Read Online Spurred On (The Quick and the Hot) by Em Petrova - Free Book Online

Hayden’s heart lurched.
    He stomped down the center aisle, found his abandoned shirt, and grasped Buck’s shoulder. His hands smarted from shoveling without gloves, and he flexed his fingers to hold on to the small bit of pain he deserved for hurting Zoe Beth.
    “I smell eggs frying. Let’s get some chow,” Hayden said to Buck, steering the hand out of the barn and propelling him toward the house.
    Then he detoured to the bunkhouse where he did a cursory wash and changed his clothes. His mind spun. Would Zoe Beth be at breakfast? If so, what would he say? Could he get her alone to say he was sorry?
    After giving himself another damn good mental thrashing, he made it to the house. The chatter of the men reached him through the door. Holding his breath, Hayden walked into the kitchen and scanned the long table.
    Every man was present, including Val. But two seats stood empty—his and one for a special little cowgirl who’d deserved to be treated better.
    Three more days passed without Hayden setting eyes on Zoe Beth.

Chapter Five
    Zoe Beth caught sight of a familiar cowboy hat and an even more familiar person wearing it. She darted behind the tractor and circled back to the barn. Damn, it was getting difficult to avoid Hayden. Two thousand acres, and the man seemed to be everywhere she went.
    Heart drumming, she lengthened her strides to reach the barn before he glimpsed her walking away. She burned to look back but focused on her destination.
    A cat rubbed her ankles as she reached the barn. She stooped to scratch its striped ears. “Taking good care of my baby?”
    The calf was improving daily, and as far as she knew no one had discovered it. She’d removed the ear tag marking it as Joseph Michaels’s animal, but the resulting hole in the soft flesh would be a dead giveaway. While Joseph tagged his calves within the first hours of life, that wasn’t their way on the Cole Ranch.
    Her softhearted father believed in keeping mother and baby penned up together until the calf was a bit older. At three months they’d mark the young ones as Cole stock.
    She moved toward the stall, trying to put Hayden firmly out of her mind.
    “Zoe Beth, what are you doing in here?”
    Her heart rocketed into her throat where it throbbed a painful staccato. “Daddy.”
    Another step behind him, and Hayden appeared. Across the space his gaze latched on to her. Slowly, he raised a hand to push his hat back farther.
    Sparks fed the want she’d been feeling since the moment he pulled his hands free of her panties. Her knees turned to the consistency of Mattie’s homemade marmalade, and she steeled herself to keep from falling on her face.
    “Just a minute, Meadows,” her father said. He paced toward Zoe Beth. To keep him as far from the calf as possible, she walked forward to meet him. Which meant getting closer to Hayden.
    Every forward stride hurt as if he’d snagged her heart with a big ole treble hook and was reeling her in.
    Not this time. She’d been stupid enough.
    “You’re acting strange. What were you doing in here?” her father asked for a second time.
    “I was just going to see to Haywire’s cut,” she lied. The horse had a scrape on its left leg, but she’d checked the wound and applied salve to it earlier.
    Her father went into the office where she and Hayden had accidentally met that night, and came out with a jar of salve. “Clean the wound, make sure it’s dry, and apply this.”
    As she accepted the container, her face burned. She kept her gaze from Hayden’s. It was bad enough her father was treating her as if she knew nothing, but in front of the man who’d stroked her to completion a few nights ago?
    She took a deep, shaky breath. “Thanks, Daddy.”
    “Use a soft cloth to apply it. If you see infection—redness or swelling—call me or Hayden here. We’ll take a look.”
    Zoe Beth’s ire rose. Straightening her shoulders, she met her father’s gaze head on. Did he really believe she was so ill