by Reece Butler
Chapter 37
“Dammit, what the hell is going on?”
Riley stared around the community center parking lot. There was not one parking space. He’d have to go around the back and slog through the dark. He whipped the wheel around, uncaring of the gravel that sprayed behind him like a fantail.
All he wanted was to see Jane. See her, hold her, and tell her how much he missed her. He’d fumed for an hour at the roadblock due to an accident, counting every minute he was denied seeing her. He’d paced up and down the long row of vehicles waiting for the highway to open again.
He’d thought he loved Zarah. Hah! That was infatuation, pride, and lust.
He had lust for Jane, but a hell of a lot more, as well. He’d been hard since he turned onto Highway 361 back in Port A. Two days, damn near. He hadn’t been able to breathe right because his chest was so tight.
He wanted Jane. Bad.
Yeah, the sex was better than great, but he wanted to see her face in the morning, hair all over the place. He wanted to hear her singing as she baked. Laughing at Buster’s disgust at the taste of the ocean. Best, he wanted her sighing with her head on his shoulder, sinking into his heart while they curled up together, fully dressed, and content.
He parked and flipped off his seatbelt. Other than grabbing an hour here and there at a rest stop, he’d pushed the whole way, almost thousand miles. He’d stayed awake with hard, pounding rock music that he hated, and in between he planned what he’d say to Jane. He was so damn eager to see her that he hadn’t even showered.
He slammed back in his seat. “Oh, shit.” It came out as a groan.
The parking lot was jammed with the vehicles of friends, relatives, buddies, and likely a few he wasn’t so buddy-buddy with. Jane was inside, knowing he was on his way.
And he stunk.
No way could he go to the ranch, shower and change, and then come back.
“Well, too damn bad. She’ll either take me as I am, or walk.”
He shoved the truck’s door open for the first time since leaving Idaho. When his legs hit Montana soil, he felt like bending down and kissing it, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get up again. He slammed the door and, shaking out his muscles, strode toward the beacon of light over the building’s back door. He had to go sideways, edging around the trucks jammed together.
“Jeez, there’s enough people here to have a wedding.”
A wedding.
He stopped, as did his heart before pounding like the driveshaft of a locomotive. He shuddered as he exhaled.
Marry Jane tonight?
“Why the hell not?”
He pounded his fist on the hood of the truck to his right. Too late, he recognized it as belonging to Josh’s father. Max Gibson had been a good sheriff and was now the judge. Judges could perform weddings. Riley hadn’t done any visible damage with his fist, and had been away so hadn’t had a chance to piss him off lately. Could he ask Judge Max Gibson to marry them, tonight?
“Hell, yeah!”
He grabbed the building’s door handle, hauling it open so hard it banged against the wall. Wall to wall people, too damn many of them, filled the room. He cursed. He could do this politely, or he could do it the way Riley Adams did things.
“Jane!” he bellowed. “Get your cute little ass over here!”
The room had gone quiet after his first word, so the rest came out loud and clear. A path in front of him cleared. At the end of it, wearing snug jeans, a tight green top, and a scowl, was the love of his life. His brother stood behind her, grinning.
“You’re late!” she yelled back. “And you don’t talk to me like that, Riley Adams!” She pressed her lips together and tossed her hair. It inflamed him like a red cape to a bull.
He’d grabbed that hair at the back of her neck and forced her to serve him, and she’d loved it. Good thing, because that was gonna happen tonight.
“I’m here now,” he replied, slow and steady. “And yes, Jane, I do.”
She swallowed hard. Her eyes flicked around the room nervously. He waited until she looked at him again. He lifted his hand and curled his first finger. Not a request to come to him, but a demand she obey.
She pressed her lips together and shook her head. The light was bright enough that he could see her nostrils flare. She licked her lips, nervous and eager. Just the way he wanted her.
“Don’t make me come get you,” he warned. “You won’t like the consequences.”
She bristled even more when the crowd murmured encouragement, both ways. She lifted her chin, pushing it out like the brat he loved.
“I don’t have to do what you say, Riley Adams. You’re not my father, brother, or husband!” She crossed her arms over her breasts and pouted.
“Judge Gibson here?” he asked, raising his voice.
“You want me in my official capacity?”
“Yes, sir.” Riley gave Travis a nod over Jane’s head. His little brother blanched, frowned, then reluctantly returned the nod. “Last chance, Janey,” he warned.
“No.”
Her pout got larger. When she didn’t move, he started forward. Anticipation had him wired. He’d been driving for too damn long, needing to touch her. He would not be denied, and she knew it. Her eyes widened. She gasped, and tried to turn away. Travis grabbed her belt loops and held her in place until Riley took over.
It was damn hard not to haul her body tight against his, lean down, and kiss her until he was filled with her scent and taste and touch. That long, or forever, whichever lasted longest.
Jane glared up at him, defiant and aroused. Her nipples pressed against her shirt, telling the world she was just as wild for him. She needed to be reminded of who she belonged to. He gave her the look that always made her thighs wet, letting her see and feel everything that raced through him. Her eyes widened. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped.
“The minor detail making you think you can ignore my orders is going to disappear,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Right now. Right here.”
