Four

MAN OF ACTION

I CLOSED MY EYES AND said a prayer for Boris and Natasha, asking God to save his life and to give Bo the strength he needed to help the man as they sped away in a Bullwinkle Jeep.

Everything happened so fast, my head was still spinning. When Poppy had cried out, Bo had ordered her to tie a rope to the horn of a saddle and pull him up. She’d done as he said, and I watched with trepidation as Bo was lifted into the air, then up the ridge at a rapid pace. What seemed like hours passed before Poppy shouted that a Jeep was on its way to help. When they arrived, I was pulled out of the ravine just like Bo had been, and when I reached the top, I found Bo performing CPR on Boris with a portable defibrillator. I jerked when Boris contracted with the shock and held my breath as the machine’s electronic voice advised, “Hands off. Analyzing rhythm.” I held on to Poppy as this was repeated twice more until Boris’ color turned from a cold gray to a soft pink. When Boris’ leg moved, Poppy and I finally took a breath.

It was a surreal scene, set in the high country surrounded by cattle and a stunning vista, but the impact of how close we came to losing Boris was never more clear than when Natasha grabbed his hand, and cried out, “You will not die, you old coot. I forbid it.”

Bo checked his pulse as his chest began to rise and fall on its own. When Boris moaned, Bo nodded to the ranch hands, and they began preparing to load him onto a stretcher made out of heavy canvas and wooden supports. I wanted to help, but it was clear that Bo had everything under control. His ability in any given situation was another reason I was attracted to him. He oozed authority and confidence. He was an alpha male with piercing eyes that said he’d lead in any situation, and he expected to be followed. In short, he made me feel safe in an otherwise dangerous world.

He was a man of action rather than inaction, and that side of him was hard to resist. So hard to resist that when Bo turned and marched over to me, hauling me up against his body, I said nothing. Instead, I let him cover my mouth with his own and kiss me speechless, leaving my knees weak and my mind muddled.

“I’ll be back after I see Boris to the hospital. We’ll talk then, and I swear to Christ I’ll make this right between us,” he vowed. My heart started to soften toward him at the anguish in his tone, until he started barking out orders. “‘Til then, I don’t want you on anything with four legs. And, for God’s sake, don’t climb any more trees. Head to the ranch house and stay there so you don’t get into trouble.”

If I’d been clear-headed enough, I would have told him what I thought about him bossing me around. Instead, I’d bit my lip and watched silently as he’d walked away, talked to a ranch hand, and then jumped into the Jeep and started barking out more orders as they’d pulled away and disappeared over the hill.

“He’ll be okay,” Poppy whispered beside me.

I nodded in agreement. “Natasha won’t let him die.”

“I take it from that kiss Bo just planted on you that you’ve worked out your differences?” Poppy said as a slight smile pulled across her mouth.

“I wouldn’t say that,” I mumbled. “There are obstacles that concern me.”

“Sienna, he came all the way out here for you. What’s there to think about? He’s your Wyatt slash Iain, just like I said.”

My heart began to beat wildly at the reminder of what Bo had done. She was right, the sight of him riding Goliath at full speed to find me was like something out of a romance novel. But the fact he came all the way out here to apologize for being a jerk didn’t overshadow the reason he pushed me away in the first place. I hadn’t had time to process all he said or come to any conclusions about how I felt. There’d been no time—nor had it been the right time—for me to tell Bo that his reasons for keeping me at arm’s length concerned me.

Being friends with Poppy, as well as my own turbulent adolescence, had taught me that neglect or abuse caused during childhood were some of the hardest disappointments to overcome. The idea that I would be a constant reminder of his mother if we started seeing each other was a concern. My own mother couldn’t look at me without a constant reminder of what she’d done, so I was scared to risk my heart. What if he got up one day, just like my father had, and said the similarities were too much to overcome?

A soft cry from below pulled me from my troubled thoughts. “Poppy! The poor calf,” I cried out, rushing to the edge of the ridge.

Two of the ranch hands had stayed behind to tend to the horses, so I turned to them. “Can you get her out?”

