Chapter Seven

Badlands was in full outlaw mode tonight and living up to its name. So far, Colton had witnessed two bar fights, and he and his fellow ranch hands from the Gracey were about to watch a catfight go down between two women.
Dude leaned in close, voice raised to be heard above the loud music, the thump of boots on the dance floor a few feet away and the constant clank of beer bottles. “My bet’s on the redhead! Feisty!”
Colton shifted his gaze to the redhead in booty shorts sinking her long talonlike fingernails in the dishwater-blonde hair of a woman clinging to the mechanical bull like she was never letting go.
She did let go. When she ripped the blonde off the back of the bull, the crowd erupted in cheers.
He couldn’t help but grin too. This was the Montana equivalent of a fight club and reminded him more than ever that he was not in the military anymore.
Overcome by excitement, Dude grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a shake. “Damn, look at her go!”
The blonde let out a shrill scream that had the big, bulky bouncer who planted himself at the door shouldering his way through the crowd.
Something ice-cold trickled down Colton’s spine, wetting his shirt. He twisted to find another redhead standing there, one he’d seen before, working behind the bar.
“Sorry!” She held up two beers, which she must have sloshed on him.
Not willing to raise his voice over the din, he shrugged. The woman pushed through the crowd until she reached the other redhead who had the blonde on the ground pinned to the floor with her fingers lashed in her hair.
The redhead carrying the beer said something to the bouncer, and he plucked the other woman off the blonde as if she weighed no more than a paper bag.
She kicked and clawed the air. Then the bouncer set her down on her feet hard. The woman glared at him. At that point, the other redhead approached her, and Colton saw the family resemblance.
The entertainment seemed to be over for the moment. Seeing this too, Dude tapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s grab another round.”
He ducked his head in a nod and wove through the crowd, who all went back to enjoying their Friday night.
When they reached the bar, it was three people deep. A couple of the other ranch hands who’d joined them crowded around too. They talked and joked, including him in their banter.
With a start, Colton realized that after a mere two weeks on the ranch, the guys had accepted him.
The feeling in his chest was unexpected, but one he recognized from past experiences in the military. This was a new kind of brotherhood. While he didn’t yet trust the guys he busted his ass on the ranch with like he did the men in his squadron, he didn’t dislike them either. Still, it left him unsettled and ready for another beer.
Feeling a stare on him, Colton glanced around and caught Zach Webb’s gaze. His gut instinct to mop the dusty floor with the man was stronger since that day Webb challenged him in the bunkhouse, but he resisted. The black eye he still sported had faded to a technicolor of green, yellow and brown.
Webb pretended that he hadn’t been glaring at him. Colton hadn’t quite worked out whether the guy hated him because he was the ranch rookie or for another reason.
He did have his suspicions, however. Too many times, he’d seen how Webb followed Meadow with his eyes as she pranced around the ranch in tight cutoffs and short sundresses.
If Colton had to guess, he’d say the ranch manager had a thing for the boss’s daughter. Hell, every man in that bunkhouse probably popped a woody whenever he thought about Meadow, and that notion forced a growl into Colton’s throat.
At that moment, a spot at the bar opened up, and Webb surged forward to snag his beer. When Colton bought a round for everyone, Webb just sent him a glare.
He returned it with a cock of his eyebrow and passed out the drinks. Dude managed to claim a table near the mechanical bull, and they all dragged out the shitty wooden chairs and sat with their drinks in hand.
One of the guys raised his beer. “We work hard. Tonight, we play hard.”
“Here, here!” The guys swigged, including Colton. The cool brew sliding down his throat felt good after spending half the day parched in the scorching sun. Didn’t help that he’d been burning up for a certain cowgirl for weeks.
Or that she didn’t seem to be able to keep her distance from him. While Meadow didn’t throw herself at him again like she had at the pond, he saw her lurking around. She seemed to be working with her horse a lot more than she had the first week he arrived. He didn’t know if that was for his benefit, but he’d like to think it was for the horse’s.
