Chapter 1

.x.x.x.

“Hey, Dev, your pops wants you to go out and ride the fence,” the barn manager, Rusty said as he walked into the stall where I was taking care of my mare, Moon.

I looked up through my mousey brown hair. “Tell dad he can shove his fences-”

Rusty scowled. “Devika Kali Artemis Monroe! What has gotten into you?”

I gave him an innocent look. “Sex deprivation?”

Poor old Rusty chocked. “What?”

I snickered evilly. “Oh, nothing.”

“Girl, you better just go ride those damn fences before I tell your father what you just said.”

Rusty shuffled off to do whatever is job entitles. I glowered at his retreating figure. My father knew I hated being told what to do, which is why he always sent Rusty or an extremely stupid groom to do his bidding.

With a growl that spooked Queen, I went to go tack up my dad’s stallion, Pride. I was in the perfect mood for what the stud would make me put up with.

Over in the stallion barn, there were kicks and grunts coming for the big, powerful beasts. I sighed as I gazed in a Pride. He was my father’s joy. He’d been a reining champion about five years ago, but had to be retired. I reached for his halter when he lunged and ground his teeth against the metal bars.

Gazing at the horse, I opened the door. “Let’s go, boy. We could both us an outlet.”

.x.x.x.

Damn horse... I thought the whole way home. He’d dumped me after we’d finished riding the fences and were just about to turn to home. Five miles away. So I walked everyone of those steps on the way home, silently cursing my father’s horse.

I guess I should tell you about myself. The name is, as previously stated, is Devika Kali Artemis Monroe, more commonly referred to as Dev. I’m 23, 5’3, grey eyes and brown hair. I’m the daughter of Richard Monroe and Stephanie Cartwright-Monroe. My mother died when I was born and I was pretty much brought up by Rusty. My own father pretty much hates to look at me because I look so much like my mother. He can’t stand the fact I want to take over Big Sky Ranch, either. Or the fact that I’m more than qualified for the job.

When I finally reached home, my father was waiting outside for my return. He looked less than pleased.

“Would you like to explain?” He asked calmly.

“Yeah. Since you never let anyone else ride that piece of shit horse, he’s rank and spoiled,” I snapped off at him.

“He’s not rank.”

I rolled my eyes heaven-ward. “Our riding is similar, daddy dearest. If he was blind and couldn’t smell, he wouldn’t know the difference.”

“Muck all these stall out. You’re not setting foot off this ranch until it’s done.”

“What!? You know I’m going out!” I shouted at his retreating figure.

“Not until you’re done,” he answered back.

I let out a screech of rage and stomped into the barn.

.x.x.x.

“Well, Dev, it’s about friggin’ time,” my best friend Sarah snapped as I sat next to Raven on the other side of the table. Shilo, who sat next to Sarah, rolled her eyes at our friend’s theatric.

“If you had my cock sucker of a father, you’d be late, too. He made me muck every stall because Pride dumped me. Five miles from home,” I said. “And then the son of a bitch bit me when I was mucking!” I said, standing to show them the bite wound from Pride.

They winced at the same time. We started drinking, then eventually dancing. I took off my western dress shirt and while I was placing it on the back of my chair, he walked in.

He looked like one of those devilish looking angels. He was tall, having to duck to get through the door, even after removing his hat. He had that manly wavy black hair that just barely brushed his shoulders. It was that kind of hair that looked like velvet and made a woman’s fingers itch to run through it. His eyes were what captivated me. They held an iridescent blue look to them. Framed by long black lashes and slashes of black eyebrows, eyes stood out the most on his face, but the rest wasn’t anything to complain about. A Celtic nose, with a high bridge and was narrow, but some how perfect. His lips looked soft and most defiantly kissable. High cheek bones and a body that looked well muscled beneath his snug western shirt was made women pant when they looked at a romance book cover. Then he turned around to say something to someone behind him.

“Holy Jesus, Mother Mary,” Shilo said, coming up behind me.

Raven whistled. “Wrangler butts…”

“Drive me nuts,” Sarah finished as she, too openly gaped.

“Good lord,” Shilo repeated.

“Honey, what that man is, is sin. Defiantly not religion,” Raven said, not taking her eyes off the man’s posterior.

He turned around as if he felt our gazed on his butt. He looked at the four of us standing in a line a smirked, patting his ass.

My jaw dropped as I turned around and headed back onto the dance floor, hoping to blend in and not see that gorgeous hunk of man all night.

After hours of dancing, one of the final songs was playing when he came up to me and asked me for a dance. It just happened to be a slow one. When I felt the tap on my shoulder and turned, I couldn’t have been more shocked had Sarah came up and started a smack down in the middle of the dance floor.

“Care to dance?” he asked in an oddly enchanting voice.

“I… uh… I… uh…” I stammered, gazing into his beautiful eyes.

A blonde buckle bunny came up behind him, tapping him on the shoulder, while she moved to stand in front of me. “Care to dance, shug?”

He nodded and the two of them started dancing. Humiliated, I turned and went to leave.

.x.x.x.

“Girl, what happened to you last night?” Sarah asked once I answered my cell phone.

“Well, I got myself embarrassed and I left,” I said shortly.

“What happened?”

“Mr. Wranglers came up and asked me to dance. I stammered so bad some buckle bunny came up and shoved me off.”

Sarah barked with laughter. “You? Ms. Backbone-for-the-universe, stammered when asked to dance? That’s too good.”

I growled at her. “Shut up. I gotta go. I have chores to do unlike someone else I know.”

Sarah hung up on me laughing. I sighed and went to go get Moon out of her stall.

.x.x.x.

After taking Moon out for a cow work, I came back into a barn yard, noticing the unfamiliar black Ford F-350. The thing looked brand new. I dismounted Moon and was admiring the truck when I saw my dad come out of the barn and turn to talk to someone. I started for him when I saw an extremely tall man come out of the barn with blue iridescent eyes come out behind him.

Oh, shit.

.x.x.x.