“It’s just…well, you’ll be leaving to go home once they find this guy and my home is here. So…there’s just…”
“Ryder, I get that you’re uncomfortable with me here. Hell, I’ll bet I’m the first woman to sleep in that bed with you…” When he glanced down at her accusation, she laughed. “I am, aren’t I?”
He nodded. “This is my place. My sanctuary. I don’t bring women here. My grandmother was the last truly good woman to live on this land…”
Kelsey moved forward, perched on the edge of the coffee table, and reached a hand out. Her fingers gently stroked his hand and his eyes met hers. What was it about her that made him want to talk? He hated to talk.
“Frank told me a bit about how you came to live with him and Grace. He told me…about your parents.”
He glanced at the fire. The thought of her knowing how unwanted he was by his own parents made him want to crawl into a hole and pull it in after him.
“You owe your parents nothing, they owe you. They brought you into this world and it was you that they owed a good life.”
He looked at her and saw true compassion in her blue eyes. What she said was true and it wasn’t the first time he’d heard that. Grace had told him that more than once until she’d won him over. He owed his parents nothing but he owed Frank and Grace the world for saving him.
“I loved my grandfather, much more than I loved my parents. He knew how they treated me and did everything he could to protect me, but he got sick and couldn’t take care of me. I’d stay with him in the summertime, here on the ranch. I hated when school would start and I’d have to go back to them. I’m sure Frank told you how they treated me. They were drunks. All they did was lay around the house and make me wait on them. If I didn’t do something they told me to do, I got a beating. The bigger I got, the worse they got. I wanted to live with my grandfather.”
“Why didn’t you or your grandfather report them?”
“The same reason every child who’s beaten doesn’t. Embarrassment. My grandfather didn’t report them because they threatened to take me away and he’d never see me again. They were ruthless enough to do it, and he knew it. The only ones who knew about how it was were my friends. The ones you met here. I made them promise not to tell anyone—ever. To this day, no one mentions it.” He paused, and she squeezed his hand.
“One of my friends, Riley Madison, lived through it with his own father. We were close. I tried to get him to run away with me, but he wouldn’t go. He was afraid if he did and his father got him back, the beatings would be worse. Our parents were smart in the way they beat us. They never left a bruise where anyone could see it. If I had bruises and had to take gym, my mother would send a note in that I was sick and couldn’t attend the class.” He shook his head. “I hated them both and I still do.”
“They’re still alive?”
“Oh yeah, in fact, they call me almost monthly to ask for money. It will be a cold day in hell when I give them any. My grandfather died when I was fifteen. I was heartbroken. I loved him so much. I couldn’t take it anymore so when I turned sixteen, I ran—as far, and as long, as I could. I was heading for Florida and had made it as far as Georgia. I was so tired. I came upon a dirt road. Well, at least I thought it was a dirt road. It was Frank and Grace’s driveway. I followed it until I came to a barn. I figured I’d just rest there for the night.” He laughed. “I was woken up by someone kicking my foot. I jumped up and tried to run, but Frank caught me by the collar. He told me he was taking me inside while he called the cops. But Grace wouldn’t let him make the call. She told him to leave me alone and asked me if I was hungry. I told her no but when she put two ham sandwiches in front of me, I wolfed them down. She told Frank I was going to sleep on the couch. Of course, he told her if everything she owned was gone in the morning along with me, not to bitch to him. She winked at me and I knew right then, I wanted her to be my mom.”
Kelsey reached over with her other hand and with both, she cupped his hand gently. She reminded him of Grace sometimes. “They are both amazing people.”
“I know, and I’m very fortunate to have them in my life. I call them Mom and Dad. They are my parents as far as I’m concerned.”
Kelsey laughed. “Frank told me about taking you fishing.”
Ryder chuckled. “I couldn’t believe anyone could be that angry and not want to hit something, or someone. He’s the one who talked me into trying my hand at building furniture. I had so much anger in me, and he said to take it out on something with a hammer. I thought he was joking but once I started doing just that, I began to love it.”
