Colt

Nothing I said changed her mind, not that I really thought it would. But it wasn’t for lack of trying.

“Mer, just stay for a while. Stick around, get comfortable with the old place again,” I’d said, leaning against the countertop calmly.

She sat on one of the bar stool, frantically uploading a few images from her laptop to her Dropbox account so she could send them to her boss.

I could tell what she was really doing, though, staying so busy that she didn’t have to look at me. She was a wild stallion that I had somehow spooked. I wanted to bring her back to me.

“I really can’t, Colt. These are due to the editorial desk by five o’clock, and I was supposed to spend last night writing a draft of the article instead of—” She stopped short, and for one stupid second I wondered if she actually couldn’t bring herself to admit it.

“Instead of what? Instead of spending the night with me?” I asked, fighting to keep the cold accusation out of my voice by resorting to teasing her a little.

I came around the counter and stood behind her, pulling her back against my chest and rubbing her shoulders. She withered a little from the pressure of my strong hands on the knots in her shoulders. I waited to see how she reacted, and when she didn’t shrug me away, I leaned down and pushed my cheek against hers long enough to find her neck, pressing my mouth to her skin and feeling her heartbeat kick into high gear.

“You mean instead of letting me take your clothes off and admire you?” I leaned around and kissed her lips once. “Instead of kissing you, like this.” Kiss. “Then undressing you.” Kiss. “And putting my mouth—”

Meredith gasped when I whispered the rest of my sentence in her ear, then bit gently on her earlobe. My hands, still working her shoulders, were pulled downward when she covered them with her own. Following her lead, I slipped them down inside the collar of her shirt, my fingers finding their way over the smooth mounds of her breasts. I slid my hands free only long enough to turn her around to face me, then pulled her legs around my waist, securing them behind my back with one hand around her crossed ankles.

She leaned her head up and looked at me, giving me full access to the graceful arch of her neck. I started at her collarbone, taking my time moving up her neck to her ear. I felt the vibration of her voice in her throat beneath my lips when she said, “What are we doing, Colt?”

We. She didn’t say you, to ask what are you doing. We meant that we were in this together. Now we were both in this.

“Enticing you to stay?” I murmured hopefully, but I could feel her shaking her head as I continued to nibble at the soft skin below her ear.

Despite her silent protests, her hands worked their way under my shirt and raked soft scratches down my back. I could have laid her back on the countertop and fucked her right then and there, just to feel that sensation one more time. But I reminded myself she was skittish.

“You know I want to so bad it hurts, but I can’t. I have a life in Chicago, a job. I have to go back.”

I switched tactics then, trying to appeal to her sense of reason. “Come on, the part won’t be here for a while yet and you can’t exactly call a cab in these parts. This ain’t Chicago, you know.”

“Trust me, I’m painfully aware this isn’t Chicago. If it was, I’d be enjoying some sushi then catching an Uber back to my place!” She actually stuck her tongue out at me after she spoke, and it was like a flash of electricity through my thick skull, reminding me of when we’d been kids.

“That car from the airport won’t come cheap,” I hinted, leaning my elbows on the counter on either side of her, pinning her in her seat and grinning at her.

“Gee, if only I knew a billionaire who owned an airplane, a helicopter, and a fleet of vehicles…” She looked thoughtful for a second, then kept on mocking me. “Oh well, a girl can dream! It’ll be fine, I promise. I can call a car service from the airport, it’ll come out of the budget I was supposed to use to fly down here in the first place instead of trying to road trip it in my poor old car.”

“You know, I got another reason for asking you to stay.” I paused, and she finally looked up from her work for a second. “That party I told you about…”

“The Barons’ Ball?” she asked, confused.

I had just off-handedly mentioned it to her on our ride to the orchard. At this point I was grasping at anything to coax this filly to be mine.

“Yeah, sorry. It just doesn’t exactly sound like my crowd, or yours either. I’m more comfortable photographing these people’s houses than playing dress up and eating caviar with them.”

“I know, but I’m supposed to get this award. I could really use a sweet little thing by my side. It would be a big help. Almost like you were saving me from a pack of wild coyotes.”

