Sassy Shifter Brides: Complete Series - BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Romance (9 page)

“Nope,” Rake admitted truthfully, tucking the phone back in his pocket and taking a drag from the cigarette. He didn’t even like the taste of the damn things anymore, but he always started up again when there was undue stress in his life. Which, since starting Shifter Grove, was just about all the time.

“You know it’s just about time to drive the cattle down from the upper pastures. It’s getting cold. I’m not going to do it with trucks,” Deacon grumbled, scowling at the positively bored looking werelion. Rake shrugged and then stretched his arms up over his head. He’d been up since dawn, working on the ranch and trying to get his mind off Liza. When she’d told him that she was coming to Idaho while Warren and Kacey were away, he’d felt a hot strike of excitement burst through him. She’d been on his mind since the wedding, a constant stamp he neither tried nor wanted to get rid of. But it had taken just one visit from his darling half-sister to remind him why none of it was going to work. And now, well, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He couldn’t go and see the gorgeous, breathtaking, chocolate-skinned beauty without dragging her into bed, and he couldn’t spend a minute without dreaming about it in vulgar, delicious detail. All in all, it meant he was just going to need to smoke a lot more cigarettes to get through it all. Maybe a nice keg of whiskey while he was at it.

Women. Can’t get away from them even in Idaho.

“So what are we going to do?” Deacon asked, crossing his arms over his burly chest. Out of the four of them, Deacon certainly was the most serious and down to earth. And well, Rake knew he usually got what he wanted, due to rightfully making everyone else feel inadequate in comparison. It was hard to argue with the hardest working man around and come off looking like a winner. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was going to lose this one. There was only one option – turn it into a win-win. Rake put out the cigarette and exhaled, watching the smoke plume and be blown away by the slight breeze. He looked at the cattle, and a thought hit him. Something that could solve most of both his and Deacon’s problems in one fell swoop.

“What if I don’t sell them to you, but rent the horses you need. And, to make the deal sweeter, I’ll do the run for you.” Rake cocked a brow at Deacon, leaning forward with his elbows on the knees of his worn jeans.

“Now why would you do that?” Deacon asked, understandably doubtful. It was a long drive – at least a good week going up and coming back down again. But that was just what Rake was banking on. If he wasn’t close to Liza, he wouldn’t have to worry about controlling himself.

“Hell, I’ve been meaning to get out of the ranch. Need to clear my head, you know? Warren’s wedding and the town starting to grow has given me stuff to think about, and I can’t do it if I’m constantly fussing about with the ranch,” Rake said, a soft murmur entering his tone. He wasn’t lying, in that sense. Warren’s wedding
had
suddenly put things into perspective. How he was getting older day by day and still didn’t have a woman to share his life with. He’d worked hard all his life, especially now what with Shifter Grove and the horse ranch, and he was a solitary creature. But seeing the joy Kacey brought to Warren, well, it made a man think. And having Liza enter his life had made everything all the more clear. Meeting her had been a blessing until his pride had turned it into a curse.

The chemistry he had with her was electric, making him stand up and take notice. Not only was she curvy, tall and built to be dragged into his bed, she was also whip-smart and sharp as a hot knife cutting through butter. He’d looked her up on SassyDate (based on Warren’s loudmouthed gushing about the dating app for shifters and humans alike), and they’d been talking ever since. With each day, he grew more anxious to see her. He was sure Liza hadn’t told Kacey, but he’d actually invited her to stay over for a few weeks anyway, even before her invitation came through. The twisting in his gut told him that she was the woman for him, or at least she could be if he gave their relationship a chance. He’d been more than willing to do that before the Whiteplains lions laid the cold shower of a surprise on him. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and his lion roared with irritation from deep inside him, clawing at him to get out. Frustration. Pure and utter frustration. He needed to get away. He could damn near smell her in the air – that maddening jasmine and honey scent she’d worn at the wedding. It made him wild, even wilder than usual, and that was no small feat for him.

