“You sure you don’t have some sort of animal behavioral degree or something?” Banks asked. “My critters love you and you seem to know just what to do, intuitively.”
Norah shook her head, turning her attention back to the foal in front of her.
“No. We had a dog while we were here but we gave him away when we moved, and I haven’t had so much as a fish since we left.”
“I can’t imagine,” Banks said. “We always had an old dog under foot. Horses, cattle. And you’re still miles ahead of me as far as feel. But that’s not something you can teach, it’s just something you have.”
“I think you do pretty well,” she said, chuckling as Sailor got closer, touching Norah’s cheek with her nose. Foals were so curious, it was easy to make them friendly at this stage, and it worked to their advantage to make them friendly before they were a thousand pounds and spoiled. He’d never complain about Norah visiting in the first place, but he absolutely wouldn’t complain if she wanted to come spend time with the babies on the ranch.
He stood back and watched her quietly interact with his horses, in awe that she had no professional education or experience to back it up. She seemed right there, in his barn, in his head, in his sights. In fact, she fit into the town so well, if he didn’t know better, he would have thought she was a lifelong resident.
After a time, his stomach growled loud enough she heard it, looked back at him and straightened up, dusting her hands off on her pants.
“I should get out of your hair and let you get to your supper. But thank you for letting me visit with them.”
Banks shook his head, letting her out of the stall. “Anytime you want, you’re welcome to come visit.”
“That’s generous,” she said, matching his stride as they left the barn and walked out into the yard. “But you’re going to get sick to death of me if you give me an open invitation.”
He paused, glancing over at her. “I could never be.”
They stopped at the bottom of the stairs like it was the end to a date. He could have kissed her and sent her on her way but he wasn’t ready to say goodnight yet. Her visit was a bright spot and he was enjoying her company too much.
“You wanna come in? Nan always makes enough to feed an army.”
“She did send half a lemon pie,” Norah said, with a smile like a kid in a candy store. “Jellybean wants some more.”
“Well, we can’t disappoint Jellybean.” Banks laughed, leading the way up the stairs and opening the door for her. “I don’t even have a Jellybean for an excuse and I’m regularly a two-piece pie guy.”
Once inside, he gathered up the food she’d brought and they moved to the kitchen. Norah settled herself into the offered seat while Banks moved about, putting his plate of food in the microwave. He plated a piece of pie for Norah and got her a glass of milk to go with it, then settled down next to her with his food. She tilted her hips in her seat so her knees pointed toward him.
“I’ve always wondered about people who sat on the same side of the table,” she mused, cutting a bite of pie with the side of her fork.
“I like seeing your face, but I like being close to you better.”
He might have imagined it but she flushed, smiling to herself at the compliment while he dug into his meal.
“I like being close to you, too,” she finally said.
“Well it’s a good thing that little office of yours isn’t any bigger, then,” he teased. “Have you asked Nan about taking her car to Johnston?”
Norah shook her head. “I actually only just told her I was pregnant before I came over.”
That surprised him. Nan had a way of extricating information without you knowing you were giving it until it had already been done. She never used her knowledge for gossip, but rather to provide the help and assistance she so loved giving.
“She didn’t know?”
“Well, she did know, she said. I thought I was pretty good at keeping my secret.”
“Don’t take it personally, Nan knows everything. I don’t know how, but she always figures stuff out way before she’s told.”
“Do you think everybody else knows?”
He shook his head resolutely. “No, just Nan. But it’ll become a lot more obvious soon.”
He knew because he paid attention to that body that made him feel wild; he’d held her in his hands and knew about that little bump jutting out just above her pelvis.
She covered her stomach with her palm and he smiled a little at the protective gesture. She was going to make one hell of a mom.
“Why don’t you let me drive you to the hospital?”
A line appeared on Norah’s brow, and then she shifted to face him.
“Thank you…I honestly don’t know what I would have done if Rob had left me anywhere else, honestly. And when he did, I couldn’t have imagined I would feel this good, safe, and optimistic about the future in such a short time. I feel better than I have in a long time and it’s because of good people like you and your family. I feel like maybe I was meant to be back here in Three Rivers.”
“I feel like maybe you were meant to come back to Three Rivers, too,” Banks confessed, his heart thundering in his chest. He was in it deep for this girl and there was no turning back now. She made him feel all the ways she said being back in Three Rivers made her feel. “I…I’m crazy about you, Norah. Silly as that sounds. You know I’d do anything for you.”
She blushed again, more noticeable this time, and he turned to face her, drawing her close so their knees touched, and slid a hand under her hair, tipping her head back to get a good look at it. She was so pretty, but the bright spots of pink on her cheeks were that much more. She drew a quick breath through just barely parted lips, her gaze intense on his. He could have frozen that moment forever and never gotten tired of looking at her, the adrenaline of what he’d do next coursing through his veins and boosting his heart rate. It was almost euphoric.
