Branding the Virgin (Cowboys & Virgins 1)

“Would you stop that!” I snap back. My hand goes to my chest as I try to get my heart under control. How can someone so big move without my hearing them?

He just ignores me. “Where’s your shit?”

I have the urge to tell him he can shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, but I stop myself. This isn’t just about you, Mary-Jane. You have to give this a go. Even if only for a little while.

I point behind me to my SUV, not trusting myself to talk because the knot growing in my throat is so big I’m not sure I even can.

“You get gone,” Ty says, pointing to Blake before making his way towards my SUV.

“He doesn't bite,” Blake says as he moves past me towards a black truck. I’m not sure I believe him.

I take a few breaths and attempt to push down the knot in my throat.

“Why aren’t I going to the bunkhouse?” I finally get out as Ty starts pulling my two bags from the SUV.

He just grunts a non-response, moving past me back towards the door. I follow him because I don’t really have a choice.

When I enter the house, I stop short, taking it in. There is nothing. Not one thing hung on a wall, not a trinket in sight. Just the basics a house would need. Two sofas, a TV mounted on the wall, and a medium-sized dining room table that draws my eye to the equally bare kitchen.

I’m not sure how something could feel cold in this Texas summer heat, but it does.

“This way,” he says looking back at me over his shoulder. I follow him down a hallway. He nods to a closed door. “Office.”

I have to bite my tongue from pointing out he said something without a curse word or bark. He stops at a door and pushes it open to reveal a room that looks just like the rest of the house.

It’s bare, with nothing but a simple, king-sized bed with a night stand and a dresser. It’s painted a soft white, making me think maybe it belonged to a woman at one time. It’s the only soft thing about the house. I follow him into the room, placing my car keys and purse on the dresser.

“Bathroom’s in the hallway, and there is food in the fridge.”

I turn to look at him, but he seems to be looking anywhere but at me. I want to knock that stupid cowboy hat off his head. From this distance I can’t get a good look at him. Not like when I was standing right in front of him outside.

“Where should I start?” I ask, feeling a little lost and even more alone.

“The office. Tomorrow.” He turns to leave.

“Do I need to make you dinner?” I ask, knowing I’m supposed to keep his house up. It was part of the job description. Office work with light house duties.

“No, I’m going out.” He grabs my cars keys from the dresser as he leaves the room, his steps hard on the wood flooring. I stand there stunned, then hear the front door slam shut.

I drop down onto the bed, my head falling into my hands. Even at home I didn’t feel this alone, even though it was just me. The coldness of the house brings back an empty childhood I really don’t care to think about.

I reach down, pulling off my sandals and tossing them to the floor, before I lie back onto the bed and cup my belly.

Again I debate leaving but remember he took my keys for some strange reason. Maybe he needed to move my SUV or something. I absently rub my stomach, knowing I have to give this a chance no matter how much I want to run.

I pray that maybe Ty is just having a bad day, but I have a feeling I’m wrong. He really is just an asshole. The small hope I had about finding something more slips away.

4

Ty

I go out of the house and get one of my horses, saddling it up. I had to get out of there before I went crazy. I tuck her keys in my back pocket and head out through the pasture. I use my ranch mostly for a few cattle and training horses. When I was hiring someone new, I wasn’t expecting a woman, and I damn sure wasn’t expecting a little thing like her. As I ride down to the woods and along the edge of the creek, I think about what happened when I touched her.

When I touched her hand I felt it all the way in my bones, and then my cock stirred. Not so much as a twitch all these months, and then I hold her hand for a second and my dick swells up trying to get free. My doctors said maybe one day it could come back, but there were no guarantees. One little touch, however, and it appears I’ve been cured. I was pissed off that Blake was standing there and he knew immediately what had happened. And I was even angrier at myself that I couldn’t do anything about it. I didn’t want this woman on my land, but I wasn’t about to let her go. Not only did I feel my cock get hard for the first time since I can remember, but something in my chest tightened when I looked at her. Something I’d never felt settled in me and it’s got my mind going crazy. I had to get out of that house and get some fresh air.

“Heard your dick works.”

I roll my eyes at the sound of my other brother Trace behind me. Looking over I see him on his horse as he crosses over the creek that divides our property.

“Figured Blake would go run his mouth the second he could.” I give my horse a little nudge with my feet and he walks forward. Trace comes up beside me and keeps pace.

“Oh, the very second he hopped out of his truck. I thought I might find you here.”

“Yeah, well, I think you might need to mind your own fucking business.”

A silence passes between us. We’re normally pretty close, but this situation is somewhat embarrassing, and the fact that my brothers are talking about it makes it worse. I immediately feel bad, so I look over and apologize.

“Sorry. Just been a weird day.”

“Don’t worry about it. Blake just loves giving you shit.” He looks ahead thoughtfully and then back to me. “You think she’ll stay?”

The weight of his words hit me. I had thought of letting her go, but what if she wants to leave? I don’t know a thing about her, so what if she left? How could I find her? How could I convince her to come back? Why would she even want to come back to someone like me? I know I’m grumpy and a foul-mouthed pain in the ass most of the time. But if this woman is the cure to what’s happened to me, and someone I want to get to stick around, then I’ve got some changes to make.

“She has to,” I say, turning my horse around and heading back to my place.

“Good talk, Ty.”

I hear Trace’s sarcastic voice over the clomping of my horse’s hooves, and I ignore him. I’ve got some shit to fix if I want to make this a place she wants to be.

By the time I get finished with everything, it’s late when I get home. I’d seen the way she looked around the place when she got here, so I went to the store in town and bought some stuff to brighten the place up. Quietly, I haul in all the shit I got and start to work. I filled half my truck bed up with fresh flowers, cleaning out the store. I don’t have vases, so I bought a bunch of mason jars and stuck them all over the house, filling them as I went. I put down a few rugs and some blankets the sales girl said would make any space look “comfortable.” I told her comfortable to me was a good pair of boots, but she didn’t think that was the same thing.

I move all over the place, putting out candles and random stuff that I hope Mary-Jane might like. When I finally finish and clean it up, it’s late, and I haven’t heard so much as a peep from her room. Before I go to bed, I decide to check on her, just to make sure she’s all right.

I walk down the hall and stand outside her door for a second, then press my ear to it. I can hear her even breathing and decide to take a chance. I turn the knob and peek in, seeing her on her side asleep. My cock gives a little twitch, and it almost shocks me into letting go of the door. Luckily I catch myself at the last second and hold on to it. I take a moment and just look at her in the moonlight.

Her dark curly hair is laid out on the pillow, and I swear the light makes it look like her skin is glowing. The curve of her hip is shown off in this position, and I have the strongest urge deep in my chest to lie down behind her and spoon. Not even to do anything more with her,