Chapter 26
26
JOHNNY
“Wait, so Wanda, what, gave you her permission to seek out Lee?” I ask, trying to get my head on track with the information Rory’s just dumped on me.
She sets her sub sandwich down on her thigh and wipes her mouth with a napkin. “I guess so. Really, I think she was warning me against going to meet him. She gave me his address in Toronto before we left the bakery, but I don’t think she wants me to use it.”
“For her gain or yours?”
I’ve known Wanda for years, yeah, but Rory’s my girl, and I won’t have anyone trying to sweep the rug out from under her with this. She doesn’t have enough people in her corner yet watching her back, and if Wanda isn’t prepared to take on that task, then I’ll make damn sure she is by the time I’m done with her.
“I think both of ours. I didn’t feel anything malicious from her at all after we got talking. If anything, I think she was more concerned for me. Lee sounds like a shitty father, Johnny,” she grumbles, her frown etched deep.
“I don’t know him from Adam, but even I’ve picked up enough about his relationship with his family and all of Cherry Peak. He’d win an award for most absentee parent. Still, that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the chance to meet him to see for yourself.”
She sighs, abandoning her food to wrap her arms around her knees. The new backyard lights I installed yesterday burn bright in the cover of night, illuminating her features. She continues to park her fine ass beside me on the porch instead of sitting in her camping chair. I’ve grown used to having her so close to me. During our lunch breaks at work, I tuck the spare rolling chair right up beside her and have focused on getting rid of any chewing noises I make during lunch just so she doesn’t tell me to back off.
These moments are the ones that keep me content with taking things slow. I’d do just about anything to spend time with her like this, our thighs pressed together and my arm around her back. Comfortable, soft, perfect .
It’s only been a few weeks, and with everything going on in her life, it feels wrong to push for more between us. Like I’m getting greedy or something. I’m content following her pace and hoping that one day she’ll wake up and decide she’s ready for the next step. I know I’m not going anywhere.
“What if he doesn’t believe me? Or does and tells me that he wants me to leave?” she asks, the words reeking of vulnerability.
“He won’t say that, darlin’.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
“You’re right. I’m not sure of it. But I’m going to try and speak that shit into existence because you don’t need any more doubt in your life.” I lay my hand on her back and shift, my ass hanging half off the porch so I can get a full look at her. When she doesn’t look away and instead fearlessly stares back, I think my heart doubles in size. “You’re going to go meet him, and I’m goin’ with you. Tell me when you want to leave, and I’ll make it work.”
She scoffs in disbelief, lightly pushing at my chest for me to sit back. “You’re not coming, Johnny. Don’t try and make me feel better by giving me false hope.”
I fight against her push and inch closer toward her, taking her chin between my thumb and forefinger. Her breath grows tight, those pretty pink lips that I haven’t stopped thinking about kissing for a week parting on nothing.
“I’ve never lied to you, Aurora. Don’t plan on it either. Everything I’ve said to you has been the truth. I’m not the guy that’s going to tell you what I think you want to hear if I don’t believe it. I know you know that.”
“I can’t ask you to come with me,” she murmurs.
“You didn’t. I told you I was. But I would have dropped everything to come if you had asked.”
“Will we finish the porch when we get back?”
I search her eyes for the meaning behind that question, the doubts in her mind, but get distracted by the beauty in them. The rough waters I’ve grown used to seeing have stilled, not a wave to be seen. They’re inviting, the soft lapping of the tide nearly audible like a shell from the beach pressed to your ear.
“We’ll finish it before we go,” I promise her.
A crinkle forms between her brows as her lips close, expression closing off. “Oh, right. I guess it is almost done.”
Reaching toward her, I wrap my palm around the back of her neck and bring her close. Forehead to forehead, a million words float in the space left between us. Some I have no fear of saying but would send her running for the hills if I did.
“Once the porch is done, I can focus on other projects. Like the state of the fireplace and lack of screens in the windows. I have a million things I want to do, Rory. But my priority is takin’ care of you.”
Her lashes flutter as her eyelids droop. The gap between our lips closes slowly, a millimetre at a time. I can almost taste her next words.
“How are you real? ”
“The same way you are,” I breathe against her mouth before taking it in a soft kiss.
It’s gentle at first, tastes mingling. But then she’s pressing harder, like she’s searching for something. I’m happy to let her explore every inch of me for the answer. I’d offer her unlimited access to my mind without fear or hesitation.
I groan when she sets her hands on my shoulders and urges me back again. This time, I let her guide me, putty beneath her touch. There’s nothing that could prepare me for her next move. I drop one hand behind me to balance myself when she sits herself in my lap, straddling me.
Gripping her waist with my other hand, I encourage her to drop her full weight onto my thighs, my skin burning with anticipation beneath my jeans. She lowers more, jean brushing jean.
“Is this okay?” she asks breathlessly, resting a palm along my jaw, stroking it.
