by Sophie Oak
Hope pushed at James. Noah’s harsh words saved her from complete embarrassment. He stood looking into the room, his eyes on his brother’s back. Butch sat beside his master, his massive tail thumping as though he just didn’t get the whole simmering tension between the humans.
James stared at her for a moment even as she pushed at him. It was as though he needed her to realize he was stronger, and he’d stop the encounter when he decided to. “I’ll let this go, Hope. But not forever.”
He pressed his lips swiftly to hers before she could protest and then he was up and off her, leaving her feeling very much alone. She’d been warm with James on top of her, but now she felt the chill.
“You take a little nap, Hope. I’m going to see if I can manage to herd these people out of here.” James turned back when he reached the doorway, his eyes carefully avoiding Noah’s, but seeking hers out. “We’ll talk at dinner.”
That sounded ominous. “I might need to rest.”
She might need to run, but, damn it, she didn’t have a car.
“Then I will come back and carry you to the dinner table. We eat at six, and I will be watching everything you eat. Doc made me responsible for you, and he’s not the only one. Logan asked me to look out for you, too. I take those promises damn seriously, Hope. We’re going to talk about what’s bothering you, and we’re going to talk about what we, and I do mean we, are going to do about it. I’ll see you at six, and if I find out you’re trying to leave this ranch, I won’t hesitate to put you over my knee.”
With that, he turned and left. That was the second time in twenty minutes that he’d threaten to spank her and the second time all of her girl parts had responded to the totally off-the-wall, outrageously insulting threat by softening and practically purring.
She hated to do it, but she looked up at Noah. He had to think she was some kind of slut. Surely he’d figured out that she wasn’t his brother’s girl, but she’d been caught wrapping her arms around his neck and panting. She steeled herself to meet his judgment, but there was a little smile on his face as he looked at her.
“He really will spank you, darlin’. You should watch out for him.” Noah’s dark hair shook slightly as he walked into the room and started to open drawers. He pulled a thick quilt from the bottom of the dresser, turned, and then walked toward her. “And he’s an awful host. You’re obviously cold, and he didn’t even offer you a blanket.”
No, he’d offered her the warmth of that big body of his, every inch of it corded with hard-earned muscle. James worked for a living, and he worked hard. When James’s hands had touched her skin she could feel the harsh calluses on them. So different from Christian’s soft skin.
“Now, see, I’m beginning to think my brother is right, and there’s something awful going on in your head. Every now and then, your eyes tense up, and it’s like you’re somewhere else. Somewhere bad.” He pulled the blanket up over her, covering her to her chin. “I don’t like that look you get in your eyes. It makes me worry.”
“Don’t. You don’t know me, and the truth of the matter is, I’ll be leaving town soon.” It was the truth. It was better to just get it all out there.
His handsome face didn’t even frown. His grin widened as though he knew something she didn’t. “Well, I think I’ll have to do something about that, Miss Hope. I don’t think I’m ready for you to leave, not when I just came home. So we’ll have to make the most of our time together. Lunch tomorrow?”
That was a horrible idea. “No. No. I have to go into town tomorrow and see about my car.”
If he was horribly offended by her turning him down flat, he didn’t show it. He simply put his hands under the covers and pulled off her leopard-print ballet flats. “You don’t need these. I’ll find you some warm socks. Until then, Butch can help you out.” He whistled, and the dog bounded onto the bed, covering her feet with his enormous body. He stared at her, his tongue lolling out, begging for a little praise.
“Thanks, Butch.” It was odd. There was a dog warming her feet. It was also rather sweet. Butch put his head down, as though utterly willing to have her feet poking his belly for just as long as she needed him.
