Involuntarily, my head moved forward, my lips searching out his, but at the last second, he stepped back, dropping his hands to his sides.
My mouth dropped open in shock. “What…?”
Stone shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. “What kind of husband would I be if I aided you in losing this bet?”
I frowned, thoroughly confused. “The kind who gets to have sex?”
He chuckled and cocked his head to the side. “That’s always a win in my book, but I want to make sure that I’m supporting you, baby. If you want to prove something, as your husband, I’m going to be here to help however you need.”
He smiled innocently, but he was so full of bullshit it was practically spouting from his overconfident, obnoxious, incredibly sexy mouth.
“Argh!” I shouted as I threw my hands in the air before stomping past him into our bedroom.
I grabbed a gray maternity T-shirt and some purple leggings from the dresser before stomping back to the bathroom. Stone had turned on the shower and was checking the temperature as I entered. I sighed. Why did he have to do such sweet things?
Throwing my clothes on the counter, I quickly whipped the flannel shirt up over my head and tossed it out the door.
A quick inhale and a muffled groan put a giant smile on my face as I turned to face Stone. His heated eyes swept over my naked body, leaving a trail of fire in their wake. I took one step toward him, and in the blink of an eye, he was running out of the room.
I chuckled as I stepped into the large shower made of rock walls and glass. Turnabout was fair play, it seemed.
Stone
I had no idea what had possessed me to make that bet with my wife. She was just so damn adorable when she was all riled up.
Except, now I was the one all riled up and barking at everyone who annoyed me (which was basically everyone except the horses) because I was consumed with sexual frustration.
“What’s got your panties in a twist, Kensington?” asked Maddie, who’d dropped by with paperwork I needed to sign for James. Apparently, she’d noticed my foul mood.
“Nothing. Sorry,” I mumbled as I scrawled my signature on the documents and handed them back to her. Then I turned around and went back to mucking stalls because if I didn’t do something physical, I would probably kill someone.
A minute later, I was surprised to realize she was still there when she spoke again. “So…James mentioned that you have a brother.”
“Pardon?” I stopped what I was doing and pivoted on my heel to regard Maddie curiously. Helena was the only person who knew all of my history, including that I had a younger brother. I didn’t know how the fuck James found out or why he was sharing that information with anyone.
My expression must have clued her in because she hurried on to answer my unspoken question. “Well, you see—he didn’t exactly—okay, he didn’t tell me. I figured he knew and that you wouldn’t ask questions if was the one who told me—I know because—so the thing is—I’m not sure how to—” She broke off with a sigh, and her gaze dropped to the floor as she shuffled nervously on both feet. In all the years I’d known Maddie—and she’d been at Locke Creek for six years—I’d never seen her look anything but confident and kickass.
Her reaction made my anger fade into curiosity. “How did you know I have a younger brother, Maddie?”
After a quick, deep breath, she squared her shoulders and raised her head, returning to the Maddie I knew. “The thing is, we’ve met. I didn’t put it together until James mentioned that the person he hired for the full-time vet position at Locke Creek was someone you recommended, and I looked over the resume. Kyle only mentioned you once, but…”
I raised an eyebrow at her statement, surprised to hear that Kyle had told someone about me. He was my half-brother. One of my father’s many indiscretions that my mother tried to pretend never happened. Although that was much harder to do when it resulted in a child. Still, my mother was a champion at keeping her head in the sand. And money had a way of covering things up neatly. Until the day I told Helena, no one except my parents and his mother had known about our blood ties.
I found out about him when he was ten and I was fifteen. I went directly to his mother and asked to meet him. Then I’d discreetly stayed in touch with him as the years went by, and though he had a wealth of resentment toward my parents, we had a close relationship.
He’d graduated veterinary school a few years ago, specializing in large animals, and asked me if I knew of any open, full-time positions. I’d offered him my ranch since I’d been considering hiring a full-time onsite vet, but he wanted to earn a job on his own and even asked me not to tell anyone about our relationship. He spent the last few years working as a vet in another part of the state. Except he was based in town and was on-call for multiple ranches. When James and Lia married and combined their land, they brought on a full-time animal doc, who lived at Locke Creek.
Shortly after Maddie was promoted, the woman who held the vet position had become engaged and moved away. I told him about the job opening and promised that while I would get his resume to James and Maddie, I wouldn’t go any further in trying to help him get the job. Which hadn’t been easy because I was damn proud of my brother.
I leaned an arm on the top of the pitchfork and crossed one ankle over the other as I studied her. “Is he not qualified, in your opinion?” I asked, genuinely curious about her requirements. I would understand if he wasn’t, but James and I had talked over their candidate pool, and on paper, Kyle was at the top of the running. And since James didn’t know about our connection, it wasn’t as though anyone could claim nepotism when he was given the job.
Maddie ran her hands through her wild curly red hair and blew out a harsh breath. “No, that’s not it. It’s just that we didn’t exactly part on great terms, and I don’t know if he’ll even want to work with me. I wanted to talk to you about it because we have a strong relationship between our two ranches, and I don’t want to upset you if things don’t work out with your brother and—”
“Maddie!” I interrupted her rambling to make some sense of what she was saying. “Hold up.”
