Page 59 of Stud Ranch

Shaw pushed off his knees but remained bent forward as though her leaving had driven a spike through his chest too. “She was in the shower! She couldn’t have heard me through a door with the shower running!”

“Well, what else could it be? She said she can’t do this again, Shaw. Did you think you could just hide such a thing from her? Or that she’d take it like a champ, even after what happened last time?”

“This isn’t all on me, man. You could have stopped her too!”

He opened his mouth with a hot retaliation on his tongue. Then horror struck him.

“Dammit! She doesn’t even know where she’s going. You know how the GPS works around here. Most of the time, there’s not even service. She’s about to get lost in the Alaskan wilderness.”

* * * * *

Sloane made a mental note to tell her agent that she had a new skill to offer the movie industry. Besides her buttocks booking her gigs, she now had the ability to drive in high-speed getaways.

With all the action movie franchises being filmed these days, the possibilities were endless. Who knew she was so damn good at stomping on the gas and just driving with no direction in mind at all?

The thick pine trees towered on each side of the winding road leading through the mountains. As she climbed higher, fog closed in, which might be a good thing in helping her ignore the dangerous drops off the side of the road.

She had to find a spot to pull off and check her GPS. During the drive, she tried to get a bead on a route that would take her to the closest airport. Alaska was huge—there had to be some airline to fly her to the lower forty-eight.

Heart thumping, she searched the road ahead for a place to stop and look, but the thick fog closed in around the vehicle like a vise.

Or a set of arms. Big, buff athlete arms.

Okay, she was losing her mind. The adrenaline that brought her this far fizzled out, leaving her slumping behind the wheel. She gripped it in determination.

Dammit, she had grown a whole human being inside her. She carried the ten-pound-three-ounce child for nine months with little emotional support, only to do all the heavy lifting in caring for an infant.

She could find her way down a damn mountain.

When a small area on the side of the road loomed into sight, she hit the brakes and eased off the pavement. After putting the car in park, she tapped at her GPS app to find a map. Great—the blank screen wasn’t boding well as far as directions went.

“Damn!” She would just backtrack. Though…she remembered taking a couple turns on the way up the mountain. Now she couldn’t recall which way she’d even turned.

She was going to become one of those news headlines, wasn’t she? She’d get out of the car and wander on foot for miles until a bear ate her. Years from now, her body would be found by some hunter on the mountain, and in the meantime, Marigold would grow up without a mother.

Ugh. That was not happening. She was strong and resourceful.

She could just try Shaw’s number. If it was the same one, she still had it memorized.

And say what?

Adios! Thanks for eating my pussy.

Threesomes rock!

I came for a good time, not a long time.

A soft squeak of despair escaped her. As if she wasn’t in enough torment just by leaving the ranch, now she had this to deal with.

She decided to call 911. When the line didn’t connect, she realized she wasn’t going to get help. She prided herself on having a tough skin, but a tear dribbled down her cheek, followed by another.

Wrapping her arms around the wheel, she dropped her forehead against it.

Why did she ever come here? What began as a fun new adventure had gone up in a blaze. She couldn’t believe she was going to die in the wilderness after less than a week of mind-blowing sex.

Sniffing loudly, she lifted her head from the steering wheel—and let out a scream.

A thick black wall hit the side of the car and shoved it.

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