Play It Safe

by Kristen Ashley

  We said nothing, just came down, joined, close, holding hands, tucked tight, Gray’s breath drifting against my neck, mine his shoulder. We needed no words, we’d had them, we’d need more but not now. Now was about what he’d just given me, I’d just given him, both at the same time, our bodies as close as they could be, our fingers laced, sharing space, breath, a bed, our time, our lives.

  What we should have had for seven years, this, more of Gray’s dimple, his laughter, maybe children, creating a family.

  We felt it, both of us, I knew it. I knew it was searing through his mind too. We took that moment after being found again to experience the loss, mourn it so we could let it go.

  I loved him then and now so desperately, it hurt. But if what happened didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have Lash, I wouldn’t have Freddie. It sucked I couldn’t just have it all without the pain in between but I’d learned life didn’t have that in store for me and I wasn’t a victim, life didn’t give that to anybody.

  But I had it all now.

  All of it.

  Everything.

  Then Gray’s lips moved to my ear and he whispered, “Say you love me, Ivey.”

  Yep. I had it all.

  Everything.

  My fingers squeezed his hands and I whispered back, “I love you, Gray.”

  I felt his sigh on my neck.

  Then he said softly, “You gotta clean up, okay but come back to this bed in that nightie but no panties.”

  We weren’t done.

  Yippee!

  “We’re not going to sleep?” I asked to confirm.

  “Yeah, we are.”

  Oh. Bummer.

  Gray kept talking.

  “But when I wake up, be it morning or middle of the night, I don’t want anything in my way that wastes my time.”

  Brilliant.

  I grinned.

  He kissed my neck, pulled out and rolled off me.

  I rolled into him, kissed his chest then rolled off the bed and did what I was told.

  Back in bed, tucked tight to Gray’s side, my arm around his gut, my head on his shoulder, my leg tangled in his, he’d pulled my nightie up to my waist so his hand was cupping the bare cheek of my ass and my eyes were drifting closed when Gray called, “Ivey.”

  “Yeah, baby,” I answered sleepily.

  “Thank you for takin’ care of Gran and savin’ my land.”

  My eyes shot open.

  “Pay you back,” he went on.

  “Gray –” I started also starting to lift my head but his other hand came up, fingers in my hair cupping the side and he held it down.

  “Not with money, baby, but swear to Christ, by the time you leave this earth, you’ll feel I paid you back.”

  I started deep breathing.

  Gray asked, “You gonna start bawlin’?”

  “Maybe,” I whispered, that one word trembling.

  “Shit,” he muttered.

  That was when the tears stopped threatening and I grinned.

  Then I pressed deeper.

  Gray’s hand slid through my hair then went away.

  “Love you, honey,” he whispered.

  “Love you too, baby,” I whispered back.

  “’Night.”

  “Goodnight.”

  And shortly after, my eyes drifted closed and it was.

  A very good night.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  No Stone Unturned

  Lash Caldiwell

  After breakfast with Cody and Ivey, Lash and Freddie were coming back from the gym after working and they both saw them. Fifteen feet ahead standing at the glass doors that led to the attractively landscaped pool.

  And they both stopped.

  Ivey was wearing a slightly see-through silk robe Lash bought her, its glimmer was bronze. Under it, a gold bikini.

  Cody wearing his jeans, boots and gray t-shirt from yesterday.

  He had his hand light on her hip, his other hand was bunching her hair at the back of her neck, his neck was bent, his lips on hers.

  She was leaned partially into him, up on her toes in her muted bronze, slim strapped Havianna flip-flips, the swirly pattern visible on the soles. Her hand was to his abs, her other hand curled around the side of his neck.

  Something happened and the kiss changed. Cody touched his tongue to her lips or Ivey hers to his or just the fact hit them that they were together, close, reunited after seven years of heartbreak.

  So they forgot where they were.

  Cody’s hand slid from her hip back and down to cup her ass. Ivey’s hand slid from his neck up and into his hair. Her body pressed close, she got up on the tips of her toes and her hand at his abs became an arm tight around his back. Both their heads slid into deeper slants. Their mouths were open and the kiss turned visibly carnal.

