It took a couple of glasses of wine before she was ready to leave the bedroom. Sutton was dancing with Ema to a popular country music song, making the little girl giggle as Rachel sat on the couch watching.

“Where did the men go?” Holly asked, setting her empty wine glass on the counter.

“They’re trying to decide where to put the chairs in the field. They want you to drive up to the house so you can help.”

“Greer said I could go!” Logan stopped mimicking the dance Sutton was doing.

“Why can’t I just walk?” Holly frowned. “Isn’t it the field behind your house?”

“It’s a surprise!” Logan answered, jumping up and down. “Can we go? They’re waiting.”

“Yes.”

The other women didn’t make a move to accompany them.

“Don’t you want to see?” Holly asked.

“We already have.” Rachel smiled. “We thought you’d enjoy it without any of us there.”

“Should I take the rest of the wine with me?”

They were still laughing as Logan dragged her out the door and to her car. When he complained about her buckling his seat, she hesitated then finished buckling him.

“It’s just up the hill,” Logan complained.

“Then you won’t have to stay buckled up for long,” she said reasonably, getting behind the wheel.

“Wait till you see it, Holly! You’re going to be so surprised.”

“I can hardly wait,” Holly exclaimed, feeding off the child’s enthusiasm.

Opening his door, she caught him when he jumped into her arms. Giving the little boy a big hug, she told him, “I love you so much!”

“I love you, too, Holly.”

Setting him to his feet, she took his hand, becoming aware of the stench that was surrounding the yard.

She glanced toward the chicken coop, seeing the chickens happily milling around. She reminded herself to go check on them before she went back to Tate’s house, where she was sleeping that night.

The outside of her home looked the same. She thought about taking a sneak peek, but Logan wouldn’t slow down.

“I kept Greer’s secret. I promised I would,” Logan proudly boasted as they broached the thick patch of woods behind the house.

Holly stared down at him. “So, it’s okay to tell me now?”

“I’m not going to tell you. I’m going to show you,” he said proudly.

Tate stepped out from behind a tree.

“We’re here, Uncle Tate! Can I show her now?”

“Yes.” Tate took Logan’s other hand. “Let Holly go first.”

“Okay. Did Uncle Greer tell you I kept his secret?”

“Yes, he did. We’re so proud of you. Go ahead,” he told Holly. “We’re right behind you. Greer’s waiting for you to tell us where to set the chairs.”

“At least far enough away from the yard that we can’t smell that terrible stench. What is it?”

“We think Greer may have interfered with the septic line when he replaced the toilet. I’m sure the smell will be gone by morning.”

“I hope so.”

“Come on, Holly!” Logan tried to tug his hand out of Tate’s grip.

“I’m going.” She plastered a bright smile on her face so she wouldn’t disappoint the little boy … and Greer.

Something Logan had said was nagging at her, but she couldn’t figure out what, and when she stepped into the clearing, any trace of what it had been disappeared.

Her pretend smile disappeared into one of astonishment. She forgot that Tate and Logan were watching her. What had been a clearing of broken limbs, rocks, and briars was now a beautiful field of daisies.

She gently parted the flowers that grew at different lengths so she wouldn’t crush any of them under her feet. As she walked, a stray gust of wind sent the flowers trembling as if they were so beautiful God was giving his approval. She reached out, touching them as she passed until she stood in the middle of the field.

She turned in a full circle to see the breathtaking sight. The delicate beauty of the flowers with the rugged mountains above them showed Greer’s love more than any words he could speak.

When she was back where she started, she saw the man she loved sitting on the fence under a huge oak tree. She had been so enthralled with the flowers that she hadn’t seen him sitting there.

“Thank you.”

Greer grinned as he hopped off the fence. “I’m glad you like them.” He started walking toward her.

“Be careful. Don’t hurt them,” she whispered.

Greer raised his brow, continuing toward her.

“You like them, Holly? Uncle Greer worked the longest time to plant them for you.”

“I love them, Logan. Thank you so much.” Holly didn’t take her tear-filled gaze off Greer.

“Logan, let’s go tell Sutton and Rachel how much Holly liked her surprise.”

