by HELEN HARDT
I looked to Joe. “Shit.”
“You said it.” He glanced around. “You armed?”
“Absolutely.”
The car stopped several yards away from us, and a figure stepped out. Joe shined his flashlight.
I sighed as both relief and fear welled in me.
“You really think someone wouldn’t follow you two?” Marjorie said, walking toward us quickly.
“You can’t be here, Sis,” Joe said.
“I agree. It’s not safe.”
“The two of you are here. I think my big, bad boyfriend and my big, bad brother can protect me.”
We both glared at her.
“Come on. I want to help. This involves all of us. Look around. We’re alone out here. If anyone was watching this place, he’d have shown up by now.”
“I don’t want you in any danger,” I said.
“Do I look in danger to you?”
“We’re digging up God knows what tonight,” Joe said. “Just how can you help?”
“I can dig.”
“It’s hard work, Sis. Work that will blister your manicured hands.”
“That’s why I brought leather work gloves.” She waved a pair in our faces.
“I can’t talk you out of this, can I?” Joe said.
“Nope.” She turned to me. “And neither can you, so don’t even try.”
I sighed in defeat. “Just stay where I can see you.”
“I’m not a child. You don’t have to tell me not to wander off.” She covered her pretty hands with the work gloves and then grabbed an extra shovel lying on the ground. “Let’s party.” She shoved the blade into the dirt.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“I did as much work around the ranch as any of my brothers.”
“She did,” Joe said. “She was a major pain in the ass, too. She was my apprentice on the beef ranch when she was a teen.”
I well remembered. Marjorie Steel as a teen had been something I hadn’t allowed myself to think about. I cleared my mind of the image. Marjorie Steel as a young woman I did think about, and she was so much more beautiful than she’d been as a teen.
“How much digging did you do on a cattle ranch?” I asked, knowing well my tone was a bit smartass.
“Don’t get smart with me,” she said. “I helped plant seedlings in the orchard.”
“We’ll be digging a lot deeper than you would to plant a young tree,” I said. “You sure you’re up for it?”
“I can do anything a man can do,” she said tartly, one hand holding the shovel, the other whipped to her hip indignantly.
“Why don’t the two of you stop this ridiculous banter and start digging?” Joe said.
I let out a breath slowly. I was already turned on by her very presence. Her brother’s presence should have been an antidote, but God, she drove me insane. I shoved the blade into the ground.
Two hours later, we’d uncovered a lot of nothing. So much for this idea. I was sore, and even wearing leather gloves, my hands were aching and starting to blister.
Joe sighed. “Let’s call it a night. We’ll start again tomorrow.”
“What about work?” I said. “You guys are paying me an awful lot to not be there on my second and third days.”
“Work will still be there,” Joe said. “Talon and Ry are with us on this. We have to figure it all out.”
“Who’s going to mind the finances, then?”
“Well, your staff of ten people, probably,” Joe said. “We trust them.”
I scoffed. “Then what do you need me for?”
Marjorie moved toward me and touched my forearm. “We need you,” she said softly.
“Of course we need you,” Joe said. “But this trumps everything right now. My brothers and I took a ton of time off dealing with this shit last year, and things rolled smoothly. We have good people working for us. That doesn’t mean we don’t need your leadership. The company is in good shape, Bryce. If you’re not there every hour, it will still run.”
I sighed. “If you say so. I just feel—”
“Stop it,” Joe said. “We’ve been through this. You’re not a charity case. Not by a long shot.”
Marjorie squeezed my forearm but didn’t say anything.
I leaned my shovel against the cabin. “All right. I need a shower anyway.” I kissed Marjorie’s cheek, got into my car, and drove back to the guesthouse.
Marjorie followed me all the way home. When I expected her to turn off to the main house, she didn’t. I got out of the car and waited for her to do the same.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her.
“What do you think I’m doing here?”
“We need a shower.”
“Last time I checked, you have one.”
Exhaustion weighed on me, but still my body quivered at her nearness. “Come on in.”
The house was so empty without my mother and Henry, though they’d have been in bed by now anyway. I looked at Marjorie. Her ponytail sagged, and several wisps of dark hair had escaped their confinement. Her cheeks were flushed red, and sooty dirt marred her face.
She’d never looked more beautiful.
More than that, she looked more content than I’d seen her in a while, which didn’t jibe.
“Something good happened today,” I said.
“Yeah. Sort of.”
“What?”
I listened as she told me about Dale and Ruby and what they’d found at the school.
“A baseball card?” I asked.
“Yeah. Ruby’s going to check everything out, but that’s not the main thing. Dale seemed different after he found the rock. Like he’d done something to help himself. It seemed to mean something to him.”
“He’s been doing a lot to help himself,” I said. “Through therapy and all.”
“No, this was different. Someone else is there with therapy. This was something he found. He took an active role and noticed something didn’t belong in the space. It probably has nothing to do with anything, but it helped him. I talked to Mel about it on the phone before dinner. She thinks this could be huge and that maybe we should let him take a more active role in what’s going on.”