Across the table, Dude fixed his eyes on Colton. Lifting his bottle, he said, “To our country boy in the making. You may still suck a lot, but you catch on quick. Before long you’ll be a true cowboy, Nox.”
“To Nox!” Everyone toasted him except Webb, and Colton couldn’t care less about what that asshole did. If Webb decided to test him, he’d make good on his promise to give him another black eye to the match first one.
Around them, the crowd was in constant motion. Drunk guys staggered onto the dance floor, grabbed a lady and started stepping all over her toes. A woman at another table was crying uncontrollably while her friends attempted to console her. And a third fistfight erupted among some hotheads at the bar.
Always rubber-necking whenever something was going down, Dude craned his head to see what was happening, but the commotion died away quick, and he dropped back into his seat to enjoy his beer.
Colton gripped his own beer and contemplated the toast they’d just given him. He might still be catching up on his skill level, but he was a quick learner. There was a reason he got promotions in the military despite regularly clashing with authority.
His thoughts wandered to pulling the calf that day…and what took place after.
He tightened his jaw. After he walked away from Meadow, he had tasted her on his fingers. In fact, he sucked them clean and actually debated about how long he could go before washing her essence away.
After just one taste, he was hooked.
Which was why he had to be very careful to never let her catch him unawares. All week long, he’d been sticking close to the other ranch hands. He stuck close to the main ranch too. No way could he risk being alone with her again.
Forest never asked for him to come to the ranch to take his sister’s virginity. He was only here to lend the hand his friend said the ranch needed so badly. To save the ranch. Why did it need saving, though?
The place suffered for workers. Only six of them did the work of twice as many men. The Gracey was a big outfit and must be profitable for it to last three generations. So why weren’t more people signing on to work?
It was something Forest had mused over a time or two in Colton’s presence, but his friend never seemed to be able to puzzle out the reason either. It wasn’t as if his father was a tyrant. The guys seemed to like him well enough, and he kept out of their business.
Who could say? In the end, though, Colton came to fulfill a promise to Forest, and he damn well would see it through to the end, even if it meant a hell of a lot of torment when it came to Meadow.
A hand landed on his shoulder. Pulled from his thoughts, he looked up into the face of a familiar, pretty brunette. “Hey, cowboy. Nice shirt.”
He eyed Gabby. “Is this how country girls pick up men in bars?”
She tossed her head with a laugh. “You saw right through me. Care to buy me a drink?”
The guys at the table elbowed each other and nodded for him to go on and buy the lady a round.
He started to shift out of his seat, but at that moment, a waitress buzzed past. He caught her before she could rush away.
Slapping his card down on the table, he said, “We’ll take a round of whiskey for the boys and whatever the lady’s drinking.”
The guys let out a collective hoot, and the little lady ordered her drink.
After the waitress took his card and made her way to the bar, Gabby looked around for a place to sit, which only annoyed Colton. He wasn’t in the mood to flirt or entertain her. Only one woman was on his mind: Meadow.
Holding back a sigh of exasperation, he snagged a chair from a nearby table and offered it to his guest. After a half hour, and with a shot of whiskey and a few beers in them, the boys were really starting to party.
Colton sipped his whiskey slowly, aware that he’d likely be the only man fit to drive them all back to the ranch tonight.
Gabby batted her long lashes at him and tried her hardest to draw his attention, but his heart just wasn’t in it.
Then he looked toward the mechanical bull and slammed his drink on the table, coherent thought deserting him.
Meadow was there, throwing her long, bare leg over the back of the thing she was about to ride but shouldn’t be.
She should only be riding one thing in this bar.
Him.

The music pulsed in the air as Meadow hiked up to the entrance of Badlands. When she reached the door, the bouncer who usually only checked IDs stood there with his arms folded.
She offered him her very best smile, the one she’d been told her entire life was contagious. Only he didn’t smile back.
Sticking out a foot, she twitched her weight onto one leg and cocked her head at him. “Gonna let me in?”
“Nope.”
“Why not? I’ve got my ID this time.”
“We’re at full capacity.”
She tossed a glance over her shoulder at the packed parking lot. “You’re kidding.”
“Sorry.”
