Micah

The thought of Julian Payne got me wet. But actually seeing him?

Made me nauseated.

Of course, after he’d arrived twenty minutes late to the county fairgrounds, he also pissed me off. Hardly believed his excuse.

“This?” Julian shouted from across a field of ragweed so thick it violated the Geneva Convention’s articles of biological warfare. “These are your fairgrounds?”

Like his fields were any better. “You’re late.”

“I had to park in a stream. All the spaces on the vertical cliff were taken.”

Sure. Complain about the teensy-weensy little floodplain. Just because it had the potential to randomly flash flood and deluge the field didn’t necessarily mean it would wash away the festival, destroy everyone’s vehicles, and accidentally drown three traveling circus elephants. As far as I could tell, that’d only happened once.

Besides, the biggest problem with the fair wasn’t the potential to flood or the weaponized allergies. The feral cat colony was a more pressing concern. A herd of wild, untamed cats had transformed the field into a giant litter box, and they were not at all pleased by our meager intrusions of one large tent, fifteen volunteers, and a representative from Byron and Sons Carnival Union. At least the cats could rest easy. I’d worked the committee for over a month, and we’d finalized absolutely no plans. According to the committee, the festival always just seemed to come together.

Well, this year? It had to be perfect.

Music. Booths. Games. Rides. Events. Awards. Shows.

Everything.

Because I didn’t have a choice.

If the fair wasn’t a success, my chances of staying employed were nil. And while my father had offered me a job—the same job that had driven me to pursue a career in government—I never thought I’d be desperate enough to plead for Julian Payne’s help.

Hell, never thought I’d be able to face him again.

Not after that night. Not after that sex. Not after the most mind-shattering orgasm of my life.

And he knew it too.

Julian greeted the committee with a one-dimpled smile and that country boy charm, no doubt just to make me squirm. Did he have to play the cowboy part so well? The ass-hugging Wranglers and bicep-squeezing t-shirt fit him perfectly.

How dare the bastard look so damn good.

And of course, the committee loved him.

Everyone did.

Darla Kaslovski would have strangled herself on her girdle for a chance to pull him into a hug. She left a splotch of thick crimson lipstick on his cheek and gave his ass a slap as he slid into the committee’s circle.

“Oh, Jules, your momma would be so proud of you right now.” Darla patted her chest. I wished she’d keep her hand there. The sixty-something woman seemed to prefer shirts she’d found on the junior’s rack—which, coincidentally, never seemed to cover her own. “I remember your momma. Elizabeth always loved the fair.”

“Yeah.” Julian attempted to wipe the lipstick away but only smeared it more. This earned Darla’s wandering thumb, squeaky-cleaning the stain from his skin. “But our family usually had animals involved.”

Tony Pescaramo, a parks board member since before the fairgrounds had grass…and the rest of the world dirt…patted Julian on the shoulder. “You’ll get there. I remember when your grandfather lost half of his cattle.”

“To what?” Darla asked.

Tony chuckled. “Just lost them. In the barn one day, gone the next.”

Julian nodded. “Yeah, Grandad liked his drink. Hid most of the moonshine in the hayloft.”

“Must have been why the barn burned so quick,” Tony laughed.

Most everyone in the town knew something of the Paynes’ situation that I did not. I’d gathered as much as I could from the gossip that didn’t involve midnight liaisons. Julian’s parents were dead, leaving behind a non-functioning farm and one pain in the ass son attempting to rebuild. Apparently, Julian had been some sort of sports…ball…star too. Not that I understood anything about football, but after living in Ironfield, it was expected that a girl absorb some sort of archaic football knowledge. Julian would have fit in well with the gorgeous men on the Rivets, but an injury had ended his career.

Shame. He’d probably looked good in a uniform.

I gathered the rest of the committee to begin the meeting, but my stomach had divebombed to my feet. The sun prickled my skin. The business dress was not meant for sweat.

