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Connor’s voice broke her from her ponderings.

“But if you go and behave yourself, and act like a normal
respectful
human being then perhaps tomorrow your duties will be lessened. Or at least be less… shitty.” The smile returned, but wider this time.

“Hahaha. Look who’s a comic now. Do you have any idea how much shit I shovelled today? I puked three times!”

“Well, geez Princess; you should be thanking me then, imagine all the weight you’ll lose by the time you’re outta here.”

“I don’t need to lose weight!” She looked down at her naked body covered in bubbles. She didn’t
think
she needed to lose weight.

He shrugged.

Her eyes narrowed at him. “What’s that shrug for? You saying I’m fat?”

Chuckling, he gave his head a shake. “No, you look good.”

“Despite my ugly interior.” As soon as she said the words she wished she could take them back. She didn’t want to start a fight, or worse yet have him reconfirm that she was indeed an ugly person inside and out. After the previous night’s blowout she wanted him to see he was wrong about her. A part of her needed to know it as well, because she feared he may be right. It was surprising how something as simple as a change in environment could show you things about yourself you never took notice of before.

His expression softened. “Listen, Samantha. I think I was a little harsh yesterday. I lost my temper, not something I’m proud of, but this is my hometown and the people here are good people. You can call me anything you want, but that courtesy doesn’t extend to the people in this town.”

“I’m sorry.” She meant it. She had lots of time to think while shovelling cow and horse crap and was beginning to see how her behavior may be inadvertently hurting other people. She never intended to hurt anyone, but at the same time she didn’t consider others’ feelings when she did what she did. It was something she intended to work on. She feared it may be part of the reason why she had tons of acquaintances, but when the chips were really down, no real friends.

“Don’t say you’re sorry, prove it to me tonight.”

She nodded. “All right. I’ll be ready within an hour.” He turned to leave, but she stopped him. “Hey, what am I supposed to wear to this thing anyhow?”

He shrugged. “Whatever you normally would to a barn dance.” Without waiting for her response, he turned and left, closing the door behind him.

Well that tells me a lot…

She laughed despite herself, knowing he’d have a wide smile on his face.

~*~*~*~*~

“I thought going to Walmart meant you wouldn’t be touching my stuff?” Connor asked as he glanced over at the passenger seat where Samantha was sitting, wearing a pair of jeans and one of his flannel shirts, tied in the front, just under her breasts. Although it was big on her, the way she had it tied made it tight around her chest.

“You’ve made it clear that my normal party clothes won’t suit this type of thing and I’m not wearing a t-shirt with Pokemon on it, so I had to make do.” She grinned as she looked down at herself. “I think it looks kinda cute.”

He had to admit, it looked pretty damned sexy on her. The image of her stunning, naked body glistening with water as she sat up in the bathtub, her dark eyes wide in surprise came to his mind and his cock jerked alive. He’d been having a hard time shaking the image. He groaned inwardly and attempted to push the vision from his mind.

Pulling off of the main road, they drove down a dirt road for another few minutes until they came upon the MacMillian farm. The barn was lit up with multicolored lights and country music was blasting from speakers mounted in various parts of the barn. People lounged around the outside of the barn, all with beer in their hands, in various stages of intoxication.

“This looks kinda cool.”

“Ya think?” From the tone in her voice he couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not so he shifted his gaze to see her smiling, her eyes taking in the scene before them. He deducted she was being sincere.

“Yeah.” Feeling his eyes on her, she caught his gaze. “I mean, I’m not one for country music, but whateva’, I can go with it. It’s not bad.”

“Hmmmm.” He turned his attention back to the driveway, scanning the area for a place to park. He found one on the front lawn, along with a half a dozen other vehicles.

“Their lawn, for real?”

Shrugging, Connor shut off the vehicle. “As you can see there’s nothing left on the gravel and we need to park somewhere.”

“And the owners are okay with it?”

“I imagine the owners are too drunk to care by now. Besides we don’t worship grass as much as you New Yorkers do. If you haven’t noticed there’s lots around here.”

