Two days of fucking domestic bliss in her cabin, like two little love bugs settling into a new routine and I liked it. I’d stayed there with her, not wanting her to be alone, needing to be with her and pretty much deciding I was never leaving. Not while she still wanted me there at least. I hadn’t moved all my clothes into her tiny closet, but I could get by with a couple of pairs of jeans and a half dozen shirts and t-shirts if I needed to.
We hadn’t discussed it. I just hadn’t left. Maybe we should have. Maybeshe didn’t want me there all the time, but the orgasm’s I gave her every night seemed to be more than welcome. My horny little Brownie had a greedy pussy where my dick and tongue were concerned.
“Yeah, please.” I moved up behind her as she dropped three slices of bread into the toaster. Wrapping one arm around her shoulders and snaking the other around her waist, I buried my nose in her hair and inhaled. The smell of her shampoo and body butter made my mouth water, and my dick got hard behind my jeans even though I’d only had her an hour ago. We’d reached for each other the moment we opened our eyes, like magnets, every waking breath making the pull stronger.
“What’s on your schedule today?” I asked, dropping a kiss behind her ear.
“Two horses go home today and then later we’ve got a quarter horse coming in that keeps bucking its owner.”
“Any ideas what’s wrong with it?” I asked, moving back and giving her braid a gentle tug.
She glanced over her shoulder, screwing up her nose. “Gunner saw a video of him and thinks he might just be bored and being a devil about it. He was a rodeo horse, but his owner retired and retired the horse, too. Gunner’s friend, Deacon is it?” I nodded. “Well, he was the one who told the guy about our program.”
“Where’s he coming from?” I reached for our two coffee mugs that were on the drainer from the night before when we’d had hot chocolate on the back porch. Wrapped in a blanket, Brownie in my lap, watching that sapphire ocean she loved so much.
“Would you believe it's from Kentucky?” She scoffed. “Ugh. Just the mention of the place gives me hives.”
“Do you know him from there?”
She shook her head as the toast popped up, pale brown just as we both liked it. “No, we only really dealt with racehorse owners.” She reached for the peanut butter, sticking a knife in and getting a big helping before spreading it on one of the pieces of toast.
The coffee pot was steaming as I took it and poured two mugs of strong black liquid. “That’s one hell of a drive. What is it, nineteen, twenty hours?”
“Nineteen hours and forty nine minutes to be precise.” Blowing out her cheeks, she moved on to the next piece of toast. “I hated every single second of it but just knew I had to get Dreamy far away from there. The tiredness was the worst part. I lost count how many cups of gas station coffee I bought, just to stay awake.”
“I still can’t believe you drove all that way alone.” She fucking amazed me. Her bravery, her tenaciousness. Not sure I would have done what she did…damn who was I kidding, of course I would in the same scenario. “Weren’t you worried Kennedy would come after you?”
“Not really. He’d just left me to feed and water Dreamy and as far as he was concerned he was locked in his stall. Bernard rarely came to the stables. We used to have to hack the horses out to the training field about a mile away.”
My skin prickled as I thought about my next question. “What about Declan? Did he not chase you?”
“Nope. Declan’s answer to any crisis is Irish whiskey. I imagine he was drunk for a couple of days before he even thought about trying to find me.” She shrugged. “In any case it took him almost eight months to come here, so clearly didn’t care that much.”
Pushing a mug toward her, I ran a hand down her braid, letting my hand settle on the round curve of her ass. I knew she didn’t care about him, didn’t want him back, but that had to have hurt her.
“Didn’t realize what a good thing he’d had,” I told her.
Tally’s eyes met mine and she grinned. “Seriously, I do not care. It just proved I was right about him all along. I told you I should never have married him. I was just lonely.”
My chest tightened at her words, the weight of them settling deep. Loneliness could be a brutal thing, like the longest night with no stars, just endless clouds stretching across a sky that never broke.
“You don’t feel like that here, though, right?”
“God, no.” She moved into my space, reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss me softly. “How could I when I have you.”
She did have me, and it was becoming more and more difficult to imagine a life without her in it. Even thoughts of my old age, sitting on aporch watching grandkids run around had her in them. I just needed to find the right time to tell her.
Chapter 47
All I Want - Kodaline
Wilder
The day had been a long one. I was looking forward to a soak in the tub with Tally. Washing away the grime of the day and maybe talking about those future dreams I had. Being on the far east side of the ranch meant I hadn’t seen her since breakfast. I’d been with the maintenance crew mending fences, fixing problems with water butts and putting out hay. Generally getting ready for the cold winter we usually got in the shade of the mountains.
I’d finished putting Alice in her stall, leaving her to one of Gunner’s stable hands to clean her down and give her a feed, so I decided that I’draid the deep freeze in the house for a couple of steaks. Tally loved it and watching her relish every mouthful in the hotel restaurant had started things in my pants. Fucking weird that watching a woman chew meat could get you hard, but there it was.
“Hey Nash,” I called to my brother as he strode across the yard. He stopped where he was going and headed my way. “Think we need to replace a couple of water butts. You okay ordering some?”
