eyes, Noah and Luke stood in front of me, Luke's hand extended.
“We got you, boss.” Noah winked. “Apparently Austin’s bull tonight is a bit of a spinner.”
I blinked at them and grinned. “Now, boys. We can’t go fixin’ the draw. That’s not fair to a big guy like him.”
They both laughed at me, but I meant it. If either of us won or lost, I wanted it to be a fair round. Actually, I was surprised that Denver was letting Austin ride at all. Usually, he refused to let injured—even semi injured—riders on a bull, but he must have bullied the doc into letting him walk away with a clean bill of health. I needed to have a word with Denver about that draw, though.
I cleared my throat, taking Luke’s hand and let the other ranch hand pull me out of the dirt. No doubt I'd be back in it later tonight just like Austin crowed about, but my ego wasn’t as big as the rich boy’s, and falling didn’t hurt half as much for me when I’d spent my rodeo career right there in the dust where I started.
“Alright.” I swiped grit off my ass and tightened my gloves, counting heads. Deer, not ranch hands or ring ins. “We’ve got six of these pretty little things to go. And I bet Miss Eve has a handful of beers for the men who bring them in, am I right?”
Noah and Luke cheered, while Austin sent me anare you fucking insaneglance, but he didn’t get ranch culture. He’d never been rationed to one-beer-a-day for a season, and an extra beer on rodeo night after catching runaway fawns and does mean everything to the boys who busted their asses for me.
Plus, those little suckers we chased were fast fuckers. They’d earn every damn sip. But this time, I'd make sure that Austin grew red in the face right alongside us.Direct my boys, my ass.I fixed him a hard look as I handed out directions, setting the boys to herd in the last few fawns. The does followed in, keen to still be with their offspring, and naturally, the last to come in was Snowball.
The pale little fawn who was fast maturing into a juvenile bounced about, completely oblivious to the chaotic noise factor about him in his muted world.
“That one’s yours, Austin!” I bellowed, grabbing the gate and pulled it wide.
A little too wide as Austin lumbered behind the randy deer spawn. Snowball shot between us and tangled around my ankles. I clung to the gate, determined not to eat dirt again before tonight's main event.
“Fuck’s sake, Will, can’t you do anything right?” Austin cursed.
I smirked. “All you gotta do is be fast, big fella.” I leaned down and scooped Snowball into my arms. Hooves flailed about until he saw it was me. Then he quietened, and offered me a tentative lick on my dust face with his long, pink tongue. We both wrinkled our noses at the smelly, gritty after effect.
