Page 86 of Wild As Her

He sighs and finally, finally steps back. His hands twitch like he wants to touch me again.

“This isn’t over,” he says, like a threat. Or a promise.

My lips still buzz from that kiss. My heart still races.

“Damn right it’s not,” I say, and mean every word.

I want to have hate sex with Jack Jessop. Or whatever kind of sex. I just want him. I need him.

Chapter 21

Jack

Don’t Mind If I do by Ella Langley, Riley Green

Cami stands twenty feet away, looking like the damn poster girl for a hot cowgirl rancher.She’s covered in dirt, sweat, and what I think is a smudge of dust across her cheek. Her braid’s falling out, her boots are caked with mud, and she’s laughing at something Ollie says as they tag-team another calf like they’ve been doing this together for years. Which, okay, they kind of have.

At the Wilder Ranch, the town would all pitch in. Growing up, our ranches did not co-mingle. My father forbid us to step foot on Wilder Ranch property after a big falling out at some point. And he sure as hell didn't ask the town for any help on his own ranch. He had wranglers for that. But the Wilder Ranch was always more about community and the town coming together to help out. And I always wished we'd had that at the Jessop Ranch. And now seeing it happen? That fills me with hope. Hope that we’re turning this around andmaking this ranch the way it should be: a place that serves the community with good products and is helpful to our neighbors.

Cami and I have never worked together.Sure, we were secret friends as Cami and Ollie were with all of us. Not until everything changed.Not until Dad was gone. But it always had to be done in secret because our parents didn’t like each other. Cami’s grandparents were another story. They were very special people. When I was little, they were very kind to me and my siblings. I never forgot that.

The ranch feels different now. Better... lighter. Like we stopped holding our breath. It doesn’t feel like we’re constantly waiting for the next boot to drop. Tucker laughs more. Weston actuallyshows up. Jenna comes back to the ranch, even if it means dragging a damn reality show here. And me? I’m... hell, I’m kissing Cami Wilder against barn walls like I’m a teenager again and desperate for just one more minute with her. Because, well I am. I’ve wanted to kiss Cami again since we were teenagers. I’ve always wanted to redo that day that I broke her heart.

That kiss. Damn.It knocked something loose in me. Something big.She kissed like she wanted to crawl inside my chest and set up camp. And damn, I'd let her. Like she wasdaring me to stop her. And I didn’t. I never could. I've had zero willpower when it comes to her.

And now I can’t stop looking at her.Can’t stop thinking about that kiss...

“Jack!”

The high-pitched voice jerks me back to reality. My date for tonight—Savannah? Hannah? Really need to start writing their names down—is trying to loop her arm through mine while I’m holding a branding iron. Great timing.

“Don’t touch the metal,” I say flatly.

She giggles and says in a flirty voice, “Ooooh, is ithot?”

I stare at her, and she winks. Pretty sure this is for the show, but I can’t tell with them. They’re smart as hell and doing their jobs and doing it well.

Across the field, Mack and Beau work the coffee trailer, serving up coffee and baked goods like it’s the dang Kentucky Derby. Beau works alongside her, and they seem to be holding down the fort while Cami brands. We're short-handed since we've been cleaning out the wranglers and hiring new ones. We need all the help we can get.

Walker sidles up next to me, squinting at the horizon. “That Beau seems like a good guy.”

I grunt and clip. “No, he is not.”

He holds one calf for me and says, “You seem pretty bothered by him.”

I glance over at him. “What makes you say that?"

He laughs. "Dude. You look like you want to murder him every time he's near Cami.”

Before I can reply,Jenna stomps by, hair flying, clipboard flapping in the wind. She stops in front of all but one of the contestants, huddled under a tent like the sun is attacking them and the dirt scares them. The other one whose name I can’t remember is actually out wrangling, and she looks like shelikes it. Damn.

“You want screen time?” she asks the contestants under the tent. “Trydoing something.”

They blink at her like confused baby deer. One of them fans herself with a perfectly manicured hand. Her boots are blindingly white.

“You know,” Walker says, sipping his coffee, “this is the best day we’ve had out here in a long time.”

He’s not wrong.

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