Page 3
You are more than capable of handling him.
Lennon huffed quietly, tip-toeing down the wooden steps and trying to avoid making them creak. The ranch hands were up early, just not this early. The sun was just edging its way up over the horizon. The air was dewy and fresh as he inhaled the scent of grass and horse. He could hear them stirring in the paddocks in the distance.
The place held a whimsical beauty that Lennon took the time to appreciate while everyone else was asleep. He loved the quiet in the morning on the ranch. It was different in town because there was a different energy in a city to being out in the country.
They were flying out this morning, and Lennon could admit, despite the cabin sharing with Kodi, that he’d loved the chance to be here with his friends.
Glancing towards the cabin three doors down, Lennon sighed wearily and trudged his ass back towards the cabin he’d been forced to share with Kodi. This week had proven harder for being in close confines to Kodi.
Lennon’s major in college had been global statistical data analysis. A love of figures had given him his dream job. It was no longer that, and he was getting desperate enough to consider spanking his boss.
At his last meeting with Hollis, he’d not been able to report any improvement. And the knowledge that Kodi was struggling had kept him from saying how bad things actually were between them. He’d managed to step back off the cliff edge where his resignation hung, but this week, the man was getting on his last working nerve.
The guy was something else. Objectively he was an adonis. All muscles and hard body, blond-brown streaked hair with a square jaw line, full lips and eyes that made a person stare because they were so expressive. All that being said, he was temperamental with what appeared to be no control over his emotions. He fired off at least twenty times a day, and it was a challenge not to react back when Lennon knew the reasons why. He had wished daily for the last week for the old system, where they were allocated one brother depending on priority of workload. It had worked because no one spent too long with any one brother. Now he felt stuck.
Lennon was level-headed and had a soft heart. His parents often said he was more mature than any of his older siblings by the time he was four. Yet, each day on the ranch, it was becoming harder to remember that. To sympathize with someone who didn’t appear to understand the impact their behavior had on others—me.
Last night, he spent the night in a cabin with Wilder because the alternative was throttling the man who was driving him to distraction.
He climbed the steps to the cabin, his head tilted as he listened out for signs that Kodi was awake. The sounds of water running got him groaning under his breath as he opened the door and stepped into the rustic cabin. There was little in it, two single beds, a small closet, and a wooden cabinet between the beds that held a lamp. The one other door led into the tiny bathroom, which was where Kodi was.
Lennon went to the closet, grabbed his small suitcase and haphazardly threw his clothes in it. They required laundering, so he wasn’t bothered too much about being neat. He was nearly done when Kodi came out of the bathroom on a cloud of fruit-flavored steam. Lennon made a concerted effort not to stare at the golden skin glistening with droplets that headed down the muscular chest to the towel tucked around his slim waist. No, he was most certainly not staring.
“Get lucky, did we?” Kodi snapped, all teeth and temper, his nose twitching as though he was scenting the air.
Lennon’s eyes widened at the unexpected anger when he’d done nothing. And even if he had, it was nothing to do with Kodi. His hands balled at his sides without him noticing, and he took a step towards Kodi, his chin jutting out.
“What’s it got to do with you?” he asked in a restrained tone.
“The reputation of Starling Enterprises has everything to do with me,” Kodi snarled, and Lennon couldn’t say what came over him. Okay, he could.
“Is that right? If you must know, I went to share with Wilder because you are too damn much to handle right now,” he said, adding a frostiness he wasn’t known for.
“Likely story!”
Having learned self-defence techniques from his older brother and wrestling for years at college, Lennon didn’t think twice. The need to do something took control of him and common sense flew out the window. He took hold of Kodi’s wrist and hooked a leg around his ankle, tumbling him over the single bed so he was lying across it.
“Argh!” Kodi grunted.
Before Kodi could recover, Lennon straddled his legs and as his top half was over the edge of the bed, his arms had no purchase except for the floor, which gave Lennon the advantage. He pressed a hand firmly in the center of Kodi’s back and the other whipped the towel up to reveal his muscled ass. Without thinking, he spanked Kodi hard on his left butt cheek.
The sound of the slap was shockingly loud in the small cabin. Beneath him, Kodi froze, but despite his stinging palm, Lennon didn’t hesitate and spanked him several more times until his palm was truly smarting. On the fourth swat, something happened. Kodi’s body went lax, as though he was a wax candle, and he melted into the bed.
A low groan rumbled out of Kodi as his ass rose to meet the next spank.
Lennon registered it, and though it knocked him off kilter, he didn’t, or rather couldn’t, pause to re-group.
Kodi’s labored breathing was loud, as was Lennon’s when he finally stopped and viewed his handy work. The dark red finger marks gave him a secret thrill, and it was that which got him moving to release Kodi—not that he was fighting him off.
“What. The. Fuck?” Kodi slurred as if he’d had a heavy night at Ranch-Down, the main bar in the town. When Kodi staggered to his feet, he looked disorientated and a bit wobbly.
When he faced Lennon, swaying, his cheeks were as flushed as his ass. He wore a dazed expression and his lips were slack. What interested Lennon far too much was the way the front of the towel was tented.
Oh, he liked it!
So did we.
Lennon didn’t want to think about that, rubbing his hot palm down the leg of his jeans, feeling the heat penetrate the fabric. Would Kodi’s ass feel that hot?
