Naked Hunger: Naked Cowboys, Book 8 (10 page)

“
Sonny
said that?” Georgie’s brows rose to her hairline. “Does he know it’s not his ranch?”

Sable gave a short little laugh. “I’m not sure. He told me he’s been making sure she get exercised and I shouldn’t jump into anything. He’s convinced Ryan will come around.” She rubbed her forehead. “I think he’s been drinking funny juice.”

“This will settle,” Georgie assured her. “I believe it.”

“If things don’t pick up, I’ll have to sell and probably at a loss. Take a job working for someone else again.”

“The girls and I have been discussing this. We won’t let that happen. I promise.”

Sable shook her head. “And exactly how do you intend to go about it?”

At that exact moment, her phone rang. The readout said the number belonged to Stark Ranch.

“Reenie?” She frowned. “Why are you calling me on the ranch’s landline?”

“This isn’t Reenie,” a male voice said. “It’s Matt Stark.”

“Matt?” What the hell? “Is Reenie okay?”

“Reenie is fine. I’m calling on business. It’s time for the horses to be inoculated. Can you make it out here tomorrow?”

Sable stared at the phone as if it had grown horns. “You want
me
to do it? The incompetent vet?”

“I heard someone had started a rumor like that, but I chalked it up to idiocy. Pete Lynch believed in you, so that’s good enough for me. Now what time can you be here?”

She hung up after setting the appointment with Matt and gaped at Georgie. “That was Matt. He wanted—”

But the phone rang again before she could finish her sentence. Before another fifteen minutes had passed, she also had appointments at the Montgomery Ranch, at Mac McDaniels’s to check out the two horses he had arriving in two days and at the ranch a mile down the road from the Montgomerys. The phone rang three more times before she could hang up and take a breath.

She looked at Georgie, who was grinning like a fool.

“Told ya,” she said, and winked.

“B-But how—? What—?” She shook her head as if to clear it. “I can understand Matt and Buck. Their wives probably put them up to it. But these other people are still strangers to me. What’s going on here?”

Georgie reached down into her tote and pulled out yesterday’s copy of the
Hill Country Herald.
Sable hadn’t been able to bring herself to read it. Now, she took the paper, unfolded it and—holy shit! She nearly swallowed her tongue. On the front page, above the centerfold, was the picture Jinx Cross had had her photographer take when Sable had been inoculating cattle at the Triple T Ranch. And with it was an article written by Jinx, the publisher herself, about Rowan county’s hot new vet and her experience and credentials.

Sable just stared. “But—but this is unbelievable.”

“It’s no more than you deserve,” Georgie told her. “And if we didn’t think you were the best, we wouldn’t be doing this. Believe me.”

Sable felt tears burning her eyelids and she could hardly swallow past the lump in her throat. Friends like this were rare and precious. She just counted her blessings that something had drawn her to Pete Lynch’s ad in the paper, that she had come here and made the deal with him, and that she had fallen into such a circle of friends.

“Jinx has been fielding calls since the paper came out,” Georgie went on, “answering questions about you and about Ryan’s rumor. Because that’s what it is. A mean rumor.”

“I still can’t believe he did it.” Sable rubbed her forehead. “He was so angry, Georgie. And mean. And ugly about it.”

“I think he was terrified what could have happened and he didn’t stop to think. But that’s no excuse for everything he’s done since then.”

“I wonder if he’ll ever realize it wasn’t me that let the bull out.”

Georgie’s lips ticked up in a wicked smile. “Oh, I think someone might point that out to him. Meanwhile, you have animals to tend to, so let’s get your stuff together. Can I watch you inoculate the horses?”

Sable laughed, her first in two weeks. “It’s not like running a B&B, but if you want to, sure.”

* * * * *

Ryan slouched on a bench in the barn opposite the stalls holding Brutus and Red Danger. The headache he’d been nursing for two weeks still throbbed with a dull ache. He wasn’t eating well or sleeping well, and his hands gave him a wide berth. Sonny, his foreman, was the only one brave enough to tell him he was driving everyone crazy.

“You worried about the woman or the bull?” he asked now, standing in front of his boss.