Noah winked down at her. He was stunningly gorgeous with forest-green eyes and hair so black she would swear there were shades of blue in it. “As for tomorrow, how exactly were you going to get into town? It’s a long walk for a girl who’s supposed to be resting. I happen to have a little time built into my schedule, so I already called Long-Haired Roger, and we have an appointment at eleven. My stomach starts crying right around eleven thirty, and it’s been five long years since I had some of Stella’s butterscotch pie. Do you really want to make me drive all the way back here weak with hunger? I saved you on the side of the road. I’m willing to drive you all over town. I’ve offered up my very own dog in order to keep your feet warm. Are you sure you won’t allow me to feed you a decent meal so I don’t worry about it all day?”
Asshole. He’d made his whole heartfelt speech with the smile of a man who knew he’d put a woman in a corner. “Fine, but don’t think you can use me to make your brother jealous.”
He flushed slightly, but didn’t back down. “No, Hope. It’s not that, although we always have been competitive. We also have the same taste in women. I’m attracted to you. Terribly attracted to you and it’s been a long time since I wanted a woman. It feels damn good, and I won’t back off because Jamie wants you. He doesn’t have you yet, and that makes you perfectly fair game. And I’m the smarter one this time. I get the feeling he’s fucked up with you. I don’t intend to do that. So you should know I’m going to treat you right. Now you rest. I’ll be back to take you to dinner at five forty-five.”
“James said six.”
“Yes, he did, didn’t he? The early bird catches the worm. You rest well, darlin’.”
Noah strode out the door, and she was left with a foot-warming dog and about two million questions.
As she drifted to sleep, her mind was filled with two cowboys. She smiled as sleep claimed her because there wasn’t room in her brain for anything else.
Chapter Five
James walked through the house, carefully avoiding the crowd in the living area. His cock was still righteously hard, and his brain was in a damn tailspin.
She’d been so soft and sweet underneath him. She’d flowered open, her whole body blooming under his. He’d gotten a hand on her breast, and just as he’d suspected, they were real and perfect, the nipples pointing beneath his palm. If they’d been skin to skin, they would have pressed against his chest until he wouldn’t have been able to handle it, and he would have been forced to drag his mouth to her breasts and suck them inside.
James strode through the kitchen, cursing his brother’s name. He slammed through the back screen door and dragged cool air into his lungs. This was what he needed. He needed to be outside, where every wall of the house didn’t press at him with some memory of his childhood.
Sometimes he thought he’d tear the fucker down and rebuild. Every room contained a memory. He couldn’t walk into the parlor without seeing his mom putting up a Christmas tree. She’d never had one of those Martha Stewart perfect trees he’d seen on TV. She’d said that having a theme for a Christmas tree went against the spirit. Their tree was decorated in a wild kaleidoscope of color. In the attic, there were boxes and boxes of ornaments his dads had thought would please her and pieces of crap that he and Noah had made. Every one she’d treasured and displayed despite the fact they weren’t her blood. They were more than blood, she’d told him once. Ellen Glen-Bennett had looked down at him, tears filling her brown eyes, and told him that she’d chosen to be his mom. She’d picked him and Noah as surely as she’d picked their fathers.
Fuck, he missed his mom.
Hope reminded him of her. Not in any physical way. It was there in her sweetness. It was in the way she took care of the people around her. She made sure Logan got his lunch. She baked cookies for everyone on their birthdays. She�
��d brought salad to Nell and Henry when their protests lasted longer than expected, and when Mel and Cassidy had taken to their bunker, she’d made sure Cassidy got her favorite mystery novels.
Hope McLean knew how to take care of a person. She knew how to love.
And that scared the fuck out of him.
He walked toward the stable. What was he doing? Hope was too close to perfect. Hope was the type of woman who could help on a ranch because she would understand. She would get that it was a team effort, and she would throw herself into it.
And that was perfectly fine. He wanted and needed that in a wife. What he didn’t need was a wife who made his heart pound at the very thought of her. He couldn’t do it. He didn’t want what his parents had. He didn’t want to fade away when his love was gone. His father had only been sixty-seven, and after his wife and friend were gone, he’d faded. There wasn’t another word for it. Fred Glen had been a ghost of himself after their deaths.
James didn’t want that.
