Chapter 16
CHARLIE
After I dropped Olivia off, I headed back to the stables to get the horses situated for the night. They needed fresh food and water, and while I would’ve preferred chasing after her and explaining myself, the horses needed me.
Olivia didn’t. She’d gone out of her way at every turn to make that pretty darn clear.
As I drove back, my heart was still going nuts after that kiss. God only knew what had come over me. I shouldn’t have done it and I knew that, but I hadn’t been able to help myself.
Mercifully, I’d regained control before I’d started tearing her clothes off right there in the mud, but I’d been dangerously close to doing it. No other women had ever sent me from zero to sixty in mere seconds like she had.
If I hadn’t forced myself to walk away, my ass would’ve been naked in the rain—possibly with her on top of me. As much as the mental image of that was hot as hell, the reality that would’ve followed would’ve been decidedly less sexy.
Outside, the rain was still picking up, but the storm was definitely here. The noise was almost deafening, water coming down in sheets that were making it impossible to see anything.
If we had been naked in this, we both would’ve woken up with pneumonia in the morning—and that would’ve been the least of our worries.
Shaking my head at myself, I willed my cock to stay out of it and forced my head—the big one—back into control. Getting with Olivia was a bad idea, and I needed to remember that.
With that thought in mind, I went into the stables and did what needed to be done. Finally, I was able to go back home. I was still heated from that kiss though, even as I walked into my room, peeled off my drenched clothes, and got into a shower.
Every damn fiber of my being was trying to insist that we had to go up there to her room, and I was fighting it for all I was worth. When I was with her, I felt so darn alive, but there was also no one who frustrated me as much.
All I wanted was to lose this fight but I knew I couldn’t give in. On the other hand, that spark I’d felt since the very first moment I’d seen her was still there for me. Resisting that draw was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.
All of which sounded like crazy talk.
I’d never been this messed up about a woman and by God, I hoped it never happened again. It was making me feel like I was losing my mind.
After an ice-cold shower, the heat in my veins had abated, but it still hadn’t disappeared. Resigned to going to sleep horny as hell and as frustrated with a person as I’d ever been, I stomped out of my bedroom and made my way to the kitchen.
Dallas had left when my brothers arrived. If he’d still been here, maybe we would’ve grabbed a beer and I could’ve vented, but since he wasn’t, I opted for some water instead. I cracked open the bottle and downed the whole thing, then refilled it and slotted it back into the fridge.
Still feeling restless, I walked around the first floor, making sure all the windows were shut tight and that the doors were closed. A storm like this was only going to get worse before it got any better.
I rarely complained about rain, though. We needed it. The land needed it.
Drought was a killer. I’d take a good old rainstorm any day over a dry spell. While too much of anything was never good, this downpour had come at a great time.
I stood in front of the sliding doors leading to the backyard and stared at the fire pit through the glass, remembering dancing with Liv under the stars out there. She hadn’t been our new marketing girl that night. She hadn’t been Nathan’s daughter or the woman who was going to change everything.
But she’d already started changing me that night. In retrospect, I could acknowledge that there had been a shift in me as soon as she’d put her hand in mine at Honky Tonks.
Because she’d made me believe again.
Just seeing her had made me think that maybe there was still a woman out there I’d eventually want to settle down with. I’d never gone looking for that. Never chased after the elusive one or gone out of my way to track down love.
Did I want it? I didn’t know, because I’d never had it, but that craving for someone different had made me think that perhaps it was time to put myself out there again.
And along had come Liv.
I sighed and spun around, leaving the fire pit behind me. Which was what I had to do with that night—I had to leave it behind me. I had to remember that she wasn’t just Liv. She was Olivia Walker, future CEO of one of the largest marketing firms in the state.
Of course, as luck would have it, as soon as I put the fire pit behind me, I found the woman herself in front of me. She was coming down the stairs in an oversized T-shirt that hung almost all the way to her knees. Her hair was still damp and her eyes were blazing with determination.
Which was odd, especially considering the hour.