Her throat moved as she swallowed a bit, but her gaze never left his, and he leaned forward, pressing his lips at the corner of hers, tenderly. She blew out a shaky breath, and then he felt her hands tighten into the fabric of his shirt at his sides, tugging him just a little closer.
She wanted him just as badly as he wanted her, and the knowledge was heady, exciting. He hadn’t wanted someone like this in a long time—more than just carnal coupling. He cradled her jaw in his palm, drew back, got another good look at her, his thumb brushing over the high ridge of her cheek bone, then drew her mouth to his.
The kiss was delicious, full of warmth and wanting and an underlying of something else, something just a little dangerous. Something they’d fall headlong into if they weren’t careful. She pushed closer still, their knees bumping until they slid past one another, giving them that much more closeness.
*
Norah hadn’t come to Bank’s home with the intention of slipping into his bed, but here she was, all hot and bothered on the promise he’d left her with on their date, and so close to being able to fulfill it. She closed the space the chairs made between them and climbed into his lap, much like she had on that riverbank, so she could change the angle of the kiss. His hands found her hips, framing them and tugging her close.
Somehow they managed to bounce away from one another in the office despite temptation, but once she got just close enough they were forced together like magnets.
Banks made a noise halfway between a groan and a chuckle and broke the kiss, dropping his head back to look up at her.
“Girl, you are playing with fire here.”
He was right—but the fire was inside of her, uncontrollable, fanned by his words, the way he grinned at her, the firmness she felt where their bodies met, and the fact that he hadn’t let go of her despite his warning. In fact, he clinched her tighter still. He might be a fire, but she was engulfed in flames, and the only thing that was going to satisfy that was the same thing she’d been after on their date.
She grinned down at him, shifte
d a little, and all the chuckle was lost in the noise he made next. It made her feel powerful to know she could make him shudder like that, this man who commanded the whole town. Powerful, respected, and on the brink of losing his tight grip on control just from a little bit of wiggling in his lap.
He pulled her tight against him and then released a little bit, then brought her forward again.
Against his lips, she whispered.
“Why don’t we try this with our clothes off?”
He paused then, let out a short breath through his nose, like he was still deciding. She’d already thrown caution to the wind twice now and she wasn’t going to let him get away with putting her off again. He sounded like he wanted to give her a bed of roses, but she’d settle for an unmade bed, no questions asked, as long as he was in it. She wanted this man. Like she’d never wanted anything else in her life. So much it made her ache, even when he wasn’t around.
Still, he hesitated.
She cupped his jaw with a hand on each side, kissed him soundly, then rocked back.
“What are you afraid of, Sheriff? It’s not like you’re going to get me pregnant.”
He laughed out loud then, tipped his head back, and pressed her up to him again. This man wasn’t afraid of anything. He didn’t have to be. He was kind and good and there wasn’t a world Norah chose to believe in where any challenge would make him back down. And he didn’t. Abruptly rising to his feet with her still clinched around her waist, he steadied her with his hands under her ass and started for the stairs. She’d never been carried before, never mind up a flight of stairs, and she instinctively tightened her grip on him. She wasn’t petite, but she realized about halfway up that he had her. He was confident in his strength and didn’t falter at all.
When he reached the top of the stairs he turned left and stepped into a bedroom, took two long strides across the floor, and deposited her on her back in a bed. His bed, she was sure of it. It smelled like him, that undertone of leather and pine and man she was so happy to catch a whiff of when he got close enough—like a pheromone she couldn’t get enough of. And if he didn’t get into this bed with her in a hurry, she was going to climb him like a tree.
She was just about to protest his absence when he tipped back, crossing his arms over his waist to pull his shirt over his head. Norah made an involuntary noise of appreciation. She’d felt Banks under her hands enough to know his body was in relatively good shape, but she hadn’t expected how arousing it would be to see it all exposed.
Damn hormones.
She bit her lower lip to stop from making a comment that might make him blush and sat up, meeting his mouth as he bent to kiss her, sliding her fingers over his waist, up his back, drawing him to her, craving the feel of his skin against hers.
His fingers found the hem of her shirt and she broke the kiss just long enough for him to tear it off over her head before she fell back onto the mattress, arms over her head, expecting him to come tumbling after her.
He didn’t though, not right away, and just stood back with a grin taking her in. She might have thought to be self-conscious, but the look in his eyes told her she had nothing to be ashamed of—he liked everything he saw. That only added a layer to the way she wanted him, and who wouldn’t, with those big arms and chiseled chest. The man was a work of art, a study in a body that worked every day.
But he was making her wait. And she was impatient. She let out a frustrated huff. His grin only widened.
“What’s the matter, girl?”
This teasing, taunting, and the way he called her ‘girl’ like it was a dirty word, was an entirely new side of Banks she hadn’t met yet. He was serious, compassionate, and attentive every time they interacted—rarely was he…playful. She liked it.
“You’re making me wait.”
“What is it they say about the things that come to those who wait?”
She heaved a big sigh, sitting back up and making quick work of the clasp of her bra.
