Chapter 20 #2
"I got some good news this morning," I tell her after a while. "I asked Isabelle not to say anything because I wanted to tell you myself."
She lifts her gaze to mine. "What kind of news?"
"I called an engineering firm a few weeks ago and asked them to assess what it would take to build a wine cave into the hill behind the winery.
" I watch her face as the words register.
"They came back this morning with their report.
The geology is perfect. The rock and drainage conditions are ideal for the kind of cave you've always wanted. "
Her eyes go wide, her lips parting, and for a long second she doesn't speak. "Charlie."
"Isabelle, Diego and I had a quick call today and we gave the project the green light." I reach over and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "Construction starts in two weeks."
The sound she makes is half laugh and half gasp, and then she cups my face and her mouth is on mine, kissing me with everything she has. When she pulls back, her gaze is bright with tears.
"You remembered," she whispers.
"You described that cave like it was a cathedral. The dimensions, the barrel placement, the way you wanted the natural rock to show through the walls." I brush my thumb across her cheek. "I remember everything you tell me, Sunshine."
She kisses me again, softer now, lingering. When she pulls back, the smile on her face is luminous. "I can’t wait to thank you properly tonight," she murmurs against my mouth, and the promise in her voice sends heat racing down my spine.
"I'm going to hold you to that."
"You better."
We sit on the hilltop until the light starts to fade and the horses grow restless.
Then we head back to the house, the horses picking up their pace as the barn comes into view.
The kitchen windows glow as we approach, and the scent of roasting meat drifts across the yard.
I take Pearl's saddle while Sunny brushes her down, and we work in a rhythm that has become second nature between us.
Dinner is roasted chicken with root vegetables and a salad from the garden, and Gran wastes no time. She turns to Sunny before Oscar has finished pouring the wine.
"Charles told me about your ownership stake," Gran mentions. "Congratulations, dear. How are you feeling about that?"
"Like I’m living in a dream or some fairy tale."
“It’s well deserved.” Gran nods, satisfied, and reaches for her wine. I sit back and watch as they discuss the latest at the winery and gossip from Stone Creek, and I can’t get my mind off that ring in my pocket.
After dessert, Gran rises, signaling the end of the evening for her. She kisses Sunny's cheek, squeezes my shoulder as she passes, and pauses at the doorway.
"Goodnight, my dears. I'll see you both in the morning." She disappears down the hallway toward her suite, and the faint click of her door closing reaches us a moment later.
Sunny catches my eye across the table. The candlelight plays in her hair, and the look she gives me carries an invitation that makes my pulse kick up.
"Shall we?" I ask.
She takes my hand. "I really need a shower before bed," she says, already heading for the stairs.
At the end of the hallway, my door stands ajar on the left, hers on the right. I can see her overnight bag sitting on the bench inside her room, and the lamp on the nightstand casting its warm glow across the bed that Oscar made up with fresh linens and the flowers on the nightstand.
"Go take your shower," I tell her. "I'll be waiting."
She gives me a look that combines suspicion and anticipation, then disappears through her door.
I cross the hall to my room, strip down, and pull on a pair of clean sleep pants.
When I hear the shower start, I slip across the hall to her room, stretch out across the mattress, lace my hands behind my head, and wait.
The shower runs for ten minutes. The pipes groan when it shuts off, and I hear the muffled sounds of her moving around the bathroom, the cabinet opening and closing, the soft pad of bare feet on tile.
Then the bathroom door opens, and Sunny walks into the bedroom wrapped in a white towel, her hair damp against her shoulders, her skin flushed pink from the hot water.
She spots me sprawled across her bed and stops dead.
"Charlie Hayden. What are you doing on my bed?"
"I've been thinking." I prop myself on one elbow and give her the grin that I know drives her crazy. "This room is beautiful."
"I sense a 'but' coming."
"But." I swing my legs off the bed and cross to her in two strides, my palms settling on her waist. "You're not sleeping in here tonight."
"Is that so?"
"Mmmmhmmmm." I bend and kiss the curve of her neck, just below her ear, and the small hum she makes vibrates against my lips. "You're spending the night in my room, in my bed, where you belong."
"Your grandmother is downstairs."
"I told you, she's on the other side of the house, behind a closed door. I guarantee she's already asleep with a book on her lap." I pull back and hold her gaze. "Come with me, Sunshine."
Her pupils are blown wide, and the flush of her skin has deepened from light pink to deep rose. She traces the line of my jaw with one fingertip, a slow, deliberate gesture that sends a tremor through me.
I scoop her up and carry her across the hall and through my bedroom door, kicking it closed behind us.
My room is larger than hers, with wide windows that catch the moonlight and a king bed that I have never been more grateful for.
I set her on the edge of the mattress, and the towel loosens at the motion, slipping down to reveal the slope of her shoulders and the swell of her breasts.
