The groan turned into a roar and his thrusts became chaotic and impossibly strong. I cried out as the toe-curling orgasm washed over me without my ability to control it any longer. As it did, my body clenched around him and he came hard inside me. His body locked still, his fingers still pressing into my thigh, my lips wrapped around his thumb. I could feel my body pulse and clench as he emptied himself completely into me.
Our bodies slowly collapsed together. When his cock was finally done pulsing, he pulled out of me, and I rolled into him, letting my head rest on his chest and listen to his heartbeat and his deep breathing until we both fell soundly to sleep.
Chapter 39
Jesse
That weekend, I felt like I had really settled into the ranch again. Over the last couple of weeks, I’d been working harder and finding my way more and more. It felt more familiar again, more like I had a place here. But by that weekend, I was really a part of it and didn’t just feel like I was visiting. Or that it was something temporary I would soon move on from. Not that I was going to spend every day of the rest of my life in the fields or herding the cattle. There was more ahead of me, but I finally had the peace and comfort in my heart knowing wherever I went and however my life led me, this was where I belonged.
It was especially good to be there with so many of my brothers. Cassidy, Clayton, Wade, and Sawyer were there on that lazy Sunday. We worked especially hard that week and had earned the afternoon off, so we were draped around on the porch furniture, sipping tea and eating homemade potato chips we bought from the General Store up on Main Street.
There was nothing like them. Just potatoes, oil, and salt, but the experience was completely different than anything you could get out of a foil bag. If I wasn’t monitored carefully, I would eat them all by myself. But my brothers wouldn’t let that happen. That wasn’t a shock. Growing up in a house of eight brothers, grappling for food was a familiar way of life. We always had enough and there was never a time when the table was empty or there wasn’t plenty to go around. Fighting over it was more about who was going to get that coveted corner piece of the brownie or which one of us got to scoop up the cheesiest part of the macaroni and cheese.
I looked at my four brothers. I was really lucky to have them. There were three others scattered around, but I knew I would see them in time. Like I recently learned, the ranch was home and we all ended up finding our way back eventually. I chewed through another handful of the potato chips and washed them down with a gulp of tea before looking at each of them.
“You guys know when I first found out I had to come back, I didn’t know how long I’d be here,” I said. “It’s no secret I didn’t ever plan on coming back and I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea.”
“Wow,” Clayton said. “You sure do know how to pluck the heartstrings and create a sentimental moment.”
The other brothers laughed and I nudged Clayton with my boot where he sat across from me.
“Shut up,” I teased. “I’m trying to tell you something here.”
“Well, get on with it,” Cassidy said.
“I’ve decided I’m going to stay around here for a little while. Shannon and I are going to go all in with each other. We wasted a lot of time and missed a lot we could have experienced together, and I’m determined to make it all up to her. She wants to travel and explore, and I’m going to make sure that happens for her. But at the end of the day, I’m pretty sure Green Valley will be where we settle down.”
Just like my father did with my mother.
“Dad would be proud of you,” Cassidy said.
My chest swelled and I nodded through the emotion that rose up in my throat. “I’m proud to follow in his footsteps,” I said. “There’s a lot I didn’t know about him. It won’t change what happened, and it doesn’t completely wipe everything away, but it makes a huge difference. He was a good man. The kind of man I want to be. And here is where I’m going to make that happen.”
Wade nodded, taking a long sip of his tea as he stared out over the late afternoon settling down on the ranch. “Sounds good to me.” He took another sip. “I bet the Hayes family is going to be just thrilled to find out Jesse is back for good and won’t be running off again.”
“Those Hayes boys need to back off and learn their place,” I said.
“Not just the boys,” Clayton told me.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You remember Addie?”
“Their little sister?” I asked.
“Not so little anymore,” he said. “She grew up over those years you were gone. And she is nasty as a snake.”
“Great. So there’s a wicked Hayes sister, too.”
Finding out there was someone else to add to the ranks of the Hayes family that had been feuding with my own family for so many years brought tension to my shoulders and took away some of the peaceful relaxation of the afternoon.
“Something like that,” Sawyer told me. “Howard Hayes has been in a bad way for a while now, and it seems the sicker he gets, the meaner Addie gets. She’s taken on all his vendettas and has no problem at all making her feelings toward us and our ranch known to anyone who will listen.”
That sentiment coming from a Hayes was nothing new. But it was unsettling to hear it was coming from the youngest of the children, a girl I remembered being a scrappy kid when I left. The truth was, everybody in Green Valley knew how the Hayes family felt about the Montgomery Ranch. And that was nothing short of them believing they had rights to the land and they deserved to have it as their own. It was the motivation behind some of their most disgusting and vicious acts over the years. Even in their arrogant, sometimes deluded minds, they knew they couldn’t just walk out onto our land and claim it as their own. Instead, they decided to destroy the business and sink the ranch too low for us to be able to sustain it. Then they would swoop in and scoop it up to expand their own operation.
