Gone Country: Rough Riders, Book 14

by Lorelei James

  The house was quiet but she saw the glow from the TV upstairs which meant Gavin was glued to some sporting event. Addicted to sports was better than being addicted to porn, she supposed, but she’d never understand the man’s undying love of the games. Rielle found it ironic the sport Gavin’s brother competed in on a professional level held zero interest for him. He’d watch Chase ride, but he turned the channel the instant Chase was done.

  A long shower removed the dirt but not the black cloud hanging above her. She stared out the window for a while, until she realized if she’d be up all damn night without a sleep aid. She wandered to the kitchen and grabbed a six-pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. During her unproductive navel-gazing in her room, she’d already downed half the second bottle when a knock sounded on her door.

  “It’s open.”

  “I heard you in the kitchen. I thought you were still working.” Gavin’s arms encircled her waist and he pressed a kiss on her neck. “Why didn’t you come upstairs?”

  Rielle pointed to the six pack. “I’m lousy company.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “Trust me, it’s true.” She drained the bottle and set it on the windowsill.

  “Would you like to talk about it?”

  “Gavin, I appreciate your concern, but I’m bitchy right now and I’d rather you didn’t see this side of me.”

  His mouth brushed her ear. “Am I to take that as you’ve never been bitchy with me before?”

  “Funny.”

  “Or you think I can’t handle you being less than my Ree of sunshine?” He paused. “Ray of sunshine. Get it?”

  She smiled, in spite of herself. “Yes, I got it.”

  “Were you really going to sleep down here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that sucks. Not only because I looked forward to having my wicked way with you—which I was—but because that means you’ve shut me out. And you know what? I don’t like being shut out.”

  Rielle didn’t detect hurt in his tone, just concern. “I’m sorry. This…sharing your bad day stuff is still new to me.”

  “To me too. But we both know every day won’t be perfect and I want you to be able to tell me what’s eating at you.”

  She always handled stuff on her own. “It’s not a personal thing between us, but a business thing for me.”

  “Oh. Well, that’s different. Fuck this talking about your business shit; if it doesn’t have anything to do with me and you, I’m going to bed.”

  She froze.

  Gavin’s arms tightened around her. “See how crazy that sounds? Ree. I’m in your life. All aspects of it. I’m a pushy dick who won’t leave this—or you—alone until you talk to me.”

  How had she ever gotten so lucky to have this man in her life? She leaned back into him. “I lost the Twin Pines bread account today. Which means I also lost the Creekside B&B account since they’re owned by the same people.” There. She’d said it without choking on it or letting loose a string of profanities.

  “Did they indicate why they were terminating the contract?”

  “They’re bringing the baked goods in-house.”

  “No wonder you’re upset,” he murmured.

  Now that she’d opened her mouth, everything just spilled out. “The Twin Pines is the first place that contracted me for baked goods before the bakery closed. So it feels like I’m losing a cornerstone of my business, even when their orders had dropped off in the last year.”

  “I understand that. But the upside of this situation is that it isn’t the quality of your product that caused their decision. So there’s nothing you could’ve done to prevent it.”

  Gavin wasn’t just being the sweet supportive boyfriend, but he looked at this from the business side and she appreciated that.

  “Are you worried other restaurants and businesses will follow suit and take the baking in-house?”

  “That’s part of it. But I know a big plus to the restaurants I supply is my products are unique to each place. The only restaurant you can get the savory and honey seven-grain rolls is at Fields. Same with the other five restaurants I supply.”

  “Which is smart. You don’t need me to tell you that.” Gavin gently turned her around to face him. “What else has put that wrinkle in your brow and the clouds in your eyes?”

  “After I left the Twin Pines today, I didn’t immediately start researching other restaurants I could sell to, to fill the gap.”

  “You’ve always done that in the past?”

  She nodded. “I’ve always needed to replace the income right away. Over the last few hours as I’ve dissected this reaction every possible way, I realized I don’t want to seek out replacement restaurants.” She hated talking about money with Gavin, but her mindset in this case went beyond money and it involved him. “So I have to ask myself: Have I gotten lazy?”

