by KB Winters
I nodded, but my eyes were closed before she reached the threshold of the room, and sleep claimed me. Sweet, restful sleep, thanks to whatever sedative the good doctor gave me.
When I woke up later, the sun was on the other side of the big house, and I slid my feet into a pair of gray bunny slippers and slowly made my way down to the first floor. It was late enough that the smells of dinner already hung thick in the air, and tonight smelled like it was gonna be some kind of stew and stew meant biscuits. That was fine by me.
This new version of Aspen was going to eat a biscuit whenever the hell she felt like it. No more snubbing my nose at carbs to please some man.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Holden may have mentioned, once or twice, that he liked me with a little extra meat on my bones. Nothing at all.
“Move it. Not all of us can just lie around in bed all day.” I turned at the familiar bitchy tone of Martha’s twins. This one was bitchier by a mile, which made her Evelyn.
“I’m happy to shove your misshapen head into the oven and hold it there so you can have a few days off. If you’d like.” I blinked innocently at her and moved past her with a well-placed shoulder check that jarred my head. Just a little.
“Bitch,” she muttered.
“Yeah, don’t you forget it.” For good measure, I flipped her off just to let her know she couldn’t push me around.
“Martha, what is that delicious stew you’re making this time?”
She turned with a wide grin. “Thought I’d try something new tonight. It’s a red wine beef stew with plenty of roasted garlic. Smells divine, doesn’t it?”
“Pretty sure it’s what got me down here in one piece.”
At those words, Martha frowned and guided me to the kitchen table. “Have a seat, dear. I’ll whip you up some cocoa since Dr. Keyes says you need to stay away from caffeine.”
“Ugh, I forgot. Thanks, but I think I’ll take it out on the back porch. Let the last of the sun heal me before it goes to bed on this side of the world.”
“Sure. Just holler if you need anything.”
“Thank you, Martha. You really are a gem.” She reminded me of our cook at The Crooked H. Haley ran the household more than my mama or Daddy, and she made the best food in the world. Martha’s cooking came in a close second.
She waved off my kind words and shuffled back to the stove, and I made my way outside. The sun rays streaked across the sky, warming my skin and tugging a smile across my face. It was nice to be up and walking around, even nicer to have no one hovering.
“I promise I’ll do better next time, baby.”
That voice belonged to Evelyn, I was pretty sure, and it came from the side of the house because that chick didn’t do any work. Ever. “I know, but I had to move quickly. I thought I heard someone,” she whined.
I shook my head because whatever it was, it sounded like Evelyn’s boyfriend was asking her to do some sketchy shit. I had to catch myself from judging her too hard since I’d only recently extricated myself from the very same situation.
“I love you too, Kenny. You know I do.”
It was a coincidence. Had to be. Ken was a common enough name for men of a certain age. Maybe I was at the stage in a breakup where I see his face and hear his name everywhere. Maybe. I didn’t think so and leaned in for a closer listen.
She pouted and stomped her foot in the dirt. “I’ll see what I can do, but I’m off for the next couple of days.” The call ended after far too many kissy-face sounds, and when Martha brought out the hot cocoa, I was seated on the glider staring at the last bursts of sunlight.
I thought long and hard about the conversation I’d just heard. I was pretty sure it was Evelyn’s voice but what were the odds she and Ken had crossed paths? I didn’t know the answer to that either, but Opey was a small enough town, and they didn’t live on the ranch.
Still, I would mention it to Holden next time I saw him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Holden
“Holden this is getting ridiculous.” The minute my feet hit the floor of the porch the door swung open and my vision was filled with Aspen. Tall, blonde and angry. Very pissed off, in fact, but looking damn good in a pair of skintight jeans and a plain white tank she covered with one of those girly pink and green pearl snap button shirts. The perfect image of the sexy as hell farm girl. It was a far cry from the glamorous, showy girl she used to be and somehow, I liked it better.
