Forever Wild: A Camden Ranch Novel

by Jillian Neal

  “I do. I guess it all just threw me a little more than I was expecting. All the new facets of making love with you. Sometimes, I kind of miss the old way, I think. As much as I get off being fucked in handcuffs.” She shrugged. “I’m confused I guess.”

  “Indie, sugar, look over here at me.”

  Her eyes found his as he glanced away from the road he could damn near drive blindfolded. “Being with you,” he shook his head trying to locate the perfect words, “making love with you is everything to me. Doesn’t matter when, where, how, handcuffs, tie-ups, in the bed of my truck, up against my bathroom sink, or staring into your eyes with no accessories while I take you nice and slow in the bed at my house. None of that is as important as giving you all of me, taking care of you, worshipping your beautiful body, and bringing you satisfaction. I told you we can explore anything you want to explore. And if you need a night, a week, or hell an entire lifetime of plain vanilla sex, I’m still in this no matter what. And that right there will never change.”

  “I know.” She leaned across the console and brushed a tender kiss on his jawline. “You mean the world to me Luke Camden. I just wish I knew how to be everything you need.”

  “You are everything I need, sugar. You don’t even have to try. That’s what I keep trying to tell you. Just be you. That’s all I’ll ever want.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Come on, Indie Jane, you know you want to,” Luke coaxed again just before sunrise the next morning while he continually kissed her awake.

  Incoherent groans were her only response. Staring down at her beautiful lips pursed in protest, the pink heat in her cheeks, and the soft slumber in her closed eyes, he swore he fell in love with her all over again laying there on his chest.

  He’d more than proven to her the night before that he required no other accouterment other than his swollen cock to make sweet love to her.

  “I made you coffee,” he persuaded.

  One eye opened to half-mast, and he got a slight grunt of interest.

  “And my girl’s gonna have to go spend the rest of the mornin’ with her sisters, putting on dresses and crap all over their faces, which you know you hate, so have a little fun with me before you go.”

  “Nooooo,” she whimpered.

  “Are we no-ing the dress and makeup or getting up?”

  “Both!”

  “If you get up now, I’ll watch the race with you all afternoon tomorrow.” He pulled out the big guns.

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  “And we can make fun of everyone at the wedding today and do something naughty somewhere in the mayor’s house?”

  “Oh, honey, you are singing my song. I’m all over that, and I’ll be all over you all afternoon.”

  “And we can go to the hill on the other side of the lake for the sunrise?”

  “Not if you don’t get your sassy-ass moving, sugar.”

  “Fine.” She sat up and extended her arms up over her head. The sheets she’d buried herself under tumbled down. Luke was instantly mesmerized by the soft sway of her ample breasts and the sweet raspberry heat of her nipples.

  “Mmm, maybe we should stay in bed, now that I see you like this.” Tracing his fingertips up her waist, he spun them gently around her nipples, awakening them to his touch.

  “No. You woke me up for a horseback ride, so we’re going riding, cowboy.”

  “You could ride me instead.”

  “Should’a thought of that before you woke me up.”

  Low fog covered their bodies as they made their way to the barn. As soon as the sun rose, it would burn it all away. Luke couldn’t wait to watch it with Indie.

  When they arrived at the barn, Summer was brushing Whirlwind, and Luke wondered if she planned to ride her without Austin’s knowledge.

  “She’s just loving on her.” Austin appeared out of the thick fog settling over the fields. He had baby Hank on his shoulder and was holding J.J.’s hand.

  “You sure you don’t mind if I ride her?” Indie asked cautiously.

  Summer gave her a sweet grin. “I don’t mind at all. I just miss her. She needs a good ride. She’ll be thrilled.”

  “I’m sure she’ll miss you. I’m definitely not a barrel racer. I saw you ride several years ago in Broken Bow. You were amazing. You won that night, didn’t you?”

  “I’m honestly not sure. They all blurred together. I loved racing, but it never really got me where I needed to be. That’s the thing with a race. The finish line might not be where you’re supposed to stop. Austin taught me that.”

