Chapter 5
Kannen
“What part?” she asks.
“Talk is cheap. I’ll show you.” I get out of her bed and cross to her nightstand. “I’m guessing this is where you keep your silicone party friend?”
She laughs. “I’ve never heard it called that, but yes, that’s where they stay when they’re not invited to the party.”
“They?” I open the drawer to find two vibrators.
“I’m inviting them.” I take them out, then open a condom packet and roll it onto one of the toys. Then I climb back into bed. “Roll over.”
“What are we doing here?”
“I’m going to pleasure your back door.”
“Uh…I’ve never done that.”
“We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
She thinks for a second. “I trust that you’ll make it good.”
“Damn straight I will.” I would do anything to please this woman. I don’t want to leave a single inch of her body unsatisfied.
Stormy rolls to the edge of the bed and onto her stomach.
I prop a pillow under her hips, then put one of the vibrators under her against her clit.
She grinds against it.
“It’ll be slow and careful, but if you’re not comfortable, just tell me.” I place the other vibrator between her ass cheeks and insert just the tip. Then I turn it on to a low vibration.
“Oh…mmm…wow,” she says.
“I won’t go any further.” I turn up the vibration mode. “Doesn’t that feel nice?”
“It does.” She fists the sheet. “Wow. I didn’t know I could party like that.”
I laugh and put my other hand on her pussy. Then I turn on that vibrator and press it harder against her clit.
Leaning down close to her ear, I whisper, “Come for me, my darlin’. Let go. I want it all. That sweet juice is mine.”
“Oh my…sh…oh…I can’t…I’m going…” With a hoarse cry, she comes and lets out a loud ahhhh.
“That’s it, beautiful. Take the pleasure you deserve.” I kiss one of her ass cheeks.
“I think I melted.”
I laugh and ease the vibrators away from her, then get up to take them into the bathroom.
When I return, intending to lie beside her and hold her, she’s sitting up with the sheet beneath her chin, covering her tits.
“You’re welcome to stay the night if you’d like, but I’m going to go take a shower.”
Her body still looks relaxed, but her smile isn’t. And there’s a strange expression on her face.
“Be back in a bit.” She leaves the bed and enters the bathroom. The door closes firmly.
Well, shit. I think that strange expression means she’s coming down with a case of regret.
Thoughts racing, I walk naked into the kitchen to get a drink of water and think about my next step. I can’t start talking about my feelings for her because I don’t think she’d welcome that.
I don’t know what I should do or say. I pace the living room and when I turn around, I glance at the empty cat bed. Wait a second.
My stomach tightens. When we got to her house and she unlocked the door, the cat was nearby. Please tell me she didn’t dart out. Stormy would be devastated if her pet was lost.
Everyone in town knows how much she adores Checkers. Rumor has it that her elderly neighbor even knitted a sweater for the cat.
I quickly snatch a bath towel from the folded stack on the sofa, wrap it around my waist and rush to the yank open the front door. I peer out onto the porch.
Something rustles in the bushes nearby. I turn on the porch light, but its glow is pitiful. Dammit.
I can’t take a chance that her cat got out and is hiding in the bushes.
I step gingerly onto the porch. “Kitty? Checkers? Come here girl.”
The rustling gets louder.
I’m going to have to go investigate. I hurry down the steps wishing I’d thought to get my phone to use as a light.
“Come here, darlin’. Be a good girl and come to your future daddy.”
Something runs by me toward the road and I catch a flash of white on a small face.
“Checkers!” I spin around and sprint after it. My towel snags on something and falls. I stumble over it and keep going. I’ll get that after I secure the cat.
I’m on full display but I can’t let—what the fuck? I stop and stare at the animal backed against my truck tire. A damn racoon? I put my hands on my hips. “Were you the one in the bushes?”
A car screeches to a stop in front of Stormy’s house, and I shade my eyes against the glare of the headlights.
“Alright, buddy. I can see all of you, now let me see your hands.”
Clint Hall, the new deputy motions me forward.
