by Em Petrova
“Brielle and I have a plan.”
“In the real world, plans change. What I see is your stubborn streak taking over your business sense.”
“My grandpa wouldn’t have backed down from a challenge. Neither will I.”
“Okay, there’s a reason why ranches are fading off the map by the day, Beau. Because people run them like they did in old days, and it doesn’t work anymore. Not in the modern age. You have to run the ranch like a business, not a way of life.”
“It is a way of life. One Brielle and I both committed to.”
He almost rolled his eyes at the sheer stubborn naivety Beau displayed. He’d leave Brielle out of it, because the woman knew better. After all those discussions of how they’d run their own ranch, Kaoz felt certain she had a better grip on this than her brother.
“Have you asked Brielle’s opinion on the matter?”
Beau met his stare. “She feels the same way I do.”
“Let’s go ask her.” He turned for the house, grabbing some scrap wood too small to be useful. He detoured around the side of the house where he had a pile started for a bonfire. Wood pallets and dead branches he’d picked off the lawn when he made an attempt to find his clothes Brielle tossed out to the wind. He was still missing several socks and never did find his razor.
He tossed the wood scraps onto the pile and out of the corner of his eye spied something white fluttering from underneath a bush. He strode toward it and saw one of his socks. Unable to bite off a snort of amusement, he snagged it from the branches of the bush and stuffed it into his pocket.
Then he went in search of Brielle. She’d agree with him about pushing back the horse delivery and would favor getting the hay in before the barn got raised. Timing was half the battle in ranching. A day of bad weather would ruin the hay crop and they’d be out money they could use.
Plus, he’d have a chance to look into her eyes when he reminded her of how she’d come apart under his fingers last night.
He walked into the house. Country music filled the space. Brielle stood in the kitchen, mopping the floor clean of mud he’d probably put there. He leaned in the doorway, watching her a minute before she realized she had company.
Glancing up, she froze mid-mop.
Pizza. He remembered pizza to be her favorite dinner, and he wouldn’t second-guess himself. She wanted to believe he didn’t know her, but he damn well did.
And apple pie for dessert.
He had some pretty good ideas for how to use that apple pie filling.
“Why are you grinning?” Her sweet Southern drawl drove him crazier, especially since she’d used it the night before when begging for release.
His lips tipped further at the corner. “No reason.”
She dropped her gaze to his boots. “If you’ve got muddy boots, I’m going to kick your ass, Kaoz.”
Damn, could she be any cuter?
“I’d like to see ya try, but they’re not too muddy. We were laying out the lines for the barn. That’s why I’m here, actually. I need you to help me talk some sense into your brother.”
Stopping, she set the mop handle straight up and gripped it like a weapon she’d be more than willing to thump him over the head with. “I’m pretty sure my brother has sense. What’s the issue?”
“We can’t erect this barn in the time you need it. The horses need pushed back another week at least. Even then, we need money to pay workers for the barn. And we need a tractor to bale that hay in the field so we have it not only for the horses come winter but cash in hand from half the crop.”
She took this all in silently and the bit down on her lip. He recalled that look—she worried her lip when deep in thought, and seeing it went straight to his cock. He still sported a nasty case of blue balls on her behalf too.
“You know I’m right. We need to buy some time, and I need your help to convince Beau. He’s stubborner than a pig in mud.”
Her cheeks flushed with what he guessed to be annoyance. “He’s very knowledgeable about what needs to happen around here. I don’t need to remind you that we were running this place just fine without your help.”
He lifted a brow. “Fine doesn’t mean successful. What happens when we’re neck high in a barn build and the horse owners are ticked off that you’ve gone back on the terms of the contract? Plus, unless you’ve got nineteen cousins I don’t know about who are good with a hammer, we need to find some workers and pay them for their work.” He couldn’t believe Beau’s dreamer mentality had Brielle convinced everything would be fine as long as they put in extra hours of hard work.
