Page 15 of Wild and Unruly (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #3)

stetson

Over the next couple of days, I don’t get to see Bonnie much at all as she’s busy working on interviews, riding out into the mountains with Dani and CT, taking photos, and generally just doing her job.

I do my best to stay out of her way, even though those shy little grins she sends me throughout the day have me wishing I could rip her into a stall and pull her against me.

Which I swear, I only do once.

But I happened to have been cleaning the stall when she walked by unaware that the natural sway of her hips and the swing of her ponytail were about to drive me half insane.

I’d reached out, my gloved hand clasping her arm as she read something off of her phone and she squeaked, tripping over her shoes and landing in my arms where I held her upright.

“Stetson!” Her whispered shout made me smile, and I leaned against the stalls. “What are you doing? ”

“What are you doing?” I accused playfully, nodding to the alleyway. “I see you walking around, flaunting it out in front of me.”

She frowned, genuinely confused. “What are you talking about?”

I smiled and ripped off my gloves, stuffing them into my pocket so I could cup her jaw with my hand. She leaned into my hand without prompting and grasped my wrist with her fingers. “I can’t seem to focus on work because my attention is all on you.”

She scoffed lightly. “That’s not my fault.”

“No?” I asked, pulling her closer to me. It was hotter than sin outside and inside this stall. With only a fan blowing into it, it didn’t do a whole lot for the heat in the middle of the afternoon, but having her pressed up against me had me hot in more than one way.

“No. Control yourself,” she said quickly, giving me a feisty look.

“What if I don’t want to?” I leaned in, rubbing my nose against hers, her breath hitching against my lips.

“What if I wanted to let go of all control?” I moved my head to the side, giving her jaw a gentle kiss.

“What if I wanted to go back to that mountain?” I pressed my lips lower over the pulse in her neck.

“What if I wanted to make you scream my name again?”

I could feel her heart pounding at the pulse under my lips and found myself clutching her close to me, wishing that there wasn’t a barn full of people who could hear everything if we were too loud.

“That could—” I feel her swallow against my lips and open my mouth, letting my teeth graze against her neck. She gasps softly. “That could be arranged.”

“Could it?” I ask, unable to stop myself when I pull her mouth back over to mine and press my lips against hers. She was mine.

I couldn’t get the scene out of my head.

I take a breath as Freckles circles me in the round pen, trying to get ahold of myself.

We couldn’t find time to be with each other privately because something called her away last night, and she had to go back to The Lodge.

I’d offered to accompany her back, but she waved me off, a concerned look on her face as she left.

But that last thought when I was kissing her kept running through my head, and I can’t say I hate it. I felt possessive of her. I felt the need to own her, body and soul. Maybe that was because I knew the moment she allowed it all to happen, she would be taking my heart with her wherever she went.

I was actually terrified of it happening. We knew so little about each other, and yet, there was something about her, a gut feeling that told me she was important. That we were important.

The sun rises higher into the sky, signaling the afternoon, and still, there was no sign of Bonnie showing up at the ranch.

I track Dani down after putting Freckles away, and she looks up from where she was working in the office. We really need to gut the office and get her something proper, not just this run-down space she’s in.

“Hey,” I say, plopping into the folding chair against the wall.

“Hey, Stets, how’s that filly doing?”

“Good, I’m calling her Freckles,” I say, reaching into the mini fridge for my water bottle.

“Freckles.” Dani smiles, tapping something into her computer. “That’s cute.”

I nod and shrug, looking around. “So, where’s the reporter?”

I’m not sure if she does, but I’m pretty sure Dani knows my blasé question is bullshit. “Not sure where she is. But she said she’d be back sometime next week.”

My heart drops into my stomach. “Next week?”

“Mm-hmm. She said it was a family emergency.” A frown of worry creases Dani’s forehead, and I sit forward, resting my elbows on my knees .

“What kind of family emergency? Is she okay?”

I’m a shit actor. Dani smirks at me. “I’m really not sure, Stetson. She just texted that she had to go home for a few days. I’m sure if it was serious, then she wouldn’t be coming back.”

That night, I lay on my bed in my small apartment that I have in town, wondering if I should call her or if that was too much. But what if she was waiting for me to call her? What if I don’t, and she assumes that we’re nothing, that it’s not serious?

