Page 9 of The Little Things

The banging started again, warring with the dull throb in my head. My eyes were swollen and tender from my earlier crying jag, and I was sure I looked an absolute mess as I untangled myself from my mass of blankets and moved through the sun-lit cabin. My mood was sour from lack of sleep, and whoever was banging on the damn door was about to get an earful. Only, as soon as I pulled it open, the words that had been on my tongue dried right up, along with all the saliva.

The rugged cowboy standing on the other side was so damn hot he short-circuited my brain. Every idea I had in my head about what my ideal man would look like went up in a puff of smoke. My tastes had always leaned toward clean-cut men who either dressed in suits or like they were about to spend the day on the golf course. It was how most of the men I associated with in Los Angeles dressed.

But the man standing in front of me just then, the one revving my engine in a way it had never revved before, couldn’t have been more different from my typical type. From his dusty boots to his faded Wranglers to his chambray shirt that looked bleached around the collar from sweat, this dude screamed I know how to use my hands better than all those city boys you used to know. It was a look that had me clenching my thighs against the ache that had suddenly formed.

This man was built like a brick house from long, hard days of manual labor, not from some fancy gym. I was willing to bet he’d never set foot in a gym in his entire life. He didn’t need to, he blew every gym rat I knew out of the damn water.

Dark blond whiskers coated his hard, square jawline and surrounded full lips that looked surprisingly soft. His nose looked like it might have been broken a time or two, but that only added to his overall ruggedness. His eyes were shaded from the cowboy hat on his head, but I was still able to make out the rich brown color—as well as the fact that he was staring me down with a look that was far from pleased.

“H-hi. Hello.”

Then he spoke, and the fantasy that had been forming in my head as soon as I opened the door withered and died right there on the vine.

“Don’t know how things work in your world, Hollywood, but we don’t have the luxury of sleepin’ ’til after ten around here.”

“Um . . . sorry?”

“Get dressed and meet me at the barn. You have fifteen minutes.”

With that order, he turned on his boots and stomped off, leaving me wondering what the hell was going on.

Chapter Six

Zach

Iwas being a dick. I knew it, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. The moment the new girl had opened the door, wearing nothing but that skimpy negligee, my dick had twitched in response, making my already foul mood that much worse. It was bad enough I had to babysit some spoiled city girl, the last thing I needed was to be attracted to the woman who was already proving herself to be an epic pain in my ass. I didn’t have time to take out of my busy day to chase her ass down because she couldn’t be bothered to show up on time for work.

Resting my arms against the top railing of the corral where a few of my cowboys were working the young red roan mare that was proving to be full of piss and vinegar, I scrubbed at my face with one hand before lifting the tin mug of coffee to my lips and taking one last sip. My face pinched up in disgust as the cold, bitter contents hit my tongue. I’d let it sit too long as my mind drifted to places it had no business going and now it was no good. I dumped the cold coffee onto the dusty ground near my boot. It was my third cup so far this morning, and it wasn’t doing a damn bit of good.

I’d been up since she ripped me from a deep, peaceful sleep when she came running out of the cabin closest to my house the night before, brandishing a cast iron skillet and yelling at the top of her lungs.

At any point as I watched her through my living room window, dressed in that goddamn nighty with that ridiculous sleep mask pushed up to her forehead, I could have stepped outside and explained it was just an owl and nothing to freak out over, but I would have been lying if I said I didn’t get a bit of enjoyment out of watching the show. She really was a fish out of water, the performance she put on the night before more than proved that.

I should have known my mom would put her close to me. She asked that I keep an eye on the woman, give her the lay of the land, and make her feel welcome, none of which I’d taken the time to do yesterday. Admittedly, I’d ignored Rory’s requests out of spite. After the upheaval that had been the first twelve years of my life, I wasn’t necessarily big on change, and having some chick from California invade my sanctuary, my ranch, all so she could learn a lesson, left a bitter taste in my mouth. I doubted she wanted to be here, that she appreciated this place for all it was. She probably thought she was too good for us and this land, this simpler way of life, and that made my disdain for her that much worse.

