Carnal Harvest (8 page)

59

Robin L. Rotham

Brent shifted restlessly. “Calves are fed, Mandy. I ground some more feed, too, so you shouldn’t have to do it again until next week. Oh, and I unplugged the crock-pot, just in case you needed to add vegetables or something.”

Mandy’s heart swelled. What a sweetheart he was—a hot, kinky, thoughtful sweetheart. “Thank you, Brent.”

“You’re welcome.”

There was another uncomfortable silence and then Brent tipped his cap. “Well, guess we’ll see you sometime. Or not,” he added, looking at Hake.

Hake stared back at him for a moment and then said, “Same time next year?”

Mandy’s heart skipped a beat and then started racing. Oh boy, oh boy—he wanted them to come back!

Brent blinked. “Thought you’d be back to work by then.”

“I will. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop in on your way through. You too, Joe,” he added, for once looking the older man directly in the eye. Joe dipped his head in acknowledgment, a small smile playing around the corners of his lips.

“Oh yes,” Mandy said emphatically. “You should both definitely stop by again.”

“Every year?” Brent asked.

“Unless you get a better offer, I guess,” Hake said.

Yes!
Mandy nearly screamed with glee. Lord, the anticipation alone would be enough to keep her libido revved up year-round.

Brent glanced at Joe then took off his cap. Walking up to the bed, he planted a gentle kiss on her lips. His fresh outdoor smell made her shiver as he drew away.

“What could be better than this?”

“So you’ll be back?” she prodded breathlessly.

She didn’t realize Hake was also holding his breath in anticipation of Brent’s answer until it came.

“Plan on it.”

60

Carnal Harvest

* * * * *

After the guys left, Hake pulled his wife into his arms and pressed his lips tenderly to hers. Whimpering, Mandy kissed him back, hugging his neck like she never wanted to let him go, and Hake suddenly realized how much he’d missed her. She’d been right here with him all along, but for some incomprehensible reason, he’d shut her out. For
months
.

That was probably the biggest mistake he’d ever made. He didn’t intend to make it again.

When he came up for air, she smiled, brushing his hair back from his forehead.

“This day was amazing, Hake—absolutely amazing. Thank you.”

“No, you’re amazing,” he said. And he meant it. He’d set this whole thing up for her, and yet somehow he was the one who’d come out of it feeling totally renewed and, for the first time in a long time, like a whole man. And it was all because of her. “None of this would have happened if you weren’t the most sexy, open, giving woman—”

“Don’t forget kinky.”

He laughed. “Yes, you’re kinky, and thank God for it. If you weren’t, I’d probably still be drowning my sorrows in crime TV.” Then he rested his forehead against hers.

“Honest to God, Mandy, I don’t know how I let myself sink so low. It was stupid and just plain selfish.”

“Cut yourself some slack, honey.” She rubbed her nose against his. “Pain can really wear a body down, and you were in a lot of pain for a long time after the surgery.”

“Yeah, but it started a long time before the accident,” he sighed. Mandy didn’t disagree. “And really, I think there toward the end, the pain was more in my head than my leg.”

“You’re probably right. I noticed you were walking better.”

“I noticed that, too. I was the biggest obstacle to my own recovery, I guess. I don’t know what I would have done if—” he waved a hand in the air, “all this hadn’t happened.”

61

Robin L. Rotham

“It didn’t just
happen
, Hake. You
made
it happen. You took that first step toward fixing what was wrong all on your own.”

“Well, that may be, but it never would have occurred to me that I needed…” He paused, searching for the words, and then smiled wryly when she didn’t jump to fill in the blank. Leave it to Mandy to make him say it. “That I needed to give up control to someone strong enough to take it from me. And without you, I never would have had the courage to let it go.”

He squeezed her shoulder, kissing the top of her tousled head. “So thank
you
, sweetheart, for giving me the time and the freedom to figure out what I needed instead of kicking my sorry ass out of the house.”

She gave him a droll look. “Are you kidding? It’s taken me twenty years to get you trained right and I’m too old to start over with someone else now. Might as well keep you around a while longer.”

