Emily missed trail riding, even though Donovan was taking them through heavy brush. Sunflower was going to be a mess of burrs and mud when they got back. But it was a beautiful November afternoon and she was enjoying the sun and the seventy-degree weather, which reminded her of Ethiopia. The sights, however, couldn’t be any more different with the lush carpet of forest and the nearby pond.
“What time are your parents expecting you back?” he asked.
“They’re not. Mom roped Dad into going to the tree lighting committee meeting. December is coming up fast.”
“They need a committee for that?”
“In Last Stand, there’s a committee for everything.”
“So you can stay the night with me?”
“I’m not sure I’m ready to flaunt our relationship yet,” she said. “My dad’s pretty traditional. I don’t think he’d stand for a friends with benefits situation.”
“Is that what we are?” Donovan asked.
“I’m not sure we’re friends.”
He barked out a laugh. After a few moments of comfortable silence he said, “I wouldn’t mind a girlfriend.”
“I’m not sure I want to define us like that.”
“Why not?”
“It would have an expiration date on it, wouldn’t it? Three years and you’re gone.”
He disappointed her when he nodded. “That’s true.”
It was good to get that out in front now, so there wouldn’t be any hurt feelings. However, she wasn’t really wired for casual relationships. She’d had one boyfriend all through high school. One boyfriend all through college. And she’d had a budding relationship with one of the men working with her in the village in West Tigray. She still kept in contact with all her exes. Maybe she could do that with Donovan. At least until the next boy came along. Except Donovan wasn’t a boy. He was a very sexy man and she was afraid she might not get over him quickly if they got involved. She had to protect her heart. He was all wrong for her anyway, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a good time while it lasted.
Sex with Donovan was fun, like zip-lining and off-roading.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to fool around,” she said.
“I was worried there for a moment.” Donovan grinned.
“As long as we keep it casual.” Casual sounded safe. It sounded like something mature adults could agree on. It was a boundary for not getting hurt.
“I don’t share, though.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“If you’re with me, then you’re with me. I won’t be sleeping with anyone but you, and you damn well won’t be screwing around with anyone else either.”
Her lips twitched. “That sounds like you’re staking a claim, cowboy.”
“Maybe I am.”
“I’ll think about it.”
He whirled to look at her and she blew him a kiss. Closing his eyes, he muttered, “This is a mistake.”
“It’ll be a fun mistake,” she agreed.
They heard the snorting and bugling of elks up ahead. “Let’s see how close we can get,” he said, urging his horse forward. They clomped through the brush and mud, but it was clear that there wasn’t a way they could go much farther. “Let’s tie off back there and go forward on foot.”
“Is it going to be safe for them?” Ever since the hog episode, Sunflower was a little squirrelly in the woods. But if Donovan’s horse was with her, she would take her cues from him.
Donovan unpacked the rifle and extra ammunition. “I’ve got it covered.”
She grimaced and helped secure the horses to trees in a small clearing. “You’re not going to shoot an elk today, are you?”
“Not unless you think our horses can carry six hundred pounds back to the ranch house.”
“I’m going to barf if you don’t knock it off.” She stayed behind Donovan as he cleared the way for them. He moved quickly and silently for a big man. Once they pushed through a few overgrown areas, they were in a clearing with a large pond. She heard a barking sound and Donovan motioned her to be quiet. Mewling sounds and another bugle confirmed that there were both cows and bulls up ahead.
He led them toward a tree and she recognized the makeshift steps he had hammered into the trunk.
“Up,” he said in a low voice and encouraged her to climb with a friendly hand on her ass. Oh, was that how he wanted to play? This tree stand was sturdy, but didn’t have any of the same amenities as the other one. Donovan followed quickly up after her and set his rifle down where it was in easy reach. He immediately began to open the back of the trail camera that had been pointing down toward the pond. He slipped the chip into a reader and sat with his back to the tree.
Cuddling up to him, she peered into the viewer. Donovan wrapped his arm around her and together they watched as he fast-forwarded through the last forty-eight hours. “Bingo,” he said, his voice low and intimate.
On screen she saw the elks gathering around the pond, but it was impossible to tell if one of them was their ghost or not. There were different shades of darkness of all the bulls and cows. One was paler than the others and her lack of antlers showed her to be a cow.
“It could be her,” she said, feeling excitement tickling her stomach. It would be good to see a white elk again. She and her sisters had always thought seeing one was good luck. The Three Sisters Ranch could use some good luck right about now. Emily looked down at the pond, but there wasn’t any activity there.