  Gavin burst out laughing.

  “Gavin. I’m serious.”

  “Ree. Honey, rest assured you’re not a slacker. I’m pretty sure losing the Twin Pines and Creekside B&B business will only be a blip in your daily routine. If the income loss isn’t substantial enough to worry you at all, then you’re exactly right in questioning the immediate need to find replacement income.”

  She kissed his smirking mouth. “You’re so…I hesitate to say right because you’ll get a swelled head, but you are. Even if you are pushy.”

  “Only so I won’t have to push you again and you’ll come to me on your own next time.”

  “I will. I promise. Thank you.”

  “What else?”

  “I also had to question whether the reason I didn’t want to add more business was because of you.” She hadn’t choked on admitting that either.

  His brow furrowed. “Personally or professionally?”

  “Both.”

  “Because filling that gap is no longer a financial necessity? Since you now have me as a fall back guy?”

  She blushed. “Does that make any sense?”

  “Whacked out Ree sense, yes, but that’s why I love you.” His eyes grew serious. “You’re permanently involved with me, a guy who has no financial worries. If you lost all your businesses now it wouldn’t affect your standard of living because I’m there to pick up the financial slack—even when I know you’d never ask me for a dime. You’ve never had that long-term stability before and it scares you.” His voice dropped to a husky whisper. “You know I’d like to make your life easier.

  “Don’t let that be an issue between us. I love your independence and that you are a self-made woman. I still think you work too hard, but that’s a huge part of who you are and what formed you. I love the whole of you, Ree. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that counting on me—physically, emotionally, financially—doesn’t make you soft or lazy.”

  “Gavin. I…” She forced the words past the lump in her throat. “I don’t want you to make my life easier. But you already make it better. That’s all I want from you.”

  He rested his forehead to hers. “I know. Just don’t shut me out anymore, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  An odd sort of acceptance shifted between them in the silence.

  “Can I make love to you now?”

  “Yes. Please.”

  “Close your eyes,” he murmured and kissed her eyelids to ensure she did.

  Gavin’s hands cradled her face and he kissed her so softly, so sweetly, she felt tears welling again. Then his hands moved down her neck and beneath the collar of her robe. He said, “Untie the sash.” As soon as the tie fell free, he slid her satin robe off her shoulders until it pooled on the floor, leaving her naked.

  “So beautiful, every inch of you,” he breathed against her skin.

  His mouth cruised to all the hot spots he’d discovered. The arch of her neck. The side of her right breast. He feasted on her nipples until she became dizzy and wet with want. The entire time his sucking mouth and flickering tongue drove her out of her mind, his hands were on her. Caressing. Squeezing.
Soft at times, rough at others, but every sweep and brush of his fingers and mouth told her of his possession.

  Rielle gave herself over to him completely, understanding that’s what he wanted—her total surrender.

  Gavin worshiped her. With his hands. With his words. “You’re so strong here,” he said, his voice soft against her throat as his fingertips mapped the muscles in her arms. Then the slope of her shoulders.

  Normally she’d urge him to hurry, push her on the bed and mount her like a rutting beast. But she’d given him control and it appeared he intended to take his own sweet time in exercising it fully.

  Not that she was complaining.

  He stood behind her. Scattering openmouthed kisses down her nape and spine until she shook from the eroticism of it. His breath, his lips, the play of his hands all swirled together into an overwhelming maelstrom of sensation. Yet she felt every press of his fingertips, every kiss, every stuttered puff of air across her skin. And he left no section untouched. Unloved.

  Then Gavin turned her around again. He lowered to his knees.

  The muscles in her abdomen rippled as he pressed kisses from her belly button to the rise of her mound.

  “You’re so sweet. My own personal honey pot. I love this hot, sticky honey your body makes just for me.” The tip of his tongue followed the slit down to her opening. After wiggling his tongue inside and softly sucking, he flattened his tongue and dragged it back up.

