He changed the angle of his fingers and felt her body free-falling into orgasm. She stilled completely, her thighs quivering around his wrist.
He was already halfway gone over her; there was no way he could survive knowing just how perfect she felt. How could he ever walk away from her, then?
She screamed out her frustration, and he took every grinding punishment she could give him until she finally shuddered to a halt. Her chest heaved, and a fine sheen of sweat slicked her beautiful breasts.
He reached behind her to undo the belt and cradled her when her arms came up around his neck. She rested her cheek against his shoulder and sighed.
Nothing about Kendall was what he expected. She was one of the warmest and most giving people he’d ever been in contact with. Without guile, she was everything he hadn’t known he wanted.
The playful edge they’d started with was as distant as the little town they were headed for.
She sat back on his lap. She brought her hands up to his face, then ran her thumbs over the hollows of his cheeks. “I’m not sure where you went at the end of that, but I just wanted to apologize. You were right. I was in the moment and shouldn’t have demanded that. You were only being safe.”
If only it was because of safe sex. He wasn’t sure he could hand her any more of himself.
He gently pulled her bra forward and snapped it closed in between her breasts. “I knew you’d be mad at yourself after the lust faded.”
She quickly did up the buttons that survived. “Right. Of course.” She climbed off his lap and twisted the denim skirt around and down until she was covered.
Already he wanted to jam it up and lap at her pussy until she screamed again. Until he could drive into her and the ache in his chest dissipated. Instead, he slid behind the wheel and dug for his keys. His belt lay discarded between them, the mangled end of the strap reminding him just how amazing she looked as she came apart in his arms.
The ride back to the ranch was a quiet one. Kendall’s silvery profile was pensive. Their agreement to have a fun road trip was falling by the wayside. The flash of her phone’s screen lit up the interior of the truck.
“Son of a—” She tapped the screen a few times and lifted the phone to her ear. “Bells?”
He tried to listen but got distracted by Kendall’s body language. She curled in on herself, her arms tight across her chest as she leaned forward to listen. Most of her side of the conversation was mumbles and yeses and nos. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t good.
His fingers ached by the end of the ride. As they were pulling up the drive, she finally hung up.
She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. “How much time do you have left on this job?”
He parked and turned to her. “If I push it, I’ll be done by Sunday.”
“I’d appreciate anything you can do to get us on the road by Monday. The hot water heater went, and our usual handyman is working on it, but it might be above his abilities. I’ll need to get a plumber in.” She fiddled with her phone, flashing the screen on and off.
“I’m good with them.”
She looked up. “I can’t ask you—”
“Ask me to what? Work on my house? We’re partners in this now, Kendall. “
“I know, but this isn’t your problem.”
“It is. And even if we need to buy a new one, it won’t be half as expensive if I get one from our wholesaler and do the work myself.”
“We lost two bookings because of it. And now with the holiday…” She tipped her forehead against the glass. “I just need to get back.”
“What will your mom do until you get home?”
“Bells will take care of her.” She opened the door and hopped down.
He did the same and stopped her at the front of the truck. “You’re not alone in this anymore. I don’t know how else to make you understand that.”
“I’m not used to having someone to rely on.”
“Not even your mother?”
“She…” Kendall flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Let’s just say she’s not good in a crisis.” She laid a hand on his chest. “Are you coming up to the house?”
“No, I’m going back down with the men. I want to get an early start.”
She nodded. “Thanks for listening, Shane.”
He shrugged. “Not a big deal. We were going to have to talk about it sooner or later.”
“Evidently sooner won that bet.”
He tucked her hair behind both ears. “You okay to walk up alone?”
“Just fine.” For the first time, she looked the woman he’d met at the will reading. Her shoulders were stooped a little, and her sassy, sexy walk was missing.
Reality was here to stay, evidently.
Chapter Fourteen
Saturday had come and gone with Oscar in full effect. The crew was exhausted, and Shane was on the knife-edge of surly. Evelyn was at a horse show a few towns over, and Kendall had already done all her chores. There was no way she could ignore her mother’s phone call this time. Especially when it came directly after a text that demanded she answer the phone.
Well, not without a serious case of the guilts.
“Mom, I wanted to tell you earlier.”
“You could have told me before shipments started arriving at the house, Kendall Marie Proctor.”
She winced and dropped onto her butt in the field. Salina was enjoying another mild day. It was hard to remember it was almost Thanksgiving when the temperatures felt more like September. Taking advantage of the dry grass and some alone time, she stretched out and looked up at the painfully blue sky.
How was she supposed to tell her mother that Lawrence Justice had let her down again? She didn’t believe in miracles anymore, but her mother certainly did. She’d wanted to break the news face-to-face, but as usual, she’d had to adapt. Her situation was about to crash headlong into reality in a few days anyway. Had it really only been ten days?
“How’s the hot water heater?”
“Broken. Now stop stalling.”