“Want to wait?” he asked.
“Won’t our scent scare them off?”
“Not this far up.”
“Do we have to be silent?”
“If we’re not disruptive, we could have a conversation. What do you want to talk about, sweetheart?”
“Who says I want to talk?” She grinned at him and pressed her mouth against his.
Kissing him was a lot more fun than fighting with him, that was for sure.
“I’m assuming this means you’re done thinking about it?” he said after a long, sensual kiss that curled her toes.
She rested her cheek on his shoulder. “Do you want to sign another three-year lease—this time with me?”
“Only if it’s exclusive.”
“I can be exclusive. Are you sure you want to risk falling in love with me and having to stay in one place for the rest of your life?”
“Sounds like paradise,” he said.
Emily thought he was being a sarcastic jerk, but there was a wistful tone in his voice that made her look up at him, and in that moment, she saw truth and vulnerability in his gray eyes.
“What’s stopping you?”
He tried to distract her with a mind-melting kiss and with one of his hands on her breast and the other one on her ass, she had to admit it was working. But then a loud bark, almost underneath them, jolted them apart. While they had been kissing, the herd had sauntered into their area. Looking around, they saw shades of brown and copper. The noisy bull rubbed against their tree and one of the stairs popped off.
“Cock blocker,” Donovan muttered.
“I don’t see her,” Emily said, disappointed.
“Tell me the truth,” he said. “Does she really exist or are all of you playing a joke on the new guy?”
“I’ll tell you the truth if you tell me one of your secrets.”
He tensed. “Who says I have secrets?”
“You’re practically the archetype of the mysterious stranger.”
Donovan went in to kiss her again, but she stopped him with a reluctant hand on his chest. “Are you in, or are you going to chicken out?”
“All right, you want to play twenty questions instead of making out, let’s have at it. Is the ghost elk real?”
“I was telling you the truth before. I’ve seen a snow-white elk twice in my life.”
“Where?”
Emily thought hard. It had been so long ago. “It was on a pasture land. I don’t remember which one. Nate might remember.”
“He doesn’t. Or he doesn’t want me to get close to the pasture lands.”
“No, he’d tell you. He trusts you.”
“Why?” Donovan scoffed.
“Why wouldn’t he? And that’s a question I want to know, so don’t be flip about the answer.”
“Sneaky,” he said, and rubbed her arm. “I don’t come from good people. Can I leave it at that?”
“You owe me two more questions, so I’m going to ask you to elaborate on it. What do you mean by that?”
Donovan looked like he’d swallowed a lemon. “Can I kiss you again before I answer?”
“You’re not going to distract me for long.” Emily climbed into his lap and took his face in her hands. She kissed him as if they were the last two people in the world, as if she was trying desperately not to fall in love with him.
Groaning, he held her tight as they rubbed their bodies together. God, she wanted him. Thirty feet in the air, she forgot all about the bugling and snorting elks and concentrated on how his body felt under her. Emily rocked against him, loving the hard feel of him between her thighs.
“I’m going to get off if we don’t stop,” she whispered against his mouth.
“Why the fuck would we stop?” He claimed her mouth again, his hands busy under her shirt. This time, she was wearing a bra because not wearing one on horseback hurt like a bitch.
Emily used his body to come, arching against him while his mouth branded her with hot, passionate kisses. Her head thrown back, she rode out the sensations clutching his shoulders desperately. “Don’t let me fall.” She laughed shakily, suddenly too dizzy to move.
“Never.” He tucked her in close.
After a moment to come down from the delicious endorphins still spinning wildly through her, she unbuttoned his pants and slid his zipper down.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his breath catching as she leaned over and pulled his cock out of his underwear.
“Figure it out.” Emily licked the head of it tasting salt and warm man. “Mmm,” she moaned and took him in her mouth.
“Fuck,” Donovan ground out, tensing and thrusting his hips up.
She took him deeper and held on to the shaft of his cock while she slowly slid her mouth up and down his length. He wrapped her ponytail around his fist and tugged slightly. Emily liked that and went faster.
“God,” he sighed. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
She didn’t plan on it, not when he reacted like this. He was stiff and shaking, his breathing irregular. Swirling her tongue around the tip, Emily teased him. He pulled back on her hair until she looked up at him. His gray eyes had darkened with passion.
“Take off your pants,” he growled.
