by Nika Rhone
It meant she would have much rather have had her first time be with a man who cared about her and her enjoyment than with a selfish butthead like him, but she kept that thought to herself.
“Why are you here, Charles?” She hadn’t meant to sound impatient, but she was exhausted and running on the last fumes of adrenaline his sudden appearance had produced. “Your secret is safe as long as your father keeps his word, so you can continue on with your life just as it was before we ever had the misfortune of meeting. We never have to see one another again.” Preferably ever.
“Now, you see, that’s where you’re wrong. I can’t just go back to my life, and do you want to know why? Because of you and your goddamned big mouth, that’s why.”
“I don’t—”
“My father doesn’t feel that it would be in my best interests to continue trying to get onto the ticket for the next regional election after all. He feels that perhaps I’ve displayed an unfortunate tendency to act precipitously and without giving enough thought to the full ramifications of my choices. So he’s shut my campaign down. He shut it down”—he repeated, his voice taking on the shriller pitch of someone working themselves into a full-blown fit—“and said that maybe, maybe he’ll revisit that decision after enough time has passed to be sure none of my actions will have any far-reaching consequences.”
Meaning the senator wanted to see if the vice-president ended up in the Oval Office after the next election before risking letting his son back into the party’s spotlight, in case any fallout from Charles’s ill-advised choice of bed partners blew back onto him.
“I’m sure that once everything has settled down, you’ll be able to—”
“—pick right up where I left off?” Charles made a derisive noise. “No. Even if I could make a second successful start, which is doubtful, there would always be questions about what happened. And where there are questions, there are people digging up things best left buried. So no, I can’t just pick up and go on as before. Thanks to you. I had it all. I was going to be the next rising star in the party, and ride that wave all the way to the very top. But now it’s slipping through my fingers, because you couldn’t keep your damn mouth shut and do what you were told. You’ve ruined my life, Princess,” he snarled, “and now I’m going to return the favor.”
He moved fast. As he lunged at her, grabbing for her left arm and getting only Daryl’s oversized shirt, she let out a scream of fear, anger, and absolutely furious woman as she swung her arm around to fend him off. Her fist missed him entirely, but the heavy metal thermos she’d forgotten she was still holding by the strap connected solidly with the side of Charles’s head with a dull thud. There was a split-second when the two of them just stared at each other in shocked surprise before Charles’s eyes rolled back into his head and he went down like a sack of dirt.
While she stood over him trying to process what happened, raised voices came from both the barn and the bunkhouse. Within seconds, she was surrounded by men, most of them armed, some only half-dressed, all of them talking at once. It was all an indistinct drone of noise. Her attention was all for the man who stood beside her, staring down at the now groaning man at their feet, looking as though he was about to rip Charles into tiny little pieces but not saying a single word.
The longer Daryl stayed silent, the more nervous Amelia got. Finally, she laid a hand on his arm and felt a small shudder as he seemed to get his emotions under control. He took the thermos from her lax grasp and held it up, exposing the dent that now warped the metal casing.
Trying to play it off as nonchalantly as possible to keep him from losing his cool, Amelia shrugged. “He called me Princess.”
Daryl’s expression remained stony for a moment before that wicked twinkle she loved so much sparked in his eyes. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close as Hank and Chaz yanked a groggy Charles to his feet. Daryl shook his head at Charles, obviously fighting back a laugh but unable to hold back the grin.
“Trust me. Don’t ever call her Princess.”
****
Daryl studied the familiar curves and angles of Amelia’s face on the pillow beside him. Soft with sleep, her mouth was a tempting little rosebud, ripe for kissing. He resisted the urge. Amelia needed her sleep more than he needed to make love to her again. After playing midwife to a horse the night before, followed by the unexpected arrival of her ex and all the excitement surrounding that charming little scene, the few hours of catnaps she’d managed over the course of the day would be nowhere near enough.
