“What the hell did you say to her this time?” Aaron demanded of Ed Olsen, the owner of Saddleback’s Bar and Grill. Both men ducked behind the industrial sinks as a soup pot flew end over end headed their direction.

“I just told her we made more tips when she stayed in the kitchen and out of the dining room. She needs to let the purdy young things wait the tables.”

“One day, she’s gonna kill you, and mark my words, I will tell the police you deserved it. Go apologize.”

“I ain’t going back there. She ain’t worked through the iron skillets yet.”

“Eliza.” Aaron channeled his best drill instructor tone. “Stand down.” Crouching, he edged closer to the supply room.

“You tell that moron I’m married to he can just go out and find himself a pretty young thang that’ll make him tips and she can just have his sorry shriveled up butt all for her own.”

“Beating my head against this brick wall would be more productive than trying to reason with you two,” Aaron growled through his teeth. Grasping Eliza’s hand before it landed on a nearby skillet, he willed patience and fought the inevitable anxiety that always resided just between his shoulder blades, another wound he couldn’t reach to heal. “Now, Ed knows he’s a dumbass that needs to learn to engage his brain before he opens his mouth, don’t you, Ed?”

“Yeah, whatever. She’s loonier than a cross-eyed cow that got in the still.”

“What was that, Ed Olsen?” Eliza shrieked.

“Ed, so help me.” Aaron shot him a warning glare. “I will hand her the skillet myself.”

“You’re purdy enough I s’pose.”

Shaking his head, Aaron released Eliza’s hand. This time an iron skillet sailed through the air landing hard on Ed’s boot.

“Dag-blast-it, woman!”

“You know you deserved worse than that. Now, keep your mouth shut and go wash those dishes for her,” Aaron ordered before he returned to the bar. “I swear there were days in the sandpit where I saw less action.” Aaron sighed as he sidled back up to Natalie. The uneasiness of his boss’s constant bickering continued to twist up his spine.

“What’d he say to her this time?” Natalie offered him another one of those rare full-faced smiles. For a moment, she looked happy he’d returned. His heart jerked to a stop before it flew.

“Something about the waitresses making more tips than she did. I swear he’s a glutton for punishment. She took an umbrella to him a couple of nights ago.”

Leaning closer to Natalie, letting the bar press into his abs, he attempted to memorize the exact melody of her giggle. That sweet sound could get a man through dozens of miserable nights. “What did he say to get beaten with an umbrella?”

Aaron shook his head. “She asked him what was on television. He said dust.”

Her mouth dropped open and Aaron ordered every cell in his body to stop imagining his cock sliding between her lush pink lips. God, he’d wanted her since he’d first set eyes on her. For a moment, he’d thought she was some kind of dream. It had just been so fucking long and she was so perfect. “I would’ve beat his ass, too. Why doesn’t he get up and dust if he wants it cleaned?”

“I never said he didn’t deserve every bit of what he gets. I’d kick his ass myself for the way he talks to her if he didn’t sign my paychecks.” Hoping she’d meet him in the middle, he leaned closer still. Hay, saddle oil, and a distinct tang of her sweat filled his nostrils. Refusing to feel any shame he reveled in the aroma of Natalie. How fucking good would it feel, how sweet and spicy would she smell, if he worked her up until she was good and sweaty in his bed? What must the perfume of Natalie aroused be like? Heaven. He was certain. Patrons singing along to Miranda drowned out the low rumbled groan that escaped his throat from the thought alone.

“You smell really good,” made its way into his ear. Her teeth sunk into her lower lip, trying to prevent more confessions it appeared.

“I was just thinking that same thing, Nat.”

“You think you smell good, too?” Her teasing smirk taunted his determination to let her come to him this time.

“I smell good because I spilled garlic sauce on my jeans and I have Jack on my shirt. You smell good just because you’re you.”

Heat took up residence in her cheeks. Instead of staring up at him any longer, her gaze transferred to the wood grain of the long bar top. “I’ve been riding all day. I probably smell like sweat and horse.”

“I don’t smell the horse.” Could she hear the hunger in his tone? Half of him prayed she could. The other was terrified she was going to bolt again if he didn’t leash his lust.

The blink of her long eyelashes timed the moments between them. Two deep breaths in, realization furrowed her brow.

His breath stalled.

“You know that thing I said I wanted to ask you?”

“No, because you won’t tell me.” Powerless to stop himself, he reached her face and traced the tense angles with his fingertips, desperate to ease their strain. He needed her to look him in the eye. He’d spent the last year learning the kaleidoscope of colors and the meanings of her gazes.

“You can say no, if you don’t want to do this.” Fear and challenge competed for dominance in her tone.

