Showered and in her own clothes, Savannah sat at the kitchen table with Dean. He had stacks of papers laid out in front of him. She had a bowl of cereal and sat with one foot under her thigh. “All this is for me?”
“No,” Dean said as he opened his briefcase and placed a form that said dissolution of marriage on the top.
“That’s not for Teddy is it?”
“So,” he said, not answering the question as he reached for a pile to his right. “This was mailed to you in June.”
“What address did you use?” she asked scanning the document. “That’s my mother’s address. I haven’t lived there in over a year.”
“It’s the one on file for you when I searched. Sorry, but your mom should have the copy I sent to you.”
“I never got it,” Savannah explained as if that would somehow change the situation.
“Doesn’t really matter, the trust was set up in your name, and as you just acknowledged it was one of your former residences. Now your uncle has contested the validity of the trust based on possible fraud on your mother’s part. He’s demanding a DNA test. If you want to forfeit the trust completely against Connie’s wishes, I’ll go ahead and use his former will. But Savannah, as someone who grew up with Connie and considered him a close friend, I’m going to ask you to stand up for what he wanted.”
“Why? Nobody wants me here. I don’t even know what to do on a ranch and this whole gas company thing scares the crap out of me.”
“Connie never told me why he didn’t marry. He did say once he’d met the love of his life and until he felt that way again, he didn’t see a reason to change who he was. I’m sure he was talking about your mother. If he would’ve known about you, he would have spoiled you rotten.” Sincerity oozed from Dean’s words and eyes. “A pony in every color and a pink princess room would have found it’s way on this ranch. It’s who he was. When he found out you existed, he tried everything to find out more about you, but your mother stopped him at every turn. I don’t know why, but Savannah, all he wanted to do was make up to you for the first twenty two years of your life. Don’t spit on that because of fear. He was a good man. And he loved your mother. No matter what she might have said he didn’t run out on you, he was forced to live here, raise four kids and keep his father from destroying everything.”
Savanah stared at him. “This town is about generations. Everything I hear about is passed down to people who were born and raised here.”
“You got a job at the Hard Root didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“The Hard Root’s been here since the first wagon pulled up. Passed down to people who could handle anything life threw their way. Carolyn got a shit deal when that horse broke her leg. The Hard Root saw her through until she bought it. The fact you lasted a whole night there says something about who and what you are. Take this land and make it your own. Do with it what you like. Cash in on Federated’s fuck up.”
“As long as you get your forty percent,” she said with a raised eyebrow.
“Honey, I get the forty either way. Doesn’t matter if I get it from Patty or you.”
“I’m not looking to cash in. That’s not why I came here.” Savannah pushed the Cheerios around in her bowl. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Then you landed in the right place. How do you think shit towns were founded?”
Savannah picked up a pen and watched as she signed, knowing full well she would now be giving blood, spit or some hair to prove once and for all that Conrad Winston was her father.
* * * *
“Tell me about yourself,” Clay said as he dunked a French fry in the ketchup.
It had taken a week for Dean and Patty to agree on a lab and since Savannah had offered up a cheek swab and vial of blood that morning.
Although, Clay had been around in passing, this was the first time either was able to be around each other.
Really, she should be avoiding him, but then again, loads of semis took some of the Long herd to slaughter a few days after the Winston’s were cleared out.
Savannah’s mother had been trying to come and visit, but until now, she’d been able to keep her away. Sadly that too, was coming to an end. In two days, she would be coming out.
“Born and raised in Dallas,” Savannah said as she stopped herself from reaching across the table to touch his hand. He came and sat at the bar by her, but it never seemed as if he was really there for her. They flirted, but when he finally asked for a proper lunch, she decided to take a chance. Chances were working for her finally, and Clay seemed as strong of a bet as the rest.
“College?”
“My pole work wasn’t good enough,” she replied trying to hide the smirk only to see Clay wasn’t laughing. “I’m not really the stripping kind. Paying for college wasn’t really an option for me. What about you?” Savannah took a swig of her beer.
