“I can’t.”
Celia’s gasped words registered in Ry’s mind only distantly. There was too much else to drown it out—the crushed silk feel of her bare skin beneath his hands; the tight, wet depths of her pussy gloving his cock; the crushing pleasure coursing through him with each earthshaking thrust; the blissful madness roaring through him to swallow him whole.
It was always like that with Celia. Blissful madness. He couldn’t fucking get enough of it.
“Oh, God, I can’t take this.” The words tumbled from her in a breathless rush as he surged into her like it was his mission in life. If he lived to be a hundred, he’d never forget the sight of her—her legs wrapped around him, her sparkling eyes half-closed and sexy as hell. One of his hands molded around her mauve-tipped breast, every now and again massaging the hardened tip, while the other hand had reached between them to stroke her clit without mercy. She helped him by rocking her hips in time with his, slamming against him until he half-believed he filled every part of her.
And he was. Filling her. Owning her. Becoming a part of her. Heaven couldn’t possibly compare to what this amazing woman gave him when she welcomed him inside.
“Oh, God.”
Even before she spoke, she’d begun to tighten around him, a magnificent sensation that set fire to his every nerve. She was close now, so close she fueled his own pleasure until he was in a frenzy to find that final, mind blowing completion. “Ry, I can’t take this...”
“You’re taking it, darlin’. You’re taking it...fuck. Take all of me.” The explosion of ecstasy hit him a couple heartbeats after it hit her, and their mingled moans only made it sweeter. He kept moving inside her, wanting to prolong the pleasure for all it’s worth before the tension ebbed out of her, causing her arms to fall limply onto the bed.
“Baby.” She was breathless, and so satisfyingly weak he couldn’t help but smile as she let her eyes drift closed. “Oh, baby. That was...wow.”
“Definitely wow.” A storm of emotion hit him hard as he brushed her dark hair from her face, and her cheek was so flushed he couldn’t resist caressing it with his lips. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
“Mm.” It seemed that was all she could muster.
After dealing with the condom and washing up, he returned to the bed to find she’d managed to turn the bedclothes down and was in the process of pulling his discarded shirt on. As cute as she looked in his clothes, that damn shirt was one barrier he’d already fought through tonight.
“Nope.” Without a qualm he plucked the shirt off her and tossed it across the room before pulling her to lie back with him. “Time to sleep. And when we sleep, we do it naked.”
“No jammies for you, ever?”
“Nope,” he said again, and pulled her into the curve of his body. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to going skin to skin soon enough. Tomorrow night’ll be easier. And the night after that, easier still.”
She tilted her head back against his chest to look up at him. “Am I spending the night all those nights?”
“I can’t fucking handle how cute you are.” Chuckling under his breath, he kissed her temple before tightening his arms around her. “Spending the night. Yeah, okay. I guess that’s what you can call it. I call it moving in, but I’m good with whatever label you put on it.”
“Moving in.” She said the words as if she’d never heard them before. “I have a garden. I can’t move my garden. How’s that going to work?”
“I’m flexible on how you want to do this.” He stroked the tips of his fingers along her arm before threading his fingers through hers and holding her close. “Just as long as you’re in my bed every night where you belong, I’m good. I’ve got a huge closet I don’t even use except for the front, so whatever’s not used is all yours.”
“All mine, huh?”
“Yeah. The rest is just details that can be worked out along the way.”
“Hm.” She rolled onto her back to look up at him with those black magic eyes that, for some reason, looked less than thrilled. “Refresh my memory. When did we discuss this?”
“What’s to discuss? You being in your bed and me being in my bed doesn’t make any damn sense, the way we’ve been going, So it’s time we started making sense, and that means living under one roof, and sleeping in one bed.”
She shook her head. “Honestly, I can’t believe you.”
“What?” Unease slithered into his gut, and since it was such an unusual sensation all he could do was scowl. “Seriously, what the hell’s that supposed to mean? Your work can happen wherever there’s good WiFi, so I’ve got you covered there—no more having to do your work in Lucy’s shop. My work isn’t nearly as portable as yours, so that means you’re the one who needs to move. I’ll help you out,” he added when she remained silent, though the narrowing of her eyes was doing a decent job of screaming at him. “Whatever shit you need to haul over, I can have it done for you in a single day. I know I didn’t give you a grand tour of the place when we got home, but there’s plenty of room for you to set up shop. Downstairs right off the entryway, there’s an office I don’t use for anything other than holding my fishing gear, so you’re more than welcome to make it your own. Decorate it however you want, I don’t give a shit. And if you want a garden to dig around in, just point to any acre I’ve got around here, and boom—you’ll get a garden fit for a palace, if that’s your thing.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Then what the hell is?”
