by Maisey Yates
“You weren’t allowed to tell, so you didn’t?”
“I know,” she said, her throat scratchy. “But I had already seen what happened when you opposed my father. Sabrina could be in the same room as him and he would barely say two words to her.” She shifted. “Add to the fact that it turned out he wasn’t actually my father and I just... I still don’t know what to do with it. I still don’t know how to think of him. He’s the man who raised me, whether distant and unaffectionate or not. His is the name on my birth certificate. His is the money that I have, and the house that I grew up in. And I kind of resent him for that. Because if he didn’t really want me that much then I don’t know why he had to be the one that I had. Anyway, it just made all that hard. It made all of this hard.”
“I would have wanted to know,” he said. “Your secrets. And who you were. Why that weird girl brought a vole to science class.”
Bea laughed and took a bite of her hamburger. “No, you wouldn’t have. You’ve known me all this time and you’ve never wanted to know that.”
He looked wounded, and she almost felt bad. But she knew she was right.
“That’s not fair,” he said. “I’m seven years older than you, Bea. I couldn’t have thought of you as anything other than a kid when I met you. And yeah, it changed. You changed. But it takes time to catch up with that sometimes. I think if we would have been the same age at the same school... It would’ve been different.”
“No way, Mr. High School Quarterback. You would have been messing around with girls under the bleachers and going out for hamburgers, just like you always did. The only thing I was doing under the bleachers was catching lizards. If you didn’t hang out with the weird girls when you were in high school, you wouldn’t have hung out with me.”
“You can’t say that for sure,” he pointed out.
“Yes, I can.”
“No, you can’t. Because none of them were you. And you’re different.”
Her heart twisted and she shoved her milkshake straw into her mouth and took a long sip. “It doesn’t matter. Because you still would’ve been on to bigger and better things than me.”
Dane paused for food, then sighed. “Yeah, well, talk about daddy issues. It was something I had to do. I loved being that football star, Bea. I loved having a reason to have my name written on that window all big. Because before I started playing football I wasn’t anyone. Trailer trash. But once I found out that if you’re good at something people care about, you start to matter, that changed everything. Every damn thing.”
“Why didn’t you try for college football?” she asked. “Why the rodeo?”
“First of all,” he said. “I’m a big guy, but at a certain point, there’s big and there’s football big. I’m not fast enough to compensate for that either. But also... My dad didn’t watch football. He used to watch the rodeo. I thought... If he could see. If he could see what I was doing then I would matter to him. Turns out he was watching, all this time. All this time he was watching and... He didn’t tell me till it was over. I hate him a little bit for that.”
“Dane, you mattered to me no matter what you were doing. I didn’t care about the rodeo stuff. I was proud of you the further your career went, but I didn’t care. It wasn’t what made you interesting to me. I had a crush on you way before you got super famous.”
He chuckled. “I appreciate that. And just so you know, I might not have totally seen you as a woman until recently, but I always knew you were strong. I never saw you as Jamison Leighton’s daughter. In fact, I never understood how such a cold bastard could raise such a special, caring person.”
“I think it’s because of my dad being cold that I feel the way I do.”
“I’m not surprised by that. I think we both do pretty well in spite of the men that call themselves our fathers, what you think?”
Bea forced a smile. “I think that’s true.” They ate their food in relative silence, watching as the diner filled up with rowdy kids, who grabbed paint pens and began to scribble on the wall, before sitting down and ordering near identical dinners to Bea and Dane. When they finished, they got a cookie with their bill, for finishing every bite, Lucinda said, and they ate those on their way to the truck.
Beatrix jumped when her phone buzzed.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Beatrix,” a familiar voice on the other end of the line said. It took Beatrix a moment to place it. “This is Nancy at the border collie rescue. I just found out about a farm full of animals that are being removed from the house where the owners were arrested for drugs. They’ve been pretty severely neglected. I’ve got a couple of horses, pigs and five goats.”
“I can take them,” Bea said, quickly. “Well, I might talk to Gabe Dalton about the horses. But the goats and the pigs.”
She felt Dane shift next to her.
“Great. Do you think you can arrange to have them picked up? I know it’s a lot to ask, but I just found out, and I don’t want them to be euthanized.”
“No,” Bea said. “Of course not. I can house them. I’m in the process of renovating, but I have enough space for them. And I will figure out a way to pick them up.”
Bea hung up and quickly explained the call to Dane.
“Wyatt has horse trailers and things,” Dane said. “I’m sure that he can help.”
“Well, why don’t you get in touch with Wyatt, and I’ll see if we can get Gabe Dalton on board to help. I’m going to call Kaylee and Bennett and see if either of them can do some vet checks to see what we need.”
They made phone calls on the drive back to the property, and after they had arranged for an early morning pickup of the animals with Wyatt’s and Gabe’s equipment, Bea led Dane out to the barn area.
“I think everything is fenced in properly here,” Beatrix said. “But we might need to fashion a smaller shelter, one they can just go in and out of.”
