Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
It was all so confusing, and Mac Gentry wasn’t helping anything. Because whenever I saw him, there was a stupid roll in my stomach of such raw physical attraction that I nearly got light-headed. He was simply the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my life. But that, my reaction to him, made not a lick of sense. Because if I was going to be doing the topping that I was supposed to, why did the idea of Mac having his way with me get me all hot just thinking about it? I mean, what the hell was that? It was a mess, and trying to figure it out had my stomach in knots. The only thing I knew for certain was that I wanted one person, not a whole herd.
The craving in me could be traced back to Rand. I blamed him. I wanted what he and Stef had. I wanted the monogamous, go-to-bed-at-night-and-wake-up-in-the-morning-with deal. A guy who would look at me like I wasn’t stupid, who thought I had a lot to offer, who would actually just see me… That’s what I craved. But so far, all the men I saw at bars or my restaurant or around the hotel were just passing through. I had lots of offers for steamy sex with no strings attached, but since all I’d ever wanted was to belong to someone, I hadn’t, as of yet, gone to bed with a man. I wanted at least the potential for permanence.
“What are you doing?” The annoyed-sounding question brought me sharply back from my daydreaming to the present.
Sighing heavily, I turned to find Mac, who, of course, was glowering at me. “What did I do wrong now? You don’t like that I’m breathing?”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Mac snapped at me, tipping his head toward a bunk bed to his left. “Just go to bed already. We have to be up before dawn.”
“I know,” I said, smiling at him. “I have to take a shower first, and then I’ll go to bed. I just need to pick a bunk before that.”
He was staring at me with an odd look on his face.
“Mac?”
“Why’re you smiling?”
I shrugged. “Because it’s kinda funny that you keep trying to order me around, and I wonder how long it’ll take before you give up.” His eyes narrowed, but I could tell he wasn’t mad, so I just grinned at him and gave him a gentle pat on the arm. “Truce, okay?”
“I— You realize I never declared war, don’t you?” he muttered belligerently.
“It’s all in your tone,” I assured him.
“My what?” he nearly growled at me.
“That.” I snickered, pointing at him. “You have to try and take the asshole out of your voice if at all possible.” He crossed his arms, and I could tell he was about to give it to me with both barrels, but before he could, I bumped him with my shoulder. “It’s okay. Don’t strain yourself, all right?”
He looked stunned as I left him and went to put my stuff on the bottom bunk by the wall. Grabbing what I needed for the shower—at this point in my life, I was a pro at packing minimally for cattle drives, and some skills never left you—I gave Mac a wave as I went to find the bathroom.
As expected, it was a communal shower with several stalls, and I was in and out quickly, changed into sleep shorts and a long-sleeve T-shirt, teeth brushed, and darting back to my bunk in less than twenty minutes. It was better to shower at night because the rest of the guys usually did that in the morning, up early before the ride, and trying to get ready with everyone else underfoot was a horror.
“Will you go to bed,” Zach groused at me. For some reason, he’d taken the top bunk over me. I noticed that Mac had taken the bottom bunk beside mine, when there were several empties farther away.
“You didn’t have to wait, and you could have picked a bunk way the hell—”
“Just go to bed,” Mac ordered, sounding annoyed.
“Tone, buddy,” I teased him.
Him telling me to go to hell was really not a surprise, and neither was me dreaming about him.
FOUR
I woke up early the following morning, the alarm on my watch vibrating me awake, and I was in and out of the bathroom before anyone else started moving. I stayed out of the stampede and walked alone to the stables. I was surprised that the horses weren’t being fed, but I was not at all shocked that when I reached Juju’s stall, she was lying down, sleeping. In a boarding situation, at a stable, most horses were fed twice a day. If the horses lived on a ranch, feeding was different. Many were fed concentrates twice per day, and hay maybe four to six times per day. Juju ate when I did, which meant around nine in the morning, again at four, and then somewhere between eleven and eleven thirty at night. Was it great? No. Was it consistent? Yes. I made sure Juju ate, taking time out of my day to go see and feed her. Four in the afternoon was before the dinner rush at the Bronc, and eleven was normally after it, so I was usually in the clear. What was great was that they were wonderful at the stable at the resort about letting her forage with the other horses between meals.