“He’s ten.”
“I know, and Talon and Jade would probably never allow it, but Mel thinks it could bring him out of his shell. It already has, sort of. He smiled today, Bryce. He actually smiled.”
Marjorie’s grin lit up her whole face. Warmth surged through me. Those poor boys—Dale especially, who’d taken the brunt of the abuse to spare his little brother. Had my father done anything to them? I had no way of knowing. He’d died before the boys had been found, and as far as I knew, he hadn’t been in the Caribbean during that time.
I’d never know.
All I knew was that we had to put an end to this once and for all. For all our sakes, especially the boys’.
“What can Dale possibly do to help?”
“Little things, Mel says. We can ask his opinion on stuff. Obviously no one wants to put him in any danger, but he needs to feel like he’s a part of this, and today he did.”
I smiled. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
“Me? It’s Mel’s idea.”
“I mean with Dale. You’re just as much a parent to him right now as Talon and Jade are. You’re going to be…”
An amazing mother someday. She would be. She could be to Henry. She and I loved each other, so why hadn’t I been able to say the words?
“I’m going to be what?”
I gazed into her chocolate eyes. “You’re going to be well and thoroughly used before this night is over.”
I lifted her in my arms and carried her to my bedroom. Then I walked into the attached bath and turned on the shower. We undressed quickly and stepped in, letting the pelting warm water soothe the aches from digging.
She closed her eyes as she pulled the band out of her ponytail and set it on one of the shower shelves. “Man, that feels good.”
I inhaled, letting
the steam from the shower infuse me. Yes, it felt good. Amazingly good. I pulled her to me, our slick bodies sliding together. Her height made her the perfect fit against me, the perfect yin to my yang. I didn’t kiss her, didn’t try to fuck her, though my dick was more than ready. Just held her, felt her warmth against me, inhaled the steam, and relaxed.
Relaxed.
How long we stood there, I couldn’t say. The water gradually morphed to lukewarm, and I grabbed a shower pouf and lathered both of us with my woodsy gel. When we were thoroughly clean, I turned off the water and handed her a dry towel.
“That was amazing,” she said.
“Nothing like a shower when you’re sore and dirty,” I agreed.
“No. I mean, yeah. But I was talking about just holding each other, you know?”
I smiled. “I know.”
“Not that I didn’t want more.”
“I did too, but we have all night in a clean, dry bed for that.”
“Last one there’s a rotten egg.” She threw the towel on the bathroom floor and ran into the bedroom.
I laughed. “You used to say that when you were little.”
She returned my laughter. “I never stopped!” She leaped onto the bed, her dark tresses a tangled disarray around her shoulders and chest.
She looked beautiful.
I joined her on the bed, and she snuggled into my shoulder.
“I love you, Bryce,” she said softly.
“I love you too, Marjorie. So much.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Marjorie
The first rays of sunlight streamed into the strange bedroom as I awoke to Bryce tugging on one of my hard nipples with his lips and teeth.
My hair was a dry and stringy mess pasted to my cheeks and shoulders, and I needed to rise soon to see to the boys and their breakfast.
Oh, but his sweet mouth on my nipple. His thumb and middle finger played with the other one, and for a moment I couldn’t decide which felt better, his mouth or his fingers, and then I stopped thinking altogether. What did it matter? It all felt amazing.
My hips began rotating of their own accord, and the lips of my pussy tingled as the tickle inside grew in its intensity.
I bit my lip and let out a soft sigh. So, so good.
I arched my back, pushing my chest closer to Bryce, instinctively wanting more tugging, more biting, more pinching on those ultrasensitive nipples.
He groaned against my skin, a soft hum that I felt as well as heard. His intensity matched my own. Without words, he knew when I wanted a stronger pinch, a harsher suck.
Until he trailed his hand over my thigh and between my legs…
“Oh!”
He thrust two fingers into my soaking-wet pussy, flicking his thumb over my clit.
Both nipples, clit, and pussy… If only he had another pair of lips to kiss me with, I’d have everything.
I missed his tongue in my mouth, his lips sliding against mine, but I couldn’t bear to have his lips leave my nipple. He kissed it, licked it, sucked it, nibbled at it. And with every tiny nip, I got wetter, wanted him more.
The rhythmic movement of his thumb over my clit sent need barreling through me, and soon I found myself on the precipice. I was going to come. I was going to come hard, and I wanted that hard cock in me, slicing through me as I shattered.
“Bryce, please. Inside me.”
He dropped my nipple from his lips and crawled forward—
“Yes!” I cried when he thrust into me.
His cock was thick, hard, and he rammed it into me just as I wanted. My nipples were chafed from his attentions, and his chest hair abraded them as he pumped.
He grunted against my neck, nipping at my flesh with his firm lips. Emotion swirled through me in a rapturous kaleidoscope. Bryce, inside me. Always inside me. Every part of me taking in every part of him, as if we were now one being. The perfect pleasure—to have my emptiness filled, filled by the man I loved.
All was right in the world.
At least for now.
