14. Ranger
Chapter 14
Ranger
I worked really hard to keep my anger under control after going away. The day I was sentenced to ten years I made a promise to myself that I would never allow my emotions to get the better of me. Time was a valuable currency and I didn’t want to give any more of it away. I had my sister to look out for and the ranch.
But the moment I heard that asshole’s hand make contact with Sarah, I lost all sense of control. I was wild for the woman and the thought of some other man touching her set my blood on fire. But seeing a drunken piece of shit do it without her consent was next level.
The cold night air made my sinuses burn as I heaved in another lungful of breath. Sarah’s hand was small in mine as I led her to my truck, the distant hum of the music from the bar was the only sound around us.
“Are you okay?” Her voice was soft, like she was worried if she spoke too loud it might break the fragile thread of sanity I had left.
“No.” I yanked my hat off and raked a shaking hand through my hair. “I’m not okay.”
She spun around, leaning her back against the tailgate before she took the edges of my flannel in her small hands. I wrapped my own around hers.
“Talk to me, Ranger. What’s going on?”
That rage was so damn consuming, I thought I might burst into flames from it.
Breathe , I told myself. Just fucking breathe .
My throat was thick as I struggled to get out the words, “That asshole deserves a lot worse for putting his hands on you, Sarah. He shouldn’t be able to walk out of that fucking bar after what he did.”
Understanding flashed across her face as she let go of my shirt and slid her hands around my waist. “You’re right. He’s not a good guy. But I’m okay, Ranger. I promise I’m okay.” She kissed the center of my chest with a gentleness that cleaved my heart in two. “I’m okay,” she said again as her cheek rested over my heart.
Sliding my arms around her, I held her tight against me. Letting the warmth of her small body seep into all the hardened parts of my heart.
It was so easy with her…so easy to let my guard down.
Tilting my chin downward, I whispered against her hair, “I…I didn’t want to scare you, Sarah. But there’s one thing you need to know about me. I will never allow another man to put his hands on you ever again. I should have put you in front of me when we were walking. I should have made sure nothing like that could have happened to begin with.”
I could just make out the chocolate hue of her eyes as she looked up at me, a ghost of a smile on her perfect lips. “Ranger, as hard as you might try you won’t be able to protect me from everything in this world. I hate that you’re even having the thought that you could have prevented that asshole from doing what he did. You can’t be responsible for everyone’s actions. Only your own.” That ghost of a smile turned into a real one. “But I’m thankful you came to my defense.”
Her gratitude churned something inside of me that I’d rarely felt before. For so long it had only been Callie Rose, Miles, and me. Three kids with broken families coming together to survive. But looking at Sarah’s beautiful face made me feel like I might have the chance to do more than survive. I could live .
The idea of that terrified me because if I was already starting to feel this way about her, what the hell would it be like if I lost her? I’d been through a lot in my life, but losing this with her was something that terrified me more than time being stolen away.
Having her this close felt too good to let fear win. So I stomped out that thought, burying it deep in the back of my mind.
“Tell me what happened.” I felt the muscles of her face move against my chest.
I didn’t have to ask to know what she meant.
“You didn’t watch the trial? ”
Her fingers moved in slow circles against my chest. The feeling was a balm to the heat of my anger—squelching it like a breath to a flame.
“The entire town was talking about it. But…I don’t know. I’d always had this feeling that what they were saying wasn’t the whole story. Two of my best friends were made out to be people they weren’t just because others decided to talk negatively about them. I didn’t want to fall for the picture LeRoy’s lawyers were likely painting you out to be. I…wanted to form my own opinion.”
Shock and bewilderment hummed through my body. Sarah was full of surprises and it seemed that with every new thing I learned about her, I found myself more in awe of the woman she was. And more than that, she wanted to give me the opportunity to tell my side of the story completely unbridled.
“I have to say, I think you’re the only one in this town who even considered thinking about my side.”
