by D. L. Roan
“Nice subject change,” Papa Daniel chuckled.
“I wasn’t changing the—.”
“Jonah needed a minute to himself,” he continued with a wink and a staying hand. “So, Pryce drove Gran, Nate, and Joe down to Chloe’s aunt’s bakery to get breakfast and some fresh coffee. The swill that comes out of the machine down the hall is bitter enough to choke a mule.”
Dani scoffed, then sniffled. “You haven’t tasted anything as atrocious as the coffee in Texas.” She shuddered at the memory of it and Papa Daniel chuckled again.
“Papa Jake is on a run to the ranch for a change of clothes for me and your gran,” Papa Daniel continued. “We’ve been here since yesterday morning and getting a little grimy.”
“What happened?” she asked, taking a seat.
He sank down beside her and scrubbed a hand over the silvery scruff blanketing his cheeks. She hung on his every word as he told her Uncle Cade had been having some stomach pains they thought were side effects from his new medicine. He’d started spitting up blood the night before she left, which was why Breezy had been called over. The doctors hadn’t seemed to be worried since it was only a trace, but it turned out the new medication had caused an ulcer that ruptured. He’d been slowly bleeding out and eventually collapsed the morning before.
Dani’s lips began to tremble. Determined not to start crying again, she pressed them together and swallowed the knot in her throat. How much more could Uncle Cade take?
“He’ll beat this,” Papa Daniel assured her, giving her knee a firm squeeze. “He’s too stubborn to let a fever take him.”
“Can I see him?” she asked.
Papa Daniel shook his head. “They’re not allowing visitors until his fever comes down.”
“Damn.” Thoughts of losing him before she got the chance to see him or say goodbye, taunted her, but she pushed them away. Surrounded by family, she was already feeling stronger. They could get through anything together, and they’d make it through this.
Gran and the Papas came back, and Jonah, Chloe, and Pryce joined them. After the emotional reunion, they all dug into the homemade pastries from the bakery, which Chloe couldn’t keep down to save her life, cursing the morning sickness that had yet to abate despite being at the end of her first trimester. It was after noon by the time they polished off the last of the coffee, Dani having drunk her fair share to make up for lost time.
She was sitting beside Clay when he reached over and took her hand. Flinching at the unexpected contact, her gaze immediately scanned the room for her dads, then relaxed when she saw them standing out in the hall chatting with Papa Joe and Connor. It was a ridiculous reaction, born out of habit, but she wasn’t ready to deal with the fallout.
Now wasn’t the time. With emotions running so high, it would be like pushing Clay in front of a firing squad, but she also didn’t want him to think she was trying to hide their relationship, not forever anyway.
She squeezed his hand and gave him a covert smile, noticing his bloodshot eyes. Humbled, she leaned in and whispered, “Thank you for waiting with me.”
He leaned his head against the wall behind him with a sleepy hum. The corners of his mouth ticked up into a lazy grin. “I’m not going to make it much longer. Would you mind if I crashed in my truck for a bit?”
“I’ll go with you.” She started to stand, but Clay squeezed her hand and drew her back down.
He eyed the hallway, then pulled his phone from his pocket. “Wait a beat,” he said and handed her his phone. “Say I dropped this.”
Dani took the phone, but couldn’t contain her grin. “Why, Clay Sterling, are you afraid of my dads?”
He glanced at the doorway again, then squeezed her hand. “Little bit,” he snapped off with a grin and pushed to his feet.
Oh my God. Had they already said something to him?
Clay excused himself and she did as he asked, taking advantage of the moment when Grey and Mason disappeared into the men’s room across the hall. Breezy and her mom gave her a knowing grin as she went through the motions of telling them Clay had dropped his phone. Carson scowled, and Jonah rolled his eyes.
She ignored them all and, once outside, practically sprinted to the truck. Clay was already reclined back in the driver’s seat when she tapped on the window. He unlocked the doors and she climbed inside, their mouths fused together before her door was even closed.
