Country Billionaire: The Complete Series

by Jenna Chase

  “It’s none of those things,” I argued. “In fact, it happens to be because I like him! You know I have to go back to school at the end of the summer and I don’t want to spend my nights alone in this shitty studio when I could be spending them with someone I care about,” I tried to reason. The truth was that I was also trying to convince myself that this whole thing was a great idea and that I wasn’t acting like some love struck teenager. I wasn’t known for being the type of woman that would throw herself at a guy but here I was. I wanted nothing more than to be with him, to let his world envelope my own life. Whatever it turned out to be in the end, I knew I wouldn’t stay in my studio without him.

  I wanted to be able to express how I felt about him. I wanted her to know how deeply he had affected me. There was something about him that drew me to him in a way I’d never been drawn to anyone – the way he said my name, his light breath on my neck, his strength and tenderness with his horses, his touch, his body. It was as if each of these called out to me and bound me to him. But I couldn’t explain these things to her because there weren’t adequate words. I could say a million things but none of them would convey the depth of feeling between us so I decided to let it lie. Laurissa would just have to wait and see for herself, Shane and I were meant to be together no matter how short our time thus far had been. She’d see.

  “What about when you have to go back to school? It’s not that far off you know?”

  I sighed. I did know. It was all coming much too quickly and I knew when the end of August rolled around and I was forced to leave it would all feel too soon. Life passing us by in the blink of an eye when all we want to do is pause a moment and hold on forever. “I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out when we get there,” I said sounding more confident than I felt about the situation.

  “Alright. Just remember I warned you,” she said folding some more of my clothes and placing them into the empty box that sat next to her knees. She’d situated herself on the floor and was waist deep in my wardrobe. She was gearing up for her next retort when there was a knock at the open door. I watched her head whip to the side and her eyes went wide as her cheeks flushed red. I could see it written across her face – had he heard me?

  I tilted my head at her and gave her a brief smile before running across the room to hug my tall handsome man. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. It was as if time were running away with us and as we kissed the world melted away until it was just the two of us. Opening his mouth his tongue teased past my lips to join my own and it was only when we hear Laurissa cough uncomfortably that we pulled apart slightly embarrassed by how carried away we’d before.

  Shane wiped his mouth and said, “Um…hi there, I’m Shane.” He walked across the room and held out his hand to her.

  “Hi, I’m Laurissa.” She gripped his hand and shook it before quickly turning back to the clothes.

  “I know we haven’t met before, but I do remember you from the car when you dropped off Clara for her interview. For that I’ll always remember you, and I’ll always be grateful. You changed my life that day,” he said flashing his dashing grin. Laurissa seemed mostly unaffected and simply mumbled in response. I took Shane’s hand and turned him back to face me.

  “I thought you said you were bringing the movers?” I said glancing sideways out the open door. I saw no other men and no big moving van, just Shane’s own truck.

  He held his hand up and jingled his keys, “At your service. Might even be with a smile!”

  “You do know, despite the apparent size of this place, I have a lot of stuff.”

  “It’ll be fine,” he said stepping towards a taped and labeled box.

  “You don’t even know…” Laurissa said as she motioned around. “We’ve already got at least 20 boxes and were not even half done.”

  “That’s ok, we’ll take as many trips as it takes.”

  As it turned out, it took a whopping six trips, each with his truck piled up as high as it would go. It took two full days to load and unload and before I knew it my entire life was piled inside of his large storage next to his ATV collection. It felt strange to stand before it and see my entire life collected inside of a bunch of brown cardboard boxes. It seemed so insignificant.

  As I stood pondering everything I owned, Shane walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. The sun was just beginning to set turning the sky a beautiful burnt orange and a slight breeze was blowing my hair away from my face in strands. I could smell the slight musty scent of his sweat and I felt so grateful for all the hard work he’d done.

  “Thank you,” I said spinning around in his arms so that I could face him.

