Tiger Bound Read Online Free Page A

else who wandered into town within a couple of hours. This guy eluded the usual gossip mill if Brenda hadn’t picked up news on him. She wouldn’t stoop to asking Candi when she finished her play for the guy. Ah well, maybe the wind would soon blow him out of town the way it brought him in.
    While they stared, the man’s gaze rose from Candi’s flushed face to lock with Deja’s. Brenda was right. He did have that dangerous air to him, and she shivered. Who the heck did he come into a woman’s boutique to shop for, and was she nuts to even get involved with a guy like him? She hoped her assessment of his character was wrong, for the woman’s sake, and was glad she and hers weren’t on his radar. She took Brenda’s arm and pulled her in the direction of the cashier. They had been there long enough.
     
    * * * *
     
    Heath ran a hand over his forehead, swiping away the moisture. He straightened and stretched his stiff muscles from bending over for so long. Because his ranch wasn’t one of the biggest, and he needed to conserve money, he had to do a lot of the labor himself, along with the couple of guys he hired to help out. After mucking out the barn, his drenched shirt clung to his skin, and he unbuttoned it, dragged it off his shoulders, and used the material as a towel to clean up some of the moisture on his chest. When he was done with the barn, he moved outside to his tractor. Time to feed the cattle.
    “Ready?” Buck called when he spotted Heath.
    “Yeah.”
    Buck was a friend and one of his ranch hands. Buck pissed him off with his notions a good bit of the time, but he didn’t need to be told what to do or learn how to run the ranch. His friend had worked various jobs on ranches in the area and down in Texas for years. He too had a dream like Heath did, to have his own, but Heath was grateful he’d agreed to help him when his time came first.
    Heath drove the feed wagon out while Buck went to get the minerals. They would add in some corn by-product and hay and have the mixture he fed his animals twice a day. The job took a bit of time, what with how slowly the cattle ate and how much of it, but he wanted them healthy for when the time came to sell. Taking shortcuts wasn’t something he entertained.
    Today he put in extra hours, having risen earlier than usual so he could work until it hurt to breathe. At least then he wouldn’t think of losing his father so much. He knew over time, the pain would ease, but the loneliness of having no family wouldn’t. Sure, he had Deja, and having her made the difference between sinking into despair and moving forward, but what about if she found a man to share her life with? Part of the reason he’d suggested they become lovers was so that wouldn’t happen. Selfish, he knew, but he didn’t deny it. Why did family mean so much to him? Maybe it was because he never had a good relationship with his father and his mother died so early in his life. Sometimes, he dreamed of finding a wife and settling down to have a houseful of kids, but then for some reason, he never made the effort. A few flings here and there was all it amounted to.
    As he stepped from the truck, he winced at the shooting pain in his head. He rubbed his temple and cursed. Because he woke earlier than usual trying to escape his thoughts, he forgot to take his meds. “Hey, Buck, I’ll be right back. I need to do something real quick at the house.”
    Buck called after him, but Heath pretended not to hear. The only person who knew he took meds regularly to ward off the pain and to suppress the vivid dreams he had on the regular was Deja. He didn’t need anyone else knowing. Having taken them all his life, he was used to it, and they helped for the most part.
    He entered his house through the back door and headed to his bathroom. The pill bottle sat in the cabinet there, and he popped it open to dump two into his palm. Come to think of it, his father usually stocked him up when he drove over to Oklahoma