She turned her head so that her lips were at his neck, and Lila gave him a soft kiss. Bo let out a sigh, signaling his growing desire to match the erection she could feel straining against her leg. Lila kissed him again on the neck and then drew her tongue upwards until she was teasing his earlobe with her teeth.
He pulled away, a growl in his throat, and smothered her with a kiss so hard that Lila nearly lost her balance. But his arms were there to catch her. Bo pulled away just as she was starting to deepen the kiss by tasting his top lip with her tongue. She was amazed to see tears in his eyes.
“I need you, Lila—now,” he said, passion and desperation battling equally for control of his heart and body.
“Then take what you need from me,” she said breathlessly, and pressed her body against his.
Bo wound his fingers into her short hair, and Lila thought he was going to kiss her again, probably until she passed out. Instead, he merely put his forehead against hers for a few seconds before taking her by the hand and leading her back out of the rickhouse.
Their destination was not his new truck so he might spirit her away to his house, but rather his office in the visitors’ center.
“Bo…” she muttered between kisses as he backed her into his office. “Here?”
“No one’s here, remember?” he said, and locked the door behind him, then crossed his office to close the blinds, immediately darkening the room. Lila took her coat off and threw it on a nearby wooden chair.
“But the couch is a bit small,” she fretted, and pointed to the piece of furniture.
He grinned—a nearly evil grin—and started pulling the seat cushions from the couch and tossing them negligently around his office. When Bo reached for a small handle sticking out of the bottom of the couch, she started to laugh.
“I had no idea that thing was a fold-out,” she said, and helped him pull the bed out.
“I’d almost forgotten about it. In fact, I’ve never used the fold-out portion.”
“I’m happy to help you break it in.”
Bo put his hands under her sweater and turtleneck and pulled them off over her head before she could protest or catch her breath. His fingers then found the back of her skirt and he undid the zipper. Her skirt dropped straight away, making a small plop as it hit the floor.
As Lila adjusted to her sudden near-nakedness, Bo was tearing off layers of his clothing and tossing them thither and yon. She barely had time to slip out of her shoes before Bo was upon her, wearing nothing but his boxers.
Then he drew back, cursing under his breath.
When she asked what was wrong, he grabbed his shirt, which had draped itself over the edge of his desk.
“Not prepared,” he said simply.
When understanding registered on Lila’s face, she shook her head. “Yes, we are,” she said. “I am, remember?”
“But—are you sure?”
Her kiss was his answer and he dropped his shirt.
They fell onto the bed together, still partially clothed, but grabbing and clawing at what little scraps of covering they still had on their bodies. Soon they were completely naked, and Bo’s broad, rough hands were on her breasts, her torso, her hips, her ass—caressing, massaging, exploring, and reclaiming her with a fierce and needy passion. When he finally slipped two fingers inside her, Lila groaned in satisfaction; she had missed his touch so much. Her hips moved to meet his hand and she clenched against him before wrapping her fingers around his wrist.
“You...all of you…inside me…” she whispered as his hand fell from her body.
He was more than happy to comply. Bo positioned himself over Lila and easily entered her. His face hovered inches above Lila’s and she marveled at his expression as he savored their complete and intimate connection. Although his eyes were closed, his face still told a story. His lips were slightly parted, with the beginning of a grin lingering there, and she sensed he was committing the sweet experience to memory, as was she. His eyes slowly opened and a broad smile spread across his face. It was an expression she rarely saw him wear, and none could have been more welcome and meaningful to her at that moment.
At first he moved slowly, and she enjoyed the languid and natural rhythm of their love. But soon that need which had almost overwhelmed him in the rickhouse returned, and he moved faster and faster. Lila was his match, and thrust her hips upward to meet his strokes with equal want and passion as she felt herself climbing toward that blissful peak. She wrapped her small legs around his waist as Bo kissed and nipped at the side of her neck, and he moaned appreciatively as she tightened her legs and drew him even closer. Bo buried himself deeper inside her, each thrust harder and more powerful than the last. The pleasure that she had felt building unspooled and exploded, and she clenched repeatedly and hard around Bo, unable to do anything but shudder in his arms. Then it was Bo’s turn, and with one more thrust finally spilled himself inside her for the first time. He collapsed on top of Lila, panting and spent. She put her arms around him and held him for what felt like hours.
After snuggling into Bo’s side and nodding off for a short while, Lila awoke because she was freezing. They had absolutely nothing to cover themselves and were completely naked on the foldout bed. Unwilling to shiver any further, she got up and retrieved their coats before falling into a deep sleep.
Lila woke to the sensation of Bo caressing her cheek, and opened her eyes to see his face inches from hers. Several hours must have passed, judging by the complete lack of natural light filtering in through the closed blinds.
“I’m starving,” was the first thing she thought to say.
Bo laughed, then kissed her gently. “Thanks.”
“For what?” she asked.
“For being with me today.”
“Thanks aren’t necessary.” She sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed. “But I will let you buy me dinner.”
