May and Arryn exchanged glances. “I don’t want to put you out, Harmony. It’s just that Arryn has taken the bus over here from Burkes Road to negotiate with the Alphas. He just showed up. He’s got nowhere to spend the night.”
Harmony clutched her little boy. Exhaustion and strain creased her face. “I’m really sorry, too. I would help you if I could, but I’ve got my hands full. We don’t have any place to put him since Jana moved in to give the bungalow to Foicks and Haven. I really wish I could help you, but Boyd, Aiken, and Jasper are all gone for the day. I can’t contact them, and I can’t leave Jace alone. Until they get back from town later tonight, there’s nothing I can do to help you. I’m sorry.” She cast a pained look at May.
May thought fast. “That’s okay. Don’t worry about it, Harmony. I’ll take Arryn back to our place. We’ve got a spare room since Briar moved out. We’ll keep him there until the men can figure this out. Will you give Aiken the message, Harmony, please?”
“Sure.” May never saw Harmony so relieved.
“Thanks a lot. See you later. I hope Jace feels better soon.”
43. Chapter 4
May and Arryn strolled back to the car. “I’m really sorry about this, Arryn. Looks like you’ll have to hang around with me a little longer.”
“Don’t mention it. Harmony seems like a nice lady.”
“I’m sure Aiken thought he would be here to welcome you himself. Something must have come up that he had to go to town unexpectedly.”
He turned his soft eyes to her. “Don’t worry about it, May. I’m glad to be going back to your place. I’m sure your spare room is every bit as good as the Dunlaps’.”
May groaned. “If you only knew. The Dunlaps are rolling in cash.”
Arryn took his place in the passenger seat, but he didn’t say much along the road back the way they came. So many ideas and emotions competed for his attention, but most of all, he thought about May.
So, she wanted to find a mate. She wanted to find a mate she cared about enough to do something like what Ash had done. Maybe, just maybe, she would come back to Renegade Ridge with him. He sure couldn’t stay on Bruins’ Peak. He would have to convince her to leave everything behind for his sake? Would she really do that?
He could never tell her about Arion if he didn’t take her back to the Ridge. How could he ever explain about the trains and hovercraft and computers and…well, everything? She would never believe it if she didn’t see it. As long as he remained on this Peak, he had to play the lonesome hillbilly and the poor country cousin.
He stole peeks at her out of the corner of his eye. She never took her eyes off the road. That crash would never happen in Arion. Computers controlled all the vehicles so their passengers didn’t have to steer.
He was on his way back to her house. He could look at her all he wanted there. Then again, maybe being near her wouldn’t be so easy. It could get complicated. Man, she was so incredibly fine, though. Her skin sucked him in toward it. He ached to kiss her and touch that silky-smooth flesh. He bobbed in delirious fantasies about tracing her curves with his fingers and dragging his tongue down her…
His blood thumped into the socket between his legs. He couldn’t stay at her house with those thoughts running through his head. He had to get a hold of himself, and fast. He wasn’t mated to her. He couldn’t be. He didn’t even want to think about her until he knew he had her in hand. He wanted to take her home, but she might not agree to that. She might decide she wanted to stay on Bruins’ Peak with her internal combustion engines and her family and friends. Where would that leave him?
He cast one more wistful glance across the seat. At the same moment, she turned to him. Her lips parted. That delicate bloom flowered across her face and flushed down her neck to disappear into her neckline. His mouth drooled to lick down that deep plunging fissure to the warm dark inside.
“We’re here.”
Arryn started out of his reverie. The car sat in the shadowy building where May first got it. The shed surrounded them on all sides. They couldn’t see anybody and nobody could see them.
Arryn’s eyes migrated to hers, and they stared at each other for a long time—a lot longer than they stared at each other by the side of the road. Arryn sucked his breath between his teeth. “May, do you think…?”
She gasped once and waited for him to finish. He couldn’t remember what he was about to say.
Her lips plumped full and red and sweet when she looked at his mouth. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes!” he blurted out. He was hungry for her. His insides churned in knots for any taste of her.
A tiny cry squeaked from her throat. “Do you…?”
“May,” he murmured.
She barely spoke above a whisper. “Yes?”
“May…” He leaned forward. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to get his hands on her and eat her for lunch.
She leaned forward at the same moment. Their lips collapsed toward each other. Nothing held them apart.
A door slammed somewhere out of sight, and they both jumped out of their seats. In a fraction of a second, they returned to their own places. They stared at each other in wide-eyed wonder.
“We better go inside,” May breathed.
He nodded. The spell was broken.
“Do you…I mean…what do your people do when…when people…I mean…”
Nervous laughter boiled out of him. Excitement and tense anticipation racked his nerves. “Do you mean when people get mated? They just move in together. That’s all they do. Then everybody knows they’re married.”
