*Sadie drove out to the ranch after work, her heart racing. As soon as the plane touched down on the tarmac, the tension pulling on her shoulders since she’d arrived back in Denver had eased. Four days back in her hometown had been harder than she would’ve believed. She’d never put much credence on the saying that a person should listen to their body, but bit by bit, Sadie was beginning to understand it and listen.
A headache had dogged her every day, just below the surface but enough to worry her.
Like yesterday, when she called Jethro after a restless night’s sleep. Hearing his voice had eased the ache behind her eyes, a remnant from the argument with her parents the night before. James Jr. was nice if not a little too gung ho for her tastes. His entire focus was on what he wanted out of life, and she understood that, but there seemed to be no mention of love in his monologue about where she fit in. If she was reading him right, and she thought herself a pretty good judge of people, he seemed to assume she was part of the package he was putting together for his future. A package her parents knew more about than she did. Any hint she put forward otherwise only got brushed under the table as he laid out his plans.
She didn’t mind striving to get ahead, but Sadie was against stepping on everyone’s toes to get her own way. Perhaps she would’ve done the same thing once, but her focus seemed to have shifted, and she was blaming Marietta and Jethro for that. James didn’t have the same ideas of success, which made her nervous. She tried to push her interview, the arguments with family, and dates with James from her mind and focus on the man she was heading to see. All day at the office, Jethro was all she could think about.
She parked in front of the house and looked around for him, noticed Clumsy down at the barn, and headed that way. The old dog came bounding toward her, scattering the wandering chickens out of the way, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth and his tail wagging. He launched himself at her, his huge paws landing on her chest, throwing her backward. Sadie landed on her butt in the driveway, the wind knocked out of her. Before she could protest or cry out, a wet tongue swiped the side of her cheek and doggy breath rolled over her face as the dog whined his greeting. She flailed her hands, trying to save herself from the drool, but it was no use. Clumsy wasn’t going to let anything stop him from greeting his newest long-lost friend, even if it had only been four days since he’d seen her.
“Clumsy!” Jethro’s feet thundered on the driveway as he ran toward her, pulled the dog off, and dropped down on the ground. He cupped her cheek in his palm. “Sadie, talk to me.” The panic on his face gave her moment of joy, displaced as it might be. He cared more than he let on. “Are you hurt?” He ran his hand down her arm, picked up her hand, looking for blood or breaks, flicked off a tiny piece of stone that had broken her skin on her palm. “Talk to me.”
She let out a strangled laugh instead and shifted her butt to get away from the sharp rocks digging into her flesh. “Help me up.”
He pulled her to her feet, wiped the dirt and picked the grass from her hair, and wrapped his arms around her. “Stupid dog. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, honestly. I think he missed me.” She peeked over Jethro’s shoulder to see Clumsy hovering behind him looking frightened, his tail and ears down. She gave him a smile and a silent promise to cuddle as soon as Jethro calmed down and let her go.
Jethro looked down into her eyes. “He isn’t the only one.”
A lump rose in her throat. This was more than casual sex between them. The promise in his gaze made her braver than she thought she’d be. After all, this relationship was very new and they hadn’t mentioned commitment once. “Does this mean you’d like me to stay in Marietta?”
He swallowed, licked his lips, and Sadie almost took it back, but something made her keep silent while he worked out his words. She wasn’t going to rush the most important decision in her life.
“If you think this is what you want, I’ll be here waiting for you. But you’re the one who needs to make the decision because you’re the one giving up the most.”
She let out a shaky breath. Yes, she was the one giving up everything she thought she wanted, but wasn’t that what one did for love? “I’d like to think about it some more. Maybe talk it over with Layla. I need to make sure it’s not something either of us would regret.”
He stared at her lips, and she trembled in his arms. “I’ll never regret anything that involves you.”
*
An hour later, Jethro trailed his finger down the curve of her naked back and paused over the mark on her butt from her meet and greet with Clumsy. “That’s going to be one heck of a black bruise.”
Sadie rolled over and wrapped her hand around the back of his neck, bringing him down for a sensual kiss that made his toes curl. “I can’t feel a thing. I think you chased all thoughts of pain from my mind.”
“I aim to please.” He flopped back on the pillow and pulled her over onto his chest. Her shampoo teased his senses, the delicate soft floral tones bringing back a memory he thought he’d forgotten. His mom liked flowers. Grandpa had kept the garden in the front of the house going as best he could as a tribute to her. It was something Jethro needed to take care of. Weed it out and make it pretty again.
“I had a call from Layla while I was away.”
He tensed, waiting for her to continue. Tucked a wayward blond curl behind her ear and watched the color rise on her cheeks. “She offered me a partnership.” Sadie leaned up on her elbow and gazed down into his eyes.
Her eyes didn’t give anything away. His throat closed. Jethro swallowed, dared to ask the question. “Do you want it?” It would be different from the job she was offered in Denver. Would she wake up one day full of regret? Regret that she’d saddled herself to a small town on a whim.
A small frown appeared between her eyebrows. “I’m not sure. It’d only be part-time to start with. I’d need to help grow the business if I wanted to work more, so that would be on me. Or I could do something else if I had a mind to.” Her eyes crinkled at the edges with her smile and the frown lines disappeared.
“Like?”
“I could help you.” Sadie blushed and looked away.
Jethro took her chin in his hand and brought her face back to his. “You’d do that? Work on the ranch with me?”
Uncertainty skittered across her eyes. “It’s an idea. I mean, I understand I don’t know anything about what ranching entails, but I like it out here with you and I’m going to have some free time. Layla said I would work four days a week to start, so that gives me a long weekend to do what I want. And I want that to be with you.”
Jethro swallowed the lump in his throat. “Does that mean you want to move in with me, or are you thinking of staying in town?” He’d love nothing more than having her in his bed every night as they fell asleep together, but this between them was new and he didn’t want to rush her, even though he knew exactly what he wanted. “I don’t mind if you do both.”
Sadie bit her bottom lip. “Why don’t we do that? I can stay in town for now while I’m in the office and spend the weekends with you until we work out if this is what we both want.”
Jethro gave a whoop of joy and spun her over so that he was lying on top of her. “I like the way you think.” He dipped his head and kissed her. After a few breathless moments, he tried to put his sensible cap on.
“This thing between us, I’ll understand if you have doubts. I mean, we’re very different. Different upbringings, different demographics. I don’t want you to feel as though you’re missing out on what you could have had.”
Sadie traced her finger down his nose and stopped it on his lips, silencing him. “I have everything I want right here.” She shifted underneath him and rolled her hips against his.
“You know you’re playing with fire doing that, right?”
A saucy grin was her only response. And another shift of her hips.
Jethro used his knee to spread her thighs and felt the heat from her center against his hardening dick.
Sadie reached down between them and gripped him. Her fingers teased him, stoking from base to tip until he groaned. “I don’t think you should do that.”
She grinned again and placed the head of his dick against her hot flesh. Little by little, she thrust her hips and took him in. Once he was buried inside her, Jethro rested his forehead on hers.
“Jethro.” Sadie wiggled under him.
“Just let me enjoy the sensation of being inside you for a moment. Feel it, Sadie, how perfect we fit together.”
She slid her legs around the back of his knees and pressed him deeper, arching against him. Without conscious thought, his hips began to move.
“That’s so good.” Sadie kept her hands on his butt, driving the pace.
Driving him insane. He gave himself over to the need to devour her, to make her his.