“Yup,” he says, unashamed. “Only ‘cause I know she walked there.”
“Feet’ll do that if you let ‘em,” I nod.
He narrows his eyes at me. “It’s still cold out.”
I look pointedly at his bare arms. Just like Jamie and I, Tyler rolled up his sleeves and ditched his outer jacket at some point this afternoon when the sun got high in the sky. It wasn’tthatcold out.
Tyler has his next excuse already lined up though. “And she’s got a perfectly fine truck with brand new tires she could’ve taken, so?—”
“So she walked to the feed store specifically so she’d have to call you to come get her, because you’ve been working with me all day and she knew I’d run her off if she tried to come out here and distract you,” I finish for him, even though I know that’s not what he was going to say.
Jamie and I are wearing matching grins because as much as Tate claims they’re just friends, she’s wildly possessive of Tyler’s time and attention. Tyler doesn’t see it like that.
He flips us off, like he can’t decide if I’m insulting my sister—his girl—or not, and starts his walk back up to the main part ofthe ranch. I’d let him borrow the truck, but since we’re losing one set of eyes and hands, we’re already adding hours to our day as it is.
“You think Tate’s ever going to grow out of always needing to get her way?” Jamie asks when Tyler’s far enough away he can’t hear us.
I snort. “Not with him around, no.”
TWENTY-FOUR
MADDOX
By the timethe sun dips down behind the mountains and I get home that evening, I’ve gone from being pissed off that Austin ran out on me while I was asleep, to terrified I’d ignored a limit. There’s an old notification on my phone telling me she’s live right now, so I log into the account I barely use anymore and wait for the video to load.
The first thing I see are the bruises my lips left on her throat and chest last night. The second thing is, of course, that she’s only wearing one of the lacy things she bought on my card last month and she’s got a bright pink dildo right beside her pretty cunt.
The camera’s aimed a little higher than normal and a hopeful part of me thinks maybe it was intentional. Maybe she wanted to show off my marks. Or maybe I’m bat-shit crazy and getting in too deep.
“Rancher!” she greets, her voice excited. It calms me slightly. She wouldn’t be excited to see a man who hurt her.
DamnDan:I thought we were done with this guy.
HornyHal88:What guy?
Munch3000:MustachedRancher.
DamnDan:You might as well log off, new guy. He’s gonna buy her for the night in a minute.
MustachedRancher:She’s not a fucking Redbox DVD, Dan. She’s a person.
I don’t usually mind the banter in the chat. I ignore it, other than a few snorts when a joke hits just right, but their jokes are getting less and less funny the more I consider Austin mine.
It’s stupid. She’s not mine. She won’t ever be mine if she has her way. Doesn’t stop me from being a fool, though.
“Now, now, Rancher. He’s just not a Southern gentleman like you,” Austin chides with a smile in her voice and now that I know it’s her, I can’t believe I ever missed it. She does her best to hide her accent, but it slips through every so often. “And no one uses Redbox anymore, old man.”
MustachedRancher:Not Southern.
She knows that, though. Said it just to piss me off. I can’t deny the old part, all things considered.
“Western gentleman,” she corrects. Or maybe this was her plan. I grin.
HornyHal88:She knows where he lives? Who is this guy?
MustachedRancher:Her biggest fan.
I was wrong. Chat banterisfun. Especially when I get to rile Dan up.