He wanted to nip that pouting bottom lip, then suck it in his mouth and make it all better.
“What are you talking about?” she demanded.
“You and me. I already asked you once. Now, I’m telling you.”
He saw the moment she understood. She wavered, but his hold on her belt loops kept her from swaying too far.
“You’re gonna be mine, Jane. Tonight. Got it?”
“You don’t mean…?” she said, choking on the words.
“Yep. Husband and wife. And when we say our vows in front of the town, you will promise to obey me, won’t you?”
She bristled automatically but her eyes got shiny. He bet her pussy was weeping too.
“Obey you? Ha! I’ve had it with arrogant men who think they can push me around, just because they have something dangling between their legs!”
Riley learned a few things from her blast. He wouldn’t harm her and she knew it, but she was still in shock about that bastard father of hers sending his goons the other day. Tom had updated him during the drive from Dillon. Stark had threatened to destroy Tanner’s Ford Valley if he didn’t get Jane. Bad idea.
“It’s not arrogance when I’m right, Janey. You like me, ah, pushing you.” He gave her a slow scan, from her boots to her belt to her boobs, and then to her face. “And you enjoy obeying my orders and serving me.”
He was baiting a tiger, and knew it. Unlike the pasty-faced drips she must have known, he was wild, but so was Jane. She responded as expected.
“Yes, I’ve enjoyed cooking for your family.”
“I’m not talking about cooking, Jane.”
“What else happens in the kitchen?”
“Let me see, there’s a sturdy table, and countertops…” He let the words fade as comprehension dawned. He’d said nothing that a child unfamiliar with the process could understand. There wasn’t one ranch kitchen which hadn’t been used that way every generation. She narrowed her eyes a
t him.
“In your dreams, cowboy!”
He let the crowd’s chuckles fade, then the silence build in anticipation of his comeback.
“You’ve featured in every one of those dreams since we met.” He winked. “In a couple of them you’ve even been dressed. Almost.”
She bristled like some of those Guinea hen watchdogs he’d seen down in Texas. Though small, they weren’t afraid to take on an intruder.
“I wouldn’t marry you if you had a million dollars!”
“Then isn’t it convenient that all I have is a part share in the J Bar C Ranch.”
“I didn’t mean it that way and you know it!”
“What if you had a million, Jane? What would you do?”
“I told you my fa—, I mean, Stark said he’d never give me a thing.”
Riley waved away her refusal. “Pretend.”
“I’d buy a cozy home and live quietly, all by myself.”
His heart cringed in disappointment. “You want to live alone?”
“No, not really.” Her shrug appeared with her bowed head. He didn’t like it when she wouldn’t look at him. “I do want a home.”
“Would the J Bar C do?”
Her head shot up. Her eyes flashed into his. Not in eagerness, though. Jane was pissed. At him. He was not only getting used to it, he was looking forward to the fight, and the makeup sex after.
Oh, yeah!
“I already told you, Riley Adams. I will not marry you just so you can protect me!”
He almost asked her if she’d marry him for great sex, but stopped himself in time. He was punchy from lack of sleep and two thousand miles of worry. He couldn’t stop his smile at the way she bristled, though. Jane was a feisty woman. Just like great-gran-whatever Victoria, the first woman who’d lived in their cabin back in eighteen seventy. Her father had been a mean son of a bitch as well.
He stuck his thumbs in his front pockets and leaned back on his heels. Jane’s mulish expression got wary. She knew when he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“I intend to protect my woman from anyone who wants to hurt her. But that’s not all I want to do with you.” He made it obvious what he wanted by taking a long, hard look at her.
“Don’t look at me like that!”
“Like what?” he replied, all innocent.
“Like you want to…”
A snicker came from one of the women in the front row. Jane crossed her arms, hiding erect nipples, and glared at him.
“Don’t stop now,” he said encouragingly. “It was just getting interesting.”
“You’re making fun of me.”
Instead of glaring, she shrunk into herself. He dropped the attitude faster than a rattler. He stepped close, his chest just skimming her elbows.
“No, Janey, I want to make fun with you. To make you smile.” He spoke low, though those nearby could hear. But they were family, and would protect her with their lives. “Your momma left you money, but that son of a gun you escaped from used it up.”
“What?”
“Yeah. From the way he talked Stark didn’t put a penny into you. It was your own money buying those things you hated.”
“How do you know?”
“He phoned me. We had us a chat.”
“What did he say?”
“A lot of it was hot air. Most of the rest is for another time and place. Stark did everything he could to break you, and to make you into a pretty puppet who would dance for whatever man held her strings. You broke free of him, sweetheart. All by yourself. That took a hell of a lot of guts.”
He ran his knuckles down her cheek. She leaned into his caress like a kitten. That trust, in spite of everything that had happened to her, almost broke him.
“I don’t want to be your puppet master, Janey. Neither does Travis. We want to be the men you choose to welcome home each day. To be the ones you turn to when you’re tired, or scared, or hurting, or just because. Yes, us getting hitched will stop the hired guards from coming to town and threatening you, but that’s not why I want you.”