A hell of a lot better. “Hello to you too, Aspen. I see you’re feeling better.” Every time I looked at her, all I could see was her pale skin, thin pulse and discolored lips, remembered thinking she was dead, that I hadn’t been able to save another woman. Seeing her all pissed off and fired up was better than out of it.
She growled at me and stepped forward, snatching one of the paper grocery sacks from my arms just so she could stomp off to the kitchen. Exactly where I was headed and she damn well knew it. “I’ve been feeling better Holden,” she practically spit the words at me, whirling around the second my feet hit the tile floor. “You’re the only one who doesn’t seem to notice.” She grabbed a beer from the fridge and turned to me, daring me to tell her she shouldn’t be drinking yet. It was too soon. “I can’t just sit inside your cabin all day. Every day.”
I understood all that, I really did. But I had priorities too. “I want to keep you safe, Aspen. If I had checked on you earlier instead of,” I paused because it didn’t really matter why I didn’t check on her, only that I hadn’t. “If I had checked on you earlier maybe you would be recovered by now, I don’t know. But I’m sorry and I’ll do better.” It was a promise I planned to keep.
Aspen sighed and rolled her eyes, giving all her attention to the beer before her gaze swung back to mine. “It’s over, Holden. It happened, and I’m fine. Besides, if you’re gonna leave me alone all day I’d rather it be at the bunkhouse where I might encounter a person now and again. Out here I’m just…alone.”
She was hamming it up to make her point, but dammit she wasn’t wrong. My cabin was too remote to get to her fast if she needed me, another damn oversight on my part. “Fine. You can come with me until this shit is settled.”
A disgruntled snort came out of her, shocking the hell out of me. It was the only thing truly shocking about her response. Aspen was shit at hiding her emotions.
“So what, now I’ll just be your shadow? Your assistant?” Arms folded, and her blue eyes breathing fire, she was breathtaking in her anger. “I don’t think so buster.” And frustrating as hell.
“Buster?” I was learning to read her well. Aspen didn’t like to be guided. She needed to make decisions on her own.
“Not my shadow, although, I have to say that I do like the sound of that. But no, that’s not what I had in mind.” Although, now that I had the thought, my mind refused to let it go.
“Explain.”
“You do what I do, when and only when you can handle it.”
“I can handle it,” she insisted quickly, notching her chin up in defiance.
“If you say so you can prove it to me. Starting tomorrow.”
It seemed like Farnsworth had gone back underground. No one had seen him, and not even Ken had heard from him in weeks. I wasn’t dumb enough to think that was the last we’d hear of this Farnsworth or the next one, but I was relieved to have a reprieve from the constant tension. The quiet, though, it felt unsettling. Like it was too quiet. I didn’t like it.
“You’re worried about something,” she said, her voice softer and filled with concern as she tore the brick of cheddar from my fingers. “Talk.”
“It’s too fucking quiet,” I admitted to her after a long, thoughtful silence. Aspen wouldn’t want me to sugarcoat things for her, and maybe if I was straight with her, she’d take my words seriously.
Her laugh was low and throaty and feminine. “Isn’t quiet a good thing when it comes to this type of stuff?”
“It is, but this feels wrong. It feels unsettled
like maybe it’s the calm before the storm. I always hated that fucking expression, you know that? It’s not calm before the storm. It’s a swirl of energy that’s impossible to ignore only it’s so strong that you know you can’t fight it. It may seem calm, but it’s not.”
“You really think so?”
I looked up into sincere, sober blue eyes and saw that she was asking for the honest to God truth. “I do.”
“Okay, then. I’ll continue to be careful while I stick to you like flies on honey.”
“Maybe not that close. I still have a ranch to run.”
She laughed again, and the sound was soothing. “But I need you to be diligent and careful. If you see or hear something that seems off, even if you don’t know why tell me.”
She nodded. “I will. I promise.” To punctuate her words, Aspen laid a hand on my chest, and she kept it there until she tamed my heart, slowing the thumping rhythm with her nearness. “I swear it, Holden.”