Was I the only one dying in the heat?

“Now that we’re all finally here…” I said. “Maybe can get started before we melt?”

Julian offered no sympathy. “What’s the matter, princess? That big bright ball in the sky bothering you?”

No, but he was bothering me. “I’ll be fine.”

“See what happens when you step outside?” He breathed deep, sneezed from the ragweed, and accepted a bottle of water from Darla.

“Ah, yes,” I said. “You can keep your great outdoors, cowboy.”

“I don’t mind it.” Those green eyes flashed with mischief. “But your office is a hell of a lot more fun.”

I knew he’d be trouble, but I didn’t realize he’d start it so quick. I stiffened, but Darla interceded, her voice low.

“Let’s take a little break, Micah,” she said.

I groaned. “We haven’t even started yet.”

“Let’s get everyone some water first. Why don’t you take Jules on a tour of the grounds? Show him what needs doing.” She nudged me with an elbow that somehow had a double chin. “He’s single, you know.”

Been there. Done that. Hadn’t stopped dreaming about him.

I gritted my teeth and nodded, curling my finger for the grinning son of a bitch to follow me across the grass.

“Hope this wasn’t too inconvenient for you,” I said. “Know how busy your schedule must be with all that…empty land.”

Julian seemed at home in the sun, the warm, the scented breeze tinted with summer. He slid on a pair of aviator sunglasses and surveyed the barren fairgrounds.

“So, even when I fuck the bullshit out of you, the brat remains. Good to know for next time.”

My heart fluttered. That did nothing for my squirming stomach. “What next time? There is no next time.”

He frowned. “I should have given you a spanking.”

“And I should have called security on you.”

“I’ve got some rope in the truck. Think I still know how to hog-tie.”

The heat did nothing to ease my pounding heart. I seethed, wishing for nothing more than the chance to deck that Roman nose. Or maybe just crunch one of his high cheek bones.

“Skip the fancy stuff, cowboy. All you need is a gag.”

“Christ, you gotta learn how to have some fun.”

I gestured over the empty field. “Does it look like I have time for fun? I have an entire fair to organize. There’s only six weeks before I’ll have two hundred vendors, three dozen cows, sheep, and pigs, a marching band, and a polka quartet strolling through the grass. I’ve got no tents, no decent bands, and no one to help me.” I poked his chest. “And you were late.”

“You’re extorting me. Lucky I showed up at all.”

“And you’re lucky I’m even giving you this chance.”

“You’re more fun without panties.”

I clenched my jaw. “And I liked you better as a name on a denied application. But we’re stuck with each other now.”

“I prefer imbedded.”

My head ignored the innuendo. The rest of my betraying body gave a good shiver. “You better live up to your end of the bargain.”

“Which is?”

“You helping me,” I said. “We’re dying here.”

Julian’s eyebrow rose. He checked over his sunglasses. “Maybe literally.”

I glanced back. Charles, the longtime Parks and Rec board secretary, had fallen asleep. Again.

“He’s just napping…I think. We should check.” I gestured around the circle. The Widow Barlow, Bonnie Horsden, and Frank Wiglan were right behind him, snoozing away. “I shouldn’t have scheduled this meeting during naptime.”

“It’s like you raided the Sunny Acres Retirement Home for half of your volunteers.”

“Yeah…” I groaned. “I had signups posted there.”

“Jesus. So what do you want me to do?”

I bit my lip. “The heavy lifting.”

“Seriously?”

I patted his back, amazed by the packed muscles that tensed under my touch. “I happen to know you’re pretty strong.”

“Yeah, but I doubt you want me fucking the tents and equipment.”

I cleared my throat. “Actually, that’s why we had to let Brian go. Please keep everything tucked…” I gestured to his jeans. “Far, far away.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“Every word of it.”

“But the only part of me you like is my cock.”

“Don’t worry. I know you’re a complete dick.”

