Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
Minutes later, Ryan lifted his head and smiled down at her. “Do you want to take this to a bedroom?”
“Yes,” Pru said, but didn’t make any move to take their make-out session to a different room.
Ryan took the choice out of her hands, quickly stood, then picked her up, and turned toward the bedroom. He took her to his, because he knew he had condoms in his bag. He had learned years ago to always have them on him. Not only for their intended use, but over the years, he and his former teammates had been known to use them to cover the muzzle of his gun if he was going to be in water. He shook the thoughts from his head, then gently laid Pru in the center of his bed. He stood and stared down at her. Even though she was still fully dressed, he thought she was beautiful. Without bending closer to her, he smiled down at her.
“I’m going to say this first,” he said, then paused.
“What?” she whispered to him.
“I’ve always preferred redheads. I hope and pray you’re a natural.”
She grinned at him. “You won’t know until we get naked.” In a flurry of activity, they stripped down to their undergarments, and Pru kneeled on the bed facing him. When she reached for his torso, he gently took her hands in his to stop her. “I only want to inspect the stitches. I need to reassure myself that they won’t break open if you’re on top.”
“If they do?” Ryan held his breath as he stared down at her.
“Then I’ll be on top,” she said as she looked at him and gave a small smile when she saw his eyes were closed and his breathing had increased. She kept her eyes on him as she rose to her knees, then reached out and started gently running her fingertips over his torso. She saw that he had lost a lot of weight, but she was intrigued by the scars over his body. She ended up touching each and every one of them not only with her fingertips, but also with her lips. At one point she looked up at him and saw he was staring down at her.
“One of these days, you’ll have to tell me what happened, but not tonight.” She rushed to reassure him. “Tonight is for other things.” She leaned forward and kissed him just below his belly button, where his happy trail stared. Pru suddenly laughed when she was pushed over backward, and Ryan followed her down.
“Someday, but not today,” he growled, then took her mouth with his. It was a long time before he let her up. When he did, she smiled at him when he saw he had her bra in his hand and flung it over his shoulder. Next thing she knew, he had her panties off and they quickly followed her bra.
“Beautiful,” Ryan said as he reared up, and stared down at the naked woman before him. He smiled when he saw she was a natural redhead, and looked at her with a grin. Before she could stop him, or even blink, he was down on the bed between her legs, and went to town on her sex. He must have stunned her because she didn’t move for a few minutes, then she started thrashing around, and he had to hold her hips to the bed to keep her in place. He paused in pleasuring her to listen to what she was saying, and when no denial or pleas for him to stop was uttered, he went back to what he had been doing. By the time he had wrung a third orgasm from her, he looked at her with a wide grin.
Ryan crawled up her body, paused long enough to grab a condom from the drawer in the stand beside the bed, sheathed himself, and he stopped as he paused before her entrance. He waited until she opened her glazed eyes and studied her expression. He slowly leaned down and kissed her, as he ran his tongue over the seam of her lips, he slowly eased into her with his cock and his tongue. He didn’t stop kissing her until his cock couldn’t go any further, only then did he lift his head to give them both air. He moved her hair from her face and smiled down at her.
“Okay?”
“Yeah.” She sighed in absolute contentment as she stared up at him. When he didn’t move for a few seconds, she squeezed her inner muscles and smiled as his eyes rolled back in his head. She paused until he looked at her with a quirked brow.
“It’s like that, is it?” He grinned at her, and the next few minutes were nothing but a blur as Ryan started loving her.
“Holy shit!” Ryan cried out as he came along with Pru. He slumped to the side and didn’t move for at least five minutes. When he had feeling back in his body, he rose enough to move to give her more air. He leaned up on one elbow, leaned down, took her face in his hand, and kissed her. When he finished, he kissed the tip of her nose, then the center of her forehead. “Thank you.”
