by Em Petrova
“Yes, John, I know it was all you. And you persuading me to keep the ranch has finally rubbed off—I’m stayin’. I’ll run the Amazing Grace. And you will leave—now.”
“I can’t leave. This is all I’ve worked to build the past thirty—”
“Get the hell off my property, John. And you’d better be quick about it. I’ll give you five minutes to get your things.” He pulled back his shirt cuff to look at his watch. “Go.”
Instead of retaliating with strong words or arguments, John hurried to do Knox’s bidding like the coward he was. Backed into a corner and with his lies exposed, what else could he do but run?
Too bad, because Knox had been hankering for a fight, a reason to put his hands on the dirty son of a bitch who’d tried to take him down.
Nobody would ever attempt such a thing again, and Knox would see to it that the Amazing Grace continued to prosper—and then the legacy was handed to his own children.
He followed John out the door and firmly locked it behind himself. As he watched the man get into his truck, Knox called to him.
“I’d better never set eyes on you again, you bastard. Don’t show your face here.”
Without a word, John drove off.
Knox stood on the front porch he’d nailed the boards onto himself as a kid. Around him, the night was loud with peeper frogs and crickets hiding in the surrounding fields. A soft whinny came from one of John’s pair of horses he kept in the mini-barn out back. In the morning, Knox would have one of the hands ride up and see to the animals, bring them home to the ranch.
On second thought, he needed to install a man in this cabin to oversee the remote section of the Amazing Grace. If a fire broke out or something else went awry, someone needed to be here.
His mind lit on Corbin. The man he’d spent many years despising was actually a competent and reliable ranch hand. If he wanted this place, he could have it, and their differences could be swept under the rug.
With the anger wrung from him, Knox stood a moment looking over the dark field toward the main house. Kizzy was there, a warm pull on his soul he couldn’t ignore.
What he wouldn’t give to go home and take her into his arms, to breathe in her sweet scents and look into those beautiful blue eyes before he kissed her.
She was trying to maintain a professional distance, but to hell with that. He was finished pretending he didn’t want her.
She’ll be stubborn, though.
I’ve never shied away from a challenge.
If Kizzy had plans to shut down his advances, he had enough in his arsenal to fight back—because he’d seen the shine in her eyes and heard her soft moans of wanting.
* * * * *
Kizzy knew the moment Knox left the house and the moment he returned. In between, she’d sat up waiting, fully dressed in case he needed her.
Sitting on her bed with her legs curled under her, she tried to distract herself with some of the work emails that had come in since she’d last looked, but her mind was far away, with Knox.
Maybe… Could it be time to stop pretending she wasn’t in love with him?
The strength and determination she’d seen in the man had bolted down her heart to him and twisted the key. If he came back and asked her to come to his bed, with those dark hazel eyes of his burning with flames of lust for her, she wouldn’t deny him.
And she couldn’t shake off his words—It’s time for me to be a cowboy again.
She’d left home so she didn’t get tied down to a cowboy, but Knox wasn’t just any old cowboy. He was… the whole package.
Pushing the laptop across the bed, she started to get up, when she heard a dog bark. One of the herding dogs that lived in the barn.
On alert, she climbed off the bed and went to look out the window, but she couldn’t see the driveway from this vantage point. Was Knox back? What had happened with his uncle?
Her nerves snapped, and there was an undeniable hum of excitement to see him again too, which was telling as hell, considering she’d only talked to him a couple hours ago.
Just as she decided to wander out of her suite and look for him, a knock on her door drew her up with a gasp.
She rushed to it and threw it open.
He stood there, with that dark, brooding look she’d come to know so well.
They stared at each other. Her chest heaved with restrained emotion.
“Kizzy. Can I come in?”
Words fled, but she managed a nod and stepped back to allow him to pass through the door.
He wouldn’t look at her, only at his dusty boots.
“Knox.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you all right? What happened?”
“I took care of John.”
She tingled with relief.
He raised his gaze to hers, and a knot pulled hard in her gut. “Now it’s time to take care of you.”
She couldn’t draw breath. “M-me?”
He nodded and turned to her. Though he didn’t reach out for her, she felt the warmth of his closeness. “Kezziah… what a perfect name for you.”
She released a short laugh. “It’s a weird name. Try spelling it when you’re four.”
His lips twitched at one corner. “Quirky you mean.”
What was this conversation about? She didn’t think he’d come to talk about her name.
“Kezziah… Kizzy.” He searched her eyes.
A long heartbeat passed. She tipped her head back to meet his stare. “What is it?”
“This.” He slipped a hand under the length of her hair, his callused touch sparking a thousand nerve endings.
He stepped closer. “This feeling I have for you. I think you feel it too. I don’t know when it happened, but I feel like we’re bound together.” As he spoke, he leaned closer so his words washed over her lips.
Her mind spun, her heart raced. “Knox…” She surged upward and pressed her mouth to his.
A growl left him—he scooped her up against him and bowed her back over his arm, tongue plunging into the depths of her mouth. A rasp of desire escaped, and she clung to his broad shoulders as she kissed him back.
