Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
BOOKER
M y gaze kept moving to the woman sleeping at my side, and no matter how hard I tried not to creep on Reece, I couldn’t help it.
I’d never been as terrified as I was yesterday. Not in all my life. Knowing that there was someone at the ranch and she was in danger had my instincts going into overdrive. I owed Cole a drink, or a horse, or something because I had no idea what I would have done if he hadn’t been there with her.
After she fell asleep last night, I slipped out of bed and made some calls. Xander was packing his stuff up before I’d even finished explaining what had happened. I didn’t even have to ask him to come and stay for a few days. He offered without hesitation. It actually surprised me. After all those years of distance, he was still the brother I remembered him to be.
Willowbrook might have been the place where all his troubles began, but he looked good being back here. I could cut him in on the business plan for the ranch. Give him a reason to stay here with us. The practice in town would have been enough to keep him busy, but there was something about the idea of another practice that didn’t seem to excite him like it used to. There wasn’t that spark in his eyes that he usually got when he talked about his career. But Xander had listened to every word of my business plan for the ranch. He made some suggestions I hadn’t even considered, which was saying a lot as I’d been dreaming of this for years before I worked up the courage to actually make it happen.
I talked Xander down from jumping in his car and driving here late last night. It felt good to have someone who was so ready to do that for me, especially considering the rocky start he seemed to have with Reece. I hadn’t told her about his drinking. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing to talk about behind his back. But I didn’t want her to think that Xander hated her, and from the way he was acting at dinner, she couldn’t be blamed if she did.
Damn, it was nice to have family around me again, but it came with an annoying set of complications.
The call I had with Ethan hadn’t gone quite as well. The police chief had told me, realistically, there was little he could do. Resources in Willowbrook weren’t like the big cities, and even then, they wouldn’t do much either. He made some recommendations about security cameras though, and I already had emails out to get some installed. If we could catch this guy on tape, Ethan had said it would be a whole different story.
My gaze moved back to Reece, only this time she wasn’t asleep, and her sleepy brown eyes were looking back at me.
She rolled and snuggled into my chest as I tried to ignore how my heart started pounding at her touch.
We’d known each other for such a relatively short amount of time, and I had no idea how she’d become this important to me. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for this woman.
“Good morning,” she said, holding a hand over her mouth and making me smile.
I worked on a ranch with sweaty ranch hands. There was no way her morning breath could compete with that.
I pulled her hand away from her face and kissed her. Reece hummed happily, her leg hitching over my hip as she did. It took no effort at all to roll onto my back and pull her on top of me as I did.
“Didn’t you have enough fun last night?” she whispered against my lips and kissed me again before I could respond.
I could spend a year in bed with Reece, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
I trailed my fingertips up the outside of her silky thighs, bunching up the shirt of mine that she’d slept in as I went. There was something primal about seeing a beautiful woman sleeping in your clothes, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of her?—
“Booker!” Xander shouted up the stairs. “Are you up there?”
Reece yipped in surprise and darted out of my lap, pulling the covers up to her chest as she stared at the door with wide eyes.
“What are you doing?” I laughed, reaching out for her.
“I don’t want him to walk in and see us…you know!”
“Why would he walk in here? Come back here, and let me do all the filthy things I’ve been thinking about for the past hour while I watched you sleep.”
“Awww. You watched me sleep like a cute little stalker.”
“First things first, there’s nothing little about me, woman,” I said, reaching out to pull her closer to me again. “And second, let’s not crack any stalker jokes until I can get over what happened yesterday. Otherwise, I’ll have you tied to my side and never let you out of my sight for the next five years, minimum.”
Reece tipped her head to the side and smiled. I could see the sympathy in her eyes, and strangely, it didn’t bother me. There was a time when I would have hated that look. But it didn’t come across as mocking when it came from her. This was a woman who cared about me and was concerned about my feelings.
“I’m sorry,” she started, and when I went to object how none of it was her fault, Reece laid her fingers over my lips to stop me. “I’m sorry that I didn’t check in with you last night about how you were feeling about this whole thing.”
Reece slowly moved her fingers away, and I grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand back and kissing those beautiful, concerned fingers before I let her go.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been through something like this. I’ve never cared enough about someone to invite something like this into my life before.”
My head was all over the place right now. All I could think was protect, protect, protect. I knew it was the worst thing I could ever do for Reece. She’d just escaped some douche who had tried to take her freedom. The last thing she needed was for me to do the same even if it was for entirely different reasons.
