Page 4 of Chasing Liberty
“We went in this together and we’re going out together.” The words were out, and unfortunately, she couldn’t reel them back in. They sounded inconsiderate. Like she was dissolving a business deal.
“Whatever you want, Liberty.” He distanced himself. She could practically feel the pull. “It’s getting late, and I need to head to Sagebrush. It’s branding day and you know how Sam is if we’re late.”
“Wyler?”
He stopped underneath the arched doorway, keeping his back to her. The only sign that he was listening was the slight tilt of his head.
“Dinner is at eight.”
With a grunt, he continued down the hallway. She could hear his footsteps on the stairs and a few seconds later the clicking of his bedroom door shutting.
Blowing out a long breath, she leaned over the counter, finding comfort in the grey-veined granite that cooled her heated skin. Her exhaustive state warned her that she should stay home and rest, but she had too much work to do. Too many items on her check list.
Her first task was calling the attorney and having him draw up the divorce papers and the deed transfer for Crescent Rose. She had to follow through with her promise.
She went into the living room to the antique desk and opened the leather-bound planner. She drew a line through the first item on the long list. Have thedivorce talkwith Wyler. At least it was over with. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but not his lack of enthusiasm for freedom. Liberty didn’t want to come off as heartless, but things had reached a Y in the road. A series of missteps had brought them to this, yet none of what they’d shared had seemed like blunders at the time. They’d agreed that behind closed doors they’d simply be roommates,but in public they’d pretend to have the best marriage. All of which included holding hands, hugs, and kisses when someone was watching. Unfortunately, they’d crossed the boundaries when they started ripping each other’s clothes off the second they walked inside the house.
Liberty had refused to even consider marriage at first. She was more than happy being single and sneaking around with Wyler. She had enjoyed the forbidden affair with no labels or pressure placed on it outside of finding a place where they could meet in private.
Any of Sagebrush’s hands would have fit the bill for a marriage of convenience, but Wyler had seemed like the only logical choice.
Closing her planner, she scurried upstairs to change. She paused outside Wyler’s closed bedroom door, but what could she say to him? Sorry didn’t seem to fit the bill, so she headed to her own room. After tonight, they’d go their separate ways.
The decision was for the best.
Chapter Two
Resituating his Stetson for the tenth time since he’d slapped it on his head, Wyler strolled into the restaurant and was greeted by the blonde host standing at the podium. “Good evening, Mr. Ranks. Mr. Rose is waiting for you. Right this way.”
No matter how often it happened these days, he still wasn’t used to being greeted by name. Hell, everyone in Sagebrush Pine always greeted him warmly, but he never would have believed he could walk into some fancy restaurant and be recognized. Of course, that came with the territory when one married a Rose. People seemed to have a second job around these parts making sure they treated the reputable family with extra consideration. Sam owned the largest cattle ranch within a two-hundred-mile radius and an extensive portfolio of investment properties. Anything he touched regarding land turned to gold.
When Wyler first started working at Sagebrush Rose, he thought Sam and his daughters were a knock-off version of the Kardashians, but boy-oh-boy had Wyler learned a lot in the last year—especially the last four months since he’d married Liberty. His eyes had been opened wide to the hard work the family put into their legacy.
Sure, the family farmhouse had rugs and antiques that cost more than he made a year, but most everything in the farmhouse mansion had been handed down by generations of Roses. The first-generation of Roses had landed on theundeveloped Sagebrush Rose Ranch in eighteen-ninety-four. Each generation after poured blood, sweat and tears into making the beautiful ranch into what it was today.
The sisters were spoiled, no doubt, but they were also some of the toughest women he’d ever met. Talented. Business savvy. And could handle a horse better than most men.
The first week he worked as a hand, one of the horses had been spooked by a rattlesnake and jumped a fence. He was caught at the east pasture tangled in barbed wire and fought against it, only making things worse. Liberty had ridden up so fast that she’d lost her cowgirl hat in the wind and was pulling on her gloves before she even left the saddle. There had been an undeniable connection between her and the horse that calmed it enough that she could give him a shot of sedative so he wouldn’t hurt himself or one of the hands. Several of the hands had started cutting the wire away from the horse’s injured legs, but Liberty had demanded that everyone step aside and let her help her horse. After being freed, and the vet checking for life-threatening injuries, Liberty had begun belting out demands for the crew to immediately remove every single strand of barbed wire fence on the ranch and put-up cattle panel and pipe fences in the horse pastures. All the while she was covered in blood, some of her own and some of the horse’s.
Normally the expensive request would require Sam’s prior approval, but none of the hands had the courage to go behind Liberty’s back and get her father’s signature. She’d looked a bit like a warrior princess who’d gone to battle and shouldn’t be crossed. When Sam found out, he’d stayed silent too.
Wyler’s curiosity and interest had been tweaked then. He watched for Liberty, stealing glances every chance he could. There was something very different in her, unlike any woman he’d ever met. He admired the fact that she was the most ladyliketomboy. Not to mention the most beautiful. Eventually, stolen glances led to flirtation, mostly on her part. Wyler couldn’t have ignored the temptation if his life had depended upon it.
One night after the other hands had gone to the bunkhouse, Wyler was out by the river alone enjoying an evening by a fire under the stars when Liberty had unexpectedly come off the path, walked into the firelight, and stripped down to her itty-bitty bra and panties. She’d started for the water and got about halfway then looked back at him with a smile that could have easily knocked his boots off if he’d had a pair on. Her voice had sounded like liquid velvet when she said, “You coming, cowboy?”
Of course he was. He got hard right then and there like a schoolboy seeing tits for the first time.
In his defense, a man would have to be out of his mind to turn down an opportunity to be near a woman as beautiful as Liberty. From her tousled curls to her engaging eyes to hips that begged for a man’s grip, she was amazing.
He should have denied himself the temptation, walked away like an idiot, but the whiskey in his system had lent him enough bravery to deny all logic. He’d stripped down to his boxers and join her in the ice-cold water that didn’t even touch his hard-on.
She must have liked it because over the next month, he’d found himself, and his heart, right where they shouldn’t be. Balls deep in sweet pussy and pleasured to near-stupidity. She simply said “hard” and his body reacted like a racehorse coming out of the gate. He was caught up in an invisible wire like that poor horse she’d saved.
He wasn’t schooled in how clandestine affairs worked, but he was willing to learn everything there was to know., with Liberty’s guidance. When she’d mentioned marriage, she could have easily said “be a dumbass” and he’d gone right along all toowillingly. He’d fallen for her like a dumbass would. Lock, stock, and barrel.
What had he thought would happen?
When she’d mentioned divorce, he’d been unraveled—the rug pulled out from underneath him. He’d been at war within himself, wanting to fight for her, but pride had rendered him silent. There came a time when a man needed to remove the claws from his balls.