by Gigi Thorne
The only figure who’s doing anything is Cy.
What the hell’s he doing here?
I ride Trapper down as fast as I can. Cy’s got a phone pressed to his ear and a bucket at his feet. “—at the Rider Ranch,” he’s saying. “Get the hell out here. I’ve got two buckets and there are two fires. The math isn’t great.” He snaps the phone shut and meets my eyes, his gaze sliding suspiciously to Isabel. “Why’s she wearing your shirt?”
“Because I’m sleeping with him,” Isabel snaps. “And it’s none of your business, Cy. Where are the buckets?”
“I’ve got one, and Joe’s got the other—” He turns his back. Joe, a guy who works at Cy’s ranch, is filling up the second bucket at the pump. “Hurry up, Joe! We’re losing them!” Then he wheels back to Isabel. “What the hell’d you just say?”
“I’m with Luke now,” she calls out defiantly. “There’s nothing you can do about it. What happened here?” The flames are raging over the barn and fire is crawling up the side of the farmhouse. I’m utterly paralyzed. This is all I have in the world, and it’s burning in front of my face.
“I saw the smoke. One of the guys waiting in line said something about a cigarette.”
“A cigarette?” My mouth barely works. “One cigarette lit this whole place on fire?”
“One of the shingles, maybe,” Cy says, and I have no fucking idea what he’s talking about. I look again. The roof needs work. It’s needed work since my uncle lived here. The right gust of wind, I guess— “Also, what the hell are you doing with my sister?”
I open my mouth to answer, but before I can say a word he picks up the bucket and runs for the barn, throwing it ineffectually against the nearest flames. Then he’s running back toward the pump. “You stay away from her,” he says as he races past.
“Fat chance,” Isabel responds, scoffing, as if this is any time for fucking scoffing. My entire life is going up in flames. My entire life—and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it. Cy’s right. The rest of the buckets are in the barn, which is currently burning down. There’s no way I’m going inside to retrieve them. The only saving grace is that all the horses are out.
Speaking of—
I look around for the customers. They’ve parked themselves a short distance away and are staring up at the barn.
“It’ll be all right,” Isabel says, putting a hand on my elbow as two fire trucks—all the town has—scream into the yard and shut off their sirens. “The fire department is here, and—”
“And then what?” I yank my arm away. “Then what the hell am I going to do?”
She jerks back like she’s been stung. “Are you pissed at me?”
“Isabel,” I shout, “the whole fucking ranch is burning down.”
“It’s not the whole ranch, it’s a couple of buildings—”
“It’s the house where I live. And the barn where I house my horses. That’s the entire business.”
“Luke, there’s no way—this was an accident. I am positive that nobody here started this fire on purpose. I didn’t.”
“But if you’d never come here, none of this would have happened.”
The fire crew rushes past, carrying a giant hose. They’re all yelling at one another, setting up—two fires. Two buildings. It’s going to take all of them to put this fire out, and even then, it’s moving fast. Too fast. I can see it from here. The weathered wood might as well be tinder.
“You don’t mean that,” Isabel cries.
“I mean it as much as I’ve ever meant anything.” A fine panic rises through my veins, followed by a flash of anger that’s colder than ice. “If you and your brother hadn’t shown up and stuck your nose into my business—”
“We never would have had a chance,” she fires back. “My brother was only trying to help a friend.”
“And you were trying to catch yourself a man. Good for both of you. You did it.” I sound sarcastic and awful and mean, but I can’t stop it. The fear is too strong, the fire too hot. “And once again, I’m left with fucking nothing. Tell me, Iz, how well did your little plan work?” I jab a hand toward the burning barn. “Was this what you had in mind? Oh, fucking please don’t tell me your ultimate goal was to cash out on the insurance money.”
Isabel’s face falls.
I’ve gone too far, and I know it.
“How dare you,” she whispers, and my heart splits in two. “You were right, Luke. You are a worthless piece of shit.”
“Iz—stop—” I reach for her, but she’s already stripping my shirt over her head and flinging it toward the barn. It gets caught up in a draft and bursts into flame. I’m sweating from the heat. A fire in the middle of the day. It’s all terrible. It’s all terrible.
Isabel lifts her chin. “Fuck you,” she says, and then turns on her heel and walks away.
19
Isabel
Two weeks later, and my cheeks are still flaming.
I sit in my cubicle in the corporate Manhattan office, wearing corporate Manhattan clothes, and trying my best not to think of Luke Rider. Trying not to think of the way he touched me. The way he wrestled with doing the right thing. The way he made me come, and then come again.
I can’t think of him without thinking of the flames from the fire reflected on his face. That look of horror.
It was all my fault.
I was the one who pushed him. Who defied him. Who went against his will and brought all those people to the ranch when the ranch couldn’t handle it.
And now the ranch is gone.
Cy called yesterday to tell me that both the buildings are a total loss. Luke’s staying at my family’s place across the valley while the insurance gets sorted out. There won’t be enough money to replace all the buildings, and from what I gather, Luke doesn’t want to.
“So—” I’d asked, my throat tight with embarrassment and loneliness. “You didn’t beat the living daylights out of him?”
