Caught by the Cowboy Read online

  They lapsed into silence, Olivia swiping through pages on her phone in a desperate attempt to make it look like she was busy while Grant just stared out the window. He seemed comfortable in silence, without distraction. She was far from it and had never been very good without anything to do. “You know, as annoying as the situation is I love living out in the middle of nowhere at times like this.”

  Grant was still looking out the window at the darkening town and she wasn’t even sure if he was talking to her, but she tossed her phone down onto the bed beside her all the same. Despite herself, she couldn’t help but find him handsome. Two weeks had dulled the attraction somewhat, with a lot of conscious effort on her part, but his bulky form made the chair he was sitting in look like it was made for children. She imagined she would look tiny if she were to go over and sit on his lap. “In big cities, people keep hurrying through storms like this. They have to. They’ve got jobs and deadlines and appointments, and the cities are so well-maintained that stuff like this doesn’t happen. You’re not going to have the only road home flooded if you live in the middle of New York City. Here, the world stops. Businesses shut down early for the day. People go home to their families. We all get a little extra time to slow down. Have you ever gotten to slow down in the city?”

  “No,” she didn’t even need to think about her answer. “People expect you to go out no matter the circumstances.”

  “That’s why I never want to live in a town bigger than Pelmsemet.”

  “Did you grow up here too?”

  He nodded, finally looking away from the window and over at her. All the tension that usually stretched tight between them didn’t seem to exist, and she let herself imagine. What it would be like to go over there and sit on his lap, to kiss him. How it would feel to have someone love her for who she was, and not who her parents were. “My parents lived here their whole lives, on the ranch. So did I. I’ve considered leaving before, but I can’t. I love the ranch too much to leave.”

  Olivia could understand that. It had been hard for her to leave the city she’d grown up in, even though there were parts of New York City that she despised. But now… “The ranch is so serene. Nothing like New York at all. I don’t want to go back after I’m done volunteering here,” she didn’t mean to say it, but the words just tumbled out of her mouth.

  “You can stay,” his response was quick enough that she wondered if he’d been thinking about it ahead of this conversation. “I mean if you want to. I’m not sure how much pay I can offer you, but we could work something out. You’re a hard worker.”

  “You weren’t expecting me to be when I first got here, were you?”

  A sheepish expression took over his features when she asked, and he shrugged. “We’ve had volunteers from big cities before. They usually have no idea what they’re getting into, just hoping to have a free place to stay for a couple of months.”

  “I’ll admit that I’m not surprised,” she laughed a bit, thinking about Maeve. “I think one of my friends was talking about doing something like this for that exact reason. Until I told her that she would actually have to work on the farm.”

  “See? You can’t entirely blame me,” he laughed and they both jumped when the sudden rumble of thunder filled the small hotel room. “It’s getting worse out there than I thought. I hope we can get back to the ranch tomorrow.”

  They were both watching out the window when lightning flashed in the distance, fast enough that she could almost say it hadn’t happened at all. Thunder followed seconds after and they could hear the rain pounding down against the building, even though they weren’t on the top floor. It was hitting them from all sides as the sky darkened, bringing them further into the evening. “Somehow I doubt that.”

  This time when they fell into silence, it wasn’t awkward but instead comfortable. Her phone stayed face down on the bed, silent and out of the way as she alternated between looking out the window and looking at Grant. Occasionally he would glance over in her direction before turning quickly back to stare at the storm, almost as if he were worried about being caught staring. It was a boost of confidence for her and she had almost worked up the courage to ask him something suggestive when there was another crack of thunder and they were plunged into darkness. “That’s just perfect,” Grant stood from his chair, feeling toward the bed.

  She could only tell because she could hear the faint rustle of the bedspread and shuffle of footsteps beneath the ever-present sound of the storm. Her eyes had been so used to the light that she couldn’t see anything that was going on quite yet. A flash of lightning momentarily lit up the room and Olivia slid towards the edge of the bed, feeling around for where she’d just seen Grant. Except, instead of reaching out to grab his hand as she’d meant to, her fingers came into contact with the material of his jeans. It was only when he let out a slight groan and something twitched that she realized exactly where her hand had landed.

  Jaw dropping, she wasn’t sure whether to babble out an apology or keep her hand exactly where it was. Did he like this? Was he hoping that she would keep touching him? They stood suspended in time for who knew how long until a knock sounded on the door to their room and she pulled her hand back against her chest in a flurry of embarrassment. “I’ve brought some flashlights and a few more extra blankets for you two,” it was the voice of the woman from the front desk. “It’s going to get pretty cold in here without power. I’ll leave them just outside the door.”

  “Thank you,” Grant’s voice sounded huskier than usual, but she was sure she was just imagining it. Pretending something was there when it wasn’t. There was no possible way that Grant was interested in someone like her, a naive young girl who came from a big city and didn’t know the first thing about life on a ranch.

