“That’s good.” I hate small talk, he knows I hate small talk. I turn away from him again to pick up a brush Lainey Rai left off its hook.
“Son.” His voice is firm, he wants me to stop what I’m doing and look at him.
Trying to be casual, I put the brush on its hook before I turn to him. “Yeah.”
“I don’t think she’s a bad person, but I do think she’s been put in a bad position.”
Not knowing what he wants me to say to that, I just stare at him. How am I supposed to respond?Good, because I can’t get her out of my fucking mind, and after last night and this morning, all I can think about is laying her down and fucking her until she can’t walk.
Or should I say,I don’t want her to go all the way to another state, so I want to mark her in every way possible so no one else will look at her.
Or even better,I want to make her come so many times that when she leaves, she can’t stop thinking about me.
Instead, I look at him until he takes a deep breath and nods. “Okay. I’m going to go check on Lainey Rai, I showed her how to clean out the fireplaces.”
My shoulders square and I raise my voice. “For fuck’s sake, dad, the fireplaces all have fires in them.”
He cocks his brow at me. “And? They still have to be cleaned. I showed you boys how to do it before you were ten.”He turns and walks out of the stable.
I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to push away the headache that’s tapping on my temples.
Not long after dad walks back up to the house, I hear helicopter blades and figure Mason is home. A glance out the double doors tells me I’m right, but I see Jax jumping to the ground, too, and wonder why he came back. My mind goes back to the other morning when I saw him with Marley in the family room.
I’m starting to think it’s not a coincidence he’s here. It’s rubbing me the wrong way because I think he’s making a play for my sister. The sister who’s been hurt so bad she won’t even consider a life away from the ranch or her family. The sister who spends hours after going into town recovering from the anxiety she tries to hide from everyone.
I know Mason trusts him with his life, but I also know they used to fuck their way through a weekend before Mason met Sloane. Just the hint of a thought he might think of my sisters that way makes the bear in me want to put him down.
But Marley hasn’t hinted that she’s uncomfortable. On the contrary, when I saw her let him touch her, I was shocked. Marley doesn’t care about niceties when her gut tells her to be careful, she unashamedly admits it’s better to be safe than sorry. Something about him must feel safe to her. The battle in my head is if I should say anything or let Marley come to me.
Giving Mason some time to get settled, I walk to the house to find Elly. While walking across the yard, I hear water dripping off leaves in the trees, it won’t be long, things are melting. The small retaining wall of rocks my grandmother had built for her flowerbeds are wet from the melting ice and my gut twists as I think about driving Elly back to her hotel.
Walking through the house, I check each room downstairs, but no Elly, so I go upstairs and knock on Breanna’s door. When I don’t get an answer, I peek into an empty room buthear movement in the bathroom. The door is open so I walk over, not expecting to see a dripping wet Elly wrapped in a towel.
“Hell’s bells, Gray!” She slaps her hand over her chest in surprise.
There is a faraway voice in my head telling me I should apologize and walk right out of the room, but I’m anchored to the floor by the sight in front of me. Her golden skin is glowing under the water droplets rolling down her shoulders and chest, and even though she is short, she somehow manages to look like she has legs for days under the towel that just covers her ass.
My eyes travel over every inch of her body before I meet her eyes again. My dick is going to have a permanent indention of my zipper if I stand here any longer. But I can’t get my feet to move away, instead, I take a step toward her like I’m caught in a riptide.
A mischievous look crosses her face and her lips tip up on one side. “Don’t people knock in Oklahoma?”
Taking another step into the bathroom, I push the door closed behind me. She turns to face me and leans against the sink behind her. Lifting a brow, I give her a heated smile. “Oh, I knocked.”
She has one hand on the sink edge behind her, and one holding the towel that is tucked together over her breast. Her usually wavy hair is hanging in wet strands to her shoulders and dripping onto her skin. As I step toward her, her head tips back, those beautiful amber eyes full of desire, and her pink tongue slides across her bottom lip.
Her other hand grips the sink behind her when I’m just a step away from her, her beautiful slim neck bared to me as she looks up at me. Hooking my finger in her towel, I pull the edge and it falls away from her body. Her perfect, petite, curvy body.
Swiping my finger over her hard nipple, I meet her eyes again when her lips part to suck in a small breath of air. “Beautiful.”
Dropping to my knees, I suck her nipple between my lips, and another gasp escapes her throat. “Gray.”
My hands tighten around her ribs and goosebumps erupt all over her skin when I drag my chin across her chest to capture her other nipple. When I nip the little bud between my teeth, her fingers go to my hair and she squeezes just enough to make me even harder.
Trailing kisses down her belly, I lift my gaze to meet her hooded eyes as she watches me. Nipping the skin across her belly and then kissing the sting away, I slide my hand down the outside of her thigh and kiss the inside from her knee as I pick up to rest her leg on my shoulder.
With each kiss, her body twitches and her hand covers her mouth. Smiling, I look up at her. “Ticklish?”
Nodding, her fingers are still covering her lips. “Mmm-Hmm.”