“Not the damn woman,” he growled, although that was a damn lie. The look on her face when he’d confronted her at the clinic still haunted his dreams. When he got to sleep, that is. She’d looked so stunned that for a sickening moment he’d wondered if he’d made a mistake. No, he kept telling himself, she was the only one who’d been out there alone with Red Danger. Maybe she’d fiddled with the latch. Maybe she’d bumped the pasture gate so it had opened. He wasn’t exactly sure logistically how it had happened. The only thing he
was
sure of was she had been the only one who could have been responsible.

“Well,” Sonny drawled, “you’re actin’ worse than either of these bulls with a burr up their ass. Get over yourself. Be done with it.”

Ryan would have answered him, but he was distracted by the sound of boot heels clicking on the concrete of the barn floor. He looked up to see Cade Hannigan striding down the aisle, looking like a man on a mission. He wondered what this was about. He and Cade had become friends when Ryan had first come to Saddle Wells and stayed at the Butterfly until he’d moved to the ranch. He spent a fair amount of his free time with Georgie and Cade. But the man didn’t look too friendly right now.

“Morning.” Cade nodded to Sonny.

“Howdy, Mr. Hannigan.” Sonny looked at Ryan. “I need to get the boys organized to move the rest of those cows this afternoon. The fence line needs to be checked once more.” He touched the brim of his hat and moved away.

“Let’s go up to the house and get some coffee,” Ryan said, pushing himself to his feet. “Then you can tell me what brought you out here this morning.”

“I’ve got a little gossip for you,” Cade said when they were seated in the kitchen with full mugs.

“Yeah?” Ryan took a healthy swallow of the hot liquid. “Since when did you join the ladies’ sewing circle?”

“Ha-ha. Very funny.” Cade took a sip of his own coffee. “I actually got this from someone who heard it at the Rusty Nickel over in the next county.”

Ryan lifted his eyebrows. “I didn’t think that was part of your social calendar, Cade.”

“Not me, you dumbass. Someone heard it and passed it along to me. And if you want to know what it is, you can stop with the smart remarks for a few minutes.”

“Sorry. Just goes with my mood these days.”

“Well, that mood isn’t going to improve when you hear what I have to say.” He took a fortifying swallow of coffee. “You got a hand here named Manny something?”

A prickle of unease made its way up Ryan’s back. “Manny Valdez. Why?”

“Apparently, he got loaded Saturday night over at that dive and bragged to anyone who’d listen how he got over on you.”

Now Ryan’s apprehension spread to the rest of his body. “Got over on me? Exactly how the fuck does he think he did that?”

“It seems that Manny is a little pissed off at you because you don’t think he can handle your prize bulls very well. You don’t give him, as he says, enough respect. Long story short, he’s the one that nearly cost you Red Danger. And he set it up so Sable would be the one blamed. Kill two birds with one stone.”

Nausea roiled up in Ryan’s stomach. “That’s a lie. He’s making that up.”

“For what purpose?” Cade asked. He drained his coffee mug and got up to refill it.

“Everyone knows what happened.”

“Do they?” Cade studied him. “They only know the bull got loose and you’ve blasted Sable all over Rowan County for it.”

“Damn straight. She was the only one out there when I had to finish a call in the house.” But the sick feeling continued to push through his body.

“Maybe so. But then she came up here to join you. And Manny, who was pissed off you wouldn’t let him handle the bull, decided to teach you a lesson and throw some dirt on your girlfriend at the same time.” He gave Ryan a hard look. “She was your girlfriend, right?”

Ryan wasn’t sure exactly what Sable had been. She’d been so blasted insistent that they be just friends with benefits in the beginning. He’d been damn sure about his own feelings, just waiting for her to catch up. During the last few days before the disaster, he’d sensed her real feelings for him were inching their way to the surface.

“Whatever,” he said now.

“Of course, she’s nothing now, right? Especially after you just about ruined her practice.”

“God damn it.” Ryan pounded his fist on the table, making his coffee mug jump. He pulled out his cell and pressed a button on it. When Sonny answered, he said, “Get up to the house. Right now.”

“Problem, boss?” the foreman asked.

“If there is, it’s a damn big one. Hustle.”

