“Hey,” he replied, distracted by the fact that she appeared to only be wearing a swim suit top beneath the worn overalls. “Need a hand?” he asked, gesturing to the gray sky overhead. The hay wagon was so long that only half of it was inside the barn. Though he knew little of farming, he knew enough to understand the need to get the dried hay in before it rained.
“Yeah, that would be great. Jed?”
“Yep.”
“You can go. I know you have things to do at your place before the storm hits.”
The man in the cap looked him up and down, and Thad knew for certain he had been judged, and found lacking. “You sure? This one doesn't look like he's spent much time on a farm."
Ouch.
“I’m sure. He’s a Marine like you, Jed. They usually manage to get the job done.”
Like a switch turning on, there was a complete shift in the man’s attitude. He straightened, puffed out his chest, and stuck out a hand. Thad took it, surprised by the strength of his grip. Early Vietnam, he judged. Close to seventy years old and mean as hell.
“Semper Fi, brother,” the old man said, putting more steel than was necessary in his shake.
“Semper Fi,” Thad responded, squeezing the man’s hand hard enough that he could feel the bones.
The old farmer hobbled off, favoring one leg, and unhooked the trailer. Thad heard the pinging of stones on the siding as he drove off. He unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it to the side, leaving his white undershirt in place.
“Gloves in the box,” Lara called, watching him with an amused expression. “You ever stacked hay before, city boy?” she teased.
Thad pulled a bale from the trailer and placed it on the hoist. When it reached Lara, she pulled it off and carried it to the stack.
“I’m a quick study. How hard could it be?”
It turned out to be very hard. The bales weighed close to sixty pounds and were awkward to pick up. He pulled the ones that were outside the shelter of the barn first, carrying the bales on his shoulder, and the texture of the hay left red marks on his shoulder before the first 20 bales had been sent.
He continued on with dogged determination despite exhaustion. Lara spoke few words, conserving all of her breath.
The first raindrops began to fall as they neared the end of the load. He’d kept a mental count in his head, a way to distract his mind from aching shoulders and a back that was beginning to loudly complain. 145…146...150.
“Last one!” He called, looking up into Lara’s exhausted face.
“I’m running behind,” she gasped out, surrounded by bales of hay that had fallen off the gurney before she could move them. “I’ll be down in a little bit.”
Thad ignored her, finding the ladder built to the loft and ascending it. He’d shut off the tractor that ran the hay lift, and the sudden quiet was startling. In it, he could hear Lara’s labored breathing as she stood, hands on hips, looking at the dozen bales that surrounded her.
“That’s it,” she said, giving him an exhausted smile. “I’m going to round bales after this. Those I can move with the tractor.”
Thad walked to her side and wrapped his arms around her. She rested her head on his chest.
“Let me finish up,” he said.
Lara snorted. “Not likely.” She picked up a bale and muscled it across the hay strewn floor. With a shrug, he joined her.
The last bales were placed quickly, and Lara collapsed onto the floor, where a broken bale had created a comfortable landing spot. She raised an exhausted, shaky hand and pointed below to a small blue cooler. “There’s beer down there, of you want one.”
The rain pounded the metal roof overhead, and the temperature had fallen ten degrees. “You want one?”
“More than my next breath. Can I move to get one? Not for a little bit.” She pulled off her gloves and the bandanna that held her hair away from her face. She looked beat, with bright red cheeks from the exertion, and she smelled like sweat and hay. And despite all of that, she was so lovely that it made his heart hurt. He did not want to lose her.
“I’ll get it.”
He snagged the cooler and returned to her side. She had levered herself into a sitting position and accepted the beer with a thankful expression.
They sat next to each other and watched through the open door as the rain sheeted down, forming puddles in the low places of the yard. Lara’s hand rested in the hay, seeming too small to be responsible for so many things. He covered it with his own and squeezed.
“I’m glad you are back,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too. Where is the Bug?"
"She is at a play date in town until 6."
"We have a couple hours," he said, relaxing back into the hay. Then, because he could not help himself, he turned her chin so that he could look in her eyes. "So... are you breaking up with me?"
"What?" Lara asked and jerked back from his touch, her face shocked. "Is that what you thought?"
"As a general rule, every time a woman says We need to talk, it's not a good thing."
She laughed, the sound weary and devoid of humor, and leaned her head back into his shoulder. "It's not good, but it has nothing to do with you. It's about Mackenzie."
"Then it does have something to do with me. What's going on?"
Lara explained about the change in caseworkers. "The new one, Vanessa...let's just say that I am not her favorite person."
"Why's that?"
"We went to high school together, and the guy that she was dating told someone that he wanted to get into my pants. It got around. I was never interested, but she hated me ever since, even now that she married and divorced him."
"How did she get put on your case?"
"Her mom is the head of the department. Life in a small town," Lara shrugged. "You have to deal with the same people your entire life, and no one ever lets you forget anything. If she does something obviously biased, I could probably get her removed, but she is smarter than that. Always has been. Unless she’s had a massive personality shift in the last decade, she will do everything in her power to screw with me, just because she can."
