by Maisey Yates
And he couldn’t take it anymore.
He flipped her over onto her back, pounding himself into her. It was a fire in his veins, his need for this woman. The way she made him feel.
His own release was violent, his need shaking them both as he came on a curse that felt a whole lot more like a prayer.
When it was over, she went limp against him, clinging to him.
A smile tugged the corner of his lips. “Did you fall asleep, Bea?” he asked, pushing her hair back from her cheek.
“No,” she said, rubbing her face against the crook of his neck.
“I think you did, sweetie,” he murmured. He kissed the top of her head and extricated himself so that he could go to the bathroom and dispose of the contraception. Then he went back to her, pulling her thin, plaid blanket up over them as he drew her over part of his body, wrapping his arms around her. She yawned, and he stroked his hands down her back, over and over again, relishing her softness.
Her breathing quickly became even and deep, and that along with the sound of rain on the tin roof of the cabin was the only noise left in the room.
Contentment washed over him. The sound of that rain, the sound of her breathing, was bigger, more real than cheers filling an arena had ever been.
He was more than happy right now.
Happy wasn’t anything. He’d been happy before. He’d had moments of pretty damned great happiness, actually. He’d been triumphant. He’d been excited.
But right now he was content. And that was something he couldn’t recall ever feeling before. Like somehow he’d found a home, not in a house, but in himself.
And it was because of her.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
DANE LAY AWAKE for most of the night, sleeping in fits and starts, and at about five in the morning he finally gave up. He got out of bed and pulled on his jeans, and nothing else. He didn’t bother to look at his phone. He was enjoying this moment. He could appreciate why she liked the simplicity of the cabin. The quiet.
What he liked best about it was that it felt like their world, like there was no one and nothing else out there, and he really appreciated that more than anything.
He made a pot of coffee, and then put some eggs in a pan and started to scramble them. Dug around until he found some bacon.
He wondered what Bea would have to say about him cooking bacon on a day when they were supposed to take in rescue pigs.
A smile tugged the corner of his lips and he was tempted to start whistling. Him. Whistling. He didn’t but the fact the temptation existed was weird enough.
When he was through making breakfast he peeked in at Bea, who was still asleep, and he didn’t have the heart to wake her. So he ate by himself, sitting in a little armchair in her living area, until he heard a scratching sound at the door.
Joe was lying on the rug, having been let in late the night before, so he wasn’t the culprit. But Dane had a feeling he knew who was.
He opened up the front door and was met by Evan, who leaped backward when he saw Dane. He supposed if a small animal was expecting a small woman to answer the door, a large man might be off-putting.
“I guess you were waiting to get fed all this time, weren’t you?”
Evan naturally didn’t reply, but did come inside warily, where he took up a position by the fridge. Dane watched from the door, with his back to the outdoors as Evan did a small dance. His front feet lifting, then falling as he tried to express the urgent need he seemed to have for his dinner.
And after all, it was Dane’s fault Evan had been out, anyway.
At least, that was the vibe he was getting from the indignant creature.
He heard the sound of vehicles pulling into the lot in front of Bea’s cabin. And he realized that he and Bea had probably made a mistake not checking their messages again last night. They had ended up in bed early, and had been consumed with each other, and then asleep.
He imagined they had missed a few things.
He also knew exactly how it looked with him standing there, still not wearing a shirt, in Beatrix’s doorway.
And it hit him then that he just didn’t care. Not even a little.
They weren’t going to hide this. He sure as hell wasn’t.
And Bea was a grown woman who could do what she wanted. And she had clearly decided she wanted to do him.
Anyway, she was his. No point denying that. He might not have wanted to have the discussion, and he might have been happy to avoid the inevitable confrontation for a while. And he really hadn’t wanted to do it when he was so obviously leaving Bea’s bed, or with a whole audience.
But he wasn’t embarrassed. And he sure as hell wasn’t ashamed.
Still, he wouldn’t mind wearing a shirt when he greeted everyone. Even though he realized they’d already seen him, he figured there was merit to at least making some pretense at being dressed.
He picked his T-shirt up off the living room floor and pulled it over his head before going back over to the door. By that point, the trucks, complete with trailers, had been parked, and Wyatt had gotten out of his truck, as had Lindy. Gabe Dalton was currently getting out of his truck, but that didn’t matter so much, because Dane was being fixed with the evil eye from his sister.
“Good morning,” Dane said. “Didn’t expect you this early.”
“I guess not,” Lindy said. “Bea should have been. We all texted her last night.”
“I’ll get her,” Dane said.
“Will you?” Lindy asked, her tone flat.
“Yeah,” Dane said. “In a minute. You have the animals?”
“Yeah,” Gabe supplied. “We brought the pigs and the goats. I’m going to go back in a minute and get the horses and take them back to my place.”
“Good,” Dane said.
