The dogs ran in that direction, as if they’d been the ones to deliver the clue, and I cursed at them as I followed, grabbing one of my jackets from off the rack.
When I got to the henhouse, I skidded to a halt at the sight before me.
Savvy was in there, wearing my jean shirt, chasing a chicken around; but the critter was giving her a run for her damn money.
“Come! Here!” she hollered. Another dash, and she almost caught it, but at the last second, the animal darted in the opposite direction, sending her diving head-first in a pile of hay.
If I’d wanted to hold in my laughter, there was no way I could’ve done it.
Savannah looked up, shocked to see me standing there. Hay was tangled in her wild curls, severely reducing the effectiveness of the menace in her eyes.
“So, you’re just gonna stand there and not even help me?” she demanded.
I covered my mouth with my hand, trying to wipe away my mirth. “What in the devil you trying to do in here? Elektra chasing chickens? Something about that just don’t seem right...”
“Elektra was hungry, Colton,” she said through her teeth. “You were snoring, and I didn’t want to wake you. And let’s not even talk about the fact that we were in the same bed...”
“You shouldn’t be coming down here alone, Savvy,” I said, choosing to respond to ignore the last part of what she’d said. “On top of that, what if one of the broncs had let loose? The pantry is full. All you had to do was – ”
“I wanted bacon and eggs,” she interrupted. “I saw the bacon, but there were no eggs in that monster fridge of yours.”
I folded my arms across my bare chest and grinned. “So, you were chasing my hens, trying to rustle some up?” I humphed. “I guess you think they store ‘em up their asses. Next you’re gonna tell me you were gonna round up the pigs and get to slaughtering.”
Savannah laughed and the sound gushed through me.
I gathered my wits and rushed to her side. “Quit moving,” I instructed. “There’s a way you gotta’ raise up out of that without making a mess. It’s like walking in snow. Big steps.” I took her hand in mine. Her supple skin slid across my calloused.
“What do you know about snow?” she challenged me with a tense smile. “You’re a country boy, through and through. Even your time in Atlanta couldn’t snuff it out of you. It doesn’t snow that much around here.”
“There were two reasons I went to Atlanta,” I informed her. “The first was my old man, insisting that I go to college. Had I finished, I would have been the first Wright to get a four-year degree.”
“I remember you telling me that,” she said. “So, what was the second?”
“You,” I answered quickly. “You’re the reason I stayed there.”
Savannah’s mouth bunched and she pulled her hand outta’ mine.
My fingers curled into a fist and I scrubbed my jaw. “If you’re hungry, I can make you something to eat. All you had to do was ask. If you’re gonna break your neck, let it be because I wrung it, the way I been dying to do for years.”
She cut those brown eyes at me, but the dimples perforating her cheeks revealed the truth: I was getting to her. Her smile and her laugh were my proof.
Forty-eight hours.
I headed to one of the many nesting boxes I’d placed in the henhouse. It had been slightly challenging training the chickens to consistently lay eggs in them because they were free ranging. It had been weeks of picking up eggs from random locations on the farm, depositing them in the boxes, and keeping the hens locked up in the coop until they knew what they were supposed to do.
I picked out four eggs and held them up in the air so Savvy could see them. Then, we headed inside to the kitchen. I pulled out my wrought-iron pans and grabbed thick slices of bacon from the industrial fridge.
Savvy sat on a barstool and watched me get to work. She didn’t say anything right away, but admiration filled her eyes to the brim. In a matter of minutes, the aromas of a classic country breakfast took over the kitchen.
Never mind that it was eight o’clock at night.
“Since when do you know how to cook?” she asked cupping her chin in her hands. “You got one of your wimmin over here giving you lessons?”
I inhaled and turned to look at her. The way my jean shirt hung off her toned shoulders had my cock jumping.
“I don’t have women.”
“Oh,” she sang. “You’re into men now?” She cocked her eyebrow. “Tell me, are you the G or the B?”
