“Hi, darlin’,” he said wiping his brow with the back of his hand. I watched as his eyes roamed my body, coming to rest on my chest. Feeling self-conscious, I folded my arms, apprehension bubbling in my stomach. “Can I help you?” His eyes finally focused on my face and he smirked. “I’m Colt, by the way.”
“Quinn,” I told him reluctantly. “I’m looking for Brody. Is he here?”
“Sure.” He stabbed the fork he was holding into the ground, his eyes sweeping up and down my body again. “Brody, someone to see you.” I shifted uncomfortably on my feet.
“Hey, Quinn,” shouted Brody as he emerged from a stall at the other end of the barn. I breathed a sigh of relief at seeing him and quickly began to walk past Colt. He reached out and grabbed my arm.
“If you want a night out, darlin’, come find me. I can show you a real good time. Much better than him,” he whispered in my ear.
I scowled and pulled my arm from his grasp. “I don’t think so,” I told him fiercely, my voice masking how terrified I was. No one had grabbed me like that since Evan, and memories I’d tried to bury came flooding back. My heart was beating erratically, and I had tears in my eyes. Walking quickly away from him, I headed toward the back of the barn where Brody was watching our exchange, his face like thunder.
“Are you okay?” he asked me, his tone soft even though his eyes were telling me he was furious. “What did he say to you?”
I shook my head. “Nothing, I’m fine. I’m just overreacting.” I wrung my hands together in front of me and willed myself to calm down.
“You’re not fine. You’re shaking.” He reached his hand out to me and I flinched. His eyes went wide, and he looked even more angry. “I’m going to kill him!” He stalked off down the barn toward Colt.
Brody
“Colt!” I bellowed across the barn. I’d seen him grab Quinn and say something in her ear. Knowing Colt as I did, I knew exactly the sort of comment he’d made. Colt was an asshole. The way he spoke about women made my blood boil. The idea he was looking at Quinn like that made me want to knock him out.
“Brody?” he said, turning to look at me. He looked surprised to see me barreling down the barn toward him. I usually ignored whatever he had to say about whichever poor girl he was dating because I wasn’t interested in getting dragged into a conversation with him. Yes, I might have dated a lot of women, but I respected them. I wouldn’t dream of laying a finger on them or talking shit about them. Men that did were jerks, and right now, Colt was the biggest jerk of all.
“What did you say to her?” As I got up in his face, he took a step back and held his hands up.
“Whoa! Nothing, man! What’s your problem?”
“What’s my problem?” I repeated back to him. “My problem is you! So, I’ll ask again. What did you say to her?”
“I just told her I could show her a good time. Which obviously I can.” A cocky smile formed on his face and I glared at him, my hands balling into fists at my side.
“You son of a bitch!” I yelled, grabbing him around the throat and pinning him up against the wall of the barn. Getting close to his face, I spat out, “Don’t speak to Quinn, don’t touch Quinn, don’t go anywhere near Quinn. Understand?” He nodded frantically, and I dropped my hands from his neck. Coughing and spluttering he fell to his knees.
“Man, you’re crazy!” He rubbed his hands around his throat where I’d been holding him. I turned around, leaving him on his knees scrambling to get up. “Guess she’s the latest lay then?” he muttered behind me.
Spinning on my heels, I was back in front of him in seconds. “You don’t know when to shut the hell up do you, Colt?” I warned. “Get out. Go find something else to do before I fire your ass.” Thankfully, he seemed to heed my warning and left without another word.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm down before going back to Quinn. Colt had obviously upset her, and I didn’t want to go back to her angry and worked up. I found her in one of the stalls petting the horse in there.
“Hey, I’m sorry about Colt, he’s a bit heavy-handed. He won’t be bothering you again.” Her hand stilled on Marley’s neck and she looked up at me.
“No. I’m the one who’s sorry. I completely overreacted. He didn’t hurt me. I just freaked out when he touched me. I hope I haven’t gotten him in trouble.”
“He was out of order; I could see him leering all over you. You’ve got every right to be upset. Don’t apologize, Quinn, he’s an asshole. It’s about time someone pulled him up on it. It’s been a long time coming.” She smiled shyly at me before she returned to petting Marley.
“So, you still up for showing me around? What I’ve seen so far has been beautiful.” It didn’t go unnoticed that she’d subtly changed the subject.
“Sure, I’ll just finish off here and we can head out. Do you mind giving me a hand?” I asked, flashing her a smile.
“Of course not. What do you want me to do?” I bent down and picked up Marley’s brush.
“Here, catch.” I tossed her the brush. “Can you finish off brushing Marley? I’ll go fetch someone to finish up what Colt started.” She nodded and fussed Marley on the nose before working the brush over him. Dressed in Savannah’s jeans and a checked shirt, she fit right in on the ranch. Her tight blue jeans hugged her ass and the red shirt was pulled tight across her chest. She looked incredible. It was a dangerous thing, but I was looking forward to spending a couple hours with her, showing her around the ranch. I just had to keep reminding myself she was too young for me. My head was up to speed with that, it was other parts of my body that needed to catch up.
Quinn
Brody was only gone a few minutes. When he returned, there was an older guy with him who carried on with what Colt had been forced to leave.
“Ready then?” he asked me as I finished off brushing Marley.