“Smart ass.” She laughed and swatted at his arm, before opening her door and hopping out.

Since their incident in the bathroom a couple hours prior Samantha had been quite civil, friendly and if he didn’t know better, actually flirty with him. No sarcastic comments, no insults, no whining, no complaining. It was rather disconcerting; surely a day of shit shovelling hadn’t changed her personality that much. So what was her game?

She was already halfway to the barn by the time he was out of the Jeep and had grabbed the case of beer from the back. He couldn’t help himself but take a minute to study her as she walked away. She walked with such poise, her hips swaying seductively. Nearly all eyes were on her. Men were watching with intense interest, no doubt each one wanting to fuck her, while the expressions of the women were mixed – some eyed her with fascination and curiosity, others with suspicion.

“Hey Princess, wait up.” She paused her stride and he jogged to catch up to her.

“Sorry, was just anxious to get a look.” She looked over her shoulder and watched him until he took his place at her side.

“I see.”

“A lot of people here.” She looked around them, her eyes pausing on who she considered to be the best-looking of the men attending. It all became crystal clear. She’d determined being there would be much better with a guy to play with on her off time since none of his farmhands fit the bill. He wasn’t really sure how he felt about her hooking up with one of his neighbours. A part of him was jealous. He attempted to shake off the feeling – he couldn’t.

It’s her time and her decision
, the voice in the back of his mind chimed in.
Maybe being with a decent guy from the area would do her good. Surely they’re a world apart from the type of men she’s used to dating.
Despite his reasoning he still didn’t like it.

“Come on with me to the kitchen, we can unload the beer and I’ll start making some introductions.”

She smiled up at him and nodded, hooking her arm into his and pressing herself tight to his side. “Sounds good.” They began walking toward the house. “So don’t suppose you can also tell a girl which ones are the single ones?”

He looked down at her and grimaced. “You want me to help you get laid. Not sure if that’s what your mother had in mind when she sent you here.”
And I don’t want to
.

She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “Not necessarily hook up. Just someone to pass the time when I’m not shovelling shit.” She shrugged. “Besides, you’ve made it perfectly clear you’re not interested.”

His mouth opened to respond and then he snapped it closed. Fuck, she was one confusing woman, he needed at least a couple of beers in him to deal with and maybe make sense of her. He decided to ignore her last comment. “Oh I don’t think I hate anyone here enough to unleash you on them.”

Samantha’s face went blank a moment and her dark eyes seemed to look deep into his grey ones, but a wide grin emerged on her lips. “Wow, are you saying that because you really mean it or because you want to keep me all to yourself, boss?”

He wasn’t sure, so again he remained silent, grateful that they’d come to the kitchen door. Not bothering to knock he opened it and ushered her in. The conversation between two men who’d been hanging out near the fridge halted and their eyes landed on Samantha.

“Well, what do we have here?” The first one made his way across the room, extending his hand to her. “I’m Mark Cooper.”

She gave Mark a flirty smile, accepting his hand.

Connor pretended not to take notice of the exchange between her and the Cooper brothers, but it was damned hard. The brothers were in their mid-twenties and the town’s playboys, although that wasn’t saying much. Connor had heard things about the men, implants to the town not too long before he returned from what he was told, and the idea of Samantha being around them didn’t sit well with him. They’d always seemed a little too smooth and a little too sketchy to him. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Hey man, good to see you. You never come around to these things, why the change of heart?” the second and older Cooper brother, Jeff, asked, approaching him.

Connor eyed Samantha and Mark. “She wanted to come.”

Jeff’s eyes roamed over Samantha’s body, hunger in his stare. Again, the feeling of anger and jealousy surged within him. “So that your girl, or…”

“She’s staying with me for a while.”

