by Lexi Post
“Honestly, I agree with you.”
They walked toward the door together, the locals watching as they left. Vince had a feeling that by tomorrow morning, everyone would know they had returned to Daisy Creek. He just hoped that didn’t hurt their investigation. Then again, both being from the area would make it look like a reunion.
Did Rachel see it that way?
~~~~~
Rachel rode into the barn, tired from a long day of work. Her shirt was filthy and sweat trickled down between her breasts, making her bra itch. Sam had called to say he needed to stay home with Eva who had a fever, so she’d ridden out with her men.
She hoped Eva wasn’t too sick. The poor girl seemed to attract illnesses and broken bones like flowers attracted bees.
Dismounting from Foxglove, she unsaddled him and brought him to the cleaning station. Picking up the curry comb, she started to brush him down when her gaze landed on Vince’s truck.
Shit, she’d hoped he’d be gone by now. How could a man find out so much about people simply by using a computer? What happened to chasing down the bad guys and breaking into their homes with a warrant? Shouldn’t he be tailing her hacker or something?
Foxglove looked back at her.
“Sorry, sweetie. Was I a little too rough?”
He stared at her a moment longer then faced forward again.
She patted him. “See, that’s what happens when I have Vince on my mind. I can’t concentrate on anything.”
She managed to focus on Foxglove for a few more minutes before her mind wandered again. Not everything about Vince bothered her. In fact, that was the problem. There was too much about him that she loved.
Between his hard toned body, good heart, and intelligence, she was overwhelmed by him. She simply had no defense against him. “It’s only been twenty-four hours since that man walked back into my life and already I’m tripping over my own thoughts.”
She forced herself to be gentle. It wasn’t Foxglove’s problem that she ruined her only chance at real love. “Vince doesn’t appear to be angry with me.” She snorted. “But he’s a cowboy and he’d be polite no matter what. I don’t want polite. I want him to get angry or just take me in his arms and kiss me already.” She froze and looked around the barn.
She relaxed when she confirmed she was alone. “Yeah, like you’ve given him any time to get near you.” She moved to the other side of Foxglove, just the sound of her own voice helping her sift through her thoughts. “What are you afraid of, Rae? That he’ll say no way, Jose? You broke my heart once, why would I let you in again?”
She brushed along her horse’s back. “You know what I think, Foxglove? I think he’s more man than I am.” Ah shit, listen to her now. That had to be one of the stupidest statements she’d made in years. Vince really did mess up her brain.
She needed to think about something entirely different like the fact that no new breaks had appeared in the fences or that Crystal had called that morning to make sure she was okay. Her sister’s anger over the lost bull did make her feel better. The fact that Crystal said she’d get on the phone with the insurance company was also a relief.
When the Sheriff came over yesterday after Vince called him, Rachel had the feeling he wasn’t really listening. Either Vince had told him all the particulars, or he wasn’t that concerned. He seemed overly confident they would find her bull.
She chuckled. All they had to do is look for a messed up pick-up truck to figure out who took Matterhorn. It wasn’t as if her bull was docile or anything.
She finished rubbing down Foxglove then moved him into his stall. She gave him his feed and snatched an apple from a basket she had on a shelf nearby. “Here you go, sweetie. I’m sorry I was too rough.”
Foxglove took the offered treat between his teeth and moved toward his feed, chewing as he went.
She closed the stall door and leaned against it. There was no more avoiding the inevitable. She had to go into the house. She stared unseeing at the stall across the way, the light in the barn was low as the open barn doors faced eastward and the sun was far west now.
As she focused, her pulse increased. The memory of her and Vince making love in that stall hit her clear and hot. They’d come in from a ride and he lifted her off her horse. It was Honey back then, her old Palomino.
His touch had been possessive and anxious, but they’d taken care of their mounts first. Then he’d literally swept her off her feet and pulled her into the stall. In their haste to get their clothes off, she’d tripped and fallen into him. He’d been standing on one leg to toe-off his boot and they went down together, him cushioning her from the prickly straw.
