“And then your great-great grandma packed up and left.”
He nodded. “I didn’t know much about her, but I heard it was too hard on her to stay, so she left. She told my great-grandma stories about this place to make her never want to come here. Called it dangerous and that’s why she didn’t have a daddy, cause this place was dangerous. By the time my mom came around, this place was virtually the stuff of nightmares and why I never knew about it until the reading of her Will. Mom had mentioned something sort of like it a couple times, but I always thought this place was some made story. I don’t know why they never just sold the land.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you.” His head dropped, clear pain in his closed eyes. “So, anyway, here I am, looking around.”
“If you’re wondering if there’s oil in the ground, there likely is. The production was stopped here before it hardly got going. People moved out, found other jobs, other places to live. The town nearly went belly up.”
His brows rose. “Why would you think I was wondering if there’s oil in the ground?”
“You look like an oil field guy. Of all the things I’ve said, you’ve taken the most interest in trespassing, but even still, you got off the four-wheeler at the old well that most people have written off as dangerous and you walk up and all but touch it. So?”
“So?”
“So, am I right? Are you looking for signs of oil?”
Chapter Six
Grant straightened from his spot and wiped his hands off on his jeans. He could lie, but she’d likely know he was full of shit. Beyond that, he already had her word she would keep his secrets for being here. She’d proved useful so far. She might continue to do so. Especially since there was no way in hell to get his truck back here and he didn’t want to go walking through that likely snake filled backyard of his house. “Yes. I’m an Oil Field Geologist. I work for Dewey Oil Company with my three older brothers. If I think there’s a good chance of oil, I’ll get them here to get it out.”
“You’re all moving to Apple Trail?”
“That’s the plan.” He looked over his shoulder toward the abandoned well. “If I find reasonable signs, then yes. Onshore drilling is what we do in parts of Texas and Oklahoma. We move around a bit. But in this case, it’ll all be different. It’ll be our land, our oil we’re drilling for and selling. No more moving around for a while.” Or ever, if he had it his way.
“Well for all this land has been untouched and permits denied for drilling on it, you should be able to do like they did in the old days. Poke a straw in the ground and see what comes out.”
He glanced from the old well and back to her. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”
“I’m sure it is. Come on, I know of two more like this. One has a rotting tree it in, the other is open, aside from people dropping beer cans down the hole.”
He groaned. “Great.”
She laughed. “It’s rumored to be dangerous. Boys do it to impress the girls.”
“Were you impressed?” He sat behind her.
She glanced over her shoulder. “They were dropping a can down a hole.
Whoo-wee
. What do you think?”
He laughed. “I’ll definitely need to see about a bulldozer and building a road.”
She turned a corner and there was one of the deer stands and a feeder set up.
“Stop.”
She did and he slung off and walked around the lean-to. He grabbed one of the old legs and gave it hard shake. Tree limbs shook. Bark flaked off to the ground and the old rusted joints of the stand squeaked.
She winced. “Maybe leave them a note and give them a week to remove it. With Mike putting the word out, I bet anyone who cares about it will get it soon.”
“Or I could take it apart and sell off the metal, burn the rest.”
She cleared her throat. “This is just my opinion, but being labeled as the Town Asshole isn’t going to get you any free pies on your birthday. Leave a note. Give people a week.”
“I ought to give them twenty-four hours.”
“Yes, well. No point in that. Give them time to get it off. Property lines aren’t marked. This land isn’t messed with.”
“That’s a shit excuse.”
She shrugged. “Yeah. So people are lazy. Still, I’m telling you. You have other things to do that are more important. Give people a week to move them.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are any of these yours, by any chance?”
“I only hunted a few times and I was never alone, Babycakes, and never targeting deer.” She winked.
He shook his head and got it out of his mind how he’d like to take her on a hunt or two. “Fine. I’ll leave a note.”
She turned as he dug in his pack. “Don’t be ugly about it. Just politely ask them to remove it or you will.”
