Chapter Nineteen
SLOANE
SINCE I told Mason everything, I’m not allowed to leave the ranch, not that I wanted to anyway, not after the run-in with my brother. To be honest, I’ve been paranoid and afraid to go outside of the house.
Yesterday, he told his dad about my brother seeing me with him and today there are more rifles in random corners of the house.
When I asked Mason about them being out where Lainey Rai could get them, he laughed and said her dad’s been taking her to their little range on the property for target practice since she was seven.
The nine-year-old in the house knows more about guns than I do.
Looking over the canned section of the pantry, I compare my menu list for the next week with what I have so I can make my grocery list. Mr. Harlow insists on having his favorite pot of beans and cornbread for dinner once a week and the rolling bin that the beans are in has a broken wheel.
Setting my list and clipboard down, I crawl under the bottom shelf and look for the wheel that’s come loose from its setting…
again. As I back out, I knock the back of my head on the shelf and curse under my breath.
The sore spot from the knock on the attic rafter last week just stopped hurting in the past couple of days.
“You keep hittin’ your head like that and you’re gonna damage something permanently.”
I thought everyone had left the house and hearing Mason behind me makes me jump and I hit my head again. “Damn it to hell, Mason!” I curse and sit back on my heels with my hand on my head. “I thought you were outside with everyone else, why are you sneaking around the house like a creeper?”
He smiles and holds his hand out to me to pull me up. I bump into his chest, and he kisses my forehead with a chuckle, “Let me see.”
“I’m fine,” I grumble and turn away from him to set the broken wheel on the shelf.
Every time I’m around him now, all I want to do is jump him.
Since I went to his room the other night, he’s either in my room or I’m in his after everyone’s gone to bed.
Since he will be leaving to go back to work soon, I know this isn’t anything serious, but I plan to take advantage of it right up until he leaves. No matter how little sleep I get.
His arm goes around my waist, pulling me to him, his hard chest is against my back, “I said let me see.” He pushes my hand away from my head and kisses the sore spot, “Better?”
He snakes both arms around my waist and hugs me to him, pushing my hair off my neck with his chin he kisses under my ear.
A slight smile plays at my lips when the shiver skitters across my shoulders, “Not really.”
He kisses my jaw and mumbles, “What do I need to do to make it better?” His lips move to my neck and his hand slides up my stomach to cup my breast in his hand. My whole center is warming up and I push my butt onto the harness I feel through his jeans.
“You’re getting warmer.” I breathe. When he pinches my nipple, my arousal makes me slick. It’s like he flipped a switch, one minute I’m making a grocery list and in the next, my only focus is on feeling him inside me.
His beard is scratchy against my skin and with a playful moan, he bites the skin where my shoulder meets my neck and sucks. “Abso-fucking-lutely perfect,” he whispers in my ear.
A small gasp escapes my lips and my fingers squeeze his arm in front of my stomach. “Mason?” My voice is also nearly a whisper.
“Mm-Hm.” The fingers of his other hand walk my shirt out of my pants and his hand slides under the waistband.
When his finger dips between my slippery folds, my whisper turns to pants. “Pantry. Mason.” I moan again when he slips two fingers inside of me, “In the pantry.”
“Mmmm, so.”
He slips his other hand under my shirt and pulls my bra to the side so he can massage my breast in his palm while he pinches my nipple. “Oh, God.” My hips are pushing against his hand.
“Nope, just me, darlin’.” His breath is hot on my cheek and his stubble scratches my ear. He slides his finger over my clit, massaging the little bundle of nerves.
Suddenly, he spins me around to face him, his arm still looped around my waist and his hand firm on my back, I look up into his eyes in question. Desire is in his eyes and one side of his mouth tips up, “I like to watch your beautiful face when you come.”
His lips crash into mine and he unbuttons my pants before he slides his hand back in, three fingers sink into me, and I gasp and let my head fall back. His lips go to my neck, and I start moving my hips to ride his hand.
I’m so close, my nails bite into the skin on his shoulders through his flannel shirt. “Mason.” I pant.
His lips slide to my ear, “That’s right, darlin’, come for me.”
My core feels like it’s about to explode and I grip his shoulders harder and set my forehead next to his neck, my pants getting harder with each movement of his fingers.