So she started at the beginning, and her mother stayed quiet as she explained about the co-ownership, that the Justice money was as reliable as the man she knew—minus the sarcasm to spare her mother—and that they’d have another Justice under their roof.
“You mean to tell me that I sent you out to California for an inheritance, and you’re bringing a man home with you instead?”
“Sort of—”
“So you’re not bringing home a strange man that Larry raised as his son? And that same man isn’t coming here to take half of our house?”
“That part is positively true.”
“And you didn’t think this was information I needed to know?”
Kendall shut her eyes and counted to five. She could do this and not incur the wrath of Lily Proctor. Her mother wasn’t exactly calm when it came to change. “I wanted to talk to you, to be able to—”
“No, what you wanted to do was manage me. This isn’t one of those times you can pat me on the top of my head and deal with it yourself.”
“I—”
Her mother cut her off again. “I let you think that you’re running the Heron single-handedly most of the time, Kendall, but I know about every bill, every loan, and every overdue notice we have in our name.”
Shocked, Kendall tried to assimilate that information. How many times had she tried to include her mother in the day-to-day operations of the business? Her mother always waved her away and said she’d take care of the kitchen and the front desk and let Kendall handle the rest.
“You honestly think that the only thing I do is find creative fish recipes and smile pretty at the front door?”
Her mother’s acerbic tone pushed down whatever arguments Kendall was about to bring up. “Of course not.”
“Yes, you do, but that’s all right. You might need to show the world that you can handle everything, but I have a few tricks of my own, Kendall Marie.”
“Obvi
ously we need to have a little chat,” Kendall grumbled.
“I’m your mother, Kendall, not some helpless woman wringing her hands at home. Do you think you could do all those tours and trails if I didn’t have things handled at home?”
Kendall fisted her hands into her hair. Her mother always had such a bright smile on her face, never letting on that she knew just how bad things had gotten. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry.” Lily’s tone gentled. “I’m sorry it took Larry’s death to make that clear to you. Even sorrier that you thought you had to keep this from me. That you didn’t think I was strong enough to hear this.”
Kendall sat up and hugged her knees into her chest when her mother’s voice broke. “No, Mom. That’s not it.”
“It is. I thought I was doing what was best for you, but I was so far off.”
“You did the best you could.”
“I did. And Larry did what he could.”
“He didn’t do anything. You were the one who raised me, loved me.” Kendall’s voice was harsher than she intended, but her mom had nothing to answer for. Plenty of people had it far worse than she did.
“When you get home, we’ll talk about it. I just don’t want you to hold back the bad news anymore. I’m getting tired of playing Sherlock to find everything.”
Kendall laughed. “Did you really go through all our papers?”
“You’re frighteningly organized, sweetheart.”
When she had a bank account like theirs, she had no choice but to be organized. “I don’t know how it’s going to work when Shane and I get there. I’m so afraid he’ll want to sell.”
“We’ll do our best to convince him otherwise.”
“And you’re okay with this?” It had taken days for her to wrap her mind around the fact that she now had a stranger—well, a man who used to be a stranger—in her life and soon to be in her home. And that he legally had as much right to be there as she did. She wasn’t sure she had totally come to terms with it. It was such a nebulous future when they were so far away.
“Larry had a reason for doing this.”
“Yeah, a selfish reason. He screwed up his business, so all he had left was our house to give—” She clutched her knees harder. Forced herself to turn off the anger. When it came to Lawrence, there were only two emotions that made sense to her, and neither would help right now.
“Did you ever think it was a way to make sure his son wasn’t alone?”
“Why would I? He left us alone.”
“No, he didn’t. We had each other. We always had each other.”
Kendall pressed her forehead to her knees and felt a tear roll down her nose and then another. She’d never thought about that part. How could her mother continue to think in such generous terms about Lawrence? Even now?
But if Lawrence hadn’t written the will like he had, she’d never have known what it was like to…what? Be in love? Could it be love in such a short time? Or was it just that fairy dust working overtime with orgasm-blurred edges?
“Does that also mean he has to pay for half the repairs? Because that part would be really helpful. Especially now.”
Kendall couldn’t stop her snorting laugh. “You got the part that he’s coming to us without any money, right?”
Her mother blew out a breath. “Lawrence made everything so much more complicated than it ever needed to be. So now he’s given me two children to take care of.”
Kendall rolled her eyes. Leave it to her mother to slot Shane into a son status. She adopted nearly everyone who came into the B and B. Why should Shane be any different? “Shane’s thirty years old, Mom. I don’t think he’s coming back with me to get nurtured. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”
And that statement settled in her gut like a wet sandbag along the river mouth in flooding season. No matter what happened after they got home, Shane was there because he had no choice.
No matter how she painted it, no matter how she talked up the Heron, in the end he was there because he was trapped. Once he realized just how trapped, he’d be out of there so freaking fast.
God, she didn’t want him to go. Even without seeing him in her space, in her home—now their home—she knew she couldn’t stand to watch him walk away.
“When do you think you’ll be home?”
