“Are too.” He plunked the hat back on his thick hair. “Yep. Your eyes dart to the left, you lick your lips, and your entire body stiffens. Then you make eye contact and don’t turn away. Even if I wasn’t trained in detecting falsehoods, I could tell you’re lying. You should never play poker. Like ever.”
She breathed in slowly, meeting his eyes, exactly as he said she did. “You were trained in detecting lies?”
“In my past life,” he said, his eyes flat for a second. Then he turned as the wolf stood and shook his fur, padding closer. “Well, this is new.” He watched the animal move to the truck and then opened the back door. “I guess he’s coming with us?”
She blinked. “You don’t make your wolf go with you?”
The flatness disappeared, and the sparkle came back into Trent’s emerald eyes. “He’s not mine. All wild, all animal, and he goes where and with whom he wants. He hangs out in the distance and watches us, but he’s never tried to get close before. I think it’s you.”
Well, that was crazy. “Why me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. He watches all of my brothers and seems to stick closest to Wyatt, who’s out of town right now. The animal is a mystery.”
“Brothers, like you had the same parents?” Somehow, she didn’t think so.
“No. Brothers here in the club.” Trent watched the wolf jump into the back seat. “Looks like he’s coming home with us this time.”
Home with us. The words implied an intimacy she craved—for about two seconds. Was she putting this nice cowboy in danger by staying with him until her car was fixed? She was in the middle of nowhere, and she was almost out of burner phones, but it felt as if she was safely off the grid. Whatever the grid was. She only had one more burner phone left, and then she’d need to find another store to buy more.
The truck door shut, and she jumped.
The wolf immediately flopped down across the seat, watching her with one eye.
Trent chuckled. “He doesn’t want to scare you. Talk nice to him so he can relax.” Then he shut the back door.
How did one talk nicely to a wild wolf? “Um, you don’t look wild. Except for the teeth. Your teeth are definitely sharp.”
One ear twitched.
She grinned. Okay. For a wild animal that could tear her apart, he was kind of cute. “At least you’re exactly what you look like,” she whispered. “Some wolves are hidden behind manners and nice suits.”
Harley turned his head toward her, both eyes focusing.
Then Trent stretched his muscled form into the truck, taking up most of the space and all of the oxygen. That quickly, she remembered that sometimes wolves were handsome and helpful, too.
What had she just gotten herself into?
CHAPTER FOUR
Trent locked the fourth gate on the way out, driving along pastures and keeping an eye on heads of cattle and the land. He wasn’t the most patient of the brothers, but he was close. The woman was safe in his truck, so he could wait her out.
She watched the hills roll by outside. “Why are the fences locked so securely?”
It was a good question. A smart one. Fences were common but locks few in cattle country. “We keep high-powered machines in the shops at the clubhouse,” he said, which was partially true.
“Oh.” She leaned closer to the window as a couple of young calves scampered on the other side of the fence. “Those little cows can get through the fences to the road.”
“Yeah, but they won’t go far from their mamas quite yet,” he said, keeping an eye on them anyway. “Wyoming is an open-range state, so we’re always careful.”
“Open range?” she asked.
His assessment of her as a city girl had been spot-on. There were several states that were open range, and apparently she’d never heard of the concept. “Yeah. Cattle have the right to go wherever they want, and if you hit them, it’s your fault. In fact, we don’t even have to build fences to keep them in.”
“What if you live here and don’t want cows in your front lawn?”
“You build a fence to keep them out.” He rubbed the scruff across his jaw. “Of course, you can charge the cattle owner for half of the fence, maybe.” He kept to the range, avoiding town for now. “You never said where you’re from.”
She stiffened just enough for him to notice. “Oh. Well. I’m from