  Instead of waiting for him to say something that would crush her, she got up from her spot on the bed and felt her way to the door, her eyes nearly adjusted to the darkness by now. Pulling open the door she offered a smile to the woman, who was walking away and gathered the blankets and flashlights up into her arms. When she turned back around to face the room, Grant was sitting down in the armchair by the window and gazing out at the storm again. As if nothing had happened at all.

  Chapter 5

  Grant

  With the room quickly growing colder around them, Grant had started to set up a bed on the floor when Olivia had silently stopped him and started placing all the blankets on the bed instead. Even when he’d tried to tell her that he was fine on the floor, she’d insisted. Much to his dismay. He hadn’t been sure if he could make it through a night sleeping in the same bed as her without touching her, especially not after she’d accidentally groped him in the dark.

  He’d been right.

  As soon as they’d climbed into bed together, a comfortable foot and a half apart on the mattress, Olivia had started shivering. The blankets were piled high on the bed on top of them, but their outer clothes were slightly damp from the rain, leaving them in only tank tops and underwear. Not the warmest attire. Initially he’d let her shiver and they’d both fallen asleep, but he’d woken up in the middle of the night to find her still shivering from the cold, goosebumps raised on her arms. He’d pulled her back tight against his chest, waking her up for a second in the process. She’d only mumbled something unintelligible before falling back to sleep, but he’d been up for a while.

  The warmth of her against him had woken him up in places that really shouldn’t be awake, and he got lost over and over again in the sweet smell of her hair. Little strands of red tickled his chin and chest, her body moving a lot in her sleep. Grant was fairly certain the only reason he’d fallen back asleep at all was pure, unadulterated exhaustion.

  But that was how they ended up wound together in the faint light of the cloudy morning, rain still pounding down against the building. “Good morning,” Olivia looked back over her shoulder when she woke up, yawning. “I wonder if we have power again?”

  “Doubt it,” the wind was whis
tling through the trees, and the whole town had probably been taken out by the storm. They didn’t have enough maintenance workers in these parts to fix an outage like that overnight. Especially not when the storm was still raging.

  As if she didn’t even realize what she was doing, she snuggled back against him and he shifted a bit, trying to hide his growing erection. It was a monumental task, considering his boxers didn’t constrain him much at all. “What are we going to do today if we can’t get back to the ranch?”

  His fingers danced against the bare skin of her hip, every movement he made making him more aware of how little clothing they were both wearing. He was playing a dangerous game touching her at all, but he was starting to wonder if it was even worth it to hold back his desires. What was the worst that could happen? She would run straight back to New York City and he would get over it quickly, because it wasn’t like he was in love with the woman. And she was showing more and more signs that maybe she was just as interested in him as he was in her. “We won’t be able to get back to the ranch today,” he didn’t know if it was the truth, but if the storm kept up he wasn’t even going to check. The prospect of another evening in this hotel room with Olivia was too tempting to pass up. “I’ll let Beth know that we’ll need the room for another night once we go downstairs.”

  If she was surprised by his certainty, she didn’t show it. “But what are we going to do today? We can’t just sit in this hotel room for the whole day. Especially when there’s no power. It’s not like we brought any books to read or games to play.”

  Grant didn’t see why they couldn’t just sit in the hotel room for the whole day. He could think of a few things that could keep them occupied. His fingers trailed a little bit further down her side, grazing her ass, but he didn’t voice any of those thoughts out loud. By the end of the day, he was willing to bet he’d have convinced himself to make a move on her. It didn’t matter if she was nineteen. That was legal. If she was interested, nothing was stopping them. Hell, he’d almost talked himself into it already. How long had it been since he’d gotten laid, again? “Beth will have something downstairs in the lounge. I’m willing to bet that some of those wedding guests are already down there playing poker.”

  A growling sound from his stomach interrupted him, and Olivia pulled away to laugh. He mourned the loss of her body pressed against his, but he took note of how her nipples peaked against the thin tank top she was wearing, her cheeks flushed in what he hoped was arousal. “Is there going to be food down there too? It sounds like you need it.”

  “As if you’re not starving too,” it was a weak defense, but it made her grin as she hopped off the bed and grabbed her clothes from where they were sitting on the armchair.

  “Let’s go downstairs then.”

  ***

  He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her.

  He’d been right about the wedding guests already being in the lounge. There was a table filled with older gentlemen and to Olivia’s surprise they had in fact been playing poker. No actual money on the line to keep it “friendly between family members” as the father of the bride-to-be had explained. They’d invited both of them to join the game, but Grant had been content to sit back and watch as George, the uncle of the groom-to-be, showed Olivia how to play. Even though she’d never played before, she picked it up faster then he’d ever seen anyone take to it. And her poker face, once she knew what all the hands meant, was one of the best.

  On a love-seat slightly off to her right, he’d picked up a book but hadn’t been able to make it through more than three pages with how much he was looking at her. The location was just right for him to see the gorgeous blanket of her red hair and her occasional breathtaking grins at the same time. “Isn’t she a bit young for you?” the voice came from behind him and he jumped.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, glaring over his shoulder at Beth as he adjusted on the seat to face her.