“What do you say? I’ll do the whole run for, say, 600 bucks? You just need to send someone up with supplies so I don’t have to overload the horse and can make it with just one or two. It’s a steal, compared to buying a horse off of me and going up there on your own or sending some of your boys.” Rake tried to hide the eager anticipation that was welling up inside of him. As far as he knew, no one but Liza was aware that he even had a fling with her, and that was just fine with him. He didn’t want to deal with any questions, even if they were from Deacon, who was still eyeing him questioningly. After a moment of thought, his expression cleared, and he grinned, tipping his hat back a bit.

“Sure. But I’ll pay you 300 bucks,” he said. Rake flicked the butt of the cigarette at him, chuckling.

“And I’ll only bring you back half the cattle, cowboy.”

“Fine, 600. I need them down as soon as you can get them, so when would you be ready to go?”

“Tomorrow morning. Bright and early.” Rake stretched out his hand, and Deacon grasped it firmly, shaking it. A weight fell from Rake’s chest, and he felt his boisterous bravado returning to him. No broken heart was going to get him down, not as long as he didn’t have to deal with it, anyway. Or break Liza’s in the process.

CHAPTER THREE

Liza sighed under her breath, sipping on cold ice tea and rocking back and forth while curled up on a rocking chair on Warren and Kacey’s porch. The sun was slowly setting and the sky was lit up by reds and yellows that twinkled in the most mesmerizing way, casting shadows over the mountains and bouncing off the green treetops. It was breathtaking. While she’d been to Kacey’s wedding, she hadn’t really had much time to take stock of the wonderful scenery and the epic beauty of the lands surrounding Shifter Grove. Something about the quiet majesty of it all spoke to her soul.

She took another sip, thumbing her phone for the umpteenth time that night. He still hadn’t called. Or texted. That…that…well. That rake! Liza snorted with mild amusement, tucking the phone into a deep pocket on her loose, flowy pants. She wasn’t going to let a man get her down, especially not when she was paying witness to one of the most spectacular sunsets she’d ever seen. Nu-uh. No man was going to kill her mood that night! Even if he was tall, kind of mysterious and everything her heart desired. Liza gritted her teeth, determined to get the man out of her mind. But, Rake was a tough lion to ignore. Considering she knew how he tasted and that he was just miles from where she was now, it seemed all the more impossible to get him off her mind.

Liza set the glass down beside her and picked up a notebook and pencil from the ground, flipping through it until she found an empty page. She started drafting a kaleidoscope of flowers and wines there, all reaching up towards the sky, looking for a spot under the sun. She could imagine them in all the colors of the sunset and it took her mind off of Rake for at least a little while. Art always did that to her. It released her from the bounds of everyday life and gave her an outlet, a safe haven that no one could take from her. She was glad to share it whenever she could, but ultimately, art had always been a lonely endeavor for her.

Her family had never understood her passion for the ‘softer’ things in life. While most of her kin was made up of doctors, oil barons and accountants, she’d been the one chasing a butterfly or spending more time at the stables than was proper for a young lady of her standing. She learned to ride and love horses at home and the serenity they provided from her loud, constantly arguing family and as far as she was concerned, that was really the only good thing she’d picked up from them. Instead of taking their money, she’d struck it out on her own, looking for her own path in life. Painting what her muse told her to paint didn’t exactly bring in the big bucks, but doing graphic and web design on the side, she made a comfortable enough living to have time to give herself to her craft. Still, it left her rather lonesome. And that was where Rake was supposed to come in.

“God dammit,” Liza cursed loudly as the vision of the devilish man came punching back into her daydream, making the vines she was drawing waver and spill on the pages. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. How he would feel holding her close, if he was thinking of her, what his body looked like without the pesky addition of clothes…yum. Her raunchy train of thought was cut short by the sound of a car tumbling down the road, the headlights soon casting a yellow streak across the road as the big truck rounded a corner. Liza frowned to herself and got up, taking a few careful steps towards the steps leading down from the porch. She leant on the railing and waited until the truck came to a stop.