  Rielle couldn’t keep her legs from wobbling.

  Using his thumbs, he opened the folds of skin hiding her clit. He murmured something and settled his mouth on her sex.

  He’d wound her so tight that thirty seconds after his wicked mouth began to suck, she unraveled. The short, intense orgasm had just primed her for more. She eagerly waited for him to command her to get on the bed.

  But Gavin didn’t budge. His tongue traced the lines of muscles in her quads. His teeth nipped the inside of her thighs. When he fucked two fingers in and out of her swollen pussy, her legs became Jell-O again. That tingling tease of release hovered close to the surface.

  “Come for me.”

  “I…” She groaned when he slid his thumb over the seam of her sex.

  Between the pressures of his thumb pushing her clit up so his tongue could torture her with wet swirls and the constant rubbing of his fingers on her inner vaginal wall, she hit that detonation point. The throbbing heat licked through her body. She felt the waves in her nipples. In her throat. In her lips. Gavin held on and held her up through every pulse. Then he nuzzled and petted her as she floated down from that foggy bank of pleasure.

  As soon as he was on his feet, she tried to remove his clothes, but he stayed her hands. He kissed her fingertips. The center of her palms. The insides of her wrists. Planting his mouth on hers, he kissed her deeply, with sweetness, with finesse. Sharing her taste and giving her a taste of his need.

  He kept touching her as he ditched his sweatpants and T-shirt. His hands were in her hair as they landed on the mattress, warm skin meeting warm skin.

  His seduction was all consuming. Powerful in a quiet fever of desire. It seemed he’d shown her in a hundred different small ways that he loved her. But this was different. This was action speaking louder than words. This cemented their connection completely. Physically. Emotionally. Permanently.

  Watching her eyes, he entered her, stopping when they were fully joined. Letting her see in his eyes everything she brought to him, everything she gave to him when their bodies became one.

  Rielle wrapped her legs around his hips. She lifted her arms to circle his neck but he made a growling noise and pinned her right arm above her head. That brought their bodies even closer.

  Then he started to move. Showing her that passion didn’t have a set speed. Gavin’s need for her was there in every measured undulation of his hips. In every drawn out glide of his chest against hers.

  Sinking into the slow sizzle and burn of his kisses. Breathless in anticipation for the long thrusts of his body linking to hers. This was acceptance. This was love. This was perfection.

  And this man was all hers.

  By the time he’d taken them to that pinnacle of pleasure, sweat coated their skin. Their hearts thundered. Need clawed with tiny teeth.

  He ground his pelvis into hers and her orgasm unfurled. Unending, glorious. And with her inner walls rhythmically clamping around his shaft, Gavin let himself go.

  There was no need for words. Rielle wasn’t sure if there were words for what’d just happened between them.

  They curled into each other and drifted into peaceful sleep.

  Branding day dawned misty and warm. Gavin had no idea what to expect, so he asked his brothers. Ben and Quinn had looked at the sky, looked at the ground and said, “Mud.”

  Dalton, Tell and Brandt arrived early to help round up cattle. Ben, Quinn and Brandt were on horseback, the rest of them were on ATVs. An hour and a half later the herd milled around the corrals. The calves inside; the mamas outside. Mamas did not like to be separated from their babies. Babies didn’t like being away from mamas. The noise was deafening. They all had to shout over the din.

  Other McKay cousins arrived and Charlie told him it took four days of branding to get all the McKay cattle branded. One day at their place. Kade and Kane’s, and Brandt, Tell and Dalton’s calves were branded on the same day. And two solid days to mark the calves that Cord, Colby and Colt raised.

  Gavin watched as the guys worked in teams of two. They grabbed a calf from the pen, pinned it on its side. One held the head; one held the rear. Quinn and Ben did the branding with the irons. Libby and Ainsley handled vaccinating the calves. Gavin never imagined the suit and high-heel-wearing bank president down in the muck, but she got right in there.

