"The law."
"This is my ranch, pretty baby.I'm the only law around here."
She gulps audibly."Fine," she huffs eventually."But I intend on being a difficult prisoner, just so you know."
"You do that then, princess," I say, not sure if I'm more impressed, frustrated, or amused that she doesn't immediately give up her charade as a cattle rustler.Whatever she's up to, she's not giving up the truth easily.She's going with a theme today, tempting bulls.And the harder she runs, the more I want to chase.
* * *
"What kind of ranch is this?"Cassia demands fifteen minutes later, gawking all around us as we cut across the ranch toward the house.Everyone is busting ass, trying to batten down the hatches before bad weather hits.I should be helping, but I've got something more important to tend to for the time being.
She seems to have recovered some of her composure.Enough of it to be driving me insane by wiggling all around in my arms.My dick is hard enough to pound steel.
"You mean you didn't scope us out before you picked us to knock over?"
"I…did," she lies."But only from a distance."
"We're a seedstock ranch," I murmur, skirting around one of the barns.
"Which means what?"
"Which means we breed cattle to sell."
"For what?"
"Money."
She narrows her eyes at me.
"I'm only partially kidding," I say, smirking as we circle around the side of the corral.It's empty, the last of the yearlings being led to the barn.Aside from the heifers still grazing and Hamburger, the rest of the herd has been taken to shelter."We sell them for a lot of money.You picked an expensive herd to rustle, little thief.Every cow born here has a pedigree and a high dollar value.We're a genetic supplier."
"Oh.So you raise purebred cattle?"
"We do."
"I thought Hamburger looked like a Red Angus."
"Good eye," I say, impressed.Most people can't tell one breed from another, but Cassia is far from stupid.She's wild as hell but there isn't an ignorant bone in her body.She's quirky and sassy and incredibly intelligent.Her intelligence shines through in her writing.It's the first thing I noticed when I started reading.
"I thought they were docile."
I snort."That bull is about as docile as a rattlesnake."
"You don't say," she says, eyes wide."I thought he was going to eat me."
"Nah.You aren't his flavor."She's becoming more my flavor by the minute, though."He mostly slashes up cattle thieves and trespassers, tramples them real good.Once they recover, they don't usually come back a second time."
She pales, the color sliding from her face like a bedsheet falling over her.
I chuckle, carrying her up the steps to the back porch of the house.We enter through the kitchen.Cassia gawks all around, trying like hell not to let her curiosity show.She reads like a book though.Everything she thinks is right there on her face, blazing from her eyes like words on a page.Even with her glasses smudged and dirt on her cheek, there's no hiding it her rampant curiosity.
"You live here?"she asks as I carry her up the stairs.
"Yep."
"W-with your wife?"
"Don't have a wife," I grunt.