“You’re taking it for granted that I’m going to uproot my home, my work, my life, just because we’re involved.”
“We’re more than involved,” he shot back, while a weird, desperate-feeling anger surged up. “And why the hell are you fighting the idea of pulling up stakes to move here? Weren’t you planning on uprooting your life and moving away? I don’t see what the difference is, so why are you getting pissy about it now?”
“Because you didn’t ask me, you just assumed,” Celia said, her voice low and so strained it was clear she was holding herself back. “You didn’t even think about the possibility that I might have something to say about this. You just took it for granted—took me for granted—that I’d blindly do whatever you wanted me to do without even thinking about talking it over with me.”
“What I took for granted was that you felt the same way I do—that life sucks when we’re apart, and the only way we can keep life from sucking is to find ways to be together, always.” The desperation-edged anger was getting worse, and he sat up before it could suffocate him. “You telling me to my face that you don’t want to be together?”
“No, I’m—”
“Because I’ve got no problem with convincing you that you’re out of your damn mind if you think that. The world out there is a cold fucking pit, and the only way to endure it is to just get through it day by day, hour by hour. There’s no light, no warmth, and nothing to look forward to. Then you’re in my life, and suddenly there’s light and warmth, and I can’t fucking wait until the next fucking time that we’re together. But if you’re not like that too... Jesus fuck, I thought you were with me on this.”
“I am.” In a heartbeat she was on him, slinging her leg over his lap and straddling him as if she feared he was going to get up and leave. As if he ever could. “All I need from you is a little thought, a little consideration, okay? When you make sweeping decisions for the both of us—and moving in together is a huge, sweeping decision—it makes me feel like my opinion doesn’t matter. On something this big, not only does my opinion matter, it’s freaking necessary, so...please don’t look past asking for my opinion, okay?”
“I’m not looking past it,” he began, then grimaced. So that’s what he sounded like when he was being a defensive asshole. “Shit. Patience.”
“What?”
“I’m thinking you’re going to need a shit-ton of patience in dealing with me.”
When a smile curved her mouth, that weird desperation went away. “Looks that way.”
“I swear I’m going to get better at living like a couple, Cel. Eventually I’m going to stop living like I’m all on my own and you’re just tagging along. You’re not tagging along. You’re half of this. Half of me. And I’m half of you. I’m just going to need you to be patient while I figure this shit out. I’ll get better at sharing things like decisions as we go along together. But for that to happen, we’ve got to go along together.”
“Half of you,” she repeated softly, before she raised a hand to stroke his cheek as if she thought he might break. That sweet touch felt so good he closed his eyes and leaned into her palm to better savor her. “Half of me. Sounds about right.”
“Yeah, it does.”
“You know what else sounds about right?”
His hands slid along the long columns of her thighs to her ass. Damn, she really was the softest thing the world had ever produced. “Tell me.”
“You, asking me what my thoughts and feelings are about moving in with you.”
The thick throb of desire in his cock paused, and he locked his gaze with hers. “What are your thoughts and feelings about moving in with me, darlin’?”
Her smile was straight out of his hottest fantasies. “I can’t wait.”
“Good answer,” he whispered, and brought her mouth to his.
* * *
“That video you made for Pure Angus is still getting positive feedback.” Dottie Ledbetter, Green Rock Ranch’s office manager, perched half-glasses on her delicate little nose. She had been at the ranch for as long as Celia could remember, yet she looked ageless with her pale blonde hair cut fashionably short, her unlined face turned to a large flatscreen computer monitor. “It’s been nearly a week and I’m still receiving requests for more Pure Angus information. When will the next video be online?”
“It’s done.” Seated across Dottie’s executive desk dominated by dueling large computer monitors on either side, Celia held her phone at the ready in case she needed to take notes. Skull sessions with Dottie made her feel like she was back in school under the eye of an exacting perfectionist of a professor, so she didn’t want to be caught unprepared. “All it needs is someone to sign off on it.”
Dottie offered an approving smile. “You’ve been busy.”
