by Jillian Neal
To her surprise, he cupped her chin forcing her to focus on him as he narrowed his eyes. “This is your one and only warning, Katy Belle. I ever hear you say you’re useless again, I’ll turn you over my knee and paddle your sweet little ass ‘til it’s as red as your hair. You think I won’t do it, try me.”
Rebellion fed the fire he’d just ignited in her blood. He could not have just said what she thought he’d just said. He couldn’t have because that fantasy only lived in the dark. It only existed when she was alone with her most carnal thoughts, when no one else was around and she could finally be herself. “What did you just say to me?”
His jaw tensed and his hands clamped to her hips. Acrimony flared in those gorgeous green eyes, darkening them. Before she could steady herself on the softened dirt he jerked her forward, layering her body to his. His left hand cradled the back of her head and forcibly laid her bad ear against his shoulder.
The stubble of his beard rasped at her cheek. “This is the ear you hear best in, right?”
The tender sweep of his lips along the top of her ear juxtaposed with the fierce grip he kept on her body. It melted her thoroughly. “How did you know?” Her voice vibrated to the frantic rhythm of her heart.
“I told you, when it comes to you I fucking pay attention.” His infuriated growl shot another inexplicable jolt of pure lust up her spine. “You turn your head a little when people talk to you. You said something last night about reading the newscaster’s lips when we found out your asshole of an ex was pressing charges against you. You jerked your head away from me when we were getting hot and bothered on the couch when I nibbled your right ear but you seem fine if I do your left. Then Josh asked you if I knew you couldn’t hear well. If it involves you, I’m on it. But you can hear me better than them can’t you? You heard me when you couldn’t always tell what Pops was saying at his house without reading his lips.”
“It’s because your voice is so much deeper.” He’d figured her out. No sense in denying that she was broken.
“Then listen to me, sweetheart, I can’t explain this any way that would possibly make sense, but I’m crazy about you. And I know we just met, and life don’t work out like this, and your daddy’s an ornery SOB or whatever the hell else, but you make me think and feel things I ain’t ever felt and I ain’t even gotten you in my bed yet. But I will. Believe me baby, I’m gonna have you every possible way I can think of and then a few more. But it makes me nuts when you say shit like that about yourself. I can’t stand it, and I won’t have it. I don’t know who the hell convinced you that you’re worthless, but if I ever find them I’ll drive my boot so far up their ass they’ll be lickin’ cow shit off the leather.
“And I’ll tell you another thing, too, I’m sick of you hiding from me. Sick of you keeping stuff from me. I told you I don’t see any point in lying about anything, so I’ll stand right here and tell ya, you’re in my every fucking thought. Not all of ‘em are dirty, but I’ll readily admit for the moment most of them are. Turning you over my knee, watching that gorgeous ass of yours jiggle and get nice and pink for me goes through my mind every time I lay eyes on you, so it sure as hell wouldn’t tax me to do so. But if it helps you remember that you’re about as far from worthless as the Earth is from the Sun then so be it. That works just as well. Now, tell me what happened to you and then tell me what I can do to make it easier for you to hear me.”
Everyone had moments, markers in their life, when everything they thought they understood about the way the world worked changed. Kaitlyn had several. When she was five and finally began to understand that there wasn’t anything anyone could do to help her hear. She remembered the sterile odor of the doctor’s office, and the cold metal of the silver handles on the otoscopes lined up far too perfectly on the wall. The sorrow in her mother’s eyes, and the way her father kept checking his watch even though there was a ticking clock on the wall so loud she could hear its impatient charting of time. And the powdery sweetness of the warm piece of bubblegum Keith had given her from his pocket, the one he’d been saving for later.
When she was eleven and had been invited to Lori Caruthers spend-the-night party. Lori was the most popular girl in her class and had never even spoken to Kaitlyn. She’d been thrilled until everyone in attendance wanted to play that stupid Telephone game. The haughty laughter that stabbed through her soul when she’d turned her good ear to the girl seated beside her only to discover that the entire game had been suggested for the purposes of proving that she was completely deaf in one ear.
