by Kate Kisset
“I can’t believe you just did that.” He laughed, touching his lip as if he could feel the kiss on his fingers. “You’re crazy.” He shook his head. “And God help me, what am I going to do? I love it.”
“Meet me tonight and I’ll kiss you again.”
Chapter Eight
MARIAH BENT OVER THE marble vanity to get closer to the mirror and touched up her mascara. It was just before eleven.
“Should we order some snacks?” Aves called out. “Before room service closes?”
Mariah poked her head out the bathroom door. Aves was already under the covers in her pajamas, clutching the remote in the shadowy room, watching Jane the Virgin.
She turned and looked Mariah up and down. “Why are you still dressed?” she asked, scrunching her nose. “I thought you were getting into your jammies.” She set the remote down and tucked the comforter under her chin. “Are you going out?”
A twinge of nerves raced through Mariah’s system. She hadn’t exactly thought this through. She’d been so preoccupied wondering if Colt would meet her, she never considered Aves would ask where she was going. Which was a dumb move, in retrospect.
She should’ve had a story ready, or maybe put her bathing suit on so she could say she was going to the hot tub. But it probably wouldn’t have helped anyway. Mariah was a lousy liar. “Yeah, just for a little bit.”
She cringed inside, hating having to hide anything. Mariah didn’t care if the whole world knew she crushed on Colt. The secret only mattered to him. If there was even a secret to keep. He might not show up.
“I think the gift shop is closed,” Aves said, turning back to her show. “If I’m not mistaken, I think they shut down at ten thirty, which is a crying shame because I could go for some strawberry Pop Tarts. You think they have Pop Tarts?” she asked, still facing the TV. “I could be wrong, but maybe you should call the front desk before you walk all the way down there and become bear bait.”
Mariah released a heavy sigh. She didn’t mean to be so loud. Aves swung her head back to her. “Is something wrong?”
“No. I’m just not going to the gift shop.”
A pause. And, bingo. There might as well have been flashing lights and bells ringing. Ding! Ding! Ding!—the lightbulb exploded in Aves head.
“Holy shit. This is just like Greece! You’re being naughty, aren’t you?” Aves fell back on the pillows laughing.
“There’s nothing naughty about it.” Mariah folded her arms. “And this is not at all like Greece. I didn’t even know that guy, and I certainly didn’t sleep with him.
“Wait. What? Hot damn.” Aves scrambled out from under the covers and perched on the edge of the bed, staring at her wide eyed. “You’re finally sleeping with Colt after five years? You guys are doing it tonight?”
“No.” Mariah rushed to the bed, grabbed a pillow, and threw it at Aves. “Get a grip.”
Without so much as a blink, Aves shot her hand up and snagged the pillow as if catching was something she practiced daily with the Rockies. “Oh, you are. I can totally tell.” Aves shook her head slowly, the smirky-confidence in her grin let Mariah know there was no way she’d buy any other story. “I won’t ask for the details. But just so you know, I know exactly what’s going on tonight.”
Mariah put her hands on her hips and stared her down with a straight face. “You know nothing, Pixie . . . Hair Cut Woman.” It was the best she could do while cornered.
“If that’s how you want to play it, fine.” Aves snickered, picking up the remote and turning back to her TV show. “Fine, fine, fine.”
“But do I look okay?” It was a stupid thing to ask since she was only going into a dark closet, but her heart was jack-rabbiting so fast in anticipation, she couldn’t think straight. Would he be there?
Aves threw her head back on the pillow, shaking it as if she couldn’t believe Mariah would ask such a thing. “You look as gorgeous as you do every second of every day.”
“Thanks.” Mariah nodded, getting her courage up. Sure, she was all talk and bad-assery on the outside, but Colt was the only man she acted that way with. Colt was her safe zone. She trusted him. But now . . . Now, she’d put herself on the line and pushed him so far, he might hurt her. She checked her phone. It was five minutes after eleven.
Should she leave now? How long did it take to walk to the towel room? She smoothed her dress and took a shaky breath.