He pulled her across the console into his lap, groaning when she finally settled her thighs on either side of his and sank down atop him. Pure bliss. That was the only way to describe the feeling of his arms banding around her, the deep slide of his tongue alongside hers, his taste, and scent, him. He was hard beneath her, but his kiss wasn’t seductive. This felt more like coming home than making out, a need to be close, an affirmation of their connection.
Their kiss slowed to small nips and pecks. He loosened his hold and caressed her back in a lazy rhythm. “Are you okay?” he eventually asked as they lay there in the quiet, the sun shining through the windshield like a warm blanket.
“I am now that I’m home.” Surprised at how much his touched calmed her, she rested her head on his shoulder. “Are you?” she asked, tracing the outline of his collarbone beneath his T-shirt. She’d sensed an uneasiness in him earlier. It was probably nothing, or fatigue, or her dads, but this relaxed, comfortable them was new and, while she loved it, a kernel of doubt niggled at her insides.
“Mmhm. Just tired,” he said, combing his fingers through her hair.
“Did my dads say anything to you?”
“Na.” He chuckled. “But they’re watching us. Grey in particular.”
Dani groaned, his response confirming the source of his uneasiness. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugged beneath her. “I’d be watching me, too,” he laughed, sliding his hands beneath her jeans to cup her ass.
She lifted her head and kissed his dimple, his stubble stinging her lips a little, but she liked the rougher look on him. “It’s too crazy to say anything right now, but we’ll have to eventually. I’m apologizing in advance for whatever happens.”
Clay drew in a deep, resigned breath, then wrapped his arms around her again. “I’m a big boy. I can handle it,” he assured her. “I just need to get some sleep first.”
After another long kiss and a few more stolen moments, she left Clay to his nap. It felt wrong to leave him. Torn between her family and her need to be with him, she glanced over her shoulder at his truck before walking back through the hospital doors.
A nurse came in at one-thirty to speak to Papa Daniel. Sitting between her mom and Breezy, Dani sucked in a breath when she saw the first hint of relief in his expression.
“The fever’s down,” he said when the nurse left.
Gabby squeezed her hand with a sigh of relief.
“Thank you, Lord!” Gran rejoiced from her spot between Papa Joe and Papa Nate.
“They’re letting me back to see him for a few minutes,” Papa Daniel said with the first genuine smile Dani’d seen on his lips in what felt like forever. “I’ll be right back.”
She texted Clay and he responded a moment later, letting her know he was on his way back inside. They waited on pins and needles, the room quieter than Dani’d ever thought possible with them all gathered together.
When Papa Daniel came back twenty minutes later, he looked wrecked but happy. “He’s awake and talking, and hungry,” he said in one rushed and relieved breath.
The family crushed him with a round of relieved and thankful hugs. The commotion was almost immediately followed by a contagious yawn that spread around the room like an inebriating fog.
“We’re going to head home for a while,” Jonah said, Chloe and Pryce gathering around him. “Chloe’s still not feeling well.”
“Oh, honey.” Gabby gave Chloe a gentle hug. “Get some rest. I’ll stop at the diner on our way home and pick you up a bowl of that hot broth you like.”
Chloe nodded, rubbing her tired eyes. “Th
anks. It’s the only thing that stays down lately, but I’m still not counting on it.”
Connor, Carson, and Breezy left behind them, followed by Gran and Papa Joe after a minutes-long argument about Gran overexerting herself. Papa Nate and Papa Jake decided to stay with Papa Daniel while he waited for his next visitation.
“You look as beat as I am,” Mason said to Clay, clapping his hand over his shoulder. “It was a rough flight home.”
“Yeah, it was,” Clay said, glancing at Dani. “I think I’m gonna find a room in town and crash for a while.”
“You’re welcome to crash at the house for a few hours,” Grey offered.
Dani frowned at the unexpected offer. What was he up to?
“Stay for dinner,” Gabby insisted, catching Dani’s gaze. “Tell us about your week. Get a good night’s rest and fly back tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Mason concurred. “You can stay in Con and Car’s old room.”