I cover my junk with my hands. “Wait a second. There might be a misunderstanding here.”
Stormy’s elderly neighbor thrusts open a window and leans her head out. “I told the sheriff last week I thought there was a Peeping Tom. I think he came from Clover County.”
“I’m—” I start to defend myself and say I was with Stormy but then stop. If I say that, it’ll be all over town before sunup that I was naked with her. And I want to protect her reputation. So I amend it to, “I have a towel somewhere behind me.”
“Oh, that’s just nasty,” the elderly neighbor screeches. “Wanking off in the bushes! You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
“Show me your hands!”
I put my hands up. “Is Deputy Jackson Parker on duty? He knows me.”
“Is that right?” The deputy spins me around and slaps cuffs on me. Then I’m told I’m under arrest.
The elderly neighbor comes outside clutching her robe under her chin. She’s carrying a huge flashlight and sweeps the beam quickly across Stormy’s yard. “There’s no towel,” she says triumphantly.
I can’t believe this.
The deputy takes a blanket from his trunk and covers me with it before stuffing me into the back of his car. I slouch down in the seat. It’s embarrassing as hell but I’ll put up with it if it means protecting Stormy’s name.
The trip to the station doesn’t take long and I’m thankful to see Jackson is on duty. He works part time as a deputy while trying turn the ranch he inherited from his grandparents into a full-time income.
After I quietly explain what happened, he laughs his ass off. Jackson and I have been friends since high school, and I learned back then that he knows how to keep his mouth shut. It’d be easier to push a Ford through the eye of a needle than to get a secret out of him.
“I’ll get you out of here, but we have to at least take a mugshot so you can have a keepsake,” he says.
“Like I want a memento of my junk swinging in the night air?” I have to laugh now that I’m out of handcuffs and in a pair of extra sweatpants and a T-shirt he had on hand.
“It’ll be something you can give Stormy. The photo, not the junk.”
“Funny.”
“I thought so.” Jackson motions me toward a wall.
“Alright.” I stand in front of the height measurement chart.
“Hang on. Add this.” Jackson hands me a black Stetson.
I put the hat on, think of Stormy, then give the camera what I think is a great smoldering stare along with a sexy half smile.
Jackson takes the photo. “As soon as this uploads in the system, I’ll text it to you,” he says. “You’re free to go.”
“I need to find a ride,” I tell him. I don’t have my phone on me and don’t have anyone’s number memorized.
“My shift is ending. Come on, I’ll give you a lift back to Stormy’s.”
Stormy swings open the door as soon as I step onto the porch. She’s barefoot and wearing a pair of light pink pajamas. Her hair hangs free and her lips are still slightly swollen from our kisses.
She’s so damn beautiful.
“My neighbor came over to warn me about a Peeping Tom. She’s the one who called the sheriff’s office. You’ve had a busy night,” she says with a teasing grin.
“Yeah, but not as pervy as what she thought.”
“I know you weren’t wanking off in the bushes like she said. But what were you doing outside?”
“I thought Checkers got out and went to look for her,” I explain.
“Ah, okay. I was planning to come and get you, but the deputy said you’d been released so I guessed you’d be on your way here.”
“Are you alright with everything?” I ask. Tell me you had a great time. That you want to see me again. Please.
“Uh huh.” She points to a wooden ladderback chair. “I put your clothes over there.”
Well, if that’s not a take your hat and get going clue, I don’t know what is. I scoop my clothes up, tucking them beneath my arm. “I’ll head out then. It’s late and I’ve got an early morning tomorrow so I can get some things done on my ranch.”
My ranch. Saying that still gives me a thrill. My place to call home. My place to belong.
Stormy gives me a funny look but doesn’t say anything.
“Then…uh…thanks and uh…goodnight,” I tell her and I’m out the door. My head is spinning, my heart is filled with trepidation. I stick the key in the ignition of my truck, and it clicks. Nothing else. I try again with the same result.
Stormy walks up to the passenger side and motions for me to lower the window. “I’ll take you home and you can get Jude or one of the other Richfords to bring you back to get your truck later.”
