“One chair,” she said. “So no dinners for two?”
“Not quite,” he muttered, “You hungry?”
His back was to her as he wiped his hands against his jeans and slowly turned around to face her. His dark attire, his darker hair glowed under the flames, and Skye slid closer to the edge of the couch as she stared at her hands. She noted that one nail had broken clean off when she had struggled with the men. Somehow the rest remained intact. But the pain in her jaw was not so easily brushed aside.
“You got any ice?” she asked.
Ben seemed relieved to have another task to perform, and she saw him kneel before a small freezer. Pulling out a full tray of ice, he dumped the entirety of the contents onto a checkered cloth, and he moved back to her side as he let the coolness seep into her skin.
“How’s that?” he asked. “Feel better?”
She nodded without words, and her fingers trailed up his arm, her touch mingling with the cloth and the cold as she peered into his eyes.
“But why did you come back?” she asked. “What more was there to say?”
“Oh, Skye…”
His voice trailed off, and Skye nearly bit down on her lip when the pain brought a pause to the move. She simply sucked in a deep breath as he tenderly stroked both sides of her face. The ice melted into a memory as he bathed her cheeks with soft kisses, and when he finally cupped her chin and rested his brow to hers, Skye could focus on nothing but his sweet breath swirling around his eyes and the promise of whatever he might say next.
“You held your own today,” he started. “Worked the land with the rest of them.”
“Told you that I could,” she said. “So maybe seeing is believing.”
“And then some, Skye.”
“Thought you were off to the race,” she challenged.
“I had an eye on you,” he said. “How could I not?”
He leaned forward, softly kissing her as the feel of his fingers made even her bruises a memory, and Skye let her face move around his hold as he fell to her ear, his whisper drizzling around her brain when he pushed back and centered his hands on her shoulders.
“Under any other circumstances I bet you wouldn’t have needed me.”
“Yes,” she said. “But… but that doesn’t mean that I would want…”
Skye moved to kiss him again when he pushed his fingers under her chin.
“What do you want?” he asked.
He sat at her side and wrapped her into his embrace, his mouth moving through her hair as he reached under her shirt. Skye’s skin cringed for all of a second, but as his fingers played into her skin and brought forth the music of her sighs from the pit of her soul, Skye pushed forward, nearly falling into his arms when he held her back and clutched her shoulders.
“It is something else, Skye,” he said. “So are you into it?”
She waited without speaking as Ben eased her shirt from her body. As soon as her breasts felt the air, Skye shuddered, and Ben was quick to gather her into his arms. She rested in his hold and moaned at the feel of his hands running up and down her back. Every time his hands came close to her waist, he seemed to hesitate, and for a few passes, Skye did nothing more than rock into his reluctance. Better to wait and make the moment last. But when she finally kicked off her boots and winded her legs around his, there was no more time that she wanted to waste, and Skye pushed closer to his chest. She tore his tee away and let her hands run along the lines of his muscles, his tan.
“Looks like lots of long hours in the sun,” she said.
“More than I can count,” he confessed. “But it’s nothing. I like the work. I like to fall asleep because I got the job done.”
Skye smiled softly as she eased her hand down his jeans, and as soon as her fingers surrounded his firmness, she absorbed his groan and kissed her way up his neck. Skye nearly forgot his pulse when she looked into his eyes, nuzzling his nose as she breathed into his lips.
“Can you forget the job for tonight?” she asked. “I… I don’t think that I want to be alone.”
Ben nodded, and again she was up and in his arms. He kicked open another door, and she smiled as he laid her out on a stiff mattress as he looked down at her.
“I should have stuck around,” he said. “I know those guys. Shouldn’t have let you alone to face them down.”
“I would have found a way out,” she said. “One way or the other.”
“It’s the other way that scares me,” he said as he slipped to her side and fondled her face. “Last thing I would have wanted was to come back at dawn to see you even more banged up. Or worse.”
Skye started to protest when the pain running under her mouth flared up again. She couldn’t help but cringe when he touched his fingers to her jaw.
“Is it worse?” he asked, his voice just cracking around his words. Ben found her fingers, and he held her hand tight as he kissed her hair and finally settled his stare in her eyes.
“It… it could have been,” she said. “Creeps like that only want one thing.”
“And what do you want, Ben?”
He tightened his lips and kept brushing his hands through her hair to the point where he untied her braid. Skye’s golden strands fell through his fingers, and he moved to claim her kiss when she pushed her palms into his arms, and she centered her stare into his eyes.
“What do you want?” she repeated. “You said that I wasn’t cut out for this.”
“And then I took it back,” he reminded her. “Skye, you could run a ranch with one arm tied behind your back.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” she said. “Don’t really want to go it alone.”
“But I still never should have left you.”
Ben lightly kissed her hair as he pulled off her jeans, and he smiled when he saw all of her ready and waiting under his eyes.
“Can you make the same move now?” she asked, teased. Ben swiftly followed suit, and the dark denim left his well-toned thighs followed by his briefs. Pressing his nude body next to hers, Ben spooned her, kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her hair, and when he came to a stop to meet her gaze again, Skye suckled his finger and listened to his moan.