Kendall blinked back into the conversation. “I’m going to make sure we do everything we can to get in before Thanksgiving.”
“Good. Sully did what he could with the water heater, but it’s pretty well shot.”
“All right. I’ll think of something.” Kendall rubbed her forehead. She’d find the money somewhere; she always did.
“Just come home safe. We’ll figure out the rest of it when the time comes.”
“What if he wants to sell? Or for me to buy him out? I just don’t know if we could pull that off.”
“Don’t put the cart before the horse. Get him here first. Maybe he’ll fall in love with the place just like we did.”
“Maybe.”
A shadow loomed over her, and she peered up to see the man in question standing in front of her. How long had he been there? She shielded her eyes against the glare of the sun. Jeans—so faded and battered there were wear marks in the most amazingly interesting places—hugged whip-lean hips. A plaid shirt fluttered in the light breeze, and a skintight white tank undershirt molded his mouthwatering body.
His face was inscrutable.
Was it any wonder the man twisted her into knots?
“I’ll give you a call from the next town, Mom.”
“Is everything okay, Kendall? Your voice changed.”
Shane crouched in front of her and brushed a tear away with the pad of his thumb. He tucked a hank of her windblown hair around her ear, then kissed her forehead. The tears that had stopped now stung again. She met his gaze, her heart tumbling when the corner of his mouth kicked up into a sweet smile.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. I love you.”
His eyes warmed, and his gaze dropped to her mouth before returning to give her that intent stare that always made her blood run hot and her skin tingle.
“Love you too, sweetie.”
Kendall tucked her phone into her hoodie. “Hey.”
“You all right?”
She nodded. “Just told my mom everything.”
“And?”
“She’s anxious, less pissed off than I thought she’d be, and has a honey-do list long enough to cross the lake. And guess what? It has your name on it.”
He cupped the back of her neck, drawing her out of her tight ball and into his arms. His mouth was gentle and fierce at the same time. She slid her fingers into his hair and used her other hand to grasp his open shirt.
He went down on his knees before her, pulling her flush to him, his fingers splayed across her back. She changed her grip to his shoulders and let herself fall into the sunshine kiss.
She was tired of doing everything alone. Was it so wrong to want someone to lean on? He tore his mouth away from hers and pressed her cheek against his chest. His heartbeat roared under her ear. His fingers tunneled through her hair, massaging her scalp, her name a murmur on the wind.
“I touch you, and I forget myself, woman.”
She grinned into the ribbed cotton over his warm chest. “I like that I make you crazy.”
“You would.”
She pulled away and met his gaze. That flicker of wild was still in his eyes, but it was banked. “I’m assuming you came out here for a reason.”
“I’m doing the final walk-through with Doyle in a few minutes. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.”
“Yeah?” The bands around her chest that had felt so restrictive a little while ago loosened with pleasure. Tomorrow and New York were coming soon enough. For now she’d see just what he could do in a week.
“I pushed the crew hard last night, and we were able to finish up. I’m lucky the tires on my truck aren’t slashed.”
“You definitely earned your title this week.”
“You had to tell them that fucking nickname.”
“I’m sure they only said it behind your back.”
“Not bloody likely.”
She laughed. “Oh, no. Really?”
He lifted a brow. “Really.”
She cupped his face and smoothed her thumbs over his scruffy cheeks. He might have cleaned up the beard a little, but it was still there. “My Oscar.”
His brow gentled from the stern lines of dismay. So fierce, her Oscar. “Do you want to head out tonight?”
“Could we?”
He grasped her hand and pressed a quick kiss to her palm. “We’ll get moving before sunset.”
“Are you sure you won’t be too tired?”
“We’ll drive until I burn out.”
“Okay.”
He pushed back and got to his feet, dragging her up with him. “Let’s go get that bonus check. I damn well deserve it.”
He kept her hand in his as his long legs ate up the golden field. The old stables blurred by, and the mountain view remained her one constant. That and the man who was dragging her off on another adventure.
The new stables came into view. The A-line main structure with the Doyle Ranch brand above the iron and wood doors was impressive. Instead of going with a dark stain, William Doyle had decided to leave the white pine color naked save for a protective varnish. It made everything look softer and cleaner against the severe black wrought iron.
Will stood outside the door, his hat tipped back as he surveyed the building. Shane stopped beside him, the two men silent as they looked over the building. Shane’s shrewd eyes scanned the tidy gravel path. Will, however, had a huge smile on his face.
“I can’t believe you pulled it off. Better than I imagined too.”
“Justice delivers.” Shane’s voice was steady and calm.
Kendall felt a pang in her chest. Maybe this Justice delivered. He would be the first one in her experience.
“Well, let’s go inside and take a look, shall we?”
Shane nodded and waited for Doyle to pull the broad doors open. “There’s a keypad there that was installed this morning as we were finishing up. The steel pins bolt through the top and the bottom of the door to secure the barn. Especially here, with the expensive equipment for your vet.”
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