“Good.” I didn’t want her to see how relieved I was that she would finally start cooperating with my desire to keep her safe.
“Hungry?” I asked and turned to put the groceries away.
“In a way yes,” she said, voice pitched low and sexy, drawing my attention.
I looked back and found Aspen standing just a few feet away from me, the pearl snap shirt sitting on the counter, her hands tugging on the hem of her tank top, a determined look set in her big blue eyes. Pink nipples hard and mouthwatering, her slender waist begging to be held in the confines of my grasp. I couldn’t resist her, but I had to be certain.
“Are you sure, Aspen?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Aspen
I stood there naked from the waist up in the middle of his rustic country home-style kitchen, his gaze glued to my tits, and he was interrogating me?
“What do you mean, am I sure?” This man was bound and determined to drive me out of my damn mind.
“I would think this is all the proof you need, but maybe you’ve taken a few too many shots to the head.”
It probably wasn’t smart to rile him up, but it was better than having him look at me like some damn wounded bird.
“Aspen,” he began but stopped to bite out a curse when I slid my jeans over my hips and down my legs, giving a little shimmy as I stepped out of them.
“Yes, Holden?” My gaze never left his as I slid a pair of plain black silk panties down my legs and kicked them his way. “What is it now? Do I not know my own mind anymore?”
“I didn’t say that,” he stammered, but the heat in his eyes went a long way to making me a little less pissed at him.
“So is it that you think you know more than Dr. Keyes?”
“Of course not, I just want you to take it easy.”
“And I am, but if I don’t get moving, then I’ll never feel a hundred percent. And sex, in my professional opinion, is the perfect way to ease into the rigors of ranch work again.” It was a stretch, but I was desperate. For him and for something other than the four walls of this cabin.
“But Aspen,” he began and stopped, raking a hand through his thick dark hair, blowing out a frustrated breath. I felt bad for Holden, denying what he wanted so bad in an effort to be a gentleman when he didn’t need to try so hard. He was truly one of the good ones.
“No buts, Holden. Unless of course, we’re talking about this one.” I turned with a sultry smile at him over my shoulder and gave my ass a smack, hoping to entice him to give me what I wanted. What we both wanted.
“Dammit, woman.”
Yeah, that tortured sound right there, it was one I was starting to grow attached to. Just the sound. Not the man.
“You don’t want this, Holden? Because I’ve been dreaming about getting you naked again and running my hands all over your big naked body. Tasting you again. Having you lick me until I explode.”
He sucked in a breath, and I stepped closer. “You’ll tell me if it’s too much.”
“I’ll tell you if it’s too much,” I repeated back to him absently, my mind focused on stripping him out of those tight cowboy jeans that had a starring role in my shower fantasies. “I promise.”
“I’m holding you to that,” he said and grabbed me by the waist, hoisting me up on the counter and pushing me down. “Hold your feet right here,” he said as his big hands covered my toes that hung over the edge of the counter as he spread my legs. “Yeah, don’t move.”
“Not sure I could if I wanted…to!” Holden dove right in once he had the green light, burying his face so deep in my pussy that my hips bucked up over and over again, eager to get closer to him. It was magnificent the way he used his tongue to ratchet up my desire, to slowly drive me insane as he slid a finger in and out of me, coating it with my juices.
“You’re so fucking wet, Aspen.”
“I’m so turned on I could burst, Holden, I swear!” Maybe at another time in my life, another place I might have been ashamed of the way I rubbed against him like a cat in heat, but not today. Not in this moment and definitely not with this man. The more I moaned and purred and begged for more, the more he gave me. It was always more intense than before, harder and rougher too. It was perfect. “Holden, please!”
“Please, what darlin’? You want more of this?” He held my legs apart and blew until my clit swelled and pulsed with nerves, then his tongue curled around the sensitive knot, and I bucked up against him so hard my vision blurred.
“Or maybe this.” His tongue flicked over my clit at lightning speed, feeling as good as my vibrator.
