Page 17 of Ash on the Range (Red Hart Ranch #6)

WILL

I finally woke up with Cassie on my chest, and she felt so damn good I never wanted to move. But even though the boys and a handful of the Red Hart women crawled into their beds just after midnight, I knew the core crew would be up shortly and…I needed time with my girl before the house got busy.

And hell, she threw me like a raging rodeo bull telling me she loved me the night before, but I’d live that ride over and over if it meant feeling her snuggle into me when she did.

I doubted she even remembered. The words just seemed to flow out of her.

After the mess of everything last night after our perfect day together at the ridge yesterday, I knew I’d have that moment on replay in my mind forever.

Even so, I lay there when I should have been moving, stroking her hair, enjoying the way her languid body sort of flowed into mine.

Our legs tangled beneath the blankets I tossed over us when I came in the night before after showering, trying to scrub the smoke out of my hair and off my skin with scalding water that I managed to claim for the first time this season—and on the right day, for once.

Cassie’s head rested over my chest, her cheek pressed above my heart.

Every breath tightened my ribcage until I thought it might burst. I’d had plenty of rodeo flings and a girlfriend or two back in high school but never anything serious.

Hell, I hadn’t been in one place long enough to have anything serious, and the sorts of girls I hooked up with were the one night only type events.

Good time girls who usually sought me out after a hard ride, or in the bar afterward, or someone Denver threw in my path while I was licking my wounds.

Burt Cassie… She was just sort of there that night. We fell into each other and never let go.

“And I never will,” I murmured, trailing my fingers along her spine, and rested my hand across her back.

She appeared so tiny there that my fingers splayed out and took up most of the space.

Hell, two of my hands could probably crush her.

She looked so fragile there, curled on my chest, but I knew she was strong beyond belief, even if her brother and family, from what I gathered, didn’t share the same opinion.

“Morning,” Cassie murmured, rubbing her nose on my shirt. “You still don’t smell like smoke. It’s disconcerting." She blinked up at me twice and wiggled her perfect ass.

“It’s okay. You smell pretty enough for both of us,” I told her, unable to smile as my heart lodged somewhere in the realm of my throat and refused to budge.

I rubbed a thumb along her spine until I reached her nape and pulled her up my body, drawing a gasp from her as I settled her close enough to kiss.

"Everyone's gonna be up soon, honey. Can you be quiet for me while I steal a few more moments with you?”

Her eyes shone as she woke from her doze in full a second before I cupped her nape and pulled her mouth down to mine.

Soft lips parted on a sigh heady enough to harden me on demand. I palmed her ass with my other hand, pushing her down onto me, rocking us gently together until she moaned into my mouth.

“Shh,” I cautioned her softly. “Easy, honey.” I stroked her hair, tangling my fingers through her blonde waved and held her in place as I kissed her back, pushing her lips wide and explored her mouth.

Her breath stuttered as she held in the noises I loved yesterday from her.

My cock swelled knowing she struggled for me, the tip of her tongue gliding along the length of mine in a show of sweet submission.

I swallowed hard when she rubbed her body against mine, and dropped my hand from her hair to slide beneath her hoodie— my hoodie that she’d borrowed at some point—and cupped her breast, tugging the nipple free of her bra.

I rolled the tight bud between my fingers in a slow rhythm I knew she liked, pressing her ass down against mine in the same way without letting her up for air. She struggled for a moment, the softest huffs against my lips the prettiest sounds.

A low growl left my throat in warning, and she settled against me, letting me play.

Christ, she felt too damn good against me.

There were too many clothes in the way, and all I wanted was to strip her bare and fuck her raw beneath me.

But that would have to wait for another time without so many people likely to be present shortly.

My kisses grew harsher, and I knew I bruised her lips by the way she softened hers, but Cassie never pulled away or complained, pressing her breast into my palm, rocking her hips into the rhythm I set.

I sent a mental promise that I’d reward her when we found time away from everyone else again for giving me this moment together as soon as we could.

The rodeo would be hellishly busy and I knew from past experience that we’d barely find time together.

This was my chance to savor as many moments with Cassie as I could.

What started as a sweet, pre-dawn morning make out session quickly devolved into something far more carnal.

Cassie moaned softly into my mouth as I slid my fingers along the seam of her jeans over her hot little slit.

She hadn’t gotten changed the night before, and fell asleep in her clothes waiting for me.

I’d picked her up when Travis let me into the big house, sliding in beneath her and settling her over my body until we woke together again after our stunted conversation the night before that would be seared into my memory forever.

That memory kept me going now as I traced the shape of her through her jeans.

The shape of her was all too easy to feel and I wondered if she had panties on or not beneath her clothes.

The thought left me rock hard. I broke our kiss with a soft groan I couldn't suppress, pinching her nipple hard as I rubbed her denim seam.

Cassie moaned into my shirt, the sound muffled, thankfully as she burrowed into the blankets.

Her hips worked frantically against mine and I closed my eyes in fucking pure bliss at the feel of her using my body to get herself off.

This wasn’t how I expected this morning to go, if I expected anything at all, but fuck was I here for it.

I milked her nipple with my fingertips, swirling and tugging until her body shuddered. Her thighs tensed and heat flushed my fingers over her jeans. I pressed those to her body as she rode the waves of her orgasm out, leaving me hard and aching, but fucking pleased that she’d come for me.

“So beautiful," I murmured, gliding her back up my body from where she had pooled into the middle of my chest, to meld our mouths together in a long, slow kiss.