“Look at me.” He orders, his voice low, and I lift my head to look into those beautiful blue eyes as I fall apart on his hand. My knees buckle and his arm around my waist tightens, “I got ya.”
When I regain my feet, he moves his hands to my waist and kisses me again. Sliding my hand into the short hair on his nape, I trail my other hand down his chest to the button on his jeans. He grabs my hand and mumbles in my mouth, “I don’t have a condom on me.”
Pulling my head back, I say, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, because you can do that anytime you want, but you came into the pantry to give me a half-afternoon delight and that’s all?”
His smile spreads across his gorgeous face, “That wasn’t my intention, but when I’m around you I can’t seem to keep my hands to myself.”
Volleying my eyes between his, I tip one side of my lips up and look at him through my eyelashes. I roll onto my tip toes to kiss his chin and then I trail kisses down the front of his t-shirt until I’m on my knees.
Keeping my eyes locked on his, I unbutton his jeans and reach my hand in to grasp his thick, hard shaft. He hisses and then turns his head to the open door before he stretches his long arm to push it closed.
When I shimmy his jeans down just enough to set him free, there is a bead of precum on the head and I flatten my tongue to lick from the underside of his head to the tip before I suck the head into my mouth, swirling my tongue around the tip.
He slaps his palm against the wall and tips his head back as he moans, “Fuck me.”
Using my hand to pump the base of his shaft while I suck and swirl around the head, I suck my cheeks in and let him pop out of my mouth. His eyes dip to meet mine again and I slide the tip of my tongue across the tip.
Sucking him back into my mouth, I slide my lips down until his head hits the back of my throat each time I move up and back down. He starts to move his hips, and I slide my mouth over him at his pace, he fists my hair and pushes to the back of my throat.
“Fuck, darlin’, I’m gonna come.” He moans and his grip on my hair tightens.
I respond by hollowing my cheeks out and sucking harder for the next two strokes.
“Fuck me.” He hisses and shoves to the back of my mouth.
Warmth starts to fill my mouth as he twitches against my tongue, I swallow, sucking him each time until he puts his hands on each side of my head and pulls me up to crash his lips to mine.
***
The last dish is finally in the dishwasher, and I glance over the kitchen to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
I grab the bag of trash from the can under the counter and carry it to the dumpster at the back of the house, when I step outside the smell of smoke floats past my nose and grabs my attention.
Looking toward the barn and then to Marley’s stables, I don’t see a source.
I look further out across the field and see smoke in the direction of Kinley’s cabin.
I didn’t see her for breakfast but that’s normal, I look around for any of the guys but remember that Mason said he and his brother were going into town. I don’t see Mr. Harlow anywhere.
I run to the mudroom, grab the keys to the old pickup that’s parked next to the house, and gun it down the dirt path to Kinley’s cabin.
As I get closer, I can see thin tendrils of smoke floating up from the back side of the cabin.
I pull up to the side of the house and see Kinley pumping water into a bucket about ten yards away from the house, the fire is on her small back porch and is slowly moving up the wooden handrail next to her back door.
She looks terrified and we briefly make eye contact as I put the truck in park and jump out.
There is a horse blanket in the bed of the truck, I grab it and run to the porch to start beating at the flames that seem to get bigger by the second. The breeze pushes the heat and smoke in my direction, and I cover my mouth and nose with my hand and turn away.
With my hand on the rail for support, I try to catch my breath while coughing. Kinley runs up the steps and throws the bucket of water on the flames, so I move next to her and start beating the flame that the water didn’t touch.
“I’ll get more water,” Kinley yells and turns to run back down the steps.
Throwing water on the flames made it smoke even more so I cover my mouth and nose with the crook of my arm and keep beating the flames that are slowly getting smaller. When I hear Kinley run up the steps again, I turn to the opposite handrail across the little porch and let the coughing take over.
“I’m going to douse it one more time.” She says and runs back to the water pump.
She is still in her flannel pajamas with a large sweater thrown over and her boots. We both have tears running down our cheeks from the thinning, white smoke the cold breeze keeps pushing toward us.
Her long blond hair is twisted up on her head and held in place with a long paintbrush, a coffee cup is sitting on the porch next to the Adirondack chair next to a small, metal fire pit that looks to be the source of the fire.