  “Fuck me, seein’ that I see now you were never in there,” Freddie muttered at his side and Lash grinned. He and Ivey were openly affectionate but they never made out and certainly not in a public corridor by the pool of an exclusive hotel spa in the Colorado plains. “Watch that shit any longer, I’ll need a cold shower,” Freddie kept muttering.

  Freddie was not wrong. Lash was gay but that could turn pretty much anyone on.

  The kiss ended in a way it was obvious neither participant wanted it to end. Freddie and Lash didn’t move as, lips nearly touching, Cody and Ivey whispered to each other. Cody smiled, Ivey returned it, he touched his mouth to hers, gave her a squeeze then he lifted his lips and kissed her forehead.

  Then he let her go and she turned to the doors to the pool. She threw a beaming, radiant smile over her shoulder at Cody then sashayed toward the pool deck.

  Lash Caldiwell knew who he was and how he was for a very long time. But that didn’t mean watching Ivey Larue’s ass swaying in bikini bottoms didn’t remind him that more than once in the seven years he knew her that he considered switching sides.

  Lash took his eyes from his friend and they went to Cody and he remembered instantly which side he was on.

  He also saw that Cody was watching Ivey walk to the pool too. Lash’s view of him was only a hint of his profile, Cody’s head turned mostly away, but even that showed pain.

  Lash barely knew the man but he knew and loved Grayson Cody’s woman. For Ivey Larue there was one man on earth for her. Seeing Cody now, that expression on his face, loss close to the surface, Lash knew with no doubt there was one woman on earth for him.

  The burn he’d been fighting anytime over the last day that he thought about what was done to them fired in his chest.

  He beat it back when Cody turned and started walking their way. He caught sight of them and jerked up his chin.

  Lash returned the gesture, Freddie probably did too.

  You loved Ivey, you saw those two together, even for a second, they won you over. It was the simple matter of fact that, at a glance, you knew they belonged together.

  That said, Lash had thought that it would take Cody some effort to win over Freddie who was arguably more protective of Ivey than Lash. An occupational hazard, he’d seen many men eyeing her, he’d warned others off, he’d stepped up for her frequently, he’d had her back for six years.

  But he accepted Cody easily.

  Lash knew what it was. That beaming, radiant smile.

  Ivey was happy.

  That was all it took.

  Cody stopped at them. “Gotta get back to Mustang. Got shit to do. Ivey says you guys are leavin’ tonight. She wants us all to have dinner. Know a place, I’ll call for reservations.” One side of his lips twitched and he said, “Warnin’, won’t be fancy.”

  “Food good?” Freddie asked and Cody looked at him.

  “Yep.”

  “Works for me,” Freddie muttered and both sides of Cody’s lips twitched.

  Then his amusement fled and his gaze slid between both Lash and Freddie.

  “You got time before I leave, I need it. Shit you need to know.”

  Lash went alert as he felt Freddie
do the same.

  “Do we need privacy?” Lash asked and Cody studied him before he looked over his shoulder toward the pool.

  Then his eyes came back to Lash and he nodded.

  “Right, let’s go,” Lash murmured and led the way.

  Conversation was scarce as they made their way to Lash’s room. Inside, Lash took a seat in an armchair and rested his arms along its sides. Freddie took his place at a wall, shoulders to it, arms crossed on his chest, habit. It was a stance he assumed often when he was close to Ivey.

  Cody stood in the room, muscled legs planted slightly wide, arms crossed on the wall of his chest.

  Christ, Lash thought as he took him in. He’d noticed it but only in a vague way as other things took his attention. But, if this man lived his entire life in a small town or not, he was not someone to fuck with. Everything about him screamed it.

  Which made Lash wonder why it was clear that for years someone had been fucking with him.

  Then it hit him, Cody was a challenge.

  He presented a challenge. Man like that with looks like that coupled with natural authority, easy confidence, a lesser man with a sick twist in his head would stew on that, want to take him down a peg.

  Obsess about it.

  Fuck.