She catches the fabric but doesn't pull it back up, and the challenge in her eyes makes my blood run hot.
"You said you wanted to thank me properly," I remind her, my finger tracing over her soft shoulder.
"I did say that." I shiver as her touch traces over my chest, her attention tracking down my stomach. My body tenses as she pushes my pants over my hips.
She takes me in her hand, her grip sure and her eyes locked on mine.
Then she lowers her mouth, and the wet heat nearly buckles my knees.
Her tongue traces the length of me, her right hand working in tandem with her mouth.
The sight of her, damp-haired and flushed, kneeling beside my bed with the towel pooled around her waist, nearly unravels me.
She takes my cock deeper, her rhythm building, reading every shift in my breathing and adjusting until my fingers tangle in her hair.
"Sunny." Her name comes out raw. "Stop. I need you."
She releases me with a final stroke that makes my entire body shudder and looks up, and the satisfaction on her face is devastating. I lift her gently to her feet and then push her back onto the bed, and the sight of her laid bare against my sheets stops my heart for a full second.
I kiss my way down her body, taking my time at each place that makes her breath catch.
Her collarbone. The hollow between her breasts.
The soft skin below her navel where her stomach contracts under my mouth.
When I settle between her thighs and press my mouth against her, the sound she makes fills the room, and my tongue finds the rhythm that makes her hips buck.
She comes with my name on her lips and her fingers twisted in my hair, her thighs clenching around my head.
I work my way up, and her mouth meets mine with a hunger that tells me she wants more.
When I squeeze inside her, we both go still, the fullness and the heat stealing every thought from my head.
She wraps her legs around me, her heels pressing into the small of my back, and we find our rhythm in the space between one breath and the next.
The pace builds slowly, each thrust deeper and more deliberate, and her nails rake down my shoulders in a way that blurs the line between pleasure and pain until neither exists without the other.
She presses a hand to my chest, easing me back just enough that I slip out of her. Before I can speak, she rolls onto her knees, her ass in the air, and shoots me a look over her shoulder. It empties every thought from my head.
I slide into her and find the angle that makes her gasp and arch against me.
She grips the sheets and her breath comes in sharp, broken sounds that drive me to move faster, harder.
I reach around and find the spot between her thighs that makes her cry out, and the way she pushes back, rolling her hips to meet every thrust, unravels the last thread of my control.
She comes apart first, her body clenching in waves that drag me over the edge with her. I bury myself deep and press my mouth to the back of her neck, my palm curving around her breast as we both try to remember how to breathe. After a long moment, we collapse to our sides.
We lie tangled together, her head on my shoulder and my arm wrapped around her, the sheets twisted around our legs. The windows are dark, and the only light comes from the bedside lamp that casts its golden glow across the mattress and catches the still-damp strands of her hair.
Sunny traces a lazy circle on my collarbone with one fingertip. "My life has changed so much in such a short time," she murmurs, her voice carrying the particular softness that only surfaces when every wall is down.
"Not long ago, I was wondering if everything I’d poured myself into was going to disappear. Up until then, I had been completely at peace with my life. I didn't need anything else." She pauses. "I believed it, too."
"And now?"
"Now I have an ownership stake in the place I love, a wine cave about to be carved into a hillside, and a man who sends me duck photos at sunrise.
" She lifts her head and looks at me, and her expression is bright and unguarded.
"I don't recognize my life anymore, Charlie.
And I wouldn't change a single thing about that. "
"Not a single thing?"
"Not one." She settles back against my shoulder. "You stopped on a highway to help a woman who told you to get lost. And it was the best thing that could have happened to me."
I chuckle at the memory. "You fought me for at least ten minutes, Sunshine."
"I did." Her laugh is quiet and fond. "And you just smiled at me like my stubbornness was the most charming thing you'd ever seen."
"It was."
"I was furious."
"You were breathtaking. And tenacious. Your arms were shaking from the effort to loosen those lug nuts, and you would have stood on that shoulder all night and the whole next day before you asked for help.
" I press my lips to her hair, smelling the fresh scent of rose.
"I took one look at you and thought, there she is. "
She props up on an elbow, her eyes serious. "There she is?" she repeats, testing the words. "You thought that?"
"From the very first second."
She kisses me, slow and tender, and the memory of this moment is something I know I will carry for the rest of my life. When she draws back, her eyes search mine, and whatever she finds there makes her expression soften.
I think about that ring in my jeans pocket and wonder how long I can wait.
"I love you, Charlie Hayden."
"I love you, Sunny Reese. Always will."
She tucks against me, her breathing settling into the deep, even rhythm that tells me sleep is dragging her under. I click off the lamp, and the room fills with the silver light of a full moon pouring through the windows.
I hold the woman I love in the dark, listening to the night sounds of the ranch that has become my home. I think about that dusty highway shoulder, the fiercely independent woman, and the fierce blue stare that changed everything.
Some things are absolutely worth the wait.