Breathe for Me (The Langston Brothers Duet #1)

by Brittany Ann

“What the hell did you say to that pretty woman to make her cry like that?”

Now, sitting here after a hard day in the fields, watching that beautiful woman cry in her car, it didn’t seem worth it anymore to me. My jaw tightened as I watched her bury her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. The red rental was parked outside the property line, and it should have pissed me off. I’d told her to leave. Instead, her crying caused my chest to tighten. I didn’t like that. She was hunched over for more than twenty minutes, crying into her hands. Her dark hair fell around her, shielding her face from my view. She took my words to heart, and she was crying over them.

I hope you do feel like shit.

They were smart though, I’d give them that, sending in a beautiful woman first. Except she wasn’t just a beautiful woman. No. She was the most enchanting thing I’d ever seen. Which meant she was dangerous. A threat. To me. To my son. To Hallow Ranch and its future.

“If she comes back, what do you want us to do?”

“Tell her to get the fuck off the ranch.” “And if she keeps coming back?”

“Then call Sherif...

Even when he spat in my face and told me he hated me. Even when he turned his back on me and this ranch. I never stopped. His biggest sponsor is Evergreen Feed. That’s just a cover name for Hallow Ranch.

Oh my heart.

“Take that as a compliment, Ms. Cross.”

GROSS

I tried to ignore the way my heart skipped a beat when he stepped out in a flannel, jeans that hugged his massive thighs, and that damn black cowboy hat. I tried to ignore my heart again when his smoke gray eyes drunk me in and then again when his hand balled into a fist by his thigh.

“Thought I told you to leave,” he all but growled down at me. “You did,” I said firmly. “But that was yesterday.”

BLUSHING.

“This ain’t going to work, sweetheart.” “I—” “You sittin’ on the hood of this car with your long legs crossed ain’t going to get me to change my mind about shit,”

I ignored that I liked having to tip my head back to look into his eyes.

So close, I could smell him. And, dammit, this cowboy smelled good, like pine and mint, not like sweat and dirt. No. Of course not. The infuriating, rude, handsome, taller than me, cowboy had to smell good. The universe had no plans of being benevolent today.

“They need to do better than that if seduction is their play,” he said, looking at the pasture. Pain sliced through me at his words, digging deeper than when he called me a bitch. It was like a hot poker was shoved into my gut.

Ten million dollars. I sat there for a few more minutes, watching the barn waiting to see if he would return. He did, but this time, he was mounted on a beautiful brown horse, flying out to the pastures. Denver Langston didn’t even cast me a second glance. That’s okay. He would tomorrow.

Where was my grumpy cowboy?

“You sure are pretty, ma’am, but I don’t shake hands with my enemies.”

“Persistent, aren’t you?” “That’s the job,”

“You never gave me your name…” “I know,”

“Don’t give your name to your enemies either, I take ...

He stared at me for a beat before he threw his head back in a laugh, rich and deep. A good laugh, one that would bring a woman to her knees. The man in front of me, just like the grumpy one who just finished breakfast, was hot.

My eyes met his and he gave me a wink. “You have a good day now. Boss told us that if you came back, we were supposed to tell you to leave and ignore you.” I lifted my chin, holding his stare. “You’re going to be hard to ignore, pretty girl.”

Chapter Seven Denver She came back. That beautiful, enchanting, tall, curvy, green-eyed woman came back. Fuck.

The woman—beautiful as ever—smiled at me, a smile so fucking breathtaking that I had to suppress a growl. Fucking woman. The little minx. My eyes wanted to trail down that tight dress of hers and see if her curves were as luscious as they seem. Her boss probably told her to step it up today. Anything for money, right? She didn’t have any respect for herself, that much was clear.

“What did she say to you?” “Pretty girl?”

“She introduced herself and told me who she worked for,”

“What did you say?”

“I took one of her stupid pamphlets and said I would give her a call when I convinced you to sell this piece of heaven to that greasy pipeline.” “Heavy on the sarcasm there, aren’t you, son?”

“She really pretty?” Beau whistled low. “Yeah, man. She is.”

This town didn’t have a lot to choose from. The twins usually went to Denver one weekend out of the month to get their dicks wet. Sometimes, Beau tagged along, sometimes he didn’t. Jigs didn’t bother chasing pussy anymore; he was chasing peace instead. Then, there was Mags. He never left the ranch, not once since the day I took him on. If he needed something, he would order it. The boys always invited him, and he always declined. I understood him, though. That man was fighting demons, like me.

She was back. She was back in her usual spot, and today, the twins got to see her for the first time. My men looked at her. Again, how could they resist? Just one look and she would have you hooked. Green eyes had been plaguing my thoughts for the last few nights and sleep was a distant memory. I stayed up watching recordings of the rodeo, my eyes glued to my little brother as he held on for eight seconds.

