Riding Red

by Nadia Aidan

  It had all seemed so simple. For six months Camille would serve his sexual needs and those of his three brothers, and when her time was up they would all walk away. Then, Camille would get her ranch back when it was over. But at some point along the way, Jacob and Camille had raised the stakes by falling in love. It was just unfortunate that he’d fallen in love with her too. He didn’t begrudge his brother or Camille for finding happiness with each other. But he would be lying if he didn’t admit that he hadn’t taken it so well when Camille chose his brother over him. That she’d fallen in love with his brother and not him.

  One of the hardest things he’d ever had to do was to stand beside Jacob and watch as he said “I do” to Camille. Ever since that day he’d been distant and withdrawn from Jacob, and it pained him to think their relationship would never be the same ever again. That had been the deciding factor for him. He had to leave and at least try to move on for all their sakes. He’d lost Camille and if he didn’t learn to get over her, he would lose his brother too.

  He was determined to do everything in his power to not let that happen. He would head down to Hockley for a few months, lick his wounds and try to forget about Camille, his feelings for her and the fact that he’d fallen in love with his brother’s wife.

  * * * *

  “Damn you, Natalie,” BJ Parker muttered angrily, her gaze following the shiny black Mercedes as it made its way along the dirt road towards where she stood in front of the ranch house.

  Her half-sister had some nerve selling Cottonmouth Ranch and leaving her to deal with the new owner—alone. They both agreed that in order to pay off their father’s gambling debts they would have to sell the ranch, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

  She’d been the foreman since graduating from college ten years ago and had always envisioned taking over when their dad retired. But that vision had faded when her father fell ill two years ago and she discovered he was living under a mountain of debt. She’d done all she could to keep Cottonmouth solvent, but it hadn’t been enough. By the time she’d taken over, it was already too late.

  After their father’s death, she and Natalie quickly sold the ranch, settled with their dad’s creditors and moved on. Well, at least that’s how her older sister saw things. Natalie had always hated life on the ranch, and now she was pleasantly oblivious as she carried on with her lavish life in Chicago, far away from the family ranch, their small town of Hockley, and all the troubles that selling Cottonmouth hadn’t erased. Troubles she still had to deal with—the main one being the arrogant and overbearing new owner who had just parked his gleaming, luxury car smack dab in front of her home.

  His incessant emails and phone calls had rankled on her nerves, but she realised it was nothing compared to the ire she felt when he filed out of his car.

  She was a tall woman, nearly six feet, and despite the distance she could tell he would tower over her. She hated that, but not quite as much as she hated how his thickly muscled frame rippled beneath his custom tailored black suit.

  “Damn, pretty-boy, Jackson Downing,” she found herself grumbling under her breath as he strolled towards her. She had never met him personally, but had seen the many covers of Fortune and Money with Jackson and his brothers placed front and centre. So, it was hard not to recognise the handsome ranch owner, even with his eyes hidden behind tinted aviator shades.

  As he neared, she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. She also knew she wore a surly frown across her face. She despised him and his brothers for buying her ranch, and the fact that she was now his employee. She wasn’t a big fan of his flashy city-slicker demeanour either. Men like him didn’t know a damn about hard work and the long days spent running a ranch. And if his emails were any evidence, she had no doubt he was going to bulldoze over her and the meticulous operation she ran just to assert his newfound authority and show everyone who was in charge.

  “Good morning. I’m Jackson Downing, the new owner of Cottonmouth Ranch. I called last night to let the foreman know I was coming in today,” he said as he came to a halt before her.

  He extended his hand, flashing her a dimpled smile, but she didn’t acknowledge either as she kept her arms folded across her breasts, her expression blank. She knew she was being rude, especially when he shot her a quizzical frown and let his hand fall back to his side, but she didn’t care. As far as she was concerned, he was not welcome.

  Several seconds ticked by, the air thick with tension, as they stood in silence. Finally, he cleared his throat in a somewhat futile attempt to ease the awkward moment.

  “I wonder if you can help me. I’m looking for BJ Parker.”

  “And you just found her,” she said stiffly, bracing herself for what she knew would come next. No matter how many times it happened, she always got a thrill watching the shock cross the faces of men expecting to meet, well—a man. And this time was no exception. Jackson Downing tugged his sunglasses from his face to stare down at her with questioning blue eyes, as if somehow the glasses had hidden the fact that she was, after all, a woman.

  “You’re BJ Parker? The foreman.”

