by Em Petrova
He wanted a them so much it felt like a hot knot in his chest. They’d made love, sure, and he knew it was an act of desperation on both their parts. He didn’t like admitting such a thing even to himself, though. They started their marriage on uneven ground as it was—this could completely throw them over.
If their marriage was about to collapse, he’d at least attempt to make things right first.
Forty minutes later, he arrived in the next town, sailing through the dark streets to the address he needed. The house he stopped in front of had no lights on at all. Of course, his attorney would be asleep, as anybody with two brain cells would be at this hour.
He had to do this. A rush of energy struck him.
Aidan walked up to the front door, raised his fist and pounded on the wood. Inside, a dog barked at the commotion. On the other side of the door, he heard paws scrambling on wood.
He knocked again, and a light snapped on, glowing through the long windows on each side of the door. Finally, a curtain twitched as someone peeked out.
The door flew open. “Bellamy, what the hell are you doing at this hour and at my house?” Attorney Sam Masters wore a scowl and a bathrobe when he faced Aidan.
“Need your help, Sam.” They’d known each other for years, and Aidan had no reservation in calling him by his Christian name or waking him out of a dead sleep to call on a favor.
“At one in the morning?”
Aidan leveled a stare at him.
With a groan, Sam stepped aside to allow him entrance. His yellow lab sniffed at Aidan, and he offered his hand to make friends. The dog sniffed it and walked away and curled up to sleep on the carpet.
“I’m assuming you’re calling on my skills, Aidan.”
“I need a deed transferred.”
He cocked a brow. “This way. We’ll use my personal office.”
Sam led the way, his dark blue robe swirling around his hairy calves.
“I’m sorry for this inconvenience,” he said.
Sam threw him a look that told him he didn’t buy it. He switched on a light in a small home office and settled behind his simple wood desk. Planting his elbows on the desk, he glared at Aidan.
“What the hell is so important, Bellamy?”
“My marriage.”
Sam sat back in his chair, eyeing him. “What happened?”
“When I bid on the Windswept, I didn’t realize I had an insider’s information on what the ranch would go for.”
“Now I’m listening.”
“I visited the real estate agent who had knowledge of the property’s worth. She gave me a ballpark range to bid within. I did and won it. But it’s because she knew what another woman’s bid would be. My wife Liberty also wanted that land.”
“So now you’re in a sticky situation. Did you sleep with the real estate agent?”
“Christ, no! I’m insulted you’d even suggest such a damn thing. I was innocent in all this. Until the woman recently admitted to giving me a handout, which Liberty says is because of my blue eyes, I thought I won that bid fair and square!”
Sam contemplated him. “You do have nice blue eyes.” He waved a hand. “What the hell am I saying? I must be sleep drunk. Anyway, what do you need from me? Do you want to sue the real estate agent?”
“No. I want to transfer the Windswept to my wife.”
He tapped his fingers on the desk. “Okay, it will take a bit of research on my end.”
“I’ll wait.” Aidan rested against the back of his chair.
Sam cocked a brow at him and then shook his head. “Unbelievable.” He switched on his laptop and within minutes was doing the legwork it would take to write up the transfer and change the name on the deed to Liberty Ann Baker Bellamy.
For how long she’d be a Bellamy, Aidan didn’t know. But at least that knot in his chest that told him he fucked up big time had started to dissolve. Come dawn, his life would be changed again. If Liberty walked away from him, he wouldn’t blame her, but he’d never be the same.
When Sam printed a document, signed it using an expensive pen and pushed the document across the desk to Aidan, he said, “I’m charging you overtime for tonight, Aidan.”
“I expect nothing less. And I’ll send you some steaks from my beef when we butcher in the fall.”
“It better be a big cooler full.” Sam stood.
Aidan remained seated, reading the document. He nodded. “Looks in order.”
“Damn right it is. I always did my best thinking at night.” He shot Aidan a smile for the first time since he beat down his door and forced him to take a client while wearing his bathrobe.