“My best friend on earth?” Cy sounds aghast. “Why would I do that? Especially after he promised to leave you alone.”
My heart still aches over that one.
See, this is why you never get carried away by a crush on your older brother’s best friend. Even if you get him to see you, it’ll backfire. To an astounding degree.
“Think positive,” I tell myself aloud. “At least you got to experience him once before things went to hell.”
My coworker, Elise, pops her head over the divider. “Did you say something, Isabel?”
I flash a smile, but it takes effort. “Nothing important.” My phone rings on my desk and I snatch it up, shrugging at Elise. “Isabel Carver speaking,” I say, and Elise disappears into her own cubicle.
“Margaret at the front desk,” Margaret the Receptionist says in a hushed tone. “There’s...someone here to see you.”
“Who?” I open the scheduling app on my computer. “I don’t have any client meetings scheduled for today, but if it’s a walk-in—” If it’s a walk-in, that would be extremely rare and unusual. People don’t just walk into marketing agencies and shoot the breeze to see what we can offer. “I don’t know what they’d—”
“Could you just come down here?” Now it’s muffled, like she’s got her hand over the receiver, only she’s doing too good a job.
“Sure. Be right there.”
I throw on my blazer and check my makeup in the compact I keep in my desk. Maybe it’s the boss and I’m getting fired. It would have to be a boss way up the ladder. But if I got fired, I would be free to leave New York and find myself elsewhere. I’d never have to fly home from New York again. I’d never have to think about coming back here, sans boyfriend, sans everything, again. Luke’s never even been here, and he’s written all over the place.
I make my way through the warren of cubicles and take a deep, cleansing breath in front of the wide glass doors that lead into the lobby. From here, I can see Margaret sitting behind her desk, casting glances in my direction. When she spots me, she gives
a discreet wave and mouths come on.
I step into the lobby.
Before I can even register the sight of him, I smell him.
Luke Rider.
All showered and fresh, a clean white t-shirt emphasizing the unbelievably taut muscles of his arms. A pair of new blue jeans. His cowboy boots are polished to a high shine, and he smells like sunshine and freedom and flowers. Flowers, because he’s carrying a bouquet of wildflowers in a riot of color.
“Hey, Isabel,” he says, and the low rumble of his voice shoves me neatly off the ledge of love again.
“Luke.” I can feel Margaret’s eyes on me as I cross the lobby and take him by the arm. He comes with me over to the elevator bank. “What are you doing here?” My heart beats so fast it’s a miracle I’m still standing up. I can feel how red my cheeks must be. “I’m—I’m at work.”
“Yeah,” he says slowly, rubbing one hand across the back of his neck. “Can’t apologize for that.”
“I could get fired,” I say, even while my hope takes wing.
He laughs. “We’d be even, then, wouldn’t we? You burned down my ranch.”
“I did not,” I insist. “I only—”
“I know, I know.” He wraps both of his big, calloused fists around the bouquet. It’s such a Luke-ish flower arrangement, tied with a spare piece of twine. “Thing is, I couldn’t wait another moment to make it up to you.”
My throat tightens. “You don’t have anything to—”
“The thing is...” He offers me the bouquet. “I owe you a date. I thought I could kick things off with some flowers. And an apology.” I take the flowers out of his hands and breathe in deeply. It smells like all the best parts of home, and with his scent in the office air, it’s heady indeed. “I’m sorry, Isabel. I shouldn’t have flown off the handle. Really, you did me a favor.”
“That’s not possible,” I say miserably, the horrifying memory of those flames licking at my brain. “I burned down your livelihood. And then I ran away, back to New York.”
“I didn’t like that,” he says earnestly. “But as for the livelihood, you did me a favor.”
“I did?” I meet his eyes, those green bursts of color in this grey office floor. “I don’t believe that.”
“You did. See, I decided to do something else with all that insurance money. I decided to build something else instead.”
“Instead of the farmhouse?”
“Instead of that big old barn. Well—there’s still going to be a barn. But there’s also going to be a third building. Turns out, my uncle had some savings tucked away in case of emergency and he doesn’t need it down in Florida.”
“What are you building?”
“A bathroom.”
I...can’t speak. Has he gone completely off the rails?
“A big bathroom building,” he continues, eyes shining. “With fancy showers and everything. I’m turning Rider Ranch into a campground. The tours are only going to be by appointment. And the horses are going to stay at Cy’s place.”
I think of the forest and the foothills, the campsites that could nestle by the clean, flowing river. “That’s a really good idea. That’s perfect,” I tell him, gripping the bouquet tight. “But that means—”
“That means I owe you more than a date. It means I owe you a job.” Luke arranges his grin into something more serious. “I know New York is amazing. Hell, just finding this office was an adventure. But I thought if you wanted to start your own company, you could take me on as your first client. I read on the internet about rebranding.” The word sounds foreign in his mouth, but I love it. “I’ve got to, you know, freshen up my image after the fire. And attract some more sedate clientele.”
“Let me get this straight.” I can’t get enough of his eyes. I could look into his eyes forever and ever and ever. And his hands—I want them on me every day of my life. “You want me to quit my job here in the city and move back to that two-bit town just to help you with your business?”