“You’re really not gonna let me in? I’m small.”
He dropped his gaze from her face to her long legs accentuated by short shorts. The ones she’d put on with the intention of going to the bunkhouse to drive Colton to the brink of his sanity. Only he wasn’t there.
So she’d come to the bar thinking that he might have come to the hangout with the other ranch hands. Sure enough, that junky old truck he’d gotten running and drove everywhere was parked at the end of a row of vehicles.
She really needed to persuade this big ape to let her in the door even if it broke fire code regulations.
“I can’t let you in.”
“Not even if I tell you that Livia and I are tight?” Livia was the owner of Badlands. She took over the place after her daddy up and keeled over from a heart attack. Since then, she’d been trying to expand into a distillery, but she confided to Meadow that her financial backing fell through last-minute.
He shook his head. “Not even name dropping can get you in.”
At that moment, a man appeared over the bouncer’s shoulder. Even in the dim lighting from the parking lot, Meadow could see the guy was a nasty shade of green.
“You better let him out quick—he’s about to puke his guts out.”
The bouncer whipped around, and the guy shot past him, took two steps into the parking lot and bent over, hurling.
Meadow took her chance and dodged past the bouncer, who just shook his head at her.
Once inside, she glanced around, scanning the hopping crowd for anyone she knew. Desiree mentioned she might be coming down tonight to blow off steam, but she didn’t see her friend at any of their usual tables.
The music got in her blood, and she moved through the crowd to the beat. As she passed by the bar, she caught sight of the bombshell redhead racking up drinks as fast as the patrons could toss them down their throats.
“Livia!” she called out.
The woman looked up and grinned at her. Then she jabbed a finger toward the back of the room.
Knowing that she was pointing out the rest of the crowd from the ranch, Meadow waved at her and continued on.
When she reached the edge of the dance floor, she searched for that Stetson Colton had bought a few days after he arrived in Montana. It stuck out for how crisp and new it looked compared to everyone else’s.
Purposely, she walked in front of him. If he saw her, he didn’t call out her name.
From the corner of her eye, she studied the rigid way he held himself. He was completely immune to her charms, her presence.
After being alone so long, with only her absent father as occasional company, she had hoped that Forest’s friend might become her friend too.
Still, he ignored her.
On a whim, she swung toward the mechanical bull. A guy was whipping on it far faster than he should have been, given his state of inebriation. As she watched, he tipped to the side and tumbled to the floor.
The crowd screamed and jeered. Meadow didn’t wait for him to scramble up before she was rushing forward to take her shot at the bull.
There was one way to get Colton’s attention if he was in this bar, and she was going to take it.
As she slipped onto the bull, the warm leather brushing her inner thighs sent a shiver through her. Remembering the incident with her short skirt last time, she’d tried to tone it down with shorts. She’d call her outfit “girl-next-door” with a sexy undertone. She’d even added a temporary tattoo to her upper thigh, a cute butterfly that just peeked out as she walked.
If she couldn’t lure in the man she really had her sights set on, she would damn well find herself a nice cowboy to take her for a spin on the dance floor.
She settled on the bull and looked up—headlong into Colton’s glare.
Next to him sat Meadow’s ex-best friend. The girl she used to think of like a sister—until she cheated on Forest with damn near every man in Eden.
Seeing Gabby’s hand on Colton’s arm, as if holding him back from coming to Meadow’s side, sent anger flaring through Meadow’s body. She wanted to claw Gabby’s stupid eyes out of her face.
Instead, she called out, “Who’s going to put a dollar in this thing so I can ride?”
Three guys hurried forward, dollar bills already in hand. One got there before the others and fed the bill into the machine that would be stuffed full by the end of the night.
Then Meadow gripped the pommel and held on for the ride.
She was hardly aware of actually riding the bull—she was only concerned with whether or not Colton was watching and if he had that same haze of lust on his rugged features that he wore down at the pond.
A few shrill whistles pierced the air. The music from the jukebox throbbed. Meadow let her body move with the jerking movements that increased in speed the longer she clung to it. Her body rolled. Her head fell back, and her breasts pushed outward.