He scratched a note real quick, wedged the paper in the ladder and climbed back on. For two more hours, the process repeated. A place where people were getting on his land... another stand.... here’s this... here’s that.
Each new thing she pointed out locked his jaws more and more. The only saving grace was having her sitting between his legs and continually keeping him distracted. Which wasn’t what he wanted, he had to remind himself, but a hell of lot more pleasurable than the problems of people on his property, doing stupid shit like clogging his wells with beer cans.
She stopped the four-wheeler and he looked up, ready for more pains in his ass, but instead found them sitting in the shade.
A decent sized pond was in front of them. Sunlight touched the water in spots, birds tweeted from above. “This is nice.”
“Yeah. I always enjoyed this.” She stood, putting her ass right in his face.
It was all he could do not to reach forward and take her by the hips.
Sweat had pooled and soaked in the band of her shorts at her lower back. Her scent was strong on the breeze and his fingers were curling into fists to keep them in his lap. For hours these curves had been grinding against his cock. About thirty minutes into their ride he gave up trying to fight a hard on and just rode it out.
She swung a leg over and stepped off, saving him from doing something. He’d barely known her for twenty-four hours. That surely wasn’t enough time to get to know a girl before moving to the next level.
Standing next to him, she stripped her shirt overhead and revealed the top to her little purple flowered bikini and her beautiful, toned body. “I’m going for a swim to cool off before eating. Coming?”
Oh, how he would like to, but he cleared his head of anymore sexual ideas. Or at least, tried to. “Don’t have any swim trunks.”
She shimmied her shorts off her hips and gravity took them and his eyeballs from there down the curves of her legs to the ground. “I know. I told you to change.”
God, her legs looked better and better. Her hips wide and good for holding. Thighs strong and good for gripping. “I see you didn’t lose your forwardness overnight.”
“It used to be slut, whore, or tramp when a woman was open to sex.” She counted the insults off on her fingers. “I like forward.”
He didn’t like that. Didn’t like that at all. She counted the terms off as something she’d been accused of in her past. “To be honest, I don’t call it anything. As long as everyone is willing and safety is involved.”
She beamed a smile at him. “Exactly. So are you coming?”
He leaned back on the four-wheeler, needing to know more about the girl behind the body and flirty words before getting in the water with her. It was step, or a leap forward, but at least a move toward getting to know her before getting his hands on her. And, he really did want to know. “Right after you tell me why you came back home.”
“I don’t think we understand each other.”
He held tight to the four wheeler, to force himself to stay. “I understand perfectly. I’m just curious.”
She sighed. “I left my boyfriend of two years and came here to just get away for a bit and focus on me.”
“I’m…” Hell, he didn’t know what to say to that. Didn’t get the chance to add anything anyway.
“Six months,” she continued.
“What?”
She stared upward. “Six months, two weeks and…four days since the last time I had sex. Heck, since the last time we had a date or really did anything together besides share takeout over the coffee table. On his birthday. That’s why I broke up with him. I deserve better. Everybody does.”
“Of course.” Six months, two weeks…and some odd days. He swallowed something thick and rough. That was a hell of a long time to go without sex. Twenty-six weeks. Almost half a year. That was like a fucking lifetime. One hundred and eighty-two long painfully lonely nights. Or days. Women were definitely different creatures because he would be climbing the walls right now if it had been just him and his hand for that long.
“I mean, really. Why should I have to be with someone who can’t even satisfy me?” She was walking now. “And I don’t just mean on a date and emotional crap.” She walked toward him and stood at his side. A hand gripped the handle bars, the other held the back rack of the four-wheeler. She bit her lip and stared at him a moment before pulling in a deep breath. “I mean really and truly
satisfy
me.”
“I…” He swallowed, really wanting to take that invitation. Would really like to end her dry spell. Have her hands grabbing him like she was holding the four-wheeler. It didn’t help he was three and half weeks since the last time he’d had sex. Back before his mom died and changed his whole world. He dropped her gaze, the lust hardening his body softened.
