“You’ve been kissing me all evening.”
“Not what I meant.”
“Oh,” she said, and the giggling stopped.
He palmed her bare breast.
Her shiver made the nipple between his fingers even harder.
Surprisingly, she pulled his hand away, but he quickly realized why. “Does your seat go back any further?”
“No, but the steering wheel goes up.”
“Hurry and put it in gear, cowboy. I’m getting ready to climb aboard.”
He doubted he’d ever moved faster, clearing the way for her to climb over the damn center console to settle her knees on either side of his hips.
It was a tight fit. Perfect.
They came together in a kiss that rocked the truck, and when she started undulating her hips against his cock, she wasn’t the only one who moaned out loud.
It might’ve been uncomfortable if it wasn’t so goddamn hot. Twice he thought about telling her to cool it, but the words never made it to his mouth. Which was busy leaving damp trails down her throat, on the sensitive spot behind her ear, just under her neckline.
“I haven’t come in my jeans since I was fifteen,” he said, not sure he was crazy about doing it now.
“Well, we did go skinny-dipping, and now we’re making out in your truck with a whole bunch of people in the near vicinity. Coming in your jeans seems appropriate, don’t you think?”
He didn’t realize what she’d said for a minute, seeing as how he was kissing her neck and playing with a nipple. Plus, she was still gyrating. Then it hit him. He let go of her breast and gripped her hips, and she stopped moving. “What people?”
“That’s okay, we’re safe. The windows are fogged.”
Seth exhaled and laughed at the same time. Glancing to his left, he saw that she wasn’t wrong about the windows. “Was anyone watching?”
“I hope not.” She smiled and did a slight shimmy.
Jesus. He was never going to survive the night. “Did I mention I have a surprise for you?”
“No.” She licked his chin. “What is it?”
“I worked it out with Clint. I’ll be taking some time off.”
She sat as far back as she could and looked at him through the dim glow of the security light coming from the stable. “Really?”
He nodded. “You can still drive out tomorrow if you want...”
“What time is it, anyway?”
He pressed the button on his watch to illuminate the dial. “Shit.” How was it possible? “It’s quarter to ten.”
“What?” She started to climb off, but her knee hit him too damn close for comfort, and then she jabbed herself in the middle of her back. Thankfully, she made it to her seat in one piece. “You need to go. Right now. And tomorrow, the minute you’re finished doing whatever with Clint, you need to call me.”
“Right,” he said, wondering if he would be able to walk her to the door with his erection pressing so hard against his fly. He blinked a few times, feeling like he was in some kind of weird trance. But he wasn’t about to just shove her out the door. “Let’s go. Don’t forget your bag.”
He hadn’t realized just how fogged the windows were until he got out. Upon closer inspection he saw they hadn’t exactly been in their own secret love nest.
Hannah burst out laughing on the other side of the truck. “We had visitors.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean the up-close-and-personal kind.”
“I know,” he repeated, staring at the back window where someone had written Get a Room in the light coating of dust from yesterday’s excursion.
“Someone wrote something on my window,” Hannah said. “It looks like wowzah! I think.”
Seth wasn’t about to look around and give the culprits any satisfaction.
Hannah joined him on his side of the truck. “You don’t have to walk me to the door,” she said. “I’d rather you get home as soon as possible.”
“But how about a last kiss?”
“Here? Now?”
“Why not?” He shrugged. “Since everyone in Northern Montana seems to know our business.”
Without hesitation she dropped her bag on the gravel and slid her arms around his neck.
By the time he actually left, it was 10:34.
11
HANNAH STOOD OUTSIDE the Cake Whisperer waiting for Seth to arrive for the meeting. When they’d last spoken that morning, she’d told him she’d ride into town with Rachel, but at the last minute she’d decided to drive her rental. It would free them both up the following morning, since they hadn’t planned that far ahead.
Since Clint couldn’t come to the meeting and Nathan would be there, Seth had reluctantly agreed to attend. He might have been influenced by her mention of the motel. Which, in hindsight, was a mixed blessing. Not that she wasn’t thrilled about spending the night with him. God, she couldn’t wait. But it would have been easier to ask her questions about grazing permits if he wasn’t present.
Kylie, the owner of the bakery, opened the door for a young woman wearing an apron from the local market. She handed her a white cardboard box, then turned to Hannah. “Still waiting, huh?”
She nodded. “I think I see his truck...”
She and Kylie had briefly met ten minutes ago when Hannah had pulled into town. The meeting was being held two doors down, and after it was over Kylie planned on opening the bakery for an hour. They joked about all the people who’d be looking for sugar fixes, although it wasn’t really funny. Judging by the waves of people entering the meeting room, it seemed tensions were already running high.
“Have fun,” Kylie said, as she ducked back into her shop.
Stepping to the edge of the curb, Hannah tried to figure out if that really was Seth’s truck. You could sure tell this was cowboy country. Lots of trucks with lots of hunting rifles mounted in their back windows. Seth didn’t have a rifle, though, and she was glad about that.
“Hey, darlin’, you looking for a good time?”