  Austin and Luke joined the girls. Austin brushed a kiss on Summer’s cheek. “If you think about it, racing did get you here in a roundabout kind of way.”

  “I guess,” Summer shrugged. “However I got here, I’m never leavin’, Austin Camden, so you better love me forever.”

  “That was always my plan. Now get your sassy self back inside. Hank’s grunting and you know I ain’t got the equipment to feed him.”

  “And didn’t you luck out in that department, cowboy?”

  “Sugar, if I had titties of my own, I’d never get a damn thing done. I’d just play with ‘em all the time.”

  Everyone erupted in laughter as Luke shook his head at his little brother.

  “Hey, Summer, can I ask you something really quick before you go?” Indie sounded frantic. Luke’s surprise silenced his laughter.

  Summer lifted Hank from Austin’s shoulder. “Sure.”

  “How’d you know this was your finish line?” She gestured around the ranch, and Luke’s heart stalled. He didn’t breathe, terrified he’d somehow miss Summer’s response.

  Summer considered for a long moment. “I guess I finally got sick and tired of running. I swear, I ran my whole damn life. Ran around barrels, ran from my daddy, from my ex, from everything. A good friend of mine told me that I had to realize I was worth saving. Kind of like I had to figure out what I was running from so I’d know who to run to.”

  With that, Hank broke out in a pitiful wail of hunger. Indie gave Summer a quick wave before she saddled Whirlwind. Luke longed to ask what Indie had made of all of that, but he decided to let her simmer with it for a while. He’d done enough talking.

  When they returned from their ride, Indie cradled little Cassie in her arms and gave her a morning bottle.

  “I ain’t ever gonna be able to sell that cow, am I?” Brock quizzed Luke quietly.

  “Hey, if keeping her here will keep Indie here, I’ll buy her off of ya.”

  “You really gonna be that guy? You’re gonna be the rancher with a pet cow?”

  “Think that shows you just how bad I want her to stay.”

  “I’d say so. I just wouldn’t be telling anybody around town you’re gonna have a pet cow.”

  “Good plan.”

  Four hours later, Luke was sitting in Tucker’s house assuring him, yet again, that he had Melony’s ring in his jacket pocket. Fighting not to roll his eyes, he held up the diamond band and shoved Tucker onto one of the kitchen stools. Wesley handed him a bottle of beer from the fridge and Luke ordered him to drink it.

  “I still don’t know how the hell to be married. What was I thinking?” Tucker took a long drag of the bottle.

  “Tuck, bro, you need to chill. She loves you. You love her. There’ll be good times and bad times, but you’ll get through them together. Life will be great,” Wesley sighed. This was the tenth time a similar speech had been made.

  “Oh Jesus, what if I get her pregnant?!”

  “I’m gonna go with the obvious answer of then you’ll have a baby,” Luke chuckled. “Mel will make a great mom, and if you just do what she says all will be well. You can raise up another wide receiver.” He checked his watch again. One more hour and he could shove Tucker in front of the altar on the Mayor’s property, Melony would make her appearance, and Tuck would be able to breathe again.

  “Oh my God, a kid! I don’t know what to do with a baby. He doesn’t hav
e to play football if he doesn’t wanna either. I mean, I don’t want him to get hurt. If he’s gonna play, we need to get him on a good team, though.” Tucker’s eyes spun and Luke and Wes made a concerted effort not to laugh at him outright. He was now concerned about the peewee football career of his child who was not yet conceived. “Hey, if he wants to try for Young Rodeo you think Austin would help him train? The competition’s tough.”

  Biting his lips together and shaking his head, Luke finally managed, “I’m sure Austin would be glad to help out your kid, Tuck. Let’s maybe, you know, get him birthed before we buy him a helmet and chaps though, okay?”

  “Yeah, that’s a good plan. You’re really smart.” Tucker vowed like Luke had just single-handedly negotiated the Iranian disarmament.

  “I’d highly recommend you knock your wife up before you start signing your kid up for sports, myself,” Wesley chimed in.

  “Shut the fuck up, Wes,” Tucker huffed.

  Throwing his arms up in the air, Wesley shuffled down the hallway. “You’re acting crazier than a shit house rat, bro. Get it together.”