Ignoring the clean floor and his not-so-clean boots, he stepped up to her. “Sweet thing, you know I’m right. This isn’t my ego or anything of the sort—it’s me wanting to see you guys make this ranch a success.”
She compressed her plump lip between her teeth again, and he couldn’t take it any longer. Cupping her face, he kissed her, a hard stamp of his mouth that immediately pulled a sigh from her sweet lips.
Angling his head, he deepened the caress, drawing more moans from her until all of a sudden a crack sounded—a sharp pain bit into his side.
She’d hit him with the mop handle.
He started laughing.
“I’m not here for you to toy with, Kaoz.”
He sobered, studying her for several heartbeats. Did she really believe him capable of such a thing?
“Believe me when I say there’s nothing fake about the way I feel about you.” His voice grated on a rasp of emotion.
Before she could reply, he turned and left her alone with her wet floor and her sudsy water to think about everything he said regarding their relationship, and with luck, about the ranch too. He needed her fighting in his corner—in all ways.
* * * * *
Brielle stopped before she rounded the outbuilding, smoothed the wrinkles out of her top and drew the long ends of her hair over her shoulders.
Then she mentally kicked herself. If she could wrinkle her shirt again and mess up her hair, she would.
What did she care if Kaoz saw her looking like a mess? She didn’t. She came out to see her brother.
With a defiant lift of her jaw, she rounded the corner. A quick sweep of the land showed her that Kaoz wasn’t here and only Beau worked with the mare.
She moved forward and leaned against the fence, watching. He glanced up at her, his expression guarded.
“You here to tell me I’m doin’ it wrong too?”
She blinked. “Who told you—” She cut off. Kaoz, of course. The man had a way of barging onto their ranch and taking over completely. Whether he knew his stuff or not, his methods weren’t sitting well with her or her brother.
Beau gave the horse a command that sent her dancing in the opposite direction. He pulled her to a stop, but concern brought Brielle’s brows together. That shouldn’t have happened.
“I’m here to talk to you about the barn.” No point in beating around the bush. She watched him handle the mare. “Wait—why are you doing it that way?”
“It’s the way Grandpa taught me since I was twelve,” Beau barked out, which set the horse even more on edge. Seeing what he’d done, he soothed her with some soft words and a carrot he’d pulled from his pocket. “Don’t even tell me that you buy into everything Kaoz says, Brielle.”
“I don’t. Except…” she paused, knowing what she would say next would send him into a pout or a rage, “I think he’s right about the barn, Beau. We need more time.”
Saying nothing, Beau gathered the horse and led her from the training pen. He stripped off her tack and set her loose in the field. She trotted over to the hay in the corner, mane and tail flying with joy at being as free and wild as she wanted to be.
Beau stormed into the outbuilding, and Brielle followed. When she saw him tossing the items on the shelf with no rhyme or reason, she inwardly groaned. It hadn’t been Kaoz wrecking her neat shelf at all—Beau had.
She put a hand on his arm. “Being stubborn abou
t this won’t get the barn built faster. We’ve run out of time. We should have started on it months ago, when we first bought the place. I know it’s hard to swallow, but we need to push off the horse delivery, Beau.”
He grunted and then stomped to the lone horse stall. He grabbed the shovel and started cleaning the straw off the floor, tossing it into a wheelbarrow. She didn’t tell him Kaoz had cleaned the horse stall that morning. He could see for himself and worked to expend frustrated energy.
“Grandpa would tell you the same thing, Beau.”
He didn’t respond.
“I know you’re trying to keep to the old ways and to the business plan we created, but fact is, in any business, you have to change in order to stay alive. The same goes for the ranch. On paper, it looked good. In reality, we need to adjust, adapt.”
He issued a low growl and dropped the shovel. She watched him wheel the barely used straw outside and dump it across the way. The hard, expressionless mask he wore on his face told her she wouldn’t get any further with him today.
She did all she could here. She spoke to him, as Kaoz had suggested. And she didn’t even feel irritated by taking her ex’s suggestion, because his words made sense.
