But it was more than that. After a moment like that, he’d claimed her forever, ruined her for other men. She didn’t know what his plans for the future were, but she knew what hers were.
She wanted this man.
6
When he came back to bed and curled around her, Ruby wrapped her arms over his and just treasured the moment. Soft, warm passion lingered in the air around them.
She’d never experienced anything like it. She had a feeling she never would with anyone else.
But where did a woman go now, after meeting a hot Montana man who wanted to make things official? At least she assumed that’s what he meant by love at first sight.
“So what now?” she asked. “Should I set up my salon here in town?”
His arms tightened slightly and he let out a huff. “You won’t have to work. I can support us.”
She sat up in bed, holding the sheet around her. “Excuse me?”
He sat up as well, brow furrowing as he seemed to realize they were on much different pages. “I thought you’d like that. It’s not really safe for you to work in town.”
“Why not?” she asked. “I’m not an idiot. I’ll find the local barber and see if he could use some help.”
Shane scratched his head. “Lots of men around here cut their hair themselves.”
“What?” she asked. “How?”
“Well, we aren’t exactly beauty queens,” he said, running his hand through his dark, mussed hair that curved and waved around his face and neck. “But if you like, I can set you up as the ranch hairdresser.”
She pursed her lips. Perhaps this place was even more remote than she’d thought. “And what do you have for shopping around here?”
He frowned. “Nothing you couldn’t just order online. Would that suit you?”
“No,” she said, twisting her hands together. It was just setting in now how different things would be if she settled down with a man like this. She’d been stupid, too caught up in his cowboy hotness to really think about how different they were. “Look, I’m from New York. I grew up there. I’m not sure I can just… relocate here, no matter how beautiful it is.”
He propped himself up against the headboard, his tanned expression stern and cold. The passion in the air was being replaced by the slow awkwardness of two people who just found their bodies were perfect for each other, but their minds had other ideas.
“I think a good horseback ride through the hills can beat anything shopping can offer,” he said. “Although, we could always fly somewhere if you really feel the need to shop. No need to dress all fancy for me and the ranch hands though.”
She picked up her blouse from the wood floor and started buttoning it up. “I like how I dress.” She sniffed and smoothed it out, then gave him a grin. “I like being naked with you too.”
He pulled her forward for a kiss. “I like it too.”
She sighed and pulled back. “Dang it, when you touch me, I can’t think straight. I’m beginning to think coming back here with you was a bad idea.”
“I admit it’d be a change. I’m busy with the ranch a lot. If you wanted to work, I’d probably suggest you work in the main lodge with Fanny. She’d like the help and another woman around to talk to.”
“Fanny?”
“Our housekeeper. She keeps the men in line too.”
“Is she married?”
Shane screwed up his nose. “I think she was at one point? But no, not now. She likes to say she’s married to the ranch and us scruffy McAllister brothers.”
Ruby laughed at that and snuggled in, placing a hand on his chest. Everything felt right with him. They just had to work out the logistics. But could a city girl really make things work with a rough, tough rancher type?
“So what do you do on the ranch?” she asked.
“Me? I work with the finances, oversee things in general. Jesse owns several restaurants that use beef sourced from the ranch. And Maverick… is a jack-of-all-trades.”
She shuddered. “Is he as rough as he seems?”
“Yes,” Shane said. “Rougher. But don’t worry. His heart’s in the right place. He’s just a little more animal than man.”
Ruby didn’t like the sound of that. It rang a little too true. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Shane said, turning the light down and holding her close. “Look, how about we talk more in the morning? I’ll make sure Fanny makes you a great breakfast and then I’ll take you out to show you the ranch. And you can tell me more about you, and we can sort this thing out between us.”
She nodded, and he slipped a hand in her soft, gossamer hair, threading his fingers through it in a way that hastened her sleepiness.
“All I know is I’m not letting you go,” he said.
She nodded sleepily against him. None of it really made sense, a man like that instantly wanting her, but it felt too right to complain.
She nestled into his side and fell asleep.
* * *
The next morning after breakfast, Shane took her out to the barn and helped her pick out a horse.
She chose a sorrel mare, with a warm brown mane, body, and tail and white stockings. She eyed it with a paranoid look, even as Shane reassured her she was as gentle as could be. She’d never been on a horse, though she’d be lying if the little girl in her hadn’t hoped it was one of the benefits of coming out to Montana.
Jesse had brought her things this morning, and she’d called and talked to her friends, who were still safely situated and dying to hear more about what had happened with Shane.
But Bonnie was still sick and they’d had to go to an urgent care for an IV to replenish fluids. However, she seemed to be on the mend now, and as soon as she was feeling better, Jesse was going to bring them up to stay at the lodge where she could be closer to them.
Shane wanted to make her as comfy as possible, and Ruby had no complaints there.
It was so the opposite of everything she had before, and she’d embrace it as much as she could before the New Yorker in her screamed out for people, smog, and shopping. And her career.
But had she ever really loved cutting hair? She’d loved talking to people and earning money and seeing happy looks on people’s faces. But did she have to cut hair to be happy?
