Breaking the Bad Boy (12 page)

Buck raised his finger to his lips and made a shushing sound. Joss looked at his chest. There was indeed a puckered wound that looked like it could be from a gunshot high on his chest. She met his eyes again but they were unreadable. “Hand me my shirt, Duchess,” he said and she helped him put it back on.

“I’ll come back when I’m finished with my work, you can torture me then.” He walked out of her room and down the hall.

“Fucking cowboys,” she said to the EMT who laughed and followed her out to the ambulance. She checked to make sure Ben was taken care of and saw him off.

She found Brent’s beer cache and put the bottles in the freezer to chill them quickly and while she was there she took out some burgers and buns. While they defrosted she made a fruit salad and went out to warm up the grill.

“Fernando,” she called across the yard to him. He looked up at her and smiled. “Will you tell everybody I’m grilling burgers and chilling beer for when they’re done?”

“You sure?”

“Hell yes, those guys deserve it,” she said. Fernando nodded.

“Okay, Joss, I’ll tell them,” he smiled and waved.

Half an hour later she was flipping burgers with a crowd of tired, hungry men around her. They drank her father’s beer and talked of the recent round up.

“Did you notice the
Holstein
that came in with us?” One of the hands asked Joss. She looked up and smiled at him.

“No, did we round up one of Haggerty’s cows?” She said. Brent only raised Angus; a neighboring ranch only raised
Holsteins
.

“There’s no brand,” the hand said.

“Maybe we should paint him black, no one would notice,” another hand said coming close.

“I think we can call Haggerty and have him pick his very lost stray,” she said stifling a laugh.

“There’s no brand,” the hand repeated, clearly hoping to take the cow home with him.

“How long are you going to be around, Joss?” One of the other hands asked.

“I couldn’t say, really. Another week or so. I want to feel comfortable about leaving Brent,” she said.

“You sure you don’t want to stick around?” Another asked.

“I’m sure,” she said. “I have a job I should get back to if I want to keep it.”

“So, Joss,” one of the more interested hands said. “You single?”

“Another burger?” She asked him, trying to change the subject.

“Come on, Joss,” he leaned close. “It was cold and lonely up there.” He whispered to her. “All I could think about was you all warm and lonely down here.”

“You weren’t thinking of your wife, Darryl?” Buck asked. Once again he was right there next to her without her noticing. Darryl’s head snapped back away from Joss. He glared at Buck and took a third burger and walked away.

“I can fight my own battles, Buck.”

“I know that more than anyone here, I believe. I just like being an asshole to the assholes,” he said with a smile. Joss laughed.

The hands ate and ate, Joss thought that she’d run out of food. Luckily they were also very tired and they began to thank her and leave.

“That was very kind of you, Duchess.” She looked up at him from the trash bag she was closing and smiled.

“You guys work hard.”

“Let me take that for you,” he said lifting it easily and taking it to the bear proof dumpster around the side of the barn.

When he came back he looked around at what else need doing, but it was mostly done.

“Why don’t you go take that shower? I’ll get you fixed up and then you can sleep, you must be knackered.”

“I think I will,” he said and walked into the house.

She was waiting for him with supplies when he came back out of her bathroom, wrapped in a pink and white towel. He went to the bed and collapsed on to his back.

“Your pillow smells like you,” he said taking a deep breath.

“What do I smell like?” Her mouth said it before her brain could stop her. He inhaled deeply.

“You smell like the high country after a summer rain when everything opens at once to glory in it. You are earthy and irresistible, and a little bit minty, very compelling,” he said, and she thought that was the single most beautiful thing anyone had ever said to her. “And now your bed is going to smell of me, too.” He smiled. “Our scents mingling, I like the thought of it.”

If he could just be like this all the time, she’d be all over him. She looked at him lying there in nothing but a towel in her bed looking hard and lean. She’d never had a man in this bed, and she liked the look of him there, golden and beautiful. “Would you like me to take the towel off, you can peruse at your leisure?”

She sighed. “Maybe some time when you’re not bleeding all over my bed,” she said and sat down next to him. “Move over a little.” He opened one eye.

“I think you should straddle me,” he said closing his eye and grinning. “Get naked first.” She found it easiest when she ignored him when he got like this.

She poked him in the side as she would her horse, and he shifted over grudgingly.

“Tell me what happened,” she said.

“I did tell you,” he said.

“You told me Ben’s injuries, you didn’t tell me why your chest is ground beef,” she said. He opened his eye again.

“You care,” he said. It wasn’t a question, he was smiling at her.

She pulled the light over to him and started in with the tweezers. “Of course I care, you idiot. Talk, it will go faster for you.”

