Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Michael
“What’s going on over there?” Luke tips his head in the direction of where I’m staring.
At the woman who has me all sorts of turned around.
“Nothing,” I say automatically as I half-heartedly take my turn at cornhole.
Declan chuckles. “Sure. It looks like nothing from where I’m standing.”
I turn away from Emery and give him a hard stare. “From what I recall, you told Luke and me to fuck off when we used to ask you about Mia.”
“And now she’s my wife.” His gray eyes brighten. “So you’re saying this woman could be your Mia?”
He tosses his bag at the target, and of course, it goes in. Everything Declan touches turns to gold. It’s been that way since we were kids. But I never had any jealousy toward him. He was the older, wiser cousin, and we all admired him too much to be jealous.
Now though, his question pisses me off, and I take my turn without caring where the bag lands .
This thing with Emery has got me so screwed up in the head that I’m making confessions to my cousins now. And Luke and Declan are the worst ones because, like me, they’re the oldest siblings. So they know how to push my buttons and have no problem doing so until they get what they’re searching for.
“Emery is…” I run my hand down my face in frustration. “Turns out we have an unusual connection.”
“Oh yeah?” Luke finishes his turn and faces me, giving me his full attention. “What’s that?”
“Her uncle was on Lucky Queen.” It’s easier to say this time. Having already told Ayden, the pain in my chest isn’t quite as deep, almost like I’ve made peace with the oddity of my tie to Emery.
Luke freezes. “Shit, Michael.”
Declan taps his fist to my shoulder lightly. “I’m sorry. That is…” He hesitates, but I finish his sentence for him.
“Fucking unbelievable? Yeah. If I’d met her in Lucky Bay, I would have known if she was linked to the Queen of course. But she’s from Montana…I had no clue.”
Luke and I watch Declan take his turn and score again, effectively ending the round.
“So how are you handling it?” Luke asks me as he runs his thumb over the scar on his cheek.
I don’t think he does it consciously—I’m sure he doesn’t—but whenever hard memories come up, my cousin reaches for his scar. Almost like a way to remind himself that some pain lasts forever.
“I walked at first,” I admit.
He nods like he would have done the same. Maybe he has regarding his own torrid past. Luke had a bad rodeo accident that stopped him from competing again, and I don’t know that he’ll ever get over the loss of his dream .
“But then I talked to Ayd. He’s better than I am at this,” I say realizing how true it is.
“He was younger,” Declan says like he’s defending me. “It’s different when you’re the oldest.”
“I know.”
The three of us stand silently as if in solidarity. Luke, the oldest of four, takes the most responsibility for his family’s ranch now that my uncle and aunt have retired. And Declan, ten years older than Cameron, was raised by his dad to be the best hockey player in the world. Just because he succeeded doesn’t mean the experience didn’t come with a lot of scars.
We all did our best to protect our younger brothers. In some ways, we succeeded. In others, I think we were far too cocky.
“So what did your baby brother say?” Declan finally asks. “Words of wisdom, I presume?”
I turn up my hands in surrender. “He basically told me not to be an ass and shut Emery out. That if I want to get to know her, tell her the truth and see where it leads.”
“Sounds along the lines of what Cameron told me when I was getting to know Mia,” Declan says. “Worked for me. I hope it will work for you, too.”
I hope so.
But as I remember our no-strings agreement, I swallow down my hope.
Emery doesn’t want serious.
And I don’t either.
I can’t.
But as the evening winds down and everyone except for Chase and Cooper start to settle into couches and chairs with their spouses—their children asleep on their laps—I get that damn pang again.
The one I always get when I see families, and husbands and fathers. I usually push it away so fast it can’t linger, but tonight, I find myself glancing across the porch to Emery.
She’s looking back at me. I shift my gaze to her red lips, and then down her sexy dress that clings to her tantalizingly curvy body in a way that makes me want to claim her as mine.
Yes, she said no strings.
And I did too.
But I know the way I feel about her is more than casual.
That should scare me off.
But I don’t care right now.
So for the first time since the Lucky Queen went down, I give in to my feelings of wanting something more for myself.
I cross the porch and take the seat beside Emery on the couch that faces the open fields and huge night sky.
I feel rather than see her suck in a breath.
“Enjoying yourself tonight?” I ask her.
Under the light of the porch, I watch as her blue eyes swirl with those violet and gray flecks. She fiddles with her ponytail for a moment, and I reach out and take her midnight hair dipped in red. I curl the ends of her hair around one finger and tug just enough to make her eyes go wide.
“Michael.” She says my name on a whisper.
“Let’s get out of here.” I reluctantly drop her ponytail in order to take her by the hand.
She stands up with me, and we say goodbye to everyone on our way to the unpaved road leading back to our cabins.
As we get further away from the gathering, any sounds of people talking and laughing disappear, and we’re met with near silence broken only by the occasional hoot of an owl or howl of a coyote .
“To answer your question,” she begins. “Yes. I enjoyed myself immensely tonight. Thank you for the invitation.”
“I’m glad you had a good time.”
“Did you enjoy it?” she asks me.
“I did,” I say honestly. “Even though we weren’t together the whole time, just knowing you were there with me made it a hell of a lot more fun.”
Okay, I didn’t plan to be that honest. Even to myself.
Emery squeezes my hand. “What a sweet thing to say,” she murmurs.
We reach the stand of cabins where we’re staying. We stop just outside of hers.
“Do you want to come inside?” she asks me.
I lean down and kiss her. “Yes.”
Just like last night, we’re all over each other the second we’re inside the cabin.
Emery drags me toward the bedroom before I can fuck her up against the door. As soon as we’re inside her room, she pushes me onto the bed and straddles me.
“What do you want?” I ask her as I work to lift her dress up her body and over her head.
Her full breasts are popping out of her bra, and I reach behind to flick open her bra strap. She lets the straps fall off her shoulders, and I tug her flat to me so I can kiss her.
She moans as I work one taut nipple and then the other with my mouth.
“You’re far too good at that,” she murmurs when I flip us both over so I can drag her panties down her legs.
“Is that a compliment?” I ask with a grin. “It sounds like a backhanded one.”
She laughs, but the laugh turns to another moan when I put my mouth between her legs.
“Oh, God, Michael, you are completely spoiling me for anyone else. ”
That’s the idea.
I lick and kiss her core until she lets go with a “God, Michael, I’m coming.”
I’m rock hard as she starts tearing at my clothes.
“I’ve got it.”
I pull my shirt over my head in one motion, and Emery looks at me like I just did the impossible.
“What?” I kiss her cheek before unbuttoning my pants and tossing them to the floor.
“You make the simple things sexy.”
She says it like it’s nothing, but to me, it’s everything.
Suddenly, without warning, I see us setting up house together— freaking living together for Christ’s sake —and I can’t unsee it.
I clearly suck at our no-strings arrangement already.
I square my shoulders and go grab a condom. I just need to refocus—Emery deserves a safe harbor. I can’t promise her that. So, I’ll give her an unforgettable couple of weeks and then tell her goodbye.
We certainly have one heck of a physical connection.
“I love your body,” I tell her as I slide into her.
“Right back at you.”
Her eyes flutter closed as I rock in and out of her.
Last night was incredible. But I dare say tonight is even better. I know her body now, know what she likes, more than I did yesterday, and I take full advantage of my education.
I kiss her lips and then lift her leg so I can drive into her deeper.
“Ohh, Michael…shit, I’m coming.”
I follow her, calling out her name as I bury my face in her warm neck.
Emery’s midnight hair that smells like flowers; her bare ass pressed up against me…life feels pretty perfect as we fall asleep in the still Montana night.