Jared (Coyote Ridge) (Volume 2)

by Nicole Edwards

Jared shook his head. “Of course not. He’ll love that.”

  His father nodded, patting his back once more. “Good then. When they’re done, we’re gonna head out. See you tomorrow, boy.”

  “Night, Dad.”

  An hour later, after most of the family had gone in separate directions, some going back to their cabins to relax for the night, some heading out to the barn for some sort of contest that Mercy and Faith were handling, and others heading outside to enjoy the cool November evening, Jared waited for Hope to finish up.

  He was perched on the edge of a chair in the recreation room, where his brothers Kaden and Keegan were trying to hustle Gracie’s husbands at pool. From what he could tell, the hustlers were actually being hustled, but he didn’t bother to tell them that.

  “Hey.”

  Jared turned to see Hope standing at his side.

  “Where’s Derrick?”

  “He’s stayin’ with my mom and dad tonight.”

  Her eyes glittered with understanding. He saw the heat swirling there, along with something else. Acceptance, maybe? Or maybe that was love.

  Whatever it was, he wanted to spend the rest of the night lost in her eyes, buried deep inside her warmth, holding her close to him. He still hadn’t wrapped his head around how this had all come together. How his life had gotten on this path so easily. It felt like he’d spent the past few years shielding himself from everyone, trying to find his bearings. And then Hope showed up in his life unexpectedly, and he was thrown off course once more, but this time, he knew better than to give up.

  Hope leaned in, pressing against his side, her lips brushing against his ear. “So, your room or mine, cowboy?”

  Jared turned, pulling Hope between his legs as he stared back at her. “Wherever you are, that’s where I wanna be. That’s the only place I wanna be.”

  He wondered if she knew that he meant more than just tonight.

  WALKING BACK TO her cabin took forever. Or so it seemed.

  Despite the fact that Jared held her hand as they made the relatively short trek from the main house, Hope couldn’t wait to get inside, where she could get her hands on this man.

  Literally.

  For the better part of the evening, she’d disappeared into her own head, thinking about making love to him, waking up in his arms, smiling into his eyes and knowing—deep in her heart—that this was real.

  And luckily, they were finally here.

  She opened the door, paused briefly for Jared to shut and lock it, before she found herself once again lifted off her feet, her legs wrapped around his trim waist while he licked his way into her mouth. The wood door was hard against her back; his equally unyielding body was pressed against her front.

  “Are you scared, Hope?”

  His whispered question took her by surprise. She pulled back enough to look at him, trying to read his mind. She shook her head. She wasn’t scared. Not of him, not of this thing between them.

  “Good. Me, neither.”

  That made her laugh, but her chuckle quickly died when he crushed his lips to hers. She grabbed on to him, trying to press closer, trying to merge with him in a way that wasn’t possible with this many clothes on. He clearly knew what she wanted … what she needed … because he carried her over to the sofa. He sat down, her straddling his lap, and Hope continued to kiss him.

  They took their time, removing clothes, discarding them in a pile on the floor while their mouths and hands roamed, teased.

  Her body was ready for him, desperate to feel him inside her, but Jared had other plans, and then she was the one sitting on the couch, her back against the cushions while Jared knelt on the floor in front of her. Stealing her breath right from her lungs, he speared her pussy with his tongue, feasting on her until she nearly came right out of her skin.

  It was both shocking and so freaking good. She never wanted him to stop.

  When his eyes met hers, holding her stare, his fingers pushing inside her while his lips sucked on her clit, Hope stopped trying to hold back. She slid her fingers into his cool hair, holding his head as she came, a cry tearing from her throat as the pleasure rocked her to her very soul.

  Before she could say anything, do anything, Jared had picked her up and resumed his position on the couch, this time guiding himself into her as she straddled him once again.

  “Oh, fuck, baby…”

  Hope moaned as the sensations tore through her, as he filled her, stretched her. She kept her hands on his shoulders, her eyes locked with his as she began to rock astride him, taking him deeper. It was a slow, languid ride that she could’ve done for the entire night, staring right into his eyes, seeing everything he wanted her to see.