When she was fourteen and cooked Beef Bourguignon with pasta from scratch, complete with a four-layered Napoleon for her and Keith’s birthday. Her father had raved about the meal. His praise was a rarity. The pride she’d felt had forever altered the way she saw herself. If she just tried hard enough and did things perfectly, she would receive more praise. If she just followed her father’s orders without any mistakes, she could make him happy.
And this moment when a man who she was fairly convinced she’d already fallen in love with, despite the few hours she’d known him, had discovered her hearing impairment and asked what he could do to make it easier for her all while making it perfectly clear that he wasn’t going to allow her to think less of herself any more than he was going to treat her like she was feeble and weak.
Dirty thoughts about even dirtier sex spoke volumes about what he believed her capable of both wanting and giving. Thoughts of him turning her over his knee somehow strengthened her.
Another wave of rebellion coupled with the thrill that enlivened her. A heated cocktail of need surged through her. She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes. Life, once again, sprang anew inside her. “I’m pretty sure when it comes to ranching, I am worthless,” she challenged.
So, his sassy little redhead wanted to see if he’d make good on his word, did she? Keeping her plastered against him with his left hand he drew his right hand back and smacked the soft globes of her ass caught up in the yoga pants. For good measure, he gave her two more quick taps, taking on the brunt of his own strength since she was against him. Then he shoved his hand down the waistband, connected with the supple skin he’d just fevered, and massaged away the sting.
His cock swelled its adamant approval as he groped handfuls of her flesh. A fact she couldn’t possibly have missed any more than he could have somehow not noticed the rush of wet heat gathering just below her lush ass cheeks. Damn, but she was going to be his undoing. “Do I need to keep going, peaches, or did I make my point?”
Suddenly her hands tunneled through his hair. She sure as hell wasn’t gentle. In no time at all, he found her lips with his own, inhaling her like his life depended on it. He fed on the sweet confection of her mouth, melted into her. She drew on his tongue, sucking it, hungry for him.
His right hand dove lower. God, he couldn’t go on without owning her. The fact that some shit-whistle had been the last man to occupy her drove him insane. She was his and he’d damn well make sure her body knew it.
Unable to help himself, he pressed her abdomen against his erection, so fierce he hurt with it. She rocked her hot, wet pussy against him with nothing more than an insubstantial pair of pants and satin panties between him and what he wanted.
“Fucking hell,” he panted before he went back in for more of her kisses. He wanted her drunk on him. She pressed harder and shuddered as his cock brushed just the right spot.
A growl Grant barely recognized as his own tore from his lungs. He adjusted his head so he could speak into her good ear. “Let me tell you something, peaches, you rock your little pussy hot and swollen against me or you rub your sweet ass against my cock like that, you’re getting fucked hard. Fair warning.”
“Oh, my God, yes, now!”
“I don’t do nothing in half-measures, Katy. You hear me? You want to be with me like this, we’re doing it my way.”
“Please, Grant. I want you any way I can have you. I’ve never wanted anything like this. I’ve dreamed of bei
ng with someone that could show me … what I’ve been missing out on.”
What she’d been missing out on? What the hell did that mean? Before he could contemplate further, the distinctive sound of someone clearing their throat ripped him from the moment. “Shit,” escaped his lips as he jerked his hand out of her pants.
Holly shook her head at him with a gotcha grin that he knew would come back to bite him somehow. “Hi, I’m Grant’s little sister, Holly. I wanted to meet you, but thought maybe I would wait until my brother wasn’t gagging you with his tongue.” Holly giggled as she stepped closer.
Kaitlyn’s fair complexion was streaked with pink heat. The sunlight caught the strands of orange and gold in her auburn hair. His little peach, indeed.