“I’m the A.”
“The Asshole?”
“Ally, Savvy,” I said through a huff. “I have a personal chef. I give her the weekends off, but she leaves me with enough to get by, so I don’t starve to death while she’s gone. I can handle my own, though. At least for breakfast.”
The bacon crackled in the pan.
“What you get yourself into, Savvy?” I muttered, trying to keep my jaw from clenching. “Why in the entire hell, you got the police looking for you?”
“That’s none of your business, Colton,” she said. Her hands balled into fists.
“It is my business, mama,” I challenged her. “Got to being my business the moment I seen your picture on that website.”
“What website?”
“The state police website,” I answered.
She rolled her eyes.
“...And the N2U one.”
Her eyes widened. “N2U? The dating website Mandy runs?” She groaned and I twirled my wooden spoon around the pan of eggs.
Savvy scrubbed her hands over her face and cursed. “No wonder you found me! I told Mandy I wanted nothing to do with that stupid thing!” She was using the same voice she’d put on my chickens.
“Why? Because you’re already dating someone?” Just saying it made my muscles tense.
“Elektra doesn’t date, Colton.”
“So, back to the original question: what does she do?”
Her mouth went tight and I sighed.
“I promised to help you, but I can’t if I don’t know the details of what’s going on. All it takes is a few phone calls, I told you that.”
“Have you made them yet?” she barked. “I’m not here forever, Colt.”
“I ain’t made no calls, Savvy.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I’ve been out in the chicken coop chasing hens.” And because I plan on keeping you here until we sort us out... “I’ll get to it in the morning, I promise.”
Savannah sighed and hung her head. “You remember me from university, Colton,” she whispered. “My passion... has always been people – women. Remember when that girl got date-raped on campus?”
“I do.”
“And do you remember what I did?”
I chuckled and nodded. “You organized a march. Had the entire campus rowdy for three days. Because of you, the asshole that committed the crime got arrested.”
“And then convicted,” she added. Pride made her chest puff out.
Yeah, I’d been real proud of her too, but, “What’s that got to do with now?” I asked.
She dragged her fingers through her hair. “They say I’m harboring a criminal,” she answered making mock-quotes in the air with her fingers. “One of my employees killed her boyfriend after he tried to beat the shit out of her. I found her, changed her identity... Now she works for me.”
“Hmm. Identity fraud on top of harboring a criminal. You got a lot to answer for.”
“She’s not a criminal, Colt,” she argued. “It was self-defense. She has a new life, they all do!”
“A new life working a pole?”
Her teeth gritted. “I send them to college. These girls don’t exactly come with skills and shining resumes.”
I huffed, understanding her logic, but not liking it much.
“I’m doing what I trained to do,” Savvy continued, “just not in the way society expects me to. I’m filling an important gap. Sure, I could have worked at a center for a
bused women, but this is how I chose to make a difference, by giving women a safe place and a job.”
I nodded. “It’s admirable. And now they’re looking for you.”
“Not if you make it go away,” she reminded me, then she added, “For both of us.” She leaned forward. “Is there anything you can do for my girl, Colt? If I need help, she needs it more. Her name is Candace,” she explained. “All she needs is money for a really good lawyer. I can’t let her get arrested before that happens.”
I flipped the bacon and rested the spatula on the counter with a sigh. “I’ll see what I can do,” I promised her. “I live on this ranch, minding my own business until I’m pulled out of the shadows to deal with shit, but I got a lot of friends in high places. A lot of the time, that’s how this business works.” I paused. “But I’ve got to get something out of this deal, mama.”
“You already got something,” she whispered aggressively.
“That kiss weren’t enough.”
“I’m talking about my heart, Colton!” Her jaw clenched. “Fifteen years ago, I gave it to you, and what did you do with it?”
My stomach crashed. “Mama, I’m sorry,” I whispered. Shame filtered through my veins. “I’m sorry for what I did.”