“I feel pleasure at being told you care and pain at being told I’m an idiot. I’d rather sleep than talk, Duchess, why don’t you talk to me? Tell me how much you care,” he said and she snorted.

“Good luck with sleeping. Is this a gunshot wound?”

“Yes.”

“From when you were in the military?” He laughed.

“Get naked, Duchess, it’ll go faster,” he said.

“Naked and fast in the same sentence, I’m afraid you’re not going to get far with that line of reasoning,” she said and he laughed again.

“I will keep trying, then. You know, you make me laugh, that was unexpected.”

“Don’t you have much opportunity to laugh?” She sounded sad.

“Not lately. Was there any trouble while I was gone?”

“A little, nothing serious. The dogs went crazy several times one night, it was the first night you were gone, but they were quiet after that. This morning when I went for my run there were a couple of men who tried to ambush me.” Buck’s eyes shot open and he sat up in bed and looked her over. She didn’t look hurt, so she must have administered the pain instead.
Good Duchess
. He grinned.

“Are they still breathing?” He asked as he sat back. Joss was obviously okay; she didn’t really even look terribly bothered.

“They are,” she said.

“Tell me, Duchess,” he said and she did. “What did they look like?” He asked and he closed his eyes again.

“I drew a sketch of the one I got a good look at, the other one was too far away,” she said. He opened his eyes again.

“Show me,” he said. She got up and went to the desk and pulled out her sketch pad, opening it to the face. She held it up and watched as Buck looked at the drawing and made his face go completely blank.
He recognized him
, she thought,
and he doesn’t want me to know
.
He must be exhausted to let me see that much
. She sat back down on the edge of the bed and his eyes closed again.

“Who is he?” She asked.

“I don’t know. You piss anybody off in town? Hell you’ve only been here a couple of days.”

“You recognized him,” she said.

“Nope, did you miss me?” She paused and he stopped breathing. He was changing the subject.

“I did, actually, there was no one for me to vex,” she said and he opened his eyes.

“I could feel your vexation up in the hills, don’t worry,” he said.

“And how did that manifest itself?”

“I’ve had a hard on since I saw you in that little green nightie, Duchess, you want to see?”

“That’s okay, I can see it from here,” she said and he grinned.

“You’re not using both your hands, you could…”

“Don’t make me hurt you. So, who shot you? I’m kind of thinking it was a woman,” she said and he laughed.

“It was, actually, but not why you probably think,” he said.

“What would I think?”

“You think she shot me because I was being an asshole,” he laughed, and she joined him.

“Hey, I’ve considered shooting you,” she said.

“I know you have,” he smiled. “I can read your expressions like you’re speaking out loud.”

“Hmm, what am I thinking right now?”

“Aw, Duchess, you’re going to make me blush.”

“Mmm, only one woman shot you?” He chuckled.

“So far…”

 
It was a long and tedious process pulling out the small stones and the pieces of t-shirt embedded in his chest, but she got them all out. Unbelievably, he fell asleep twice. At one point he grabbed her hand and she had been concentrating so hard she jumped, and when she apologized he smiled and said it just tickled.
Fucking cowboys
.

“Your hair tickles, too, but I can live with that,” he said his hand reaching for it but then dropping back on the bed.

“Sorry, I’ll tie it back,” she sat back. This time he grabbed her arm.

“You will not. Get this done, Duchess, I am only a man,” he said. It must really hurt him, she thought.

“Sorry, I’ve never done this before,” she said.

“It’s not you digging around in my chest,” he said reading her mind. “It’s you smelling like you do and breathing on me and touching me, I want you so badly I can barely keep it together.” His voice sounded raw and tired. Joss blushed, his grin was gone; the man was sincere. He could have her at his mercy if he chose, yet he waited for her, she liked that very much.

“I’m almost done. Ben’s very impressed with you,” she said to change the subject.

“He’s very impressed with you, too,” he said, moving back to the subject.

“Do you often run down the sides of mountains to near certain death to save someone you hardly know?” She asked him. The corners of his mouth pulled up slightly.

“Please tell me you got a thing for idiots who do, and not just cops,” he said, his eyes still closed.

“Why’d you do it?” He opened his eyes and considered her question.

“It’s funny, I was half way to him before I realized I was even off my horse, Duchess, and I thought ‘Oh, so this is how I’m going to die, and I’ll never feel the Duchess lie naked in my arms.’ That’s when I dug in and slid to a halt. Maybe you saved us.” He closed his eyes again, and Joss took the opportunity to close her mouth.

“Will you lie naked in my arms?” He asked her. Boy did he know the right moment.

“Eventually,” she breathed and he opened his eyes again and gave her an unexpectedly serious look when she expected his playful grin.