Panic makes me reach for the phone, and I tell myself to chill the fuck out. See, this is why it would be nice if I didn’t fall for someone this easily.

But the only other person I thought I’d fallen for was now one of my greatest friends, and part of me has to wonder if it’s because I fell for her heart rather than her person.

What if Bonnie was that chance, that one soul connecting with another soul chance?

The phone rings before I can talk myself out of it.

“Hello?” She sounds breathless through the speaker, and I close my eyes.

“Bo, hey.” I clear my throat when I can hear the anxiety in it. “Are you okay?”

I hear some ruffling in the background, and then my phone rings through, and I smile when I see her video-calling me. I sit up in bed, thankful I kept my shirt off for this conversation, and smile as I hit answer.

She smiles through the phone. Her hair is up in a ponytail, and she’s got her jeans and a button-up blouse on.

“You look nice,” I comment, settling against the headboard and watching her.

“Thank you,” she says, propping the phone against something and stepping back, ripping her ponytail out of her hair. Her rich-brown hair falls around her shoulders in a poofy wave, and she shakes it out.

“How are you?” she asks, reaching up to unbutton her blouse.

I freeze for a second, mesmerized by what she’s doing and wish she was standing next to my bed, not hers.

“Stetson?”

I blink and shake my head. “I’m okay. Missed you today.” I bite my tongue when the words slip and pinch my eyes. Shit. Maybe I shouldn’t be so open.

“Aw,” she says, bending low and smiling into the phone. “I missed you too.”

I breathe a sigh of relief and clear my throat as she reveals her tank top underneath her shirt. “Are you okay?”

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Yeah, just some stuff with my brother.”

“What’s going on?”

Bonnie kicks her boots off and starts to undo her belt, then she steps out of frame, and I look up to the ceiling, forcing myself to breathe and not react to her undressing on camera. I mean, she stepped away, so I can’t see.

But I know what she’s doing.

“He got fired from his job yesterday.”

I lift a brow in surprise. “Damn. That sucks.”

“Yeah, but he needs to not snap at everyone.”

Her words raise a red flag for me. I clear my throat, wanting to tread lightly. “Did he snap at you?”

For a moment, she doesn’t reply, and I know the answer. I don’t know her brother, obviously. I can’t imagine the pain he must feel not being able to ride anymore, not being able to take care of himself fully because of his disability. But it doesn’t give him the right to yell at his sister.

Bonnie comes back to the phone, and she’s in an oversized T-shirt, her hair all over the place and her long legs bare.

I see her legs climb into her bed, and then her hand comes over to grab the phone, bringing me to see her again. I smile in relief just at the simple gesture of seeing her face again.

“My brother has a hard life.” I keep quiet, letting her get out what she needs to say. “It’s not his fault that he snaps sometimes, but I guess this was one too many for his boss.”

I nod my head, keeping my comments to myself and trying not to let my feelings show. “He’s stuck.” I see her sink into her pillows as she thinks, her lip tucked into her teeth. “He needs something new, some fresh new start to kickstart him, but getting him to do anything is a chore.”

“Maybe he should come to the ranch sometime? Be around animals, around the horses,” I suggest, and Bonnie pauses, a frown on her expression.

“Really? That would be okay?”

“Of course,” I say, wanting to mention how most of Dani’s clients are disabled, wondering if that’s the way she looks at him or not.

“I’m not sure he would.”

“Well, ask him.”

“Yeah.” Her eyes wander off, and I’m left staring at her, wondering if studying a woman was any indication that you were falling hard. If the constant stream of thoughts that all revolved around this woman on the other side of the phone were all showing me what I was terrified to know.

I want to memorize every bit of her. From the freckles across the tops of her cheeks to the way her big eyelashes curl up to the multiple colors of her irises.

“So, do you have a return date in mind?” I ask.

She smiles at me and nods. “I’ll either come back Saturday or Sunday.”

“How about Saturday?” I suggest, attempting to keep a mild tone about it. I don’t want to be pushy, but I want her to be in close proximity to me again.

“Hmm, I suppose I would need a reason to come back a day earlier.”

I grin and nod. “I can think of a few.”