Rodeo Romance (Contemporary Western Romance Short) by Teresa Gabelman

guy?”
    “Take him away from the buildings and let him go.” When he saw the worried look on her face, he chuckled. “He’ll find his way home.”
    “Can I do it?” She moved away from the door to let a few people out. He nodded and she handed him the raccoon. “Here, hold Bandit so I can get my shoes.”
    “Oh, Lord, she went and named him.” Cindy rolled her eyes.
    Trisha ignored her burning feet to find her shoes. Jake quickly handed the animal to Tim.
    “Are you hurt?” He watched her limp around the room searching.
    “No,” Trisha lied. Finding her shoes, she sat on the end of her bed to put them on. Her lie was revealed when she hissed trying to put them on.
    “Yes, you are.” Jake knelt, picking up her foot and giving it a hard look before turning the hard look on her. “Tim, take the raccoon. Hank, run up to the main house and get the first-aid kit.”
    “I’m fine.” Trisha frowned, pulling her foot away.
    “No, you’re not.” Jake grabbed it back. “You’re bleeding.”
    Cindy bent over looking at her foot. “You ran out barefoot?”
    “You’re lucky I grabbed my shorts.” Trisha snorted once again pulling her foot away from Jake.
    “I wouldn’t say that.” Sam cocked an eyebrow staring at Trisha’s long legs.
    Jake stood quickly, rounding on Sam. He towered over him a good three inches. “I suggest you find something to do that doesn’t involve being here.” Jake glared down at Sam and for the second time that day, he wanted to smash one of his employees.
    “Hey, calm down.” Sam held his hands up wearing a cocky grin.
    Jake didn’t say a word, his stance and stare said it all. Finally, Sam took the hint and walked outside.
    “Cindy, get me a wet wash cloth, please,” Jake said, his focus back on Trisha.
    “I can clean my own feet,” Trisha grumbled, getting up from the bed and hobbling to the bathroom. Shutting the door behind her, she sat on the toilet and lifted one foot up so she could look at it. There was a quick knock before the door opened. Jake filled the small bathroom.
    “Sit on the edge of the tub and hang your feet over.” He sat a first-aid kit on the counter.
    Trisha did as she was told, but grumbled some more. “Do you always boss everyone around?”
    “Yes.”
    “And does everyone do what you tell them?” She hissed when her cuts made contact with the warm water.
    “Yes,” he again replied, focused on her feet.
    He may be focused on her feet, but Trisha was focused on his smell, which was amazing, as well as the hard line of his muscles as they flexed while he worked on her feet. She finally snapped out of wanting to jump on him when he grabbed the Peroxide.
    “This is going to sting.” His voice was deep and surrounded her completely in the small bathroom.
    Yeah, no shit. She didn’t want to cry like a baby in front of him and she knew this was going to hurt badly. “I really don’t think I need any of that.” She lifted her feet out of the water, wiggling them back and forth. “They feel better already.”
    Jake knelt on the bathroom floor next to her and looked her straight in the eyes, even with her perched on the bathtub. Without taking his eyes off her, he reached over, turned the water off, which brought his face closer to hers. She could see every golden speck in his dark brown eyes. Her head tilted without help from her brain; it just happened. His gaze broke, dropping to her lips. All the noises from outside the closed bathroom door, to the pain in her feet, were all forgotten when his lips met hers.
    She had been kissed before, many times, but this was different. Jake McCabe could kiss like no other man had ever kissed her. The curl of her toes didn’t even hurt her injured feet, but it oddly made them cold. As the kiss deepened, her brain registered a dull stinging in her feet, but she ignored it as her arms went around his neck. The sound of a plastic bottle dropping against the porcelain barely fazed her as his arms wrapped