Page 19 of Operation Wolf: Hunter
CHAPTER 9
Hunter
THE FAINT CREAK OFthe floorboards above told me that Kia was up, and I bit back a groan. I’d been hoping that she’d sleep in because of her head injury and that I’d be gone by the time she woke up.
Guess it’s a good thing I made enough breakfast for two.
I flipped the bacon on the griddle.
A few minutes passed before Kia came down the stairs, looking absolutely stunning, and the way she fit in her blue jeans . . .
Hell.There damn sure ain’t no curves like hers on the back roads in Bramblebush.
I scowled. Kia was nothing but temptation, and now I found myself wishing she had stayed in her room to rest and heal. I really didn’t need her help to get the ranch into working order. I had plenty of money to hire help if I needed it. But the other part of me was relieved she’d made it through the night. I hadn’t dared go back into the room to check on her again, and I’d felt guilty about leaving her alone the rest of the night. But there was no way I would be able to resist her advances again, especially since my inner wolf was so eager to fuck her. The bastard had berated me endlessly for walking away from her.
Gathering up the platters of scrambled eggs and bacon to bring to the table, I turned to see Kia hovering in the doorway, uncertainty written all over her face. Her cheeks flushed as I met her eyes, and with some satisfaction, I noticed the dark circles under her eyes.
She didn’t get any sleep either.
“Sleep well?” she finally asked huskily.
“Yep.”
I’d jerked off three times last night, and it still hadn’t been enough. My body continued to burn with the need to be inside her and only her, which frustrated me to no end. I’d tried to imagine perfect, busty blondes while I was pleasuring myself, but I had been unable to get off until I pictured Kia straddling me, her mouth crushing mine as her breasts brushed against my chest. Her bust was smaller than I usually liked—a C-cup at best, I gauged—but she more than made up for it in the ass department. The feel of her sexy ass in my hand . . .
Biting back a curse, I ripped my attention from my lustful fantasies and stalked toward Kia. Her eyes widened, and she backed up through the doorway, no doubt thinking I was going to do something to her, but I brushed straight past her to the dining room table and started setting the food out.
“Why don’t you help set the table?” I asked calmly, as though I weren’t trying to beat back fantasies of bending her over the dining room table, grabbing a handful of her hair, yanking her head back, and fucking her until we both went blind.
“Yes, of course,” Kia said quickly. She fled back into the kitchen.
It took a little longer than was probably necessary for her to fetch plates and forks, but that was okay with me. I needed the time to compose myself as well. By the time she came back in, I was almost completely calm again.
We ate in silence for a while, the only sounds in the room the clink of silverware against plates, the crunch of bacon between teeth . . . and Kia’s heartbeat, I realized, cursing my heightened senses. It sped and slowed intermittently, like a roller coaster, and it was putting me on edge.
“Why don’t you spit out whatever it is you’re thinking?” I said flatly, picking up another slice of bacon with my bare fingers. “I can tell you’re nervous about something.”
“I’m not nervous,” she snapped, but she didn’t meet my eyes. “I . . .” She took a breath and then looked up at me. “I just wanted to apologize for last night. It was a mistake, and it won’t happen again.”
What the fuck? It was a mistake?
I should have been relieved. I’d been thinking much the same thing, but internally, I flinched, the words more painful than they had any right to be.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told her. Then I took a bite of my bacon and chewed. “I know you weren’t thinking straight. You probably thought I was someone else.”
“Yeah, sure.”
We both knew it wasn’t true, but Kia seemed relieved that I was giving her an out.
Her shoulders relaxed. “So, um, what’s the agenda for today?”
“Not much,” I admitted, pushing back my empty plate. “I’m going to be gone most of the day, and you shouldn’t be doing any hard labor, not while you’re recovering, and especially not while I’m not around to make sure you don’t nearly kill yourself again.”
Kia raised her chin. “I survived before you got here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, and God only knows how the hell you managed that. No, you need to take it easy and rest up today,” I told her firmly.
“But we only have a month,” Kia protested. “I can’t just sit around here doing nothing. Surely, there’s something I can do while you’re gone.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” I said, tossing her a shit-eating grin. I stood up and cleared my plate from the table. “I’m definitely going to be putting you through your paces tomorrow, so I suggest you take full advantage of your rest day while you still can because you’ll be cursing me to hell and back tomorrow.” I turned away, heading for the kitchen again.
“Yeah, right,” Kia said, belligerence in every syllable. “I’m no stranger to hard work.”
I didn’t answer, and when I came back through the door, a scowl marred her pretty face.
“Where are you going?” she called as I headed for the front door.
I turned back to her for a moment, my expression dead serious now. “I’m going to find the sorry souls who used to work for Old Daniel and make them tell me what the hell happened here.” I couldn’t believe that they hadn’t had some kind of hand in the ranch’s decline, and I was going to get to the bottom of this mess today.
A foul mood settling in from the lack of sleep, sexual frustration, and the task that awaited me, I climbed into my truck and drove off, looking forward to giving someone a good ass-kicking.
