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His brows lowered. “She said what?” Then it hit him. “Wait. That’s what she calls you? Needy?” Her only answer was a shrug. “Is that why she can’t know?”

She sucked in a deep, audible breath. And then, as if it was the most difficult thing she’d ever done, she lifted her head and met his gaze.

“No. She can’t know because she told me to sleep with you. To try and find out some juicy secret she could use.”

He stared at her. Was vaguely aware of his stomach knotting up, his muscles tensing as they did when he spotted a rattlesnake out on the ranch. It made his voice cold when he said, “Is that what this was?”

The horror in her eyes was definite this time. “You can’t believe—”

“Hey, you two!”

The buoyant call came just as the door swung open. Sydney stepped in, followed by Ariel. If they were aware of the tension they’d just walked in on, it didn’t show.

“Knock?” he said, barely managing not to say it through gritted teeth.

“Not when we came to kidnap your lady,” Ariel said. “We need to prep for the party.”

Well, that was a distraction. “The party that’s not for two hours yet?”

“Spoken just like a man,” Sydney said with an exaggerated sigh.

Sydney was a cheerfully relentless force, and Ariel a quiet but inexorable one, and together they were unstoppable. Before he could really get his chaotic thoughts together, the three women were gone. And it seemed significant that Kaitlyn grabbed up her backpack as she was ushered out the door.

And he was left to ponder the fact that Jillian had told Kaitlyn to sleep with him.

And why.

Far too soon after that, while all he could think about was Kaitlyn and what was going on in the house, he was again face-to-face with the beautiful, confident, ice-cold woman who’d done it. He didn’t let her inside his studio. In fact, he told her he had work to do in the barn, knowing she’d probably turn up her nose at the idea. Which she did.

“It’s fitting,” he said flatly. “We can both shovel shit.”

She looked startled at the crudity, then just slightly worried. He savored that as he walked into the barn and indeed grabbed a shovel. It was all he could do not to confront her, and only that fact that he had no doubt she would take it out on Kaitlyn if he did stopped him.

He gave her nothing. One-word answers when possible. If it wasn’t directly about the work itself, he didn’t answer at all. He stymied her until her frustration was obvious. She clearly never expected him to stonewall her, had assumed she was doing him a favor by even deigning to do this story. Or maybe she just assumed no one would ever buck the media in general.

“This story can make or break you!” she finally exclaimed. “Why are you being so contentious?”

“I’m a Texan.”

“So?”

“Haven’t you heard?” he said, his voice way too bland. “A Texan’ll start a fight at the drop of a hat. And he’ll drop the hat.”

She stared at him, clearly dumbfounded. She’d come here expecting him to tread carefully around her, maybe cater to her or at least flatter her. Expecting it because she really thought she could make or break him.

Which only proved she didn’t know jack about Texans.

Chapter Thirty-Two

“No, not yet,”Sydney said. “One last thing before you look.”

The blonde reached out and swiped the soft brush she was holding over Kaitlyn’s cheeks.

“That’s it,” Ariel said approvingly.

Kaitlyn didn’t know what to say, and even less what to expect. She felt as if she’d been caught up in a tornado as the two women worked on her as if she were some project they were taking great delight in. They’d led her into what had to be the master bedroom, which made her feel even more uncomfortable; this was Ry’s mother’s space, after all. But she had said welcome. At least, Ry had said she had.

But that was before he’d found out about Jillian’s order. Which she had stupidly told him.