Page 110 of Chasing the Wild
Hence why I’ve disappeared, on my own. Again.
From what I can tell, the beautiful girl with silky curls and the greenest eyes I’ve ever had the fortune to wake up beside has been doing much the same. She’s busied herself with the horses from dawn until dusk, and I don’t fucking blame her.
It’s taken every ounce of my self-control not to seek her out while she’s been working. Another reason why I’ve taken to riding out to the furthest boundaries these past couple of days.
I don’t trust myself not to touch her.
Any second I’m near, the temptation is too fucking powerful, a force drawing me to put my hands on her.
And not purely in a sexual way, either. My fingertips itch to stroke a tendril of hair behind her ear, to drag Layla against my chest and inhale her sweetness, to feel the tiny puff of air gust past her lips against my neck when she laughs at something stupid I’ve said that isn’t funny, but she seems to find it amusing all the same.
While I’ve been out roaming in the open and wrangling barbed wire and fixing posts just to keep my hands busy, I keep replaying every interaction since we first met. The way she looked at me at the gas station that day made me feel like I was twenty years younger and I don’t know what fucking came over me to talk with her and flirt a little, but it seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
Would I change a thing, knowing who she was?
The worst part of me—the selfish asshole who wants to do everything in his power to keep this girl—knows I wouldn’t.
It’s getting damn near dark as I get closer to the yard and the barn. Up ahead, the headlights of Kayce’s truck flick off, and the idling motor cuts, which tells me he must have just gotten back from feeding out while I’ve been in my self-imposed exile at the southernmost boundary on the ranch.
“You always were fucking pedantic about those fences,” Kayce calls out, dragging his frame from the truck cab and then slams the door behind him. Shaking his head in my direction, he leans up against the tailgate waiting for me to draw nearer. Who knows where his pregnant girlfriend—or whatever it is that she is to him—is hiding out in the house. He certainly hasn’t made an effort to explain things between him and this girl, Chyannah, and I haven’t been in a mood to ask or have a conversation lasting longer than about five minutes. For the time being itseems we’re all ignoring the glaringly obvious pregnant elephant in the room.
Just fucking fantastic.
“Yeah, well, you want something done right you gotta do it yourself around here,” I grunt, swinging down from the saddle.
He chuckles and scuffs a boot in the dirt.
“Hey, so it’s only a week until Layla finishes her contract up here, right?”
On hearing her name, my neck heats, and every muscle in my shoulders stiffens like a board. At least Kayce is used to me scowling at him all the time, because that’s the only expression I can muster upon hearing her name in his mouth.
“Something like that.” Muttering, I fist the reins, folding the leather on itself.
Kayce toes the ground with his boot. “Look, I don’t know if you know, but I’m pretty sure it’s her birthday not long after she leaves here.”
My knuckles have gone white. Of course I fucking know. Her birthday is the twelfth of March, and I’ve already given her a present, and I want these two intruders to fuck right off so that I can enjoy having her all to myself.
But instead of saying all that, my teeth grind. I run my hand over the horse’s neck to ground me, and I grunt something that could pass as a response.
“Chy and me, we thought it’d be fun to take her down to Crimson Ridge tomorrow. Give her a proper night out, especially since she’s been trapped up here for weeks. It’s that spring festival they put on every year. There’s gonna be tons of people in town for it. I bet that girl can’t wait to get out and hang with others her own age.” He crosses his arms and flashes a typical Kayce smirk, and not for the first time in the past forty-eight hours, I want to smack my own son in his mouth. “No offense,old man, but Layla must be more than ready to escape this mountain and get back to normality.”
Jesus Christ. I’m glaring at the gravel and fucking grateful for the fading light, because there is a ball of emotion wrestling inside my chest. On one hand, I’m furious that Kayce thinks he has any right to even look at Layla, considering the fact he’s got a pregnant chick sitting in my house on my ranch doing nothing but using the Wi-Fi, leaving candy wrappers everywhere and binge watching trash TV. On the other, he’s just picked open a scabbed wound. The part of me that worries maybe Layladoesfeel like she’s been trapped on this ranch.
What if she can’t wait to escape here… to escape me?
I have to work hard to dislodge the lump occupying my throat.
“Have you actually asked Layla what she wants?” I huff out a reply. It’s the best I can do while trying to keep my temper from flaring.
“Nah, but she’ll be cool with it.” He drums his fist on the back of the truck. “I think she’s still working in the barn. Since you’re headed over there anyway, can you let her know that’s the plan for tomorrow? I’m fucking starving, there had better be some leftovers lying around I can heat up.” Kayce barely gives me a second glance, jogging off toward the house while I’m left staring at the back of his head.
Just like that. He’s going to most likely eat all the food, leave dirty fucking dishes everywhere, and wants to take Layla to a bar in town tomorrow.
I hate everything about this.
Blowing out a long breath, I steel myself to head into the barn. To the place where I honestly have no idea what I’m going to find once I’m inside. Is Layla going to be anything but pissed off with seeing my face after I’ve been an asshole and avoided her for two whole days?
How do I not drop to my knees and tell her I’ve laid feverishly awake both nights, about two seconds away from sneaking into her room and scooping her up to bring her into my bed, just so I can hold her.