“So how did you go from making furniture to having this ranch and breeding horses?”
“My grandfather left me this ranch when he died, but I couldn’t take possession until I turned twenty-one. Thing is, I didn’t come back until I was twenty-three. I was traveling for two years and hard to track down. The lawyer finally contacted Frank. It seemed he never knew I’d been living with Frank and Grace. My parents were living here on the ranch in the original house. The house they burned to the ground by one of them falling asleep with a cigarette in their hand. They both got out but everything was lost. When I came back to the ranch, they had an RV hooked up, and they were living out of it. I told them to get off the ranch but they refused, so I called the sheriff and had them evicted. They weren’t happy but they went. My grandfather had left me a lot of money too. He knew I dreamed of owning a Paint horse ranch.”
Ryder took a deep breath. “He left me a letter, telling me how proud he was of me and to follow my dream. I did. I started going to auctions and buying horses. I bought a few horses from Becca when she decided to turn the house into a bed and breakfast. She needed gentle riding horses, so I took the Paints off her hands. When I bought Tramp, I knew he was the perfect stud. I was right too. People come from across the states to have their mares bred with him. I make a ton of money on stud fees alone. Jake, Gabe, and Wyatt helped me get things established. They raise and sell Quarter horses along with training them. Because of them, I was well on my way.”
“They seem like great friends. I like all your friends.”
Ryder narrowed his eyes at her. “Is that so?”
“Yes. It’s too bad Trick is married. He is really hot and don’t even get me started on the sheriff.” She squealed when he suddenly pulled her onto his lap. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and smiled down at him.
He felt better telling her his past. He’d never shared any of it with a woman before.
“Trick would never leave Kaylee, so no hope for you there.”
“Oh, okay. What about Sam?”
“You’re really pushing it, darlin’.” Ryder laughed. “Sam is seeing someone, so leave him alone. Christ, we all grew up with the girls, and then women, chasing after Wyatt, Trick, and Sam.”
“Oh yeah, like the rest of you are chopped liver.”
Ryder burst out laughing. “We had our share, but it got to be where it was a competition. When we were in our twenties, we were terrible with the girls at least until Sam took off to college, then the playing field got a little easier. When Trick married Kaylee, it was down to Wyatt. Then he left for the Marines. Finally, the rest of us had a chance.”
“Oh please. I don’t believe that for a minute.”
Ryder grinned. “No?”
“Nope.” Kelsey brushed a kiss along his lips, and then frowned. “What kind of name is Trick?”
“His real name is Patrick but when he was little, he couldn’t say it. He called himself Trick and it stuck. The only one who gets away with calling him Patrick is Kaylee. That woman could call him hey you and he’d be fine with it. He loves her very much.”
“They seem very happy. All of them do. I really liked the women I met.”
“They’re all great and have made their men very happy.”
“Don’t you ever want to get married? Be happy like that?”
“No. It isn’t that I don’t want to be happy. I
just don’t want kids. I never want to be like my parents were, and mistreat anyone.”
“That’s bullshit, Ryder. In fact, you’d be a great parent because you know what it’s like, plus the fact that Frank and Grace raised you right.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
She didn’t respond but he saw her brow furrow, and she glanced past him for a moment. When she looked at him again, she reached up and touched the scar by his eye. “How did you get this?”
“I brought my old man the wrong beer so he threw the bottle at me. I didn’t duck fast enough.”
Kelsey gasped. “How can people be like that?”
“I have no idea. If they didn’t want a child, they shouldn’t have had one. Unless they had me just so they’d have someone to wait on them. I did everything around the house.”
“Where are they now?”
“I don’t know. Last month when they called, they were in Utah. I don’t care where they are. I never want to see them again—ever. It’s bad enough when they call me. Always asking for money.”
“You don’t send them any, do you?”