Releasing a long sigh, she wandered over to check the pigs dozing in the early evening sun. After talking to them for a minute or two, she went inside to think up something for dinner.
As soon as she walked in, she stopped. The scent of pizza—not any pizza but her favorite Antonio’s deep dish pepperoni—filled her nose with its heavenly scent.
She followed the smell into the kitchen and found Kaoz standing over the table, a match in his hand as he lit the wicks of a fat scented candle set on a checkered tablecloth. She saw he’d set two places, and besides the source of the delicious smell—the pizza—he had a bottle of wine and two glasses.
Her insides tumbled like she’d slipped and fallen down a hill, only now she knew it was her emotions taking her deep into the well of loving Kaoz again—if she’d ever stopped.
She must have made some noise, because he pivoted and pinned her in his deep gaze. The corner of his lips tugged upward, and she melted a bit more.
Don’t fall for it. It’s an act.
She spent a long minute drowning in the sea of his blue eyes before flicking her gaze downward—more of a mistake. His big body shouldn’t fill out a T-shirt so perfectly. No man should be allowed to look that hot in Wranglers. And that cocky smile he wore rounded out the image of all-American cowboy.
She glanced aside—only to find that she made an even bigger mistake. Not only had he grabbed the right pizza to make up her favorite dinner, but a square pink box sat on the counter with the words Crossroads Confection Connection, and she knew without looking it contained her very favorite decadent caramel apple pie.
“Where did you get these things to set the table?” She pointed to the tablecloth and candle.
He grinned. “You like? I grabbed them at the gift shop in town.”
He’d gone to a lot of trouble to make things look nice…to please her.
“You requested your favorite dinner, and I delivered. Or rather I did takeout.” He smiled at his own joke and caught her stare.
Her stomach wobbled. She felt like her entire body had become one of those stacking block games. One block removed from the bottom and she’d tumble completely out of control into Kaoz’s arms. He knew it. He planned for it.
With the candle aglow and the scent of the pizza filling the space, Brielle was drawn forward. He swept the chair out for her, and she sank to it, dizzy with what she was about to do. Sharing a meal with the man who’d hurt her deeply, broken her heart honestly, wouldn’t be a good idea. She should leave, but the pizza smelled so good, and for once she didn’t have to scab together dinner after working all day or worse yet, eating something Beau fixed.
When Kaoz lingered near her, so close that she could feel the warmth of his body against her elbow, she suppressed a shiver.
Slowly, he circled the table and sat opposite her. Their gazes met, and she got swept away to the night of their first date, when they’d shared the same pizza across from each other at Antonio’s. A dark need gripped her insides. Their relationship had burned as hot as that candle flame from the start. Within two weeks, they were sleeping together. In a month they moved in. Ten months and he’d put a ring on her finger.
She’d kept the ring instead of giving it back—she had it tucked in a box at the bottom of a drawer. Something about leaving it behind in the house after she moved out had been too much to bear, so she’d packed it along with the rest of her things.
Kaoz searched her eyes. “Ready for your favorite dinner?”
She couldn’t speak, only nodded.
He whipped open the pizza box lid and she inhaled the ooey gooey scent of cheese and grease. Her stomach burned with hunger, and under the table, she squeezed her thighs together because of a different craving.
Kaoz arched a brow as he reached into the box for the first slice. He held it up and offered it to her. She lifted her plate, and he set the slice on top. “I hope you enjoy it, sweet thing.”
She didn’t even correct him when he called her by his pet name for her. She liked that Southern twang too damn much.
He plopped a slice on his own plate and then shot her a panty-scorching grin. “On three, we take a bite together. Ready?”
They’d played this little game on countless occasions. She realized suddenly that Kaoz made everything he did special, even eating a boring old slice of pizza.
Unable to help herself, she picked up her slice and brought it to her lips. She stared at him. Together they counted down, “Three. Two. One.”
