Maverick vs. Maverick

by Shirley Jump

  He rolled closer, his torso over hers, and reached a hand between them to cup her breast, but that wasn’t enough for her. There were too many clothes, too much in the way. She hurried to unsnap the buttons on her shirt, then reached for the hem of his T-shirt and pulled it over his head. He spread the panels of her shirt, exposing her lacy bra.

  He smiled down at her, then watched as he pushed back the cup and brushed a thumb over the sensitive nub. Lindsay arched against Walker, wanting more, wanting everything, wanting him.

  His mouth followed the path from her jaw to her neck to her breast, while his hand slid off her shirt and undid the clasp of her bra. He paused a moment to sit back and drink in the sight of her. “You are beautiful,” he said.

  A flush filled her cheeks. “Thank you.”

  “Not just beautiful here,” he said as the back of his hand skimmed along her skin, “but in your heart and mind, too. You are the most singularly interesting woman I have ever met.”

  She scoffed and looked away. “You’ve been all over the world. I’m sure you’ve met thousands of interesting women.”

  He tipped her chin until she was looking at him again. “I’ve never met a woman who could argue with me so effectively and at the same time have such a tender, open heart. You are fierce, Lindsay, in the way you fight, the way you love, the way you live.”

  Fierce. She liked that description. Liked hearing him say that. “And you are a man who challenges me, in a good way.”

  “Maybe because I am falling for you,” he said, tracing her lips again, his blue eyes locked on hers, “and falling hard.”

  “Walker...” She didn’t want to finish that sentence. Didn’t want to tell him not to fall for her. Because tomorrow or the next day, he would be gone, and all this would be nothing more than a memory. A bittersweet memory. “When you leave, where will we be then? We live in different places, have different lives.”

  “Oh, Lindsay, always the lawyer, ready to argue.” He grinned. “Let’s not talk about any of that right now. Let’s just enjoy this moment.” He skipped a finger down the center of her chest. “Enjoy each other.”

  Her pulse raced. Maybe he was right and she needed to stop arguing, stop debating, and just...be.

  It terrified her to do that. To let her heart go, to hand over the reins and trust another human being. But she looked up into Walker’s eyes, and decided to take that leap.

  “Yes,” she said, the word coming out on a breath. “Yes.” Then she rose up to kiss him.

  He kissed her back, gently at first, then harder, more insistent. She matched him, move for move, and then it was a frenzy of hands on bodies, buttons undone, clothes discarded. She lay beneath Walker and ran her hands along his lean, naked body and thought he had to be one of the best-looking men she’d ever seen.

  He smiled at her, a sexy, sweet smile, then started that trail of kisses again. Down her neck, along her shoulders, over her breasts, down the flat of her belly, until he reached the center of her. Her hands tangled in his hair and her breath came in gasps as he brought her to dizzying heights again and again with the masterful stroke of his tongue. When she thought she would go mad with want, he rose up again, took a second to slip on a condom, then slid into her in one long, breathtaking stroke.

  She wrapped her legs around his hips and clutched at his back, whispering his name against his neck as he slid in and out of her, deeper each time, seeming to touch every nerve in her body at once. She forgot where they were, forgot what day it was, her mind a dizzying fog of Walker and pleasure.

  His strokes quickened, and he leaned down to kiss her as the desire surged between them, faster, harder, until they came together in one long, hot climax. His lips lingered on hers, as if he didn’t quite yet want to let go. Then, finally, he smiled at her and held her tight against him while their heartbeats slowed and the breeze cooled their skin.

  * * *

  Walker held Lindsay to his chest and for a long time thought the world was perfect. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, the horses were nickering softly to each other. She was warm against him, fitting perfectly into all the spaces that had been empty for too long.

  But it was all only a temporary respite, and he knew that. His business was in Tulsa. He couldn’t be away from it for an indefinite period of time. Hell, given how many times his cell phone had buzzed this afternoon, it sounded like everyone in the office was in some state of panic. There were undoubtedly twelve million items that all needed his immediate attention.

  For the first time in his life, Walker didn’t want to do any of them. He wanted to stay with this woman in this tiny little town and eat apple pie and paint signs for a festival.

  He was in too deep. Had fallen too hard. Being with Lindsay Dalton would mean losing track of what mattered, of the company he was working so hard to build and expand.

  His cell phone buzzed again. Walker fished it out of his pants pocket. Seven unheard voice mails. Eleven texts. And 110 emails, just from today alone. Not to mention several angry messages from his father about “abandoning his responsibilities.” Walker scrolled through the messages and bit back a sigh. So much for his vacation from reality.

  “I need to make some calls. We’re in the middle of this merger with another oil refinery, and the seller is talking about backing out. I need to talk to him, and calm him down.”

  “That’s okay.” Lindsay sat up and started grabbing her clothes. “We should get going anyway.”

  “Sorry. There’s just a lot going on at work.”

  “No, no, it’s fine.” But she didn’t look at him as she got dressed, and he wasn’t sure what else to say. So he took the easy way out and remained silent.

  The aftermath between them was filled only with the sounds of zippers zipping and snaps fastening. He folded up the blanket, tucked it back in place on the saddle, then held out a hand to help her onto her horse.