  “That’s me.”

  His brows knitted together as he frowned. “I…um was expecting—”

  “A man?” she offered.

  “No. I spoke with Natalie before I arrived. She told me her sister was the foreman. I knew you were a woman.”

  She smiled at the puzzled look on his face. He looked like a fish out of water. Most people did when they discovered her svelte, blonde sister, was in fact her sister.

  “But I didn’t expect you to be—”

  “Black,” she said with a slight shrug. “Natalie’s my half-sister.” Her lips curled into a tiny grin. “I guess you can tell which half we don’t share.”

  She could say that again.

  He swept his gaze over her, doing his best not to let his eyes linger. Yet even with his brief perusal of the woman known as BJ Parker he did not miss the subtle curves on her tall slender frame, carefully hidden behind a pair of well worn jeans and a baggy plaid shirt. He also didn’t miss the exquisite beauty of her face, despite the Stetson that cast a dark shadow over her features. Even if she’d stood before him with a paper bag over her head he would have still been able to tell she was a natural beauty, a beauty that was rivalled only by her blatant animosity towards him.

  He was surprised when a wave of heat inched across his skin, and he cleared his throat in an attempt to help clear his head. This woman was an endless parade of surprises. And from what little information he could pry out of Natalie on his drive there that morning, she was also going to be tough to win over. Whatever interest his body had in her would have to be ignored because he was there to do business, and nothing more.

  “Well, I’m glad to finally meet you,” he said with a curt nod. He almost extended his hand again, but then quickly remembered she hadn’t been too keen on shaking his hand the first time. Apparently, she also wasn’t too keen on meeting him since she didn’t offer a similar reply, the lovely features of her face as stoic as a blank mask.

  He let out an inward sigh. This was going to be a long trip if she didn’t lose the attitude, but he didn’t have the energy to deal with her or her surly disposition right now. He could confront her later. Right now all he wanted to do was unpack and settle in after the five-hour drive south.

  He spun away from her, popped the trunk and dug out two large black suitcases. As soon as he moved towards her, he noticed her entire demeanour had changed. She went from being just slightly rude to openly hostile, as she stood before the two steps leading up to the house, her stance wide with her arms still folded tightly across her chest. She looked like a bouncer guarding the entrance to an exclusive nightclub in Manhattan. It would have been laughable had he not been so exhausted and eager to get to his room where he could unwind.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m taking my things inside so that I can relax before we talk business.” He stepped to the si
de, but she shifted in that direction to block his path.

  “I don’t think so, Mr. Downing. This is my home and you weren’t invited.”

  “Not according to Natalie. She said I could stay here for as long as I liked, so that’s what I’m doing.”

  Angry red flames flared to life in her topaz gaze, and he knew instantly that those were the last words she wanted to hear.

  “Well, Natalie doesn’t live here. I do. And as the foreman, I decide who comes and goes on this property.”

  His eyes hardened, and he levelled her with a steely glare, causing her to take a tiny step back. From the wary expression on her face, she must have quickly realised he was not to be trifled with. But, just in case she wasn’t too sure, his next words made it absolutely clear that he would not be pushed around by her.

  “You don’t get to make the decisions around here anymore, BJ, because as of right now, you’re fired.”

  “What?”

  He almost pitied BJ Parker, who stood there with her mouth agape and her eyes wide. He was sure she hadn’t been expecting that. And truth be told, he hadn’t really wanted to throw down the gauntlet in such a high handed manner. He needed this woman because she knew the land better than anyone else. But from what he knew of her, and what he’d just witnessed, she was not used to people challenging her nor was she used to taking orders, and he couldn’t stand for that. The Downing brothers were now the new owners of Cottonmouth, and she would either have to accept that and learn to work with him or she could find herself a new job.

  “This is my home,” she gritted out angrily.

  Her caramel hued cheeks glowed red with fury, and despite the rage pouring off of her in waves, he still found himself feeling a twinge of guilt as he glimpsed the pain in her eyes. Unlike her sister, he could tell this place meant something to her and for some inexplicable reason he knew that tearing her from her land would be like tearing out her soul. He empathised with her, but didn’t cave under the weight of her fury. This was business and if she couldn’t do her job then she couldn’t stay.

  “You cannot kick me out of my home and off my land.”

  “Let’s get this one thing straight—by law I can, but I don’t want to and that’s certainly not why I came here. I came here to get the pipeline up and running in order to funnel out oil, but if you’re determined to make things difficult for me then I will have no choice but to fire you.”