“Is there an easy path to get them down to where you’re going to house them?”
“We should be able to do it. Nothing a little bit of herding won’t solve.”
“I’ll go get Bea,” Lindy said.
“She’s asleep,” Dane said.
He was aware that Wyatt’s gaze was getting stonier by the moment, and that Lindy was holding herself back from strangling him. Gabe Dalton was clearly unaffected by the situation. Which was something that Dane appreciated at the moment.
“I need to have a word with my sister for a second,” Dane said, grabbing hold of Lindy’s arm and pulling her over to the side. “Whatever you need to say to me, go ahead and say it, but don’t you dare make Bea feel bad.”
“Dane Parker,” Lindy said, her teeth set on edge. “How dare you? She... She’s had a crush on you forever and you...”
“You had a crush on Wyatt forever.”
Lindy looked like she was tangled in her fury. “I did not have a... It isn’t... I am the same age as my husband. Not only that, I had been married for ten years before. I knew what I was getting into.”
“You think she doesn’t? Lindy, how old do you think she is?”
“She’s younger than you. And she’s inexperienced.”
“Lindy, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I know her better than you do.”
“Being naked with someone doesn’t mean you know them, Dane. As you know very well.”
“And acting like someone’s superior older sister doesn’t mean you know them,” he said. “I don’t mean mine. I mean hers.”
“What are you doing with her?”
“What were you doing with Wyatt?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Everything, Lindy,” he bit out. “Why do you think it’s fine for you to try to have a relationship but it isn’t fine for her?”
“Because you and I both know she isn’t going to get to have one with you. You’re going to hurt her.”
Anger streaked through Dane’s ve
ins, along with the sure and certain realization that he would rather cut his good leg off than hurt Bea. “I don’t think that’s what you’re worried about,” he said.
“Of course I am! I’ve known Bea since she was a kid, and I love her like a sister. I love you like a brother because you are my brother, but that doesn’t mean I’m not realistic about who you are.”
“You’re worried about you,” he said. “You’re worried because you’ve made a life for yourself where everything is perfect again, and you don’t want it disrupted. Because Bea and me having a different relationship will change things. Because if it goes bad it might make things hard for you.”
“Is that what you think? That I’m that selfish?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I think you’re that much of a control freak. You want your world the way you want it, and that’s fine, Lindy, but you can’t control what I want. You can’t control what she wants. And you sure as hell can’t get in the way of other people living their lives just because you want yours to stay the same.”
Lindy visibly bristled. “So you’re telling me, honestly, that this has nothing to do with the fact that you have been shut in for the past eight months and this girl worships the ground you walk on? Because she enthusiastically bought a ticket to the Dane Show and you’ve been missing your audience?” Rage spiked through him and he opened his mouth to tell her off, but Lindy pressed on, “You’re telling me that this has absolutely nothing at all to do with the fact that she makes you feel good about yourself and your ego is in more desperate need of stroking than any other part of your body?”
Anger gripped Dane, because it wasn’t like he hadn’t asked himself the same questions but that was when the attraction was building. That was before. It was different than the reality. Because once he had actually touched Bea, once he had actually committed to what was happening between them, there had been no question left. He didn’t want to use her in any way. He wanted her because she was...
She was damn near a miracle, and he was a man who’d had a shortage of those in his life.
“You’re underestimating us both,” he said, his voice rough.
“Am I?” Lindy asked. “Or do I just care about you both?”
He shook his head. “No. You think that I would do that to her, and you think she’s stupid enough to get caught up in it.”
“Because I know having feelings for a man makes you stupid,” Lindy said. “That’s the thing. I’m really glad that things worked out between Wyatt and me, but getting there nearly killed me. And I was thirty-four years old. She’s not. She’s twenty-four. She’s never had her heart broken, and if she has to have it broken, dammit, Dane, I don’t want it to be you.”
“I don’t want it to be either.”
“You think you have...a future with her?”
Dane rocked back on his heels, his heart turning over. “From where I’m standing, Lindy, I can’t imagine a future that she’s not in. I don’t know what all that means right now. But I know I’ve never felt this way about anyone else before. Maybe that doesn’t make sense to you, because she’s younger than me. Maybe it doesn’t make sense because you think you know one thing about her and you think you know one thing about me. But if you put the two of us together and it doesn’t make sense, then I’m just going to tell you, you don’t really know either of us.”
He turned and walked away from her, pausing in front of Wyatt and Gabe. “I’m going to go get Bea, and when I do, the first person to make an asinine comment is going to be on the receiving end of me testing out just how healed up I am.”
Dane went in the house and expelled a harsh breath before walking back into the bedroom. Bea was only visible by a spiral curl, which was sticking out the top of the bedspread. He put his hand on her shoulder, rubbed it down her back. “Bea,” he whispered. “It’s time to get up, honey. The animals are here.”
