Chapter Three

The jukebox thumped out a tinny version of “Friends in Low Places”while some drunk guys in the back sang along, slurring their words.

This wasn’t Colton’s first night in Badlands, but tonight was even more packed and stuffy than the previous Friday when he’d come for a beer with a couple guys from the ranch. That was the night he met Gabby.

She was pretty enough, in a small-town way. She fit in with the rest of the crowd, all in their country best, which seemed to mean a clean shirt and jeans without holes.

Gabby planted a hand on his chest, face tilted up to his and a slightly tipsy but alluring smile on her face. He’d seen smiles like that before—it meant she would be more than willing to get in the old work truck he was driving and let him take her back to her place, which she’d informed him that very first night was only two blocks away from the bar.

Before she could suggest that they leave together, he nodded at the drink she held, a fizzy hard cider that turned his stomach with the smell.

As if reminded that she should drink it, she brought the bottle to her lips and took a sip. When she pulled her mouth away, her lipstick clung to the glass.

He looked away and scanned the crowd. The rest of the guys were on their way here, but since Colton completed his chores first—and fastest—Webb gave him the reluctant go-ahead to leave for the night.

The manager didn’t like the fact that Colton picked up on things fast and didn’t need to be shown how to do something more than once. In the first few days, he was doing everything faster and more precisely than the others.

His fellow ranch hands were amicable enough, though. Easygoing and as fun-loving as a pack of mutts. Colton noted how they joked more whenever the boss wasn’t around, and the minute Gracey drove down the long dirt road leading to the highway, they cut loose.

Word was the boss would be gone for at least two weeks, possibly three. And that left Colton wondering how Meadow would handle being in the big house all alone.

Being tallest in the room had its advantages, and he was able to see clear to the other side of the room. When his focus snagged on a head of blonde hair, he stared harder.

He’d seen the woman swish her thick hair over her shoulder more than once as she pranced around the ranch in skimpy sundresses and cowgirl boots, showing off those tanned legs to anyone willing to look—which was every man there.

Even Webb, who had a good fifteen years on Forest’s sister, wanted a piece of Meadow.

Colton’s gaze dropped lower to the tiny Band-Aid of denim barely clinging to her small, firm ass.

His cock jerked hard against his fly.

Goddamn the woman. Forest’s words swirled in Colton’s head.

Watch out for Meadow too.

How the hell was he supposed to obey his friend’s wishes when she was dressed like that?

She threw back her head and laughed at something the guy clad in black leather at the bar said. He slipped a hand around her, curling his fingers on the slim band of exposed flesh beneath her crop top, and tugged her closer to stand between his knees.

Gabby was talking, but Colton didn’t pay any attention to her at all.

At that moment, Dude, one of the workers on the Gracey, walked up to Meadow. He said something to her, and she shoved him away, still laughing.

Dude spoke to the guy who had his hands all over Meadow, spreading across her ass.

Meadow’s companion glared at him. Whatever he said to Dude had the ranch hand shaking his head and walking away.

From across the room, Colton watched the guy at the bar push Meadow against his cock and grind it into her.

Goddamn. The woman was just begging for trouble. Forest would not approve. But she must know what she was getting into—she’d probably done it a dozen times before.

Another ranch hand Colton worked with moved up to the bar and said something to Meadow.

Again, she blew him off, flicking her fingers for him to go the way she’d shoo a bug.

Colton’s focus narrowed. The noise, the confusion, faded away, and he only saw Meadow, the guy who wanted to fuck her and the ranch hand obviously trying to get her away from him.

Gabby thrust her bottle into Colton’s hand. She went on tiptoe to speak into his ear. “I’m going to the ladies’ room!”

He nodded but didn’t shift his gaze away from Meadow. He knew all too well that things happened fast.

One minute you’re looking at your friend standing a few feet away, and the next he’s blown apart.

His gut wrenched.

Forest would not want that guy playing around with his sister.

Colton set the beer bottles he held on the closest table and started toward them just as the other ranch hand gave up trying. Colton caught him by the shoulder.

Turning, he saw Colton and relief passed over his craggy features.

“What’s going on?” Colton asked.