One look at Shane, tall and handsome and simple as he checked over a large black horse for himself, told her no, she could be happy without any of that stuff if she could have this man.
If only she could be sure he was as good as he seemed.
“You ready to go?” he asked, taking the reins of her mare, which he’d already saddled and prepared for the ride. He led both of the horses outside, and she felt her nerves twitching inside her.
“We’re sticking to easy trails, right?” she asked.
He laughed and put his hands down to help her get her foot in the stirrup. “You know this is the horse we use for the little kid rides, right?”
She nodded and stepped into the stirrup and tried to swing her leg up and over but couldn’t make it, and he had to help, gently placing hands on her waist to ease her over the giant animal.
When she was settled, holding the reins as he’d showed her, he swung easily up on his horse and pulled up alongside her.
“How do I drive this thing?” she asked.
“Bessie? She knows to follow Raven.”
“Raven?” Ruby looked at Shane’s horse.
“Right,” Shane said, rubbing a hand over the huge horse’s neck. “He knows where to go. Typically, Maverick handles trail rides, but given his recent behavior, I have no intention of letting him go near my mate.”
“Mate?” she asked. “You keep saying that. What does it mean? Is that like marriage?”
He turned back to her, his horse walking forward as hers followed, headed toward a wide trail that wound through the trees at the base of the mountain in front of them. “I’m going too fast for you, aren’t I? Darn it, I’m not used to wooing a woman. To be honest, I have
n’t much left the ranch.”
“You had to have left at some point,” she said, relaxing as she realized the horse really did know the way on its own and was happy to walk along without her doing much but hanging on. Perhaps she was a natural at this? No, better not to get cocky.
Instead, she sat straighter and enjoyed the ride, the light filtering through the tall trees around them onto the soft dirt road. The subtle clop-clop of the horses’ hooves.
“I did. For college. A financial degree for the family business,” he said.
“And you didn’t meet any ladies there?” she teased, coming up alongside him as her horse seemed anxious to keep up.
He leaned back, as at ease on the saddle as he was in bed, resting with her on his chest. There was something about seeing a man handling an animal so capably that was a huge turn-on. “No one I was interested in. I never liked city girls.”
She let out a grumble, and he laughed, a deep sound that boomed through the forest and made her aware of just how alone they were out here in the wilderness. It felt amazing. Peaceful and calming.
“Not until I met you anyway,” he said, pulling back on the reins to come to a stop by her horse and lean over for a kiss. His horse nickered but obeyed as his hand wrapped around the back of her neck roughly and his lips caressed hers, finishing with a wet lick over her bottom lip that left her trembling with the reins in her hands as he pulled forward again. “Now I’m seeing there’s some benefit to a city girl after all.”
“Oh?” she said breathlessly, trying to seem calm as her horse started forward once again. “What’s that?”
“Soft. Pretty,” he said. “Smart. Savvy.” His grin widened, flashing straight, white teeth and sharp canines. “Great in bed.”
“I can assure you that was more you than me,” she said. “I’ve never had it that good before.”
The smugness on his face was impossible to miss, and his big shoulders seemed even bigger as he sat up straight on his mount. They entered a clearing where there was a break in the trees, and he looked up at the sunny blue sky above them. The mountain next to them reached up toward the sky, and she could see the path started up the lowest hill in front of it if they went much farther.
“Come here,” he said, gesturing for her horse to keep moving. Bessie obeyed, pulling up next to Raven. He reached over and lifted Ruby onto Raven in front of him. His arms wrapped around her waist as he turned her to look back at the long grassy plains and the ranch in the distance. The trees and shrubs and grasses his family owned. Miles and miles of it.
“Next time we’ll start going up into the hills. There are better views there. But for now, I just wanted to show you my home. The parts I spend the most time at anyway.” He rested his chin in the crook of her shoulder and his touch made her tingle. She squirmed and he held her tight, his hand moving down to her hip.
“I got you off your horse so you could just look with me, without worrying about what Bessie does or doesn’t do. Although, the more you trust her, the more fun you’ll have. If you like her, we’ll pull her from rides and make her exclusively yours. If you end up wanting something more spirited, like an Arabian, I’m happy to buy one for you.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she said, sitting up straighter in his arms, trying to ignore the hypnotic feel of his touch and his breath on her skin. “I didn’t say I’m staying yet. I told you I’m a New York girl.”
“Only until you met me, right?” he said, nipping the skin of her neck as Raven nickered in disapproval, and Shane smoothed a hand over his neck to soothe him. “I mean, how can you not fall in love with Montana?” he asked, kissing her again a little higher on her neck, near the base of her ear.
She squirmed. How could she not fall in love with him, he meant.
A difficult task indeed. “Do men in Montana always commit immediately?” she asked. “I mean, are you just grateful for any woman that comes out there?”
“Well, not all parts of Montana are as remote as Bear Haven. Most people never even know we exist, except people that visit the ranch. But life is simple here. That’s how we like it.”