And yet he wasn’t sure he could walk away from Hope.
He found himself standing at the fence of the training area. It was a large, round, three-tiered wooden fence. It was where he trained his horses, but lately it was where he got his ass kicked. Red had been brought out for his daily exercise. James nodded at Kirk, one of his newly hired hands. Kirk nodded back. He was standing far from Red, who snorted and put up a good front. Red was a magnificent horse with amazing lines and a sturdy frame, but he snorted and bit at everybody. The minute he felt a man’s weight on him, he bucked and went crazy.
Red was a good summation of his life for the last couple of years. Harsh. Rough. Brutal.
He should find a wife who wouldn’t disrupt his life and be done with it. He should find a wife and have some kids and just move on.
But now Noah was back, and James wasn’t sure what the fuck that meant.
“Pretty boy.” Rye Harper put a booted foot on the second ring of the fence and stared out at Red.
James sighed. At least they hadn’t sent Max out. He had no delusions that the group hadn’t decided to “talk” to him. No one in the entire town understood what it meant to stay out of other people’s business. “He’s a pain in my ass.”
“The good ones always are.” Rye tipped his hat back. “In horses and women.”
Yep. He should have known. “Are you here to talk to me about Hope? You’re wasting your time because she’s told me she isn’t interested.”
But she had been. He’d felt her nipples and smelled the lovely scent of her arousal. If that fucker Noah hadn’t interrupted, he would have been balls deep inside her and groaning out his orgasm more than once. He knew that was true because once wouldn’t be enough. He’d need her over and over again. He would fucking imprint himself on her.
“I doubt that. But you have ignored her for nearly a year. You must suspect that would make an impression on her,” Rye replied.
If only he’d been able to ignore her. He’d always known the minute she walked in a room. “Rye, you know how hard it’s been. I haven’t had time to really date. This ranch took up every minute of the day until Trev and Bo got here.”
It wasn’t just Trev and Bo that had made a difference. It was the cash infusion they had brought with them. For the last year, it had been just him and Wolf and the hands he could hire for what little he could pay. Now he had some experienced hands, and it made a huge difference. He could breathe again. He could have a life again.
Rye leaned against the fence, looking every bit like a slightly disapproving older brother. “But you have something going with that woman right? The one with the dark-brown hair?”
Dark brown? That wasn’t the way he would describe Hope’s hair. Her hair was a rich brown threaded with gold, and when the light hit it just right, red. It was a soft color, and there was so damn much of it that he just wanted to thrust his hands in and pull on it. He could braid rope into it and make it so it was a gorgeous testament to D/s, the rope hanging lower than her hair, ready for her Master’s tug. “What are you talking about?”
“The woman from the Rep Theater?” Rye’s mouth flattened. “She’s telling every girl in town that she’s your girlfriend and they better back off. I was surprised. I was pretty sure you had a no-dating policy.”
Fuck a goddamn duck. “No. We went out a couple of times.”
“By going out, I assume you mean you fucked her a couple of times.”
He felt himself flush. Rye Harper was only a couple of years older than he was, but he’d been like a big brother to him and Noah. Max, Rye, and Stef Talbot had been the older boys they had looked up to. “Yeah. But, Rye, I made it clear I wasn’t looking for anything serious. I never lie to a woman. I want a good time and that’s all. You know how much time this ranch costs me? It isn’t exactly an eight-hour-a-day job.”
Even with his breathing room, he still didn’t have a ton of time. It would be years before the Circle G attained the kind of wealth that would allow him some real free time.
Rye’s face softened. “I know, Jamie. It’s twenty-four-seven and only because that’s all there is to give. It’s blood and sweat and tears, and never think for a single minute that your dads wouldn’t be proud of you.”
He hated the tears that threatened. “I don’t think so. I sold half our land.”
“Fred and Brian would have done the same damn thing. Don’t you dare think otherwise. They would have done anything it took to keep this place afloat. Your dads understood the meaning of compromise and partnership. Now, they would have preferred that it was Noah who stepped in, but in his absence, they would be proud of everything you did to keep their legacy alive.”