“Aw, do I have to?”

“I think we should.”

Holly heard Tate and Logan moving back toward the trees.

“Uncle Greer and Holly need to be alone for a little while. You’ll understand when you get older.”

“Can we walk through the woods to your house? The driveway stinks like …” Logan’s voice trailed off as they disappeared into the trees.

She twirled again, still not believing that this spot was going to be where she was going to be married tomorrow.

“I thought I’d have to pretend to like it. I thought you would have put up a bouncy house.”

“I would have, but Rachel shot that idea down.” His grey eyes teased.

She looked around the field again. “I never realized this was right outside my back door.”

“I never realized the woman I had been searching for was sleeping under my roof.”

“There were more than walls separating us, Greer. I swear I didn’t know who Logan’s father was. Sam told me that his father didn’t care about him; that he had wanted her to have an abortion. She never told me her grandmother lived a few blocks away. She kept so many secrets and made me a part of them, too.”

“Holly, that’s all in the past.”

She gave him a slight smile. “A past that kept us apart. You would never have become interested in me if I hadn’t catfished you. You didn’t want me. You wanted Kentuckygirl.”

Greer’s mouth opened.

Lifting up a lone finger to his lips, she stopped him. “I don’t care how I caught you. I’m just glad I did. You may be the meanest man in the county, obnoxious as hell, put the fear of God in children and dogs, and you’re feuding with half the town.” She took another look at her field of daisies. She moved her hand away from his mouth, sliding it to the nape of his neck to tug him down to her waiting lips. “But my man treats me so damn fine.”

His breath mingled with hers as he said, “I’m glad you like it.”

“I don’t like it, Greer. I love it.” Even with him bent down, she had to rise up on her tiptoes to kiss him the way she wanted to.

Holly wanted to capture the beauty of the garden he had created in their kiss, so he could experience the same sense of awe and love she was feeling. Then she realized it was useless. She couldn’t recreate perfection in a single kiss. It was going to take more than that.

Pulling back enough to stare into his eyes, she planted a tender kiss on the tip of his nose that she didn’t know how many times had been broken. Then she kissed the tiny cleft on his chin before sliding her lips down his throat to kiss its base.

Concentrating on the buttons of his shirt, she slowly unbuttoned it, then placed tiny kisses on his skin as it became exposed.

“I’m not afraid of anything anymore.”

“I sure as hell hope not,” he groaned out as she went to her knees. “What do you have to be afraid of?”

She deliberately started unbuckling his belt then unsnapped his jeans before lowering his zipper. “Girls who drive big trucks.”

“Woman, you have something better than a big truck.”

She pulled his cock out of his jeans, brushing a delicate kiss on the tip. “Like what?” She blew on the tip, watching his cock grow longer and hard.

“A size triple-D.”

Sucking the head into her mouth, she playfully nipped the flesh that was straining toward her.

“Woman, what are you doing?” Greer grunted, bringing his hands to her shoulders to pull her closer to his aching groin.

Letting his cock slip out of her mouth, she rubbed her cheek against the stalk of his cock. “Making love to my man.”

He laced his fingers through her hair, tugging her mouth to where he wanted it. “We need to figure out where we’re going to put the chairs for the guests.”

“They can stand.”

“Where do you want the do-hickey thing where the preacher is going to stand?”

Holly lifted her head. “Do you mean an arbor?”

“That isn’t what Wade from the rental store called it, but we’ll go with that. Where you want it?”

Holly had to think for a second, not about where it should go, but what Greer was talking about. Then it dawned on her. “Did you mean a pergola?”

“That’s it. Where you want it?”

“I don’t. Lucky can stand by the oak tree. After the ceremony, I want to scratch our initials on it.”

“Sutton may not like that. It’s her and Tate’s tree.

“She can share.” She lowered her mouth back to his cock, trying to give him a mind numbing …

“Where you want—”

“Greer, you’re making it hard for me to give you a good blowjob. If you don’t want—”

“Didn’t say I didn’t want it,” Greer grumbled.

Frustrated, Holly sat back on her heels.

