Page 6 of The First Day of Breeding Season (Wildfire Ranch #4)

DREW

In my room, I toss Brynn’s research folder on the bed. Papers spill a bit, but I can’t tidy them up, because I’m grubby as heck. Frustrated, I lob my sweaty t-shirt in the hamper— sweaty, Drew? Did you really tell her she’d get sweaty with you?

Despite that brutal embarrassment, my cock is thick and heavy, my balls full, and all I can think about is getting my fist around my erection.

I stumble into the bathroom, leaving a wake of clothes behind me. My cock refuses to go down. I turn the shower as cold as it goes, and goosebumps race across my skin, but still my erection strains painfully as fantasy imaginings of Brynn experiencing climax after hard climax riot through my mind.

Would she turn pink all the way down onto her chest? Would she be loud? Would those perfect round tits bounce and shake as she shudders through a fast and furious orgasm?

I can’t even bring myself to think of how she would reach those beautiful releases over and over again.

All I picture is her face. Shocked. Pleased. Needy. Begging. Promising. Giving.

I know that if I let myself visualize her fingers…or my fingers…or God forbid my cock?—

With a low, agonizing grunt, my balls pull tight and my cock twitches, painting a spontaneous release all over the tiles in my shower.

Jesus, I didn’t even need to put my hand on it.

In the dull roar as blood returns to my head, I try to promise myself that was it. The one and only time I’d get off thinking about our new student researcher.

I know I’m lying even as I crank up the heat and scrub away the evidence.

At the horse barn, my brother Trick is leaning against the fence, talking to Raul on the other side, with my nephew toddling around beside him on unsteady legs.

“Hey there, rugrat,” I say, swinging the boy into my arms.

He laughs and kicks his legs. “Down.”

“Word of the week,” Trick says.

Who am I to argue with the word of the week? I put him down. “Have you seen Brynn?”

Raul nods toward the barn. “She’s saddling up Ace. They took to each other right away.”

Ace is one of our smaller geldings, and a good pick.

Nodding to them, I take off to find her, trying to ignore the way my pulse jumps at the promise of another encounter.

I hear her laughter before I see her. “You’re eager, aren’t you? Me, too. I’ve never slept under the stars before. You might need to keep me warm.”

An intense, possessive energy drives my legs faster, all the way to the end of the barn—where I find her flirting with a horse.

Not Theo, not Benji.

Just Ace.

“Bet you’ve never slept with a nerdy college student before,” she murmurs as she adjusts the straps.

Fuck me. I clear my throat.

She whirls around. “Drew!”

She traded her cut-off shorts for a faded pair of blue jeans that are just as kind to her generous hips, and in place of the naughty t-shirt is another CSCC pun shirt, a long-sleeved tee that reads Born To Ride, Forced To Go To CSCC with a saddled up horse behind the text.

It almost makes her look like any other ranch hand.

Almost.

But I see her, and the effort she’s making, so I focus on the horse. “Ace is a good pick for you.”

She smiles almost shyly. “He seems like a good boy.”

I step closer. “You can’t sleep with him for warmth, though.”

A startled laugh rips out of her. “Oh, I know…” Her words trail off as I come to a stop way too close to her. “I know,” she repeats, now whispering. “That was a joke.”

“I thought you were flirting with one of the ranch hands,” I admit.

She shakes her head. “I wouldn’t. I won’t. I’m here to be a complete professional.”

Real shame, that. For the first time in my adult life, I’ve never wanted to find a balance between the personal and professional so fucking badly. “You need a boost up, then?”

“Oh.” She turns and eyes the stirrup. Ace isn’t that tall, and as she promised, she’s an experienced horsewoman. “I’ve got it.”

I stay close, just in case. And when she gets her foot in the stirrup, my hands go out, just in case . She launches herself into the air, and her hip brushes against my palm. Reflexively, I curl my fingers.

The warm weight of her ass in my hands is enough to make my cock spurt seed in my jeans, even though I just took myself in hand in the shower.

She settles in the saddle, and it takes everything in me not to squeeze her thigh before I step back. “All right, then. Take him out to the paddock.”

I follow her outside.

I’ve never wanted to stick this close to any other ranch hand, to be sure that I’m the first one to praise someone for riding well. Never wanted to catch any other worker around the waist and help them down, making sure they brush against the front of my body so they can feel how much I want them.

