Dusty
THE LITTLE FILLY THE universe just dropped into my world is the sexiest thing I ever laid eyes on. I wait until she’s already in the house when I turn to her driver.
“Uncle Chuck, what have you done?” Besides renting a limousine.
“You said you needed more bookings and to get more bookings, you needed more of those internet things.”
“Reviews?”
“Yeah.”
“That girl did not come prepared to spend a vacation at a dude ranch. She’s got city girl written all over her.”
“We might have spruced up the place in the ad.”
He’s my uncle. I love him. Right now, I’d like to kill him. “You want to get my license taken away for false advertising?”
“It’s not like she paid money for something she isn’t going to get. It’s a free trip. All-expenses paid. All she had to do was promise to leave a review.”
“And you think she’s going to leave a good review after she finds out she’s basically been kidnapped and dumped here when she was expecting something else?”
“That’s where you come in. You just need to show her a good time. Make sure she falls in love with Pair-a-Dice. She’s a city girl—nobody needs this place more than those city people.
“City people live in the city for a reason, old man. They like it.”
Uncle Chuck shrugs. “They don’t know any better.”
It’s impossible to stay mad at my uncle for long. He’s got nothing but the best intentions, even if the meddling he and Aunt Charlotte do can get tiresome.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. I don’t need this complication right now. It’s hard enough renovating this place for a future tourist attraction while keeping the un-tourist parts working. “What was she expecting? What did you offer in the ad?”
“It wasn’t an ad. It was a contest.”
I’m not even going to go into detail with him about all the laws he probably broke with his contest or lottery or raffle. I’m sure she wasn’t a random winner, either. They probably handpicked her out of whatever entries they got. Likely they have ulterior motives. They’ve been too quiet about my bachelor status lately, and it should have sent up a bunch of red flags. I was just so relieved that they’d seemed to let it go and the matchmaking attempts had slowed down. I should have known better. “What does she think she won?”
“A week at Pair-a-Dice Ranch.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“We spelled it Paradise. You know...i-s-e.”
The muscles in my jaw constrict into a tight band. “And what does Paradise have to offer a city girl like her?”
He throws his chauffeur hat into to the limo, exposing his bald head. “Relaxation. Nature walks. Horseback riding...”
All things we currently have. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Gourmet meals. Spa. Massages.”
Things we don’t have but are in the plan for someday.
“Maybe a pool.”
“A pool?” Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. A pool. That’s not even in the five-year plan.
“You can just tell her it’s out of commission. The river is more refreshing anyway. And Charlotte’s cooking is better than gourmet, you know that.”
As if a woman ready for an infinity pool would rather dunk herself in a river. “And the massages? What’s your plan there?”
“We borrowed a table from that place in town for the week.”
“Did you happen to borrow a massage therapist to go with it?”
He looks sheepish, but I ain’t fooled. My family has given me plenty of grief over getting my massage therapy license while in college. At the time, I signed up because the instructor was hot. Turns out I liked it well enough to stick with it to get a certificate while I was working on my business degree. It’s a good skill to have, but I took a lot of good-natured teasing over the years.
Until now of course. When they want me to grope the California hothouse flower.
“That girl in there has every right to go to the police with this scam. What you and Charlotte pulled could get us into a lot of trouble.”
“We just wanted to help you. She’s a nice girl. She won’t get mad.”
“Get mad? Uncle Chuck, you brought her here under false pretenses. She probably took time off work to come. She’s going to be spitting mad and I can’t blame her.”
“Then show her what’s great about Pair-a-Dice. She’ll have a wonderful time and then you’ll get the review you want so much.”
Like one review is going to change everything. My aunt and uncle really don’t understand the internet at all. My only hope is that one more bad review won’t sink me. The previous owners really ran the place into the ground. I have grand plans for this ranch, but I need to keep an income coming in to fund the improvements. Right now, my clientele includes hikers, fishermen, and a few horseback riding enthusiasts.
Not one of them is looking for four-star accommodations. Some of them don’t even want a working shower.
“Get her to stay, son. That’s the hard part. Once she’s here, she’ll love it.”
I’m trying to stay patient. Really I am. My aunt and uncle helped my father raise me after my mom died. And when he died a few years back, no one was more surprised than me that I had an inheritance. Not a big one, but big enough to buy my own land. My family’s been very supportive of my vision and dug right in on day one to help me. But I still get frustrated from time to time. “The ends don’t justify the means.”
“Don’t pull out your fancy college words now.”
I roll my eyes at him. “You know very well what that means, and I didn’t learn that in college. Stop trying to distract me from the real issue here.”
The front door opens, and my aunt comes out holding a tray of sweet tea, Ms. Ruby Grant shyly following.
That girl does something to me. I don’t know how to explain it. I’ve never been hit so hard with want just from seeing a woman. She up and grassed me like a greenhorn. She’s not movie star pretty, which is not something I like anyway. No, she’s got an interesting face and a short, curvy body. I want to squeeze those sweet curves. Damn. If I don’t change my line of thinking, everyone is going to see the evidence of it in my pants.
Real class act, Dusty.
I don’t want to scare the girl. And I’ve already got six feet and four inches going against me. I know I’m a big man. Intimidating to some. Especially women. I’d like to say I’m a gentle giant, but there’s been a time or two when I’ve had to use what God me gave to protect what’s mine or fend off a bully or two from someone less able to defend themselves. I don’t have any problems using my fists or my strength to set things right when necessary, but it’s never my first choice.
Lord knows my size is imposing, though.
We join the ladies on the porch. Ruby is like a little nervous rabbit, and I feel like a giant wolf taking the chair next to her at the tiny table. Ready to eat her whole maybe. My heart ratchets up. What is wrong with me? Sure, I’ve been too busy for dating for a bit, but my reaction to this young woman is off the charts for me.