“That they’re good,” she said, slowly removing the garment to allow him an unfettered view of her body.
He laughed, an unreadable expression crossing his features.
“They’re damn good,” he said, bending forward to take her mouth in a plundering kiss that crowded her back on the bed. He looped his arm around her waist and shifted her up the bed until she fell backwards onto it. From there, his mouth moved lower, to that sensitive spot below her ear, on to her neck where his stubble tickled her and made her arch her back up into him. The rough rasp of friction was enough to send her mind spinning to the other places their bodies would touch and make this same sensation. She reached up, pressing her fingers into his shoulders, willing him closer, his weight onto her body.
The invitation wasn’t ignored. He lowered his body over hers, bringing bare skin to bare skin in all the places she had been thinking about over the last two weeks. It was delicious, perfect, and it felt downright illegal—it couldn’t be though, this was the sheriff after all. The heat and weight of his body was heady. She couldn’t get close enough, and she made a noise of protest when he shifted back, leaving her cold—until his fingers closed in on the waistband of her pants, tugging them downward with enough force and dedication she knew he wasn’t messing around. She lifted her hips to help him and everything came off. Two more seconds and he’d wriggled out of his jeans and was back on the bed with her, filling his hands with her flesh. He cupped, touched, teased, and finally, when she thought he’d never get around to it, his fingers found the warmth at the apex of her thighs and he stroked her. Just once. Just enough that her hips lifted off the bed like she’d been electrocuted. Her head dropped back and a low hum came out of her. It felt so much better than she remembered to have someone touch her.
Experimentally, he touched her again, his warm, wet mouth finding the curve of her throat while he stroked and paused, varied the pressure, eliciting a whole host of noises from Norah she didn’t even know she could make.
She felt him chuckle against her throat and then his touch turned purposeful, speed and pressure increasing in just the right way to push her toward the peak of her pleasure, whether she was ready or not. The rush of her orgasm pushed her up off the bed, her body bowing as she cried out his name, grasping his shoulders. The force and speed of it shattered her.
And then he moved, shifting over the bed, pausing only long enough to put on a condom, and then stretched the length of his body over hers, finding her mouth, holding it, as he shifted his hips and joined their bodies.
Yes.
It felt like perfection. She arched again, her head dropping back against the pillow as he shifted, moving in her. The delicious weight and warmth of his body focused her on the here and now. What was going to happen in a few months didn’t matter—hell, what was going to happen tomorrow didn’t matter. There was just here, and him, and this, the rightest thing she’d felt. Like home. He pulsed into her again and again, and before she realized where it was going, she was rising on the wave of another orgasm she couldn’t control. She let herself go, digging fingers into muscle, repeating his name like a prayer she knew by heart.
Two more strokes and Banks collapsed onto her, repeating her name as he lost control. He wasted no time rolling off of her, but brought her with him, cradling her to his chest, which heaved, matching hers as they caught their breath, and he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. She smiled—she couldn’t remember a time she’d felt this safe, and satisfied—and she’d never had sex that good before. Banks pressed his lips to her forehead and drew a deep breath.
“Not quite what I had planned for,” he said with a chuckle.
She laughed, shook her head.
“I can’t think of how it could have been any more perfect.”
—TWENTY-THREE—
“Hey Banks,” Rosie greeted him cheerily as he pushed open the door to Hinkley’s and took a spot at the counter. She pulled up in front of him with a full coffee carafe in hand. “The usual?”
“I’ve been meaning to say congratulations,” Rosie said, pouring his coffee. That drew Banks’ attention away from the paper and he set it down, pulling the filled mug a bit closer while he fixed it with one creamer and one packet of sugar.
“Well that’s nice, thank you.” He’d had a brief fling with Rosie. She hadn’t been interested in anything more and neither had he, and they’d gone back to this easy relationship and conversation when she served him at the diner. It made it easier to keep it a secret from her brother, Cutter, who was in Denver. While they had been together though, she’d never taken notice of the horses, so it surprised him she even knew Dixie had foaled, never mind thought to offer her congratulations for the foaling. He worked hard at what he did with his breeding program, but none of the products of it ever stayed local, so it was nice to get a little recognition here.
“When you decide to go for something, you really go for it, eh? I always figured you’d be quick once you decided what you wanted.”
Banks narrowed his eyes, looking up at her. Rosie was clearly not talking about Sailor, here. Problem was, he couldn’t figure out just what she was talking about.
“I’m just surprised you never brought her around sooner.”
“Who, Rosie?” Banks asked, with a sinking feeling in his gut he knew where this was heading. Still, he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. He was friendly with Cutter, and he’d never known her to be catty.
“That sweet Norah Clarke. She very suddenly appears to be in the family way. I’m happy for you, being a father, but we would have loved to have met her sooner!”
Being a father…that was jarring. Sure, the thought had crossed his mind, fleetingly. If she had a baby and he was her boyfriend, and then maybe more, he might assume the role. But it wasn’t a solid plan.
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