by Cassie Cole
“What you’re doing is getting arrested,” he said.
I zoned out as he loaded me and Landon into the cruiser.
27
Cindy
“Stupid.”
I raced down my driveway in my SUV, bouncing roughly over the uneven gravel. I turned onto the main road at the end without slowing, throwing Daniel sideways into the door.
“Absolutely fucking stupid.”
“I agree.”
“And you didn’t stop them?”
“They wouldn’t have listened,” Daniel protested.
“So you didn’t try?”
He was probably right, but I needed someone to blame and he made a convenient punching bag. I let out a frustrated yell.
“This will only make things worse. All we can hope is that we can stop them before…”
I trailed off as a car pulled out of the Honeycomb driveaway ahead, turning toward us. Though the siren lights weren’t flashing, it was unmistakably a sheriff’s cruiser.
As it passed us, I caught a glimpse of two figures in the back seat. I slowed the car to a stop.
“Shit.”
We followed the cruiser back to the police station in town. Daniel tried to apologize a few more times but I ignored him. By then I’d accepted that it wasn’t his fault, and had focused my anger on the other two idiot brothers.
The police station wasn’t any larger than a post office. There was a front room with chairs, and a desk behind bullet proof glass leading back to the lockup. Nobody was there.
“Hello?” I said, ringing the bell by the glass. “Anyone home?”
A soft looking man in an oversized sheriff’s uniform came sauntering up behind the glass. He slid back the cover on the glass and said, “Good evening. I’m assuming you’re Miss Jameson?”
“Cindy,” I said. I was sick of everyone calling me miss, like my only worth was tied into the fact that I wasn’t married yet. “What are my ranch hands charged with?”
I groaned as he went through everything. Trespassing. Theft of property. Brandishing a weapon. Unlawful discharge of a weapon.
Goddamnit, Chase.
Daniel and I waited while they were booked. I leaned my head back and stared at the composite board ceiling tiles, browned with age. This place stank like desperation. A tired looking woman wandered inside and told us she was the clerk. She went over the charges, then told me both Landon Hughes and Chase Hughes would be allowed out on bail. They didn’t accept credit card, so I paid with two personal checks. The woman filled out the paperwork and then went home, leaving us to sit and wait.
Hours later, the door to the side opened with a flurry of disengaged locks and a scream of rusty hinges. But the sheriff only led one Hughes brother out.
“Where’s Chase?” Daniel asked.
The sheriff snorted. “That boy didn’t show me enough respect on the drive over. Too much attitude. He needs to sit a spell in the drunk tank before he can be released.”
“Oh come on,” I began, then stopped. The last thing you wanted to do was upset a small town sheriff who was looking for excuses to wield his meager authority.
I hugged Landon, then punched him in the chest. “You’re a fucking idiot.”
“I know.”
“Didn’t I say not to worry about the cattle? Didn’t I tell you it wasn’t worth the hassle, because it would turn into a whole big thing? This was that thing I was talking about.”
“It’s all my fault,” Landon said. He looked weary. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
We got in the car and drove home in silence.
“Get out,” I said when we were in my driveway.
“What? Where are you going?” Daniel asked.
“To wait for Chase.”
“Let me do that,” Landon offered. “It was my fault. I should wait for my brother.”
I shot daggers at him with my eyes. “You have shit to do on the ranch tomorrow. The stuff I pay you to do. Which does not include starting a cattle war with my asshole neighbors.”
“But…”
“Rest up. You’ve got work to do in a few hours,” I said, driving away before they could argue more.
God, I was mad. The kind of anger you had when you stubbed your toe on the corner of your desk. Except instead of an inanimate object as the cause of my anger, I had Chase. A headstrong cowboy with a too-easy smile.
What was I going to do with them?
The sheriff was waiting in the front room when I came back, leaning in one of the chairs and using a toothpick to scrape at the grime under his fingernails. “Thought you’d be back.”
“Yeah, well, someone has to pick him up when you let him out.”
“You always hire ranch hands like the Hughes boys?”
“I know you’re just taunting me,” I said, “but they’re literally the first ranch hands I’ve ever hired. I just inherited the ranch from my dad.”
I was hoping the mention of my dead dad would make him take sympathy on me, but he showed no sign that he’d noticed. “You chose poorly.”
“They do their jobs just fine. This altercation notwithstanding, that is.”
The sheriff, whose name I had zero desire to ask, stared intently at his fingernails. “How much are you paying them?”
Any other time I would have told him to mind his own business, but just then I was too tired to protest. “They asked for $300 a week, each.”
He looked up to see if I was joking. When he saw that I wasn’t, he laughed.
“What?”
“Never heard of no ranch hands working for so cheap.”
“Times are tough,” I said carefully. “They were desperate.”
“Maybe,” he said, tone full of doubt. “I would watch out, if I were you. I know who they used to work for. The reason Daniel’s too scared to even stick a boot in a stirrup. They’ve got other motives, believe you me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
He shrugged, rose, and disappeared into the back.
*
The rattling of the air conditioner made it impossible to sleep. I stared at the coffee stain on the wall and let my mind wander while I waited.
