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AVERY WAS TRYING TO explain herself, but did he hear her? She doubted it.
“I don’t think that you understood why it was perfectly normal for me to talk to my father without cluing you in about the whole scope of the conversation beforehand,” said Stryker.
Avery crossed her arms in protest. “I do understand, Stryker, but you were still telling someone about my personal life.”
Stryker was pacing their large bedroom and stopped. “I really want to spank your sassy little ass.” It was said with more frustration than heat.
“Why? Because I don’t agree or because I am not allowing you to go on the way you want without any input from me?”
He seemed to consider her question for a moment before sitting on the bed patting the space beside him. Avery took the invitation and sat next to him. “Janna is your best friend, right?”
“You know she is.”
“Right, and you talk to her about things going on in your life.” Avery looked at him with suspicion but allowed him to continue. She nodded. “And she’s important to you.”
Avery sighed in exasperation. “Sure. She’s my best friend.”
He was on a mission. His eyes were intense, and his stare never faltered. They mesmerized Avery when he was like this, drawing her into his reasoning vortex.
“Okay, and are you saying that as your best friend, you have not mentioned us being together?” She wondered if the uneasiness in her belly was the noose tightening.
“Well, she could see with her own eyes.” She’d cut him off in his pursuit of being right.
“Really, because we have not gone into public together as a couple, outside of the ranch.” Avery frowned as he continued. “Does she know we sleep together?”
A short laugh burst. “Yes, of ...”
“Of course? And who told her that?” Avery shrugged but didn’t answer. “Don’t know or won’t say?”
“I mean, everyone needs someone to confide in, Stryker.”
“Bingo.” His voice deepened, and the volume dropped, taking her stomach with it. “I confide in my father—Até.”
Avery’s strident voice fell away. Stryker had been arguing with her over this for more time than it warranted, and Avery knew she needed to acknowledge he was right. She should allow him to talk to his father without making it a federal case. It was his parent, after all.
Avery could feel Stryker watch her as she worked through everything, and the fact that he didn’t say one word while she did it, endeared him to her even more. He had finally gotten through to her. Avery was embarrassed she’d made such a big deal of everything.
Shouldn’t she be happy that he was so close to his father? It meant they had a good relationship. It told her that he could go for advice when needed. He wasn’t too proud to admit he needed help. And it meant that he was comfortable letting his parents in on them. That was good, right? It should be seen as good.
“You’re right. You should be able to knock things around with your dad. I’m sorry.”
And just that fast, all the bluster was gone from his responses, the heat released. “Thank you. But it brought up something else we need to figure out. Did you really think I was lying to you when I told you who was on the phone with me? Is that what you believe about me, that I would lie to you?”
A sudden sob was released, and Avery shrugged. “Maybe. I was angry and hurt when I heard you. I worried about who in town would know about our dynamics.”
“The spanking, the punishments, the funishments—”
“Yes, the kinky sexy time. And about what my brother did. The whole thing.”
“And that right there is the problem. Not that we do kinky fuckery, but that your brother’s reputation might be tarnished.” Avery had come to dread that tone.
“No, I mean yes, but all of it. I don’t want people to know you tie me up to do kinky things and that I let you. Or that you spank my ass when I don’t do what you expect from me, like put myself in risky situations. All of it is private.”
“Well, you can relax. I told Até about Ben because it is our family ranch. I told him about you because I have taken ownership of you, and I don’t intend to release you. I wanted them to know it’s getting serious. It’s important to me that they’re part of this even though they are in Ireland.”
“Is it? Getting serious, I mean?”
“It is for me. Is it not serious with you?”
“You have a way of messing with us that ends up with me being all tangled up in you.”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Stryker said.
Stryker kissed her full on the mouth, pushing her to lie on the bed. Lifting his head long enough to roll her hip and slap her bottom, he took her lips again, plundering their ripeness. Her answering moan was a call to his inner self to take her. He needed the vindication and the control over Avery, over them. She had pushed against him when he tried to take care of her, tried to keep her safe and that had made him crazy.
Her spanking was going to be a doozy, but for now, he’d check in with her, and if she was okay, he would make sweet love to her. Anything more vigorous would have to come after she received the spanking she had worked so hard to earn. Just thinking about his hand on her sexy ass made him hard. He dropped another quick kiss, this time wet and a little sloppy. Then he settled his back against the headboard and pulled her into his chest with his left arm.