She bit her lip and looked at me with a mixture of defiant confidence and nervousness.
“Look, Locke Creek is your ranch. It doesn’t matter what I want or would like. If it turns out that it’s not a good fit, I wouldn’t expect you to keep working with him simply because he’s my brother. And Kyle would tell you the exact same thing. He didn’t even want anyone to know about our relationship.”
“Oh.”
I shook my head and chuckled. “You’re usually more of the strong, silent type. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk this much in one meeting before.”
She rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Don’t get used to it.” She grimaced. “Some people just bring out the worst in us.”
Again, my eyebrow shot up, no less curious about what the fuck had happened between her and my brother.
“So, we’re okay?” she clarified.
I nodded. “Of course.”
“Thanks.”
And just like that, the strong, silent, confident Maddie was back. But as I watched her walk away, I mused on the fact that it seemed to be a mask. Kyle tended to wear armor like that. Never letting anything or anyone get beyond to the real, genuine guy I loved so much.
Well, if she did end up hiring Kyle, it was bound to be interesting. Or entertaining, at the very least.
The horse in the next stall whinnied, and it broke me out of my thoughts, drawing my attention back to my previous task.
That’s when I remembered my current predicament and decided that I was going to win this little bet with my wife. Except, there was a difference between earning the win and having it handed to me. By the time the night was over, I was determined that Helena would be offering me the win on a silver platter. Or whatever the closest hard surface to fuck on was.
Helena
“Lia!” I hissed into the phone. “Y
ou have to help me!”
My best friend couldn’t stop laughing long enough to respond, so I hung up and stomped my foot like a petulant child.
When Stone had arrived home, he’d walked in the back door dripping with sweat, his shirt practically painted over his muscular chest and his jeans molded to his strong thighs.
“Hey, baby,” he’d said, sending me a sweet smile as he walked by. I waited until he was out of the kitchen to groan. Those loving glances were just as potent as the hot, smoldering ones.
I glared down at my throbbing pussy. Well, in that direction, since I couldn’t see it over the baby bump. “Stop being such a hussy!” I whispered desperately.
I had hoped to get Lia and James to bring their family over for dinner, so it wasn’t just Stone and me. However, through her uncontrollable laughter, Lia made it pretty clear that I was on my own with this one.
So much for solidarity and sisterhood and all that crap.
I’d spent the day prepping legal documents for our ranch, as well as Locke Creek and Red Hill, so I tried to calm my body by focusing on putting everything away. Then I wandered into the kitchen to start dinner.
Strong arms surrounded me as a delicious, woodsy scent filled up my lungs. Stone’s hands came to rest on my belly, and he buried his face in my neck, drawing in a deep breath. My hair was piled on top of my head, leaving the sensitive skin exposed. When I felt several soft kisses, a shiver races down my spine. “How are my girls doing?” he asked.
“Great. Just great…” I breathed. My heart rate had picked up, and I squeezed my eyes shut, willing it to calm down.
“How about I cook tonight?” he offered with another series of light kisses.
Butterflies fluttered in my stomach while zaps of electricity flew from his lips straight to my clit. I flattened my lips and swallowed a moan. With a nod and a muttered, “That would be fantastic. Thanks,” I forced myself to step out of his arms.
Stone let me go, and I turned to watch him walk over to the refrigerator. I sucked in a sharp breath and almost screamed in frustration when I saw what he was wearing. Or rather…wasn’t wearing.
He was shirtless, showing off his hard muscles and tan skin. The small amount of dark hair on his chest tapered down and disappeared below the open button on his jeans. Even his bare feet made my mouth water.
It wasn’t like I could get mad at him for trying to entice me, since this was a pretty common state of dress for him when he was home. Still… “I thought you wanted to support me and help me win?”
Stone grinned as he shut the refrigerator door with his hip since his arms were full of food. “Of course, I do, baby.” He set everything down and shrugged with a suspiciously innocent air. “I just figured that since you have so much self-control, you wouldn’t mind if I dressed comfortably.”
I huffed and spun around, stomping out of the kitchen. Once I was around the corner, I leaned against the wall and fanned myself frantically. “You can do this, Helena.” Right at that moment, the baby kicked, and I glared at my stomach. “Whose side are you on?”
“I have some news about Kyle, baby. Stop hiding around the corner and come talk to me while I make dinner,” Stone called out. There was laughter in his tone that made me roll my eyes, but I steeled myself against his sex appeal and shuffled back. Because I wasn’t a coward, not because I was dying to know about his brother.
“Maddie came to see me today. Apparently, she knows Kyle. And that we are brothers.”
“Shut the front door.” My brow rose to my hairline as I scrambled over to a stool at the island and took a seat.
Stone was chopping vegetables, and I studiously ignored the reminder of what those nimble fingers could do to my body.
“She didn’t give me much. Just that she knew him, and he’d mentioned me once.”
“Did she know it was Kyle when James hired him?”
Stone nodded as he gathered up the cut veggies and threw them in a pot. “Seems like it. However, she wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t cause a problem between our ranches if things didn’t work out. She said they didn’t part on great terms.”
