Page 17 of Her Wild Cowboy Billionaire

No one was in the kitchen. No dirty dishes and an empty dishwasher. He moved to the upstairs. He checked the first bedroom. It had stuffed animals in a straight row, leaning against the pillows on the bed. Had to be the little girl’s room.

Next, he walked into the other bedroom. This was Willow’s room. She’d also made the bed. He looked into the closet. Most of the clothes were gone. He checked the dresser and the top two drawers were empty.

She was gone, but where?

He smiled. He’d put a tracker on her phone. One that worked even if the phone was off. He pulled out his phone and opened the app for the tracker. Then looked at the readout. Montana. She’d left the state and gone to Montana. Near Bozeman, but he couldn’t pinpoint the location until he was closer. He should have looked at it earlier to make sure she was here, but with her car outside, he’d made an assumption that she was inside. He was wrong, and now he would pay for it. The little wench thought she was safe. He’d show her she would never be safe from him.

Gordon ran for his car. The sooner he got to Montana, the sooner he’d find Willow. His Willow. She was his, and soon, he’d show her what happens when she runs from him.

His smile grew wider as his eyes narrowed. Then he threw back his head and laughed. No one ran from Gordon Simmons. No. One.

Two weeks after arriving at the ranch, Willow couldn’t sleep. She read some of the travel brochures she kept with her. Dreams that would never come true. She couldn’t afford a vacation like the ones in the brochures to places like Botswana or Bali, any more than she could afford to buy Mindy a horse. Nevertheless, nothing prevented her from renting a horse occasionally and going riding.

She tossed the brochures on the bed. Even they couldn’t keep her interest. She got out of bed and tied on her robe to go downstairs and make some warm milk. That usually did the trick, relaxing her enough she could fall asleep.

She switched on the hall light, stepped out of her room, and then heard moaning coming from Travis’s room. He sounded like he was in distress. Willow turned the handle and entered his room, leaving the door open for the light from the hall.

“Travis. Travis.” She walked to the side of the bed and gently shook his right shoulder. “Travis. You’re having a bad dream. Wake up. Travis!”

“Ahh. No.” He turned and grabbed her arm. “No. Help me.”

“Travis.” She didn’t move out of his reach. He wasn’t hurting her, but he was definitely being hurt. “Wake up.” She shook him again, harder this time.

He blinked. “What? Willow? What are you doing in here?”

His chest was bare and his legs were tangled in the blankets, showing them bare from the knees down. “You were having a nightmare. I was on my way to the kitchen for some warm milk when I heard you. Are you awake now? Are you all right?”

He released her. “Yes, I’m fine now. I’m sorry to worry you.”

She shook her head. “Not a problem.” She stood back from the bed. “You’ve messed up your bandage. It should be cleaned and reapplied. If you’ll get out of bed, I’ll do that before I head to the kitchen.”

He blinked several more times and then grinned. “I don’t think you want me to get up right now.”

“Of course, I do. You need to have to be re-bandaged before you go back to sleep again.”

“Uh, Willow, um, I sleep in the nude.”

She’d reached for his blankets and stopped midway. “Oh. Well. You won’t be the first patient I’ve seen naked.”

He hugged the blankets to him. “Perhaps, but I’d feel better if I put some sweats on.”

She shrugged, went to the door, and flipped the light switch beside it. “As you wish. Do you want me to wait in the hall, or will turning my back be sufficient?”

“Your back will work. Just give me a minute.”

She turned and looked out into the hall. Then she heard him stand and rummage through a drawer.

He cursed.

She smiled. His act of protecting her sensibilities, though unnecessary, was kind. She had worked as a nurse in a cardiac unit and had witnessed almost every level of undress imaginable.

One man got a little crazy on his pain meds, ripped out his IVs, took off his gown, and tied it around his neck like a cape. Then he yelled he was Superman, and they couldn’t keep him there. He sprinted to the window, which luckily didn’t open, before she caught and calmed him down enough to stop the bleeding from where his IV had been. “Need some help? I know it’s hard to pull on pants with cracked ribs.”

“I’ve got it,” he ground out and then let out a deep breath. “There. I’m decent. Let me put on my walking boot.”

She turned. Her heart started pounding. He was anything but decent. He was her cake and frosting, too. The man could have posed for a sexy women’s magazine. Oh, well, she would not become involved with a patient. That broke so many rules and her own moral code. But if he wasn’t a patient, she definitely would consider it.

She walked over, where he stood by his bed. “Bend over a little and let me get the old one off and a new one put on.” She carefully removed the bandage and tossed it on his bed. She saw the injury was still oozing and knew she’d have to step up the cleaning and care of it. “Where are the bandages in your bathroom?”