“They’ll be fine for now,” Dane said. “We can make do with the barn, I think.”
“Yes, I think you’re right.” She smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “For helping me make this possible.”
Dane shook his head. “Bea, you’re the one that’s made this possible. It’s you, honey. You’ve done it all.”
“But you’ve done so much to help me and encourage me, while never making me feel like I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. You really don’t know how much I appreciate that.”
The clouds that had been growing thicker and more ominous overhead broke open, and Bea felt a raindrop on her cheek. One on her arm.
“We’d better go back,” she said. Her inclination was to run, because the rain was starting to fall hard and fast.
But she realized that Dane couldn’t. She took hold of his hand and the two of them began to walk slowly through the field as the rain fell harder and harder.
They were getting soaking wet.
But they were getting wet together. And Bea didn’t mind at all.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
RAIN WAS POURING down Dane’s face. His back. Soaking through his shirt, his jeans, and he knew that Bea wasn’t faring any better than that. But she was walking with him, her fingers linked with his, and he felt damned guilty for a moment. Because he was setting a pace that wasn’t keeping her comfortable. She could have run ahead of him.
But she was choosing to hold his hand. Choosing to walk with him.
And he wanted her to.
Because it felt good. Because it felt right. By the time they got back inside the cabin they were soaking wet and freezing cold.
Bea shivered, a damp curl hanging in her face. He pushed it back and cupped her cheek. Then he leaned in slowly and captured her mouth with his. Raindrops clung to her lips, and he created heat and friction between them that banished the lingering chill.
She was incredible. This goddess who made him feel things he hadn’t known
he was capable of. Things that were deep and real and slow.
He had done his best to live life fast so that he couldn’t stop and linger on small moments. So that he wouldn’t think of pain from his past or worry overmuch about the future.
But with Bea he wanted to linger in small moments for as long as he could. Because those small moments seem to expand inside of him and become bigger. Become everything. Become air.
She slipped her tongue into his mouth, then nipped his lower lip lightly. He growled, and broke their kiss, cupping her face and staring down at her. At that lovely, familiar face that seemed new to him now.
Now that she was his lover.
She was like a treasure that he wanted to keep turning over and over again, that he wanted to keep staring at. Because every time he did he saw a new facet. Something he hadn’t realized was there before.
It had been. All this time. He just hadn’t stopped and looked long enough to appreciate it. But he was now.
She pressed her fingers beneath the waistband of his shirt, pushing the damp fabric up, her fingers splayed over his flat stomach.
“How are you still in such good shape?” she asked, her voice full of awe. Satisfaction kicked him right in the ego.
“I was alone in that house for a long time. I did a lot of searching on what kinds of exercises I could do. Because, dammit, I wasn’t going to start from ground zero if I could help it.”
Her brows knit together. “So you skipped a bunch of your physical therapy appointments but you worked out by yourself.”
“Yes,” he said, because it made perfect sense to him.
She sighed. “That sounds like you.”
He laughed and grabbed hold of her shirt, also sodden from the rain, and jerked it over her head. “Does it?”
She breathed in deep, her full breasts rising up over the cups of the black bra she was wearing. “Yes,” she said.
“Does this sound like me too?” He grabbed hold of her bra, but this time he unhooked it deftly in the back with one hand before pulling it off with the other.
“Thank God you didn’t tear that one,” she said. “I don’t have an endless supply.”
“You wouldn’t have been mad at me if I would’ve torn it,” he said, watching the color mount in her cheeks.
“Yes, I would have. I’ve got to spend my money on important things like feed for all the animals I have coming in soon. I can’t be wasting it on lingerie.”
“Honey, if you don’t want to wear lingerie, that’s fine by me. I’m happy to look at you naked.”
He reached out and cupped her breasts, sliding his thumbs over her nipples, gratified by the little squeak of pleasure she made as he pinched her gently.
She really did have the prettiest body. “I definitely would have noticed you if we went to high school together,” he said.
“Really?”
“You’re stacked,” he said, lowering his face and nuzzling the rounded curve of her breast with his cheek, before moving to capture her nipple between his lips, sucking on her. She grabbed hold of his head, holding him against her.
“I don’t believe it,” she said, sounding dizzy now. “But I don’t mind the story.”
Right then he was overwhelmed with gratitude over the fact that they hadn’t gone to high school together. That there was time and space between their ages. Because he wouldn’t have been a man who could have been there for her then. He was a man who had needed to leave. He’d needed those years running from his demons. He felt less like running now.
Standing here with her, he knew that the answers were in this room. With him. With her. But he had to go the long road to get there. And somehow, all that timing had clicked just right.
He knelt down in front of her, undoing her jeans and pushing the wet denim down her legs along with her panties, leaving her bare to his inspection. “You know you’re beautiful, don’t you?” he asked, pressing a kiss to her inner thigh.
She trembled beneath his mouth. “I...I can’t say that I ever really thought about it.”
“Never?”
“Animals don’t care,” she pointed out.