Both men looked over the edge, nodded, then got to work rescuing the poor thing.

“I still can’t believe she fell all that way and doesn’t have a scratch,” I said to Poppy.

“She probably fell farther up where the drop is only ten feet,” Poppy informed me.

I turned and looked at her, incredulous. “Are you telling me if I’d walked farther up, I could have climbed down on my own?”

Poppy beamed. “Yep.”

“Do me a favor,” I sighed. “Don’t mention that little fact to Bo.”

Snorting, Poppy twisted her thumb and forefinger in a ‘my lips are sealed’ motion.

We watched as they pulled the doe-eyed baby from the ravine, further up where it was less steep, I might add, and we smiled like loons when it raced to its mother and began to drink from one of her tits as if nothing had happened.

“Thank you,” I shouted to one of the men. “I’m Sienna, and this is Poppy.”

I put out my hand as I walked to the one Bo had spoken with, and he took it, mumbling, “Ma’am. This here is Brantley, and I’m Troy.”

Both men looked to be under thirty. They had kind eyes, broad backs, and they were covered in dirt from a hard day’s work.

“Are they sending a Jeep back for one of you?”

“No, ma’am. We were instructed to bring you back with the horses.”

Poppy turned to me with a grin. “Didn’t Bo say you weren’t allowed on anything with four legs?”

I rolled my eyes. “He can think what he wants. A kiss or two and an apology doesn’t give him the right to demand anything of me.”

I started to move toward Tiny Dancer, but Troy stayed me with his hand. “Sorry, ma’am. Detective Strawn threatened me with arrest if we let you back on a horse by yourself. You’re supposed to ride back with me.”

“What? You must be jokin’!”

Poppy barked out a laugh, and I swung around on her. “This isn’t funny.”

“Uh, yeah, it is.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side. Remember the Wallflower creed?”

“What creed?”

“Hoes before arrogant assholes,” I bit out, then moved toward Tiny Dancer. “Troy, I won’t tell Bo you let me ride alone.”

“Ma’am, I’m not about to lose this job because you’re stubborn.”

I rounded on him and put my hands on my hips. “I’m not stubborn.”

“That’s not what Detective Strawn said. He also said you’d disobey me unless I hog-tied you. I don’t want to hog-tie you, ma’am.”

“You wouldn’t!” I gasped.

Troy grinned. “There’s one way to find out.”

I looked at Poppy for backup. She’d ducked her head and was laughing. I was so getting a Wallflower divorce when we got back.

“This is ridiculous,” I bit out. “Why is he doin’ this?”

“He’s your man,” was Troy’s only response.

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re all a bunch of Neanderthals. This is the twenty-first century if you hadn’t noticed. I don’t want or need a man to tell me what to do.” Troy smiled like he thought what I was saying was cute, and I wanted to wipe the grin off his face. “What about Poppy? Does she get to ride on her own?”

Poppy sobered then and rolled her eyes, moving toward Harriet. “Of course, I do. He’s your Neanderthal, not mine.”

Brantley stepped in front of her and slowly shook his head.

Poppy tried to sidestep him, but Brantley moved with her, so she spun around and scowled at Troy. “What did he say about me?”

“He said neither of you women had the sense God gave you, that you’d find a way to ride off a cliff.”

Her eyes shot to mine, and I smiled sweetly. The shoe was on the other foot now.

“I say we stay single, Sienna. No man is worth this. We can be like Eunice and Bernice. We’ll just have a bunch of lovers and play aunties to Cali and Devin’s kids.”

Troy and Brantley shook their heads as they climbed on top of the horses. Troy had strung a rope to Boris’ horse and tied it off on Tiny Dancer’s saddle, reminding me why we were in this position in the first place.

“Let’s get back and see if we can help,” I said. “We can decide later how to bury Bo’s body so we don’t get caught.”

The return trip was slow and hot. By the time we reached the corral, my shirt was plastered to my back with sweat and I was in desperate need of water and shade. The ranch seemed quiet, eerily quiet. There were no hands baling hay. No cowboys working horses. Just the swirling sound of the windmills as they danced in the breeze; a reminder that life goes on even in the absence of man.