  “I can assume,” Cody started, “you both are in the know ‘bout all that went down, then and now.”

  “You’d assume correct,” Lash replied, he’d briefed Freddie on the way to visit Cody the day before.

  Cody nodded. “That shit you all did a day ago, that shit’ll rile Bud Sharp.”

  “Not a surprise, dude,” Freddie muttered. “Saw the guy, one glance, instant dick.”

  “Right,” Cody muttered back then, “You get that, you’ll probably get that he had a focus. Now he has two.”

  Freddie and Lash had talked about this but having it confirmed made Freddie growl.

  Lash sighed.

  “Rue,” Freddie grunted.

  “Yeah,” Cody confirmed. “I figure she’s told you about our history. Somethin’ that was probably throwaway to her was not throwaway to Bud and if you don’t know about it, you need to know about it. Man hates me. He’s been gunnin’ for me since junior high. May have a lock on why but still don’t get it. But Ivey bested him at pool and when I say that, she made short work of makin’ a fool of him. Worse, he was hopin’ to get in her pants at the same time and he’s not used to not gettin’ what he wants. Whole thing lasted maybe half an hour. Still, he rounded up his boys to pay her hotel room a visit. What they intended to do, I have no clue. I’m not a man like that. Four men, one twenty-two year old girl, turns my stomach but I could guess. She beat him in two games of pool and didn’t respond to his flirtin’. Whatever four men could do to a lone girl in a hotel room is not fair payback for that, then again, it’s not fair payback for anything.”

  He stopped talking, the air in the room was thick and when neither Lash nor Freddie spoke, processing their own thoughts, Cody gave them time then he continued.

  “With you two, she bested him again a day ago and not a handful of people in a bar saw it. Probably by this point, everyone in two counties is talkin’ about it. He is not the kinda guy who makes a lot of friends. Folks in Mustang, his home, especially are not real fond of him. They are eatin’ this shit up. Janie’s spreadin’ what went down with Ivey and me and if Ivey had folks who didn’t think much of her, what you all did a day ago and with Janie sharin’ what went down, that’s gonna change if it hasn’t already. They’re lovin’ this and Buddy Sharp is gonna feel that and he isn’t gonna like it.”

  Cody quit speaking, letting that sink in then he went on and when he did his voice got quieter and his tone made both Lash and Freddie, already alert and hyper-attentive, become acutely so.

  “Last year, had a situation with my trees. Had to cut down and burn a quarter of my orchard.” He took in a breath, clearly still pissed about this then kept speaking. “They were diseased. Shit happens in my business, you roll with it. I was expanding operations anyway seein’ as I had a bank loan to pay, planted a fuckload of trees two years before. Still, it’ll take time for those to produce. But this disease hit the mature trees.”

  When he stopped, Lash said softly, “Sorry that happened, Cody,” and Cody’s eyes focused on him.

  “Yeah, me too. Sucked. My Granddad planted those trees.”

  Lash nodded.

  Cody kept going.

  “Weird part of that is, no other orchard had this problem and when I say this not only no other orchard around Mustang but no other orchard in the entire fuckin’ state of Colorado. That shit isn’t unusual. It’s impossible.”

  Fucking hell. This information ratcheted the danger level up about seven fucking notches.

  Knowing it, Freddie pushed away from the wall and Lash leaned forward to put his elbows on his knees.

  Cody kept speaking.

  “There’s an origin to that kinda shit and that kinda shit spreads. No origin could be traced because there was no other outbreak in the entire western half of the United States. And I caught it quick so it didn’t spread.”

  “Someone diseased your trees,” Lash guessed.

  “Yeah,” Cody answered. “And that’s not all.”

  Fuck.

  “What?” Lash prompted.

  “Had a mare go down, sick, had to destroy her,” Cody answered.

  “Jesus Christ,” Lash whispered, sitting back.

  “Right,” Cody replied. “That’s tough. Again, shit happens and it’s happened to me. Rare but it has. Two months later, had a stallion go down.”

  “Fuck me,” Freddie muttered.

