Had Candace found out about Shane’s creditors and Alexander’s offer, too? Was she chasing down some of her business school friends to help Nicki now that matters with the Lyon Group had fallen through for the W+W?
Candace couldn’t have discovered Shane’s business, though, because Nicki would’ve stormed over and let him have it before now.
Even so, dread was hounding him. But the sooner he could tell Nicki, the better….
“Can we go somewhere else to talk?” he asked.
She grinned. “Sure thing. I have just the place.”
She was watching him as she had the other night, when he’d invited her over and she had clearly been expecting him to be leading her into some kind of game again.
But the only role he was set to play tonight was of the guy who was going to break her ranch.
And her, right along with it.
Instead of walking inside the house, she pulled him to the side of it, where her truck waited. She jumped inside, every movement crumbling Shane’s resolve that much more. Tires ate the ground as she pulled out.
Shane tried his damnedest to think of what he was going to say as they arrived at the community barn—the place where they had done all that swashing and buckling several nights ago. She hopped out of the cab, a flashlight in hand, shining it at him while she went to the door and he got out of the truck.
“Come on,” she said, starting to undo a new lock on the door. “I’ve had this set up for a couple of days now.”
“Wait.” He couldn’t take this anymore. “I didn’t come over here tonight for that.”
She hesitated, then turned off the flashlight, just as he continued.
“I’m so sorry, Nicki.”
“Sorry for what?”
Shane steeled himself, because his own heart felt as if it were breaking, too.
11
NICKI DIDN’T LIKE how Shane’s voice was more serious than she’d ever heard it.
“The Lyon Group,” he finally said. “They made me an offer, Nicki.”
Seconds must have passed, and even during all that time, Nicki didn’t quite understand what he was saying.
She laughed, a sound that didn’t really belong. “An offer. I thought you had no interest in anything like that.”
He huffed out a breath, took off his cowboy hat and held it in his hands. “I promised myself that I was going to pay you the respect of being honest, and…”
“And what?”
The words came through his teeth. “And I need this. More than I ever let on.”
She rested a hand on the barn’s wall. This couldn’t be happening.
He continued. “I didn’t want anyone to know what kind of ditch the ranch was in.”
It was all falling together now. So that’s why he’d come back—to rectify the situation. Was that why Tommy had abandoned the Slanted C, because he’d left all the clean-up to Shane?
He gripped his hat. “If I could think of any other way out of this mess, I’d have seized on that solution. But I’ve racked my mind, and the other night, when Russell Alexander wrote down a number and showed it to me, I refused him. But he’s got friends, and he told me that he heard through the corporate grapevine that the ranch’s loans were about to get called in, and he made the offer formally. I don’t know if I believe the doomsday scenario he’s created, but, just in case…”
“I understand,” she said in the anaesthetic haze that enveloped her, even though there was something else coming through. She was too slammed to grab on to it just yet.
“Do you understand?” He was white-knuckling his hat now. “I don’t see how you could. I was so bent on keeping it quiet. But most of all, I really thought I could make a go of building that place back up. My mom is going to need it, or else she’ll have nothing to her name. And…”
“Shane, I understand.”
Damn it, she wanted to hate him, wanted to lash out at him. But she knew why she wasn’t railing at him right now.
He could have the dude resort. Now that she’d lost it, she knew she’d truly never wanted it.
Yet what would she do about her staff now? And the mere thought of never seeing all those kids around, playing, being themselves on a place that allowed them to do just that, ripped at her.
“I need you to know,” Shane said, coming forward slowly, “that I intend to look out for you and yours. I can negotiate with the Lyon Group so that the deal benefits the neighbors, too.”
“You don’t have to take care of us.”
He must’ve heard in her voice that no Wade had ever taken kindly to scrapping for handouts. But what else could she do?
Tell him an outright no?
“I’m going to help, Nicki,” he said.
This was clearly tearing him apart, and his care was the only thing that kept her standing up.
“You’re a good neighbor,” she said genuinely. “Thank you for trying to look out for us at any rate.”
It appeared that he wanted to chuck his hat away from him in a flare of anger. “It’s not about being a neighbor.”
She couldn’t believe she was about to ask, but she did it, anyway. “Then what’s it about?”
“Honor. I don’t have much of it, but—”
“Why would you say that?”
The moonlight revealed his tightened jaw.
She was still a building rumble of emotion, so bottled up that she wanted to scream. It seemed her life was a series of loss—her parents, the decline of the ranch, now this.
And…
Now Shane, too?
Judging from the look on his face, the pain of a man who cared for her more than he’d realized before, this just couldn’t be the moment when she lost him, as well.
“I’m not angry with you,” she said. “It’s such a waste of time.” She felt hollow, merely yearning to be filled up again with some of that hope she’d won during the past week, after he’d come into her life.
“What’re you saying?”
“I’m saying that I’m a big girl, Shane. And we can still be…neighbors. Can’t we?”
