Chapter 14 #2
“Yup.” The Bailey land had a ton of roads that led to open areas, and I’d had time to explore them all.
Vehicle-accessible roads for hunting, Darin had laughed.
But I don’t let no one hunt out here but us.
He’d hunted to fill the freezer and feed all the kids under his roof.
I’d gone from discount beef that looked and smelled funny to wild game—elk steaks, moose roasts, and venison.
Sausage and jerky and homegrown vegetables—that I’d had to help weed and water.
I’d been a brat about it, too, until I’d tasted what Mae did with food that came out of the ground.
“Myles, talk to me.”
“We’re going to talk.” This road led to an open vista. Ponderosas lined the mountainous terrain on one side and looked out above one of the many side channels of the Madison River.
It had been one of my favorite places to get away from the noise of everyone packed under one roof. The house was bigger than I remembered, but I recalled the feeling of not being able to get away.
When I reached a loop in the road, a turnaround point, I pointed the car out to face the water. To go any farther, I’d need a four-wheeler or a Ranger, and the land dipped down toward the basin.
I took a moment to inhale and straighten the jumble of thoughts in my mind.
Fresh pine and crisp mountain air made it through my car vents.
Green valley spread out in front of me. Darin had mentioned once this would be a good place for a house or cabin.
The water would never get this high, but the setting wasn’t so elevated it’d be hard to build on and get in and out of in the winter.
Wynn’s sweet lemongrass scent surrounded me. I’d never get the smell out of my car, just like I’d never be able to scrub the smell or taste of her from my mind.
“Why’d you do it?” I asked.
“Do what? Work for you?”
I ground my teeth together. “Trick me.”
“I didn’t trick you. You didn’t remember me. I gave you my full name.”
“Wynn?” I met her militant gaze.
Her resolve slipped. “Fine. I thought you’d run me off if I told you who I was.”
“Good guess.” A Bailey working for me? No, I wouldn’t have trusted it. “Your brothers think I stole all your family’s distilling secrets and got rich off it.”
“Why don’t they know you and Daddy kept in contact?”
“It’s not their business.”
“And Myles Foster doesn’t want anyone in his business.”
The slight mocking in her tone burrowed under my collar and itched. “No, Wynn. I don’t. People are always after something for themselves.”
“You were so nice to me,” she blurted. She twisted in her seat to face me.
“I remembered this cranky kid who was a little punk to everyone but so damn sweet to me. And then my brothers would talk about you and how you were copying Daddy and that you were nothing but a thief, and I had to know if I was wrong and they were right.”
I leaned in, our faces inches apart. With the sun streaming in the car, I could see amber specks dancing in her dark irises. “And? Do you think they were right?” I needed her answer as much as I needed air to breathe.
“No,” she said quietly. “I think Daddy helped you. I think you respected him—and Mama—or you wouldn’t be here. What I don’t get is why they don’t know he was your mentor.”
“He was more than that. He was my first investor.”
Her eyes flared wider, and I liked that shock on her face. I’d put it there. She was so damn expressive, and this close to her, I could hardly think of more than those needy moans and her cries, my name on her lips. “Daddy helped you start Foster House?”
“He did. He argued his boys needed a proper competitor. That if things kept coming easy to them, they’d never keep Copper Summit at the level it needed to be.”
A scandalized gasp left her lips, and it was all I could do not to capture that lush mouth for myself. “But you just make whiskey.”
“Yes. Because Foster House is mine. If I made bourbon, your brothers would get involved, and they’d think it was theirs.”
“Oh, Myles, they wouldn’t try to take your business.”
“No? Then why were you really there?” My anger ramped up again. This temptress was exactly that. A pretty doll to tempt me away from my goals.
She poked me in the shoulder. “I was a little obsessed, okay? You were this older boy who was sweet to me and then disappeared in the middle of the night. When I next learned about you, you’d become this devastating enigma who gives very limited interviews, has no social media, and only lets one headshot out into the world.
I wanted to know who you were, and if you thought about me like I thought about you. ”
“That’d make me a pervert, Wynn.” I hadn’t thought about her. I hadn’t thought about any of the sisters.
She poked my shoulder again. “You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t. You said you were six. I read you a few books. I didn’t think about you or your sisters after I left because you were getting adopted. Which meant you would be just like the Bailey brothers, and I’d be nothing but a foster.”