The feud stemmed from long before any of us brothers were born, but it got worse as we grew up. I could distinctly remember the days my father would come home fuming and furious because some of our cattle were missing and he knew the Hayes family had come and stolen them. What they didn’t know was that my father learned to mark his cattle carefully, and even if the brand wasn’t readily visible just by looking at them, he knew every single one of his animals.
When stealing the cattle in order to destroy the business didn’t work out, the Hayes family took a more brutal and horrific approach. The summer they slaughtered a good portion of our herd was awful. Up until that point, I had never felt anger like that. I didn’t know what it was like to want to snap another human being in half with my own bare hands or to feel like I was completely out of control and wouldn’t be responsible for my actions if I got close enough to one of the Hayes boys to get my hands on them. Now they had added another to their ranks and it wasn’t even one I could consider going up against the way I did with Roy and Benjamin.
“What are we going to do about them?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Cassidy said.
“They beat the shit out of Jesse,” Clayton argued. “We can’t let them get away with that.”
It felt good to hear my brother standing up for me again. There were definitely times over the last several years when I was fairly certain he would have felt like I deserved whatever any of the Hayes boys wanted to give me. And honestly, he was probably right. But now he was fully back in my corner. Not just because he felt obligated. Not just because I was his brother and that was what he was supposed to do. And not just because he pitied me or felt bad for me. Clayton, Cassidy, Wade, and Sawyer were there for me and I felt fully incorporated back into the fold. I was really a true part of the family again.
But that didn’t mean Cassidy was ready to walk into battle any time soon. He was still the oldest brother and it was up to him to think through things clearly and make sure we made all the right moves.
“Jesse put Roy on his ass,” Cassidy said. “For the time being, we
sit back. We do nothing. Roy has the law on his side and things could have gone much differently had he been in uniform that night in the parking lot at The Junction. We have to tread carefully, boys. Roy already has it out for Garrett. Let’s not give him or his family any more reason to come after us, all right?”
None of us said anything. We were each in our own heads, thoughts rushing around. I could tell by the expressions on my brothers’ faces they weren’t totally convinced by Cassidy and his plan to just sit back and not do anything. We could all feel the weight of the Hayes feud around us and none of us were willing to let them get the upper hand. It was even more important for me now. It wasn’t just about the ranch or about my family’s honor. I also needed to protect Shannon. I saw the way Roy still looked at her. It was never lost on me that he wanted her, and when I was gone, I was sure there had been plenty of effort on his part to get his hands on her. The fact that she not only refused him but that I now had her back must have driven him insane. There was no telling what he was capable of doing with his back up against a wall like this, and I wasn’t about to give him the opportunity to show me.
Our silence didn’t sway Cassidy. He looked darkly at each of us. When he spoke again, there was more depth and authority in his voice. It was like he was channeling our father.
“Do you understand?” he demanded.
“Yes,” we all grumbled in response.
It wasn’t that Cassidy didn’t want to defend me, the family, or the ranch. He bore the weight of being the responsible brother, the one our father entrusted with taking care of everything he built. He took that responsibility very seriously and would do anything he needed to in order to live up to it. But when push came to shove, he was the guy anyone wanted in their corner. I had seen my older brother do some serious shit and live to tell the tales about it. He was a cowboy through and through. Fearless. Bold. Loyal and honorable. And if the Hayes family ever really wanted to settle this once and for all, I had no doubt in my mind Cassidy would come out on top.
But it wouldn’t come without sacrifices. And we were willing to make them.
“So, we’re agreed? We stand our ground, don’t bait them, and don’t feed into them.”
We nodded, united as brothers for the first time in far too long but solid in our future in our family and on our ranch.
Epilogue
Shannon
Three months later…
I felt the cool October air on my face before I opened my eyes. Stretching against my sheets, I spent a few more minutes enjoying the warmth and comfort of my bed, cozied up and not feeling a care in the world. Everything was exactly as I wanted it to be, exactly as it should be.
Beside the bed, Beau nudged my elbow with his wet nose, ready for some attention. He didn’t have any patience when it came to wanting scratches first thing in the morning. As soon as morning came, he felt it was time for me to be paying all my attention to him and dedicating myself to the noble task of feeding him his breakfast, taking him for a walk, and rubbing his tummy. His encouragement willed my eyes to open and I patted his head, baby talking to him as his tail thumped on the floor.
Sunlight streamed through the stained-glass window, casting a rainbow of saturated light across the furniture and on the floor. The other window was open, bringing in the fresh autumn morning air, and I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with it.
I loved the fall. The cool, crisp air was such a welcome relief from the oppressive heat and suffocating humidity that could come with summer. It always felt like just as the weather was getting intolerable and I wasn’t going to be able to deal with another sticky overwhelmingly hot day, fall crept in. It wasn’t immediate, and we often had to deal with going back and forth between the cool break and more days of heat as the summer season tried to hang on a little bit longer. But by October, all that was over and I was surrounded by the spicy, smoky smell of leaves burning and could spend my evenings indulging in pumpkin-flavored treats.