“Yeah, that. Fuck yes, that!” I grabbed a handful of his hair and ground my hips against him, drawing another growl from him that sent shivers through my body. “Even better,” I purred as he worked swiftly, efficiently to bring me to the edge just so he could slow time down while I drifted over the side.
Then my body was floating high up in the sky with giant, bursting fireworks going off in the background while I slowly made my way back to earth with a smile on my face.
“Even better than what?”
When I came back to earth, my sleepy satisfied gaze crashed into Holden’s amused blue gaze. “What?”
“Right before you came you said ‘even better,’ and I want to know, even better than what?”
Shit, had I said that out loud? Judging by the smug smirk on his face, I’d say yes. “That tongue of yours is even better than my favorite vibrator.”
His laughter came low and deep as he positioned himself between my thighs, stroking his cock and sliding it along the length of my pussy, drawing sharp gasps of air from me. “Thanks.”
“I should be. Thanking you,” I told him, gasping and arching into the thumb he slid into my pussy. “I might still be thanking you.”
He laughed again and slid his cockhead into my body, giving me time to adjust to his enormous cock.
“Believe me, Aspen, the pleasure was all mine.”
“So far I’d say it was mostly mine.” My thighs still quivered in proof of the pleasure he’d given me. But then his thick cock was sliding in and out of me, and it was hard to think about anything except the way he seemed to touch all my nerve endings, every pleasure zone in my body lit up whether he was sliding out or thrusting deep inside. “Oh, fuck!”
“Agree. To. Disagree.” He punctuated every word with a swirl of his hips, a hard deep thrust that sent lights flashing behind my eyes. I didn’t know how I was able to take his big cock, but I knew that I felt like I might die without it, without the skillful way he pumped hard and gave me almost too much before pulling back and sliding in slow and gentle.
It was an intoxicating blend of rough and tender, intense and easy, too much yet not enough. My body was on overload. “Holden. Please.” I lifted my legs and my hips, wincing at the pain of adding more of Holden but desperate to have as much of him as possible. “Please.”
Suddenly I was airborne with two strong hands gripping my ass, my back pressed up against the sturdy door that led to the back
yard, my body sliding down his thick cock with the help of my arousal and gravity. “You want more?”
“Yes. Please.” I nipped his ear and scraped my teeth along his neck. That seemed to have snapped some button inside of him. His fingertips dug a little deeper into my skin, and he thrust a little harder, a lot deeper with a much hungrier growl.
“Fuck, Aspen. I can’t hold back.”
“Don’t. I want you, Holden. All of you.”
“Aspen!” He gripped me hard as he turned away from the door and laid me on the kitchen table, letting one hand slide up the center of my body to my throat while he pounded into me, hard and fast, and with an intensity that would have been frightening if my body wasn’t a mass of nerves and sensations.
“Holden, I’m there.” At my words, his hands gripped me tight enough to sting, and he pounded so hard, and so fast I knew I’d be bruised tomorrow, but I couldn’t bring myself to give a damn, not when pleasure flooded my body and sent shockwaves through my veins.
“Oh, Aspen! Oh, fuck!” His hips moved lightning quick, and then I felt his cock thicken before a surge of liquid pulsed from his body to mine, hot and slow, connecting us down to our souls. My orgasm flowed through my body, and one twitch of his hips could send another one starting again.
“So good,” I panted. “So, so good.”
Holden laughed and kissed me slowly like I mattered to him.
He kissed me like I’d always wanted to be kissed but had given up hope of ever having, because, well, because men sucked.
“I’d come up with something better, but I’m pretty sure you’ve fried my brain.”
Mine too. That was the only excuse for what came out of my mouth next. “Mine too, but I think you just loosened a memory from my goofy head.”
He froze and looked at me, his gaze serious even as his chest still heaved from our lovemaking. “What kind of memory?”
I shook my head, trying to remember the details. “I heard one of Martha’s daughters on the phone with a man she called Kenny. I don’t remember everything now, only that it sounded suspicious, and I wanted to remember so I could tell you.”