Pru looked at him, and because she didn’t want to cheapen the experience for either of them, she only nodded at him, but then moaned when he rose from the bed, and walked out of the room. It wasn’t until she saw the bathroom light come on that she understood what he was doing. With a smile on her face, she only moved long enough to climb beneath the covers, and snuggled beneath them. She barely felt the bed dip when Ryan returned, or that he gathered her in his arms to snuggle while they slept. Twice more in the night they both reached for each other. When the alarm went off, they both groaned, but looked at each other with a grin.
Instead of making love again, they both rose, and went to the bathroom together. While he got the shower ready, she used the facilities, and then climbed beneath the heating water. Ryan soon joined her. When he started playing with her breasts with his soapy hands, she gently gripped them.
She didn’t say anything until he was focused on her. “As much as I would love to continue this, I’m sorry to say that I’m too sore for another bout of lovemaking.”
“I understand,” Ryan said as he moved his hands to her arms, and shoulders. He leaned in and kissed her gently. They finished their shower, and Pru left the bathroom to head to her bedroom, while Ryan went to his. They only went to the separate rooms because Pru didn’t have any clothes in his room. They both left their respective rooms at the same time, almost fully dressed.
“Hey,” Pru said as she stopped suddenly and stared at him.
“What?” Ryan was distracted as he paused to look at her.
“Why don’t you move your things into my room?” She shrugged at his expression, then, with a grin, he went to look inside her room. He noted that it was almost twice the size of his and saw an extra dresser and closet, both were empty.
“Are you sure? If all goes well, I’ll be over at Gunny’s by the end of the week. I’ll be taking most of my clothes with me.”
“That’s right, I forgot, sorry. It was just a thought.”
Ryan walked up to her and gathered her in his arms. “Thank you, if I wasn’t going undercover in a few days, my things would be in your room before the coffee was done perking.” He kissed her, then they went into the kitchen. As she got the coffee ready, he started breakfast. It didn’t take long to make scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon. They settled down to eat, and Pru looked at him.
“What?”
“What will you be doing until you hear back from Jake?” It had been decided that Jake would get a throw away phone, as well as a vehicle. He only needed the plates from Ryan’s current truck so they would come back as out of state, and registered to Ryan, this was in case Royal ran the plates. It would serve the purpose of cementing his story that he was fresh out of the service and looking for a job. Royal didn’t need to know that the truck that would be left at Pru’s house was a brand-new model of the current year with under five thousand miles on it.
“When we leave here, you’re going to the barn here on Broken, but I’m going over to Erin’s Way. Erin thinks I should learn from the older men. They are going to try to cram sixty years’ of experience with horse ranching down my throat in the next week.” He shook his head with a smile. “At least I’ll have a base of knowledge before I go there.”
Pru cocked her head to the side to stare at him. “Will you go over and see what Clark is doing?”
“I hadn’t planned on it, why would I need to do that?” He loved how her mind worked when she’d thought of something.
“I don’t know, but what if Royal gets wind of what’s happening and gets it in his head that the project doesn’t belong to Erin and thinks he can somehow muscle his way into the construction? I know I’m probably talking out my ass, but what Clark is doing is the second half of Broken. I thought you might like to know what’s actually going on. I’m not telling you what to do, but I can’t explain it.”
“I understand. I’ll call Erin when we get to the barn.”
“Okay,” Pru said as she stood and cleared the table as Ryan dressed his feet. Ten minutes later, they made sure everything was off and headed to the door. At the last minute, Ryan went to the freezer, and after rummaging around for a few minutes, he pulled out a white package and set it in the sink. He looked at her with a grin.
“Dinner.”
Pru laughed and shook her head as she headed to the back door to go feed her chickens. “Hey, can you help me make a list for groceries tonight when we get home. I know you’re leaving at the end of the week, but I’m going to need supplies soon. I’m taking eggs in to RJ on Wednesday and figured I can just pick up groceries then.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“No!” she yelled as she whipped around to stare at him in shock. “You don’t want the off chance for Royal to see you, do you? How would you explain to him that you were grocery shopping with someone from the enemy camp?”