“Where is everyone?” I asked as Troy handed me down to the ground.

“Probably followed Boris to the hospital,” he answered, then kicked Tiny Dancer and rode her into the stable.

“We should try to help in some way. Maybe we should check to see if the cows need milkin’ again?”

I wasn’t sure how often cows were milked, but I assumed if they produced milk like women did, they’d need to be emptied several times a day.

“Cows have been milked,” Brantley murmured as he kicked Harriet and followed Troy into the stable.

I scanned the yard, looking for a way to help, and noticed a five-gallon bucket sitting in front of an outbuilding that housed livestock. It looked to be full of food.

“Look,” I said, pointing to the bucket. “I bet someone was in the middle of feedin’ animals and never finished.”

As we approached, I heard the distinct sound of pigs.

Poppy turned toward the pen and scrunched her nose. “Should we feed them?”

I scanned the pen. The trough was situated in the middle, which meant I’d have to enter it. Thankfully, the pigs were sunning themselves, oblivious to the world as they cooked their skin, so I figured it would be easy to get in and out.

“Yeah. Get the gate, and I’ll pour this in the trough.”

Poppy unlatched the wooden gate and opened it wide for me to enter. The bucket was heavier than it looked. I struggled with it, dragging it between my legs. Halfway to the trough, the bucket caught on something, causing my feet to slip out from underneath me. With an, “Oh, fudge,” I fell to my knees, sinking into the muck and mud. Unfortunately, the racket I made when I fell caused the pigs to jump up, and they began heading for me, snorting and squealing as they came. That’s when the melee began. One minute I was on the ground, trying to stand as the wet muck squished between my fingers, and the next I was knocked to the ground as the pigs raced for the open gate.

“Close the gate,” I cried out.

Poppy managed to slam it closed before any escaped, trapping both of us inside the pen. I tried to stand to avoid the feeding frenzy, but each attempt found me on my knees again as one of the pink behemoths knocked me down like a prize fighter. Poppy joined in the fray then, tugging on my arm to help me to my feet, but she got sandwiched between two pigs and lost her own footing, face planting in the wet, muddy earth.

I scrambled to her on all fours before she was crushed, then we used the other for balance and stood, moving quickly out of the pigs’ way.

“Water,” I cried out when I got a good look at Poppy. “We need lots and lots of water.”

We were a disgusting mess. Mud was in our hair, pig droppings were squished into our shirts like fecal art, and the smell was beyond horrendous.

Poppy turned her head and looked at the small lake bordering the property. “Follow me,” she bit out.

We climbed over the gate, rather than risk the pigs escaping, and made our way toward the lake. Troy and Brantley walked out of the stables as we passed by, and stopped dead in their tracks. They scanned us from head to toe, both wearing incredulous looks.

“We only left you alone for five minutes,” Troy said, shocked.

“You mean Bo didn’t tell you I’m capable of causin’ a world war in less than a minute?” I snapped, flinging mud from my hands at the two men. “We’re headed to the lake to delouse, unless that’s also against Bo’s rules?”

Both men were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

When we reached the small lake, I kicked off my boots and dove in. My shirt was already ruined from the raspberry bush, but my jeans might be salvaged if I washed them a hundred times.

“I’m pretty sure I got some in my mouth,” Poppy whined. “If I die from pig poo poisonin’, I’m gonna come back and haunt you.”

Thankfully, the water was cool, which improved my mood by a half-degree, but I had no doubt a scalding shower was required to fully rid us both of the horrors we’d just endured.

“This is all Bo’s fault,” I groused. “I’m not sure how it is, but after a shower and a good slug of green magic fairy potion, I’ll figure out how.”

“Do we have any?” Poppy asked. “I’m open to forgettin’ the last twenty minutes.”

“I picked some up on the way home from Cali’s,” I grinned. “I was in need of forgettin’ a certain gray-eyed cop.”