  Cal used the small round iron for de-horning if needed, and Charlie was tasked with castration. One of Colby’s boys was in charge of the “nut bucket” and followed Charlie as he cut off the testicles, turning potential bulls into steers. Gavin peered into the big dump bucket. There looked to be a whole lot of Rocky Mountain oysters.

  As the day wore on they were all grateful for the cloud cover. Charlie had warned him to be prepared for anything because the month of May could be as hot as eighty or cold enough for heavy snow.

  At first Gavin had been self-conscious about jumping into the fray, but his curiosity won out over pride. It was a challenge, holding the head of an animal as its flesh got seared, its balls got whacked off and its horns were burned away. Down in the trenches the air was thick with the stench of burning hide. By the time he took a breather, his coveralls were covered in mud, manure and hair.

  His cousins teased him. “We’ll make a rancher out of you yet.”

  After they finished branding, everyone showed up at Quinn and Libby’s. Kids and dogs ran wild. Beneath two canopies tables were piled with enough food to feed an army.

  Gavin looked around for Sierra. She waved to him and continued her conversation with Colt’s wife India. Hopefully she wasn’t discussing future tattoo options.

  When he saw Rielle, laughing with Ainsley and Libby, he had a feeling of rightness. Of contentment.

  Rielle strolled over. “Hey, cowboy. So after a day of branding are you ditching your loafers for spurs to wrassle cattle?”

  “No.” Gavin snuck in a kiss or three. “I’d rather wrassle you. You don’t put up nearly the fight.”

  She smiled, then shot a look at Sierra before she leaned closer. “What do you know about Sierra’s presentation? Because she’s nervous.”

  “Did you talk to her?”

  “I tried. But she’s a little high-strung, like someone else I know.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Me?”

  “Nope. Me.” She pecked him on the mouth. “Gotta run. Save me a seat at the table.”

  Even with so many people the chow line moved fast. Gavin sat across from Keely and Jack. Sierra scooted over when Rielle showed up and didn’t say much.

  “Keely, h
ow are you feeling?” Rielle asked.

  “Good, for the most part. I’m tired. I could sleep all damn day. This kid kicks all the time.”

  “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

  Keely shook her head. “There are so few surprises in life, we want this to be one of them.”

  “Any weird cravings?”

  “Tomatoes and Hershey bars,” Jack answered. “And yes, she eats them at the same time.”

  That sounded nasty.

  “But I’m not hungry at all today,” Keely said. She turned sideways on the bench seat and leaned into Jack.

  Jack stretched his hands across Keely’s rounded belly and murmured to her.

  Then Gavin was drawn into conversation with Carson and when he turned back to talk to Sierra, she’d vanished.

  After everyone had eaten, and they were milling about under the big tent, Vi clapped her hands for attention. “Sierra has something she’d like to share. A piece of McKay history.” Vi gently patted Sierra on the shoulder as she shoved her front and center.

  Gavin grinned. Vi had her own way of doing things.

  Sierra looked nervous being in front of the entire McKay clan. Her gaze scanned the crowd until she found him. He smiled, elated his daughter still looked to him for support. He gave her two thumbs up, which would earn the, Dad, you’re such a dork remark later.

  Sierra clutched a sheaf of papers and began. “Most of you know I did a paper on the McKay family for history class. I started out with an old family tree, branched out, and wow, there are a lot of McKays running around these days. It took me forever to do that part.” That earned her laughter. “Anyway, when I finished, I was still confused about a few things. For one, the lack of information about Jonas McKay’s twin brother Silas, who was unofficially marked as deceased. He isn’t buried in the McKay cemetery and there is no official record of his death.”

  A wave of conversation broke out and then Dalton whistled for quiet.

  “Aunt Carolyn lent me the McKay archives and I scanned all the information in twenty-seven boxes, including Dinah Thompson McKay’s journals. The other reason I kept going on my search, is because I’ve heard about the West-McKay feud, but no one—in the McKay family or the West family—knew what’d happened. And I mean no one. Not even my Grandpa Charlie and he’s old.” More laughter and Sierra blew Charlie a kiss when he tipped his hat to her.