“How generous of you,” he mocked. She threw her coat at him playfully, leaving herself completely exposed. “Shouldn’t have done that,” he warned, and reached for her.
“Hungry!” she cried, and hopped off the bed.
“Me, too,” he said, and watched her as she picked up her clothes and started getting dressed.
She shimmied into her panties and smiled at him. “If you’re a good boy, you can have a late night snack.”
“Can we please be together tonight?” he asked, turning very serious.
Naked and hunched, Bo sat on the edge of the bed, still looking sad and vulnerable despite their lovemaking. Their joining had eased his tension, but not banished it. Lila went to him, cradled his head between her breasts, and kissed the top of his head.
“Anything you need,” she said.
“It’s all right here,” he told her, and held her tightly around the waist.
Chapter 24
It was nearly seven before they reached The Windmill. As they parked, they saw Hannah and Kyle coming out, followed by Goose and Lucy.
“Where did you two disappear to?” Hannah asked as they stood outside the entrance to the diner.
“Distillery,” Bo said. “Old rickhouse,” he said.
Lila saw Hannah nod, and knew that Hannah understood exactly where her brother had gone and why. Nonetheless, Lila was glad it was sufficiently dark so no one could see her blushing. Didn’t Hannah question whether they’d spent all their time in that rickhouse? Maybe the fog of grief had clouded her usually suspicious and inquisitive nature.
After some hugs, the groups went their separate ways and Lila and Bo were soon ensconced in the booth along the far wall, furthest from the door. Lila was happy to be that far away from the entrance since she could not shake the chill she’d gotten when she had fallen asleep after making love. In fact, she was so cold that she initially didn’t remove her coat when they sat, and stayed huddled and trembling in her parka for several minutes. Bo offered to sit next to Lila, but she demurred and instead promised him that he could keep her warm later.
“You’r
e making a lot of promises I hope you’re prepared to keep,” he said after the waitress delivered glasses of water and vinyl-covered menus to them.
“I will be ready, willing, and able,” she said as she turned her attention to the menu.
After ordering burgers and fries, they held hands across the table in a comfortable silence tinged by sadness.
“Bo, what will happen at the distillery now that your mother won’t be around?” she asked as she looked at their interlocked hands.
“Won’t be the same, that’s for sure,” he sighed. “We’ll have to get someone new to deal with all the tour guides and manage the gift shop. She was irreplaceable in so many ways.”
Lila hadn’t even thought of those roles; her question was really directed to how the distillery would operate now that Emma’s shares were going to probably be inherited by her children. And she wondered how Emma had left that very important six percent. All to Hannah? Or still apportioned so that Bo would be in control? She dared to ask the question, but Bo didn’t seem to mind.
“She’d said different things—I think she changed her mind about it quite often. The last time she brought it up, she said she planned to leave five percent to Hannah and one percent to me, although I haven’t actually seen her latest will. I think Dad wanted her to leave it all to me, but she said if that’s what he wanted, he should’ve done it in his own will. I really have no idea what she ended up doing.”
Lila did the math. If Hannah inherited as Bo described, she would have equal control of the distillery.
“And to answer the question you’re about to ask,” Bo said, and took a sip of water, “is that if Hannah and I end up with equal ownership, we’ll have to find a way to get along if we want to keep the distillery a going family concern. Neither of us would have the money to buy the other out, and the only other option if one of us wanted to walk away would be to sell to some third party.”
“Like some big conglomerate,” Lila muttered.
“I’d like to think that it would never come to that, but I’m not stupid. I know that would be a possibility.”
“Would you sell?” Lila said.
“Only under the worst of circumstances, like if the distillery was about to go under or a new half-owner tried to sue me or something to get me out. I’d probably fight it at first, but—”
“You’d really walk away?” Lila asked incredulously.
“Yes, if I saw my distillery becoming something I no longer recognized and loved. That would kill me,” he said, “but I really don’t think it would come to that. Hannah and I can fight like cats and dogs, but we would never let anything happen to Old Garnet.”
“It sure will be interesting to see you two work as equals.”
“Oh, Hannah’s more than my equal,” Bo told her with a chuckle. “It’s just that now I won’t be her boss.”
“And you’re not only going to have to listen to her, but probably compromise with her on a regular basis.”
“Exactly,” Bo said, and moved one hand to finger his silverware, which was still wrapped tightly in a paper napkin with a little paper cinch.
“You’re not real good at the compromise thing, Bo,” she said.
“That’s what you said about yourself when it came to the trust thing,” he pointed out. “But here we are,” and he squeezed Lila’s hand.
“So if I can change, you can, too?” she asked.
“That was my mother’s last wish, Lila,” he said, and paused. “And, as you noted earlier today, I need to listen to my mother.”
After dinner, they went back to Lila’s house and spent the rest of the evening together, making love once more and falling asleep in a spooning position. Bo held Lila so tightly even while he was ostensibly asleep that she almost found it uncomfortable. But she dared not move away from him or try to loosen his grip. She knew that he needed her in that primal way, and she was more than willing to give herself. It actually felt good to be the one giving the comfort instead of being the one bereaved.
