by Penny Wylder
I bite my lip. I know it’s a tell, but I can’t fight the nervousness in my gut. “Well, yeah.”
“Trevor told me that family is important to you, and that you came down here mostly for him. Mel, what I said about my family…just because mine wasn’t great doesn’t mean I don’t want that. I love the idea of having a family, even if it means waiting to have one because I want to be sure about it. Because if I do it, I’m going to do it right. I’ll never make the same mistakes that my parents made.”
I need to tell him, even though my stomach is twisting with nerves. He can see it, and he cups his face with his hand. “Talk to me.”
“I—” I swallow. “I was a virgin until last night. I had been saving myself for marriage…and then I met you, and it didn’t feel as important anymore. But…this morning, when you said all of that, I wondered if it had been a mistake. I wondered if I just got carried away and lost myself. Threw away my values.” The look of shock on his face hits me in the chest, and I hold him tighter, immediately wanting to take that look of pain from his face. “I don’t regret it, though. Not at all. But after what you said, about your own family, I started thinking. I realized that I had hoped, that I’d imagined, that I…I don’t know what I was expecting.”
The intensity of his kiss blows me away. Like nothing I’ve experienced, even with him. He presses his mouth to mine and practically drinks me in. Swallowing my breath. It’s a kiss that has me floating on air, high up on my tippy toes because I never want it to end. “I should have known,” he says. “Noticed. I wish I would have. I would have made it better for you.”
“Don’t you dare say that. It was perfect.”
He grins. “Perfect?”
“Yeah.”
Harlan kisses me again, pressing me harder against the wall of the barn. “Last night, when you weren’t used to my size, I was happy that I was bigger than whoever you’d been with before. Knowing that I’m the only person to touch you? Fuck, Mel. That’s everything.”
His mouth crashes down on mine for a moment. “Remember what I told you would happen if you chose fast?”
“Pushing me against the nearest wall?”
He strips my shirt over my head and tosses it to the ground. “I sent your brother to the diner, and there’s a perfectly good wall here. And I need you to tell me, am I the only man to touch these?” He traces my breasts.
“Yes.”
Reaching down, he dips his hand in the paint bucket and smears handprints across them in bright red. Then he spins me to face the wall, and shoves down my pants, leaving those same handprints on my skin there too as he traces downward. “And what about this perfect ass?”
“Only you,” I manage before I hear the sound of his belt and feel the head of his cock pressing against my entrance. I was wet the minute he touched me, and he has no trouble sliding in. And in. And in. Fuck, he’s so big.
Harlan wraps an arm around my waist just like he did when we rode Bean together, only this time, he’s riding me. I hold on to the wall, bracing myself against the thrusts, not prepared for the blistering pleasure that spirals through me. It’s rough and raw and unstoppable.
We’re groaning together, and Harlan’s voice is a growl in my ear. He wraps my hair around his fist and pulls my head back, so he can look me in the eyes. “You’re mine now, Melena. Every part of you is mine. And this pussy is so fucking perfect. So tight. So wet. So ready for me.”
The words along with the friction of his cock send me to the edge. I’m barely holding on, unable to keep quiet, and a few more thrusts send me over into pure, bright oblivion. I shout it out, this new pleasure, and behind me Harlan grunts his own release. He thrusts into me quickly and stills, and I can feel his hot cum filling me. He rests his forehead on my shoulder, panting, as we ride out the waves of pleasure together.
I’m glad I’m not facing him for what I’m about to say next. Even though I feel brave, I’m afraid to see his expression. “I think I’m falling for you.” The words are barely a whisper. “But I don’t know if this can work.”
Harlan pulls out of me and spins me around faster than I can blink. Grabbing my now paint-soaked shirt, he helps me on with it gently, but I can’t ignore the heat in his eyes. “It will work. I’ll prove it to you.”
“You really want that?”
“Fuck yes,” he says. “All of you. In every way. Marry me, Melena.”