“Boss’s daughter is drunk. She shouldn’t be here. She refuses to let any of us drive her home.” He gave a shake of his head. “It’s above my paygrade.”

Colton started to say that she was a grown woman and could take care of herself. Then he heard Forest in his head again. How he used to talk about Meadow and how he made Colton promise to look after her.

Dammit.

He’d been avoiding the woman for a week. Now he would have to not only try to talk some sense into her but keep his hands off those supple curves she was so clearly offering up on a platter to the first taker hungry enough.

And being the most gorgeous woman in the bar—hell, in Eden from what he’d seen—it wouldn’t take much to lure in half the men here tonight.

She hung on the guy she was schmoozing, clinging to his shoulders. Her red fingernails bit into the black leather of the biker’s vest as she turned those sweet lips upward for his kiss.

Colton shoved his way through the crowd. In just a few steps, he reached her. Grabbing her by the arm, he dragged her off the biker.

“Hey, buddy! Get your own woman! This one’s mine.”

He leveled the man in a glare that had him shrinking back on his stool.

Meadow twisted and pulled, trying to free herself from Colton’s grip.

The biker held up his hands in surrender. “Fine. She’s yours.”

“Ugh! You weak asshole!” Meadow’s words were slurred but still infused with that bratty tone of voice that Colton heard every time she opened her mouth.

“You’re coming with me.” He dragged her through the clusters of people and out of the bar, her fighting him the whole way.

In the parking lot, she dug in her boot heels like an unruly child.

He stared down at her. Christ, did she have to smell like vanilla, cheap beer and arousal?

“Let go!”

“You can walk to my truck or I can throw you over my shoulder. You decide,” he bit off.

She wrenched away from him. In a fast clip, she took off walking, stumbled on a tiny pea-sized stone and almost fell flat on her face.

Colton gripped her by the arm and hauled her the rest of the way to the beat-up Dodge that had seen better days. Webb told him if he could get the truck running, he could drive it. He wasn’t so amused when Colton had the engine firing within an hour of tinkering with it.

“Let go of me!” She tried to yank her arm away, and he tightened his grip, not even caring if he left bruises on her. She needed to learn a lesson about safety in bars, around men…and dressed in skimpy clothes that wouldn’t stop a flea if it decided she was a target.

“Stop acting like a child! Get in the truck.” He jerked open the door and practically tossed her inside. Her backside hit the seat, and she lunged to jump out. Before she could, he slammed the door in her face.

He jumped behind the wheel and sent her another glare. Goddamn, that skirt was practically a belt. He could see her fucking panties peeking out from between her toned thighs.

“Christ, Meadow. You’re a mess.” He twisted the key in the ignition, and the engine roared to life.

She folded her arms over her chest, which only succeeded in pushing her full breasts higher, like two ripe peaches ready to be plucked.

“All the novels say that bikers are tougher. But that guy backed down at one glare from you! I’m going back in. There has to be another biker in that bar. They all come here from the city on Friday nights.”

As he shot out of the parking lot, he shook his head, trying to decipher what her drunken babbles were all about.

Then it clicked. She mentioned books.

“Have you been reading books about bikers, Meadow?”

“Yes. They’re supposed to be tough on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside!”

He ground his teeth. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“What’s dumb about having a big, hot biker between my legs?” She leaned back, exposing the crotch of her pink panties more. “You definitely aren’t man enough to get between them!”

He veered the truck off the road in a spray of dirt and rocks. Before he could think twice about what he was about to do, he slammed the truck in park and hauled Meadow out of her seat.

He threw her face-down on his lap, hiked up her miniskirt, the entire two inches it covered…

And delivered a spank to her bare ass cheek that wasn’t at all covered by panties.

It was a motherfucking pink thong.

Growling at the sight of that tormenting string riding up the seam of her ass and fueled by the crack of his palm hitting her bare flesh, he raised his hand and spanked her again, hard enough to make her cry out.

Hard enough to leave his handprint on her.

* * * * *

The sting of the slap on her ass shocked the breath right out of Meadow. A scream gathered behind her lips…but so did a whimper.

How did she end up over Colton’s lap with him swatting her backside while one hand tangled in her hair? He held her head down against a thigh that was hard enough to bruise her cheek if she laid there much longer.

