Chapter 11
Blaze
She’s exhausted. Even though she slept all afternoon and through the night, she’s still tired. I’m not surprised. I can’t imagine how scared she was, lying trapped under that tree in the ravine overnight.
Nothing like that will ever happen to her again because I’m never letting her out of my sight. I’m growing more possessive of her by the hour. She’s fucking precious, and I will cherish her for the rest of her life.
I’m slightly concerned about how much she has slept, but I keep telling myself not to worry. After all, as soon as she woke up, I started grilling her for information. I’m sure it took a lot of energy to share her story with me. On top of that, I feasted on her cunt until she came.
Maybe I should have given her another day or two to recover before I pounced, but she was the one who grabbed my shirt and hauled me down for that first earth-stopping kiss.
If I’d had any doubt in my mind at all that she’s mine, it all evaporated the moment our lips connected.
Part of me wants to stay and watch her sleep. I don’t want her to wake up alone. I hate the idea of her trying to hobble to the bathroom on her own or possibly falling. Kinsley said no pressure on that injured leg.
I need to get her a phone. That’s first on my list. I’m sure I can make that happen quickly. And then I should touch base with Ryder and see if he knows anyone local who can make sure my girl’s car doesn’t have a tracker. If it does, whoever is watching it knows exactly where she is.
I’m not worried about that. She’s safe here. Safer than anywhere else. If I find out there’s a tracker, I will alert everyone who works at the gate. But I’ll also hire a PI to follow her stepmother and that asshole she was sent on a date with. I don’t like how that went down. Tracker or not.
After taking the stairs at a jog, I find Ryder in his office. He looks up. “Hey, how’s Vicky?”
“Sleeping again. She’s exhausted.”
“I bet. I can’t imagine spending a night at the bottom of a ravine. She must have thought she would die there.”
“She did.” I drop into the chair across from his desk. “And she hates the name Vicky. Her name is actually Victoria.”
“Noted. I’ll spread the word.”
I get right to the point. “She needs a phone. And do you know anyone who can check her car for a tracking device?”
His brows raise. “I’ll have Dallas pick up a phone for her in town. He’s at the library with Arianna. And we can definitely find someone who can check her car. Maybe Sheriff Johnston knows such a person. Or perhaps the estate lawyer, Thomas McAndrews. Is she in danger?”
I run a hand over my hair. “I’m not sure. She doesn’t think so, but I have a weird feeling in my gut. Sounds like her stepmother is a piece of work, and she went on one date with a man who makes my skin crawl. I’m just being overly cautious.”
“I don’t blame you. If I’d found my woman at the bottom of a ravine and realized she was alone and had even a remotely sketchy past, I’d hire a PI.”
“That’s my next step.”
Ryder reaches for his phone. “I’ll find someone to come sweep the car ASAP. We’ll go from there.”
“Thank you. I’m going to unload everything from it now. I’ll look around under the frame, but I’m not an expert. We need someone with a detector.”
“Agreed.”
I push to standing and head for Victoria’s car. I never even locked it yesterday. There was no reason. We don’t lock any of our vehicles. No one can get to them when they’re on the property anyway.
As soon as I open the trunk, Brody and Haden approach.
“Need any help?” Brody asks.
“I won’t turn it down.”
Haden holds up a finger. “Looks like most of her things are loose. Let me grab some boxes.” He jogs toward the giant garage and returns moments later with several flat boxes and a roll of packing tape.
With the extra hands, it takes less than half an hour to pack up everything from the car and get it all upstairs. We pile it outside our bedroom door to avoid disturbing her.
The three of us also look around under the hood and frame for any sort of device. Haden even Googles what we might be looking for, but we find nothing.
I don’t feel relieved by that fact, though. We aren’t qualified to discover tracking devices.
By lunch, I’m back in the room with a new phone and a tray of food, and just in time because Victoria wakes up as I set it on the dresser. She pushes onto her elbows as I approach. “Did I sleep two hours or twenty-six?”