She bit her lip like an uncertain child. She’d had to be a hell of a strong woman on the outside in order to survive. Inside, the part he wanted to keep for himself, and Trav, she was a needy little girl. One day in the future she would truly believe she was safe and secure, that they would kill or die for her and their children, and that they loved her with every beat of their hearts. When that happened, the dark clouds holding her back, would be gone.
It was his job, his and Travis’s, to help her find that place of light and joy.
The way she looked at him, showing worry yet also trusting he could solve her problems, made his heart swell even more. He felt like she’d just given him a million bucks, only better.
Anyone could get money. It was a commodity that was traded every moment of the day. That look, and Jane herself, were priceless. Not to the man who’d raised her as his daughter. Stark wanted her as a product he could use. She was just something to barter with.
“Then why?”
“Stark thought I would give you up for something as cold and heartless as money.”
Jane had been raised with everything material it was possible to want. But since her mother passed she’d not had anyone give her affection, hugs, caring, or love. That all changed at a honky-tonk bar one Texas night.
“How much am I worth to him?” she asked.
“He offered me a million dollars to hand you over.” Her jaw dropped. “I turned him down, of course. Money means nothing without you.”
A chorus of awww from the women and whistles of appreciation from the men burst into his Jane bubble. He turned, sending a glare in their general direction.
“If you don’t mind, I’m talking with my fiancé here.”
A chorus of comments, filtered for the ears of the few children still here and awake, blasted him. Heckling was part and parcel of living in a small town. Your business was considered fair game, especially by older relatives. It had been a damn nuisance all his life because of the trouble he got in. The good part of that caring was they banded together to protect you. He was feeling that now.
“I am not your fiancé,” said Jane stiffly. Her lips were pressed together and her nose was in the air. But he saw the quiver in her lower lip.
“Stark made you think you were unlovable, sweetheart.” Her head jerked at his quiet words. “That twists up my insides something awful. Because it’s not true. You’re a beautiful person, Janey. And I don’t mean your soft skin.” He trailed his fingertips over her cheekbones. They were less sharp than when they’d met. “I mean beautiful inside. You’re a kind woman who loves to help people. Do you know how many of those old folks at the condo insisted on helping so you could get a chance to have a wonderful life? They threw me out because they said I was in the way.”
That got a touch of a smile, though it quickly faded.
“Why do you want me, Riley? I know your parents want grandchildren, and you want a lover and housekeeper. But why me? Convenience?”
Her plea ripped through his heart. Jane didn’t know how much he loved her because he hadn’t yet told her. He leaned over and inhaled. She was still using strawberry shampoo. He nuzzled her neck. She sighed, took a tiny step, and her body touched him. He groaned as her soft breasts brushed against his chest. The pain in his cock ratcheted up another couple of notches.
“Janey, even the first moment I saw you, I wanted you. I felt a pull of need, and that made me mad because I didn’t want to need anyone. I didn’t want to feel the pain that Zarah put me through. I never loved that woman. She used me the same way Stark used you, a body she could use for a while, then throw away. The person inside that body didn’t matter.”
He swallowed, then told a hard truth, one he hadn’t wanted to admit.
“I got so bent out of shape over Zarah because I was ashamed at being used. No, that’s not right. I was ashamed at how I treated my friends and family, in order to fit into her world. I
let her insult Trav, or my buddies from home, to their faces and didn’t speak up. I missed classes to work at jobs to buy her stuff, only to find it in her garbage can. She made sure I saw it,” he added.
He gathered his courage. It was now or never time. He leaned over to murmur in her ear.
“Zarah let me think she wanted me. She led me on, but I was stupid enough to follow. The last night, she had me strip to my shorts. She had me get down on one knee to propose to her. She wanted me to beg her, and I did.”
He had to force a swallow since his throat was so tight.
“I poured my heart out, Janey. Said things that weren’t true, because that was what she wanted to hear. I wondered at the time why she made me talk so loud.”
“Oh, Riley—”
He put a finger on her lips.
“When I’d thoroughly humiliated myself, she laughed, said how much fun she’d had showing a dumb cowboy what a real woman was all about. Then she called out, and a dozen giggling girls came from behind me. They’d watched the whole thing. Half of them were in my classes. Not only did they tell all their friends, they exaggerated it to make me look even worse.”
“She was a prime be-yotch,” said Jane. She growled the words.
“And I was a stupid ass…hat for wanting someone so shallow.”
She pressed her lips together. From the way her eyes danced, it was to hold back a smile at his switching words so as not to swear. It had been close, but he’d managed it.
“And you thought I was like her.”
“I’m so sorry about that, I—”
This time she put her finger on him.
“That’s the way most of the people in my life have been, until you,” she replied. “Shallow and selfish and vicious. I’ve known a few girls who’ve tried to destroy others. As if it was a contest to make someone kill themselves in shame.”
She curled her lip, showing the most fury he’d seen so far.
“Thank God it was after the last exam, because I got stinking drunk,” he replied. “Trav hauled me home when I tried to go after her. I hated myself for years, and put the blame on her. But it was my stupidity. And then I attacked you.”
A crease appeared between her eyebrows. He smoothed it away with his finger. If only all her worries could be removed as easily.
