CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Katarina
I woke up warm, satisfied and kinda horny again .
I tried to roll over in bed but the massive arm draped over me, locked across my chest with one big palm cupping my breast, held me in place. Now I knew why I was already turned on again: his scent, his heat, his perfectly calloused hand rubbing deliciously. I stretched, pushing my ass back into his groin and plunging my chest deeper into his palm. We both moaned, his sounded sleepy, like he wasn’t properly awake. I ground against him once, twice until he started pushing back.
“What a way to wake up. Is this why people never get out of bed?” His voice rumbled in my ear, raspy from sleep and making me shiver. His grip on my breast tightened and his thumb started stroking over my hard, begging nipple.
My eyes squeezed shut and I bit my lip to keep from moaning too loudly and inflating his ego any more. But then his other hand snaked over my hip and under the seam of my panties, immediately finding my swollen clit and pressing down on it.
I squeaked and his chuckle vibrated through my chest.
“Not fair,” I groaned.
“You think you play fair, sweetheart? Pushing that perfect peachy ass back into my dick and making it as hard as you can?”
His finger continued its magic until it was joined by another and he pinched the two together. “Oh fuck,” I shouted, accidentally letting it slip out. He maneuvered quickly, shifting his weight and turning me towards him so we were face to face. He quickened his pace and then dipped down and slid two fingers inside me, pumping them, the wet sound making my cheeks flush.
We didn’t speak, our breaths making plenty of noise and saying everything as he continued pumping and dragging his fingers wetly through my flesh. Coaxing me, stretching me with a third one, and finally shattering me. I practically screamed as my body clenched down on him over and over again.
“I love watching you come,” he murmured, placing a kiss to the side of my mouth. I didn’t say anything, hadn’t even opened my eyes yet.
When I finally caught my breath, him still pumping inside me, I opened my eyes and immediately found him staring into them. His blue had deepened to the dark navy of the deep sea, so many thoughts and emotions swam behind them.
“Hi,” he whispered.
For some reason, emotion swamped me and my throat closed. “Hi,” I replied, my voice shaky.
His brow furrowed. “Hey, what’s wrong? Was that too much? I’m sorry I didn’t mean to—”
I flung my arms around him, cutting him off. I don’t know where the emotion came from. I’d bottled so much up recently that maybe the physical release had started a chain reaction to an emotional one too.
“I’m okay,” I said, my voice muffled against his neck. His hand stroked my back, holding me tightly to him.
“It’s okay, you can talk to me if something’s not okay?”
“No, I’m fine, honestly. I think the intensity just took me by surprise.”
“Oh yeah?” I heard the smile in his voice and rolling my eyes, I pushed him off me. He pressed a kiss to my lips, I panicked about my morning breath but he didn’t seem to mind.
He didn’t seem to mind anything with me.
I kissed him back, my tongue tentatively searching for his, needing the connection, needing him. When his slid against mine, my body sighed. I pressed against him and felt his hardness on my bare stomach, a little damp where he’d clearly enjoyed what he was doing to me.
I pulled away when I realized I could see his features which meant it was daylight.
“Shit!” I threw back the covers and searched for my clothes.
“What?” he asked, sitting up, his tanned skin on display and making my mouth water for a taste. Did he have any idea how sexy he was? How were more women not throwing themselves at him? How was he still a virgin ?
Not anymore…
“I need to get back, before the girls are up and wonder where I’ve been.”
There was a pause before he said, “Are you bothered if they know where you’ve been?”
It was a loaded question and one I wasn’t prepared to answer right now. I didn’t know how I felt about what was happening other than it felt good, but did it feel right ? Given our history, everything should be screaming at me to stay away from him and yet I couldn’t, or my traitorous body couldn’t.
“No, I just…” I trailed off, not really knowing how to answer. I turned to him, seeing him sitting in bed, his dark hair unruly, his gaze penetrating me with an intensity I both loved and wanted to shy away from.
After a moment he waved his hand. “I get it, it’s fine. You go on and I’ll see you soon.”
I wanted to say we should talk about it but I couldn’t put words together so I didn’t argue, just gave him an awkward wave and hurried out of the cabin. I finger-combed my hair and slapped my cheeks, taking some deep breaths just in case I bumped into one of the girls up early.
