Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
Winston
Once he had his little bird in the truck, he knew he didn’t want to just go back to her place. True, her guests were most likely out and about, but he knew they had the freedom to come and go whenever they liked. Being caught kissing Robyn in the kitchen might do nothing more than raise an eyebrow, but if found with her writhing naked beneath him, no matter how much pleasure she was enjoying, it wouldn’t be worth the Yelp review that could destroy her.
An idea bloomed as he pulled away from Jagger and Moira’s ranch.
“Want to see my place?”
She looked up at him, suspicion in her eyes. “I thought the entire reason you had to have a room at Robyn’s Nest was because you didn’t have your own place.”
“It was and while I don’t have a bed I’d care to share with you, I do have a place.”
Suspicion changed to hurt.
“Hey, none of that. I meant if we shared my bed and a rafter fell off the ceiling, that might put a damper on my attempt to woo you.” He grinned as hurt turned to confusion mixed with a bit of pleasure.
“You want to woo me?”
“I’ve been trying to woo you from the moment that dino nugget flew out of your mouth and landed in my macaroni and cheese.”
Pleasure turned to surprise. She had the most expressive face of any woman he’d ever known.
“My place is under renovation, but I think it’s safe enough to give you a look, at least from the outside.”
“Then I’d love to see it.”
It didn’t take too long for him to navigate the back roads until he pulled onto a dirt road between two poles. There wasn’t a fancy iron gate like the one that welcomed a visitor to Rawhide Ranch, but there was a sign swinging above the road that had four large ‘Ws’ made out of barbed wire arranged across the width of the board.
“They look like birds flying,” she said and he smiled and used the arm he had draped over her shoulder to pull her close.
“I never noticed that before but they do indeed. And I think you just gave me the new name for the place.”
“I did? What is it?”
“The Flying W.”
Her cute little nose scrunched up. “Are you planning on having planes out here?”
“Nope, I rather like it just the way it is. May eventually get a few more horses, but for now, I’m concentrating on getting the house into a livable condition. Then we’ll go from there.”
He continued to drive until they came over a small rise and she could see his place. He frowned. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. Instead of showing her a house she might actually want to step into or a pasture she might want to ride across with him, she was seeing a yellow bulldozer. green tractors, and men in hard hats wearing tool belts around their waists. When he realized several of those men had ditched their shirts as the day got warmer, he had a sudden urge to jump out of the truck and demand they cover up.
“Oh, this is so great!”
Okay, shirts were definitely going back on!
“You must be so excited.”
Her comment took him by surprise and brought him back from the brink of making a complete fool out of himself. “How’s that?”
“Just the wonder of it all. When I told Master Derek my dream was to open a B&B, he not only thought it would be a great idea, he told me he had a place he wanted me to consider. Said it had once been the home of the original owners of what is now Rawhide Ridge. He warned me that it was in pretty rough shape, but he hadn’t had the heart to tear it down. I remember standing in the front yard of the B&B before it became what it is today. It was an old Victorian lady who had left her prime behind a long time ago. Others saw rotted planks and sagging roofs, but I saw what she had been and longed to be again. Hayleigh helped me so much and every single time a room was finished, it was like I’d opened a present.” She gestured out the windshield. “Now you get to do the same thing with a place you told me you loved as a boy.”
She was right. He forgave the shirtless men, well he almost forgave them, but her enthusiasm was enough for him to be able to maneuver the truck to face back the way they’d come.
“That’s it? I thought you were going to show me around.”
“I am, just stay here a second,” he instructed as he climbed out. Going to the back, he lowered the tailgate and then arranged a blanket he kept in the back seat over the metal. He returned to the truck and slid her out and then set her down on the tailgate. The only regret he had was that he couldn’t hold her on his lap and keep her leg elevated. He appeased himself by running his fingers over her calf and ankle. She was wearing ballet flats, having insisted he bring her shoes down when he’d returned upstairs to put on his boots before they left the B&B.
“Tell me what you see,” she said.
“The most beautiful little foot in the entire world.”
Robyn laughed and used her other foot to nudge against his hip. “I’m serious. Tell me what you see for The Flying W.”
So he did. He told of the house he pictured, made from the stones his grandfather had used as well as new logs Winston had taken from his own trees to enlarge the two-bedroom cabin. He told her that after seeing her kitchen, he was going to make some changes to the blueprints, enlarging the room, and would install a large window that would look out over the mountains. He told her how instead of two there would be six bedrooms.
“Six! Hey, don’t tell me you’re wooing me only to get info on how to run a B&B!”
He chuckled. “Not at all. I just want to have enough room for all the future Wanes. I picture an entire new generation growing up out here, running and playing and learning to love the land as much as Gramps and Gran did.”
Her smile was slow and a bit hesitant, but when he smiled back, her pleasure shone in her eyes. “That’s nice.”
“I’m glad you think so.” He was about to add that he truly hoped she’d be the one to birth those future babies but thought better of it. He’d watched Jagger handle skittish horses and he was going to follow the older man’s lead and be patient. “Do you like to ride?”
“Are we talking horses here?”
His cock twitched. “We can start there. So? Do you like to ride horses?”
“I do,” she said with a grin that told him she was well aware of where his mind had just gone. “Wren has taken me on a lot of trail rides. I’m not a great horsewoman by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love it. Do you?”
“Very much. That’s one reason I knew this place would be my home. I remember riding when I was a kid. It was as close to flying as a person without wings can get. Next time we come, I’ll take you on a ride if you’d like.”
“I’d like that very much. And thank you for this, for bringing me here. It’s going to be beautiful, Rooster.”
If he didn’t do something quick, he was going to lay her on her back and show her how beautiful he thought she was. Instead, he growled low in his throat.
“You know, every time you do that, you wreck my panties.”
He gently set her leg down where he’d been sitting as he stood. He didn’t bother to hide the erection her words had instantly caused. Instead, he stood in front of her, took her face in his hands and said, “Now you know what you do to me every single time I look at you. You’ve been wrecking me from that first moment in the cafeteria to this moment. And don’t bother telling me I’ve only known you for a few days. My soul has been looking for you since the moment I was brought into this world.”
Tears glimmered in her eyes but she reached up to put her hands on his shoulders. “You say the most outrageous things but for some reason, I believe you,” she whispered.
He knew if he started to kiss her, he wouldn’t be able to stop. And he wasn’t about to put on a show for a bunch of construction workers. “What do you think about make-out spots?”
“I think you better find one pretty fast or we’re going to get arrested,” she said.
He had her back in the truck and they were halfway down the drive before she could blink. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“With your place officially a no-kink zone, mine under construction, I’m going to the only place I know where we won’t raise a single eyebrow.”
“You don’t mean Rawhide do you?”
“I do,” he said, “If you have anything to say, say it now because if I don’t get my hands on you pretty soon, I’m going to blow.”
“In that case, the only thing I have to say is step on it!”
“Yes, ma’am!”