My head is spinning as I join Raul and my brother, who have both turned to watch Brynn put Ace through his paces in the paddock.

Trick nods at her. “She looks pretty comfortable.”

She sure does. And it’s easy to get lost in watching her.

“What do you think of Raul’s plan?” Trick shoves my shoulder. “Earth to Drew.”

“What do I think about what?” My gaze doesn’t leave the paddock.

“Keeping more of our heifers this fall. We could probably handle another thirty head?”

I scrub my jaw. “Could do. We’d need another bull, though.”

He rolls his eyes. “Oh no, you’d hate having to go find another prize stud.” He jerks his head at Brynn. “Noah says she’s really interested in stuff like that. What do you want to bet she’s already scouted the best options within five hundred miles?”

I frown. “You talked to Noah about her?”

“Yeah, I talked to Noah. He said I should make her feel comfortable here, in case you work her to the bone.”

“I wouldn’t.”

Trick shrugs. “I’m just saying, Noah said that she might push all your buttons.”

I choke on just how close to the truth that is.

But then I think of that folder she gave me. “If I did work her to the bone, she’d fucking like it,” I mutter. “And she probably does have some of that data, yeah. We talked a bit about it via email.”

Of course she thought she could get my opinion about all of her other questions. The Drew she met online only cared about that stuff, just like her.

Before. When I only thought of her as a mentee, and didn’t have this confounding and frustrating physical response to how she looks. And smells, and sounds…

As if she can sense that I’m thinking about her, she turns her head and looks our way.

Taking a deep breath, I wave her over.

As soon as she comes close, I make it clear that this is about business, and we want her input. “We were just talking about expanding the herd. My brother here thought that might be something you might have some insight on, and I agreed that you probably would.”

“Oh! Yes, I would.” She swings her leg up and over the saddle, dropping into the soft dirt.

Trick holds out his hand across the fence. “Trick Lowry, nice to meet you.”

Her eyes go wide, having the same reaction most people do when they meet my brother up close and in person. He’s a legend in Wyoming, a local boy who made the big leagues and won the World Series for his team at his final at bat before retiring home to the ranch at forty-two.

We’re only half-brothers, so I don’t have all of his charm and charisma. And I’ve never minded that before, but I burn under the collar as Brynn starts to give him a breathless smile.

Predictably, she sounds in awe. “I know who you are.”

But instead of going to the baseball stuff, she surprises me with what she says next. “You bought this ranch for your brothers because Drew knew his stuff about breeding and you trusted that he would build a good herd.”

Trick laughs. “I sure did. He was probably your age when I bet on him, too.”

“How d’you know that?” I interrupt.

I get a wide-eyed look, too, but this time it’s more shock, less awe. “Umm…”

“Doesn’t matter,” Trick says.

Except it does. It feels like this woman showed up on my ranch today and she sees right through me, and knows everything about me, and I don’t know nearly enough about her.

“He’s right, though,” I hear myself saying. “I probably was your age when we started the herd with thirty cows.” I rub my jaw. “And now we’re talking about adding exactly that number again next year.”

It all feels a little full circle, a little on the nose. I’m worried it’s too good to be true, but the thought of expanding again with Brynn by my side is heady.

“So you need another bull.” Now her attention is nakedly all mine. She crosses her arms on top of the fence and leans in, Ace’s reins looped over her arm. “Do you have stock in mind already?”

“Not yet.”

“Because I can understand how your first instinct might be to go with a bull from a known supplier but other options would be—” She cuts herself off.

I lean in, matching her pose, and I nudge her elbow with mine. “It’s okay, tell me what you think.”

Her face lights up. “There are a few lists of comparable herds in that folder I gave you. I don’t think you’ve procured stock from any of them in the past.”

From the confident way she says that, I believe her. “I’ll look at them before dinner.”

Ace nips at her shoulder, and she turns around, laughing. “I haven’t forgotten about you, good boy. We’re just talking business.”

Trick loops his arm around my shoulder and tugs me away. “Let her finish riding. I didn’t mean to start something.”

I can’t tell him he didn’t start this, whatever this is.

It started the second I walked out of the barn this morning.

Or maybe even weeks ago, when I wasn’t really listening when Noah asked me to mentor one of his students, and I started emailing B.

Hughes, not knowing who I was inviting to work closely with me all summer.