She stirs beside me and I wake up, opening my eyes to see her smiling at me.
“Morning,” she says. Her voice comes out as a croak, and she laughs before clearing her throat. “Morning,” she says again.
“Morning, beautiful.”
Her cheeks flush a little and I smile. In this light, I can see the smattering of freckles across her nose. Her eyes are clear and bright.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” she says.
“Is that so?” I ask, not ready to get out of bed. I drape my arm across her body and she giggles as I pull her close. My cock is aching for her, and she gives me a little grin as she presses her body against mine.
“Maybe I can wait,” she says. I crush my lips against hers and groan as she wraps her arms around me. If I could stay in bed forever with her, I’d be happy. Waking up next to her in my bed is the sweetest pleasure I could ask for. When I watch her head lean back and her lips part – when her back arches and her body contracts around mine – I feel like the luckiest man alive.
She’s ignited something inside me. It’s not just the sex, or the orgasms. It’s something more. Once the pleasure of my orgasm fades, I rest my head on the pillow and watch the smile play across her lips. My heart jumps as we lay in bed together.
When she’s in the shower, I put on some eggs and bacon for breakfast. She comes into the tiny kitchen with a towel wrapped around her, inhaling and smiling. I hand her a cup of coffee and she takes a long drink.
“This is the perfect morning,” she says. She looks at the window and then back at me. “Listen!”
I listen to the birds singing right outside the window and I watch her look outside. She points at a nearby tree and looks at me with a huge smile on her face. “A nest! There must be babies hatching!”
I nod, flipping the bacon. “They’re sparrows,” I say. “I’ve been watching them the past couple of days. They hatched two days ago, and the mom has been busy feeding them ever since.”
Mara stares out the window and I smile as I watch her face. You’d think she’d never seen a bird’s nest before.
“Even being just a little bit further out, you get so much more wildlife here,” she says. “It’s way too busy near the hotel. It’s nice here.”
I nod, dishing up a couple plates of breakfast. Mara tears herself away from the window and smiles.
“This looks amazing,” she breathes.
“Between last night and this morning, you’ve pretty much gotten my full repertoire of cooking,” I laugh.
“Well I’m impressed,” she answers. She leans over to me and plants a kiss on my lips. “It smells so good.”
We spend the next hour or so just enjoying each other’s company. I used to think my cabin would never be big enough for two people, but Mara seems completely at home here. I put my arm around her and kiss her temple as we sit on the couch. She turns to me and kisses my lips before smiling sadly.
“I’d better go,” she says. “Any later and people will start wondering where I am.”
“I can drive you back,” I offer.
“That’s okay, I’ll walk the back way. It’s such a beautiful day.”
I nod and kiss her one more time. When she leaves, I watch her walk through the trees in the direction of town, and my heart feels light. I finish the rest of my coffee and put the mug in the sink before heading out to the workshop. I’ve got sketches for a few items that Mara wants to prototype. Based on the contract she showed me yesterday, I’m going to be incredibly busy for the next couple of months.
I get to work with a smile on my face and a lightness in my heart that I’m not used to. As unlikely as it is, Mara McCoy has brought the joy back to my life.
Chapter 20 - Mara
The days go by in a flurry of activity. Renovations begin on the hotel, and I do my best to orchestrate them. I steal any moment I can with Dominic, and the two of us collaborate on the design of the furniture for the hotel.
“Where did you find someone on such short notice?” My mother exclaims as I show her the prototypes for the night stands. “Furniture makers are usually so busy!”
I shrug, trying to keep my face steady. “I’m just resourceful, I guess.”
“You sure are,” she breathes. She inspects the nightstands and nods in approval. “These are perfect. Who made them?”
“A small woodworker from Wolf Mountain,” I lie. My heart squeezes. I hate lying, even if I know it’s for the best. My father looks up from the perfect workmanship of the furniture and studies my face. My palms start to sweat as he stares at me, but finally he looks away and says nothing. I take a deep breath and slip away from the two of them.
I’m glad that they like the designs so far, but I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to hide from them. Surely the truth will come out – especially if Dominic and I are spending more and more time together.
I sleep over at his cabin a couple of times a week, and I steal any moment I can to go to his workshop. He’ll sneak into my room in the dead of night to sleep next to me for a few hours. I know we should be more careful, or we should just come clean, but everything is too perfect right now to consider it.
He’s attentive and loving and funny. I never thought Dominic Clarke could be funny, but he is. I used to think he was the most stoic of the Clarke brothers – the real mountain man. He looks like one! He’s huge, taking up most of whatever room he happens to be in. His voice is deep and when he furrows his brows, he looks almost scary.
But when his face softens and that spark appears in his eyes, his true self shines through. That’s the Dominic that makes my heart jump.
“There,” Dominic says, wiping the last bit of sawdust off the top of the headboard prototype. I take a step back and compare it to the sketch in my hand. I nod.
“Looks good. The arch is much better on this one. You were right about the bevel – it definitely makes it look more expensive.”
“It’s almost like I know what I’m talking about,” he answers with a grin. I elbow him in the ribs and look at the piece of furniture again.