My heart drops through the ground. He didn’t say that. I must be hallucinating. Harlan Decker didn’t just propose to me. Or maybe he did.
“What?”
“Marry me,” he whispers. “Be my family. I want you to be mine.”
Something deep inside me clicks into place like a puzzle piece that was wasn’t working, but now it’s found all the right edges. I don’t have any doubts when I tell him, “Yes.”
His smile is the most dazzling thing that I’ve ever seen, and I want to see that smile forever. I want to be the source of that smile. And the only reason I take my eyes off that smile is because he’s suddenly kissing me again, and I close my eyes and imagine kissing him forever.
“What in the fuck is going on?”
Trevor has come around the corner of the barn. Shit.
12
Melena
There’s no way to hide what we just did. Not with my pants down and paint smeared across our bodies. I can feel my face going bright red as I pull up my pants, but Harlan doesn’t let me go, he just stands there smirking. “That wasn’t even close to two hours, Trevor. C’mon man.”
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t want to leave Mel alone that long knowing that she was upset. This is…not what I expected.”
I open my mouth to explain, but Harlan’s hand squeezes my side. “And it’s not what it looks like either. We’ve been a little busier than just fixing up this old place. Trevor, I just proposed to Melena and she said yes. I want to marry her.”
Trevor goes pale. “Are you serious? You want to marry my sister and you propose to her like this? After doing, well, you know, on the side of the fucking barn?” He scrapes his hands through his hair. “I thought you two hated each other. I can’t…deal with this right now.”
I’ve rarely seen my brother explode like that, and I watch in shock as he disappears around the corner. Harlan looks equally shocked, and he and I stand there in silence, not knowing really what to do.
“Maybe he doesn’t like this red paint? It is a little loud,” Harlan jokes, breaking the tension.”
I punch him in the arm, smiling, before I button up my pants. “He’s old fashioned. Like I thought I was, and like my parents are. My parents did it that way. They’ve always been the happiest couple that we’ve ever known, and they fell in love and got married before they had sex. That’s just the way we were taught that it worked. So this…it will look insane to him. And don’t forget, I’m his baby sister. But I can talk to him. Awkwardly, but he and I will have a talk.”
Harlan catches me by the arm before I get too far away from him. “Before you walk away, I didn’t get to say it.”
“What?”
“That I love you, Mel.”
Perfect warmth glows in my stomach, and I can’t stop my smile. He said it back. He takes my face in his hands, presses his nose to mine, and gives me the lightest kiss. “And just for good measure, I want to say it again. I love you, Mel.” I stare into his eyes and the sincerity lights me on fire. It’s hard to pull away, but I owe Trevor an explanation. I blow him a sassy kiss before running after Trevor. He’s nearly to the house now.
“Trevor!”
He doesn’t stop, so I call his name again. This time he does stop, though he’s not happy about it. “What?” he barks at me.
“I want to talk to you. I want to explain.”
“Maybe after I scrub my eyes out with bleach from catching my little sister having clearly just had sex against the fucking barn wall! I didn’t think that this was what you wanted, Mel.”
I shrug. “It wasn’t. This wasn’t m
y plan. Hell, I thought I was spending the summer with my big brother, clearing brush and mending fences. But…then I drove up to this ranch and there was a new plan waiting for me. I realized that I’d been waiting all this time for something to be perfect, something that was almost too ideal, and I wanted to be happy. So I let myself be happy. I let go of some of my old ideas, and in the process, I fell in love. I’m in love with him. It’s like…he understands me without having to say it.”
“I really did think you hated each other.”
I laugh. “We didn’t get off to the best start, but that changed pretty quickly. I understand if you think that I’m crazy. I know it’s fast, but I also know that it’s right. Things change, and you of all people should know that it’s hard for other people to understand your dreams, right?”
Trevor shakes his head. “That’s for sure. After the amount of shit I’ve taken for buying this ranch, I definitely understand that. I just want you to be happy, Mel. That’s all any of us have ever wanted. And if he’s what you want, then I’ll support you.”
