by Devney Perry
“He offered you a job.”
“Not officially,” I muttered.
Mark Gallaway hadn’t even seen my résumé. He might decide to find someone with broader experience when he learned that the only people I’d ever worked for were the Greers and that my education had peaked at a GED.
Cash huffed and shook his head. “You didn’t turn him down.”
“Please.” I rolled my eyes. “He was joking, Cash.”
“You didn’t turn him down.” He pinned me with that cold stare.
My feet were glued to the carpet and my heart raced. No, I hadn’t turned Mark down. A week ago, I would have politely declined and returned the business card instead of tucking it into my jeans pocket as I walked to the elevator.
“It’s flattering,” I admitted. “And maybe a bit tempting.”
At my confession, Cash’s face turned to ice. There was no easy smirk or warm smile lurking beneath the surface. His eyes flashed with betrayal. He looked at me like I was a stranger.
I opened my mouth to stay something, but what? I wouldn’t apologize for speaking the truth.
His nostrils flared and the fury emitting from his broad shoulders slammed into me like a tidal wave. “Why?” he asked through gritted teeth, then pointed to the bed. “Because of this?”
Yes. No. Maybe. I struggled to articulate an answer, so I threw out some questions of my own instead. “Haven’t you ever wanted something different? Haven’t you ever wanted more?”
“More?” He scoffed. “We’ve given you everything.”
“And I’m grateful but—”
“Are you? Because the fact that you didn’t tell that son of a bitch no on the spot doesn’t feel much like gratitude. It feels a lot like a slap in the face for everything my family has handed you.”
My mouth fell open. “Excuse me? Don’t you fucking dare make me out to be some charity case. I worked my ass off for your family. I earned what I’ve achieved. Me.”
Through blood, sweat and tears. The last time I’d been a charity case had been in California, sitting on a hot curb, begging for spare change. I’d vowed then to take control of my life and never be a beggar again.
“But you want more,” he shot back. An unspoken selfish hung in the air.
“I want . . . I don’t know. Can’t I at least explore my options?”
“For what? Are you going to move here and work for a fancy hotel that’s focused on turnover, not experience?”
That had been my marketing line. When I’d taken over as the manager at the resort, I’d made sure all of the Greers knew that in order to take the place to the next level, our marketing pitch had to be in sync. We weren’t selling a comfortable stay or plush hotel room. We were selling an experience.
For Cash to throw that in my face, I’d done my job well.
“I can’t fucking believe this,” he said before I could come up with something to say. Some of the fury vanished but the hurt in his voice intensified. “I can’t believe you’d leave us. You’re part of our family.”
“No, I’m not.”
He winced. “If you truly believe that, then I’m ashamed of us. Because you are. You are one of us.”
Ouch. Cash’s words were a slap across the face. But the guilt was what hurt the worst.
He wasn’t wrong.
I did feel like part of their family—most of the time. Liddy brought me flowers from the grocery store when she saw a bundle I’d like. Carol always managed to find the best birthday gifts, even when I didn’t know what I wanted. Jake and JR and Easton protected me. They doted on me but respected my opinion and position. They’d all treated me like a part of their family.
Was I really throwing them away? Why? So what if Cash didn’t love me. So what if we’d had sex. Yes, it would be miserable to see him fall in love with another woman and get married someday. Yes, it would be painful to see him teach his children to ride a horse or throw a ball. Hard to witness, but not unlivable.
I guess I hadn’t broken the habits of my childhood like I’d thought.
When the world got to be too much, when my heart and spirit were broken, I ran.
My chin quivered and I bit the inside of my cheek. But despite my best effort to thwart it, a tear dripped down my cheek.
“We never fight,” he whispered. The shreds of Cash’s anger vanished and he put a hand to his heart, clutching his chest like there was a wound beneath the skin. “What is happening to us?”
“I don’t know,” I lied.
I knew exactly what was happening to us.
We were coming to an end.
Cash and I would go home to Montana. I’d return to being an honorary member of the Greer family, working at the resort and living my life. But my friendship with Cash would never look the same.
This was the end.
“Talk to me.” He crossed the room and put his hands on my shoulders.
There was nothing to say and if we only had a fraction of time left, I didn’t want to spend it fighting.
I rose on my toes, letting my hands slide up his chest until my fingertips found their way into the longer strands of hair at the nape of his neck. I pulled him to me and brushed my lips against his.
Cash didn’t hesitate. His arms banded around my back, crushing me against his strong body, and he fused his lips to mine. Teeth nipped. Tongues tangled. Heartbeats thundered.
I yanked and pulled at Cash’s shirt, working frantically to get the buttons undone. He reached between us and loosened his belt, letting it fall free as the scrape of his zipper sounded past the blood rushing in my ears.
With his jeans open, I reached beneath the elastic of his boxers, finding his swollen shaft and wrapping it in my fist. Cash groaned into my mouth, tearing his lips away from mine as I stroked his velvety flesh.
He dove under the hem of my tee, his calloused palms rough and hungry against my skin. Cash’s hands were so large that they spanned the length of my ribs. He held me, immobile and panting, as he tore his lips away and leaned back.