Damn. Why did she even push him like this?
“I’ll probably be back in ten minutes, crying.” She started for the door.
“Hey now.” Aves clicked the remote and the room went silent. “Don’t doubt yourself, okay? Seriously. Whatever will happen will happen. You’re good.”
Mariah inhaled and dropped her head, nodding. “Right.” She blew out a breath. “Right.” She looked over at Aves. How had she gotten so lucky to have a friend like her? “Thanks,” she said, opening the door, and smiled back. “Love you.”
“You too.” Aves blew her a kiss and clicked the remote. “Good luck.”
COLT WAITED CONCEALED in the darkness. His body was wound up, tense and tight like a knot about to break.
There were still three minutes left to back out. He knew damn well he should take that valuable time to bail, because once he set his eyes on her, it would be game over. He wouldn’t have a choice.
But damn. Every rule he lived by went out the window when it came to Mariah.
It was like she held some sort of magical power over him. Every time he was near her, a primal whirling spell whipped around him, pulling him closer, sweeping him up in a wind of want and carrying him to her lips before he knew what was happening.
And fuck, he’d trained himself to resist her. Where had all those years of practice gone? How many years had he fought his feelings for her? First combatting his boyhood crush, then in the trenches of all-out lust as a teenager. He’d jacked off to the thought of her touching him for years. And that one night, when she came to him, wanting him to be her first, every dream he’d ever had came true.
The walls came down. The fight was over. His angel belonged to him for twelve hours. But now he was old enough to know better. Wise enough not to risk hurting her father, Wyatt, her brothers, all the people who were family to him.
He wouldn’t be able to survive the banishment on an emotional level. And last month, when Colt offered Wyatt and Mariah’s father the chance to invest in Dream Maker, they’d jumped at the opportunity. Now, Colt had ties to them professionally. The thorough trashing of everything he’d worked for would destroy him.
He was smart enough to think straight, wasn’t he? Mariah would be gone before he knew it, off galivanting the world as usual, and he’d be left with his life in shambles.
The sound of heels clicking against pavement made him hold his breath and peer around the corridor wall. Her dark hair glistened as she passed under the twinkling garden lights, striding confidently, straight for him. And that sweeping, whirling wind of desire kicked up.
The angel wearing a sundress, with shoulders bare and skin so soft, came closer.
He swallowed, holding himself back, rethinking, battling over his options. But when she walked by, close enough to touch, the darkness carried her scent to him and Colt stopped fighting.
He couldn’t stand by, watching her check the room and leave, and he couldn’t live with being responsible for the disappointment in her eyes. She reached for the door handle.
“Mariah, I’m here,” Colt rasped, ducking around the side of the building into the dimly lit corridor.
She turned. Eyes sparkling just for him, smiling that irresistible smile, made for him. He double-checked his surroundings, down the dark hall and behind him. Voices and laughter flittered in the air from various directions, but there wasn’t anyone in eyeshot.
He approached her, knowing he was about to dive off a cliff, and swept her into the room. Quickly closing the door behind them, he pinned her against the door in an embrace.
The soun
ds from outside evaporated. They were back in their own fresh, laundry-filled, quiet world.
“I didn’t think you’d come,” she said shyly. The illuminated shelving behind him cast just enough light to know he’d made the right decision. Others didn’t know Mariah the way he did. He saw the vulnerability in her eyes, heard the tentative softness in her voice.
He smoothed her hair away from her beautiful face. “You knew I wouldn’t let you down, didn’t you?”
She shook her head. “No, not really, Colt. You’ve been out of reach for me for so long.”
“Never,” he whispered against her lips, cupping her cheeks, stroking his thumbs along her cheekbones. “Never.” He closed his eyes and kissed her tenderly, tasting cherries and liquid honey. She let out a whimper that pierced the silence in the room, cutting through his core. Lost in her, throwing all trepidation to the wind, he buried his hands in her thick, satiny hair, drawing her closer, coming down harder on her velvety lips.