“I have.” Though Ry had gone out of his way to make sure she wasn’t buried in work. In the days since the party, there had been numerous times when Celia had needed to give herself a proverbial pinch to convince herself she wasn’t living in some kind of dream world. The first morning she’d woken up in Ry’s house, he’d made some of the strongest, most delicious coffee she’d ever had, while she’d made them French toast. That was now the routine—he got her motor going with a jolt of caffeine while she got breakfast on the table in the sunny, open plan kitchen.
Another routine they’d gotten into that she personally adored was showering together. More often than not it led to showers that lasted far longer than usual, so not much water was saved. But boy, were those some of the hottest showers she’d ever had.
Bit by bit she’d moved most of her clothes into Ry’s house, which she loved—a sprawling, multilevel Hill Country style house that looked like a limestone and cedar timber puzzle that Frank Lloyd Wright would have put together. She now had the house’s keys on her key ring and a garage door opener clamped to her car’s sun visor. Ry had tried getting her into a Green Rock Ranch pickup truck, but she wasn’t that ready to roll around town in a truck that everyone knew belonged to the Brody empire. Long ago that might have been a life goal, but she’d grown up a lot since her teen years. Now that she knew how that sort of thing had bothered Ry, she was fine with keeping their relationship on the downlow for as long as possible.
What mattered to her now was finding a way of taking their two separate lives and knitting them together into one. It was chaotic and funny and full of first times, and she was loving every moment of it.
Dottie shifted some papers on her desk, bringing Celia’s attention back to the task at hand. “What’s this latest Pure Angus video about?”
“I took shots of the ranch’s three bulls, Magnus, Dominus and Invictus in their respective pastures, with lots of sunshine and nature as the backdrop to reinforce the concept of Pure Angus’s organic brand. Then I added drone shots of herds out by Armadillo Creek and Nueces River, to further underscore the natural approach Pure Angus is pushing.”
“Sounds wonderful, but how is this different from the first video shown at the party?”
“The voice-over content is all the new information you gave me regarding production and availability of the ranch’s organically raised beef—beef raised like it was a hundred years ago and free from today’s potentially harmful chemicals and hormones. Also, the voice-over was done by an older male voice actor DigiLife has used before and has had success with. He’s got that cozy, Tim Allen dad-voice that inspires trust and stability, according to demographic testing. It just needs the okay from the Brodys before I put it in a press packet and post it on the ranch’s website.”
“Why wait? Ry’s gonna approve of anything you put together, so it’s all good.” Finian Brody, the second youngest of the Brody brothers, wandered into the spacious front parlor that had been converted into the ranch’s main office. A gray cowboy hat that had seen better days sat on his dark head, and the rust-colored cotton Henley shirt and heavy denim jeans he wore were smudged with heaven only knew what. “Just release the thing, Cel.”
“That’s not how it works,” she drawled, swiveling in her chair to glance back at him. “If you have the time, you could review it now and approve it for me.”
“Do I look like I have the fucking time to watch videos?” He spread his hands wide—hands that were just as grimy as the rest of him. “Swear to Christ, if I’d known how much upheaval this Pure Angus shit was going to bring down on our heads, I would’ve pushed Ry in the river and called it an unfortunate accident. Do you know what we’re doing just today for this new project?”
Celia looked him up and down. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“We’re cleaning out the entire birthing barn,” came the aggravated reply. “It’s one of the biggest structures on the property, and it hasn’t been in full operative shape since the fucking seventies and my grandpa was running the show. But we need it now, because for the first time in decades Green Rock Ranch is no longer just a stud farm. It’s an actual beef-producing ranch, plus a stud farm. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill Ry for heaping all this goddamn added work onto our plates.”
Celia thought about it. “Because he’s cute and he’s got a great ass. That’s two reasons, by the way.”
“And neither of them count, as far as any of his brothers are concerned. Trust me on this.”
“Projections for Pure Angus for the first year are now showing a profit that tops out at just a tenth of Green Rock Ranch’s overall bottom line,” Dottie offered.
Fin gestured at her. “See? A fucking fraction.”
“But,” Dottie continued tapping on her keyboard to make a colorful splash of graphs appear onscreen, “five-year projections show it growing to almost half the ranch’s annual profit after we get past the start-up expenditures. By year ten, barring natural disasters, disease or an unforeseen worldwide market crash, projections for Pure Angus are...highly desirable.”
“And Ry really does have a great ass,” Celia added for good measure while Fin leaned in to study the graphs with grudging interest. “So maybe not killing him is the way to go?”