Other motives. What the hell did that mean?
I shifted in my chair. I still wore the sexy pair of panties I’d changed into when expecting Landon to crawl into my bed, and they kept riding up on me. I was almost tempted to go into the bathroom and take them off entirely; commando was better than this.
“Fuck,” I said out loud. You know what else I’d forgotten? My phone. In the scramble to stop Chase and Landon I’d left it at home. Yesterday I’d meant to stick around after the funeral and check emails while I had signal in town, but the drama with the Honeycombs and Aunt Sophie had distracted me. I could be catching up right now while I waited.
Instead, it was wasted time. I hated wasted time.
I didn’t want to make the 20 minute drive back to the ranch to get it, either. Daniel and Landon would probably be waiting, and bombard me with apologies and excuses. I didn’t want to hear any of them right now. I just wanted to be left alone.
Most importantly, I needed to tell my boss I would be burning a week of vacation to stay here and finish things. I didn’t need email for that: maybe I could borrow the police phone and call. A moment later I shook my head to myself. It was 3:00am. Plus I didn’t have the office phone number memorized. Damn our reliance on technology.
I needed to make sure I did that tomorrow. My boss was accommodating, but I didn’t want to push my luck.
Landon had taken all the blame, but I knew that was just a big brother trying to defend his little brother. This was all Chase’s idea. I’d very specifically told him not to. I told him it wasn’t worth the hassle. I knew it would end up like this, sitting in a sheriff’s office in the middle of the night on a Sunday.
It made me angry. It made me frustrated. It made me want to fire him.
It made me a lot of other things, too.
; The sheriff didn’t let him out until 7:15am. He wore black chaps over his jeans, and a black shirt and duster. Clothes that screamed intent. His dirty blond hair was a mess under his black hat, and his blue eyes were cast down like a guilty puppy.
The sheriff said something to me. I said something back. I can’t remember what.
We went out to my car in silence. Buckled our seat belts in silence. Drove away in silence.
When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I said, “Are you pleased with yourself?”
He looked over at me.
It was the smile that did it. Behind the feather-soft hair draped across half his face was the smile of a man who had done exactly what he set out to do. A man who didn’t care how much he risked his own life, so long as he protected those he cared about.
And last night, he’d done it for me.
“You should’ve seen the look on Herald’s face,” he said in a low, deep voice, that gorgeous smile widening.
I pulled over on the side of the road and was kissing him before I even shifted into park. His hands touched my chest, and neck, kissing me back even harder as we fell into the back seat, laughing as my butt sank into the gap and almost got me stuck.
“Come here,” he growled, wrapping an arm underneath and pulling me up onto the seat. He lowered his body onto mine in the small space, his dirty blond hair tickling the sides of my face as he kissed me hard, a kiss that had been days in the making. Brewing like a stew.
“Does this mean you’re not mad?” he murmured while nuzzling my ear.
“It means I’m too horny to care right now.”
“Good enough for me.”
He kissed along my neck, sucking gently at my collarbone while his hands slid down my chest. I sucked in my breath as he rubbed me through my jeans, a wonderful pressure that had me bucking against his hand and reaching for his belt.
He snatched my wrist in his, holding me back with easy strength. “Nuh uh,” he said, wagging a finger in front of my face. “I get to enjoy you first.”
“But…” My protest turns into another moan as his hand returns to its task, rubbing in a circle through my jeans. I spread my legs wider for him, hoping to give him as much as possible while he looks down at me, drinking my pleasure in the early morning light. I was desperate for the touch, and knew he was going to make me come quickly. I wanted to last longer, to draw it out into a sensual encounter, but Chase had other ideas.
“Yeah,” he said, biting his lip. “You like that?”
I answered with a squirm, bucking my hips against him. I wanted more, and he was denying me. And that made it so much hotter. He took control, using his free hand to push my body down into the fake leather seat while he rubbed between my legs, faster and faster. My orgasm was quick and intense, and Chase finally released his grip on my chest to let me arch my back in ecstasy.
“Now it’s my turn,” he whispered, unbuttoning my jeans and sweeping them off in one quick motion. The cool air hit my legs and butt, but Chase had his own jeans off and smothered me with his body, a blanket of warmth against mine. I spread my legs and felt his hardness touch my belly, thrusting into my pubic hair as he kissed me again. I lost myself in his lips as he ground his body back and forth, shaft rubbing wonderfully along my clit.
And then, as smooth as silk, he pulled back far enough for his tip to slide down between my wet lips, and his next thrust pushed inside.
“Fuck,” he groaned, lowering his forehead into my neck. “Sweet Jesus, you feel good…”
I grabbed his head and kissed his hair as he entered slowly, a little bit at a time. I could tell he was holding back, trying to pace himself.
Fuck that.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him in, and he was powerless to stop me. His wide cock pressed tight against my inner walls, as deep as he could go until I felt his base around my lower lips, and we both cried out with the agony of love.
