12. Shane
CHAPTER 12
Shane
I ’ve never been so hard in my life. Even after taking a long, cold shower, in which I get myself off to the memory of Nora wrapped around me again, I’m still fucking hard.
Clint opts to sleep on the couch. Landon, I assume, retreats to his bedroom. I move up to my lair, where I don’t sleep.
I just lie there. Thinking about her.
When she said that she wanted all of us earlier, I thought for sure that I was going to explode. For Nora to say that, and to mean it…
We’ve shared women before. At least Landon and I have. Clint is a whole different deal. If I’m on my own, I like to have a little more… control when it comes to sex. But if I’m sharing, I’m a little more generous.
Clint has never participated with Landon and me. I’m not even sure he’s had sex since we left Nevada, if I’m being entirely honest. I haven’t asked.
But, as I lay there, rolling around, a thought crosses my mind. Will Nora feel like Clint is rejecting her if he doesn’t play with all of us as well?
The thought troubles me. I don’t want Nora to feel rejected. Especially not after she mentioned some bullshit about an ex cheating on her .
Part of me wants to pound the guy into a thousand pieces. Another part, though, is grateful that he fumbled a woman as great as Nora. Because if he hadn’t, then we wouldn’t be in this position.
By the time the sun is beginning to turn the dark of night into a soft gray, I feel zero percent rested, but I have enough energy to run a fucking marathon.
I’m not even the first one downstairs, though. Clint is walking in the front door, and I give him a look. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“Caught Nora trying to sneak back. She said she would walk to the ranch,” he says, making it obvious that in no way, shape, or form was Clint going to let that happen.
“You drove her back?”
“I did.”
I nod my approval. “How did she seem?”
He shrugs. “She seems… fine.”
Trust Clint to come up with the most reductive way to describe it. “What does fine mean, Clint?”
“She didn’t seem to regret it, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Good. “Do you?”
Clint pauses. “What?”
“Do you regret it?”
“I didn’t do shit.”
I sigh. “Clint…”
He brushes me off. “I’m making some fucking coffee. Horses going out today, trailer will be here at nine.”
“Don’t make us lose her because you can’t get your shit together,” I say as he passes.
Clint freezes, then turns. “What?”
I look down. “Look, I know it’s not ideal but… Nora’s…”
I don’t know how to explain what I’m feeling. She’s special? She’s different? Both of those feel true, but they also feel like they’re too limited to describe it. Instead, I change tactics. “She figured out about the money.”
Clint tilts his head.
“Last night, when we were talking. She knows horses, man. When I said that my parents raised racehorses and reining horses, it was the reining horses that got the reaction. She knows how much money is in that.”
“And?”
“And she didn’t look at me like… they do,” I murmur. I know what it looks like when a woman figures out that you have money. It’s not something I relish. Their face goes from genuine interest to a sort of sharp, hungry look.
Nora never looked at me like that last night. Not, at least, until she was begging me for my cock.
I shuffle, trying to keep myself from getting aroused yet again. Clint’s studying me, and he gives me a sharp nod. “There’s still time.”
“Clint.”
“Look, she’s great. Whatever happened last night, I’m saying I’d do it again. But she’s not perfect, Shane. She’s going to figure out that we are the answer to all her problems, and then she’s going to figure out how to make that work for her.”
My chest feels tight. “You don’t know that.”
“I don’t?” He turns. “Why don’t you tell her exactly how rich you are? And then see if she’s still interested when we’re the ones leasing land from her. Tell her how you fucked a bank loan officer to get information on the loan for the ranch and see if she’s still going to be begging you for your cock, then. This isn’t something that can go on forever. Their ranch is going to fail. We’re going to swoop in to take it over. And Nora is going to hate us after that,” Clint says.
The bitterness in his voice hits me. “Clint. That’s not fair.”
“No? Tell me then that she’s different, Shane. God damn it,” he swears, turning as he kicks at the ground. “Haven’t you been through this enough to know that this isn’t some fucking love story? Haven’t you been used enough?”
His words hit me hard in the chest. “Fuck you, man. I know what I want, and Nora’s not like the other women I’ve been around.”
“You just say that because you don’t know her, man. She’d fuck you over just as quick as the rest of ‘em, and you know it,” Clint barks.
I bristle. “You really think that about her, don’t you?”
“Yes. ”
“But you’re willing to save her ass in a bar fight? Drive her home early, so her daddy doesn’t know we fucked her last night?”
His eyes glitter before they shutter slightly. “I didn’t say that I was going to treat her like shit, man. I have a fucking conscience.”
“You’re such a liar,” I snap. “You don’t get to sit there and criticize me, while you’re falling over yourself to impress her, too.”
“I’m not fucking doing?—”
“You could have called the vet to deliver those foals. Could have called one of us. But you chose to show up as goddamn Superman and do that, all by your lonesome,” I snarl. “Tell me again you’re not trying to impress her.”
“I’m not,” Clint says, his nostrils flaring.
I’m so fucking done with this conversation. “Landon and I want her,” I say, my voice firm. “You better not fuck that up for us.”