“Will you tell me?” Her big eyes were a glassy reflection of the moon hanging above us and I realized at that moment I would tell her anything she wanted to know.
“It’s a long story. Are you sure you’re up for it tonight?”
“Mmhmm.” She nodded, the curls she’d made in her long brown hair bounced with the movement of her head. My palm ached to wrap those strands around my hand and pull her head back so I could claim her lips. I stretched my fingers, letting them splay wide so I wouldn’t give in to the temptation.
I unlatched the tailgate of my truck and pulled it down gently. Sarah let out a breathy sigh when I gripped her hips and lifted her onto the tailgate. I wondered if that was the same sigh she might make as I buried myself between her legs.
I never considered myself a lucky man, but I sure as hell wished I was lucky enough to one day have the pleasure of tasting her.
“Wait,” she grabbed my bicep and the feel of her touch sent a lightning bolt straight to my crotch. I stopped just before I was about to hop onto the tailgate with her. She gave me a cute tilt of her lips and then she stretched her legs out, doing a funky little maneuver until her right leg hooked behind me and pulled me into her.
Her tongue darted out between her lips before she said softly, “I want you right here.” And then she tucked her fingers into the front pockets of my jeans. I went still as a stone. Feeling her hands that close to my cock had me about one second away from letting my self-control snap and taking her on the bed of my truck and making her come so hard she screamed my name into the cold night air.
This woman is going to be the end of me . That thought should have scared me, but I was starting to realize there was nothing normal about my reaction when it came to Sarah. She had a way of making me want to be better. A way of giving me hope that there was more to this life than I could ever dream of—that I ever let myself dream of.
“This is where you want me, sugar?”
“Yeah, cowboy.” The smell of something sweet mixed with nutmeg and clover had my mind spinning as she pressed a tender kiss to the edge of my lips. “Now I can look in your eyes when you tell me your story.”
I leaned my hips into her as her hands dove deeper into my pockets. “And how, exactly, am I supposed to concentrate on the story when I have you this close?”
Her fingertips flicked against the lining of my pockets. “You’re a strong man, Ranger. I’m sure you can figure it out.” Then the little devil winked at me like she knew exactly what she was doing.
Somehow the nerves I’d felt earlier when she asked me to tell her what happened had gone away as I thought of where to start. When I looked into her eyes, I had a feeling all the flirting and close call touches weren’t just because we were on a date. She was trying to distract me.
I wanted to praise her for it.
With a long sigh, I placed my hands on the top of her thighs and tried not to read too much into the shiver that ran over her or there was no way I’d get through the story she was asking me to tell.
“My sister was looking at colleges to apply to for dual enrollment. She was always the smart one in the family. Too smart for her own good sometimes,” I chuckled, remembering all the creative ways she would reel our parents in and get me into trouble for something she did.
“So, in her junior year of high school, I brought her to Atlanta to tour one of the universities that has an Agricultural Business major. We spent the weekend there during the second week of September. Looking back now, I wish more than anything that I’d chosen another time to go. ”
“Why’s that?” Sarah’s head tilted to the side with curiosity brimming her eyes.
I shook my head. “I didn’t know it then, but we were touring the school in the middle of the sorority and fraternity rush. There were kids everywhere. Lines of girls chanting as they walked in high heels across campus and the guys were even crazier.”
“Yeah, I’ve never been the biggest fan of those institutions. I’ve always found the idea bizarre. But to each their own.” Sarah shrugged.
“It was definitely bizarre.” I thought back to seeing those poor girls stumble across campus, their feet bright pink with blisters as they tried to maintain their smiles.
“On our final night there, I left Callie Rose in the hotel room while I went out to pick up pizzas at one of the universities’s restaurants. As soon as I left our room, I had a feeling that something was off. I can’t explain it, even now. But it was the same feeling I had right before our mom told us our dad had died in the war. And like a dumbass, I ignored it. Chalked it up to thinking about Callie Rose being on her own in such a big city. Not listening to my gut that night cost me ten years of my life.”