“Maybe.” Still sounding like he was on the fence about the whole thing, Fin straightened and nailed Dottie with a hard look. “No matter how you cut it, we’re going to need more hands on deck with all the added work looming on our horizon. How’s Lilah’s availability?”
“Lilah?” Dottie sat straighter in her chair, and her expression became oddly still. “What does Lilah have to do with anything?”
“She’s still a vet tech at the Petrosian clinic, right? I trust her even more than I do my idiot brothers, so give her a call. I need her to come over and help me put together the birthing barn the way it needs to be put together. In a month or less, we’re going to be up to our asses in laboring cows and heifers giving birth to the first generation of Pure Angus beef, and we’re understaffed for this goddamn venture of Ry’s. I need Lilah here.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t do that, Fin,” Dottie said, and Celia’s jaw dropped. As far as she knew, this was the first time Dottie Ledbetter had told a Brody no about anything. “Why don’t I call Dr. Petrosian himself, or his partner, Dr. Carstairs? I’m sure they—”
“I don’t know them like I know Lilah.”
Dottie shook her blonde head. “I’m sorry, but my daughter will be graduating from veterinary school this June—”
“I know that.”
“—and between attending night school and working fulltime at Petrosian’s emergency vet clinic, she doesn’t have a single moment to spare for Green Rock Ranch.”
“That should be up to her.”
“Lilah would tell you the same, and I think you know that. Otherwise you would have called her yourself.”
Fin’s jaw clenched, and the narrowing of his eyes reminded Celia strongly of Ry when he was frustrated out of his mind. “I won’t say it again, Dottie. Get Lilah here.”
Dottie reached for the phone. “If you need more hands on deck, like you said, I’m sure Lawrence would be of great help.”
“What the hell’s your son going to do, tune up a cow? He’s the ranch’s heavy equipment manager and a great guy to have around if you want to rebuild an engine, but he doesn’t know shit about animals.”
“He’s still a strong back and can do whatever heavy lifting you need if you point him in the right direction.” Dottie was already dialing, shocking Celia all the more with her calm show of defiance. “What’s more, he’s already on property. But Lilah...she doesn’t have room in her life for Green Rock Ranch, Fin. It’s best if you and everyone else respect that.”
Fin took a slow breath, and for a second Celia half-feared he was going to explode. Then he turned on his heel and stalked out of the office. She winced at the force of the front door slamming seconds later, then looked back to Dottie as she wrapped up a quick phone call.
“I haven’t seen Lilah since she graduated from high school,” Celia offered tentatively into the silence that followed. “She, uh, kind of ran in a different crowd than I did.”
“You mean you were the captain of the cheerleading squad, and Lilah was in 4H. Which is exactly where she belonged, and I’m proud to say she loved every minute of it,” Dottie went on with a firm nod. “Now, if we could get back to the subject at hand, is it possible for me to see the latest video you’ve made for Green Rock?”
It was another ten minutes before Celia was able to slip out of the office, and with a sigh of relief she exited through the main house’s elegant front door, shutting it much more quietly than Fin had. With her mind on Ry and wondering if he’d be up for an early dinner somewhere in town, she turned and ran headlong into a solid body heading up the wide verandah stairs.
“Sorry,” Celia said, frantically making a grab for the person before they could fall back down the stairs. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t even looking—”
“No problem.” The familiar voice made her gaze bounce up to her victim’s face, and when she saw a familiar pair of blue eyes and a shock of blond hair, she stepped back in surprise.
“Lawrence.” Of course, she thought numbly, wondering why she hadn’t given it a thought when Dottie had called for her son. Of course she’d run into Lawrence Ledbetter sooner or later. “Well. Hello.”
“Celia.” Lawrence also took a step back, then glanced around as if expecting to be jumped by muggers. “You’re, uh...here.”
For a moment she thought he would say more, but when the silence that followed became awkward, she inwardly rolled her eyes. If Lawrence insisted on being a judgmental prude who still held her in contempt for goosing Ry, then screw him. There was nothing she could do about that except make sure their paths never crossed again.
“Don’t let me get in your way.” Keeping her expression meticulously neutral, she swept an inviting hand toward the door. “Have you seen Ry? I was just about to text him to see where he was.”
“Oh, uh...the last I saw him, he was at the birthing barn. It’s that huge structure east of the stables.”
“Great, thanks.”
“Hey, um...” He seemed to check himself in reaching out to touch her arm before he shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. “I hear you and Ry are together now. Is that true?”
“Yes.” She said it briskly while her tone threatened an imminent ice age if he decided to bring the judgmental crap out for her to see up close and personal.