His fingers on her hair tugged at her scalp, leaving another layer of goosebumps skittering over the first ones he left from those two slaps.

Spanks.

He’d spanked her. Like she was a child.

So why did it feel so…so…

Intimate?

Her breath sounded loud in the small enclosure of the truck. The scent of whiskey clung to his clothes, along with something masculine, something wild.

She’d drunk too much, but not so much that she didn’t recognize the difference between this man and any of the others she’d enticed, teased and then backed away from.

Her ass was exposed, and several heartbeats had ticked by since that last slap. Embarrassment washed through her.

She wriggled in his hold. “Let me up!”

He delivered another spank. This one harder. The crack left her stunned.

And him aroused.

Jesus, that couldn’t be all him, could it?

His massive erection pressed against her stomach.

This man could do unspeakable things to her, and she’d be powerless to stop him. Hell, she was powerless to stop him.

As he curled his fingers against her scalp, he tugged her hair more, making her neck arch.

“Are you going to behave now?” He sounded winded, as if he’d run a marathon. Up a mountain. Carrying a heavy pack.

Unable to speak around the throb of her heart in her throat, she nodded.

“Say the words, Meadow, or I’ll spank you again.”

A shudder tore through her. “Yes…sir.”

She could bite off her own tongue for giving him that level of respect; he didn’t deserve it. She only reserved such things for her father—if she was pressured into it.

His hand left her hair—and her ass too. He grabbed her by the shoulders and whipped her upright. She landed in her seat with a soft thump, a puff of air escaping her lungs.

He didn’t look at her.

She wouldn’t meet his eyes even if she could look away from the bulge in the front of his jeans.

She knew firsthand just how hard he was.

And she was dripping wet.

The atmosphere in the truck was loaded. Electrically charged. What had just happened between them?

He reached for the gearshift just as she moved a hand to touch him.

“Put your seatbelt on.” His growl had her yanking her hand back into her lap. She twisted her fingers together, wavering between the urge to reach back and rub her still stinging buttocks or to plunge her fingers into her pussy and rub herself to completion.

That had to be the alcohol talking. No way was she turned on by what Colton had just done to her.

He seemed to be waiting for her to obey his command. Seeing no way around it, she drew the seatbelt into place. When he pulled onto the road, he clenched and unclenched his jaw. The tendon in the crease popped in and out. In and out. Flickering in the ring of light coming from the dashboard.

Suddenly, he swung his head to pierce her in his gaze. The hard planes of his face were accented by shadows the color of granite.

“What the hell were you thinking, Meadow? Drinking too much and toying with that biker? Did you even know his name?”

For as long as she could remember, people looked down on her. Said she couldn’t make her own choices about her life. She thought that would end the minute she became an official adult, but that never happened. Every birthday that passed, she was still too young and stupid in their eyes.

She gripped the hem of her skirt and attempted to wiggle it down her thighs more. Why had she worn such a short skirt?

He issued a humorless laugh. “Why bother now?” He twitched a hand toward her, thought better of it, and wrapped his fingers around the wheel again.

“I’m an adult.”

“Adults don’t wait for their father to go away on a trip and then get drunk and flirt with danger at the local bar.”

She threw her hands in the air, as trapped as she’d ever felt. Even being held down on Colton’s lap hadn’t made her feel as helpless as she did right this minute when it came to her lack of power over her own life.

Her mother was dead. Her brother too. When he was around, her father never let her out of his sight. She was supposed to take over the ranch someday, but everybody knew he’d never trust her with it. The family legacy would die with her generation.

“Maybe I’m tired of being seen as a little girl with a daddy everyone is afraid of. Nobody in Eden will touch me because they know who my father is. All the ranch hands are ordered to come and watch over me. Do you know how humiliating that is?”

He twisted his gaze from the road and stared at her again.

At that dark look, her nipples pebbled. The crease between his brows might as well be a whip to her senses for how much it turned her on.

“I just want to know what it feels like to be a woman. Tonight—”

“If I were a woman, I’d be much smarter!”

“—would have been my—”

“Do you know what that guy could have done to you?”

“—first time.” She could hardly force the words past her lips.

Colton went dead silent.