“Thank you.”
“Even if I wish I could fire him for stealing my sister’s virginity and defiling my barn.”
I smirk. “He didn’t steal anything. I gave it to him. And if you don’t want the details, then you shouldn’t ask. And that barn is only standing because of our hard work, so you are welcome, brother.”
“Fair enough,” he says, making a face.
“Thank you, Trevor. If you hadn’t gotten me down here this wouldn’t have happened at all.”
“And if it doesn’t work out, Mel? I worry about you.”
My heart skips a beat in my chest. “If it doesn’t work out then it doesn’t work out,” I say. “But I’m done avoiding things in my life simply because there’s a chance of future pain.”
One side of his mouth turns up into a smile. “That’s a good phrase. You should be a writer.”
“I’ll give it my best shot.”
Going in to give him a hug, he stops me. “No way. You’re going to have to wash off the paint first.”
The laugh that comes out of me is the freest sound I’ve made in a long time. “Fair enough.”
13
Harlan
Melena moved into my bedroom the night that Trevor left. Now it’s the last day of the summer. The day that Melena was supposed to go home and never return. She hasn’t packed, and we both know that she’s not going anywhere, but we’ve both been studiously avoiding the subject anyway. It’s not something that either of us have wanted to face.
The last few months we’ve just enjoyed being with each other. We worked our asses off on the ranch, too, but in our free time, we learned everything about each other. The first thing I really learned about her was how badly she wanted to write her book. So when we weren’t rolling around naked in bed, or in the hayloft, or out by the creek, I made sure she had plenty of time to write. One weekend I went to an auction a few hours away and came back to the ranch with an antique desk for her. I painted her old bedroom with a fresh coat of paint, hauled the bed down to the cellar, and made her a proper writer’s room, just for her, just like she deserves.
We’ve been living like that ever since, in a perfect rhythm. Early morning coffees on the verandah watching the sun come up. Big breakfasts together to fuel us through our day of hard work, and then the nights are just for us. Exploring each other’s bodies, finding new ways to draw pleasure from each other, just enjoying falling asleep together at night and seeing each other first thing in the morning. We didn’t want reality to interfere with what was a nearly perfect summer. But the contractors are arriving tomorrow, and our paradise will quickly become a bustling construction site. And Melena still has a home and life back in the city.
Things have to change somehow. Decisions need to be made. We’ve waited until the last possible moment to confront reality. There’s no more hiding from real life.
Back when I first proposed, we floated the idea of what we might do. Maybe she would stay at the ranch, and maybe I would go back with her to the city. But now I have a plan, and I’m hoping that she’ll say yes.
If she doesn’t, it doesn’t change a thing about the way I feel. I still want her. I’ll always want her. No matter what, I know we’ll make it work.
My arm tightens on her waist as we ride out toward my property. I’ve been keeping her busy and away from here because I didn’t want her to see what I was up to. But now, it’s ready.
She’s come a long way with her fear of horses, and I don’t sense any tension at all as we ride Bean. Though the way her curvy ass presses against me still makes me hard every time we do this—and we do it often. She’s not ready to ride by herself yet, and I’d much rather have her in my arms.
When the frame for my new house comes into view, she gasps. “Harlan, what is that?”
I ride up to the front of the building and help her down. “This is my house, Melena. I designed it myself. All those hours I insisted you spend in your writing room, well, I had other motives than just trying to motivate you. If you want, this can be our house.”
Melena looks at me, anxiety and wonder mixing in her gaze.
“I know we haven’t talked about it. In fact, we’ve been avoiding it, but I have a plan Melena. And the plan is to build a life here. With you. We’ll be here under the blue sky, in the fresh air. I’ll be working on the ranch and you can work on your writing, and when we’re ready, we can raise our children here together. Occasionally there will be a storm where we can lock ourselves in the house and I’ll fuck you senseless. And on the clear summer nights I can make love to you on the shore of the lake.”