I crept in through the front door and hearing complete silence, I carefully slipped my boots off. I paused, and still hearing nothing I released the breath I’d been holding and headed for the stairs.
“Good morning, Katarina,” Leo said.
I yelped and turned on the bottom step to find him leaning against the kitchen archway, a cup of coffee in his hand and a smirk on his face.
“Nice morning?” he asked, waggling his brows and taking a sip of coffee.
“Yes, you?” I replied casually .
“So far.”
“Great,” I said and then turned.
“I just saw the most interesting thing,” he began, a teasing note in his voice. I slowly turned, glaring at the little shit. “I saw someone leaving Jack’s cabin this morning who looked a lot like you. That’s interesting, don’t you think?”
I smiled at him, full of teeth. “I don’t think that’s interesting at all. Some people might wonder what you’re doing here so early in the morning in a house you don’t live in. Maybe some people should revoke your house guest privileges?”
He laughed. “My lips are sealed, Kat.”
I nodded. “I’m glad.”
Then his expression turned serious. “Just, be careful. I’m happy for you but you’re like my big sister, I don’t want you to get hurt.”
I scoffed. “I won’t get hurt, it was just a bit of fun.”
He cocked his head. “For both of you?”
I faltered. I knew it was just a bit of fun but did Jack?
Of course he did. He was out of prison and finally free, the world was his oyster. He wasn’t attached to me.
“Don’t get hurt, but also remember, he doesn’t have anyone.”
My stomach lurched at Leo’s words, hating that he was right. Jack didn’t have anyone and what if he did attach himself to me? Did I really want to think about the consequences of that?
“Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!” I called over my shoulder as I headed upstairs for a shower.
Once I was clean and dressed in my denim overalls, hair held back in a ponytail and a red bandanna tied around my head to keep the stray strands from my eyes, I was ready for the day. Not that I hadn’t had the best sleep ever and woken up the best way possible, but now Leo’s words had thoughts pinballing around my mind about what had happened with Jack and what the impact of that was.
What if my sisters found out, would they care? Would they be mad or disappointed? How did I feel about it? Yeah, it had been amazing, the man was magic with his hands despite his lack of experience. And the thought of helping him build that experience had me fighting off a shiver. But it couldn’t turn into anything serious. It was casual. Jack would think it was casual too. We were just two random people who casually had mind-blowing, amazing, toe-curling sex.
When I met Jack on the porch thirty minutes later, my cheeks flushed of their own accord. My eyes trekked over him slowly, taking in the navy muscle tee that hugged his biceps, biceps I’d bitten last night to fight off a scream as he pounded inside me. The material was pulled taut against his chest, a chest I’d licked and nipped. His thick denim clad thighs that I knew held so much power and don’t get me started on his round, luscious ass. Even his feet were nice, and I hated feet.
Casual .
Clearing my throat, I asked, “Ready?”
He smirked at me, like he knew my mind had plummeted straight into the gutter. He did his own lazy perusal and it was downright lascivious. “Ready.”
“Great,” I said, smiling tightly, and set off at a gentle jog towards the stables. He kept pace with me, putting us closer together and I veered off, creating some space between us but he didn’t say anything.
When we reached the stables, I spotted Tate Wilder, Reverence’s farrier and veterinarian already looking at the horses .
“Hey Tate,” I called, waving at him. He came by to run health checks on all the animals and change the horseshoes too when needed. He lifted his head, his black hair falling over his forehead and pushed his glasses up his aquiline nose. He had the most gorgeous high cheekbones, and jawline that I’d ever seen. He’d filled out a lot since high school. Tate used to be the quiet, shy boy in the corner who most people ignored. He lived next door to my best friend Gertie, so I used to see him a lot. He was very studious, sometimes his seriousness was off-putting but I liked him. And he was passionate about animals which was always a plus.
“Good morning, Katarina,” he replied. His stiffness meant he always full-named me even though we’d known each other for twenty years.
Jack stepped forward and held out a hand. “I’m Jack, nice to meet you, Tate.”
Tate eyed the hand that had been stretched out before replying. “Yes, I know who you are. Nice to meet you too, I guess.” Of course Tate knew who Jack was, the whole freaking town did.