"Hmmm." He trailed his fingers down her arm, and he leaned into him. "So what does this mean for us?"
Lara sighed. "The smart thing would be for us to put the brakes on. You are almost finished with the excavation anyway, and you have been talking about needing to spend time in the lab."
He nodded, and leaned his head back, staring out the open window at the boiling clouds. "You are right, that would probably be the smartest thing to do.”
Her fingers, clenched around his hands, jerked. She inhaled deeply, and then her shoulders slumped.
"I could go back to Oxford for a couple of weeks and then, when custody is settled, we could see each other again."
"It might be longer. It could be dragged out for months, and if the Randolph's decide to contest..."
"Months," He mused. "And I would be two hours away."
"I am not happy about it either."
He sat still, trying to put his thoughts in order. "A lot could happen in a couple of months. Something else will come up: the university for me, or another dig. You could meet someone else. Life could pull us apart just as easily as it brought us together. I am not willing to risk it just because someone might disapprove. Our being together is not something that needs to be hidden. I understand what you are thinking, but we haven't done anything wrong. You know how I feel about you. We can build a life together, working at it every day, and that's worth fighting for.”
Laura was blinking ferociously, trying to keep back a flood of emotions. “You don't know me well enough to make that kind of promise. I’m a terrible person before coffee in the morning. I hold grudges. I’m…”
Thad leaned forward and stopped the words with his mouth. He kissed her, long and deep, trying to tell her all the things he had difficulty finding the right words to say. She must have understood, for the k
iss turned salty, and she leaned into him. Her hands, rough from working outside, stroked his back.
“Don’t say the words,” she whispered against his chest. “Even if you mean it, don’t tell me that you love me. Just…live it. That's all that I want.”
“For now.” He shifted, sinking farther down in the nest of hay. Lara lay at his side, cuddled up next to him.
Her hand began to stroke his chest, moving slowly, almost absently up and down, as though learning the texture of his undershirt. Using one finger, she slid it up, and began the movement against his bare skin.
Thad was content to merely enjoy the sensation for a while, the wonder of her touch causing a curl of heat to begin snaking its way up his spine. Fingertips brushed his nipple, causing it to harden instantly.
“Not that I am complaining, but if you were serious about being too tired for sex, you should probably stop now.”
Her giggle warmed the skin of his arm, and the hand that had been caressing his nipple began a slow descent, smoothing over his stomach before rubbing against the swell of his jeans. “You certainly seem up for it.” She rose on one elbow and surveyed him with an unmistakable expression.
Thad noticed that there were bits of hay sticking in her hair, and a smudge of dirt that dusted her neck, and thought that he probably looked in worse shape. He lifted and placed her astride him. A wicked smile curving her lips, Laura reached up and unfastened the buckles of her overalls.
“Come here.”
He sat up, and Lara felt the bunching of his stomach muscles through the fabric of her overalls. The contained power of him, all sleek muscles and gentle touch, made her shiver. She grabbed the hem of his shirt and lifted until his naked torso was exposed.
“Are you always half naked when that old man is around?” He untied the string at her neck and tugged the bikini top down, exposing her breasts to the air. The nipples were already hard, flushed with excitement.
Lara nodded and bent forward until her breast dangled in front of his eyes. “Uh huh. Is that why he helps me, do you think?”
“Damn Marines,” he growled. “All the same.” He slid his hands inside the waist of her overalls, popping loose the snaps, and found the flesh of her butt. He hauled her up and took her nipple with his mouth.
Lara gave a low laugh that turned into a hum as his tongue rubbed against her nipple. Her hair was falling all around him, surrounding him.
He kissed her. She could feel him smiling as he delved into her mouth and found her wanton and willing.
She drew back before he made her lose all sense, only to find that it had already gone. His eyes, dark with passion and laughter, captured her, and she leaned back for another kiss. Meanwhile his hands busied themselves stroking the skin of her back and neck, making her stretch and move like a cat.
When her head had begun to swim, Thad broke from her lips and began to kiss a heated trail down the skin of her neck. “You make me feel like a teenager,” he said.
It reminded her of the responsibilities she had, and she pulled back from his embrace. “But we’re not. Do you have a condom?”
The hands cupping her butt stopped. He swore. “No, not even in my trailer.”
“We could go to the house,” she whispered, and leaned forward so that her breasts brushed against his chest. The sprinkling of hair made her nipples ache at the friction, and she was suddenly desperate to have him inside of her. The need for it was pain, and she shifted, trying to dispel it. “I'm on the pill, but I've always protected myself.”
His hands slid up from her waist to her hips, and Lara shifted, rubbing herself sinuously against him.
“Do you trust me?”
She looked up, finding in his direct gaze a potent combination of sensual hunger and emotional intensity. “Yes,” she said, and knew it was true. Although she had not known him for very long, she trusted him. With her body and, she increasingly suspected, with her heart.
“This is real, Lara. You and I. I’ve been tested within the last year.”
“So have I,” she interrupted. “Although with my past, I'd understand if you didn't believe me.”
