Page 74 of Tempting Wyatt

“She’s got, what, a week left in town? I’m sure she’s had enough of playing ranch hand and she’ll move on to whatever tourists do soon.”

He lets out a harsh laugh. “In my experience, what most female tourists want to do is exactly what you look like you’re thinking about doing.”

I shoot him a dirty look. This isn’t the fucking high school locker room.

He snorts. “Have you been working yourself so hard you’ve forgotten the best part about hooking up with tourists?” Before I comment, he grins. “The built in expiration date. No expectations beyond orgasms.”

When I don’t respond, he waves a hand in her direction. “So, there’s nothing going on with you two then? Nothing at all?”

Not nothing.But then I remember how I talked myself out of asking her out this morning. Notsomethingeither.

Isaac’s starting to piss me off.

“I don’t have time for this. Don’t you have work to do?”

He watches me, then gets the gleam in his eye he gets right before he stirs up some shit. When we were kids, he was always the one to kick the hornet’s nest—both literally and metaphorically speaking. Between him and Caleb, it’s a wonder we all made it to adulthood.

“Sure do,” my brother says, clapping me a little harder than necessary on the shoulder. “I was going to shoot my shot, take her out for drinks tonight. Just wanted to make sure she wasn’t a no-fly zone.”

Before I have time to tell him to keep his fucking fly away from her, he struts past me out of the barn and over to where Ivy is cleaning up.

An instinct I’m not expecting almost causes me to pull him back, tell him he’ll take her out over my dead body. But who am I kidding? I have several more hours’ worth of work to do. It’s not like I have time to take her for drinks tonight. Or any night really. And she should go out. Actually enjoyher vacation instead of suffering through it, working with me.

My chest constricts as I watch my golden boy of a brother grin at her as the sun shines brightly behind them.

I don’t know what the hell my problem is, but I feel like a teenager again, a possessive growl threatening to escape my chest.

Ivy doesn’t belong to me. She’s free to have drinks with any dude she wants. Better Isaac than one of the Mitchell brothers he runs around with.

I watch as my brother continues his flirty bullshit, ducking his head, tipping his cowboy hat, and grinning at her until his dimples show. Surely, she won’t fall for his aw-shucks act.

Except she does.

Or it looks like she does from where I’m standing.

Either she’s flushed from the heat or blushing at whatever Isaac says to her.

He smiles. She smiles back.

She looks amused.

Something heavy sinks in my stomach. I don’t even know what it is because I worked through lunch. But I fucking hate it.

Antonio ambles over to where I’m standing trying not to be obvious about my staring.

The foreman gestures toward Ivy. “He seems to have taken a shine to her.”

“He takes a shine to anything with a pulse.”

He looks confused. “Lucifer?”

“I meant my playboy brother over there.”

Antonio chuckles. “Yeah, him too.”

“What do you think Dad would have made of her?”

“Probably would’ve been impressed. I imagine shewould’ve caused him to reevaluate his perception of folks from California.” Antonio turns back to where Lucifer is creating space between Isaac and Ivy. Might have to sneak that horse some treats myself soon. “It’s the damnedest thing,” he continues. “One minute, she’s out here talking to him like he’s a human being, chattering on and on. Walking around the outside of the paddock. Some of the hands thought she was just clueless about horses. So they kept an eye out. But damn if that ornery old horse didn’t seem to enjoy her visits. Then she started feeding him treats she found in the tack room. Lord knows how old they are. Next thing you know, she’s out here doing all kinds of weird stretches and having breakfast with him every morning, feeding him handfuls of fruit and nuzzling the meanest damn horse I’ve ever met like he’s a teddy bear.”