One
Kaci
“This is where you live?”Dustin glanced around the property as he drove us onto the Lazy S ranch through the arched gate, beneath the emblem—the letter S turned on its side. “I didn’t know you were a farmgirl.”
“I’m not.” Yet therewasa lot Dustin didn’t know about me. A lot he would neverknow.
Gravel crunched beneath his tires as we rounded a shallow curve in the long driveway, and the big red barn appeared on our right. “Damn.” Dustin whistled. “That’s straight out of, like, some old painting. You got horses in there? Orcows?”
“Nope. No animals.” No farm animals, anyway. The local wildlife had been known to drive horses into a panic. Then into a heart attack. “This isn’t a functioning ranch.” It was more like a compound. The capital of a political authority Dustin would never even knowexisted.
“So, the barn’s basically abandoned?” Dustin turned to the right, and his headlights glinted on flaking red paint and slightly warped barn doors. He gave me a comically suggestive eyebrow waggle. “I bet we could get into a lot of trouble inthere.”
“That’s a virtual certainty.” Chances were good that he mistook the anticipation in my voice for lust. Human guys tend to give themselves credit for more than they deserve. I suspect the same goes for shifter guys, but the truth is that I wouldn’tknow.
“Let’s go in.” He slammed the gear shift into park and turned to me with excitement glowing in his eyes, reflected in starlight shining through thewindshield.
“I don’t think so. The ranch backs up to a national forest. We get a lot of predators skulking in theshadows.”
“Don’t worry, Kaci.” He got out, then leaned down to peer in at me with a smutty smile. “I’ll protectyou.”
I nearly choked on laughter. “Don’t say I didn’t warnyou…”
Dustin rounded the front of the vehicle and pulled my door open. I let him tug me out of the car because if there was one aspect of human behavior I still understood, after five years of observing it from the other side of the species divide, it was that if you tell a guy he shouldn’t do something, he won’t even be able tothinkabout anything else until he’s done exactlythat.
Was it unfair of me to push that button? Probably. But I learned at a young age that life isn’t fair. Why should Dustin not have the benefit of that sameexperience?
He closed my car door and led me toward the barn in the glare of his headlights, where I straightened my skirt while I watched him struggle with the olddoors.
“They’re a little warped,” I said as he pulled, tendons standing out in his neck from theeffort.
“I got it.” He grunted and pulled again, and I looked up to enjoy the warm, clear summer night. There was no moon, but the stars were all out, and they were more than enough light for me to see by. Though Dustin probably wasn’t asfortunate.
“You want ahand?”
He tossed an amused look my way. “This thing’s really jammed. It probably hasn’t beenopened—”
“Since last weekend.” I pushed him aside and jerked on the right-hand barn door, one handed. It swung open with a squeal of rusty hinges, and Dustin gaped at me. I shrugged. “There’s a trick to it.” Showing him up was one thing. But if he knew I was actually three times stronger than he was, he would get back in his car and peel out of there before I’d had anyfun.
And I was indesperateneed of a littlefun.
Mollified by my explanation, Dustin grabbed my hand and tugged me into the barn, where he stumbled over a large rock right in front of the door, which he obviously couldn’t see. “Shit!
I laughed as I steadied him, and he took the opportunity to slide his hand over my ass. “Think that’s funny?” He murmured against my neck as his hands moved up my back, beneath my blouse. “Maybe I tripped on purpose, so you’d grabme.”
Hehadn’t.
“Maybe I meant to hit the ground, with you on top ofme.”
“The ground’s filthy,” I whispered as his lips trailed down my jaw toward my mouth. “But there’s a bale of hay over there…” Right where I’d putit.
Dustin walked me backward toward the hay bale, steading me with both hands while his mouth fed from mine as if I were the only source of sustenance on the planet, and I had to admit, the guy knew how to kiss. Hay scratched the back of my calves and Isat.
He didn’t even notice the blanket spread over the bale. But then, that was for my comfort, nothis.
I leaned back and Dustin crawled over me, one knee wedged between my thighs, pushing up my skirt. His hand wandered beneath my blouse again while his lips traveled down my neck, and I threw my head back, giving myself over to the moment. To the adrenaline and to the need building low insideme.
So what if I’d only met him a few hours ago? So what if he thought I was a college junior partying her way through a degree in businessmanagement.
