She ran the tip of her forefinger from his neck, down his shoulder, and to his palm. She picked up his hand and placed it firmly on her ribs. “Hold on right here while you make love to me, Colton, or you’ll slip off.”
He rolled over on top of her, kissed her long, hard, and passionately, and sunk himself into her body. She hadn’t figured on just how big he was or how hard the tile was and in just a few thrusts she was panting. The release came in a burst and a moan.
“Now for seconds,” he whispered seductively in her ear.
“Oh. My!” She gasped.
She feared he would slip off her body so she wrapped her legs tightly around him and when he said her name in a hoarse drawl, she tightened her hold.
“Wow!” he mumbled after a while.
“I know,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Time for phase two,” he said.
“I don’t know if I’m up for phase two,” she told him.
One second she was on the cool floor with him on top of her, the next she was in his arms and he was carrying her out of the sauna. “Oh, I think you are.”
“Colton, I’m naked.” She fussed when he unlocked and opened the sauna door.
“Yes, ma’am, you surely are at that.”
“But?”
“I locked the doors when we came into the gym. No one else can get in until I unlock them.”
When they reached the edge of the pool, he tossed her into the deep water. When she surfaced he was right there in front of her, his eyes locked with hers and his lips coming closer and closer. She barely had time to shut her eyes before another searing string of kisses set her on fire again.
“You ever had sex underwater?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Or in a sauna until tonight. I’ve never even been skinny-dippin’ until right now.”
“You poor deprived baby. We’ll have to remedy that, won’t we?”
Everything was perfect.
Nothing was right.
Colton wasn’t sure how both those statements could apply to his life but they did. He and a crew had worked all day on the fencing job on the far side of the ranch. Laura had spent the entire day in the backyard making it nice for the upcoming weekend. She had barely come inside for supper before going right back out.
After the absolutely awesome sex the night before, he was sure she’d invite him up to her apartment for the night, but she hadn’t. And then at breakfast, lunch, and even supper she’d barely talked to him.
Dusk settled, bringing a nice breeze which was a rarity for Texas in the summer. Donald waddled around in the yard quacking at Daisy, who teased him by swatting at his beak when he got close. Was Laura teasing him? No, not Laura. She was as straightforward and honest as any woman he’d ever known.
“Hey, you want to go lift some weights?” Andy plopped down in a rocking chair on the porch beside Colton. “I haven’t exercised anything but my brain in four days and that kind of exercise does not burn off the calories of peach cobbler and ice cream.”
“I lifted last night so I’m going to pass and let my muscles rest until tomorrow,” Colton said.
“Every other day, huh?”
Colton nodded.
Daisy shimmied up the mimosa tree and back down it on the porch side, bounced over to the porch railing, and walked it like a tightrope until she could jump into Colton’s lap. She walked up his chest with her front paws until she could rest her head on his shoulder.
Andy pushed up out of the rocking chair. “That crazy cat is spoiled almost as bad as the duck. I’ll go find Rusty to spot for me. You realize ever since Laura came to the ranch that nothing is the same. That cat don’t even hiss at me anymore.”
Colton stroked the cat from head to tip of the tail. “Guess Laura is taming her for everyone. Who’d Roxie put you with for the games?”
“Darcy Massey. I don’t even know the woman except to tip my hat to her at church. She’s Ina Dean’s cousin’s daughter. It takes teamwork to win and I don’t know if she can even dig up a fishin’ worm. You and Laura will probably win or else Cynthia and the preacher,” Andy said.
Andy kicked at a piece of dirt like a little boy in his frustration.
Donald spread his wings and floated up the steps to nest beside Colton’s rocking chair. “I could give her fifty dollars to put her with the preacher and give you Cynthia. She’s not printing out the final copy until tomorrow night. After that rules say it can’t be changed.”
Andy shivered. “I’ll keep Ina’s niece, but thanks for the offer.”
He headed out for the gym and Colton kept petting the cat. It didn’t solve his problems but Daisy purred in appreciation. The last glowing rays of the day were slipping away when Laura marched up on the porch and propped a hip on the rail. She pulled off her gloves and leaned forward to pet Daisy. Colton got a whiff of the remnants of vanilla-scented shampoo and fought the urge to twist the strands of her hair around his fingers.
“You ready to see your sister?” he asked.
“Yes, I am, but maybe you ought to know that we don’t agree on things very often. My therapist called it a love/hate relationship. I love her because she’s always been my leaning post but I can get pretty mad at her. She loves me but she uses me a lot to get her out of trouble. Don’t be thinkin’ we’ll get along the whole weekend.”