She traced her hands up his arms to his shoulders and clung to him, hands around his neck, pressing against him. “I’ll never get enough of you,” he groaned between breaths.
“Good thing you can have as much as you want,” she whispered, moaning and kissing him again.
“Exactly what I was afraid of. What am I going to do with you?” he asked helplessly, then brought his lips back to hers. Gasping, inhaling her heady musky-flowery scent, he skimmed his hands over her luscious body, outlining every decadent curve. She melded into him like butter, hands and fingernails tracking up and down his spine through his shirt, awakening every cell.
The sensation of finally holding her, feeling her sweet plump lips devour his, was everything he needed to go from zero to sixty. And Colt knew for damn sure Mariah wouldn’t hit the brakes. She didn’t know how.
He tipped her back, like a man dying of thirst, deepening the kiss. She parted her lips for his tongue and let out an aching moan. “God, I want you,” he groaned against her cheek, feeling her heated skin under his lips.
“And you’re all I want,” she whimpered, sliding her hand down his chest. She reached for the button of his jeans, just as his pager went off.
“You’re vibrating,” she whispered, sucking his neck.
His pager buzzed again. “Shit,” he moaned, as his cock pressed urgently against his jeans. “The electricians are here to work on the ovens.”
Her tender lips left his skin. “Don’t you have someone else to help you with maintenance?”
“I do.” Colt sighed, stroking her silky shoulders and down her arms. “But the chef had a glitch and—”
“You’re a control freak and wanted to supervise,” she teased.
“You know me so well.” He chuckled. “I can’t believe I forgot they were coming.
Giving him a sly once-over, she slid her hand down the front of his jeans over his hard cock. “How are you going to walk out of here?”
“Very carefully and very painfully.” He groaned. “I don’t want to leave you, Mariah.” He shook his head, studying her. “We can’t let anyone know what’s happening between us, but I don’t want to stop seeing you.” He kissed her again, not willing to leave just yet. Screw the electricians. “Look, we’ll have to sneak around.” He swallowed. “I get it if you want—Do you want to stop?”
“Hell no,” she whispered.
“And don’t think I haven’t thought about you.” He ran his thumb along her bottom lip. “I never thought kissing you or being alone with you again was possible.”
She narrowed her beautiful eyes at him. “You’ve been pretty good about hiding your feelings.”
He stared at her dumbfounded. Even though he hadn’t overtly flirted, and he didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, it wasn‘t because he didn’t care deeply for her. “It’s just that whenever we’re all together, I worry your family will pick up on how I feel about you. Wyatt reads me like a book, and I pity the man who tries to get something over your father.”
“I honestly didn’t know you were still interested.”
“How could you not see?” he husked. “Don’t you remember the Christmas party? How happy I was to see you?” He couldn’t keep his eyes off her that night and followed her around like a lost puppy. “I was the last one to leave. They had to throw me out.”
“Hmm . . .” She reached up and kissed his nose. “Come to think of it, I do remember that.”
His beeper went off again. Could the timing be any worse? He wanted to chuck the thing and break it against the wall. “Damn it, I have to go.”
“I know.” She nodded, sighing.
“Can I at least walk you to your room?”
“Aren’t you worried my brother will discover our secret?”
“No, he left hours ago.” He took her hand. “When can we see each other again?”
Mariah angled her head and smiled mischievously. She had decadent, off-limits, out-of-bounds, delicious trouble plainly written all over her face and how could he possibly resist?
Mesmerized, Colt cupped her cheek. “Where and when?”
“Aves and I are going to The Owl tomorrow night, if you have time.”
Time? He’d dive head first into the shallow end in seconds if she wanted him to.
“I’ll make time.”
Chapter Nine
MARIAH NAVIGATED HER Wrangler up the paved drive. The massive iron gates were open, so she continued under the Walker Ranch sign, a horse flanked by a “W” and an “R.” She pulled up over the graveled area near the barn, hearing the pebbles clatter against her car, and parked next to her brother Kace’s truck.