James found the words comforting even though he wasn’t sure he believed them. “I had friends who helped me.”
Max and Rye had supplied unpaid labor in bringing the herd in when the winter proved too much. The owner of the Feed Store Church had given him credit when he couldn’t pay. Mel had sat up with him during calving season, pulling each calf free of his momma and pronouncing them all free of alien influence. Nell and Holly had brought him food and sat with him while his father was dying. He loved this town. It was home. It was his heart. He would never be able to understand how Noah had left.
“And you always will. I know you’ll do right by Hope. Oh, you’re going to fight it and make some dumb-ass mistakes that you’ll pay for. If I could stop you, I would, but this is your path, and you’ll walk down it as you will. We all know Hope is going to be good for you. You’ll wise up. They didn’t send me out here to talk about Hope. I’m here to talk to you about Noah.”
Fuck. That was worse. He’d had months to think about Hope. He hadn’t had more than an hour to process the fact that Noah was back. “I don’t want to talk about Noah.”
“He’s your brother,” Rye pointed out.
“He left me.”
“And now he’s back, and you have to deal with him. The question is are you going to make him pay or are you going to be the magnanimous brother who welcomes him home?”
There was no question about that. “Make his ass pay.”
Rye laughed, the sound filling the air.
“I told you he was more like you than me.” Max sidled up to his brother. Their identical faces settled into grins.
“You did, indeed, brother.” Rye slapped his brother on the back.
It was what people who didn’t know them always mistook. James had known the brothers all of his life, and despite Max’s outer shell, he was actually the softer of the two. Max could growl all he liked, but when it came down to it, he found it difficult to maintain a true grudge. He would scratch and claw when he thought he was being rejected, but the minute someone needed something, he would quietly help.
Rather like Noah.
Just because he understood Noah didn’t mean James was willing to forgive him yet. “He leaves for five years with barely a phone call and then just waltzes in and expects me to welcome him with open arms? When he
left, it didn’t just hurt me. It hurt this whole town. We were all counting on him.”
Max frowned. “You won’t get an argument out of me. We haven’t had a vet for four years because your brother is a dumb-ass, but we all knew he would be back. I can curse his name and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but damn, that boy’s been through something hard.”
“He’s not the same Noah who left here,” Rye added. “Talking to him for ten minutes proved that to me. He’s harder, and he’s just waiting for you to reject him. I think there might be a little piece of him that wants you to reject him.”
“Are y’all talking about that kid with the chip on his shoulder?” Nate asked. He walked up with Rafe, Cam, and Henry following behind him. It looked like all the men of Bliss had decided to descend. “That boy is in some kind of trouble.”
James rolled his eyes. “He’s not in trouble. He’s just out of money. His wife divorced him.”
Henry sighed. He looked slightly out of place among the ruggedly dressed men. Henry wore loose cotton pants and a sweater made out of something that didn’t involve an animal or manmade fibers. And the dude always rocked the Birkenstocks. Still, he had his unassailable place among these men. “We all knew that would happen, Jamie. She wasn’t good for him. It was only a matter of time until he came home.”
“So now I’m just supposed to forgive him and say, ‘hey, no problem. You weren’t here when I needed you most. You weren’t here when our dad was dying. You didn’t have to watch him fade away. You didn’t have to answer the questions he asked.’ I’m just supposed to forget?” It wasn’t fucking fair. All of his life he’d had to watch out for his little brother. Noah was smart, but that didn’t matter because James was stronger. Well, Noah had filled out. Maybe it was time for baby brother to stand on his own damn feet.
“Jamie, I’ve known you for a very long time,” Henry said, adjusting his glasses. “If I know one thing about you, it’s that you’re one of the kindest men I know. You won’t be able to hold out for long. All you do by being angry now is delay the inevitable. So do both of you a favor and sit down and talk to your brother. Don’t start a war, because that’s what this could turn into.”