  “You don’t need to thank me,” he said wrapping his arms tighter around my waist.

  I raised my hands to his face and cupped his strong jaw. “I have everything to thank you for,” I said with a grin as I pulled him down to meet me. I kissed him lightly for each bullet point, “A job I love, a boss I admire, a fantastic new place to live, and for you. For you most of all,” I added kissing him harder. Kissing him I could taste the light salt on his lips and it only egged me on.

  He pulled me backwards and he must have pushed the button on the garage clicker because I could hear the mechanism and the metal as the garage door began to close. “Come on,” he said releasing me from his arms. He reached down and gripped my hand and together we giggled as we ran to the front door. I placed my hand on the door knob prepared to push it open when he stopped me. “Wait!” he said abruptly. My hand stilled as I tensed. “Let’s do this right,” he said with a crooked smile. I scrunched my forehead and waited for whatever was going to come next.

  He pulled my arm back over his shoulder and around his neck and with a quick swoop here swung his under arm behind my knees and lifted me to his chest.

  “Oh my god, what are you doing?” I laughed nervously.

  “I’m doing this right,” he said.

  “You know…this is what people do when they get married, not when they move from their apartment. Do I need to point out that we’re not married?”

  “Yet,” he said with an intensity I hadn’t expected.

  “Hey, this is already moving fast, if you go any faster you might just run me over,” I teased.

  “Ok, ok, I just wanted to do this. It feels like it solidifies it. I wanted to show you how grateful I am that you agreed to move in with me.”

  “Alright then, let’s do this bad boy!” I said kicking my heels slightly.

  “You keep that up and I might accidentally drop you.”

  “You wouldn’t!” I gasped.

  “No, I wouldn’t,” he said as he stepped forward and leaned down to grip the handle. He pushed the door in with his foot and stepped through. He set my feet down and threw his arms wide with a flair and yelled “Tada!”

  “You are ridiculous!” I exclaimed as I smacked his chest lightly.

  “Yeah, but you love it,” he said scooping me back into his arms. “You look good enough to eat,” he said with mock menace as he bit down lightly on my neck. I giggled and squirmed as he ran his tongue up my jugular all the way to my earlobe. He teased my ear and then worked his tongue back down my neck, he pulled my shirt to the side and worked my shoulder. He’d never kissed me like that before and goosebumps broke out along my arms and my legs. I thought I would melt when he didn’t stop.

  Shane gripped my hair and worked it between his palms until he could hold it all in a single hand. He jerked my head to the side and moved his mouth to the other side of my body. He continued to work me with his mouth and his tongue until I was practically begging him for more. Kissing around my jawline I turned my head until his mouth found mine. He kissed me deeply and then pulled away and returned to my neck again. I thought I was going to die if we didn’t move further soon.

  “Please…” I begged.

  Shane didn’t say a word as he continued to move his mouth over my shoulder. Reaching down he gripped my dirty shirt and pulled it of
f over my head and then he gripped my hair again. He kissed across my shoulders and then down my back. His light kisses and tonguing became interspersed with tender bites and just when I thought he was going to go for my pants he released my hair and walked away.

  “What? Where are you going?” I asked breathlessly.

  Shane smiled and continued walking.

  “You can’t be serious!” I cried out in frustration. There was no way this man was going to leave me desperate. I was so ready and just like that he was gone. My entire body pulsed with anticipation. I wanted to jump him and take him and make him satiate my desires. I followed after him. “You are going to finish this right? Right?”

  “Nope,” he answered teasingly as he climbed the stairs.

  “No?”

  “Nope. I’m done,” he said. Though he didn’t face me I could hear the mischievous smile on his lips. The lips that had just been traipsing across my body.

  “You cannot just leave me like this,” I pleaded as I took one step and then the other until I was standing at the top of the stairway.

  “Why not?”

  “Because…oh my god, just because!”