  “I’ve got it, thanks,” she said and swung her leg over the saddle, as cool and distant as she would be with a stranger.

  He did the same, and a moment later, they were trotting back toward the stable. He knew he could let this silence continue and it would end here. He’d leave on the next flight, and she would just be a wonderful memory. He thought of the work he had to do, the fires he needed to put out at the office. He should be 100 percent present for all that rather than being distracted by a pretty brunette lawyer in Montana.

  Yup, that was best all around.

  “Let’s go into town and get dinner.” So much for letting it go and refocusing on work.

  “Sorry, but I really do have some work to do. Maybe another day.” She clicked to the horse, increasing the animal’s speed. “And besides, you’ve got stuff you have to take care of, too.”

  “True. I really do need to get back to Tulsa as soon as possible.” Even saying it out loud didn’t make the truth any easier to accept. He saw the ranch growing nearer, and his chest tightened.

  “I know you do.” Her eyes were hidden by the shadows of her cowboy hat. “There’s nothing else holding you here, now that the lawsuit is over.”

  Let it go, he told himself. Let her go. It’s for the best.

  The stable was now only thirty feet away. In seconds, they’d be back, off the horses and back to their separate lives. He’d book a flight and put this town in his rearview mirror. It was what he had wanted from the second he arrived.

  Until he met Lindsay Dalton.

  He tugged on one of the reins and brought his horse around in front of hers. “I don’t want to go back,” he said. “I don’t want to leave.” His phone started buzzing again, vibrating in his pocket, as if disagreeing with what he was saying.

  Lindsay shook her head. “Listen, we had a nice time. A great afternoon. You don’t have to say those things just because we made love.”

  “I�
�m not. I mean it, Lindsay.” But work kept intruding—buzz, buzz, buzz. He could literally feel himself being torn in two—the half that needed to get to work against the half that wanted to go back to that river and the shady spot beneath the oak tree.

  She looked away, her gaze going to someplace far, far from him. Her body was tall and stiff, no longer relaxed and easy in his arms. “We had a nice time,” she said again, “but we both knew going into this that it wasn’t going to last.”

  “What if I want more?”

  “What more?” She swung her gaze back to his. “Do you want to fly to Montana every other weekend? Skype a couple times a week?”

  “We could do that.”

  “And to what end? You still run a multimillion-dollar company in Tulsa and I’m still a small-town lawyer who doesn’t want to leave Rust Creek Falls. It’s not like you can just up and move something like that to a place like this.”

  “It’s not impossible,” he said. But even he could hear the doubt in his voice. It wasn’t impossible, but it would be a major undertaking. He’d have to hire all new staff, rebuild his local network...

  Not impossible, no, but not easy, either.

  “Do you really want to live in this tiny little town?” she asked, then waited for him to answer. He hesitated. “I didn’t think so. And I’m not leaving here. I’ve already been down this road before, and so have you. You told me yourself that when it came down to choosing between your relationship and your business, you chose work.”

  “I was new to working for my father, trying to establish myself in his company. Then he made me CEO, and the time constraints multiplied. I couldn’t do both. There simply weren’t enough hours in the day to be full-time at work and full-time in a relationship.”

  “And what’s changed now?” She shook her head. “Nothing. You’re expanding, merging, buying, selling, and so on and so forth. I don’t want that life, Walker. I want to stay right here in this little town where the worst thing that happens is somebody’s prize pig is stolen at the county fair. I don’t want the life you have, and I know that I never will.”

  He let out a gust. She made it sound like he’d asked her to get married. He wasn’t thinking that far in advance. He wasn’t thinking past the pain of not seeing her every day. Couldn’t she understand that? “I’m not saying you have to choose my world or yours right now, Lindsay. Let’s just take some time together and see where we end up.”

  “We’re eventually going to end up right where we are now. You know it, and I know it. So, we have a choice. We can end it now, after what was a—” her voice caught, the only emotion she had betrayed in the last few minutes “—wonderful afternoon, or drag this out long-distance. I vote to end it now.”

  He nudged his horse closer to hers. “What are you so afraid of, Lindsay?”

  “I’m not afraid of anything. I’m just making the wisest decision sooner rather than later.”

  “It seems to me like you’re running away before you get hurt.” He brushed a tendril of hair behind her ear. She held his gaze but didn’t betray her feelings. She was stoic, almost cold, not the warm, giving woman he’d been holding a little while ago. “You fight so hard, for this town, for the people you love, for the Marshalls, and yet when it comes to what you want, you back down as soon as it gets difficult.”

  “I’m being realistic, Walker. There’s a difference.”

  “Realistic? By ending things before we see where they go?”

  “Come on, Walker. You know we are different people who want different things. You may say that you want the home life that you see here, the same one you’ve tried to create in your day care center, but when it comes down to it, you’re going right back to that cold, corporate world.”

  It was true. He could feel the constantly buzzing phone drawing his attention away. Half his brain was already in work mode, making lists, planning next steps. With each passing second, and each email that filled his phone, he could feel the work half gaining strength, talking him out of pursuing Lindsay any further. She was right—they lived two different lives, and no amount of Skyping was going to change that. Still, he wasn’t ready to let her go. Or watch her walk away.