“I want to do most anything with you. You know that. Just ask me.” There was no way she was about to say what he’d been praying for a year to hear her say. If only he could convince his cock of that. Currently, it was going to bear the impression of metal teeth from the zipper of his jeans if he didn’t get his erection to cut him some slack. Thankful for the bar concealing his need for her, he managed to keep a scant amount of blood flowing to his brain. Enough to keep prompting her. “Come on, Nat. Don’t keep stuff from me. We’re friends.”

A harsh swallow contracted the long feminine column of her neck. “I know. That only makes this harder.”

Harder. Oh, she had no fucking clue how much harder he was feeling at the moment. “You look like you’re about to confess murder. Do I need to go find a shovel?”

“Pretty sure murder would be easier to confess.” Defeat robbed her words of any volume.

“You have a ton of land. We could bury whoever it is that pissed you off out there. No one would ever find them.”

“You’d actually help me hide bodies? I’m not sure if that’s really sweet or very disturbed.”

“Pretty sure it’s both, but the point was I’d do anything for you so talk.”

“I think… I’m kind of sure, actually.”

“Sure of what?”

“I don’t know how to do this.” Her voice faltered.

“Can’t be worse than murder, remember? Just keep going.”

“What would you say if I said I wanted to sleep with you?”

Alarm bells blared in Natalie’s head. No, wait. Aaron was ringing a bell. Panic swept through her. Fever shot through her veins and then burned in her cheeks. Oh my God. What had she just said?

“Last call,” his low bellow ripped through the partying crowd. The cowbell above the bar blared on as he rang it with far more determination than was necessary. Her heart pounded out a frantic SOS in her throat. It took entirely too long for her brain to get the message to her feet that she needed to run. Her boots were twisted around the bar stool. Untangling them served only to slow her down.

Aaron’s hand landed on her wrist, pressing it to the bar. Somehow, his grip never reminded her of what had happened before. Protectiveness radiated from his firm grasp. Possession resided in his fingertips, but it didn’t frighten her. She didn’t jerk away. If any of her brain actually worked, she would have hightailed it out of there, but for some unfathomable reason, she wanted to stay.

“Sorry, but you don’t get to say that to me and then run away. We’re gonna talk. Stay put.” The order reverberated through her bones. Her stomach dropped somewhere in the vicinity of her ankles. “You’ve had more than enough, Gus. Get on home. I’m not making you another drink,” Aaron made another command.

“What’s the point of last call if you ain’t gonna make me another?” Gus Peterson, a rancher from Ogallala, argued.

“The point is to get you the hell out of my bar. I’ve got things that need my attention. Go home.”

“Just what do you think you’re doing, son? It’s barely 11:30. Why’re you sending everyone home?” Ed Olsen’s eyes bugged out of his head. Natalie was certain he was seeing dollar signs, not people, walking out of Saddleback’s early.

“Don’t you fuss at him Edward Olsen or I’ll take my best frying skillet to your head. Now, Aaron probably has plans tonight, don’t you, darlin’?” Eliza came to his rescue. “Oh, Natalie, how are ya sweet girl? I ran into your mama at the Feed and Seed this morning, said you all had been working calves this week.”

“Uh…” The entire Sahara desert could not possibly have been more dry than her throat at that moment. The last words she’d spoken still haunted her. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Yeah, they’ve been working calves all day and then she was out riding. She’s worn out. You mind if I take her on home, Eliza?”

Well, wasn’t Aaron taking all kinds of advantage that evening? Natalie hated the spark of excitement that lit low in her belly. She hadn’t necessarily meant that night. She’d just meant maybe at some point in the future she might like to sleep with him if he wouldn’t hate it. Another round of panic quickly vanquished the thrill. She wasn’t mentally prepared for this to happen tonight.

“I wouldn’t mind at all. Ed and his big fat mouth can clean up tonight, can’t you Ed?”

“You ready to go, Nat?” Holly appeared at her side.

“I’ll bring her home. Tell Dec I said hi.” Once again Aaron directed everyone’s evening plans.

A broad grin climbed across her sister’s face. “I’ll tell him. You two have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Which is what?” Thankful her voice had made a recovery, Natalie couldn’t resist the taunt. She clung to the normalcy of teasing her sister. Nothing else made any sense.

Aaron’s discreet chuckle gave her another shot of courage. “You definitely do not want her to enumerate that list. Come on. For once in my life, I’m getting out of here early.”

“Aaron.” The panic was still too easy to access. “I’m not sure I meant tonight. I’m not sure what I meant at all.” There. She’d said it.

“Yeah, that’s what we’re going to discuss.” He wrapped his arm over her shoulders and guided her outside. Weak against his steady strength she allowed her lungs to inhale the masculinity surrounding her. His heat permeated her side and in that exhilarating, terrifying moment she allowed herself to picture being in bed with him. His naked body pressed to hers. That hunger that consumed his eyes when he thought she wasn’t looking, apparent in his every move.

Her mind was restless and unsure, but her body was beyond certain what it wanted.