Julian stuck his hands in his pockets, impatience darkening his features. “Look, princess. Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not here out of the goodness of my heart.”

“The pants come on, and the gloves come off?”

“You have something I want.”

Oh, please. “Just one thing?”

“All right.” His voice lowered. “There’s two things I want from you. One of which you will give me…and the other I won’t need to ask for.”

“You think it’ll be that easy.”

He smirked. “Think you’re that easy.”

The bastard. I hated him almost as much as I despised the warmth cascading through my core.

I checked my watch and forced a smile. “Oh, look at the time. It’s half-past me giving a damn. You’re here because we need each other, got it? Nothing more, nothing less. I am not sleeping with you again.”

“We didn’t sleep.”

He thought he was so cute. “You’re lucky. I would have suffocated you with a pillow.”

“Whatever gets you off.”

I ignored him as I paced. “Here’s the problem. We have two hundred vendors. A dozen participating horses to show. Twenty pigs. Eighteen sheep. Seven goats. We need tents for the local school’s art exhibit as well as show booths for the baking contests, the sewing and quilting shows, the elementary school science fair…”

I gestured around. Julian followed my gaze.

“But there’s nothing here,” he said.

“Yeah. I know.”

“Well, what the hell do you expect me to do?”

“Know any magic?”

He snorted. “Are you kidding me?”

“Right now, I need to bargain with the fireworks company. Even if we have no tents, animals running wild, and the demolition derby in the parking lot, the fireworks will fix everything. No one will remember anything but the fireworks on the final night.”

“And you expect me to…”

“If this fair fails, I lose my job, you lose the barn.”

Julian swiped a hand through his hair. “You want me to perform a miracle.”

“Everyone in this damn town seems to think you walk on water. Surprise me.”

His lips thinned. “Don’t believe everything you hear, princess. Right now, you need a goddamned army to get this festival up and running.”

“You have brothers.”

He had a sexy laugh, deep and mellow with a buttery cinnamon rumble. Too bad I only ever heard the sound at my expense.

“You think I can just draft my brothers into this circus?”

“It’s a fair.”

“It’s a disaster.”

God, I hoped not. I gestured for him to walk with me, if only to get some air circulating over my face. The heat did not play well with my breakfast, a cup of coffee and half of a Milky Way.

God, I had six weeks until the fair. I couldn’t handle the stress. The nerves destroyed my tummy—if it wasn’t the looming threat of a stomach bug. Another night spent cuddling the toilet made sleeping with Julian sound better than clutching the porcelain pillow.

“Tell your brothers you need help,” I said. “I could use the younger blood. My committee is…”

“Out to pasture?”

Well beyond their studding years. “Just enlist them, okay?”

I cautioned him to step over the wet spray-paint marking the beginning of the vendor and craft booth areas. He followed. Reluctantly.

His voice roughened. “You never said anything about getting my brothers involved.”

“And your sister?”

“Christ.” He exhaled, hand running through his hair. “You’re out of your mind. I can’t get my brothers to agree on a goddamned thing—not what to do with the farm, not toppings on our pizza, not even the color of my father’s casket. They will never agree to work the fair. Not even if I paid them, and, even then, they’d probably torch the damn place just to spite me.”

My stomach fell. Breakfast went with it. “So…no help?”

“You wanted me. You got me. And that’s all you’re getting.” Julian swore. “Hell, I shouldn’t even be doing this much.”

“Excuse me?”

He frowned. “It’s not exactly ethical to force me into manual labor to get a building permit.”

Like he knew what was involved. Like he even cared to read the damn application and supply the relevant materials I’d needed to make an informed judgment.

“First of all…” I huffed. “I told you. The barn can’t be built how and where you want it with the current zoning regulations. I will have to get you a variance, which is a ton of work and a bitch to organize—”

“Or you could just sign the damn paper and be done with it. Who the hell is going to know?”

I would, and I’d never live with myself if I didn’t follow my own set of professional and ethical guidelines.

