The Truce (Butler Ranch Book 2)

by Heather Slade

  “What?”

  “I’m hungry,” she huffed.

  “Yeah? So?”

  “What the hell, Maddox? You don’t have any food in the house?”

  He caught the look on Jamison’s face out of the corner of his eye. The kid was just about to call Alex out on the curse word, but evidently thought better of it. Maddox didn’t blame him. Saying anything to Alex right now would be like poking a grizzly bear.

  Maddox walked into the kitchen, and out the back door, motioning for Alex to follow.

  “What’s up, Al? And don’t say it’s nothing. You’ve known me how long? Twenty years, and I have never had food in the house. Never.”

  “You’d think…”

  “What? Finish your sentence. Wait, let me. You’d think that having two boys spending the night in my house I would have thought to buy some food. Am I right?” Maddox held up his hand. “No, don’t answer.”

  “Never mind.”

  “That’s right. You didn’t exactly give me any warning.”

  Maddox went back into the kitchen. “Hey, boys, let’s go see what my ma has in her kitchen. I’ve been bachin’ it a little too long.”

  “What’s bachin’?” Finn asked as they walked up the stone path to his parents’ house.

  “Bein’ a bachelor. Guys like me don’t always remember to stock up on food. This time of year I spend as much time helpin’ Naughton out in the field as I do in the house.”

  “How’s the bloom?” Alex asked absentmindedly, looking over at the nearest vineyard.

  “Full.”

  She nodded her head.

  The one thing he and Alex could always talk about were the vineyards. They spoke in the shorthand only those raised in the vines understood.

  His mother was standing in the kitchen when Maddox opened the door.

  “Who’s this visiting my kitchen?” she said in her thick Scottish brogue.

  “Hi, Sorcha.” Alex kissed her cheek.

  “How are you, sweetheart?” His mother cupped Alex’s cheek with her hand. Maddox watched the exchange, wondering if his ma knew what was up with Alex.

  “Hungry, and whatever that is, smells really good.”

  “This be my Scottish stew, lass. You boys hungry too?”

  Jamison and Finn nodded their heads.

  “Go wash your hands. Maddox, you too, and tell your da that we’ll eat in the dining room.”

  “He wants to take the boys out riding and then to the caves,” Alex said once Maddox ushered them out of the kitchen.

  “He’s aff his heid!”

  Alex laughed. “I agree, he’s crazy.”

  “Who’s crazy?” Maddox came back into the kitchen.

  “You dinnae take those wee ones to the caves.” Sorcha smacked the back of his head.

  “Ow!” Maddox rubbed his head, looked at Alex, and smirked.

  Sorcha carried the pot of stew out of the kitchen, shaking her head, and mumbling something Alex couldn’t understand.

  “You’re gonna love the caves, baby.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Alex leaned her body into his.

  That was all the invitation he needed. Maddox lifted her. “Put your legs around me.”

  When she hooked her feet behind him, he rested her bottom on the counter, shifting her so her warmth pressed against him.

  “What you do to me, girl,” he growled, pulling her tighter to him. “I could take you right here, right now, in my ma’s kitchen.” He could feel her hardened nipples brushing against his chest through his thin shirt.

  “God, Mad. Why do we always end up this way?” she groaned, but pressed her body harder against his.

  “Our bodies know what our heads refuse to accept, Alex.”

  “But—”

  Before she could protest like he knew she would, Maddox plundered her mouth.

  No one kissed him back the way Alex did, but then he was the one who taught her how. Alex Avila may have kissed other boys in the years he’d known her, but he was the one who kissed her first.

  The first time they kissed was right before his eighteenth birthday. She and a group of friends had been following him and Naughton around all night.

  “Who’s that, Naught?”

  “Who?”

  Maddox stopped at a game booth on the midway of the county fair, and pointed at the pack of girls who had been stalking him and his brother for the past two hours.

  “They look familiar, but I only know one.” Naughton pointed. “That’s Bianca Ramirez.”

  Maddox knew Bianca, but she wasn’t the one who’d caught his attention. It was the other girl, who looked a lot like her.

  “That one. Who is she?” When Maddox pointed right at Alex, she smiled. Instead of looking away, she met his gaze and held it.

  “No idea.”

  Maddox nodded his head, and motioned for her to come closer. “What’s your name?”

  “Alex.” She stood in front of him, but looked down at the ground.

  “I’m Maddox.”

  “I know who you are.”

  “What’s your last name, Alex?”

  “Avila.”

  “You shouldn’t be talking to me if you know who I am.”

  “You know who I am, and you’re talking to me.”

  The feud between the Avilas and Butlers went back to the year Laird Butler bested Alfonso Avila with his first release of Zinfandel.

  The proud, Hispanic patriarch couldn’t accept Laird’s gold medal win at the annual wine festival, when his own Zin hadn’t medaled at all. He accused Laird of paying off the judges. Maddox’s father had been furious, and the two men came close to blows until several other winemakers stepped in and separated them.

  From that day forward the Avila name became unmentionable in the Butler house. It wasn’t easy for the two families to avoid one another, given Butler land bordered the southernmost boundaries of Avila’s Los Caballeros Ranch, but they managed.

