Read Online A Little Harmless Ride by Melissa Schroeder - Free Book Online Page A

the barn. He knew he’d been a bastard, but he didn’t give a bloody damn. The last few days he’d been out of sorts and he knew the reason. He gave up avoiding her and trotted down into the yard. He was going to have to talk to Jerry about the fence being down. It was quiet for an afternoon, but he knew they had moved some of the cattle over to another pasture so almost everyone would be out there working on that. Still, he expected one of the hands to be around in the yard.
    Eli dismounted and made his way over to the barn.
    “ So, you like to ride, yeah?”
    He heard the question and his mind came up with all kinds of different scenarios. He didn’t even stop to think before storming into the barn. She was standing there with Kana Bentley one of the best men on the ranch—not to mention married. He was devoted to his wife, but apparently, that didn’t matter to Eli at the moment.
    Stepping into the barn, he found Crysta talking to the younger man.
    “ I competed when we lived in Texas.”
    “ Wow. I had no idea. I mean, Joe talked about you a lot, but he never said you competed.”
    “ Barrel racing. I was top racer in a three county area.”
    “ Bentley, don’t you have something to do?”
    Bentley turned around and his face turned red. The boy was all of twenty-one and married to his high school sweetheart. It didn’t matter to Eli at the moment, he just wanted the little bastard gone.
    “ Yes, sir. It was nice talking to you, Crysta.”
    He scurried out of the barn giving Eli a few worried glances. Crysta waited until he was gone to confront Eli. If he had thought she wouldn’t fit in at the ranch, he had been mistaken. She was wearing a worn pair of jeans that hugged her generous hips; the red shirt and cowboy hat completed the outfit.
    And she was looking at him as if he’d grown a second head.
    “ Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”
    No, he didn’t. He didn’t want her to know exactly why he wanted to rip both of Bentley’s arms out of their sockets and beat him over the head with them.
    “ I just think he has better things to do.”
    “ I was talking to him about the festival you have here at the ranch every fall. That’s part of being a half owner.”
    With that statement, she folded her arms beneath her breasts and gave him a stony stare. She was ticked off, but he didn’t know why. Worse, she probably thought crossing her arms like that was a form of protection. Instead, it pushed her breasts up so that he could get a better peek at them. That just made him want to see more.
    He hadn’t been this out of control with his needs in years.
    “ Eli.”
    He looked up at her face. “What?”
    Okay, not very bright but it was the best he could do at the moment. He had been walking around half cocked and ready for action for the last couple of weeks. Eli figured he was bloody lucky he hadn’t passed out yet.
    “ I said, do you have an issue with me getting more involved.”
    He wanted to scream, yes. But he couldn’t. Because then she would want an explanation of what the hell he was going on about. He wanted her in her room away from him, away from the hands, and strapped to the bed… shit .
    He had to stop thinking about that. Knowing she was a sub was tempting him like never before. He didn’t like initiating a sub. It was involved and many times they tended to get attached to their first Dom. Eli was never around for the long haul. So someone like Crysta would be perfect. That is if she wasn’t his business partner.
    “ I’ve no problem with that, but make sure you’re careful around these men. They could easily take your openness as an invitation.”
    He walked past her then. He needed to get his horse unsaddled and fed before he lost control. If he concentrated on that, Eli wouldn’t think of how she would look on all fours as he slapped her ass with a riding crop.
    Fuck.
    “ Elias St. John, I’m not done with you.”
    “ Bloody hell, woman. Will you give me a