Chapter 22
22
JOHNNY
We spend the longest two hours of my life on the Kollers’ ranch. Every minute that passes with Aurora giving me the cold shoulder feels like an eternity. She’s completely closed herself off to me, and it upsets me nearly as much as it turns me all the way on. I’ve been walking around with a rock-solid cock from the moment I realized she was upset because of Jill.
Because she’s jealous over me.
It’s uncomfortable standing in front of Jill’s father and one of Wade’s closest friends with a boner, but for Rory, I suck it the hell up.
“Wade didn’t mention wantin’ that one,” he grunts, his scarred hands set on his hips.
I keep my chin up, matching his intimidating stance with one of my own. “I know. I’m making the call to add her. You’ll get paid whatever she’s worth, along with the other two.”
“She ain’t from the same stock as the others. And hell, maybe I’ve already got another buyer lined up.”
“I don’t care about her stock. And you don’t have another buyer lined up. Even if you did, you’d give us priority anyway. You know that as well as I do. ”
“I don’t remember you having such a heavy set of balls on you the last time you were here,” he mutters.
“Stop playing hardball, Dad. The Steeles will take good care of her,” Jill says, standing close to me again, her hand on my arm.
A glance over my shoulder at where Aurora leans against the side of the horse trailer, her arms crossed and eyes shooting hellfire at Jill’s hand, has me nonchalantly leaning away.
I didn’t want Rory here for this conversation, and I damn well know that asking her to stay by the trailer added fuel to her fire. It wasn’t because I don’t want her close but because I want to surprise her with something, and the only way I can do that is if she stays out of hearing distance.
“My girl likes her, Rich. That’s all that matters to me.”
Something pushed Aurora toward Frost, and I’ve been around horses long enough to recognize when an instant connection is born. I’d have been fucking blind to miss the one I saw between them.
“Let me load her up, and we’ll get out of your hair,” I add.
The grumpy old man stares at me, attempting to get me to break beneath the sharpness of his expression, but it’s not going to happen. Not here, not ever.
Finally, he slices a hand through the air. “Fine. Fuckin’ take ’er. But don’t get used to coming here and callin’ the shots, boy.”
I’m already heading back to the stable when I call over my shoulder, “Got it.”
Footsteps pound the ground behind me before Jill’s falling into pace at my side. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”
“I don’t exactly.” Not yet.
“Is that why she doesn’t like me? If you had said something, I’d have kept my distance.”
“You’re fine, Jill. I’ve upset her myself.”
“You didn’t do anything besides be nice,” she says.
Aurora tracks the two of us when we pass the trailer. I want to stop and plant a fat kiss on her pouty lips, but now isn’t the time. I think I’d wind up with claw marks if I attempted that without a proper conversation first.
For now, I need to get this horse loaded up quickly. The sooner we’re done here, the sooner I can confirm what I did wrong and fix it.
“I appreciate the talk, Jill, but I just really want to get this done,” I tell her, softening my tone as much as possible.
Crossing into the stable, I head directly for Frost’s pen before I’m tugged by the back of my shirt. I sigh and turn to face Jill. The spark in her eyes makes guilt creep in.
It’s been a year since we went out for drinks that single time, and nothing came of it. I didn’t feel anything besides friendship between us, and I’ve made that clear. She thought differently, and it’s why I’ve avoided coming here since. Thomas loves horses and hasn’t minded picking up the job. But today of all days, Wade put his foot down, and I knew better than to say no.
It’s easy for me to be a nice, welcoming guy. Being a decent person is natural for me with how I was raised. But I’ll only be pushed so far before even two fantastic role models aren’t enough to stifle my annoyance. Having my words ignored and someone I care about hurt because of it has my patience thinning at an alarming rate.
“I missed you, Johnny. You’ve been avoiding coming here, and the time that you finally decide to come back, you bring a woman with you. Was that on purpose? To hurt me?” Jill asks, water filling her eyes.
My throat grows tight as she sets a hand on my chest and a tear drips down her cheek. “That’s not what I was doing. Me taking Aurora here had nothing to do with you.”
“It feels like it,” she blubbers, letting more tears stream down her cheeks without attempting to wipe them away.
“I was honest with you after our date. I don’t?—”
“Are you almost done? I’m ready to leave.” Aurora’s voice is sheer ice.
I jerk backward, forcing Jill’s hand to fall from my chest. Alarm rattles me. Staring past her at Rory, I open my mouth to tell her . . . fuck , I don’t even know what. Something. Anything. But she spins on her heel and leaves before I have the chance.
“She’s nothing like you, Johnny,” Jill declares.
“Good. I don’t need her to be anything like me,” I say stiffly. “If you’re not going to help me load Frost up, then I don’t have anything else to say, Jill.”
And with that, I leave her standing there with her tears and judgmental attitude while I get my girl her fucking horse.
I find Aurora in the truck fifteen minutes later, her head tipped back and eyes closed. Her seat belt is already done up, and her arms are crossed over her chest. If she looked peaceful instead of tense and coolly calm, I’d have thought she was sleeping.
As opposed to the first time I started the truck, she doesn’t flinch at the loud roar of the engine. I stare at her, wishing not for the first time in my life that I could read minds. She’s completely closed off right now, betraying nothing as she continues to keep her eyes shut and mouth in a bored line.