“Yeah?” To her surprise, he relaxed with a relieved grin. “Whew, that’s great. Though it sure took you guys long enough.”
She frowned. “I beg your pardon? Long enough? It took us long enough to do what?”
“Get together, obviously. I mean, it’s been months, hasn’t it?”
She stared at him, baffled. “Months?”
“Yeah, months. Do you know how hard it is to avoid someone for that long in a town the size of Bitterthorn? I’m amazed I didn’t have a fucking nervous breakdown.”
What. The. Hell. “You chose to avoid me because you couldn’t find it in your heart to forgive me for acting like an idiot when I was drunk. That’s on you, pal. You made that choice.”
“Forgive you?” A look of bewilderment crossed his face. “What the hell are you talking about? You didn’t do anything that needed forgiving, Celia.”
“Then why did you start avoiding me like I was freaking diseased?”
“It was either that or have my ass kicked by the Brody brothers.”
The air left her lungs as the impact of his words hit her. “What?”
“You don’t know? Oh, my God.” Lawrence rolled his eyes before shaking his head. “Seriously, I thought you knew. Lots of the guys in town know, so I sorta figured you’d gotten clued in as well.”
“Into what?”
“That you’re Ry’s private property.”
She hadn’t heard that right. No way. “I...what did you just say?”
“Ry branded you as his,” he reiterated, confirming that while her hearing was great, her reality was not. “Guys who knew you...hell, even some guys who didn’t know you, were warned to stay away from you. I’ve known the Brody brothers my whole life, to the point where I consider them family, but even I was scared of what would happen if I so much as looked at you after the word went out that you were Ry’s private property.”
“Ry’s private...” As she stood there, a rolling boil began deep inside her chest. “Who told you that I was Ry’s private property, Lawrence?”
“Does it matter?”
“Who told you?” God, if it was Ry...
“The Brody brothers,” he said, backing up in alarm at her dangerous snarl. “It happened after you got drunk and made a pass at Ry, remember?”
As if she’d ever forget. “How did I get branded as Ry’s property, Lawrence? Tell me exactly.”
He lifted a defensive shoulder. “It wasn’t a big deal, okay? One day I was just dropping something off for my mom here at the main house, and I got cornered by Fin and Des. Killian was there, too. They got right in my face and told me I needed to help them spread the word around town that you were now off-limits.”
She closed her eyes, feeling sick. “Off-limits.”
“Yeah. They remembered we’d dated back in high school, so they knew we ran in the same circles. Since they made it clear they’d beat the shit out of anyone who got close to you, they asked me to help spread the word that you were now Ry’s.”
Her fists curled while she pictured smashing him to a pulp. “And just like a good little lapdog, you did what you were ordered to do, didn’t you, Lawrence? You didn’t once suggest that making me out to be fucking property was sick and wrong, did you? Asshole.”
All pretense of humor vanished from his face. “Hey, don’t put this on me. They were going to kick my ass—”
“I’m gonna kick your ass.” She shoved him before she could stop herself, and took grim pleasure when he had to catch himself on one of the verandah’s support posts to stop himself from taking a tumble down the stairs. “You and the others made my life miserable, do you understand me? Did you even think about that?”
“Look, I wasn’t the one who came up with the idea of putting you out of bounds with every swinging dick in town, all right? And besides, why are you so pissed off about it now? You and Ry are together, so I don’t really see what the big deal is—Jesus,” he half-yelped when she took a wild swing at him and nearly clipped his nose. “Are you fucking crazy?”
“You’re a spineless piece of shit.” Fury pumped through her so hard and fast she could hear her heartbeat in her ears, and all she could do was wish she could blast him off his feet with the force of her glare alone. “Did you once even think about what something like that would do to me? I was ready to leave town because I’d thought my prospects of finding someone special to settle down with had dried up because I’d made an unforgivable mistake. I began to feel unwanted and ashamed and un-fucking-desirable—”
“Yeah, but you weren’t, so it’s okay, right?” He kept his distance from her with his hands held out, whether to calm her down or defend himself she didn’t know. “I mean, no harm was actually done to you, and you and Ry are together now, so it’s all good, Celia.”
“You’re a moron if you think any of this is good,” she muttered before she turned on her heel and blasted down the stairs to her car. She didn’t know where she was going to go or what she was going to do, but whatever it was, she wasn’t going to do it here on Brody property.
Without looking back, she slammed into her car and headed out.