Page 6 of Blazing Hot Nights

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“Mr. Monster?” He pushed off the bed and threw a T-shirt over his head, smoothing the soft cotton across his hard chest. It did nothing to cover the rest of him.

“I can’t—I just—I don’t know what to call something that big.”

He snorted and grabbed a pair of boxers from the bed. I couldn’t help but notice how fluid his movements were as he dressed. It was easy to imagine the way he’d move over and around a woman when he loved her. I shifted air through my teeth.I did not just have that thought about Blaze McAwley.My gaze drifted to his face as he tucked himself inside the cotton material. I swear he moaned but I couldn’t be sure, considering my brain injury.

I should have lifted my gaze to his face—or anywhere other than Mr. Monster—but I couldn’t. My brain wouldn’t give my eyes the order to stop ogling this cowboy. He was five years older than me and far more experienced. Then again, any experience was more than I had.

I was well aware there was no way I could take that cowboy for a ride the first time out of the gate. He was all bucking bronco, and I was a filly standing up for the first time. His chestnut eyes were assessing, sharp, and always searching for a way to better his standing and gain the upper hand. He hid the locks that matched his eyes under his Stetson most days, but I had enough experience to know they were silky smooth when they slid between your fingers.

“He will forever be known as Mr. Monster now.” He was smirking, and it ticked me off that he was making fun of me.

I stomped my foot. “Cowboys!” I spun around, ready to walk back to my ranch. Forget a UTV ride with this brazen Texan. It would be safer to walk through a herd of his beasts than to climb into a vehicle with him.

I tipped to the left, watching the floor come toward me while I braced for contact. I cursed my useless arm again, something I’d done thousands of times over the last thirteen years. Never out loud though. I would never let my father hear me be frustrated or angry about it.

Strong arms grabbed my waist and halted my fall. “Heaven, I think you need to see a doctor.”

The way he said my name ran a shiver down my spine. There was a level of caring there I couldn’t deal with right now. There was an even higher level of heat where he held my waist that scared the living daylights out of me. If I could’ve, I would have run out of that place and never looked back.

“I just need to go home and rest,” I said, my fire and sass sapped by the knock to my noggin. “I’ll be fine by tomorrow.” There was nothing but fatigue and pain left in my voice when I told that lie. I wouldn’t be fine tomorrow. I would never be fine. I would be breathing, but nothing made me feel alive anymore.

He ran an assessing gaze over me and sighed, leaning me up against the door while he stuffed his feet into a pair of dry cowboy boots. “Is someone going to be there with you at the ranch tonight?”

“Dawn,” I said, my head too heavy on my shoulders to even lift it off the door. “She’s always there.”

“I’ll talk to her when we get there,” he said, taking my arm and helping me down the hallway.

“I’m not a child, Blaze. You don’t have to talk to my mommy.”

He didn’t respond and just hustled me out the front door, then set me on the wicker settee on the porch. “Did Beau come back up yet?”

“He said there was a whole plank missing on the bridge floor. I guess I’m lucky I slowed down, or I might be dead. He went back down to meet the sheriff.”

Blaze’s glower was enough to tell me he agreed with Beau’s assessment. “You could have died in a multitude of different ways down there. If I hadn’t heard the crash from up on the ridge, you would have drowned.”

I nodded but grimaced at the motion, grabbing the back of my neck. “I realize that. Again, thanks for dragging me out of there. I owe you one.”

His head shook once as his lips thinned out. “No, you’ll never owe me anything. I’ll never be able to repay you for what this place stole from you.” He hung his head for a moment instead of finishing his thought. “Stay put. I’ll get the UTV.” He jumped off the porch without using the stairs and jogged to the barn next to the house.

I wasn’t going to follow his orders. He wasn’t the boss of me. I stood up and walked down the steps carefully until my feet were firmly on the grassy lawn. My vision tilted, and I had to grab the porch railing to stay upright. I heaved a frustrated sigh at the truth staring me in the face. I’d never been on firm ground when it came to Blaze McAwley, and that was never going to change.

***

I sank into a chair at the kitchen table and lowered my head to the table. The UTV ride from Bison Ridge to Heavenly Lane hadn’t taken long but it had been achingly uncomfortable, both for my head and my heart. I wanted to say so much more to Blaze about Callie on this day. I just couldn’t find the words. Since Blaze never looked anywhere but straight ahead as he drove me to the ranch, I decided he didn’t want to talk about her either.

That was probably for the best. Nothing coming out of my mouth today had made sense anyway. Even before the knock to my head, I’d been a disaster. I’d been that way since I opened my eyes this morning. Add in the minutes when I had to face down those creatures, and I was exhausted. Those moments in the pasture made me shiver every time I thought of them. Their giant heads and strong horns. The sound of their huffed breath through their giant nostrils. The way their heads swayed through the grass, their horns waving like prehistoric death instruments. I shivered again and bit my lip to keep from whimpering.

Blaze had known my knees were knocking together when I faced those animals down. That’s what ticked me off more than anything. I tried to tell myself I didn’t give one iota what he thought about my choices today, but it didn’t work. I cared. He thought he was all big man on campus on that ranch, but I knew the truth: Those creatures would kill him just as quickly as they killed Callie.

I closed my eyes, but all I saw was the vision of him standing before me buck naked and six feet tall. Okay, so he kind ofwasbig man on campus, at least in the manhood department.

I groaned and rocked my head on the table. Why was I like this? Tomorrow had to be a better day. It just had to be.

The back door slammed shut, and I lifted my head slowly to see my best friend standing in the middle of the kitchen, her chest heaving from exertion.

“Thank God, you’re okay,” she said on the expulsion of air. She took stock of me and grimaced. “Maybe okay is too strong a word. How about if we go with alive.”

“I’m fine, Dawn,” I promised, but it sounded weak even to my own ears. I hated weak. I had been weak too many times in my life to ever be that again.