  “Nah. I think you’ve had enough. I think it might do you some good to wait,” he answered finally turning to face me. He took the bottom of his shirt in both of his hands and casually pulled it off over his head. His muscles moving in just the right way as his arms pulled the shirt. I wanted to feel those muscles under my palms, under my body but when I stepped forward he held out a hand to stop me.

  “But I want to,” I said feeling like a spoiled child.

  “We’re going to practice something tonight,” he said as he reached down to his jeans. My breath hitched in my throat as I watched him finger the button and then the zipper. I couldn’t remove my eyes as he pushed the denim down off of his hips to fall to the floor. I glanced back up, my mouth hanging open begging to see more. The front of his black boxer briefs was tented so I knew he wanted me too. I tried to step forward again, but just as before, he held out a hand to stop me.

  Shane stepped forward and walked around behind me. He unclasped my bra and pushed the straps down off of my shoulders. Being careful not to do more than brush my skin he removed the bra from my arms and then reached around to unbutton and unzip my pants. With a quick flick he had them falling to the floor and then he walked away leaving me breathless once again. I needed him to touch me and he was doing absolutely everything not to.

  Instead of furthering our contact he stepped to the bed and pulled back the comforter and top sheet. Shane jumped into bed and then patted the bed beside him. I moved to my side and shimmied underneath the covers. I turned on my side to face him as he pushed his own body down beneath the sheets. With a slight smile he turned onto his side and looked deep into my eyes.

  “I’m not torturing you,” he said as he brushed a stray strand of hair from my face.

  “It feels like you are,” I said trying not to get emotional.

  “I’m not.”

  “But I need you to touch me,” I frowned.

  “I will, just not right now, and not tonight. We’re going to practice delayed gratification so that the next time I touch you, it will be heightened beyond anything you’ve felt before. When I enter you, it will feel like the most powerful connection we’ve ever had. You’ll see,” he finished as he leaned forward and kissed my nose. He tucked the sheets up around my shoulders and then he rolled over and drifted off to sleep.

  Just like that he’d left me horny and devastated. Logically I understood what he was saying but I didn’t want to wait and I couldn’t understand how easy it was for him to roll over and sleep. We’d had a busy day and I know both of us were exhausted but there was no way that a quick session would have killed us. I sighed lightly and briefly considered my options. Shane was already breathing lightly as he headed into deeper sleep and I didn’t want to disappoint him by taking care of myself. I did the only thing I could do, I snuggled down into the blankets, wrapped myself tightly around his warm slumbering body and drifted off to sleep with him.

  I was mistaken when I thought he would give me relief the next day. Instead he continued to taunt me. Each touch, each breath had me longing for more. He knew exactly what he was doing and as much as I hated it, I also loved it. I also had to admit that he was right, with each passing day the feeling intensified until it was almost unbearable for him to touch me at all.

  Shane made me wait an entire week and then he finally let us both succumb to our instincts. I could have hated him all that time, for making me wait, but when it finally happened it was beyond any feeling I could ever imagine. It was as if both of our bodies exploded simultaneously. He continued this routine through the rest of the summer.

  During the day he would teach me about the farm, and the proper care for the horses. How to groom, bathe, stable, shoe, feed, and anything else that was needed. I grew close with the horses over the summer, and while Ruby would always remain Shane’s favorite, I was quite fond of the little colt I’d helped to birth. Knowing how fond I was of him Shane had put me in charge of his care. I spent far too much time with the little guy and it seemed as if he grew nearly daily. I was even allowed to name him myself. I knew I wanted to give him a name that was meaningful, but uniquely ours. It only seemed fitting that I named him Cheeseburger.

  I remember the whole exchange clearly.

  “Would you like to name him?” Shane had asked me one afternoon while we were out in the fields watching Ruby and the colt frolic.

  “Me? Are you serious?” I asked surprised by the offer.

