“Is this rapid heartbeat telling me you’re ready?”
Yes. For anything.
Then all fifteen hundred pounds of bull was practically vertical as he mounted the willing cow. After a half dozen powerful thrusts, the bull stilled briefly and dismounted.
The cow didn’t move at all. She just went back to grazing.
“Aren’t you glad that with human males it’s not all about speed? It’s about stamina. Not how many we service, but how well we service . . . just one?”
“Bran—”
“Ssh. Watch. The other one is gonna make him work for it.”
Sure enough, as soon as the bull closed in, the cow trotted away. Not across the length of the pen, but far enough that the bull had to come to her. The male snorted and bulled his way forward. The cow twitched her tail and moved ahead of him.
Bran gave her a blow by blow of the bovine foreplay, which shouldn’t have been sexy, but somehow was. His husky voice rasped terms like thrusting power and hard mount in her ear, and the simple words danced across her skin like fire.
Finally the bull had run the cow into a corner. She delicately lifted her tail and the grunting bull rose on his haunches. His big body shook as he thrust. But like the first go-round, this mating was short.
Bran’s hands traveled the length of her arms and followed the length of her torso down, to circle her hips. He angled his head and nuzzled the other side of her neck. “You ever been taken like that, Harper? Hard and fast and dirty?” Those thick fingers squeezed her hipbones. “When all you care about is feeling your male’s raw thrusting power?”
Harper whispered, “No.”
“I could show you. Drop your jeans and be inside you in thirty seconds.” He latched on to her earlobe with his teeth and tugged playfully. “But I wouldn’t go fast. I’d go slow. Achingly slow. I’d stay deep. I’d stay on you. In you. Prove to you I don’t think you’re a heifer.”
Her hands tightened on the corral. Her head spun with the feel of him, the scent of him, the hard strength of his body holding her up, turning her on even as he turned her inside out.
He trailed moist kisses to her nape. “Let me show you. All you have to do is open the gate.”
“Gate? What gate?”
A buzzing in her pocket brought Harper out of the dream with a gasp as she opened her eyes. Ceiling tiles wavered above her, not the endless blue sky of the pastoral scene.
Holy crap. She was at Bran’s house, having a wet dream about him.
How embarrassing.
How sexy and totally . . . hot.
But still, she couldn’t face him, knowing he would grill her about how she was feeling . . . and horny wasn’t an answer she was prepared to share. Her worst fear? That Bran would see the look on her face and figure out what she’d been dreaming about. Them. Getting ready to have sex against the corral fence like animals.
She dug her phone out of her front pocket and read the text message from Bailey. Shoot. She had to go. Now. She listened and heard the deep, rumbling tones of Bran talking on the phone. She dressed as quietly as possible and snuck out.
Chapter Five
“We’ve got time for coffee,” Bran said the next morning. He shifted his grocery bag and ambled inside.
Harper followed him into his trailer. Would he mention her leaving without a word yesterday?
Bran kept his boots on, so Harper followed suit. She ditched her winter wear and sat at the chrome and black 1950s dinette table in the kitchen. He tossed a box of powdered-sugar doughnuts on the table and handed her a napkin. “Help yourself.”
“Thanks. I can’t remember the last time I had a doughnut.”
“I’ll admit I don’t normally buy them either.” He offered a rueful smile. “Consider them an early apology.”
“For what?”
“For you havin’ to be here this morning and then havin’ to come back later tonight.” Bran bit into the sugary confection and white powder dusted the front of his flannel shirt. “We’re gonna have a bunch of calves drop tonight.”
Harper broke her doughnut into four pieces. “So do you always know when the cows will start dropping?”
“No. But after checking them last night, I fully expect we’ll see lots of activity. Will that be a problem as far as your sister?” He snatched another doughnut, as his first one was already gone. “Because you’ll need to be here for the next few nights.”
“She’ll be eighteen soon and she is very responsible. I know she doesn’t party, so me being gone won’t be an excuse for her to invite her friends over.”
“Totally opposite kid than I was my senior year. When I was seventeen my grandparents left me overnight to go to a stock show. We had a helluva party.”
“Did they find out?”
“Yep. Ain’t nothin’ a secret for long in Muddy Gap.”
“I suppose so.” Harper grabbed another doughnut before her conscience could recite fat and calorie content. “Did you get in trouble?”
“Extra chores for a month, which wasn’t a big deal since I knew Grandpa planned on making me do that shitty stuff anyway. So havin’ the party was definitely worth it.”
The coffeemaker beeped and Harper automatically stood.
“Sit. I’ll bring you some. Black, right?”
“Right.” She felt ridiculous for Bran waiting on her. As his employee, shouldn’t she be waiting on him?