He lifted her and spun toward the bed, lips burning across her throat. When her spine hit the mattress, she gathered him close. He buried his face against her neck and sucked in a breath.
“Kizzy… baby girl, tell me you don’t feel something for me and I’ll walk away right now.”
“I can’t,” she whispered.
He went still and then started to push away, to stand, misunderstanding her words.
She grabbed the front of his shirt and stared up at him. “Knox, I can’t tell you that I don’t feel something… because I feel so much for you.”
A quiet noise grated from his throat. She yanked him back down atop her, and passion exploded between them.
He grappled at her shirt, and she fumbled over his buttons. When she tore the shirt over his muscled shoulders, he maneuvered to help her remove it. Her top hit the floor, and he went for her bra, tugging it over her breasts so they spilled out. As he took one nipple in his mouth, she arched upward with a cry.
Sinking her fingers into his hair, she drew him down. “Harder,” she murmured. “More.”
He groaned against her flesh and grazed her sensitive bud with his teeth. Pleasure burst behind her eyes like fireworks on the Fourth of July. She went for his belt buckle. His big hands roved over her bare ribs to her spine, and he unclasped her bra. The fabric fell away, and he kissed a path over the newly exposed flesh.
“I don’t just want you, baby. I need you in my life. You’ve become everything.”
His words burned through her, and her own emotions rose to the surface, love words lying on her lips. If she spoke them aloud, there was no going back. You could shag your boss and that changed things. But you couldn’t love him too and ever go back to being just work colleagues.
But to deny the part of herself that loved this man was like severing a limb from her body.
One of the
m had to take the first step. Except it didn’t feel like a step—it was a huge leap across a canyon of hope.
She cupped his stubbled jaw in her hands and drew his head up to look into his eyes. “Knox…”
Swallowing hard, he waited.
“I’m in love with you.”
His face crumpled, and he slammed his mouth over hers. “Thank God, baby girl, because I can’t live without you now. I love you so damn much.”
All talk ended as he plunged his tongue into her mouth again and again, and soon they were stripped naked. When he donned a condom and poised himself at her slick core, she smiled at him.
And he smiled back, then slid home.
* * * * *
Cradling her round ass in his hands, he drew her up into his every thrust. His hips churned, and he couldn’t get deep enough… close enough.
She wrapped her thighs high on his hips and ground against him. Tender words dropped from his lips, and he couldn’t take them back now even if he tried. He never wanted this moment to end, and to hell with the rules. This beautiful woman was his.
She pushed on his chest, and he rolled over, dragging her atop him. Dark hair fell in waves over her perfect breasts, and the love spelled on her features sucked him in like a magnet to steel. Funny how he didn’t know which one of them was magnet or steel—maybe they both were, each as strong as the other and in moments of weakness would hold up the other.
They hadn’t gotten to the part where she needed his support, but damn if he wouldn’t be there holding her hand each step she took.
Palming her breasts, he moaned at the delicious weight of them. She worked her hips, grinding down over his erection. When he stroked his thumbs over her nipples, across the tendrils of her long hair tickling them, a hot coal of need burned hotter.
Sensing this, she rocked faster, rising and falling and taking what she wanted. Her soft cries grew louder, and he grasped her by the hips to help her along as his own release rushed up.
“So close!” She tossed her head back.
He drank in the vision of her seated on him—hair tumbling, throat glistening with perspiration, lips parted and nipples bunched up to two tight pink buds.
He splayed his hands over her hips and pressed his thumb between her folds, locating the bundle of nerves that would send her over the edge. She clenched around him, a low coo leaving her along with a shudder of bliss.
When he applied pressure on her clit, rubbing in soft circles, she twitched. Her louder cry accompanied the hard pulses of her body around his length, and his orgasm claimed his entire body.
The jets of his release went on for what felt like forever, and she threw herself forward on him, riding out the waves together.
Passion spread through his heart. He tangled his fingers in her hair and drew her mouth to his. “I love you, baby girl.”
She closed her fingers over his chest where his heart pounded hard for her. “Knox, I need to tell you something.”
He brushed his lips over hers once, twice, unable to stop kissing her and still hard and ready to go a second time. “You can tell me anything,” he whispered against her mouth.
She leaned away to meet his stare. “Anything?”
“Yes.”
“I resign.”
* * * * *
Knox grabbed her hips and tossed her into the mattress. In a blink, he pinned her. His gaze burned.
“You can’t resign. I won’t allow it.”
“I can’t work for a man I love.”
His gaze intensified. “Then I’ll give you a share of everything.”
“What?” Shock tore through her, and if he hadn’t been holding her down, she might have leaped up at the sudden jolt of energy hitting her system.
He nodded slowly. “A part of Cohen Mortgages will be yours. You won’t be working for me, but for your investment.”
“Knox—”
“And the Amazing Grace too. I need you on both ventures until I figure out what the hell I’m doing with them. I can’t be here and in Houston.”
“Maybe I can go to Houston while—”
“Don’t even say it. I don’t want you out of my sight.” He planted his thumb over her lips, and a thrill ran through her at her own flavor. He’d just used that thumb to stroke her into a massive orgasm, and all she wanted was more. To hell with business—right now there was only pleasure.