  God, she loved this man. She’d never imagined that this was what love felt like. True, complete. Free.

  And yes, she was scared, but not the way he thought. She wasn’t scared of love, of this deep connection they clearly had. She was scared of what it meant for their future. How did two people combine their lives?

  “Look at me, Hope,” Jared urged, his hand cradling the back of her head. “Stay with me. Right here. You and me.”

  She nodded, forcing her eyes open as he began to rock his hips upward, driving into her.

  “God, baby… You’re so tight. I want to stay just like this for the rest of the night.”

  Hope smiled. She liked that idea, but she liked the idea of him losing control, coming as hard as she knew she was.

  “Next time,” she whispered. “Right now, I want you to make me come.”

  Jared’s eyes glowed with what she’d come to realize was pure, unadulterated lust.

  She smiled then, wanting to throw him for a loop. “Then I want you to fuck me harder, deeper,” she whispered, her lips brushing his. “I want you to make me beg, make me scream your name over and over while you come inside me.”

  He growled. An animalistic sound that made her laugh. The next thing she knew, he was carrying her to her room, still lodged to the hilt inside her. He went down on the bed with her, never pulling out, covering her completely. He then sought her hands, linking their fingers as he pressed her into the mattress. Short, shallow thrusts were combined with deep, slow impalements until Hope was panting, her body tingling all over.

  “Come for me, Hope. So I can make you scream for me, baby.”

  Jared released her hand, sliding his between their bodies, where he circled her clit, driving her slowly insane. He didn’t stop until she was shaking, until…

  “Jared… Oh, God, yes!”

  He continued with his torturously slow pace until she rode out her climax. Only then did he begin fucking her hard, just as she’d asked. He kept his eyes locked with hers, watching her as he drove her right to the pinnacle again.

  “Beg me,” Jared commanded.

  “Please…” She wasn’t above begging. “Jared…”

  “Say my name again,” he insisted.

  “Jared…”

  “Tell me, Hope. Tell me what I need to hear.”

  As he continued to impale her, deeper, harder, faster, she held on, her fingers digging into his biceps, her knees locked on his hips as she panted and moaned.

  “Jared… Oh, God, yes… I want to feel you… I want to feel you come … inside me.”

  “Tell me,” he growled.

  “Jared!” She was so close, hanging by a thread, ready to come apart simply from the look on his face.

  “Say it, Hope. Tell me, baby.”

  Hope sucked in a breath, an orgasm cresting, sending her soaring to another dimension. “Oh, yes! Jared!”

  He didn’t slow down, and he didn’t look away. Waiting. None too patiently, she knew.

  And then, when her body fractured again, Hope smiled back at him, hoarsely saying what he said he needed to hear. “I love you, Jared. Love. You.”

  Wit
h an answering smile and a roughly groaned, “I love you, too, baby, more than you know,” he gave her exactly what she’d asked for.

  REESE TAVOULARIS WALKED into Moonshiners a little after nine. He’d purposely spent half an hour sitting in the parking lot, allowing the woman to go inside and get comfortable. He hadn’t wanted her to get suspicious by him walking in right after her. When he’d assured his brother, Z, that he was capable of handling this without him driving all the way to Coyote Ridge, Z hadn’t questioned him, he’d merely given Reese some tips, a few details of the story he was supposed to share, and then hung up and left the job to him.

  And here he was, walking inside the dimly lit bar, the sounds of George Jones crooning from the jukebox filling the small, relatively empty place. It was a Thursday night, so he hadn’t expected much of a crowd, which made this particular joint perfect.

  “Beer?” Mack the bartender asked as Reese took a seat at the bar, directly beside the dark-haired woman. She was relatively pretty, although a little worn around the edges. As though she hadn’t had her buff and shine done recently. Perhaps the reason she was looking to extort a shit ton of money from Reese’s boss. Worse, she was willing to use her own kid against him in order to get what she wanted.

