April, Dani - Raven's Ranch (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme) Read Online Free PDF

liking the situation.
    “You can stay in Mr. Spencer’s trailer,” Connor told her. “That’s where he lived. It’s parked next to the guys’ trailers. He was the boss, but he was also one of the guys. So he bunked down with us.”
    Raven started to climb the wooden steps leading to the front porch, the creaking of unsteady planks sounding beneath her feet. Connor put a protective hand on her arm and held her from going farther.
    “I wouldn’t,” he told her. “This old porch looks like it could fall in any minute.”
    “I find this really depressing,” she told him, as tears welled in her eyes. “Half of my childhood is in this house. This old home is as dead as the rest of my family.”
    “We’re your family now, Raven,” Connor told her, his arm going around her shoulder. “Me and the other guys on the Lazy L are your family.”
    “This is going to be harder than I thought,” she said, gripping his hand.
    She stood back from the house, out in the front yard with the high weeds rising to her knees and stared at the house for a long while, trying to remember it as it had been many years before. She walked around the side to get a view of the rest of the place. The backyard and the big back porch were in just as bad of shape.
    As the wind blew off the mountains to the west, a gutter running along the roof, loosened from lack of care, banged against the side of the house. The sound it made was loud as she stood directly beneath it.
    Connor came with her at her side and held her hand. She was happy to have him at that moment, have his strength. If he had not been standing at her side, then she probably would have gotten in the truck and driven back to Chicago without stopping.
    “You sure the rest of the ranch isn’t going to be like this?” she asked him.
    “No, it’s not. But like I told you before, the financial end of it is pretty messed up. We’re the only private ranch left out here in these parts. The rest have all been bought out by corporations. That makes it pretty hard to compete.”
    “Okay, let’s get out of here,” Raven said with a sigh, giving up on the old house. “Show me where I’m sleeping.”
    “The trailer park is only a few more miles down the road,” Connor told her as he led her back to his truck. “Don’t worry, your trailer is the biggest and the nicest.”
    She put her arm around his lower back as they stepped over the weeds. His body still felt delightful to her, but touching him made her think about something that had been gnawing at the back of her mind all day as they neared the ranch on the highway.
    “Connor,” she started, “now that we’re finally here we should probably talk about our sleeping arrangements.”
    “I think I know what you mean, boss .”
    She laughed and nuzzled into his big shoulder as they walked. “Stop that, you idiot.”
    “Seriously, I was thinking about that same thing.”
    “I don’t think we should sleep together while we’re on the ranch,” she told him. “At least not for a while. I think it would set a bad example for the other ranch hands. I’m afraid they would think I’m a ranch slut or something. Here I am moving out here to be the boss, and the first thing I do is start to screw my foreman. It just wouldn’t look right and might get me off to a bad start with the guys.”
    “I respect your decision, Raven,” Connor told her, however, she could hear a but in his voice.
    “Yes?” she asked.
    “It’s just that I’m not sure I agree with you.”
    “Why?”
    “I won’t press the issue with you, Raven,” he told her. “But I think the guys would like to see that somebody’s getting some.”
    “That’s a terrible way to think about it,” Raven said, and pushed into Connor with her hip against his as they headed down the gravel drive. “That’s not really how they think, is it?”
    “Actually it is,” Connor said, putting his arm back around her shoulder. “The social dynamic has changed so much