Steal Her Heart (Kaid Ranch Shifters #1)(23)

Thirty-eight-one-thousand, thirty-nine-one-thousand…

He hit the next gear and gunned it down the fence line. She got thrown to the side so dug her heals in again, squealing as she struggled to stay on.

Fifty-eight…fifty-nine…

Bryson slowed, and as he came to a stop, Maris whooped loudly and fell back on the destroyed mattress. Spread out like a mud-covered starfish, she couldn’t stop giggling. She stared up at the sky, heaving breath and grinning so big her face hurt.

And everything was perfect.

Click.

When she looked at Bryson, he had a soft smile behind that thick beard of his. The kind that said, “Thata girl.”

“Are you attracted to me like this?” she asked, flapping her arms and legs to make a mud angel on the mattress.

“Honest answer?”

“Always honest answer,” she said, propping up on her elbows.

“I like you more like this than when your dress was clean.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “I like that you can get dirty. We don’t get into ranching to stay clean. And…” His smile faded, and something unreadable sparked in his eyes. Softer, he said, “Well, I haven’t seen you smile like that before.”

Butterflies.

Butterflies.

So many butterflies.

Both of them were just existing at this moment, eyes locked on each other, flames igniting between them as her heart pounded on and on. His eyes were so light. Too light. He was different.

He was the one who broke the spell. “I need to get on the chores.” He gave his attention to the bawling cattle who were gathering near the fence.

“What are you?” she asked suddenly. It was the question that had been on her lips since yesterday.

“Don’t know what you mean.” She was getting his profile now. High cheekbones, eyes averted, bearded jawline.

“I watched you get shot yesterday, and you aren’t limping. I watched you come in last night all clawed up, but you weren’t bleeding through your shirt. And your eyes…”

“Eyes are fine. I told you I heal fast.”

“When you said hibernation, something clicked. It was a quiet thing. A slow click. That word has sat right at the edge of my thoughts, but lookin’ up at you right now, even turned away, I can see your eyes have changed colors. Just like they did those first few seconds I met you at the sale barn.”

“You’re just imagining things.” He backed up a few steps and gave her his back, leaned on a fence post and brushed the nose of Marshmallow Face, who had wondered close to the fence.

“You gonna tell me I’m crazy?” She sat up all the way and wiped a smear of mud from her cheek. “That’s what liars do. That’s what Dallas did. Any time I asked questions, he made me feel like I was overreacting. Like I was imagining things. You gonna do that, too?”

“I guess I am.” She could see the shut-down when he turned to her. “I just met you. I don’t owe you my whole story, same as you don’t owe me yours.” He tipped an imaginary hat and made his way back toward the bonfire.

“You can hear lies, right?”

He didn’t answer.

She stood and clenched her fists at her sides. She told him, “You can trust me.”

He paused and half-turned back to her. “You think you’re ready Maris, but you ain’t.” Bryson shook his head hard and walked away.

And that was answer enough.

As she watched his back, watched his strong stride, no limp, her memories of last night shifted.

That wolf had been so close to getting her. It had only been a matter of seconds before she’d lost her grip on that rifle before her arms gave out, and right when she’d thought she was done for, a grizzly bear—a grizzly bear—had come out of nowhere and ripped that wolf limb from limb. He’d followed her to the house… No, he’d defended her while she’d run to the house. The open shirt when he’d come in later. The claw marks. He hadn’t fired off a single shot because he couldn’t. He wasn’t a man. He was something…more. The sounds in his throat. His eyes. She didn’t know what his kind was called, but he wasn’t like her.

And he was running. He’d told her he wasn’t a runner, but she now watched him disappear around the house just to avoid her getting too close to his secrets, and her heart filled with such sadness. Whatever he was, it must’ve been a very lonely thing.

She. Understood. Loneliness.

But she also couldn’t make a man be honest with her. Maris had been through that before and got burned by it. All she could do was ease back, give him space, and let him see her value or not. Let him trust her or not. Let him run…or not.

You didn’t cage a man like Bryson Locke. He was too wild. You fed a man like him the goodness of a heart and hoped he liked the taste enough to stick around and heal.

And maybe he was right. Maybe she wasn’t ready to give that to an uncertain man.

The goodness of a heart was a very big gift to give.





Chapter Eleven


The wolves didn’t show up at the ranch the next day. Or the next. Or the next.

Maybe they were gone for good. She hoped. Also gone was Bryson. Not physically—he still showed up at nights to watch the herd, and he had half her chores done by the time the first rays of sunlight were peeking over the horizon in the mornings. But emotionally? That man was now a ghost.