“I won’t.”
“Fuck off.”
Clint spins, stomping away. I wait for a second before checking my phone.
Today’s the day Nora and her dad are harvesting the alfalfa.
Against my wishes, I drift toward the door. After last night, she might need a little help. I’m happy to be there. I also want to believe that Clint’s wrong. That Nora isn’t going to use me for my money, like all the women I’ve known in the past.
There’s only one way to find out. Coat on, boots on, I head out the door.
Nora’s different. I know it. Clint’s fucking wrong, and I can’t wait to prove it.
It’s too big of a job for two people. That’s remarkably clear to me. Though Nora and her dad are working their hardest, they’ve barely cut half the field, and it’s nearly noon. They’re definitely not going to make it to the whole field without help. It’s also likely to rain tomorrow, if the weather is to be believed. They sure can’t bundle wet hay.
I catch Nora’s eye as she rides in their big tractor, waving at her to stop. She shuts it down, then leans out the window. “What?” she says, her voice tight. She glances at her phone, and the frown increases.
“Something wrong?”
“Kendall. She checked out of the inn.”
“Well. That was a quick trip.”
She glances at me. “You’re nosy today,” she says in a brusque voice. But it lacks some of the vitriol that it’s had in the past.
“I’m going to go get Landon, and we can start on that part.” I gesture to the other half of the hay field. “I bet we can get it baled up by midnight, right before the rain is supposed to start.”
Nora’s face goes white. “We don’t need help,” she yells.
I move closer. I’m at the tractor’s bottom step when I look up at her. “Nora. This field isn’t halfway done, and your time is running out.”
“I said we don’t need help,” she repeats, her jaw clenching.
I sigh, looking over at the field. I look back at Nora. “I won’t charge.”
“What?”
“I won’t charge. This is just something that’s… free.”
Her eyes narrow. “This better not be because of last night.”
“It’s not,” I say quickly. “Call it professional interest.”
Her eyebrows shoot up.
I nod, looking at the alfalfa. “Look, we need to be able to use this field. It’s the closest one to the Wild Spur, and the sooner we can get this stuff cut and dried, the sooner we can buy it from you.”
She blinks. “Buy it?”
“Yeah, what do you think I was going to do? Let you sell premium alfalfa hay to some asshole without offering to buy it from you first?” I grin at her.
“How much are you going to pay?” she fires back.
I know how much alfalfa costs. The number I quote at her? Easily double.
Nora balks. “No.”
“What?”
“No freaking way,” she snaps.
My chest sinks. Here it is. Now that she knows I have money, she’s going to try to fleece me for it …
“That’s double the market rate. I don’t need your charity or your pity money. If you want to buy my alfalfa, you’ll buy it from me at what it’s worth,” Nora says, looking down her nose at me.
The tightness in my chest lifts. I look over at her, and from her stubborn expression, I can see that she’s absolutely dead serious.
I can’t help it. I grin. “You’re turning down a fifty percent profit, you know that, right?”
“I don’t like doing dirty business.” She blushes a little and looks away. “If you’re going to… buy the hay, I want it to be fair and square, and not for any other reason than it’s a normal transaction between people.”
I tilt my head. “Normal?”
“You know. Not because we’re… neighbors.” She looks down.
It hits me then. Nora thinks that I’m trying to take advantage of what happened last night. That I’m only offering her double because we fucked.
“Nora,” I say calmly. “I really would pay that for the hay, if it was high quality.”
“This hay is average, at best.”
“Okay then,” I sigh. My eyes narrow. “You know that I can afford it, right?”
Nora blinks. “I know that you’re rich. No need to rub it in my face. The Wild Spur is obviously doing well, and my guess is that you’re the one who financed some of it and brought in investors for the rest.”
“I did.”
She sighs. “I’m mostly just jealous I didn’t think of the idea myself.”
Interesting. “Why’s that?”
“Because it’s such a good model. Trail rides are big business, and everyone with a horse background can take a well-broke horse on a trail ride. Tourists love to come to Montana and pretend to play cowboy. It’s brilliant,” she says, her nose wrinkling. “Horses are expensive and hard to maintain. But if someone else was in charge of their care for most of the year, it would be easy enough to run the trail rides with a rental cost for the horses.”
I let myself smile again. “You figured that out fast.”
She shrugs. “I did major in business at CU.”
“Did you?”
“Yup. I was going to start my MBA in the fall when…” Her voice trails off.
My chest aches for her. “You had to come home.”
Nora nods. “I did.”
“Did you defer or decline?”
“Deferred,” she says, looking at me. “I was hoping that I could get the ranch to a better place and then go back.”
Oh, Nora. “Well, maybe if you let someone pay you double the cost of alfalfa…”
Nora laughs. “No way, Shane. I know my morals, and I’m sticking to them.”
And that, right there, is exactly why Nora is so different. I give her another smile. “I see that, Nora Foster. So. Will you let us help you with the hay that I will buy back from you at market price?”
Nora sighs. She looks to where her dad is running the baler.
“Yeah, okay. But only at market price.”