“Speakin’ of Bo . . .” Poppy said, as she tried to scrub her face clean. “Explain to me why you have reservations? Because yesterday, he made your heart race, your legs weak, and your breath leave your lungs.”

I leaned back into the water and began to float, moving my arms and legs slowly to keep from sinking, and then asked Poppy a question rather than answering hers.

“If you met a man who reminded you of your father, would that keep you from datin’ him?”

Poppy submerged for a moment, then broke the surface sputtering. “My father abandoned me when I was a baby,” she answered, wiping water from her eyes. “If I met a man who would walk out on his kid, I’d run as fast as I could in the opposite direction.”

“So you’re sayin’ if a man reminded you of your father, he would never make the cut?”

“I just said that,” she mumbled before dunking her head and shaking her hair from side to side to rid it of mud.

I stopped treading water and let my body sink to the bottom like a rock, symbolic of my dashed dreams that I could have something special with Bo. I couldn’t risk my heart. I was certain he would eventually get tired of the comparison and move on, just like my father had.

I could hold my breath for well over a minute without needing air, but I must have stayed under the water longer than Poppy was comfortable with, because she grabbed my arms and pulled me to the surface.

“Are you Aquawoman or somethin’?” Poppy chuckled.

“Somethin’ like that,” I gasped, filling my lungs with air.

“You’re also the Queen of Avoidance,” she stated pointedly. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you avoided answerin’ my question about Bo.”

I groaned and started swimming toward the bank.

“Jeez, Sienna. How bad could it be?” Poppy called out as I crawled up the rocky bank. My jeans were waterlogged, making it hard to walk, so I peeled them off and began to wring them out.

“You’ve got an audience,” Poppy called out, pointing over my shoulder.

I turned and found Troy and Brantley standing at the edge of the meadow leading to the lake. They were watching us like the secret service stood guard over the president.

Guess they took Bo’s threat seriously.

“They’re far enough away, and my shirt hangs over my panties. I’ll put my jeans back on after I wring the water out.”

Poppy pulled herself out of the water, dropped to her back, raising her hand to block the sun from her eyes before pressing me for more information.

“Spill,” she said. “What’s the problem with Bo?”

The problem with Bo? He’s everything I want in a man, and I’m afraid I can’t have him.

“I remind him of his mother.”

Poppy turned on her side and rested her head in her hand. “I’m sensing this is a bad thing?”

“It isn’t unless you throw in the fact that she walked out on him when he was ten because she was addicted to drugs and then overdosed and died.”

Poppy blinked.

“Oh, my God. His mother died from a drug overdose?”

“Yeah. Can you fathom losin’ your mother so young?” I said, imagining a little Bo crying for his mother. I felt my bottom lip begin to tremble, so I turned hoping Poppy wouldn’t notice. “And to lose her to a drug addiction makes it even worse.”

Poppy didn’t answer, so I took a deep breath to calm my emotions and turned back to her. She was staring at the ground, her forehead drawn in a taut line.

“What’s wrong?”

“You said Bo was a jerk because you reminded him of his mother,” she snapped. “How could he think you would ever leave your son?” she cried out, incensed on my behalf.

I sighed, then dropped to my knees and sat down next to her. “He didn’t mean that. He said somethin’ about her being headstrong like I am. I got the impression I reminded him of her in spirit, but that was all.”

She nodded. “So I take it the obstacle you’re concerned about is the comparison?”

I slowly nodded, then reached out and grabbed a wildflower that was growing near the shore, mumbling, “That . . . and somethin’ else.”

“What?”

I turned and looked at Poppy, but said nothing at first. I’d been lying to her for the past two years. Lying about my experience with men. I was still a virgin, and she didn’t know. I don’t know why I was embarrassed to admit I’d saved myself for Chase, other than the obvious—I’d been stupid. Stupid to put all my hopes and dreams in the hands of that douche canoe. But now I was faced with a decision. I had to tell her the truth, so she could help me decide.

Stalling for time, I began pulling the petals off a daisy-shaped flower, silently chanting; he loves me, he loves me not.

