Kat pressed her lips into a thin line. If there was one person who would be willing to help her get back at Leo so they were on equal playing fields, it was Hallie. She took a deep breath then forced herself to ask the question. “Do you think you could help me get back at him?”
Hallie’s lips curled into an almost sinister grin. “Leo? Absolutely, and I know just the thing.”
It didn’t escapeKat’s notice that Leo was thrown off by her new wardrobe. The second she arrived back to Sagebrush, she’d sensed him. Then she’d caught his eye, and it was the look of pure, unadulterated… attraction—that had her nearly second guessing her plan for revenge.
Leo was attractive in his own right. It was surprising, to say the least, when she’d heard that he didn’t date much. According to Hallie, his standards were too high. He always found something wrong with the girls he dated.
Well, that made sense. A guy like him was bound to have high standards and she didn’t make the cut—evidenced by the way that look of longing he wore shifted into irritation. Apparently, she got under his skin just as much as he got under hers.
They were polarizing. Drawn together while at the same time repelled by one another.
Now, as she followed him around in the light of day, she could see exactly what he’d been planning when he wanted to give her a tour before the sun came up. The ranch was still littered with puddles of standing water. Even the muddied areas had boot prints that were filled with water in the areas where the tread of the footprints went deep.
Leo had known exactly what he was doing when he’d told her to get dressed and follow him out. He could have offered her a spare pair of boots. But he hadn’t. Her clothes were likely ruined. Hallie had insisted they should tell Jane what had happened so they could make it right, but Kat had refused. She wasn’t going to lower herself to that level. Leo was right about one thing. She could handle herself and she wasn’t going to go crying to anyone about her bully.
Nope.
She’d fight fire with fire.
Which was why they were inching closer and closer to the chicken coop.
Hallie said the one thing Leo hated in this life was those chickens. Kat wasn’t dumb enough to believe Leo would save her from some angry poultry so she wasn’t going to be bait. They needed to get him into the coop all on his own so she could lock him in.
And as she eyed the bulge in Leo’s back pocket, she’d known exactly what she had to do. Time was running out, though. If they got too far away from the coop, Leo would thwart her plan.
“Leo?”
He paused. She hadn’t said much since they’d started their tour. And he cocked his head slightly. “Yeah?”
Kat turned to face him then inched closer. The coop enclosure entrance was at her back. Just a few feet away. All she had to do was get his keys from his back pocket and she had her bait.
Tilting her head upward, she pasted on her most sultry smile—one that got all the guys buying her drinks at the bars back home. She trailed a finger up his chest then across his collarbone and down his arm.
His whole body stiffened.
“I wanted to talk about this morning,” she said in a soft voice, her tone teasing and almost melodic. “I understand what you were doing.” If this was going to work, she’d have to pull out all the stops. Her heart hammered in her chest, against her ribcage like it wanted an escape. Only, she couldn’t tell if it was her proximity to the man before her or her plan to steal those keys from his pocket without getting caught that had her on edge.
Leo’s eyes were glued to her hand until her other one reached up and took his hat from his head. He watched her warily for a moment, licking his lips before he muttered, “I highly doubt that.”
So cocky. So unaware. She wanted to laugh at the ease with which she could distract him.
She pressed herself into him, using charms she hadn’t had to use since her college days. Kat kept her focus on his eyes, making sure he didn’t notice the way her right arm reached around his body. Rising up on her toes, her lips came a hair’s breadth from his as she whispered, “I think you’d be surprised by how much you don’t know about me, Leo.”
“Oh, I think I know you pretty well,” he husked. “Better than your pretty head could comprehend.” He was leaning into her and his hooded gaze said it all. He might loathe it, but the truth of the matter remained. Leo was drawn to her.
They stood like that for what felt like an eternity. Her own focus wavered slightly as her eyes dipped to his mouth. For the first time since meeting him, she wanted to kiss Leo. And yet she couldn’t understand why. He infuriated her to no end. Was the line between lust and loathing so thin?
He shifted like he might be thinking the same thing.
She closed her eyes.
Then she reached into his back pocket and yanked the keys free.
The next few seconds happened in slow motion and yet they were so fast, the process was a blur. She whirled away from him, yanked open the coop, wiggled the keys in the air at the dazed man only a few feet away, then tossed the keys in with the chickens.
Leo blinked. His eyes darted from her to the keys to her and back once more. Then reality hit him square in the chest and he darted past her. She didn’t think he even comprehended what it would mean to rush into that fenced enclosure.
And the second he did, she whipped out a padlock that Hallie had given her. In a matter of moments she had Leo caged just like the feathered monsters he was so fearful of.