  “You won’t find oil without me,” she said stiffly, her eyes as hard and cold as granite.

  Something about the way she said those words had him seeing red. He was a man slow to anger so the very fact he felt heat crawling along the back of his neck was not a good sign for either of them.

  Still holding his bags, he closed the distance between them so that she was forced to crane her head back in order to meet his ferocious gaze.

  “I don’t tend to do well with threats or blackmail so if you have plans to sabotage this operation you won’t have to worry about getting fired because I’ll have your ass thrown in jail.”

  She snorted, seemingly unmoved by his threat, which was surprising. Most people caved under the weight of his fury.

  “I won’t have to lift a finger to sabotage you because as soon as you send me away you’ll be hard pressed to locate even a single drop of oil. And don’t think Natalie can help you. She hasn’t spent more than a night here since she was eighteen. You can fire me, city-boy but then be prepared to comb over more than a hundred acres looking for what I could find with my eyes closed.”

  The smug look on her face annoyed the hell out of him, but it was the way she called him a city-boy that really pissed him off. She probably thought because he wore a suit and drove a fancy car that he would prove himself to be a walking moron if left out in the wide open space of the Texas plains. But she was wrong. All of his brothers spent their days working out on the ranch. Even Jacob spent a fair amount of time doing ranch work, despite the fact that he was the main one who ran the business end. If this woman thought he was a spoilt and pampered rich playboy then she was in for a surprise.

  “I don’t care if you can find oil in your sleep. If you can’t find a way to cooperate with me then I will have no choice but to let you go.”

  If looks could kill, he would have been dead as soon as he stepped out of his car, but the glare she shot him now was a thousand times worse. He half expected to go up in flames at any moment from the look in her eyes, which was damn near incendiary.

  “I can cooperate as long as you understand that I’m in charge,” she finally bit out, and he knew it must have pained her to say even that.

  “I have no interest in running your ranch. My only reason for being here is to set up drilling operations. That’s it,” he said, although he itched to remind her that she was not in charge, at least not entirely, but he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. She was willing to cooperate, which meant he could finally unpack his things, and get some rest. He could deal with the semantics of their arrangement later, when he was well rested.

  She continued to stand there for a long moment, still rooted in the same spot, and he wondered wearily if she was going to force him to fire her for real this time. Luckily, she just shrugged and turned away from him.

  “I’ll show you to the guest room,” she called from over her shoulder, her long braid whipping down her back. Jackson didn’t miss her less than enthused expression before turning her back to him, or the deadpan tone of her voice. Even if he had, the rigid lines of her slender back would have given her away as she disappeared inside the house on long, stiff legs.

  He slipped inside to follow after her, all the while mentally preparing himself for the hard reality that the next several months were going to be hell.

  It was a sad irony. BJ was as beautiful as a desert rose, but about as pleasant as a cactus, and he had no doubt she would prove to be a thorn in his side the entire time.

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  About the Author

  Nadia Aidan lives, works and writes on the West Coast in the United States. Under her real name, Nadia holds a PhD in Political Science and Public Policy and by day she works as an Assistant Professor.

  She writes across all genres, from historical, to fantasy/sci-fi to contemporary. In addition to writing erotic romances Nadia enjoys reading other authors, playing flag football, studying muaythai, working out, listening to music, scuba diving, and target shooting.

  Her other interests include collecting Top Cow comics, especially Witchblade and Tomb Raider. She loves professional football and soccer. Her favourite teams are the Washington Redskins and Manchester United, respectively.

  Nadia loves watching, reading about, and writing about strong, assertive heroines which is why she is an enduring fan of Fight Girls, Xena, Buffy, American Gladiators—New and Old, and La Femme Nikita!

  Email: contactme@nadiaaidan.com

  Nadia Aidan loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.total-e-bound.com

  Also by Nadia Aidan

  On a Dare

  On a Whim

  Even the Devil Needs Love

  Downing Brothers: Sleeping with the Enemy’s Daughter

  Downing Brothers: A Rebound Affair

  Heroes and Harlots: Every Desire

  Heroes and Harlots: A Madam into a Mistress

  Revenge Never Dies: Masochist

  Caught in the Middle Anthology: Mating Season

  Pleasure Bound Anthology: Sex Therapy

  Summer Seductions: A Wild Wicked Three Day Affair

  Voracious Vamps: Undercovers

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