Then Jack did something bizarre. He rested his hand on my lower back and stroked his thumb over my spine. My breath hitched at his touch but I pulled away. I didn’t want anyone, including Jack, to think there was something more going on here. I felt his eyes on me but I ignored them.
“What are we thinking then, Tate? Who needs what?”
Tate’s signature frown appeared. “Marshmallow looks good, I know August takes great care of him. But I think Pickles has an infection in her hoof so I need to look into that.”
Tate rattled off a few more things and then I sat and watched him as he took out his instruments and laid them out ready, counting each time he did it before carrying on with what he was doing, which was a little odd. I watched him get to work, the movements aggressive and forceful and I flinched a few times as he dug out the mud and grass from the horses’ hooves even though I knew it didn’t hurt the horses.
“How do you know there’s an infection?” Jack asked. He’d been watching Tate closely, like he was trying to learn as much as possible from him.
Tate frowned again before pointing to the side of the hoof. “See this swelling here?” Jack nodded. Then Tate lowered the hoof to the ground and walked Pickles in a circle. “See her reluctance to put her full weight on it? That tells me there’s an infection here.”
“Ah yeah I see it,” Jack replied, nodding. Then he asked more questions about the horseshoes. It was cute how he wanted to learn it all. I shook my head, turning away from his eager questions and went over to stroke Chester. The gentle giant nudged my hand and I reached into the treat bag and dug out a couple of sugar cubes to give him.
There wasn’t a huge amount to do today so we spent the morning with Tate and weirdly, I felt bad pulling Jack away when he was learning so much. So I left them to it and went off to investigate one of the pastures but soon Jack found me.
“You need me to do anything today?” he asked, tucking his hands into his pockets, his forearms flexing as he did.
“Nope, I can handle everything. You can go back and enjoy learning from Tate,” I replied.
He reached for me. “You sure?”
“Yep!” I spun away and kept going. I knew I was being off with him but I couldn’t help it, I had a lot of feelings I needed to sort through and I needed space to do it. I had too many things on my mind, trying to save the ranch, mainly coming up with a way to fend off Martin in two weeks when I inevitably didn’t have any money.
Throughout the day, I grew progressively moodier. I didn’t know what to do or where to start. I didn’t see Jack again and after dinner, I shut myself in my father’s office in an attempt to come up with ideas.
I felt so incompetent at all this, and it brought up all the old feelings of doubt over my abilities, stemming from back when I was at college. I was a failure all over again, only right now it really mattered. Except I wasn’t learning, there was no safety net. The training wheels were off and I was flailing to try and keep myself upright, to no avail.
The only thing I could think of was taking out one big loan to try and cover all the little loans and then at least I would owe the bank and not a bunch of random strangers who could turn up at any moment. I decided the next day to try that and was buoyed by finally taking some kind of action.
When I saw Jack the following morning, looking gorgeous in a light blue Henley that matched his eyes and a baseball cap, I had the annoying urge to run into his arms but I didn’t. I needed to put some distance between us.
“You’ll be working with August and Maddy today,” I said when he smiled and said good morning.
His expression faltered. “Sure. Everything okay?”
I nodded sharply. “Yeah, I just have some errands to run.”
He looked me over from head to toe. I’d worn my nicest dress and heels and put my hair into a bun, hoping to impress the bank with my appearance at least.
“If you need me, you only have to ask,” he said softly.
He always wanted to help, was eager to help, but this was my burden and I needed to fix it to prove that Daddy was right to put the ranch in my hands. That I could cope on my own, that I hadn’t wasted thirty years of my life and was still unable to stand on my own two feet and manage the ranch.
I didn’t say anything and when August appeared at our side, I left. I could feel Jack’s stare on me as I got in the truck but I tried to put him out of my mind as I drove into town.
The bank was in an old church that had been remodeled. Its high ceilings and bare white walls created an echo so everyone spoke in hushed tones. I sat down with my advisor who practically laughed me out of the building. I was not a viable candidate for a loan. I had nothing to offer up as collateral except the ranch which was not an acceptable asset being that it was so in arrears.
I sat in my truck afterwards, trying not to have a panic attack and give in to my spiraling thoughts. The ranch needed me, the girls needed me. I needed to fix this and I needed some time to refocus my thoughts and come up with another solution.
I went home and shut myself in Daddy’s office and started going through everything from the beginning, praying I would find an answer somewhere.