Page 25 of Ride Me Cowboy

“Don’t remember the last time he got some. Has to have been before his old man passed away. But even before that,” she tips her finger to the side of her lips. “He’s not exactly a ladies’ man.”

I almost spurt my orange juice out over the counter. How can anyone with eyes describe Cole as ‘not a ladies’ man’. I mean, I’m not going to say he’s sex on a stick, but if such a thing did exist…

“Beau reckons it’s something to do with their mom dying, that he was different after that, but who knows.” She shrugs. “What’s that saying about still waters, runnin’ deep? Reckon that’s probably the case with Cole.”

Curiosity is twisting through me but now there’s something else. Something protective and embarrassed, brought on by the knowledge that Cole would hate us to be talking about him like this.

“Do you live in Goodnight?” I change the subject clunkily, too hungover to care. Boots shifts again, this time standing up, shaking his head before moving to the dining table and lying down beneath it.

“We have the ranch just over there,” she tilts her head toward the window. “Probably’s why Beau and I first started hookin’ up. When you grow up around here, there’s not a lot to do, so you work out how to keep busy.”

We are so different, but I like her. She’s honest and open and not at all pretentious. Which is really refreshing after moving in the circles I occupied since marrying Christopher.

“I’m Beth,” I say.

“Ashley, but everyone calls me Ash.”

“Nice to meet you,” I stand, taking my empty juice glass to the sink before doubling back to wrap my hand around the coffee mug she poured for me. “I’d better get to work.”

She lifts her hand in farewell as I make my way to the door, glad for the sanctuary of my office. I shoulder the door in, head pounding, expelling a long, grateful sigh, only to stop walking smack bang in the middle of the room and freeze.

Because there, at the big timber desk, sits Cole ‘go to bed, Beth’ Donovan, and crap it all if I don’t just want the ground to open up and swallow me whole.

He glances up, eyes scanning my face, and the hair on my arms stand on end. The ground seems to tilt beneath my feet, and not just because of the wine I drank last night.

“Mornin’, sunshine,” he grins. Teasing me. I close my eyes on a fresh wave of mortification. “How you doin’ today?”

I force a smile. “Good, thank you. How are you?”

He laughs then. “Don’t worry about it, Beth,” he says, as I make my way to the desk by the window and sit down, grateful I cankeep my back to him. “You’re not the first girl to drink too much and make a pass. It’s not a big deal.”

I hateeverythingabout that. I hate the way he dismisses what happened between us, the way he dismisses my feelings and what I wanted from him, the way he clumps me in with any other woman he’s been drunkenly hit on by. But at least he’s giving me a way out, letting me save face. Isn’t that what I should want?

“Right. Got it.” I settle down at my desk and take a long drink of coffee, gaze fixed on the window beyond. The thing is, I was tipsy last night, and I was asking him for something that sober me would never have had the confidence or spontaneity to do, but that doesn’t mean it was a mistake.

I went to the bar because I was determined to regain some of my autonomy. To start calling the shots in my own life. Kissing Cole was as much about that as anything else.

But he couldn’t have made it more obvious that he wasn’t interested in me. Or anyone, if Ashley is to be believed. I glance over at him, and say, “Thank you for not taking advantage of the situation.”

His eyes pierce mine. “I would never.”

“I know that.” Because he’s decent, honorable, and all things trustworthy.

“You feeling okay today?”

I’m tempted to tell him my head hurts, but to what end? Maybe the more space I can keep between us, the better. Because pining for a guy who’s not into me is the last thing I need right now. Even if it is about removing the ghost of Christopher from my life, and minimizing the power he has over me, there’ssomething about Cole that makes it less than straight forward. The fact he’s my boss, and that this place is like my sanctuary. I don’t want to mess this up.

Besides, there must be dozens of cowboys in town I could ask to kiss me. I think back to the bar last night, the group that was dancing, and try to bring to mind the face of a single guy who caught my eye.

And draw a blank.

When I think of last night, all I can think of is Cole. His voice, his laugh, his strength and natural authority, the way the others look to him without even realizing it. The way he smelled, the way he drove, the way he carried me to my room.

I stand abruptly, my heart racing, heat flooding low down between my legs. “I just remembered…something I have to do,” I mumble, without looking at him. “I’ll see you later.” I almost run out of the office.

Cole

After three days, it’s as clear as the summer sky that Beth is ignoring me. Going out of her way to ignore me, in fact. I know she’s working, because the books on her desk keep moving around, but damned if I’ve actually seen her sitting at her chair in our office since Saturday morning. Same with the kitchen. The level of coffee in the pot keeps going down, so she’s definitely around, but I haven’t seen hide nor hair of her, and it’s really starting to get my goat.

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