“Shit, I didn’t think of that.”
“Yeah, you’re also going to have to remember that if you see any of us in town, you can’t approach us.”
“Yeah,” Ryan said with a deep sigh. He smiled as Pru shook her finger at one of the chickens when it tried to peck her when she reached beneath it to withdraw the eggs. The chicken actually hung its head as she took the eggs. They finished up the chores, and before they got into their vehicles, Pru ran into the house to drop off the three dozen eggs she’d gathered.
At the barn, Ryan stayed in his truck to call Erin, and she agreed with what Pru had said about learning what Clark was doing before coming over to the main ranch to learn about horses from Wendel, Floyd, and Virgil. For the next week, Ryan worked fourteen-hour days learning all he could about horse ranching. He fell into bed every night exhausted, but not so wiped out that he couldn’t make love to Pru. He had moved into her bed, but kept his clothes in his room, knowing he would need to pack them at the end of the week.
On Saturday, Pru looked up when a strange truck pulled into the barnyard at The Broken Wheel, and stood there with a scowl on her face. The person parked, then exited the vehicle.
“Ryan around?” the man asked Pru.
“Who wants to know?”
“Pru?” the man asked, and walked forward.
“How do you know me?”
“I’m Stone. I work for Jake.”
Pru cocked her head to the side, and didn’t say anything because Opal joined her and told the newcomer hello. She turned to look at Pru and gently explained, “This is Stone, his wife is Sparrow. He works at Brotherhood.”
“Shit, that’s right. Sorry,” Pru said as she stepped forward and held her hand out to the man. “What brings you here?”
“Jake is up at the main house, and he told me to bring this truck here. It’s for Ryan.”
His statement hit Pru hard in the chest. She knew Ryan would be going under cover, but with the vehicle there, it finally hit home that Jake had come through. Stone didn’t see her expression as he opened the truck and pulled out a box. He lifted it, then set it back in the front seat. “In there are some communication devices, a throw away phone, and some other things.”
They looked up when two more vehicles came over the rise, and they watched as they parked next to the red truck Stone had exited. In one truck was Jake, the other one held Reid and Erin. They all exited and it was Reid who looked around at everyone who had come out of the barn to join them.
“Where’s Ryan?”
Everyone around them smirked, snickered, or outright laughed. It was Lloyd who spoke for the group.
“He had a little accident and had to go home and clean up.”
“What type of accident?” Erin demanded as she stepped forward.
Instead of answering, Denver pulled his phone, accessed something, then handed it over. The others leaned in and watched as Ryan, who had been dumping a wheelbarrow from mucking the stables, slipped and went head first into the pile of shit. The others were laughing when Ryan returned.
“Ha, ha, muck it up,” Ryan said, but there wasn’t any heat behind it. “What’s up?” Ryan asked Reid and Erin as he stuck his hand out to shake Jake’s. That was when he was introduced to Stone.
“Stone will be your contact with the Brotherhood.”
“Do you think that’s wise?” Pru asked. When everyone turned to look at her, she shrugged. “No offense, but your wife works for the county sheriff. Wouldn’t it be suspicious if all of a sudden Sparrow shows up at Gunny’s where Ryan will be staying?”
“No,” Stone said firmly. “I work out of the basement, and everyone knows we’re married and that she’s always parked at Gunny’s. We didn’t want to do anything out of the ordinary in case Royal has spies. After talking it over with RJ, we’ve decided to get you a room upstairs at the actual bed and breakfast.”
“Who’s RJ?” Ryan asked.
“My wife,” Jake answered. “She runs the B&B with her father, Gunny. She also helps run the bar.”
“Oh, I’ll be a paying customer so she won’t be out any money.”
