Chapter Twenty-Three
Bethany
"Stay still, or I can't get on," I cried out, as once again Whiskey stepped away, just as I tried to swing my leg up from the stirrup over her saddle.
"This had been much easier in the stable where I had a step ladder. Out here, it's nearly impossible," I complained as I tried once more to mount the horse and failed yet again.
Whiskey whinnied at me and it sounded almost like laughter. Then, suddenly, there was a sound of breaking branches coming from nearby and the animal’s ears and head perked up in alert.
"Who's there?" I cried out, near panic. I picked up a branch from the ground, ready to swing at whatever wild animal was about to spring from the trees and attack me. I was surprised when a familiar face appeared instead.
"Colton! You scared the crap out of me!" I cried out happily as he stepped through the shrubs leading a mare by the reigns. I flung myself into his arms and hugged him tight with joy as the mare whinnied with surprise.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Are you all right?" He squeezed me to his hard chest, and it felt good to be held by his strong arms.
"Yes. I'm fine. I would have been back already if I could only mount this horse," I said with a giggle. I remembered I was supposed to be mad at him, and I pushed hard against his chest, forcing him back away from me. "Wait a minute: no! No, I'm not fine. I'm mad. Really mad, at you."
Colton looked surprised by my sudden change of emotion, but now that I remembered how angry I was at him, I let all my rage explode at him.
"You tricked me into loving you, used me for nightly romps in the barn, and then thought you could treat me like I didn't exist. Then, when I got fed up with being used and then ignored and decided to leave, you got revenge on my by burning down the barn where we made love and destroyed my paintings in the process.
“You thought you could make me stay so you could use me longer, but it won't work. I'm on to you. You're a liar. You're a jerk. You're a monster!"
I was yelling at him and beating his chest with my fists. Suddenly, he caught my tiny fist in his large hands and pulled me to him. With is face close to mine, he said in a gruff whisper, "I'm in love with you."
Before I could object, Colton took my mouth in a fiery kiss. His urgent tongue forced my lips apart, and I succumbed to the power of his passion, opening my mouth to his and allowing him to devour me. His strong hands wrapped in my hair, and I felt my body turn to liquid, leaning against him as I clung to his torso with my hands to keep from swooning as we kissed repeatedly.
I could feel his hard muscles through the fabric of his shirt, and I hungered to feel them with my bare hands. I ripped off his shirt and ran my hands over his abs, up to his pectorals. He groaned with pleasure as my fingers found his nipples and grazed them with my nails.
Now it was his turn. He pulled my shirt off over my head, and I was glad I had put on my lacy bra. He buried his face in my cleavage, kissing my bared flesh with hungry lips.
Then slowly, he peeled down the straps, unhooked the clasp, and removed my bra completely. My nipples puckered in the cool night air, and I moaned aloud as Colton put his hot mouth upon them, licking and sucking my taut nubs while I ran my fingernails through his sandy brown hair and sighed with pleasure.
"I want you so bad," he groaned as he stripped off my jeans.
"Take me now," I panted, stepping out of my panties. I was now naked in the forest, bathed only in moonlight.
He whipped a blanket out of his saddlebag and laid it down on the ground beneath the apple tree. Our two horses had wandered down the path a bit, leaving us alone with our intimacy. I lay down in the center of the blanket and watched as Colton stripped off his jeans and boots to lay beside me, naked.
He took me quickly, entering my wet folds with an urgency more intense than before. I cried out with pleasure, my gasps echoing through the forest, and making the birds take flight.
"I needed that," I sighed with satisfaction when the quickie was done.
"I'm not finished yet," Colton whispered as he kissed his way down my body, lingering at my breasts to kiss circles around my nipples. "I want you to know for sure just how much I love and appreciate you. I don't ever want you to doubt how much you mean to me ever again."
He kissed his way down my stomach and parted my thighs. He brought his mouth to my most intimate folds with expert workings of his lips and tongue. I gasped with surprise at the intensity of pleasure he made me feel and clutched at the blanket beneath me as he brought me climax with his wonderful mouth.
Then, when I thought I'd experienced the most pleasure possible, he entered me again with his newly hard organ and we made love again.
As a tangled jumble of limbs, with his mouth on my neck, and my legs wrapped around his waist, I felt him preparing to climax. My body spasmed, my back arched, I threw back my head and cried out with ecstasy as pure euphoria enveloped me. We orgasmed as one, alone in the forest with the night breeze blowing through the branches of the apple tree above us. It was the most incredible, beautiful moment of my life, and when we were done, I was breathless.
"That was amazing," I sighed when I finally regained my ability to speak. Propping myself up on one elbow, I gazed down at Colton and said teasingly, "This was all part of your tricky little plan, wasn't it?"
"I'm not that clever. It was part of Mama's plan, though." He grinned. Then he took down a picnic basket from the back of his saddle and set in on the blanket. Inside was a bottle of wine and containers filled with Margie's delicious cooking.
Colton found two plastic wine glasses in the bottom of the basket and filled them with chilled merlot while I picked up one of Margie's hors d'oeuvres with my fingers and popped it in my mouth. It was pure heaven, and I couldn't help but sigh as I swallowed it. Colton chuckled his deep laugh as he handed me a plate piled high with my favorite foods.
"Thank you, but this doesn't change how angry I am at you."
"I know. You have every right to be mad at me for the way I treated you. I should have communicated better," he said with genuine humility.
"I should have let you know every day how much I love you and made sure you knew how important you are to me. I was busy, I had a lot going on with the ranch, but I should have talked to you and let you know why I was so busy, so you wouldn't think it was because I didn't care."
"Nice try, but that's not the reason I hate you," I said to him. "Yes, you hurt my feelings by ignoring me, but you crossed a line when you burned my paintings in that barn fire. I can never forgive you for that."
"That wasn't me," he said. I listened as he told me everything he knew about the investigation, how he'd found a lighter belonging to one of the employees, and how it might be the same person who's been stealing their cattle.
"So, when we find the man who owns the lighter, William will arrest him for arson and destruction of property. It won't get your paintings back, but at least it will be justice for the crime."
"I can't believe I blamed you." I felt terrible for the way I'd treated him. "Can you forgive me?"
"Only if you agree to stay," he teased.
"I'll stay till the end of the week. I promised your mother I'd stay here and create five paintings for her, and it doesn't feel right skipping out on her early and leaving her with nothing but some sketches."
"That's good. I'm glad you're staying; but I don't mean until the end of the job – I mean forever."
"What are you saying?" My heart skipped in my chest. Was he saying what I thought he was saying? If so, it was the answer to my dreams, but that didn't mean it could become a reality.
"Stay with me, Bethany, here on the ranch. I love you, and I don't want to ever lose you."
His offer was everything I'd ever wanted since the moment I'd first laid eyes on him just one short month ago. I thought about it carefully, but the answer was obvious.
I couldn't just live on the ranch without paying rent. I hadn’t work as hard as I had to earn an art degree just to leach off the Hutchinsons and not have a career.
Gazing into Colton's mesmerizing eyes, I said sadly, "I can't. There's no work for me out here. The only way I can stay here is if I can find a way to support myself with the art career I've worked so hard to achieve."
"Well then, that's what we're going to do." He pulled me to his chest and held me tight, as if the strength of his arms could keep us together. Still, he vowed to help me with such conviction, I believed that if there were any way to get me a job out here as an artist, he would find it. And I really hoped he could.