by Jillian Neal
“I’m Sienna,” she managed in a frightened plea.
“You Ruth Cooper’s blood?”
Ryan did not care for the overly pleased expression on the guy’s face.
“Yes. She was my grandmother.”
Dropping Sienna’s hand, Ryan wrapped his arm around her instead. Whoever this idiot was, he wasn’t getting anywhere near her.
The man chuckled ominously. “You’re pretty like your granny. I’m sure we can work out a deal with all of this.” He unfurled the paperwork he was carrying and shoved it in Sienna’s face. Ryan jerked it out of his hands and scanned it quickly.
His heart sank rapidly to his feet. Her grandmother is a Gypsy, of all things. His mother’s disdain swirled in the pit of his stomach as he saw the half-trumped, hand-written documents that appeared to be the original sale papers on the Inn.
“This is bullshit,” he defied, though he was fairly certain that Ruth had made good on the agreement she’d signed almost thirty years before.
“Said I wasn’t here to see you. She’s the one that has to make good on that.” The way the man’s beady eyes tracked over Sienna’s frame made Ryan want to remove them from his skull.
“Ryan, let me see that, please.” Sienna’s voice shook as she reached for the documents. It didn’t take her any longer to get the gist of the deal than it had Ryan. “Oh, my God!” she gasped when her eyes fell on the line – “Before the Vernal Equinox of each year, the Inn owner will pay Mr. Ted Roby $10,000 in residual payment on The Gypsy Inn, or pay the current appraised value at the time of purchase. If full payment isn’t made, payment is due every year until the time of Mr. Roby’s death.”
“My grandmother took care of me and this place. She couldn’t have paid you $10,000 every year.”
Ryan’s jaw clenched.
“Ruthie paid me money on occasion. We worked things out a different way, too. ‘Spose you could make me the same offer. I’d be willing to make you a bargain, so to speak, but I still want the money for the property. I might settle for a little less if you’re good.”
Convulsive disgust shook through Sienna’s body. She fought the images her mind conjured against her will.
“He doesn’t have a prayer, Sienna. Let him take it to court. They’ll bury him under the jail. I will not let him take anything from you. Not your profits from the season, and certainly not anything else.” Ryan’s steady arm held her upright once again.
“He can talk about lawyers and courtrooms all he wants, honey, but I got the original deed to the Inn. Ruth never had it. There’s no documents in any kind of Town Hall that say this Inn was hers to give to you. So, if you want to keep it, you got two weeks ‘til it’s time to pay up.” With that, Ted Roby sauntered to his truck after sending Sienna a lascivious wink.
Certain she was going to vomit, her body shuddered in horror. Ryan turned her and wrapped her up tightly in his arms, blocking her from that horrible man.
“Hey, shh.” He began swaying her as tears shattered through all that had happened in their endless day. She sobbed against him, and he held her safely in his steadfast arms. “Listen to me. I’ll call John. We’ll get this taken care of and that nasty sack of shit in jail. This is sick, Sienna. You owe him nothing.”
Convulsive sobs jolted through her body and she jerked away from him. “Ryan, don’t you see? This was why I had such a hard time getting the paperwork on this place. They couldn’t find the original deed. It had never been filed, and they couldn’t find it because he must have it. And $10,000 dollars! If I make four times that this summer, it will be a really good season, and I have to pay back my loan and live the rest of the year.”
“Okay, okay, shh, just let me call John. I don’t care if this idiot does have the original deed, we will get this taken care of. I promise you.”
It would have been more productive to go out and talk to the churning sea, because she wasn’t even hearing him.
“And that probably is how Nana paid him!” Another gagging convulsion shattered through her. He guided her back into his arms and refused to let her go. Gypsy, indeed. This was a disaster, and he had nothing to offer her, save the shelter of his arms.
Desperate to help her, Ryan debated. “Hey, do you want to go talk to Mac and Molly? Weren’t they friends with your grandmother? Didn’t they all move here together? Maybe they know something that could help.”
