10. Madison
The carriage ride ended abruptly just after Nate had made that sweet and confusing confession. He grew quiet after that, leading me back through the lodge where we said a quick goodbye to Lily and Chase before heading to his truck.
When he’d shown me the entrance to the Sullivan ranch earlier, I’d thought that maybe he would show me around once we were done on the guest ranch. He drove right past it and when he caught my longing glance, he promised he would bring me out some other time when we had more time to enjoy it.
“I’ve got to open the bar soon,” he explained on the drive through the valley.
“Maybe I could keep you company?” I suggested.
His hands tightened on the wheel. “That might not be a great idea. I have a feeling it’s going to be really busy tonight after people were snowed in last night. I won’t have much time to chat.”
“That’s okay. I could practice my socializing skills some more. Maybe flirt with a guy or two.” I don’t know why I thought I should suggest that to Nate, but I liked the way his nostrils flared.
“Not in my bar,” he growled.
“Okay. I’ll find a different bar where I can flirt with guys.”
Nate’s eyes were heated when they landed on me. “Are you fucking with me, angel?”
“Little bit,” I admitted with a laugh. “You are cute when you’re jealous.”
“I’m not jealous, I just know the guys in this town. Not a damn one of them is worthy of you, Madison.”
“Except for you?” I prodded.
He shook his head. “Especially not me.”
I didn’t know what to say to that and he wasn’t in a rush to speak again, so the rest of our drive was in silence. I spent most of it staring straight ahead but I couldn’t help but glance occasionally at Nate’s rugged profile. He was stewing hard over something as we passed through downtown Crestwood. In just another couple of minutes, we’d be back at the cabins.
I missed his smile. “Be careful you don’t break that jaw. It’s one of your best features.”
“My jaw?” he cast me a doubtful look. “Really?”
“It’s a good jaw. Nice and strong.” I pretended to study him as he turned down my cabin’s driveway. “But you’re right. It’s not your best feature.”
“And what is?”
I exaggerated a slow scan of his body. “Well, I can’t say that I’ve seen all your features, but from what I have seen… I’d vote for your eyes.”
“That’s boring.” He pursed his lips in disappointment and put the truck in park. “I think maybe I need to show you more of my features if that’s the best you can come up with.”
“Okay.” I laughed when his eyes flew over to me, wild and surprised. “What do you want to show me, Sullivan?”
He cleared his throat and quickly looked away. I was about to call him a tease when his eyes narrowed and he leaned forward. “What is that?”
I followed his stare to the porch where a box was perched next to an empty flowerpot. “I don’t know. That wasn’t there when we left. Maybe Maggie had something delivered here?”
He made a noise of disagreement and opened his door. “You should stay here.”
“It’s just a box.” I hadn’t even finished my sentence before his door slammed shut. I didn’t wait to see if he would come around to open my door or head straight to the porch. I jumped out of the truck and started trudging through the snow.
“Madison, I said to stay in the truck.” Nate threw his hands up in exasperation. “Otherwise I would’ve carried you out so you didn’t land in a damn snowbank.”
“It’s just snow.” I grabbed a handful of it and threw it at his chest.
“Hey.” He pointed a finger at me. “Don’t make me punish you, angel. I have a feeling we both would enjoy it way too much.”
Yep. From the way all the blood started rushing in my body as my core clenched, he was absolutely right that I would enjoy it.
“Fuck. Don’t look at me like that, Madison.” He ran a hand through his hair and groaned. “It’s hard enough being around you. I don’t need you looking at me like you’re having the same kind of thoughts that I’m having.”
“What thoughts are you having?” I asked in a whisper.
In three long strides, he stalked close enough to brush a strand of hair from my cheek. “Thoughts that have me taking a cold shower every time I leave you.”
“Oh.” I had suspected his answer might be something along those lines, but I hadn’t expected him to admit it. “We should… check the box.”
“Check the box?” He blinked hard. “The box. On the porch. Right.”
He looked pained as he took a step back. “Let me check it out. You stay behind me.”
“Are you under the impression that you are my boss?” I hurried to keep up with his long strides as he crossed easily through the snow.
“If I were your boss, I have about a hundred things I would order you to do besides stay behind me. A lot of those orders would involve you being beneath me.” He wasn’t even trying to restrain his dirty thoughts now.