“Do you think you’ll be able to make a hundred and four of these? Can’t you hire someone to help you?”
“Well with all this cash you’re injecting into my business, I guess I could.”
I laugh. “Is that the only reason you keep me around?”
“One of them,” he answers with a grin. “I also like to hear you critique my headboard construction.”
“We could test out how sturdy it is,” I answer as a grin floats onto my lips. He takes a step towards me and I inhale the smell of musk and sawdust.
“I think some testing would be wise. We wouldn’t want any of the hotel guests to get injured.”
I smile, taking a step towards him. The heat of his body is almost intoxicating. Whenever I’m near him, it’s like I’m drunk. All my movements are in slow motion. He steps closer to me and I have to tilt my chin up to keep looking at his face. His chest is twice as broad as mine, and his hands find my waist. Our bodies are so close that I can almost hear his heartbeat. I close my eyes and tilt my chin up towards him, waiting for the kiss that I know is coming.
It never comes though. Both of us go stiff and jump apart when someone clears their throat at the entrance to the workshop.
“Aiden!” Dominic exclaims. His voice almost comes out as a squeak as he takes another step away from me. I brush the front of my clothes and feel my cheeks burn as I look towards Dominic’s younger brother.
He looks exactly as he did when we were kids. My heart starts thumping in my chest and the familiar guilt starts curdling in my stomach.
Aiden’s eyes swing from Dominic to me and a jolt passes through me. He was my first love. When I was a teenager, I was sure I would marry him. Now, when he looks at me all I see is loathing. It broke my heart to lose him, but now he feels like a stranger.
He takes a step and looks at his brother again.
“Am I interrupting anything?” Aiden grunts with an eyebrow raised.
Dominic shakes his head. “Nah. Just looking at this furniture,” he says, taking another step away from me and nodding to the headboard. “How was the honeymoon?”
“Fine,” Aiden replies.
I know why he’s avoiding my stare. I know it would cause trouble with his brothers, and my parents, and everyone else in town. But still, when Dominic steps away from me it sends a dagger of pain through my heart.
For the past couple weeks, we’ve been all over each other. He hasn’t taken his hands off me. I’ve gotten to know his body as well as my own. And now, with Aiden looking at us, he’s avoiding my eyes and turning away from me.
I nod. “Anyways, it looks good. I’ll pick it up to get approval on it tomorrow.”
Dominic grunts in response and I look from him to his brother. Neither of them looks at me, and I slip out of the workshop with a lump in my throat. My stomach feels like a rock as I climb into the truck that my parents lent me. It has the familiar ‘McCoy Trucking’ logo on the side. For the thousandth time since I’ve gotten back, I curse my last name. I wish I came from a different family. I wish I could choose who I wanted to be with, and I wish everything between the Clarkes and I had never happened.
I wish Dominic and I could stop sneaking around and be together. I wish Aiden didn’t look at me like that every time he saw me. I turn my head towards the workshop, and my eyes start to prickle as I think of the two men inside.
One of them I loved when I was a teenager. After the accident and his dad’s pneumonia, I was dead to him. When my parents bought out Mr. Clarke’s business, it was the beginning of the feud.
Now, the other brother in that workshop holds a special place in my heart as well. I can feel myself falling for him every day. As much as I try to stop myself, there’s nothing I can do about it.
I’m falling in love with the one man who can’t be with me.
I’m falling in love with Dominic Clarke.
Chapter 21 - Dominic
It’s not until the noise of Mara’s truck fades down the driveway that Aiden speaks again.
“You’re working with the McCoys?” he spits.
I sigh and turn back to the headboard. I try to hide the sour expression on my face, and the pain that I felt when I watched Mara walk out. I know I hurt her. I should have told Aiden what was going on. I shouldn’t have denied anything.
“I didn’t have any other choice.”
“Like fuck you did,” Aiden says again, taking a step towards me. Suddenly the anger starts to bloom in my chest. I look at the outrage on his face and I’m as offended as he is. I take a step towards him and square my shoulders.
“That’s pretty fucking hypocritical for you to say,” I snap. “You worked for them for years before starting your own garage.”
“That was different.”
“How?”
He says nothing, just stands in front of me with daggers in his eyes.
“Grow the fuck up, Aiden,” I growl, taking another step in his direction. He doesn’t back down. “Mara is not the reason that Dad died. She’s not the reason that her parents took his business. She’s not a bad person.”
Aiden snorts and looks at me like I have three heads. “Excuse me? If it’s not her fault that Dad died, whose is it?”
I stare at my brother, seeing the fury in his eyes. I’ve always known that he took Dad’s death the hardest, but I had no idea how strongly he still felt about it, even a decade later.
“It was an accident, Aiden,” I say a bit more softly. “If Dad had been to the hospital instead of refusing –”
“If she hadn’t fallen in the fucking river, you mean. If that hadn’t happened then he’d still be here.”
“It was an accident,” I say again. My patience is starting to wear thin. Now that I know Mara – now that I see what kind of heart she has – I feel so guilty about the past ten years. We’ve shut her out of our lives and out of the town, just because of an accident that happened when we were teens. Aiden bristles in front of me and I know that I won’t be able to convince him. “She’s not a bad person.”