“I feel a lot like an animal right about now, Bea. And I care. In fact, I’m pretty damned obsessed.” He cupped her ass, drew her forward to his mouth, so that he could taste her between her legs. She whimpered, grabbing hold of him as he went deep, satisfying himself on her flavor, on the sweet little noises of pleasure she made. She was a dream. She was his dream. One he’d had to wake up to have.
She grabbed hold of his wet shirt, peeling it over his head while he knelt in front of her.
“My turn,” she said, breathless as she wiggled away from him and all but pounced on him where he knelt on the floor, undoing the buckle on his jeans and pushing the denim down his legs.
They were both naked then, their skin slick from the rain, cold. Beatrix pressed a kiss to his chest, his abs, lower.
“Bea...”
He grabbed hold of her hair, but she wasn’t deterred, her eager tongue sliding along his length in an enthusiastic tasting. She made a deep, satisfied sound, and his arousal jerked, his stomach muscles tensing.
She pushed her hand against his chest and shoved him back, turning her ass toward him as she took him eagerly into her mouth. He chuckled, grabbing hold of her hips and swinging her around so that her center was poised over his mouth.
She was delicious, and he couldn’t help himself. Didn’t even want to. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said she made him feel like something that wasn’t quite tame. But she wasn’t tame either.
She was wild, his Bea.
And he wanted her to be utterly and totally wild with him.
He held on to her tightly, holding her against his mouth as she moaned and wiggled against him and continued to try to pleasure him with her mouth.
But the whole time he was doing his part to distract her. Torment her. Until she was shaking and shivering.
Until he could slide two fingers easily inside of her.
She shattered beneath his hands and his mouth, her internal muscles contracting around him as he continued to work his fingers in and out of her body. She collapsed against him, resting her head on his thigh.
“I didn’t know that was a thing you could do,” she said, her words shaky.
He laughed, in spite of the fact he was hard as iron and practically in pain. This was a fun kind of pain at least. “That just tells me I have a lot to show you.”
“That wasn’t fair,” she said in protest.
“This isn’t about fair,” he said. “This is about desire. We can have whatever we want. There aren’t limits on it. And anyway, as much as I enjoyed having your mouth on me, that’s not how we’re finishing this tonight.”
He took hold of her waist and maneuvered her around again, so that their noses were touching. So that he could kiss her, deep and hard. When they parted, they were both breathless.
“You’re strong,” she said, fluttery and sweet, her hand resting lightly on his biceps. And he was just basic enough that the simple statement made him feel like he could lift a car.
For her, he probably could. Pain be damned.
“Yeah, well, I’m a lot sturdier on the floor.”
She nodded. “That makes sense.”
“Are you complaining?”
“I could never complain when we’re like this.”
“Well, you could. But it would be awfully ungrateful.” He slapped her ass playfully and she yelped, clinging to him.
Dane reached over and took his wallet from his pants pocket, pulling a condom out. Then he wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and pulled her up with him so they were sitting. He pushed them both up off the ground, bracing himself heavily on the wall.
Bea helped, without him having to ask, without him feeling like he had to. Sh
e clung to him while they propelled each other back toward her bedroom. Her bed was tiny, but he didn’t mind. They stretched across the narrow mattress, clinging to each other, kissing, exploring each other’s bodies with their hands.
Bea took to the task with a kind of giddy determination that made Dane’s heart swell. The way her hands roamed over his chest, his back, his ass, her eager fingers wrapping around his cock.
She acted like he was her own personal candy store and she couldn’t get enough. She wasn’t gentle with him. And when she looked at him, it wasn’t pity he saw in those beautiful golden eyes.
It was desire.
It was want, and need, even when her fingers skimmed over the scars on his knee, on his thigh.
For the first time, he didn’t hate those scars.
He grabbed hold of the condom packet, tore it open, rolling it onto his length as quickly as possible while they kept on kissing. Then he lifted her up over him, positioning himself at the entrance to her body, flexing his hips upward, testing her readiness.
She gasped, bracing herself on his shoulder as he encouraged her to seat herself on him.
“Oh,” she said.
“What?”
“You’re showing me a couple of new things tonight.”
He chuckled. “We’re just getting started.”
He bucked up into her and she let her head fall back, wild and beautiful as she found a rhythm of her own, tormenting and teasing them both.
“That’s right, baby,” he whispered, holding on to her hips and encouraging her as she took control. She was wild and uninhibited, and the view he had of her body as she rode him made him crazy. He gritted his teeth to keep from coming because he wanted to draw this out for as long as possible. The way the light from her bedside lamp cast a glow around her damp curls, her pretty face, the gorgeous slope and curve of her breasts, her trim waist and full hips... The view of that patch of curls between her legs. This was the best ride of his life. And right now, it was the only one that mattered.
Bea led on instinct, and her instincts were good. She bit her lip, her hands skimming over his chest, down his abs, her fingernails leaving marks over his body as she rolled her hips forward and shuddered out her release.