by Jenny Penn
“I had nothing to do with that!”
“Now I can’t even get electricity in my cabin but if you think that’s—”
“You want electricity? I will get you electricity. I will get you an electric stove, electric heater, dryer. I will even buy you an electric car if you’d just shut up and listen to me.”
“—stop me, you are sadly mistaken.” Lindsay tipped her chin up. “I don’t care how good a fuck you are, I got more self-respect than that.”
“Apparently you don’t.”
Pushed beyond his limit for a second time that afternoon, Cooper jerked Lindsay’s arms behind her back, forcing her to swing forward and straight into his embrace. Pinning her tight against his body, he enjoyed her fresh surge of wiggling. The flush of pleasure that scorched through him brought a growl to his throat and had his voice thickening with a need he knew was mutual.
“That was you beneath me minutes ago, panting, pleading, straining, coming, just as it is your nipples that are hard and puckered, waiting on my kiss, or don’t you think I can feel your response to my touch?”
Cooper smiled as Lindsay gasped over his blunt language. Plastering his free hand across her back, he forced her even closer so he could drag his chest across her tender tips, delighting in the whimper the small caress earned him.
“If you want to argue any of those points, I will be glad to strip you naked and prove that—You. Want. Me.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean I like you,” Lindsay whispered back, the strain in her voice giving testament to her internal struggle and adding weight to her words. “It just means I’ve waited too long to have sex and now any hard dick will do.”
Cooper felt his ears go hot as the meaning behind her words hit him. “What do you mean you waited too long? What’s too long? A whole lifetime or just a few months?”
Lindsay froze at those questions, the shock that flashed through her eyes belied the denial that snapped from her lips. “And what business of that is yours? Maybe it was just a few days. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you put me down. Now!”
She was a virgin. That revelation hit Cooper like a two-ton Mack truck, knocking the air clean out of him. A virgin! And he was going to be her first. That wasn’t a position to be taken lightly. First set the stage for everything that came next. He could train her to be a perfect fuck.
He would train her, but first Cooper needed to settle things with Nick. It was time to make a few things clear to his baby brother. Then he’d have to have some words with his friends. He couldn’t very well keep his pet in a house that didn’t have electricity.
Of course he could always keep her up at the ranch. She’d be more convenient to him there. Those details could be worked out later, preferably when he had her purring with satisfaction. Cooper bet he’d be able to get her to agree to just about anything then.
Then wasn’t now and he had other things to take care of. Reluctantly he set Lindsay back down on her feet and released her. She stumbled backward, glaring up at him, but her scowl couldn’t hide the awareness in her eyes. She might be agitated but Lindsay was also aroused.
“You can go ahead and hide for now.” Cooper smiled, feeling indulgent now that he knew he’d be her first. “But trust me, lil’ bit, this conversation isn’t over.”
Chapter 9
Sally shook some flour out across the counter and turned to pull the cinnamon bun dough out of the refrigerator. She’d spent most of the morning working on it. It was a labor of love, not that she held any great attachment for the dough itself but she did for the men who appreciated the effort she’d put in to making them the buns.
“Hey, Sally.” Thomas called as he pushed in through the back door. He paused to wipe his feet before sauntering into the kitchen. Casting a quick glance around the room, he shot her a hopeful smile as he came around the edge of the counter. “Anybody around?”
“Andrew’s upstairs getting a shower,” she warned him as she set down her baking sheet.
Turning to greet him properly, Sally lifted her lips for his kiss. What started out as a chaste greeting spun rapidly out of control. In seconds they were grasping at each other, shifting until Thomas had her pinned against the counter, his hand sliding straight up and under Sally’s skirt. He caught her knee, bending it up over his hip as his fingers left a tantalizing trail of shivers down the inside of her thigh.
“Where is he?!”
In a guilty rush they broke apart as Nicholas stormed into the kitchen roaring like a man ready to kill. He barely spared them a glance as Sally shoved Thomas back, alarmed by both Nicholas’s entrance as well as what he might have seen. If he caught the show, though, it didn’t register. Like a rampaging bull, her nephew remained focused on his one goal.
