by Vivian Arend
Finn solved the problem by crooking a finger at her. “I know I’m a little distracted, but think of this as a necessary evil.”
Which made her laugh. She tangled her fingers around his then leaned in to press their lips together. Brief, chaste.
He caught her around the back of the neck and held her in place, staring into her eyes and then dropping his gaze to her mouth. “I don’t think so. Let’s try that again.”
This time when their lips met, she wasn’t in charge. He was. This wasn’t the type of kiss that would be approved of in public. It was hot, deep, and dirty, and when he let her go, Karen was breathing hard. Her heart was pounding, and her head was spinning, and—
“You are a dangerous man, Finn Marlette,” she said when she finally found enough air to speak.
He winked. “Have a nice dinner.”
The time with her nieces was wonderful. Sasha was full of lists of everything she planned to do over the summer. It was amusing as heck to hear “and Kelli says—” repeated a good half dozen times over the course of the recitation.
But what was even funnier was when little sister Emma leaned hard against Karen’s side, speaking softly but utterly clear and with confidence. “Mama says sometimes Sasha’s Kelli-isms give her conniptions.”
Karen stifled her laughter. “Really? And what are conniptions?” she asked seriously.
Emma paused for a moment before smiling brightly. “That fuzzy feeling you get when you pet a kitten.”
Which was pretty much the best definition Karen had ever heard. “That sounds perfect,” she assured Emma even as she met Julia’s gaze and the two of them grinned brightly.
George Coleman arrived. Caleb ushered him in, and both Emma and Sasha went wild greeting their grandpa.
Family chaos ensued, the warmth of Tamara and Caleb’s home a welcoming hug. The scent of a home-cooked meal and the music of laughter filled the space from top to bottom.
Caleb had served dinner in the Stone tradition when the conversation took a twist. Nothing really terrible, but it brought an uneasy tone.
“You must be excited to head off to school,” her father said to Karen. Then he turned to Caleb as he added, “Some of the Coleman boys have stepped in to take her place. They aren’t doing badly at all…”
“Have you found out any more about your classes?” Lisa asked while she helped Emma with her dinner.
“I got a package of information,” Karen admitted. “I’ll dig through it soon, but it’s been pretty busy with the ranch work I committed to. Especially now that Finn’s in recovery mode.”
George Coleman raised a brow. “You’re working at a ranch? I thought you left early to spend time with your sisters.”
“I am. I mean, we are. But…” A stutter escaped, and she thought quickly. “I’m sure I mentioned this. Finn Marlette is here setting up a dude ranch. I’m helping them with the horses they need. That sort of thing.”
Her father’s expression grew tighter as she spoke, and he shook his head as if she had just confessed to some shameful crime.
Then he changed the topic. “What’s that boy doing out here? Last I heard he was out in Manitoba.”
Karen wasn’t about to go into a long explanation when she didn’t know all the details herself.
“He’s been around for a while.” Tamara leapt in with the answer, smiling sympathetically at Karen. “Got his hand in all sorts of ventures these days, not just ranching. He’s done well for himself.”
It was on the tip of Karen’s tongue to mention Finn was doing great, except for breaking his leg, when her father spoke.
“He always was a go-getter. It’s good to catch up with people. I should give his father a call. You say hi to Finn for me,” her father said pointedly to Karen.
“He said the next time you’re in town, he’d love to get together.”
Conversation drifted after that, but the uneasy sensation in her stomach remained.
It was still with her when she made it back to the cottage. Neither Finn nor Zach was around. They’d probably headed over to the main house where there was at least a TV to entertain them.
Some strange force of nature pulled her toward that manila envelope. She picked it up again, the heavy weight in her hand triggering zero excitement.
Great, considering you gave up everything for this.
She wanted to growl at the thought.
She pulled out the papers and began reading through them. A course syllabus, with lists of books they’d be covering, and the hands-on activities of working with experienced trainers.
The tight feeling in the pit of her stomach just got sharper and sharper until she shoved the pile together haphazardly, not even trying to replace the papers in the envelope.
She must’ve eaten something that didn’t agree with her. Or maybe she’d caught a bug, because she was definitely not feeling herself.
She put the whole mess on the bookshelf in the far corner of the room, shoving an old rock that was there for some reason on top of the stack to keep it in place in case—
Hell, she didn’t know why. Maybe a windstorm would sweep into the living room and the rock would be the only thing that kept everything from tearing apart.
She stomped across the room and headed to bed because there was no way anyone needed to be inflicted with her cranky self.
Something was wrong.
Finn miscalculated a step between the crutches and his good leg, accidentally knocking his cast into the corner of the hallway.
“Goddamn—”
He jammed his mouth closed and stifled his curses.
“Fuck, that one hurt,” Zach offered on his behalf. Only he said it in a sotto whisper, which amused Finn enough to mostly forget the pain throbbing up his leg.
Okay, that was a lie. Nothing made him forget the pain, but he was capable of more than one thought at a time, and the second one was the business of something being wrong.
