“So what are we doing today?”
Kira fit perfectly in the crook of Pax’s arm as he trailed his fingertips up and down her bare side. That dip in her waist was an area that couldn’t be explored enough.
“I have to go to the stables and meet Tate to go over the new plans,” he told her. “I talked with some guys yesterday about getting more horses. Can’t have a dude ranch without better stables and more horses.”
“I could go get the rest of the things from the cabin and get it all cleaned up since I’m staying here.”
Pax jerked and shifted so he could look her in the eye. “You’ll do nothing. I’ll get your things and we have someone to clean. You think I’d expect you to do anything like that?”
“I didn’t say you expected me to, but I’m offering to help where I can.”
She rose up onto her elbows, holding his gaze the entire time. Like hell he’d let her lift a finger around here. She’d come to the ranch as a guest and turned into far more. No way would she be putting in any type of work while he was in charge.
“We’ve got it under control,” he assured her, placing a kiss on the tip of her nose. “Why don’t you take a ride or read one of your books.”
A smile spread across her face. “Yes, the books. I don’t expect you to pay for my things while I’m here, but that was the sweetest gesture anyone has ever done for me.”
“Seriously?” Why wasn’t he surprised? “You’ve dated some assholes.”
Kira’s sweet laughter filled the foreign room. He wanted her in his place, with his things, on his turf. He knew she’d fit right in with his house. He could easily see her there, her books on the coffee table, some ugly ass tree in the corner with her variety of decor, and her trying out all those new recipes in his state-of-the-art kitchen. She’d love his home secluded in the mountains of Wyoming, and he found the more he thought of her there, the more anxious he was to show off his real life.
He’d tell her everything tonight and ask if she wanted to take all of her things there after the first of the year and the New Year’s party. Maybe spend a few weeks there and explore what they’d started.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, her brows drawn in. “You’ve got a weird look on your face. Does this have anything to do with what you wanted to tell me last night?”
“Yeah, we got distracted.”
Distracted seemed to be the theme surrounding their entire relationship. He hadn’t been himself since the day he’d seen her wrestling that pathetic excuse for a tree off the top of her car. He’d never once let anything come between him and his career, and he still had his goals lined up. He just might take a different path to get to everything he wanted for his future.
“Do you want to talk now?” she asked.
“Tonight,” he promised. “It’s something important and I don’t want to rush before I have to meet Tate.”
She sat up and the sheet fell away from her breasts and puddled at her waist. He couldn’t help where his eyes roamed. All of that silky skin on display and he knew each and every place to touch her to make her surrender to anything and everything he wanted.
“How soon do you have to meet him?” she asked, stretching her arms high above her head with a soft, sultry sigh. “You’re not leaving me just yet, are you?”
In a fast move, he had his hands around her waist and flipped her so he was on his back and she straddled him.
“Take what you need,” he offered, gripping her hips. “Tate isn’t going anywhere.”
There was nothing more important than proving to Kira that she had become a priority in his life. He didn’t know the next steps here and he had to tread lightly because the last thing he wanted was for either of them to wind up hurt.
The moment her body started to move, Pax lost all thoughts and let himself get lost in the moment. He’d worry about next steps later...much later.
Kira pulled her knit cap lower over her ears as she stepped into the stables. After she and Pax had quickly, yet effectively distracted one another, he’d gotten a phone call from Brandon that he needed to take. Kira offered to head on down to let Tate know he’d be right there.
And she wouldn’t mind getting another chance at petting these beautiful horses again. Once Pax got here, she’d head to her cabin and finish getting the rest of her things and the groceries. Despite what he said, she could pitch in and clean. This might have started as a vacation, but quickly turned into so much more. She felt invested in this property now.
“Hey, Miss Lee.” Tate stepped from the tack room and tipped his brown hat to her. “Warming up out there, isn’t it?”
Warming up? Her nether regions were still frozen, so no.
“I’ve been warmer,” she chuckled. “Pax will be down soon. He had a quick call he had to take.”
“No worries. Always plenty of work to keep me busy here.”
He grabbed a pitchfork from the wall where several tools hung and started toward one of the empty stalls.