“Think so?”

“Definitely. After all…” She let her fingers tiptoe up his chest to his throat. “You have your uses.”

“And what might those be?”

Her hand slid around the back of his neck as she pulled him close and nibbled on his Adam’s apple. “Well,” she murmured. “You change the oil in my car every three thousand miles.”

“Is that all I’m good for?”

“Oh, no. You empty the mousetraps, too.”

He grinned. Mandy wouldn’t go near a dead mouse on a bet. “Yeah, I can see where you’d need me for that.”

She quirked a brow at him, eyes twinkling. “And you clean up your messes under the kitchen table.”

62

Carnal Harvest

Hake looked at her blankly for a minute and then roared with laughter, clutching her to his chest. “You hope so, anyway. Anything else?”

“Well…” She tried to push him back on the mattress, but he resisted. “Hake, it’s hard to seduce you if you won’t cooperate.”

“Maybe I want to seduce you,” he said, giving her a little push of his own.

“Oh, well in that case…” She let him guide her back into the middle of the mattress and sighed when he pulled the bedspread away from her breasts. He was the only one who hadn’t gotten to play with them today and he intended to remedy that right now.

“Your new bra looks great on you.” He feathered his tongue over her nipple and then lifted his head. “But it looks better off.”

“You can’t even see it,” Mandy protested breathlessly, threading her hands through his hair and tugging him back to her breast. “It’s still downstairs somewhere.”

“Good place for it,” he breathed against her skin. He smiled when she shivered.

Trailing his tongue across her breastbone, he gave the other nipple a flick. It hardened immediately.

“Hake,” she moaned.

“Now, now,” he teased, looking up into her darkening eyes. “You need to work on your patience, Miss Mandy. Today wasn’t supposed to be all about me, but it kind of turned out that way, so tonight is all about you—and I intend to see that it lasts a long,
long
time.”

She stuck out her lower lip again, though he could tell she was fighting a smile.

“You’re so ruthless.”

“You know you love it,” he laughed.

“I do. And just so you know, Hake Andrew Stivers…” Her hand slid down his belly as she looked him in the eye. Bypassing his cock, she cupped his balls and gave them a squeeze that was just this side of painful. “I can be ruthless, too.”

63

Robin L. Rotham

His heart thudded as he stared back at her. Jesus, she had his number now and she obviously wasn’t afraid to use it. “Is that so?”

“It is.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You’d better, because now that I know what it does for you, I’m going to be ruthless a little more often.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I’ve created a monster.”

“You know you love it,” she parroted back, batting her eyelashes at him.

“Don’t let it go to your head.” Hake grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his crotch. Her breathing took on a ragged edge when he pinned both her wrists to the bed beside her head and moved his weight fully atop her. Wedging her legs apart, he settled his hips into the cradle of her thighs. “I think you’ve forgotten who’s the boss around here.”

“Mmm.” Amusement curved her lips as even she squirmed beneath him, trying to maneuver his cock where she wanted it to go. “Why don’t you remind me?”

“I will—when I’m good and ready.”

Mandy laughed out loud. “How long is this battle of wills going to last?”

“The rest of our lives,” Hake rumbled, sliding into her wet heat.

Her lashes drifted down as she moaned, “Is that a threat?”

“No, Mrs. Stivers.” He rested his forehead against hers, staring into her loving eyes as he started to move. “That’s a promise.”

64

About the Author

A bookworm from the age of ten, Robin L. Rotham lived vicariously through daring, romantic heroines for nearly twenty years, dreaming all the while of one day writing her own romance novels, as well as her own happily ever after. When she finally found her real-life hero, he wasn’t quite what—or where—she expected.

Undaunted, she chased him over three states and four years before he finally swept her off her feet. He’s been more than worth the effort.

The realities of home and family kept her from fulfilling her other dream for ten more years, but Robin finally succumbed to the writing bug in 2005 and cranked out her first novel on a used laptop from eBay in less than seven weeks.

Robin welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

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