Loren subconsciously floated in and out of conversation during the entire lunch. Her mind kept slipping away to the memory of Sam kissing her in the rain. Why did she keep doing this to herself? It was pure torture!
It would probably help if Sam would stop brushing his knuckles up against hers every chance he got. She even tried scooting her chair a little further over to the right to put a little more distance between them. He was doing his best to agitate her and she knew it. Too bad for her, he was succeeding.
At last a feeling of relief washed over her as Josh and Sam stood to announce that they were going to the barn. Sam wanted to show Josh his latest project in the wood shop.
Amy and Loren cleared the table and busied themselves in the kitchen cleaning up after lunch. Loren seemed to be lost in another time warp while wiping the plates dry and putting them away.
“Uh-Hum,” Amy cleared her throat to get Loren’s attention.
Loren peered at her mom with raised eyebrows. What?” She tried to sound as innocent as a child.
“Oh, I just thought you might want to tell your Mother what is bothering you.”
“Nothing is bothering me.” She paused, knowing that her mother could read her like a book. But even that didn’t stop her from asking the next question in an effort to hide her true feelings.
“Why would you think something is bothering me?”
“Loren, I have been your Mother for over twenty years and I know when something is bothering you.” Amy knew her daughter well and could plainly see that she was wearing her heart on her sleeve.
“Really Mom, I’m fine. There is nothing to talk about,” she said, keeping her tone as even as possible. Even so, her words still came out a little too harsh.
Seeing that Loren wasn’t ready to open up about her feelings for Sam, Amy decided to just drop it. “Fine, you can have it your way, but I am here for you if you decide that you do want to talk about it.” Her mother’s voice was very soft.
Amy rinsed the last plate and handed it to Loren, then wiped her hands dry and quietly left the kitchen, leaving Loren standing alone. There was no need to press the issue; she would talk when she was ready.
All this business with Sam was causing her to act strange. It had never been like her to use a sharp tone with her mother and after seeing the look of hurt on Amy’s face, she felt so ashamed. She wanted to call out after her, but she didn’t. She would make it a point to apologize later.
She finished tidying up in the kitchen and then made her way back out to the barn to catch up with everyone. She could hear nothing but the sound of hay crunching under her feet as she entered the shadows of the barn.
There was not even a slight sound of nickering from the horses. That was strange. Dakota always welcomed her with a soft neigh. She walked up to his stall and found that he was gone.
She looked around for other signs of her parents or Sam and saw her mother’s handwriting on the message board that hung to the right of the tack room door.
“Gone riding, be back in a few.
Love Mom, Dad, & Sam.”
At first Loren was furious that they would all take off riding without her. It was bad enough that they had ridden out without her, but taking her horse without asking? It left her feeling betrayed.
The reality of it all began to sink in as she read the scribbled note again. The hurt of being left out slowly washed over her.
Loren walked the short distance back to the house and upon reaching her destination, went straight to her room. She lay on the bed and hugged little teddy close.
Her heart was heavy as the tears began to spill onto her cheeks. This was not like her, but she couldn’t stop the sobs once they had started. She cried softly into her pillow until she finally fell asleep.
Chapter 12
Loren awoke sometime later in the evening. “What time is it?” she mumbled to herself, glancing at the bedside clock. The clock display showed 6:10 P.M. in big bold numbers. That meant she had slept for almost five hours.
Hearing laughter drift up from the living room below, Loren pushed her weight up off the bed and walked out into the hall to peer over the railing.
Sam, along with her mom and dad were sitting in the living room, munching on some pizza and watching some old movies. Oh Lord, was that an old movie of her as a little girl? She was sure that her parents must be crazy!
Sam heard her footsteps on the hardwood stairs and looked up at her as she descended down to the living room. Her eyes quickly met his. He knew in an instant that she was mad because her eyes looked as if she were about to shoot sapphire flames from them.
He cleared his throat and smiled, “Look who finally woke up? Would you like some pizza?” he offered, trying to lighten her mood.
It didn’t work. She walked right past him as if he hadn’t said one word, grabbed a light jacket and stalked out the door. He was guessing that she was headed for the barn.
Josh got up to go after her, but Sam stood up and gestured for him to sit back down.
“If you don’t mind, I would like to go talk to her. I think I might know what is bothering her,” Sam said, causing Josh to look questionably at Amy, just to have her nod in agreement that Sam should be the one to go after their daughter.
Donning his jacket, Sam quietly let himself out the front door. Then he headed straight for the barn, feeling certain that is where he would find her since she always seemed to turn to her horse for comfort when she was upset.
Once Sam was out the door and out of hearing distance, Josh turned back to Amy. “What the heck is going on?”
Amy was pretty sure that Loren was in love with Sam, and considering that she had never lied to her husband in all their years of marriage, she decided to just lay it out on the table as she saw it. Hopefully her husband would at least try to understand.
“Josh, I believe that Loren is in love with Sam.” She waited for a response, but he just sat there with a blank expression on his face.