I ran out of petals on he loves me not.

“Sienna?”

I rolled my head, trying to find the courage to admit how big a fool I’d been.

“I was a virgin when I went off to college,” I began. Confusion clouded her eyes, so I rushed through my explanation. “I had a romantic dream about saving myself for my husband, and then I met Chase. So . . .”

If it was possible, I swear her expression became more confused.

“Poppy, I’ve spent the last five years either obsessed with him or ruing the day I met him. Don’t you get it? I’m still a virgin.”

Her eyes grew wider, and she stared back at me for a moment before her face softened.

“I’m not afraid of having sex. Believe me; sometimes it’s all I think about.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

Lord, she’s gonna think I’m stupid.

“You promise not to laugh?”

Poppy sat up and crossed her heart. “Tell me.”

“When I started reading historical romance in high school, one of the things I loved about them was how a woman’s virginity was a gift to her husband. It meant that she belonged to him, and no one else. When Chase got engaged, I told myself to just sleep with a random guy and get it over with, but the one time I tried, I couldn’t do it. I realized I still wanted to wait until I found the guy I would spend the rest of my life with, and that hasn’t changed.”

“And you’re unsure about Bo, so you don’t want to sleep with him?”

“How can I not be? You said yourself that you’d run in the opposite direction if you met a man who reminded you of your father. If I took a chance on him, and he changed his mind, I’d not only lose my heart, but a gift I can never get back.”

Poppy stood up and started pacing in circles. “I need to think about this,” she mumbled.

She worried at her lip as she concentrated on my situation. After a few minutes, I got dizzy watching her pace, so I stretched out on the soft grass and focused on the gossamer clouds moving slowly across the sky.

“What does your heart tell you about Bo?” Poppy asked, kicking my shoulder to gain my attention.

I squinted up at her. “My heart wants me to rip off his clothes and vow my undying love. It also says that if his mother wasn’t an issue, I’d have to give up my Wallflower membership because I’d no longer need it. But how do I risk my heart when so much is on the line?”

She rolled her eyes. “Sienna, we’ve already been through this with Cali. You even pointed out to her that you can’t hide from heartache. Guarding your heart is not an excuse not to explore things with Bo, and you know it.”

Lord, I hate when my own words come back to bite me in the ass.

“However, losing your virginity to Bo is a big deal. You can’t give it away unless he’s the right man.”

“So what do I do?”

“You don’t have a choice. You have to tell Bo that you can’t have sex with him until you’re sure he won’t turn tail and run.”

“I’d rather join a nunnery.”

“You already live in a self-imposed nunnery,” she returned. “And they’d throw you out when they saw your Helena Hunting collection.”

“Her hockey players are hot,” I defended. “Five minutes with Randy Balls and a vibrator keeps me warm at night.”

“You’re a sad little hymen lover,” she sighed. “We need to determine if Bo is your Wyatt slash Iain.”

“But how do I do that?”

“He needs to prove to you that you can trust him.”

“Okay, but how do I do that?”

“By his actions, I suppose. He needs to prove to you that he will put you above all others. Even himself. Prove that he would, I don’t know, jump in front of a bullet for you if need be.”

A tingle ran up my spine. “Or jump from a ledge, risking bodily harm, to rescue me from a tree?”

A smile pulled across her mouth. “Or risk his job as a cop to threaten an asshole who was gonna get you drunk and have his way with you?”

I stood up, my heart pounding out a beat of hope. “He’s already proven himself, hasn’t he?”

The crunch of tires caught my attention, so I turned around. It was Bo. He’d returned in the Bullwinkle Jeep alone.

“He’s back,” I cried out. “What do I do?”

“What do you want to do?” Poppy asked.

“Rip off his clothes and vow my undying love,” I answered and began walking toward the Jeep.

“Sienna?” Poppy called out.

I turned and looked at her.

“You’re not wearin’ any pants.”