“My pole work is rivaled only by the best in Vegas, so I finished my Masters in Business, but I only stripped because you gotta give the ladies what they want.”
Damned if that weren’t the truth. She still had visions of him in just a towel. Why hadn’t she snapped it from his waist?
“What do you think of Tender Root?” he asked. “You seem to be settling in well.”
“I’m not really the settling kind,” Savannah confessed.
“You’re like my brother JT, or at least how he was for a time.”
“You mentioned him before being a wanderer. How is that?”
“He traveled with the rodeo.”
“Really? Bull rider huh?”
“Pick up man actually. Our mama made him promise not to ride. Sunny rode broncs, not sure if he ever rode bulls. He’s a wanderer too.”
“Sunny? Seems he’s settled.” With his mother Darla working the day shift at the Root she’d run into him more than once. He made sure to get her home safe after she got off at seven. That whole cowboy code thing had Savannah rethinking her ban on all things wearing boots and silly hats. Then again, it could be the man across from her.
“That’s more of a Melody thing than a Sunny thing. She tamed him.”
“Why would anyone want to tame a wild animal?” she asked thinking more of herself. “Isn’t that the beauty of the animal?”
“Even the wildest animal looks for a place they feel safe.” Clay reached across the table, tucked back her hair and cradled her face in his hand.
She had to stop herself from jerking back as if his hand was a hot iron burning her. It wasn’t because he was a guy. Men she loved. Being held, but only for a moment. Clay wanted more, but then again maybe not. If he were an air traffic controller, planes would be dropping left and right with his mixed signals.
He stroked her cheekbone, then pulled his hand back. “No matter how much they wander, there’s one space they look for and when they find it, they become peaceful. The fight’s still there, but it’s more about protecting the place they found.”
“Why did you pull back?” she asked.
“It wasn’t appropriate. Touching you like that in here.”
“I’ve seen women pinned to the wall being mauled by men here.”
“Those aren’t women, and I’m not going to lie, I’ve been the man pinning a time or three, but you’re not the kind of girl I’d do that to.”
“Why not?” Savannah asked a bit rebuffed.
“I think enough guys have treated you that way. And you came here for a change.”
“I came here because I had no where else to be. I was a few days from begging my mom to move back in. The money the lawyer gave me to get here was all I really had. You don’t see me worrying about my apartment in Dallas do you?”
Clay sat back and his eyes dropped to the floor.
Maybe confession was good for the soul. She’d been keeping her finance troubles to herself. The last thing she wanted her newfound family to discover was the only home she had was the one everyone was trying to take away from her. Then again, the baggage she dro
pped at Clay’s feet may have him running for the door.
“I have wondered why you don’t talk about your friends in Dallas,” he said as he reached for his beer.
“Girls hate me and guys just want to fuck me. Not one thing in my life is stable. Everything is transitory.”
“What about love?” he asked while his sincere eyes locked on hers. “I’m not trying to say something about you as a person, but I’m pretty sure you’ve laid with a man a time or two.”
“Sex has nothing to do with love. Any man that tried to tell me different was selling me something I didn’t need or want.”
Clay leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out in front of him as his eyes traveled over Savannah’s body.
The hunger in his stare made her warm and she tried to hold in the rush she felt from him examining her. What strange thing did he expect to see?
“Fine, come to my cabin and let’s fuck.”
“That’s blunt.”
“I’ve tried the soft and sweet, but I also see I’m wasting my time with it. You don’t play games and neither do I. I tried and it was an utter failure. You want truth? I want you in my bed tonight. I want to taste every inch of you. I’ll bite your round ass cheeks as your face is buried in a pillow before I hike up your hips and bury my face between your thighs and make sure you’re so damn wet, I won’t have any resistance before I plow inside you. I don’t want to see your face. I want your hips in my hands and you bent over like you’re praying to God I never stop.”