  “Yes you. You helped birth him, it only seems fitting that you should get to name him. Besides, it’s obvious you’re his favorite.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” I said blushing lightly. “Are you sure? I’ve never named such an important animal before. I mean I’ve named cats and dogs, a hamster when I was a young girl, but never anything as important and impressive as a horse.”

  “Just think on it for a moment. What would you like to name him?” he coaxed.

  I watched the colt jumping and playing, the bright sun shining florescent yellow behind him. His coat matched his mother’s except for his tail which was a light tan. As I watched him I thought on Shane and I. Of our whirlwind romance and our blossoming love, and of our first date. I looked at my tall handsome man and I cocked a half smile.

  “You know it don’t you?” he said catching my grin out of the corner of is eye. I nodded my head. “Alright, out with it then.” He turned his body to face me and leaned down on one arm on the fence. He was waiting.

  “You’re going to laugh.”

  “I won’t laugh.”

  “Yes you will.”

  “Are you going to tell me or not.”

  “I don’t know if I should,” I teased.

  “Well, it doesn’t function very well as a name if no one knows it but you.”

  “Ok,” I said taking a deep breath. I glanced down at the ground and mumbled the name.

  “I’m sorry, I couldn’t quite catch that.”

  I sighed again, “Cheeseburger.” Shane started to laugh, just like I knew he would. “You said you wouldn’t laugh!”

  “I can’t help it. It’s not every day a lovely woman decided to name her colt Cheeseburger,” he said as he scooped me into his arms. He pulled me tight to his body and kissed me. When we pulled apart he whispered against my lips, “I love you.”

  I brought my hand to his face and cupped his cheek. “I love you too.” The first time we’d said it and it felt like the most honest and true thing I’d ever said in my life. He kissed me again with a smile and then released me.

  “Cheeseburger,” he said shaking his head as he pushed up the gate for us to enter where the horses had been running. “I think you should try it out,” he said gesturing towards the exuberant pony.

  “What, like call him by the name?”

  “Sure. How else is he supposed to learn it?”

/>   I stood, my arms outstretched and called to the colt, “Cheeseburger, here boy.” The small horse completely ignored me and continued playing as Shane burst out laughing.

  “Here, let me show you how it’s done.” He made a clicking noise with his tongue and his cheek and called out, “Cheeseburger.” Just like that the colt started trotting towards him. In that moment I could have sworn he was the goddamned horse whisperer. I’d seen him do some amazing things before but this took the cake. “Go ahead, come over here and take him,” he said as he stroked his mane. “Just keep talking to him and repeating the name and he’ll catch on soon enough.”

  “I just…I can’t believe…just like that?” I asked incredulous.

  “It just takes practice,” he said modestly.

  “Uh huh. Sure, that’s it. It’s not like some super-secret magical horse power or anything. That’s like your super power or something because there’s no way I could ever do that.”

  “We’ll see,” he said completely assured of his abilities to teach me…and he did over the next few weeks.

  In between our stints of “delayed gratification” he taught me how to train and teach Cheeseburger. Within a week he was coming when I called him and it was clear that we were bonding. We had grown close and any time I stepped anywhere near the pastures they were in he would come running to greet me, so it seemed completely out of place when he didn’t come running one day.

  I stood there, my arms draped over the wooden fence calling his name repeatedly. I could see Ruby off in the distance and she was acting out of character, even distraught. Right away I knew that something was wrong. Something had happened. I hoped back on my ATV and zoomed away to go find Shane. I had no idea what could have happened but I knew if anyone would know what to do it would be him.

  I drove to where he had said he would be but he wasn’t there. I could feel my frustration and anger rising. Why wasn’t he where he said he would be? The longer it took to find him the worse the situation could become, whatever it was. I probably should have looked before leaving but I was afraid. What if it was something truly terrible? What if something awful had happened to Cheeseburger? What if it was something I couldn’t fix? Or worse, what if it was something Shane couldn’t fix?