Which, apparently, included sleeping with an applicant.

Fantastic.

“Second of all…” I said. “I don’t think you should be complaining after what you put me through.”

Julian scoffed, his eyes darting from a yowling trio of feral cats to settle on me. “What the hell did I do to you?”

The nerve of this man. I gritted my teeth. “The mud at your farm?”

Julian laughed. “So the rain is my fault?”

“The comments at the bar?”

He shook his head. “Calling you a whore was a compliment.”

“Seducing me in the office?”

“Oh, hell no.” He stared at me. “You think I seduced you?”

“You started it.”

Christ, it only encouraged him. Julian edged close, smiling his little tease and grating my skin. I steeled myself, refusing to breathe in case I lost myself in his golden-kissed scent again.

“You used me, princess,” he whispered, his voice a sensual promise. “And you loved it.”

Why was this man so preoccupied with sex? “Believe me, you aren’t the only man in the county who could have gotten me off.”

“Yeah, but I’m the only one who could do it that well.”

Hardly. “Insert object A into slot B. I’ve assembled more complicated IKEA furniture.”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t like it.”

“Don’t tell me you’re still obsessing over it.”

“You’re the one who won’t let me leave. All you gotta do is sign one little paper.”

“Got anything I can sign that’ll turn back time?”

“No, but I got something for you that’ll make time stand still.”

I arched an eyebrow. “An infinity with you? Now you’re threatening me.”

“Tell you what…” Julian grabbed my arm as I attempted to walk away. “Answer this question, and I’ll do whatever you ask. Tents. Bands. Fireworks. The whole lot.”

I swatted away a dive bombing bee and wished I could have slapped him too. “I know better than to agree to anything without hearing the terms.”

Julian held my stare, those hypnotizing green eyes capable of revealing everything I felt.

“Tell me I’m the best you ever had,” he said.

“Want me to lie?”

Wrong answer. It only encouraged him, drew him closer until I was nearly tucked against his chest and trapped within his arms once more.

“You can’t fake anything around me, princess. I see through the bullshit and the priss.”

“Then you have your answer.”

“But I want to hear it. Tell me. Tell me how much you wanted me. How good it was when I slammed inside you and fucked you like an animal.”

My mouth dried. Why did he have to remind me of the one image I desperately needed to get out of my head?

A second bee joined the first. I ducked as it buzzed a little too close to my face.

“For someone as cocky as you…” I let my glance drift downward. “I have to stroke your ego a lot, don’t I?”

“For someone who hates me so much, you can’t stop thinking about me.” Julian grinned. “So what Is it? My cock? My tongue? The full package?”

I wasn’t amused. “Your ego?”

He peeked at me over the sunglasses. “That’s the same as my cock.”

“One day it might deflate.”

“Not today. And I can guarantee…not tonight.”

A third and fourth bee joined the duo spinning around my head. This was not the sort of hummer Julian had expected.

A rousing buzz blitzed over the grass. I glanced down just as Julian shifted, his foot uncovering a small hole in the earth.

And from the depths of the earth emerged the latest complication to the Sawyer County Fair.

“Bees!” I screeched. “Jesus, run!”

I bolted as a plume of pissed off bees poured from the underground nest and funneled into the air. Not fast enough. A quick, sharp, insane pain struck just over my behind. I reached back, rubbing my ass.

Julian yelled. “Get going, princess!”

Hard to run when an angry yellow jacket wedged itself under my dress and gnawed on my booty. Julian was enough of a prick for me, but these two, three, four agonizing pricks were far worse.

And they weren’t stopping.

I swatted the pests tangled in my hair. “This is your fault! It’s your fault!”

“Shut up and run!”

“Get rid of them!”

Julian hauled me into his arms and tossed me over a fence at the edge of the fairground property. I landed in the dirt. He hopped the wood and yanked me to my feet with a grunt.

“Don’t stop!”

