by Cole, Jagger
“Get in the car, Lorne,” she hisses.
“Hey, great to have you stop by, Deirdre,” Colt grins. “I’m glad I could talk to you about Tansy face-to-face.” He turns to level his grin at Lorne. “I mean we’re all adults here, right?”
“This isn’t over,” Deirdre fumes. “This…” She shakes her head, looking like she might explode.
“So I guess I’ll have my lawyers talk to yours about putting the paperwork in for that extension, huh?”
She whirls back on him. “This is bullshit, Colt, and we both know it!”
“Is it?”
“I was born, but it wasn’t fucking yesterday,” she spits. “This is not your fiancée.”
“Sure she is.”
“That’s a load of crap!”
He shrugs. “Is it?”
Before I can say a word or even think, Colt suddenly whirls and grabs me in his arms. He dips me low as he leans down and kisses me fiercely. The kiss takes my breath away. Then it curls my toes. And after that, I’m simply lost in it. My eyes close, and all I know is his lips on mine.
When he pulls away after what could be either a minute or an hour, I’m not sure, his eyes are hard, and his jaw is clenched. My heart is beating like a drum, and my skin is tingling. My lips are swollen and aching for more.
We barely even hear the car doors slam and the engine turn on. When we look, Lorne is backing the car down the driveway while Deirdre furiously types on her phone.
Colt slowly turns back to me, and I realize his hands are still on my waist. I like them there. But as the white SUV leaves, his hands drop.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He growls, glaring at me.
“Charity.”
He smirks, but he narrows his eyes. “You don’t need to get involved here.”
“I think we’re past that, don’t you, dear?”
“Tansy…”
“If I don’t do this, you lose your ranch, right?”
He nods. “Next month.”
“Well, someone offered me a place to stay past a month from now.” I nod at the SUV as it roars out of the front gate and away from the ranch. “Think she’d let me stay?”
“After that little display? She’s probably painting your name on a box of bullets.”
I giggle. “Oh, lovely. Well in that case, with Cherry Falls rent being what it is, I guess I’m helping then.”
“Tansy—”
“I think the trigger is already pulled, Colt,” I say quietly.
His eyes search mine. Slowly, he nods. “Well, shit. Fake fiancée it is.”
“Fake fiancée it is.”
I reach out and shake his hand while I grin. But underneath, I’m trembling. Underneath, I’m throbbing with heat, and wondering what exactly the hell I’ve just gotten myself into.
6
Tansy
Three days later, and I’m still not exactly sure. All I do know is, I’m now officially “fake engaged” to quite possibly the hottest guy I’ve ever met. Well, or at least as “officially” as you can be with something like this, I suppose.
On the surface, nothing’s changed. I’m staying in Colt’s guest cottage. We’ve had dinner together every night, but, whatever. That’s just him being a good host. Or me being a gracious guest, the night I had him over to the cottage to cook for us both.
Needless to say, the alcohol consumption around each other has been non-existent, which might be for the best.
Sometimes it’s nine, another day it was eleven. But each day, I head to the stable with Colt to see what I can do about Chance. And I have to admit, but day three, this weird irrational anxiety about horses of mine might just be fading away. Or at least, around Chance it is.
Aside from being stable together, or having dinner by candlelight like two totally platonic, utterly non-romantic, completely normal adults who’ve seen each other basically naked and made out like teenagers, Colt and I don’t see each other. The “job” of looking after Chance is really the only work I have right now. So I spend the rest of the next couple of days catching up on some veterinary medical journal reading. Colt is out with his horses sometimes, and other times he’s buried in his home office.
I decide to ignore how excited I get each day around dinner time. We are not romantically involved, I remind myself. I mean, obviously not. Of course not. We’re just two adult friends who have an arrangement worked out.
It just so happens that every single time I look at him, all I can imagine is basically every delicious detail of what he looks like naked.
No big deal, right?
On my fourth day living on the most idyllic ranch ever, with the hottest man ever, I get a text from Cassidy.
