by K. K. Allen
I nodded back, and my chest felt like it could explode with happiness.
“And you should know that I didn’t have any expectations for tonight, but I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t want you. I want you in a way I’ve never wanted anyone before.”
I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes before pressing my lips to his. We kissed slowly at first, almost like it was our very first time, but nothing could ever replace that night on the mountain when all our feelings had been revealed to the stars. That night had been magical, surreal almost, and brought him back to me.
Tonight was something different. Something more. Something that transcended space and time and planted us in an entirely different galaxy. He deepened the kiss first as his hunger for me grew with every single one of our tangled heartbeats.
“I could kiss you for eternity,” he whispered.
“Then do it.” My words were a challenge, a plea, and a wish. “Kiss me everywhere.”
He tightened his hold, hugging me while devouring my mouth with his. Then he lifted me in his arms. My legs wrapped around his waist, and our bodies pressed together with our hearts beating like one. Two steps later, he’d backed me to the middle of the blankets and laid me down.
He dipped his head, hovering over my breast with his hot breath blowing against me, making my already-aching nipples harden. I spread my legs, allowing him room to fit between them, then I arched my back and pushed my chest up, feeling needy everywhere.
I wanted his touch from his mouth and his hands, all over my body. But Ridge took his time, exploring me in all the places he’d never ventured before, running his hands gently over my breasts, exploring the sensitive skin with his finger, and breathing me in while stealing every last ounce of control from me.
The moment his mouth finally landed on the peak of one of my breasts and circled it with his tongue, my gasp was so loud that any lurking critter would surely have run off. My head spun as my heart raced as Ridge’s first timid taste quickly transitioned into more. I could feel his confidence growing when he sucked me into his mouth and moaned with satisfaction then moved to my other breast to give it equal attention.
He sat up, his breaths heavy as he stared down at me. The flickering light revealed a new side of Ridge, one I’d only dreamed of. He stared at me like I was the most beautiful treasure in the world. And when his fingers moved to the only scrap of fabric that still remained, he treated it like a perfectly wrapped package that he didn’t want to ruin.
My red panties slid down my legs, off my feet, and to the tent floor. With a deep breath, he placed his hands on my knees and pushed them open, exposing me. A curse left his lips, and slowly, my legs began to widen further until he dipped down and ran his tongue along my slit at an achingly slow pace.
My body jerked at the initial contact, but his strong arms held me firmly in place while he continued to gain more confidence with each stroke. His hair felt thick and wild beneath my fingers, and while he was one hundred percent in command, I couldn’t help but writhe against his mouth, creating even more friction as time went on.
“I could breathe you in forever,” he rasped, his mouth never leaving me.
He was relentless, taking his time to figure out what made me react, then he homed in for the kill. Heat built from my core and spread like wildfire to every pore of my body until I exploded on his tongue and cried out with my release.
My entire body shook, and I didn’t know how to stop it. Ridge stood, pushing down his black briefs. I watched him while I came down off the highest of highs. I was just regaining my breath when Ridge tore apart a condom wrapper and pushed it over his length. Then he returned to his knees. My legs were still spread for him, and he inched his way to my entrance.
He was no longer second-guessing or trying to be the cautious Ridge I’d always known. I could see it in his eyes. He was a different man, one who knew exactly what he wanted, and nothing in the world could stop him.
With a hand wrapped around his length, he leaned over me, planting a kiss on my lips. “Tell me if I hurt you, okay?”
I hadn’t even noticed how tense I was until that moment. I nodded, too afraid to speak.
He took in a shaky breath before kissing me again. And as he parted my mouth with his, he pushed into me, spreading me, filling me, and embedding himself in my core in a way no other man ever could.
33
The Hunter
The hunter stalked through the mine, following the tracks of the underground railroad beneath the string of flickering overhead lights. The sound of dripping water echoed off the red rock and stalagmite walls as he gripped the edge of the old rail car. The high-pitched groan of its wheels lasted the entire mile-long journey in the resistance against the tracks.
Daylight was just breaking over the horizon when he approached the steel-padlocked gate. With a quick shove, he shifted through the baggy material of his coat to find the key, then he grunted when he realized he didn’t have it. Frustration tore through him, and he leaned forward, gripping the bars of the gate. He was trapped, a prisoner of his own making.
As he started to contemplate his options—breaking the lock with one hit of a rock at the top of his list—the sound of footsteps above him piqued his awareness. He wasn’t the only one out there.
He released his grip on the bars, careful not to make a noise, as he strained to hear a pair of muddled voices.
“I can’t believe we slept until morning. Papa is going to kill me if he sees me coming home like this.”
“This route is dangerous,” the boy argued. “And you’re barefoot. If you’re too stubborn to let me give you a ride to the bridge, then at least let me walk you.”
“Are you sure I’m the stubborn one?” A laugh flitted through her. “Sometimes I wonder about that.”
The hunter picked up on whom the voices belonged to easily.