“No.” She went back to sucking on him. With her luck, they’d kick her jeans off the tree stand and she’d be bare-assed in the middle of nowhere. They could save the lovemaking until they got back. Right now, she was enjoying herself too much to stop.
“Emily,” he choked out.
“Mmm.” She liked when he called out her name.
“Emily,” he said louder.
Oh yeah, scream it, baby. She went faster and sucked harder.
Donovan groaned long and loud. His fingers loosened in her hair and he came in short, jerky bursts. Swallowing and then licking him once last time, she rose up to kiss him.
“I saw her,” he said.
“What?” She whipped her head to the pond and then looked around.
Donovan chuckled as he fixed himself up. “She wandered through, east to west.” He pointed.
“Are you shitting me?” she hissed. “I missed her.”
“I tried to tell you.”
“You didn’t try that hard,” she said tartly.
He kissed her hard on the mouth. “No, I didn’t. I was enjoying myself too much. Holy hell, where did you learn how to drive a man crazy like that?”
“Girl Scouts.”
Donovan choked on a laugh. “What?”
“Actually, it was my crazy summer with that biker gang. Is that better? Jesus, Donovan, what kind of question is that?”
“Give me a break, you blew my mind. I don’t have a lot of gray matter left.”
“Apparently.” She frowned at him, but couldn’t be mad at him. He really looked dazed. “Did you really see her?”
“Clear as day. You were amazing, but she’s pure white and caught my eye.”
“I can’t believe I missed her.”
“We’ll stay awhile longer. She might saunter through again. Come here, darlin’. I want you in my arms.”
That sounded good to her and she cuddled next to him, hugging him tight. “You’re not off the hook, you know.”
He sighed deep. “I figured.”
“I’m waiting for you to explain what you meant about your family not being good people.”
Playing with her hair, Donovan said, “Do you know what a grifter is?”
“A con man?”
“My father was their king. He should have been a movie star. He could take on any role and make you believe anything. He could convince you he was a beggar with a heart of gold who just needed one more chance to live his best life. Or he could be old money looking to invest his fortune in a scheme, only he needed your money as well to make you both rich beyond your wildest dreams. He stole from a lot of people. He hurt a lot of people. He had his hand in everything from drugs to espionage. He’s a piece of work.”
Emily rubbed her cheek on his arm. “You’re not your father.”
“I never was that talented or I might have been. My mother was from the streets. She could pick your pocket while you were wearing the tightest jeans or steal the rings from your fingers when she shook your hand. She could have been a magician. She enchanted you from the moment you laid eyes on her. They met when Charlie caught her taking his wallet. Instead of breaking her fingers, he married her. They had me.”
Donovan dangled her keys in front of her face. She slapped her front pocket and of course they were gone. She hadn’t felt him move. Hadn’t heard the keys jingle. “That’s a cool party trick.”
“It’s makes working the rodeo a lot more interesting. That’s how I grew up. We moved from town to town, changing cars and locations when things got too hot. I never went to school. We were never in one place for very long. But by the time I was ten, I could play a mark like a fiddle. Who needed schools or jobs when the money was right there for the taking? Then one day, we had a house in Colleyville. I was enrolled in high school. I was fourteen and had never attended a day of school in my life. But I was a good actor with fake transcripts so I played my part well.”
“What was your part?”
“I was to befriend the son of a prominent computer engineer. Samuel Barton was a geeky kid, so it was easy. Too easy. We hung out at each other’s houses. We got really close. On sleepovers, I would memorize their floor plan. I knew where the safe was, where his mother hid her jewelry, and where she kept the roll of bills she hid from her husband. But we weren’t after money or fencible items. I didn’t know what the plan was. My father didn’t tell me. Weeks turned into months and I entered my sophomore year of high school. My folks and I played our parts so well, I started to believe I was Jared King and my father was a financial planner.”
Donovan went so still and quiet, Emily raised her head just to make sure Ghost hadn’t come back into view.
“What happened?”
He let out a shuddering breath. “He fleeced the wrong man. The cryptocurrency scheme he was running was starting to collapse and instead of cutting and running, my dad got greedy. He brought my mother and me over to the Bartons’ place to appeal to Samuel’s dad that all he needed was more time. That everything was on the up and up.” Donovan shook his head. “Even though the mark was a computer engineer, he figured out the scam. He had been expecting my father to come alone.”