“I’ll make any move that keeps me close,” he said. “To you. With you. Just… just you.”
“And why me?” she asked. “What makes me so special?”
“Like you have to ask.”
Ben rolled to his back, keeping her close to his chest as he kept kissing her. His moans reverberated under her skin, and she started to touch his back when she drew back and let her hands fall down his face.
“But I do,” she whispered. “You were ready to make like them and run me off the---”
“Not like them,” he insisted as he shifted on top of her again. Under his hold, she was a kind of trapped, but Skye sensed that it was different from the stall. If she wanted to, she could kick away and run.
But she didn’t want that.
“Not like them,” she said. “But you still didn’t answer my question.”
Ben fell to her side, pushing her closer as he pulsed inside her. Skye groaned as his moves rocked her core, and she started to dig her nails into his chest when she blanched back and stared into his eyes.
“Tell me,” she pleaded. “Why---?”
“Because a real man wants a real woman if he’s ever going to set his own stake.”
Just what was he saying? Breaking free and trying to rival Powell even as the dirt lingered under his nails. No way that he could make that work. But just the idea that he had wrapped her up in the space of his dream made him… made her…
“Show me a real man,” she said. “Show me you.”
Ben smiled as he pressed her deeper into the bed. She spread her legs as he grew larger inside her, and she lifted her hips to meet his thrust when the dam broke. He was pulsing around her essence, and Skye clung to his broad back, her lips smacking into his arms as Ben’s hold tightened. There was no pain in his thrust, and Skye clawed at hi
s skin when he grabbed her face, minding her bruises as his body lingered on the precipice of release.
But before that could or would happen…
“And if I ask you to come with,” he started. “Will you?”
Skye nodded to feel him flowing through her, and as soon as her body buckled she wanted nothing more than to follow. But why should she want to run when he was so near, so firm and sweet in the span of a single breath? Skye stroked his skin, and as soon as she found his lips, she smiled into his eyes.
“I think it’s supposed to be me,” she said. “And let’s not let anything else get in our way.”
“Skye, I…”
He held her close, kissing her hair as Skye drifted into a dream of nothing but more of him.
Chapter 5
Skye woke slowly, feeling no soreness as she reached across the pillow in search of Ben, wanting nothing more than to pull him close and kiss him. His touch still burned across her fingers, and she smiled at the thought of feeling him again, his hands, his lips, his…
“Ben?”
As soon as she realized his absence, Skye shot up straight, her eyes darting wildly around the small room as she looked in every direction. Calling out for him again, she leapt away from the bed, pulling her muddied clothes over her body as she raced away from the bedroom. Hoping that she would see him fixing coffee or breakfast or both, the room took on the feeling of a tomb, cold and dark and hopeless. Would he… how could he just take off without so much as a goodbye after all that they had shared?
She fixed her gaze on a slim sheet of paper tacked up just beside the door, and she hurried towards it. Tearing it away from the frame with trembling hands, Skye swallowed hard and read the scrawl, stunned by the steadiness of the hand that had to have set the words to the page.
Had fun. Heading out of Dodge for a while. Less we say about this when I make my way back the better.
And just like that, the bottom dropped out from under her. Thinking that it would have hurt less had she submitted to Lewis or Charlie, Skye slid down the wall and crumpled the note practically ordering to make her walk of shame back to the ranch on foot before tossing it away as far as she could throw. How could she have been so blind? Getting the job was enough of a hurdle in and of itself. And now she would have to wait on pins and needles for his return. No more helping hand. Unless he had an itch and wanted the scratch of her nails. And the rest of her. Beating herself up in her mind for blowing her shot before it even got started, Skye gritted her teeth and headed out into the early morning air. She wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve and wondered what her next move should be when the force of a heavy gallop hit the ground. Stopping where she stood, Skye clenched her fists at her side as a golden figure astride a dark horse came into view.
“Aaron…?”
The boy smiled brightly as soon as he saw her, and Skye was on the verge of returning his grin when she thought of how if he had just stayed in the first place…
“So what was that yesterday?” she asked. “Hot date or something that like just couldn’t be put off for another second?”
“And who told you that?” he asked, looking down at her with warm eyes as he lowered his hand to touch a single strand of her rumpled hair. Backing away from him, knowing that she had to reek of Ben’s scent, Skye stuffed her hands into her pockets and waited for him to call her out for fraternizing with the other hired help when he dismounted and lightly took her hand in his.
“Doesn’t matter,” Aaron continued. “Call it a dickhead move if you want to. Had to deal with some stuff with my dad.”
“Some stuff?” she asked. “Now that sounds ominous.”
“Just the story of my life,” he said. “Old man snaps his fingers, and I come running.”
“And then you’re gone all day?” she asked. “I pity the girl that gets herself mixed up with you.”
Skye started to push away from him when his fingers curled around her wrist, and Aaron twirled her back to his side. His scent was clean, fresh, and he looked as if he hadn’t lost any sleep without her. Point of fact, neither had she. But now she felt as if she wanted to curl into herself and shut her eyes for a good long while.