“Early?” she mumbled, sitting up and looking around bleary-eyed. She was also still naked, and the blankets had fallen down below her breasts. And Dane was only a man.
With great difficulty, he tore his eyes off her. “Yeah, apparently there were texts and we missed them. And everybody saw me coming out of your house without a shirt on at 6:00 a.m.”
She wrenched into a straight position. “What?”
“I handled it.”
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t deny anything. I’m not ashamed of what’s happening between us. I’m sorry. I wanted to keep it a secret to keep things easy. But you know what? It doesn’t matter to me what anybody thinks.”
Color crept into Beatrix’s cheeks. “Really?”
“Really. You’re right. You’re a grown woman. Everybody else got to fool around with who they wanted to fool around with. We can’t?”
“Good point,” Bea said, but her cheeks were only getting more and more pink.
“Bea,” he said. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“Well, maybe to you. But I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“I’m not sure I have either. We’ll figure it out together. We don’t need anybody’s interference. So if anyone says anything to you, I will be first in line to punch them in the face.”
“I really do appreciate that,” she said, slowly crawling from beneath the covers and digging through her dresser, pulling out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
Dane watched her get dressed, in absolutely no hurry to move along, and when she was through, he poured her a cup of coffee on their way out of the kitchen, putting his hand very intentionally on her lower back as the two of them walked out of the cabin.
He could feel her trying to shrink next to him, but he just stared everyone down. Daring them to make it an issue.
Gabe Dalton spoke first. “Where do you want us to put the animals?”
“I’ll lead the way,” Bea said.
Bea could practically feel Lindy’s nervous energy in the air all around them while they dealt with the animals that morning. Bea was relieved to part ways with her and see to the care and settling of the animals, and she’d gotten the sense that Lindy was reluctant to leave.
And so, when the evening rolled around and Sabrina sent out a perky text that she happened to be in Gold Valley and was wondering if everyone wanted to get drinks, Bea wasn’t overly surprised. She also had a feeling it was Lindy who had put her sister up to it. But Bea was determined to go about things the way that Dane said they would.
He was right. This was their life. It was their choice. And Bea had elected to have an affair with Dane like a grown, mature woman who didn’t need anything else from the man. And if she wasn’t worried about it then no one else should be either.
She ignored the little twist in her stomach that came when she thought of that. She was fine.
The past couple of nights with Dane had been the best of her life. He was so gorgeous and attentive, and he made her feel... It was like all these little pieces of herself that had seemed scattershot had suddenly joined together. Her wildness and her femininity, her desire to care, and her need to be cared for. It all fit in bed with him. Or on the floor of her cabin, as the case may have been. Because she had never felt more feral, or like more of a lady than she did naked in his arms. She had never felt more right.
This was why people needed to have love affairs, she concluded as she pulled her truck up to the front of the Gold Valley Saloon. Because it helped you discover things about yourself. Sexuality was important, and all that. She had shoved hers down for a very long time, and now she was embracing it. And by embracing it she had found a wholeness of self.
Dane was a conduit.
She wrinkled her nose as she stepped onto the sidewalk and peered into the window, scanning to see if Lindy and Sabrina were already there.
She could see, through the warped antique glass that they were in fact alread
y there. As were Kaylee, McKenna and Jamie.
Beatrix had the sudden image of falling down in her chicken coop and being pecked to death by the hens.
She imagined the experience would not be terribly different than what was about to unfold here tonight.
But she was here to own it. Well, no, not just it. She was here to own herself.
She steeled herself and fluffed up her curls, straightening the floral dress she had chosen to wear before striding into the saloon. She kept her eyes facing forward as she marched to the bar. “Hi, Laz,” she said. “Can I get some whiskey?”
He smiled, his dark eyes twinkling. “Bea.” He shook his head. “Do you really want whiskey?”
“I do,” she said. “And I don’t need advice on what you think I should be drinking.”
Laz did not seem off put by this. He chuckled. “It isn’t that I’m questioning you, so much as making sure you’re not wasting your money to make a point.”
“Why would I do that?”
“I’m a bartender. I see people do a lot of things. I have a pretty good sense for it.”
“Okay,” she said. “How about a rum and Coke?”
“Heavy on the Coke?”
“Yeah,” she said, tapping her fingers on the bar top and waiting. The true irritation here was that he wasn’t wrong. She was trying to prove a point. And she was too much of a lightweight to really do it.
He delivered her drink and winked at her. “On the house.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said.
“I want to. It looks like you’re at the center of something big,” he said, gesturing over to the table of women.
“All right, I’ll take the free drink. But since you’re offering it, any advice on how to deal with well-meaning interfering friends?”
“Do it the same way you deal with well-meaning interfering bartenders. Tell them what you want.”
Well, that went nicely with her general thought process. She was going to talk. She couldn’t expect to be treated the way she wanted if she didn’t tell people that what she wanted had changed.