  Finally, mercifully, an hour and two minutes later, Luke shoved Tucker Kilroy up in front of the crowd of white folding chairs in the back field of the largest home in Pleasant Glen. “Look at me,” he ordered quietly. Tucker complied. “Do not move from this spot until you see Melony come down the aisle. I’m going to go walk Indie down. What are you not going to do?”

  “Get married.”

  “Tuck, I swear to God I will whip your ass six ways from Sunday if I have to, and I won’t even mess up my tux. Now, what are you not going to do?”

  “Move.”

  “Good.” Luke slapped him on the shoulder and sighed his relief as he offered a few smiles to the gathered guests. To his knowledge, there hadn’t been this many people in Pleasant Glen since … well … ever. Carolyn Jenkins must’ve invited half the damn state.

  Following the sounds of hissed whispers, Luke located the rest of the wedding party gathered behind the tent that had been set up for the reception.

  “No,” Melony spat. “Daddy is walking me down by himself. You and Ernie go now. Just like the preacher said.”

  “I firmly believe we should all walk you down, Melony Grace Harper. I saw it in a magazine. It was all very nice, and we all had a hand in raising you,” Carolyn smarted.

  “Mother, have you been drinking?” Indie demanded hatefully. “What is wrong with you? We’ve been practicing this all fucking morning. Just go!”

  “Carolyn, if you don’t mind, I’d like to walk my youngest daughter down the aisle. I think you’ve done enough.” Even Ben looked outraged. Luke had never seen Indie’s father lose his temper.

  “Let’s just go.” Ernie took Carolyn’s hand and guided her towards the aisle.

  “I swear, the peroxide they pour all over her head to turn her that blonde has pickled what was left of her brain,” Indie snarled.

  Chuckling, Luke brushed a kiss on her cheek. “You look damned pretty all dressed up, baby doll.” She did. Dressed in a short, green sleeveless dress that showed off her gorgeous hourglass figure with her hair up in a fancy twist and makeup highlighting her face. He didn’t get to see her in dresses often.

  According to Indie, her mother had stuffed her into a dress that couldn’t handle her rapidly developing cleavage in seventh grade and ordered her to her first middle school dance. When she arrived, she was informed by the principal that she was dressed inappropriately because ‘big girls had to cover up.’ Her choices had been to change into her P.E. uniform that was stowed in her locker or to return home. In true Indie Harper format, she’d waited on the principal to return to the dance, had pulled the battery cables on her car, deflated all of the tires — complete with taking the valve stem caps — and had raced home and vowed never to wear another dress again as long as she lived.

  Luke hadn’t attended the seventh grade dance. He hadn’t yet figured out why any guy in his right mind would give up a night at the local rodeo to go dance. The first time he’d heard Indie recount her reasoning for never wearing dresses, he would have given anything to have been there for her. He would’ve helped her work over the bitch principal’s car and would have run with her wherever she wanted to go. He knew there had to have been tears that night, knew she had to have ached with the rejection of her own body, though she’d never confessed to that.

  The gall he still felt dragged him back to the present. He offered her another smile and brushed a kiss just under her earlobe as he whispered, “I think I prefer my girl in them Wrangler Q-babies she wears so well with a smudge of grease on her face, or better yet, nothing but that damned sexy red lingerie you wear that drives me wild.” He winked at her.

  “And that, Luke Camden, is one of the many reasons I love you.” She was bringing the L word in more often than ever before. He couldn’t help but hope against hope that it meant something this time.

  “Luke, is Tucker okay? He seemed a little … weird … when he called me this morning,” Melony whispered as the music began.

  “Just a little nervous. Wants to do right by you. Soon as you walk out there, he’ll be fine.”

  Indie, Miranda, and Melony all beamed at him.

  “Any guy that can make all my girls smile is one hell of a man.” Ben offered him his hand. After Luke accepted the hand shake, Ben turned to Melony. “You sure ready for this, little one?”

  Melony brushed a sweet kiss on her daddy’s cheek. “I’m ready, Daddy. I promise.”

  “Then we better get to it,” he choked.