However, when her shouts of confusion and agitation gave way to deep, body-wracking sobs, the humor I felt at watching her lose her shit immediately dried up. Guilt clawed at my insides as I witnessed her crumble. She wasn’t crying like someone who was stuck somewhere she didn’t want to be. She cried like her heart was breaking. I went from hating the woman I didn’t even know to feeling sorry for her in less than five minutes. I spent the rest of the night replaying how her pretty face had twisted up with heartache and how her entire frame sank with sadness until I gave up on sleep all together and dragged my ass out of bed to get to work, even though there were still hours of darkness ahead of me.

Just as the sun had started to rise over the mountains, I told myself I was going to do as my mom asked and show her the ropes, only, as the hours ticked by and the valley flooded with sunlight, that ire I’d lost a bit of the night before came back with a vengeance. She’d had her little breakdown, and now she was blowing off her responsibilities.

I had shit to do that didn’t include waiting around for her snobby ass to decide to wake up and grace us with her presence, so I’d stormed over to her cabin, ready to rip her a new one. Unfortunately, she was still in that fucking nightgown when she answered the door. A nightgown that left very little to the imagination. I had to bite my cheek so hard at the sight of her straining nipples through the silky fabric that I nearly took a chunk out of it.

That first up-close glimpse of her quickly revealed two things. First, she was fucking gorgeous, even with red, puffy eyes from crying all night long. Her pink bee-stung lips would tempt any man to taste them, and her warm caramel eyes had the power to pull you in against your will and never let go. They were the kind of eyes a person could easily get lost in for hours at a time. Second, she was young. Way too young for me to be thinking about kissing her or wondering how soft her skin was or what was beneath that nightie.

She was too fucking young to make my dick stiffen behind my jeans like some hormone-addled teenager, and the fact I hadn’t been able to control my hard-on only pissed me off more.

I’d snapped, speaking to her in a way that would have had Rory or my grandma smacking me upside my head. When those eyes went big, panic swimming in their warm depths at my harsh tone, I forced myself to turn on my heel and carry my ass back to the barn before I acted like an even bigger asshole. If that was possible. I’d been berating myself ever since as I waited for her to show up.

I pulled myself out of my own miserable thoughts just as my foreman, Hal, came walking over, taking up a spot on the fencing beside me. He had one of the ever-present toothpicks he chewed on tucked into his cheek. He rested his arms on the top rung of the corral and propped a booted foot on the bottom one. “Hey, boss. All good?”

“Yep. All good, Hal. How about you?” Hal had been working on the ranch since before I came to live here. My grandfather had hired him on as a hand years ago, and when I took the place over, I promoted him to foreman. There was no one I trusted more to help me run this place and keep the other hands in line than Hal. He was a hell of a cowboy, ran the bunk house in a way that kept the others in line while still earning their respect, and loved this land almost as much as my family did. This was home to him, and he treated it with the respect it deserved. He’d more than earned his position a thousand times over. He had helped turn me into the rancher I was today, he and Pop. They’d bred in me a love for the land and the animals we were responsible for, and I didn’t know what the hell I’d do without him.

“Can’t complain. The sun’s shinin’ and I’m still kickin’.” He jerked his chin in the direction of the horse currently throwing the rider on her back into the dirt. “Hell of a spirit in that one. She’s gonna give you a run for your money, for sure.”

A slow smile curled the corners of my mouth as I watched the horse give my cowboys hell, tossing her head back and forth, making them struggle to catch her reins. “Looks like it.”

Hal chuckled. “Horse like that, she’ll make you earn her loyalty, but once you got it, you probably won’t find a better animal on this green earth.”

I had a feeling he was right about that, but before I could voice my agreement, I noticed a few of the guys in the corral shift their attention from the young mare to something off in the distance. I turned to follow their gazes, curious about what had stolen their focus from their work, and the moment I spotted her, a coal in my gut began to burn hot.