At the sound of his voice, she grinned and spun around to face him. Thank God he was in a decent mood. “I wasn’t sure you were coming. Rachel is saving us seats.”
“I said I’d show up.” Sadly, his smile vanished. He didn’t want to be here, and she had a feeling this was more for her than Sadie. Hannah hoped it wasn’t a mistake. “I had to stop and pick something up,” he said, tugging her closer to the building as he pulled something out of his jeans pocket. “Know what this is?”
She stared at the key card, smiling so big she was lucky her face didn’t crack. “The key to happiness?”
“And success.”
“Oh, God, don’t you dare jinx it.”
“Right. Don’t wanna do that.”
Jeez, she sincerely hoped everything went smoothly. The meeting, their first slumber party. A grouchy-looking old timer shouldered past them and nodded at Seth with a look of surprise.
“Let’s go inside before Rachel has to give up our seats,” Hannah murmured, and led the way.
Five minutes into the meeting, after the mayor had introduced the surprisingly young and good-looking Rick Sherwood from the US Bureau of Land Management, poor Sadie started to lose control of the agenda. Hannah quickly discovered the woman needed no sympathy. She had grit. Raising her voice a couple times subdued most of the audience.
People were still wandering in while the speaker explained about old and new regulations for grazing permits, and eventually it was standing room only. Hannah was sitting between Rachel and Seth, but she wished she’d thought out the logistics.
It was generally too noisy to tape the proceedings, especially once the floor was opened for twenty minutes of questions. So she was trying to discreetly type notes into her phone, and occasionally jo
tted down a word or two on a crumpled paper napkin she’d found in her purse.
While it had begun civilly enough, with Mr. Sherwood assuring the locals that if their property bordered BLM land, they’d be given priority to purchase permits, Jasper was the first to cause dissention. He demanded to know why, since his family had been there for four generations, he wasn’t going to get a discount on the newly raised price.
That caused a lot of chatter around the room.
“What an ass,” Rachel leaned over and whispered. “He’s been cheating the government by grazing for free for forty years. They ought to back charge him with interest.”
So far Seth hadn’t said a word, but she could feel his tension every time Jasper or his buddy, Avery, asked a stupid question or tried to swing the discussion to “the government’s overreach” in regard to range and water rights. Neither topic had anything to do with grazing permits. It was obvious they were trying to incite their neighbors. And each time the question invariably ended in a rant, the two men slid damning looks at Seth.
Rachel was almost as agitated as Seth, although she was less stoic. “Oh, for God’s sake,” she said, rising to her feet a second after Jasper stood yet again. “You’ve asked about the sovereignty of Montana three times now, Jasper Parsons, and it still has nothing to do with tonight’s agenda, so why don’t you sit down and be quiet.”
He glared at her, his face nearly scarlet, and remained on his feet. “Maybe if Seth Landers would get off his backside and stand up for his neighbors’ rights, I wouldn’t have to keep asking.”
A woman standing by the door called out, “Yeah, come on Seth. I heard you know all about that kind of stuff from college”
Seth’s whole body tightened noticeably, but all he did was shake his head. “Just observing,” he said, his jaw so tight Hannah worried he’d crack a tooth.
Jasper, filled with new vigor as someone else prodded Seth, pointed straight at him. “You’re the one should be telling this government mouthpiece why families who’ve lived here since before Montana was a state ought not be forced to buy grazing rights from the feds.”
“No one’s forcing you to do a damn thing, Jasper,” said a woman in the front row.
“I wasn’t talking to you, Charlene,” he grumbled.
Rachel stood and planted a hand on her hip. “Okay, Jasper. That’s enough. Do I have to come sit next to you?” she asked, getting a laugh out of half the audience.
Parsons glared at her, but he sat down. Not that he was happy about it.
Hannah quickly rose to her feet. “Do grazing fees include the water used by the cattle? And if not, how many gallons are required for a herd of, say, a hundred head in a month?”
Several groans floated above the crowd as the clock was ticking down to the wire, but Mr. Sherwood jumped in with gusto to answer her question. And somehow managed to tie in the difference between livestock use permits and term grazing permits.
She’d actually wanted to know the answers to her two questions, but she was just as gratified that Seth’s breathing settled, and while he wasn’t exactly relaxed, he no longer seemed ready to combust, either.
Thankfully, at the end of Sherwood’s lengthy explanation, Sadie stood, and called the meeting to an official close.
The second the gavel hit the podium Seth got to his feet, and Hannah and the rest of the group—Nathan, Rachel and Woody—joined him. Unfortunately, they didn’t make a clean getaway.
Jasper got right up into Seth’s face. Hannah was ready to bop him in the nose, and from the way Nathan and Rachel pressed in, she wasn’t the only one.
“Why the hell aren’t you standing up for us?” Jasper asked, his voice as ugly as his vicious glare. “Your family’s been here as long as anyone’s. We got rights. That government stooge acted like we don’t have any at all. And you let him walk all over us.”
“It’s not the government’s job to explain your property rights to you or anyone else.” Seth’s tone was low and fierce.
“And you’re okay with that?”