She lifted her head and stared at him like he had nothing more than shit for brains, which at this point he was beginning to think was true. “Do I want to go talk to the Montgomerys about how Nana agreed to sleep with some gross guy so she could give me a place to live? No, not really. I know my grandmother was a Gypsy, okay, Ryan? I know she did things she shouldn’t have. I know you were never okay with that, but I am.” Her temper shot from her like a cannon.
Taken aback, he shook his head. “I never said I wasn’t okay with that. I’m just trying to help you.” The tears that marred her beautiful face wounded him. Her eyes squeezed shut again, sending tears flowing rapidly out the sides. She fell back against him.
“I know. Thank you. I’m sorry I yelled at you.” The rollercoaster of emotion flowing from her was making him woozy, but having her in his arms still felt so right. They stood there together, clinging to each other against the assaulting world. Once again, he had no idea what to do next.
Scrubbing her hands over her face, Sienna seemed to draw resolve from the salty air that encapsulated her pain. “I… I think I need to be alone. I need to think.”
The arguments bubbled in his gut and then formed on his tongue. They didn’t need to be apart. They needed to talk to figure out everything. He needed to tell her why he’d abandoned her and about Evie. They needed to call John and discuss Roby’s demands. They’d spent the last ten years apart and that had brought on nothing more than horrific pain and utter ruin. Apart did not work for them, but as he stared at her and watched her entire body broadcast the need to parry him away, he bit back the contentions. Managing two steps backwards he choked on the words, “We do still need to talk, Sienna,” before he forced himself to return to his truck and to drive away.
Twelve
Tears of defeat mixed in with her tears of complete frustration. How could Nana have done that? Pacing in what she supposed was Ted Roby’s living room, Sienna couldn’t seem to manage the knots binding her stomach. She would whisk to the bathroom certain she was going to be sick, but then leave when the gnawing horror refused to be projected from her body. Helpless to do much of anything but watch the shoreline grow darker and darker, she continued to pace.
She knew why Nana had done it, and that made it all the worse. When Sienna’s mother had gotten pregnant, Nana had made a deal to purchase the Inn so that they would all have somewhere to live. Sienna’s mother, however, wanted nothing more to do with Nana or her Gypsy lifestyle. She’d never named Sienna’s father. That’s how Sienna had taken the name Cooper, just like her maternal grandmother. Her mother had chosen bitterness instead. She’d let her own transgressions turn her into a self-righteous dotard, but Nana kept working the Inn so that Sienna would always have somewhere to call home. Every time she considered how Nana had acquired the Inn another wave of nausea washed over her.
Memories of Ryan’s lips against hers and the way he’d wrapped her up in his arms gave temporary solace as long as she didn’t allow herself to recall all of the many reasons that she had no business seeking shelter in his intoxicating warmth and in his substantial strength.
All she’d wanted was a little space to call her own. Some place where she could exist outside of her mother’s disdain and away from the badgering world. Some place where she could peel off all of the layers others had added to her that had never belonged. All of the expectations that she could never have met. Somewhere she could wash away anything that was truly, authentically her. Now, it appeared that her dream was never meant to be. She couldn’t afford another loan on the house, and she certainly wasn’t going to pay Mr. Roby, eithe
r the way Nana had or with money every single year. She didn’t know what she was going to do. She’d dumped everything she had into the Inn, and the loan was to fix up the property she didn’t really own.
The wind beat against the Inn making the windows shudder and the foundation creak. A quivered chill shook through her. She could just make out the tide whipping against the shore in the moonlight against the gales. A storm was blowing in. Sienna hated storms. She hated the memories and the way the thunder always seem to shake her very soul. The way the lightning fractured the sky haunted her.
Nana’s voice offered her counsel. Listen to your soul, Sienna Rose. Gypsies go where the wind takes them. Always let the wind be your guide. If life gives you a gift, accept it even if you do not fully understand it.
The house gave another frightened shiver, and desperation gave flight to her bare feet. She couldn’t stay inside that house with all of the demands it carried.