They laughed before they kissed and because they hadn’t even grabbed a blanket, he lay beneath her, his bare butt on his shirt giving her a place for her knees as she rode him. They’d come together, his mouth catching her moans of pleasure so her parents wouldn’t hear.
She shook her head to dispel the image, but her body remembered. “Great. Now I get to walk in the house hornier than a cottontail and try to resist the man.”
She pushed away from Foxglove’s stall, unbuckled her chaps and hung them on a peg outside the tack room. She strode toward the house. What she needed was a cold shower. What her body wanted was a hot bath. What her heart wanted was her bed, with Vince in it.
Frustrated, she stomped up the porch steps and opened the screen door and front door. As soon as she stepped inside, she slowed as the coolness of the air conditioning hit her. After riding hard all day, something she rarely had to do anymore, the temperature of the house refreshed her.
She closed the door then headed for the kitchen. The scent of beef stew wafted by. She hadn’t seen Crystal’s car out there. Vince wasn’t cooking, was he?
Stepping into the kitchen, she halted. Lord have mercy! Vince stood at her stove in a red checkered shirt and tight blue jeans that hugged his ass beautifully. He was in the process of lifting a wooden spoon to his lips and tasting its contents.
The need to taste his lips rose hard. She grabbed the door frame to keep herself in place.
“I ran a bath for you.” Vince turned and faced her, a small smile on his lips. “After a day of riding, I thought you might enjoy one.” His gaze moved from her face, to her dirty shirt, to her jeans and dust covered boots.
Oh shit. Her body responded to his look like a mare in heat. Her clothes were suddenly too confining and she took a step forward as if propelled by instinct. She wrapped her arms around her waist to keep herself from moving closer. “Thank you.”
She should say more, but her mouth didn’t want to work. Neither did her legs as she told them to back away. Luckily, her stomach rumbled, letting them both know she was hungry. She flushed and pointed behind her. “I’ll head upstairs now.”
Tearing her gaze from his smiling eyes, she turned on her heel and practically ran out of the room to the stairs. She took the steps two at a time, anxious to put space between her and Vince. She was in big trouble. She just couldn’t think with him around.
She made it to her bedroom, which had once been her parents’. It now sported lavender walls and deep purple bedding, very different from her mother’s white and pink. She dropped her hat on her dresser and stripped as she walked, unable to get her clothes off fast enough. Leaving a trail behind her, she opened the door to the master bath and sighed.
Closing the bathroom door with one hand, she tugged the elastic from her braid with the other. The beige colored soaking tub was full of bubbles, and the lavender scent she loved filled the room.
She didn’t even put her hair up, too weary and too tempted by the bath waiting for her to care. Besides, it needed washing too.
She tested the water with her hand. It was warm, not too hot, and perfect for a soak. Stepping in, she lowered herself into the bubbles with a loud moan of contentment.
“I could get used to this.”
She closed her eyes and let the water soothe her aching muscles. If Vince hoped to sway her
with kindness, he needn’t have bothered. She already knew how kind he was, but she sure as heck didn’t mind.
Slipping under the water, she wet her hair then pulled herself up to rest her arms on the indents of the tub. Her mom had insisted on the large tub, saying she wanted to pamper herself once in a while, but Rachel knew her mother bought such a large one so her father could use it. And he had.
Would Vince like it, now that he’d seen it? She opened her eyes and scanned the room. He had to go through her bedroom to get to this bathroom. What had he seen? Frantically, she tried to remember if she’d left underwear on the floor or made her bed.
She groaned and closed her eyes. No, she hadn’t made her bed and she was ninety-percent sure there were clothes on her floor when she’d left to ride out this morning. “Well, too bad. That’s just who I am. The man probably thinks he dodged a bullet when I broke it off with him. Good. That means he shouldn’t be mad at me then.”
