Tangled (Steele Ranch 3)

I felt the heat of his gaze and tried not to squirm until he looked back to the road. Wow, that had been intense and it felt as if electricity crackled in the air.

“One of the ranch hands a boyfriend?”

I looked down at my lap, blushed, remembering the last time I’d been with a guy. I’d thought he was special, that the connection had been really intense. The weekend we’d shared had been amazing, even though it had been a rodeo hookup which weren’t known for longevity.

Last summer, I’d gone with a girlfriend to the two-day rodeo in Poulson and I’d been more interested in the guy in the stands who hadn’t taken his eyes off me the entire night than the men risking their lives on the bulls.

I’d raked in the look of his closely shorn hair, dark eyes and intense stare. Definitely older, he’d had the air about him of a life hard lived, not the happy-go-lucky, casual feel of the rodeo riders, who usually had cockier attitudes. They always wanted to prove they could last more than eight seconds. I’d wanted a guy who knew he’d be able to stay on.

This guy, he’d looked…dangerous, at least to the survival of my panties, in the well-worn jeans and snap shirt. And when he’d approached, I hadn’t been fearful. It had been…magic. Intense. Not love at first sight, but definitely lust at first sight, which was crazy. It had been powerful and wild, falling immediately into bed with him. We hadn’t left his hotel room for two days because we’d just clicked.

I’d felt a deeper attraction for him than I had any man before…or after. It had taken a day together to share our darkest secrets, our wildest kinks. I’d been worried, even embarrassed to share mine, but he hadn’t laughed, hadn’t shamed me. Instead, he’d set about to fulfill every one of them, perhaps because his were compatible to mine.

A yin to his yang. More like a submissive to his dominant nature.

He’d even made one of my more insane fantasies a reality by bringing his two best friends into bed with us. Anonymous to me, which was what I’d wanted. He’d turned out the lights, made it dark enough where I hadn’t been able to see them. They hadn’t been able to see me, unless they were weird-ass werewolves or something.

I hadn’t seen their faces, only heard their voices, the dark promises, the dirty talk, felt their hands, their lips, their impressive cocks. The darkness had set my mind at ease, had made me forget I was with three men, with strangers. Crazy? Absolutely. Incredible? Definitely.

They’d been good guys who had made the one night spectacular, who’d given me more orgasms than I’d thought possible. A fantasy to remember. While it wasn’t something I intended to tell my grandchildren about, I could certainly look back in my old age and know I’d been bold enough to take what I’d wanted and found three guys gentle, sweet, dominant and skilled enough to give it to me.

But it had just been a weekend, a fling, and I’d had my nursing internship to get back to. Attendance had been mandatory for passing the class and while the orgasms—and the men—had been spectacular, I couldn’t blow my chances at a career over them. We hadn’t talked about anything beyond the weekend, and I’d known there were no strings. With the long drive from Poulson to where the hospital was in Missoula, I’d had to slip out before dawn to make my shift on time.

We hadn’t exchanged numbers, we’d been too busy doing other things. And when I’d left, I’d assumed it was over. A rodeo fling wasn’t long-term. Who wanted a relationship with a woman who wanted three men? It had been a wild time, but the reality of nursing school and working full-time had returned with a vengeance. Making enough money to pay the bills—rent, insurance, groceries and the tuition—had had me working every minute I wasn’t at school or asleep.

While I knew what he looked like naked and all the wicked things the rodeo hottie could do to me, I only knew his first name. Sutton. And as for his friends who’d gotten in on the fun, I didn’t even know that. It was completely ridiculous to have bared my body and my soul like that without even getting everyone’s dang name. I’d been hating myself for it every day since. I’d played the ‘what if’ game for the past year. What if Sutton had been able to call me? What if all three of them wanted me for more than a wild romp? What if…what if.

So all I had was that wild weekend with Sutton, the one night with three amazing men to keep me warm at night, to think of as I used my vibrator and fingers to make myself come—and then nothing like it had felt with those three. Any guy since who’d asked me out I’d turned down. None were Sutton and it seemed he was the only one I craved. Well, his friends, too, but that hadn’t been real, just two big, muscled figments of the darkness.

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” I lifted my cuffed wrists making the metal clink. “I’m not really under arrest, am I?”

He put his blinker on, slowed and waited for a car to pass from the other way before he turned onto a side road. “No.” He tipped his chin toward the clear plastic divider behind us that separated the front from those he’d arrested. “You wouldn’t be sitting up here if you were.”

“Then why am I in cuffs?”

“Because you wanted me to put them on you.”

The deep rumble of his voice had me thinking dark and dirty things about those words. He was in a position of power—I’d voluntarily given up my control to him, proof of it with the benign, yet very appealing frisk, then the cuffs—and it was reassuring to me. I felt as if my burden to run, to get away from Schmidt and Rocky, was now in his hands. I liked that. I needed it. I was in control of every facet of my life. Every moment was planned, every penny accounted for. I craved a man who could dominate me, allow me to give all the decision making to him. To let me clear my mind and just…be.

The cuffs were the physical proof of this dominance and he was right, I did want them on. I wanted him to be in control. The fact that he recognized that was heady. Surprising. Appealing.

Crazy, yes, especially since he was a stranger. But I sensed he was a good man, took his role seriously. His job put him in a position of trust, and deep-down I knew he wouldn’t take advantage of that. I doubted he’d pull over the sheriff SUV and have his way with me, even if I consented, but it did have me shifting in my seat, remembering how that one night with the three guys they’d bound my wrists with one of their leather belts and secured to the headboard. That had been hot, the moment charged with the balance of control. I’d tipped it—at my own choosing—in their favor. They’d made me come, first with their mouths, then their dicks, flipping me from my back, legs spread, then onto my knees.

I cleared my throat. Why was I all of a sudden thinking of them, of that weekend, that night, of what could have been if I’d only gotten Sutton’s contact info or left mine behind?

“Then where are you taking me?” I wondered as we headed out of town once again, this time to the north.

“Steele Ranch, as you wanted.”

I flushed, realizing the direction my thoughts had gone and he was just being nice. “Thank you,” I murmured, relieved.

I wasn’t excited about the chance of Schmidt or Rocky finding my car abandoned on the side of the road and what they’d do with it if they did, but I felt safe enough, knowing my trail disappeared. Nothing was resolved, but for now, I could lay low and think about what I was going to do.

We turned off the road a few minutes later, passed beneath the ranch’s wooden archway and drove down the long driveway. This was mine? This gorgeous piece of property. And when the ranch house came into view, I gasped.

“It’s huge!” I exclaimed, leaning forward and putting my hands on the dash.

Wade glanced at me, then studied the house growing larger the closer we got. It was white, two-story with a wrap-around porch. “It was built by Aiden Steele’s grandfather, I believe.”