Claiming The Rancher's Heir (Gold Valley Vineyards #2) - Maisey Yates Page 0,21

knew because she and her husband frequented the winery and often had birthday parties and events there. It was common for wealthy families to come to Maxfield for special events. It was a status symbol. And Louisa had always seemed like the kind of woman who enjoyed her status.

Wren quite liked her. Louisa was nice, and she was funny, and a generous tipper to the waitstaff.

If it was Louisa that Creed was staring at, though, Wren had the feeling that he hated her.

And there was really only one reason for people to hate each other like that.

Love gone wrong.

Wren screwed up her face.

Well, there were actually a lot of reasons for people to hate each other. She and Creed hated each other, for no real reason.

Except, as she got out of her car and walked toward his front door, she couldn’t find any of the hatred that she normally felt. She only felt giddy. Excited to have his hands on her, to have him make good on all those promises he had issued earlier at the event today.

She liked it when their verbal sparring had a bit of an edge, even if it wasn’t a fight.

There was something electric and exciting about their exchanges.

She liked the danger that came with talking to him.

She just did.

She walked up to the door, prepared to knock, when it opened, and she found herself being dragged inside and pressed against that door, six-foot-plus of muscular man pinning her there as he kissed her. Kissed her with all the pent-up longing she knew had been building in both of them for the entire day.

She kissed him like he might hold all the answers she was so desperately seeking.

“Please let’s make it to a bed,” she whispered against his mouth. “I like the desperate stuff, but I really just want to see you naked.”

“I can oblige,” he growled.

He picked her up off the ground and carried her straight to a staircase, taking them two at a time. There was an edge of darkness to all of this that was so different from how it had been before. That first time had been charged by anger, the kind of anger they commonly felt toward each other, reasonable or not.

But this was different.

He seemed fractured, broken in some way, and like he thought perhaps this might put him back together. She was used to him looking at her and being irritated. And that one day down in the wine cellar he had found pleasure. But today, he seemed to be after something altogether deeper, and she wasn’t entirely sure she could help him find it.

But she wanted to.

And that was perhaps even more surprising than his looking to her for something deeper in the first place.

He pushed open the door, revealing a large bed made of heavy wooden beams. The bed was the largest thing in the room, a clear indicator of exactly where his priorities were.

His house was Spartan. Everything about it was serviceable, practical. And she knew full well he didn’t need that much mattress for sleeping.

No, he was a man who clearly used his bed for more athletic pursuits. And she knew already he was a man who did those pursuits well.

“You said you wanted to see me naked.” He set her down lightly on her feet. Then he moved away from her, unbuttoning the crisp white shirt she’d been looking at all day. Exposing that gorgeous chest, those impressive abs. He shrugged the shirt and jacket off, his body a thing of outright beauty the likes of which she had never seen before she’d seen him.

“Trading,” he said, gesturing to her.

She reached behind her back and grabbed hold of the zipper tab on her dress, pulling it down slowly, letting her dress pool at her feet. She was wearing only heels and a matching red lace bra and panties.

She wasn’t insecure about her body. Men, in her experience, were quite simple about things like that.

But the hunger in his eyes surpassed anything she had ever experienced before from other men. This passion, which seemed to simmer so intensely it was bound to bubble over, was something foreign to her. Something entirely different from all her previous experiences. Sure, she had found sex pleasurable before. But she had not found it to be fire and hunger. She hadn’t found it to be the air she needed to breathe. She had never felt like the urge to be touched was so intense it was a physical