The Virgin Next Door (Stud Ranch)

Her smile faltered as she tried to pull her arm out of his grasp. He didn’t let go.

“How?” he demanded.

“Look, it’s no big deal,” she tried to laugh it off, pulling her hand back when Liam finally let go of her. “I was just curious about the new people in town, so I googled you. Everybody does it.”

She was lying. “What’d you google? You don’t even know my name.”

She looked at the floor before trying on another insincere smile. “Well, Google has that feature where you can look up people by their faces now. So last time you were in the bar, I snapped a picture.”

“Jaysus.” He walked several steps back from her. She was a goddamned stalker. And he’d almost— Jaysus. He cringed even at the thought. He’d had a few obsessive women try to stalk him back in Dublin. Then there was the woman he’d had an affair with who tried to claim he was the father of her baby. That had been a fecking nightmare. No wonder this slag hadn’t wanted to wear a condom. She was probably hoping she’d get knocked up and that she could sink her hooks into his life and his bank account permanently.

He was about to turn and get the hell out of there but he stopped. “Who else have you told? About who I really am?”

Her eyes went wide. “Oh I would never tell a soul. I know you wanted to get away from all that scandal and I would hate for any of that to get out—”

“Are you trying to fuckin’ blackmail me?” he bit out.

“No!” she exclaimed and for once she sounded genuine. “I wouldn’t want any of these other bitches getting a hold of you. Besides,” her voice softened. “I know what it’s like to be rich when everyone around you is poor. Daddy owns half the land in this county and people have been jealous of me my whole life. But I knew you’d understand me completely. It was like,” she shook her head, “like fate brought you to me.”

“What a crock of shite.” Liam glared at her. “I didn’t come halfway around the world just to pick me up another damn stalker. This,” he waved between them, “is never happenin’.”

With that he pushed past her and headed for the door. He unlocked it and swung it open, zipping up his fly as he went.

Only to find a thin lad standing on the other side reaching for the handle, a surprised look on his face when he saw Liam. Coming out of the women’s restroom.

Then again, he was a dude reaching for the ladies, so he was obviously confused in general.

“Hey man, wrong bathroom. This is the ladies.”

The lad just stared at Liam. He was wearing a thick flannel shirt underneath overalls and a dirty trucker’s hat. Liam had seen him at the bar a few times. One of the sad little ranchers who lived around here. When he just kept standing there without saying anything, Liam wondered if he was slow. Jaysus, sometimes this little backwoods town was depressing as fuck.

“Ladies bathroom,” Liam said slower, pointing to the stick figure with a skirt on the door.

“I am a lady. Um, a woman, I mean.”

Oh. Shite. Liam’s eyes immediately dropped to her chest but the flannel was too bulky to make out if there were any breasts hiding underneath. “Sorry.”

When he looked up at her face, he could see that though her features were angular, if he tilted his head just right… yeah, she was female. Especially considering the way her cheeks were turning pink.

“Do you mind?” She glared at him.

Liam held up his hands. “Sorry. Sorry.” He moved out of the way. She shoved the bathroom door the rest of the way open and disappeared inside.

Liam ran his hands through his hair. Way to feckin’ step in it. He headed for the bar. He needed another drink. Or ten.

3

CALLA

Having her crush think she was a man was just the last in a long line of shitty things that had happened to Calla that day.

But nope. The universe wasn’t done screwing her over. Because as soon as she got in the bathroom she saw Bethany Cunningham doubled over laughing and pointing a finger at her.

Calla’s eyes shot back to the door. So that was why Liam had been coming out of the women’s restroom. He’d been in here with Bethany. She thought of how his hair had been mussed and he’d been buttoning his fly.

“He thought you were a guy!” Bethany laughed even harder.

Great. So Bethany had heard the whole thing. The one person in the world who could make that humiliating experience even worse.

Calla knew how stupid it was to have a crush on a guy she barely knew. Lord, even the word crush made her cringe, but she didn’t know what else to call it. She’d talked to Liam a couple times when he and the other guys from Mel’s ranch came out to Bubba’s. Granted, he’d been very drunk both times.