“That’s fine, you can do whatever you want. We thought it would sell better if you were seen as a patron of the B&B instead of trying to hide you in the basement.” Jake nodded, then stepped back and pointed. “We got you this truck. It’s not pretty on the outside, but under the hood won’t leave you hanging, if you know what I mean. All we have to do is transfer the plates from your truck to this one. It’s done at the DMV, we just have to physically change them.” It didn’t take long for Ryan to open his truck, grab a small toolbox, and move the plates from his big black truck to the smaller red one. After that was done, he cleaned out his regular truck with some items to put in the new one. He looked at the others.
“You’ll help me get the black one over to Pru’s?”
“Yes,” Perry answered. “Adele and I rode together, so I can drive it back.”
Ryan nodded, then turned to Jake with a gigantic inhalation, and he let it out in a rush. “When should I get to town?” He looked around when it seemed like everyone around him held their breath as they waited for an answer.
“I’m not telling you what to do,” Jake said as he looked at Ryan, then at Stone, and back to Ryan. “But I think the sooner you’re seen in town the better your chances of getting to Royal may be. I’m only saying this because I’ve had a few men keeping an eye on him. I don’t know if you remember this, but the three men you took out in the parking lot at Gunny’s work for Royal. He’s down three hands, and if our information, that’s not confirmed yet, is correct, then both the Firths and Miller are on his property, and they’re not lifting a finger to do any work around his ranch.”
“How big of a spread does he have?”
“Around a hundred acres,” Erin spoke then. “Before I accept a new person’s mare to breed with one of my stallions, I do a thorough background check on the owner. I have a file up at the house if you want to read it.”
“I’d like to read it,” Jake said.
Ryan nodded and told the others he’d be up at the main house soon. He told the others goodbye, and saved Pru for last.
“Stop,” Pru said as she walked up to him and put her hands on his waist as she looked up into his face. “We knew you were going to do this, don’t back out now. If you’re worried about me, don’t be. I was fine before you got here, and I’ll be fine when you go.” She lowered her eyes to look at the center of his chest, then she looked at him with wide eyes.
“Shit, that sounded like you’re leaving, leaving, but you’re only going on a mission. I didn’t mean to sound cold and bitchy.”
Ryan chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her. He shook his head as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “You didn’t, I knew what you were saying.” He leaned back and then bent down to kiss her. It was a long time before he let them up for air.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
Pru only cocked a brow at him, and shook her head at him. “I’m sure. Besides, I or someone, will be at Gunny’s every Wednesday to drop off the eggs.”
“Okay, but there’s no guarantee that I will be there when you drop them off. I’ll get with RJ to leave a notebook every week. It might be boring for a few weeks until I can get my foot in the door.”
“I understand,” she said as she lunged and wrapped her arms around him again, burying her face in his chest. It was at least ten minutes before she dropped her arms and stepped away from him. “I’m not being bitchy here, but I’m going to go back to work so you can leave and go pack.”
“I understand,” he said as he watched her go. Five minutes later, the men he had served with came out of the barn and after climbing into Ryan’s truck, and Denver’s they said they would follow him back to Pru’s place. It took over an hour to pack, and it wasn’t because he had a lot of things, it was because the men kept bombarding him with instructions. Finally, he looked at them and shook his head sadly at them.
“What?” Perry asked.
“To an outsider you guys sound like I’ve never been on a mission before.”
“Sorry,” they said collectively, then stood and shook his hand. They stood on Pru’s porch as they watched Ryan toss his seabag in the back seat of the truck from Jake, hop in behind the wheel, and take off, but he rolled down his window to look at each of them in the eye.
“Take care of my Prudora.” He didn’t let them say anything else as he rolled up the window and quickly left the area. He didn’t mean to come across as a bastard, but if he had to talk to them about his feelings for Pru, he knew he wouldn’t go, but there were bigger things in the works than his growing feelings for one feisty redhead that he realized he was falling in love with.