Cowgirl Up and Ride (Rough Riders #3)(62)

“No.”


“It bugs the hell outta me.”


AJ pinched her thumbs down the center of his right calf. “Why?”


“It’s like no one can stand the sound of silence. Always gotta have music playin’ or TV blarin’ or noises blastin’ out of some handheld game. Even Colt can’t work without some shit rattlin’ his brain. Hell. Maybe that’s his problem.”


Here was her opening. “So what happens between you two now?”


“It ain’t like I can fire him. Even though I wanted to today and yesterday when he didn’t show up and I only got half the damn field hayed.”


“That’s why you were late?”


“Yeah. Sorry. Lost track of time. Worked ’til damn near dark, then I hadta call Ky.


Shoulda called you too.” He moaned when she hit a sore tendon by his ankle. “I was a dickhead earlier at the bar. I’m sorry.”


His sincere apology surprised her. She honestly thought he’d be too stubborn to admit he was wrong. “You’re forgiven.”


“It ain’t gonna be that easy for Colt. Thing’s been goin’ to hell in a handbasket where he’s concerned. Yeah, he’s a thirty-one-year-old adult male and he oughta know better than to make such stupid decisions, but he don’t. He never learns. Makes me question his decisions about the ranch, if you wanna know the truth. We all excuse his behavior and laugh it off as him sowin’ his oats. Well, no more.


“Dad’s goin’ over there to talk to him first thing in the mornin’. Guess Ma and Aunt Kimi are gonna fumigate the place tomorrow afternoon. Colt ain’t gonna be workin’ with me or anyone else for the time bein’.”


“I’m sorry.”


“I’m sorry too. And I sure as hell didn’t need to end my long-ass day by getting into fisticuffs with my drunk brother.”


“Wrong. You’re ending your day with a massage.”


He smiled over his shoulder at her. “Much as I appreciate it, I’m gonna ask you don’t massage my feet. They’re sore, they smell and they’re—”


“Ticklish?”


“That too.”


“Huh. The tough cowboy does have a weak spot. I’ll have to remember that.” And exploit it at some point. She slapped his naked flank. “It’s time for you to turn over anyway. I need to get busy on your front.”


Chapter Seventeen


Cord wouldn’t survive those clever fingers.


He was in deep with this woman. Her feistiness in the bar turned him on. Her sweetness in the aftermath of the shit that’d gone down with Colt had turned him on even more. But her hands? All over him? Soothing and tempting and taking away all sorts of aches and pains externally and internally? He’d gone beyond turned on.


“AJ, I don’t think I can stand havin’ you touch me without wantin’ to touch you right back in the same way.”


“I wouldn’t mind. I told you that.”


Cord reached for her. He didn’t speak. He just traced the back of his hand over the soft skin on her face. “You’re so pretty. God, you’re so pretty.”


She blushed, making her even prettier, in his opinion. “You want me to finish the massage?”


“On one condition.”


“Which is?”