“Cooper! Cooper, get your slimy, punk ass down here now!”
Bellowing out that demand, he didn’t wait for Andrew to comply or even bother to ask if his brother was there before he went charging up the stairs. Sally watched him disappear, cringing at some of the words coming from Nicholas’s mouth.
Whatever had him riled up, it had to be something big. Something she bet Thomas knew a thing or two about. Lifting a brow in his direction, she waited for an explanation but he left her unasked question unanswered as he settled down on one of the island stools. Instead, he offered her a smile, managing to completely ignore the battle raging overhead.
“Have I told you how pretty you are today?”
“There you are!”
“You tell me every morning of every day,” Sally reminded him but wasn’t able to match his level of nonchalance. Without meaning to, she glanced toward the ceiling as Cooper’s voice rumbled through the floor.
“Yeah? What of it?”
“Well, shame on me.” Thomas sighed and shook his head. “I should tell you twice a day because you only grow more beautiful with every passing second.”
“You stupid son of a bitch, did you think I wouldn’t hear about what you did to Lindsay?”
“Is he talking about Lindsay Bryne?” Sally couldn’t do it, couldn’t stand there and play some silly game just because Thomas didn’t want to tell her the ugly truth, as if she hadn’t already started to figure it out.
“What I did to her? I did? All I did was make her come so hard her eyes damn near rolled back in her head. What about what you did? What about that stupid fire? You remember the one spewing out toxic fumes! What the hell were you thinking? Or were you trying to get her killed?”
“Does that answer your question?” Thomas asked without skipping a beat.
He lost his cavalier attitude along with his smirk when something heavy and hard crashed into the floor above. Sally didn’t need X-ray vision to know her nephews’ argument had just escalated into a full-on fight.
“Shit!”
Muttering that he was too old to be dealing with this kind of stuff anymore, Thomas headed toward the steps with a purposeful stride. Sally watched him go, smiling over his grumbles. As much as Thomas might like to complain, he’d long been more than just the foreman on the ranch. He’d been like a brother to Andrew’s father, and been Sally’s husband’s best friend.
Her beloved Jim might have passed away three years ago, but it still felt too soon to admit how much she’d come to care for his closest friend. A part of her felt guilty for having moved on, ashamed for no longer aching over him every second of the day. It didn’t help that Jim had always warned the ladies that Thomas didn’t play nice. That was putting it mildly.
God but Sally prayed that Jim couldn’t see the things she’d let Thomas do, things that Jim never would have dared to tried. Just the memories had her flushing hot as she busied herself in a vain attempt to forget. This was not the time for those kinds of thoughts.
“Let go of me!” Nicholas wrenched his arm free from Thomas’s grip as they came pounding down the steps.
“Then keep moving,” Thomas shot back, using his not inconsiderable girth to push the younger man down the stairs.
Nicholas yielded, turning to stomp downward with a snarl. “I’m going.”
“And you can stay gone until you learn some manners.” Andrew tossed that taunt over Thomas’s shoulders, appearing bruised and a little bloody at the top of the stairs. Nicholas didn’t look much better. His mood certainly wasn’t any more cheerful.
“Yeah? Well, maybe I’ll stay gone.” Pulling up to a stop so suddenly he caused Thomas to ram right into him with Cooper piling on behind, Nicholas turned to taunt his older brother with a dangerous arrogance. “I bet Lindsay would like some company, give me time to teach her how a real man does it.”
Andrew exploded into action. He tried to shove Thomas out of the way in a desperate attempt to reach his brother. Sally’s breath caught as the older man got pinned between her two rampaging nephews, but age hadn’t worn Thomas down. If anything, time had only hardened him, giving him the strength to rebuff Nicholas and send him tumbling down the steps. Gravity probably helped.