Clay looked to Dani for guidance, then nodded with a shy grin. “If it’s no trouble, I’d appreciate that.”
“No trouble at all. Not after what you’ve done for Dani.” Gabby threaded her arm around Clay’s and turned him toward the hallway.
Dani said a quick goodbye to Papa Daniel with instructions to tell Uncle Cade she loved him, then followed her family out.
The last wisps of sunlight glowed in the western sky by the time dinner and cleanup were finished. Clay had gotten a phone call and excused himself, taking the call outside. Dani sat alone on the kitchen porch steps and watched him pace in front of the barn. He was like Mason in that way she noticed, always moving, his hands animating his words as he spoke.
Her head swam with competing emotions, thankfulness that Uncle Cade was okay, worry that this incident would somehow lessen the time he had left, regret she’d had to cut her time with Clay short, and anxiousness about revealing the true nature of their relationship to her family. And, sadness at the thought of having to say goodbye.
She picked up the glass of whiskey her brother had given her when they toasted to Uncle Cade’s recovery after dinner, and took a cautious sip. Sad didn’t seem like the right word. Her heart ached with the thought of Clay leaving. It had been easy to make promises when she was with him in his world, but now that she was home, all the impossibilities of their relationship were glaring.
She had a ranch to run and school to finish. Her family was everything to her, and they were here in this world, not in the fantasy world her heart had constructed around Clay. He’d asked her to come back to Texas and to be a part of building his business, but would he leave his family’s ranch to be a part of her life in Montana? She didn’t think so, and she could never ask him to. He was in the same situation as she was, with six states between them.
How can this work?
Through the darkness, she saw him pocket his phone. She grabbed her glass and walked out to meet him as he climbed the hill toward the house. “That was Shannon,” he offered without her having to ask. “She has no idea why Jaqueline said what she did.”
They turned back toward the barn as Dani considered her response. She didn’t want to be intrusive, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel a little jealous. “Do you believe her?” she finally asked.
“I do,” he said with a sigh. “She’s pretty torn up about it. She said she’d mistakenly confided in Jacqueline about her troubles with Jackson, but she’d never once intentionally let on that she wanted Jaqueline to interfere with us.” When they reached the barn door, Clay turned and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Shannon’s not a bad person. She’s lonely and regretting a lot of the decisions she’s made, but she’s just a single mom trying to raise her son the best she can. I don’t believe she meant any harm.”
The sincerity in his eyes was enough to convince her. “I hope she finds better friends.”
“Well, she won’t have to worry about Jaqueline anymore. Nann gave her the boot.”
Dani couldn’t deny the satisfaction she felt with that news. “Good riddance,” she said, then tipped her head back and downed the remaining whiskey in her glass. “Fuck that bitch and the horse she rode in on.”
Clay circled his arms around her waist with a laugh. “Are you drunk?”
Dani pinched her fingers together and held them up between them. “Maybe a little bit.”
“I could sure use one of those,” Clay said, taking the glass from her hand.
Dani scrutinized the empty glass with a grin. After the day they’d had, she could use another one herself. “I think I can help with that.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hand-in-hand, Clay shuffled along behind Dani as she led him down the long, dark aisle inside the barn, the curious snorts and stomps of the horses in the nearby stalls echoing in the musty night air. “Did the light bulb blow again?” he asked.
“Careful,” she warned and guided him through a threshold. Dani released his hand, her boots scuffing along a wooden floor before she flicked on a lamp.
“I hope it’s still here.”
He stepped further into the small office he’d been in once before when they were working on the drone project together, looking around at the changes she’d made since then. He’d had fantasies of taking her on that desk and in that chair.
Dani opened a desk drawer and pumped her fist in triumph. “Yes!” She pulled out a half full bottle of Kentucky bourbon and set it on the desk. “Duncan, our old assistant manager, left it when he retired earlier this year.”
“Lucky us,” he said and set the glass on the desk. She unscrewed the cap and poured a healthy amount, then took a swig from the bottle for good measure. “Whoa, there.” Clay warned her with a chuckle, reaching for the bottle. He checked the label and let out a whistle. “Duncan had good taste. Better go slow or you’ll regret it in the morning.”
