His Tattooed Virgin(Divine Creek Ranch 12)(56)
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Seth couldn’t help but watch Jayne as she sat next to him on the couch at the Divine Creek Ranch the following Wednesday. Grace and her husbands had invited them over to enjoy a meal with them, Lily Cook and her husbands, Clay and Del, Jayne’s mom, and Seth’s sister, Lucy, who had indeed hit it off with Frieda.
When she strummed her fingers over her rib cage, Seth asked, “Itchy?”
Jayne grinned up at him sheepishly. “Like you would not believe, honey.”
“A few more days and we can do another session.” He smiled when a blush stole over her cheeks as she undoubtedly remembered their last session and the interlude on the table.
Frieda must’ve overheard because she said, “How is the tattoo coming, Jayne? I’ve been meaning to ask but I’ve been in and out, and coming and going so much.”
Jayne blushed at her mother’s word choice, and Grace and Lily both looked like they were fighting the urge to laugh, having twisted Frieda’s words in their pervy minds. He’d taken every opportunity that had presented itself for them to be alone together and had been “in and out” quite a bit too.
Seth answered for her. “A couple more sessions should see it finished. Of all the tattoos I’ve ever done, I think it’s my favorite.” Jayne blushed again as he stroked her upper arm with his fingertips.
He’d been braced for judgment from Frieda for being a tattoo artist and also for tattooing her daughter, but she surprised him, asking lots of questions. She’d even mentioned that she’d considered getting one in the past but hadn’t gone through with it.
Since the weekend before, Frieda had made the rounds, spending time with all her family members in the area, which gave him more time alone with Jayne. His sister had even gotten together with her one evening for a girls’ night out at The Dancing Pony. While he was talking with Frieda, he happened to catch Grace motioning at Jayne that she and Lily wanted to see the tattoo.
He turned to Del, who was sitting in one of the big overstuffed chairs with Lily perched in his lap. “So, did you ever find decent help out at the ranch? I ran into Lily one day last week and she told me that you’d had a run-in with one of the guys you’d hired.” Seth knew that Del had struggled along with his ranch, doing much of the work himself until hiring two ranch hands, only to have problems with one of them.
With consternation on his face, Del nodded. “I enjoy a drink or a beer as much as the next guy, but I’m not keeping someone on who needs rehab. I caught Roy sleeping off a drunk in one of the back pastures when he was supposed to be repairing a fence. Chris Potter and I had to do his share of the chores that day to get caught up. Driving my ranch truck in town when he was under the influence was the last straw. I wanted someone with more extensive experience than Roy had anyway. But things are looking up.”
“How so?”
“Angel and Joaquin introduced us to a friend of theirs who was in town a couple of weeks ago, from Lusty. He’s thinking about moving to this area. He was visiting with his current employers, Chase and Brian Benedict. Chris was pretty good friends with him when they were on the rodeo circuit together too.” Seth felt Jayne tense just a bit where she sat curled up to him, and he glanced down and saw the blush that stained her cheeks. He squeezed her reassuringly.
“Julián Alvarez?” At Del’s nod, Seth said, “We met him in The Dancing Pony. Seemed like a stand-up guy.” That was easy enough to say if he ignored the memory of the guy’s hand on Jayne’s ass and instead remembered the concern on his face for her when she’d passed out. It wasn’t necessary to share any of the specifics of how they’d met.
Jayne glanced up at him, and when he didn’t say anything else, he could feel the gratitude radiating off of her. If they knew any of the details of that night, none of the others mentioned anything.
Del said, “Julián has a lot of experience with ranch operations and would make a good lead man. He’s got to finish up the time he agreed to stay on at the Benedicts’ place first, and then decide if he wants to come to Divine. He’s got family in Lusty.”
Grace chuckled. “It’s not that far to Lusty.”
* * * *
After supper, Jayne helped Grace and the other ladies in the kitchen while the men all enjoyed a beer out on the back porch.
Standing beside Jayne, Grace said, “I’m dying to see this new tattoo. Any chance I could get a look—”
“We could get a look at it?” Lily asked as she reached between them to put the sponge back at the sink after wiping down the table.