I’d had my dark hair up in a sloppy ponytail. No makeup. Sweat and dusty covered jeans and t-shirt. Hayes probably had sophisticated women on his arm. As a lawyer, his circle had to reach far beyond ranch life. No doubt he had a girlfriend. Or three.
They’d be blonde, leggy. Waxed. Clean. Spritzed with perfume and in a frilly dress and cowgirl boots. Experienced.
So it was doubtful Hayes Wilder didn’t see me as girlfriend material. He probably didn’t even see me, period. He was too old. I’d heard he was twenty-eight. Definitely too old.
Except, the times I’d seen him around his family’s ranch, he’d been watching me. Every time he came around the stable, which lately was every day, his gaze was on me. It was unnerving and hot.
He’d been eyeing me. Me!
Now, I was eighteen, pretending to be twenty-one, about to climb on a mechanical bull. I was one of the ranch hands. One of the guys. Or worse, Hayes probably saw me like one of the guy’s little sisterssister.
Still, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to have all of Hayes Wilder’s focus on me for real.
“You Cassidy?” the guy at the controls for the bull asked when I approached. He had a clipboard in his hand. When I nodded, he crossed off my name. “Stay on as long as you can. I’ll start off easy and the longer you’re on, the harder it’ll get. As you can see, it’s all padded around it so when you buck off, just go with it. Make the landing nice and easy.”
“Got it,” I said, knowing I definitely didn’t have it.
He opened the gate on the little fence that separated the mechanical bull area from the rest of the bar, and I stepped up onto the thick padding. I wobbled on the giving surface, then dropped to one knee. That shot was hitting me hard. I pushed up, got my balance after a few seconds, then went to the bull.
I set my hands on it–it looked more like a pommel horse from gym class than a real animal–and climbed on. I was short and in a jean skirt, so it wasn’t that easy, but I did it. Gripping the handle, I nodded and the bull began to rock back and forth and move in a circle.
I couldn’t help but smile. Life was great.
2
HAYES
I tried notto think of her. That was why I was at The fucking Roadside to begin with. I’d given in when Cody asked to buy me a beer, partly because he owed me one for helping him with some legal paperwork tied to a well on his property, and because I needed my dick to get hard for other women and The Roadside had plenty of hot, scantily clad options always ready for a good time.
Ever since I laid eyes on my brother’s new ranch hand a month ago, no one else would do. Cassidy Cove was fit, pert, and everything I didn’t know Icraved. Like someone young.Reallyyoung. She was fucking eighteen–I’d asked Buck. But, still.
Eighteen.
I was twenty-eight. Ten years older than she was. She was better off with my youngest brother Zeb, but he was taken. Or even Shep, but he was also taken. The idea of either one of them lusting after her like I was made me want to rip their heads off.
The first time I saw her, she’d been filling water buckets in the stalls. She’d seen me, stopped in her tracks and sloshed water all over herself.
I’d stared. Because she was in jeans–which had only accentuated her tight, young ass–and a white t-shirt which did nothing to hide full, plump tits.
I was going to Hellhell for stopping around the ranch for no good reason just to get a glimpse of her and my brothers were going to laugh. When Buck was helping Sage with her issues with the mob–which I still thought was insane–I told him I was going to find a nice, simple woman. Karma was sure a bitch because I wanted Cassidy and she was so fucking far from simple. Oh no.
Why the hell did my dick want her? Why did I get hard whenever I saw her? Whenever I fucking thought about her? Why, over the past month, did I have to rub one out at least twice a day as I thought about her?How she’d be nice and tight around my dick. How her eyes would widen in surprise as I stretched her open. How she’d look on her knees before me. How she’d look bent over my desk. My bed. On her hands and knees. Riding me.
Every filthy thing I could imagine had her in it. And me coming hard. The mess I made was for her. I wanted to coat her in it. Fill her up with it. Watch her choke on it.
So when I sat down beside Cody at a hightop in The Roadside and saw Cassidy across the room, my dick went hard. And I got pissed as hell. What the fuck was she doing here with the guys from the ranch? She was eighteen. She was drinking. Two pitchers were on the table in front of them. Sure, I figured the other ranch hands would watch out for her, but they were single and on the prowl. If there was a choice between pussy and keeping Cassidy safe, they’d pick pussy.
“Yo, Hayes, you even listening? A girl got your attention?” Cody asked.
He had a beer, but had been nursing the same one for the past ten minutes. He was mayor of Devil’s Ditch and the last guy who’d be caught making a fool of himself with too much liquor or a one night stand.
“My brother’s ranch hands are here,” I explained, shifting on my stool.
“Oh? Didn’t know you were into dudes.” He grinned because he knew full well I wasn’t gay.
“One of them’s a girl,” I said, putting a mental emphasis ongirl.
Cody swiveled on his stool and looked the way I’d been staring. “Which one?”