Hey girl! Back in town! You around? I’m driving up to the ranch—would love to catch up on what you’ve been up to and say welcome to Cherry Falls!! ;)
I blush and groan when I read it. What have I been up to? Oh, not much, Cassidy. Just lusting over your boss, who, oh by the way, I’m now fake engaged to. How was your trip?
I try and distract myself from my thoughts with boring veterinary journals. But by the time I hear a knock on the cottage door, I’ve succeeded in reading the same paragraph five times. And I have definitely not distracted myself from confusing thoughts about Colt.
He’s my boss. He comes with a whole bunch of baggage. He’s a lot older. Falling for him in any way shape or form, or repeating that kiss would be a disaster. And I’m a smart enough, savvy enough girl to fully understand that.
So, why the hell can’t I stop thinking about him?
Cassidy knocks again, and I startle off the couch. “Coming!”
I skip over to the front door and yank it open. “Hey! How was—”
“Dude what the fuck!?”
I gasp as my five-foot-two little blonde friend comes barging right in. For a second, it feels like she’s mad at me about something. But that’s before I realize she’s got a big, shit-eating grin on her face.
“Uh, what do you—”
“Colt?!” She giggles. “Damn, lady. You New Yorkers do move fast!”
I roll my eyes. “Okay, what?”
“Don’t what me! I just heard about the whole thing!”
I frown, perplexed. “Okay, back up. Hi, Cassidy! How are you? I’m great thanks. Oh, and thank you so much for hooking me up with a job,” I deadpan at her. “My, what a swell little town you have! I’m so glad to see you for the first time in like a year! How’s everything?”
She rolls her eyes. “Get that out of your system?”
“I guess? I still have no idea what the hell you’re talking—”
“My dad just filled me in on the whole thing.”
I groan. “Cass, the whole what?”
She frowns. “Are you drunk?”
“No?”
“Uh, the whole being engaged to Colt Patton thing?” She grins. “Oh, watch where you go in town. There’s going to be more than a few single ladies and desperate housewives looking to take you out now.”
I groan. “Okay, slow it down. It’s not what you think.”
“Uh, then please fill me in. Because what it looks like is you moved to Cherry Falls, moved into the guest house of the most eligible and hottest bachelor in town, and convinced him to put a ring on it in like forty-eight hours. Which has got to be some kind of world record.”
She takes a breath and then gasps. “Ooo! And speaking of ring, let’s see—”
“Cass, it’s fake.”
She frowns. “Are you sure? That’d be odd. He’s definitely loaded, and he’s not really cheap-out kind of—”
“No, Cassidy, not the ring,” I groan. “I mean the entire situation…”
“Huh?”
I close the door to the cottage and sink against it, facing her. “Can you keep a secret?”
She nods.
“It’s all pretend. I mean the whole situation. The whole engagement is made up.”
Cassidy stares at me for a second before she groans. “
Damn! Really?”
I nod.
“You sure?”
I laugh. “Fairly certain, yeah.”
“What would possess either of you to make that up?”
I frown. “Ever met Deirdre?”
Cassidy groans. “Unfortunately. What is this, some scheme to piss Satan off?”
I smile wryly. “You might want to sit down.”
By the time I’m done telling her everything, her mouth is wide open. I tell her about the contract Colt and his ex have, and about Deirdre and her new guy trying to take the ranch and turn it into a golf course. I leave out the part being basically naked and making out with Colt. Or about fantasizing and lusting after him pretty much constantly.
“Shit,” she breathes. She frowns as she looks up at me. “That’s insane.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
“So, what happens after?”
I frown. “After what?”
“I mean the next step.”
“What do you mean the next step?”
Cassidy looks at me curiously. “I mean this bullshit soap opera heir clause thing.”
I frown. “Yeah, but if Colt’s engaged—”
“He gets two more years, from what you told me.”
I nod.
“And then? What happens in two years?”