She lifted her chin and tried to keep her jaw from trembling. “There’s no need to be sorry,” she claimed. “It’s who you are. I was wrong for expecting any better from you.”
“Who I am?” I parroted, flustered.
“A player and a flirt – a boy who had a good thing but didn’t have enough damn sense to appreciate it.”
My chest jerked, hearing her words. “I’m not gonna lie to you. I did sleep with that girl.”
“Not that girl. My roommate!”
“I was caught in a compromising position.”
“Compromising, as in, in my bed with your pants around your ankles,” she clarified further.
“Come on now, Savvy...”
“No, you come on, Colt! I’m thirty-five years old, which makes you thirty-seven. We’re grown-ass adults. What’s more, that chapter of our lives is over, so you can cut the bullshit and come clean with me! It’s not gonna make a difference. Not anymore. The damage has been done.”
She was right. Not about it not making a difference – there was no way I’d let that be true – but about coming clean with the complete story. The pain at releasing the words would nearly crack my heart in two, but it wouldn’t be worse than the pain of not having this woman. I’d promised myself I’d tell her the truth, if I ever got the chance to do it.
Now was my chance.
My shoulders folded forwarded as I prepared to dredge up the humiliating details of what had happened. “We’d had an argument,” I muttered. “I’d been ... getting friendly with a few girls, and you stopped speaking to me.”
“It was more than a few girls, Colt,” she said, jutting her neck. “We were supposed to be together, and you were acting single! You had girls thinking you were available when you were supposedly with me.”
“You’re right,” I admitted. It didn’t make sense telling her women were throwing themselves at me – that ninety-nine per cent of the time, I’d blown them off... that the only time I’d fucked up was when...
I sighed and continued, dreading having to get to that part. “I was coming to your dorm room to make it right with you. You’d packed your shit and moved out of my apartment. One night, I managed okay. Two nights not having you next to me was hella’ rough; but by the third night, I barely knew my left from my fuckin’ right. I wanted you back in my arms. In my bed.” I stirred the eggs and cut the fire off from under them.
“When I got to your room, I was drunk out of my mind,” I recalled. “I’d been drowning my sorrows in Vodka all day, and your roommate... when I got there, she took advantage of my vulnerability. She said she’d seen you over at this other guy’s room and that you didn’t want me anymore. She took advantage of me and I took advantage of her.”
Savvy hardened. “And you expect me to believe that?”
“I’m telling you the God’s honest truth. Like you said, at this point I have no reason not to.”
Her eyes fell from mine as she processed the story. “You know that bitch had been trying to get you from the moment she saw us together, right?” she recalled bitterly. “Her and every other girl on campus!”
“I didn’t care about any other girl, Savvy. I only wanted you. I made a dumb-ass mistake. I was immature and irrational. By the time I could even come to my good senses, it was too late, and you were barging through the door like a bull in a china shop!” I paused and shook my head. “Then you up and left, without giving me the opportunity to explain.”
“I didn’t owe you anything, Colt,” she scoffed. “I was in love with you, and never in my wildest dreams would I have thought you’d do something like that to me.”
I moistened my drying lips and cautiously made my way over to where she was sitting.
Her posture stiffened, but I needed to be close to her. If she slapped me again, I’d take it.
But she didn’t.
I looked at her hands, which were fisted on the countertop, and ran my thumb over her skin.
She jerked a little but didn’t pull away.
“Savvy, I’ll apologize a million times for my behavior,” I reassured her in a whisper. “All I wanted was a chance to make it up to you; to show you that I would never hurt you again.” I paused. “I didn’t want to be like my daddy was to my mama,” I whispered. “I ain’t my daddy, Savvy.”
Her eyes sheened. “You sure were acting like him.”
“I know.” My head dropped. “I know...” I stretched my neck and looked at her. “I’ve got forty-eight hours to keep you safe,” I said and then paused, trying to regulate my thumping heart. “But it’s more than that, Savvy. I’ve got forty-eight hours to make you fall in love with me again.”