  Luke lowered his head. Wesley Kilroy, who was walking Miranda down, did the same. Neither would ever admit to seeing the well of tears Ben Harper was trying to dam back with sheer strength of will.

  With every step Luke and Indie progressed down that aisle, he prayed this wouldn’t be the last aisle he got to walk her down. They parted at the preacher and watched Tucker and Melony vow to love one another for the rest of their time on earth. Tuck never missed a beat. Just as Luke had predicted, his nerves dissolved immediately as soon as Ben placed Melony’s hands in his.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  There were enough officials from the state capital offices oohing and ahhing over the reception to keep Carolyn happy for the next year and a half.

  “Boy, she really thinks she’s shitting in high cotton now, doesn’t she?” Indie sniped as Luke pulled out a chair for her after they’d gotten a plate of food.

  “You been in Oklahoma way too long, sweetness. They only shit in cotton south of the North Platte River. Up here we shit in corn, remember?”

  “All I know is she’s full of shit.”

  At that moment, Carolyn was laughing ostentatiously with the lieutenant governor’s wife.

  “Can’t really argue with that.”

  The reception droned on with Luke growing more antsy by the moment. He pulled at his tie for the fourth time in as many minutes and lifted his hat to wipe away a ring of sweat along the band.

  Indie had been yanked up for another picture with Melony and Miranda, and he was bored out of his mind. If one more good-for-nothing politician out of Lincoln tried to schmooze him by talking about how much respect and concern they had for the small town ranch owners, he was going to rope several of them, throw them on horseback, and tell them to go pull his bulls off of his heifers in his back two-hundred acres, and move them to the next fields over, which was his task for the next morning. Then he’d be happy to talk with them about how hard he worked and why he didn’t much appreciate them taxing his land and his cattle at the time of purchase and then again at the time of sale.

  The seductive sway of Indie’s dress and the tempting line between her breasts created by the tight fit of the bodice on her gown made his mouth water. She and Miranda were sharing a vexing grin and trying not to laugh at whatever they’d just shared. She looked good enough to eat, and he sure as hell wanted a bite.

  He shoved his hand in his tux pocket, searching for
the bandana he’d shoved there for the purposes of mopping the sweat off his brow. His heart leapt to a sprint when his hand landed on a slip of elastic. Saliva flooded his mouth as he discreetly glanced downward to confirm that there was a crimson thong constructed of smooth satin and rough lace in his pocket.

  Summoning Herculean levels of self-control, he ordered himself not to pull the panties from his jacket, bring them to his face, and inhale the delectable flavors of his Indie. His cock stiffened painfully as their eyes locked one each other with magnetic force. She was thirty feet away from him, and he swore he could feel the heat of her lush curves imprinted on his skin. Sexy little minx knew she was killing him slowly.

  When she finally returned to the seat beside him he wrapped his arm around her and leaned in. “You’re making me ache, Indie Jane. Knowin’ your bare under that dress, open and ready for me.” He whispered a kiss just below her jawline. “Naughty girl needin’ to be owned, aren’t ‘cha?”

  The mischievous twinkle in her eyes and the purse of her full lips put a stranglehold on his aching cock. She was not longer a craving. She was a requirement.

  “Lord Almighty, I need you, sugar. Getting damned ornery with needin’ you, honestly.” Glancing around to make sure no one was paying them too much attention, he nibbled her earlobe, making her shiver. “They’re gonna expect us to dance here in a minute, but after that, whenever you’re ready, head inside the house. I’ll make nice while you figure out where you’d like to be fucked, then I’ll come find you. And then I ain’t gonna be so nice.”

  “Mmm,” she breathed. “You’re making me wet, cowboy.”

  “Good, darlin’. I’ll gorge myself on your honey before I bury myself inside that greedy little snatch, so sweet for me. Don’t make me wait, Indie Jane. I’m flat out of patience. You put your panties in my jacket, you’re getting it rough.”

  “Good. That’s precisely how I want it,” she defied. “Am I finding a room in the house or a location on my body where I’d like to be fucked?” The teasing coo of her voice, and the fire storm in her eyes damn near fried his brain.