Page 13 of Big Burly Foreman

“Finished your dick-measuring contest?” Eric asks with a grin when I join them.

“We both know the kid doesn’t stand a chance against me.”

He snorts at my words as he points to a stack of hay that’s ready to be unloaded from the tractor and moved into the barn.

It’s nothing my muscles haven’t grown used to, and they start burning in a satisfying way as I carry the bales into the barn, sweat dripping down my shoulders and back. The hay pricks my skin, leaving a stinging sensation all over my arms, but I don’t pay attention to it. My body has become used to the burn and the stings, so I focus instead on the woman who stole my heart.

Perhaps I should have gone after her when I started working here and our connection was established, but something held me back. She’d just turned eighteen and was already in college when I first started working at the ranch, and I was thirty-two and fresh out of the military. I held back, feeling unworthy of someone as precious as her.

Someone ethereal, and not just because of her angelic looks. Ashley is kind, innocent, and humble despite being the heiress of massive wealth.

She is perfect in every sense of the word, and I am just a man, battle scarred and broken. My scars run deeper than the eye can see, and I didn’t want to subject my princess to a man as imperfect as myself. So, I worked . . .

I ignored my desire and heavy need to be with her for years.

No more!

Ashley is mine, and I will do whatever it takes to be worthy of her.

“Logan?” I am startled out of my thoughts when someone pats my back.

I turn around, and my eyes collide with Ashley’s green ones, and like the deepest and most mysterious forest, they beckon to me, hypnotizing me with their depths. Her head turns around to look at something before turning back to stare at me, and I realize for the first time that she’s alone.

“Where’s the kid?”

“Logan,” she says with a sigh. “Don’t call him that, and he left for the stables with one of the guys to get the horses ready.”

“Why?” I ask, gritting my teeth.

Ashley breathes out another sigh, this time shaking her head at me before stepping forward, and I don’t notice the towel until she’s running it over my neck. “He said he wanted to ride around and look at the ranch.”

“Ash . . .”

“Stop,” she says firmly, looking around at the guys pretending not to watch us before dropping her voice to a whisper. “I don’t want to talk about him or anyone else.”

I grab the hand on my neck and hold it hostage before taking a step, closing the distance between us. “Then what do you want to talk about? Last night?”

“Logan,” she gasps, her eyes shooting to the other people making their best impression of minding their own business, but I can feel their eyes on us, and perhaps, that’s a good thing.

Up until this moment, they’ve only speculated about my feelings for Ashley, and it’s about time they know she is mine.

“Do you want to hear about how I went to bed last night thinking about your taste?” I whisper, my voice low, so only she can hear. “How I fucked my own hand thinking of you? My cock has been hard since, and no amount of jerking off will get it to go down.”

“Oh,” she whispers, her hands fumbling, and the towel drops.

“I’m hard right now. I would show you just how hard if it was only the two of us.”

Her pretty green eyes are unfocused as they stare up at me, soft puffs coming through her lips, and I can tell she wants to kiss me because it’s the same thing I want.

Fuck, she’s perfect.

I want to drag her into the privacy of the barn, rake my lips over her neck, and scrape my teeth over her sensitive skin. My mouth waters at the swell of her breasts under her blouse, and I am tempted to tug at the neckline and suck the soft buds between my lips, the way I couldn’t yesterday.

“Everyone is staring,” she whispers, her voice shaky with need.

“I know,” I rasp, need clogging my throat and making my voice deeper than it normally is. “I’ll find you later.”

“We shouldn’t,” she says, but with much less conviction than yesterday. At this point, she is saying the words just for the sake of it. Even she doesn’t believe there is a force on Earth that will keep me from claiming her.

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