It unleashed the cowboy in him. He grabbed my hair with one hand, pulled back, and thrust inside me hard. The jolt sent electricity through my clit and legs, and he must have felt just as good because he pulled back and slammed into me again, fucking me into the car seat. Each thrust rubbed his thighs against mine with beautiful friction; I ran my hand along his right thigh, dragging fingernails against the lines of his hip and ass.
But he was still holding himself back. And I wanted to make him come.
“Fuck me,” I moaned into his lips. The words were like a spell: instantly he began thrusting even harder, enough to make my whole body rock back and forth on the seat. I tried to lean in to kiss him but his fingers tightened in my hair, pulling me back. Gazing at me with his gorgeous crystal eyes.
“Harder,” I breathed, running my hands along his back.
He obliged, jackhammering me as hard and fast as he could go. His body was a machine, pistoning in the tight space. He pulled back all the way with each stroke so that his head nearly came out, then rammed back inside just before it could. It felt like riding a bucking bronco: all I could do was hold on for dear life.
When his face contorted with surprise, and ecstasy, I screamed my own second climax with his, each of us unable to hold back as we gasped and sighed and tried to catch our breath.
28
Cindy
We drove home in silence, but instead of the fuming silence from the police station it was the calm silence of satisfaction.
I parked in front of the house. Chase put his hand on my thigh.
“Cindy, I wanted to say…”
“You don’t need to say anything,” I grinned.
“But…”
I left the car before he could say something sappy. This was just physical. It was only for a few days until I went back to Austin. This wasn’t going to last, and anything he said would only make that reality tougher.
Landon and Daniel were eating breakfast in the kitchen—French toast, based on the smell of cinnamon and butter. They stared placidly as I dumped my car keys in the bowl on the counter.
“Morning,” I said.
“Good morning,” Daniel said cautiously. “I can whip you up some French toast if you want. Got the egg wash all ready.”
“Actually, that sounds wonderful.” I poured some coffee. “And then I’m going take a nice long nap.”
Landon’s eyes followed me across the kitchen. “You’re in a better mood than I expected.”
“What? Why do you say that?” I sputtered. Fuck, was it that obvious what Chase and I had done?
“I dunno. Expected you to be angry we’re just now waking up.”
I shrugged as Chase came into the kitchen. “Y’all are the ones who choose to wake up early. I don’t care when you start the day, so long as the work gets done.”
“Expected you to be angrier about last night, too.”
I sipped my coffee and avoided looking at Chase. He was grinning widely at me. “Yeah. Well. What’s done is done.”
“That’s mighty judicious of you,” Landon said.
“Cindy,” Chase said. He had a sensitive look in his eyes. Fuck.
“Let’s talk later,” I said, turning away to refill the centimeter of coffee I’d drank. He grabbed my arm.
“I can’t hide it anymore. The way I feel.”
Daniel froze over the skillet. Landon cocked his head. I only sighed.
“Chase…”
“I’m glad I did what I did,” he said defiantly. “I’d do it all over again, even knowing what would happen. We had to defend you. It was the right thing to do, and I’m not just saying that cause it led to… you know…”
Goddamnit.
“What happened?” Landon asked.
It all came pouring out of Chase like the faucet had broken. “I couldn’t help myself. You waited for me at the station. You could’ve let me sit there in the drunk tank, but you didn’t. Cindy…”
“I kissed Cindy!” Daniel blurted out.
Three sets of eyes whipped toward him.
“After the
Honeycombs came by the other day, gloating about the cows. In the driveway. I shouldn’t have done it, and I shouldn’t have hid it.”
“You kissed her?” Chase asked. “And here I felt guilty about breaking our rule…”
This was getting out of hand. They were talking like I wasn’t even there. Like I was a vintage sports car they’d taken for a ride. “What rule?” I demanded.
“We all agreed not to make any moves on you until after,” Daniel said.
I stiffened. “After what?”
An uncomfortable silence fell over the room. Landon cleared his throat and said, “After the ranch was fixed up. After our one week trial period.”
I rounded on him. “Is that the truth?”
“Of course…”
“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked. “Why’d you agree to work my ranch for a paltry $300 per week? What are you after?”
Landon leaped to his feet. “Who’ve you been talking to about our wages?”
“The sheriff. He also told me I ought to be suspicious of you three.” I nodded at Daniel. “He said it had to do with why you can’t ride horses anymore.”
Daniel staggered as if I’d shoved him. For a brief instant, I felt guilty. But only for an instant. They were hiding something from me, and I had a feeling it wasn’t to my benefit.
I focused on Landon. The eldest. The ringleader. “Why did you choose me? What are you three planning? Why the fuck are you on my ranch?”
Landon stood up straight, an impervious steel wall. He looked like he wanted to say something, but I could tell it wouldn’t be the answer I wanted.
“It doesn’t matter,” I muttered. “The ranch is worthless, unless you want to steal a few picture frames. There’s nothing for you to steal but my pride.”
I grabbed my keys, went into the bedroom to get my cell phone, and left.
29
Landon
We listened to her stomp through the house, then out the front door. The sound of her SUV driving away felt like defeat.
“That went about as well as a scorpion in a dog house,” Chase said.