The pasture land opened before us, reserved for overflow parking near the swollen creek. The wasps swarmed behind us, a cluster of hate, vengeance, and very sharp bits. Julian seized my wrist and bolted towards the edge of the lot.

The retention pond.

“No!” I dug my heels into the ground. “Don’t you dare!”

“You said to get rid of them!”

“Cowboy, don’t—”

“Take a breath!”

Julian didn’t give me a choice. He grabbed me by the hips and held me close.

Within seconds, I was airborne over the embankment.

I landed butt first in the water.

The impressive splash surged the pond around us and frightened away the bees, but Julian held me steady, nearly drowning me for thirty seconds while I beat on his rock-hard head.

He surfaced with a grin.

I nearly threw up.

“They’re gone!” Julian laughed, rubbing the water from his eyes. “Safe and sound!”

“What…” The water was more oil and dirt than water and clean. I fought my way to the edge, slipping on sticky mud and crawling to whatever amounted for a shore. “How…you got me…”

My dress. Shoes. Phone.

Ruined.

And I was covered once more in mud, muck, and filthy water.

My hair—what had taken nearly an hour to condition and straighten—was drenched. Completely waterlogged. In five minutes, my hair wouldn’t just poof. It’d invade Main Street.

I couldn’t speak. The words collided with my anger and tussled back in the pond.

“This…second outfit…ruined!” My ass hurt. I reached behind, rubbing my booty. “I got stung.”

“You’re okay.” Julian hauled himself from the water, whipping off his t-shirt to reveal a set of muscles built on muscles. He wrung out the shirt, flexing every single part of him. “No more wasps.”

“There shouldn’t be any wasps!” I slapped the water. It wasn’t good enough. I slapped it at him. He dodged the splash. “I can’t believe you! You dunked me in the water!”

“Hey, I just saved you!”

“No! No, you didn’t! You just caused more trouble.” I struggled to haul myself out of the pond, fell, and coated my chest in more mud. “Everything you do, everywhere you go! The farm. The bar. The…the panties! You’re nothing but a pain in my ass!” I rubbed the stings again. “Literally!”

“We were about to get eaten alive.” Julian’s tone shifted. Harsh. “I got you to safety.”

“You dunked me in a retention pond!”

“And I deserve a thank you at least.”

“No!” I shouted. “Never again. This was a total mistake! I was delusional to ask for your help! I don’t want to hear your name. I don’t want to see you ever again!”

“You said you needed me.” He smirked. “In more ways than one—”

“Don’t!” I nearly threw a rock at his head. “Don’t you even finish that sentence! You are nothing but a pest. A cocky son of a bitch who must take some sort of…” I stumbled over my words as his hardened pecs actually twitched. “Some sort of joy in terrorizing me!”

“Screw you too,” he spat. “I was trying to help.”

“I don’t want your kind of help anymore!”

Julian’s expression darkened, the green in his eyes morphing into the same swirling, algae-ridden sludge that trickled from my hair.

“All right, princess. I don’t need yours either. Fuck all of this. You want to be some stuck-up priss with an ego-trip because of your job? Fine. I’m building my goddamned barn whether you want it or not.”

He wouldn’t dare.

I slapped the water. “Then I’ll have it torn down.”

“You and what army?” Julian gestured over the field. “Look around, princess. You’re right. Butterpond loves me. But who do you got in your corner?” His voice lowered to a hiss. “A swarm of goddamned wasps.”

My chest tightened, but it didn’t worry me as much as the rolling of my stomach. Too much running, too much heat, too much Julian Payne.

“Glad to be rid of you,” I said.

“No, you’re not.” Julian’s grin was cold. “But that’s fine. Fantasize about me all you want.”

“Believe me, cowboy…” The water would boil around me. “After today? I will never think about you, speak your name, or see you again.”

He scowled. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“There isn’t a force in this world that would bring us together again, Julian Payne.” I relished the freedom with a laugh. “Goodbye forever.”