At that thought, her heart squeezed. She definitely still loved him. The question was, did she love the man she remembered or the man he was now?
“I brought you some blackberries to hold you over until dinner.” Vince’s voice, so close to her ear, had her eyes popping open.
Chapter Five
Rachel covered her breasts with her arms, but it didn’t matter, the bubbles did a good job of hiding her naked body. “What are you doing in here?”
He settled his fine ass on the side of the tub. “We need to talk.”
“What? Now? I’m kind of busy.” She brought her hand out of the water to gesture to the bubbles.
“You’re always busy. This is the only way I could think of to keep you in one place long enough for us to settle a few things.”
She’d never thought of him as underhanded, but she should have. He was an undercover detective. He always had to be one step ahead. Shit, he was leap years ahead of her. “Fine. So talk.”
He shook his head. “No, we need to talk. First though, you need some blackberries or your stomach will be drowning out our words.”
She felt the heat rise in her cheeks again. Her mom had always said it was unladylike for a woman’s body to make noise. “Where’d you get the blackberries?”
He shrugged. “From the west side of the house. Your bushes are full of them.”
She’d completely forgotten the blackberries were ripe. She needed to add that to her growing list of things to do tomorrow.
“Open your mouth.” Vince held a single blackberry in front of her.
She lifted her right hand from the water again. “I can feed myself.”
“With lavender water? No, open your mouth.”
She stared into his brown eyes and gave up. The man could be more stubborn than Matterhorn. Now might be a good time to find out what he’d discovered about her bull. She opened her mouth and he popped the berry in. The sweet tartness of the fruit splashed across her tongue as she bit down on it.
Wow, she’d forgotten how good the first berries of the season tasted. When she finished chewing, he held another berry before her.
Giving him a disgruntled look that he had to feed her, she opened her mouth again.
This time he slid the berry in, his fingertips touching her lips. The scent of beef stew broke through the lavender cloud as she closed her mouth, suddenly aware of the motion of her lips as he stared at them.
There was a tension in Vince’s face that she remembered. It was the look he had when his body reacted to hers. Was that how he looked at other women as well? She glanced at his hands. There was no ring of any kind, but since he went undercover that may not mean anything.
Before he could feed her another berry, she turned her head and spoke. “Are you married?”
His brows rose. “No.” He pushed another berry between her lips.
Subtle she wasn’t. Didn’t he want to know if she had someone in her life? Maybe he didn’t care. She watched his eyes. He may not care about her, but he was definitely attracted to her.
Vince held another berry in front of her. She opened her mouth and this time as he slid it in, she purposefully closed her lips around his fingers.
Was that a sudden tension she saw in his jaw? Knowing she could affect him as much as he affected her had her feeling a bit more at ease.
He slipped another berry into her mouth, his gaze not leaving her lips. “You never told me it was my job you couldn’t handle. Why didn’t you?”
His eyes were so intense, it took her brain a minute to override the heat in her body. “I didn’t want you to have to choose between me and your job. Besides, it wasn’t just that. I told you the truth. I just couldn’t divide myself that many ways. Dad’s death meant I had to run the ranch and then Mom was diagnosed with cancer and Crystal was suspended from school for drugs. I couldn’t even handle that. I had to get Crystal to a therapist because I didn’t have the time she needed in order to help her.”
Vince’s face changed as he put the bowl of berries aside. “I told you I could help.”
“I know.” Her need to make him understand without hurting him more had her softening her voice. “But your time wasn’t your own. Your department needed you and one day I might be able to depend on you but the next you’d be called to go undercover and I’d be left with more to do than I expected. I wasn’t at a maturity level to handle that.”
His face had become hard and a spot near his jaw twitched. “If you told me that, I could have made arrangements.”
She sighed. “And those arrangements might be you leaving the force and the work you loved.”
