Rough (Wolf Ranch 1)

I huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, I made it pretty clear I wasn’t interested. Didn’t even let him walk me to my door. But I think he took it as playing hard to get. Maybe even saving myself.” I gave the last mental air quotes. I wasn’t a virgin, and I certainly wasn’t saving myself for marriage, but I was looking for someone to marry. It just wasn’t Jett. I wasn’t that bored with my vibrator to sleep with him.

“Why?”

“Because he keeps calling. Even texted and said he’d pick me up on Friday after my shift.”

“You told him your work schedule?”

“Hell, no. I have no idea how he got it. Maybe he threw some of his hedge fund money around.” I’d been hopeful before the date, but it had been obvious really fast, right about the time he said I’d be eating lamb for dinner, that it wasn’t going to happen with Jett. I’d made it clear in my lack of interest, but it bothered me that he didn’t grasp the fact that I wasn’t interested. He was rich and attractive. Surely there had to be a whole slew of eager women in town to take him on.

The road had followed a split rail fence for the past mile. I slowed when it was broken by a huge archway. If I had any doubts of where I was, the words Wolf Ranch carved into the wood would have helped. The driveway was dirt. Straight. Long. I couldn’t see any buildings from the road, which meant the ranch was big.

“Ignore him. Go for Boyd Wolf. If you don’t, I will.”

“You will not.” I was surprised by the snap to my voice, even though I knew she was messing with me.

She didn’t argue. Instead, she softened her voice. “You deserve a great guy. A nice guy. A hot guy. You deserve every orgasm he can give you.”

“Marina!”

“What? You do. You might look at vaginas all day, but I bet yours has cobwebs on it.”

I was not answering that one.

“Boyd Wolf is cocky. Sure of himself,” I countered.

“So? That makes him good in bed.”

I sighed, took a deep breath. “He’s definitely a player. Listen, I’m here. I have to go.”

“Have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Actually, forget that. Do everything I wouldn’t do and then some.”

She ended the call as I rolled my eyes. I leaned forward and looked up at the arch. Wolf Ranch. I had no idea what I was doing, driving all the way out here. Boyd Wolf was fine. Marina was right. I’d been wrong about how seriously he’d been injured. There was no other explanation. Yet…

Fine, I wanted to see him again, to believe he really was healed. Or not hurt. He couldn’t have healed if he hadn’t really been hurt. Gah!

I dropped my forehead to the top of the steering wheel. I was fooling myself if it was only my need for answers that had me idling in front of his ranch. I was interested in knowing more about Boyd than as a doctor. I wanted to know why his abs were like a washboard. Why his skin was hot and smooth. If the chest hair I’d felt disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans.

If his cocky attitude meant he was cocky in bed. If he’d be bossy and stern…

Yeah, I was totally screwed.

5

AUDREY

I’d made it all the way down the long drive and to the main house but hadn’t gotten out of the car. My pep talk had gotten me this far but had fizzled out just shy of the front door. I sat in my idling car when a rap sounded on my window.

I shrieked a little and nearly wrenched my neck looking out at the… wow. Those were some broad shoulders under that cowboy hat. It was another very good-looking cowboy. He didn’t look happy. Where the hell had he come from? I’d been staring at the house—a full on farmhouse of epic proportions—but not too focused to have missed someone of his size approaching.

I quickly shut off the car and opened my door. The man stepped back, still frowning. He resembled Boyd, except a little older, and everywhere Boyd radiated happy go lucky, this guy radiated grumpy. I took a guess at him being an older brother.

“Hi! I’m Dr. Ames.” I reached back into the car, fumbled with my purse and medical kit and pulled them out, spun back around to face the guy, then stuck out my hand. Yeah, I was flustered. “I’m here to check in on Boyd.”

He looked down at his own hands, dusting them on his jeans, then held them up. “I’m not fit to shake,” he said, although I suspected he just didn’t want to touch me. Which was stupid, and I was certainly reading way too much into it. “You’re… what did you say? A doctor? Why would you need to come all the way out here to check on Boyd?”