“Oh, um,” Kaitlyn gnawed on her lip, not helping Grant’s current efforts to quell his erection. One quick scan of the downed corn proved far more useful. “Sorry. I didn’t hear you coming. I was … well, I guess you saw. So … you’re Holly. That’s right, I met your husband. He’s the one that looks terrifying and is British, right?”
Grant bit his lips together as Holly doubled over laughing. So, she was a little distracted. That just meant he was doing his job. He wrapped his arm around Kaitlyn giving her a place to hide. Unable to help himself, he brushed another kiss on her overly-pink cheek.
“Holl, come on,” he ordered.
“Sorry. Yes, Dec is my husband. He is British, but is not actually terrifying, despite the tats and all of his piercings and the extreme muscles. I promise. I’m not completely crazy about the gauges he had done, but I’ll get over it. I just wanted to say hi and see if you wanted any help with the corn.”
“Got to get the fences up first. This’ll have to wait a day or two.”
“I’m going to go fill up one of the fire trucks and bring them around to everyone’s house. Figure that’s easier than everybody hauling water in to flush toilets,” Holly explained. Grant had to give it to his baby sister—she was a hell of a lot smarter than he was.
“That’s a good idea. I’ll get some buckets. Any idea when the water’ll be back on?”
“Hope took Brock’s truck into town to pick up some extra feed for your stock and said the water company trucks were down there, so hopefully soon.”
“You have your own firetruck?” Kaitlyn looked genuinely fascinated.
“We burn the fields back each spring,” Grant explained. “Gets rid of all of the dead grass that we don’t want the cows eating. Keeps ‘em healthier and fattens ‘em up better. We use the fire trucks to control the burn. I’ll show you how they work after we get all of this cleaned up.” He didn’t want her to think there was any part of life there that he wouldn’t explain to her. She was capable of most anything and he was going to prove that to her.
“I’ll be back up here in a little while. As soon as Dec and I finish with our fence, we’ll come help you. Brock and Austin are already on their way over. Luke’s still working on the cows that got bogged, but after that he’ll be up here, too. It was nice to meet you, Kaitlyn. If you ever need any help dealing with his stubborn ass, call me. I’ll take him down.”
Grant rolled his eyes and grunted his disbelief over his baby sister doing much of anything to him as she hustled back to her truck.
“Don’t grunt like that. I’m pretty sure at some point I’ll need her help.” Kaitlyn smirked.
“This is probably all kinds of the wrong thing to say, but it sure gives me a big head that you can hear my grunts and tell what they mean and that you can hear my voice and not everybody else’s. Not that I ain’t sad you have to deal with … this.” He gestured to her right ear, permanently cementing himself as not only a dumbass but also a possessive shit-sack, he was certain.
To his relief, she laughed. “That was all kinds of the wrong thing to say, but I’ll let it slide this time. I love how honest you are. And I’m sorry I was keeping things from you. I don’t mean to. Still figuring out life moment to moment at this point. I was born deaf in my right ear. My grandmother also has hearing issues. It’s hereditary nerve damage. The hearing in my left ear was perfect. The wind out here makes it a little harder for me to hear, but your voice is so low and so deep I can hear you over it as long as you’re standing in front of me and not speaking into the wind. I couldn’t make out everything Holly said, and I cannot believe I said out loud that her husband is terrifying looking.”
This time Grant couldn’t halt his chuckle. “She wasn’t offended. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley if I didn’t know him. No harm done, sweetness. But tell me why you said the hearing in your left ear was perfect.”
“Damn, you really do pay attention.”
“I think you’ll find that you like that once I get you in bed.”
“I think I like it now. No bed required.”
“Talk, peaches.”
“When Keith was killed, the stress of it all and dealing with my parents, the hearing in my left ear diminished. The nerves reacted poorly to the sheer amount of stress. So far, it hasn’t improved, and I don’t know if it will continue to deteriorate. There’s no way to repair damaged nerves in your ears unless your body heals them on its own, so I could eventually be completely deaf. Sometimes that terrifies me. Most of the time it terrifies me, actually.” The earnest honesty she offered him swelled his heart until he swore it was in his throat.