As the speed reached a level she knew she’d never beat, she pulled a maneuver she’d done a time or two while helping Livia clean up after hours. She threw her leg over the side and leaped off, landing square on her boots.
The crowd went wild for her performance, but she only cared about what one person thought.
When she whipped around to look at Colton, she spotted his broad shoulders and that crisp new hat moving toward the bar—and his hand planted on Gabby’s back.
Anger sparked in Meadow. Well, she’d show him that he couldn’t just kiss her, give her the best orgasm she’d ever had in her life, and then act as if nothing happened between them.
As if he hadn’t felt something too.
But as she slowly picked her way to the bar, stopped by men offering to buy her drinks, her confidence started to waver. Was he dating Gabby? This was the second time Meadow had seen them together. By the looks of it the woman had her hooks in him.
And he was buying her a drink. She couldn’t help but note how he accepted a Coke rather than anything alcoholic. Another shiver ran through her at his display of control. Even when it didn’t serve her needs back at the pond, Colton Nox was the poster boy for control.
Which made him even hotter.
She reached the bar and ordered tequila, making sure to raise her voice so Colton could hear.
She didn’t know what made her want to taunt the man so much or push him so far, but she didn’t have anything else to lose. She could die tomorrow—Forest had. And then she would die without ever feeling the full touch of a man or one moving inside her.
Gripping the drink, she brought it to her lips and knocked it back in one hasty swallow. She wasn’t going to die a virgin.
The bartender grinned at her and lifted the bottle to ask if she wanted another. She pushed the glass toward him, and he refilled it.
After her two shots, she talked to the bartender for a while between him pouring drinks for other people. Then her favorite song came on and she called out to him, “I’ll talk to you after I dance!”
Whirling away, feeling all the alcohol she drank go straight between her legs, she twitched her way to the dance floor and let loose. A pair of strong hands landed on her hips, and she looked over her shoulder to see a guy she didn’t know.
“You’re the most beautiful woman in here!” he practically yelled, to be heard over the music.
She grinned and looped her arms around his neck, rubbing against him and wishing like crazy it was Colton. But this guy was cute and smelled good. Not as good as Colton, but enough that if she closed her eyes, she could imagine it was Colton’s hands exploring her body.
After a few dances and another drink, the man she’d danced and flirted with offered to drive her home.
She looked around but didn’t see Colton anywhere.
What did she have to lose now?
He held out a hand to her. “What do you say?”
She smiled at him. “I’d love a ride tonight.”
She had little memory of getting out of Badlands since she was searching the place for Colton and that little slut who’d been draped over him all night. When Meadow’s escort led her outside, she let him take her hand and pull her toward a truck.
He threw her a big smile, and she smiled back. She wanted this. She did.
Colton’s face swam in front of her mind’s eye. Maybe if she pretended it was him, she could go through with it.
The guy—she realized she didn’t even know his name and he was about to be her first—pushed her up against the side of the truck and kissed her.
Notes of cheap beer and whiskey flooded her head. He did not taste like Colton.
He did not kiss like Colton.
He trapped her to the steel and plundered her lips while groping her breast. The hard, fumbling touch was nothing at all like Colton’s hands on her. And he didn’t make her feel the way Colton made her feel at the pond.
She freed her hand and pushed against his chest. He didn’t break the kiss and squeezed her breast a little too hard. Her cry came out muffled under his mouth.
When he ran his other hand down her side and plunged it between her legs, gripping her pussy hard enough to cause pain, she began to twist and struggle.
“Stop!” This was too much like that high school party. He might as well be Landon.
Only last time Forest had saved her. Now there was no Forest.
A roar echoed through the parking lot. The stomp of feet on pavement made her adrenaline churn faster through her body.
Suddenly, the guy was ripped off her. Meadow started to slide down the side of the truck. The meaty noise of Colton’s fists pummeling the guy he just ripped off her filled the air.
Meadow twisted her face away from the sight. When tough fingers cupped her jaw and turned her head, she met Colton’s furious glare.
“You must want another spanking.”