“You don’t need to babysit my ass,” he whispered back at Zach once they’d made their way into the master bedroom.
“But it’s such a fine ass, or so I’ve been told.” Zach stepped out of swinging range, holding his hands in the air in surrender. “You know I’m just joking. If we swung that way, we would’ve done the deed a long time ago.”
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, your chances for a career in comedy are nil.”
Finn debated. Drop trou and then crash? Or muster up enough energy to at least brush his teeth before he collapsed into bed?
Zach sat on the mattress, and as patiently as if he were dealing with a two-year-old, he shoved Finn’s hands out of the way and helped peel off his pants. “You’re about to fall over. Stop fighting and let me help.”
“I kind of hate you right now,” Finn told his best friend.
“That’s okay. I’m big enough to handle mean words.” Zach rose from where he’d bent to pull off Finn’s socks. “Need any more help?”
“Piss off.” Finn paused then sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Thanks.”
There was nothing but an amused glint in his friend’s eyes. “I’ll grab your painkillers.”
He was back in the room a moment later, a tall glass of cold water and the requisite drugs in the palm of his hand.
Finn barely had a chance to swallow the pills when, to his shock, he was dragged close and given a brief but thorough back pounding.
Zach stepped back, his grin firmly in position. “Never said it before, but I’m glad you’re okay. I mean, you’re hurting like hell, drugged up to your eyeballs, and totally confused about what you’re doing with your love life. Set on vengeance and trying to meet an impossible challenge, but you’re alive, and that’s what matters.”
Finn pinched the bridge of his nose. “You done?”
He glanced up in time to see Zach glance off into the distance as if considering before he nodded firmly. “Pretty much.”
The two of them stared at each other for a moment before the
y burst into snorts of laughter.
“Get the hell out of here,” Finn ordered as he made his way to the bed, amusement still bubbling inside.
The suspicion that something was wrong remained, though. There were still mysteries to be solved, and yes, as Zach had mentioned, there was a challenge to be won.
But there were also things that were right. He had friends—good friends. He would heal and be stronger than before.
And he had Karen. A relationship that had so much hope and potential, he was determined neither of them would give up. That was the challenge he was determined to win. That was the most important thing in his world.
Even as the painkillers took him under, his thoughts swirled around finding a way to put a smile back on her face.
To put stars back into her eyes.
To put her back at his side. Forever.
14
Something had come over Finn, and Karen didn’t know if she should explain it away as a side effect of the drugs or her current mopey nature making her oversensitive.
He was constantly in her space. Every time she turned around, he was right freaking there.
Handing her a cup of coffee. Poking his head around the corner when she came back to the cottage or to the main house for a break. Asking if she needed him to answer any questions.
In the barn.
Waving at her from the deck as she rode past on Starlight.
Hell, she was beginning to think if she crawled into the hayloft of the barn, she would find him there, sprawled out on the bales and ready to ask if there was anything he could do for her.
She stopped outside the horse stalls, trying to regain her equilibrium.
Starlight offered her a hello, nickering to entice her to come and give him a treat.
“You’re such a flirt,” she told him, but she obediently opened the gate and joined him in the stall. She fed him some lumps of carrot she’d brought along then stepped to the side and laid her head against his warm flank.
She stroked him a few times, feeling muscles twitch under his skin and soaking in his peaceful demeanor in a way that would’ve surprised a lot of people who weren’t comfortable around horses.
He whinnied, lifting his head and adjusting his front hooves softly, as if sensing her mood.
Karen stepped toward his head and wrapped her arms around his neck, breathing in his scent while trying to breathe out some of the frustrations she’d been drowning in for the last couple of days.
Pretty pathetic when even the horses know you’re out of sorts.
Knew and knew how to offer support.
So be it. Right now, it was either accept the comfort of the big beast or simply find a corner of the barn to sit in and cry. She hadn’t been so damn emo since she was a teenager.
There was no such thing as early thirties puberty, though, so this?
Annoying as hell.
“Karen?”
She snorted. It was Finn. She thought he’d been headed to the far side of the construction site where, for some ungodly reason, he checked on the work crew four to five times a day.
“In with Starlight,” she called. Because hiding in the stall without saying anything was just childish. Tempting, but childish.
He stepped into view, and she instantly went on alert. “Holy shit, what happened?”
Finn tucked his crutches under his arms to unbutton his shirt. The flannel dripped, and water ran off the brim of his hat and down his whisker-clad cheeks. “Water main malfunction. I need your help to get cleaned up.”
She gave Starlight a quick kiss on his nose and a farewell pat before shutting the gate behind her and joining Finn. “Come. Let’s head to the cottage. We’ll strip you down on the back deck.”
Finn growled his frustration as they made their way outside and across the yard toward the cottage.
“I don’t even have to ask where the problem is,” Karen said. The entire work crew scrambled frantically in the mud, a tall plume of water spraying skyward like their own homegrown geyser.
“That’s a brand-new system,” Finn complained. “No way in hell it should’ve blown like that.”
“Super frustrating,” Karen agreed before pointing out the positive. “It’s still better to find a flaw now instead of a month after you have paying customers around the place.”