“ So fucking okay.”
I kiss her like I’m scared she’ll disappear. Like from that very first night, I’ve been hallucinating her. If she didn’t feel so real beneath my fingertips, I’d think I was dreaming. How else could I get this lucky?
My plans for tonight linger in my head, an annoying buzz I can’t shake. All I want is to keep her on my lap, in my arms, her hot breaths panted across my lips, swollen from the pressure of her kisses. But she needs what I have planned. More than she knows.
“Come with me somewhere,” I pant, dragging my lips over her cheek to settle against her ear. “I plan to revisit this. Fuck, I could keep you here forever.”
She blinks her eyes open, a gorgeous, dazed expression filling her face. “Where are we going?”
I tuck a piece of soft blonde hair behind her ear, tracing the shell of it. “Somewhere special.”
“Did you miss work already?” she asks once we step out of my truck outside of the Steele Ranch stable.
The moonlight paints streaks through her hair, and I grin at the ethereal look of it. An angel in flesh and blood.
She cocks her head at me when she notices my staring, and I wink before inputting the code on the stable door. I lose my breath when she steps up behind me and rests her hand against my back, as if it’s a casual move she’s been doing for years.
“Does Wade know you’re breaking into his stable?”
“It’s not breaking in if I have the code, babe.”
“Sometimes the best robbers are the ones we know.”
“Fair enough. But I can’t be robbing what I already own,” I say with a glance back at her, my grin easy.
She rolls her eyes, and I steal a kiss before tugging open the door enough for us to slink inside. Flicking the light on, I watch as she glances around as if she’s never seen the inside of the stable before.
Alarm skitters through me. “Has nobody brought you in here before?”
“I’ve never needed to see it before.”
Again with that blunt honesty of hers. “You don’t need to have a reason to see something. I’d have shown you around the ranch properly if I knew nobody else had before.”
“Who says you still can’t?”
“Yeah? Mission accepted, darlin’. After we finish in here.”
I lead the way between the pens, knowing from memory where I’m going. Joker’s already waiting in her pen when we stop in front of it. She whinnies and gives her head a shake before moving toward us.
“I haven’t properly introduced you two yet, but this is Joker, Rory. She’s my girl,” I say, introducing them before cutting a look at Joker. “Be nice, yeah? Don’t embarrass me.”
“You’d embarrass yourself before she would,” Rory teases, standing beside me, her hand finding my back again .
It takes everything in me not to tell her never to remove it again. Preferably to glue it in place. “You’re not wrong.”
“Did you miss her tonight?”
I slide my hand down Joker’s mane and neck. “I always miss my Joker. But that’s not why I brought you here.”
With a final pat, I leave Joker and move to the next pen over. Aurora follows me, curiosity thick in her features. The horse lying on the pile of hay glances up at us and watches with her ears up and alert.
“Is that . . .?” Rory gasps.
“Her name is Frost. She’s probably the best-behaved mare in here. Poor Joker has been made to look like a rowdy adolescent.”
“Why is she here?” The awe in her voice hits me square in the chest, threatening to empty the air from my lungs.
“She’s yours.”
“Mine? I don’t know a damn thing about horses!”
She’s jumpy when I wrap my body around her from behind and grip the pen door, trapping her. Trying to twist in my arms, she huffs and winds up rubbing her cheek against mine.
“I’m going to teach you, darlin’. Every fucking thing that I know.”
“Johnny,” she protests, her ass grinding over my groin with every jerky movement of her body. “Let me look at you, dammit.”
I drop a hand to her stomach and hold her against me, stilling her movements. “I’ve always believed that horses choose their owners. Joker chose me the first time I met her. It was like a string connected us down deep, right in my chest. The same thing happened with Brody and Sky, Wade and Kip. Hell, even Garrison and Kip. There’s an animal out there for everyone. We’re connected to them on a biological level.”
“And you think me and this horse are the same? After one interaction?”
“It only takes once. You felt it too, told me yourself that you were drawn toward her pen. I took a chance on buyin’ her, and if you don’t want her, then I’ll take her as my own. But I’m certain about this. Call me a dreaming idiot, but I won’t apologize for believing what I do. She’s yours, and you’re hers. Kindred spirits.”
She exhales a long breath, her muscles loosening slowly as she sinks back into my embrace. I splay my fingers over her stomach and rest my chin on her head, waiting for her next words.
They don’t come for a long time. We spend the next few minutes in silence, nothing but the crunch of hay, horses breathing heavily, and the wind picking up outside to keep us company.
And just when I’m about to tell her that we can leave, thinking that I really did overstep here or that I read the signs wrong, she grabs my hand and spins in my arms before I realize what she’s doing.
She tips her head back, gazing up at me while pressing my hand to her chest, between the generous swells of her breasts. The steady thump of her heart engrains itself inside of me.
“Can we go for a ride?”