Sarah didn’t say a word as she removed her hands from my pockets and placed them over mine, giving them both a gentle squeeze. Sadness was etched into the lines of her face. Sadness and…understanding.
The look in her eyes gave me the strength to continue. “It was pretty late when I headed out. There was hardly anyone on campus when I found them in a dark alcove between buildings.” Flashes of that night made my head spin. “I noticed the sounds first. Drunken slurs mixed with fists meeting flesh. When I turned the corner and saw what was happening, my instinct just took over. Like a blanket of rage that couldn’t be stopped.
Her grasp on my hands tightened.
“Three guys were looming over this poor kid, each one of them taking shot after shot at his face. Telling him if he wanted to join their fraternity, they needed to beat the bitch out of him. That he was too weak of a man and the only way they’d let him in was if he proved he wasn’t a pussy.”
“Oh my God,” Sarah’s hands moved to cover her mouth as tears welled in her eyes.
“When I saw how bloodied his face was, I didn’t think. I just acted. I told the kid to run while I took them on. When he stumbled away, I let that rage fly. Giving them the instant karma they had coming. Once it started, I couldn’t stop. Every time I hit one of them, all I saw was that poor kid lying on the ground getting ganged up on by three older guys. It was so fucked up, Sarah. But what I did was worse.”
Her brows scrunched together. “What do you mean?”
My chest tightened. “I didn’t stop.” The words came out in a whisper. “I took advantage of them being drunk and I didn’t stop until every single one of them was a useless heap on the ground. It wasn’t until then that I recognized LeRoy Cummings. When I’d finally given them enough, he’d looked up at me through swollen eyes and I knew he recognized me too .
“It was only a few days after Callie Rose and I got home that the police showed up at my door and took me in.”
Sarah was looking down at where our hands were joined. I slipped a finger under her chin, tipping her head back so she was looking at me.
“I understand if it’s not enough. If my reason for doing what I did doesn’t make sense to you and you want to walk away from this before we get too deep, I understand.”
Gentle fingers clasped around my wrist. Her thumb rubbed over my pulse. “Here’s the thing, Ranger. I’m already in too deep. And I don’t think there’s anything you could do that could stop me from falling.”
For a moment, I looked up at the blanket of stars wondering which one sent this angel to me. When I looked back at her, I snaked my hand around the back of her neck, letting my fingers tangle in the silken strands of her hair. “I don’t deserve you.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“When you stop thinking that is when you’ll finally have me. The only thing getting in your way is you.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Smart woman.”
She shrugged. “I’ve been told that a time or two.”
When I nipped her lip she hummed and pulled me toward her, drawing my face close so her lips were near my ear. “Thank you for telling me what happened that night. I can only imagine how difficult dealing with the aftermath must have been.”
“You’re the first person I’ve talked to about it since I was released.”
Her throat moved as she swallowed. “I…I didn’t realize .
“No.” I took her face between my hands. “Don’t do that. Don’t question yourself with me, Sarah. I told you my story because I trust you and I want you to feel the same. If you have a question, I want you to feel comfortable asking it.”
It was the truth. But the part I didn’t say was that I would tell her anything she wanted to hear. There wasn’t a single part of myself that I wasn’t willing to cut wide open for her to see.
“Okay,” she replied with a demure smile before she let her head fall against my chest.
“Okay,” I repeated, my voice a hushed whisper as my hands moved to cradle the back of her head. I held her there for what felt like hours of precious moments.
I’d never been one to get lost in the moment. I was always looking too many steps ahead. But tonight I let myself be consumed by her. The little movements of her chest rising and falling with each breath. The way loose strands of her hair fluttered in the night breeze, tickling the edge of my jaw. How, with every inhale, I felt like I was breathing in the comforting scent of my favorite fall spices. And how she fit perfectly in my arms.
By the time I drove her home, I knew I was a goner. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for her. And I fucking loved it.