“You are all talk, Sullivan. If I told you that I’d let you spend all night ordering me to do anything you wanted, you’d tuck your tail between your legs and run back to your cabin so damn fast your feet wouldn’t touch the ground.”
Nate was already kneeling next to the box. He pulled a pocket knife from his jeans and slid it along the tape holding down the top flap of the box. “One night wouldn’t be enough to do all the things I want to do with you.” He looked up without a hint of shame. “I think I was wrong about you, Madison. I think you’re the one who would ruin me, not the other way around.”
“You’re ridiculous.” I nearly melted under the heat of his stare. “What’s in the box?”
He opened the flap and after looking inside, reached in to pull out a white card with something written on it. After reading the words, he shot to his feet and quickly scanned the property. “Change of plans tonight. You’re coming to the bar with me.”
Two hours later,I was perched on my barstool at the end of the bar, nursing a beer while I watched Nate get everything ready for a busy night of bartending. I had offered to help, but he said he needed to do it himself. I thought he might be using the work as a distraction from what we’d found on my porch.
It took a little convincing, but Nate had finally let me see what was in the box. At first, I’d been confused. It was a beautiful vase of flowers. Aside from it being a strange thing to have delivered to the porch of a cabin where I was only staying temporarily, it wasn’t that alarming. Then Nate showed me the note.
There is nowhere you can go where I won’t find you.
After reading that message, I hadn’t needed any convincing to stick with Nate for the rest of the night. I had taken a picture of the note to send to Ellison, but I hadn’t worked up the nerve to send it yet. I knew that as soon as he saw it, he would send every bodyguard he had available to Crestwood.
“Do you need anything?” Nate’s deep but gentle voice snapped me out of my trance.
“No.” I picked at the label on my beer bottle. “I was just thinking… maybe I should leave. It isn’t safe for me to be in Crestwood now.”
“Madison.” He was standing across from me now, leaning over the bar to catch my chin with his thumb and tilt it up. His gray eyes were dark in the dimness of the bar. “You are safe with me. I promise. No asshole is going to even get close to you.”
“I can’t be with you all the time, Nate.”
“Why not? I don’t have a lot going on. As long as you don’t mind spending your nights here, I can be your personal bodyguard.” He winked one of those beautiful eyes at me. “I’m even willing to pull some overnight shifts.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’m going to call my security team tomorrow. This stalker was on my porch. It’s going to take more than a zealous neighbor with a lot of free time to keep me protected.”
Nate scowled. “I’m former military, Madison. I’m not just some country boy who moonlights as a bartender.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” I reached out and touched his forearm. The muscles beneath my fingers were tense. I trailed my fingers softly from his wrist to the bend of his arm. “I do feel safe with you, Nate, but my security team does a lot more than just follow me places and be intimidating.”
He grabbed my beer and finished it in two big swallows. “Fine. You do whatever you need to do, but I’m not going to stop watching your back.”
“Good.” I felt a real smile creep over my face for the first time since reading that note on my porch. “I like it when you stare at my ass, Sullivan.”
“It’s a great ass.” He smirked and reached for a bottle of whiskey. After pouring two shots, he handed one to me and lifted the second one. “It’s an ass worth toasting.”
“I am not taking a shot for that!”
He sighed like I was being the most difficult customer ever. “Fine. You do the toast.”
“To hot neighbors and cold showers,” I said with a grin.
Nate laughed before tapping his shot glass against mine. “I’ll reluctantly drink to that. Thought I’d prefer not to need those cold showers.”
“Play your cards right and maybe you won’t.” We both downed our shots without hesitation, Nate taking his in one big swallow while I had to take a second to finish mine. When I put down the glass next to his, our fingers brushed in the lightest of touches. My eyes locked on his intense stare, electricity sparking in the air between us.
“Stay close to the bar tonight, okay? It’s going to get crowded and I want to keep you in sight.” Nate snagged a set of keys from the bar top.
“Do you think this stalker is going to try something in front of a bunch of people?”
He shook his head. “No, angel, I don’t. But there’s a lot of dumbass men in this town who are going to take one look at you and forget how to act like gentlemen.”
“But not you?” My core was aching as he stepped close to me, hand brushing my cheek as he leaned down.
He leaned even closer, lips nearly touching my ear, and said, “The only way I’m going to stop being a gentleman around you is if you’re begging me not to be one.”