She held her breath, waiting for him to laugh at her being not only a twenty-six-year-old virgin, but as untouched as a saint. Only once had somebody made it past second base…before Forest had found him and ripped him off her.

Her throat burned in shame.

“If you ever do something that stupid again… If you ever put yourself in that much danger…” his stare blazed into hers with a fury that sent her reeling in her seat, “a spanking will be the least of your problems.”

The fighter in her leaped up like a scrappy ranch hand, ready to show him just how capable she was.

Her chin lifted on its own. “What if I do? What will my punishment be?”

“Goddammit, Meadow!” He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

Darkness shrouded them. The clouds had rolled in, concealing the moon and casting everything in a heavy blanket of midnight.

But she could still see his cock pressing against his jeans.

She was inexperienced, but not stupid. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.

She wouldn’t go after some dangerous random guy again—because Colton would be the one taking her virginity. He just didn’t know it yet.

His chest heaved in contrast to his tone, which came out soft and gritty. “How is it possible that you’re a virgin? Look at you.”

She lifted a shaky hand to her eyes and scrubbed away the tears that gathered in the corners. “There was an…” Her voice fell. “Incident.”

He didn’t move. “Tell me.”

“Why should I?”

Still, the story tumbled out of her, unchecked, despite her will.

“There was a party. Back in tenth grade. I begged my father to let me go, even though older kids were throwing it. This one guy, he was a senior. Landon. Every girl in the school wanted him. He was the quarterback—of course. So stereotypical. He was gorgeous and had these bedroom eyes. He was smart too—slated for med school and a full ride to college.”

She paused, struggling as images of that night bombarded her.

“Go on.” Colton’s voice was soft, but not in a soothing way. It was deadly.

“Daddy agreed to let me go, but only if Forest drove me there and picked me up when it was over. He was home on leave, you see.”

He nodded for her to continue.

The words came out in a rush. “Landon never paid attention to me before. But that night, he was all over me. Telling me how beautiful I was. How he loved my long legs and…” She gulped. “He took me by the hand and led me into the bedroom. Said he wanted to show me his football trophies.” She issued a grating laugh. “Turns out the trophy was really in his pants.”

Colton looked at her hard. “He forced you?”

She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her middle to hold in what was left of her ever since that night. “He…had my skirt up. And m-my panties down.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

“He wasn’t going to use a condom. Said he would pull out. All the girls he’d been with let him pull out. I struggled, and he…”

Colton’s jaw flexed. “What did he do, Meadow?”

“He slapped me.”

One of Colton’s hands flew off the wheel. His fist wavered in the air for a moment before he settled it on his thigh, still clenched.

“I started fighting him. He was laughing. He started to push inside me when…” She trailed off.

Colton didn’t urge her to continue. The rest of the story flooded out.

“Forest burst into the room. He saw me on the bed with Landon on top of me. He pulled him off and beat him to a pulp. He broke his nose and his eye socket. His mouth was a mess. He couldn’t talk for a month afterward.”

“Forest saved you.”

“Yes. And he made me promise—swear to him—that I’d wait to have sex with someone who loved me. He told me to wait for him to meet the guy and see if he was truly worthy of me.” She gulped. “But now Forest is dead, Colton. He’s never coming back to give his stamp of approval, and I just have to move on from this!”

He was quiet for a long time while she collected herself. Over the years, she’d gotten skilled at picking up the shattered pieces of herself and shoving them back inside, even if the edges still cut. She did that now, while he drove on.

The ranch wasn’t far away, and most of her haze from alcohol had worn off the instant he threw her over his lap and spanked her. Funny how when Colton jerked up her skirt, it was nothing like when that bastard Landon had.

It was just…so hot.

She peeked at him from the corner of her eye. Everything about the man screamed of anger, danger and badassery.

From the minute he confessed to her father that he was the reason Forest was dead, she’d wanted him. For his strength and determination.

Forest knew these traits in his friend, and he’d sent him to the Gracey Ranch, where those traits would both be tested and needed.

Oh yes, she wanted Colton Nox. The scorching imprint of his hand on her ass throbbed. So did her pussy.

She would never again go after any random man to claim her virginity. She was going to do whatever it took for Colton to be her first.