I blow out a breath and double-check the hauling settings in the truck before driving us off the ranch. None of this went how I planned it to.
Not for a minute did I think that Jill would be as touchy as she was, nor that it would upset Aurora this much. I was hopeful that after a year of no contact, she’d have stopped caring.
This trip was supposed to be a chance to get Aurora out of town and away from the ranch for a while. Horses are an integral part of my life, and yeah, while I didn’t want to go by myself today, I brought her here to introduce her to my world a bit more without the weight of everyone back home watching.
Instead, I wound up pissing her off and taking three steps back instead of forward .
I want to blame this all on Wanda and her shitty attitude toward Aurora this morning. It would be easier that way. But it isn’t fair. I know better than that.
“We have an hour drive back. Talk to me, Rory,” I say once we make it onto the main highway, darting my eyes across the dash.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“You know exactly what I want to talk about.”
“Well, I don’t want to talk about that.”
“Why? Because you know if we do, you’ll have to expose yourself? You’ll have to admit what it is that’s really bothering you and show what you think is what? Weakness?” I ask, choking the steering wheel with my hands.
She doesn’t have even a slight visible reaction to my words, and with a snip of invisible sheers, my last string of patience is severed.
With a quick look in my tow mirrors, I find the closest turnout and pull the truck over. Only when I rip the keys from the ignition and hop out of the cab does she finally show some sort of reaction. Brows in her hairline, she watches me suspiciously. It’s only been a few minutes since I’ve seen her beautiful blue eyes, but the sight of them now makes me weak-kneed.
“Get out of the truck, Aurora,” I order, slamming the door shut.
I wring my hands together and walk to the back of the trailer. One of the horses whinnies, but other than that, they’re calm and quiet. It’s not too hot today—another blessing when it comes to this pause in driving.
“I don’t like being ordered around, Johnny.”
I huff a laugh. “Well, that’s too bad, darlin’.”
The first thing I notice when she rounds the back of the trailer is her glare. It snares me, promising to set me on fire. I almost surrender to the call of the flickering flames. Would they brand me with her initials or melt me from the inside out ?
“I want to go home,” she states bluntly.
“We will go home. After you talk to me .”
“Why bother? You seem to know just about every thought in my head already.”
“And that bothers you,” I state.
She sucks in a breath, rolling her eyes up to the sky. “Yes, it bothers me. What gives you the right to read me so easily?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s unfair.”
“You know what else is unfair?” I ask, nostrils flaring as I close some of the distance she’s left between us.
She lifts her chin higher, that brave, angry gaze never drifting. “No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“This attitude of yours is going to kill me, Aurora,” I say softly, shaking my head. “We’ll add it to the fucking list of things you do that drives me out of my goddamn mind.”
“Are you expecting an apology from me for that?”
“Not in the slightest. But I do expect honesty in return for all of mine.”
She breaks eye contact and spins around, facing an endless field of nothing. “What you want is for me to break myself open and spill every single thought I’ve ever had.”
“When they involve me, fuckin’ right I do.”
“They all involve you!” she shouts, arms flying as she looks back at me. “From that first night, you’ve occupied my mind like a disease! It was curiosity at first. Confusion as to why you came for me that night and why I let you. I don’t believe in fate or coincidences, yet every single day with you, the universe tries to change my mind.
“I shouldn’t be drawn to you the way I am. It’s trouble waiting to happen. You are heartbreak, Johnny. You’re fucking heartbreak , and I’ve signed myself up for it anyway!”
My chest is pinched so tight every inhale is small, not enough air coming in to fill my lungs properly as I grow light-headed .
Aurora’s shoulders droop for the first time in my presence. “You ruined my plans. Twisted me into a knot I can’t untie, and for what? For fun? Something to fill the time while you’re away from another woman?”
I blink, thinking I misheard her. “What do you mean ‘while I’m away from another woman’? Do you think I’m the type of guy to have taken you to the home of a woman I’ve been wanting like that?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. I saw the way you were with Jill.”
“I know what you think you saw, Aurora. But it wasn’t me wantin’ another woman.”
“Then what was it, then? Because I didn’t see you shoving her off of you when she clung to you or touched you all day. You seemed to enjoy the attention she was giving.”
I drag my thumb across my bottom lip, letting out a short, breathy laugh. “I knew you were jealous. Knew that’s why you were so cold and closed off. I just hoped you had more faith in me than to believe I was enjoying anyone’s company as much as I enjoy yours. Or that every time she spoke to me, I wasn’t wishin’ it was you instead. I was being polite instead of tossing her across the ranch the moment she touched me like I wanted to.”
“How did you expect me to be thinking that? Do I really come off as the non-territorial type? Especially when I haven’t given you any reason to be loyal to me.”
“No reason to be loyal,” I repeat, the weight of her admission hitting me full force. “What exactly should you have had to do to expect loyalty from me?”
“I don’t know. Given you something, at least! We haven’t even kissed, Johnny. I haven’t done anything besides run?—”
It only takes one step forward to be able to take her face in my hands. I drop my head and brush my lips over hers, testing the soft, plump feel of her mouth. Tasting her for the first time without taking our first real kiss. Swallowing the rest of her sentence and the wobbly exhale that follows.
“If you wanted me to kiss you, Rory, you should have just said so,” I whisper, splaying my fingers to touch as much of her cheeks as possible before pressing our mouths together.