 

 

It had been two hours since Bo left Sienna. Two hours he figured she’d had to twist his admission about his mother into a reason to keep her distance. He would squash that idea the minute he saw her if she had. He wasn’t letting her walk away from him. Not after he’d kissed her and the storm clouds shadowing his bleak life had lifted, shining a ray of light on his gray existence. She was his sun on a dark night, and she belonged to him now, whether she understood it or not.

Bo made the final turn into the ranch and came to a stop outside the main house. Troy and the other man he’d left in charge of returning the Wallflowers to the ranch were standing at the edge of the meadow watching something. Bo peeled out of the Jeep and started to head inside the house when he caught a glimpse of blond hair the color of spun gold, in the distance. He squinted his eyes against the sun until Sienna came into focus, and his lungs froze. She was bent at the waist trying to pull her jeans up, and the soft blue color of her panties glistened in the sun like a bull’s eye for any man to see.

Bo’s eyes shot to the ranch hands, and his legs began moving in their direction. When he was five feet away, he barked out in a low growl, “Eyes off her ass.”

Both men went rigid in their boots, turned their backs on his woman, and walked away without a word. Bo tracked them with his eyes for a moment, then they shot back to Sienna who had managed to pull one leg up to her knee while she bounced around on one foot. He started moving again as a smile pulled across his mouth. She’d fallen in an attempt to right her clothes, landing in the water. She was now facing him with eyes the width of saucers because he’d pulled the T-shirt from his body as he walked toward her.

It was clear they’d been swimming in the lake, and right now the idea of cold water appealed to him. He would pull her in with him so she couldn’t run, and get down to the matter at hand. She was his. He was hers. But more importantly, she needed to keep her fucking pants on unless she was alone with him.

He stopped a few feet short of Sienna and unbuckled his belt. She said nothing as she watched him slide the zipper down and then kick off his boots. Before pulling his jeans off, he turned to Poppy, who was standing still as a statue with her mouth hanging open, and said, “I go commando.” Sienna gasped at his admission, and Poppy turned tail and headed for the house on quick feet.

Turning back to Sienna, he grinned. She’d thrown her hands over her eyes but was peeking out between two fingers.

“You’re gonna skinny-dip in broad daylight,” she squeaked out.

Bo dropped his jeans and stepped out of them, walked into the water, and picked her up, then kept walking until it was deep enough to submerge them both. As they broke the surface, he wrapped her legs around his waist, then covered her mouth with his. Despite the temperature of the water, he was instantly hard.

Her tongue danced with his, heating his blood as he ran his hands over her firm ass. Needing to feel her soft skin, he pushed one leg of her panties aside and kneaded the muscle as he deepened their kiss. Sienna responded to his touch instantly, melting into him further until no distance remained between them.

Ripping his mouth from hers, Bo buried his face in her neck and let her sun wrap around him like a warm blanket. “Never felt this before. Never felt this at peace,” he mumbled, tracing the lobe of her ear with his tongue. “Swear to Christ, I won’t fuck this up. You’re nothin’ like my mother, baby. Nothin’. You scared the shit out of me, is all, and I used the comparison as a poor excuse to keep my distance.”

“I believe you,” she whispered. “I’ve had time to think and I realized you’ve already proven yourself to me. With Chase. Coming all the way out here to apologize. I don’t know another man who would go through that much trouble if his heart wasn’t pure.”

“Jesus,” Bo mumbled, tugging her hair back so he could see her face. Her eyes sparkled in the sun. Her sun, Bo thought. “Are you a dream?”

Her mouth pulled into a sexy grin. “Yes. I’m a figment of your imagination,” she teased.

“Then I never want to wake up,” Bo said low, pressing his forehead to hers.

“Tell me about your mother,” Sienna asked, running a cool hand down the side of his face. “She must have had some good qualities to produce a man like you.”

Bo squeezed his eyes shut. He never spoke about his mother. “I told you she had a voice like an angel,” he answered. “I remember she would sing while she tucked me into bed.”

“Do you remember the song?”

“‘Your Song’ by Elton John,” he said, thinking back on how his mother would softly sing as she tucked the covers around his body to make sure he felt safe. “It’s the only thing about her I can remember clearly. Her angelic voice.”

