Page 25 of Second Chance with the Rancher

Again, she beamed and the smile and twinkle in her eyes had his cock twitching.

“No closet,” she murmured.

“No, you’ll need to get armoires or dressers or something.”

She nodded and punched in some notes into her phone. “Curtains?”

“Up to you. My room at the house doesn’t have them. I’m always up before the sun and go to bed when it’s dark, so it’s never an issue.”

She responded with another nod and more notes into her phone. “I’m going to go down to the living room and take a few more measurements.” She made her way back over to the ladder and climbed down.

He finished what he was doing, then joined her. Once he was done with the windows, he touched up the grout in the bathroom, then went outside to nail the boards to the underside of the house for better protection from the weather.

She remained in the house, but just as he was packing up the supplies, she met him near Sasquatch and scratched the gentle donkey’s ears. “I’m done.”

“Me, too.”

“Are we heading to the next three or going back to the ranch?”

“My intention was to just visit this one. I brought out all the boards for all the cabins, but I was just going to leave them here and come out another day to finish up, but if you’re game to keep riding, we can visit the other three and I can take care of all my projects today?”

She shrugged. “Nowhere else to be. Not until five when Triss is done, anyway.”

He was finding her difficult to read at the moment. Quieter than he remembered. Normally, she was a fairly transparent glass house and he could see exactly how she was feeling and what she was thinking. Particularly when she blushed and the pulse in her neck picked up tempo. It was why he knew that she was so game for them to have sloppy sex the night of the wedding. Their flirting and suggestive banter had only been one of very many blatant clues that she was interested in him. Her facial expressions, fucky-eyes and rosy cheeks were the other major clues. But right now, she was more opaque than transparent.

She’s got a lot on her mind. Her lack of a job, her lack of direction and uncertainty about the future. Cut her some slack.

Fair enough.

He finished loading up the supplies, then strapped the remaining lumber back onto Sasquatch before untying the horses from the hitching post and helping Mieka back into her saddle.

“Oh shit, sorry,” he murmured, when his hand accidentally—and yes, it was truly an accident—slipped and his thumb pressed right between her legs. “I honestly didn’t mean to.”

“It’s fine,” she said quickly, putting her shoes into the stirrups.

He cleared his throat, and with warm cheeks, swung his body up into his saddle. “Are you having even a little bit of fun?” he asked, hopeful that she wasn’t going to dismiss him with another “it’s fine” or a shrug. He was trying to strike a balance here. Keep her engaged and help her get to know him, while also letting her stew in the pity party she had clearly thrown for herself before she even arrived at the ranch.

“I am,” she said softly, as he guided Umber back to the trail and Macklin followed, along with the donkey and Rubix.

He craned his head around to look at her and smiled. “I’m glad. Can you picture a life here on the ranch yet?”

Thank fuck, that got her smiling. “Hold your horses there, cowboy, I haven’t even been here twenty-four hours.”

“Rancher,” he said with a big grin that made her smile grow, too. They knew they were mimicking his brother and her sister with their cowboy-rancher joke. But he was here for it. If it brought a smile to her face like it did just now, then he was here for all of it.

He’d do anything he could to keep Mieka smiling like that, especially if life on the ranch—life with him—was what made her smile.

Chapter Seven

It was nearly four o’clock by the time they got back to the ranch. Nate hadn’t packed anything more than a few granola bars and some apples, so Mieka was starving by the time they returned. Nate offered to go foraging or fishing in the river, but she said it wasn’t necessary.

She was willing to deal with hunger more than she was her rampant libido, because she knew that watching him go all mountain-man and live off the land would have gotten her engine revving more than it already was. The man just had a way of making her panties get drenched and her belly turn into a warm pile of horny goo.

“Thank you for the gentle ride, Macklin,” she said, as she finished brushing the horse that had kept her safe all day, and gave him some carrots from the bucket. He nibbled them happily from her palm before nuzzling her chest with his nose. She giggled and stroked his forehead. “Getting a little brazen there, Macklin. Need to buy me dinner, first.”

“Is that what it takes?” Nate asked with a cheeky smile, approaching her with the hose and entering Macklin’s stall to fill up his water trough. “Dinner and then I get to nuzzle your bosom?” He winked at her as he filled up the trough.

She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t keep the smirk from lifting on her mouth. “Not a lot to nuzzle, I’m afraid. And I only let those hung like Macklin nuzzle me.”

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