Wild (Wolf Ranch 2)

What Audrey had found with her cowboy.

I wasn’t a virgin, but I might as well have been. The last guy I’d been with had traded me in for a newer model. That had been fun. Not. I wanted a guy who made me hot, where there was some kind of zing, like the lightning that lit up the sky. I craved it, and the dead batteries in my vibrator were proof of that.

I turned my face up and let the rain pelt my eyelids, my cheeks, my lips. And then I started to laugh. Took a deep breath, then another as I looked at the two-lane road in front of me. A creek had swelled over its banks and covered the roadway. The murky water rushed by, a tree branch or shrub ripped from the ground bobbed and moved downstream. Nature always won. Was always grander, bigger, stronger. It could always reduce my problems to insignificance. I picked up a rock and tossed it into the swift moving water to see how deep it was.

It instantly disappeared.

I laughed again. I wasn’t getting across anytime soon, at least not on this road. All around me was nothing but prairie grass whipping in the wind. The nearest town was five miles back, although the term town was generous. It didn’t even have a stoplight.

I could turn back and detour a different way, but the alternate route the GPS gave me took me three hours out of the way. And that was if those roads hadn’t been flooded, too.

If I couldn’t get to Wolf Ranch tonight, I wasn’t in any hurry to get anywhere else. Might as well enjoy nature’s ill-timed show. I climbed up onto a two-foot high stone and concrete marker by the side of the road to get a better look.

A pickup’s headlights caught my attention, and I wobbled on the top of my perch. Because of the storm, I hadn’t heard the engine until it stopped right behind my car. The door opened, and a large man climbed down and stalked toward me.

“You okay?” he called, concern lacing his voice.

I blinked the rain away, stared. Blinked again. Well, hell-o. Speaking of a real man.

The guy was huge, at least six-three or four. Solid muscle, as if he lifted little rental cars like mine for exercise, was barely concealed beneath a black t-shirt and cargo pants. He was instantly wet.

So was I, and not from the rain.

He stopped beside me, and even with me standing on the sign base, I stood only a foot above him. His hair was close-cropped and dark, although it was almost black now. He needed a shave, as if he’d lost his razor a few days ago. I bet he had a hairy chest.

Yum.

I laughed, nearly losing my balance again. “I’m fine. I was just having a look.” I pointed toward the flooded road, but he didn’t take his eyes off me.

He reached up and caught my elbow to steady me. A deep V crinkled his forehead. He was probably a decade older than me and wow... h.o.t., HOT.

“That water’s deeper than you think,” he said. His voice was deep, gruff and full of command. My body shuddered, not from the chill from the rain but in response to his words. “There’s no way you’ll get across.”

Piercing dark eyes roved over me, stopping on my chest.

I looked down and realized my nipples were poking against my pale pink shirt which was now practically see-through. He didn’t need x-ray vision to know I wasn’t wearing a bra.

I turned my face to the rushing water. “I know. I just wanted to watch it for a minute.” I turned my foot, and it slid a little on the slick surface.

His grip tightened on me. “Little girl, you’re making me nervous. Hop down before I pull you down.”

Little girl? I stared at him. I was so much smaller and definitely younger, but still. Those same bossy words out of another guy’s mouth would have offended me. Somehow from him they sounded sexy. Virile. It probably had something to do with those bulging muscles in the arm holding me.

He reached for my waist, not waiting for me to comply. “Let’s go.” He lifted me easily to the ground, but kept his hands resting lightly on my waist. He looked around, as if searching for something, then back at me. His gaze roved over my face, dropped to my lips, then looked me square in the eyes.

“You’re standing out here just to look? You’re soaked through.”

“So are you,” I countered.

He tipped his head, like he wasn’t used to being challenged, and I thought I saw the glimmer of a smile before he hid it. He bent his head to mine and inhaled sharply, nostrils flaring. I swore I heard him growl. His eyes widened like he was just as surprised by the sound as I was. He swore, but it got caught on the wind.