Sinking down onto one knee, I pull out the ring from my pocket. It took several supply runs to the city and sneaky trips to the jewelry store before I settled on this one for her. It had to be perfect. It’s been burning a hole in my pocket for a month now, waiting until the right time to ask. Now is the right time.
“I know that I asked once, and that you already said yes. But I wanted to do it properly. I wanted you to have the moment that you always dreamed of with the ring and the surprise. And I wanted you to see that I am doing everything in my power to make this work. To create a world for us. Will you marry me, Mel?”
There are tears glistening in her eyes as Mel looks down at me, and she nods her head. Her voice shakes. “Yes, of course I will. I’ll marry you. I’ll stay. All of it.”
I slip the ring onto her finger, and it fits gorgeously, sparkling in the morning sun. Standing, I kiss her deeply, relishing the way she still melts against me whenever I do this. I never get tired of her. If I could have nothing to do with my life but worship Melena’s body, I would make it my full-time job.
“I have something to show you,” she says, pulling her notebook out of Bean’s saddlebag where she stashed it. Flipping through the pages, they’re entirely full. Every single one of them. “I finished it,” she says. “First book. It’s not very good, but I think it’s done. It’s like the words don’t ever want to stop. And it’s because of you, Harlan. You gave me the confidence and never stopped encouraging me. You helped me do this, and I couldn’t be more grateful to you.”
“Mel, that’s amazing.” It really is. I know she’s spent hours in her writing room, but I’d never asked about it. I didn’t want to pressure her to share her writing before it was ready, just like I didn’t pressure her about what drove her to move to Texas. She told me about that too, and I’ve spent every minute of our time together helping undo the damage that her boss did. Showing her that she’s worthy of love and life and so much more. “I can’t believe you finished it.”
“I have plenty more ideas,” she says.
“I’m sure you do. So do I. I’m having one right now.” I take her hand with the brand-new diamond ring and tug her into the open frame of the building. “And it involves christening the building site of our new home.”
Melena rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling, and she doesn’t say no. The
n she grins. “You know, I had an idea this morning too, and it involved waking you up with your cock in my mouth. But by the time the sun woke me, your ass was out of bed. Now I see why.”
She’s looking at what will be our living room, and spread out on the floor is a lush comforter and pillows, and a champagne bucket with a bottle on ice and two flutes.
“Well you didn’t think I’d propose to my future wife and just fuck her down and dirty on the ground, did you?”
“Still,” she pouts. “I like it when I get to wake you up like that.”
Over the past few months, Melena and I have enjoyed exploring all her firsts. And to my surprise, my fiancée likes blow jobs. Loves them, actually. More than one morning I’ve woken up with her lips wrapped around my cock. I am never going to complain about that kind of alarm clock.
Melena sinks to her knees on the blanket, undoing my belt with an ease that wasn’t there at the beginning of the summer. Of course I’m already hard for her. I’m hard whenever I get within three feet of this woman. And fuck if I hope that it doesn’t ever stop.
Her eyes have a sparkle in them that matches her new diamond, and it sparkles as she strokes me up and down slowly. “I suppose I’ll just have to stay in bed from now on,” I said.
With one stroke of her tongue under the head of my cock, I’m undone. “Yes you will,” she says.
Touching her lips to my tip, she eases her mouth over me. She likes taking her time, knowing that it drives me absolutely crazy when she does it. But I know how to drive her crazy too, licking her clit in a pattern of circles that I found drives her higher but doesn’t make her come. I can leave her a soaking, desperate mess until I fuck her screaming.
Our first time together was good, but it’s gotten better and better.
Now she slides down my cock, encasing me in the wet heat of her mouth. Fuck, she’s good at this. I’ll never get tired of seeing her lips stretched around me. It’s so fucking hot. As is the way that she’s learned to take me deeper and deeper. She sinks down now, nearly to the base, and I hiss out a breath. I’m hitting the back of her throat, the suction a dangerous and thrilling thing that’s spiking my pleasure.