Chapter Seven
Savannah burst into laughter. Holding her hand up, she tired to calm herself as tears began rolling out of her eyes and her cheeks turned three shades of red, but not from embarrassment. Soon she was holding her sides. Then in broken gasps, she settled herself. “Oh, my God! I so needed that today. Thank you,” she panted. “Does that shit work outside of bad porn?”
“Give me twenty minutes and I’ll tell you.” Clay tossed a twenty on the table and grabbed Savannah by the wrist. This wasn’t a time for soft hand holding. He needed to prove he wasn’t the sweet little guy. He was a man and Savannah was lying to herself about what she wanted, she didn’t know and Clay could see by her reaction.
Standing up, she tried to put out the face that she wanted what he offered. Maybe she did, sex wise, but relationships scared her. Petrified would be a better word.
In a way, she was who he’d always wanted, a woman that didn’t want more than a few stolen nights. “Woman, I swear you’re on my last goddamn nerve.”
“I’m not the one trying to play games,” she bit back “I’ve been nothing but up front with you.”
Her tone made his cock harden more. “Bullshit,” he snapped pulling up short from his truck. “One second, you’re flirting hot and heavy, then I make a move and you run.”
“Is this about the cabin? What was I supposed to do, grab your towel and beg you to ravage me? Not my style.”
“Honey, you don’t know your style. You don’t know yourself.”
Savannah stepped back and hurt crossed her face.
Fuck, he wanted to be mad at himself, but he was too pissed at her. He came at her like a lady and she couldn’t handle it. Hope would kill for that, instead he had to go and fall in love with a woman who floated through life.
“You’re just as bad,” she spat as she shoved him back. “One second, you’re kissing me the next, I’m on a damn horse.”
“I was treating you like a lady.”
“Well, who the hell told you I wanted to be treated that way?”
Capturing her lips, he got lost in the smell and taste of her as she fell against his truck. Trapping her body there, she was soft in all the right places. Damn, his need for her had grown out of his control. Her lips parted and his tongue swiped against hers. Sucking it in, he grinded against her hips as her fingers tore at the bottom of his shirt.
It was lunchtime, he couldn’t just stumble his way to the back of the Hard Root and strip her down. His cabin was almost a twenty minute drive and the only other option would end up showing his ass to everyone in the parking lot.
She didn’t seem to notice or care that the parking lot had cars coming and going as his belt was soon undone and she broke his zipper with a hard tug.
“Savannah,” he said as he broke the kiss long enough to figure out the logistics of what was about to happen.
“Clayton Long, open your truck get in the passenger seat and let me fuck you.”
Sweeter words have never been said to a man. It wasn’t his reputation he was worried about. The jokes about Bible study at the cabin were a Long family tradition, but what of Savannah? When her fingers reached inside his boxers and surrounded his hardness, reputations be damned.
He climbed in the passenger side of his truck with his lips reattached to Savannah’s. Her hunger was met with his as she slammed the door shut and straddled him. The length of her neck elongated as her head reared back and he licked her soft skin. Nipping at her neck, she moaned while her hand traveled up and down his shaft.
“Jesus, Clay, you weren’t kidding,” she moaned as he popped the top button on her jeans and inched them down in the cramped space.
“Just so you know my plan, a little less cumbersome,” he said hoping he could reach the strip of condoms now blocked by her ass in the glove box.
“You really want to wait?” she asked with a bare knee on either side of his hips as his dick brushed against her stomach.
He didn’t break the glove box he later found out, as he retrieved the condom and sheathed himself while Savannah nibbled her way down his neck. With a hand on either side of her hips, he slid her over the top of him slowly. Once again, she bucked back this time her chest was right at his lips and he bit at the buttons until he could bury his face in her luscious mounds as her core surrounded him with a tight hold that almost made him come when she reached his root. “Savannah,” he moaned as she rode him and he dug his fingers into her hair.