She mumbled under the pad of his thumb, and he pulled it free.
“What was that?”
“I said, then we have a lot to figure out.”
“We do.” He got that thoughtful focus that had turned her on right from the beginning. “But not right now.”
“Then when?”
“After you’ve come for me a dozen times in a row. Maybe after that.”
“A dozen?” Her words came out breathless.
He nodded, a grin stealing across his ruggedly handsome features. “At least.”
“Better get busy then.”
“I think I like having a woman as driven as me.”
It was her turn to grin. Being appreciated for more than her looks felt as if she’d just closed her fingers on a shining star and ripped it from the heavens.
Gliding a hand down his carved abs, she reveled in the feel of him. He brushed his nose against hers. “I feel like I hit the lottery,” he rumbled.
“What in the world would you do with more money?”
He chuckled. “Something great and philanthropic. You can help me figure that out later. For now…” He lightly bit her lower lip.
“Mmm. Get out that box of condoms, Mr. Cohen.”
“You can call me sir, I may like it now.”
She giggled. “Sir, I require more pleasure.”
He assumed a stern expression. “That’s more like it.”
Rolling off the bed, he disappeared into her bathroom to deal with his spent condom. Quickly, she scrambled across the room and perched on the edge of her desk chair. Totally nude, she pretended to take notes, and when he emerged from the bathroom, his growl spread goosebumps all over her body.
Bare-ass naked, he strode over to her, erection bouncing against his abs. Hovering near, he looked at the note she’d written.
His eyes bulged.
With a grin, she slipped off the chair to her knees and encircled his shaft with her fingers. Looking up at him, she parted her lips and took him into her mouth.
“Holy hell,” he ground out, threading his fingers into her hair to drag her closer. “That’s what I call a to-do list.”
* * * * *
Kizzy woke bit by bit, her senses picking up the chorus of birds outside her bedroom window and the soft feel of her cotton sheets against her bare skin. Then she sniffed the air.
“French toast?” she asked, knowing that Knox was there before even opening her eyes.
“Mm-hm. And if you don’t wake up and eat it right now, you run the risk of me pouring this maple syrup all over your body and enjoying my own breakfast.”
She kept her eyes closed. “I’ll take my chances.”
“Damn, woman, you’re killing me.” He kissed her, and she tasted the sweetness and cinnamon on his lips.
Popping her eyes open, she saw he was dressed, shaved and ready for his day. “You let me sleep late.”
“Yes. I caught Caroline and had her make us both some breakfast. But I need to head out to meet the vet in a few minutes.”
“Oh no. I wanted to come too. Why didn’t you get me up?” She threw back the covers, and too late realized the effect her nakedness would have on him. The lascivious grin coating his lips made her nipples peak.
He shifted the tray of food to one hand and skimmed his fingertip over her hard, aching, needy nipple. “Hell. I’m never leaving you, baby girl. You know I’m only going now for the sake of the cattle.”
She sobered at the thought of what those poor beasts had been enduring with the rampant skin condition. At least the vet would be here pronto.
“Keep rubbing
my nipple that way and neither of us are leaving this room, Knox.”
He reluctantly dropped his hand but let it lay heavy, warm and inviting on her thigh. One twitch to the side and he’d be touching her intimately.
Damn, she was turning into a sex-crazed woman. And she still couldn’t understand when they’d decided it was a good idea to go to bed with each other and profess their love.
“Eat up and get dressed quick and maybe you can come along with me.”
“I’d like that.” She grabbed the tray and settled it across her legs.
He stared at her as if she was a delicious treat. “Aren’t you even going to get dressed? You’re just going to sit there naked and torment me?”
Flashing a grin, she nodded and took a huge bite of French toast. The flavors of maple and salty butter filled her mouth, and she moaned.
“Oh God. Woman, you’re going to make me nuts by the time the day’s out. I’m going to the barn to take care of some business. Can you meet me out there? We’ll take the truck because it’s faster.”
“Of course.” Automatically, she assumed her personal assistant tone.
He heard it too and nailed her with a look. “You know you don’t need to do my bidding anymore. You resigned, remember?”
“Uh-huh, just before I…” She pulled him close and whispered all the naughty things she’d done to him.
He clenched a fist. “If I touch you, I’m done for. But damn if I don’t want to toss you back in those sheets and show you just how much I love you, baby girl.”
Liquid heat with a mixture of heart-pounding love claimed her body.
He went still, eyes dark with lust. “What’s that look for?”
“I like when you call me baby girl.”
He rumbled a growl and leaned in to stamp a kiss on her lips. “Eat and meet me outside.”
When he walked out, she gave a small shiver at the look of the man. Pure masculine hardcore businessman wrapped up in Wranglers and boots. KC Cohen was slaying her with the feelings of need pooling low in her belly.
She hastily ate the French toast and made a mental note to thank Caroline for the delicious breakfast. Then she rushed through a two-minute shower, leaving her hair unwashed so she wasn’t dealing with it wet. After tossing on jeans and a T-shirt, she bundled her hair off her face into a ponytail, put on her boots and struck out to find Knox.
