Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Vaughn
Idon’t know what in the hell just happened. One minute I was confessing to Yankee that I’d fucked up and shown my jealous side, then the next minute, there’s a warm Kate kissing me. Her soft mouth pressing ever so sweetly to mine.
A heartbeat later, reality kicks in right as she breaks away from me.
The look in her eyes is one of regret, maybe embarrassment.
Her hand falls away from my face, and I capture it, putting her palm back to my cheek, needing her hands on me.
Then I mirror the move by cupping the smooth skin at her neck and drawing her closer so I can take her mouth.
She makes a noise in the back of her throat as I claim her. And when she opens for me and lets me in, I groan.
Her answering whimper makes me insane, driving me to take more, and I back her up until I have her pressed against the stall wall.
Yet it’s still not close enough. I drop low, grabbing her by the thighs and hauling her up.
Her legs wrap around my waist, and I grind into her, letting her feel how hard she’s made me in a matter of seconds.
The taste of peppermint explodes across my tongue. Sweet and heady, requiring that I take and take until we’re both panting.
Finally, I break the kiss long enough to press my forehead to hers and catch my breath.
My cock throbs against her. But I need to slow this down before I strip her naked and take her right here in this old barn in front of a geriatric horse.
“Wow,” she whispers on a breath. “For a second there, I thought maybe you weren’t interested. Guess I got that wrong.”
“Sweetheart, I’ve been leaving my door open for you every night. I’m definitely interested. You just took me by surprise because, as of about twenty minutes ago, I thought you had a man.”
She considers me for a long moment before whispering, “I don’t think I’ve ever had a man.”
Something about the way she phrases it makes me believe she might be thinking I’m the man she wants, and my cock twitches at the thought. I take her mouth again, sipping from her lips like she’s the finest whiskey.
“Fuck, Kate,” I gasp when we come up for air again. “You make me crazy.”
She rocks her hips, grinding against me. “You say it like that’s a bad thing.” She kisses me again, catching my lower lip between her teeth, then soothing the spot with her tongue. “Come on, cowboy, let’s see what you’ve got.”
“Told you. I’m no cowboy.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. I was kinda hoping you’d wanna take me for a ride.”
I burst out laughing. When I get control of myself, I shake my head, but I’ve still got a smile on my face. Around her, it’s becoming more and more familiar. “Woman, the shit that comes out of your mouth.”
She drops her legs and takes my hand as she backs her way through the barn, pulling me with her. It’s flirty and so unlike the efficient fireball I’ve come to know that I’m struck stupid. “Where are you taking me, you little vixen?”
She falters for a heartbeat, and I immediately regret not taking control like I want. But I see the resolve pass through her. Her shoulders straighten, and a glint shines in her eyes. “Thought we might check out your bedroll.”
The corner of my mouth tilts up as we pass into a multipurpose room.
Part spare room, part office space, part supply closet.
I’ve never thought much about it other than it was wasted space.
But now I can see the benefit of it. I grab her by the hips and spin us around, dropping onto a stump that, at some point in the past, Gus decided to start using for saddle storage.
Thank god I cleaned this place up; otherwise, we’d be swimming in a sea of dust.
“Don’t have a bedroll,” I say, my voice sounding like it’s been raked over gravel as I pull her to stand straddling my legs. “Guess you’ll be the one getting the ride.”
She lowers onto my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck and sinking into another one of those heady kisses. I can’t help but lift my hips while she grinds down onto me. The sharp inhale when I hit the right spot makes me want to pummel my chest like a caveman.
Instead, I set up a rhythm thrusting up against her, dry humping her like a damn teenage boy. I slip a hand under her shirt, skating my fingers across the smooth expanse of her skin, spanning her ribcage so that I can brush my thumb on the soft swell of her breast.
From the main barn, a throat clears. Kate freezes in my lap, and we stare at each other as we wait to see who has interrupted this exquisite moment.
The sound of shuffling feet, and then the low hum of Gus murmuring to Yankee, kills what’s left of the sexual energy.
I still her, unwilling to let this end yet, old man be damned.
Eventually, my cock deflates because Gus is apparently never going to go back to the house. It’s well past the time he normally goes to bed.
Kate’s fingers play in the hair at the nape of my neck, tracing around the welts from the wasp stings, like she needs to feel that they happened but I’m still standing despite them.
And I realize how much of a dick I am, taking advantage of her in my grandpa’s dusty barn. Still, I gaze up into her beautiful face and can’t help but trace her features with the back of a finger.
She’s a tough woman. Brave and strong. But I see beneath the veneer that she wears for the rest of the world. As she meets and holds my gaze, I let myself fall. Much like when I was helping her put her bee suit on, I lose myself in the kaleidoscope of green, brown, and gold.
The eye contact makes everything more intimate, and I feel like she can see all the secrets I’ve been hiding, all the lies I’ve told myself and everyone else who’s come before her.
It scares the shit out of me.
Somehow, I know, even if I crashed out and bared it all to her, she’d help me put myself back together again.
But she’s not for me. And I am not for her.
If I were a man with a different past, or if she had any other career, I’d chase her down and make her mine.
And that’s the worst of it. She’s everything I could ever want in a woman.
Smart, kind, tender, warm, funny, giving, and all of that wrapped in a sexy-as-hell body.
I hate this line drawn in the sand, and I don’t know if I can make myself cross it.
Eventually, Gus shuffles out of the barn, and I pull Kate close and place a chaste kiss on her lips. Careful not to let it go too far, because this suddenly feels like a hookup. And if I’m going to cross that line, I’ll want far more than a hookup with Kate.
“Come on, you little vixen, let’s head back to the house. We’ve tempted fate enough tonight.”