Aidan held out his hand, and Sam shook it. “I appreciate it, man.”
“Is this the kind of shit people do for love?”
Aidan met his gaze. “Yeah, it is.” As he walked to his truck, he felt a hundred pounds lighter.
“I’ll have my secretary bill you, you crazy fucker!” Sam called before closing the front door.
Aidan raised a hand in acknowledgement and climbed behind the wheel, more than ready to return home and give Liberty her wedding gift.
* * * * *
The silent house and the ominous tick of the kitchen clock did nothing to lighten Liberty’s mood this morning.
In the night, Aidan left. She heard his truck tires crunching down the gravel lane, and she laid awake wondering where the man could have gone.
As she drifted off, she heard him come in once more. He didn’t come to bed with her, and she laid there until dawn tormenting herself with thoughts about their relationship. Real or not? Her feelings were real enough, and she thought he cared for her too, but the big L word had yet to be volleyed around.
She smelled the coffee brewing and followed her nose to the kitchen. When she spotted a box on the counter with baler twine around it in a bow, she stopped and gripped the doorjamb to keep from falling over.
“Aidan?” she called out.
Silence filled her ears.
She walked to the counter and stared at the thin flat box. She skimmed her fingers over the bit of notebook paper tucked under the ribbon bearing her name.
She tugged at an end of the string. The loops unfurled, and she drew off the twine. The fast pace of her heart made it difficult to concentrate on anything but the fact that so much weight hung between her and Aidan, and while their lovemaking the night before had been a balm, it wasn’t a fix.
When she pulled the lid off the box, she blinked down at the sheet of paper there. The heading at the top declared it had been drawn up by Aidan’s attorney.
She lifted the paper and read the words. Acres. Deed. Proof of transfer for real estate.
Windswept.
She dropped her hands and stared into space. “What is this?” she whispered to herself. After reading it a second time, she shook her head, mind blanking.
“I don’t understand,” she said aloud.
Quickly, she re-read the document.
He’d deeded the ranch to her.
Flattening the paper to her chest, she released a harsh cry. She wanted it so bad. Seeing her name in conjunction with the address gave her a thrill unlike any she’d ever known.
But…
She couldn’t keep it, didn’t have the money for it anymore, and she didn’t want it if it meant what she thought it did.
With the paper flapping in her clutch, she ran through the house and out the front door. She jumped the porch steps and continued on, sprinting through the field as though a bull chased her. When she didn’t see Aidan in the immediate area, she knew exactly where he’d be—working on the water line on the Windswept.
As she saddled a horse and took off for the field, rough rasps burned her throat. The crazy, stubborn, know-it-all man. He believed this would solve everything?
When she spotted him up ahead wielding a shovel and doing some of the finer work the machinery couldn’t, she spurred the horse faster.
“Aidan!” she cried out when she grew close enough.
He looked up, and she knew he’d be squinting into the sun—could almost trace the small creases around his eyes on the sheet of paper crumpled in her pocket. And she knew when their gazes locked, she’d feel that strong, magnetic pull on her, drawing her into his orbit. She’d catch the scents she loved on him and probably find that mussed lock of hair falling across the masculine plane of his forehead.
“Aidan!” She thundered up to him. He dropped the shovel and started toward her.
When she leaped down, he caught the reins to keep her horse in check while she ran up and threw her arms around him. “Thank you! Thank you so much.” Tears burned on the rims of her eyes for a moment before tumbling out and wetting his shirt.
He didn’t immediately embrace her in return. All of a sudden, he brought his arms around her and squeezed.
“I did it for you, baby. I did it for you…because I love you.”
His gritty words sank into her like warm rain falling on a summer’s night.
She pulled free to stare up at him. He loved her? It was too much to hope for.
“Aidan…”
“It’s true. I’ve known how I feel for a while now. But that doesn’t mean you have to stay married to me. You have property now, and since I’m still planning to put my herd on it for summer, I’ll pay you a fee that will help you get the house in order, possibly pay a few other bills—”
“Aidan, that’s not necessary.”