“You shouldn’t knock it till you try it, Skye,” he said in a soft voice.
He sucked in a deep breath as he caught her hands in his, and Aaron closed his eyes as he started to speak again.
“So I was mildly jealous when I saw you with him,” he whispered. “And then I’m back at the house. Listening to my father rattle off all the ways that you’re a bad call.”
“Your old man might be onto something there,” she said.
“No. Not by a long shot.
Aaron pursed his lips, and she couldn’t help but feel like she was stepping out. Should she kiss him so quickly after Ben and how he had made her feel? But he had already taken off for greener pastures, and she wasn’t the type of girl to endure a kick and stay down. Should she kiss him and see where it might take them? Skye was ready for the feel of his mouth on hers when he surprised her with another chaste kiss to her fingers. Hardly seemed fitting given how she knew she must look, but his eyes suddenly sparkled into and around hers.
“Man knows nothing,” he continued. “And it kind of got me thinking more and more about you.”
“So did you… did you come looking for me?” she asked.
“Did that,” he said. “Sorted Lewis and Charlie out. Rest assured that they’ve been given their marching orders.”
Her soul lightened somewhat at the sound of those words, but for him to come out here at all meant that he had to know how she had spent her night.
“I… maybe I should have waited,” she murmured.
“Ben usually gets what he wants,” Aaron said. “And then he’s off to the races. But you… you already figured that much out. Didn’t you?”
Gulping back a sob, Skye offered no resistance as Aaron folded her into his arms. She hated herself for thinking that they were so much less stronger than Ben’s, but she still let him take her into his embrace as he ran his fingers through her hair and brought his whisper to her ear.
“Don’t feel bad,” he soothed. “Man has no scruples. You’re… you’re well rid of him.”
Unsure if that was true, she somehow managed a smile, her grin growing brighter as he fondled her chin and cocked his head to the side.
“So I guess I’m not about to lose my job,” she teased.
“No way,” he assured her. “As a matter of fact, I think you’re about to get a whole lot luckier.”
Chapter 6
“Aaron, we’re going to be---”
“They’ll wait. Our party after all.”
She had barely slipped into the flowing purple gown, the bodice lined with sequins.
The garment that he had insisted that she wear on their big night.
“Maybe… maybe if we’re quick about it,” she moaned into his neck.
“Pretty sure we can make that happen.”
Flipping her bare body back to the bed, Skye dug her nails into his back as his mouth moved up and down the lines of her legs. His kiss stopped at her knees, and Skye’s back arched as his warm breath swirled against her flesh. The seconds seemed to stretch into hours, and she sighed at his foreplay. Aaron always took his time crawling up the length of her body, and Skye trembled as her body began to shudder. If they could stay like this, her soul screaming for more as she savored his touch, Skye nearly felt certain that she could marry him on this night. End the party with a bang and show his family a thing or two.
“Aaron, I…”
Picking up on what he thought was her cue to move deeper, closer, Aaron pushed her back into the bed, his firm hands lifting her arms over her head. Trapped under his twitch, her legs still parted eagerly to take him, and as soon as he slipped inside her, Skye relished the feel of his hardness. Let him take his time; screw the father that thought his oldest son a fool for taking her in. At least her would-be brothers-in-law were nearly on
board. Well… the little one. But maybe in time, she would have everything that she had ever wanted.
And so much more.
“I love you like this,” Aaron whispered as he started to pump inside her, his tongue lapping at her breasts as she tried to break free. Wanting nothing more than to press her palms into his shoulders, Skye stayed against the sheets as he flooded her veins, groaning against his release as he fell into her neck, kissing quickly towards the chignon already rumpled as he clasped her in his arms and sighed against her skin.
“I love that you're mine,” he said. “So we can show them all.”
Short and sweet. It always was. Which in and of itself was its own problem.
“Aaron? Aaron, look at me.”
He followed her order, and she centered her gaze on his eyes.
“You’ve been so good to me,” she said. “I… I don’t really even know why.”
“Why not?” he asked. “At the end of the day, think it’s gonna be all kinds of fun being engaged to you.”
With that, he helped her to her feet, and as soon as she stepped back into the gown, Aaron zipped her up and smoothed the stray strands of hair against her head.
“Ready to head out?” he asked as he tucked his piece in his pants and straightened his tie. Her mind flashed back to Ben, the lover who had stayed scarce for well over a year. Did he know that she had moved on in the wake of their lost morning after? Did it make him sad? Or was he just relieved that she had turned her attentions elsewhere? Saying that she still didn’t dream of him in the night was a brutal lie. But she took hold of Aaron’s arm with a small sigh.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
The ranch house was awash in activity. Important people from the neighboring counties regarded her cautiously as she moved through the room at Aaron’s side. Powell Senior’s glare morphed into something softer as soon as he saw her, but just as swiftly the kind gaze drifted back into his glass. The man drank deep, and Skye longed to ask him just want he was thinking when Aaron spun her towards the center of the room and snapped his fingers into the air.
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