Chapter 12
TWELVE
CORD
Aces and Eights
Lanie curls in my arms, her breaths slowing to small puffs against my chest. I pull my jacket over her and then, when the temperature plummets, unfold the collection of blankets I brought with us for tonight. Her heartbeat slows while my ass freezes. After a few minutes of perfect peace, I give up.
“Get dressed, babe. It’s getting cold.” I kiss the tip of her nose, the taste of her still in my mouth. Fuck, just thinking about her taste, I’m half-hard again.
“I’m not cold,” she murmurs into my chest, a lie, as she presses deeper.
I laugh, stroking her glorious hair. “No, but I am. A wolf is gonna think I’m a popsicle soon.”
Lanie wriggles, extracting an arm to grab for her top, and misses by a mile.
Grinning, I pass her each item of clothing, watching with amusement as she dresses, still curled into a ball in my arms. My heart squeezes, each action of hers cuter than the next.
She emerges from our embrace fully dressed as my backside goes numb.
“That’s a talent you have there, wolf girl.” I draw her up my body, kissing her deeply while she tries to dress me, too. “I’m not a doll,” I grump, swatting her bubble ass. She squeals, scooting back to find her boots while I pull my shirt on.
Lanie returns to the blanket, its plastic lining slopping in the sludge beneath us. “I think we need to pack up,” she said, looking around at the gear.
Dammit, she’s right. Last night’s rain has made a mess of this place. I should have planned this out better. Maybe one night at the falls…
“We can come back tomorrow. And the next day. Take my truck whenever you need it.”
She nods, still looking out into the forest. Her waist-length red hair is mussed as hell, her lips kiss-stained. She’s all the more beautiful for it. I button my shirt, sliding my arms around her waist when I’m done. “We’ll find them, Lanie. I promise.”
Lanie doesn’t speak as I help her into the cab of my truck, but she lets me touch her, needy fucker that I am, and kiss her until her lips are puffy beneath mine before I start the engine. Her mouth looks so damn pretty, all red and swollen and kiss-bitten.
The homestead comes up too fast once we drive back. Pink streaks the fast-darkening sky behind West and Levi as they battle with the delivery of the additional gates for the rodeo, a pallet of stockfeed set off to one side, untouched.
Dammit, the afternoon I’ve taken off has cost us half a day’s work, but then, what is this all for, if I don’t get to spend it with the people that matter? And I’m fast falling for the girl buckled in beside me on this crazy town ride.
My phone is conspicuously placed in the center of the workbench in the barn with half a dozen Post-its stuck to the screen. Laughing at West’s filing system, I swap the drones out for the device I haven’t missed at all. Lanie slides under my arm as I flick through the never-ending list of messages.
“Go on.” She nudges me, snuggling against my side. “You have work to do and I need to map out where we’ve been, work out what the next approach is. And I can help, if you need an extra pair of arms.”
“You’re not here to work for me, Lanie,” I murmur into her hair, inhaling the cinnamon-and-citrus scent of her, the bite of pine needles, a new heart note beneath that suits her.
“I know, but I like it,” she says simply, giving me a gentle shove, at odds with her other arm wrapped around my back that refuses to let go.
I walk back into the house, smiling.
I kick my office door open a few hours later, dropping my phone on the desk.
If one more thing falls through, I doubt there will be a Valiant Peak Invitational next year.
Maybe that’s not true. But with the number of things going wrong this year, I barely have enough energy left for the actual event.
When I walk into the living area, I find Lanie dozing between Billy and West on the sofa while the boys play poker around her. Christ, I need to be out here with her and not have my head in my office if I want to keep her.
But oddly enough, I know that isn’t true.
No spike of jealousy slices through me at the sight of Lanie surrounded by other men, only the craving I’d had since the first day I saw her in the doorway of the homestead.
The same craving that tells me I need her in my arms, and to not let her go.
Lanie fits in with the family I didn’t realize I had here.
What I do need is to find her wolves so she’ll damn well stay and not disappear back to Alaska. Lanie is the sort of wild crazy woman who’ll get itchy feet while I sit around minding the hearth fire, hoping she’ll come back to me.
And so I fully intend to provide Lanie Parker with what she needs in order to make sure she stays. I’m not above a decent dollop of bribery, not if that course of action gets us both what we want.
