He kissed her lips lightly, and even as she felt herself begin to melt and didn’t try to resist the sensation, he took the strands of lights from her hands.
“I can finish this up for you.”
She remembered Catalina and Cruz’s advice to pick her battles. And after the warmly sensuous bout of lovemaking last night and again this morning, she wasn’t in the mood to assert her independence.
“Good day?” he asked. His blue eyes were so beautiful and intent on hers that she felt that melty thing again in her body that she didn’t have the energy to resist.
“Yes, we had a steady crowd, and I added a few people to the wine club Catalina and I are still figuring out how we want to run. You?”
“Better now,” he said, his blue eyes lingering on her.
August and Axel arrived carrying the supplies to build the pizza oven.
“We will build it tomorrow and Tuesday. The weather will be co-operating and you can close off the patio for a few days, especially as it’s not officially open until this coming weekend,” August announced, leaving the wheelbarrow full of bricks off to one side of the patio. Then he scooped up Catalina, pressed a kiss on her rounded belly, then kissed her mouth and said something softly to her.
Anders introduced himself to Isla as did August and Axel, and then Anders took her place on the stepladder.
Axel took the lights from Isla, who hopped off her stepladder.
“Umm, what time do you want me to come in tomorrow?” she asked Tinsley.
“We open at noon, but I was thinking ten if that works with your schedule,” Tinsley said. “I thought we could prepare some charcuterie trays. Also I have some new local cheeses and I would love to have a volunteer taste tester.”
“I’m in.” Isla smiled.
All the Wolf brothers shouted out their willingness to taste test.
“Are you going to learn how to do the shipping, cleaning and opening and closing procedures as well?” she demanded sweetly.
“We probably should,” August shocked her by saying.
“I definitely need to,” Anders said.
Tinsley faced them, hands on hips, not sure exactly what to say. They were serious. They also were stringing the lights and teasing each other, and Tinsley felt a sense of…what was it? Friendship? Family? She’d never felt it before.
“That reminds me, Tinsley,” Axel said as he and Anders made quick work of the light strands and were already tying up the final strand of bulbs. “My horse trainer, Hunter Youngblood has a younger brother who was a marine for four years. He just got honorably discharged and needs a job. Hunter’s hoping his brother will settle close. I’m happy to have him on the ranch, but he has no experience and won’t accept anything he sees as charity. I thought if he helped out at the winery and tasting room, maybe even on the vineyard crew when needed, we can help him find something he likes well enough, learn some skills and help his transition back to civilian life.”
“I’d love to have him for some of the heavy equipment work at the winery at least two days a week,” Catalina called out. “If you think he’s up for it, Axel.”
“We’ll find out. He had a combat injury that took some time to recover from, and he didn’t want to re-enlist for a desk job away from his unit.”
Tinsley was touched. It looked like the Wolfs looked out for their own. What would that be like, to be accepted no matter what?
Maybe that was what she was experiencing now.
“When will he be in town? I have five interviews scheduled for tomorrow,” she said.
“You move fast.” August whistled.
“Need speed,” she flipped an answer.
“That’s my line,” Anders objected.
“Hunter’s picking him up in San Antonio tomorrow. He’ll bring him by to meet you and then take him out to the ranch,” Axel said. “You can interview him. See where you can use him best and what days you’ll want him.”
“Sounds good.”
“We’re fully staffed at the ranch. Any chance the apartment’s going to be available soon?” Axel asked.
“There’s an apartment for rent? Here? Is it upstairs?” Isla asked, pausing folding up the blankets she and Tinsley had brought out and looking up toward the second floor of the building.
“I’m…I thought…August said…” Tinsley paused, feeling the color drain out of her face. She felt like she and Anders were taking baby steps. Moving in with him at the ranch was definitely too far too fast.
Axel folded the stepladder and hooked it through his arm. “Never mind,” he said easily. “My bad. Hunter probably wants his brother to bunk in with him while he gets settled and back on his feet.”
“The apartment is yours for as long as you want it,” August said. “It’s part of your salary package as tasting room manager.” He glared at both of his brothers.
She nodded, relief coursing through her. But Isla’s eyes had flared with hope.
“Just curious.” Isla shrugged casually, but her shoulders slumped, and her smile didn’t cut it. “See you tomorrow at ten, Tinsley. Nice to meet everyone.”
She hugged the blankets to her chest and hurried back into the tasting room to drape them over the old wooden ladder they’d propped against the wall.
Tinsley watched Isla leave, her heart heavy. Isla must have a place to live. Maybe she just wanted to live closer to her new job. She’d listed a PO Box for her address, but her mom lived in San Antonio.
Tinsley signed. She was already worrying about her employees—Isla and now the soldier coming home. She’d done the same thing with the four women and two men sales team she’d hired for the Four Wolfs distillery.
“The lights look great. The patio came together so fast. I think you’ll never get people to go home and Slater Highwater will start a petition to get the city council to shut us down earlier.”
Us. For the first time in a long time, that word didn’t make her cringe. She was part of something.