That October was particularly welcome. Even the crispest of cold mornings were wonderful because I could just wriggle over to the other side of my bed and cuddle up into the warmth of Jesse. He’d been spending just about every night at my place. In the mornings, he got up and went to the ranch to work before coming home in the evening. The only nights when he didn’t come back were the ones when he worked himself so hard he didn’t have the energy to get behind the wheel of his truck and make it back here. He always called me and offered to come anyway, not ever wanting me to feel pushed aside or forgotten again. But I never asked him to do it. I could tell by the sound of his voice how exhausted he was and knew if he had it in him, he would be here with me. It would be too dangerous to try to push him when that happened and I just spent the night missing him and looking forward to him coming back the next day.
Having him home with me was even inspiring me to become more domestic. Not that I really had a whole lot of opportunity. I was still only working with a kitchenette and a hot plate, and I still wasn’t the type to put on an apron and traipse around the house. But I did like having something waiting for him to eat when he got home and did the best I could to help him relax and unwind at the end of his long days.
Both of us were putting in as much work as we possibly could recently. We were preparing for our big adventure and wanted to make sure we had everything we could possibly need. Fall and winter were going to be spent right here in Green Valley, enjoying the holidays with our families and welcoming the new year together. Come spring, we were hitting the road to travel across the country, just us and Beau. Every little bit of extra money we had, we squirreled away to get us ready for the road. Jesse had already invested in a little RV for us so we didn’t have to do all our traveling in the truck. It would let us stretch out a bit and we wouldn’t have to constantly stop at hotels. We could drive until we were done driving for the day, then pull off and sleep.
I couldn’t wait to go exploring with him. There was a whole big world out there and it was just waiting for us to discover it. I was already buzzing with excitement to find out what was out there and to see it all with Jesse by my side.
Rolling over, I realized Jesse wasn’t curled up on the side of the bed like he often ended up by the end of the night. Instead, his side of the bed was empty and there was a note sitting on the pillow.
Hey, baby. At therapy this morning. Running errands for Cassidy later rather than working the ranch. Be back by ten. Don’t eat. I’ll bring coffee and those croissants you like from Chester’s Cafe home with me. And you better be naked when I get back.
I couldn’t help the huge grin that crossed my face and the giggle that bubbled up when I read the note. Flopping over onto my back, I held the note to my chest and let out a contented sigh. This was the life. After all that time, all that uncertainty and pain, I finally had the life I dreamed of.
Getting out of bed, I opened the back door for Beau. I didn’t usually just let him out that way. He was a good boy and always came home, but sometimes, he got a wild hair in him and couldn’t resist the urge to take advantage of his leash-free status and run off on his own exploration.
One time, I let him out that way when I was still in my underwear first thing in the morning. He immediately bolted and I had to run to get dressed before I could go after him. I finally found him all the way across town sitting on the front porch with old Miss Maple as she rocked in her rocking chair, feeding him ginger snaps and telling him stories about when she was young. To this day when we’re on one of our long meandering walks, I bring him by there to visit her.
This time, Beau behaved himself. It might have been the particular nip in the air that bit at him and sent him scurrying back into his warm home. When he came inside, I headed back toward the corner of my loft that acted as my bedroom. Pausing in front of the dresser, I looked at Jesse’s dog tags hanging from the corner of the mirror. I ran my fingertips over them, thanking my lucky stars he never had to leave me again.
Checking the clock,
I figured I had enough time and got in the shower. When I was out, I dried my hair, put on just a touch of makeup, brushed my teeth, and climbed under the covers. As per Jesse’s request, I lounged there naked, dozing in and out of sleep, waiting for him to come home. When the door opened, the smell of the strong, fresh coffee hit me and my stomach rumbled. He opened my eyes with a sweet kiss and nuzzled my neck. I opened my eyes and sighed, accepting another kiss.
“How was your therapy appointment?” I asked, sitting up and accepting the cup of coffee he held out to me.
“Good,” he said, kissing the tip of my nose. “Really good.”
That was all I needed. I didn’t need any elaboration or for him to get into what they talked about during his sessions. All that mattered to me was they were helping and I could see the difference in him. I set the coffee down on the nightstand beside me and cupped his face with my hands.
“Good,” I told him.
He kicked out of his boots and climbed into the bed with me. “The doc told me I’m reckless today.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “You think?”
Jesse chuckled. “I can’t help it if I have a reckless heart.”
Our mouths met and the croissants were quickly forgotten as he pushed the blankets down and found one breast with the palm of his hand. His tongue tangled with mine and he guided me back to lie down. I pulled him down on top of me.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The End
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His Reckless Heart (The Montgomery Boys Book 1) Page 23
