Chapter 24 Standing Next To Him
STANDING NEXT TO HIM
“That was busier than Clay thought it’d be,” Ford said two hours later.
They’d cleaned up the barn after the last person left, put everything the way it was before and counted out the tips to divide between everyone.
It was a lot more than he’d thought it’d be. Clay slipped Reenie money under the table. Ford pretended he didn’t see it, but since everyone else was an employee on the books, he was happy his brother wanted to make sure his girlfriend got paid.
She’d shaken her head, but Clay slapped it in her hand and walked away.
“I’m exhausted in the best possible way,” she said. “And I need a shower.”
“We can take one at my place,” he said. “Let’s get your stuff for the night.”
“You’re sure it’s okay?” she said.
He frowned. “It’s my house. Why wouldn’t it be fine?”
He didn’t know why she’d say that.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve been here almost a month and you haven’t offered once to show it to me. If I hadn’t brought it up, you might not have offered.”
His head went back and forth. “I didn’t want to disrupt your routine,” he said. “You’ve been working and you go in early, it’s on the property. You worked all last weekend when I was off.”
“True,” she said.
“It’s nothing more than that,” he said. “I don’t have another girlfriend hidden in the basement.”
She laughed, but it wasn’t genuine. “I’d know if you did since your mother would smack you upside the head after she lectured you about it.”
His eyes grew as big as his grin. “She would. So then what is it? It’s something.”
He waved to his father and Clay as they walked to his truck. His family knew Reenie was going home with him tonight.
She shrugged and remained silent.
Ford wasn’t buying her nonchalant attitude.
He let her have the quiet on the drive to her place. He unlocked the door with the key he had and she went to her room to pack.
He looked around the place. Not much had changed. No touches of Reenie here.
She had the barest minimum of possessions, nothing added to the place that she’d made her home in the past several weeks.
He hated to think that was because she didn’t see herself staying, but there had been no updates. Grady had his ear to the ground and Reenie swore she hadn’t contacted the people who helped her escape again.
It was a waiting game when he didn’t know what they could even be waiting for.
It was possible that nothing would happen, and that Oliver would forget Reenie.
He wouldn’t take that chance and drop his guard until it was verified.
“Ready?” he asked when she came out with a backpack.
“Yep.”
He locked the door behind him, they got in his truck and then drove off his parents’ property.
Clay would lock the gate to the entrance of the farm when everyone was gone for the night like he always did.
Only the family knew the code to get it open after hours.
There were cameras all around the entrance too, all hidden except the one right by the security pad that was in the middle.
A nice view of anyone coming and going, even cars passing on the road if Clay chose to look.
“Are you hungry? I can order pizza.”
“Pizza sounds delicious,” she said.
He picked his phone up, found the number and hit the button. He knew what she liked since they had it last week one night.
He placed the order, was told it’d be forty minutes. “Plenty of time for us to shower and relax before it arrives. No reason to leave again.”
“Works for me. How long have you lived in this house? You own it, right?”
“I do. I bought it five years ago. It needed some work that me and Ash did most of. Blaze wasn’t around, neither was Clay. My father helped too. But I never wanted to ask him much since he was so busy on the farm.”
He pulled into his driveway a few minutes later.
“It’s nice,” she said of the two-story colonial that was set back behind trees and not visible from the road.
“Not new by any means, but not so old that it had to be completely gutted. The house is about fifty years old.”
He parked in his garage next to his sheriff’s SUV, the two of them got out, and he hit the button to close it.
Opening the door to the hall off his kitchen, he slipped his shoes off in the laundry room to the right, Reenie doing the same, then turned to the left and walked to his kitchen. She popped her head in the half bath they’d passed by the kitchen.
“This is nice,” she said. “It suits you.”
Ford looked around his kitchen. It was simple to him. Tan granite counters, dark wood cabinets, light wood floors. His backsplash was a mixture of brown, his walls tan throughout the whole first floor.
“I kept it simple. I’m not big on decor.”
