All Chapters of Resisting The Alpha Cowboy: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 Sheriff Bastillo is a piece of shit.I cannot stress that enough.If dirt could crawl into a uniform and pretend to be a man, it would be him.I leaned back in the creaking chair, arms folded, my face set in stone as he rattled on about how this town was going to shit—and how, apparently, it was all my fault.Typical.He leaned forward, fingers steepled, eyes narrow and gleaming with fake authority. “You people don’t understand how things work. You’re all just looking for a reason to stir up trouble.”I clenched my jaw so tight my teeth ached. “Poisoned water isn’t a conspiracy, Bastillo. It’s killing people.”He rolled his eyes like I had just told him ghosts were haunting the town well.“Oh, please,” he scoffed. “Next, you’re going to tell me the trees are whispering secrets in the wind.” He laughed, and I could feel it in my bones—the disgust simmering, threatening to boil over.“You think this is funny?” I asked, my voice low. Too low. The kind of quiet tha

★。＼｜／。★VANESSA DAVIS★。／｜＼。★The moment I took my last bite, the music changed. Something a little faster, a little livelier, and I noticed a group of women clearing the tables near the center of the restaurant to make space.I was about to ask what was happening when a woman about my age, with all sun-kissed skin, and bright eyes, slid up to our booth with a knowing grin. “You dance, city girl?”I blinked. “Not… really.” I only dance when I’m drunk, and it’s definitely not to country music. It has heart and soul. My type of music“She does,” Colton answered before I could stop him, the smirk on his face damn near criminal. “She just doesn’t know it yet.”The woman—Sarah, I caught from the name tag on her shirt—laughed and held out a hand. “Come on, honey. You can’t come to a place like this and not dance at least once.”I glanced at Colton, expecting him to bail me out since the last time I was dancing he was quick to try to get me back home, but the bastard just leaned back in the

▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥The second I stepped out of the shower, steam curling around my skin, I knew she was coming.It wasn’t just my heightened senses picking up on her approach—the light drag of her bare feet across the wooden floor, the hesitation in her breath—it was something else. Something deeper.I had taken two showers tonight. Two. And neither had done a damn thing to wash her off me.Vanessa.City girl with a sharp tongue and eyes that gave her away more than she realized. Stubborn as hell, quick to push, quicker to run. And yet, here she was.I walked to the door before she even had the chance to knock.When I swung it open, she was right there, caught mid-motion, knuckles hovering just shy of the wood.For a second, neither of us moved.She was standing there in a pair of those damn shorts that should be illegal and a shirt that was thin enough that I could see the curve of her collarbone, the hint of skin beneath. Her hair was still a little damp from her own shower, str

▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥I didn’t move for some time. I think i must have drifted off thinking because it doesn’t feel like I’ve been asleep or awake and yet the clock says it’s two hours from six am.The room was dim, the only light coming from the sliver of dawn trying to creep through the curtains. Outside, the ranch was quiet, the world still caught somewhere between night and morning. Inside, the warmth of her body still lingered against mine, her slow, steady breaths the only sound filling the silence.Vanessa was still asleep. Peaceful. Oblivious to the storm rolling through me.I should have gotten up by now. Slipped out of bed, gotten dressed, gone about my morning like I always did. But I didn’t. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, feeling the weight of last night settle into my bones.And hell, I could still feel her.Not just the way her body had fit against mine, the way her lips had tasted, or the softness of her skin under my hands. No, it was something deeper than

★。＼｜／。★VANESSA DAVIS★。／｜＼。★I sat cross-legged on the bed, my laptop warm against my thighs, fingers hovering over the keyboard.Focus.I needed to.Breakfast had been a mess. Awkward silences stretched between bites of food, Ross flirting like nothing was weird, and Colton… watching me. His eyes had burned into me from across the table as he could see straight through my attempt to act normal. I had tried—really tried—to flirt back with Ross, to play along like I always did. But my mind was tangled in knots, and my stomach had felt too tight to eat much of anything.And then I ran.Okay, not literally. But I might as well have. A half-baked excuse about needing to write something for my blog, an awkward smile, and I was out of there before I could make a bigger fool of myself.Now, here I was, staring at a blank screen, willing myself to think about anything other than the way my chest had ached when I woke up alone.I took a deep breath, rolled my shoulders, and finally let my fin