The thought of their hands on her made my stomach churn. What the fucking hell? I didn’t give a shit about her. I just wanted her gone. She wasn’t gone. She kept coming back, every single day. On the fourth week, school was out, and Caleb was here. She kept coming every fucking day, persistent as ever. A month.

I ignored her. My cowboys ignored her. Yet, she persisted.

So, I ignored her again, but Beau didn’t. I shoved away the anger that flared in my chest as I watched him make her laugh. She tossed her head back, her long dark hair flowing down the back of her cream top in waves. I couldn’t hear her laugh. I was too far away and inside the house. It pissed me off that Beau got to hear it. It pissed me off that Beau was the one to make her laugh. Why in the fuck was it pissing me off?

Because you liiiiike her dumbass

His dark beard, tan skin, gray eyes. I wanted to suffocate in them. My mind wandered even deeper, going back to the first day I’d met him, the day he pinned me against a wall with his forearm. The skin on my neck prickled as I remembered the way he stared down at me, holding me captive— What the hell was wrong with me? I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Nope. I was just tired. That’s all this was: lack of sleep on a crappy bed in a state I’d never been to. That’s all this was. Yet, when I fell asleep, I was surrounded by gray smoke…

“Those are your favorite,” I noted. “You going to see The Grump again today?”

I hung up and looked back to my bed. My dreams were of her again, green eyes, dark brown hair, and a laugh I couldn’t hear. I scratched my bearded jaw. What the fuck was wrong with me? Why was this woman stuck in my fucking head?

“Something’s wrong,” Beau said, his voice low. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe she stayed in because of the storm,” Jigs said casually. The twins nodded. Mags lowered his book and raised a brow at me. “Nah. Something is wrong, Den. That woman is stubborn,”

“Caleb, stay in the bunkhouse,”

Was she hurt? Had she gotten into a wreck? The nearest hospital was in the next county over… Images of her dark hair and greens eyes flashed before my eyes.

You wanted her gone, Denver. Not hurt or worse… I put the truck in reverse and spun away, rain and gravel flying behind me as I headed down the long drive of Hallow Ranch. I turned onto the main road that led into town and floored it. My truck fish tailed, but I righted it quickly. I tossed my hat onto the seat beside me, wondering if she would look good sitting there. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. The rain came down harder, Mother Nature reminding me she was in control. Not today. My eyes scanned the road for that stupid little red car. Headlights passed me, muted in the thick grey waterfall around us. A truck. Son of a bitch. Where are you, City Girl?

I couldn’t be a snake. I wasn’t that kind of woman. I was better than that. Are you? You buy out ranches for a company that destroys the land. I didn’t want to destroy Hallow Ranch. I didn’t want to push my grumpy cowboy. I didn’t want any of this.

It was a red Chevy. Denver Langston’s Chevy. If I wasn’t so cold, I would have stomped my foot like a toddler—today was not a good day. I watched, arms wrapped around my waist, as the truck swerved over to the side, parking a few feet from my car. I watched as the mountain of a man got out of the vehicle—cowboy hat all— and he stalked towards me. He looked good. Even in the rain, the smoke was beautiful. “Are you fuckin’ crazy?”

Fucking Christ. She was even more beautiful in the rain. Her dark hair was stuck to her pale cheeks, her neck, her limbs were shaking, and her clothes were soaked. She was dressed for summer, not this shit. The cream blouse looked like it was painted on her body, clinging to her breasts and torso, showing the slight curve of her belly. Her makeup was running down her face, down the sides of her cheeks. Jesus. This woman. “Wh-what are you d-doing here?” she stammered, wrapping her arms tighter around herself. She was fucking freezing. I stared at her as her question sunk into my head. The answer: I didn’t fucking know. I just needed her to be warm.

“Mr. Langston, I—" “Get in the God damn truck,” he ordered, his deep voice on the edge of pissed as it carried across the distance between us. “I have a tow truck coming,”

He was less than a foot away from me now, a sheet of rain falling between us. I could see those gray eyes under the rim of his black cowboy hat. I could see them on me—feel them on me. He was everywhere again, his smoke crowding around me, seeping into my skin. I closed my eyes, wishing that he would go away.

He pointed back to his Chevy. “Get in the truck!” His smoke was in my lungs, and I couldn’t breathe. It was so damn cold, all I could focus on was him—his presence, his eyes—the way he looked at me, like he wanted me to be safe, to be warm. Like he wanted me to breathe.

“Smoke,” I whispered. He bit off a curse, then he was gone. Suddenly, I was flying, flying next to something warm and solid. I liked warm and solid.

Then, I wasn’t flying anymore, and the rain had stopped. Now, warmth was all around me, but I still shivered. I was on something soft, my head resting against it. I felt heat run over my shoulder, down my torso and then a faint click. Then a slam. He put me in the truck. I was in the truck. His truck.