“Tell me how you really are, baby.” He kissed her temple.
She snuggled in. “My head still hums a little. I’m sorry about everything. About the way I didn’t trust you. I should have expected better from you, not accused you, but,” she shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess my need to be loved by you is so intense that I’m afraid of anything or anyone that might persuade you from keeping me. Pathetic, I know and believe me, no one is more distraught and revolted by that needy statement than I am. I guess I am more insecure than even I knew. Ignore me. I don’t feel well.”
“Your head hurts, you don’t feel well, and you’re worried I will discard you like yesterday’s news, and yet you still argue with me. You disobey the doctor and me and think you don’t deserve your cute butt heated red hot. Interesting.”
“Can’t we just chalk it up to me not being myself?”
“Certainly.” Avery relaxed in his arms, her tightly held body going limp as she leaned into him. “But that would be a lie. The fact that you feel off simply makes you more vulnerable to speaking your mind, showing your insecurities. I can understand why, as your feelings begin to reach closer to how I feel about you, a certain amount of commitment is necessary, and you have had the experience of being abandoned.”
“No, no, that isn’t the problem. I’m over that.”
“How can you ever truly be over the loss of your mother? You can accept it, go on, live your life, but there is always a small part of you that remembers in all things that she chose to leave her family, leave you. Questions like what caused her to leave me, and will I do that to my family? Can I love deeply enough to stay with them, and does Stryker feel committed? Those and more must crowd your mind. Am I right?”
She whispered, “Yes. I haven’t let them come out because I’m afraid of them.”
His other arm wrapped around her. “I can only show you that as far as I’m concerned, you will always be a part of me if you want to be. I won’t let you go until I’ve done all I can to keep you. As for trusting me, you will have to wait and see to be convinced I’m in it for the long haul.”
“I believe you believe your words, but...”
“The answer is yes, sir.
She nodded, then parroted him. “Yes, sir.”
“Good.” He kissed the top of her head. “But you are still getting roasted when you’re feeling better.”
“Stryker.” One hand connected with her thigh. “What?” she asked indignantly.
“Is that how you address me when we’re alone?”
“It is when I’m having a serious conversation.”
Another pop of hand meeting fleshy thigh resounded in the room. “Serious conversation is over. How about when you’re in hot water, and we’re alone?”
He was relieved to see her tetchiness melt away before his eyes. She offered him a timid smile. “Daddy.”
“That’s my girl.”
“Now, let’s get you ready for bed. We’re both tired, and I have an early day tomorrow.”
He told himself that if she didn’t go to sleep quickly, he would have his wicked way with her as planned, but she was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. She was exhausted. He should have made her take a nap after lunch. The funny thing about permanency was sex wasn’t the primary focus now. Not that he didn’t think about her in sexy positions all the time, but he had other obligations to their relationship to add to the mix. He was building their life now, their future. And wasn’t that a game-changer?
While he was tired, Stryker couldn’t go right to sleep. He watched Avery sleep and acknowledged to himself that she really was his, and if he played all his cards right, she would continue to be his. He wasn’t quite ready for a full commitment, but neither was she. He wanted to strengthen their connection, build their ties to a much stronger level. And then he wanted to bind her to him so tightly, there was no escaping.
How he planned on doing that was anyone’s guess. His father had some ideas, but really, he had to do this on his own. He alone knew his inner heart and how he wanted their relationship to go. Kink was the extra, the fun stuff, not the necessary things to make this work. Avery’s needs came first. And he had to make her buy into that concept.
She hesitated in calling him Daddy, and he understood that. It wasn’t for everyone. If she ultimately didn’t want that as part of their dynamic, then fine, they would dispense with it, but she was trying it out for now. Stryker almost cramped with arousal every time she called him Daddy. It was an honor to be seen as the man who would take care of her, protect her... and yes, in a way, he possessed her and wanted more of her. Expected her to be the best she could be. That was how he saw his role besides making wild, passionate love to her whenever possible.
But Avery possessed him as well. She controlled his happiness by being happy herself. Not as a child would be blissfully, ignorantly happy, they had both lived too long to think you retained that level of innocence nor would they want it, but in a contented, satisfied kind of way that only experiencing a secure life gave you.