And then we lay there together until the sun broke across the far ridge line, painting Red Hart’s fields in a perfect display of crisp golden light without a flicker of smoke in sight.

If the house filled with people too fast for me to detangle from Cassie an hour after I woke her with kisses that turned too much, too fast for both of us, then the yard and the field beyond became something chaotic within minutes after the full rodeo crew descended in all their glory the moment we all caffeinated after Eve pumped us full of food and let us roam free.

For the first time in years I wasn't part of setting up the arena. Instead, I rounded up the herd, moving them into fields away from the crowd where they wouldn’t get hurt or spooked by the noise of us all in the next hours.

. The stink of the bulls freaked the poor critters out so damn bad that I had leaping fawns, some who were just losing their spots and separating from their mothers, bounding about everywhere.

Worse, I got to be in charge of Austin who had returned from his trip for a short rock with a short stop when he crashed back first into a granite shelf the night before, wandering about lots in the smoke because he couldn’t follow directions.

Or refused to.

Hell didn't come close to covering it.

“Catch him. That one,” I called to Luke, who swept his arms wide and used the fence line like a pro to herd the bouncing fawn into the next paddock. He grabbed the gate and ran it in, closing the deer in, catching another on the way through and sent me a thumbs up.

“Fucking brilliant. That leaves us…” I turned to count heads in the large paddock we were in. We’d moved nearly ninety of the suckers, and I was shattered. I’d better draw a bull called Driving Miss Daisy or else I had no chance tonight of making points on anything.

At least I knew I’d score with a pretty girl afterwards. The thought of holding Cassie in my arms held me in place for a moment, just long enough to miscount one of the damn fawns who slithered under my knees and knocked me on my ass.

“Good practice for tonight,” Austin groused at me from his place at another gate where he did what I’d expected when I got lumped with him—fucking nothing.

He’d been cleared for all signs of concussion.

No injuries, breaks or bruises, except maybe to his ego.

But the moment Denver heard about it, he refused to have him on the rodeo set up.

And so, he was officially my responsibility.

The man who hated me more than anyone in the world, and now I was dating his sister.

Fucking brilliant.

“Be better if you helped,” I snapped back, “than stand there and direct.”

“Someone has to do it,” Austin drawled.

And shut up.

I seethed, squeezing the fence with my gloved hand and wished it was his neck.

My eyes shut for a second and a shadow fell over me.

Hell, maybe he had actually moved his ass like I demanded.

I waited for the punch to the face that habitually followed but when I opened my eyes, Noah and Luke stood in front of me, Luke's hand extended.

“We got you, boss.” Noah winked. “Apparently Austin’s bull tonight is a bit of a spinner.”

I blinked at them and grinned. “Now, boys. We can’t go fixin’ the draw. That’s not fair to a big guy like him.”

They both laughed at me, but I meant it.

If either of us won or lost, I wanted it to be a fair round.

Actually, I was surprised that Denver was letting Austin ride at all.

Usually, he refused to let injured—even semi injured—riders on a bull, but he must have bullied the doc into letting him walk away with a clean bill of health.

I needed to have a word with Denver about that draw, though.

I cleared my throat, taking Luke’s hand and let the other ranch hand pull me out of the dirt.

No doubt I'd be back in it later tonight just like Austin crowed about, but my ego wasn’t as big as the rich boy’s, and falling didn’t hurt half as much for me when I’d spent my rodeo career right there in the dust where I started.

“Alright.” I swiped grit off my ass and tightened my gloves, counting heads. Deer, not ranch hands or ring ins. “We’ve got six of these pretty little things to go. And I bet Miss Eve has a handful of beers for the men who bring them in, am I right?”

Noah and Luke cheered, while Austin sent me an are you fucking insane glance, but he didn’t get ranch culture. He’d never been rationed to one-beer-a-day for a season, and an extra beer on rodeo night after catching runaway fawns and does mean everything to the boys who busted their asses for me.

Plus, those little suckers we chased were fast fuckers.

They’d earn every damn sip. But this time, I'd make sure that Austin grew red in the face right alongside us.

Direct my boys, my ass. I fixed him a hard look as I handed out directions, setting the boys to herd in the last few fawns.

The does followed in, keen to still be with their offspring, and naturally, the last to come in was Snowball.

The pale little fawn who was fast maturing into a juvenile bounced about, completely oblivious to the chaotic noise factor about him in his muted world.

“That one’s yours, Austin!” I bellowed, grabbing the gate and pulled it wide.

A little too wide as Austin lumbered behind the randy deer spawn. Snowball shot between us and tangled around my ankles. I clung to the gate, determined not to eat dirt again before tonight's main event.

“Fuck’s sake, Will, can’t you do anything right?” Austin cursed.

I smirked. “All you gotta do is be fast, big fella.” I leaned down and scooped Snowball into my arms. Hooves flailed about until he saw it was me.

Then he quietened, and offered me a tentative lick on my dust face with his long, pink tongue.

We both wrinkled our noses at the smelly, gritty after effect.

“Not the action I was hoping to get today, lil’ guy,” I told him affectionately, plopping him down in his new field next to a doe I thought was his mother.

He took one look at her, glanced back at me and skittered off.

“Guess you got that one wrong, boss,” Luke nudged me quietly as Austin muttered to himself, bullying dust bunnies in a cloud behind us.

“Can’t win ‘em all,” I mused, leaning back against the gate.

Snowball bounded about on the other side, leaping from doe to doe while I splashed water in my face to remove the scent of stinky fawn breath and ruminated on how a red, sweaty face really did improve Austin’s looks after all.