“But she’s available,” Jeff insisted, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Connor wanted to say no, but knew he had no place. She was a grown woman. But he’d be watching, closely. She may be able to handle herself in New York due to who she was, but this wasn’t New York and she didn’t have the shield of her band of merry followers to keep her out of too much trouble. Here she was nothing more than a hot, new piece of ass. She was his responsibility and he took that very seriously. If either one of them spoke to or touched her in any way inappropriate…

Chapter 5

Mark and Jeff were hot, she’d give them that. They were also charming, but not as charming as
they
thought they were. But they’d helped pass the evening and kept her entertained. Even more important was the fact that Connor was jealous. She could see it in his expression, and how his body would tense each time one of the brothers would touch her. She was relishing the idea of Connor jealous, more than she knew she should be.

Samantha glanced over at Connor. Feeling her eyes on him he turned his head and caught her gaze. This had been going on for over an hour now; catching each other’s gaze like a couple of high school teenagers, but neither one making an effort to close the distance between them. A few girls had approached him so far; she wanted to smack them like some jealous girlfriend.

“So what do you say?” Mark asked.

“Huh?” she pulled her eyes from Connor to focus on Mark. She had no clue what he’d just asked. No clue at all. The brothers had been fun for a while, but were beginning to bore her. There’s only so much a girl could take about them running their ATVs and hunting. Does gloating about how many animals you’ve hunted and killed constitute bragging in these parts? Apparently they had numerous animal heads mounted on their walls. How gross was that? She had to admit, however, that Farmville bred some seriously hot alpha male types.

He chuckled, reached out and fingered a lock of her dark hair. “I was saying, how about we get out of here and maybe go on over to my place?”

She gave him a sympathetic smile as she shook her head. “I appreciate the offer. Sounds great but,” she jerked her thumb toward Connor, “I need to be getting back to Connor. He’s kinda protective.”

Mark’s eyes shifted from her to Connor, his jaw clenched and he looked back at her. He looked like he was about to try and persuade her, but thought twice and nodded. “Fine. I’ll be seeing ya around.”

Without another word he left, heading into the barn with Jeff trailing behind him.

Okayyy
. She got up from the hay pile she’d been sitting on and made her way over to Connor, who’d been babying his second beer of the night. Yes, she’d kept that good of a track of him.

“How are you enjoying the barn dance?” Connor asked as she approached.

“It’s okay. Better than I thought it would be to be honest.”

“No luck with the dynamic duo?”

She laughed. “Nah. They were becoming terribly boring.”

“Sure, sure.”

She stuffed her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, pushed her shoulders back and rocked backward on her heels. “I noticed a couple women all over you.”

He chuckled, his eyes briefly lowering to her breasts, pausing and then back to her eyes. “I think that’s overstating a little bit.”

“Don’t think so. They wanted you. Why didn’t you go for it?”

“Not interested. Not my type.”

“Why? I mean, like, what’s your type? You’re not gay or anything are you?”

His face went blank as if horrified she’d even suggest it. “No. I’m not gay. Does your mouth have a filter at all? Or do you just say everything on your mind?”

She shrugged. “So then, what’s your type?”

He chuckled again and took a long swig from his bottle of beer, choosing not to answer her.

The music switched up to a slower beat. She swatted at his shoulder. “Hey hey hey.” Taking the beer from him, she placed it on the ground, took his hand and gave it a tug. “Come on, they’re playing my jam.”

He cocked a brow at her, a smile slowly forming on his lips. “Your jam? Really? I’m not sure what’s surprising me more the fact you’re using the term ‘my jam’ or the fact it’s country music you’re claiming to love. How many beers have you had?”

“You should know, you’ve been watching me all night.” She gave him a sweet, seductive smile and gave his hand another tug, but to her frustration he refused to budge; however, he did keep his hand in hers, their fingers interlacing.

“I’ll go if you can tell me the artist and song title.”

She froze. She had no clue.

“You know what, you don’t even have to tell me both. Just one. Either or.”

She released a loud huff. Why was he making this so damned difficult? “I don’t know.” She attempted to pull her hand from his, but he refused to release it, instead pulling her closer.

“Then I’ll settle for a little honesty.”

Frowning, she took a step closer, less than a foot separating them. “I don’t understand.”