  “We’re both playing with fire, Alex Avila,” he said to her that night. And they had been. The girl he spent a couple hours kissing wasn’t just an Avila, she was only fifteen years old.

  Kade was home on leave from the Marines, and lit into him. “Stay the hell away from her, Maddox. She’s a kid and you’re a man. If Da finds out you’ve been spending time with an Avila, you know what’ll happen.”

  At the time Maddox had been more concerned with Kade’s reaction than what he expected from his father. His father’s anger would’ve been because of the girl’s family. Kade was pissed at Maddox because of her age.

  “She looks a lot older,” Maddox tried to defend himself.

  Kade made him promise not to have anything to do with her from then on. It was the first promise Maddox made to his brother knowing full well he’d break it.

  2

  Peyton’s boys were exhausted, so instead of going to the caves after their ride, they took the horses back to the stables and then walked over to Mad’s cottage.

  The day had taken an emotional toll on everyone, especially her godsons, who’d lived a roller coaster ride of a life for the past year.

  First Kade, who they’d gotten so close to, was killed in Afghanistan. Then Brodie, who the boys bonded with almost immediately in spite of Peyton’s efforts to keep them from doing so, disappeared from their mother’s life and theirs. On top of that, their mother was pregnant, and first was hospitalized, and then on bed rest. While they stayed with Peyton’s parents, the boys still helped their grandparents care for their mother. Earlier today, Alex’s intervention brought Brodie to Peyton’s parents’ place, where he was finally able to convince Peyton to give him another chance.

  When she received the news of Brodie’s plane crash, Peyton insisted on being honest with Jamison and Finn about what had happened. They’d accepted Brodie’s death in the same way they accepted Kade’s.

  After Maddox and Naughton found Brodie had survived the crash, and brought him back to California from Argentina, Peyton refused to see him, or let him
see her boys.

  Jamie and Finn witnessed most of it—watching the events of the day play out like a movie. How could a ten- and eight-year-old not be exhausted after a day like that?

  Alex was exhausted for the same reason, but there was more. She stood outside the bedroom where she sat with Jamie and Finn until they fell asleep, dreading the walk downstairs, and the conversation she’d be forced to have with Maddox when she got there.

  Maddox had his back to her and was looking out the window when she came into the living room.

  “They asleep?” he asked without turning around.

  “It didn’t take long, and I’m not far behind.”

  When Maddox turned around, his hands were in his pockets. “Have a seat.”

  She sat in the closest chair.

  “What’s going on with you, Alex? Be honest with me.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “I haven’t told you, because I’m not sure.”

  “Told me what?”

  Alex leaned forward and put her head in her hands. She hated the way Maddox was talking to her, like she was a badly-behaved child. Whenever he acted this way, she’d leave and wouldn’t talk to him for weeks.

  “Dammit, Alex! Answer me. What haven’t you told me?”

  “I think I’m pregnant.”

  “I see.” Maddox turned his back to her again, and looked out the window. The sky was clear and the moon shone bright, casting light on the vines that danced in the soft breeze. He could feel her eyes on his back, knew she was waiting for him to say more.

  “If I am…”

  He waited, and when she didn’t continue, he turned around. “If you are…what?”

  “It’s yours.”

  “I didn’t doubt that, Al.” He sat on the sofa and held his hand out. “Come here.”

  Alex sat next to him, and rested her back against him.

  “You said you think…”

  She nodded.

  “No test?”

  She shook her head. “Not yet.”

  “If you are…”

  Alex shrugged, “I have no idea.”

  “Baby changes a lot, Al.”

  She tensed and tried to move away, but Maddox put his arm around her waist, and held her against him.

  “It doesn’t have to.”

  “What? Change things?”

  “Not for you.”

  “Is that what you think?”

  Alex rested her head against him. “I don’t have a choice, but you do.”

  Maddox turned her, so she faced him. “You know me better than that.”

  She shrugged again. “I’m not that late.”

  “How late?”

  “Three weeks.”

  “Alex…” He stood and pulled her up with him.

  She hated the way he said her name as much as she loved it. All the power in his rock-hard muscles came through his voice. He could whisper and his force would still be unleashed.

  She melded against him, her curves slid into his like they were two halves of something broken being put back together.

  “There’s a lot we don’t have a choice about, darlin’,” he breathed. “Neither of us do.”

  He was right, they didn’t. She’d never been able to resist Maddox Butler. When he lifted her into his arms and carried her up the stairs to his bedroom, her hand gripped his neck, and brought his lips closer to hers. If the rest of their relationship could work as well as the sex did, they’d be soulmates, but it didn’t, and after so many years, there was no reason to think it ever would.

  “Clothes off, Alex,” he said, resting her body on his bed. He stood in front of her, arms folded, waiting while she pulled her blouse over her head, and unzipped her jeans. As she slowly exposed more skin, Maddox’s eyes took in her body like it was the first time he’d seen it, yet those eyes, his hands, and the rest of him, knew her body like a back road he drove every day of his life.

  “Turn over,” he demanded once she was naked.