  “You haven’t stopped staring at her for half an hour. Everyone in this room who has eyes knows what I’m talking about. The book isn’t fooling anyone, except maybe her.”

  This time when he looked over at the poker table, he noticed one of the men look over and give him a wink. His cheeks darkened, luckily hidden for the most part behind his stubble. As he looked, Olivia reached out and took another stack of poker chips to her little corner of the table, winning yet another round. “I doubt anything is going to happen,” there was nothing to do but admit that she was right, at this point.

  Even though he’d been trying to talk himself up to making a move on her, he still had an inkling of doubt in the back of his mind. Doubt that she would respond positively to his advances. Doubt that it would go anywhere at all. If anything, it would only be sex. He was trying to come to terms with the fact that he would have to let her go again, if he ever got her. The way she beamed whenever she won a round of poker wasn’t helping him very much on that front. “She’s looking at you like she wants to eat you for dessert,” they weren’t words that he’d ever expected to hear coming from Beth. “Does she know how old you are?”

  “Beth, do you really think anyone could ever mistake me for close to Olivia’s age?” his tone was dry. “She’s nineteen and yes, she knows how old I am. If there’s any interest, it’s despite the fact that I’m fourteen years older than her.”

  He was still going back and forth on whether there was any interest on her part. One minute he was certain she’d shot him a suggestive look, the next he had convinced himself that it had been meant to be something else. “All I’m saying is that you’ve got to be careful with young city girls like her. Haven’t you said recently that you want to settle down and have a family? That’s probably not what she wants.”

  Annoyance rearing its head, he snapped at her. “You know as well as anyone that I know to be careful with city girls. I think I’ve received enough advice on it, thanks.”

  Snapping the book on his lap closed, he stood from the love-seat and strode over to the bookshelf, placing the book back in it’s place. He was trying to regulate his breathing and get his heart rate down when he felt a hand gently touch his shoulder. “Grant, are you alright? You didn’t seem all too happy with Beth.” It was Olivia, her soft tone soothing down his spine and calming his pounding heart.

  “I’m fine. She just brought up something from the past that I didn’t really want to talk about.”

  When he turned around to face her he was able to put a half-smile on his face. From the way she was looking at him it was obvious that she wanted to ask more about it, but politeness won out over curiosity. “We can go back up to the room, if you want.”

  “No, no. I’m going to head up for a little bit, but you can keep playing down here. It looks like you’re winning.”

  “Only a little bit. They taught me all their tips and tricks, but weren’t expecting me to use them against them,” she looked a little sheepish, as if she was guilty for winning purely because the older men let their guard down. “You’ll come back down in time for lunch, right?”

  “Yeah. I’ll probably only be up there for half an hour or so. I could use a nap, considering my old age and everything.”

  She giggled at that, giving him a little wave as she went back over to her place at the poker table. His gaze followed the sway of her supple ass as she walked away, and he could feel his cock plumping up in his tight jeans. It hadn’t been the plan, but he could use a bit of release once he was up in their hotel room. Maybe then he would be able to think straight and decide whether or not it was a good idea to make a move on her. Beth had disappeared from the lounge, and he was thankful that he didn’t see her at the front desk either.

  Once in the room he locked the door and placed the do not disturb sign on the outside, not that he was expecting housekeeping to come up anyways. The housekeeper Beth employed hadn’t been able to make it in today because of a downed tree on the way, and it’s not like she would’ve been able to do much considering the power
outage. Pulling back the mound of blankets from the bed, he draped them down onto the floor. Then he laid down on the sheets and propped himself up against the pillows, unzipping the fly of his jeans.

  It didn’t take long for him to be close to orgasm, images of Olivia darting through his mind behind the backdrop of his eyelids. “Fuck,” he groaned out, moving his hand faster down his length as he imagined that it was Olivia stroking him instead, imagined that she was naked in front of him, tits bouncing.

  So engrossed in what he was doing, he didn’t realize that the door was opening until it was too late.

  Chapter 6

  Olivia

  Even with it being as obvious as it was, it took Olivia a minute to make sense of the sight in front of her. Grant, on the bed they’d shared last night, with his calloused hand wrapped around his cock, which was standing tall and proud. He looked shocked to see her, so shocked that he didn’t try to cover himself up. He just stared at her.

  She stared back. A million thoughts raced through her mind. They’d been so intimate last night, so close. Could it be possible that he was thinking of her? She’d noticed his erection when they’d woken up but had tried not to get her hopes up about it. After all, morning wood was common. But he’d been touching her hip so softly like he was hinting that he wanted more. “Do you want some help with that?” the words tumbled out before she’d fully decided that she wanted to say them, but she couldn’t take them back.

  What was the worst that could happen? He said no and she ran back to New York City with her tail between her legs, embarrassed. She could find a different farm to do some volunteer work on if she wanted to convince her parents to help her with her schooling. One with a less attractive owner. Yeah, that was what she would do. Her foot shifted back so she could make a run for it, but Grant’s voice stopped her in her tracks. “You might want to close the door if you’re planning on following through on that offer.”