“It doesn’t matter what my opinion is. We’re talking about the law. That’s why I told you to hire a damn attorney. Now stand aside.”
When Jasper’s hands bunched into fists and he didn’t budge, Nathan stepped between him and Seth. “Come on, bro. Let me buy you and Hannah a beer at the Full Moon. I don’t believe you’ve been there yet, have you?”
Rachel got real close, too.
Her brother, Cole, who’d come in late, joined them, subtly forcing Rachel to step back. Then he looked at Jasper. “Why don’t you go find someone who wants to listen to your bullshit?”
Seth, Nathan and Cole were all well over six feet. The stupid little man finally showed some sense and backed off. Woody, who didn’t have an inch on Jasper, made sure the idiot kept backing up.
While the others were focused on Jasper, Hannah slipped her fingers between Seth’s. “Let’s go with Nathan and Woody, huh?” she said, her voice soft, meant only for him.
She could see he was on the fence and wondered if any surly meeting attendees would be at the bar. He didn’t need anyone popping off at him.
Although, clearly, they’d have to go through his big brother first. And her, Hannah thought, even though she knew Seth could take care of himself. But she hoped having a beer and maybe doing some venting might help relax him.
“Good to see you, Cole. It’s been a long time,” Nathan said, and the two men shook hands. “How about you and Rachel join us for a beer? I’m buying.”
“Wish I could,” Rachel said, sighing.
“Got a lot going on at the Sundance,” Cole said, shaking his head. “Though let’s make sure we all get together soon, huh?” His gaze included all of them, and Seth smiled a little but he still hadn’t said anything.
While goodbyes were exchanged, Hannah studied Seth. She felt horribly guilty for nudging him to come, and for not telling him about what she was up to. But what was the chance anything would come of her digging, anyway? Her dad liked doing things the hard way.
“How about we go for just one?” she asked softly.
Seth met her eyes and smiled. “All right. Just one, though.” He slid an arm around her shoulders and kissed her hair.
Nathan’s brows shot up so fast it was almost comical. His gaze flew to his foreman. Woody shrugged and led the pack to the Full Moon.
The place was big, over two times the size of the Watering Hole. Country music poured out of the corner jukebox. In the back she could see pool tables, and in the middle was a dance floor. She didn’t notice the stage at first. According to the sign on the wall, a band played three nights a week.
Nathan chose a relatively private corner table close to the front window. The glass was frosted, so you couldn’t really see out or look inside, which was probably the point.
“The place looks nice. Clint mentioned something about a mechanical bull in the back,” Nathan said, after the waitress had come and taken their order.
“Yeah, I heard.” Seth leaned back in his chair trying to have a look. “Did he try it?”
“Nah. Well, if he did, he didn’t say.”
“You mean if he fell on his ass he wouldn’t have told ya.” Woody started to laugh, then shot her a look. “Sorry for the language, miss.”
Hannah just smiled.
Seth gave her a one-armed hug and laughed. “She’s heard it all before, Woody.”
“So, Hannah,” Nathan said casually. “Do you live around here?”
She was about to answer when Seth beat her to it.
“Hannah’s from Dallas. She’s a friend of Rachel’s and she’s staying at the Sundance. For four more days. So, I’m sure you understand why I don’t particularly want to sit here looking at your two mugs all night.”
Both men laughed. “Can’t say that I
blame you,” Nathan said, and waved to someone across the bar.
He had the same dark hair as Seth, though Nathan wore his shorter. They had similar lean, muscular frames, and so did Clint, now that she thought about it. Although all she’d seen were pictures of him in his teens.
“Anybody know if they serve food here?” Woody asked, scanning the tables around them.
Hannah shrugged, and Seth shook his head.
“We’ll ask the waitress,” Nathan said, glancing toward the back. “It’s not a bad place. I’m kind of surprised you haven’t been here before, Seth.”
“Haven’t had time. Spring came early, so we’ve been just as busy as I’m sure you all have.”
“I figured you might be keeping your head down,” Nathan said, studying his brother. “People still counting your drinks?”
Seth blinked.
Hannah felt a spike of tension.
“As if they got nothing better to do,” Woody said. “Damn busybodies.”
Seth and his brother exchanged faint smiles. It seemed to relax Seth. And helped Hannah chill somewhat.
After a brief silence, Nathan’s gaze flickered to her, then back to Seth. “I apologize if I spoke out of turn.”
“Nah,” Seth said, shrugging. “It’s fine.” He rested an arm along the back of her chair and toyed with her hair. “I went to college in Billings. Some buddies and I drove up here for a weekend. First night home I got arrested for a DUI.”
His casual admission startled Hannah. “Oh,” was all she could think to say. Then she dazzled everyone with her brilliance by adding, “How sucky.”
“Guess whose equipment shed the car crashed into?” Seth looked slightly amused, which she didn’t understand at all.
She thought for a moment. “Oh, no. Jasper’s?”
The waitress arrived with their beers. As she set down the ice-cold mugs, Woody asked about food. Hannah didn’t hear the reply, she was thinking back to their skinny-dipping adventure when Seth had mentioned he’d gotten into some trouble.
Sizzling Summer Nights Page 11