“Just want something else?”

“What do you want?”

She started to get off her knees when she found herself falling back into the daisies, staring up into Greer’s formidable face.

“I want you.” She raised her open arms, and he sank down on her, crushing the flowers into a bed at her back.

“I love you, woman. Don’t you ever fucking doubt that. No woman could steal me away from you.”

“Not even Jo?” Running her fingers through Greer’s hair, she luxuriated in the feel of his mouth burrowing between her breasts.

“I didn’t even try.”

“But …”

When he shook his head, she forgot what she was about to say. She couldn’t believe that she had thought about getting a breast reduction.

He sensually pulled up her tight shirt that Diamond had bought for her for her bridal shower. Sutton had talked her into wearing it today, saying it would be the last time she would be able to wear it.

“Thank you, God,” Greer exclaimed, sucking a part of her breast into his mouth. “You might as well cut off my dick if you hurt one thing on these beauties.”

“You’re a man.”

Greer’s cock prodded the crotch of her jeans. “Thank God.”

“Quit saying that. It’s irreverence.”

“How? God created man and woman. Don’t blame me if I’m appreciating His work. And believe me, those tits of yours are mine. My mama told me it was bad manners not to thank someone, and God gave them all for me.”

The joy of him saying they were all his took away all ill-feelings she had for those ugly, degrading boys who had started saying that to her since she had reached puberty. He had taught her not to be embarrassed or try to camouflage the size of them but to enjoy the pleasure they gave Greer and her.

He raised up, removing her shoes and jeans and taking off her bunched-up T-shirt.

“You’re so beautiful, just like I thought you would be.”

His soul-stealing statement had her lifting her lashes. His cock was hard and ready.

Greer was passionate about what he ate for breakfast, how he dealt with his family. He was also passionate about his dog, which he hated. But the passionate man was nowhere in sight when he made love.

She lowered her lashes, looking away to the daisies surrounding them.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Holly bit her bottom lip to keep from crying.

“Don’t lie to me. I know something is wrong.”

She turned back to look at him. “If you could make love to any woman in the whole world, who would you choose?”

She wanted the answer, no matter how badly it would hurt. She wanted to put a name and face to the woman who kept him from responding to her whole-heartedly, the woman who could break his iron control. The woman who held the heart of the man she loved in her hands.

He stared down at her, perplexed by her question.

She raised herself onto her elbows. “What woman would you choose!” she yelled.

Greer frowned. “What brought this on?”

She started beating on his chest. “What woman would you choose!”

“I have.”

Holly shook her head. “No, I mean from those you could have picked. Is it Diane?”

“I could have picked any woman I wanted,” he stated arrogantly.

She lay back down on the ground, crying. He wasn’t going to answer her truthfully.

Her heart breaking, she realized she couldn’t marry him.

Her right hand went to her engagement ring.

“You don’t believe I could have my pick of any woman in the world?”

She started to slip her ring off.

“Dammit, you’re the most frustrating woman in the world; that’s for damn sure.”

Before she could pull her ring off, she found both her hands slammed to the ground above her head. Then he crashed his mouth down on hers, parting her lips with a thrust of his tongue.

The sensations attacking her were so intense that it took a second to respond. Her tongue dueled with his before he sucked her tongue into his mouth. He tasted wild and free. He tasted like the mountains he liked to roam that were so much a part of him.

The sun shining down on them was no comparison from the heat coming from Greer. Tearing his mouth from hers, he latched on to one of her pink nipples, completely covering the areola. Squeezing her breast, he let the nipple go, then covered it again, sucking harder. Stopping to free her nipple again, he then sucked harder each time. He pushed her breasts together so he could switch to the other one, repeating the sucking maneuver until they throbbed.

“Keep your breasts like that and don’t move,” Greer ordered, waiting until she put her hands in the same position before removing his.

“I could come seeing you do that. Spread your legs.”

Holly widened her legs, waiting to see what Greer was going to do next. When he started sliding his hand up and down his cock, she licked her bottom lip, wishing it was back in her mouth.

“You want me in your mouth?”