The lust in his eyes was heady. Lust, for me. It was a cheap substitute for love, but my foolish heart didn’t care.
“I don’t have any more condoms,” he warned.
I gripped his shaft hard, pulling him closer. I’d been on birth control for years. “I’m safe.”
“So am I.”
I stroked him again, this time adding a single nod.
Cash dragged his shirt off his body, then crowded me, his lips recapturing mine. His height forced me to bend backward, so far that if not for his firm hold, I would have dropped to the floor.
I clung to him, letting go of his throbbing cock to clutch his shoulders as he swept me into his arms and walked us to the bed, not once breaking from my lips.
He set me on the mattress but before he could trap me underneath his body, I twisted, shifting to push his body into the soft sheets instead. Cash went willingly to his back, giving me a wicked grin as I straddled his waist and whipped my shirt off my torso. My fingers fumbled to unclasp my bra.
The pulse in my core ached, desperate for him to be inside. I worked the buttons of my jeans free, leaning forward to shimmy them and my lace panties off my hips while Cash shoved at his jeans and boxers. The moment the denim was on the floor, Cash’s hands palmed my bare ass, kneading and working their way toward my wet center from behind.
I straddled Cash’s waist, my hands sliding up the hard ridges of his stomach to the dusting of hair between his pecs.
His hands came up to cup my breasts. “Damn, you are gorgeous.”
I covered his hands with mine, letting my head loll to the side and my eyes close as he squeezed, his thumbs toying with my pebbled nipples. His scent surrounded me, the cologne he’d put on this morning and his own natural, masculine spice.
Cash slipped one hand free and I let my own fingers pinch the nipple in his absence. I opened my eyes to take him in, and the hunger in his eyes, the desire, made me tremble.
He dragged a fing
er through my slippery folds, barely grazing my clit before bringing his finger to his mouth to lick my juices. “So sweet.”
My core spasmed and I forgot about torturing my own nipple and reached between us, taking his cock in my hand at the same time I lined my entrance up with the tip and sank down.
“Oh God,” I gasped, savoring the stretch and feel of his bare erection filling me. I spread my thighs wider, taking him as deeply as possible, rolling my hips to grind my clit against the hard root of his cock.
“Fuck, sweetheart, you feel so good.” He arched his neck into the pillow, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed and sucked in a jagged breath. Cash’s hands came to my hips, picking me up like I weighed nothing, before dropping me back down, connecting us again.
I planted my hands on his chest and lifted myself and as I slammed down again, he thrust his hips upward, going so deep I gasped. The tip of his cock hit a spot inside that made me whimper. My hands went back to my breasts to tug at my nipples as we rocked into one another, up and down, until my legs trembled and I chased my release with reckless abandon.
“Ride me, Kat.” His hands dug into the curves of my hips, the roped muscles in his forearms flexed tight.
Faster and faster, I rode him, just like he’d demanded. My orgasm came without warning. I shattered, my entire body clenching as stars exploded in my eyes, blinding me from reality. I cried out, reveling in the best orgasm of my life and the feel of Cash’s roaming hands as I pulsed around him, over and over and over.
I was still riding out the aftershocks when Cash flipped us in a swift spin. He dropped a soft kiss to the corner of my lips, then took my hands in his, lacing our fingers together at our sides.
This man was made to pleasure women. Hovering above me, his eyes darkened to caramel and hunter-green gems, he was unabashedly seductive. His body was a work of art and strength.
The roughhewn, captivating mountains of Montana, the dynamic, awe-inspiring beaches of Oregon. No matter where I traveled in this world, nothing would ever compete with the view of Cash in this moment.
Sunshine streamed through the window like it had the first time we’d been together, illuminating his features. I memorized the sound of his hitched breath. I studied the way his tongue darted out to lick his bottom lip every few strokes and the soft hum he gave me when I flicked his nipples, the sound sweeter than any song or symphony. I took a mental picture of the way he looked when his eyes drifted closed in ecstasy, his sooty eyelashes sable crescents against his tanned skin.
I savored every second, knowing that we were racing toward the harrowing end.
Cash’s eyes locked with mine, the shaking in his body the only warning he gave before coming inside me in long, hot strokes. I didn’t blink for fear of missing a second of the rapture that played across his face.
Spent from his release, Cash collapsed onto me, his body as limp as my own. When he’d regained his breath, he shifted to the side, releasing my hands and circling me in his arms, my back flush against his damp chest.
This was why our friendship was over.
I’d never be able to look at him again and not think about how perfectly we fit together. I’d never get a whiff of his cologne without remembering how it smelled mingled with mine.
Cash took a long inhale of my hair, holding me closer. “We should go home.”
Except home wasn’t the same anymore and I wasn’t in a rush to face it.
He held me until the sweat from our bodies cooled and the growling of his stomach drove us apart. “I’m going to take a quick shower, then maybe we can get something to eat.”
“Okay.” I nodded as he kissed my temple. Then I pressed my nose into the pillow, taking one more moment to remember how he’d felt inside me.
The water in the bathroom turned on and I slid off the bed, my legs wobbly, and hurried to dress. Before Cash could stop me, I rushed from the room, easing the door closed as quietly as possible.
