‘I know.’ But because she could see the frown pinching his brow, and because she understood that Sierra would always be his only little girl, she leaned down and kissed him, whispered, ‘He’ll be good for her, James.’
Even though she knew he would keep worrying until the front door creaked open again, James didn’t argue. He sighed, said, ‘God knows he’s gonna have to be a patient one.’
Ava’s laugh was light and easy. ‘She has a certain wild side …’
‘Wonder who she gets that from.’
‘I have absolutely no idea,’ Ava replied innocently. But wanting to distract him, she shifted so that she could straddle him. His hands rose to her hips, moving her exactly where he wanted her. Bringing her lips a hairsbreadth from his, she whispered, ‘I love you, James Hunt.’
Unable to stay even an inch from her without tasting her, even after all the years they’d been together, he kissed her first, deeply, replied, ‘In this life and the next.’
He’d had to leave. Benji had watched Sierra as she’d climbed out of Jade’s truck and strolled across the front lawn in those impossibly tight jeans and thigh-high boots, her coat adding drama to her already sexy outfit, and all he’d been able to think was:Mine.He’d watched her greet her family – her parents, for Christ’s sake – and instead of calm and collected like he’d promised he’d be, he’d felt as if they could all see the trickle of sweat sliding down his back and the shake of need in his hands. And then she’d kissed him, and he’d known, with certainty, that she was done waiting.
He’d wanted to give her longer, time to do all the things she wanted to do, so that when she came to him, she had no regrets. He’d wanted to be a gentleman; the man James Hunt had raised him to be.
But Sierra made it so goddamn hard.
Even after a distracting game of cards with the ranch hands and a frigid shower, his stomach was a knot of hot, heavy need, and knowing that he wouldn’t get any sleep, Benji grabbed a beer out of the fridge and ambled down to the barn.
There was something special about the barn at night, especially in the winter, when the air outside was comparatively cold. Benji slid open the heavy barn door and slipped inside before rolling it shut again behind him. The dim lighting was soothing. The faint rustle of the horses bedding down calmed him to the marrow. The smell – of mingled animals, manure and hay – was one he’d always associated with safety.
This was his haven.
As a boy, when Silas had gone on a drinking binge and his mom had been at work and unable to protect him, the barn was where Mav had hidden him when Benji had begged him not to tell James and Ava. As a teen, the barn was where he’d learned the value of hard work and a job well done. As a man, it was the one place that reminded him that, despite where he’d come from, he did have a home.
He popped the cap off the beer, took a deep swig from the bottle, and then placed it on the picnic table so that he could fetch his saddle and bridle from the tack room. If he wasn’t going to sleep, he may as well clean and oil his tack.
When he came back out, the saddle in both hands, the bridle looped over his shoulder, he saw Sierra. She was sitting at the picnic table, huddled in her wool-lined denim jacket and drinking his beer. She watched him approach in silence, those big, dark eyes telling him everything he needed to know.
This was it.
There was no going back.
His heart jackhammered in his chest. His hands went clammy with the need to touch, to take. And yet all he could manage was a lame, ‘Hey.’
He put the saddle down on the table, draped the bridle over the horn.
Sierra tipped her head like a cat, judging some inferior species, and when he just stood there, lost for words, drowning in lust, she sighed and pushed to her feet.
Misinterpreting his hesitation, she lashed out. ‘I wasn’t expecting you to be here.’ She moved past him, her hips swinging with every step. ‘I just came to get the truck keys. Don’t want to wake up my parents by taking one of theirs …’ So saying, she walked to where they kept all the keys for the Hunt Ranch work vehicles. She took the set for the Jeep off the hook. ‘I have a date with Kyle Channing. You remember him, Benji? He was a few years behind you in school?’
Benji went from stupid with lust to raging mad in a single second. He caught her by the wrist as she tried to move past him again. ‘Do not fucking push me, Princess.’
Her eyes blazed. ‘You might not be ready for me, Benji. But I assure you, Kyle is.’ Leaning forward, she whispered, ‘I’m not waiting another day for you to catch up.’
‘On that, we are agreed.’
Her face registered her surprise.
‘Nothing to say to that?’
‘But you …’
‘You don’t hold other men over my head,’ Benji warned. ‘If we do this, you give me the same goddamn respect I’ve always given you.’ He released her wrist, furious with her, furious with himself.
‘Benji—’
‘No.’ He paced away, tried to find his calm even as he imagined another man touching her.Fucking Kyle.
