by Tessa Layne
His feet propelled him onto the dance floor, and when he spotted them, he marched over and tapped Johnny on the shoulder.
“Mind?”
Johnny’s eyes narrowed a fraction, but then he nodded. “Be my guest.” Johnny smiled at Coop and melted away.
Coop stood looking at him, curiosity and suspicion battling in her eyes.
He extended his hand. “I promise I won’t bite.”
“Are you sure?”
He extended his hand, heart thudding like a bass drum. The jukebox changed, and the opening melody of Tim McGraw’s It’s Your Love floated over them as she slipped her hand into his. Electricity zinged up his arm at her touch. She flinched.
Did she feel it too?
The connection between them was still palpable, even after so many years. He pulled her close and began to move in time to the music. “You pick this song?” How many times had they danced to this song?
She shook her head, letting out a small laugh. “Emmaline.”
His stomach sank a little. It was foolish to think that she might still carry a torch for him. He maneuvered them between the other couples on the floor. At first, she followed him stiffly, but by the second chorus she relaxed into him and he tightened his arm around her waist, pulling her flush.
Their thighs brushed as they moved, and awareness surged through him. God, he could get used to this in a hurry. The song ended, but he didn’t let go. Instead he kept moving as the strains of Brad Paisley’s Then came through the speakers.
What was he doing out here on the dance floor with her? Besides playing with fire and begging to get hurt? If she was really water under the bridge, couldn’t they just talk?
Axel cleared his throat. “So tell me, Coop,” he murmured into her ear, catching a whiff of her scent, which was at once surprisingly familiar and deliciously intoxicating. Like roses and sunshine. Funny, she hadn’t changed her perfume in ten years. The realization warmed him. “Last time I saw you, you were tucked up under my arm, sound asleep, and when I woke up, you’d bolted.”
She stiffened and her head snapped back, eyes searching his warily. “Axe, I don’t think–”
He chuckled and smiled bitterly. “No? All right, we can stick to safer topics.” So anything too personal was still off limits for her. Fine. But he wouldn’t let it go indefinitely. He deserved an explanation, even if it wasn’t right now. “Why don’t you start by telling me what you’ve been up to the last ten years?”
She cocked her head, eyes narrowed. “For real?”
“Mhm,” he nodded. “I’m all ears.”
In truth, he was.
“Well, there’s not much to tell, really.” Her soft, husky drawl washed over him, setting his nerve endings alight. “I still live in Norman when I’m not doing field work. I got my Ph.D. in Meteorology a few years back. I was chief meteorologist at the NBC affiliate in Norman until I left to work with CPARC a year ago.”
Admiration swelled through him. “I bet you were great,” Axel grinned down at her. “I’d have watched you every day.”
She blushed and looked away. When she looked back a moment later, her eyes had gone soft. “What about you Axe? You running the show now?”
Bitterness rose in his throat. “Does it look like it? Pops is still the same. I’ve tried to innovate where I can. Gunn’s been good about pushing through some of my suggestions with Pops.
“Are you happy?”
Her question stopped him dead on the dance floor, and dread churned in his belly. Talk about unsafe topics. But hell, maybe he needed to shake things up. Quit following everyone’s rules and start following his own for a change. He took her by the elbow and steered her toward the patio.
“Axe?”
“You still need a driver?”
CHAPTER 5
“You still need a driver?” Axel asked as he led them away from the dance floor. His abrupt change of subject surprised her. They’d been dancing around the heavy questions hanging between them the entire time they’d been on the floor. But then she’d lost herself in those blue, blue eyes, and blurted out the question that had been weighing on her mind the whole time they’d been out there.
Being back in Axe’s arms had been unsettling… and thrilling. All of the feelings she’d buried over the years came crashing back with the force of a microburst. And when their legs had brushed – Oh, Lord have mercy. It was like a direct line to her core. By the time they’d made two turns around the floor, her panties were soaked.