Annoyance flashed across his features. “Stop talking about your past as though it were something to be ashamed of. You weren't the fucking whore of Babylon.”
His annoyance on her behalf made something airy and light expand in her chest. “Well then, come here.” She opened her arms wide and he slid forward.
So much joy infused the way that he touched her. It made her want to laugh and then, because she knew he would understand, she did laugh. He caught her laugh with his mouth and drank it in, and his lips curved into a matching expression.
“Take these clothes off so I can touch you,” he said, drawing back enough that she could stand.
His fingers were magical, touching and stroking her skin until it was only the wild pleasure of his mouth against her that kept her upright. He urged her legs wider and drew her up to his tongue, his hands keeping her in place as she shifted and moaned.
A finger brushed against her and then another, gathering the wetness between her legs. Lara trembled, and clutched the bale of hay as though it were a lifeline.
“Please,” she begged, spreading her legs wider, offering herself to him.
A deep groan escaped her as she felt the pressure of him against her weeping flesh, then the solid force of his intrusion spearing her. Faintly, she heard a deep, masculine sound of pleasure as he continued, pressing deeper inside of her until she could feel the warmth of his thighs brushing against her own.
Lara’s eyes closed in bliss as he began a solid, pounding rhythm that battered her flesh and brought groans of pleasure unbidden to her lips. To feel him inside her that deeply, with nothing between them, was the most extraordinary pleasure she had even experienced. She could feel her knees begin to buckle and he braced her hips upright, sliding so deep that she could not contain a shout of pleasure.
She felt his fingers tangling in her hair, gathering the strands into a tail and then tugging gently until she arched up, and felt his lips against her neck.
“Not yet,” he whispered, and she wondered if he could feel the shudders threatening to break around him. His rhythm had slowed, and she pressed herself back, trying to urge him on.
“No,” he said, withdrawing until only the hint of him remained inside of her. Then he moved forward so strongly that she cried out, loving the rough, insistent battering pleasure. “I want you to feel me for the rest of the day.”
Outside of the barn, Lara could hear the storm increasing in intensity. The old door trembled in its hinges, knocking against the beams as Thad began to batter her with a similar rhythm. Heat scorched her chest and her body slicked with moisture and sweat. It went on and on until the relentless pounding began to whisper of ache.
Time seemed to stop. She became hyper aware of every facet of the pleasure, from the aching drag of him against her swollen tissues to the rough feel of his hands gripping her hips. And the way he spoke one word over and over again, as though it were a prayer or the sweetest pleasure he had ever felt.
“Lara. Lara.”
She moaned as the pleasure consumed her, dragging her from peak to swell as her body collapsed. Vaguely she felt him still moving inside her and then shouting as he found his own release. The wonderful golden feelings held her, sweeping her to a place that had no name, only warmth, and safety such as she had never known.
They lay together on the hay, Lara curled up on top of him. His fingers still played in the loosened strands of her hair, and their breathing had evened, become deep and relaxed as they watched the storm rage through the cracks in the siding.
“We stay here any longer and I will fall asleep."
“Me, too.” She rubbed her nose against his chest. “Although I should probably take a shower before I go into town. I smell like hay…and you.”
She had risen to her elbows and looked down at him, grinning. His arms tightened around her waist.
&n
bsp; Teeth dug into her bottom lip. “Do you want to come with me to get Mackenzie?”
It was a step, a huge one for her. He did not bother to hide his satisfaction. “But I want to drive. Then I can take my girls out for dinner.”
"You'll have to buy a car seat soon."
"I picked one out before I left Oxford. It's very...pink."
“Then she will love it. But Riley Davis’s mother is the biggest gossip in town. Soon everyone will know that we are…”
“Dating? Seeing one another?”
“They will probably say that we are at it like rabbits.”
Thad chuckled and stood, then offered her a hand. “There will be some truth to the rumors at least. Let's go get that shower.”
Thad had pulled on his jeans, Lara her overalls, and hand in hand, they walked from the barn. Rain still drenched them, but far in the distance, a patch of blue sky promised a clear night. With a mischievous grin, Lara ducked her head beneath the down spout and then emerged completely drenched a moment later, flinging her hair back.
He thought suddenly that the image of her was that he would remember for the rest of his life: hair plastered to her face with the rain, bare feet sinking into the mud puddles, and shirtless, the beauty of her body only just covered by the overalls. She looked up, saw his expression, and grinned, her famous, wholesome girl next door smile, and he knew that he was lost. She was his. Forever. The fear of ending up alone was finally gone.
Chapter 15
A shiny new silver Mustang waited in the driveway on Monday morning, looking fast, new, and entirely out of place next to the truck and his jeep.
Mentally, he had been preparing for this interview for days. A call to his brother had given him a firm grounding in the legal complexities of child custody and what he learned was not reassuring.
"Sure, the grandparents can contest the custody. They don't even need a reason."
Although he and his brother's had always been close, over the past decade he had learned to keep his personal life private, especially from his brothers. Many of the women he had dated had not been popular with the Gilbert brothers; they had flat out hated Jesse.
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