“Tinsley even got Slater to agree to offer four of our varietals in the bar,” August bragged.
“Just the beginning,” Anders said, slinging his arm around her slim shoulders and pulling her in close. “I was hoping I could take you to dinner.”
“That sounds like a date,” she said, her heart speeding up. They weren’t dating, although why that stressed her out more than letting him back into her bed probably only a psychologist could answer.
“It does,” he said.
“Why don’t we all go out together?” August suggested like he was auditioning for Mr. Switzerland. “We could go to the Carriage House, eat dinner, and politely talk. That would get some town tongues wagging. Maybe make the front page of the Defender.”
Anders scowled at his brother. Tinsley didn’t like the idea any more with a crowd. It sounded too much like being part of a couple.
Everything seemed to be moving too fast.
“I’m not dressed for the Carriage House,” Cruz said. “Let’s make it something casual and quick as I want to pick up Diego at his friend Ryan’s house before it gets too late.”
“I have an idea,” Tinsley said quickly, as inspiration and self-preservation hit at the same time. “I have been putting together a few appetizers and snack plate ideas for the tasting room. How about I bring some out and we can all sit on the new couches around one of the gas fires, admire the lights, and test the tasting room menu?”
“You’ve been working all day. You don’t need to feed us,” Anders objected.
“Not a lot of work,” Tinsley said, holding on to her patience. “Besides, it’s helpful, and then August and Catalina can see what it will feel like to be a guest. I’ll bring out a Tempranillo for the brothers to bond.”
“Bond?” Anders made the word sound like a curse.
She smiled when she really wanted to roll her eyes.
“You’ve been on your feet all day.”
“Everyone here’s been working all day,” Tinsley said.
Then when he op
ened his mouth again, she seized his arm. “Fine. You can help me put a few things together.” She dragged him back into the tasting room. “You said you’d chill out on the bossing.”
“I’m not bossing. I just wanted to take you to dinner without my brothers and their wives analyzing everything I do.”
“Why?”
“Why?” he echoed, staring at her. “So we can spend time alone together—you know, a date, something couples do.”
“We’re not a couple.”
He stared at her like she was nuts. “We made love so many times last night and this morning that we could barely move. That sounds pretty couplish to me.”
Heat prickled her neck and flared in her cheeks. Even her scalp felt sweaty.
“Yes, but—” she began.
“But nothing. We will be co-parenting in about six months. You didn’t want me to rush you into marriage so I agreed to back off so that we could get to know each other better. That means dating. You agreed.”
Had she?
She opened her mouth and closed it again. Not sure of anything anymore. Anders confused her.
“I am trying.”
He closed the distance between them. “I want to show you that I can be a good partner, that I can take care of you and our child. That I am not just into you for the mind-bending, fantastical, amazingly awesome, incredible sex.”
Mind-bending?
She liked the sound of that too much. Desire stirred low in her body. She pressed her legs together.
“Let’s feed your family.”
“They can feed themselves.”
“I was an only child,” she told him. “I like that you have brothers.” She swallowed, and, without meaning to, she reached out and played with one of the buttons on his western-style blue and red checked flannel shirt. “And I really like Catalina and Cruz.”
“I do too. I just don’t have that much time when I’m home, and when I’m home I want to spend time with you.”
“They’ll leave soon. Cruz needs to pick up her son. And I want Catalina and August’s opinion on the appetizers. She knows the wine the best. I’ve done a lot of thinking and researching about this, and I want to make sure I get it right. Verflucht already had one disaster hit it with the tour bus going through the front of the tasting room. I want these first opening weeks to go well, and I want to grow the wine club for them, make all their hard work and huge capital outlay pay off.”
“This sample appetizer menu thing is important to you?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” He pulled off his hat, ran his fingers through his shaggy dark hair, making it spring up in front more than usual, giving him almost a curly, out-of-control pompadour. “What do you want me to do?”
“That gives me a lot of power and ideas.” She laughed and headed back to the kitchen.
“Me too. And the idea holding the most appeal is tossing my brothers their keys and telling them to get lost.”
“Where’s all the famous Texas cowboy charm and hospitality I’ve heard so much about?”
He laughed. “The Wolfs are well known in town for many things. Hospitality ain’t one of them.”
“That’s about to change,” Tinsley said.
*
A couple of hours later after they had worked together to serve a cheese, nut, olive and bruschetta plate along with some squash flatbread and a charcuterie tray to his brothers, and then cleaned up, Anders retrieved his duffel from his truck, locked up the tasting room and walked Tinsley upstairs, helping her to turn off all the lights.
She locked up the office opposite her upstairs apartment and then unlocked her door. She hesitated for a moment and then walked inside, leaving the door open behind her.
“I’m going to take a shower.”
She hurried into her bedroom, only partially closing the door. Another invitation or miscalculation? Why did she keep squatting on the fence? She’d refused to be indecisive since she’d walked away from her old life and built a new one. All her caution and worry was driving her crazy. Anders was not John. She had to exorcise her ex from her head like she had from her heart and her life.
She yanked on the water and turned the knob to hot.