  Reese nodded at Mack. “Definitely.”

  Mack went to the other end of the bar to get his drink, and Reese took the opportunity to introduce himself.

  “Haven’t seen you around here before,” he said, making his normal twang a little thicker. It often worked with the ladies.

  She smiled, somewhat shyly, but didn’t say anything.

  Reese knew, based on what Travis had told him, that he wasn’t Sable’s type. He wasn’t wearing a three-piece suit, didn’t sport a three-hundred-dollar haircut, wasn’t showing off a Rolex on his wrist.

  Nope, Reese was dressed down in Wranglers and a T-shirt, having left his jacket in the truck. The most expensive thing on his body was his boots, and even they hadn’t cost more than a couple hundred bucks. Plus, they were at least three years old.

  That didn’t explain what Sable had seen in Jared. As far as financially anyway. Other than he was a Walker, and along with the name came the rumors. One of the rumors—although actually fact—was that they had money. But Reese didn’t know who had what or how much. And the Walkers damn sure didn’t flaunt it, didn’t talk about it, didn’t throw it around. Looked to him as though Sable had been willing to take her chances. In the end, she’d gotten some money out of the man, again, using her kid as a bargaining chip.

  Reese offered the bartender another thank you, then turned his attention to Sable, as though he didn’t have anything better to do than chat it up on a Thursday night. Well, that was pretty close to the truth. If he weren’t here, he’d be at home, watching Thursday Night Football.

  He extended his hand. “Reese.”

  Sable smiled, clearly willing to give him a chance. After all, she really didn’t know what he had in his bank account until she took a chance, right?

  “Sable … Walker.”

  Funny how she added Walker, although she’d been divorced from Jared for years.

  “Nice to meet you, Sable … Walker.”

  Her smile was slow but seductive, which, again, he’d been expecting.

  “What brings you to town?”

  Sable’s dark eyes lowered to the bar top. “I’m here looking for … my ex.”

  “Ahh.” He made it sound as though that made perfect sense. “He skip out on child support or somethin’?”

  She looked at him as though she had never considered the idea of child support. Lord have mercy, she really was a snake.

  A slow song came on the jukebox, and Reese glanced over at the open space behind him. It wasn’t technically a dance floor, but it would work as one.

  “Care to dance, sweetheart?”

  Sable’s eyes widened, but then she nodded, offering her hand as he held his out.

  Reese walked her to the dance floor, then pulled her in close. Although she was several cards short of a full deck, the woman smelled good. Not good enough that he’d want to take her home—she wasn’t his type. You know, the whole batshit-crazy part.

  But none of that mattered tonight. He was here to do a job.

  He allowed the song to play for a minute before he moved closer to Sable, making it appear as though he might want to kiss her. He cupped the back of her head when she rested her cheek against his chest.

  And Reese chose that moment to speak. He kept his tone soft, with a hint of warning.

  “Sable, I’m here with a message.”

  She tried to move, but he held her close.

  “Shh,” he told her. “Just stay right there. I’m not gonna hurt you. We’re in a bar full of people. And trust me, I would never hurt a woman.”

  She stopped moving, but Reese kept his arms around her.

  “I wanted to let you know that a paternity test was done. You know, one that wasn’t tampered with. Funny thing, turns out Derrick really is Jared’s son. Imagine everyone’s surprise. Then again, you knew this already, so I’m not tellin’ you nothin’ new. However…”

  Reese smiled at one of the old men looking their way, but then leaned in close to Sable again.

  “We also learned another little secret of yours. Does the name Marco Moroso ring a bell, by chance?”

  As he expected, Sable stiffened.

  “Funny story, that,” Reese continued. “See, my brother works for this protection agency out of Dallas. One of his co-workers has a brother-in-law. Some sort of mobster, from what I hear. Yeah, you know what I’m talkin’ about. Well, it turns out, this Moroso guy is dead, and now, his little brother’s gettin’ out of jail. Of course, you know how it is. Those mafia guys are hell-bent on revenge.”

