by Em Petrova
“What if Black somehow got his men to them first?” Speaking the one thing that scared the living hell out of him out loud almost drove him to something he never thought he’d do for a woman—it almost brought him to tears.
Noah edged up on his left. “He couldn’t have. He was tied up in the room the entire time. Who else would make the call?”
“Not the foreman,” he said at once. “I knew he wasn’t on Black’s side. He’s there for the animals and that’s all.”
“What about the night shift guard?”
He shook his head. “He’s too worn down by life. He’s a suit of clothes going through the motions. He wouldn’t take a side like that.”
“That leaves a couple maids and a cook, as far as I can see,” Noah said.
Feeling slightly more confident that his worst fear had not been realized, Boone unclenched his jaw—at least enough to stop him from breaking a tooth.
They zigzagged through the foothills to the mountain, and Boone’s only reason for believing Lauralee would go there was that view they’d both shared. Where they’d found each other.
Hours later, with night falling, and after several breaks to rest the horses, Boone was starting to question if they should get a search and rescue team up here.
He couldn’t stand to see the bleak looks passing between his cousins and brother, but they’d lost the trail long ago and were riding blind on a hope and a memory.
Suddenly, he jerked his head up. “Smell that?”
Noah drew his mount to a stop and sniffed too. “Woodsmoke.”
“They’ve got a fire going.” Boone turned his mare south into a headwind that brought more of the woody, smoky scent on its currents. He inhaled deeply, hope rising in his veins. He wouldn’t let them fail again—he’d reach her, dammit. End of story.
When they rode into a clearing, he saw the wisp of smoke coming from one corner. While he couldn’t see anybody there, he took off for it as fast as the horse could go without injury.
As he approached, his heart almost ticked its last when he spotted a bunch of branches crisscrossed to create a shelter. And beneath it, a figure was curled up.
He leaped off the horse and ran forward.
Two figures.
Thank God. They’re here. His knees threatened to buckle, but he managed to stumble forward across the clearing to the makeshift shelter. When he peered through the shadows and set eyes on the woman who owned his heart, tears blinded him.
Tenderness washed through him, and love erupted. The women were asleep, helpless and vulnerable—he’d give her hell for that risk too when he got done bawling like a baby at the sight of her beautiful face.
“I’ve got a cell signal. I’m calling for airlift,” Noah shouted.
Lauralee opened her eyes. For a moment, she stared at him in total confusion. Then suddenly, she sat up, knocking into the branches over them so the entire structure started to topple on their heads.
Boone reached out and grabbed the sticks, holding them away from the women as the other men reached them and helped Isadora crawl out.
“Boone!” Lauralee hurled herself into his arms. He caught her against him, tucked her head under his chin and said a prayer of thanks that she was alive and safe…and his to love and cherish.
Until death did they part.
* * * * *
What did Lauralee do now? She was back in Stone Pass, right where she started. Only now she’d slept with her boss—confessed her love to him plenty of times too—and the only viable option was to hand in the letter of resignation fresh off the printer.
All the way home, Boone hadn’t let her out of his sight. In fact, he’d held on to her in any way possible, clutching her hand or insisting she rest in his arms, which she did gladly.
But then they got home. And things got weird.
She shot a look at the closed door of the conference room, where every member of WEST Protection was deep in a conference. She didn’t know what was being said, and she was a bit pissed off about being left out, truth be told. She’d earned her place among their white hats of the roundtable or whatever the hell it was when all the men removed their white Stetsons and set them before them while discussing important matters.
“Just because I don’t have a white hat,” she muttered to herself and glanced at the letter she held.
A coward would place it in Ross’s inbox and leave town. Her moment of oh-shit-I-screwed-my-boss’s-brother had long since morphed into oh-shit-I-screwed-my-boss-over.
Ross would look at her differently—they all would.
Though technically, she was family now. She still bore the name, and the marriage was filed with the courthouse. But she’d taken off the rings and tucked them into her desk drawer, hoping that Boone would find them there and return them or hock them in a pawnshop.
Her insides were tight knots. The minute they opened that conference room door, she’d run in, thrust the letter at Ross and make a break for it.
She already knew she’d cry all the way to her apartment, where she’d already begun packing, but as long as she knew what was coming next, she could survive it, right?
She slanted another look at the closed door. Damn, what was taking them so long? She was nothing but a peon. She might as well do laundry or deliver food.
While she sat glaring at the door, it opened, and Ross poked his head out. He looked straight at her. “Lauralee? Can you join us for a minute?”
Did he know she was about to resign?
Slowly, she edged her chair away from the desk, making enough space to scoot out and stand. Ross vanished inside the conference room again. This was her chance—she could drop the letter and leave.
But she straightened her spine and kept her head high. She, a hacker from Pennsylvania, had managed to free a captive woman under Black’s heavy guard. Surely, she could face down the Wyntons and the rest of WEST Protection.
When she walked into the room, all she saw were white hats settled atop the rustic wood top of the conference table. Each man seated there looked as big as the last, decked out in jeans and T-shirts or chambray. All except one man, who wasn’t sitting down.
