Two weeks later, Nash arrived at the guest ranch full of a hearty breakfast and a couple cups of coffee. To even his surprise, his log home had sold the day he proposed to Megan. A retired couple from Wisconsin came in with an all-cash offer, and that was that. The closing was in two months. Nash would pay his mother back for the ring. Then he’d pay off Megan’s mortgage and start thinking about that training facility.
This morning, the sun was hot, the air at the ranch dry, when Nash leaned against the hood of his truck, staring down at his phone.
The Blackshaw Cattle Ranch was our favorite vacation yet.
From the incredible food, to the authentic cattle runs, to the cookouts overlooking the mountains . . . just wow! Five stars!!!
Nash smiled. Those one-star reviews were still there. They didn’t matter anymore. He couldn’t please everyone. He knew that, and he was pleasing the people who mattered now. For a long time, he got a lot wrong. It felt damn good to finally get things right.
Across the yard, near the guests’ cabins, he spotted the kittens and Diva outside the cat house eating the food that Nash had set out for them. He’d grown attached to those squirts, and he was glad to see them all doing well. Sure, he was tempted to keep them at the house, but at the ranch, they were spoiled rotten. And the two tween girls who were staying at the ranch with their parents fussing all over the cats was proof of that. Of course, Gus was sitting by their sides, watching them closely. Come winter time, Nash would bring them into the new house. Everyone, including the cats, seemed good with that plan.
“Mornin’.”
Nash tucked his phone away, spotting Chase approaching from Ma’s house with blueprints rolled up in one hand, a coffee mug in the other. Today, they’d both come to discuss the rebuild of the barn at the ranch before Nash headed out on the cattle run. “Got the idea all figured out?”
“Yup.” Chase sidled up next to him, took a sip of his coffee, then placed the mug on the hood of Nash’s truck.
Once Chase opened up the plans, Nash studied the blueprints. The barn only had six stalls and was much smaller than what had originally been there. There was a tiny tack room and another larger one. “It’s a little small, don’t you think?”
“Nope, it’s perfect.” Chase smiled like he knew some big secret Nash didn’t. He gestured at the blueprints, a glint that Nash hadn’t originally noticed in his eyes. “This plan is for the new barn at the ranch.” He grabbed the paper from underneath. “This is what I was thinking for your property.”
“My property?” Confused, Nash looked down at the white paper that had a pencil drawing of a two-story log house and a barn with a sand ring set next to it. “What is this?”
“Your new house and training facility.”
Nash slowly looked up.
Chase burst out laughing. “If only I had a camera to take a picture of your expression. Oh, wait, I do.” He grabbed his phone and snapped a picture, still laughing. “Priceless.”
Nash wasn’t laughing. “Explain.”
Chase finally stopped laughing and cupped Nash’s shoulder. “After we heard that you were planning to move to the city, I gave you two months before you were begging Megan to move back out here. Shep bet a month. Emma thought you’d do anything for Megan and stay there forever. Harper said two days. And Ma said as soon as the shovel hits the dirt, you’ll be itching to move back onto Blackshaw land.”
Nash parted his mouth to say something, but Megan interrupted him.
“I gave you ten minutes.”
He glanced over his shoulder, watching Megan approach from the house. He had thought it odd that she wanted to come with him this morning to visit his mother. Now, he knew why she’d been so adamant. The world spun away from him until he realized that Megan wasn’t surprised by Chase’s drawing of their new place. He pointed at the drawing on the page. “You knew about this?”
She smiled and nodded. “Well, you see, here’s the thing: I had a financial condition on the new house. So, I contacted Scott at the bank and told him I didn’t have the down payment anymore. Which made the deal fall through.”
Nash arched an eyebrow. “You let the deal fall through?”
She stepped closer, pressing all her warmth into him. “Selling Blackshaw land—something that I know means the absolute world to you—to buy back the ring I pawned was the sweetest, most giving thing anyone has ever done for me.” She cupped his face, and he placed his hand over hers as she continued. “But living on Blackshaw land is a part of you. That other house suited me, not us. The plan was to take your house off the market, but then you told me it sold. So, when I heard you guys starting to talk about the rebuild, I went to Chase to see what we could do.”