We all drink our tea in awkward silence. Shit. I bet the city boys she is used to could fill the silence much better. But what can I say? Would you care to tour our spa facilities? The ones we don’t have?
“So, Ms. Grant,” Uncle Chuck begins.
“Please call me Ruby,” she answers. “All of you.” She sends a sly sideways glance in my direction, and her cheeks pinken.
Fuck me, but I love that look on her. Sweet and shy, yet I know underneath she’s got sass. I’m damn near punched in the gut with desire for this woman and we’ve hardly spoken.
Uncle Chuck begins again, “Ruby, it seems the contest you entered began prematurely. As you can see, Pair-a-Dice isn’t quite ready for all the things they plan to offer.”
She sends my uncle a bland look. “Also, it wasn’t proofread very well. Pair-a-Dice...Paradise.”
I cough.
“Dusty can give you a tour of things. There’s river rafting, horseback riding, and miles of trails for hiking.”
Ruby does not look convinced that this is her ideal vacation. I don’t blame her. But something in me is almost desperate to find a way to make her stay. Which means I should let this lie. We’d both be better off if she went on home and pretended none of this happened. I’m in no position to court her—I have to get this ranch on its feet. And she doesn’t seem the quick tumble type.
But hell.
“What have you got to lose, Ruby? If you don’t want to stay, Chuck here will drive you back to the airport.”
She gets this pensive look on her face, and I add one more emotion to my catalog of her expressions. I don’t know what kind of pretty little witch she is, but I have never felt like this before.
Ruby takes a long sip of tea. “All right. Show me around.”
My jeans tighten as my dick searches for hidden meaning in her words. I’d love to show her lots of things. I’m more interested in what she might show me, though.
If things were different, of course.
Pair-a-Dice has seen better days, I suppose. But no one can argue that God didn’t pay special attention to my land. I take Ruby to the places that I haven’t had to do much to first. The woods behind the house leading to the river never fail to ease my stress. I don’t suppose it’s the same for her, but I don’t know what a girl who likes Los Angeles might like. A sandy beach? A concrete pool? I truly don’t know. But she only hesitates for a second about entering the woods with me, and I feel like an idiot for not realizing that she might not feel safe.
Little Ruby Riding Hood and the Big, Bad Wolf
“I know you don’t know me, Ruby. And I know I look more like a mountain than a man, but I promise you’re safe with me. I would never let anyone or anything bad happen to you. Myself included.”
She huffs out a laugh. “If you knew the kinds of men who say that exact same things to girls in LA, you would realize how not reassuring that is.”
I stop walking. I’m angry that maybe someone hurt her. I’m upset that she doesn’t trust me. I’m embarrassed that I’m acting like such a fool. All these things hit me at once. “I’m sorry. Why don’t we just go back to the house? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
I turn on the trail, but she stops me, her tiny hand on my arm. “No, it’s okay. Please. I want to see the river. I trust you.”
My heart damn near breaks out of my ribcage. She trusts me. I can’t explain why that means so much to me.
Whoa there, Hoss.
Shit. This woman is trouble.
I learned my lesson about city girls the hard way, and I don’t intend to make the same mistake twice.
I can enjoy her company. But that’s it. I don’t need to let her mess with my emotions.
“So, tell me what is really going on with this ranch,” she says after we walk a bit. “Some things aren’t really adding up for me.”
My fool heart is telling me to make something up. Keep her here any way I can. But that wouldn’t be right. And she trusts me. I’m a man of honor, no matter how hard the zipper of my pants is pressing into my growing cock. “My aunt and uncle mean well.”
“Mr. Nichols is your uncle, then?”
I nod. She’s got city smarts, no sense lying to her. I get the feeling she’s been lied to enough. “They’re trying to help me rebuild the ranch. They heard me talking about the bad reviews and got it in their heads to bring me a guest, I suppose.”
“Why do you need reviews?”
“I haven’t owned Pair-a-Dice long. I got it for a song—but that was before I realized the damn record was broken. There’s a lot of good here, but the previous owners let it fall into disrepair. They were also not so good at hospitality. I’m trying to fix everything and learn what I need to know about managing a resort, but we aren’t ready for guests. Not the resort kind. I’ve got the cabins set up still for campers, but my vision of Pair-a-Dice is a long ways off.”
She bites her lip. “I see...the pool?”
“There is no pool.”
“The full-service spa?”
“Yeah, none of that either. Yet. It’s actually not a bad idea.”
Her resigned expression is one I never want to see again. Like she’s used to disappointment. “Massages are out then.”
What the hell. “I will personally give you a massage every day. There’s a table at the house.” Somewhere.
“Right.” She pulls in her shoulders, trying to make herself smaller.
Idiot bastard. Now you’ve gone and got her hackles up.
“Not like that,” I blurt out. “I’m actually a licensed massage therapist. It’s all on the up-and-up.”
“You’re a licensed massage therapist cowboy?”
Ouch. Her incredulous expression isn’t doing much for my ego either.
“I can show you the paperwork.”
“You have paperwork?”
“Yes, ma’am. State licensing board agrees that I am a verifiable and legitimately licensed therapist.”
We’ve returned to the back porch now and she stops, showing me a new emotion as her eyes twinkle with amusement. “Well, this trip just got interesting.”
She’s a good sport and I really like this girl. “I know you signed up for a different kind of vacation. But I promise you, if you stay, you won’t regret it.”
God, she smells good, too. It’s a sweet scent. A little like cotton candy.
“All right, cowboy. I expect to be pampered if I’m leaving this review you need so much.”
We both know that one positive review isn’t going to change the tide, but she’s got this wry smile and a secret behind her eyes and I’m going to find out what that’s all about if it’s the last thing I do.