He was standing there, staring at her with so much love in his eyes that her own blurred with tears.
Battling through it, she managed to walk to the front of the room where Ross sat. She held out the letter to him. He gave it a glance and then set it face down on the table before addressing her.
“We’ve discussed it, Lauralee,” Ross drawled out.
“Discussed what?” Her nerves were shot. She wanted to go home and watch Netflix and cry her heart out over the job she loved and the man she loved more.
“You did us a great service on the Black Ranch. Without your bravery, Isadora would still be locked in that room instead of getting all the help she needs.”
Heads bobbed all around the table.
She avoided meeting Boone’s gaze, though his burned through her like a hot brand.
“And we’ve also come to another conclusion.”
She managed to lift her eyes and meet Ross’s stare. “What’s that?”
“That you make one hell of a sister-in-law. If you’ll really have our dumb-as-shit brother here. You know he’s the most ignorant of us all,” Ross declared.
“He smells funny too,” Josiah put in.
“He talks with his mouth full,” Noah helpfully added.
The men started tossing out more insults about Boone, but she didn’t register them as Boone rounded the table and took her by the hand. Holding her stare captive, and before everyone in the room, he dropped to one knee.
She stopped breathing.
“Lauralee. My beautiful, amazing, clever and brave wife. I don’t know how you claimed my heart, but you managed to. And I can’t think of spending another minute without you in my life, honey.” He paused, throat working as he choked up as much as she was. His amber eyes burned into her. “I didn’t get to say it proper before…but Lauralee Sheldon, will yo
u have me? Will you let me be your husband?”
“Nahhh. Divorce him,” Mathias drawled from across the room.
Lauralee snorted with laughter through her tears even as she threw herself forward into Boone’s waiting arms.
“Yes! Boone, yes. I love you with all my heart.”
He crushed his lips over hers, washing away all her fears that this couldn’t work—that they weren’t a real couple.
But they were.
They lifted their mouths free from the kiss amid catcalls and whistles. Boone surged to his feet, pulling her up with him.
Ross shoved the resignation letter across the table. “You should know your wife just resigned.”
“I take it back!” she burst out. “I only did it because I slept with my boss, and I didn’t see any other way. But now that…you know…you want me…” She met his gaze.
“I do.” His lips quirked into such a heart-stopping smile that for a moment, she couldn’t even recall her name.
“I would like to stay on at WEST Protection. If you agree, Ross.”
He got to his feet, smiling as he held out his arms to her. She drifted into them, and he squashed her against his chest. “Welcome to the family. I hope you know we Wyntons love to party when there’s a weddin’.”
“How would you know? None of you have ever been married.” Boone shot a glance between Ross and Noah.
“That’ll be remedied soon enough. We just chose to do it the right way, see. We started by dating our ladies first, not marrying them.”
Everyone laughed, and Lauralee felt so giddy that she did too. Then Boone clasped her hand in his and smiled down at her. “It’s the furthest thing from a fake marriage.”
She went on tiptoe, throwing her arms around his neck. When she yanked him down for a kiss, it sealed the deal.
Epilogue
The old aunts were doing the chicken dance. So were the young ones. Actually, every Wynton and Sheldon was, along with the Shanies, Traces and countless other families who’d been invited to the wedding reception.
The music seemed to grow louder the faster it went, until Lauralee couldn’t even hear her own laughter. Once the song ended, Boone hooked his arm around her waist and swung her into his body.
She dropped her head back to meet his blazing stare. “A slow song means we can cuddle on the dance floor.”
His fingertips against her lower spine had her belly clutching with want. “It’s our day—we can do what we want.”
He swayed them to a much slower rhythm than the beat of the music. Locked in his arms, in his eyes and in his world, she’d never known such perfect joy. Only one thing could make this day better, and that was it coming to an end so they could be alone.
“You never told me the outcome of the meeting this morning,” she said.
A Jason Aldean song had couples revolving around them, while they remained in their private bubble.
“That’s because you were out getting your hair done. And I must say, it’s beautiful.” He cut his eyes upward to take in her hair, which was artfully curled and arranged into a half updo. She’d wanted something more casual to reflect the reception in the barn and her informal dress. She hated dresses anyway, so the fact she hadn’t gotten the big white wedding gown didn’t bother her one bit. She was more than happy with the floaty number that skimmed her knees and showed off her new tan cowgirl boots.
“You look pretty damn amazing too.” His chambray shirt, fitted jeans and bolo tie were the best country boy tuxedo she could ever imagine. To prove his appeal, she slipped her hand downward to give his hard buttocks a squeeze.
A shrill whistle blasted from one of the couples near them, and they looked up to see Mathias dancing with Corrine, both of them laughing.
But Boone only gave them a grin before fixing his attention on Lauralee again. “The meeting went well. We discussed everything on the list you helped me make.”
“Did anyone come up with any plans for the points we made about needing a team based at home dedicated to providing backup to those in the field?” The company was still growing its feathers, but it’d spread its wings pretty fast. They had issues to go back and tweak in order to make a better modus operandi.