“What’s up?” I asked, forcing my gaze to remain on hers rather than drop to the swell of her breasts under the soft fabric of what looked like a well-loved shirt. “Do you need something?”
“Can we talk?” She took the last step, her hand still on the banister as her eyes bored into mine. “Please?”
“Of course.” I motioned for her to come join me in the TV room, but she shook her head and I frowned. “You don’t want to talk here?”
“No. I’d like to talk someplace private. Cody and Wyatt are still here, right?”
“Far as I know.”
She nodded, the corners of her lips pressing in. “Exactly. I don’t want to talk somewhere they could overhear us if they should want a drink of water. Let’s go to my room?”
My jaw clenched and my stomach tightened at the prospect of being alone with her in a bedroom, but I nodded anyway and gestured for her to lead the way. “This sounds serious. Are you okay?”
“No, but I will be as soon as you answer some questions.”
I groaned. “Can’t I just fix a leaky faucet or open a jar of pickles and then we call it a day?”
She shot me a smile over her shoulder. “None of my faucets are leaky and I don’t like pickles. You’re dang out of luck, Cowboy.”
“Answering questions, it shall be then, I suppose.” I followed her upstairs, feeling a little like I was being led to the slaughter, except that I wasn’t a lamb, and if there was going to be any kind of danger in that room, I was it.
A danger to myself and to our working relationship, but hey, she’d insisted.
When we got upstairs, she opened her bedroom door and waved me in. I hesitated at the threshold and she shook her head at me. “Not this time, Cowboy. You’re coming in.”
I sighed and finally walked in, striding deliberately past the bed and going to sit on the windowsill at the furthest point away from it. “Alright, Liv. What’s going on? What are these questions you need me to answer?”
She shut the door quietly and locked it before she turned to face me.
Suddenly, everything seemed more intense.
The look in her eyes and the blazing green of her irises, the jasmine scent filling the air, that impossible pull that felt like it had a hook in my chest and was physically drawing me closer to her.
I exhaled slowly and gripped the edge of the windowsill to keep myself exactly where I was. “Liv?”
Her hands found her hips. She stared at me, her chin high and a no-nonsense tilt to her jaw. I could imagine her rocking many boardrooms like this, but of course, that only made me think about rocking her world.
Shit, I really need to get out of this room.
“Here’s the thing, Charlie,” she said finally, her gaze not wavering from mine. “I don’t want the one-and-done kisses. I’ve enjoyed them, but unless you’re wanting to give me a little more than that, I’m going to need you to knock it off.”
I smiled and rose to my feet, finally surrendering to the urge to move closer. “You want me to knock it off, huh?”
She watched me close the distance between us. The elegant column of her neck moved up and down as she swallowed, but then she nodded. “Unless you’re willing to give a little more.”
“Yeah, I heard that part.” I caught her soft face in my hands and sealed my mouth over hers. My chest pressed flush against her torso and heat instantly ignited my veins all over again. I didn’t fight it this time. My tongue parted her lips and I slotted my hips between hers.
Soft moans reached my ears, but I honestly didn’t know who they were coming from. Both of us, probably.
I snaked an arm around her hips and tugged her closer, not giving a damn that she was going to feel how much I wanted her. She thought she was the only one who wanted more? Uh no, City. Some of us just don’t give in to every urge.
As the thought shot through my head, I knew it was now or never. I had to let go of her. I had to stop. Abruptly breaking the kiss, I released her and took a big step back, breathing hard and not doing anything to hide the tent in my jeans. She already knew it was there anyhow.
“Wha…” She blinked a few times in quick succession, the look in her eyes slightly dazed until she managed to recover. “Seriously? You’re walking away. Again?”
I gritted my teeth. “If we let this go any further, we both know exactly how it’s going to end. I’m trying to be a gentleman here, Olivia.”
She held my gaze and took a few small steps closer to me. I recognized the gauntlet she was about to throw down a second or so before she said the actual words. “A gentleman would never tell a lady no. What’s it going to be, Charlie? Are you a gentleman or are you a coward?”