She nodded. “That’s sort of what we do, too. Sometimes people have a big fancy celebration, too, but not always. My friend Haven married Foicks Dunlap recently. That’s Ash’s brother. Foicks and Haven moved in together, and now she wants a big celebration, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. It’s not like when Walker Cunningham married Marla Dunlap. Now that was a big wedding, but it’s different when the groom is Alpha of his tribe and all the other Alphas have to show their support. Plus Jasper Dunlap—that’s Aiken and Marla’s father—he’s Alpha, but he’ll be handing over to their brother Boyd one of these days. He wanted to have one last hurrah before he passed the torch, so to speak. You know how it is, or maybe you don’t. Maybe you don’t have any of that on Renegade Ridge.”
She stopped short, but Arryn only gazed into her eyes. He could listen to her talk all day and never get tired of it. He raised one arm, but he stopped himself from touching her cheek the way he wanted to. His hand fell into his lap.
She shuddered. “Sorry. I’m babbling. I should ask you about your home. What do your people do for a living? Does everybody raise their own food, or do you have a centralized production process, too?”
He shook his head. “Don’t ask about that. Please, don’t ask about that.”
She lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I’m sure Bruins’ Peak is nothing like your home.”
“No, it isn’t, but that’s not why I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Really?” Her eyes flew open. “Why not, then?”
“I want to talk about you.”
“Me?”
“I’ve never met anyone like you before, May.”
“I’ve never met anyone like you, either. I’ve never seen anyone so dark before.”
“That’s not what I mean. I mean, I’ve never looked at anybody like this before. I never want to look away from your face.”
She lifted her eyes to his. “I feel the same way. I feel like I could look at you forever. I feel like I want to take you inside myself and never let you go.”
He gulped down the lump in his throat. “Something’s happening, May. Something’s happening to us.”
Instead of leaping out of the car and running away, she only nodded. She searched his soul with those gleaming eyes of hers. “I know it. It’s happening.”
“What’s happening?” he whispered. “What is it?”
He caught his breath, but he already knew it was true. Just like that, they were mated for life. He lifted his hand again. His black fingers trailed down her lily-white cheek, but he jerked his hand back in a flash. He couldn’t bear the intensity of energy rocketing through him. It stunned him beyond words.
She put out her hand at the same time. “Can I touch you? Can I touch your face?”
He seized her wrist to stop her. “No!”
She yanked her arm against his grasp. His eyes snapped to his own hand. His fingers imprinted black and powerful on her angelic skin. He shook himself free and dropped it in his lap. “Sorry.”
She leaned back in the seat. “That’s okay. Another time, maybe.”
He nodded down at those fingers. He couldn’t understand them. They couldn’t be connected to him in any way.
“Let’s go inside. You’re tired from your trip.”
He broke out of his shock and laughed. “It was only two hours. I’m okay.”
She smiled back. They could be comfortable with each other now. They were made for each other. They couldn’t deny that any longer. She pushed the door open. “Come inside. I’ve got something you’ve never had on Renegade Ridge before.”
“What could that be?”
She shot him a wicked grin over her shoulder. “You’ll see.”
He followed her outside into the sunshine. She slid the shed door closed and led the way back into the house. Silas leaned against the kitchen counter again. He scowled down at his phone. “Oh, you’re back, are you? What happened? Didn’t Ash tell the Dunlaps you were coming?”
“If he told them,” May replied, “Aiken neglected to tell Harmony. Even if he had told her, she couldn’t put Arryn up, anyway. They don’t have space, and Jace is sick. Arryn’s staying here. He can use Briar’s old room until the Dunlaps and the Alphas work out what to do next.”
Silas nodded, but he didn’t look up. His thumb flew over the screen. “You can stay here as long as you want.”
“How did it go with Shaw?” Arryn asked.
Silas clenched his jaw. He still didn’t meet either Arryn’s or May’s eyes. “It went just fine.”
May and Arryn looked at each other. Neither said anything.
Arryn whipped around. “So where’s this big surprise you’ve got cooked up for me?”
May cracked in a wide smirk and opened the fridge. Silas moved out of the way. “What’s going on?”
“Your sister has some secret she wants me to see. She says she’s going to show me something I’ve never seen before on Renegade Ridge.”
Silas lowered his phone. “What is it?”
“This.” She pulled out a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream. She set it on the counter in triumph.
Arryn frowned. “What is it?”
“What are you up to?” Silas asked.
May grabbed three bowls and three spoons. She lined them up next to the carton. “They don’t have electricity where he lives. He’s never had ice cream. Can you believe anybody could live in such hardship and misery? We can’t let this go on for even one more day. You haven’t lived until you’ve had ice cream, Arryn. We’re going to deflower you right now.”
Silas hooted. “Listen to her!”
Arryn beamed. “I can’t wait. Deflower me, baby. Deflower me right now.”
She spooned heaping portions of ice cream into the three bowls and handed one to each man. She raised her spoon. “Here’s to my two favorite guys. Enjoy.” She clinked her bowl against Silas’s, then against Arryn’s.
Arryn tasted the ice cream. First he frowned. Then he grinned. “Pretty good.”
“Pretty good!” May exclaimed. “It’s the best. It’s the stuff that life was made for. Now sit down and eat it.”
44. Chapter 5
“After I got that off the ground, I opened this consulting site on dairy management and that took off, too.”