“I know,” he says, with a hard swallow. “I know I don’t have as much to offer, but—”
“Dick,” I say, and his eyes go wide.
“What?”
“That was unladylike.” I clear my throat. “I want sex. I want good sex. I want you all over me. If this is only about the job, then fuck it. I want to be your girlfriend. Proudly. And I don’t care what anybody thinks. That’s the only thing I’m willing to move home for. Do you understand me, Luke Rider?”
He closes the gap between us and gathers me into his arms, lifting me up so he can kiss me. That’s all the answer I need, but then he pulls away, leaving me gasping for breath, lips swollen. “I never want to see you wearing that bikini out by the road again.”
“Can I wear it in the bedroom?”
“Every day of your damn life, if you want.”
“I do.” I lean down and kiss him again. “I really, really do.”
Epilogue
One Year Later
Luke thunders up the brand new steps of the farmhouse, and they don’t even creak—all of the construction is still so new, so fresh. “Isabel! Where are you?”
“I’m in here,” I yell back from my office, tucked in a little room next to the kitchen. I’ve been putting together a new marketing campaign for Rider Ranch, the valley’s most popular camping destination for newlyweds. We’re known for a...relaxed atmosphere. It helps that Luke and I enjoy each other nightly. And the farmhouse isn’t soundproofed.
“What are you doing, woman?” He appears at the door, face sunburned. “There are too many reservations. We’re running out of spots.”
“Great. Then it’s working.” I turn back to my computer and set up a new ad. Facebook is where it’s at these days. “I’ll keep going.”
“You can’t. We don’t have enough sites to house all these people.”
“Turn some of them away.”
“Turn them away? Won’t that give us a reputation for—?”
“It’ll give us a reputation for being so popular that it’s a privilege to get in,” I tell him, spinning back around in my chair. “This is a good thing. And we haven’t had a single unintentional fire since—you know.”
He arches one eyebrow. “You’re good at this.”
I bat my eyelashes. “So are you.” Luke has thrown himself into renovating Rider Ranch. He’s in the process of reforesting spaces to create more campsites, building new wells, and expanding the outbuildings for the campsites. He’s even added a manmade swimming pond that looks like it’s been here forever.
“We talking about the ranch, or—” He cocks his head in the general direction of the staircase. Which leads to the bedroom.
“Who needs a bedroom?” I climb out of the chair and pounce on him.
He catches me effortlessly and I spread my legs around his hips. He’s been busy all morning and I am ready for him. I’m so ready.
Our clothes fall to the floor. It’s been a year that I’ve lived here—much to Cy’s playful chagrin—and I still want Luke as much as the first day I saw him. We tumble to the floor and I end up on top, straddling him. He’s already hard by the time I lower my teeth to his chest and bite down. But I can’t tease him too long. The need is a bright explosion at my core and I wriggle backward, sliding down on his length to take all of him inside.
“That’s it,” he says through gritted teeth. “Ride it hard.”
“Only way I ever do.” And how could I not? It feels so fucking good, as if we were made for each other, all of his ridges meeting all of mine in the places that drive me wild. Wild. He puts his hands on my hips and I can feel them starting to buck without my express permission. But I can’t stop it. And who’d want to?
“You’re so damn beautiful,” Luke says, and I look down into his eyes as I raise myself up and down. His gaze rakes over every inch of me, drinking me in. “Be mine.”
“I am yours.”
He reaches forward and strokes me with his fingers. I can’t ignore the call of the orgasm.
It starts low in my belly and arcs up with the pressure of his fingers on my clit, rising and rising until it’s time for my favorite thing—coming hard while Luke holds my hips still. It leaves the rest of my body free to dance and writhe and it makes him come, too.
I tumble off him sideways, panting, on the brand new carpet.
Luke pushes himself up on one elbow with a grin. “It’s like a summer storm,” he says. “Quick and dirty and fun as hell.” Then the grin fades from his face. He strokes one hand through my hair.
“What’s on your mind?”
“Stay right there.”
He leaps up, naked, and goes up the stairs two at a time. I hear drawers opening and shutting, and I close my eyes against the midday sun streaming through the window. When I open them, Luke is rushing back in and kneeling next to me, his naked body on full glorious display.
“What are you— oh my God.” He’s holding a little velvet box.
‘You’re the best person I’ve ever met,” he says earnestly, and my heart swells. “And you look so beautiful like that.”
“Sex-rumpled and lying on the floor?”
“Yes.” He opens the box. “Isabel, will you marry me? I want this to go on forever. Until the end of time.”
I roll up onto my knees and kiss him, joy flooding through me like a crisp champagne. “Longer than that,” I say, and then I let him put his ring on my finger.
Then there’s a thundering knock on the door.
“Jesus,” he yells. “Can’t you people leave us alone?”
I kiss him one more time. “We’ll talk to them together. I’ll be right by your side.”
“Is that a threat, or a promise?”
“It’s a vow,” I tell him, and he tosses my bra at me, laughing. Then he leans forward and kisses me on the forehead.
“Come on,” he says, offering me a hand to help me stand up. “The world is waiting.”