“Uh…” I freeze. Cassidy raises her brows.
“Yeah, exactly. An heir clause means he has to have a kid. Getting engaged, fake or not, jut gives him two more years to make that happen.” She gives me a curious look. “It’s going to get a little hard to be ‘fake pregnant’ after a certain point, Tansy.”
I pale as I sink into the chair across from her.
“Shit,” I breathe.
She nods, but then frowns curiously. “I mean, unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you and Colt actually have a kid together,” she grins.
I swallow thickly. “Uh, yeah. Right…”
“Do you like him?”
My head snaps up. “What?”
“Colt. I mean do you really like him, or is this one-hundred-percent an arrangement?”
“Oh, the second, absolutely,” I blurt quickly. Maybe a little too quickly.
Cassidy’s lips twist. “Well, then you’re fine. You’re giving him two more years to get his shit together and find a real relationship with someone he wants to have kids with.” She smirks. “Hey, like I said, Cherry Falls is home to a mob of single ladies and ladies who would get single real quick to be you right now.”
I scowl. Jealousy rages inside of me before I get it back under lock and key. Where it needs to be.
“Right, totally,” I murmur absently.
Cassidy laughs as she stands. “Okay, speaking of our grump of a boss, I gotta check in now that I’m back.”
I nod, still sort of in a daze. “Yeah, for sure.” I look up at her. “How was your trip, by the way?”
“Oh,” she waves her hand. “Fine.” She smirks. “Boring compared to your week, it sounds like.”
I roll my eyes.
“Hey, drinks sometime this next week? I’m dying to catch up with you and talk some serious shit about my cunt of a cousin.”
I giggle and roll my eyes. It occurs to me that I haven’t thought of Kira, Cassidy’s cousin and my ex-best friend, or of Jeff, since…well, since I laid eyes on Colt Patton.
“Sounds like a plan,” I smile.
She gives me a hug, and then she’s out the door. And the pile of crap I have to think about just got a whole lot bigger.
7
Colt
I’m closing Lulu’s stall door when I realize I have company in the stable. I glance over my shoulder and grin. Sure enough, there’s Tansy, leaning against the arched stable doorway and looking goddamn amazing.
She’s in boots and a sundress that comes up to mid-thigh. But with the setting sun dipping behind her, that soft white sundress is looking pretty damn see-through. My eyes slip over her, drinking in the silhouette of her under that cotton.
My cock stirs and thickens in my jeans.
I’ve practically seen her naked before—a memory seared so deep in my brain, I’m pretty certain I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. Hell, it’s all I’ve been thinking about, if I’m being honest.
But still. There’s something sexy as hell as seeing her clothed, but with a hint of nakedness. It’s like that short little sundress is daring me to rip it off and feast my eyes on what’s underneath. My eyes, my hands, my mouth, and my throbbing hard cock.
I clear my throat though as I frown. I shake away the fantasy and turn back to finish locking the mare’s stall door. I turn back to Tansy and walk over. But my smile fades from my face when I see the frown on hers.
“Everything okay?”
She nods. “Yeah, I just…” Her brow wrinkles. “This ‘heir clause’…”
I chuckle and shake my head. “Relax. I’m not busting out the turkey baster for you anytime soon.”
She blushes deeply and rolls her eyes. “Wow, thanks for that visual.”
I grin. But inside, that ain’t the visual I’ve got going on. Fuck the turkey baster. If she and I went down that route? You can be damn sure we’d be doing it the old-fashioned way. I groan to myself as I imagine her bent over in front of me or riding my rock-hard cock. I fantasize about her coming on me, her nails digging into me.
I imagine spilling my hot cum deep inside of her, putting it right where it belongs, at her womb.
I blink as I shake my head clear. Christ, this is what she does to me. This is the kind of crazy, mad-lust shit she puts in my head. I’ve thought about kids before, but never in a serious way. Deirdre never had any interest, thank God. But I think somewhere in the back of my head, I’ve always had this idea of a mini me or a mini she—whoever she is—running around the ranch. Learning to ride a horse, calling me dad…
“Colt?”