Avery’s lack of fear in standing up to him from day one hooked him. Her determination to be heard and do right enthralled him. And her ability to accept when she was wrong was priceless. She was a treasure to be hoarded and protected at all costs, including from her own brother.
Her harlequin face was fully bruised now. What Stryker wouldn’t do to take Ben into a field and beat him to a pulp, but he had agreed with Carson and Seamus to leave Ben to them. It was the right thing to do, but if Ben touched Avery again, there would be nothing to slow Stryker down or deter him from beating the man to a bloody spot on the grass.
In fact, he wasn’t sure he could stay in a relationship with a woman, no matter how much she completed him if she was willing to be used by her brother or anyone continually. Nor if she put herself in harm’s way purposely because she refused to see the danger. He prayed that it was no longer an issue. He still held out hope that she would press charges.
He turned and looked at her poor, bruised cheek and moved the wisp of soft brown hair that had slid down over her face. She wiggled and whined in her sleep. He wanted to make love to her, or at least give her an orgasm, but her head really did ache. He could see the pain in her eyes whenever she had looked at him today. If he could take away the misery, he would, but all he could do at this point was keep her on the headache tablets and hope they worked well enough to get rid of the pounding.
Leaning down to kiss her lips one last time, he wrapped her into his arms and drew her to his chest. She would move in the night. She rarely allowed him to spoon her or hold her all evening in this way, but he could go to sleep like this. He wanted this woman for good and always. Now to convince her. He was getting closer, but he still had a way to go. Stryker drifted off into a contented sleep.
Jerking awake after a sound sleep, Stryker heard the persistent knocking on the door. “Who the hell is that?”
“Seamus. Carson said some trucks have driven onto the ranch. They’re unidentified with angry inhabitants. Get up, man.” Seamus went clamoring down the stairs.
Avery sat up in the bed, groggy and reaching for Stryker’s warm body. “Sorry, baby, but something is going on outside. Nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep.”
Dropping a kiss on her forehead, he pushed her back down under the cover and slid out of bed. Someone was going to have hell to pay for this. He grabbed his boots and jeans before closing the door softly, only to encounter Renee dressing in the hallway.
“Stop right there, missy. You turn around and get back in bed. We don’t know what is going on out there, and you will not put yourself in harm’s way.”
“You don’t know there’s anything out there to worry about.” A gunshot was heard. Avery screamed.
“Dammit, get in there and keep Avery calm. And for God’s sake, stay away from the windows. I can’t worry about you two and take care of whatever is going on outside.”
“That’s so unfair.”
Carson called up from the bottom of the step. “But you will do as you’re told, young lady. You two go back to sleep even.” Carson ignored Renee’s huff of dissatisfaction and turned to Stryker. “We need you to hurry. Not sure what is going on, but nothing good.”
Carson watched as Stryker started down the stairs before turning to head for the front door. Both determined men were gone in mere seconds.
***
AVERY PUT HER ROBE on and followed Renee down to the kitchen. Five minutes and it would be five in the morning. No use going back to sleep, but she was happy to notice her head didn’t hurt. Sore, but no headache. Good, maybe life could go back to normal again. Avery started the coffee, and Renee began to make waffle batter. Both women kept their eyes peeled for movement outside, for any sign of the guys.
“They’ll be okay, right?” asked a worried Avery.
Renee snorted. “Have you seen those men lately? Nothing is getting past them.”
“Right, of course, it’s just that you keep looking outside like something might be wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just anxious to find out what happened.”
Nothing more was said as the women finished prepping for breakfast and sat down to drink coffee. Avery, who normally drank tea, gratefully lifted the cup of fragrant elixir to her lips. Coffee carried with it a darker, heavier embodiment than tea. It wasn’t that it was a more serious drink, quite the contrary, but the connotation that went with tea was getting through and getting on, but it was more emotional with coffee. Probably why the English drank more tea than coffee. Not so emotional or heavy, but it got the job done.
Avery walked to the front entryway, and finding she was too anxious to restrain herself, she opened the door but not the screen. Standing there, trying to peer out into the half-light, she heard what she was waiting to hear: that dark, gravelly voice chastising her.
