Romancing The Heist: The Ranch: Romancing The Heist, #2

By Belle Knight

To protect his father's ranch, Darius must come out of family exile to destroy a farm's prized ram. It's an easy job, until he meets the ram's owner—Ashley.

To follow her artisan cheese-making dreams, Ashley will do whatever it takes to succeed, even if that means taking on an aggressive, one-of-a-kind ram whose secrets origin just might kill her.

Sparks fly in this hot and steamy romantic suspense story, but can this sexy duo survive the truth…and the people hired to frame Darius for Ashley's murder?

This is a standalone romance with no cheating and no cliffhangers, but with plenty of steam and a HFN. I've also included an exclusive 3 chapter look of the next book in the Romancing The Heist series, which you won't find for free anywhere else!

ROMANCING THE HEIST
--The Museum Heist
--The Ranch Heist
--The Cave Heist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Belle Knight
• Release date: Dec 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393297833

Book preview

Chapter 2

King and Gandalf rushed out. King lowered his head, spiral horns mean and deadly looking. Gandalf galloped after him, head lowered too.

Shit. She couldn’t take two at once.

Thinking quick on her feet, she waited until the two rams were almost on her, ready to trample her into the muck. All sound vanished except for the blood pounding in her ears and her heart galloping in her chest.

Ashley gripped the broom stick until she lost all feeling in her hand, then pivoted out of the way at the last second as King barreled by. Using the garbage can shield as her own version of sheep horn, she threw her weight into his shoulder, flipping him on his side to the ground. His hooves flew up, one of them glancing off her thigh, but she didn’t have time for that because Gandalf was there, taking advantage of her distraction. There wasn’t time to do anything else but bring the stick down as hard as she could across his sensitive nose and brace herself for impact.

Gandalf put on the brakes, shaking his head from the way his nose smarted. He’d gotten in too close for her to do any real damage, plus she didn’t WANT to damage either of them. She wanted to get them safely into their paddock, and maybe, if she was really lucky, earn some respect from them.

She backed away from both sheep, her back to the open paddock gate and whistled again.

This time there was an answering bleat.

King sprung up onto his hooves, flecks of dirt and grass spotting one side that would easily fall off in a few hours. Both King and Gandalf swiveled their full attention onto that bleat, which was exactly what Ashley had been hoping for.

Rams were dangerous and never to be trusted, but ewes—bottle raised, named, petted, and trained by whistle to come to her for their treats—ewes were different. Plus, if there was anything that could distract a ram from a fight, it would be an ewe.

Tension sizzled in the lines of King’s body and as soon as he locked onto the sound of the ewe, he galloped straight into the paddock and for the back fence. Ashley wasn’t stupid, she loved her ewes, so she had separate paddocks and tall, double-fencing to keep her ewes safe from King until Ashley was ready for them to breed.

Keeping up her shield and stick, Ashley didn’t dare look away from Gandalf and King until they were fully in the paddock, but she was pretty sure Marcie was the one who had answered her whistle-call. Marcie was always the most eager for a treat though the other two girls would likely be on her heels soon.

Working quickly, Ashley tossed aside her battle gear, dragged the gate into place, and locked everything up. She checked it all twice before she allowed herself to really breath again.

That had been a little too damn close.

Whooping noises made Ashley turn. The bus full of tourists—men and women in jeans, flannels, dresses, and nice shoes—stood almost in a line at the little hillside ridge above the paddock.

They were cheering—her.

The group broke into applause and Janice whooped again.

Ashley rolled her eyes but couldn’t help break into a smile. It must have been quite a funny show from up there. Metal garbage lid, broken broom stick, striped blue rain boots, two rams, and woman who should know better.

She hiked up the hill and strode forward, trying to somehow channel sheep girl, warrior, and cheesemonger all in one. She knew the importance of making a good first impression and she thought maybe that’s what had just happened.

There she is, ladies and gents, Janice called out from the back of the crowd. The sheep-wrangling, cheese-mongering legend of Storm Weather Dairy Farm. Now with that exciting introduction, the tour can truly begin. And just so you know, we’ll be tasting cheese today made from Ashley’s very own hands and lambs. So head this way and let’s get this cheese party started!

Ashley flushed under all the attention and stared down at her rain boots now almost completely covered in muck. But then she told herself this was exactly the kind of attention she needed, so she forced herself to stand tall and look back out on the crowd.

About half were following Janice’s directions and milled toward the dairy shop door. A few headed for the restroom. Several men in jeans and flannel shirts stood looking out across the ranch’s little valley. Her asking prickled. Something about them didn’t sit quite right with her. They wore aviator sunglasses and big frowns, neither of which matched their clothes or the festive air of the other bus riders. They stared down at King and Gandalf, who were both sniffing and testing the fencing.

Ashley was glad to see things looked calm down there and that the fences were holding strong. She dismissed her odd feelings about the men and headed for the hose spigot to give her boots a quick rinse off, but stopped when she felt this electric energy zing down her spine.

She turned and caught the bluest eyes she had ever seen staring down at her.

He was tall, head and shoulders taller than her. He wore a dark collared jacket over a light-colored shirt that framed a muscular body, a strong chin, and strong eyebrows. Laughter and conversation faded away to nothing until the only sound was a bit of breeze that ruffled his dark, close-cropped curly hair. He stared at her like he was devouring her.

Ashley took a deep breath, settling her heart, squaring up her shoulders, and meeting his gaze like she wasn’t drowning in it right then.

What? Was all she could think to say.

She cringed. He was a guest, a tourist. For all she knew, he was the banker she needed to impress today. But his gaze unsettled her.

She liked the way he was looking at her and suddenly had this urge, this incredible, shocking urge to step real close to him. She most definitely could not allow that.

No, there was no room for that sort of thing in her life right now. So she used her words to put distance between them.

Is there something on my face? Why are you staring like that?

I could ask you the same. His voice was low and deep and almost silky. It sent another zing down her