Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) by Claire Adams Page A

me
thirty years to find. The unselfishness of that moment wasn’t something I had
really experienced with a woman before and it felt like a drug to me. I wanted
more of Sarah, I wanted her smiles, her attention, and anything else she would
give me because it gave me a happiness high like no other that I had
experienced.
    “Well,
congratulations; I think you are the first person to ever work on the farm and
get beaten up by a pig.”
    Her
smile was brilliant as she looked at me and I could tell I had succeeded in
keeping her wall down for a moment. It was a trick I had learned as a CEO; when
you make yourself vulnerable, people tend to make themselves vulnerable as
well. But I had never been as successful outside of the office as I felt at
that moment with Sarah. Her smile, her laughter, it was because of me and I
couldn’t wait to make her laugh again and again.
    “You’ve
never been bit by a pig?” I asked as we laughed.
    “Um,
no. I’ve never been bit by any animal. I was once thrown off a wild horse when
I was younger, though. I fractured my spine and had to spend months in bed.”
    “Wow,
that sounds painful. Why were you on a wild horse?” I asked as our laughter
started to die down.
    She
paused for a moment before answering me and I could see she was thinking about
whether or not she wanted to continue our conversation. It was a nice conversation,
but I was vulnerable and so was she. If her parents had told her to stay away
from me, the moment was right then for her to end the talking. I told myself if
she really didn’t like me she would stop the conversation and we would simply
go buy the saddle and head back home. But if she liked me, even just a little
bit, Sarah would tell me why she had been on that wild horse.
    “We
should probably get going. I’d like to try and put the saddle on Buckjoy before
nightfall.”
    Disappointment
rushed through me and I could have given up at that very moment, but I wasn’t
going to go down without a fight. I wanted to see her laugh again. I needed
Sarah to keep her defenses down and for us to at least be friends. I didn’t
want to go weeks without her talking to me again.
    “You’ve
got a thing for wild men,” I teased as we climbed out of the truck and started
toward the store.
    It
was a joke that I thought would catch her attention. Enough flirting for her to
really know I was interested, but nothing too crude or vulgar. I was proud of
my joke, up until I saw the wild look in her eyes as we walked toward the
building.
    Suddenly
she grabbed me and pushed me against the building. There was fire in her eyes
and for a moment I was afraid I had said something to anger her. She was
powerful for such a little thing and her strength held me against the wall as
she looked up into my eyes.
    Her
eyes were like darts to mine and she refused to look away as she started to
talk. It was erotic how much she had taken control of me and pushed me like
that. I hadn’t had a woman be so forceful around me before; it turned me on and
I smiled as she looked seriously at me.
    “I
like wild horses, not wild men,” she said sternly. “Now let’s go get this
saddle.”
    She
pulled her hand away from my chest and I couldn’t help but smile even more at
the fire that was inside of her. It had been totally out of the blue, I
couldn’t have pretended to be prepared. But oh how I loved the way she pressed
me against that wall and took control of the moment. Sarah didn’t like what I
had said and instead of just smiling and brushing it off, she made sure I
understood. Although, I secretly suspected she also liked wild men, but wasn’t
about to push her into admitting it.
    The
problem was I wasn’t a wild man. Sure, I was pretending to be a drifter, but I
couldn’t pretend to be a rough and wild man that I wasn’t; I just didn’t have
those kind of acting skills. I was pretending to be this aloof man who didn’t
have a home and didn’t care where he was going or what he did for