Colton laid a hand on hers. “Would you be more comfortable if she stayed in the big house? Hell, you can stay here too for the weekend so y’all would be in the same place. That way you wouldn’t be cramped up together in that little apartment. There’s plenty of room. Just choose a room and put her in one of the other ones. I would have never built a house this big but it came with the ranch when I bought it.”
“I thought Andy and Rusty had rooms up there,” she said.
“Andy has a small apartment on the ground floor back behind the office. The original owner built in a mother-in-law apartment on the other side of the dining room and that’s Granny’s space. Rusty sleeps in the bunkhouse. We’re building another bunkhouse, which should be up and ready by fall. Andy is moving to it when we get it done,” he explained.
She moved into the rocking chair and set it in motion before she pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “Thank you. I think I’d like that a lot. I’ll just move a few things over the day that she arrives. Tell me more about these games everyone talks about. The idea of not knowing what is expected of me makes me pretty nervous.”
Daisy had evidently had enough petting because she was barely a flash of yellow as she dashed across the porch, the yard, and disappeared with the duck quacking and chasing her around the house.
“There they go. Do you ever wonder what they talk about?” Colton asked.
“You were going to tell me about the games?” Laura reminded him.
“Just fun stuff. You’ll find out. It’s mostly about teamwork. To be totally honest, I don’t know what all will happen, because Granny changes them up from one year to the next. She’s always got a twist of some kind up her sleeve, though. Roxie got to do the pairing up, but Granny, Ina Dean, and Patsy are the ones who figure out how the games will go. You like to fish? I do know we’ll be fishing because she’s ordered fishing rods and reels.”
She shrugged. “I haven’t been fishing since I was a little girl and lived in Arkansas. I thought it was exciting, but it didn’t take much to amuse me.”
“Why won’t you sleep with me in my bedroom? We’ve had sex and you slept with me in the hotel and in the sauna,” he blurted out.
***
The question took Laura by surprise. Not so much that he’d asked it but that he was so open about it. She opened her mouth to give him a curt answer then shut it tightly. He deserved honesty and that’s what he’d get.
“You know part of my background, right?”
“I know you would have been in foster homes if your Aunt Dotty hadn’t taken you and your sister to raise.”
She shook her head emphatically. “She was good to us. We had plenty of food, a lot of discipline, and clothes on our back. She made sure we finished high school and took us to church every single Sunday morning. But sometimes I’ve wondered if she didn’t just want a couple of kids to help run the ranch. It didn’t hurt us to work and I loved the ranch, but there was no bonding like with Roxie and Maudie. When I left, the day after my eighteenth birthday, there were no tears. I’ve got a feeling that when Roxie goes to college there will be a lot of tears around here.”
Colton reached across the distance, removed one of her hands from around her knees, and held it tightly.
That gesture melted years of hardness from her heart.
“Go on,” he said softly.
“I’ve seen a therapist but it didn’t do a bit of good. I admit and realize that I have trust and commitment issues but it’ll take more than talking an hour a week to get past them,” she said.
She paused and the silence hung between them like heavy fog.
“I had a couple of semiserious relationships. Both ended because I wouldn’t stay overnight in their places and I wouldn’t let them into my bedroom to sleep. I’m not saying I was a virgin before the hotel, Colton. I’m saying that to let someone into my personal space scares the devil out of me.”
He squeezed her hand gently. “You slept in my room at the hotel.”
“That was a big step for me and it was the prince and princess, not the rancher and the computer geek.”
He tugged at her hand. “Come here.”
She planted both feet on the wooden porch floor and stood up. In one swift movement he pulled her onto his lap, wrapped his arms around her, and drew her mouth to his for a kiss so filled with emotion that it brought tears to her eyes.
“It’s me, not you,” she muttered when he broke away.
“Darlin’, I’ve got trust issues too. It comes with the territory. We’ll just have to work through them.”
“I saw a therapist for more than a year. He didn’t help me work through them. What makes you think that we can work through anything? We don’t even have a real relationship here. We’ve had some good sex and enjoyed spending time with each other but…” She let the sentence dangle.
Everything felt right with him rocking her. The setting sun dimmed the daylight and the gentle movement of the chair relaxed her. His arms felt good around her as their hearts beat in unison. But nothing was right. All the right could not erase the fact that in reality what they had was just a shell with nothing inside.
He tucked a thumb under her chin and tipped it up. She could see past the present and into eternity in his green eyes and she wanted so bad to shed her baggage and join him there. When his lips found hers she felt as if she was floating right up to the tops of the pecan trees.
She didn’t even come crashing down when the kiss ended and he said, “It’s up to you to decide whether this is real or fake. As for me, I’m ready to declare it real and tell the family that we are dating. You just tell me when you want me to make the announcement.”
