The Virgin Next Door (Stud Ranch 3)

“Whoa,” she said. “So we’re officially somewhere off the beaten path.”

Mack glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Liam looking smug as fuck. Shit, he’d never hear the end of how this was Liam’s great idea. Rest of his life, the Irish wanker would brag about how he knew just how to make all Calla’s dreams come true.

But then Mack smiled. After all, it was his name going on the paperwork.

Mack slowed the truck down as they came up to the house.

“Wait’s almost over,” Mack said. He parked in front of the house and then Liam got out of the truck and opened Mel’s door for her.

“Can I take the blindfold off now?”

“Not yet,” Liam said.

Mack came around the front of the truck to their side and took Calla’s other hand.

“Now,” he and Liam said together.

Calla reached up and pulled the blindfold off. She blinked a few times in the bright noon sunlight. Then her brow scrunched.

She looked from Liam to Mack. “I don’t understand. Why are we at my family’s old ranch?”

Liam’s grin was so wide it was gonna break his damn face. “Gotta have a place to bring our baby home to, yeah?”

Calla blinked some more. “What do you—”

“We bought the place,” Mack said.

Calla’s mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. “But how—”

“Turns out there was a reason Mack got a full ride to Harvard. He’s a right smart bastard.”

Calla looked to Mack. He put a hand on the back of his neck. “I just happened to see there was a future in cryptocurrencies. So I made a small investment.”

Calla started smiling but Mack could see she was still confused. Apparently, Liam could see it too.

“Fecking Bitcoin,” Liam said, shaking his head. “Mack bought five-hundred dollars of it in 2011, and now it’s worth fifteen million. Can you fecking believe that?”

“Holy shit,” Calla breathed out. She grabbed Mack’s arm. Her eyes ping-ponged back and forth between them before settling on Mack’s. “Is he serious?”

Mack nodded. He’d worked his ass off at the mechanics shop in town all through high school and had a few grand saved up by the time he went to college… and then prison.

Pres occasionally got a cell phone smuggled in and Mack had used the fifteen minutes of internet Pres granted him to try to do something with the little money he had. Otherwise he knew he’d be fucked when he got out. He’d first heard about cryptocurrencies at Harvard and had read up on it, so that’s where he put five hundred bucks. He’d tried a couple other investments but that was the only one that took off so fucking insanely.

“Can you believe it?” Liam asked. “Now I’m broke but this lanky bastard is our sugar daddy.”

Mack looked at Liam. “Never. Call. Me. That. Again.”

Liam laughed and clapped him on the back. Mack did have to say, though, Liam was taking the whole not-having-a-penny-to-his-name thing surprisingly well. His dad was ‘cutting him off until he came to his senses.’ Liam had responded to that text with a selfie of himself kissing Mack while simultaneously squeezing Calla’s ass. Really, it was quite impressive he’d fit them all in a single camera frame.

“So you bought back my old house?”

“And the ranch,” Liam said. “And an additional five hundred acres on either side of it.”

Calla stumbled a little and Mack grabbed her arm to steady her. “Holy shit,” she whispered again.

“Know you dreamed about setting up a horse training and boarding place, so there’s money in the budget for that.”

Calla just shook her head. “But how? That’s Ned Cunningham’s land and he’d nev—”