And she liked the scruff. Itched to run her palm against his whiskers. The added ginger made his bright blue eyes stand out, and gave him the look of an old-timey western hero. The whole Axel package made her quite melty – something she’d need to remember if she was going to successfully avoid him and keep things strictly professional over the next two months. Forte didn’t seem like the type who would turn a blind eye to fraternization, and this promotion meant too much to her to mess it up.
“You still need a driver?” he repeated when she didn’t answer and they’d burst onto the quiet of the patio.
Haley nodded slowly, anticipation fluttering in her chest. “You interested?”
“Maybe.”
“The pay is good, but you’ll have to agree to my terms.” Terms? What terms? She barely recognized her voice. The way it sounded almost eager. She shouldn’t want this, want to spend more time with him. But she did. She couldn’t help it. He was too sweet. Too charming to resist. And her body responded to him like they’d never been apart.
They were alone out here. White lights strung across the trellis that covered the cement gave a festive air to the enclosure. If she was smart, she’d go look for Millie and Emmaline right now and stop this dangerous line of thinking. Her blood buzzed in her ears, making it hard to concentrate on anything except how delicious his chest looked, stretching the fabric of his plaid button-down. She glanced around and shivered, sensing electricity sparking between them.
He must have felt it too because he abruptly changed the subject. “Why’d you go?” he rasped.
The pain in his voice washed over her and tangled with her own. She risked a glance up and encountered eyes raw with pain. His expression burned a hole straight to her soul.
“I couldn’t be what you wanted,” she whispered, barely able to speak for the tightness in her throat.
“You were everything I wanted.” His voice was rough with emotion.
Her heart squeezed all the breath out of her lungs. She alone was responsible for that horrible light in his eyes. She’d loved him, but she thought… she thought…
She’d been so wrong.
“I couldn’t stay,” she choked the words out and broke his gaze, studying a dark spot on the cement. How could he have loved her so much that she’d hurt him so deeply? Nobody loved her. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to reconcile her mishmash of memories with the evidence of the pain she’d caused.
He tilted her chin up, forcing her eyes to his again. A wave of emotion swelled and stuck in her throat, pricking her eyelids with tears. “I- I’m sorry, Axe,” she uttered thickly, her tongue feeling fat and slow. “I never wanted to hurt you. I thought… I thought…”
Thought what? That he’d get over her? That he’d move on? That he didn’t really love her anyway? The thought sliced through her painfully. Yeah, that one.
“Funny way of showing it,” he answered roughly.
“It- it was… for the best,” she whispered, desperately trying to keep the tears at bay. She would not cry. She would not.
“For who?” he challenged. “Not for me.” His eyes lasered into her. “And I think not for you either.”
His thumb swept across her mouth in the softest of caresses, setting her heart beating in double-time. He was close enough she could feel the heat coming off him in waves and she reached for his arm to steady herself. She’d always had a thing for his arms, the way they were like granite under her palm. Her body vibrated from the contact, and her nipples contracted with expe
ctation as the air between them electrified.
“Axe…”
“Coop…”
He dipped his head, and her eyes fluttered shut as he lightly brushed her mouth with his. His whiskers scraped against her, lighting the nerve endings and setting off cascades of ripples. Her clit throbbed as wildly as the rest of her and she tightened her grip on his arm.
He brushed her mouth again, and she sighed as tears of longing and regret pricked her eyes again.
How long had she ached for his touch? How many times had she told herself that he hadn’t really cared in a pathetic effort to make herself get over him and move on with her life? But it had all been a lie.
She’d walked away from the best thing that had ever happened to her.
He groaned and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close and deepening their kiss, sweeping his tongue across her lip. With a sigh, she opened and slid her tongue against his, a counterpoint to his exploration. When his hands slid to cup her ass, she pressed against him and wound her hands around his neck, tangling her fingers in the hair that hung just below his collar.