A second later, Camila dropped onto the gravel, her puffy red dress bouncing around her. She should have been at prom last night, not with the Cross boy, especially not with her breasts practically ready to burst from her top. Obviously, from the way her dark hair was tangled around her head, the flushed nature of her skin, and the flirtatious smile set on her face, she’d worn that pretty little dress for him.
The hunter took two slow steps backward, knowing exactly where he needed to stand not to be seen. And when the girl’s gaze dropped to the steel bars between them, a thrill rushed through him at their proximity.
For years, he’d left the future heir alone. He’d watched her age and change from her innocent tomboy ways into a little vixen. Always a daredevil, that one, sneaking around behind her father’s back. Soon enough, her betrayal was bound to catch up with her. Maybe today was that day.
She stood and smiled at where she’d fallen from. “You coming?”
“I should get back before Harold comes looking for me.”
She nodded, but her big, bold green eyes stayed on him. “Meet me at the bridge tonight?”
“I’ll be there,” he called back. “Please be careful, Wild One.”
She grinned. “I promise. I’ll be careful.”
She started to dash away, then she turned to look up at the boy again with a smile. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
The hunter remembered something and slipped his hand into his pants pocket, retrieving the key he’d thought he’d left behind. A thrill rushed through him as he looked up again.
Before Camila turned to run off again, her gaze slid in the direction of the mine. Something flickered across her expression—worry or curiosity, maybe—but only for a second. While the hunter couldn’t be sure of exactly what she was thinking, one thing was certain. She didn’t realize it, but in that moment, with her eyes locked on the steel gates of the mine, she was staring directly into the eyes of the hunter.
34
Camila
The journey back to the bridge was a slow one. I couldn’t run barefoot through the tall grass or hop
and skip over the rocks near the creek. I couldn’t travel quickly through the woods or stop for a quick twirl around a tree branch. My feet ached, my entire bottom half was caked in dirt and mud, and sweat coated my face. If anyone saw me, I was done for.
When I finally reached the bridge, I collapsed against one of the wooden beams and rested for what felt like days. If I was going to make a mad dash through the vineyard, into the villa, and up to my room, then I would need all the energy I could muster. Besides, I wasn’t ready to let the previous night go. I replayed each memory over and over like a priceless vintage record that I would hold on to forever.
The last thing I’d expected to see when I snuck through the front door of my home hours later was a welcoming committee. My already-buzzing heart took a flying leap off a cliff I didn’t see coming. No safety net or pool would greet me at the bottom. As I stared into the faces of my parents and Thomas Bradshaw, the rocky pit of my fate glared back at me.
Thomas spoke first. “Good morning, Camila. I hear prom was quite the turn of events last night.”
My throat felt so constricted with fear that I couldn’t even offer a retort to his cold greeting. It felt like the end of everything I’d ever loved. All I could do was clutch my ribcage to try to quell the blinding ache.
I waited and waited for what felt like minutes as the angry eyes of my parents and Thomas stared back at me. Whether they were examining me or sizing me up, I didn’t know. They just stared, and I could only imagine what they were seeing—the hickeys on my neck, which I had planned to hide, my disheveled hair from a long night of lovemaking, my bare and dirty feet since I’d never retrieved my heels, and smeared lipstick from bruising kisses that had marked my heart and soul for eternity.
No matter what happened, I would never regret the previous night. We’d been reckless and wild, but we weren’t wrong. And that was how I would fight the war, with a determination to make them all see it my way.
“I know who you were with last night, young lady.”
The menace behind my papa’s words chilled me to the bone.
“What I don’t know,” he continued, “is why.”
Fear slithered through me as I wondered what lengths they would go to from then on to keep Ridge and me away from each other and turned to Mama for help. I hoped she would at least beg Papa to be kind, but as soon as our eyes met, she turned away, angling her gaze down. My chest squeezed at the knowledge that I had disappointed her too.
“Papa,” I started, willing my voice to stop shaking. “Papa, let me explain.”
“Explain?” The question burst from my papa’s mouth so fiercely that it felt like a slap in the face. “Explain why you burst through the door at nine in the morning, expecting no one to notice that you’ve been gone?” He gestured to me with a disgusted expression. “Looking like that?”
His booming voice lingered in the air before finally dying off, only to be followed by another terrifying roar. “There is no explaining this, young lady! You went off to a prom last night that you never attended. Then you ditched poor Trip, leaving him to fend for himself.”
“Trip hardly had to fend for himse—”
“Stop!” My papa’s voice hit a decibel I’d never heard him hit in my entire lifetime. His face was red and darkening by the second. “You’re missing the point.” Even with my mama’s firm hand clutching his, he balled it up into a fist and pushed himself off the couch.
I’d seen and heard how angry my papa could get with the vineyard workers over the years, but I’d never imagined that I would be the one in his direct line of fire.
Feeling desperate for support, I turned to my mama again. If anyone in the room would give it to me, she would. “Mama, please. I’m eighteen. I’m not a child anymore. I didn’t want to go to prom with Trip. I never did. I only said okay because I knew it was what you all wanted. But I can’t bend to your will anymore. This is my life. And last night was my choice.”
