“I’ll come get you in the morning,” Sadie called as she skipped out of the store in front of her Daddy.
Kyra giggled. Sadie was banking on Brock saying “yes,” but she still wasn’t sure.
What if someone recognized her and it got into the tabloids? And the online news could be even worse. Richard had warned her time and time again never to let anyone see her Little side.
But… as it turned out, Richard hadn’t been honest about a lot of things, so maybe he’d taken those warnings too far for some reason of his own? She just couldn’t be sure.
Maybe she should ask Brock what he thought? He was the one man she really trusted, after all.
“Kyra, let’s get you upstairs,” Brock said. “I’m sure you’ll want to change your shirt; this one has to be full of little hairs.”
“It is a little bit itchy.”
“Let’s go, then. Jackie, thank you for accommodating us.”
“Of course! We always do whatever we can for our guests. Kyra, I’m so glad you’re happy with your new cut and color. I think you look great!”
“Thank you, Jackie! I do, too.”
They headed to their suite and by the time they got there, Kyra was really beginning to itch.
“Rock, I think I need to take a shower to get all this hair off me.”
“Sure. I’m going to shower, too. Get the horse smell off me before dinner.”
“Oh no! I didn’t even think of that before going for my haircut. Do you think it bugged Jackie?”
“You always smell good,” he said before his expression tightened and he pressed his lips together. He turned away and called over his shoulder, “I’m grabbing a shower real quick, Ky. Be out soon.”
Had he really just said that she smelled good? How long had he thought so? And why did it make her a little shivery inside?
She went into her bathroom, stripped her clothes off and got into a warm shower to scrub the tiny hairs that seemed to be glued to her skin. Luckily the water pressure at the Ranch was great and they came off easily. But she lingered under the water, wanting to think for a few minutes before she faced Brock again.
He’d said and done a few things recently that made her think about him in ways she probably shouldn’t. Sure, in her mind she was already single, but she hadn’t officially broken things off with Richard, and she wasn’t certain she should be having these thoughts about Brock just yet. Or maybe ever. She was ultimately his employer; there had to be something wrong there, didn’t there?
But it was awfully hard to ignore all those big muscles under his tanned, tattooed skin. Or the way his dark brown eyes twinkled at her when she said or did something that amused him. Or the silkiness of his short, dark beard. Or the way he smelled, like soap and a clean t-shirt fresh out of the dryer. Oh yeah, that smell gave her all the Big girl feelings. Especially these last few days. And boy did he look good on a horse!
Her special places were tingling again and as good as it felt, she didn’t think she should allow herself to think too much about it, or about him. But it was getting harder and harder. He was such a good caretaker. He was handsome and comforting and she knew he put up with a lot from her. And he accepted her Little side without question, which was pretty amazing all on its own.
“Nope,” she said aloud, “you can’t think this way about him. It’s Brock, for heaven’s sake!”
Could Sadie be right about Brock, though? About him wanting to be more than her bodyguard?
She scrunched her nose up and shook her head.
No, Kyra. Nope, nope, nope. Stop it. He can guard you and comfort you and even scold you sometimes, but that’s it. No matter what Sadie thinks.
But when she turned the water off and got out of the shower to dry herself, she imagined Brock was there, drying her off with the thick white towel.
She glared at her reflection in the mirror. “Kyra Marie Kicks, you cut it out!”
She leaned closer, took a deep breath and focused instead on her new hair. It was so cute! The blue was like a bright sapphire, and it was buzzed pretty closely on the sides, with short spikes on top. Richard would have a heart attack! But she wasn’t going to worry about what he thought anymore because it didn’t matter. She didn’t even know why he had so many opinions about what she did and what she looked like since he obviously cared so little about her.
But Brock did. She found herself hoping he really liked her new hair. Not that it should matter.
But it did.
She stuck her tongue out at her reflection, then finished drying off and wrapped herself in her lavender cotton bathrobe.