He’d always kept his hair short back then. This wilder, untamed Axel was pushing all the right buttons. He made a noise in the back of his throat and pulled away, leaning his forehead against hers as her breathing slowly returned to normal.
“This is a bad idea, Axe.”
He gave her a squeeze. “Like hell it is.”
She pushed back from him, concern momentarily overriding her body’s desire for more kisses. “I have a rule about mixing business and pleasure.”
“I promise never to kiss you in that contraption you call a car.” His hands slid up her back, caressing in tiny circles.
“Axe…” her voice trailed off as he nuzzled her neck. His mouth set her skin on fire as he swept it over her collarbone, whiskers leaving a trail of heat in their wake.
“We’re not in your car,” he murmured into her neck, sending another cascade of sizzles straight to her pussy.
“I… You know what I mean,” she panted, knees wobbling.
He lifted his head, a fierce light in his eyes. “I’m done playing by other people’s rules, Coop.”
Her breath caught in her throat. So. Damned. Sexy.
This time, when he dipped his head, she was ready. She leaned in with a sigh, giving herself over to the heat rapidly building in her core, and telling him with her mouth everything she couldn’t with words.
I missed you…
I was afraid…
His tongue curled against hers, and he tugged on her hips, pulling her closer. There was no mistaking the rock hard bulge pressing into her. Before she could catch herself, she rolled her hips, a little moan catching in her throat. She wanted just a tiny taste of what she’d missed for so long.
Her nipples ached at the thought of his scruff scraping over them, and her blood seemed to thicken and slow.
Axel made a possessive noise in the back of his throat as he walked her backward into a darkened corner, the kind of noise that made her want to melt into him and throw caution to the wind. She slipped a hand into his back pocket, caressing the hard ass underneath her fingertips. Like most farm boys, young Axe had been buff. But the man in front of her? Rock hard and seasoned. Aged like a fine whiskey and just as smooth with his moves.
His fingers slid under her top, lightly caressing the sensitive skin just above the band of her jeans. Holy smokes, did he know how to push her buttons. She responded in kind, leaning back into the wall he’d braced himself against, pulling him closer. She wanted to feel the hard length of him against her, pressing into her.
“God, Coop. I’ve missed this,” he muttered, dropping kisses along her jaw, tongue flicking at a sweet spot on her ear that zipped electricity straight to her nipples. “Missed your mouth on me.”
His words brought to life a visual that melted her insides. She wanted to lick him up. Taste every inch of his hard planes and ridges until she didn’t know where he stopped and she began. She ran her hands up the wide expanse of muscled back, pulling at him, and turning her head to capture his mouth again. She flicked her tongue across his lip, teasing until he devoured her, his tongue stroking possessively into her mouth, swirling her brain cells into a lightning storm of dizzying sensation.
When his thumb stroked across the fabric of her bra, catching on her tightened nipple, a hot ache shot through her, twisting around her clit and pulling hard. She gasped at the intensity. All it would take was his hand between her legs and she could ride straight to oblivion. She was practically there already.
The realization acted like an ice bath. What was she doing, letting Axel bring her to a climax on the patio of the Trading Post? He always knew how to make her melt. Ten years hadn’t changed that at all.
She broke away, breathless, and full of regret. She couldn’t lead him on this way. It wasn’t right. No matter how much she enjoyed kissing him. “I mean it, Axe… I-I’m here to do a job.” She glanced away, unable to look at him. His eyes were too intense, too full of light. “I don’t think this–” she waved between them, “is smart.”
“To hell with smart,” he growled.
“Axel, please. We have to let this go.” Her stomach dropped to her toes. She hated saying that. Hated the way his face tightened as her words sank in. It felt all wrong.
He scrubbed a hand over that beautiful scruff and nodded. “Fine, no kissing. I’ll agree to your… terms.” His voice was full of chagrin. But then he gave her a mischievous smile. “But you didn’t say no flirting.”
