Walker gripped the wheel of the Escalade in frustration as he turned onto Roman Ranch. He’d had a shitty day in Baton Rouge, working at the recruitment center there. So he’d decided to head back after lunch and do the rest of the stuff he had to do from home.

It was more to save the other guys at the recruitment center from Walker's sour mood than anything else. It wasn't their fault he was in a bad mood.

One of the guys he’d recruited had been injured on duty. Although no one could tell him the exact extent of the injuries yet, it was bad enough that he’d received three operations over the course of two days. Walker was stressed and worried about the kid. There was no way that hanging out in Baton Rouge was going to make him feel better.

He sighed as he pulled up to his house, welcoming lights bathing the immediate surroundings in a warm glow. An unbidden grin sprung to his lips.

That was another part of his frustration.

He and Ashleigh had settled into a comfortable routine over the last near fortnight. The furniture that she had spent days choosing and ordering online had started arriving a couple of days ago.

Despite himself, he’d been surprised at how perfectly she had chosen. The style of furniture matched the design and finishings of the house to a tee. She’d been giddy with excitement to show him her purchases every afternoon when he’d come home from work. She'd asked for his opinion, arguing her own view with almost childlike glee.

He’d installed several food- and recipe-related apps on her phone as promised. She’d thrown herself into experimenting in the kitchen with an equal measure of dedication, just as she had with the furniture. She spent her days poring over her phone and reciting her latest ideas to him in the evenings. Inevitably on the following night, whichever idea he’d been most taken with would be on the table.

She was up each morning to make him breakfast in those ridiculously sexy short shorts and tank tops she slept in. She made sure to stuff his lunch in his hands before he left. It was all very domesticated, but not in an overbearing or uncomfortable way. There was no guilt, which was surprising.

Then again, there were no genuine romantic feelings between them. He wouldn't let them grow. Things would be better that way, in the long run.

She was really starting to come into her own. She became more comfortable as the days passed, that much was obvious just by looking at her.

While he’d been physically attracted to her from the get-go, his attraction to her was becoming a real pain in the ass. Well, not ass... it was a different appendage altogether that was becoming more difficult to control.

Try as he might, he found himself with a growing problem in his pants more and more.

Meanwhile, when she flitted about the house, sighed sleepily, or accidentally brushed up against him in bed...  

Every single time, he got hard as a rock. There was a definite pattern developing, and he had no fuckin’ idea what to do about it. 

One thing was for sure. He couldn’t ever act on it. Hell, he felt guilty for even thinking about it. 

Not only because he’d promised her she’d be safe with him. He'd said that she was worth more than just her body to him. But also because he felt like he was betraying his fiancée...

Fuck, it wasn't like he’d been entirely celibate since Jenny's death, but he’d kept things casual. Occasionally he found solace in a warm body for a night. But he never took things further than that.

Hell, he never even kissed the women he slept with if he could help it.

Now here he was, sharing a bed with a beautiful, sexy woman that he couldn’t touch. He wouldn’t ‘cheat on’ Ashleigh either. If anyone found out about this whole arrangement, he would be fucked... 

And then there was the fact that he didn’t really want anyone else anyway. His body craved hers in a way that it shouldn’t. It wasn't his fault that he didn’t react the same to any other girls, though.

You’re an asshole, Roman! Don’t let being horny fuck this up for you, the voice in his head ordered every day. So here he was, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Literally.

Since he couldn't touch Ashleigh, he'd reverted to self-pleasure in an attempt to ease his frustration. It had worked, at least in the short term...

But in a long-term sense, he had no idea what the hell he was going to do.

He tried to clear his mind, shaking his head at himself. He turned off the Escalade, gathered his laptop bag, and headed inside. 

He expected to find her making a mess of the kitchen. She would be trying out some new recipe, or making notes from the apps on her phone at the dining room table of things she’d like to try.

Counter to expectations, though, there was no one in the kitchen.

He stilled, honing his senses. He made a quick assessment of the two empty mugs on the dining room table and the half-eaten plate of chocolate chip cookies. He listened hard, and he was able to hear a stifled sob coming from their bedroom.

He bolted down the hallway. He threw open the bedroom door, not thinking for a second to knock or even make sure she was clothed first. 

He found her hunched over on the bed. Dressed, mercifully, but bawling her eyes out.

What the fuck? 

He tried replaying this morning in his mind. There was nothing he could think of that he’d done to bring this on. She still didn’t really spend time with anyone else unless he was there... but then he remembered the mugs and cookies. Someone else was responsible for this.

His fists clenched, and he felt rage starting to burn up his throat at whoever that person might have been. He pushed it down, but it was very much simmering just beneath the surface. He sat down on the bed next to her, hugging her close to him.

"It's okay, sweetheart," he murmured in what he hoped was a soothing tone.

She didn't respond, though her crying did quiet a little.

He really didn't know what more to do, or how to find out who or what had caused this. He cleared his throat and went with the first thing that popped into his head.

It was a universal truth, he thought, that no man is comfortable around -- or really has any fucking idea what to do with -- a sobbing woman. He was certainly no exception to that rule. He rolled his eyes at himself, but was too worried to give it any more thought at that moment.