He still looked as if she was about to pull the rug out from under him. Any second now, he’d get skittish, as Shane Carter normally did, and he’d back away, leaving her be.
Leaving her without the one thing that was keeping her together right now.
She couldn’t let him get away, so she undid the lock that she’d hitched onto the door recently, then opened the barn.
Shane’s voice got gritty. “Nicki…”
In spite of his warning, she went inside, and he joined her after a few seconds. It was dark without the lanterns on, and she hadn’t turned on her flashlight yet.
In the darkness, she said, “Just so you know, this isn’t a war between you and me. It never was. If I should be angry, it’s with life itself. So can we forget about it?”
“It’s a pretty big matter to dismiss.”
“No. I basically knew that we didn’t have the investment. I…” She finally came out with it. “I tried to warm up to the idea of going dude, but I never really could. Just like you.”
She didn’t tell him what she really wanted right now—to lay her head against his chest and hear his heartbeat as the news settled in. To know that a pulse meant that life still moved forward and hers would do that, too, after she came to terms with everything.
She finally put on her flashlight, stepping aside so Shane could see past her and into the barn.
His gaze burned, and it got even hungrier as she went around lighting lanterns so that, little by little, the “tent” she had arranged appeared.
She looked around at what they could’ve had.
But, damn it, she needed a happy ending, even if, in reality, it might not last. She needed to believe they could exist, though, even for a short time.
In the middle of the barn, she’d put blankets on the ground to cover the dirt. This time, she’d strewn large pillows around—items she’d found in the house attic, packed away
in a box marked New Living Room—decorations for plans that had never materialized. She’d also borrowed some of Candace’s sheer material from her mirror and bedroom, giving the space an exotic feel.
Simple, and not altogether that much work. She’d spent more time on the costume.
She went over to pull it from beneath a pillow. It unfurled like a dream that had floated almost out of reach.
It was composed of sheer pink cloth that she had planned to drape over her head like a veil, allowing it to flow downward, hinting at a short, midriff-baring vest, a long diaphanous skirt with bikini pants, a thin silver chain to be worn around her waist.
“Nothing fancy,” Nicki said, risking a glance at Shane. “Just some stuff I bought when we first started all this. But I thought it would work.”
It seemed as if he was picturing her in all that veiling, his gaze lust-steeped.
Then another emotion took over in his eyes—a gentleness that drilled into her chest.
“Seriously, Nicki,” he said. “This is for another night.”
That’s when the anger came—latent, forceful.
“I’m not Nicki when we have our games, remember?” she said, hardly believing her own ears.
He didn’t say anything, just watched her with something close to pity in his gaze.
Nicki had never done pity and, suddenly, all she wanted was to own something, even if it was this.
“I’m your newest addition to the harem,” she said before she could let her brain catch up to her out-of-line emotions. “I’ve been sent here to please you.”
Shane shook his head, even though she could see that he was only trying to distance himself.
“You’ve got a hundred women at your feet,” she said, “and I’m only one of them.”
She unbuttoned the top of her blouse, just daring him to stay with her.
Before he could get all noble on her, she undid the rest of her blouse, sliding it off, watching him consume her with his gaze. Turning her back on him, still keeping him in her sights as she looked over her shoulder, she eased off her bra, reached for the small vest, slipped into it.
She still had him, even though it seemed as if he was walking a line between staying and going. Maybe he realized that if he refused her, that would be the final insult.
As she took off her boots and jeans, seeking the cover of a stall so she could keep some mystery about it, she kept talking to him, knowing all the time that what she was doing was unfair, to both him and her.
“I come from a kingdom you needed to align with,” she said. “My father awarded me to you as a prize, an incentive.”
She emerged from the stall to find him running a hand through his short dark blond hair. He froze when he saw her.
“Okay, this has gone far enough, Nicki.”
She didn’t chide him for calling her by her name. He was the master, and he could do what he wished, right?
She stood there in her long veil, holding a swath of it over her lower face and clutching the rest of its sheerness over her body. At the same time, a flash of real life gave her pause.
She was taking charge, starting now.
The anger she’d been holding back seethed in her, and she went toward the pillow bed, getting to her knees, taking a perverse pleasure in the submissive position. How many times did it start out like this—with someone or something else dominating her?
Then again, how many times had she flipped things around by the end of their games?
“What shall you do with me?” she whispered.
Shane moved to her, setting his hat on a far pillow, then going down on one knee beside her. She peered up at him, making sure she was all big eyes and lashes, and she knew that he wasn’t going to leave anytime soon.
A mini-explosion rocked her, booming with such happiness and sadness combined that she finally found the courage to do what she’d never been able to do before.
She swayed toward him, dropping her half-veil and catching his lips in the kiss she’d always wanted.
The one thing she could take away from tonight, if nothing else.
THE IMPACT CRASHED through Shane as soon as her mouth touched his, and he was so overcome that he couldn’t do anything but grip her shoulders, falling, falling down into the ecstasy that pulled at him.