He went on, “We’ll be neighbors. I’ll help where you need—”
She clapped her hand over his mouth, stopping his flow of speech. Searching his eyes, she shook her head. “No, we won’t do any of those things. We’ll be man and wife. Our children will grow up on our property that belongs to both of us and your great-grandmother was born on.”
His eyes widened with each word that fell from her lips, the ice blue transforming to that blue fire she always saw when he was at a height of emotions. Gently, he reached up and encircled her wrist with his fingers. He pulled her hand off his mouth.
“What are you sayin’, Liberty?” he ground out.
She searched his eyes. “I’m saying I love you, you thick-headed man!”
The corner of his lips quirked. “It’s about time you realized it.”
She balled up her fist and socked him lightly in the midsection at the same moment she moved onto tiptoe to kiss him.
He lashed his arm around her waist, lifting her right off her feet as he ravished her mouth. Dizziness and passion mixed inside her until she felt the world fade. She clung to her man—her husband—and parted her lips to his sweeping kisses.
* * * * *
Aidan cradled his wife’s face and slowed the kiss until he tenderly nibbled at her lower lip, tracing the shape with his own.
“That was the most Liberty moment ever,” he said between soft bites.
“What was?” she murmured, lips still moving against his.
“You punched me and kissed me at the same time.”
She issued a noise, part moan, part giggle. “Well, you’re pretty contrary yourself. You tell me you love me but try to move me to that house on the Windswept.”
He turned his head aside on a laugh and then brought his gaze back to her, serious now. “I do love you, woman, and I don’t want you anywhere but with me. I gave you the property to prove that it doesn’t matter to me as much as you do.”
Tears burned in the golden-brown depths of her eyes. She rasped her fingertips over his unshaven jaw. “Good, because I refuse to leave. I own half your ranch, remember? No prenup.”
He grinned. “That means I own half of this.” He cupped her breast in his palm and raised his other hand to the second. “And this.”
She ran her hands over his chest. “Think the horse is okay for a bit?”
He glanced over her head. “He’s grazin’.”
When she bit into Aidan’s lower lip and tugged, he growled at the sharp desire in his groin. He whipped her top over her head, knocking off her hat in the process. She raked her hands down his abs, clutched the hem of his T-shirt and ripped it off too.
Making soft noises of want, she levered herself up to wrap her thighs around his waist. He dropped to his knees and rolled her into the grass, his mouth sealed to hers as they pulled and pushed at their clothing until he poised his cock at her tight heat.
“Aidan, wait.” She rested her hands on his chest.
He guided a wave of hair off her cheekbone. “What is it, baby?”
“I want you to tell me you love me while you enter me.”
“Hell.” His throat closed. Lowering his lips to hers, he whispered, “I love you.” He guided his cock inside her. “I love you.” And as he sank an inch. “I love you.” He sank balls-deep. “Fuck! I love you!”
She dug her nails into his ass and dragged him even deeper as she kissed him with all the emotion he never expected to touch his world.
When she broke the kiss, still moving with him, she looked into his eyes. “I love you, Aidan.”
He churned his hips and began to take them both to another universe.
Epilogue
“Oh my God, I’m going to cry.” Liberty never got so emotional at weddings. She fanned her face, hoping to make her tears recede before she ruined her makeup. “Joss, you look so beautiful.”
The woman positively glowed as she posed for the photographer. With one hand cradling her baby bump and a beatific smile on her face, she looked as though she’d stepped out of a motherhood photoshoot. Her gown’s empire waist fit snugly under her breasts, and when she allowed the skirt to drop, it flowed over her tiny belly so nobody would ever guess she was several months along.
Her older sister Jada dabbed at her eyes. “Absolutely no crying! Nobody cry!”
They all laughed instead, and thankfully, the happy tears burned off for now.