They moved into his family room. His walls were bare, but there were some family photos on the fireplace mantel.
“I’ve never had a home of my own to decorate. I wouldn’t know the first place to even start.”
He’d forgotten she’d never lived alone or had a place of her own.
“It’s not me,” he said. “My mother is always on my case to make the house more lived in, but I don’t need that.”
“If you’re comfortable, that is all that matters.”
They walked to the staircase in the front of the house, then up to the second level. “There are three bedrooms and two full baths up here.”
“Lots of space for one person.”
He’d never thought it’d just be him in the house, but he wouldn’t say that to her.
His past was just that. In the past.
His future was standing next to him. They just had to get there.
“Hopefully it won’t always be only me.”
“That’s funny considering what I heard tonight.”
His steps faltered and he spun. “What did you hear?”
“That the Ridgeway boys don’t settle down. And many have tried to get them to.”
What the fuck kind of statement was that supposed to be?
“I don’t think that’s true.”
“What isn’t?” she asked. “That many have tried or that you don’t settle down? You’re all single.”
His shoulders relaxed. He hadn’t realized he’d tensed with worry that she’d believe negativity stated about him that could hinder their progress.
“We are. I can’t speak for my brothers. I can guess. Clay has been in the service, then focused on the business and my father’s recovery. Blaze was in school and now his career. Ash is having too much fun being single. I don’t talk to Gale much about it.”
“I don’t care about them,” she said. “What about you? Have you had any serious relationships?”
“A few,” he said. “I’m not sure how serious I would consider them. Maybe I’ve been searching for something I didn’t know until you entered my life again.”
“What?” He hadn’t expected her eyes to be so wide, or her jaw to lower enough for birds to fly in.
“Reenie, I’ve tried, I’ve been in relationships, but one thing or another ends it. My job normally, but most times I’m just not feeling for them what they might for me. I don’t want to lead someone on.”
Carey was the closest he’d gotten to feeling something towards love, but she’d called it quits.
The fact he wasn’t too upset over it said she wasn’t the one.
“You’ll let me know if it’s not what you want, right?”
His knuckles trailed down the side of her cheek. “I will, but I can tell you right now, you’re what I want.”
“You say that now, but it’s the newness. I’ve been there before.”
He didn’t want to be compared to the assholes of her past.
“I’m not them,” he said. “Never think that.”
She was searching his face. It took a herculean effort to keep his frustration locked up. She didn’t need to see that. It was not something many saw, but the last person he’d ever want to witness it was Reenie. Not after what she’d gone through.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean it that way.” She didn’t appear to be upset over his words, more like confused.
“What way did you mean it?”
“That what we feel are remnants of our past, traces of who we used to be, but we aren’t those people anymore. Not fully.”
“We are better than those kids,” he said, his head dipping down to kiss her. “Don’t you forget that or think otherwise.”
“I’m trying,” she said quietly.
They walked to his room after he’d stopped them in the hallway over her words. He took the bag out of her hand and put it on the bed. “That’s all I can ask.”
Reenie opened her bag, pulling out her clothes. “Do you have somewhere I can put these so they aren’t wrinkled in the morning?”
He moved to a drawer that he’d emptied this morning. He’d like her to keep clothing here but knew not to ask. She didn’t have much as it was.
“Do you want to shower together and conserve water?”
She giggled. Their serious conversation seemingly wiped from her face. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“Glad to know we think alike.”
He walked to his bathroom and turned the water on to heat.
She was on his heels. “That’s a big shower.”
“I ripped the tub out and put this in. Best money spent in the house.”
“I’ve never been in a shower this big before. The small one in the cabin is tight for me. I can’t believe you and your brothers fit in that.”
“I had a lot of bruised elbows,” he said, laughing. “Maybe that is why I wanted this one to be so big.”
He pulled his Ridgeway Orchard T-shirt over his head, then helped her with hers.
His shower might be big, but the bathroom itself was tight with the double vanity and toilet.
