Chapter 26 Hestia #2
‘Hold that thought, sweetheart,’ he murmured, his lips moving up to my forehead and kissing me there before he looked over towards Lottie. Grinning, barely able to contain her glee, she walked over and dropped a set of keys into his hand.
‘See you in a few hours,’ she said, giving me a little wave as Jesse turned us around. ‘We’ll take care of everything here.’
‘But – what – ?’ I exclaimed as Jesse led me out to Cole’s truck.
He just smirked, opening the door for me, waiting as I lifted myself in.
‘Seriously, Jesse, what the –’ I began as he jumped into his side and shut the door, leaning over and taking my chin in his hand.
He kissed me again, this time with a force that took my breath away, the implication clearer than any words.
‘I said,’ he breathed, pulling back and starting the engine, seemingly utterly unimpeded by his right arm, ‘hold that thought.’
Stunned, I just sat back, unable to do anything other than glance at him as he drove us a few minutes out of town. He turned off the highway to what looked to be a very expensive, very beautiful hotel, only speaking to confirm our names at reception.
Only when he’d closed the door to the room behind us, a vast suite laid out in front, did he begin again.
‘Are you still holding that thought?’ he whispered, drawing me to him, his fingertips working across my shoulders, following the outlines of my tattoos.
I nodded. All other thoughts of the auction, of keeping it as a surprise for him, vanished as his eyes took me in.
He moved us to the bed, the hunger in his expression so fierce that I could already imagine the feeling of him on my skin.
‘Now you can take it off,’ he murmured, gesturing to my corset as I sat on the edge of the bed. My eyes widened as he knelt between my legs.
I unhooked the catches at the front, feeling his low moan rumble through me as he brushed my hands aside once I was halfway down, my breasts all but exposed.
‘I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought of this,’ he whispered, putting his lips against mine, his tongue tracing them. ‘You are so fucking precious to me.’ He kissed me so softly, with such care, that it reminded me of our goodbye.
‘As you are to me,’ I answered, my breath hitching as he continued to unhook the remaining catches, finally taking it off. ‘I’m yours, as long as you want me.’
He moved his mouth down, his tongue circling my nipple as he started to undo my jeans, then pulled off my boots.
‘What about your clothes?’ I complained, barely able to concentrate enough to form the words as my waistband was tugged down, revealing the black lace underwear beneath.
‘Oh, no, no,’ he groaned into my skin as he gently pushed me back onto the bed, his mouth reluctantly leaving my breasts and working down to my hips. ‘This is all about you, for you. I know what you’ve been up to, running yourself into the ground to organize this auction all week.’
‘What? You know?’ I gasped as his fingers slipped into the lace, stroking low between my legs.
‘Oh, I know,’ he confirmed. ‘And I have never felt so fucking loved in my life.’
I raised myself up onto my elbows, hearing the change in his tone. I watched as he kissed the side of my thighs, stopping as he saw me, gradually kissing his way back up to my face.
‘I knew how you felt about me before you even left,’ he said, looking into my eyes, his hand brushing stray hairs back from my face. ‘Maybe before you did. But my fucking God, Hestia, I want you to know, to feel, how much I love you right back.’
My breath caught on the intensity of his words, but now my gut instinct was to draw closer, to show him what I knew inside. Any desire to run, to avoid it – gone.
‘I didn’t know how to tell you – what it meant,’ I whispered back as his lips covered mine again, his hand now wandering down towards my hips.
‘I know, honey,’ he agreed, ‘but you showed me. You always have done. This week is no fucking different, which is why Lottie called me. You deserve the fucking world too. So I’m going to give it to you, starting right now.’
As he laid me back down, his fingers slipping into my underwear, into me, I wondered how this could be real – how it was possible to feel this way about someone, physically and emotionally.
And as he pulled the rest of my clothes away, his kisses lingering longer, circling me, teasing me, I stopped being able to think at all.
The daylight was dimming behind the craggy peaks outside the window before we resurfaced. I stared out at it, still naked, transfixed by the colours across the snow-tipped peaks, the way the setting sun leached coral light over the slopes, setting them ablaze.
Jesse emerged from the bathroom, stopping as he saw me.
