Texas Big Man

Stepping out of the car, I cross the yard to him, trying to ignore the sensation of an even sharper heat than the Texas air as he looks me up and down. Maybe this is a hallucination. A mirage of some kind. It’s so hot, the drive was so long, that I had invented this man straight out of my imagination—maybe the character in my soon-to-be-written book?

His eyes move up and down my body again, this time slower. And the grin on his face practically makes me tingle. He wears a hat—that classic Texas cowboy hat that does nothing to dull his stunning face and the intensity of his dark eyes.

I need to get myself in control. These feelings are dangerous. Especially for me. Some people may call me old-fashioned, others have called me a prude, but I just consider myself sensible. Dependable. I decided years ago that I would save myself for marriage. I’m a virgin. I won’t have sex before I get married. And that is a promise I made to myself that I intend to keep. So I date carefully, and although I’ve fooled around with guys before, I’ve never had sex. And that’s really weeded out the losers. It’s not often a man my age will agree to date a woman who doesn’t intend on sleeping with him in the first month of dating, let alone a woman who is waiting for her wedding night.

Standing here though, watching his eyes rake over my body, he’s the first person that ever made me feel like I might be willing to reconsider my virginity pledge. I’m not sure what it is about him that can make me feel that way, but it does.

The man speaks before I can even open my mouth. “You don’t look like the kind of woman that spends a lot of time in the country, but if you stick around for a week, I’m sure I could have you begging for some country cock.”

An inferno erupts in my core as he winks, and very intentionally adjusts his belt. Of course I look, and see that his pants are tight—tighter than they should be. Because of me. My cheeks flame, and I shove down the attraction and arousal that has seemed to overtake me out of nowhere. I replace those feeling with revulsion and indignance, at least I try to replace all those former feelings. His words have left me disoriented, and not entirely in a bad way. “Who the hell are you that you can talk to me that way? What are you doing here?”

He raises one eyebrow, looking me slowly up and down again. “I could ask you the same thing. Seems a little strange for someone like you to be out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“Why, because I’m a woman?”

He smirks. “You said it, not me.”

Great. Not only is he stupidly hot, he’s a pig for propositioning me so boldly, and he’s sexist for assuming that I don’t belong here. As soon as I can get Trevor on the phone to figure out where the hell he is, and who the hell this boar is, I’ll make sure that he’s gone by morning.

I didn’t sign up to be hit on, or for my body to go entirely rogue. That doesn’t change the fact that the way he’s looking at me makes me shake and want things that I shouldn’t want. “You need to leave,” I tell him. “I don’t know what the hell you’re doing here on my property, but you’re way too fucking bold for somebody that I just met, and as soon as I can make a phone call, I’ll make sure of it. So you might as well get whatever stuff you have here together and start driving.”

His smirk only gets deeper. “You must be Melena. Trevor told me I’d be working with his little sister. I just didn’t expect his little sister to look like you.”

Oh, fuck.

He knows Trevor, which means that he’s not just some squatter who’s decided to take over the ranch for no reason. He’s actually meant to be here. Damnit Trevor.

This time I’m the one to look him up and down, and I try to make it seem like I’m not checking him out. I aim for judgmental and repulsed, but I’m sure I’m failing entirely. Because everything about him is drawing me toward him like a magnet. His strong body. The way his jeans hug his legs. The fucking hammer in his hand. And as much as I hate to admit it, that filthy mouth of his that I want to slap and kiss. “Well you have me at a disadvantage then. You know my name but you still haven’t told me who you are.”

He extends his hand, but I don’t take it. Not yet. Something about my resistance makes him smile wider, and that’s the smile of a man with dangerous confidence. A smile that tells me he’s used to being in control and could make anything in the world happen.