He filled her wet hot core to the point she was biting her lip and praying to survive the sensation. Her hips rocked over his as he temporarily went blind right before hot jets exploded inside her. Their arms locked around each other and they both held on as if they feared they would never touch the other again. Bodies stiff for a moment went lax and she curled against his shoulder. His fingers untangled from her hair as he lightly stroked the tresses until he became flaccid and she was no longer attached to him.
“Now, we can go to your cabin and fuck.” She sighed, still not moving from his arms.
* * * *
Savannah wasn’t one to have regrets. Even as Clay pulled out of the parking lot of the Hard Root, her only focus was on his hand that was so big it covered her hip as she snuggled against his chest in the truck. Who knew a bench seat would be so handy in a hormonally charged event.
What they had couldn’t be labeled. She wasn’t a labeler anyway. Even if she tried grasping concepts when her body still trembled from the sex they’d both been denying each other. For her, it’d been practical reasons, running was still her first instinct in all situations and for him, it was because he wanted to treat her like a lady.
Who did that? Men did and wasn’t that what all the girls complained about? No real men in the world. He didn’t give me this or didn’t buy me that and here Clay had given her more than she’d ever experienced in her life. Respect. Teddy did that to in her own way. In fact, most people here did. Maybe that’s why everything felt just a little off. Where do people respect you anymore?
The fuzziness from orgasm was wearing off as they traveled down the road a bit slower than in the past. Part of her wished for a sunset as she breathed in the light musk smell coming from Clay. Although, she offered another round, this time sans possible audience and where flexibility would be for fun not functionality, she couldn’t help but wonder if Clay was even thinking of it. Looking toward his lap a large phallic sized lump answered her question as his finger stroked against the bare skin above h
er hip.
A gentle kiss to the crown of her head had her nuzzle in tighter and lock her finger through his belt loop. When the road became bumpy, she knew he was making his way to the cabin and her core tingled from anticipation. With each click of the odometer as they approached, both lovers expanded their touching to the point they were locked in a full blown kiss that rose the hair on Savannah’s head when Clay threw the truck into park.
“Savannah,” he whispered as he brushed back her hair and cradled her face in his hand. “Even if it’s a lie, tell me you’re staying in Tender Root.”
“I’m staying,” she said unsure herself if it was a lie. Making him happy was all she wanted from life at this moment. Her reward was a kiss so deep and passionate, she would be happy if it stole her breath and the last thing she ever felt was him.
Scooping her up in his arms, he got out of the truck and like the feeling that first night she was floating and unafraid. When he laid her out on the bed, the one he’d let her use even though it was his. He must have put her in the first time, because it was better than the one in the spare room.
He crawled on top of her, only to make his way back down. First with a kiss to her lips. Long and lingering as his fingers this time, softly unbuttoned her shirt and pushed it to the side. Her back arched up and he was able to slide it down her arms before tossing it to the side.
Nestled between her legs, his hips rocked while he nibbled his way down her chest and to one of her breasts. Once again, his fingers twisted the elastic of the straps sliding them down her arms and releasing them from the cups that held them tight. “Your body is amazing,” he whispered once again coming to her ear and biting it.
A jolt traveled to her chest as her nipples perked.
“Let me savor you.”
This time, she didn’t have time for her BS meter to go off and send her into a fit of laughter. Not as Clay’s strong lips surrounded her nipple and sucked it in while his fingers lightly danced across her belly. Inhaling deep, she dug her nails into his head, but he didn’t protest. Instead, he sucked harder as his tongue circled the engorged flesh of her breast and she swore her clit jumped. “Take me,” she moaned, but he didn’t instead, he released her breast and blew on her nipple. It stung in a sweet sensation of pain and pleasure as her hips rolled up. “Take me.” This time her plea came out in a strained cry as if him not being inside of her was the most pain she’d ever experienced in life. It may be. Her core was clenching as it searched for something to hold onto, only to come up empty. Need and hunger took her over as she fumbled trying to reach his pants but he’d moved further down her body.
The Last to Know Page 9
