The Virgin Next Door (Stud Ranch 3)

“Don’t do that.” He couldn’t help his voice going stiff. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Her eyebrows went up again.

“Like you pity me.”

Her eyebrows met her hairline. “I’m not pitying you. Believe me,” she huffed, “I know how shitty that feels. I was just thinking about you when you were a kid. I wish I could have been your friend back then.”

Liam laughed. “You would have hated me. I was a complete shite. I’m shocked Mrs. Owens put up with me as long as she did. None of the nannies before her lasted six months.”

“Oh no, don’t tell me you were the kind of kid who would snap girl’s bra straps?” Calla groaned.

Uh. So now probably wouldn’t be the time to admit that from the ages of fourteen to seventeen his opening line when he met a pretty girl was to tell them to blow him. Or the fact that, more often than not, they’d actually done it.

“What?” she asked, obviously seeing something on his face.

He shook his head, not wanting to meet her eyes but doing it anyway. “I wasn’t a nice person. For most of me life, actually, I was a complete—” bastard. He stopped just short of saying it and instead finished, “—arsehole.”

Her brow scrunched up. “So what changed?”

Liam shifted her in his lap. He’d had a hard on for most of the half hour they’d been snuggled up together, but it was quickly deflating at this conversation. “I don’t know. I guess I grew up.”

That was a copout and he knew it. But he couldn’t tell her the truth. Not if he didn’t want things to change.

Calla was the first woman who wasn’t with him just because of his money or what he could give her. Well, apart from orgasms. He hoped to give her plenty of those in the near future. But if she knew who he was, it would ruin everything before it even had the chance to really start.

Calla’s brow was still narrowed. Like she could sense there was more to the story. She didn’t press it, though. “Well, I guess I’m glad I met you now and not then.”

“Me too, baby,” he whispered, then leaned down and kissed her. “Me too.”

Those were the last words they said for a long while. Jaysus, she tasted sweet. His cock quickly re-inflated but he didn’t push for anything more than kissing. For once in his life, he wanted to do the right thing by a girl.

Which wasn’t to say when Calla finally pulled away, her pupils blown, and asked, “You wanna go upstairs?” he didn’t jump to his feet and all but drag her in the house and up to his room.

She giggled the whole way. At least until he closed the door behind them in his room and he pressed her up against it.

“Liam,” she whimpered between kisses. Fuck but he liked the sound of his name on her lips. Right then and there, he made it his mission to have her gasping it all night long.

18

MACK

It was the third day since Mack had gotten home with Torpedo and it wasn’t going any better today than it had yesterday or the day before. He wasn’t making any progress with the mustang. If anything, he felt the horse was getting jumpier around him.

He finally gave up for the day and went in the house to take a leak. After he went to the bathroom, he stopped in his room to check his phone messages before he went back out for evening chores.

Bone’s parol

e hearing was today. It had him on edge, he couldn’t lie. Xavier always said horses could sense your mood. If the way Torpedo had bolted away from him all day was any indication, Xavier was spot on.

Mack grabbed his cell and saw he had one voicemail. His throat got tight even as he shook his head at himself. Stupid to be so fucking anxious about it. Of course Bone wouldn’t make parole.

Still Mack felt his heartbeat in his ears when he listened to his old friend Sammy’s voice come over the line.

“Hey bro. Hope everything’s good out there in the prairie. Still can’t imagine you ridin’ a fuckin’ horse.”

Mack smiled. He and Sammy had gotten to know each other during a nickel Sammy had spent on the inside. He’d joined up with the Devil’s Spawn for protection just like Mack. Mack had tutored him and helped him get his GED and he was doing good now that he was out. Had a good job in customer service, a wife, a new baby. Living the fucking dream. He always said if there was anything Mack ever needed, to consider it done. Mack never thought he’d cash it in. Till he realized how helpful having someone with their finger on the pulse would be in keeping tabs on Bone.

“Yeah, so, bad news about Bone. I know you ain’t gonna want to hear this, but he’s gettin’ out. He made parole. Good behavior or some shit.”