She picked at the handlebars, her words softer now, nearly a whisper. “I shouldn’t have been with him. I knew he wasn’t right for me from the start.”
“But you stayed.”
She pushed off the four-wheeler. “I stayed.”
“Why?”
She walked to the pond and pulled in a deep breath. “I thought you were coming swimming?”
Shit, he shouldn’t, but he stepped off the four-wheeler and stripped his shirt overhead. He had gotten Rebecca to open up and share a bit of her past, let him learn about the “inside” and he was still intrigued by her. Surely that granted him second or third base.
Chapter Seven
Rebecca waded into the cool water. The thick muddy bottom caked between her toes, fish swam and knocked against her legs, leaving behind a swift current as they darted off. She put her arms up, ready to dive in the murky water, but a splashing behind her had her turning around.
Grant was coming toward her. Water splashed around his knees…then thighs as he walked toward her full of purpose. She shuddered, thinking of his purpose on that four wheeler ride. Every. Long. Hard. Thick inch of purpose in his jeans that had been sandwiched to her ass through every bump and hole on the trail. She swallowed and dipped lower in the pond to cool off. He was stripped down to navy boxer briefs and that was the last she saw of his tanned, muscular form before he dove forward, his feet flicked underwater.
Using his bubbles she traced his path as he swam right for her. She held her ground, and waited. There would be no ridiculous swimming or “playing chase” with her. When his bubble trail slowed a bit, she eased forward, meeting him part way. His hands hit her legs, knocking her back a step, but his coarse fingers wrapped her thighs, up her hips, catching her as he surfaced and surfaced and surfaced and geez, he seemed so much larger when he was nearly naked and the heat of his body was touching the front of hers.
His hands remained on her hips, sliding up her waist and back down. The tattoo covering his shoulder shined. Water dripped from him, making his skin gleam in the sunlight. “How much time is the rest of my tour going to take?”
She frowned at the leftfield question. “Few hours. Why?”
He lowered. “Just trying to figure out how much time we can spend here.”
She wound her arms around his neck, liking this train of thought, taking her right to the area she wanted. “You’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen a hundred, in my opinion.”
“I’m thinking the same thing right now.” His mouth touched hers, heat filled through her. He pulled and teased at her lips. Sucked her lower lip in his mouth, then released. She softened in his strong arms. The more she leaned against him, the tighter his grasp became. His lips nudged against her neck and he trailed open mouth kisses to her ear. “Tell me how you like it, Rebecca.”
“I….” She swallowed. How she liked it. Yikes. She didn’t know. She just wanted more.
“Don’t go shy on me now. I want to know so you get what you want.” He kissed down her neck, his thumbs lightly grazed over her nipples covered by her thin swimsuit.
She swallowed back her fear. This was her chance and she wasn’t going to blow what she had only pretended to have before. “Harder. Don’t treat me like I’ll break. I won’t.”
His teeth closed over her shoulder and nipped hard enough she jumped, but not enough to hurt. “Never thought for a moment you would.”
His forefingers joined his thumbs at her nipples and pinched. Tugged, pulling a gasp from her gut before gently rubbing and soothing. “Anything else?”
Dizzying, spinning tingles arced through her, taking her balance, thoughts, just everything but him as he pressed into her. She shook her head. “I can’t think right now.”
“I’d say that’s a good start.”
“Yes.” She didn’t recognize her voice. His was rough. Heavy.
It was because of him and, God, they were just starting. She lifted her hands and put them on his shoulders. Finally got her hands on that hard, hot skin.
He lifted, swept his hands behind her knees, cuddled her against his chest and turned, carrying her out of the deep water with little to no effort. As if he wasn’t even carrying her or that the slick muddy ground wasn’t slowing him down. He stepped out of the water and paused with a glance around.
The warm summer breeze was cool on her hot, wet skin except in the places she was pressed to him. There everything sizzled and burned. Anticipated more. “There’s a towel strapped to the front of my ice chest.”