I gave her the best charming smile I had when she narrowed her eyes at me.

“What award? I’ve been talking to you about your ranch and your eco-farming for a major magazine article, and you never mentioned an award!” Meredith turned back around to the countertop and grabbed her notebook.

I gave out an exhausted breath. I wasn’t going to get anywhere with this wild filly till she got this damn article off her mind. She took notes while I mumbled half-heartedly about it, and I couldn’t help but hope it intrigued her at least a little bit.

“Well, when does this fancy affair take place?” she asked, sounding almost like she’d be willing to go along with it. I cringed, and hesitated so long that she looked up from her notebook and watched my face. “Maybe Diana would want me to stay and cover the award?”

“Next month.”

“Next month? Are you insane? I can’t stay here for a month just to go to a fancy party!” she shrieked, but then she smiled at me with a sympathetic look. “Look Colt, I’d have been honored to go with you, really I would. But it’s just not possible.”

“I guess I knew that... I was just hoping, that’s all.”

In the end, though, none of that managed to change her mind any. To be honest, if anyone had tried to get me to stick around just to go to the stupid Baron’s Ball, I’d have packed my bags even faster. Damn waste of time, dressing up in a ridiculous outfit to stand around with a bunch of other richer-than-God idiots, pretending we were all somehow important and useful to society. Meredith was the only thing that could make that night bearable.

Instead, only an hour later, she was sitting on my front porch with her camera bag in her lap, waiting on a ride.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” I reminded her for the millionth time. It was a struggle, but I managed to keep most of the whine out of my voice. “You could just stay, get your work done, relax a little.”

“No, I can’t,” she answered, looking straight ahead. She wasn’t even rocking in the old chair beside mine. She just sat perfectly still, looking uncomfortable. “If I don’t go now, maybe I won’t ever go. Then where would you be?”

I started to answer, “In heaven,” but knew that would only scare her into taking off running up the road to meet the car service halfway. Anything I said would only make her bolt out of here even faster. The only answer I had was… don’t. Don’t leave, don’t turn away. Just don’t. But she didn’t want to hear that.

We rocked in silence, neither one of us admitting what we were feeling. From time to time, Meredith’s phone would ping with another text, no doubt from her editor demanding to see the pictures and at least a few words of the article. It was annoying, but at least it let me know she was telling the truth. She really did have to go.

We heard the car making its way up the dirt road long before we could see it. Off in the distance, the cloud of red dust that floated over the vehicle gave away just how close it was. Meredith stood up and shouldered her bag, watching for the car.

“You’ll come back, won’t you?” I asked hesitantly, taking her hand before sliding my arm around her waist.

“Of course,” she said, but her voice was as empty as her promise. “I can’t wait to see what you’re installing in the north pasture over there. You told me about it, but I bet it’s really something when you see it in working order.”

When the dark blue car pulled up in front of the house, the driver got out and came towards us. It’d been a long time since I wanted to punch someone so badly, even though common sense told me he didn’t have anything to do with this. This was just me being pigheaded, and Meredith being her stubborn, adventurous self. She’d rather take off back to the big city than give me a chance… or give us a chance, that is.

“Well, bye,” she said awkwardly before turning and heading down the steps. “I’ll send you a message when the article goes out, and I’m sure the PR department will send you a few copies. And…um, thanks.”

I was frozen in place, unable to run down the steps and throw myself in front of the car. I felt something dangerously close to hope when I saw her through the back window, I swear it looked it like she’d reached up and wiped away a tear. Even if she had, it wasn’t enough to make her stop the car and come back to me.

Having her here for just these few hours had been like waking up at last. I hadn’t realized I’d been in a deep sleep, one where I didn’t dream or even really rest. The sleep was nothing more than holding still and trying hard not to hurt, until Meredith showed up on my doorstep and woke me.

They pulled away, and there was nothing left for me to do but head back to work. A few backbreaking hours in the scorching heat might help me think of something but Meredith, and if I was really lucky, I’d forget she was ever here.