I rub the back of my neck as the next hand plays out before me. Tripp appears to have partnered with Jed—fuck knows why—to target West, though Billy watches their interactions closely. It’s not a bad strategy, but everyone knows it’s best to avoid a cornered beast.
I clap Tripp’s shoulder, gesturing to his pair of jacks. “You’ll need better than that if you want to avoid cleanup duty.”
Tripp grunts, shaking his hand free.
I glance at West, who winks. The boys fold around him, and he rakes in a pile of popsicle sticks from the center of the table.
“Bluffing?” I murmur under the pretense of stroking Lanie’s hair, settling on the lounge chair, where Billy moves to make room for me.
West leans back with a grin. “Always.”
“I could tell from the kitchen.”
“This is why I refuse to play with you,” West grunts, organizing his winnings into a neat pile.
“Where’s Levi?” I scan the room, tucking Lanie into my side as she begins to rouse.
West shrugs. “Said he was tired. His car left an hour ago.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Moonlighting?”
“Don’t we all?” West shuffles the deck, dealing with a practiced hand.
I watch him with a sharp eye, but though West could fleece everyone at the table—I’ve seen him do it in times of need—I don’t detect an air of deception in him tonight.
“Don’t let him set the deck on you,” I say, just to annoy him.
Lanie starts to wake in full and I give up my spot at her side reluctantly, knowing I’m keeping her from her sleep.
Billy takes his place back, passing me a beer.
I grab a chair, swinging the handcrafted piece around to straddle it. “Deal me in.”
As it turns out, West bluffs better than I remember.
Jesse folds early in, my youngest ranch hand giving in with better grace than he falls off a bull.
He cheers Billy and Tripp on, keeping his language cleaner than I remember it being around the house yard.
My pile of sticks is a reasonable height by the end of the night, but the foreman outclasses the entire table.
Lanie wakes long enough to witness my last fall in spectacular fashion.
She shifts between the boys, her legs tucked beneath her, and I regret giving up my seat at all, seeing as she woke anyway. Billy is far too comfortable on her other side, his arm stretched behind her.
West kicks him under the table. “Get up,” he growls.
Billy gives up his place a second time, his hands rising in surrender.
“You already bruised my ego, dude.” He nods my way with that same easy grin that never seems to leave his face.
“Night, boss. Ma’am.” He spares a nod for Jed that I don’t miss before he grabs his hat and disappears into the darkened hallway.
Lanie waves, sinking into the spot Billy vacated. I bare my teeth, hoist her featherweight up, and slide beneath her to plop her onto my lap. She squeaks, reminding me of the noises she made earlier when the barrier of our clothes had been removed.
Finally having her body beneath me was a luxury of the highest order.
The memory of before assails me, wiping the homestead away and placing me back in the clean mountain air.
Feeling her flutter around me as she came, staring straight through my soul, tore something inside me, something I never want to repair.
Lanie fell into my life, disrupting my usual routine, but she also busted something inside me wide open.
The pressures and judgments I usually experience drop back as she presses to my chest, and the warmth of the room returns, too hot, too close.
She’s brought family to me I hadn’t realized I missed, locked away on the land I love.
My girl shifts on my lap, her eyes full of promises I want to cash in but can’t until everyone leaves for the night. I settle on kissing her, sinking my hands into her hair until West coughs beside me.
Dragging my mouth from hers might be the hardest thing I’ll do all night. Her eyes are soul-dark as I let her breathe. I don’t need a second glance at my cards to know I hold a losing hand. With Lanie back in my arms, my interest in the game wanes, and I fold too fast for the boys’ liking.
“Can’t you keep up with us, old man?” Jed snipes across the table.
Why are you in my home? I spare my neighbor a disparaging look from my study of Lanie’s few freckles. Courtesy allows the man through my door, but my patience for Jed’s attitude fast erodes any charitable thoughts for him.
“Who said we were ever in competition?” I murmur, still focused on Lanie.
That Jed sits at my table, along with my boys, annoys all hell out of me. It’s worse that Lanie’s had to deal with his eyes on her all night without me present. I promise myself I won’t leave her alone with him again, settling her more firmly into my side.
West glances at me sideways, his mouth set in a thin line. At least I’m not alone in my opinion.
Jed mutters something under his breath that makes Jesse cough while Tripp smirks broadly. I’m glad Billy has already left for the night. One less of my boys to be tainted by Jed’s stain on my household.
When did they become mine?
When Lanie Parker set up camp in my house.