As Joss moved into another pose, Brielle ran up to position her train into an appealing sweep. The tent that had been set up on the edge of the pond where Joss and Cort rekindled their love provided shade from the hot sun, but Liberty still felt a bead of sweat run between her breasts.
“I’m going to get some air.” She left the women to the bridal photoshoot and escaped out a doorway cut in the tent. She didn’t take a step before two strong arms wrapped around her, hitching her against his even harder chest. She thumped up against her husband.
“God, you look stunning in that peachy color. It makes your eyes glow even more.” Aidan stared down at her face.
She smiled. “The color is called autumn romance, according to Joss.”
“Well, you look like a Georgia peach.” He squeezed her buttocks, and she squealed.
“Aidan! Someone will see us. There are guests all around this pond.”
“There’s bound to be a bush where we can get some privacy.” He squeezed both her butt cheeks in a slow clamp of his hands that sent tremors through her belly.
“Joss will kill me if I wrinkle this dress before the ceremony even starts.” Her words ended on a moan as he latched onto her neck, running kisses up and down in a line. She clung to his pristine shirt front and realized he was in more danger of being wrinkled than she was.
“One more kiss and then you have to get to the guys’ tent. I’m sure they’re almost ready for me in Joss’s photos.” She slipped her hand around his nape and brought his mouth back to hers. The soft stroke of his tongue left her with no delusions as to what they’d be doing after the reception. That soft, seeking movement of his mouth over hers threatened to reduce her to a puddle.
He stamped her lips with one more kiss. “I love you, baby. I’ll see you on the dock.”
“If it doesn’t collapse under all our weight. I still think it looks rickety.”
He chuckled. “Cort and I waded into the water and checked out the supports ourselves after Joss insisted. She did mention having gained a few pounds.”
She slapped Aidan’s arm. “She’s pregnant, you brute! Will you call me fat when I’m carrying
your baby?”
His eyes burned. “No,” he said softly, “I’ll be the happiest man alive.”
Tender emotions washed through her, threatening to bring her to tears again. Squeezing his hand, she offered him a smile and ducked inside the tent.
Liberty hardly remembered her own wedding ceremony, but this time, standing on the dock across from her husband and looking into his eyes while the couple spoke their vows felt like a she was saying them all over again.
When it came Cort’s turn to say it, Aidan mouthed: I do.
Liberty grinned. I do, she mouthed in return.
After the couple was pronounced man and wife, Cort grabbed Joss, bent her over his arm and kissed her in true Bellamy style. Cheers sounded up and down the bank from the spectators standing not far off shore, and Liberty cheered with the rest—until Aidan silenced her with a smoldering kiss of their own.
When they broke apart, there was a squeal and a huge splash as someone launched into the pond.
Liberty and Aidan rushed to look over the side at the water where Dominick Cole, the fourth groomsman standing up for Cort, tread to the shallows. Aidan had told Liberty that he recently got disqualified from the rodeo circuit, where he’d been racking up the buckles, and now he worked on the Bellamy as a ranch hand.
His cowboy hat floated on the water and began to sink.
“What the…?” Liberty looked around to see Jada standing at the edge, hands on her hips.
“That’ll teach ya to kiss a woman without asking, you brazen ass!” Jada called down to Dominick.
“Oh my God. You’d better give him a hand out of the water.” Liberty gave Aidan a light shove toward the end of the dock.
Jada turned to Joss, hands spread. “I’m sorry for stealing your big moment, sis.”
Joss shook her head in amazement and then she giggled. “Leave it to you to keep things down to earth, Jada.” The sisters embraced, and the crowd cheered again.
The newlyweds turned to face the shore. “Mr. and Mrs. Cort Bellamy!” the preacher called out, kicking off the real party.
Aidan slid his hand around Liberty’s waist, pulling her against him as they waited for the rest of the wedding party to walk off the dock. “Wanna go skinny-dippin’? he rumbled next to her ear.
