I stared straight ahead, trying to ignore the way his presence made my skin prickle with awareness. “Shouldn’t you be with your father?”
“Dad’s busy with the books.” He leaned back slightly, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “Besides, I wanted to see how our newest recruits are settling in.”
“You checked on the others already?”
“Nope.” His grin widened. “Just you.”
The directness of his statement caught me off guard. I finally turned to look at him properly, trying to read his intentions. His expression was open, playful, but with something beneath the teasing, something hungry that made my pulse quicken and my cock stir.
I cleared my throat and looked away. “I’m fine. Nothing to report.”
“Come on, Connor.” The way he said my name sent another shiver down my spine. “I’m just trying to be friendly.”
“Why?” The question came out harsher than I intended, but I needed to establish boundaries before this went any further. “You don’t need to check on me. I’m doing my job.”
Ryder raised an eyebrow, looking more amused than offended. “Maybe I just want to get to know you better.”
“Bad idea,” I muttered, standing up. I needed to get away from him before I did something stupid, before my long-neglected dick took over my brain. “I should get back to the bunkhouse.”
“Wait,” he said, catching my wrist before I could walk away. His touch burned through my skin, and I jerked back instinctively. He held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to overstep.”
“Look,” I said, keeping my voice low even though there was no one around to hear us. “I appreciate what your father’s doing, giving guys like me a second chance. I’m not about to jeopardize that by... by whatever this is.”
“Whatever what is?” He blinked innocently, but there was a glint in his eyes that told me he knew exactly what I meant.
“I’m not stupid,” I growled. “And I don’t play games. I’m too old for that shit.”
His smile widened. “So do you want to just get down to it then or?”
My face burned hot. This kid was seeing right through me. Clearly, I was much worse at covering up my attraction than I thought.
“I say this with as much respect as possible,” I said slowly, knowing he was still practically my boss. “Leave me alone.”
Without waiting for a reply, I turned on my heel and walked off down the fence line, my cock still straining against my jeans.
Chapter 5
Connor
Avoiding Ryder turned out to be a bit more difficult than I imagined. I threw myself into work, being the first to volunteer whenever Larry needed something done. I thought getting away from the main house would keep me away from Ryder, but he had a tendency to show up at all times, either on horseback or on an ATV. Thankfully I was almost never alone, so he couldn’t flirt too hard. Eventually he’d get bored and give up, but those encounters always left me shaky, hot, and tighter in my jeans than I wanted to admit. That boy was going to be the death of me.
And today, my volunteering had landed me in the saddle with a lasso at my side and several calves that needed to be caught for their vaccinations. There was no veterinarian and other ex-cons didn’t know how to ride. So that meant I was the only person on the ranch that could lend the regular hands some help.
“Damn, boy!” Larry cried as I roped a calf on my first try. “You’re not half bad at this. Where’d you learn to do that?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
I wrapped the rope around the horn of my saddle, making sure the calf didn’t get away. “I worked with a performing troupe for a little bit. We all had some tricks and mine was rope.”
“That’s pretty impressive,” Larry nodded. “Who knew that would come in handy, huh?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, watching as one of the ranch hands got a hold of the calf and delivered the vaccinations before letting it go. I pulled my rope back in, extremely conscious of the fact that I was leaving out that I usually tied people up as part of that performance troupe, since, you know, it was for a burlesque show. “Who knew?”
“Better keep those skills quiet,” Larry said with a wink. “Pete starts hearin’ how good you are with a rope, he’ll have you workin’ extra shifts.”
I laughed, feeling a rare moment of ease. Something about being on horseback with the wide-open sky above me made prison feel like a distant memory. I scanned the field, spotting another calf separated from its mother.