He held her tight in his arms but looked at Chase. “Can we afford to do this?”
Chase gave a quick nod. “It’s the reason we kept the barn here at the ranch as small as possible. Shep and I played around with the numbers. From the money we got from the fire to the money you’ll receive from the sale of your log house—”
“To my addition of the down payment that I had originally intended to use on the other house,” Megan said.
Chase smiled at Megan then nodded at Nash. “It’s doable.”
Nash studied the new plans, totally winded. There were words to say. Probably perfect words, he was sure of that. He simply couldn’t think of them. He finally only managed to sputter, “I can’t believe you all did this.”
Megan wrapped her arms around his waist tight and stared up at him with those pretty eyes sparkling at him. “You’re a good man, Nash Blackshaw. And it’s about time you had good things happen to you again.”
Jesus. How fucking lucky was he? Overrun with warmth sliding through his chest, he cupped her face and dropped his mouth to hers. He had expected one thing when got together with Megan, but what they ended up having was better. A selfless love that he wanted to protect.
He finished with a light peck on her lips then said against her mouth, “I love you, Freckles.”
She smiled. “I love you too.”
“You love me too, right?”
Chase was laughing by the time Nash looked at him. Nash took his brother into a tight hug. “Yeah, brother, you know I do.”
“Oh, good, he likes the idea.”
Nash turned around to find his mother’s beaming smile. He released Chase to hug her. “You were in on this too?”
“While this was all Megan, I supported her one hundred percent.” She patted his cheek in her sweet motherly way. “Back on Blackshaw land is where you belong. Now you’ve got this fresh new start, where you’re going to do so many good things. I just know it.”
Nash kissed his mother’s cheek, then noticed Shep, Emma, and Harper all approaching from the house.
“Is that a tear?” asked Harper with a sly grin before taking him into a hug.
“I don’t cry,” Nash grumbled, but hugged her back. Hard.
Then Nash was passed on to Shep and Emma before he stepped back and stared at his family. The whole lot of them. “Thank you for this.” He glanced from face to face, trying to make his head work to say . . . something. Emotion clawed at his chest. His throat tightened. “I don’t think you know . . .” He cleared his throat, giving up on finding the right words, hoping his expression said it all. “Thank you.”
“Great. Now I’m crying,” Emma gasped, wiping her face.
She wasn’t the only one. Megan, Harper, his ma . . . tears were flowing at the Blackshaw Cattle Ranch today. Nash stuffed his hands into his pockets and smiled. Because in all this, Nash could only think of his father now, feeling like he was there somehow watching them. And that he was finally proud. Of all of them.
When Nash glanced back to Megan, his world narrowed on her. This woman, she did all this. His woman. “If you all don’t mind”—he offered his hand to Megan—“I need to speak to Megan alone for a few minutes.”
Nash’s muscles quivered as he led her away toward the very cabin that was the spot where their lives changed forever. Emotion raged through him that he could not control. Only one thing fixed that. Her.
* * *
The moment Megan stepped through the cabin that was obviously not being used by any of the guests that week, she whirled around to Nash. “Are you not happy?” He looked . . . tense.
“Oh, I’m happy.” He shut the cabin door, making sure it was closed tight. When he turned back to her, the intensity in his expression—which he’d been hiding well—hit her like a heat wave, making her understand exactly why he’d brought her to the cabin. Alone.
She took a step back and held up her hands. “No way. There are guests out there. Your family is all out there too,” she reminded him.
“My family thinks we’re having a serious conversation,” he told her huskily, matching her steps. “They won’t interrupt us.”
She lifted her hand. “We . . . now just wait . . .”
Of course, she knew nothing would stop him, and she also knew she liked that about him too. She was in Nash’s arms a second later, and his mouth was on hers in the hottest way ever. Because all that intensity was currently fueling his passion, and she was going to reap those rewards.
Holy hell.
