Page 6 of Healing Her Cowboys (Silver Creek Ranch #6)
Chapter Six
R eese was getting under Brik’s skin in all kinds of ways. He knew he was being a dick, but when he saw her go into Atlas’s room the previous night, his anger just flared up.
“Ready to get to work and stop being an asshole?” she asked him as he walked into the ranch gym room.
Brik’s jaw tightened. “Do I have a choice?”
“Not if you want my help to get back to full strength. Let’s start with stretching and work our way up from there.”
He scoffed. “I didn’t know I was hiring a babysitter when I brought you in.”
“I’m not here to babysit you. I’m here to make sure you get stronger, but to do that, I need you to trust me.”
He huffed and moved over to the mat.
Brik still watched her, unable to keep his eyes from following her movements in the room. His breath hitched as she guided his leg through the exercises. Her fingers were strong but light, supporting him in every movement.
Her touch was making him crazy. With every movement that she helped him through, he thought he would lose it just by the way her fingers glided over his skin.
He did his best to listen to Atlas’s reasoning of why he shouldn’t be an asshole to her, but he enjoyed picking a fight just to watch her react to him.
Even as she stretched him, he pulled back, adding more resistance than necessary.
“Brik, you don’t have to make this so hard,” she said. “I need you to relax and move with my sense of direction.”
Brik wasn’t sure what got into him, but he suddenly wanted her to care about him more than Atlas. “Relaxing isn’t something that comes easy to me.”
She let out a small laugh. “Yeah, I kind of caught on to that.” She met his gaze. “I know you don’t want to be here, but if you stop giving me pushback at every turn, we can get through this together and quickly move on.”
He shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Since that’s the best I’m going to get out of you today, I’ll take it for now.”
He realized the more he worked with her, the more he could let her take the lead on his routine. As they moved through each exercise, he felt himself loosening up without having to force himself to.
After a while, the sharp pain in his hip came back. Each movement caused him to grimace at the need to push through it. The phantom pain creeped in too, and he gritted his teeth to fight the powerful ache.
Reese noticed it right away. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’s nothing,” he said.
“If you keep pushing yourself past your limits, you’re only going to injure yourself more. Tell me what’s hurting you.”
“Fuck! It’s my hip. Sometimes the pain is bearable, but other times, it feels like someone is stabbing me with a poking iron.”
Reese nodded. “That’s not uncommon at this stage. I’m going to guide you through a few different stretches. They should help.”
The last stretch brought them so close to each other that their faces were only inches apart. It lowered the intensity of the pain to something he could handle, and he could breathe easy again.
“You’re actually pretty good at this,” he said.
“Thank you. You’re actually not bad to be around when you’re not talking out of your ass. Didn’t know you had it in you.”
He gave a chuckle at that, but all the laughter disappeared as his eyes fixed on her lips. Without thinking, he pulled her down to him for a kiss.
Her lips were so supple that he pulled her in even closer, taking hold of her hips and pressing his fingers into her curves. He was so into her that he completely forgot about the part of him that was missing. Almost.
He broke their kiss with regret. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” He pushed her away, sat up, and moved off the table so fast that it shifted on the floor.
“I understand,” she said, looking away from him.
She couldn’t understand, but he didn’t know how to explain it to her. There was no way he could let her get close to him like that again. It didn’t matter how much he wanted her.
“Thanks for the session.” He walked out, wishing he was a whole man to satisfy her.
***
Reese rocked back on the porch swing with a warm blanket, trying to calm her frustration. She wasn’t usually so upset by people, but Brik was getting under her skin in all the wrong ways. At least she wasn’t angry at him this time. She just felt lost by that kiss.
It was her fault for letting it happen. She should have been the one to stop it first. When he ended it, a rush of rejection flooded through her.
Even though he was a jerk to her most of the time, she knew it was a front for other things she couldn’t even imagine. Both men had things they’d brought back home with them after serving. Maybe she was in over her head this time.
Why had she asked Brik for two weeks? At the rate they were going, they weren’t going to last through one.
“Mind some company?”
She jumped, not realizing she wasn’t alone anymore.
Atlas’s serene smile filled his sharp features. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He held out a steaming mug to her. “I figured you could use some tea.”
She smiled after getting her breath back and taking up his offering. “Thanks.” She brought the cup to her nose, and the familiar fragrant smell mixed with undercurrent sweetness calmed her right away. “Chamomile?” she asked.
Atlas nodded before taking a sip from his cup. “Mixed with honey. It’s usually a good way to relax after a stressful day. Mind if I join you?”
“I don’t mind,” she said.
“Thanks.” He took a seat next to her, and she realized his size even more by sitting next to him on the swing. He looked like he was all lean muscle wrapped inside jeans and a denim coat with fur lining. He seemed masculine, with a softer side that intrigued her.
He was so different from Brik, and she wondered how they ever became friends with such unique personalities.
“What made you think I'm stressed?” she asked, taking a sip of her tea and stealing a long glance over at him.
Atlas laughed, and the sound of it seemed to fill the porch area around them. “Brik has a way of bringing it out of everyone. It’s like a rite of passage to see how long it takes before he pisses you off.”
“You mean he’s that warm and fuzzy to everyone?”
“It’s a personality trait of his you adapt to. It can take some time. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but he’s a good guy deep down. He just puts people through the ringer before they can see it.”
“Here I was thinking I was special.”
“Oh, you’re one of a kind, Reese Divine. There’s no doubt about that.” His eyes met hers, and the soft brown glimmer of them made her think of caramel candy.
The way he said her full name made her insides tingle and heat up hotter than the cup of tea she held. Her eyes drifted to his lips without thinking. They looked strong but soft. She wondered if he would taste sweeter than the candies his eyes reminded her of.
“Thank you, Atlas Collins.” He had the right name because her body reacted to him like he was true north.
“My pleasure,” he said. “I have an idea.”
“An idea. Should I be worried?” She wondered if he was thinking along the same lines as she was.
“Let’s go out.”
A part of her deflated, since she had high hopes for something she probably shouldn’t want. “What do you mean?”
“Tonight is the start of the fall festival. It’ll give you time to see what some locals do for fun.” He leaned in, and the scent of him consumed her.
He smelled like nature and exotic spices combined to make a heady scent.
Reese focused on his words to avoid inhaling deep and making a fool out of herself by sniffing him. She really needed to get it together. “I don’t know. I’ve never really been a festival girl. It feels like they are all made for families and kids. Not for single people like me.”
“Not a festival girl, huh? What if I promised you’d have a good time?” He smiled at her in a way that would make any woman change her mind.
“That’s a big promise. Can you guarantee I’ll enjoy it?” she asked, wanting to believe him but not there yet.
He held three fingers up and widened the grin already on his face. “Scout’s honor, ma’am.”
Reese shook her head. Of course he was a Boy Scout. She sighed and finished the rest of her tea.
How was she supposed to say no to a promise like that?