She’s talking a million miles a minute about electric cars, bears, and wolves.
I wonder for a second if she’s got some other issue, but I can see they’re stuck.
She doesn’t introduce herself or even hints they’re on their way to the ranch, so I wonder if this is who I’m looking for after all.
My gut says yes.
For this reason her passenger interests me more though, and for a more pressing reason.
The blond shape I’m trying to keep sight of as this woman keeps shifting herself and blocking my view.
That feeling I’ve been having?
I think I’ve just found the source of the signal.
Without meaning to be rude, I brush past the woman needing to see who’s in the passenger seat now.
My curiosity takes a back seat to something else. This feeling that I’ve had for a while now.
But resting my hand on the roof of the car and leaning down to look inside, I suddenly have a million corny questions instead of a single useful answer.
The first thing that springs to mind is how can someone be so fucking beautiful?
The second is where has she been my whole life?
It clicks that she’s the driver’s daughter. And my next impulse is to groan aloud once I realize this is her daughter, and they are probably on their way to the ranch. She and her mom will be joined at the hip all weekend.
The thought should worry me, but it doesn’t.
The idea of hitting on a guest, any guest is completely taboo. But it doesn’t stop me from thinking about it for the first and only time.
Not just hitting on her. Actually filling her with my seed.
Making her mine. Nobody else’s.
I’ve never felt such a powerful and instant attraction to anything or anyone.
I can tell she’s been looking at me as hard as I’ve been trying to see her.
Her head jolts up when she makes a little sound of surprise, making her blond ponytail swish as her mouth opens, speechless.
Her crystal-clear blue eyes flashing wide behind her large oval framed glasses.
Her ample chest heaving as she pants for breath doesn’t strike me as odd at all.
My heart is thrashing against my ribs and my quickening pulse is spreading to another part of me that suddenly likes what I’m seeing.
It’s like seeing her has made everything light up brighter.
Feels like I’m seeing color and hearing sound for the first time.
So, before her eyes even finish locking onto mine, I know that she’s mine.
She belongs to me now.
I don’t know how.
But I do know why.
And I guess there are plenty of people who would want to hang me from the nearest tree for even thinking about a guest in that way…but I just know.
And this is different.
I know right now, this very second, I’d give up everything if it could mean just one night with her.
But I already know that one night could never be enough.
It has to be every night and forever. Just her and me.
It’s that kind of feeling, and until today I would’ve laughed at anyone who said you could feel that way as soon as you meet the one.
But here she is, and if they’re who I think they are, we’ve got at least one weekend to get to know each other a little better.
Even though my instinct is to simply put her over my shoulder and carry her off into the woods, I’m not that much of a caveman.
And if she’s here for the weekend with her mom, I’d better go easy.
For now, at least.
“I’m Mack,” I hear a deep, smoky voice saying. Glad when I realize it’s me speaking.
Sounding like I have the situation in hand already.
“Tina,” she practically wheezes, wincing and flushing a deep red.
Almost as if she regrets saying her own name.
But I’ve never heard a sweeter sound.
And at least now I have a name for this feeling.
Tina.
“Uhhh…excuse me?” her mom’s voice says sharply from behind.
Feeling a lot like something trying to burst in on this flood of good feelings I’m having.
Instantly making me protective of what I know is mine now.
Better go easy. Remember? Pull your shit together, Mack, and for fuck’s sake, cover your damned hard on….
I lift myself up from the little car, holding the door open to cover myself.
My own raging arousal is painfully obvious to me once I stand up straight.
Jesus, what this girl does to me…and I’ve only just met her.
“I’m Rose,” she says in a softer tone, giving a little apologetic expression. “And this is my daughter, Tina. We’re on our way to…,” she says, but feeling my smile return, I finish for her.
“Silver Fox Ranch. You’re Rose Tanner. Won the weekend retreat for two,” I announce knowingly. Tina’s mom finally joining the dots as she spots my shirt and the logo on my truck.
“Yes! Oh, my goodness, how stupid of me,” Rose cries. “You work there?” she asks, shaking her head like someone who can’t believe they’ve missed the obvious.