A low growl rumbled from his chest as he pressed on her hip gently, bringing her back against the wall. Then he was lowering to one knee and sliding his hands up her bare thighs until he had her sundress up at her waist. “Hold that for me, Freckles.”
She shivered at the heat in his eyes. The hunger there. She did as he asked and held the dress out of his way. He gently tucked his fingers into her panties and slid them down. When he dragged his knuckles over her sex, she moaned.
He stroked her again and again . . . and then glanced up at her. “You went to Chase and asked him to build us a new home?”
She nodded, biting her lip.
He arched a brow. “All to make me happy, Megan, is that, right?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
He slowly looked between her thighs again, staring at her boldly as he dragged his fingers up and down over her. Sometimes pressing a little bit harder in the right place to make her shiver. Warmth and wetness touched her intimately, heady weight pooling low in her round belly.
Only when she moaned again did he break the silence. “Every time I think that you can’t possibly make me happier, you do.” He slid his finger in his mouth, running his touch gently over her clit before looking at her again.
She quivered, breathing deep, her head falling back with the pleasure. “Nash.” Her fingers found their way through his soft hair.
“You want me, Freckles?”
“Always.”
The grin he gave was his sexiest yet. Because that smile was all for her. No one would ever see that pure masculine grin because it belonged to her now.
She held her breath as he licked her with the flat of his tongue. Slow. Perfect. She moaned, shutting her eyes, embracing the pleasure, while he played. He circled her clit until her legs trembled, and then he sucked on the bud, making everything so intense. She wanted to watch him, to see him tasting her, but she simply couldn’t. His tongue licked, his mouth nibbled, and she tumbled into where he took her, with her body under his control.
Then his mouth was gone at the peak of her pleasure, and his lips were on hers. He smelled of her, and she lost herself in the perfection of how their mouths fit together. His throaty moan brushed across her as he cupped her face and tilted her head, nuzzling her neck. Needing him, more than ever, she reached between them and unbuttoned his jeans. She pushed those and his boxer briefs down to below his butt. His thick cock sprung free, and she stroked him. He groaned, low and deep, then his heated gaze returned to hers. She stared at him, stroking the hardened skin, loving the way the pleasure dilated his pupils. He threaded his fingers into her hair and groaned again when she tickled the tip.
“I’m so damn lucky,” he murmured.
Before she even had a chance of responding, his hands were gone from her hair. He grabbed the base of his cock, and she rose on her tiptoes as he poised himself at her entrance. He entered the tip and she shivered, desperate for him to plunge in deep.
“Not yet,” he murmured against her lips.
He hooked her leg on his arm, widening her, and angled his body away from her growing belly. Then he drove inside her, all the way to the hilt. She gasped and lost herself in the pleasure, shutting her eyes, hanging on his strong arms.
“Tell me what I want to hear,” he demanded.
She forced her eyes open, seeing exactly what he needed from her. When he’d asked her that line before, she had come to understand that he did so to make her admit the truth. Hell, even to help her learn how to trust him. That all she needed to do was believe in him. And she did believe in him now. “I love you.”
“Ah, and there it is.” He slowly withdrew and then slowly entered her again. “And God knows I love you.”
She lost herself in him then.
Every hard thrust drove her higher on her toes. He kissed her neck, her mouth. He squeezed her breast. Once. Then twice. His fingers began to dig harder into her hips. His expression intensified, brows drawn over powerful eyes. She felt the hard tremble in his body before she felt it in hers. The sound that rumbled from his chest was inherently male and clenched her sex tighter against him. He thrust harder. Faster. And harder yet. She hung over the edge, fighting against the moans she was desperate to unleash, yet somehow holding them in only made her hotter. Because this was wild and reckless, and for the first time ever in her life she felt free.
He pumped into her, his eyes widening. And then it all became too much. She no longer dangled on the edge, she freefell over the edge, and he followed her.
Then there were just the two of them, fitting together perfectly, knowing each other wholly, and loving each other completely.
And there was pleasure.
Nash’s hard-riding pleasure.