Her child deserved to know its father.
Her child. For a moment, her hand hovered over her abdomen. A life was growing there, and she needed to be ready. Closing her eyes, she pressed her hand over her stomach. She hadn’t gained more than a pound or two, but she felt different. Softer, rounder. But she wasn’t ready to look at her body in the mirror yet.
She let the straps of her new Free People Holiday Hero maxi dress fall off her shoulders and pool on the aquamarine-colored glass tile bathroom floor. She’d kicked off her ankle boots at the door. Tugging off her lace panties, she pinned up her hair in a messy bun using the elastic around her wrist and stepped into the steamy, heated water. Her sigh felt as if it was dragged from the depths of her soul.
Tinsley leaned against the cool ceramic tiles of the shower and let the water fall over her back. Such a lovely sensation, hot and cool. And in just a minute or three she would smear some bath gel on her body, rinse off, wrap a towel around herself and climb into bed.
She didn’t even realize Anders had joined her until she smelled her bath gel and felt his large, callused hands smoothing the scented body wash over her shoulders, down her arms and then in long strokes down her back. He squatted beside her and began to clean her legs.
Had she shaved this morning? Please let her have shaved.
“I can shave you.” Anders looked up at her, blue eyes wide and innocent and only a touch of laughter in their beautiful, oceanic depths.
She turned around to see him on his knees.
Perfect.
“I have a big mouth.”
“I’m very partial to your mouth. As well as other parts of you—parts I can shave all over if you’d like, although I’d miss your little breath of fire right here.”
He kissed her small thatch of curls. “I love that your red is natural. Hot A.F., baby.”
She’d gone from exhausted to aching with hunger. “Going to prove that, cowboy?”
She saw the answering fire in his eyes. Both hands gripped her thighs.
“You’re not too tired?”
Just the fact that he would ask that when she could see his erection jutting out aggressively, full and seeking, sent an answering rush of heated liquid deep in her core.
“Anders Wolf, stop procrastinating and get busy,” she ordered.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
“I used to think that was so cheesy,” she said. “The ma’am thing. But somehow you make it work.”
“I make a lot of things work.” She could feel the whisper of his breath as he nudged her intimate folds with his nose, inhaled deeply, and as she moaned and caught at his wide shoulders to keep her balance, he nibbled along her labia with gentle teeth and his lips.
“Anders,” she gasped, a little shocked at how good it felt. She felt decadent and terribly turned on. He began to lap between her folds, which sent white-hot darts of fire through her body, making her feel a little shaky. Then he sucked her entire clit into his mouth and bit down enough to sting, she nearly launched out of the shower.
Anders held on to her as she dug her nails into his shoulder and screamed as the orgasm hit her fast and hard and so unexpectedly. Usually it took her so much longer to even get close.
She stared down at him—water sluiced over his head, sculpted shoulders and the hard planes of his abdomen. He looked like Poseidon—blue eyes sparkling with lust and his mouth soft and slightly swollen from his sensual attack. Then her gaze drifted down to the most masculine part of him, and desire rekindled. She’d always loved how his cock looked when erect. Confident. Powerful. No few hurried thrusts for Anders.
He took his time, varied his speed and depth and position, and his stamina was unworldly. One night with him hadn’t been enough. And even the two short trips they’d taken together had
only left her craving him more. He’d been a fun and easy companion. Respectful. Interested in many things far outside of bull riding. And spectacular and unforgettable in bed.
And out of it.
Anders smiled up at her so sweetly that her knees, still weak from the orgasm that continued to create shivers and small quakes throughout her body, nearly buckled. She cupped his cheek, wanting to say something but was worried she’d tug her heart out of her chest and confess something awful like she loved him.
Love?
She couldn’t go there, But Tinsley was afraid that bottled up organ had had the cork plucked open months ago.
He kissed her palm and then continued to kiss and lick and suck her, and she shook in his arms. Then he stood, turned off the water and wrapped her in a towel.
“I’m not sure how clean we got,” she murmured, trying to come back down to earth as he toweled her off.
He kissed her upturned mouth. “I intend to get us both very, very dirty later.”
She smiled and speared her hand through his dark, wet hair that fell into his eyes. She brushed it away. “I like that plan.”
This time when he caught her up in his arms, she looped hers around him without protest.
“Oh. Ouch.” She looked at the half-moon nail marks in his shoulder. “Anders, I’m sorry.” She smoothed anxious fingers over his marked skin.
“Don’t worry. I love knowing I can make you lose control.” He smiled at her. “And I plan to do it again and again.”
“Oh, really?” She laughed as he dumped her on the bed and immediately followed her down onto the mattress.
He braced himself over her—his gaze intent.
“What?” she whispered, worry stirring.
He looked about to speak, clearly thinking of the best way to say something, and an almost instinctive panic gripped her. She arched up, nipped his chin and then slithered down the sheets and his body. She licked his long, straining shaft, and it jumped.
She smiled, feeling powerful and in control again.
She breathed out, bathing him in warm air, and his gasp thrilled her.
A Baby for the Texas Cowboy Page 17
