Chapter 25
WEST
Giggles welcomed me into the lodge.
Two women—twentysomething girls—stood beneath the chandelier, talking to Jax.
He had his cowboy hat in hand. His jeans were dusty, and he was still wearing his chaps. He’d probably just finished up the last guided trail ride of the day.
When he flashed them a grin, the giggles grew louder.
Behind them, at the front desk, Tara rolled her eyes.
I cleared my throat, walking to my brother’s side and clapping him on the shoulder. “Jax. Ladies.”
One of the girls blushed so red that her cheeks matched the hot pink of her tank top.
“Got a minute?” I asked Jax, jerking my chin toward the opposite end of the lobby.
“Sure.” He waved at the girls. “See ya.”
As they raced up the stairs, whispering to each other, I smacked my brother on the arm.
“Hey.” He rubbed the spot. “What was that for?”
“Jax.” I gave him a flat look.
“We were just talking,” he said, feigning innocence.
Tara scoffed. “And I’m seven feet tall.”
“Just watch the flirting with guests,” I said.
“Do what you say, not what you do?”
“Huh?”
Jax’s gaze shifted toward the open dining room doors, where Indya stood with a couple of guests at the bar, smiling as they talked.
The tables were clothed but empty. Dinner wouldn’t start for another hour, and tonight was the campfire, so most people would eat outside. But the bar was open to serve drinks, and Reid had set up a
small table with appetizers.
“Indya’s not a guest,” I said.
“But she was. And you broke all the rules.”
Yeah. I’d broken the rules. Without remorse.
It had been a week since Indya had come to my place with dinner. A
week of her sleeping in my bed.
A week of us starting over.
It wasn’t really starting over. There was no forgetting our history.
And even if that were possible, I wouldn’t want to erase our past.
But there was no denying that everything was different this time
around.
Indya was here.
And I wasn’t letting her go.
She smiled at the guests as they talked. She pushed a curl out of her face. Whatever she was telling them, they hung on her every word.
Indya was entirely in her element, like she’d been born for this. My
heart swelled too big in my chest.
I loved her.
I fucking loved that woman.
I’d loved her my whole damn life.
“Damn, she’s pretty.” Jax’s statement stole my focus. “Think she’d
go for a younger man?”
I smacked his arm again.
“Kidding.” He chuckled. “Have you tried some of the new food?”
“Indya brought some over the other night. It’s good.”
“Really good. And Reid is making up a staff menu too. Stuff that we can grab and eat on the run.”
Indya had mentioned it last night. She didn’t want the staff worrying about meals while they were working. It was her idea, not Reid’s—though Reid would definitely take credit. Not that Indya was the type who needed credit.
“Heard Courtney was out the other night,” Jax said, lowering his
voice.
“Yeah,” I muttered.
“What did she want?”
I shrugged. “Attention. Closure. I don’t know.”
“Think she’ll be back?” Jax asked.
“No.”
There was nothing for Courtney on the ranch. She had to know that now.
“I’d better get home and shower,” Jax said, lifting his arm to take a whiff. “I’m heading into town later. Want to come?”
“Nope.” My plans for tonight involved the beauty in the dining
room.
“Figured.” Jax smirked. “See ya.”
“Don’t drink and drive.”
“I’ll probably just stay in town tonight.” Either at a friend’s house or in some woman’s bed.
“Bye.” I lifted a hand to wave but kept my focus aimed on Indya as she finished up her conversation.
As the guests took their cocktails toward the hors d’oeuvre station, she strolled through the room, skimming the table linens with her fingertips.
When she spotted me, a smile lit up her face.
A smile that reminded me of white wildflowers and green fields. Of my old green truck in a mountain meadow. Of summer weeks with Indya Keller.
“Hi.” She stopped three feet away, a polite distance.
There was nothing polite about what I’d do to her later.
“Come here.” I crooked a finger.
She took half a step.
“Indya.”
She nodded to Tara.
“Ah.” If she thought we were keeping our relationship a secret, she was dreaming.
In a fast sweep, I hauled her over my shoulder.
“West!” she yelped. “Put me down.”
“Bye, Tara,” I called. “We’ll be back for the campfire in a bit.”
“Bye, West. Bye, Indya.”
“Oh my God.” Indya’s voice was muffled, like she’d dropped her face into her hands.
I grinned and carted her out the door.
“You made your point.” She wiggled once we were down the porch stairs. “Are you going to put me down?”
“Nope.” I smacked her butt, tightening my hold on her legs, and
headed for the Beartooth.
“I can walk.”
“We both know that’s an exaggeration of the truth.”
“West Haven, you put me down right now.”
That earned her another swat on the ass.
“You’re such a caveman. Everyone is going to be talking about this.”
“Exactly.” I slowed, setting her on her feet but keeping hold of her elbow until she had her balance. “I want everyone to know you’re mine.
Employees. Guests. Anyone who sets foot on this ranch. We were a secret for too long, baby. I’m not hiding this anymore.”
A blinding smile transformed her face. Beautiful. She’d stolen my heart. I was so busy memorizing that smile that I rocked on my heels when she pounced, leaping into my arms.
The moment her legs circled my waist, her mouth was on mine, her tongue sliding past my lips. The moan that sank from her body into mine was part passion, part relief. That sound went straight to my cock.
I carried her inside the Beartooth, then kicked the door closed. As it slammed shut, I spun us around, then pressed her against the hard wooden surface.
“West.” Her legs fell from my waist to straddle my thigh. “I need you inside.”