“It’s nice having you here.” Tate moved into the stall and stabbed a pile of hay with the metal tines. “Mr. Hart deserves some happiness in his life. Since being pulled back here after Hank’s death and then the inheritance... It’s been rough on all of us.”
Hank. He must be the grandfather. That would explain a good bit. Kira couldn’t imagine inheriting a dying business and then trying to breathe new life into it.
“Still not sure what Hank was thinking,” Tate went on as he continued to scoop the hay into a wheelbarrow. “Leaving all of his ranches and homes to successful men who don’t even live here. Calling all those guys back to Willowvale Springs, uprooting their lives. Hank must’ve seen that they had the money and potential to get his places where they used to be. I’m just glad I can hang around and help Pax.”
Money? Pax had money to fix this place up? And who were all of these successful men? Likely Pax’s friends she was going to meet at the party. But just how much about Pax did she not know?
“I’m new to all of this.” She tried to play like she knew a little, but she realized she knew nothing. She wanted more info without seeming like she was digging. “Will a dude ranch be really expensive to get going fully again?”
“I believe Pax said he’d use about a million to start and then see where things went.”
Another shovel into the barrow while Kira leaned against the frame, completely blindsided by the staggering number she’d just heard. A million dollars? Pax wasn’t just wealthy, the man was rich. She’d had no idea, not that it mattered, but she sure as hell wished he’d trusted her with his personal life and opened up to her. Money never meant anything to her—hadn’t she already told him that?
“I guess the question is now whether Pax will stay or head back to Spain,” Tate went on, clearly just thinking out loud. “That man needs to slow down and enjoy life before he works himself to death. He was always like that when he worked here as a teen. I’m not surprised he’s still the same. He was destined for bigger things than a small town.”
Kira’s knees weakened and she wished she could take a seat. All of this information flooding her, and not from Pax himself, had her list of questions growing even more.
While they’d never said they owed each other anything, she couldn’t help but wonder why she’d felt so comfortable spilling her heart to him while he’d kept his closed and guarded. Perhaps that’s what he’d been wanting to tell her last night and today. He could see she’d gotten fully invested and he was not. He was trying to break it to her easy.
Well, she wouldn’t beg for any man to want to be with her, to trust her with his secrets and his fear, or hope he had the same level of feelings she did.
“Spain is a far cry from Wyoming,” she murmured.
Tate snorted. “There’s nowhere else I’d want to be than right here. I just hope like hell if he does leave, he finds the right property manager.”
Tate continued to express his concerns if Pax ended up back in Spain, but Kira didn’t even know Spain was on the table. Here she was worried about going back to Portland and all this time Pax was considering going across the globe.
Obviously what she assumed was a growing relationship was clearly one-sided.
Her chest tightened, her throat clogged with the impending emotion that only led to tears. She had no one to blame but herself. He’d never promised her anything, he’d never alluded to the fact he wanted more. She’d just assumed...
“Sorry I was late.”
That voice behind her had Kira pulling in a deep, albeit shaky breath, and squaring her shoulders.
“Got plenty to do,” Tate stated, never breaking stride with his work. “Miss Lee has been keeping me company.”
Pax’s boots shuffled along the concrete floor, but she couldn’t turn around. She wasn’t ready to face him just yet and had no idea the look she’d have on her face.
“Is that so?” Pax asked as he came to stand beside her. “Nice to have a pretty woman around, isn’t it?”
The first time he’d mentioned her being pretty to Tate, Kira had gotten all those silly butterflies like a teenager with a crush. How ridiculous she felt now.
“I was just telling Miss Lee how you’re really invested in this ranch,” Tate stated, resting his arm on top of the pitchfork as he faced them. “Not just anyone who inherited this mess would be so willing to sink their time and money into making it whole again. Nice to see you kept your humble roots once you got successful.”
Pax’s swift intake of breath had Kira blinking up at him. His eyes moved from Tate to her and that muscle clenched in his jaw.
“Yeah,” she murmured. “That’s nice you’re donating your own money. A million? That’s really amazing, Pax.”
“Kira—”
“I need to get back to the house and make some calls.” Like finding a new house ASAP. “I’ll see you guys later.”
Pax said her name again, but she kept moving. Fixing her eyes on the opening of the stable, she put one foot in front of the other, cursing herself when her vision blurred and a lone tear slid down her cheek.