“What’s wrong, Ashleigh? Talk to me, darlin’. What’s going on?” He still held her against his chest, willing her to calm down against his steady heartbeat.

No such luck, though. His voice seemed to bring on a fresh bout of sobs.

"Come on, just tell me what happened," he urged her.

“Nothing,” she stammered. “It’s… I’m being silly.” 

Maybe it's hormones? Walker wondered. 

He remembered how emotional his fiancée could get when that time of the month came... but those two mugs convinced him otherwise. Far as he knew, you didn’t have coffee and cookies with your hormones.

“Come on, Ash.” He stroked her hair lightly and reached to tip her chin up gently toward him. “Who was here? What did they do?”

Her eyes were swollen and rimmed with red, and she looked miserable. All the light that had started creeping into her eyes over the last couple of weeks had been swept away by whatever had happened.

He felt the anger bubble up again. 

Fuck! Whoever was responsible for this was a dead man walking. 

He’d worked so hard to make her happy. She had to like it here. She had to stay. They’d come too far for her to walk away now, just because someone else had stuck their nose into his business.

Something in his eyes caused her to sniff delicately, hesitating before she mumbled an answer. “Pastor Jim stopped by for a visit.”

Jim? 

His fury was quickly replaced with confusion. The town pastor had been a friend of his since childhood. Jim was the only person that Walker had opened up to even a bit about his fiancée. 

What had Jim done to elicit this response in Ashleigh? He was a kind man. Jim had found his calling early on and cared deeply for his community. 

And yet, he’d come for a visit and whatever he’d said had obliterated the happiness in Ashleigh’s eyes.

“What did he do, Ash? What happened?”

“I, uh, I think he sensed something was off about me.” 

The sobs had subsided as she took a deep breath, but tears were still welling up in her eyes. He could see her fighting to hold them back.

“He started asking all kinds of questions about us. About my past. He kept hammering on my parents, on where I’d come from...” She took another big gulp of air. “He got all up in my face about it, shaking his finger at me. He was telling me about how lying was a sin. He said that if I was a gold digger here to mess with you, I had no idea of the eternal damnation I would face.”

What? Jim said that? I’d heard from some other people in town that he’d become a bit melodramatic after his wife’s last miscarriage, but this is nothing short of ludicrous.

“I’m so sorry, Ash. I’ll talk to him, okay? I’ve known him a long time. Maybe he’s just taken aback by all this. This isn’t your fault, okay darlin’? You’re not lying to me, you’re not messing with me...” 

He tried to think of ways he could reassure her that Jim was full of shit. Jim had no idea what was going on between them.

“Then he mentioned Shelby River. He told me that you were meant to be with her, and that everybody knows it.”

Walker groaned. Shelby River, the little rumor that could. It wasn’t her fault, he knew that. The townspeople had decided a long time ago that he and Shelby were fated for one another. It wasn't her fault that somehow the rumor mill kept going.

“Oh, no. God, Ashleigh. There’s nothing going on between me and Shelby. It’s just a rumor that won’t die down. I swear it.”

She’d already broken down crying again though. So he pulled her back against him. He whispered about how he’d never had any feelings for Shelby. He told her how she did nothing for him, how sorry he was that he’d brought her here. He said he wished he had set the record straight once and for all.

He crushed her delicate body closer to his, trying to absorb the hurt he’d unwittingly caused her. He wished he’d been there earlier to shield her from Pastor Jim’s words. He could've protected her from the vicious rumors that she’d had to find out about from a stranger. A stranger who’d tried to pry her deepest secrets from her in her own home.

As her body stilled and the tears subsided, he realized that at some point, he’d pulled her completely onto his lap. Her delectable ass was now squarely on his cock. Her tits were pressed firmly to his, her strawberry scent infiltrating his nostrils. He felt his heart speed up just as he noticed her breathing becoming more rapid.

A fact which had not gone unnoticed by his traitorous cock. It was now starting to make his feelings on the matter quite clear. 

Not now, he ordered it, to absolutely no avail.

She peeked up at him, finally pulling her face from the crook of his neck. He saw the same heat radiating in her eyes that must be present in his own. She moved one leg slightly, causing him to groan as it brushed against him.

Her full lips parted as her eyes drank in his expression. The air around them felt like it was sparking from the tension between them. It made the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

Focus, Roman! he snapped at himself. His earlier frustration at his inability to remain unaffected by her crashed over him.

“You want to go for a ride?” he asked. Then he realized how that must’ve sounded as she cocked an eyebrow at him, a small smile on playing on her lips.

“On a horse. Would you like to go for a horseback ride?” he immediately clarified.

Real smooth, Roman.

Damn. Where the hell was his game? Not that he intended on using it on her. Still, it would be nice to know it hadn’t run off and died in a corner somewhere. 

An unnamed emotion flickered in her eyes before she quickly scampered off his lap. She scooted over to the other side of the bed.

Well done, genius. Now you’ve scared her.

“Uh, okay,” she said softly, not meeting his eyes. “I’ve never done it before, though. So it might be slow going.”

She shot him a small smile, only meeting his eyes for a moment. He wondered if she realized that her words were as much of a cocktease as anything. She hopped off the bed and headed to the walk-in closet.