“While we’re waiting, I brought something for you to read.” Cade reached into his back pocket, pulled out the folded newspaper he’d stashed there and spread it out face up.

Ryan looked at the picture of Sable and saw the article and got even sicker. Jinx had given the story on Sable practically the entire front page. The woman might step up for her friends, but she had been scrupulous about not printing anything that was a lie. He was still scanning the article, the pounding in his head accelerating, when Sonny clumped up the back stairs and burst into the kitchen.

“What’s up?” He dragged in a breath, obviously having run all the way.

“Cade’s going to tell you a little story here. I want you to find out if it’s true.”

When Cade had finished talking, Sonny just shook his head. “I said at the time you were jumping the gun, did I not?”

“But she was the only one there,” Ryan protested, although the words were beginning to sound hollow to him.

“I was in my office in the barn with the door closed.” Sonny rubbed his face. “Manny was supposed to be checking something in the equipment shed. I didn’t even know anything was wrong until I walked back out into the barn and saw the stall door open.”

“And Manny?” he asked.

“I yelled for him and he came hotfooting from the shed.” He rubbed his cheek. “I thought at the time he had a funny look on his face. When I asked him if he knew anything, he shook his head. My nerves were twitching. I should have pushed him.”

“He’d probably just have lied to you even more.”

“He’s cleaning tack right now. Let me go talk to him. I’ll be back in a few.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Ryan said, pushing out of his chair. “If he did this, he’ll be out on his ass before he can blink.”

Which of course was exactly what happened. If Cade hadn’t been there, Ryan was sure he’d have beaten Manny to a bloody pulp. He watched the man head out toward the road in his dented pickup, a sour taste boiling up inside him.

“Sorry, boss,” Sonny said. “I should have pushed harder that day.”

“Not your fault,” Ryan insisted. “I was so upset about what could have happened I really didn’t stop to think.”

“I tried to tell you Dr. Hunter wouldn’t be that careless,” the foreman insisted, “but—”

“But I wasn’t having any of it,” Ryan finished for him. “Good thing I don’t have a gun handy or I might shoot myself.”

He just might anyway. He’d made a huge fucking mess of everything because he’d let fear and rage consume him and beat up on his brain. Now he had to clean this up somehow, and he had no idea where to begin.

“Come on.” Cade clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go up to the house and talk. You’ve got some pretty fractured fences to mend.”

“No shit.” He shook his head. “I think it’s going to take more than a good set of tools to do
this
mending.”

Cade just chuckled. “I think I know some people who can give you some ideas.”

Chapter Six

Sable looked at the latest arrangements of flowers the florist had delivered and gave a shaky laugh.

“It’s a good thing I don’t have allergies,” she told Amy and Georgie, who were sitting in her office with her. “Where am I going to put all this?”

Amy took a sip of her iced coffee. “I should take pictures and show them to Buck. He might get ideas.”

“Yeah, well, ten times as many won’t get Ryan out of this jam.” She snorted.

“How about the warehouse full of chocolates?” Georgie asked. “I see the goodies all over the waiting room. You creating a lot of business for our local dentists?”

Sable shook her head. “You know, it would be funny if it weren’t so sad. All the flowers and candy in the world can’t make up for what he did.” She smoothed her hair back into the ponytail she wore for work. “Besides the fact that he acted like a total ass, the fact he could even think I’d do something so stupid is just not fixable. How could he accuse me like he did?”

“Honey, I know that.” Georgie leaned forward. “Ryan knows it too. Cade said the man is destroyed. When he went to see him, he looked like he hadn’t slept or shaved in days.”

“Well, poor him. I thought we were building up to something…special. I was beginning to change my mind about just keeping what we had on a purely friendly basis.” She looked from one woman to the other. “I was falling in love with him, for God’s sake.” That just made her heartsick over the whole thing. “I thought we were—” She broke off, unable to continue.

“Sable, listen to me.” Amy set her drink down. “Ryan made a huge mistake, but think about why. He sank nearly all his rodeo winnings into the Gold Buckle when he bought it and stocked it. He’s been building up his business every year, working his connections to get solid contracts to supply the bucking bulls. He took a big gamble buying Red Danger. If anything had happened to that bull before he’d had a chance to properly breed him, he could have been wiped out. He panicked. He knows that and he’s ashamed and miserable.”