“No. I never will. It’s my money. I made it, not them. They didn’t do anything but lie around the house collecting disability. For what, I have no idea. They aren’t disabled. They’re just lazy. I think they found a doctor who would say they are, though what kind of doctor would lie for them I have no idea.”
“It’s hard to tell.”
****
Kelsey stared into his green eyes and saw the pain there. She lifted her hand and gently caressed his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into her hand. Her heart broke just a little for him knowing how unwanted he’d felt for most of his life. She wanted to tell him she wanted him, but it wasn’t the way he needed someone to want him. She closed her eyes a moment against the ache in her chest. When she opened them, he was staring at her and the heat in his eyes could have rivaled the flames in the fireplace.
He slid his hand along her neck beneath her hair and pulled her face down close to his. He pressed his lips to hers. He moved his tongue along the seam of her lips until she opened for him. She groaned when his tongue moved into her mouth, dueling with hers. She wanted him, even if not the way a parent wanted a child, she wanted him the way a woman wanted a man.
She pulled back from him and kept her eyes on him as she moved to get off his lap. He moved to pull her back to him but she shook her head. He frowned at her. She dropped to her knees between his knees. Reaching out, she pulled his T-shirt over his head and smiled.
“If you remember, I told you last night there is something I want to do to you,” she whispered as she unhooked his belt buckle and opened the snap of his jeans. She slowly lowered the zipper and moved her hand inside, wrapping it around his hard cock. She heard him groan.
“Lift your butt a bit,” she ordered him with a grin. He laughed but did what she told him. She pushed his jeans, along with his boxer briefs, down to his thighs. She leaned forward and kissed the head of his hard eager cock.
Ryder fisted his hands in her hair, the sensation thrilling and encouraging her to run her tongue along the length of him from top to bottom. She cupped his balls in her hand as she put her mouth down over him as far as she could. She moaned and he shuddered. Dropping her hand from him, she gazed up at him as she sucked on him. His eyes met hers. Her mouth was making his shaft slick. She sucked hard and his head went back as he moaned out her name.
Kelsey had honestly never enjoyed this before but with Ryder, she wanted to make him come apart for her just as she had for him. She felt his thighs tremble beneath her arms and she loved that she was making him weak in the knees.
“Kelsey, you have to stop, darlin’,” he groaned through gritted teeth. He was holding back and she didn’t want him to.
“Just let me do this, Ryder.”
“I’m too close.” He tried to pull back, his fingers tangling in her hair.
“Good.”
Ryder blew out a laugh. “No, not good. I want to be inside you.”
“Later,” she told him, and then took him deep into her mouth and sucked hard.
He stiffened as a low groan tore from his chest and he came. Kelsey licked him clean and kissed her way up his chest to his lips. He deepened the kiss and pulled her tightly against him.
“You didn’t have to do that,” he told her with a grin. She knew he enjoyed it.
“I know. I wanted to.” She leaned in and kissed him again.
“Well, thank you. It was amazing. Now I owe you.”
“No. I owed you…for last night.” She smiled.
“I think we need to head to the bedroom and work up our appetites for lunch.”
“Can we get in that big Jacuzzi of yours first?”
“Sure.”
“Can you make a fire in there?”
“Whatever you want, darlin’. Come on.” She pushed to her feet and watched him stand, pulling his jeans up but leaving them undone. He took her hand, and led her to the bedroom.
Once they reached the bedroom, she entered the bathroom and started the water in the tub while Ryder added logs to the fireplace. The fire had gone out earlier, so he had to light it again but she could hear the snap and crackle of the wood so she knew it was strong. While she stripped off her clothes, she watched the blue and orange flames flicker around the logs. She stepped into the tub and sank down into the water. The hot water felt amazing after being out in the cold even though she’d warmed up by the fire. She watched as Ryder stripped off the rest of his clothes before stepping into the tub. He turned the jets on and Kelsey moaned at the sensations.