She lifted her chin. “And how the hell do you plan on doing that?”
I grunted, eyes dropping to her mouth. Instantly, memories of her taste burst on my tongue. “By serving you.”
She tensed. “What? With a warrant?”
“Naw, mama. Not like that,” I answered. Thick air swirled between us as we stared at one another, but instead of explaining with words, I took to showing her.
I walked over to the stove, took the bacon off the fire, and plated her food. I pulled open the fridge and retrieved a few cartons of fresh berries and a jug of frothy orange juice.
I took my time plating her meal, and when I was finished, I sat right in front of her, and put the plate on the table.
“I promise to love you forever, mama,” I whispered. “I promise to take care of you, the way I intended on doing when we were in college. That’s how I plan on making you fall in love with me again. Whatever you need, I’m gonna be the one to give it to you. Nobody else.”
“I don’t need you to take care of me, Colt. I’m a real woman. A real woman can take care of herself.”
“And a real man won’t let her,” I came back.
Her lips closed.
“Let me serve you. Don’t deny me this opportunity.” I dug the fork into the fluffy eggs and guided it towards her mouth.
Her brows pulled, but she cautiously parted her lips, and I eased the food into her mouth.
She chewed. She moaned.
“You like it?” I whispered.
“It’s... delicious.”
I hummed, picked up a piece of crispy bacon, and touched it against her bottom lip, the whole time wishing it was my cock.
She went to bite it, but I pulled it away. “You’re playing games with me, Colton Wright,” she whispered. By now, her eyes were heavy.
“No time for games, mama.”
I fed her: berries and juice; eggs and bacon. The sound of her moaning had my cock about to burst out of my joggers. Every so often, I’d take the linen napkin and dab the side of her luscious lips, and by the time the meal was complete, there was very litt
le I could do to contain myself.
“I need you to forgive me, Savvy,” I said.
“Why?”
I hesitated to answer. “Because I’m really sorry for what I did. And... I wanna make love to you real bad, but I won’t be able to if you’re not in love with me.”
We stared at one another, eyes flickering. Energy as thick as iron coiled around us until we were both trembling in our seats.
Her eyes dropped from mine and she studied the floor.
I waited, breath hanging in my lungs; cock pulsing like it had its own heartbeat.
Finally, she said something: “Come.”
Fuck!
I abandoned my post on the stool and moved around to her side of the table. I took the back of her neck and dragged her into my waiting mouth. The kiss was beastly. With my words, I’d told her there’d never be any other woman. Now I’d show her with my touch.
Savvy took all of me. Immediately, her hands found my throbbing cock through my joggers and stroked it like she was hungry again, but this time, not for food.
I’d fed her once. I’d feed her again. And again.
I hoisted her onto the counter. Feverishly, I ripped open the few buttons she’d closed on my shirt, and when her brown breasts spilled out in front of me, I salivated like one of my hound dogs.
My mouth was on her in a flash. Her hard, brown nipples pebbled, calling for my tongue. I captured her breath in my mouth and her head flew back. Her arms circled around my neck and she spread her legs open for me, nice, wide and inviting.
I rolled my tongue on her chocolate-drop nipples and her hands tightened at the base of neck.
Now, her pussy was sopping, demanding all of my attention.
I took my mouth off her breasts and angled her, so her treasure was exposed and calling out to me. Her thighs were slick with essence. Without hesitation, I buried my face deep in her mound, and my eyes rolled away. My thirsty tongue flicked her hard clit. I sucked it into my mouth.
I needed her. She had to know how much.
“Colton,” she moaned, sliding forward, giving me more access to her sweetness. “Baby, yes...”
“Yes?”
“Yes, Colt.”
I hummed onto her pussy before sucking the nub.
Her legs trembled. “Give it to me,” she panted. “Just... this once. Fuck me, Colt.”
Lunchtime Chronicles: Served Page 4
