Unleashed: Declan & Kara (Unleashed #1-4; Beg for It #1) by Callie Harper

opportunity. It might be at Harlan’s ranch. I
just had to stay out of trouble, play my cards right and it would
happen. I knew it would.
    Whatever it was that
Kara wanted, she got. “Course you can, princess,” Harlan said.
    That nickname was
perfect. I smirked. The princess caught me and scowled.
    “Have a good time,
sugar.” Harlan sent her off. She turned tail and flounced away in
that tiny scrap of a skirt on up to her house. I didn’t watch. I
locked my attention onto Harlan and kept my mind on business.
    Harlan did too. He got
right into saying exactly what I knew he’d say next.
    “That girl walking
right there? That’s my whole world.” Harlan chewed on a long
piece of grass, looking out into the middle distance. “I’d kill
anyone who hurt her. Not think twice about it.”
    I nodded. Message
received, loud and clear.
    “What you do off this
ranch? That’s your business. ” He looked at me, now, dead
serious. “What you do on this property? That’s my business.
You’re here to work and work hard. You stick to that and we’re
going to get along just fine. How’s that sound to you?”
    “Sounds good to me,”
I answered honestly, straight and direct. I meant it.
    He nodded. “You got
determination, boy. I can see that in your eyes. You want to make
something of yourself. I like that.”
    “OK.” I shifted my
weight. A guy warning me off of his daughter? That I got, I knew how
to deal with that. But fatherly praise? That made me uncomfortable.
My father had up and left before I was even born. That kind of ‘I
believe in you’ shit didn’t sit right with me.
    “Come on, let me show
you around your new home.” I followed Harlan, wondering about that
word. Home. I couldn’t say I’d ever had one. It wasn’t
melodramatic. It was a fact. I’d never lived in one place more than
a year. My mother never stayed put, always off in the middle of the
night when she couldn’t make rent, crashing somewhere until we
outstayed our welcome. Then after the fire, after she’d gotten
locked up, then came the foster homes. None of those had exactly
stuck. I had a few permanent scars I’d carry around with me, but
nothing permanent about the houses and people who’d passed in and
out of my life.
    I wouldn’t stay at
Harlan’s ranch long, either, just five months. Head down, eyes on
the prize, I’d work my ass off. And I’d keep my mind and hands
off that ass on my boss’s daughter.
    §
    That night, I checked
out the local bar. I was 21 now but I’d had a fake ID for a couple
of years and passed easy for 25. I was big and tall and tough. I
hadn’t had a problem getting into a bar for a couple of years now.
    I drank a few beers,
keeping to myself and checking things out. It seemed pretty much like
every other honky-tonk bar I’d been in across the state, and I’d
been in more than a few. You had some married, drunk truckers trying
to score with drunk local girls. You had some young bucks, showing
off shooting pool and trying to score with drunk local girls. And you
had me, figuring out which drunk local girl I was going to screw that
night.
    I surveyed my options.
They teetered around in heels too high for them to handle and skirts
too short to fully cover their goods. Bra straps slipping down,
drinks sloshing across their tops, things got messy as the night wore
on.
    A scene like this, I
was in my element. Easy pickings. No questions asked, a minimum of
small talk, and some sweaty, balls-to-the-wall sex.
    I always made sure they
came first, such a gentleman. Really, it was that I got off on that,
too. I liked seeing a girl’s face when she came. That moment when
she forgot everything, whether she’d been trying to act sexy or
whether she’d been nervous about looking good with her top off. I
liked it when she got lost in desire, grunting and moaning and
desperately needing more, shoving her pussy against me and bucking
her clit for release. I loved watching a girl arch back and scream.
Depending