Page 54 of Wild, Wild Cowboy

He shrugged. “He needed to know.”

“Know what?” I demanded.

“That you have friends.”

I blinked.

“Highly trained friends with a very particular set of skills,” Seb put in.

“Don’t quote that movie at me. Zack isn’t going to sell me into sex slavery,” I said, but I was oddly touched.

“Well, he’s notnow,” Mateo deadpanned. “You’re welcome.”

I shook my head. “Zack is a good guy. And I think you’re going to like him most of all, Mateo. You’re like two peas in a pod.”

Holly snorted. “That’s not the ringing endorsement you think it is.”

Mateo smirked at her. “Yeah? Because that’s not?—”

“You’re wearing jeans,” Jeremiah cut in. I had the feeling he wasn’t just now realizing it, but had been waiting for the moment to say it. “That’s different. Is this Zack’s doing?”

“Not Zack. Necessity. We went straight from the auction to the feedlot in Shelby, and I didn’t have anything with me.”

I knew Jeremiah didn’t care what I wore. He hadn’t fussed when I asked for new, modern clothes when I left the compound, and he hadn’t fussed when I stopped wearing those clothes in favor of my old prairie-style dresses. Eventually I had outgrown those clothes and settled into what I wore now: long skirts paired with long-sleeved sweaters. Jeremiah hadn’t said a word about any of that. He was fine with all that.

What hewasn’tfine with was a man telling me what to wear.

Life outside the compound had been…an adjustment. I had been raised to believe that a man’s word was the final authority, regardless of who that man was. Jeremiah had been raised the same way, but he’d been out for years at that point, and several women had already knocked some sense into him.

But for the first year I lived with him, he didn’t realize that I acquiesced so easily—to him, to my boyfriend, to male teachers, to random men on the street—not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t know hownotto. And when he finally saw the pattern, whew. Was that ever a hard reckoning for both of us.

I pulled anxiously at the hem of my cropped t-shirt. Iwasn’twearing this for Zack, but I had to admit, I liked seeing his reaction when I put it on. What did that mean? I didn’t want to fall into old, unhealthy patterns. I had spent years brainwashed into believing that my body was entirely created to be of service to men. Their whims, their lust, their needs. I was to bring them pleasure, feed their bellies, bear their children. I was not entitled to my own body.

And even though I knew Zack didn’t feel that way about it, I wondered if part of me still did. If maybe the misogynistic call was coming from inside the house.

“You look great,” Holly said, sending Jeremiah a stern look. “And if you want to throw your dirty clothes in with mine, I’ll do a load tonight.”

Holly was two years younger than me, but she had clucked over me like a mother hen from our very first meeting. Well, no, not a mother hen. More like a Canada goose. Either way, it was maternal. Murderous, but maternal.

“Thank you,” I said. But I was still feeling off kilter.

Jeremiah was watching me keenly, but whatever he was thinking, he kept to himself. “Come inside for dinner.”

22

ZACK

By the time we were finally ready for bed, my body felt like it had been run over by an eighteen-wheeler. It was the lack of physical activity that had stiffened me up. Twenty-four hours of driving plus a night on a hotel bed that seemed personally offended by my presence had not helped. My body required gentle, steady movement and lots of stretching to keep it in workable order. I had done my best to stretch, but movement had been impossible in the confines of the truck.

Hannah had showered first, and then I had followed, letting the hot water pound my muscles into some semblance of submission. Of course, that same hot water also left my scars tight and angry. There was no winning.

She was on the bed, wearing pajamas I assumed she borrowed from Holly, when I emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist. She rolled up onto her knees and adjusted her glasses when she saw me.

“I want to try something,” she said.

My dick perked up. I was fucking exhausted, but it was the kind of exhausted that made sleep harder, not easier. My body was twitchy from lack of exercise and my skin itched somethingfierce. Still, tired and sore as I was, there wasn’t a chance in hell I would say no to whatever it was Hannah was offering.

I dropped the towel. “Anything you want, duchess.”

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