***
Thursday morning Laura awoke, touched her lips to see if they were still kiss-swollen and hot, and bounded out of bed. Maudie said they had a busy two days ahead of them and if Maudie said it, it was gospel. Besides, staying busy meant the time would go by fast and then Janet would arrive. When her sister got to the ranch everything would fall into the right place, she was just sure of it. She’d understand what she needed to do next with Janet by her side.
Maudie was at the buffet when Laura reached the dining room. Roxie was pouting at the end of the table. Colton looked up and winked. Andy concentrated on his breakfast and Rusty sipped a mug of coffee.
Laura filled a coffee cup and sat down beside Roxie. “What has that boyfriend done now?”
“It’s not him. Aunt Maudie is mean to me. Make her let me stay home from school today and help decorate, Laura.”
Maudie carried a plate to the table and sat down. “The answer is no and when I say no, it never becomes yes, so stop whining. You don’t have to go to school tomorrow because it’s a professional day for the teachers so you can get in the middle of things then. Today you are going to school and that’s the end of the conversation. You’ll be home by four o’clock and believe me, we won’t be finished by then. You’ve got to make every class so that in the fall you can be counted in with the junior class. You think I’m mean?”
Roxie raised her head and nodded.
Maudie smiled. “Thank you. Mean mommas make good kids. I hope someday in the far distant future you are even meaner than I am.”
Roxie looked over at Laura. “Are you going to be a mean momma?”
The room went so silent that a feather floating from the rafters would have sounded like a jet airplane taking off. Laura glanced at Colton, who was not smiling. Andy Joe’s fork stopped midair between plate and mouth. Rusty’s coffee cup did the same thing.
Laura shook a finger toward Roxie. “Honey, I’m going to make Maudie look like a wimp. If she says you are going to school, then I’m on her side—you are going to school. All mommas should be mean. It means they love their kids. I promise to save lots of fun stuff for you to do when you get home.”
She’d said it but the idea of being a mother with her DNA background terrified her even worse than facing the commitment and trust issues. Her mother hadn’t been mean; she’d been indifferent. She didn’t hate her two daughters. They were just a weight tied around her neck, holding her back from having a good time. And her father hadn’t even been in the picture. Not a very good genetic pool to be wading in and expecting to be a decent mother, now was it?
“You better or I’ll put you with the preacher and Colton with Cynthia,” Roxie threatened. “I’m not printing the final copy until after supper tonight.”
“Whew!” Laura wiped her brow with the back of her hand. “That’s a lot of power you’ve got there, kiddo.”
Roxie picked up her backpack and marched out of the room.
“Well, I’m staying on her good side until tonight. I don’t know a thing about your sister, Laura, but I’ll take my chances with her rather than make Roxie mad. I’ll be off in the west forty on the bulldozer clearing off scrub oak and mesquite if anyone needs me. I’m taking ten men with me,” Rusty said.
Andy finished his last bite and pushed back his chair. “I’m hiding out in the office. There’s enough work in there to keep me busy all day. I’d love to know what Darcy is like but I guess I won’t know until the party.”
“Even if I knew Darcy, I wouldn’t say a word because Roxie might team up with the preacher,” Laura said seriously.
Andy rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “Lord, have mercy.”
“I forgot the books and left them in my apartment. I’ll be right back.” Maudie hopped up. “Laura, would you please refill my coffee cup?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Laura said.
Colton stretched when he stood up, raising his arms above his head and reaching for the ceiling. “It’s time for another workout in the gym but I don’t see it happening tonight with all that’s going on.”
A picture flashed through Laura’s mind that involved cool floors, hot steam, skinny-dipping, and lots of scorching sex. Her body was already tingling when he picked her up from a sitting position to hug her to his chest. Her feet were six inches off the floor when his lips met hers and the whole world disappeared.
“Good morning. I would’ve done that earlier but I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of everyone. But I sure couldn’t think of anything else,” he said.
“I was thinking about cold floors and hot steam,” she said honestly.
“Well, there is that too.” He chuckled. “Y’all have a good day. Never know what tonight will bring.”
He was gone when Maudie came back with the books. Laura put extra food on her plate at the buffet just to give herself a few more minutes before she had to tackle another day of caterers, food, and the whole game thing.
“Why does this have to be such a big thing? I mean, all those yards and yards of filmy stuff hanging from the balcony on the sale barn seems a bit much,” she said.
Maudie opened the timetable book. “One hour and the first crew will be here. And stop whining. You sound worse than Roxie and it’s unbecoming.”