But I couldn’t do nothing . I couldn’t sit by when there were people out there that could hurt her.
“I care about you too,” she whispered, her fingers coming to my jaw as she brushed her thumb across my cheek. “We’ll figure this out, Booker.”
“I think I’m supposed to be the one saying that to you,” I told her wryly.
“I know, but I can see how worried you are.”
“Reece, do you think this could be your ex?”
I asked the question that had been burning inside me since I’d received the call from Cole. Part of me hoped it was him. What I wouldn’t give to feel my knuckles collide with his nose. The ranch was a big place. There were places around here where no one would ever find him.
“I doubt it. He doesn’t know where I am. I have no links to Willowbrook that would make him think to come looking for me here. I just don’t see how it could be.” She looked confused, and my heart broke for her.
This was the last thing Reece needed. She should live a carefree life, doing what she wanted, whenever she wanted, and I hoped like hell there was room for me in there somewhere.
“I’ve got an idea,” I said, throwing back the covers and slapping her delicious ass before climbing out of the bed. “Get dressed. I’m going to take you somewhere.”
“Erm, okay.” Reece looked around the bedroom and then turned back to me. “I don’t exactly have any clothes, though.”
I was already at the dresser, pulling out my clothes when her voice cut through the air, and I turned slowly around.
“Damn, I didn’t think about that.”
“Could you grab me something from the cottage?” she asked.
I winced. I hadn’t let Reece out of my sight, and what had started on the couch had made its way to the bedroom before she’d passed out from exhaustion, so I knew she didn’t have time to sneak out there.
Reece had no idea what someone had done in her bedroom.
I walked back over to the bed, sitting on the edge, and her face fell.
“I don’t think I want to know,” she said, turning to get out of the bed, but my hand whipped out to grab her wrist and stop her.
She paused, staring at the ground for a moment before she slowly turned to face me. Reece looked so sad, and I hated everything about what was happening to her.
“Whoever broke into the cottage pulled your clothes out of the closet and tore them apart,” I told her gently. “It’s all destroyed.”
Her face fell, and I linked my fingers with hers, holding her hand as she worked through her emotions.
“Everything?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah, baby.”
“Why would someone do that?”
“I don’t know. I called the sheriff last night, and he’s coming to the ranch today to have a look around. I didn’t see the point in him coming yesterday, not when it was already getting dark and whoever had been here was long gone.”
Reece slowly nodded. Her face seemed to wrinkle with fear.
“The sheriff?” She sounded so worried.
“Xander will deal with it. Ethan won’t need to speak to you, and if he does, he can swing by later. This is more important.”
“What’s more important?” Reece asked, looking genuinely confused.
“You.” I leaned forward and kissed her lips because they were impossible to resist. “Now get a shower, and I’ll see if Delaney or Blake have some clothes you can borrow for a couple of days.”
I saw her getting ready to argue, but then a strange look crossed her face, and she nodded, getting up and heading into the bathroom.
I couldn’t lie. I was transfixed by the sway of her beautiful ass right up until she closed the door.
“I’m not so sure about this, Booker,” Reece said nervously, and I fought back the laugh that I desperately wanted to set free.
This woman. She was ready to face down an intruder over the supposed insult of eating the first slice of her pie, but put her on the back of Doc outside of the training ring, and she looked like she was going to throw up.
“Doc won’t do you wrong,” I told her, trotting to her side and reaching across to adjust her hands on the reins. “Hold them like this, and use one hand on the pommel to steady yourself if you need to. I promise you we won’t go fast enough to shake something loose.”
Reece glared at me, and I stood in my stirrups, leaned across, and kissed her.
“Or if you prefer, you could sit that sweet little ass in my lap, and I’ll keep you safe.”
I could see her actually thinking about it, and I steered my horse away from her to resist the urge to pull her out of her saddle right then and there.
If I had Reece in the saddle with me, we wouldn’t make it further than the crest of the first hill. But at least that was far enough for me to spread out a blanket and have my filthy way with her without any nosey ranch hands interrupting our fun.
But that wasn’t the point of today.
Well, that mostly wasn’t the point.
I was taking us up into the forest on my favorite trail to show her the view over Willowbrook. Much to Xander’s amusement, I even had a small picnic for us in my saddlebags.
I swear if he tried to feel my temperature one more time, I was going to throw his ass down into the dust.
“I can do it!” Reece objected, even if she didn’t sound so sure of herself. “Just know that if I fall off and break my ass, you’re going to be my nursemaid and slave for at least a month.”