A thousand thoughts swamped him: Nicki dressed in sheer light pink, Nicki forgiving him, pure and simple…
It couldn’t be this easy. None of it could.
That’s why he drew away from her, his hands still on her shoulders, his fingertips pressing into her so hard that he had to let go.
His lips throbbed, his gaze a blur until it reformed into a solid picture of Nicki, her eyes hopeful, as if she wanted him more than anything else.
An emotion he’d never felt before throttled him, scaring him silly, telling him to get the hell out.
But the last thing he would do tonight was level another bomb at her. Besides, he wanted…
To stay.
God, what?
He started to stand, but she tugged him down again by the hand. More aggressively than he imagined a harem bride to be, she pressed her body to his.
“Don’t pretend you don’t want me,” she whispered.
He couldn’t—not when evidence of it was nudging against her.
“Nicki…” he said again.
She didn’t listen, instead nuzzling his neck until he sank lower on his knees, holding her, losing his common sense to a rush of dizzying need.
He pulled down her veil and buried his face in her hair. Nicki’s curls, Nicki’s summer scent—all Nicki.
He couldn’t think much more as she tore open his shirt, unbuttoned his fly, pushed down his pants with an urgency that bounced through him, too, daring him to contain it.
Not having the strength to do that, he groaned while she took him out of his jeans, then looked at him.
He looked, too—his erection making him thicker, longer. Just the sight of him in her hand made the blood surge and palpitate in every part of him.
When she pushed him to his back, where he landed on the pillows, he started to wonder who was the master and who was the harem slave.
“Shh,” she said, stroking him.
He grit his teeth as she used her thumb to rub his tip, circling, making him harder than he ever imagined.
“Relax, baby,” she said. “Just relax.”
No guilt…
She slid a finger down the underside of him, and when she got to his balls, she caressed one, then the other.
Cursing at the core-splitting sensation, Shane reached behind him, grabbed onto the pillows. If he’d ever thought Nicki was helpless, she was showing him how wrong he’d been.
Very wrong.
She leaned down, using her tongue on him, licking, then gently taking one of his testicles into her mouth, sucking softly. The mere sound of it wedged into him, but the feel…
He didn’t know how long he could take it.
She licked back to his shaft, traveling up to its tip, running her tongue around him. Then she took him into her mouth, swirling down, sucking up….
Shane might’ve gone blank for a few minutes, because the only thing that brought him back was the feel of his cock being veiled by a condom, the sensation of him sliding into a warm tunnel.
Her.
He opened his eyes to see her riding him, and his hands clamped onto her hips. She’d stripped off her bikini-skirt, her vest, leaving only the veil around her. It whisked over his legs every time she undulated forward, then back.
Slick…gracefully brutal…
Every stroke was a knife in his belly, twisting hard, harder, until he swirled just like that veil did. But then he was compressing into a tight ball, so compact, so in need of release—
He came with a fierce climax, and she leaned her head back, hauling in sharp little breaths, clawing at his chest with every spasm.
Her veil slowly fell from her body, covering them like a second sheen of perspiration.
Gradually, the sounds of the night returned, louder, clearer, and Shane caught up with the panting rhythm of his pulse.
He brought Nicki down to him, until she lay skin to skin. But then…
Then she kissed him again.
Just as before, his world spun, zooming so fast that all he could do was grab onto her to stop it.
Her breath was warm against his mouth. “Was that so hard, Shane?”
“The kiss or letting myself get hooked by you?”
“If I were to guess, I’d say they’re one and the same.”
She was right.
Exposed, vulnerable as he lay under her, he turned his head aside, regretting it just as soon as it happened.
A long pause followed, one in which he could feel her spine stiffen underneath his hands.
Then she climbed off of him, wrapping that veil around her body. Underneath, he could see the warm hue of her flesh, the whisper of dark pink and breasts, the swerve of her waist and hips.
Again, he felt those sheer blades in his core.
“I understand a lot of things about you, Shane,” she said, “but this isn’t one of them. Is kissing me so…”
“Intimate? Yeah.”
This was worse than him having to tell her about the Lyon offer. But why should that be when they’d never expected anything out of each other in the first place?
He started to explain, but she raised a hand.
“We’re about to cross that line again when we don’t have to.”
That’s right—good neighbors. That’s what he’d wanted, and she probably had, as well.
She stood, the veil belling around her as she walked toward the stall. But then, as if she’d reconsidered her retreat, she came back toward him.
“I just wish I understood why you’re so damned anti-intimacy. I mean…a kiss, Shane. A stupid kiss.”
He grabbed his jeans, sliding them on. “I can’t afford intimacy.”
“Because your dad beat you down so hard that you began to think you deserved it? You bought into all the worthless names he called you?” Her gaze widened, as if she couldn’t believe she’d said it. But then she went on. “Or is it because you never wanted to open yourself up to anyone who could say cruel and disgusting things to you? If you don’t let them in, nothing they say or do matters.”
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