Home is where the heart is [Rip Wheeler]

15

Rip awoke to the sounds of Briar's soft hums. A sure sign she was deeply asleep. He felt so good after the peaceful sleep he had with Briar right beside him. The fact that she was still asleep said enough about how exhausted she really was after the day she had yesterday.

Soon as Rip drifted back to sleep Briar began to stir. Doing her best not to wake the man sleeping beneath her she slowly rose off Rips lap and out of bed. Making her way to her bathroom she quickly used the toilet and got dressed for the day. Jeans, boots, a tank top, t-shirt and flannel. Long dark curls braided back into two hardly tamable French braids.

As she worked mucking out horse stalls Briar began to think and she really was thinking hard. Coming up with questions that she realized she couldn't answer. One of the main ones she was stuck on was "How have I let myself fall this hard and this fast?" Briar didn't know when it had happened but she had come to realize that she had let Rip in and she wasn't sure if she liked year or not. She sure as shit didn't trust the foreign feelings that had begun to bubble just against her chest. So like any good rancher would do, she threw herself head first into work instead of allowing herself to feel her emotions. She didn't care what work it was as long as she didn't have to think to hard. If she stayed still to long she would begin to evaluate and question her feelings. Over thinking everything in excruciating detail wasn't a way Briar enjoyed passing the time but she often found her mind running regardless if she liked it or not.

Over the next few days Briar had seen Rip, what she had felt was a gross amount of times. In fact she had seen him three separate times just that morning. Once when he told her he was moving into the foreman's cabin, once when he asked her if she was going out to the fair later that week and once when she'd fallen asleep in the early evening in the barn with her back leaned against her horse, Spartan's stall.  Rip had woken her up to let her know that her father, John was having people over for a business dinner.

Which is where Briar found herself currently. There she sat in a stiff chair in an even more stiff dress stuck between what she thought was two of the most ignorant and irritating men she had ever met. Both young men were self proclaimed businessmen. Both had airily discussing topics in which Briar had very little interest in discussing.

Her dad John Dutton was sat at the head of the table discussing things like cattle auctions, horse trades, and ranch hands. Meanwhile Briar found herself sat between two men whose small talking skills were about as dry as saltine crackers. Across from her sat Rip and Beth who had little problem holding conversation with each other. Briar noticed Beth was wearing an almost victorious smile as she glanced around the table.

"I'm going to need a refill, hun." The man beside Briar, whose name she hadn't cared to learn, spoke looking at Briar with his glass tilted in her direction.

"I beg your pardon, hun. I don't think I caught that. What did you say?" Briar asked as her sarcastic tone edged closer and closer to anger the more time she spent with the arrogant men around her.

"I said I need a refill." The ignorant businessman spoke snidely to the young Dutton. Briar knowing she needed to maintain her composure while also feeling the need to correct the men that were sat around her by showing them just how angry she could be. Briar knew sucker punching one of them would get the job done but also knew that these were the kind of men that she could kill with kindness.

"Okay, what are you drinking?" Briar asked the man, much to the surprise of Rip and Beth who had looked across to Briar who had been the topic of their paused conversation. Rips eyes widened just slightly as Briar closed her hand into a tight fist. Her nails making crescent shapes in her palms.

"Whiskey." The man smiled lightly.

"I'll be right back with a bottle, Justin, was it?"

"My name is Jordan and yours is?" The man, Briar now knew as Jordan, reached out his hand for her to shake.

"Briar...?" John's loud timber voice drawled out over the chattering of the businessmen effectively silencing them.

"Yessir?" Briar asked as she lifted her head up to meet John's blue eyes. For a split second she could have sworn there was something unspoken with in the swirling depths of blue.

"Everything okay?" John lifted a curious brow.

"Yes, Daddy, everything's fine. I'm just gonna get Mr. Jordan a bottle of Whiskey." Briar quickly stood and left. Returning herself to her bedroom and changing into an outfit that was more suited to her style. After finishing off her makeup with a bold red lipstick she left to back to dinner.

Briar walked into the dinning room with a bright smile on her face. Rip glanced up and was shocked to see Briar. She looked so different and yet so elegant. She wore an eloquent black silk dress that had an open back and a single silver drop chain with a tear drop pendant holding it together. The simple chain laying over her collar bone accented her very well.

She approached Jordan with an aged bottle of whiskey and two tumblers. Sitting one down in front of him while placing the other one next to it. Briar leaned over just slightly giving Rip a near perfect view of her chest. After pouring them each a glass of whiskey she flirtatiously laid her hand on his shoulder before sitting in the seat beside him. Her hand running down his arm to the glasses by his hand. Meeting his blue eyes she blinked slowly. Jordan's pupils had already been dilated because of the alcohol but the blue in his eyes was almost nonexistent now that lust was at play. Giving him a small smile Briar returned to the polite conversation she was having with the man beside her before she got up to get a bottle of whiskey.