“Baby, don’t threaten me with a good time. I’d gladly press my lips to every curve of your beautiful ass.”
She blushed the prettiest pink and shook her head.
It didn’t take long for Reece to settle into the slow rhythm of Doc’s gait as we headed across the pastures toward the tree line.
“How long have you had the ranch now?” she asked suddenly.
“Eight years. It was bittersweet when it finally became mine. I love this place. Every inch of this ranch, every tree and blade of grass, it’s ingrained in me. I’m pretty sure my blood runs with more ranch dust than anything else. I would have camped out in the pastures if my parents would have let me. But the ranch becoming mine meant I lost my grandfather, and, at the time, he felt like the only person who was ever really on my side.”
Reece listened quietly, but the silence didn’t have that edge to it that it normally did. It didn’t slice at my mind, making me want to flee a situation where someone expected me to fill it. To spill a part of myself that they’d get to claim for themselves.
She radiated nothing but peace and understanding.
And for the first time in my life, I actually wanted to talk.
“The Farrington land used to run down this whole side of the town. My grandfather let my father portion of a section at the far end, and he had a house built there for my mother. She wanted to be as far away from this place as she could get. There was nothing about a ranch that fitted the image she wanted for the Farrington name. Maybe that’s why I always loved this place so much. It was exactly what she didn’t want, and that made it even more special.”
Reece hummed in agreement. “This was your escape. A place where you could be yourself.”
“If it hadn’t been for my brothers, I think my grandfather would have let me stay, and I probably would have accepted. I couldn’t leave them in that house alone, though.”
“Is that why you stayed so long?”
“Yeah. I was the eldest. I still don’t think I did enough, but I wasn’t about to go off to college and leave them with that woman. So I went to the local community college and got an agricultural and business degree. That outraged her enough to take the heat off them for a good while.” I laughed at that point because the ridiculousness of it all wasn’t lost on me.
Regina hated that we were a small-town family and that she couldn’t tear my father from this town or me from the ranch. And that was where all the money had come from. If there was one thing she didn’t hate, it was the money.
“They were lucky to have you,” Reece said.
She looked at me like I’d done something impressive, and it made me shift uncomfortably in my saddle.
“It was nothing. I’m supposed to look after them. I’m the eldest. And I didn’t exactly do a very good job of it. Anyway, I didn’t need some big fancy degree to run the ranch.”
Reece’s eyes darted back and forth, and I knew she was searching my gaze to try to figure out how serious I was being.
But that was the thing. I was deadly serious.
It didn’t cost me anything to do what I had for my brothers. And yet, it hadn’t been enough. It hadn’t saved Gage from feeling like he could never face us again, and it hadn’t saved Xander from drowning his feelings in a bottle for most of his life. I hadn’t even been able to stop Trace from losing Delaney and Cade for ten years. It had all been for nothing.
Thankfully, before Reece could say anything else, the tree line came into view, and we were going to have to take the trail one at a time for the first stretch.
“Do you want me to lead the way or are you happy for Doc to? He knows where we’re going, and you can just sit there and enjoy the ride.”
Reece didn’t say anything at first. Judging by the cute little pout on her lips, she wasn’t impressed by the sudden change of subject. In the end, she sighed. “You go first, and we’ll follow,” she said, letting me pretend I was getting away with dodging the conversation.
This was where I got uncomfortable. I didn’t need a pat on the back or a damn certificate. It shouldn’t be so surprising when someone does the right thing. It should be the default setting.
We carried on a little way in silence until the trail turned into a slight incline. I turned in my saddle to check on Reece, and she happily looked at the scenery, her reins held relaxed in her hands as she let Doc lead the way. He preferred it that way, anyway.
Reece had naturally leaned forward slightly to account for the incline, but I still felt like I should point it out to her, so she didn’t panic when she realized we’d started heading up a hill.
“The incline gets a little steeper for the next couple of minutes, but nothing Doc can’t handle. Lean forward in your saddle to keep your balance.”
Reece made eye contact with me and smiled. All thoughts of our earlier conversation and the events of yesterday seemed to have slipped away. “Sure thing. I can see why you love it here so much.” She looked around again, taking in the trees as we slowly passed them by. “It’s so peaceful.”
“Yeah, this is my favorite place on the whole ranch. I’m honestly thinking of being selfish and not including this trail on any of the tours. We should keep it just for us.”
I glanced over my shoulder at a happy, blushing Reece and vowed there and then that this was what I wanted for the rest of my life. Every single moment would be dedicated to making this woman smile.