She stood next to my papa while Thomas continued to sit idly by, watching us, for whatever reason. Our discussion wasn’t his business, but somehow, he’d always made it so.
“Camila Grace Bell.” Her voice was much too quiet for my comfort. “I’m afraid there is nothing you can say right now to make this right.”
“But, Mama!” I cried.
“Stop with the begging!” my papa roared. “You may be eighteen years old, but you are still our child. And no child of ours will go galivanting around until all hours of the night with a Cross.”
“You cannot control who I love.” My voice was firm despite the nerves that were rattling through me.
A dramatic hush fell over the room. Even if they had all gathered that Ridge and I were more than friends, hearing me say the words aloud was the confirmation they’d never wanted.
Papa’s narrowed eyes shot darts back at me. “Love? You’re living in my home, eating food that came from my hard-earned money, and are all set up to go to your dream college with the tuition I am providing, and you have the nerve to tell me what I can and cannot control?”
“Then don’t send me to college. I don’t need to go to college. I can stay right here and work. And if you don’t want me to live here, then I’ll take the salary you pay me and get a place of my own.” My whole body shook.
Thomas looked bewildered at my suggestion. “That wasn’t what you and your father agreed to. If you’re going to run this vineyard one day, then the proper schooling is critical, not just for your experience, but also for our clients and investors.”
Papa nodded. “Absolutely. As my daughter and future heir to Bell Family Farm and Vineyard, you have a reputation to uphold and responsibilities to adhere to. If I’m to entrust this land to you, then I’m afraid there are steps you must follow in order to claim it.”
I glared at them, hating what their relationship had become, then my eyes zoned in on my papa. “What are you? His puppet? All Thomas does is order you around, and you believe every word of his gibberish. This vineyard is yours, not his. You make the rules, not him. Those clients are yours, not his. But you’re so tucked away between the vines that no one even knows you still exist!”
“That’s enough, Camila!” Mama took two steps forward, coming between us and pointing at me. “You disrespected this family by sneaking off all night long. Do not turn this around on your father.” Her eyes were as wild as the fire in my chest.
“I’m sorry my staying out all night upset you all, but I am not sorry that I did it. Your hatred for the Cross family is completely unjust. Even the Hatfield and McCoys sit back and laugh about the days of their crazy ancestors. The rivalry needs to end. Ridge and I are determined to make that happen.”
Thomas barked a laugh, causing all attention to turn to him as he stood. “You think you and your crush on the boy next door is going to end a century-old rivalry? The Crosses have disrespected your father and his land and his ancestors’ land for as long as they have existed. Don’t you see that by you befriending the boy, you’re betraying your own family?”
My papa nodded, his eyes focused on my reaction. Disgusted that Thomas even had a say in the fight, I ignored him and took a step closer to my parents.
“Papa,” I said, trying to dull the quiver in my voice, “I’m just asking for you to listen and trust me when I tell you that Ridge is a good person. A good friend. And I do love him.”
Thomas scoffed. “The only thing you know about love is the feeling you have inside when you’re getting yourself into trouble. And trouble is exactly what Ridge Cross is. Just like his father.”
Thomas’s words were so similar to words Papa had said the first time I asked him about Ridge at the farmer’s market that it was eerie, as if their opinion had been tattooed to their brains and no one could erase or make them change their minds. No logic could ease their fears about who Ridge Cross truly was. They didn’t care. All they cared about was maintaining the feud.
My chest heated with anger. “Ridge is nothing like Harold. You would know tha
t if you gave him a chance. Just because you have a problem with Harold shouldn’t make Ridge a target. He’s innocent in all of this, just like I am.”
My papa scoffed. “Innocent isn’t at all how he looks right now. Keeping my daughter through all hours of the night. Returning her like a used bag of potatoes.” He threw his hand up, gesturing to me with disgust. “He treated my daughter like a whore. Is that what you are to him?”
I gasped, the blows becoming more painful with each shot.
“Patrick!” my mama snapped before stepping in front of him. “Don’t speak to our daughter like that. Sit and calm down. We can discuss this like adults.”
My papa screamed something back at her until the two of them started bickering. I was too stunned by his words to hear anything they had to say to each other, stricken with the pain of what had come from the happiest night of my life, and my eyes were too blurry with tears to see clearly.
In those moments of silence that followed, Thomas Bradshaw saw himself out of our home, but not until his all-too-knowing eyes met mine and his whisper left a chill in his wake. “Whore.”
35
Ridge
Harold was already far out in the field, on a tractor, when I finally strolled up the drive, whistling old tunes that next morning. I had a smile on my face and a buzz in my heart, and for once, I didn’t feel like I had anything to hide and I had everything to celebrate.
Friendship with Camila had always felt so impossible—if not for her wild behavior or her nonstop chatter on the hillside, then for my growing attraction to her over the years. She endeared me in a way I didn’t think possible, with her insane curiosity for the land at our feet and the dreams she held so close to her heart. Those dreams had started to become mine too. Last night had felt like everything we’d ever been through or talked about had become one—one mind, one heart, and one soul. Not only did friendship feel possible now, but a deep love had bloomed from it.