He drew her back into his arms and cradled her in his strength. “Bravest woman in the whole damn world.”
“What’s brave about being deaf?”
He held her tighter. “You have any idea how brave you have to be to admit to someone what scares the shit out of you? Like I said, you’re the bravest fucking woman in this world.”
Chapter Fourteen
“All right, sugar, wrap the chain around it just like I showed you,” Grant called from the seat of the tractor.
Kaitlyn had no idea what she was doing, but she tried to wrap the chain around the bent fence post just the way he’d taught her.
“Keep it steady,” he guided. Keeping the chain pulled taut, she watched him slowly raise the bucket on the John Deere where the other end of the chain was attached. Accomplishment had her grinning as the post slid out of the ground.
“Good girl.” He winked at her as she tossed the post in a nearby heap. This was actually kind of fun. She wondered what he would say if she asked to learn to drive the tractor.
When all of the bent posts were gone, Austin, Grant’s younger brother, drove the auger into the holes with something called a skid steer and Grant set new posts. He’d shooed his brother Luke away and leveled them himself as well. Stubborn through and through.
When the sky held only faint traces of glowing orange against the indigo dusk, Grant ordered everyone home. “I’ll get my stock out of your pastures first thing tomorrow morning,” he told Luke, who’d returned despite Grant swearing that he could handle everything.
“I ain’t in any rush. We can let mine feed over here a couple of days later on if the grass gets short. They’re fine where they are.”
“Still though, just let me get a little shut-eye and I’ll get ‘em.”
“I ain’t gon’ argue with you. You want Indie to pull the hitch off your truck tonight?”
“Nah, not yet. If I just have to leave here, I’ll take one of the old trucks. I’ll put the tractor up, too. You go on home and rescue your wife from your rug-rats.”
“Mama’s got the girls. Indie’s stringing fence over at Dec and Holly’s.”
“Then go rescue Mama.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to get rid of me. You got plans tonight?” Luke harassed.
Kaitlyn grinned. She certainly hoped he had plans that included her and his bed. She’d been so busy helping Grant and thoroughly enjoying the work she’d somehow managed to forget that she was a fugitive from her own father. Seth hadn’t crossed her mind in hours. The relief of that soothed her soul. Existing in a world entirely outside o
f Lincoln had given her a peace she’d been certain she’d never have again.
“Fuck off, man. Like I’m gonna discuss ‘em with you.”
Kaitlyn loved the way his entire family existed as a unit. They were a force unto themselves, which she supposed could only come from owning half of a county’s worth of land and working it. They depended on each other. Even when Grant resisted help from everyone, they still showed up and did their part. This was the way a family was supposed to be.
Having no desire to think of the dysfunction that pervaded her own home, she shut those memories down. That life was wonderfully inaccessible. She wished it would stay that way.
“You two have fun. Kaitlyn, it was nice to me you, sweetheart. If you need anything while you’re here, come find me or Indie and we’ll set you to rights. And for all that is good on this earth, promise me you won’t take any shit offa him.” Luke waved as he headed back towards his truck.
Grant was still seated in the tractor, and Kaitlyn had no idea what came next. She was hungry. Dinner sounded interesting, but nothing sounded as good as being in his arms and listening to him tell her what he wanted to do with her, to her, for her, or any other dirty thing that might come to his mind.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you think my tractor’s sexy, peaches,” he goaded.
Kaitlyn laughed. “I kind of, sort of think you’re sexy. The tractor is just okay.”
“That so? Just kind of, sort of?”
“Yes,” she lied and he knew it.
“Get over here.”
“Why?” She edged closer anyway, unable to resist his summons or his cocky grin.
“Hop on up.” He patted his legs. “I’ll teach you to drive it.”
“You want me to sit on your lap on the tractor while you teach me to drive it?” That couldn’t be right or safe. Her mind conjured a million things that could go wrong because she had no idea how to work a tractor.