“Forget about the flowers and candy he’s bombarding you with.” Georgie picked up the thread. “He personally called every rancher in Rowan County, told them how wrong he was and that you are the best vet in the entire Hill Country. Aren’t they all calling you now?”

“Yes, but that was as much due to Buck and Matt as anything. They stepped up first.”

“Sable.” Georgie fixed her with a hard look. “I know this man humiliated you and was lower than low, but look at everything he’s doing to try and make it up to you. Give the guy a break.”

Sable heaved a sigh. She desperately wanted to believe Ryan was genuinely sorry. But now did he still feel the same about her? Would he want to resume their relationship? Take it to the next level even?

“People make mistakes,” Georgie continued.

“And we all agree this was a doozie,” Amy added. “But…” Her voice trailed off.

“I’ll give it some thought,” Sable told them. “Although it’s probably going to take some unusual grand gesture for me to even talk to him again. Meanwhile, I have one more patient to see. Then I’m off to the Rowan County Animal Shelter. I’m so excited we have a no-kill shelter here, but it’s outgrown its facilities. It needs new space, new equipment. We’re thinking of doing some kind of fundraiser at the county fair.” She glanced at her calendar and shuddered. “Which is in two weeks. Time to get our act together.”

The other two women rose and came around the desk to hug her.

“We’ll let you get to work,” Amy said. “But really, give what we said some serious thought.”

“I will. I promise.”

She stared after them as they left. The problem was she was giving this entirely too much thought lately.

* * * * *

The fairgrounds were jammed when Sable drove into them the afternoon of the fair. She’d tried to get there earlier, but an emergency with a horse had thrown her schedule out of whack. It was barely noon, but already the place was totally jammed. People were everywhere, taking advantage of the rides, the special carnival games that had been set up, everything that made a county fair special. Country music blasted from a stage at the far corner of the grounds, loud enough that it carried everywhere. Along one side, judging tents had been set up for everything from baked goods to quilts. The air was permeated with the aromas of cotton candy, fried corn on the cob, hot dogs and barbecue.

She needed to find where the fundraiser for the animal shelter had been set up and see how they were doing. A couple of the women had told her dunking booths raised a lot of money. They thought they could get their husbands and maybe some of the single guys to volunteer. The shelter was a special project of hers. She didn’t have as much time to give as she’d like, but she’d made a lot of calls to ask people to participate. She was anxious to see the results.

She had started toward the area where she’d been told they’d set up when Winnie Ashcroft, one of the women who ran the shelter, came running up to her. “Sable,” she yelled. “Oh, Sable. Come see.” She grabbed Sable’s hand.

“For heaven’s sake, Winnie, what’s going on?”

“I have to show you. Oh, he’s the most wonderful man,” the woman bubbled. “We’re raising a ton of money.”

Sable hurried as fast as she could, Winnie tugging her along. It was the shouts that drew her attention first. She was stunned to see a huge crowd gathered around the dunk tank that had been set up for them. She’d thought maybe ten or fifteen people might gather to watch, but this crowd was so thick she could hardly see the tank.

“Excuse us, please. Excuse us.”

Winnie elbowed her way through the crowd like a sharp knife until they finally made it to the tank. Sable took a look and her feet stopped moving. They just would not go forward.

“Look, look, look.” Winnie grinned and pointed.

To the right side of the tank was a big sandwich board sign that had the name of the shelter on it. Beneath it someone had lettered,
Sink Ryan. The Cattlemen’s Association will match every dollar spent.

Sitting on the seat with its release bar was Ryan Donovan in dark shorts and a tee shirt. Across the front of the shirt was
Sink me for Sable. I deserve it
.

“Oh. My. God.” She couldn’t stop staring.

Reenie Stark broke loose from the crowd and came over to her, grinning. She was holding a large drawstring bag.

“Isn’t it incredible?” she asked Sable. “It was all his idea.”

“B-but how did—I mean, we had people lined up…” She couldn’t seem to string an entire sentence together.

