Chapter 19 #2
Jake came along, too, for reasons that were his own. With Stone gone, Amy stayed behind with Marge and Lou, who’d made himself so useful around the ranch fixing and repairing and maintaining, they’d upped his hours to full time.
The day was a glorious marvel. They rode along the top of the canyon walls, a set of rocky, sheer cliffs rising up to majestic heights, and far below ran the river, still and calm now, as if last week’s storm had never happened.
The sky was a startlingly pure azure blue, without a single cloud.
As the day warmed, Callie shrugged out of her long-sleeved denim shirt, leaving her in a tank top and jeans.
Eddie had stripped out of his shirt entirely, trying to get a tan, and maybe a romance author all in one shot.
Jake wore one of his firefighter T-shirts and his jeans and, she had to admit, was looking good in the saddle. “It’s so beautiful,” she said.
“Breathtaking.” He hadn’t taken his eyes off her.
“I was talking about the day.”
“And I was talking about you.”
She smiled. “You don’t have to give me those come-on lines, I’m already sleeping with you.”
“Not that there’s been much sleeping, but I wasn’t giving you a come-on.” He studied her curiously. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you were beautiful before?”
“Sure. But I divorced him.”
“The guy was an idiot.”
“No, he wasn’t. He just couldn’t keep his zipper up.”
“Like I said, idiot.”
She laughed. “Count for count, I’d bet you’ve brought home more women than Matt ever did.”
“But I never put a ring on a woman’s finger and promised to be true to her.” He reached for her hand when she looked away, waiting until she brought her face back around. “I don’t make promises often, Callie, but when I do, I keep them.”
She had no idea why that brought a hard lump to her throat. Maybe because, somehow, she’d come to want exactly that from him. “What kind of promises do you make?”
He smiled. “How about as many orgasms as you want tonight?”
She rolled her eyes. Inexplicably let down and annoyed at the both of them, she shifted Sierra so that he had to let go of her hand.
“If the subject was getting too serious for you, you could have just said so.” Urging her horse into a trot, she moved to catch up with the other women, where maybe, somehow, she could get her mind off the men who alternately brought her to new heights, and new lows.
Jake watched her go.
“Women.” Tucker patted Homer as they fell in place next to Jake.
He looked over at his brother. “Are we actually agreeing on something?”
“Bro, on the subject of women, all men agree. They’re nuts.”
Jake laughed. And perhaps best of all, so did Tucker. “I thought you had a problem with Callie and me.”
Tucker lifted a shoulder. “I did. Now I don’t.”
No explanation, and Jake knew he wasn’t going to get one.
“Just don’t screw her up.”
Jake looked at Callie ahead of him, smiling and laughing with the other women. He didn’t know how to respond, because he didn’t know how not to screw up.
“And don’t screw you up either,” Tucker said. On that surprising statement, he said his good-byes to everyone and turned back for the ranch.
The rest of the day went fairly smoothly. Jake helped Eddie and Callie get the women all set up for the night. When Callie prepared to ride back to the ranch, Jake joined her. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Eddie can handle the women on his own. I’m going back with you.”
“I can come up with my own orgasms tonight, thank you,” she said dryly.
“Yes, and imagining that will go a long way toward keeping me uncomfortably hot on the ride back, thank you.”
“You just want a bed tonight.”
“That’s right. I’m not sleeping on the cold, hard ground when I can have a too short, too narrow, cold, hard cot.” Or you.
She snorted her opinion of that, and he began to understand that once again, he was going to have to talk her into wanting him. He hated that, but it wouldn’t stop him, not when he had to have her so badly. He had no idea what that said about him.
They rode in silence. There was a tension in the silence though, and a growing heaviness in the set of Callie’s shoulders that clued him in to her mood, though he had no idea what to do about it.
Night fell as they rode through the darkness, relieved by millions of twinkling stars that never failed to stun him.
They just didn’t make skies like this anywhere else.
Without a city light or house in sight, he and Callie were completely, utterly alone, surrounded by flowing rivers and wild bush and rocky canyons, watched only by the coyotes and whatever other creatures inhabited this area.
It was awe-inspiring, and more than a little unnerving.
He was finally coming to terms with this place, and now he was going to leave it.
After an hour, Callie suddenly slowed to a stop, then dismounted. She tied Sierra to a tree and touched her forehead to her horse’s.
Jake dismounted too. The only sounds were water rushing somewhere off to their left and the crunch of the ground beneath his feet when he came up behind her. “What’s wrong?”
“I wish you hadn’t come,” she said.
“On the ride?”
A choking laugh escaped her. “To the ranch, Jake.”
He’d lifted a hand to stroke down her hair, but it went still, hovering in the air as the words sank into him like a knife.
Then she lifted her head and her eyes were swimming with tears.
“Ah, Callie,” he whispered, and he let his hand touch her after all.
“Before you, I was happy here.” A tear slipped down her cheek and broke his heart. “I knew what every day would bring,” she choked out. “I knew what the future would hold. Now—” She broke off abruptly and closed her eyes. “This is useless. Forget it.”
“No, I won’t forget it. I can’t.” He cupped her face. “I never meant to hurt you.”
The gentleness in his touch devastated Callie as his thumbs stroked away her tears. She couldn’t speak.
“We agreed to see this through,” he said softly as the night breeze blew over them. “Through me not being able to work at what I do best, through Tucker and I struggling to be brothers, through you fighting for this ranch and facing all the changes ahead. Just because you’re scared now—”
“And you’re not?”
“Not when we’re doing this.” Leaning in, he kissed her, tenderly at first, then deeper, nibbling at her with hungry bites that took her right out of herself.
What happened then shocked her. She felt an overwhelming hunger, a blinding need, and before she knew it they were fumbling for each other’s clothing, hands grappling for purchase right there in the dark with only the running creek for company.
He tore open her shirt, she slid her fingers beneath his.
Then he had her jeans down, and she had his open, and he produced a condom.
Bracing her between his hard body and the even harder tree, he lifted her up and sank into her.
He sighed her name like a curse, a prayer, and she clung to his neck, pressing her face against his throat, feeling as if she was going to die if he didn’t hurry, if he didn’t take her now, hard and fast. None of it could be rationalized, not the way she abandoned all sense of shame, nor how much she needed him.
She held on while he slid an arm behind her back, protecting her back from the tree, while his other hand gripped her hip, holding her open to his thrusts.
It made no sense to feel so out of control, so wild for him, but she was, and with a shuddering sob, she came.
He was only seconds behind her, and then his body trembled over hers as he held them both upright with the tree’s help.
Heart pumping against hers, he lifted his head and stroked the damp hair from her face. “You okay?”
She was now. For whatever reason, her anger and frustration and fear had melted away, leaving in its place a warmth and languor that made movement difficult.
He helped her right her clothing, and then put his attention to his.
They got on their horses and headed back to the ranch, Callie still basking in sated glow.
She knew it would fade when the ranch came into view, but for now she selfishly held on to it and pretended the glow was hers to keep.