She dozed, marveling at the things she had become more than willing to give Bo—her trust, her body, her love. But the one thing she was not prepared to give him was the land. Did that make her a hypocrite? Why couldn’t she get past that issue? This worry pestered her until she fell into a deep sleep, warm and contented in the arms of the man she loved.
Bo did not leave Lila until early the next morning. They awoke at about the same time, had breakfast together in her kitchen, and then Bo went home. Since she already had the day off from school (she’d originally thought another day might be necessary to help the Davenports after Emma’s burial), she spent her time doing routine errands and chores. In mid-afternoon, she had a text message from Drake, her attorney, asking her to come in to talk. Important was his response when she asked whether they couldn’t just talk about it over the phone. So they set an appointment for very late in the afternoon, after Lila finished her to-do list, which had included taking a nap.
“I’m sorry to call you in like this,” Drake apologized and closed his office door behind Lila, “but this is the kind of conversation that an attorney and client really need to have face-to-face.”
“OK, now you’ve got me worried,” she said, and slowly sat down in a chair in front of Drake’s desk.
Drake was a very attractive man in his mid-thirties. Blonde and with high cheekbones and a squinty stare, he resembled a surfer who had lost his way and somehow ended up practicing law in the middle of Kentucky, even though he was a native to the area. But that day his features were contorted with worry. And that worry immediately translated into anxiety in the pit of Lila’s stomach.
“We got an order in the case the other day. I didn’t call you earlier about it because I knew you were dealing with Mrs. Davenport’s death,” he said. “I guess you’re going out again with Bo, even though I’ve cautioned you about that and talking to him about the case.”
Considering that she’d had sex with her opposing party twice in the last twenty-four hours and that he’d almost taken her in the rickhouse, she wanted to scream that they weren’t merely going out together. Her nerves were getting the better of her, so she shook off Drake’s comment on her personal life. She’d told him that she and Bo had broken up, a notion which had seemed to somehow reassure Drake, although Lila was not prepared to share with him the extent and details of her reconciliation with Bo.
“Spit it out, Drake,” she demanded and moved to the edge of her seat.
He held out the order over his desk so she could take it. “The judge ruled on the parties’ motions for reconsideration. And he gave Bo what he wanted.”
Lila wouldn’t take the order from Drake and stared at him, a fury building inside her. “He did what?”
“Bo got everything he wanted, Lila,” Drake said with a sigh. “He’s got a new property boundary that’s well into the springs. We can appeal if you want, but we really need to settle this thing.”
“Bo got everything he wanted? Why? I don’t understand.”
“The judge said he made a mistake looking at one of the surveys, which was the argument Bo made.”
Lila looked at the ground, disbelieving and lost. Bo had what he wanted. He would have the land he needed to build the rickhouse he desperately craved. But would he build it? After the things he had said to her in the rickhouse yesterday? And after what his own mother had told him?
She honestly didn’t know the answer to these questions. They had both expected that the judge wouldn’t alter his decision or, if he did, the change wouldn’t be that much. Neither of them was prepared for this development.
“Lila,” Drake said, and came out from behind his desk, “I strongly suggest that we try to settle and appeal at the same time. I think that strategy would best protect your interests and—”
“Appeal? That could take years, couldn’t it? Not to mention the expense,” she added.
“I’ll talk to Jon,” Drake said, and then started outlining some kind of settlement plan
and the timeframe for filing a timely appeal.
But Lila wasn’t paying attention. She had to talk to Bo, her fears and qualms about doing so now completely brushed aside by a new reality neither anticipated. Did he know already? That seemed very unlikely; maybe Jon had held onto this same information until after Emma’s funeral. And she wasn’t going to tell Drake she was going to talk to Bo. She knew that he’d try to talk her down, and that would be a waste of his time. Worse, if he realized he couldn’t handle his client, he might try to withdraw from her case. Lila knew that she still needed representation, and wasn’t prepared to overtly contradict her attorney’s advice and instructions.
“…So, with your approval, that’s the proposal I’d like to make to Jon. I think it stops the litigation, and you two more or less walk away from each other in the same position you were. Bo doesn’t get the land he wants, and you give up just a sliver of it, like what the first order gave Bo. Because if this thing goes up on appeal, even though I think we have a good chance of winning, there’s no guaranteed outcome.”
She didn’t listen any further and nodded her uninformed approval. Lila wanted to leave and go home. She took a copy of the new order with her, and wondered whether she should go straight to see Bo at the distillery.
“What kind of idiot is he?” Hannah yelled.
Bo had just informed his sister that he had, much to his complete surprise, won the case. Jon had called and given him the news, and then emailed him a copy of the judge’s order. The email came with a warning however: “We should settle this because Lila will appeal this kind of loss. She won’t accept it.”
“I assume you’re talking about the judge?” Bo said, and handed Hannah a copy of the decision.
Angels' Share (Bourbon Springs Book 3) Page 22