“Loved?” His voice was harsh. “Sure, getting the bad guys was a rush, but the number of innocents I saw killed or forced into prostitution or shot up with drugs… it felt like a losing battle.” The tic in his cheek became more pronounced. “All I wanted was to come home from the job to something good and untarnished.”
Her heart constricted at his words. “I didn’t know.”
“No, you didn’t. And I would have never told you.” His gaze moved above her head as if he’d forgotten he spoke to her. “I would have protected you from all the scum and ugliness I saw every day. The stabbing of men accused of being disloyal, the children that ran drugs, the women raped for the fun of it.” His eyes reconnected with hers. “You could have erased it all.”
She felt her eyes smart with tears. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t strong enough.”
He bent forward and took her shoulders in his hands. “You were strong, are strong. That’s why I loved you.”
At his declaration, her stomach tightened around the berries and threatened to eject them all. Her throat restricted her voice to the point she could only whisper. “I loved you, too.”
Vince gazed into her eyes as if he would look into her soul. Then, without warning, he pulled her up against his chest and kissed her.
It wasn’t the gentle kisses he’d given her in the past. This was raw hunger and hurt and pain.
She grasped him around the waist and opened for him, letting him find solace as their tongues clashed. His need for her fired off a string of sparks and she held him tight, her wet breasts pressed against the cotton of his shirt.
Vince broke the kiss only to pull her to her feet and sweep her soaking wet, into his arms. He walked through the open door of the bathroom and placed her on the bed, his whole body covering hers as soon as her back hit her crumpled sheets.
His mouth took hers again and the fire at her core sent heat to every nerve in her body. His belt buckle pressed on her naked belly, yet she pushed her hips against his jean clad legs, wanting the clothes barrier between them gone.
She’d been fooling herself to think she did the right thing so long ago. He was the other half of her whole.
He broke their kiss, only to move lower and latch onto her breast. His tongue swept around her areola before his teeth nibbled at her hardened tip. She clutched his head in her hands, his short hair stimulating her palms even as his shirt rubbed against the juncture of her thigh
s. Her entrance moistened with her desire.
She lifted one leg and wrapped it around him, trying to get closer, needing his skin against her.
“Rae,” he spoke against her breast, his voice gruff with wanting. “I need you.”
Her heart thudded hard in her chest, tears threatening at the silent plea in his voice. “Come to me.”
Vince pulled himself back until he stood. Reaching into his back pocket, he took out a condom and ripped it open with his teeth as he unbuckled his pants with his other hand. Unzipping his jeans, he lowered them and his underwear just enough to release his full package.
He pressed the condom on his tip and looked at her as he rolled it on. “I can’t wait.”
Her sheath flooded at his words. She lifted her arms.
With a groan he lay over her again then lifted his hips to position his hard tip at her opening. His hands held her head and as his mouth descended toward hers, his cock entered her.
Rachel wrapped her arms around Vince, pulling him closer, lifting her hips to fully encase him inside her. She welcomed him home with her body and her heart. She sucked on his tongue inside her mouth as her sheath tightened around him.
Vince moved away and she whimpered as he left her. But he drove himself into her again, pushing her into the bed as he thrust to the hilt and held her there.
His mouth left hers to kiss her chin, her neck, her shoulder even as his hips pulled back again and he pushed into her, sliding against the pleasure points within her.
“Yes.” His roughened voice whistled through her like an aphrodisiac, rebounding through her brain and into her heart. His mouth found her breast again and he sucked gently, lightly tugging at her nipple as he pulled himself out, only to let go her breast as he thrust home again.
She burrowed her hands beneath his shirt, desperate to feel his skin. Her right hand brushed over two bumps before she kneaded her fingers into the hard muscles of his back. The feel of his strength as his muscles bunched and moved with his thrusts made her feel small beneath him.
Every thrust pushed her closer to her climax. The rocking of his clothed body against her naked skin sensitized her from the outside while inside his cock sent bursts of pleasure that spread throughout her.