‘What does the viper mean?’ he asked softly, eyes drifting from my ass and down my left leg to where the snake wrapped around my skin. He skirted the edge of the bed, his cast and sling somehow still neatly in place despite the physicality of the past couple of hours.
I smiled as he reached me, kissing my shoulder as he pulled my body into his.
‘Transformation, rebirth, renewal,’ I said, tilting my head back to rest on his shoulder. ‘Why?’
‘What would you choose if you wanted to signify “forever”?’ he whispered, brushing my ear with his mouth.
I turned around fully, goosebumps forming across my arms as he gazed at me, his eyes shifting down to my lips as I spoke.
‘The ouroboros,’ I replied with a smile, using my nail on his collarbone to make a circle, then a figure of eight motion. ‘It’s a snake eating its own tail,’ I explained, his fascination clear as he stared. ‘It means infinity, the eternal cycle.’
He nodded, swallowing, hesitating for a moment as he looked down.
I used my fingers to tilt his head to meet my eyes, just as he always did to me.
‘Yes, I’ll tattoo it for you,’ I said, smiling again as I watched his dawning realization, that I knew what he was thinking, what he wanted to ask. ‘And I’ll do the same design for myself too,’ I added, feeling him become very still.
‘Where?’ he whispered, taking my hand, his eyes beginning to glaze a little.
I knew what he was asking, knew he was too afraid to say it.
‘I’m not scared,’ I reassured him, knowing, at every single level, how much I meant it. ‘I’m never leaving you again,’ I added, reaching up to touch his mouth with mine for a moment. ‘Where would you like us to have it?’
He closed his eyes briefly. Then, lifting my left hand to his lips, he held my gaze as he kissed the lower half of my fourth finger.
We said nothing for a moment, not needing words for what this was, what it meant.
But as I nodded my answer, he used his left arm to reach down and scoop me up, choking a laugh, his face alight with something between complete happiness and disbelief. I placed my hands either side of his mouth as we kissed.
We gave everything we had to each other, every last barrier removed.
So, with everything spoken and unspoken, we eventually arrived back at Shelby’s. The auction was well under way, the bar packed tight as we approached the doors.
Jesse stopped me for a moment, raising my left hand to his lips again.
‘I can’t believe you organized all this for me, for my mom,’ he said, pulling me into him, the feel of his body against mine after the past couple of hours setting it alight all over again.
‘Team effort,’ I breathed. ‘Finally figured out that most things in life are better with others, shit that I could never do by myself.’
He smiled, his eyes holding mine.
‘Guess I need to figure out whether this whole bull riding thing is worth getting back into again,’ he said slowly. ‘I don’t want to be stressing you out every weekend.’
I shook my head.
‘It’s your decision,’ I replied, adamant that I wouldn’t be the reason he gave up on anything.
‘And I’m going to need your help here, because, fuck .
. . this will be my first healthy relationship,’ I admitted, butterflies releasing as his gaze softened with such obvious adoration that it almost stopped me.
‘But if it’s something you love, that you’re passionate about, I’ll be right with you.
I might need a whiskey or three just before you ride, but I’ll toughen up. ’
He chuckled, shaking his head.
‘First of all,’ he started, releasing my hand to brush his thumb over my lips, ‘I don’t ever want you toughening up.
The way you care, how much you feel everything – it’s one of the things I love most about you.
’ He leant in, his lips touching mine for a moment, not quite letting us take it further before pausing.
‘And second of all, it is my decision, but we’ll make it together, as partners.
Because whatever I love about bull riding doesn’t come close to loving you, to what I know we’re gonna have together. ’
I grabbed him then, pushing us gently against the doors as I opened my mouth to him, heard him groan as my tongue teased his lips.
‘Hey! Didn’t you book a damn hotel room for that? C’mon, Lil’s up next!’ Lottie poked her head round the door, winking as I pulled back reluctantly.
‘Cock-blocker,’ I muttered as she disappeared back inside.
Jesse laughed.
‘You know I booked two nights there for us,’ he whispered, leaning down to brush the edge of my ear. ‘A whole weekend alone, away from the ranch, to show me what you can do with that tongue.’
I arched my eyebrow as we followed Lottie inside, hands clasped firmly together.