Sienna’s eyes softened, and her bottom lip began to tremble. He looked away to avoid seeing any pity she might feel, but he looked back when Sienna began to sing Elton John’s ballad in a broken voice. He couldn’t take the reminder of his past, so he crushed his mouth over hers, silencing the bittersweet memory.

Sienna’s body began to tremble as he devoured her mouth, reminding him that the water was cold. “Let’s get you into dry clothes,” Bo muttered when she buried her face in his neck and held on tight.

“Tell me about Boris,” Sienna asked as he began swimming for the shore.

“He’s in ICU. He needs a heart bypass.”

She pulled her face out of his neck, turning worried eyes toward his. “Do you think he will live?”

“He’s got as good a chance as anyone,” Bo stated.

When he reached the bank, Sienna unwrapped her legs and slid down his body until she was standing in front of him. Her hands were braced on his chest, but her eyes were diverted over his shoulder. Bo grinned. His Wallflower was embarrassed to look at his naked body.

“Bo?” Sienna said, swallowing hard before continuing. “There’s somethin’ I need to tell you before we go any further.”

He could see a pink blush spreading across her face, so he raised his hand and tipped her head back until he had her eyes. “You can tell me anything,” he murmured, leaning down to brush a kiss across her mouth.

“I have towels!” Poppy shouted, interrupting them.

Bo looked over Sienna’s shoulder to find her walking toward them. Sienna gasped and turned in his arms, throwing her arms out to shield him from her friend. Bo chuckled low in his throat at Sienna’s reaction, which reminded him they needed to have a talk. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, Bo pulled Sienna into his body and leaned down, whispering, “Love the color of your panties, baby, but so did the rest of the ranch. Keep your pants on unless you’re alone with me from now on.”

Sienna froze, then nodded. Poppy must have taken the action to mean come closer, because she kept moving toward them both.

“Stop!” Sienna shouted. “Drop them by his clothes and leave. He isn’t decent.”

Poppy threw her hands up and covered her eyes. “I thought he was jokin’ about the commando thing.”

“Well, he wasn’t.”

Poppy tossed a towel to Sienna and then turned her back. “Cover him. I want to know about Boris.”

Sienna handed the towel over her shoulder, still avoiding his body, so Bo took it and wrapped it around his waist. “I’m decent now,” he rumbled low. “Let’s head to the house and take a shower, then we can talk about Boris.”

“Is he alive?” Poppy asked.

“He is, but he needs surgery,” he responded, grabbing the extra towel from Poppy and wrapping it around Sienna so she was covered from her chest to below the knee.

“How is Natasha holdin’ up?” Sienna asked.

“She won’t leave his side. I promised you ladies would bring her clothes to the hospital.”

“What about the ranch? Can their son come here and run it for them while Boris is ill?”

Bo picked up their clothes and boots, then wrapped his arm around Sienna’s shoulder and began heading toward the ranch house. “That’s what we need to talk about. The son lives in China. He’s an investment banker, not a rancher like his dad.”

“So he’s not comin’ to see his father?” Poppy asked.

Bo gritted his teeth and shook his head.

“Asshat,” Sienna spit out.

“Boris’ surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Natasha won’t leave until she knows he’s gonna live, so she needs someone to oversee things for her while she’s away.”

“We could do it,” Poppy jumped in. “We were plannin’ on bein’ here ‘til Saturday anyway.”

Bo nodded. “I told her you’d say that. If you ladies could handle the meals, I’ll make sure the men get their work done.”

“Did the other workers come back with you?” Sienna asked, looking around the yard as they walked up.

Bo’s brow creased. “Come back with me? They were here when we left. There was an ambulance waitin’ for us when we arrived back, and I drove Natasha to the hospital.” Bo searched the compound until he saw Troy. He put his tongue to his teeth and whistled. Troy turned and started walking in their direction.

“Get inside, baby. Take a shower.”

He expected Sienna to argue, but she shocked him and dashed up the steps with Poppy in her wake.

“About earlier,” Troy said as he walked up.