Well, this was just getting more and more interesting. “Part? What does that mean?”
“That’s all she said.” He busied himself at the stove, and I waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, I realized he thought the conversation was finished.
“Seriously, babe?” I grumbled. “There wasn’t anything else? She didn’t imply anything? Did they date? Who broke it off?”
“How the hell would I know?” Stone responded with a snort. He looked back at me over his shoulder and winked. “I have my hands full trying to understand my wife. I don’t have any interest in trying to figure out any other women.”
“Fair enough,” I said with a grin. “But just so you know, you are, like, the worst gossip ever.”
“Yeah, but I make up for it in other ways.” His smile turned wicked, and I squeezed my legs shut, trying to relieve the ache that had taken up residence there once again.
It was ridiculous that simply watching him work in the kitchen was turning me on so much. Then he filled two glasses with water and set one in front of me before chugging down the other. His head dropped back as he swallowed, causing his Adam’s apple to bob. Had that always been sexy?
A groan escaped my lips when he pulled the glass away, and a tiny droplet of water slid down his jaw and dripped onto his chest. Stone raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment as he set his cup in the sink and went back to the stove.
After stirring whatever was simmering there, he padded over to the cupboards nearest me and opened one. Whatever he wanted was on the top shelf because he stretched his hand up to root around. This drew my attention to the widened gap where his pants were unbuttoned. Since my husband was almost always at least semi-hard in my presence, which I usually appreciated but cursed at the moment, I could see the end of his happy trail where it met the black curls surrounding his dick.
The T-shirt I was wearing felt like sandpaper on my skin. My bra was chafing my hard nipples, and if my panties became any wetter, they would probably disintegrate.
He retrieved the item he was looking for and pivoted to face the other direction.
I dropped my head to the counter and groaned when I got a great view of the top of his tight ass before he pulled his jeans up.
“Anything I can help you with, baby?” Stone asked.
I jumped when I heard his voice right in my ear. I hadn’t realized he’d come around the counter to stand behind me. His hands came to rest on my shoulders, and he slowly started kneading the knots that had taken up residence. I moaned and leaned back but shot straight up when I felt his hard cock in press into my back.
“Dinner will be ready in an hour,” he whispered in my ear, making me whimper from the feel of his hot breath teasing the sensitive flesh. “Why don’t you go take a bath?”
I jumped out of my seat so fast that I almost fell over, and Stone pulled me into my arms to keep me upright. Which pressed my aching breasts into his muscular chest and his shaft into my protruding stomach. “Careful, baby.”
With a jerky nod, I beat a hasty path out of the kitchen and down the hall to our bedroom. I drew a warm bath and had just stripped and sunk down in the water when Stone entered the room.
“Do you need any help?” His tone and question were innocuous, but the way his heated brown eyes devoured my naked body had me sending up a desperate plea for strength.
I shook my head and uttered a shaky, “No, thank you.” Then I closed my eyes and laid my head back, attempting to block out everything but the relaxing bath.
Stone cleared his throat and rasped, “I’d join you, but I don’t want to make things any…harder than they already are.” If my eyes had been open, I would have narrowed them in irritation. We both knew that pause was intentional. Because now, all I could think about were the “hard” parts on both our bodies.
I took several deep breaths and ignored the chuc
kle he tried to hide. Eventually, I heard his feet move toward the door before it shut with a soft snick.
My eyes sprang open so I wouldn’t keep seeing all the dirty images that had formed in my mind. It didn’t help much though.
Ugh. I was weak, and I knew it. Why was I torturing myself when I could just admit it and get what I really wanted?
I nodded to myself, happy with my decision to forget the whole stupid bet. Until a new thought occurred to me and a smirk formed on my lips. If I was gonna give in, I was going to torture Stone a little bit first. Turn about being fair play and all…
It would be too easy to slip getting out of the bath, so I always had Stone assist me. Which was a perfect way to start driving my husband crazy. “Stone!” I shouted. He was there a minute later, and I held out my hand for him to help me stand. His eyes were glued to my body as the water sluiced over it.
I stepped out, and once I was stable on my feet, he lifted a towel off the rack and began to wrap it around me. Smiling brightly, I snatched it from his hands and began to dry myself, making sure to leave as much skin uncovered as possible.
Stone shifted from foot to foot a few times but didn’t speak. When I was dry, he took the towel and hung it back up before taking my robe from the back of the door and holding it open for me.
I waved him off. “Thanks, but my clothes are really bothering me right now. Mind if I spend the evening naked?”
His brow furrowed, and he eyed me calculatingly. “Naked, huh?”
I maintained my smile and started to march past him but only made it a couple of steps when I found myself trapped in his strong arms. His naked skin felt hot against mine, and electricity skated over every nerve ending.
Stone
“Are you giving up the game, baby?” I breathed. My hands had been folded on Helena’s stomach, but now I glided them up to cup her full tits. I’d caught onto her game pretty quickly. It seemed my horny little wife was ready to admit her defeat.
Ride a Rancher: Rancher Only Series Page 8