  “You’re just going to pretend today didn’t happen?” he said. He already knew the answer, but needed to hear her say it. Needed that...closure. Maybe then he could move on and put Lindsay behind him.

  “Wasn’t that your plan, too?” She waited a beat for him to answer, and when he didn’t she let out a sigh and shook her head. “That’s what I thought.”

  She gave her horse a nudge, and a second later, they were off at a quick canter, into the stable and out of his sight.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lindsay did a really good job of convincing herself she was happy over the next few days.

  After she brought the horse back to the stable, she’d handed the filly off to one of the workers and then beelined it out of there before Walker could catch up with her again. She’d made a huge mistake making love to him—and opening her heart.

  Because despite all her best intentions, she had, indeed, begun to fall for the tall, blue-eyed CEO. He was so intriguing, with so many layers and surprises; just when she thought she knew him, he’d shown her a whole other side. Like showing up at the ranch in a rainstorm. Helping Anderson with that nervous colt. Holding Georgina after the trial.

  But in the end, the reality was that he was going to leave. She’d been in that boat once before and had no intentions of falling for another man who wanted a life far from Rust Creek Falls. This was her home, her world, her family, and she never wanted to leave.

  So she buried herself in her work, staying late at the office, going in early. She had no idea if Walker had gone back to Oklahoma yet. One afternoon she’d seen Hudson crossing the street and had been tempted to run over and ask him where Walker was.

  But she didn’t. Walker hadn’t called or texted her, which meant he had done exactly what she had asked—and severed the relationship before it could go any farther.

  Now, several days later, she wished he hadn’t listened. Some impractical side of her dreamed of him charging in on a white horse, asking for her hand and then whisking her away toward the sunset.

  She really needed to stop watching the Hallmark Channel late at night. Clearly, she’d seen one too many romance movies. To banish the sappy images, she redoubled her concentration on the papers before her, but the words just swam before her eyes.

  It was Saturday, the day of the Rust Creek Falls Harvest Festival, and Lindsay was once again at her desk. She had read the same brief three times but hadn’t retained a single word. Her mind was on Walker and on what he was doing right now. Was he working on the weekend, just like she was? Was he thinking of her, too?

  Finally, a little after three, she pushed away from her desk and gathered up her things. Working was pointless, because she’d accomplished almost nothing in the six hours she’d been here today. She tugged on a denim jacket, locked up the office and then headed downtown. Maybe stopping at the festival would take her mind off everything.

  Except the minute she saw the signs she had painted, the same signs Walker had assembled, then the row of vendor booths that she and Walker had built, everything came rushing back to her. The way he’d patiently shown her how to assemble the booths, the kiss in the back of the gym, the moment in the school cafeteria when they’d gone to make lemonade. Her heart ached, like a torn muscle, and it was all she could do to push a smile to her face and pretend everything was fine.

  She greeted neighbors and friends as she made her way through the festival. She stopped at the first booth and bought a pretzel from her sister-in-law Mallory and her niece Lily. When Caleb married Mallory he’d become a great father to Mallory’s adopted daughter. Lily’s Chinese heritage showed in her dark hair and almond eyes, but her cowboy boots and jeans
marked her as 100 percent Montana girl.

  Mallory gave Lindsay a tight hug, and Lily darted over to do the same. That was one of the things Lindsay loved about this town. At every turn, there was a member of her family. And right now, she needed to be surrounded with people who mattered so she could forget the one who didn’t anymore.

  “Hey, girls,” Lindsay said as she added a little cheese dip to her pretzel. “I didn’t know you’d be working the festival.”

  “We’re raising money for my Girl Scout troop’s camping trip,” Lily said. “So we made pretzels and cupcakes and cookies. Do you want some cupcakes, too, Aunt Lindsay?”

  The way Lindsay was feeling right now, she was tempted to eat an entire batch of cupcakes. “Maybe later. The pretzels are delicious, though.”

  “Thanks.” Mallory beamed. “Old family recipe.”

  “I’ll be sure to send lots of people to your booth,” Lindsay said, raising the pretzel in a goodbye wave. She made her way through the crowds, saying hello to the Traubs, and several other families.

  Peter and Heather Marshall came over to Lindsay. They had baby Georgina in a stroller, all dressed up in a bright yellow coat and a pumpkin-shaped hat. She looked so adorable, and totally befitting the fall theme.

  “Lindsay, we wanted to thank you again,” Heather said, “for all you did.”

  Lindsay bent down and gave Georgina’s tiny hand a little shake. The baby’s mouth widened in a smile. “I wish I could have done more.”

  “It all turned out great in the end. True to his word, Walker paid all our medical bills, and he reached out to all the other families who had sick children and covered any expenses they had, too,” Heather said. “Plus he offered each of the families a month of free day care at Just Us Kids.”

  She was glad to know he had kept his word. But to do the same for the other families? That went above and beyond.

  “He isn’t such a bad guy after all,” Peter said. “Once we got to know him, he seemed genuinely nice.”