Emily gripped him tightly. She didn’t want to hear the end of the story, but Donovan continued to speak in an emotionless, flat voice, and she knew that he was far away. He was back in that rich neighborhood in Colleyville.
“He wanted his money back. When my father tried to spin the situation, the mark pulled a gun. They started screaming at each other. My mother grabbed my arm and tried to leave, but there were men, bodyguards, blocking the door. We backed up. It happened so fast then. Samuel flew down the stairs yelling for his dad to stop. My father shoved me at the mark and tried to run past him. My mother lunged for me. The gun went off. When it was all over, my mother was shot. She took a bullet meant for me while my father escaped out the back door.”
“Holy shit, Donovan.” Emily climbed into his lap and pressed her face against his. She would do anything to bring him back to her, but he was still in that far-off place.
“Before she bled out on the carpet, she convinced the mark that she had no idea what was going on. That we were innocent and she didn’t understand why the mark shot her. She was so convincing, one of the bodyguards who had blocked us from leaving started to cry. She died before the ambulance came. I thought it was a brilliant con. Her best yet. Even I couldn’t find her pulse. I couldn’t wait until we could talk about how she did it. So I acted my best, wailing and crying, trying to sell her performance. It wasn’t until her funeral, when I saw her in the open casket, that I truly believed it was real.” He laughed shakily, tears flowing down his cheeks. “I had asked the funeral director to give us a few minutes alone.” He wiped his face with his sleeve. “I leaned into the casket and asked her what our next move was. ‘Come on, Mom, we’re alone. Okay fine, don’t break character. Twitch a finger—you’re freaking me out.’ And then I touched her.” Donovan shuddered.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“It was a long time ago,” he said. “Fuck, I’ve never told anyone this.”
“What happened after that?”
“I could have walked away scot-free. My mother had died protecting me in more ways than one.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
He shrugged. “That’s debatable. But I couldn’t just walk away from what happened. I knew how it would go if I did. I would go to the library in the next town and wait for him to show up, like we had arranged if anything ever went bad. That was the way we would find each other again. Then he’d spin me a line of bullshit and we would lay low for a while until he found another mark. If my mother hadn’t died, I probably would have done just that. It was the only life I knew.”
“But your father put you in the line of fire to save his own ass.”
Donovan nodded. “I was the expendable one. I wasn’t as talented as my mother or as smart as my father.”
“That’s bullshit.” Emily tried to keep her voice down, so she wouldn’t startle the elk, but she couldn’t help it. “You were his son.”
“I think ‘father’ was just another role he played. I couldn’t let him go unpunished for my mother’s death. I lawyered up and traded information for immunity. My father was eventually caught after I gave the cops every alias I could think of and showed them where they could find secret stashes all over Texas. I testified against him at his trial, emancipated myself, and changed my last name to Link. They threw the book at him. My father has been in prison ever since.” Kissing her on the top of her head, he said shakily, “So that’s what I meant when I said I don’t come from good people. I bet you’re sorry you asked.”
“Not even close.”
They hung around for a few more hours, but the white elk never came back in sight. Donovan didn’t say anything more. Emily had been content to hold on to him and he was so quiet, a few times she had to check and see if he had fallen asleep. Each time, though, he was staring off into space with a thousand-yard stare.
When it was time to head back to the ranch, Emily was desperate to reach him. Sunflower was eager to get back to the barn, so the ride wasn’t a good time to talk. But as they were putting the horses in their stalls, Emily couldn’t stand the silence any longer.
“Do you want some company tonight?”
“I think I need some space. I hadn’t expected to unload my torrid past on you like that.” He gave her a rueful smile.
“I’m glad you trusted me enough to tell me. If it means anything, I trust you, too. And I think your past doesn’t need to color your future. I know you’re a good man, an honest one. You don’t have to keep running from your past.”
He finished brushing his horse and gave him feed and water. “I used to think you were right. But I got a letter from my father—from prison—the other day. He knows where I am and what I’m doing. I don’t know how. He always seems to track me if I stay in one place for long. One of these days he’s going to con his way into getting parole and he’s going to show up here. He’s bad news and I don’t want to ever see him again. And I certainly don’t want you or your family to be involved with him. He can’t be trusted.”
“So that’s why you’re not going to stay?”
“That’s why, sweetheart. It’s got nothing to do with you.” He rubbed her shoulder. “The Lincoln men are nothing but trouble.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing you’re not a Lincoln, Donovan Link.” She hugged him and after a moment, his arms went around her and he hugged her back.