“Two. I would have panicked if you’d slept all day and night again.” I sit on the edge of the bed next to her and stuff several pillows behind her to prop her up.
She’s still wearing my shirt, and her hair is a wild mess of curls. I love this look on her. Frazzled as if she were recently fucked. I guess in a way that was the last thing that happened before she went to sleep.
I grab the cell phone from the tray and hand it to her. “I don’t like you up here alone with no way to get in touch with me. I programmed my number in here, but also all my cousins, their wives, and a few of the staff.”
She stares at it. When she lifts her face, her eyes are watery. “Thank you.”
I stroke a curl from her forehead. “Haden and Brody helped me get your car unpacked. We put everything in boxes. It’s all in the hall.”
“Thank you for that, too. You didn’t have to do that. It was such a mess. They must think I’m a giant slob.”
As I rub her thigh, I smile. “No one thinks anything, baby. I promise. I’m sure living out of your car was challenging. Tell me how you ended up in Wilde.”
She shrugs. “I’ve been picking cute small towns to stop in as I make my way south. They fascinate me. I’m even more fascinated now that I know some of the backstory about Wilde. Explains why things are rundown. The center of town looks half deserted.”
I nod. “It is. We’re hoping to bring it all back to life. That’s the plan.”
“Big job.”
“Yes. It will take years. One of my cousins, Brody, is a contractor. He’s managing the restorations in town.
And I told you about Haden. He was working for Brody in San Antonio, Texas.
He came here to manage the restorations at the mansion.
The scale of the job is tremendous. I’m glad he’s decided to stay indefinitely because no matter how quaint this old monstrosity might look, it’s in tremendous disrepair. ”
I point toward the window. “First thing Haden did was get all these old windows to open. They were painted closed. Then he attached roll-down ladders to each one in case of a fire. We were living in a death trap.”
Victoria lifts her head and points toward the ceiling. “Do the sprinklers work?”
“They do now. We’re safe.”
“That’s good. But the floor might fall through,” she teases.
I shrug. “Let’s hope not. You said you were heading south. Did you have a destination?”
“I have a job interview lined up in Phoenix in a few weeks.”
I stiffen. She hasn’t told me this part before. “Phoenix?”
“Yeah. It was the only interview I got when I graduated, and they weren’t looking to fill the spot immediately.
I never mentioned it to my stepmom. It’s a long shot, but it’s all I have.
If I don’t get the job, I guess I’ll be waitressing or something in Phoenix.
” She chuckles. “I worked in the cafeteria in college, so I had some savings, but I cleared out my bank account when I left Portland. I’m going to run out of money eventually. ”
I swallow. “Maybe you’ll stay here instead. Lord knows there’s enough history in this monstrosity to keep you busy and using your art history skills for the rest of your life.”
“Maybe…”
Fuck, I hope I can turn that into a yes as soon as possible. My chest tightens at the thought of her leaving.
I climb onto the bed and straddle her legs so I can be closer to her. I like surrounding her. I like the way her breath hitches when I do so and the way she leans back and looks at me, trusting me.
She’s breathing heavier already.
Nodding toward the wall opposite us, I say, “I also claimed the room next to this one.”
She giggles. “Is that why there’s a door drawn on the wall in chalk?”
“Yep.” I lower my face to her neck and inhale her scent. The first thing I’m going to do is unpack her toiletries into our bathroom so that after her next bath, she’ll smell like her usual self. I want to know that scent.
“Why are you telling me about the next room, Blaze?” she asks softly, her small hands coming to my shoulders.
I nuzzle her neck and kiss her, making her shiver. “All my cousins claimed two rooms.”
“Ahh…” Her hands smooth down to my biceps. “Because they’re all pregnant. They need nurseries.”
“Exactly.” I kiss her before nipping at her earlobe. “We’ll need one, too.”
She whimpers. It’s a good sign. This Phoenix idea needs kicking to the curb. I hate it.
There’s no doubt I’m pushing her. I only met her yesterday. She’s injured. But she also melts for me, and she’s not running. Granted, she can’t exactly run. She’s injured, but she hasn’t told me to get the fuck out.