My mouth locked on her throat. “You want my fingers, my mouth, or my cock?”
“All of it,” she panted, grinding against me, seeking that friction for release. “I want all of it.”
“That’s my girl.” I nipped at her earlobe, then flicked open the button on her jeans.
She whimpered as I took my leg away to spin her around.
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, holding her back against my chest. Then I thrust my arousal against her perfect ass. “Spread your legs wider.”
She obeyed instantly, making space so I could slip my hand down her belly, down into the waistband of her jeans. As my fingertips moved beneath her lace panties, her head lolled against my shoulder.
“Are you wet for me?”
“Mm-hmm.” Her hum was heady with desire.
My finger slipped through her center. She was soaked. Fucking soaked. My cock throbbed against my zipper.
“Oh, God.” She began that rocking motion of her hips again, this time against my hand. “I changed my mind. I need you inside. Now.”
“Patience.”
She shook her head. “Fuck me, West. Please. I need to feel you.”
“Not yet.” I curled a finger inside.
“West, please.” Her breath hitched.
“Not yet, baby.” I pressed the heel of my palm against her clit.
“This first. Then I’ll fuck you.”
She let out a frustrated growl, but her hips rocked faster against my hand, her limbs beginning to tremble as she chased her own release.
“More.”
I dragged my mouth across her neck, trailing kisses along the line of her jaw. My cock ached for her. My heart pounded as her moans filled the cabin. “You feel so good, Indy.”
She kept rolling those hips, fucking herself on my fingers. “More.”
I brought my finger to her clit, drawing circles over the bundle of nerves. That was all it took for her to tumble over the edge.
“Yes.” She exploded, her body trembling and shaking as she cried
out.
My name on her lips was magic.
It was my future. I wanted this every night. This woman in my arms. Her pleasure at my fingertips.
When she came down from her orgasm, sagging against me as she worked to regain her breath, I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.
We stripped each other out of our clothes, leaving them puddled on her bedroom floor. Then I covered her body with mine and sank inside that tight, wet heat.
“West.” She wrapped her legs around my back, her heels digging into the base of my spine to pull me deeper.
“Fuck, baby.” I pushed the hair away from her face and drowned in her caramel eyes.
We started slow, savoring every second until her legs and arms began to tremble again. Then I pistoned faster and harder, her breasts bouncing with every stroke.
I bent and took a nipple in my mouth, sucking hard on one and then the other. “You’re perfect, Indy. You’re so fucking perfect.”
“Harder, West. Please.” She clawed at my shoulders and writhed beneath me.
“That’s it, baby.” I moved faster. “Come for me.”
Her back arched just as my name left her lips, and she shattered.
Pulse after pulse, she came apart.
That clench of her pussy was my undoing. I gritted my teeth, fighting the shaking in my limbs. But as she squeezed harder, her orgasm drawing out longer and longer, it triggered my own.
I came on a roar, spilling inside her. I lost myself in Indya’s body until we were spent, and I collapsed, boneless, and wrapped her in my arms. My fingers dived into her hair. Any excuse to touch it, I was taking it.
She clung to me as our hearts thundered, our skin slick with sweat.
Then she buried her face in my neck and giggled.
It was almost as sweet as the sound of her coming on my name.
“What?” I shoved up to an elbow, pushing her hair away from her forehead.
She returned the gesture, shoving her fingers into the hair at my temple. “It hits me now and again that we have time. That we don’t have to rush every minute together. It’s surreal. I’m just . . . happy.”
“Me too.”
Nothing else mattered. Nothing but Indy.
“I’m hungry.” I eased our bodies apart and kissed the corner of her mouth. Then I climbed out of bed, taking her hand to help her up too.
She pulled on her panties and retrieved a pair of cutoff denim shorts from a drawer. She fished her phone from the jeans she’d been in earlier.
She pulled on her bra and my shirt, then buttoned it just over her heart.
The sleeves draped past her fingertips, so she rolled them up as she sauntered out of the bedroom.
I pulled on my jeans and a T-shirt she’d stolen earlier this week that was folded on top of her dresser. Then I found her in the kitchen,
standing in the open refrigerator.
“You don’t want to go to the campfire?”
She shrugged. “I kind of like it just us.”
“I kind of like it too.” I wrapped her up, kissing her temple as we both stared at the empty fridge shelves.
Just us. It was a luxury that wouldn’t last.
What would Dad say when he learned Indy and I were together? He and I had a long road to walk to rebuild our relationship, if that was even possible. If he had a problem with Indya, it might ruin us for good.
Mom would want to meet her sooner rather than later. Tara had probably shared a lot, and before long, I expected another visit from my mother to learn about the woman who’d captured my heart.
Then there were the logistics of work and the ranch. I still wasn’t sure how to wrap my head around the future and what that looked like.
But none of it mattered, not tonight.
Tonight was just for us.
“I need to go to the store,” she said. “There’s not much to work with here. But I could make breakfast for dinner.”
“Sounds good. What can I do?”
“Pour me a glass of wine.” She stood on her toes to kiss the underside of my jaw, then started hauling ingredients onto the counter.
She’d just cracked an egg into a bowl when a knock came at the door.
“Expecting anyone?” I asked.
“No. It’s probably someone from the lodge. Would you get it?” She glanced to her fingers, covered in egg whites and holding a broken shell.
“Sure, baby.” I fastened the last button on my jeans as I crossed the
room, then opened the door.
It wasn’t an employee on the porch.
It was Indya’s ex-husband.
Fucking Blaine.