His caveman-like need to reassure himself she was all right by having sex with her every time they were near a horizontal surface hadn’t helped either. Not that they’d needed it to be horizontal. The wall had done just fine. And the shower.
So, as much as he might want to kiss those rosy lips until she woke, and bury himself inside of her until the panic subsided again, he resisted. Even if she hadn’t been exhausted, there were other things to take into consideration. She probably wouldn’t admit it, but he had to assume someone who had been a virgin until only three days ago would have to be just a little bit tender by now.
He almost groaned out loud. That night was burned into his memory like a supernova. He’d treasure her gift forever. He hadn’t deserved it, but damned if he could find it in him to regret it for even one second.
Giving in to temptation, he brushed a finger along her soft cheek. A puff of breath escaped through her parted lips as her eyelids fluttered and opened, taking a second to focus before she smiled sleepily at him. “Hi.”
“I didn’t mean to wake you.” Or had he? “Go back to sleep.”
“Is it morning already?”
Almost. “Not yet.”
“Good. I don’t want it to be tomorrow yet.” She snuggled closer and pressed a kiss to his chin. “I don’t ever want it to be tomorrow.”
Because tomorrow meant their time together was over.
The threat of the wedding was past. The senator had sent his man Vaughn to collect Charles. Escorting Charles from the bunkhouse where he’d been confined, Vaughn had whispered something in the younger man’s ear that had stopped his ranting threats of pressing assault charges and made him look a little ill before he meekly got into the car. Even Mike’s wife called to say she would finally be returning from her prolonged visit with her sister and would be taking back the kitchen duties in time for Sunday dinner.
All of which meant there were no more reasons for them to stay at the ranch any longer.
Amelia kissed Daryl again, this time on his lips, as her hot little hand snaked its way under the covers and pressed against his chest.
“You need sleep,” he said.
“I don’t want sleep.” She nipped at his chin. “I want you.”
He didn’t resist as she rained kisses along his neck and down his chest. How could he when he wanted her too? When she took the hard length of him into her mouth, he pressed his head into the pillow on a low groan and swore he saw stars. As she licked and sucked like he was a treat from the sweet shop, he felt himself climbing steadily closer to the edge of his limit, until finally he flipped them around, pressing Amelia to the bed as he held himself above her on his knees and elbows.
“I want you.” This time when she said it, there was no teasing, no laughter. Her eyes were solemn as they bore into his with steady intensity.
He responded the only way he knew how, pressing into her as they stared at each other in the morning twilight, using the slow give-and-take of the act to stoke the anticipation.
I want you.
He angled himself so he went even deeper.
I need you.
She gasped when he hit the spot that gave her the most pleasure, and he concentrated on running himself over and over it until she was thrashing her head against the pillow.
Don’t leave me.
Reaching down with one hand, he found her clitoris. The added touch tossed her over the edge of her climax with such force he had to clamp hi
s mouth over hers to contain her scream. As her inner walls pulsed, it pulled him into a freefall of his own. He pumped his release into her, his body shuddering and shaking like a horse run long and hard, until he finally held himself still deep inside of her as he stared down into her pleasure-hazed eyes, feeling like he’d torn a piece of himself free and sent it into her, never to return.
Stay.
But she didn’t answer him because none of his words, none of his pleas, had been spoken aloud. He’d tried, but he just couldn’t push the words past his lips. Slowly, as he watched, the pleasure melted from her eyes to something that looked more like weary acceptance. It made his chest ache, but as much as he might want to say all those things to her and more, it would only be selfish and cause her more pain in the end than if he just remained silent now.
She kissed his chin and snuggled close with a sigh, but even as they lay there pretending to try to sleep, Daryl felt the distance that had settled between them. The fairytale was over, and tomorrow—or the next day at the latest—he’d be returning the Princess to her proper place in the world, while he…had no idea anymore where that might be for him.
The only thing he did know was that it wasn’t with her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“How are you doing, sweetie?”