Because she feels our connection, too.
Her head drops back, and she tips it to one side, giving me better access to her neck. “Blaze…” Her fingers trail to the hem of my T-shirt, and she eases them under it and up to my chest.
She can touch me like this any time she wants. Having her palms on me is heavenly. I was just existing until I met her. Going through life. Work. Gym. Home. The occasional night out. Nothing was happening. I had no prospects.
Now that I’ve found Victoria, I’m invigorated. Alive. I want everything with her, and I want it now. “You’re mine…”
“You keep saying that.”
I kiss her neck again, nibbling a path to her mouth where I whisper against her lips, “If I say it enough, maybe you’ll believe me.”
She slides her hands around to my back. “It’s possible.”
I grin. “Good.” I take her mouth, consuming her, swallowing her moans.
She writhes beneath me, her fingertips gripping my shoulder blades.
It’s hard to stop, but I finally break away. “I’m supposed to be feeding you,” I murmur against her mouth.
“Mmm.” Her eyes are heavily lidded. Fuck, she’s gorgeous. Even better when she’s aroused.
Eventually, I force myself to hop off the bed. “Food.”
She giggles, her cheeks rosy from arousal. Sexy. Especially when she bites into her bottom lip and looks down, embarrassed. Cute.
I grab the tray and settle it over her thighs like I have for each meal so far. This time, nothing is going to spill. We don’t have to be as careful. I brought water bottles, sandwiches, chips, and cookies.
When I lift the lid off the platter, Victoria gasps. “Gretchen really does make her own bread and chips.”
“Yep. She’s a culinary goddess. I know Ryder immediately started paying her way more than our stingy grandfather ever paid her, but some days I wonder what the hell she’s doing managing a dilapidated structure like this when she could run her own restaurant.”
“No kidding. How long has she worked here?”
“All her adult life. She’s been the house manager for thirty years. She took over that position from her mother when she passed. Before that, Gretchen was on staff working with her mother. I think she was about twenty when she started.”
“Holy shit. That’s a long time.”
“Especially since most of that time, there weren’t as many people here. It was nearly fifty years ago that my grandmother died and my father and his brothers moved away.” I pick up a quarter of the foot-long sub and hand it to her.
She takes it from me, head cocked to the side. “Why did they leave?”
I shrug. “None of us really knows, but they never came back. Until Old Man Wilde died, none of us cousins knew anything about him. We were shocked to get a letter from the lawyer and executor of the estate, informing us about the terms of the will.”
“That’s so weird. Did any of you ask your fathers?”
“Yep. But they’re all mum about it. All they’ve told any of us is that they had a falling out with their father and moved away.”
“Kinda sad.” She takes a big bite of the sandwich.
I love watching her eat. She’s like a little bird, but she can put away a surprising amount of food for such a petite person. Reaching up, I brush some breadcrumbs from the corner of her lips.
We need a change of subject. I nod toward the chalk-drawn door on the wall. “What color should we paint the nursery?”
She giggles. “You’re relentless.”
“Yep.”
“Tell me why you have such an old-fashioned view about waiting to get married to have sex.”
I swallow my bite. “It wasn’t something I ever thought of before moving here. All four of my cousins and Haden made their wives wait.”
Her eyes pop. “Why?”
I chuckle. “Turns out, the best way to get your woman to agree to marriage is to drive her crazy with multiple orgasms while denying her your cock.”
Victoria gasps. “You can’t be serious.”
“Totally.”
“But you’re not a virgin, right?”
“No. Never even considered the concept of waiting for marriage until I got here. Now I see how well it worked for them. They’re married.”
She shudders. “So your plan is to keep me naked and on edge day after day until I agree to marry you?”
“Yep.”
“That’s…” She shakes her head.
“You didn’t answer me about the nursery. Should we go yellow or green?”
She giggles. “You’re incorrigible.”
“I am. And you’re mine.”
She holds my gaze, her smile telling me she almost agrees. At least she’s willing to give me a chance.