Billionaire Rancher Stepbrother - Small Town Romance

Was that…was he…

My eyes widened, and I rubbed my eyes again, but it was still there, and there was no mistaking the dark flush that had stained the aristocratic panes of his cheeks.

Oh my God.

And almost as if he could read my mind, Damian started glaring at me as well.

“Did I just—-”

“Don’t even think about it,” he warned.

“Make you blush?”

“The hell you did.”

“But—-” I pointed gingerly to his cheeks.

“I’ve been drinking,” he said shortly.

“Um.” I couldn’t help casting a dubious look at the tea set on his table, which was as classic as it went, with his porcelain cup filled with Earl Grey tea.

“Believe what you want,” he snapped.

“Then I believe you like me,” I teased.

His lip curled. “You’d like that, don’t you?”

“Very much.”

“Unfortunately…you’re wrong.”

Leaning forward, I whispered, “I think you’re lying.”

Damian leaned forward as well, but instead of whispering, he replied in a perfectly succinct voice, “I think you’re crazy.”

I barely managed to hold my laughter back. “Oh no.” I clutched at my chest as I leaned back against my seat. “I think you just made me fall in love with you.”

And this time, I saw it.

“Aha!”

It disappeared as soon as I spoke, of course, but by then it was too late.

“I know what I saw,” I told him smugly, “and I totally made you smile.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“No, I’m not.” My singsong tone had his lips twitching, but this time I knew better than to point it out. “Do you live around here?” Although I genuinely wanted to know more about him, I was also hoping that little twitch would eventually turn into a smile, which I was willing to bet would be heartbreakingly sexy. “You do, right?”

He grunted.

“I’ll take that as a yes, and since you live around here, you probably work around here, too, so…” I studied the way he was dressed as I tried to guess what his occupation was. “I’m guessing you do some kind of ranch work?”

Another grunt, but he also reached for his book at the same time and started making a show of reading it. Too bad for him, though, I was too thick-skinned (and crushing on him too hard) to care. “I don’t know much about ranching,” I told him, “so if I’m wrong about this, don’t laugh—-”

“No.”

“I haven’t—-”

“Being a cowboy isn’t a job title.”

Oh my gosh.

Did he just read my mind?

The lengthening silence seemed to prompt Damian into looking up, and he let out an exasperated sound when he saw the way I was staring at him.

“That’s it, you know,” I told him seriously. “That’s the sign we’re meant to be. It’s serendipity—-”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

“It is—-”

“Past your bedtime,” he cut me off with a pointed look at my wristwatch. “That’s what it is.”

“Stop treating me like a kid,” I protested with a pout. “I’m eighteen, not eight.”

“There doesn’t appear to be any difference,” he retorted, “with the way you’re—-” He broke off when I shot out of my seat. “Where—-” He stopped speaking again as I slid into the seat next to him and pressed close, enough to have my already straining breasts brush against his arm.

“There.” The breathless note of my voice didn’t surprise me at all, considering how hard and fast my heart was beating. “Is there a difference—-”

“Are you like this with every guy?” Damian gritted out.

I quickly shook my head, wide-eyed and breathless at the heat suddenly blazing from his eyes.

“Don’t lie,” he growled.

I shook my head again, saying vehemently, “I’m not!” And it was the truth. “I promise—-”

“So why me?” he demanded roughly.

“I d-don’t know—-”

Damian cursed under his breath, and I jerked in surprise.

“I can feel your nipples, dammit.” The heat in his eyes smoldered into a sensual blaze as he spoke, and oh God…

A whimper escaped me as I felt my nipples tighten and poke harder against his arm.

Oooooh.

The look in his glittering blue eyes was feral now, and he looked like he wanted to eat me alive.

“This is fucking crazy, damn you.”

I just kept shaking my head. It was the only thing I felt capable of doing, my mind no longer functioning properly. No guy…just no guy had ever made me feel this way before, and I could barely keep myself still on my seat.

“Goddammit.”

But even as he kept cursing the situation we found ourselves in, he didn’t move away, and I didn’t fail to notice the way his nostrils flared the moment he saw me nervously licking my lips. Whether he admitted it or not, he wanted this, too, and the realization made me feel heady and ache in places that had never ached before.

“Serendipity,” I whispered. Heaven had blown me another kiss, and it was pointing to Damian’s direction.

“Fuck serendipity.”

And Damian shot out of his seat, leaving me to gape in surprise as he strode away without even looking back.

“Wait!”

But he was already out of the lounge room, and I found myself running after him.