“Get away from me!”
Bolting fast, Skye could hardly believe her luck as she ran at a brisk pace and didn’t dare to look back. The door was still bolted a few feet ahead, but if she swung her arms fast enough, hard enough, Skye could lift the latch up and keep making her way out.
“Not so fast, you fucking tease!”
A pair of hard arms surrounded her frame, and Skye felt her body being dragged back into the barn, the heels of her boots scraping against the hay as she was dumped into the stall, the men stepping in to join her as they slammed the door shut.
“We just want to unwind after a long days’ hard work,” Charlie said with a smirk. “Ain’t that right, Lew?”
The other man’s lips just curled into a snarl, and as his tongue stayed tied, his fingers moved below his waist. He started to undo his belt, and Skye’s boot took aim at his groin. Hoping that she could hit him where it hurt and find another way to escape, she cried out in pain when Charlie wrestled her leg back to the ground.
“Ain’t you feisty!” he said. “But we have other ways to play. Best you lay back and let us take the lead.”
He forced a slimy kiss to her lips, and Skye bit down on his tongue causing him to cry out.
“That hurt!” he said. “Lew, why don’t she know the rules?”
Lewis stayed silent as he tugged at her rumpled hair and crushed his palm into her flushed cheek.
“She will,” he said in a thick voice. “Like any filly, we just got to break her in.”
The men exchanged a quick wink, and Skye tried to scream again when Lewis hit her again, and he started to work his hands under her shirt when a loud crack from just outside the stall startled the men in their pursuit.
“What the hell?” Charlie asked with a slight quiver in his voice. “Thought everyone else was like long gone.”
Lewis held his hand over Skye’s mouth and cocked his head back to the open barn door.
“Check it out,” he whispered. “And as for you…”
Lewis lowered his lips to Skye’s ear, and his free hand applied pressure to the nape of her neck.
“One sound, and you won’t have to worry about getting up for the morning rush.”
Closing her eyes as hate filled her heart, Skye struggled to breathe through his fingers. One wrong move now, and Lewis would make good on his threat. Better to wait it out and hope to find another way out. Or that something, someone might be on the verge of lending her a helping hand.
“What do you want?”
She registered the sound of Charlie’s voice, strong and sure, followed by what had to be something hard slamming into his chest. Now she heard nothing but his body falling to the ground, his light whimpers flooding the barn as Lewis grunted angrily and brought her face closer to his.
“Stay still,” he ordered. “If you know what’s good for you.”
Lewis tightened his belt, and as soon as he exited the stall, the man was pulled farther away from her side. Skye struggled to her elbows as she heard what had to be fists smacking into flesh as Lewis let loose a wave of obscenities until even his voice went silent. She painfully crawled away from the narrow space, brushing the hair from her eyes as she narrowed her gaze and saw a most welcome sight in tight black jeans and an even tighter tee.
“Ben?” she whispered. “How are… why are you here?”
His green eyes grew wide with worry as soon as he saw her. Skye felt the hay caught in her hair, and when she moved her hand to her mouth, the soreness and a slight burst of blood made her wince. The last thing that she wanted was to appear weak to any man. Especially him. But she still extended her arms as he drew closer to her side and picked her up gently. Skye sighed into his shoulder, and she let her arms fall around him as he carried her away from the fallen ranch hands. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the men groaning and clutching at their injured faces and sides. A small smile formed across her lips at the idea that Ben had smoked them in record time with the benefit of nothing but his bare hands, and she wanted to praise his efforts when her head grew heavy, and she fell into his chest.
“Easy,” he soothed as he brushed his fingers through her hair, down her braid. “They’re not going to bother you anymore tonight.”
She hit the moonlight in his arms, and Ben gently placed her in the cab of his truck. He disappeared for all of a second before returning with a wool blanket. Pressing the coarse fabric around her body, he buckled her in and rushed to the other side of the truck. As soon as he turned the key in the ignition, Skye reached out from under the blanket and tried to take hold of his hand.
“How did you know?” she asked.
“As a matter of fact, I didn’t” he confessed.
“Then why did you–?”
“Honestly I just wanted to see you again,” as he pulled the truck away from the barn, one hand still in hers as he steered into the night and fixed his gaze on the way ahead.
“Why is that?” Skye muttered. “After all, I’m just a girl.”
Ben grunted softly at the sound of her words, and he turned the wheel under his hand as he muttered something that she couldn’t quite make out.
“Come again,” she asked. “I… my head’s kind of hurting here. Can you speak up?”
His eyes drifted towards hers, and Skye basked in the light of his smile mingling with the moon. She would take his kiss now if he offered as much, and Skye started to cuddle closer to his side when he wrapped his free arm firmly around her shoulders, laughing as he shook his head.
“Think it would be best to get you someplace warm first,” he said. “And then… then we can talk.”
Too tired to argue even as her heart felt as if it was slamming to the point where it would burst through her skin, Skye lowered her lids and rested her ear to his chest. Ben’s heart thrummed at an even keel, just matching the rhythm of his wheels as they turned off the main road, and the truck came to rest beside a small cottage. He parked and hurried around to her side.