“Yes, and Mathias agreed he’d rather stick close to home and head that team. He’ll be in charge of recruiting new employees to fill the seats.”
She nodded. “That’s great.”
He caught her hand and twirled her. She tossed her head on a laugh at the unexpected move that was pure romance in comparison to their discussion, which was all business.
When he jerked her close and kissed her open mouth, her laugh dissolved into a moan.
Boone answered with a growl that vibrated through his chest and lit a fire in her core. The song switched to another fast number, and the stomp of boots on the barn floors started an itch in her blood. She didn’t know how to do this line dance, but next thing she knew, Boone had kicked into high gear and was twirling her at dizzying speed, weaving in and out of the lines of guests bootscootin’ their hearts out.
“Boone!” She clung tight to his shoulders as he whirled her over and over. Then he released her and took a step back.
Her jaw dropped when he started a slow grind with his hips that shifted to dance moves she never knew the man possessed. With a grin spread over his rugged features, he sidled up to her and bumped his hip against hers. Laughter trickled out of her, and she responded by grabbing on to him.
He planted a kiss square on her mouth, which got every guest in the building hooting and hollering for them to get a room.
He lowered his lips to her ear. “That’s not a bad idea.”
Shivers ran through her. “We can’t just leave.”
“Wanna bet?” He swept her into his arms and rushed through the barn to the exit. Behind them, the guests were going wild at their antics.
“Now they all know what we’re going to do!” She sucked in a deep breath of the cooler evening air.
“Does it matter?” His grin flashed as he continued toward the parking area.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.” At one of the company trucks, he lowered her to her feet. She barely gained her balance before her husband pressed her up against the door and let her feel every single inch of his hard body…and how much he wanted her.
Her insides throbbed, and her panties dampened. She surged upward to crush her lips to his in a tongue-tangling kiss that went on for endless moments. When he finally raised his head, his eyes glowed. “Get in the truck, woman.”
“I don’t know if I like being called woman,” she sassed.
As he strutted around the truck to the driver’s door, he tossed her a secretive smile. “You’re my woman.”
She couldn’t argue with that fact, and she settled next to him in the truck. He backed out and instead of taking the driveway, he surprised her by bumping straight out through a field.
The setting sun created a deep blue band on the horizon, and above, a sliver of a moon hung. Stars seemed to peek out by the second. She flicked her gaze between the view and her man. His white Stetson was tugged low over his eyes, but she now knew that he wasn’t glaring at her—he was probably checking her out.
When he braked in the center of the field, he leaned over the console to stamp a kiss to her lips. “C’mon.”
Without telling her what they were doing, he jumped out. She met him at the bed of the truck, and he dropped the tailgate to lift her onto the edge. He hitched himself up beside her, their boots dangling.
She tipped her head to watch star after star blink into view until the entire fabric of the midnight sky was spangled with them, almost as pretty as the rings she wore.
“It’s gorgeous.”
“Uh-huh. And look—you can see the mountains on this side and my family’s house on that side.” He pointed between them and then centered his attention on her. “What do you think about this spot for our home?”
Surprise captured
her. She sucked in a sharp breath. “I love it. I really do. I can’t believe we have this life, Boone. This kind of love.” She twisted, swinging her leg over his and straddling his lap.
With a groan, he planted his hands under her dress on her ass and tugged her into the bulge of his erection. In a flurry, they stripped each other, and though it wasn’t the first time they’d made love as husband and wife, it felt official now.
He entered her in a slick glide, his thickness stretching her inner walls. She gripped at him on the withdrawal, and their mouths fused in an endless kiss. The need clawing her belly turned into a wildfire only Boone could satisfy.
Riding up and down on his length, she skated her hands over the chiseled planes of his body, reveling in the fact he was all hers—forever. She wanted this moment to go on forever too.
“Hell, honey, you’re so damn wild with need,” he ground out.
“You say hell a lot.”
He chuckled against the sensitive spot on her throat, which he grazed with his teeth. She cried in desire, one he echoed when her pussy clamped hard on his length, and she began to come in fast, hard pulses.
“Ahhhh,” his long groan and the hot spurts filling her sapped the last of her energy. She collapsed into his arms.
Still joined, he rubbed slow circles on her back. “I couldn’t wait to get you alone,” he murmured against her temple.
She snuggled closer. “We’ll have to go back eventually. The party will go on half the night.”
“Yeah, but we can take a bit more time to enjoy this.” He locked her against him.
“I don’t want to be anywhere else right now. I love you, Boone Wynton.”
“I love you, Lauralee.” Out of the blue, he slapped her ass hard.
She reared up, gasping. “What was that for?”
“Mosquito.”
“You can’t even see! It’s dark.”
“I just knew it was there.”
“Maybe I see one too. Right here.” She pinched his side, and his chuckle rumbled into the night. She rubbed against him in a slow grind the same as he’d done on the dance floor, and his laugh cut off.
