Read Online Nowhere Ranch by Heidi Cullinan - Free Book Online Page B

you tell me about what your rules are too.”
    “I don't really have any requests beyond, ‘As much of you in a bed as I can get.'”
    “Well, I got one more.” I lifted my head and looked him in the eye. “I want access to your kitchen. Any time of the day.” That made him laugh. I didn't. “Yeah, you think it's funny, but you aren't working in my sorry excuse for one. The kitchen is crucial to this negotiation, Mr. Loving.”
    He sobered a little. “All right. The kitchen is yours. Which you could have had without the sex, but you can't take it back now.”
    Now I did grin. “We could have sex in the kitchen.”
    He groaned. “Not now. If I had the energy to move, I'd go sit in the hot tub.”
    My eyebrows went up. “You have a hot tub?”
    “I have a hot tub.”
    “We are having sex in the hot tub.” I laid my head back down. “Later.”
    He pulled the blanket up over us and arranged us better on the pillows. Cuddling with this man was getting to be a habit. It should have been weird, but it wasn't. I wouldn't stay like this for long, because it would make my neck stiff, but it was nice.
    Travis nuzzled the top of my hair, and I closed my eyes and let myself float on the sensations.
    “I wish you could have seen yourself with that inside you,” he whispered, mouth still on my hair. “You were beautiful. You made my teeth ache just watching you.”
    Right then I felt beautiful. Sore and tired and beautiful. And not lonely. Not lonely at all.
    I did end up sleeping on his shoulder all night, and it did fuck up my neck just like I said it would. But much like my backside, the pain was worth it.
    The next morning was awkward at first. Even in Travis's bed, I was aware I was on the ranch, which meant work and sex had mixed a lot closer than I cared for. I'd known that last night, but I hadn't made peace with it as much as I'd shoved it over because I really, really wanted sex with Loving.
    Loving. Travis. It was getting hard to know what I wanted to think of him as. Which was why sex was always with guys in towns far away from where I worked. Which was why it was very infrequently with the same guy. And now here I'd agreed to regular sex with not just one guy but the guy who also signed my paycheck.
    Though there was the kitchen.
    Rubbing my stiff neck, I slid out of the bed, took care of business in the bathroom, and made my way naked down the stairs to hunt down my clothes. It was Saturday. None of the other hands worked Saturdays or Sundays, but I always checked the sheep when I got up.
    I climbed into my clothes, thinking about hay and rain and yield and soil and sheep. But I saw the kitchen out of the corner of my eye and decided all that could wait a minute. I remembered Loving had been drinking coffee the night before, which meant he probably had some here. I headed to the kitchen.
    After so long with my hot plate and tiny fridge, I felt like I was in a palace. And it kind of was, as far as ranch kitchens went. The floor was heavy gray tile. The counters were granite, and the appliances gleamed. You could have given a bath to a midsize sow in that sink. The cupboards were sturdy, heavy wood. But there wasn't a damn thing inside them.
    He had a few cups and plates and the odd packet of noodles and sauce, and there were filters and coffee beans. That was about it. Normally I wouldn't snoop, but I couldn't stand it. I had to find out if the cupboards were empty all around, and by God, they were. I had more in my pantry than he did.
    The coffeemaker stumped me for a few minutes. You could've launched a nuclear missile with the damn thing, there were so many buttons, and the grinder for the beans was in the coffeemaker. I frowned at it. It was fuss, and I don't care for fuss. Fresh beans are better, but they're expensive and troublesome, and the stuff in the tin gets the job done. But there was no can of Folgers here, just some bag of beans which I was pretty sure came from a local shop, like they roasted