Leaving him so I could find a place to cry.
Alone.
“You ran away.” Cash dropped to the beach to sit beside me. The strands of his hair were damp from the shower.
“Sorry,” I said, my voice raspy with unshed tears.
I’d come out to the beach to cry but the moment I’d plopped down in the sand, I hadn’t had the energy. Because my tears weren’t going to make this any easier and at this point, I needed to save my strength.
Cash had been right earlier. It wasn’t fair to abandon the Greers and take a spur-of-the-moment job offer. But I was going to move out of his house. I was going to stay in the staff quarters for a while. And I was going to start mapping out what my future looked like.
Without him as the constant of my universe.
“Did I do something?” he asked.
“No.” I looked at his profile, melting at the concern in his voice. “I just needed some air. It’s been a string of emotional days.”
He huffed a laugh. “It’s been less than a week since we left. Feels like longer.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, turning to the ocean.
There were families building sandcastles. Couples taking selfies. Not a soul on the beach was without a smile, except for the two of us.
“Am I losing you?” he asked, his gaze straight ahead.
“I’ll always be your friend.” I leaned over, resting my head on his shoulder.
“That’s not what I’m asking.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“Talk to me.”
“I don’t know what to say.” I love you? No, thanks. My wall of self-preservation was about to double in thickness.
“Why don’t you want to go to California?”
“Because there’s nothing for me there but old memories. I’d rather focus on making new ones.”
There was no family. No friends. I didn’t want to see the junkyard, because I was worried that the reality of where we’d lived would be too much to take.
“Do you want to take a job here?” There was a twinge of pain in his voice, likely because he knew the answer.
“Maybe. I think . . . I think I’d like to stay in Heron Beach a while longer. With Aria.”
Carol had been right all along. I needed to take some time, to think and decide.
Cash didn’t have to be told he wasn’t invited. He nodded, his jaw clamping shut. Then he stared at the water and the other tourists, the two of us sitting on the beach for hours.
“Do you remember the goat?” he asked as a dog ran by with a frisbee in its mouth.
“You meant the white devil that tried to kill me?”
He chuckled. “Dad asked me about a month ago if we should get some goats to graze.”
I shuddered. “Tell me you told him no.”
“I said, ‘Over my dead body. Kat will smother me in my sleep if she finds out I agreed to raise goats.’”
I smiled. That was exactly what I would have threatened, verbatim.
Liddy was the one who’d brought a goat to the ranch. She’d seen a baby at the farm and ranch supply store in Missoula, and JR, being the loving, doting husband he was, had bought his wife a goat. Cash and Easton had built their mom a pen for the animal but somehow, that goat always managed to find its way out. Or its way over, we learned.
The damn thing could jump like Air Jordan.
It had never been a nice, sweet animal. To this day I believed the display goat that Liddy had seen was a fake. Because the goat she brought home loved nothing more than to chase unsuspecting humans and head butt them in the ass—specifically, me.
The goat hated me.
One day, I brought Liddy a pie I’d made from scratch. It had been one of my first since she’d taught me how to bake. She’d spent years teaching me little tricks and handing down her favorite recipes.
I was so damn proud of that strawberry rhubarb pie I didn’t want to wait. The second it was cool enough to carry without an oven mitt, I drove it over to her house.
Except I didn’t realize
the demon had escaped its pen.
I parked, took my pie and got out of my car, nudging the door closed with my hip. That fucking goat came around the corner of their house and I panicked, running into a field with it chasing behind.
Cash had been out riding that day. He caught sight of me and barreled toward us, chasing the goat off with his horse and swiping the pie dish out of my hand right before I tripped.
Maybe another man would have tried to save me from falling. Not Cash. He knew the hours I’d spent with Liddy in the kitchen. That was before we’d moved in together, but he knew how important it was for me to bake her a gift.
So I’d eaten a face full of dirt. But he’d saved my pie.
That day, I’d fallen in love with Cash. That day had been the turning point from like to love. That day was also the last day a goat had lived on the Greer ranch.
“Remember the time we went dancing at the bar and you bent to flip me over and your pants split down the ass?” I asked. “I’ve never laughed so hard in my life.”
“In my defense, those were very old pants.” He chuckled. “How about that time you and Easton got into an eating contest over a plate of nachos?”
“Please don’t say that word.” I grimaced. Nachos were now classified with green beans.
We talked for another hour, reminiscing about old times. It was what I’d miss as we adjusted to a new normal. I’d mourn the loss of our friendship for a long, long time.
My butt had fallen asleep. My legs needed to stretch. I opened my mouth to tell Cash I was going to take a walk down the beach when suddenly his hands were cupping my face and his tongue swept past my lips.
I moaned, falling into him as we kissed on the beach. The taste of his lips, the soft caress of his hands, the tickle of his beard, it was the best kiss of my life.
He shoved off the sand, holding out a hand to help me to my feet. Then he threaded my fingers through his and led me across the beach to the stairs that led to The Gallaway. We didn’t pause or linger on the way to our room. We didn’t hesitate to strip one another of our clothes and fall into bed, a tangled mess of limbs.