May smacked her lips. “Oh, be quiet, Silas. Arryn doesn’t want to hear about your get-rich-quick schemes.”
“On the contrary,” Arryn replied. “I most certain do want to hear about it. So how do you promote your sites? What’s your marketing strategy?”
May stared at him in astonishment. How could a guy from the mountains who never lived with electricity or cars know about marketing strategy? How could he talk business promotion and cash flow with a shark like Silas?
Silas already started to answer. “I use a combination of paid advertising and email marketing. We have this thing called the internet. It’s a massive network of linked computers communicating with each other all over the world. I promote on that, but most of my clients come by word of mouth. One consulting client tells another, and they come to me with their problems. I never really had to promote it.”
Arryn nodded like he understood all about the internet. Nothing Silas said surprised him at all. “That’s very interesting. I’d love to see your herd operation. I understand if you don’t want to show me after what happened with Shaw this morning. I just find it interesting.”
“Sure. Do you want to go out to the milking sheds with me tomorrow morning? I have to go out there at eight o’clock for a meeting with the manager.”
“Great. I’m there.”
May set her hands on her hips. “Are you two finished? We do have a guest who needs to settle into his room.”
Arryn waved his hand to one side. He sat on one end of the living room couch, while Silas sat on the other. “I am settled in. I don’t see me getting any more settled than this.”
Silas whapped him on the arm. “You better go, man. She won’t leave you alone until you do it her way. You know how it is.”
Arryn heaved himself off the couch. “I know how it is. I have sisters.”
May gave them her coldest glare and set off down the hall. Her stomach fluttered walking with Arryn behind her. Was he checking her out back there? Their encounter in the car changed everything. They never kissed. They didn't even touch, not really. He grabbed her arm when she tried to touch him, but that didn’t count.
Neither of them could deny the truth. They were mated. May didn’t want to deny it. She embraced it. She never dreamed of a man more perfect than Arryn Stark. He excited her all over, and not just his rock-solid perfect body. He infected her with every possibility for their future. Where would they live? What would they do for a living? She made a million plans while Arryn socialized with Silas.
She stood aside and opened the spare room door. “Here you go.”
Arryn surveyed the room. “This doesn’t look like a girl’s room at all.”
“We converted it into a guest room after Briar moved out. I hope you’re comfortable here.”
He sat on the bed and gave it a bounce. “I’m sure I will be. It’s very kind of you to put me up.”
May hovered in the doorway. Should she walk away and leave him alone, or should she stay and try to talk to him?
Arryn held out his hand to her. His voice massaged her all over. “Come here. Come to me.”
She floundered in confusion. That hand called out to her to take it, to hold onto it for her very life. Adrenaline sizzled in her chest and stole her breath. She couldn’t move toward him and she couldn’t move away. He couldn’t be suggesting that—right here and now.
He jumped up off the bed and took her hand in his. He pulled her toward him. His voice sank to a gentle rumble. “Come to me. Come to me.”
He dragged her, one torturous step at a time, across the floor until she stood right in front of him. Her vision swam. She couldn’t think. Her guts knotted in agony. What was happening to her?
He positioned her between his knees. His thick dark fingers compressed her hips, and he gazed up at her. She couldn’t escape those maddening eyes, those enticing lips. Before she knew what she was doing, she bent forward and kissed him.
He sighed into her mouth. In a flash, she broke the seal between them and stood up. Her whole being
rocked on its foundation. Her body flamed in desperate excitement. If she didn’t stop this now, she would never get away. She would lie down on that bed with him, and that would be the end.
His mighty arms eased around her waist and pressed her pelvis against his chest. Every breath breezed through his nostrils, and he set his chin on her stomach.
She could rest on those arms. “Don’t do this, Arryn, please. Don’t do this now.”
He swayed her from side to side. He purred up into her face. “No? Why not?”
She shook her head. She couldn’t explain why not.
He whispered under his breath. No one heard him but her. “Tell me you love me. Tell me again that we’re mated.”
She clamped her eyes shut against the inevitable. “You know we are.”
“Kiss me. Kiss me one more time.”
She had to obey. She fell forward, and his lips softened and covered her mouth. Oh, those lips tasted so much more divine than anything she ever imagined. They squished all down her front to secret places between her legs. What was he? He was something out of a fantasy. Her knees wobbled. He supported her when she couldn’t hold herself up any longer.
“Please let me go,” she whimpered. “Let me go before…”
He let her go. He pushed her back a step. He spoke in a conversational tone. He didn’t have to worry about anybody hearing him now. “I’ll let you go this time, but I’ll have you later. I’ll never let you get away from me.”
She stumbled to the door. When she looked back, he sat in the same place. His eyes bored into her. She could walk out that door, but she could never get away from him. She would always come back to him. In a matter of hours, her whole world changed. She would never be the same.
She hurried downstairs to find her mother Iris in the kitchen making dinner. May went to work. Silas sat in the same place on the couch. The next time May looked up, Arryn sat next to him. The two men talked with their heads together. What were they saying? Was Arryn telling Silas he wanted to take his sister as his mate?
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