“Stop being optimistic. I’m cranky,” Finn told her.
Gee, that made two of them. A wry grin arrived without warning. “I thought the operative word was grumpy.”
“That too.”
Undressing the man was pleasantly distracting. Some of the annoyance that had been lingering for the last couple of days began to ease as she helped get Finn naked. He pulled off his upper layers, and she helped him take off his boot, which required him to sit on the tall stool they’d put on the deck just for that purpose.
She peeled his filthy sweatpants over his cast, and by the time he stood there in nothing but underwear—those were wet as well—Karen had gotten a good long reminder of what an amazing physical specimen he was.
There were streaks of mud across his face, the back of his neck, and his arms. Flecks had fallen on the rest of his torso as they’d undressed him, layering on the beautiful pallet of his skin. Not just muscle and sinew, not just the mesmerizing rise and fall of his chest. Her gaze drifted over the curls of hair on his torso and down that dangerous line leading from his belly button toward the elastic at his waist.
“You keep looking at me like that and I won’t be in the shower by myself,” Finn warned.
Karen snapped her gaze up from where she’d been admiring the long line of his cock under his underwear. The thick ridge had been growing thicker, probably because she’d been staring in the first place.
And he’d caught her in the act.
She met his gaze. “I should be ashamed, but that’s not what I’m feeling right now.”
A low rumble rose from his chest as he grabbed the crutches. “Get inside the damn house,” he ordered.
She pulled the door open and stepped inside, Finn right behind her. “You know you can’t take a shower yet,” she warned. “Your cast is waterproof on the outside, though, so it should be okay if we wipe it down.”
Then they were in the bathroom. He turned on the taps, grabbed a facecloth and ran it over his hands and upper body before the water had time to warm.
The layer of hair on his arms and forearms rose slightly as the cool water hit his skin. Nipples taut, abdomen muscles forming firm ridges. Karen watched mesmerized for the first moment before realizing that as amazing as the show was, she wasn’t helping.
She grabbed another washcloth, dipped it in the sink, and proceeded to wash his back, his shoulders. The dip where his waist went in before flaring to his taut buttocks. She stood behind him in the bathroom and caught hold of his waistband, peeling the underwear down over his rigid fiberglass cast.
His butt was a thing of beauty.
She skimmed her fingers over the indent in one cheek and lower to where it met the firm foundation of his standing leg. Wiry hair brushed her palms as she washed lower, swooped higher.
The upper ridge of his lower back, the taut muscles along his Adonis line.
Finn groaned, and she glanced up to discover he had the edge of the bathroom counter in a death grip. Head hanging down, staring in the mirror at her as she touched him.
She hadn’t actually been washing him for a good ten minutes. The continued motion of the cloth over his skin was an excuse, and as their gazes met, something in his darkened. Grew heavy and demanding.
He reached back and caught her wrist in his strong fingers. Guided her hand forward, over his abdomen and to where his cock stood upright and thick, moisture spilling from the slit at the top.
Moisture that painted her fingertips when he wrapped her hand around his length and slowly pumped.
Down, then up, rolling her palm over the head where heat and moisture grew.
Again, his fingers wrapped tighter over hers
until she knew she never would’ve gripped him that firmly, but this was good. A sweet and oh-so-dirty connection as he used her hand to bring pleasure to the foreground.
Karen regretted every inch of clothing covering her body because when she stepped closer, heat passing between them, it wasn’t enough.
It would have to be, though, because she wasn’t stopping what she was doing. Not when the reflection in the mirror showed Finn’s eyes closed, pleasure rolling over his expression as he gave in to her touch.
His hand slid backward from over hers until he caught hold of her hips. Fingers dug into her ass cheek as he pulled her against him. Layers of fabric separated them, yet sexual tension joined them together in an utterly different way.
And that view—
The mirror image in front of her was every dirty memory and every sweaty dream she’d had since first meeting Finn Marlette. It wasn’t as much the perfection of his body as how he let go.
His face. Eyes squeezed tight then relaxing. Lips slightly open as he panted, release edging closer. Muscles of his torso tight, abdomen curling in as she kept the rhythm going.
Karen licked the skin of his shoulder, his arm. Nipping lightly, her gaze fixed on the mirror to enjoy his response.
His eyes—open now and speaking the words that weren’t coming from his lips. Need, urgent need. He gasped, hips rocking against her hand in a final desperate surge.
Coming then in long hard spurts that flew across the countertop and her fist as he stared into the mirror and her eyes and let her see everything.
He was still reeling when the truth hit hard. As good as his release had been, and as necessary as it had been, it wasn’t the end of what was absolutely vital right now.
Finn twisted on the spot, awkward because of his cast and unsteady on his lone supportive foot because all his damn blood was still centered in his cock.
Still he found the energy to tangle his fingers in Karen’s hair to access her lips.
He kissed her as if he were possessed.
He took her deep and he took her hard, and if he weren’t hindered by the cast, he would’ve had her up against the back of the door only a few seconds later.