She nodded, starting to reach for it, but a sharp hand on the inside of her thigh stopped her.

“Put those hands back on those tits the way I had them.”

She shakily pushed both her breasts together.

“Next time I tell you not to move, don’t move.”

“I won’t.”

Greer got to his feet, standing over her like he owned her. His features became more pronounced, more dangerously attractive. The good ole boy who usually made everyone not take him seriously had been replaced by the man who when he went hunting came back with his prey.

He stalked around her, his hand on his cock, stroking until she could see the pre-come glisten on the head. She moaned, afraid he would come without her.

“When I let you have my dick, I want you to suck it the way I did your tits. Don’t make me repeat how I like it.”

“I won’t.”

He dropped down at the top her head, his hand beside her hips as he leaned over her so she was staring up at his cock. Obediently, she opened her mouth and raised her head so she could take his cock inside, sucking on it hard, then lowering her head and letting it slip free. When she raised her head to take him inside again, she sucked harder, repeating the same thing he had done to her breasts.

“Hold your breasts harder. Concentrate.”

“I’m trying.”

“Try harder.”

Trying to concentrate on sucking his cock while gripping her breasts had her squirming on the ground, the stems of the daisies poking into her bottom.

She felt him lick a path from her belly button, through the curls, to her pussy, running his tongue against the slick flesh that was begging for him. He rubbed his face against it the way she had done his cock.

The carnality of the act had her back arching, losing track of what she was doing.

Hard smacks against exposed pink flesh had her sucking his cock harder. If her pussy hadn’t been on fire before, it was now.

“You think you can take my ring on and off when you want to? Try it again and see what happens.” He smacked her pussy again, creating shockwaves through her stomach and sending her muscles twitching. “I’ll get Dustin and Logan to move in with Tate, and make you walk naked around the house for a week. You understand my meaning?”

“Yes.”

He speared a finger inside of her, then another. “You ready for me to fuck you?”

“Yes!”

When he righted himself to lie stretched over her, she didn’t remove her hands from her breasts. He brought his hands to her wrists, moving them to lie above her head and entwining his fingers with hers. He then stared deeply into her eyes as if he could read every thought running through her mind at breakneck speed.

She tried to close her eyes, feeling dizzy and confused. When she did manage to close them, the dizzy feeling grew worse, as if she was on that mysterious elevator ride again, going faster this time. With every stroke of his cock inside her, the breathtaking speed increased. She was afraid her heart would stop.

She screamed out in terror, the shrill sound reverberating around the clearing. She tried to tear her hands out of Greer’s, opening her eyes to see his storm cloud ones trapping hers.

“Don’t be afraid.”

His impassioned face was everything she had been trying to achieve, but faced with the reality of it, she wasn’t sure she could handle it.

“You can. I’ve got you.”

She tightened her hands in his, trying to hold on to the feeling that she was one of the daisies that were being swept up by the escalating wind, tossing her around higher and higher. As he moved faster, she was borne even higher, seeing the sky coming nearer, sure if Greer released her hand, she would touch it.

Greer released one of her hands, and she dreamily reached upward, imagining she was touching the sky, running her hand through the perfect blue surface and feeling the smooth blue ripple and move over her hand like cool water in a stream. It was so magnificent. She wanted to go even higher to pierce the veil that beckoned.

Greer reached for her hand, pulling it back to rest beside her other one.

“Wait …” She tried to reach for the sky again.

“You can’t go there yet.”

“Just one more minute. I was almost there,” she pleaded as Greer rocked back and forth, pounding his cock higher into her.

“Then come with me,” he moaned into her neck. “Come with me …”

His command had her pussy clamping down around him as her nerve endings exploded, turning her upside down until she was lying on the sky, the ground beneath them.

When Greer released her hands to grab her hips, lifting her onto his ramming thrusts, he shoved her into a freefall that had her crashing back to earth.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, clutching the flowers to make sure she was still alive, to see Greer.

“You love me,” she said with wonder.

He lay next to her, picking up one of the broken daisies. Greer bent his arm and propped his head on his hand. “Do you still doubt I couldn’t have any woman I wanted?”