Ryder moved closer to her and kissed her. His mouth moved across her cheek to her ear where he tugged on her earlobe. “Sit on the edge of the tub, baby,” he whispered in her ear.
She opened her eyes wide. “What?”
He smiled at her. “Trust me.”
“All right.” She scooted up and sat on the edge of the tub. The air cooled against her skin but the warmth of the fire behind her was keeping her warm. When he spread her legs and settled between them, she knew what he was going to do. “Ryder…”
“Shhh. Relax,” he said as he kissed her inner thigh and slowly moved closer to his target.
Her legs started shaking as he moved them over his shoulders. She grasped the edge of the tub and moaned when he moved his tongue through her strip of curls. Her head fell back as his tongue moved against her clitoris, and then he sucked on it. She felt him inching his fingers inside her. He moved them against her G-spot as he continued his assault on her clitoris. When the orgasm hit her, she screamed and almost slipped off the tub edge into the water but Ryder caught her and held her against him. Slowly, he lowered her into the tub.
“Are you all right?”
“Oh my God! That was amazing.” She was breathing hard, almost painfully. She’d never experienced anything like that before.
Ryder kissed her. “I love how you taste.” She blushed tasting herself on his lips. He ran his fingertip over the scar on her thigh. She stiffened up. “Don’t be embarrassed by this. It’s a part of you and there is nothing ugly about it. That man who told you that was an ass.”
“I know he is, but it’s hard to get past it.”
“Trust me when I tell you that you are beautiful.” His gaze traveled over her making her suddenly self-conscious yet feeling exquisite, sexy, and for perhaps the first time in a long time, beautiful.
Ryder sighed, brought his eyes up to meet hers, and grinned. “I’m hungry. I guess I came through with that promise to make sure we worked up an appetite for lunch, huh?”
He stood and put his hand out to her. She accepted it and stood. He pulled her to him and kissed her lips quickly. “What do you say we get some lunch.”
Kelsey nodded. Ryder helped her from the tub and both of them dried off. She wrapped the towel around her. “I need to go put some clothes on.”
“Your robe is fine.” He winked at her. She smiled and ran from
the room. She put her robe on and met him in the living room. He was stoking the fire back to a roaring blaze.
“I love the way both fireplaces are open on both sides.”
Ryder glanced at her over his shoulder. “Just seemed like the smart thing to do to keep the house warm, if I needed to.”
“It works well. What would you like for lunch?”
He grinned at her, making her laugh then he scooped her up into his arms, kissed her hard and she knew exactly what he wanted. They walked to the kitchen, where she fixed lunch, and then spent the rest of the day in bed.
Chapter Six
The next day, the weather was indeed warmer, which made the snow start melting away. The sun was high in the sky and shining down brightly. Water dripped from the remnants of icicles hanging from the gutters around the house. Kelsey sat at the kitchen table, tapping her fingers while Ryder finished his lunch. She sighed. She felt Ryder’s eyes on her so she shifted her gaze and met his straight on.
“What is it?” he asked her.
“I’m bored. Can we go to town? I’d like to get off this ranch for a while.”
“So you hate the ranch?” His expression told her just how much he took that as a personal affront.
“No. I love the ranch. It’s just that I’d love to see some more of the area. I didn’t get to see much when we went to the party the other night.”
“Oh. All right. I guess we can go to dinner in Hartland tonight if you’d like and see a movie.”
“Hartland?”
“Next town over. It has a nice restaurant. The only thing in Clifton is the diner.”
Kelsey smiled. “Oh, I’d like that very much.”
“Good. We’ll leave here around six. I’ll call and make a reservation.”
“Is it a fancy place? I just need to know what to wear.”
“It’s not really fancy. I’ve seen women in there, wearing dresses, jeans, or dress slacks. So wear whatever you want.”
Kelsey was thrilled to be going out. They hadn’t been anywhere since the party and as much as she loved the ranch and being with Ryder, she needed to get out before she went stir-crazy.
Ryder Men of Clifton, Montana Book 5 Page 8