She let the winds sweep her away. Maybe she’d never really belonged there either. Maybe it wasn’t her sanctuary. Maybe her home would never be a physical building. If you’re very lucky, my dear, your home will have a heartbeat. Maybe her refuge was a pair of insanely strong arms that somehow she knew would make everything better. Maybe her home was awaiting her on the other end of Gypsy Beach.
The growing storm outside was nothing compared to the fusillade of grisly emotion assaulting his gut. How could he have left her there? Why did he just keep leaving her? He’d known better, but she’d wanted him to go. That much had been painfully obvious. His eyes remained trained on the Inn. He’d debated running back to her a million times over, but he didn’t want to be there if she didn’t want him. He’d pushed too hard, too far, too fast. He’d never had any restraint when it came to her anyway.
At eight o’clock, he lifted his phone and managed to placate enough to convince his four-year-old that everything with Daddy was fine and that he couldn’t wait to pick her up in another week and a half and bring her to the beach. He told her a story about Princess Evie and her friend the mermaid before he told her how much he loved her and how much he missed her.
Thirteen
The rain and the knock on his front door seemed to arrive at the same moment. Flying to the door, he flung it open. Her face was dotted with a mix of salty tears and raindrops. Need was penned on every sexy curve and every innocent dip of her entire body. Her eyes were alight with intrigue and abandon. They begged him. Her hair hung limply against her shoulders. She was shivering against the cold, and her chin trembled as she stared up at him in anticipatory questioning.
Aware that breath had returned to his lungs and that his heart was beating again, he pulled her into the warmth of his embrace
She started to speak, to make up some excuse for coming, but he cut off her explanation with another deep drawing kiss. There was no room for thought, for formation of any mental images other than the ones of him taking her to bed. The rest of the world could just wait outside his damn door. Finally, he would make his requisition while worshipping her body and soothing her soul. They could figure out the rest in the morning.
She gasped for breath and stepped back just as he worked his lips to the hollow of her delicate neck, determined to take her so thoroughly and with so much intention that she never doubted him again.
Her propensity to fly still lingered in the motion of her body. She’d flown to him this time, but if she wanted to fly again, he had to make her understand that he only wanted to come along. He never wanted to hold her down, never wanted to clip her wings or cage her. The only longing of his heart was to be with hers.
“Come here to me. No more pushing me away, okay? I want to tell you everything, but I need to know that you’re not gonna run away.”
“Ryan, please,” she panted. “I just want you. Right here, right now. I want to forget the past, just for tonight. I want to forget everything that went wrong, whatever it was. I think you owe me that much.”
“Oh, baby, I owe you so much more than this, and I plan on paying back each and every one of my debts to you, starting with the sheer number of orgasms I should’ve been the one to give you all these years. All the kisses, all the hugs, every tear I wasn’t there to dry, every cup of coffee I didn’t get to fix you, every smile I never got the chance to earn, I’m making up for it all. I’m starting right now, and I never plan to stop again.”
A whispered moan escaped her. He captured it in his open mouth as he began his hungry feast. Starved for the feel of her silky skin for far too many years, his hands sought to rectify their famine. He made quick work of the loose fitting Stones t-shirt. Tossing it aside, he grasped her waist and tracked his hands up and down the curvature of her spine.
When that simply wasn’t enough to satisfy him, he dipped his hands down those jeans that had been driving him wild with need all day. The slight tear in the pocket expanded with an audible severing of cloth as he squeezed handfuls of her lush ass.
An abashed grin dried her tears as she lifted her head and giggled.
“Sorry, sweetheart. I’ll buy you some more, but I’ve been wanting to tear off the rest of that pocket all damn day. The temptation was more than I could stand.” Her expression said she was extremely pleased with his slipping control.
“Speaking of temptation.” His voice turned the consistency of gravel as he pulled her forward, making her back arch and pushing her exposed breasts upwards towards his hungry mouth. “That hurts doesn’t it, baby?” With his index finger, he gently traced the rosy skin that surrounded her painfully puckered nipples.
