Branded

“Hell no.”

Trace found his gaze wandering back to Jo, his gut tightening at the sight of the biker reaching out for her, and her swatting his arm away. She’d never given Trace cause to think she needed protection from anyone. On the contrary, she went out of her way to prove she was capable of taking care of herself.

He rubbed his chin, hiding his grin as he recalled his exchange with her earlier in the day. They’d been four hours on the range when he’d found his steed steering toward hers. He knew a few details about her. Some were on the form the ranch required all hands to fill out, others the result of an official background check they ran as a matter of course. She was from Beaumont, an only child. She’d had a few run-ins with the law in her teens—assaulting an officer, disturbing the peace and public intoxication—but her record had been clean since.

She had also been a U.S. Marine for six years, honorably discharged the month before she came to work on Wildewood Ranch.

This morning, he’d watched as she took her hat off, piled her black hair on top of her head and put the hat back on, the result making her look not one bit less feminine.

“In the service…where’d you serve?” he’d asked her.

Her blue eyes had registered surprise. But only for a split second, before she recovered her trademark grimace. One of the guys had said she always looked as if she’d just gone for a dump behind a tree and had used poison ivy for cleanup because there was nothing else around.

“He speaks,” she’d said, rather than answering his question.

Trace had grinned. “Fair enough.”

He hadn’t said more than a handful of words to her since she’d hired on, and he remembered all of them—“Welcome” and “See you back at the ranch” the most prominent. His reticence was partly because the other hands had been within earshot, but mostly because he was attracted to her in an awful way.

And it seemed like that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. In fact, it was worsening. Just last night he’d woken up with a hard-on the size of Texas…and she had been the dream girl responsible.

Which meant he needed to try another tactic to battle the attraction. It wouldn’t stand for him to demonstrate anything but professional courtesy to their only female ranch hand. Forget sexual harassment; it just plain wasn’t smart.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

She’d given him a small smile, her full lips turning up at the corners. “No, I didn’t, did I?”

They’d ridden in silence for a couple of minutes, Jo darting out to force a couple of wayward steers back into the herd, then returning to his side.

“My brother, Eric, is in Iraq now,” he said. “A member of your family as much as mine.”

She’d looked at him from under the rim of her hat. “I met him briefly when I hired on here six months ago. He was home on leave.”

Trace had figured she might have. “He’s being honorably discharged this week.”

She’d nodded. “I heard that.”

He hadn’t been surprised. There wasn’t much else to do on these long drives except gossip and wait for the sun to set. Besides, there was a big welcome-home barbecue planned for Eric. Most of the hands were looking forward to it.

Trace had squinted at Jo, thinking that she wouldn’t be one of them. She didn’t strike him as a party girl.

“What made you sign up for the military?” he found himself asking.

She didn’t say anything for a long moment, then asked quietly, “What made you not?”

He’d shifted his weight in the saddle. Then shifted again as she took off her shirt and tied it around her waist, revealing the snug white cotton tank she wore underneath. It scooped low on her tanned skin and clung to her breasts and narrow waist. Trace leisurely drank his fill of her fine form, then looked up to meet her gaze, finding a knowing look in her eyes even as she pulled her nicely toned shoulders back and readjusted her gloved hands on the reins.

“Look,” she said, “I appreciate your effort to be cordial, but if you think you understand anything about me because I was a marine, you’re driving your truck down the wrong road.”

“I didn’t realize I was driving down any road.”

She gave him a long look, her eyes raking down his torso and then back up again. She seemed to know exactly where he wanted to put his truck. And for a moment he got the feeling she might open the gate for him to pass.

Instead, she dug her spurs into her horse’s sides and galloped ahead.

He hadn’t had another opportunity to speak to her since.

Oh, yes. Miss JoEllen Sue Atchison presented what his father might have called a quandary. She had to rate among the most beautiful, sexiest women Trace had ever come across. And was stubbornly determined to prove herself more than the sum of her comely parts.

He focused on her again now, watching as her boyfriend rocked his Harley up onto the stand and climbed off, following her into the stables.

“There she goes again,” a ranch hand said.

Trace frowned, took off his hat and then dragged his bandanna out of a back pocket and across his forehead. There she goes again, indeed.

He had the feeling this was going to be another long, sweaty night imagining what exactly she did in that stable whenever her guy visited.

Trace idly wondered if he should trade in his truck for a bike…

“COME ON, COME ON,” Jo said breathlessly, fumbling to unbutton Carter Southard’s jeans, only to be blocked by his belt buckle.

She shifted from where she leaned against a stall door and pushed him against it instead, pulling and tugging, kissing and hissing, desperate to fill the emptiness that gaped within her.

“Whoa, hold on there, Marine,” Carter managed to mumble between assaults on his mouth. “Where’s the fire?”

Jo looked into his ruggedly handsome face, taking in his five o’clock shadow, the slight crow’s-feet that fanned out from his gray eyes, his dark hair, tousled from the motorcycle ride to Wildewood from Dallas.

She wanted to tell him that the fire was everywhere. It roared through her veins, under and over her skin, threatening to consume her if she didn’t find a way to douse it. Now.

“I’ve been on the road for three hours in the summer heat,” Carter grumbled. “I could use a shower and a cold beer.”

Jo closed her eyes to shut out him and his words. If she was also trying to banish the image of one very striking ranch owner by the name of Trace Armstrong, she wasn’t copping to it. She saw his suggestive grin every time she blinked, as if the image had been branded on the back of her eyelids.

Her mother’s soft voice filled her head. If you’re ever to be a proper Texas lady, JoEllen Sue, you’re going to have to master patience.

Jo had heard the words when she was three and was stuffing the pink tutu her mother had bought her into the garbage disposal after a disastrous ballet lesson.

“Screw patience,” she whispered now, pushing Carter against the stable wall.

Her muscles were tight, and her entire body seemed to vibrate with an energy she needed to release.

Truth was, she’d been hot in a way that had nothing to do with the summer heat ever since Trace Armstrong had sidled up beside her earlier in the day, resting his brown eyes on her and making no secret of the fact that he found her physically attractive.

Truth be told, she’d known that fact since the moment she’d signed on for the temporary, seasonal stint at the ranch. Spotted it the instant her gaze met his, and that undeniable crackle of electricity traveled between them. She’d been fresh out of the service, traveling around South Texas taking odd ranch jobs, when she’d heard that Wildewood was hiring.

She’d had no idea of the fringe benefits that would go along with the position, and now she seemed more drawn to Trace than was safe. Attraction to the boss might have compelled her to leave other places she’d worked. Especially considering she’d spent so much of her life yearning to be judged by her actions and the job she did rather than on her appearance.

Now Carter said, “God, I wish I’d have known you in the sandbox.”