He put her down in ankle deep water and dragged his thumb over her bottom lip. “Wait here.”
She could only nod and watch as he walked across the grass and pine covered bank. Gracious, impressive didn’t even cover it. She thought he was something else in his jeans and shirt. It wasn’t even the same. The sway of his spine down to the V of his lower back. The sun darkened tan on his body, the tightly pulled skin wrapped in rows of muscles. And that tattoo.
She’d seen it from the front. She’d seen it from the side. This was the first time seeing his completely naked back. The tips of flame-looking points reached down the sides of his back. The edges of the flame faded from dark black to gray, licking their way across, just like she would love to do.
Then he turned, her yellow towel hung from his grip. Dark hair spread over his chest. A line of more dark hair trailed down his flat, rippled stomach. The happy trail led her eyes to the edges of his low cut briefs to see a sliver of his dark curls. Under the band, his firm cock tested the limits of the thin cotton.
She wanted to say something.
Rebecca Gabel
would say something sexy. Creative. She was stumped at the sight of such physical perfection. She opened her mouth in hopes something would come out. Nothing did.
The corner of his mouth kicked up. “You’re quiet.”
She only nodded.
“I’m not sure I like you quiet.”
Her eyes widened. Oh, dang.
“Say something.” He flicked the towel out and lowered it to the ground.
She cleared her throat before even attempting her voice. “What?”
“If I have to tell you what to say, there’s not much point in it.”
The water splashed against her legs. The scent of the murky, dirty depths from the pond was rich on the air. The sun beamed down, trying to dry her hair. All these things she noticed. But she couldn’t form words.
He crossed the ground toward her. “What did you call me earlier?”
“Wh—” Her voice cracked— “When?”
“Yesterday. At the gas station. Then again today. Cakes?”
She swallowed the knot in her throat. “Babycakes.”
He chuckled. “No one has ever called me that before.”
“Should they?”
He came toward her. “They? Fuck no.” He stopped in front of her. His hands slid up her arms and over her shoulders and behind her neck. He played with the strings of her bikini top. The soft strands hanging down her back rocked and stroked over her sensitive skin. “But you? Yes. You should call me that more often.”
“Why?”
He pulled one string over her shoulder. The strand slid against her neck. One long, aching tease until the knot caught his soft tug and he paused. “I like the way you say it.”
“Babycakes.”
He frowned, holding the string taunt, the knot barely holding. She barely able to stand.
“Not like that. Like you did before.”
Oh, God. He stared down, just waiting and she was just speechless. She could barely remember five minutes ago with him over her, much less what she’d said. The way his body had been plastered to her back. His chest muscles unforgiving against her. His hands wrapped around her stomach. How when she’d hit a bump, he’d tensed for only the smallest of seconds, but his arms would flex and he’d squeeze on her. That she could remember with stunning clarity. But not words.
His hand moved against her cheek. “Say it for me.”
She met his gaze and sighed. She couldn’t do it. She wanted to, she wanted to be the woman she had pretended to be for so long, but she just couldn’t. “I’m not who you think I am.”
His brows dipped.
“I’m not this sexy, fun woman.”
He chuckled. “I’d have to disagree.”
She blinked back tears that threatened to come up and forced the truth. She’d never told anyone else, but she had to tell him. Because she couldn’t go on like he wanted. Like she wanted. “Everyone else would, but I’m not. It’s just a role I was put in. I know what to say, when to say it, but not…I don’t.” She took a breath. “I’ve never had to actually to follow through with anyone I’ve smiled at or said something to.”
He froze. “Are you a virgin?” Then he physically relaxed. “No, no. you already mentioned having sex.”
She shook her head. “I’m not a virgin, I just don’t have the…experience everyone thinks I do.”
He dropped the string of her swimsuit and slid his finger up her chest, shoulders and throat, leaving a tingling trail of awareness despite it all until he cupped her cheeks. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m new to town.”