“I’m going to get you up now,” he said. “Okay with you?”
More than okay, but Skye said nothing as she fell into his arms. His hold was strong as he carried her to a small door. Kicking it open with the heel of his boot, he brought her into a dark room and lowered her body to a battered couch. As he moved from one corner to the other, the space filled with light courtesy of matches striking and lanterns beginning to glow from every angle. As soon as she could focus, Skye took in the sight of the room growing warmer, feeling more so. A small table with one chair rested off to the side, and as soon as Ben built the fire, Skye pushed past the blanket and leaned forward as her head began to clear.
“One chair,” she said. “So no dinners for two?”
“Not quite,” he muttered, “You hungry?”
His back was to her as he wiped his hands against his jeans and slowly turned around to face her. His dark attire, his darker hair glowed under the flames, and Skye slid closer to the edge of the couch as she stared at her hands. She noted that one nail had broken clean off when she had struggled with the men. Somehow the rest remained intact. But the pain in her jaw was not so easily brushed aside.
“You got any ice?” she asked.
Ben seemed relieved to have another task to perform, and she saw him kneel before a small freezer. Pulling out a full tray of ice, he dumped the entirety of the contents onto a checkered cloth, and he moved back to her side as he let the coolness seep into her skin.
“How’s that?” he asked. “Feel better?”
She nodded without words, and her fingers trailed up his arm, her touch mingling with the cloth and the cold as she peered into his eyes.
“But why did you come back?” she asked. “What more was there to say?”
“Oh, Skye…”
His voice trailed off, and Skye nearly bit down on her lip when the pain brought a pause to the move. She simply sucked in a deep breath as he tenderly stroked both sides of her face. The ice melted into a memory as he bathed her cheeks wi
th soft kisses, and when he finally cupped her chin and rested his brow to hers, Skye could focus on nothing but his sweet breath swirling around his eyes and the promise of whatever he might say next.
“You held your own today,” he started. “Worked the land with the rest of them.”
“Told you that I could,” she said. “So maybe seeing is believing.”
“And then some, Skye.”
“Thought you were off to the race,” she challenged.
“I had an eye on you,” he said. “How could I not?”
He leaned forward, softly kissing her as the feel of his fingers made even her bruises a memory, and Skye let her face move around his hold as he fell to her ear, his whisper drizzling around her brain when he pushed back and centered his hands on her shoulders.
“Under any other circumstances I bet you wouldn’t have needed me.”
“Yes,” she said. “But… but that doesn’t mean that I would want…”
Skye moved to kiss him again when he pushed his fingers under her chin.
“What do you want?” he asked.
He sat at her side and wrapped her into his embrace, his mouth moving through her hair as he reached under her shirt. Skye’s skin cringed for all of a second, but as his fingers played into her skin and brought forth the music of her sighs from the pit of her soul, Skye pushed forward, nearly falling into his arms when he held her back and clutched her shoulders.
“It is something else, Skye,” he said. “So are you into it?”
She waited without speaking as Ben eased her shirt from her body. As soon as her breasts felt the air, Skye shuddered, and Ben was quick to gather her into his arms. She rested in his hold and moaned at the feel of his hands running up and down her back. Every time his hands came close to her waist, he seemed to hesitate, and for a few passes, Skye did nothing more than rock into his reluctance. Better to wait and make the moment last. But when she finally kicked off her boots and winded her legs around his, there was no more time that she wanted to waste, and Skye pushed closer to his chest. She tore his tee away and let her hands run along the lines of his muscles, his tan.
“Looks like lots of long hours in the sun,” she said.
“More than I can count,” he confessed. “But it’s nothing. I like the work. I like to fall asleep because I got the job done.”
Skye smiled softly as she eased her hand down his jeans, and as soon as her fingers surrounded his firmness, she absorbed his groan and kissed her way up his neck. Skye nearly forgot his pulse when she looked into his eyes, nuzzling his nose as she breathed into his lips.
“Can you forget the job for tonight?” she asked. “I… I don’t think that I want to be alone.”
Ben nodded, and again she was up and in his arms. He kicked open another door, and she smiled as he laid her out on a stiff mattress as he looked down at her.
“I should have stuck around,” he said. “I know those guys. Shouldn’t have let you alone to face them down.”
“I would have found a way out,” she said. “One way or the other.”
“It’s the other way that scares me,” he said as he slipped to her side and fondled her face. “Last thing I would have wanted was to come back at dawn to see you even more banged up. Or worse.”
Skye started to protest when the pain running under her mouth flared up again. She couldn’t help but cringe when he touched his fingers to her jaw.
“Is it worse?” he asked, his voice just cracking around his words. Ben found her fingers, and he held her hand tight as he kissed her hair and finally settled his stare in her eyes.
“It… it could have been,” she said. “Creeps like that only want one thing.”
“And what do you want, Ben?”
He tightened his lips and kept brushing his hands through her hair to the point where he untied her braid. Skye’s golden strands fell through his fingers, and he moved to claim her kiss when she pushed her palms into his arms, and she centered her stare into his eyes.
