Page 9 of Ash on the Range
The cowboy beside me froze. He took his time answering me. “I think the man who decided that my girl needed help would want to be damn sure that I was in a hospital bed, and that the danger she was in outweighed the danger to himself.”
I snorted. “You think anyone helping your wife should be so selfish? Is that the goal?”
“It is if you want to live.” Thankfully he dropped the not-endearment this time, but the message came through loud and clear.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I ground my teeth. The point he made before rankled, though. “You’re saying I’m not taking good enough care of Cass.”
Gage considered. That was something I learned last season here, that it took a while to get the answers I needed from the older man who had a good fifteen years on his wife, but that the words that came out were far more often than not well worth the wait.
“I’m saying that you need to consider how she sees Red Hart life, and what she doesn’t know about its history. Maybe you want to take her on a tour.”
I watched Cass slide her arms across the table and place her head on them, her eyes closing just before she sank down in fullonto the table. “You mean, like a date?” No chance was I going to get time out to do that.
Gage shrugged. “Tell Jude you need to take his new social media manager on a field trip around the property for a few days. She needs to know the best vantage points to advertise the property and the herd. You can show her around. He can’t argue with that.”
I opened my mouth to fight him on it, but he had a point. If Cass was handling the marketing like Eve had asked, then she really did need to know more about Red Hart and I probably did know a bit more about the place than I thought.
“Uh, sure. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. And go give your girl some attention, yeah? She needs a little TLC over there.” Gage straightened, dwarfing me and half the house.
“Yeah. Right. Hey,” I turned my back to the table, pausing in washing up. “How do you deal with the rumors about you a Brit that rip through the bunk house? You gotta know that half the boys are—” I shut my mouth just in time, figuring that Gage probably wasn't the man to fess that little secret up to his face.
He sent me a wry smile. “That the new kids jerk off to the image of me fucking my wife rough against the tree outside the bunkhouse while she screamed for me?” He finished his beer and tossed it into the recycle can. “That one’s true, kid. They can jerk off all they fuckin’ want to that image, and few other stories gettin’ around. We’re a pair of filthy fuckers.” He sauntered away, leaving me with a red face and a need for my girl in a damn fine hurry.
In the end, I finished washing up alone, and by the time I made it back to Cass, she had sagged into a soft mess opposite Brit who was headed the same way. Gage sent me a hard stare, reminiscent of our earlier conversation as he lifted his pregnant wife easily and carried her bridal style out the door of thebig house, covering her in her jacket and sliding her boots on without ever putting her down.
“There’s goals right there,” I muttered as I slid in beside Cassie.
Her hair tumbled over her face and I stroked it back, casting a quick glance Eve’s way. Worry lines crossed her forehead even in her sleep. My heart clenched down as I watched Travis shift her gently in her seat, something her mother used to do for Len, their father. Used to, because we lost them both in short order.
When I returned my gaze to Cassie, still stroking her hair absently, I found her blue eyes that I swore missed nothing fixed on me.Busted.I swallowed guiltily but didn’t stop stroking her hair.
“Hey,” I murmured. “I wanna take you up to bed, but I’m not allowed. Will you let me hold you for a while, if you’re not too tired?”
She studied me for a minute, then nodded, sliding into the space I made, opening my arms for her. The warmth of her seeped bone deep into me. I leaned back, gathering her into me. My shoulder ached, taking her weight, but I didn’t care. The rest of me didn’t hurt an ounce, finally holding her the way I wanted.
“I wish we could sleep together,” I murmured, exhaling in a blast when he stiffed a fraction against me. “Not—anything specific. Just, sleep. You and me, curled around each other like we did on the drive here. Do you remember?” She made a non committal noise.Gage was right. I’ve left her alone for too long, thinking she was alright.I kept stroking her hair, kept talking even though we were both on the cusp of exhaustion. “Falling asleep on those shitty mattresses, the ones in the highway motels where once we climbed into bed together, we kinda rolled into the middle and couldn't get out of the bed again. Remember those?”
She laughed at my chest. Just a puff of warm air, but it was enough to fracture the tension. “I remember the place we called the Wobbly Boot. It had that giant shoe on the sign. I don’t know what it was supposed to be. The foam was so bad to sleep on. And the neighbors yelled when they weren't, um?—”
“Yeah. Um.” I grinned reminiscently.
The room next to us might have been rented by the hour. I’d been horrified at the time, prepared to move, but were both shattered and so we stuck it out, listening with a sort of horrified fascination to the symphony of fake moans that ran through the usually quiet hours while we were stuck in our truly terrible mattress.
“The next one was better. It was quiet, at least. No hot water.” Cass shivered, pressing her body tighter to mine.
“I mean, if this is the reaction I get from you…” I trailed a hand along her spine and pressed my lips to her ear. “I still want to see this lace top of yours, honey. And you did promise me.”
She shivered again, a ripple that trembled her from shoulder to fingertip in the delicious sort of anticipation that left me semi hard in my jeans.
Hold that thought, honey. We couldn’t get too carried away at the table, but also, I wanted her so damn bad that I’d be lucky to last a handful of seconds at this rate for her.
“Are you ready for bed? I can’t take you up,” I said regretfully.
Cassie straightened, sitting up. Her body pressed against mine. “Maybe we can find a way to spend some time together in the morning?” she suggested. “I can get up early.”
“I’d like that.”