Sucking hard on her straw, Amelia did a mental count to five before answering Thea’s anxious question. “I’m fine.” Or as fine as anyone could be who’d spent the last twenty-four hours being smothered to death by love and concern.
“Are you sure?”
Forcing a smile, she replied, “Very sure. Thanks.”
It had been like this since the moment Daryl brought her back to Boulder and left her in the tender care of Thea and Mrs. Fordham. She’d been cosseted, babied, worried over, and assured at least a hundred times already that she was more than welcome to stay with them for as long as she liked.
If she lasted a week before she lost it and ran screaming into the streets, it would be a miracle.
Not that she didn’t appreciate everything her friends were doing. Quite the opposite. They were the lifeline that held the fragile threads of her existence together for the past ten years. But one thing she’d come to understand during her time on the Raintree ranch was she didn’t have to be that pathetic, needy person anymore. She wasn’t that person anymore. But her friends were still treating her like she was made of spun glass, ready to disintegrate at any second.
It had to stop.
“Mellie…”
Thankfully, Thea’s latest outpouring of concern was cut off by Lillian’s return. Sauntering up to the table by the pool they’d been lazing around all afternoon, she placed a large platter of cookies in the center with a triumphant “ta-da!” before dropping into her chair.
“Rosa’s version of snickerdoodles.” Lillian bit into one of the cookies that was almost bigger than her hand, and groaned. “Sooo good.”
Amelia took a bite and practically groaned herself. The cinnamon-sugary taste danced on her tongue, awakening her taste buds with a vengeance. Finishing off the cookie with what was no doubt unladylike greed, she grabbed a second and was about to bite into it when she noticed the stares of her two friends, who were watching with something akin to fascinated confusion. “What?”
“You ate the whole cookie.” Thea sounded shocked.
“And took another one,” Lillian added.
“I’m hungry,” Amelia said with a shrug. As if to prove it, she took a large bite and turned her attention to the waterfall feature on the pool’s back wall, trying to ignore the way she was being studied by her friends like some strange new life form they couldn’t quite figure out.
Which, she realized, she kind of was. She wasn’t the Amelia who had blindly allowed her life to be directed by others while her health paid the price. She wasn’t even the Amelia who had walked out of their hotel room in Connecticut after taking the first hesitant grasp of control over her own future. She was this Amelia. The one who had stood up to Senator Davenport’s threats and helped deliver a foal and nearly knocked her idiot ex-fiancé’s head right off his stupid neck, even if that last one was sort of a happy accident. She was…Amelia two-point-oh. New, improved, and ready to get on with the next stage of her life.
Right after she cleared up a few things to close out the old one.
Starting now.
After finishing the last of the cookie, she turned back to look at the women who were as close to her as any blood sisters could ever be. Maybe closer. “You know I love you guys, right?”
“Well, that doesn’t sound promising,” Lillian muttered.
Thea shot her a look. “Of course, sweetie. And we love you too. You know we’d do just about anything in the world for you. Just name it.”
“Stop.”
Thea blinked at her in confusion. “I’m…sorry?”
“Stop,” Amelia repeated. “I appreciate everything you guys have ever done for me, everything you’re doing for me now, but seriously, you have to stop. Stop treating me like I’m the walking wounded or something, like I can’t handle hearing anyone talk about anything even remotely connected to the wedding or what happened after I bolted. I’m fine. More than fine, actually. I’d say I’m pretty damn great.” She picked up another cookie and snapped off a bite as if to prove it.
“Oh.” Looking a little bewildered, Thea sat back in her chair, her own cookie forgotten in her hand as she absorbed Amelia’s words.
Lillian seemed to take the declaration a little better. “I don’t know what was in the water up there in Hayseed, but it looks like it agreed with you.”
“Hayden,” Amelia said, feeling protective of the little town and the people she’d come to like very much while she was there. Well, most of them, anyway. The Harridans she could definitely live without. “And yes, I think being up there, where no one knew me, far away from my parents and from everyone’s expectations…it was definitely good for me.”