“Josh, did you hear me?” Amy asked again when he didn’t answer.
“Yes I heard you, but I think you are dead wrong this time. They have only known each other for a very short time, seven days to be exact. That is hardly long enough to fall in love. Besides, I have known Sam for a very long time and I think he would tell me if he were in love with my daughter.”
Amy looked at him with a worried frown on her face before speaking. “That is all probably true, but I said that I thought that Loren was in love with Sam, not that they were in love with each other. And I would also like to remind you that we fell in love within one week of meeting and was married within two. So, yes she has had time to fall in love.”
With that new realization sinking into his mind, Josh grabbed his hat and jacket and headed for the door.
“Where do you think you are going?”
“I swear if he has touched my daughter, I will kill him.”
Amy quickly jumped up off the couch and met him at the door with the intention of stopping him.
“I think you should wait until we find out for sure if anything has happened between them,” she said, trying to buy some time.
He knew that she was right, but it was hard to force his body back down onto the couch to wait and find out if Sam had broken his little girl’s heart.
Amy also knew that it was very unlikely that Josh would kill Sam if he had broken Loren’s heart, because he didn’t have a violent bone in his body.
She could also tell that Josh was feeling torn between the daughter that he loved more than his own life and his long-time friend that he had come to love like his own son. She hadn’t spent all these years loving him so strongly without learning how to tell what he was feeling.
Sitting back down on the couch beside him, she took his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze, causing him to look at her. He tried to look away quickly, hoping she wouldn’t see the tears in his eyes, but it was too late. She had already seen them and it made her heart ache.
“Josh, p
lease don’t fret so much. Loren and Sam are both going to be fine. I feel it in my heart.”
She lied for his benefit, hoping to make him feel better and hoping that she was right all at the same time. Loren was growing up and they had to give her room to spread her wings. Isn’t that what they had done by giving her the ranch?
It had never crossed their minds that she might take a liking to the ranch and Sam. They both shared the same feeling that this was their own fault for asking Sam to stay. They continued to sit in silence, waiting for Loren to return.
Meanwhile, Sam entered the dark shadows of the barn. He had been sure that she would have come to the barn to seek solace with her horse, but the barn was dark and quite. There was no sign of her. But if she didn’t come to the barn, then where did she go?
He walked into the darkness and softly called out her name, “Loren? Are you in here?” There was no sound except for the echo of Sam’s own voice.
He waited. Still only silence surrounded him. He continued to move about in the darkness, listening for any sounds of disturbance. He approached the light switch to flip on the lights for better observance when he noticed that Dakota was not standing in his stall.
He quickly jumped to his own conclusions and guessed that she had ridden out in the darkness by herself. He couldn’t believe that she would be so stupid again, knowing the dangers that might be out there. Well, yes he could, he admitted to himself. Sam had quickly learned that Loren could be bold and stubborn when it suited her mood.
His first thought was to let things be. Let her learn a lesson in stupidity. That thought didn’t last long before he decided that he must go after her. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take him long to find her. He knew her parents would be crazy with worry. And if he admitted it, he was worried about her too. His heart was beating a mile a minute by now.
He proceeded to flip on the lights and that is when he saw her sitting in Dakota’s stall. Her horse was lying down with his head cradled in her lap and she was rubbing his neck ever so gently. She looked as if she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy and red, maybe even a little blood shot.
At first he felt relief wash over him, that she hadn’t ridden out by herself into the dark night. Then it occurred to him that something might be wrong with her horse. Acting upon that thought, he took some rather large steps to reach the stall door.
“Is something wrong with him? Is he hurt?” Sam asked, not sure what to think. The horse had seemed fine when Amy had ridden him earlier.
All kinds of things were running through his head. Did he have colic, had he been snake bitten, perhaps a twisted gut?
His voice startled the horse and it raised its head slightly. Loren patted him, giving him some reassurance that all was well.
When she looked up at Sam, she sensed that he was truly concerned. She felt her anger start to subside as she stared into the depths of his eyes. His eyes locked with hers, causing her issues with finding her voice. Finally, she tore her gaze from his and focused her eyes back on her horse before she tried to speak.
“No, he is fine. I have a very trusting relationship with him,” she explained.
Feeling relief once again, Sam just stood and watched her with him for a moment.
“Well now that I know you are okay, I will just go back and tell your parents you are fine and that you will be in shortly,” he said as he turned to leave.
“Do you want to come in and sit with us?” Her question surprised him.
What he didn’t know was that the question surprised her as much as it did him. She wasn’t sure where it had come from. She supposed that it must have floated up from her subconscious mind. But it was too late to retract on it now. Maybe he would just say no, and leave her alone.
Her mind seemed to become so unfocused when he was around. Who was she kidding; she could barely breathe when in his presence, let alone think.
She felt like she had been let off the hook when he turned to leave without saying another word. He flipped the lights back off. Good she thought. She liked it in the better in the dark anyway.