Goddammit, I couldn’t shut my mouth around her.
Her lips parted and understanding filled her eyes.
Normally, I hated to see that sympathy. Hated the way social workers tried to hide it.
But Wynn was different. She knew what I meant.
She wasn’t feeling sorry for me like adults had done then.
She didn’t look at me like she pitied the horrible future that awaited a kid like me.
She knew what it was like to not know if you’d have a home in a year, two years, hell, in a month.
She might’ve been taken in by the Baileys right after her parents had died, but there’d been a time she’d experienced some of what I had. And that shit didn’t leave a kid.
“Myles, you were more than a foster to me. You were a lifeline.” She cupped my cheek.
I gripped her wrist and took her hand off me.
Her eyes sparked. “You are so damn stubborn! I went to work for you because I was nosy. I liked you. And you’re writing me off because of who I grew up with?”
“I have no idea who you are!”
She sucked in a breath and leaned in close. “You knew whose lips were wrapped around your cock on that flight.” She stuck that damn finger into my shoulder again. I caught her wrist, hating the thrill that went through me to be touching her once more. “And you liked it.”
“That doesn’t change that you’re a lying little—”
“A lying little what?” She was practically over the console. “Go ahead. Finish what you started.”
“I finished you—I didn’t hear you complaining about that.”
“You didn’t finish a thing, Myles Foster.” She shoved me back and crawled over the seat, kicking her cowboy boots off as she went.
I didn’t do a damn thing to stop her. “Get back in your seat, Wynn.”
“No.” She reached down and laid the seat back. Again, I did nothing to stop her. Instead, I clamped my hands at her waist and ground her down into my erection. I’d been half hard since she’d jumped into my car.
She flattened her hands on my chest, her hair hanging over her shoulders. “We have unfinished business between us.”
I wrapped her hair around my fist and brought her closer. “This changes nothing.”
She wiggled her hips over me. “I know. Just fuck me already.”
I didn’t trust her. I didn’t want to get to know this new grown-up version of some little girl who was supposed to have stayed in the past. But I wanted to be inside Wynn, and that wiped out any other thought.
I lifted her dress, baring a swath of creamy skin. She was wearing simple white underwear and a plain lace bra. I’d never seen anything so sexy. I tugged the dress over her head and palmed her breasts.
Wynn struggled with my belt until I abandoned the heavy flesh in my hands and undid the clasp. Then I put my hands on her again. Her head was bent to keep from hitting the roof and she was tipped over me, her breasts begging to be freed.
I acquiesced, dragging the cups down and baring her pink nipples just as she wrapped her fingers around my erection.
“Fuck, Wynn.” I lifted her to get those pearled nipples close to my mouth. Finally, I wrapped my lips around a peaked tip and sucked.
“God, Myles.” Only last week, she’d have called me Mr. Foster, and for some reason, that got me harder when the reminder should’ve chased blood from my dick.
She wrestled with her underwear, but between the door and the console and the roof of the car, she couldn’t get it off with her nipple still in my mouth. Grudgingly, I released her.
Now for the underwear.
I gripped the hem and ripped. The sound of fabric tearing mingled with our heavy breathing. I tore the other side and pulled the underwear free.
“That’s so hot,” she breathed. She sat back until her ass hit the steering wheel and honked the horn.
We both froze like we’d fired a flare into the sky and let everyone know where we were. Then heat filled her gaze, and I was captivated by a naked Wynn. My goddamn assistant.
She stroked a hand up and down my shaft. I gripped her hips again but she tensed. “Myles.”
I cut off my groan. I was standing on the edge of paradise and getting denied entrance. I’d survive, but I’d never recover. “Yeah?”
“Do you have protection? I’m not—I’m not taking anything.”
The words fuck protection almost left my mouth. What the hell was wrong with me? With jerky movements, I dug a condom out of my wallet and tossed the wallet in the same direction as her dress and underwear.
I tore the damn thing open, hating I was grateful she was the one to have some sense. I’d never planned to have kids. Yet I’d been ready to forget that when I’d thought of her belly growing round with my kid.
I slammed the condom on like it had personally insulted me. I’d think clearer after an orgasm.
She leaned over me again and placed me at her entrance. Sweltering heat covered the tip of my cock, and it was all I could do to keep from slamming her down.
Her pink tongue licked out, dampening her lips.