I blink. “Huh?”
She kicks at the dirt with a boot. “I just… I don’t know. I mean, this engagement thing is really only a stopgap, right? It just gives you two more years of runway before she and Lorne come back again for this place.”
I smile down at her pretty face. “I don’t know if I’ve thanked you enough, by the way. For that crazy stunt you pulled.”
She grins. “You’d do it for me, right?”
“Hell no.”
I chuckle as she gasps and playfully punches my arm. “Dick.”
I grin. “Look, I know it doesn’t end this shit. But like you said, it’s two more years of runway.”
“That mean I’m staying here in Cherry Falls for two more years?”
I freeze. My jaw clenches. Fuck, it’s actually a thought that hasn’t entered my brain before. I mean, I guess I just sort of assumed she’d be staying in Cherry Falls for a while. If not forever. The thought of her leaving or going back to goddamn New York brings up a jealous rage in me that has my jaw grinding.
“You…” I frown. “You’re not my prisoner or anything, Tansy.”
She laughs. “Look, I don’t plan to go anywhere.”
Good, I think to myself. Because I’m not so sure I wouldn’t chase after her and bring her back here over my goddamn shoulder if she did.
“It’s just that two years…” She frowns.
“You’re feeling like you bit off more than you want to chew.”
She shrugs. “It’s not that…”
“Tansy,” I grunt. “You’re not bound to anything here and you don’t owe me anything. I mean, you can do whatever you want.”
I stop myself from adding “and see whoever you want,” because fuck that.
I shrug. “Hey, who knows. In two years, it might even be possible that some desperate woman out there might agree to actually have a kid with me.”
A darkness washes over her face. It’s fast, but it’s a look of pure fury that fires up in her eyes and pursed lips. But then it’s gone with a casual shrug of her bare shoulders.
“Yeah, who knows?” She shrugs casually. But that look is still lingering in the corners of her eyes. “I mean it’s a long shot, given that you’re so hideous.”
I grin. It’s jealousy. That’s what she’s covering up with that snarky wit of hers. But the fact that Tansy is jealous at the idea of me with another woman gets something thudding inside of me. My pulse quickens as she casually pushes her hair back.
“And that you’re such an asshole. I mean personality-wise.”
“Right, can’t forget that.”
“Aggressively so.”
I chuckle.
“Or your total lack of ambition,” she drawls sarcastically, grinning at me. “The negative bank account is going to be a real drag to trying to hook in some poor sucker. I mean if only you owned like a horse ranch or something. Or maybe a bunch of stock in a really successful company that you started.”
I sigh, grinning at her sarcasm. “If only, huh?”
“Yeah,” she sighs back at me. “But really, it’s the fact that you’re so physically repulsive that’s going to be the big issue.”
“Lest we forget how small my dick is,” I joke.
Tansy’s face blushes.
“I mean how am I ever going to satisfy—”
“Yeah, I don’t think that part is ever going to be a problem for you,” she blurts.
The air goes still between us as she gasps and snaps her mouth shut. Her eyes widen.
“Uh… I didn’t… I mean…”
But my mind’s made up before she can fumble another word. I know I’m crossing a line. I know I’m rocking a boat neither of us need rocked. But I don’t give a shit. After three days of “pretending” that this girl is engaged to be my wife? Three days of constantly remembering the way her body felt against mine? How her lips tasted.
Believe me when I say, I’m fucking done “pretending” to do shit.
I crash into her, hard. Tansy gasps, but she’s moaning in seconds as my lips crush to hers. She whimpers, her hands sliding over my chest and gripping my t-shirt in fists as I push her back against the wall.
I growl into her mouth, tasting those soft lips as my cock surges against her. My hands are on her hips, simultaneously pulling them into me and pinning her to the wall. She does that thing again where her leg rises to wrap around my hip, drawing me in.