‘I’m going to need longer than that,’ I replied, feeling my whole heart melt under his gaze, the way he stroked my ring finger.
‘We can take as much time as you need,’ he said, his tone changing, expression turning serious.
I smiled, knowing exactly what he meant and feeling nothing but excitement and happiness welling up at the thought of him, of us.
‘Thank you,’ I whispered, squeezing his hand as we walked into the main area, where the auctioneer was currently selling off a weekend stay at the Four Seasons penthouse downtown.
I clutched at Jesse as eventually, after working its way round the room, it was sold to someone in a group of tourists near the back. They whooped and hollered when he shouted, ‘Sold!’
‘Holy shit,’ I exclaimed, catching Lottie and Cole’s eyes across the floor. Both were grinning – partly at the eight thousand dollars the lot had raised but partly because, as Cole lifted his hand in greeting, Jesse had put his left arm round my shoulder and pulled me close, kissing my hair.
‘Next lot for sale is . . . well, ladies and gents, a real Jackson exclusive!’
There were a few laughs from the crowd and a long, loud wolf whistle from Bailey.
‘That’s right, this lot is a date night with none other than Jackson’s very own Elizabeth Dean, Jackson High’s most beautiful Prom Queen and fifth generation Jackson Hole rancher!’
There was a chorus of encouraging whoops, shouts and yells as Lottie brought Lil up to the stage area.
‘Now, sadly, her equally beautiful cousin isn’t part of the deal,’ the auctioneer went on, prompting a hard glare from Cole, ‘but we’re only accepting top quality bids here for the chance to take Miss Dean out for dinner.
Let’s start the bidding at four hundred dollars. Do I have four hundred dollars?’
Jesse chuckled as Lil exclaimed, turning to face the auctioneer with a bemused expression, clearly unable to believe anyone would bid that much.
But, in the same moment, one, then two, then three people raised their hands.
As the price went up, Lottie barely covered her laugh as she watched her cousin’s expression.
‘Man, there’s some money in this town,’ I said, Jesse humming in agreement. ‘I mean, Lil’s gorgeous and fucking hilarious, but fuck – fifteen hundred dollars for a date?’
The bidding paused as things slowed, until –
‘Five thousand dollars,’ a voice called out from the back, hidden from view by the crowd.
‘Well!’ the auctioneer called, above a burst of cheering and clapping. ‘Now, Miss Dean is a mighty fine date, but that is quite the generous bid! Do we have any further advance on—’
‘Eight thousand!’ another voice called from the opposite side of the room – a similar tone to the previous bid. It was almost as if the same person had shouted twice. Lil’s face, already incredulous, drained of all colour as a figure began striding forward through the crowd.
‘Who the hell . . .?’ I asked, turning to Jesse, but he shook his head in confusion, frowning as he noted Lil’s reaction too.
‘Ten thousand,’ the first voice said, the accent now clear. It had a Wyoming edge, but the rest was all British. This bidder too appeared to be making his way through the crowd towards the front of the room.
As he stepped into view, I felt Jesse go rigid. Lil’s mouth fell open.
‘Ten thousand dollars,’ the man repeated as everyone stared at him.
He was tall, dressed in an expensive suit, with short, dark hair and a tanned, chiselled face.
He nodded a greeting to Lil, his expression firm, then glancing in the direction of the other high bidder as if challenging them to continue.
There was a silence, broken only by whispers throughout the crowd. After a pause, the auctioneer carried on, clearly as stunned as everyone else.
But no one was more astonished than Lil. As the auctioneer declared the date sold, the room erupted. The man in the suit glanced at her, gave one more nod in her direction and then turned away, stepping back into the crowd.
‘What the fuck just happened?’ I breathed, turning back to Jesse, following his stare to Cole. Then both of them looked up at Lil.
Lottie was with her, concern in her eyes, talking rapidly as she supported her cousin.
‘That right there was Ryder Sinclair,’ Jesse said, frowning, his gaze still on Lil. ‘Son of Zach Sinclair, the owner-in-waiting of the Diamond Back’s biggest rival, Elk Creek. And . . .’ He winced, shifting his gaze back to me. ‘. . . Lil’s onetime fiancé.’