My pussy contracted around him, and one orgasm led to another, and then another. I quivered, running my hands up and down his slick back. I loved the feel of his skin underneath my fingertips. Loved the sandy hair on his chest torturing my nipples. Loved his big hard cock inside me.
If perfection existed in the world, Bryce and I together were it.
He thrust harder, harder, harder until he grunted against me, releasing. So in tune with him was I that I felt every pulse of his cock as he emptied into me.
For a moment, I let myself think about making a baby with him. About the future.
We hadn’t talked about it, and I didn’t want to bring it up with all we were dealing with.
I brushed the thought away from my mind, let myself revel simply in his orgasm and mine, as we released together in perfect harmony.
We lay there then in each other’s arms. Finally, I couldn’t help giggling.
He kissed the top of my head. “What?”
“I guess I’ll let you off the hook.”
“Off the hook for what?”
“Did you or did you not say to me that I would be well and thoroughly used before last night was over?”
He chuckled into my hair. “I guess I did.”
“And then, Bryce Simpson, you fell asleep.”
“I seem to recall you falling asleep as well.”
“At any rate, you’re forgiven.”
He pounced then, rolling over to his side and flipping me over. He landed a sharp smack on my ass.
“Ow!” The pain lanced through me, making me shudder. Was it pain I felt? Or was it pleasure? No one had spanked me before. Not as a kid for punishment, and not as an adult during sex.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
“What was that for?” I demanded.
“That was for being a little brat,” he teased. “And trust me. There’s a lot more where that came from.” His palm came down on my ass again.
I could tell him to stop. He would if I asked. But the words lodged in my throat. I wanted to try this. I really wanted to try this.
“Your ass is gorgeous, sweetheart. Especially now, with my red handprint on it.”
His words sent a spike of pleasure through me. He’d marked me, in a way. But a handprint wouldn’t last forever.
Was he even ready for forever?
Before I could think again, he smacked me once more, this time easing the sting with his lips on my ass cheek. Tiny kisses chasing away the sharpness and leaving only loving pleasure.
I sighed softly, burying my head in his pillow. Soon, instead of his lips and hands, I felt his hard cock between my ass cheeks. He slid it downward, through the juices of my pussy, and then back between my cheeks. Was he going to…?
“No,” he said in answer to my silent question. “Not today. Not until we’re both ready.”
I looked over my shoulder. “Have you ever?”
“No. But I want to. With you.”
“I want to,” I said, only now knowing the truth of the words.
“We will. But right now, I need that hot little pussy of yours.” He thrust into me.
I was tight from my orgasms, and the burn of his cock tunneling into me was good. So good. I didn’t care about coming. All I wanted was to feel him inside me, taking me, marking me, making me his forever.
Chapter Forty-Three
Bryce
So complete. So perfectly complete. Every time I entered her felt better than the last. Every time her walls sank around my cock was a more perfect fit. Just when I thought it could never be any better…it was.
It so was.
I fucked her this time. I needed a hard, fast fuck after spanking her gorgeous ass. I loved this woman so much, and I adored making slow, sweet love to her.
But sometimes, I just wanted a fuck. A good, hard fuck. A meeting of cock and pussy and all the raw beauty of it.
So I fucked her. I fucked her hard and fast and with everything in me
. And when my body became my cock and balls and released into her, I felt more than lust and love and wonder.
I felt peace.
The pure peace that can only come from the physical. Endorphins drifted around us, through us, almost visible to me as I emptied every last drop of myself into her.
I needed peace in my life. We both did.
I collapsed on top of her, holding my weight so as not to crush her. Then I rolled over and gathered her into my arms, kissing her moist forehead. “I hate to say this, but I have to get up.”
“Me too.” She lifted her head and kissed my lips. “I need to make breakfast for the boys and get them off to school.”
“I thought Jade was feeling better.”
“She is, but I like doing it. It’s nice to be needed.”
“Hey,” I teased. “I need you. I think I just proved that.”
She laughed. “I need you too, but we both have obligations.”
“True enough.” I sat up and stretched, the sun’s rays making me squint. “Another sunny day.”
“Good old Colorado.” She rose from the bed. “I’m going to take a quick shower. And don’t you dare come in and join me, or we’ll never get moving.”
My cock twitched as I thought of making love to her in the shower, but she was right. We both had stuff to do. I quickly texted Joe to see if he wanted to go back to the cabin or if he wanted me in the office this morning. Then I wrapped a robe around myself and went to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.
The manila folders we’d uncovered yesterday afternoon lay on the kitchen table. I hadn’t opened them yet. I let my fingers hover over one for a moment while the coffee brewed. Why was I so hesitant? The other files hadn’t yielded anything too scary. Farm equipment, yes, but so far we hadn’t found anything buried near the cabin. We’d hardly exhausted the area, though.
I peeled one edge of the folder back—
“Coffee. Excellent.” Marjorie walked into the kitchen wearing one of my shirts, her hair wet and her nipples protruding.
My cock responded, of course.
Though the pot was only half full, she poured herself a cup and sat next to me. “What are you looking at?”