“He knows this is how the shelter raises money. He also knows how important it is to you. He called Winnie and said he’d sit in the tank all day if he had to. And he got Matt and Buck to pitch the idea of the Cattlemen’s Association matching funds.” She held up the bag. “So far, we’ve raised fifteen thousand dollars. Sable, that means thirty thou for the shelter.”

Sable was feeling faint. She wanted to sit down, only there was no place to do so.

“That tee shirt,” she began.

“He wanted everyone to know what an ass he was to you and how ashamed he is. Girl, I’ll tell you, there aren’t many men ready for this kind of public humiliation to get a woman to forgive them.”

She looked at the man in question, sopping wet, water dripping from his thick black hair. He spotted her and gave her a questioning grin, just as someone hit the target. The bar released and dunked him in the water. He came up shaking the water from his hair like a big dog.
How can I not forgive someone who’s going to the lengths he is to get that forgiveness?

Winnie came up beside her. “He needs to get out of there. He’s been doing the dunk for four hours. He insists he’s going to stay there all day, but Sable, he’ll get sick if he does.”

That was indeed the truth. She figured he’d been there for at least four hours already. Grabbing a couple of towels from the pile on a chair next to the tank, she put her fingers in her mouth and delivered a respectable whistle.

“Listen up, everyone. We’re having a changing of the guard here. Billy?” She waved at Billy McIntosh, the son of the feed store owner and a favorite with the ladies. “Get over here. It’s your turn.” She turned to the tank. “Donovan, get your fine ass out of there. Right now.”

The corner of Ryan’s mouth ticked up in a hint of a grin. He looked around at the crowd. “She did say my ass was fine, right?”

Everyone laughed and clapped, even as she gave him a mock stern look. “Out of there. Now.”

He climbed up the inside steps and down the little ladder outside. As soon as he was on solid ground, Sable began wrapping the towels around him and blotting the water from his skin. He shook them off and clamped his hands on her shoulders, staring into her eyes with heated intensity.

“Sable, I am so fucking sorry.”

“I-I know.”

“I was stupid, idiotic. The whole thing was a kneejerk reaction because I was scared. I have so much tied up in that bull, that I—”

“I know,” she repeated. “I do understand. Now.”

“You can beat me with a stick for the rest of my life if you’ll just say you forgive me.”

The block of ice her heart had been encased in cracked and melted. How could she not forgive him with everything he’d done to try and make it better? What other man would go to such lengths? She could pretend to hate him forever, but what good would that do?

“I forgive you.” She cleared her throat and repeated the words. “I forgive you, Ryan.”

“I want us together again,” he insisted. “And none of this just-friends stuff anymore. When I say together, I mean
together
. In every way. Can you go for that?”

Could she? She couldn’t seem to get the words out, so she just nodded.

“I want to get naked with you and tell you how I feel about you. I want you in every corner of my life. You’re the best damn vet this county has seen. Nothing is going to change that. Everyone says they love you.”

“Certainly not after you called every one of them and told them.” She laughed shakily. “Thank you for that.”

“Needed doing,” he said matter-of-factly. “I made a mess. I needed to clean it up.”

“You did a fine job of it.” She smiled at him. “Now can we get you out of these wet clothes? Where are your dry ones?”

“In my truck. I need to—”

“Ryan?” Winnie interrupted. “Here are your shoes. They’ll be pretty much a wreck after this.”

“They were pretty much a wreck before this.” He slipped them on. “Think you can excuse us, Winnie?”

“Of course.” She winked. “Take good care of this one, Sable. He’s got some flaws, but he’s definitely worth keeping.”

“I know that.” She slipped her hand into his. “Let’s go home, Ryan.”

“Whose home?” he asked, his face dead serious.

“The ranch.” She hauled in a deep breath and let it out slowly, then took a big leap of faith. “
Our
home.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.”

He pulled her into his arms, wet clothes and all, and gave her a kiss that scorched her down to her toes. He wrapped her hair around his fingers to hold her head in place while his tongue plundered her mouth. Through the soaked material, the hard, engorged length of his cock pressed against her mound, sending pulsing waves through her inner walls and a wash of liquid into her panties. She clung to him for dear life, oblivious to the people surging around them or the whistles and catcalls.

“Okay.” He lifted his head. “Now we can go home.”