“I don’t want to leave it because then everyone will know I was here with you.”
Her eyes narrow. “If it embarrasses you for anyone to know you were with me, then find your own damn way home.”
What the…? I scramble out of the truck, catching up to her right as she crosses the threshold. “I’m not embarrassed at all. I was trying to protect your reputation.”
She laughs but it’s not the sound of amusement. “My reputation was destroyed a long time ago thanks to first my father and then my ex. There’s not much more that can drag my name through the mud.”
“I don’t want anyone to gossip about you because of me.” I would never want to be the reason she’s upset.
Stormy crosses her arms. “I was going to ask you what you wanted for breakfast tomorrow because I was going to see if I had the stuff to make something or needed to run to the store.”
“You weren’t going to…” I stop, thinking carefully about what to say before I make this worse.
“I can’t fit breakfast into my schedule right now.
I usually grab something and run out the door.
I often have to eat while I work. So…thanks again.
” I’m thinking I did a good job explaining and showing how appreciative I am for everything about her.
But she looks madder.
I try again. “I’ve got some guys coming over tomorrow to give me a hand fixing the barn roof, so I have to be there early.”
“K. I’ll change and give you a ride home.” She shoots me a look.
That look says a lot. Judging by how tight her expression is, I can tell I’ve fucked up bad but I don’t know how.
She locks up her place and then gets into her car, drumming her fingertips on the steering wheel.
As soon as my ass hits the seat and I close the passenger door, she pulls into the street, driving like she’s a day late.
Neither of us speak and the atmosphere turns I’ve-seen-you-naked awkward. And I’m running the evening backward in my head trying to find out where I made a wrong turn with her.
“If you didn’t want to stay with me, you should have said so,” she says when we reach the turnoff to my ranch.
“I did want to stay,” I say as she screeches the car to a stop in the driveway, narrowly missing the row of solar lights I installed to make it easier to find the driveway at night. “But you were smiling kind of tight and then said you were going to take a shower.”
“Because I felt shy not because I didn’t want you to stay,” she says.
“But as soon as I returned from my life of crime, you pointed to my clothes. I took that as a hint you wanted me to leave.”
“Life of crime,” she mutters, then huffs out a breath. “I thought you’d want to know where they were. And I said you were welcome to stay the night, didn’t I?” She runs her hand through her hair. “And you said thanks. For what? The fuck?”
Triple shit. That’s how I fucked up. This is all my fault for guessing what I thought was going on instead of asking.
Stormy takes off her seatbelt and steps from the car, crossing her arms to lean against it.
I quickly get out and come around to her. “I wasn’t thankful for the fuck.”
She frowns.
“I was delighted. Overjoyed. But not thankful. Yeah.” I’m nervous as hell that I’m screwing everything up.
“Not…I don’t…what the hell are you trying to say?”
What am I trying to say? That I’m happy about tonight. That I’m in love with her.
I want to tell her how I feel about her. That way she’ll know I’m not playing, she’ll know I don’t want her to be passerby in my life. But currently, I’m a man who doesn’t have anything wanting to be with a woman who is everything.
I have to prove to her that I’m not like the men she’s known in her life. I’ll never break her heart.
I’ll make her happy and I’ll never leave her the way her daddy did. I’ll never make her feel like she’s second best the way her ex did.
And as soon as I’m done fixing this ranch up, that’s when I’m going to tell her how I feel. I’m going to show her this can be a forever home for both of us.
I knew back in high school that she used to come to this place where she found comfort and peace. This land mattered to her and that’s the whole reason why I chose this fixer-upper over a ranch that was already up and running.
The wind whips her hair across her face, and she brushes it aside. “Well? What are you trying to say?”
“That I don’t know how to always organize my thoughts before I speak when I’m around you. I get tongue tied sometimes.”
“Oh…I see.”
“I missed the clues back at your place, but I wanted to stay.”
She shrugs like too late now.
But I don’t want to let her go. “Since you’re here, stay the night with me.”