Free Buckskins, Boots & Bondage (Cowboy Kink) by Desiree Holt Page B

She knew the firm expected exemplary behavior of its staff, but she hoped a partnership would be the insurance that they’d turn a blind eye to her living arrangements. If it came to that, did she have the guts to move forward without that safety net?
    “I can hear your brain sizzling,” Tucker teased. He squeezed her shoulder. “Relax, darlin’. Everything will be fine.”
    Angel wasn’t so sure, but she had to tuck her thoughts away because they’d reached the feedlot. A split rail archway marked the impressive entrance with a sandblasted sign that read Davis Feedlot hanging from iron hooks. Barbed wire fencing stretched in either direction and disappeared as it wound around the property. Justin rolled down his window, leaned out and punched a code into a pad on a metal stand. Iron gates swung open smoothly, the truck rolled through and the gates shut behind them.
    Angel had grown up in Texas but her exposure had been more to cities than ranchland. Her nodding acquaintance with cattle and horses had been via the few rodeos she’d attended. She was flabbergasted at the sea of brown, black, and white hides stretching further than she could see. Through the open window of the truck, she could hear the bawling of the cattle and something that sounded like moaning.
    “Are they all right?” she asked nervously. “They sound like they’re in pain.”
    Justin laughed. “That’s just good conversation in cattle language. Come on. We’ll introduce you to the ‘family.’”
    She was slightly hesitant when Tucker leaped down then reached a hand to help her out.
    “It’s okay,” he coaxed. “We don’t bite and neither will they.”
    She knew if she wanted this situation to move forward, she’d better get over whatever was spooking her. Justin came around and took one hand while Tucker curled his hand around the other and they led her toward the pens. Two pickups were carefully maneuvered among the cattle, each with a cowboy in the bed who threw down a bale of hay whenever they reached what looked like a long metal feeder. As hot as the day was, the workers riding the truck beds had stripped off their shirts and their tanned skin and muscular bodies gleamed with a combination of dust and sweat. If she wasn’t so besotted with the Davis twins, any of them might have made her mouth water.
    “Don’t you have to be out there doing this?” she asked.
    “We take Sundays off,” Tucker answered and winked. “Perks of being the boss.”
    Justin backed a four-wheeler out of the garage, Tucker helped Angel onto the long seat, and they drove her around the perimeter. The air was rich with the scent of cattle and sweet hay, a faint breeze tickling her nose with it. She listened carefully as they described the watering system, the type of special grains they mixed for the cattle, how they recorded them. How they built the feed costs into the fees they charged the ranchers.
    “Your head swimming yet, sugar?” Tucker asked.
    “Not at all.” She winked. “No more complicated than any of the legal contracts or briefs I draw up.”
    “That’s right. I keep forgetting we’ve got a sharp lawyer here.”
    Angel tensed. She thought they’d put the issue of her being an attorney to rest. She didn’t sense an edge to his voice, but maybe she’d misread them. Was this going to be a problem after all? The butterflies in her stomach that had gone to sleep suddenly woke up, only now they had the stinging force of wasps.
    “I thought you liked the idea of my being in law.” She tried to make her voice as uninflected as possible.
    “Hey, hey, hey.” Justin cupped her head and turned it toward him, placing his lips on hers and thrusting his tongue in her mouth with enough intensity to set sparks showering through her. At about the moment she’d lost all sense of where she was and what was happening, he lifted his head just enough so they could both catch their breath.
    “That was a joke, Angel,” he said against her lips.