Page 6 of A Rancher's Bride
She pretended to gag, deliberately turning her back to give him privacy to towel off.
It was the only area where they hadn’t figured out a perfect solution with her working at Silver Stone. Kelli insisted she didn’t want preferential treatment. No way did she want the Stone family to face the expense of building a separate shower house just for her. It took a little juggling to make things work, her sharing space with all the guys, but the common shower house had never worried her.
The guys were like brothers, teasing moments aside. She figured the occasional bit of dirty talk was natural. She didn’t feel uncomfortable or harassed by the guy chatter that went on around the ranch.
It helped that one of the first talks any new hire got was “keep your hands off Kelli or lose your nuts.”
“Is Rose going to be there tonight?” Alex asked far too casually.
Kelli laughed. “Maybe. You want me to put in a good word for you?”
“Hell, yeah. Dance with me first so she’ll let me take her for a spin.”
Which made her laugh harder. “You guys figured out how we run things on the dance floor, did you?”
“I’m decent,” Alex told her. “I mean, I’m dressed. And yes, it doesn’t take a genius to notice you decide who is safe to dance with, and your friends follow suit.”
Kelli twisted to look him up and down. He’d pulled on clean jeans, but his feet were still bare and his chest was uncovered to expose olive-brown skin, water droplets clinging to his broad shoulders as he toweled his hair dry.
He wasn’t bad looking at all, and she could appreciate the muscle show as much as the next girl. Only that was as far as it went—appreciation. There were no sparks, nothing that set her belly tumbling in a wild dance.
Not like when Luke Stone accidentally bumps my side.
She shoved away the annoying truth and gave Alex a raised eyebrow. The manwastalking about one of her besties, and so had better know more than one person had an eye on him. “Areyou safe?”
He dropped his towel to the bench beside him and tugged a T-shirt over his head before offering her a broad smile. “Safe as a kitten. Plus, I know how to dance.”
“So her feet won’t get crushed, that’s what you’re saying?” She folded her arms over her chest as he draped his towel around his neck and gathered his things.
“Just put in a good word for me, please?” Alex asked, this time a little more seriously. Holding her gaze until she nodded. “See you later, Kelli.”
He slipped out the door and she followed him, hanging up the sign she’d made years ago to announce she was occupying the space. Then withKelli’s Private Spaas a warning for any of the rest of the hands that they’d have to wait, she locked the door and stripped.
Steam lingered in the main shower room, which meant it was warm as she flipped on the nearest tap and let the forceful spray run over her aching shoulders.
While she had a few privileges, like getting to lock the door to have the shower house to herself, and the best room in the bunkhouse, her work responsibilities were no less because she was a woman.
Over the years the guys had slowly stopped giving her easier tasks because of her size. It might take her a couple extra trips to move heavy equipment, she still got it done.
But at the end of a long day where she’d moved her weight in bales a number of times over, the forceful massage on her shoulders felt damn good.
Hands raised in a long stretch, she snickered for a second. It would probably seem weird to a stranger looking in that she was so comfortable chatting with Alex like that, but this was her reality. She’d lived on the ranch for long enough that whole “just one of the boys” thing worked ninety-nine percent of the time.
She lathered up and rubbed soap over her body, efficient and quick, undoing her braids then working her fingernails against her scalp as her hair plastered down against her torso nearly to her butt.
She really was one of the boys, which was good—
—until it wasn’t. The whole “keep your hands off Kelli” thing had made it damn difficult to do any experimenting of a sexual nature. Not that she’d been chomping at the bit, but she had been curious, and sexual frustration wasn’t exclusive to the male portion of the population.
Kelli tipped her head back to rinse off the shampoo, amusement drifting in as she remembered the shower house was where she’d tried sex for the first time.
The ranch hand she’d hauled in with her had been cute enough, she supposed. And they’d been hot for each other, but neither of them were looking for more than casual, so it was pretty much a one-off deal. Stealing away time in the shower had been a way to scratch an itch. One that she really didn’t get that often. It had been time, that was all.
You’re a liar,her brain told her.
Kelli did the mental equivalent of sticking out her tongue and blowing a raspberry at herself. “Yeah, because I’m just gonna up and confess I had sex with somebody else because Luke got engaged.”
Shehadliked the guy, but her conscience was right. It had been more about trying to wipe out the cravings she had for Luke than the other dude being super-special.