  “Right,” Cody repeated. “Now that shit has never happened to me. Talked to the vet, he investigated, stallion was poisoned. Stallion had the same symptoms as the mare. Fair guess, they both got slipped the same shit.”

  “God damn it,” Lash clipped.

  Killing horses, living beings.

  Now the danger level ratcheted up about fourteen notches.

  Fuck.

  Cody kept on with his story. “No way I can afford a security system so I rigged the doors to the barn with a shotgun, the blast aimed to wake me not take anyone out. Month later, that shotgun blasted.”

  “You see anyone?” Freddie asked.

  “They got outta there quick so no. And I have not had any more problems with my horses,” Cody answered.

  “Well, you sorted that,” Lash muttered and Cody’s eyes cut to him.

  “No, I didn’t. That shit stopped but this situation is not over. Can’t patrol my land twenty-four seven, don’t got eyes in the back of my head and it is clear someone is gunnin’ for me and I don’t have to reach real far to know who. And now, Ivey’s movin’ in.”

  “Fuckin’ shit!” Freddie bit out and Cody looked to him.

  “And she’s movin’ in,” he stated firmly. “He’s not gonna take more of her away from me. I don’t know how but I been chewing on it now since Ivey and I had our thing yesterday but it’s not a stretch to get that Buddy Sharp somehow found Casey Bailey and paid him to take Ivey away from me. I’m not an idiot. My trees, my horses, I reported it. Len and the Mustang Police Department know what’s goin’ down. They sniffed around and found nothin’. They’re on the alert though.” Cody looked at Lash. “But I want Casey.”

  Lash’s brows went up. “You want Casey?”

  Cody looked back to Lash. “He loves his sister. He’s fucked up but he loves his sister. It isn’t healthy but it’s there. Sayin’ that, these last years, she bailed on him, left him behind, took his car, he might be pissed and that love might have died. I do not give one fuck about that. He’s gonna talk. He’s gonna say who paid him, how much and what the play was. He owes that to Ivey and Ivey and I need to know, not only because we deserve to know but because to fight the fight I got on my hands, I need all the information I can get. And you’re gonna find him.”

  “Yes, I am,” Lash whispered.

  Cody nodded. “
Get on my feet, you keep track of what it costs, I’ll pay.”

  “No, you won’t,” Lash told him.

  “Man, this is my shit. Shits me but I need you. And I’ll pay,” Cody returned.

  “Cody, this is your shit and it’s also Ivey’s. Do you not get by now we have her back and when I say that, I say that with everything?” Lash replied.

  Cody held his eyes and reminded him quietly of something Ivey announced excitedly at breakfast, “She’s movin’ to Mustang.”

  “She told us that at breakfast, Cody, I remember,” Lash said quietly back.

  Cody explained his point, “She comes here, you lose her and all she is to you, your life, your club.”

  Lash shook his head and stood before he said softly, “You’ve been apart awhile but you know Ivey. You know her. She might be moving to Mustang but I’m not losing her and I never will.”

  Cody held his eyes then he tipped up his chin.

  “I’ll find Casey and I’ll find out what went down,” Lash told him.

  “Right,” Cody muttered and continued to hold Lash’s eyes in order to communicate further without words being said.

  Gratitude.

  Lash took it then asked, “This private chat, this mean you want us to keep this shit from Ivey?”

  Cody nodded again. “Yeah, but temporarily.” Then he grinned. “She’s all fired up to prove she’s a badass, hard as nails ex-showgirl and do that by takin’ on Buddy. She knows this shit, she’d lose her mind. She needs to sort her life with you, feel good about that, have time with you both.” His eyes swept through Freddie then went back to Lash. “I want her to have that. She knows this, she’ll hightail her ass to Mustang and let loose. I’ll wait, give her this information when the time is right. She won’t be kept in the dark forever, just for now.”

  “Understood and thank you,” Lash said quietly.

  Another chin jerk then Cody looked at Freddie and back to Lash. “Shit to do.”

  “Of course, see you at dinner,” Lash muttered.

  Another glance through both of them, another chin jerk then Grayson Cody strode to and out the door.