  Reese pulled back, cupping her face, staring into her eyes. He lost the good-ol’-boy attitude, going with dead serious.

  “I think it’s time you head on out. Make a new life for yourself somewhere else, Sable. There’s nothin’ for you here. And maybe, if you do, your name won’t be whispered to Dennis. After all, I hear you and Marco were quite close at one time. You were what? Working for him? Secretary, maybe? The kind with benefits.” He angled his head down. “And you know I’m not talkin’ about health insurance, darlin’. So, when Dennis gets out, which I hear’ll be really soon, he won’t come lookin’ for the secretary who disappeared on his brother. Right about the time a rumor started about a rat within the ranks. Oh, and yes, right when twenty thousand also went missin’.”

  Sable’s eyes were wide, but she wasn’t moving, she wasn’t trying to push him away. Reese knew that the dirt Travis had worked so hard to dig up was true.

  “See, there’s this thing called six degrees of separation. Funny, sometimes, you don’t even realize just how close you are to the people you’re tryin’ to get away from.” He tilted her chin up slightly. “Do you have any questions?”

  Sable shook her head, and Reese could see the real concern in her eyes. She should’ve known that eventually her past would come back to haunt her. From what Travis had told him, hooking up with wealthy men was Sable’s MO. And apparently, she didn’t really care what they did for a living or where their money came from. Or whether or not she gave up confidential information and risked the wrath of the mafia coming down on her. The last part proved she was crazy.

  Reese purposely stepped back, waiting to see what she would say, what she would do. She glanced around the room, probably looking to see who was watching them, what they might know.

  “Go on, now, sugar,” he urged her as he turned back to the bar. “You disappear, all this information does, too.”

  Surprisingly, Sable turned and walked away. Right out the door.

  Reese took his seat back at the bar.

  Hopefully Travis’s plan would work. Sable would be long gone. Oh, Reese k
new that the woman had nothing to worry about when it came to the mob boss. The little brother knew nothing about the missing money or that Sable hadn’t really sold them out, and apparently twenty g’s was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Especially when avenging his brother’s death was high on Dennis’s list of things to do. Reese had told Z that he didn’t need to know any of that. He merely needed enough to scare Sable.

  Apparently, that’d been enough.

  Grabbing his phone, Reese shot a text to Travis. All done.

  Thanks.

  Reese smiled to himself, responding with, Now you owe me one.

  And he fully intended to call in that favor one of these days.

  Epilogue

  Six weeks later

  JARED PULLED INTO the ranch, heading directly for the sales office. It was a little after one, so he knew that lunch was over, which seemed to be a relatively good time to show up unannounced. After parking his truck in the visitor’s lot, he headed for the office. When the door opened, Jerry Lambert’s smiling face was shining back at him.

  “Jared,” he greeted, stepping back out of the way. “Is Hope expecting you?”

  Removing his hat and holding it at his side, Jared shook his head. “No, sir. I … uh… I actually came to talk to you.”

  That seemed to surprise Jerry, but Jared could tell the older man quickly tried to mask his expression.

  “Is there a problem?”

  A problem? No, he couldn’t say there was. But he pretended to consider that for a moment, trying to gather his nerve.

  “Sir, I came to ask you something.”

  “Is it about working here at the ranch?” Jerry perched on the edge of his desk. “Because Hope and I already talked about that. Since my daughters run this place, I leave the hirin’ up to them. If Hope feels there’s something for you to do here, something that you’ll be content doing, then that’s up to the two of you.”

  Interesting.

  Hope might’ve talked to her father, but she hadn’t yet talked to him. Not that he minded. It was one of the topics they’d been discussing as of late. Because there was no denying that this relationship was moving forward at warp speed, they’d talked about plenty of things. Where they might live when they decided to move in together. When, not if. They were so far past if at this point.