She nodded and pulled in a deep breath. “In high school I was dating the boy another girl wanted. She and her mean-ass friends spread a bunch of nasty rumors that I was screwing the whole football team and my boyfriend broke up with me. The rumors stuck. It was easier to live up to them than defend myself, but I’ve never...” She dropped her head. “...I’ve never had to follow through on my teasing and words. I’m not this sexy woman and you’re just…you’re too much.” She met his gaze, hoping for something, but he only stared back. “I want to know what to do and say and when and how to sound, but you’re just...too much. This is what I came home for, to find this part of me, but I can’t keep up with you.”
She rubbed her arms for warmth as he stood there silent. So much for wanting to avoid awkward. Or not looking stupid. “Um, so...give me a minute to dry off and we can go. It shouldn’t take long to finish.”
When she started to turn, he stopped her with a hand to her arm. “Go where?”
She looked up. “On the four wheeler. To finish looking at your property.”
His eyes widened, his voice deepened and roughed. “You're joking.”
“I…”
“Do you want to?”
She blinked. “Do I want to what?”
“To follow through on your words.”
She didn’t wait, too afraid she’d chicken out and so she nodded. With that, he picked her up. Same as in the water, just swept her off her feet with no effort and turned with her.
“Grant.”
He didn’t answer, but shook his head.
“Grant!”
He dropped to a knee and lowered her onto the towel. Leaning over her on his hands, his face was in hers. Noses nearly touched. Bodies close enough she tingled from his heat hovering, but not close enough they touched. “Did you change your mind? Do you really want to leave right now?”
She didn’t trust her voice or what it might send out, so she kept her lips shut and shook her head. He closed the space between them. Her whole body softened as he lowered, his weight settled on her and all her muscles just sighed and accepted his body lying atop hers.
He kissed her. And he kissed her until all her stuff was dizzy like she knew he’d be able to make her. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close, terrified he might pull away. Pulling away now, after they were just getting started might kill her more than walking away would have.
This was it. This was her moment, the one she’d come home to Apple Trail to find, she just knew in the shudder of her nerves trembling her fingers. This moment, on this sandbar was going to be emblazoned on her memory. She’d go home remembering this moment and look back on it with fond memories anytime the walls started to feel tight around her.
He grabbed a string from her top again, tugging. And this time, he tugged until the knot gave. He rolled her to her side and pulled on the second string, releasing the knot and tossing her top away. His chest pressed warm and firm on her breasts. The hair was soft, but ticklish on her puckered nipples.
His hand wrapped around her ribs and slid up until finally his thumb rolled over her nipples. Gentle at first, then harder. His palm squeezed and molded her breasts. His fingers pinched the tips and she arched into him with a moan sliding over her tongue.
He kissed down her neck, his lips and tongue slowly moving, not missing one piece of skin to discover. She was nothing but a tightened ball of need ready to explode. If only he’d squeeze a little harder. Tug a little firmer.
Then his lips touched her nipple and she moved beyond waiting to explode and just hovered and waited. Her body lost and at the mercy as he sucked, pulling her in deep, then releasing her only to do it again. His fingers on her other breast mirrored the movements of his mouth. Pulling and squeezing.
She needed more. She wanted him. All the way. No holding back. “Grant.”
Just one word. She managed to get it out, but he didn’t respond to her small croak. “Grant,” she said firmer. “I want, I think, no, I want.”
He stopped immediately and met her gaze. “Do you want to stop?”
She shook her head.
The corner of his lips kicked up. “Then
shh
.”
She blinked. “Did you just shush me?”
“Yeah.”
“But…”
His fingertips covered her mouth. “Let me listen to you.”
“But…”
He held her breast again, took her nipple between his fingers and tugged. She gasped under him, words melted away.
“Did you hear that?”
She stilled. “Is someone coming?” She tried sitting up, but it was hard with him laying over her.
He laughed and dropped his forehead to the middle of her chest. “No. I meant you. Did you hear yourself?”
She frowned. “No.”