Dani sauntered around the desk, a look of pure trouble in her eyes. “Moonshine’s one thing. I can handle my whiskey.”
Clay tensed when she crowded him against the desk, pressing her warm, soft breasts against his chest. From head-to-toe, his body lit up like the Fourth of July and he captured her mouth in an urgent kiss. She tasted of strawberries and whiskey and sex, the potent concoction going straight to his head.
She kicked the door closed, the sound startling him. What little blood he had left in his brain enabled enough synapses to fire for him remember where he was. “What about your dads?”
“We’ll be fine,” she insisted as she toed off her boots. “I want to make love to you, Clay.” Unbuttoning her shirt, she pinned him with a stare that promised all the right kinds of heaven. “Right here. On my desk, just like we did on Levi’s.”
Locked in her gaze like a deer caught in the headlights, he brought the glass to his lips and let the smooth amber liquid slide down his throat as she unbuttoned his shirt. When she raked her fingernails over his chest, the glass hit the desk with a thud. It might have even shattered. He was too lost in her to care.
Clothes littered the floor, and within seconds, they were skin-to-skin. He pushed up onto the desk, his heartbeat pounding against his eardrums as she crawled up to straddle his lap. As she settled in his arms, one of her pebbled nipples grazed his lips, the erotic sensation sending a current of need zinging through his veins, straight to his cock. He opened his mouth and sucked her in, flicking his tongue over and around her nipple, drawing out a shuddering moan, sucking harder as the heat of her pussy enveloped the tip of his cock.
“Fuck, yes,” he hissed out and gripped her hips, desperate to thrust inside her sweet, wet heat, but she resisted.
“I want to tease you,” she said and lifted slowly, squeezing her inner muscles around his cockhead.
Clay choked on a gasp, biting his bottom lip to keep from shouting. “Beautiful, if you keep doin’ that, this is gonna be over before it even begins.”
Without warning, she lowered herself all the way down and he was buried to the root inside her. “Fuck!” His head fell back in
ecstasy.
“Shh,” she warned him as she fisted his hair and brought his mouth back to her breast.
“I can’t stay quiet,” he ground out, snaking his tongue out to trace her other nipple. “Feels too good.” She lifted off him with a slow torturing grind, then dropped down again, the pressure and friction stealing his breath, sanity, and very soul.
Her hands were everywhere, her fingernails blazing a trail across his flesh that marked him as hers forever. The familiar tingle echoed through his balls and he cursed. It was too soon, but he couldn’t stop it. Didn’t want to. He dug his fingers into her hips and forced her down onto him, her mewling gasp only adding to the raging fire that was consuming him one thrust at a time.
“You are the end of me,” he growled out, fisting his hand in her hair, holding her captive to his merciless kiss. He claimed her mouth, her lips, her tongue, every fucking part of her, inside and out.
There was no warning, no little flutter, no initial spasm. Dani clamped down on his cock and her orgasm crashed over them both, sending him straight into the stratosphere on a trajectory toward heaven. “Holy fuck!” he cried out as he came, spending himself inside her as she rode out her own release.
“Mm-mmm-ah!” she cried out, her fingers digging into his flesh, holding on for dear life until she finally slowed to a breathless end. “Oh my God,” she panted against his neck.
Oh my God, was right. Every time he thought it couldn’t get any better, it did, but this was…untouchable, indescribable, absolute divinity.
They made love two more times, finally ending up wrapped in blankets on a bed of hay in the loft above her office. Neither of them could get enough. It was as if their bodies knew what neither of them could admit aloud. What little time they had left would have to sustain them for a long and miserable drought, if not forever. Every time he thought about leaving her, his chest tightened.
“Do you have to leave tomorrow?” she asked, as if she were sensing his regret. She was right about holding her whiskey better than moonshine, but what she did drink had finally caught up to her and she was in that place between numb and blissful sleep.