  She rolled to her stomach, and waited for his touch. Shivers ran down her spine as his fingers worked their way up the back of her legs. He kneaded the flesh of her behind with hands that were big enough to circle her waist, while his lips kissed up her spine. He’d taken off his shirt, so the hair on his chest tickled her back when he rested his body on top of hers.

  “You know where to put your hands, Alex.” He stilled, waiting for her to grasp the metal frame of the headboard.

  With her arms stretched out, Maddox worked his lips along the side of her body, from her hip to her waist. When he reached her breast, he rolled her under him, just slightly, to give his mouth access.

  She flinched when his teeth grazed her nipple, shocked by their tenderness. He bit and released her, licking the sting away. He’d removed his belt, and unfastened the button at the top of his jeans. His zipper, lowered just slightly, scratched against the back of her thighs.

  Alex knew better than to tell Maddox to hurry. He never had, and he never would, this he told her time and time again. He’d draw out his body’s assault on hers until she reached the point that every nerve ending was frayed, and her desire for him reached a frenzy.

  Jeans off, Maddox lined his bareness up against her. If Alex was already pregnant, there was no reason for them to use a condom.

  It was his resolute desire to finally feel her this way, which got her so. It had been a risk to take her without a condom, even though she was on birth control. Accidents happened, drugs failed, babies were conceived. He wasn’t a kid, he understood the possible consequences.

  They both knew the day would come that they’d be forced to grow up, quit jerking each other around, and just figure it out. Looked like that day had arrived.

  He waited while her body adjusted to his, and then moved slowly in and out, thrusting deeper each time. Alex’s soft mewls grew louder. He could take her over the edge, but he wanted to see her face when she fell. He separated himself from her, and flipped her onto her back.

  “Come on, baby. Give it to me,” he rasped, just before Alex squeezed her eyes closed, and let her head fall from side to side. “That’s my girl,” he coaxed.

  Maddox let the legs he’d been holding fall to the bed, and grasped her hips. “Once more,” he groaned.

  Before she could roll away, Maddox covered her mouth with his, pressing down hard, devouring her with his lips.

  No other woman could make him feel the unabandoned passion that Alex brought out in him. He couldn’t stay away from her. He was addicted to the way she made him feel.

  Alex turned her back to his front, and drew the blanket up over her shoulders. Maddox slid his body behind her and put his arm around her waist.

  “Move in with me, Alex.”

  She didn’t answer. There was no reason to. She moved his arm from around her waist and got out of bed. “Bathroom,” she muttered, but that wasn’t why she got up.

  She closed the door between the bedroom and en suite bath, and sat on the edge of the two-person jetted tub. What she’d give to fill it, climb in, and let the warm water soak away her worries. Instead she hoped Maddox would soon fall asleep, and she’d be left alone to think.

  Ten minutes later she turned the doorknob, hoping she could sneak in without waking him, but he wasn’t asleep, he was sitting up in bed waiting for her.

  “Maddox, please…”

  “I told you earlier, your secret’s out.”

  “You didn’t want anyone to know about us any more than I did.”

  “I’m not ashamed of our relationship, Al.”

  “I’m not ashamed either, but I don’t think you can call what we’ve been doing a relationship.”

  “What would you call it then? Fucking?”

  “You don’t have to be crass.”

  “Then answer me. What would you call it?”

  She leaned down to pick up her clothes, but he caught her arm in his hand.

  “Get back in bed.”

  �
�Don’t tell me what to do, Mad.”

  “You liked it an hour ago. In fact you’ve always liked it.”

  “You’re such an asshole.”

  “Am I? The way I remember it, you were willing to do whatever I told you to do.”

  “This is why I hate you, Maddox.”

  He pulled her on top of him. “Yeah? You hate me? I can feel how much you hate me, Alex.”

  Maddox wrapped her hair in his hand and pulled her down so her lips touched his. When he kissed her, she melted. He was right, this wasn’t why she hated him, this was why she hated herself.

  Soft lips kissing her shoulder lured her out of a deep sleep. “I’m sorry,” Maddox whispered in her ear.

  She opened her eyes and stared into his deep blue ones. “I’m sorry, too.”

  “I’m glad you stayed.”

  “This time.” She laughed, admitting silently that their arguments were often short-lived, given her typical reaction was to walk away.

  Maddox moved the blankets away from her body, scattered kisses over her belly, and then rested his head just below her abdomen. “I want this baby, Alex.”

  She rested her hand on his head, wishing he hadn’t forced her to tell him. “I’ll check on the boys if you make coffee.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I figured.” He shook his head.

  “I’m not interested in discussing your misguided sense of obligation when I’m not even sure there is a baby.” Alex got out of bed, grabbed her clothes, and got dressed. Maddox stood near the bedroom door, watching.

  “Go away.” She scowled, surprised when he turned around and left the room.

  The boys were awake, Maddox could hear them talking. He looked in one of the bedrooms, and the bed was still made. He knocked on the door of the other room, remembering Alex told him they’d probably feel more comfortable sleeping in the same room.

  “Hey, guys,” he said when they told him to come in. “Breakfast requests?”

  Finn looked at Jamison, who shrugged his shoulders. “We’re good with whatever.”