The questioning frown was quickly wiped from her face when she recognized the wide-shouldered form of the man jumping out of the driver’s seat.

“Deacon! Fancy seeing you around here!” she hollered with a wide grin, straightening up.  The polar bear shifter had left her an impression of a kind, hard-working, salt of the earth kind of guy at the wedding. She’d liked him immediately.

“Good to see you again, Liza! Now, I hope you don’t mind the late intrusion, but I got a proposal for you that a certain new friend of mine tells me you won’t be able to say no to! I hear you love horses?”

Well, say one thing for Idaho – it won’t let you stay down and out for too long! Liza nodded eagerly and invited the man in, happy to hear about anything that would take her mind off of Rake for a little bit longer. Or at least until he texted back, that bastard.

***

Liza could feel the nervous energy in the air. Rake was staring at her like she was both his messiah and the devil incarnate, a twisting of emotions grating his expression. She smiled sheepishly, standing next to Deacon’s truck with a packed saddlebag over her shoulder.

“What’s she doing here?” Rake finally managed, a not so quiet accusation wafting in his tone. Deacon cocked a brow at him, and Liza visibly bristled, her lips thinning into a strict line that tolerated no messing about.

“You know my name. Use it,” she said, walking past Rake and almost bumping into him on her way to one of the horses standing at the post.

One of them, a gorgeous black stallion, strong and full of life, had already been harnessed and saddled, Rake’s saddlebags on him. A smaller gray mare was weighted down with extra gear for the weeklong trip, so Liza set to the task of saddling the palomino mare next to the black stallion. She was so snarling mad at the reception she’d just received that she spooked the horses a little, causing her to inhale and exhale deeply to regain some composure. After all, the horses weren’t to blame that Rake was a giant asshat, right?

“Shh, It’s okay,” she hushed the mare, patting her slender face and soft nose.

“She wasn’t part of the deal,” Rake said behind her, his voice hushed. She could still hear him, though.

“Kacey told me to take her with me if I went out. She’s ridden a lot before, and she drove cattle down in Texas. And I have 300 heads of cattle up there. That’s far too many for just you to handle. What’s the problem?” Deacon asked, his deep, rumbling voice soothing Liza when Rake’s reaction had done anything but. First, he hadn’t answered her messages since she arrived in Shifter Grove. Then, he hadn’t come to see her, even though it was him who asked her to come to Idaho in the first place. And now he was behaving like someone had told him that the sun was never rising again just because she was going on the cattle run with him? That wasn’t going to fly, not at all. She had the right mind to ask him what the hell was wrong with him, but Deacon didn’t deserve to be dragged into this.

When Deacon had come to see her the night before, telling her that the cattle run was starting the next day, she’d gladly agreed to go on it. He hadn’t told her that Rake was going to be on it, though. The very thing she was intending to use to forget about the damned werelion had set her up to spend a week alone in the wilderness with him. Talk about irony.

I’m not going to let him ruin this for me,
she thought darkly, setting the saddle pad on the horse and picking up the saddle. She could hear him lighting up another cigarette, and she cringed. He’d told her that he only smoked when something was getting on his nerves. Great way to hit on a girl, letting her think that she was the cause of his frustration. Going by the look of him, that was exactly what she was.

“Asshole,” she mumbled under her breath, carefully keeping her eyes off of him.

“Nothing,” Rake muttered, taking a deep drag from his smoke. “Fine, whatever. If she can ride, she can ride. Just send a truck to Horseshoe Bend in three nights. We should have the cattle rounded up then and could do with some gear. I have the bags packed and in the barn. Do me a favor, though. Come and check on the ranch once in a while, would you? As much as I trust the farmhands, I don’t trust the farmhands.” Deacon chuckled and laid a heavy pat on Rake’s shoulder.

“Will do,” the werebear said. “You take care now, Liza. Don’t let this grouch get to you. Just kick him when he starts misbehaving,” Deacon yelled as he hopped into his truck, speeding off and leaving her and Rake alone in the yard.