Her five siblings had separate ranches on the majestic hundred-acre spread, and they made a point to have Sunday dinners together. Mariah hadn’t realized how much she’d missed those weekly family gatherings until she moved back in with her father. It was unusual for her dad to call her out of the blue for lunch though.
With her purse in hand and Colt’s kiss from last night still on her lips, she traipsed up the steps to the entrance and opened the front door. The smell of chicken flooded her nostrils.
“Smells so good,” she called out to no one in particular, rushing down the wide hall to the kitchen. Her brother had obviously made a run into town to The Owl where chef Peyton made the best barbeque in the state.
“I love you, Kace!” Scanning the room for him, she dropped her purse on the kitchen counter.
“What, no love for your papa?”
She pivoted to her dad. “How do you manage to look so handsome?” In his late sixties, Jamison Walker still had a full head of hair, with color, more pepper than salt. Mariah and her brothers teased him about secretly dying it. Jamison was, according to Mariah, the most dapper older gentleman in Lonesome. Unfortunately, since losing their mother a few years ago, he still hadn’t gone out on one date.
“Love you, Pops.” She gave him a peck on the cheek and bumped him with her hip so he’d scoot over and make room for her at the sink. She washed her hands and pulled a clean rag out of the drawer and dried them.
“Everything okay with you?” she asked, checking to see if his skin coloring looked ashy, or his eyes weren’t sparkly, or if anything at all seemed off about his health. She’d gotten into the habit of inspecting his appearance since his heart attack.
“No complaints here, sweetheart. How is Colt holding up with Dream Maker?”
“Opening day for the press went off without a hitch.”
“Well, good. He and Wyatt are doing a fine job over there. I can’t imagine a more spectacular resort in the state. I’m so proud of Colt. But I have to tell ya”—he laughed—“I’m surprised Colt managed to get enough time away from the ladies to create such a place.”
“Ha, right.” She fake-chuckled along with him. Mariah hated to admit it, but Colt was probably right. Her dad wouldn’t take kindly to Colt making any moves on her. He had Colt pegged squarely in her “brother” zone. Maybe all that time away from home had skewed her perception of reality.
“Are we eating now?” She strolled to the counter and peeked into the mouthwatering bag of food and inhaled deeply. “Want me to set the table?”
“I don’t think that’s necessary. When I placed the order, I asked Linda to make two boxed lunches for us. We should be set.”
Mariah peeked in the bag. “It looks like we are. But only two meals? Kace isn’t joining us?”
“No. He had to run out and do some errands. You just missed him.” Her Dad grabbed the bag. “While we have time to ourselves, I want to talk to you about something.” Jamison gave her a gentle smile and ushered her toward the door by the crook of her arm. “Let’s have lunch out in the gazebo.”
“Uh-oh, I don’t like the sound of this.” Only important family discussions were held out back in the gazebo. “Let me grab a beer first.” Mariah made an about-face to the fridge and rifled through the shelves until she found a cold bottle. “You?”
“Nah.” He swiped a water bottle off the counter. “I’m sticking to this.”
She followed him outside to the deck, passing the massive table for twenty they sometimes used for supper outside on warm nights.
They took the steps down to the grass and made their way to the charming gazebo. Overlooking a pretty pond, surrounded by trees, the tranquil hideaway had been her mother’s favorite reading spot.
Mariah sunk into a comfy chair opposite her dad and twisted the cap off her beer. While savoring a sip, she took in the view of the pastural acres her family had somehow managed to hang on to for decades. They didn’t raise any cattle of their own anymore but rented the land to others who did.
As Jamison set his plastic utensils and lunch on the table, Mariah waited for him to start the conversation. Her Dad didn’t seem to be in a hurry to discuss anything though and Mariah started on her meal.
Jamison just peered at the shimmery pond, seeming lost in thought. “I remember when Colt and Wyatt used to raise hell, right out there on the back field.” He pointed to the patch of emerald green in the distance.