“What do you want?” she repeated. “You said that I wasn’t cut out for this.”
“And then I took it back,” he reminded her. “Skye, you could run a ranch with one arm tied behind your back.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” she said. “Don’t really want to go it alone.”
“But I still never should have left you.”
Ben lightly kissed her hair as he pulled off her jeans, and he smiled when he saw all of her ready and waiting under his eyes.
“Can you make the same move now?” she asked, teased. Ben swiftly followed suit, and the dark denim left his well-toned thighs followed by his briefs. Pressing his nude body next to hers, Ben spooned her, kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her hair, and when he came to a stop to meet her gaze again, Skye suckled his finger and listened to his moan.
“I’ll make any move that keeps me close,” he said. “To you. With you. Just… just you.”
“And why me?” she asked. “What makes me so special?”
“Like you have to ask.”
Ben rolled to his back, keeping her close to his chest as he kept kissing her. His moans reverberated under her skin, and she started to touch his back when she drew back and let her hands fall down his face.
“But I do,” she whispered. “You were ready to make like them and run me off the–”
“Not like them,” he insisted as he shifted on top of her again. Under his hold, she was a kind of trapped, but Skye sensed that it was different from the stall. If she wanted to, she could kick away and run.
But she didn’t want that.
“Not like them,” she said. “But you still didn’t answer my question.”
Ben fell to her side, pushing her closer as he pulsed inside her. Skye groaned as his moves rocked her core, and she started to dig her nails into his chest when she blanched back and stared into his eyes.
“Tell me,” she pleaded. “Why–?”
“Because a real man wants a real woman if he’s ever going to set his own stake.”
Just what was he saying? Breaking free and trying to rival Powell even as the dirt lingered under his nails. No way that he could make that work. But just the idea that he had wrapped her up in the space of his dream made him… made her…
“Show me a real man,” she said. “Show me you.”
Ben smiled as he pressed her deeper into the bed. She spread her legs as he grew larger inside her, and she lifted her hips to meet his thrust when the dam broke. He was pulsing around her essence, and Skye clung to his broad back, her lips smacking into his arms as Ben’s hold tightened. There was no pain in his thrust, and Skye clawed at his skin when he grabbed her face, minding her bruises as his body lingered on the precipice of release.
But before that could or would happen…
“And if I ask you to come with,” he started. “Will you?”
Skye nodded to feel him flowing through her, and as soon as her body buckled she wanted nothing more than to follow. But why should she want to run when he was so near, so firm and sweet in the span of a single breath? Skye stroked his skin, and as soon as she found his lips, she smiled into his eyes.
“I think it’s supposed to be me,” she said. “And let’s not let anything else get in our way.”
“Skye, I…”
He held her close, kissing her hair as Skye drifted into a dream of nothing but more of him.
Chapter 5
Skye woke slowly, feeling no soreness as she reached across the pillow in search of Ben, wanting nothing more than to pull him close and kiss him. His touch still burned across her fingers, and she smiled at the thought of feeling him again, his hands, his lips, his…
“Ben?”
As soon as she realized his absence, Skye shot up straight, her eyes darting wildly around the small room as she looked in every direction. Calling out for him again, she leapt away from the bed, pulling her muddied clothes over her body as she raced away from the bedroom. Hoping that she would see him fixing c
offee or breakfast or both, the room took on the feeling of a tomb, cold and dark and hopeless. Would he… how could he just take off without so much as a goodbye after all that they had shared?
She fixed her gaze on a slim sheet of paper tacked up just beside the door, and she hurried towards it. Tearing it away from the frame with trembling hands, Skye swallowed hard and read the scrawl, stunned by the steadiness of the hand that had to have set the words to the page.
Had fun. Heading out of Dodge for a while. Less we say about this when I make my way back the better.
And just like that, the bottom dropped out from under her. Thinking that it would have hurt less had she submitted to Lewis or Charlie, Skye slid down the wall and crumpled the note practically ordering to make her walk of shame back to the ranch on foot before tossing it away as far as she could throw. How could she have been so blind? Getting the job was enough of a hurdle in and of itself. And now she would have to wait on pins and needles for his return. No more helping hand. Unless he had an itch and wanted the scratch of her nails. And the rest of her. Beating herself up in her mind for blowing her shot before it even got started, Skye gritted her teeth and headed out into the early morning air. She wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve and wondered what her next move should be when the force of a heavy gallop hit the ground. Stopping where she stood, Skye clenched her fists at her side as a golden figure astride a dark horse came into view.
“Aaron…?”
The boy smiled brightly as soon as he saw her, and Skye was on the verge of returning his grin when she thought of how if he had just stayed in the first place…
“So what was that yesterday?” she asked. “Hot date or something that like just couldn’t be put off for another second?”
“And who told you that?” he asked, looking down at her with warm eyes as he lowered his hand to touch a single strand of her rumpled hair. Backing away from him, knowing that she had to reek of Ben’s scent, Skye stuffed her hands into her pockets and waited for him to call her out for fraternizing with the other hired help when he dismounted and lightly took her hand in his.
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