Bo raised his hand and cut the man off. “Save it. Just keep your eyes off my woman, and we’ll have no problems.”

Troy jerked his head in agreement, and Bo let it go. He needed information, not a battle on his hands.

“How’s Boris?”

“He’s alive for now. He needs a bypass.”

“He’s a stubborn man. He’ll live,” Troy stated.

Bo nodded in agreement. “Where are the other workers?”

Troy looked confused, then scanned the yard. “I thought they followed you?”

“No one came with me but Natasha. Could they be out with the cattle?”

He shook his head. “Brantley and I handle the cattle with Boris. The other men are seasonal.”

Bo rubbed his hands across his face as fatigue from the past week set in. “So they hightailed it out of here when they thought the old man was dead. Probably moved on to the next job. How many men do you normally hire on during the spring and summer?”

Troy thought for a moment. “Four, maybe five. If we had men with strong backs and good work ethic, we could get away with two, maybe three.”

Bo dug his phone out of his jeans. “You’ve got me, and a man whose back is as broad as a barn and doesn’t quit. Is that enough for a few days until Natasha can get Boris settled and hire some new men?”

“Can this man ride? We need to bring the cattle down tomorrow. There’s a storm comin’ in sooner than we expected, and we need them in the lower pasture where we can keep an eye on them.”

“If he can’t, I’ll teach him,” Bo stated, opening his phone and hitting ‘Call Devin.’

“You ride like you grew up on a ranch,” Troy said.

Bo put the phone to his ear and answered. “I did. My dad was a rancher.”

“Is he still raising cattle?”

Bo shook his head. “Died when I was nineteen.”

Devin’s deep timbre cut across the line, pulling Bo from his thoughts about his father. The man never recovered from his mother’s death and ended up drinking himself into a coma he never woke up from.

“You find her?”

“Yeah. Can you ride a horse?”

“I grew up in the country, what do you think?”

“I think you need to get your ass up here and help me bring in the herd, is what I think.”

There was a pause, and then Devin began to chuckle. “They landed in a mess, didn’t they?”

“Not of their own doin’. But yeah, I need your help.”

“I’ll be there in a few hours,” was Devin’s only response before the line went dead.

“He’ll be here by tonight,” Bo informed Troy.

“Appreciate the help,” Troy mumbled, then turned to leave. He made it two steps before he turned back to Bo. “Just so you know, your woman . . . she’s not stubborn, she’s all bluster.”

Bo raised a brow.

“She doesn’t disobey like you think; she’s like a dog that growls when you try to pet her, and continues to growl while she rolls on her back to submit. She doesn’t want to appear weak. I got a friend who’s the same way. Her parents praised her brother and showed her little attention. She came across as bull-headed, but the minute she met a man who respected her, she turned into a kitten.”

“A kitten?” Bo asked in disbelief.

“More like a tigress, but the right man can tame the wildest of cats. Just ask Boris when he recovers,” Troy chuckled, then jerked his head and left.

Bo smiled. He liked the idea of Sienna curled up in his lap like a kitten waiting to be petted.

Looking around the yard for a moment, Bo felt the familiar tug that comes with being in the country around livestock. Ranching was in his blood, but he’d turned his back on it in favor of law enforcement, just like his mother had turned her back on it. He figured he had a bit of his mother in him after all. She’d hated being isolated on the ranch and went out in search of excitement that didn’t have to do with bulls and heifers. He had washed his hands of that life for two reasons: to gain the structure he needed after a childhood full of chaos, and to forget his past.

He knew you couldn’t run from your past; it eventually caught up with you, and you had to face it head-on. Distancing himself had worked for a while, but falling for Sienna—a woman who looked like his mother—and now spending time on a ranch had brought him full circle. Facing them both was like playing chicken with a Mack truck . . . on a horse.

He looked up at the house and started climbing the steps. Knowing Sienna was inside quickened his steps and strengthened his resolve. He may be on a horse facing down a Mack truck, but he felt like he could leap any obstacle as long as Sienna’s brand of sun kept shining down on him.