“Well even if she isn’t, her parents are. Have you forgotten that they stole Dad’s business when he was on his death bed? They tricked us into signing it over! And now you’re working for them?”
I can hear the hurt in his voice and my own anger starts to fade. My shoulders slump and I shake my head. How can I make him understand? How could I possibly tell him that I’m falling for Mara McCoy, of all people?
All I do is sigh. I shake my head and shrug my shoulders. “I’m sick of this, Aiden,” I say. He stares at me with fire in his eyes and I shake my head again. “I’m sick of the fighting, and the animosity, and this whole feud! Sure, the McCoys screwed us over. They’re opportunistic and cruel, but what does hating them do for us?”
His chest is heaving up and down and he stares at me, waiting for me to continue.
I take a deep breath. “Look, you can feel however you want to. You can hate them for the rest of your life, but I’m sick of it.”
I turn back towards my workbench and pick up the nearest tool. I just want him to leave. Instead of leaving, he takes a step towards me.
“So are you fucking her now, too?”
I spin towards him and grab his collar. “Watch your fucking mouth,” I growl, my face inches from his.
“Or what?”
I’ve never come so close to hitting my own brother. The anger is boiling inside me and it feels like I’m about to explode. To hear my own brother speaking about Mara like that makes my stomach turn. We’re locked together, coiled like tight springs, staring into each other’s eyes as both of us wait to see what the other will do. I see nothing in his eyes except aggression and anger. Maybe that’s exactly what’s in my eyes, too.
I back down first. I throw him back and nod to the door.
“Get the fuck out,” I say.
“So you’re choosing them, are you? You’re choosing money and pussy over your own family?”
“Fuck you, Aiden. Get off your high horse. You’d still be working for the McCoys if you hadn’t married a rich city girl. You think you started that business by yourself, do you?”
Aiden lunges for me, and I almost stumble backwards before catching his forearm in my hand before he can hit me. We grapple with each other, straining against the workbench and pushing each other until I’m able to get him off me. I push him back and he stumbles, brushing himself off and standing up straighter. There’s fire in his eyes and the tension is thick between us. He takes another step forward, lifting his fists up.
“Aiden,” I say. I try to keep my voice calm but I see him bristle.
He lunges towards me again, and this time I’m not able to lift my arm in time to block him. I deflect his punch, but his fist connects with my lip in an explosion of pain. I grunt and stumble back, falling over against the new headboard. It cracks down the middle with a loud pop and I grunt again. Aiden stands in front of me and snarls.
“You’ve changed, Dominic,” he says. He throws me one more look of pure venom and then turns towards the door. I hear his truck rumble to live and speed down the road.
I slump down onto the floor and put my head in my hands. I touch my finger to my lip and feel it swelling up already. There’s bright red blood on my fingers when I pull them away. I sigh, closing my eyes and leaning my head against the ruined headboard.
What have I done? What am I doing?
My own brother thinks I’m a traitor. I’m trying to move on from the past, but it’s causing even more issues with my family. I’m trying to make my business work, but it’s just creating friction in the town.
What happens when everyone else finds out? What happens when people find out that I’m not only working for the McCoys, but I’m also sleeping with Mara? What happens when the McCoys find out I’m working for them! And that I’m s
leeping with their daughter!
I let out a sigh and comb my hair back with my fingers. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. It feels like the right thing to do would be to break it off with Mara and back out of the contract. But what if that’s not the right thing to do? That’s just what’s expected of me. Why are we hanging on to this anger and hatred if it’s just out of habit?
The look on Aiden’s face said more than habit though. The way he lunged at me said more than expectation. He’s never hit me like that before. I’m not sure it’s worth it. Should I destroy my relationship with my brother over this contract – over Mara?
I lean back against the new headboard and let out a sigh. Everything feels heavy. My limbs feel like they’re made of lead and my chest feels like it’s sunken in.
I need to get out of this workshop. I can’t look at any of this today.
Chapter 22 - Mara
It’s hard for me to focus on work. I don’t know what to think. I’m in the small office at the front of the hotel, staring at my computer screen. Every time I look at my sketches, all I see is gibberish. It’s like my eyes can’t focus on anything long enough to make any sense of it. I squint at my computer screen one more time before giving up and putting my head in my hands.
I keep seeing the look on Aiden’s face when he walked in to the workshop – it’s the same look that he’s given me ever since his dad died. I’ve always known that this would be an issue, but I didn’t know that it would sting this much. I’ve gotten used to Dominic seeing me for me, but Aiden still looks at me with the same disgust and resentment.
Dominic and I have been ignoring the obvious – that sneaking around isn’t going to last. Our relationship is pretty much universally frowned upon.
Does Aiden know we’re seeing each other? What did he see when he walked in on us?
The familiar, bitter guilt starts growing inside me when I think of Aiden. I wish I could make him understand that I have no hard feelings towards him. I wish I could just be open with him and tell him how happy I am that he’s found a woman he loves, and how happy I am that his new business is doing well. I wish he’d look me in the eye long enough to see how much I mean it when I say I’m sorry.
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