Nicholas ended up in a pile of bent limbs at the base of the stairs. Everything went silent as everybody stared at him in horror. Sally didn’t catch a breath until Nicholas muttered an obscenity and rolled to his feet. Fortunately he didn’t appear as if he’d broken anything, but it could have been worse.
It would be, too, if Nicholas and Andrew didn’t stop going after each other. Both men were too well matched in terms of strength and virility. While Nicholas might have some fancy training, Andrew had the reputation. Sally, on the other hand, didn’t have patience.
“Enough!” Storming around the island, she wagged a finger at the three men as she lit into her nephews. “I don’t know what you two are fighting over and I don’t give a damn. Whatever…whoever, isn’t worth killing your brother.”
That earned her two silent glares and one cocksure grin as Thomas tossed her a quick nod. He snapped into action, stomping down the stairs to catch Nick by collar as he picked himself off the floor. Without breaking stride he hustled the younger man right to the back door and out it.
“You heard the lady. You’re upsetting her, so go cool off and don’t come back until you can hold your temper.” With that admonishment, Thomas slammed the door in Nick’s face and turned to strut back into the kitchen. “That leaves you in the hot seat, stud, so you might as well come on down here and face the inquisition.”
“This is stupid,” Andrew muttered even as he came down the last few steps. Hesitating at the bottom, he paused to glance in Sally’s direction. She held his gaze, letting him see her displeasure. Without a word, he shuffled over to a stool and slunk down into it.
Sally let the silence thicken for several long seconds as she dumped her dough onto the counter and pulled out her heavy, wooden rolling pin. Only once she’d vented some of her frustration on the dough did she trust herself enough to speak.
“First, there will be no more physical altercations between you and your brother.” Her hands stilled as she looked up to catch Cooper’s gaze. “Understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cooper begrudgingly grumbled.
“Good.” Satisfied, Sally returned to her dough, though she was far from done with her nephew. “Now tell me, what is going on between you and our new neighbor?”
“Nothing,” Andrew answered way too quickly.
“She’s pretty,” Thomas supplied as he reached out to steal a handful of raisins from the bowl Sally had set up. He started popping them into his mouth as he elaborated. “Despite being Elton’s granddaughter, Lindsay is quite attractive. Then again nobody ever accused Vicky Lynn of being ugly.”
They’d accused her of just about everything else, including trying to pit men against each other. Sally had to wonder if Vicky’s daughter took after her in that department.
“However pretty the girl is, she’s not pretty enough to justify fighting over,” Sally stated pointedly.
“No, but she’s lost enough.” Thomas smirked and shook his head. “I’m afraid both your nephews are rushing to play the knight-in-shining-armor role.”
“I am not.” Andrew corrected him with enough indignation to have his denial sounding false. “I’m simply trying to make nice so I can convince the girl to let our other neighbors and friends have access to her water.”
“Really? You’re just ‘making nice,’ huh?” Thomas lifted a brow at that, casting Andrew a curious look. “And tell me does ‘nice’ include pinning the girl to the ground while you dry hump her? Sorry, Sally.”
“How do you know about that?” Andrew gaped at his foreman, cutting off any kind of response Sally would have made.
“Because Neil and his men saw you. That’s right.” Thomas nodded as Andrew shook his head. “They saw the smokestack and rode over to check on what was going and to their surprise, what did they see? You all over the girl and doing a damn good job of convincing her of your…position after we left you this afternoon.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Andrew snapped, his face flaming with the first blush Sally had seen on him in years.
“Thomas?” Sally turned to offer him a smile. “I think, maybe, Andrew and I ought to have a private conversation.”
“Of course.” Without arguing or hesitating, he deferred to her judgment and rose to his feet. “Just don’t let the boy ruin your rolls. I was looking forward to something sweet tonight.”
The hidden meaning in his words sent a thrill down Sally’s spine, but it dulled as she turned her attention back to her nephew. Andrew held her gaze, waiting until Thomas had closed the door behind himself before jumping to defend himself.
