Page 3 of Rival Heart
I turn and his gorgeous eyes stare at me, wide and stunned. His dark hair lifts in the breeze and I curl my hands into my palms, wanting desperately to find out if it’s as soft as it looks.
Growling softly, I pace away from him, needing to move, to breathe, to think.
Those kinds of thoughts can’t happen. He doesn’t deserve them and neither do I. I deserve more.
I pace back and forth, shoving my hands in the pockets of my jeans. “You can’t fix this place up and you don’t want to. Admit it to yourself if not to me. You left home without a thoughtand haven’t been back here since. Obviously, you don’t give a damn about the ranch and your dad is dead, so you’ve got no immediate family here. Your brothers don’t want the place. Just sell it to me and get the hell out of town, back to where you belong.”
He stands up straight and he towers over me. I swear he’s even bigger than I remember. My girly parts tingle and I swear under my breath, shoving those thoughts way the hell down deep.
He steps in front of me, forcing me to stop in my tracks or plow right into his big body. I can feel the heat off of him and I close my eyes, immediately immersed in the pine and leather scent of his skin. Opening them quickly, I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him. His peacock-blue eyes shoot fire right back at me and his sculpted lips firm into a tight line.
“I own this place, Reb. And for now, it’s not for sale. Not for any amount of money. So you can save your speeches and your glares, your pacing back and forth and trying to lay out the best course of action for me. You don’t know me, Reb. You don’t know what I want and I’d appreciate it if you worried about your own issues, not mine. I’m sorry that you’re mad at me for leaving. If I could go back and do it all over again, I’m not sure if I would’ve done it. I missed you like hell, Reb. Every damn day I thought about you and hoped that you were happy with your family and the life you’ve got. I should’ve checked up on you a long time ago.”
Holding up one finger and poking him in his hard pecs, I swallow roughly and force myself to get my head back in the game. A zap of electricity tingles along my skin and right down to my core. “Keep your sympathy. I’ve had a good life without you, Jace. I didn’t need you and I still don’t. But it would have been nice if you’d thought about me before you left instead of after.I’m not giving up on buying this property either. I want my own property, and this land would be perfect.”
“What about your dad’s land?”
Smirking, I tip my head. “My dad has no intention of giving me what I want… our land. He’s got big plans with a company that wants to open up a dude ranch. He’s already moving forward with that and he’s keeping control of it himself.”
“I’m sorry, Reb. I know that you’ve dreamt of taking over for your dad one of these days.”
I shrug my shoulder, my belly tightening. “Doesn’t matter. I should’ve known that he’d never give over control to me. He’s always been the ultimate male chauvinist. Still pissed off that I wasn’t born a boy and none of my brothers want the ranch. They’ve all scattered to the four corners of the globe to follow their own dreams. I’m the only one left back here and he’s still pissed that I wouldn’t go along with his big plans that would have given him the other land he wanted and a new son-in-law to give the ranch to instead of me.”
He eyes me uncertainly. “I’m really sorry, Reb. Your dad is a fool.”
I glare at him. “What does that make you for listening to him and not asking me a damn question before you took off?”
I stomp off and sling myself back up into my saddle, settling Raphael with a flick of my wrist. I can’t help but look down at him one more time, studying the man he’s become, so different somehow than the boy who was my best friend. Harder, tougher, angrier.
Was. I have to remember that. That boy doesn’t exist anymore. Hell, for all I know, he never really did. Maybe I made it all up in my head and he’s just another guy I can’t count on.
“Think about my offer, Jace. I think it’s the best idea for both of us.” And then I tap my heel and turn Raphael away from him, not looking back, even once.
Another quick tap and he lopes away and I keep my back straight, my head tall, barely repressing the urge to turn back and throw myself at his big, broad chest.
Those days are long gone and so is the man I counted as my best friend. I just need to keep my head and sooner or later he’ll take me up on my offer and get the hell out of town.
All I have to do is keep my head and my heart well away from him and his gorgeous eyes and long, lean body. All those rippling muscles that I used to dream about every night that have broadened into a gorgeous mess that makes me pant like a naughty schoolgirl. But it’s not to be. I have to stay away from him.
I can do this. I have to do this.
THREE
Jace
My head is spinning,my heart thumping away like it hasn’t just been kicked so hard that it shouldn’t be beating in my chest at all.
All those feelings that I hoped were dead and buried are still there and I feel sick, broken.
She’s not married. She’s still free. She’s mine. I know she is. But the way she is now? There’s no way in hell she’ll give me the time of day let alone her heart.
But I saw heat. Buried deep down in her glorious brown eyes and in the little goosebumps on her skin, the sharp intake of breath when I was close. Even the anger in her cinnamon gaze.
Surely if she didn’t still want me, some of that anger would be dead. Cold.
No, I can win her. I think. But it’s gonna take patience, which I have in spades thanks to my father’s dumb-ass decisions. I’m gonna be busy on this ranch and she’s not going anywhere. I love the idea that she wants this ranch to be her home. Course she doesn’t want me anywhere near it but hopefully I can change her mind. Hopefully I can convince her that I was just trying to do what I thought was best, going by what her father said she wanted.
“You were a damn idiot. You should’ve gone to ask her what she wanted instead of listening to someone else about what her future should be. Fucking idiot,” I mutter, disgusted with myself. I was just as bad as her dad, making her decisions for her.