“That better not be my Avery Rose disobeying me again.”
“Stryker?” she whispered as her heart pounded so hard her chest hurt.
He pulled the screen open. “What are you doing standing in the doorway? I left you in bed.”
“I know, but I didn’t want to stay there. I was worried.”
He grabbed her around the waist and kissed her gently. “You don’t mind well, do you?”
“No,” she said as she offered him a grin.
“Feeling better, darlin’?”
“Much.”
Renee came around the corner as Stryker moved to allow the others inside. “I want to hear all about it, guys, but we have breakfast ready to put on, so go clean up and change, whatever you need, and Avery and I will start cooking.”
***
NO COMPLAINTS FROM anyone as they headed upstairs. Carson must have gone to his place, but he’d be back to eat. Avery wondered if there was anything between Carson and Renee, but they were often grousing with each other rather than gazing longingly into the other’s eyes. In half an hour, breakfast was served. Carson had walked in to grab a coffee and stood next to Stryker as the other three men straggled in from various parts of the house. Callen, as usual, tried to direct the final product. Avery threatened him with her spatula.
“Callen, I appreciate how much better you cook than I, so how about you do it tomorrow. I promise not to interfere.”
“Um, thanks, but I’m a busy man.” Declan, the quiet brother, grinned and nodded encouragement in her direction
Avery laughed. “And Renee and I are busy women, but we cooked. I know, being a more capable man, you could do it with one hand tied behind your back. Thanks for the offer. We accept.”
Declan dropped a kiss on Avery’s head and hugged her. “Stryker, keep this one. She’ll do nicely.”
Stryker snatched her out of Declan’s grasp. “Get your own. I had to fight hard for this one.”
Avery giggled, and Stryker grinned even wider. He liked that his family accepted Avery because he was keeping her. And that giggle was new. Something he wanted to keep coming. As they sat down to breakfast, Renee brought all the fun and games to an end.
“Now, what was going on out there that had to happen at quarter to five in the morning?”
The men’s silent pondering received concerned looks from the women. “Seems that we have been too free with information about the movements on the ranch,” said Carson.
“What does that even mean?” asked Avery.
“It means that someone has fed information about our cattle movements, security changes and the like and this morning, a handful of trespassers tried to get away with some of our cattle.”
“I don’t understand,” said Avery. “You mean they thought you weren’t going to be there or watching them or something, so they were trying to steal them?”
“Pretty much,” said Callen.
“Did one of the visitors get talking in town or something?” asked Avery.
“Don’t know. We got the little group charged for trespassing, but that’s it. They hadn’t done anything more because we stopped them.” Seamus had finished his breakfast before speaking.
Renee looked at her second eldest brother hard. “Do you tell the guests about the movements?”
“A little, yeah. I mean, we prep the Duders and give them a tentative schedule, but that’s it. The exact day and time we move cattle and to where isn’t told until the night before, and no one leaves the ranch then.”
Renee spoke quietly. “Except those who go home at night.”
Carson pushed his emptied plate away. “I bet it’s one of the hands who had a little too much to drink and shooting their mouth off is all. I’m not nearly as concerned about that as the fact that someone took that information and tried to steal our cattle.”
Seamus spoke with intent. “What it means for you ladies is you’re going to have to stay close to the house after dark. No walking alone over to the barn or down to the creek first thing in the morning until we make sure it was only a fluke. A bunch of idiots trying out their hand at rustling is better than a group who knows what they’re doing, but we’re going to be extra careful from now on.”
Avery had gotten really quiet. Stryker wondered what was going through her mind, but now wasn’t the time to ask. “Thanks for breakfast, ladies, but us ranchers need to be getting on with the day’s work. Now we have to move the cattle during the day, and the earlier, the better.” Seamus touched Avery’s shoulder and smiled, then ruffled Renee’s hair. “Stay out of trouble, girls.”
Carson stopped to whisper something in Renee’s ear and walked off behind Seamus. Callen was fast on their heels to see to the guests. Declan excused himself to work on an assignment he had to grade, and Stryker scraped his chair back.
“I’ll load the dishwasher if you girls want to take a shower and get dressed.”
Renee left, and as Avery rose to go, she whispered, “Thank you,” and left with an extra wiggle in her step.