“Being away from us was good for you, you mean,” Thea said in a quiet voice.
Hating the wounded look in her friend’s eyes, Amelia quickly said, “No! Not at all.” But that was the old Amelia talking, trying to soothe other people’s feelings. “Okay, not exactly. Being on my own made me face the changes I needed to make in my life without having you two to lean on. I love that you’ve fought my battles for me when I couldn’t, but, well, now I can, and I have to start as I mean to go on.” She took a deep breath. “Which is why I’m going to go spend some time with my Aunt Josie while I figure out what comes next for me.” Right after she dealt with her parents, even though she’d much rather not.
“Oh, but Mellie, I love having you here,” Thea said.
“And I love being here, but…”
“But we’re making you crazy, aren’t we?” Lillian said.
Amelia gave a rueful grin. “Maybe just a little.”
“But—” Thea’s mouth closed with a snap over her protest. She sighed. “Okay, yeah, I guess maybe we’ve been…overcompensating a little. But we can stop. Really. You don’t have to leave again.”
Yes, she did. There were reasons other than the incessant coddling that had her stay with the Fordhams scratching at her nerves. Namely one large, silent man who hadn’t even bothered to stop at the house once to see her since he’d deposited her on the front steps the day before like a piece of luggage. Every time she turned around, she kept expecting him to be there. Only he never was.
It was starting to make her demented.
“It’s just for a visit.” Amelia reached for another cookie, pretending she didn’t see the look her friends exchanged. She hadn’t lied. She was hungry. All the time, it seemed. Without the things going on that had always sent her into painful bouts of dyspepsia, she was enjoying food like never before. She certainly didn’t need a belt to help hold up her pants any longer. Not that Daryl minded her curves filling out a little. The look in his eyes as he’d worshipped at her naked body that last night told her so
.
“So, how was it spending a week alone with the very hunkalicious Daryl?” Lillian asked, finally breaking the silence.
Amelia inhaled hard and choked on a cookie crumb. As always, Lillian seemed to be able to read her mind. Or maybe it was just her expression, because before Amelia could reply Lillian’s glass thumped down on the table as she sat forward in her chair. “Oh, my God, you totally did him!”
“What? No.” Thea’s head swiveled between the two of them before she stared at Amelia, her mouth hanging open. “You and Daryl?”
Still coughing, Amelia reached for her drink.
“I knew it,” Lillian crowed.
Thea still looked stunned. “Holy shit. How did I miss that?”
“I want details.”
“You and Daryl?” Thea repeated again.
Amelia gave Lillian a repressive scowl before answering Thea. “Yes, Daryl and I got…close during our time at the ranch.” Unfortunately, it seemed she’d gotten a little closer than he had. “And no,” she added when Lillian opened her mouth again, “I will not share details.”
“Oh, come on,” Lillian all but whined. “The man is so fine, and you know how much I always wanted to draw his—”
“Lil,” Thea broke in.
“What?” Glancing at Amelia, Lillian’s expression changed from joking to understanding. “Oh. Sorry.”
“Sweetie,” Thea said, “you got more than just a little close, didn’t you?”
Amelia swallowed the lump that wanted to form in her throat. She’d known going into the affair it would end once they returned to their real lives. She just hadn’t expected it to be so hard to accept. Even though her dreams had been filled with Daryl, last night had been one of the loneliest she’d ever spent in her life.
“I want to go talk to him, but I’m too chicken.” Because if there had been any words to be spoken between them, they would have been said during the ride back to Colorado the day before. Instead, the stilted silence had stretched her nerves almost to the breaking point.
“Oh.” Looking like she wasn’t sure she should, Thea told her, “You can’t. I mean, he, um, he asked Doyle for some vacation time yesterday. He left as soon as Doyle okayed it.”