“So why did you set up the dating profile?” she asked. “You seem to have a good life here, so why now?”
He was silent for a moment. She liked that he thought before speaking, but the tension between them was so thick you could cut it with a knife. “It was time, I guess. Still, I wasn’t expecting you to come here. I thought I’d have to fly out and meet whoever was coming.”
“Well, Maverick made sure that didn’t happen,” she said, resting against him.
“Yup, and I’ll thank him. As soon as he wakes his drunk butt up so I can punch him.”
“He went out drinking last night after the fight?”
“Maybe. Or maybe just partied too hard. All I know is Jesse said he stumbled in late and looked like hell.”
“Don’t be too hard on him. After all, it did get me out here, and we haven’t exactly suffered for it, have we?” she asked.
“No, we haven’t,” he said. “But to answer your question, no. It wouldn’t just be any woman who came here. I knew from the moment I met you, you weren’t like any other woman. You were the one for me. Maybe we men who live out here in the wild rely more on instinct than others, but my instinct has never been wrong so far. So I followed it and brought you straight up here and told you how I feel. And I’m still waiting to hear back if you even believe any of this stuff.”
“I’m still thinking about it,” she said. “I mean, this isn’t how things happen in New York. In fact, I’m just out of a relationship with a man because he wouldn’t commit and settle down.”
“I don’t understand a man who doesn’t want to commit,” Shane said. “If you like a woman, there’s no reason not to.”
“Well, you want to get to know each other,” she said. “So you know if it can last long-term.”
Shane shrugged. “I think it’s up to the man to decide it’s long-term. To say that no matter what happens, he’d never leave his mate’s side. That’s commitment. Not taking your time to decide if she’s the easiest one to stay by, but deciding right there that come hell or high water, she’s your woman.”
She nuzzled his face with her ear, loving the brush of his lips against it and the cool mountain air surrounding them and emphasizing the heat between them. “I like you romantic Montana boys. I just have to decide if you’re too good to be true.”
“Nah,” he said, helping her get settled back on her horse. “Just good enough to be true.” When she was ready, he started heading back to the ranch, pulling her horse along with him.
Ruby already missed the feel of his wide back behind her. “As you said, there are tradeoffs. Not a lot of shopping and not a lot for you to do here around the ranch. That’s why I waited, you know. I wasn’t sure a woman would be any use around here.”
She harrumphed. “Seriously. Sexist.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But that’s the way it is around here. Fanny’s the only woman we really come into contact with. Most of the guys work out here seasonally and go home to family. Some work the winter, some the summer. It’s not a place most people want to raise kids. Other places of Montana are though. Some of them might even feel a bit like New York.”
“I suppose there are remote places anywhere. There are some parts of upstate New York where there's just land going on for miles.”
“I like the sound of that,” he said gruffly. She loved the deep little rasp on the edge of his voice. Everything about him seemed to have a bit of an edge.
But at the same time, he was simple. Clear. Honest. A straight, tall man facing the world with both feet planted firmly on the ground. The complete opposite of sniveling Bill.
Now she was glad she’d given Bill an ultimatum, although she sort of wished she’d just kicked him aside to begin with. She didn’t need a man who had to be threatened in order to commit to her. She just needed a tall, simple man with green eyes like the pine trees all around him.
“We should go back and have lunch,” he said. “I think Jesse’s bringing your friends up midday if Bonnie is discharged. I know you’ve been worrying about her.”
Ruby nodded. Although, it had helped that no one had told her anything until Bonnie was already improving. She doubted she would have been able to sleep at all if she’d heard Bonnie had to be admitted somewhere. She’d honestly thought it was a simple flu or she’d never have left.
Guilt settled in her uncomfortably, but the thought of seeing her friends lightened her burdens.
“That settles it,” he said. “Let’s go pack up your things at my place and get you over to your new suite you can share with your friends.”
“I’m staying with them?” she asked.
He raised an eyebrow. “Of course. You can stay wherever you like. I’d be honored if you’d come back to my cabin at night though. So I can keep getting to know you.”
“Wild horses couldn’t keep me away,” she said, body already tingling at the thought of another wild night with her cowboy.
7
Ruby’s friends were different than Shane expected. Maybe he’d been thinking they’d all be blondes, like she was, or delicate-looking city girls.
Bonnie, the one who'd been sick, had bright-red hair that was long and straight and was pulled into a loose braid over the front of her white blouse. She had pale, freckled skin and green eyes that were much lighter than his own. She was curvy, like Ruby, and seemed to be the quietest of the bunch, though it could be because she was still recovering.
She was walking arm in arm with Ruby’s other friend, Harmony, who had dark skin and dark curls and a sassy tilt to her mouth and the way she spoke. He could hear her from here as they walked up the hill with Jesse carrying their things and Ruby running forward to meet them.
He worried about her running in those little boots and vowed to get online and order some proper cowboy boots for her to wear around the ranch so he wouldn’t have to worry about her tripping.
Mountain Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Bear Haven Book 1) Page 5
