I didn’t know any better, I’d say she likes it. I stare her down, my eyes drifting to the paper cup she’s holding.Oliviais scrawled on it in Sharpie. I allow myself to breathe her in for a beat, inhaling her scent of cinnamon and sugar. It’s fucking mouthwatering.
She backs up slightly and I let my gaze drift to her throat. Pink creeps up her pale skin and she swallows, licking her lips. The sight causes blood to rush to my cock. Christ, what is wrong with me?
Turning, I toss a “remember to look both ways before you cross the street” at her as I pop my sunglasses back on and head toward the realty offices down the street.
“Hey!” Olivia calls out from behind me. “In case you’re staying for any length of time, men around here don’t just grab women they don’t know like that. Even if they are trying to be heroic!”
I turn to face her and, walking backward, give her the two-finger salute. “Noted. I’m here to stay. But, next time, I’ll just let you walk out into traffic, Liv.” I turn back toward my destination, not waiting for her response.
“How did you—” She pauses, until the realization dawns on her that her name is on the cup. I’m already pulling open the door to the realty office when I hear her call out from behind me, “It’sOlivia.”
My radio buzzes on the dash now, pulling my attention back to the present.
“LCFD Green back at base.” The voice is Walker Black’s, my captain, arriving back from Olivia’s house.
“I’m not far behind,” I add quickly, casting a glance to the woman beside me. I know she’s close with her parents—I’ve seen them at her shop multiple times—so I wonder why she didn’t want to call them. Finding out from Nash when I first moved to Laurel Creek that she was adopted only made me more curious about her. Where she came from, how she ended up with Ken and Lynn Sutton. It only took a small amount ofdigging to find out her birth parents died in a car accident when she was four. Ken and Lynn were in their early forties, Lynn a distant cousin, but they didn’t hesitate to take her in, and they made it official the following year. They seem like really good people.
Olivia stirs beside me but doesn’t wake up. Her movement only serves to push her sugary scent through my truck, only tonight it isn’t quite right. It’s mixed with smoke, which kind of makes her smell a little like me.
She’s still wrapped in the thermal blanket, her eyes closed in the dark as I drive. A thin pink tank top with flowers on it clings to her, and the matching shorts barely cover her full, perky ass. Soot marks her pretty tear-stained face, and her feet are still in her ridiculous cow slippers, even though I grabbed her sandals. As the lights from Silver Pines Ranch come into view, her eyes shoot open, filling with a hint of fear that sends a thrill through me.
“So hot …” she whispers, her words slurring. Somehow, she still manages to look fucking sinful even in this decrepit state.
Her nipples are hardened to points as she shrugs off the blanket. Then she looks down.No bra.
A hint of pink travels up her neck as she folds her arms over her chest. The fabric of her pajama top is so thin, I wonder if she’d blush even deeper if I wrapped my lips around one of those pebbled little buds and sucked it into my mouth. I wonder if she’d soak through those silk shorts for me if I touched her in all the right places. I wonder if she’dbegme—
“Thank you for thinking of this,” she offers as I turn my gaze back to the gravel driveway of Silver Pines, pushing Olivia’s perfect curves from my mind. Fuck, I need to get it together. I’m supposed to be getting her to a safe space, not fantasizing about her.
I pull up to the cabin my friend Wade Ashby directed me tobring Olivia to. His mother, Jolene, stands on the porch. But I can’t get out of my fucking truck yet, because after letting my thoughts run wild, I’m still half hard beside this oblivious little minx.
“Oh God, I feel nauseous,” she groans, cracking the door for fresh air.
This fucking night just keeps getting better and better.
CHAPTER 4
Olivia
“There’s not much space here, darlin’, but it’s all yours. And tomorrow we’ll go to your place and get anything that makes you feel more comfortable.”
CeCe’s mother, Jolene Ashby, though we all call her Mama Jo, smiles at me as she tucks a piece of rogue hair behind my ear. She’s still a pretty woman at almost sixty, just an older version of CeCe. She wears her long blond hair in a braid down her back most days, and the weather of six decades shines through the soft crinkles at the corners of her kind eyes.
Asher was on the phone with Wade for only a few moments before he hung up and told me I could stay here tonight, which sounded much better than calling my parents.
“This ranch is your home as long as you need it to be. You know that. I have everything you need at the big house,” she continues as she leans in for a hug. I hold on to her but it only causes more tears to well up.
I nod as I back up and swipe at the water pooling in my eyes. Looking around the small space, I’m grateful to be here. This cabin is called Stardust, one of the four on the ranchnamed for Willie Nelson albums. The others are Blue Eyes, Bluegrass, Spirit, and Legend.
“We’ll know more about the damage after I do my walk-through,” Asher says now, as if reading my thoughts. He’s leaning on the doorframe of the cabin, still in his standard uniform. The deep tan of his face is accented by the soft light in the room, and his dark hair sticks to his forehead as he stares at me through thick lashes. He’s dirty and obviously tired, but how he still looksthisgood after tonight is beyond me.
“Oh! I’ll grab you some coffee for the morning,” Mama Jo says as she tosses on her boots. “Be right back. Anything else you might need?”
“A good contractor?” I pull my hair out of its clip and let it fall around my shoulders before running my fingers through it in exasperation.
Jo crosses the space quickly and pulls me in for another hug.
“We can start sorting these things out tomorrow, darlin’. I’ll help you make the bed up when I get back, then you have a nice shower and get some sleep. Things have a way of looking easier in the light of day, okay?”