“It isn’t like it sounds.”
“It isn’t?” Sally lifted a brow at that. “Then tell me what is really going on.”
“I’m…interested,” Andrew slowly allowed. “Very interested.”
Sally had good enough ears to hear the frustrated bewilderment in her nephew’s tone and the sense to know what it meant. This could be bad. Very, very bad.
“And Nicholas?”
“I don’t know.” Andrew shrugged. “I guess maybe he is, too.”
“I think that it is obvious that he is,” Sally corrected.
“Okay, fine. He is,” Andrew sulked. “But that doesn’t mean anything. We both know Nicholas isn’t here to stay. Lindsay is.”
Sally felt the last of her irritation wane beneath a rush of empathy for Andrew’s mutinous expression. He was confused and irritated, unable to see the truth before him. He cared about the girl. He was even willing to fight for her. That said it all. Putting aside the rolling pin, she reached out to give Andrew’s hand a little squeeze.
“Listen, honey, believe it or not I understand.”
“You do?” Andrew stared at her in such surprise Sally couldn’t help but snort up a laugh.
“Of course, how do you think I felt when a very handsome fellow by the name Jim Carney stopped by sell my father some feed.” Sally’s gaze shifted from Andrew as she looked back into the past and remembered the rush of excitement that used to fill her whenever Jim came to visit. “He used to sit with me on the porch swing and hold my hand.”
“And gramps didn’t kick his ass for touching his favorite daughter?” Andrew asked, smiling over his own suggestion.
“No, he did not and you don’t use such language in front of a lady,” Sally instructed him. Even if it was pointless to hope, she still refused to give up her belief that one day he’d listen.
“Yes, ma’am,” Andrew responded dutifully but, Sally suspected, not sincerely.
She didn’t bother to nag him but allowed herself the moment to indulge her memories and the warm feelings they invoked. “My point is that Jim knew from the first moment he met me that I belonged with him. It’s because he loved me that he had the respect to take things slowly.”
Patting his hand, Sally left Andrew to think that bit of advice over as she folded her dough only to begin rolling it out again. Unfortunately Andrew’s frown only darkened as he studied her. He didn’t leave Sally wondering what dark thoughts fil
led his head.
“And is that the same advice you’re going to give Nick? To take things slow?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you sound so defensive, Andrew.” Sally didn’t like it. Andrew didn’t appear to care.
“So you’re not going to tell him to stay away from Lindsay,” he persisted.
“No.” Sally folded her dough and slid it back onto the baking sheet, leaving her answer at that. Andrew should know better. She didn’t favor any of her children, any of her nephews and not one of her nieces. She loved them all, equally.
“But I am going to tell him just as I’m telling you. There will be no more fighting. Is that understood?”
“Fine,” Andrew heaved an aggrieved sigh. “I won’t hit him anymore…unless he hits me first.”
* * * *
Nick tried to outrun his anger but it just wouldn’t leave him. No matter how long or hard he ran, this time he couldn’t outrun the demons swirling in his head. For two straight hours he pushed himself until finally his strength was gone even if his worries remained. There was only one cure for the tension gripping him but this time when he stumbled to a stop on top of familiar ridge there was no cheery light welcoming him home.
Instead a half burnt pile of rubbish greeted him. The remnants of the bonfire sat soaking wet in the middle of her yard surrounded by tire tracks. Given the size of the threads and how deep they were cut into the earth, Nick was betting the fire department had shown up. That would certainly explain where the water had come from.
Whoever had put the fire out was long gone, and so was Lindsay. Her truck along with most her stuff had disappeared. Nick started through the doorway into the empty cabin and felt his heart clench. Gone. She couldn’t be gone. He needed to talk to her.
Not certain of what to do but unable to bring himself to simply give up and leave, Nick settled down on her front porch step and waited. Above him the sky faded from light blue all the way to black. The silence of the day took on the low hum of crickets and frogs as the night darkened over the fields. Still, Nick waited.
