SAGE
8
Gravel crunches, and I sit straight up, blinking furiously. Where the fuck am I? Right. The hayloft. Someone’s driven onto our property and has parked in front of the house. My brow knits together as I suck in a gasp. Edging my way closer to the barn’s wall, I peek through a knothole in the wood. That’s my truck. And… that can only mean?—
It strikes me that I’ve got a potential problem brewing when I realize Kade’s arrival is what woke me up. “Shit,” I whisper to no one but the slumbering cat beside me.
Flying into action, I scramble out of the loft and down the ladder as pain radiates through my body. I ache. Memories from last night make a jumbled reappearance in my mind. Oh god, what a disaster.
Toby’s texts didn’t make me forgive or forget what he’d done. In the light of day, I wanna repay that dickhead for every backhand and cruel word. He’s doing whatever the hell he wants, while I stay at home hiding what he did to me. Asshole.
I had every intention of picking up my truck in the next day or two. The last thing I expected was to see Kade climbing from the cab. He casually swings my bag over his shoulder as he closes the door with a quiet click. It sounds as loud as gunfire in my head. My eyes flick to the house, my stomach beginning to churn. At least he had the foresight not to slam it. Even so, if our neighbor’s arrival woke me up, it might have awakened my dad, as well. Kade’s presence didn’t matter too much last night, as Dad was out of it—like he is most nights—but now we run the risk of him losing his ever-loving mind. Rhett is the only Rivers allowed on this ranch.
Working the lock, I unchain the barn doors and slide one open, cringing at the noise it makes. “Kade!” I whisper-shout as he’s about to mount the steps to the porch. His head whips toward my voice, and I wave him to me, the entire time, watching the house for any sign of life inside. Maybe Dad’s too hungover to have heard anything at all?
As the rays of the rising sun are blocked from my view, my attention snaps to the man approaching me. He looks rugged. Six-foot-something of pure masculine energy. With a swallow, I glance down at myself, awkwardly standing in the goddamn barn, still in my pj’s. How the hell am I going to explain this? I cringe. Ignore it. Don’t bring it up and maybe he won’t say anything. He’s a dude. Men don’t notice what women wear, do they?
Kade stops short of the doorway, cocking his head to the side. He opens his mouth to say something, but before he can, I lunge through the slight gap I created, grab him by the elbow and tug him into the barn with me. Making as little noise as possible, I slide the door shut, then rest my forehead against it for a second.
My heart is beating so hard, I jump when Kade murmurs behind me, “What are you doing?” I throw a hand to my chest as I spin around, stumbling. His dark brows furrow as his eyes trail leisurely over me. “Are you okay?”
I give myself an internal shake, finally gaining control of myself enough to meet his probing eyes. “I’m, uh… You really shouldn’t be here.” As I consider what else to say, I lift a hand to my forehead, rubbing at my temple. Oh my god, he’s got me stumbling over my words. The truth is his presence in my safe haven has thrown me like not much else does.
“Why not? I was here last night. What’s the difference?”
“I—” Blowing out a breath, I try again. “My dad won’t like you being here.”
“But… your dad likes you dating a guy who beats you?” Kade’s face falls, and he winces, holding up a hand before I can respond. “That was a low blow. I shouldn’t ha ve thrown that in your face.” He removes my bag from his shoulder, offering it to me. “I figured you’d need your stuff and your truck.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” I hurriedly whisper. “Rhett could have taken me into town.”
His brow raises at the mention of his brother, a sour expression sliding over his face. “Right.” He reaches up, gripping the back of his neck as he eyes me. “I was the one who suggested you leave it behind last night. Figured the least I could do was return it to you. Billy was at the bar early to accept a shipment and texted me in response to the message I sent. It was no problem, I was already running a few errands. It made sense to save you the trouble. I assumed you wouldn’t be up to gettin’ it today.”
“But you didn’t have to?—”
“Dammit, Sage. I wanted to do it for you. Can we leave it at that?” Kade growls, the deep vibration rattling me all the way to my bare toes.
The insistence in his tone and the searing-hot look he gives me leaves me a little breathless. I kinda like it. There’s a certain angst in his gruff lilt that has my heart skipping a beat.
Not considering what I’m doing, I smile. And split the gash in my lip open. The pain has me wincing hard, and I lift a finger to inspect the damage, but Kade is faster. He’s in my space before I realize he’s moved. My hands go up out of reflex, landing on the hard wall of his torso. The heat of him radiates through his plain white T-shirt at the same time he cups my jaw between his palms. Brushing the pad of his thumb over the cut, I feel the rumble in his chest more than I hear it, and when I look up into his eyes, there’s a storm of emotion there that practically knocks me off my feet.
In a daze, all I can do is stand still as he brings his thumb away from my lip, bright and shiny with my blood. A wicked smirk tilts the corner of his mouth, then his tongue swipes out, catching the droplet as he licks his skin clean. I can’t believe he just did that. A jolt of something wild spears through me, making my head go hazy. My hands claw at his chest through his shirt in a desperate bid to stay on my feet.
If he notices how unsteady he’s made me, he doesn’t say so. His eyes narrow as he moves my head first to one side, then the other. I’m certain the injuries I sustained last night look hideous in the light of day and make me want to pull from his hold. His voice gruff, Kade whispers, “Don’t.”