CHAPTER 6
Axel whistled as he walked down the path from the stables toward Steele Creek and the cluster of tree houses that stood along the Sinclaire side of the river. He hadn’t felt this alive in years, and it was all Coop. She might be all business at the moment, but just being around her was… exhilarating.
Maybe informing her that he intended to flirt with her had been a stupid move on his part, but the second they’d kissed, all bets were off. He wanted more of that. Lots more. Even if it meant he’d get burned down the road. At the moment, he didn’t care. And he was fairly certain his feeling wasn’t one-sided. The way she blushed when he caught her staring was confirmation of that. And the look she’d given him pulled tight in his gut. He’d brushed her hair out of her eyes once, and the jolt of awareness set him buzzing.
Being close to her every day and not being able to pull her into his arms and steal a kiss or nuzzle that sensitive spot under her ear, like he’d always done, was an exquisite form of torture. But at least she laughed at his jokes. Satisfaction filled him as the sound of her laughter filled his mind. He could still make her laugh. That meant something too, didn’t it? The attraction still sizzled between them. The feel of her mouth on his still sent ripples of desire through him a week later.
He approached the creek and paused, looking for a crossing. He needed to talk to Ben about building a crossing. With his interns staying in the tree houses, they needed to have better access than a bunch of slippery rocks, which were currently covered by winter runoff. At least he’d worn his shit kickers. Anything nicer would get ruined. He stepped tentatively into the stream and then onto the tip of the first rock that stood up.
“C’mon. What are you waiting for?” His sister hollered from the opposite side.
“Are you trying to drown me?”
“How come you didn’t ride over, you moron? I only cross by foot when the water’s lower.”
Shit.
Why hadn’t he?
The answer was obvious.
He’d been completely wrapped up imagining all the ways he could get Coop alone. Well, fuck him. He backed out, removed his boots, and rolled up his jeans.
“Better?” he called across.
Hope answered with a laugh. “You’re gonna freeze your nads off, but sure.”
Axel stepped in again. Shit. She wasn’t foolin’. The cold zinged right up his leg. Nothing to do but make the most of it. He crossed, slipping and
sliding, wet up to his thighs by the time he reached the far bank.
“Jesus, Hope. Why didn’t you warn me?”
Her laugh sparkled like sunlight on water. God, it was good to hear her laugh so freely after all she’d been through. Even if it was at his expense. “Hmm… I don’t know… Payback?” She grinned wickedly.
He’d lost count over the years of the pranks she’d endured. He was due for some payback. “So we’re even then?”
“Not by a long shot, brother dear. Not by a long shot. You better be looking over your shoulder because I’m gonna be waiting for you in the tall grass. Just you wait.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “That’ll be the day. You’ve never gotten me.”
She smirked, her eyes flashing with mischief. “Never underestimate a woman on the warpath, Axe. Your time will come.”
“We’ll see about that,” he tossed back. “Now where do you have my interns stashed? I want to talk to them about diversifying ranch income today. Thought I’d have Ben talk to them about making the shift from cattle to bison and then walk them through our paint gun course.”
She nodded her assent. “Good idea. You should have Ben talk to them about eco-tourism too. Our tree houses are already booked up for the fall bird migration.”
Axel had always prided himself on his out-of-the-box thinking when it came to diversifying ranch income, but Ben had him beat. They’d gone through the same agribusiness program at K-State, but Ben could think up and implement new income streams like nobody’s business. It made him glad Hope had married him. No matter what happened, Hope would always land on her feet with Ben at her side.
By lunchtime, the group stood gathered at the Sinclaire paddock discussing the pros and cons of using vehicles or horses on the open range.
“Axe,”
He turned immediately at the sound of Coop’s voice. His breath might have caught somewhere behind his throat, but he wasn’t sure, because his mind went blank. Afternoon sun glinted off the rim of her sunglasses. She was in uniform again, khaki shorts and a polo shirt bearing the CPARC logo. A soft smile lifted the corners of her mouth.