She listened for his retreating footsteps, but never heard them. She was sure she should be able to hear them because she had heard him when he had come in, but after a few moments of silence, she figured that he must have walked softer on his way out.
Then, just when she thought he was gone, she heard the latch to Dakota’s stall being lifted up causing her heartbeat to pick up a faster pace. All she could see in the darkness was his shadowed frame as he entered the stall, moving slowly trying not to startle the horse again.
He sat down so close to her that his hard muscled thigh touched hers. Loren could feel the scorching heat of his skin through her jeans. Her heart felt like it was about to pop out of her chest, it was beating so fast.
Deciding that this was her moment to enjoy, Loren reached over and took Sam’s hand in her own and placed it on Dakota’s face. She let her own hand linger a moment over his before removing it. The contact caused that tingling sensation to start up again in the pit of her stomach.
Dakota lay still, loving all of the attention he was getting with Sam scratching his ears and Loren rubbing his neck. The horse seemed to be in pure heaven.
Sam knew that he should not have taken her up on the invitation, but he couldn’t make himself refuse. Just being this close to her could only be described as torture.
Smelling the faint hint of her perfume along with the way she had let her hand linger over his was absolutely driving him mad. All he could think about was taking her in his arms right here and right now and making love to her like he had never loved a woman before. Sitting this close to her was making it hard to keep his body in control.
His self-control only lasted a moment longer when he turned to look at her and found himself staring into eyes that had turned a smoky blue.
Without further thought, he positioned his right arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, keeping his eyes fixed on hers. He waited a few seconds to give her the opportunity to pull away, but when she didn’t, he lowered his mouth softly to hers.
Sam kissed her very slowly until he felt her lips part, then he pressed his lips firmer to hers and plunged his tongue into her mouth for a deeper more intimate kiss.
They were both so caught up in the kiss that they had not even noticed when Dakota had moved to a standing position and was now munching on some hay.
Loren knew she should not be responding to his kiss the way that she was. The problem was that she was beyond controlling how she felt about this man. She wrapped her arms around Sam’s neck as he moved her so that she was sitting in his lap, her legs wrapped around his waist, facing him.
Feeling as if his veins were on fire, he ran his hands up and down her back, his lips never leaving hers. He was slowly stoking the fires raging within.
Loren was so caught up in the passionate kiss that she didn’t even realize that she had begun a rhythmic grinding against him. When she felt the pressure of Sam’s manhood pressing against her bottom, it should have scared her, but instead it intensified the passion that had begun to build inside her body.
Lost in his need for her, Sam moved one hand around to cup her left breast, feeling the nipple respond to his touch as it tightened against the fabric of her shirt. He heard the catch in her breath as if his touch shocked her, but she still showed no sign of stopping him as he slowly caressed her breast through the thin fabric, making it tauter with each stroke of his thumb and forefinger.
He was not really sure how far she was going to let him go but he knew that he could not let this get too far out of control or there would be no turning back. Not that he wanted to turn back, but what if her parents came looking for them?
With that thought lingering in the back of his mind, he slipped his hand inside her shirt and felt the warmth of her skin against his palm. Her breast was small, but firm. She arched her back, and a soft moan escaped her mouth between kisses. She thought she heard Sam telling her that the
y should stop, but she refused to listen. She didn’t want this moment to end.
“Loren, we have to stop,” he pleaded against the warmth of her lips.
She heard his voice again, and this time he was pushing her back away from him enough so that he could see her face. She opened her eyes and slowly began to bring his face back into focus.
The look of passion in her eyes was tearing him up inside. He wanted to make love to her more than any woman he had ever been attracted to before, but a horse stall was not the place and now was not the time.
She leaned forward to kiss him again, but he held her back far enough so that she could only brush her lips against his.
“This is madness, baby. We can’t make love here and I think we would both agree that now is not the time.”
“The way you make me feel is total madness,” she whispered against his lips, refusing to be in agreement with him.
This was killing him. He had to stop this now before he lost total control, so he abruptly set her off his lap and proceeded to stand.
Once again, Loren was feeling a little embarrassed, but she stood when he offered his hand and let him pull her to a standing position directly in front of him.
He pulled her close to him for one last taste of her sweet kisses and she responded by pressing her body closer to his as he moved his mouth over hers.
Using all the self-control that he had left, he pulled away and nudged her towards the stall door. If he didn’t get her back to the house soon, he was afraid that her parents would really come looking for them.
Loren didn’t want to go, but knew that Sam would stand firm on his decision that now was not the time. She let him lead her back to the house. As they reached the front porch, Loren stopped walking and turned to look at him.
“This is not over Mr. Sam Burton; not by a long shot.”
He just stood there staring at her because he could think of nothing to say. Satisfaction washed over Loren when the expression on his face revealed that she had rocked his world as much as he had rocked hers and it was only the beginning.
“Are you coming in?” Loren asked when he did not reply to her comment.
SECOND CHANCES AT MG RANCH Page 7