Outside the barn, the front door of the house slams, snapping us out of our reverie long enough for me to glance out the window. My eyes widen. “Dad has his shotgun.” I whirl around, grab Kade’s hand, and drag him along behind me as I run for the back of the barn. Rectangular bales of hay are stacked haphazardly in here, and we make use of them, climbing over one, then slipping between two larger stacks to hide. It’s a tight squeeze between the hay and the back wall, but we manage.
My mind is going a mile a minute, filled with everything from what my dad might do, but also what’s transpired between me and Kade. A Rivers brother. “He can’t find us. He’d?—”
Kade lays a finger on my lips and shakes his head just as the door to the barn slides open. Shit. The large brute of a man confined in this small space with me wraps an arm around my middle and spins me around, tugging me close while hunching over me, my back to his front. At first, I don’t realize what he’s doing, but then it hits me. He’s so fucking tall his head would have been visible above the hay bales.
“Whatever the fuck you were doing with my daughter’s truck, I’m not having it,” my father’s raised voice rings out in the spacious barn. “You in here, boy?”
I close my eyes, willing him away. Fuck, this is embarrassing. My breathing is erratic, coming hard and fast. Surely, he can hear me. Oh, fuck. Kade must be thinking the same thing because his arm tightens around me. Every hard muscle, every breath he takes, I feel the man behind me, right down to the bulge in his pants at my lower back. Oh god. I don’t know if I can handle that .
“Jinx, get the hell outta here,” my father grumbles, then the sound of the door sliding shut is punctuated with a sharp snap .
“The cat,” I whisper, my throat feeling thick. “He saved us.”
Kade chuckles at my back, sending me spiraling into chaotic thoughts. I breathe against him, his heat soaking into my skin before I move to turn around. Despite the fact that I’m trying to step away, this man doesn’t appear happy to let me go. One arm remains banded around my middle while the other raises to pick a piece of hay from my unruly, sleep-mussed hair before threading his fingers through it. “You’re untamed, Wildflower,” he rasps, lowering his head toward mine a fraction. My chest rises and falls in a brutal rhythm to keep up with my heart. It’s racing with confusion… and excitement.
I let go of a shuddering breath and swallow, pulling my gaze from his. I feel the need to say something to distract him, because the way his eyes are roaming over my face is unlike anything I’ve ever known. There’s heat there. Hunger. Need. Wetting my lips, I take us back to our past. “This reminds me of when we used to play hide-n-seek when we were kids.” Before Lucy and Jonah died in the accident.
His soft laugh makes me bring my face back to his. “Gotta say… I like this a helluva lot better.” His lips are so close to mine, it sends a rocket of lust straight to my pussy. Oh. Shit. I dampen the roof of my mouth, staring into his eyes. He lowers his head to my eye level, and his tongue slowly slips out, the tip dragging along the abraded skin of my lip. Of all the things I’d expect Kade to do, this was never one of them. My heart thunders, and I’m helpless to stop him. Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to. He groans aloud. “Fuck, Sage, I like the way you taste.”
And then, just like that, he straightens to his full height, releasing me from his hold. I hardly have any presence of mind at all, but I manage to collect myself enough to pretend like that didn’t just happen. Swiftly pivoting, I slip from behind the hay bales, retracing our earlier mad dash to hide until we’re both standing in the middle of the open area of the barn.
Kade eyes me, not the tiniest bit of uncertainty in his gaze. “Have you heard from Toby?”
I blink—with the eye Toby didn’t blacken—and nod. “I don’t know what you said to him, but he left town. He dropped off my things after texting me in the middle of the night with a profuse apology for his behavior. My phone was vibrating like crazy with the texts for a solid minute. Woke me up.”
“Good, though you deserve more than an apology by text.” His lips twitch as he folds his arms over his chest. “I hope he gives it to you.”
I don’t disagree with him, so I remain silent for a moment. Some of Toby’s long-winded apology struck me as odd. Other bits of it didn’t really seem like an apology at all. With a shrug, I sigh. “It’ll have to wait, I guess. He’s gone to figure himself out, take some time away. ”
Kade’s dark eyes narrow. “How do you feel about him fucking off like that after what he did?”
I tuck my hair behind my ears, then mirror his stance, my arms over my chest. I’m the tiniest bit self-conscious standing here in my pajamas before him—even though he’s seen me in far less at work. I frown, unsure if my answer is going to sound odd to him. “I’m kinda relieved, to be honest. Is that weird?”
“Not at all. It gives me time to show you what you deserve.”
Well, Christ. The sound of the front door slamming shut interrupts before I can respond, and I let out a hard breath. “I think he went inside.”
We’re both quiet, listening for a few seconds until Kade grits out, “I’m gonna go, but I want you to think about two things. One, Billy offered you some time off, but if I were you, I wouldn’t hide what he did. Toby putting hands on you is never your fault.”
I hug my upper body, nodding. I can’t tell if the way he’s looking at me is care or pity, and it’s making me want to vomit.
He reaches out, steering my face to his with a few fingers to my chin, and peers intently into my eyes. “And two… I think sometime we should have a talk about what you were doing in the barn at dawn in your pajamas.” With a wink, he drops his hand and strides to the sliding door without so much as a backward glance .
I stand, rooted to the spot for a solid minute after he leaves, wondering what the hell I’m going to do about everything that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours. Honestly, I don’t know which scares me more: the Rivers brother who has just turned my world on its head or the bastard of an ex-boyfriend who broke my trust with his fists.