The two of them stripped quickly. “Do you have condoms in here? I’ve always wanted to try shower sex.”
Ford opened a drawer and pulled one out of the box. Putting it on the ledge in the shower, he opened the door and let her in before him.
Reenie stood under the spray, got everything wet but her hair, which was piled on top of her head with a rubber band that she’d quickly done after they’d undressed.
Her hand found the soap, lathered up, rinsed off, then she stepped aside to let him under the spray.
When he reached out for the soap, she didn’t pass it over.
Instead, she filled her palms with suds and slid them across his chest, down over his hips, then wrapped her hand around his length, stroking him slowly.
He was hard once he stripped and saw her naked, but her hands on his body had blood rushing there like an out of control freight train.
He wouldn’t have the strength to go slow with her if she kept that up and he’d made it his mission to make sure she came every time they had sex. That meant giving her the time and attention she deserved.
The last time was faster, her body relaxing a lot more than the first time.
“I love how big you are,” she said, her fingers exploring. “The strength in your body and behind your movements. It’s a controlled power.”
“I never want to hurt you,” he said.
“You can’t.”
He didn’t believe that. He didn’t want to.
If you couldn’t hurt someone, then it meant they weren’t all in.
He’d waited a long time to find his person.
He knew beyond a doubt it was her. He just had to get her to believe it too.
“Everyone hurts, Reenie. Don’t shut yourself off to that. There is good pain in life too.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Right now, I just want to feel pleasure.”
She reached for the condom, opened it and covered him, then backed a few steps against the tile wall. She was looking around as if she couldn’t figure out how this was going to happen.
He knew exactly what he was going to do.
He was going to show her he had her and always would. That she could let herself go in his arms. With her body. Even her heart.
The last most of all.
He picked her up under her arms, she wrapped her legs around him. He reached down and guided himself inside of her, then adjusted her down on him deeper.
“Feel good?” he asked.
“Very,” she said. “But I can’t move much this way.”
“You’re not supposed to,” he said. “Let me do the work. Let me show you.”
“You always do it all,” she said.
“Later I’ll let you do it. How about that?”
“Deal,” she said, her eyes closing as he thrust up a few times in jerky movements.
“Touch yourself,” he said.
“I don’t want to let go of you.”
She’d wrapped her arms around his neck in a death grip.
“I’ve got you. I’ll always have you,” he said. “You can do it.”
Her arms loosened, one hand moved down between them, found her private parts and tentatively touched herself.
All he felt was her hand brushing against his belly. The thought of what she was doing to herself was an inferno more than the steam in the shower.
He’d watch her do it one of these days. That was a promise he was making to himself.
“I never realized how good this would feel.” There was wonderment in her voice. Her hand was moving faster, his hips keeping pace.
“Learn to trust me,” he whispered.
The hot water was blasting onto his back, her legs slipping around his hips, but he hitched up a little more, put her against the tile for leverage, pinning her there, one hand on the wall.
She was squeezing him so tightly that he feared he was going to slip out with as fast as she was moving and clenching. He knew she was getting close. It was her telltale sign.
“You’re almost there,” he whispered in her ear. “You can do it. Come all over me. Make me feel it.”
She needed those words of encouragement. They almost always sent her over. As if she couldn’t do it on her own.
At least she trusted him enough in this aspect of her life.
“Oh,” she said, a moan escaping her lips. “Can you go harder?”
She rarely asked him to do anything and that simple, shy request he’d gladly comply with.
As he was trying to bury himself in her, he was slamming in so hard, she shouted out with each thrust, her hand dropping away as her muscles flexed and pulsed over his cock.
She was coming, her nails burning his flesh as she burned him in her pleasure.
His body couldn’t take another minute of it, coming hard inside of her, keeping her pinned to the wall, his forehead hitting the tiles next to her as he sucked in all the air he could muster.
“Are you okay?” she asked, kissing his shoulder.
“I’m perfect,” he said. “And so are you.”