Her quick exhalation entangled in her throat. She flinched from his caress. She was cold from the rain, stricken with the fear of what had driven her back into his arms and what might happen, and, Ryan hoped, she was desperately aroused.
Goosebumps skimmed her arms and rose on her breasts. She shivered again. The timid throb of her nipples beckoned him like a siren’s song, one he could never deny.
“I’m gonna make it all better, baby. I’ve spent ten damn years worrying every single night that you might be cold or unsatisfied. That no one was taking care of you. No more. I’m taking you to bed. I’m gonna wrap you up in me, and I’m going to sate you so thoroughly every single night that all you’re capable of is falling asleep safe in my arms. I’m going to be the one to take care of you from now on. I’m gonna make everything better,” he promised just before he huffed hot breath on her right nipple, gently drew it into the fiery heat of his mouth, and suckled away her pain.
It took Sienna a full minute to realize that the heady groan of supreme satisfaction had come from her. His rough, callused hands on her skin primed her entire body for the releases he kept promising her.
The things he said, she wanted so badly to believe him. She needed to believe that she wasn’t the only one that had dreamt of him night after achingly cold night. That she hadn’t been the only one that had lived the unspeakable pain of being away from the only place she’d ever belonged. She didn’t know where he’d been or why he’d never shown at the beach that summer, but right then she simply didn’t care. Having someone that wanted to hold her all night long and keep her safe and warm was a form of heaven she simply could not deny herself.
No one had ever wanted to be there for her, no one but him, at one time anyway. Ryan McNamara had always been her weakness, and even the thought that they might be able to resurrect everything that had fallen apart when they were eighteen was worth the chance.
She tried to convince herself of this, but that one tiny fragment of her brain that was somehow managing to resist the persuasion of his mouth on her breasts refused to allow her to relax completely. Was placing her very fragile heart back in his callused hands going to be the stupidest thing she’d ever done?
With a rapacious groan that competed with the echoing thunder, Ryan moved to her left breast and began his intoxicating seduction there. Sienna ordered her brain to shut it. She needed this, and more importantly she needed him. Freeing he
rself from the ramparts of her doubt and her fear, she gave into his hungry tongue. Her fingers laced through his hair in an unspoken plea to take her deeper.
Another hungry groan ripped from his lungs as he complied. She shook in his arms. It felt so insanely good. His tongue ripened her nipples and then sucked away the exquisite pain he brought her. All too soon, he lifted his head and captured her mouth again. The remnants of doubt that plagued her soul seemed to dissolve in that kiss.
Suddenly, she was being lifted up into his capable arms. She tucked her head against him. She just needed to feel the safety of those arms that he’d offered her without end all day long.
“I’ve got you, baby, and I’m never letting go again.” His husky promises somehow managed to slip past her eardrums, to balk at the misgivings of her mind, and to speak directly to her heart and her soul. “I’m right here.” With sure, solid steps he carried her up the stairs and settled her in a room she’d never been in before.
She inhaled deeply. That sexy musk of him lingered on the pillows and clung to the sheets he cradled her in. Her breaths panted from her lungs. She needed more of him.
He stood back and stared down at her topless in his bed. The craving desire was palpable as it blazed from his eyes. He made her feel things she hadn’t felt in so long she hardly recognized being desired, being worshipped, being loved. The looks he gave her said he intended to make this an evening she wouldn’t soon forget.
Leaning slightly, he popped the snap on her jeans and slipped them slowly down her legs. She was breathtaking a decade before, but now she was exquisite. His eyes raked over the slightly obscured, airy, lace bird that was tattooed from the bottom of the ribs on her right side, down over that plump ass, to the top of her thigh.
Need seeped from her lower lips, hot and so ready. His eyes flashed in ardent hunger. “Every fucking night for ten long years I’ve dreamed about this, Sienna. Every night just like this. Having you swollen and wet, in my bed, all for me. Having that sexy little body so hungry for me to fill you that you beg. God, baby, this is better than every dream I’ve ever given into.”