She moaned as the flavorful sauce hit her tongue. Cheese stretched from her teeth to the slice, and she chewed the thick doughy crust with relish. When she opened her eyes, she saw Kaoz had stopped mid-chew and stared at her. Not any old stare—an I love you more than my favorite cowboy hat stare.
She swallowed the bite. He did too. They took another at the same time, and she had to stifle a giggle at the moment. Slowly, they worked their way through the first slice like the first moment they ever set eyes on each other. By the second slice, eating together had become foreplay. By the third, she felt too tight, hot and breathless. Her clothes too constricting, and she wanted to see Kaoz’s shirt off and his muscles flexing…
She attempted to hide her discomposure. “The candle smells like what heaven must smell like.”
He smiled, and a crease appeared around each eye, making him look even more delicious to her. “Cort bought one for Joss one day we were in town together, and I thought you might like one too.”
She felt more unsettled than ever. With him buying her gifts and actually knowing her favorite dinner, even though she didn’t remember ever naming it as so, completely leveled the field and she saw Kaoz as he appeared right this minute—a man trying hard to win back her love.
As if it had ever left. If it had, it wasn’t for long.
Halfway through her third slice, she pushed her plate away.
“That’s the best you can do, sweet thing? Two and a half slices?” His eyes held a teasing glow.
She nodded. “I’ll come get some cold pizza around midnight.”
The playful gleam in his eye transformed to another look. “At midnight, you’re going to be very busy.”
Her breath hitched.
He went on, “Busy screaming as I give you your third orgasm.”
She crushed her thighs together to hold off the ache his dirty talk raised. She shook her head in opposition to his words. “I’ll be asleep.”
“Not after what I have planned for you, Brielle.” With that, he closed the pizza box and carried it to the counter. Next he picked up the candle and cleared the table of their plates, leaving only the tablecloth. She quivered as she looked on, frozen in place.
When he brought the pink box from the bakery and set it on the table, she clenched her fingers in her lap. “
I’m not hungry for dessert right now,” she told him.
His eyes burned. “No, but I am.” He plucked her from the chair. Her bottom hit the table, and she issued a squeak of surprise. Without warning, he kissed her. Plunging his tongue between her lips and sucking at hers, taking and giving until she couldn’t breathe, think or remember her name or her reason for dumping this man in the first place.
She realized he’d edged her top up over her ribs. The clasp of her bra had been popped and Kaoz dragged his fingertips lightly over each of her nipples until she moaned out.
He whipped her top up and off, and then stripped her bra off her shoulders, leaving her bared to him. A dark promise lived in his eyes as he ducked his head to her nipple. When he sucked it between his lips, she grasped at his shoulders.
“My brother could come in,” she managed.
He grazed her sensitive bud with his teeth. “He left. Told me he’d be out this evening before I planned all this.”
“You planned to…seduce me…with pizza and pie.” She sucked in sharply between the fragmented words as he drew on her nipple until she couldn’t see straight.
He moved to the other nipple and gave it the same mind-blowing swirling attention, dragging his tongue over the crest in long swoops. Her insides clenched. Her pussy soaked her panties. She needed Kaoz—now. Fingers, lips, tongue, teeth, cock…all of him.
She burned for him. Always had and always would, if she was honest with herself. Right now she wanted to see how far this exciting game would go and didn’t stop him when he popped open the lid of the pie box with one hand and scooped a dollop of caramel apple onto his index finger.
She stared on while he slowly painted it over her breast and down to her nipple. As he followed it with his tongue, she threw her head back on a cry of bliss. Apple and cinnamon and caramel had never excited her more, and she’d always been a die-hard fan of the Crossroads bakery’s pies. She dug her fingers into Kaoz’s hair and guided him from one nipple to the next.
He spread more pie filling down her belly and laid her back on the table. She gasped at the first scrape of his coarse beard against her skin. The hot twirl of his tongue across her abs and down to the waist of her jeans made her buck upward and cry out for more.