Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 88463 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88463 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want you to be sorry.” He’s peppering my shoulder with kisses. “I like that you need me, and I’m happy to be here with both of you.”
“Today scared me.”
“I know. It scared me too. I’m usually the one getting injured, and I can take it. I don’t like it when it’s my family.”
His family.
Just when I think my heart can’t melt any more, he goes and says something like that.
“It’s been a rough week,” he adds, still hugging me close.
“I’m ready for boring now, please.”
He huffs out a laugh and tugs my face up so he can see me. “Me too. There will be press surrounding the Andy shit. There’s nothing I can do about it, but the team will help keep it to a minimum.”
I nod and kiss his chin. “It’ll die down after a while, and something else will be interesting.”
“That’s how it works,” he agrees as his dark eyes skim over my face. “Everything’s going to be okay, sweetheart. I promise.”
“I know. But please, stay here, okay? Even if it’s just for the next week or so, and then we can reevaluate.”
“That works.” His hand cups my cheek. “Whatever you need, Trouble. You’re the priority.”
I close my eyes and rest my forehead against his. “Thank you.”
“Always. I love you so much.”
“I love you too.”
Chapter Thirty
Ryker
One Month Later . . .
“You may be out of the sling, but you still have to take it easy,” Willow informs Aiden, who just rolls his eyes. “Don’t you sass me, young man.”
“With my face?”
“Yes, with your face.” She grabs said face and kisses his cheek, making him scrunch up his nose. “You’ve done a really good job of healing and taking it easy. Let’s keep that trend going, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” He pats her back. “But I’m swimming today.”
She frowns, but I jump in.
“The swimming will be good exercise for him,” I say. “Just not for too long, and don’t overdo it.”
“You’re a bunch of nags,” Aiden decides.
“You’re just now figuring that out?” Wills demands with a laugh. “Go swim and have fun with Micah. School starts Monday, so we need to run into Missoula tomorrow for some school clothes and supplies.”
“I have clothes.”
“Yeah, and you’ve grown three inches this summer,” she says, propping her hands on her curvy hips. Jesus, my girl is beautiful. “Plus, most of your clothes have gotten so dirty, it’s impossible to get all the stains out.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.” Willow shakes her head. “Go swim before I kick you in the butt.”
Aiden smirks. “Yeah right.” But he hurries out the door and meets Micah at the path that leads to the lake.
“Alone at last.” I waggle my eyebrows at her, and she grins.
“I have work to do, you know.”
“Do you?” I advance toward her and cup her face, brush my thumb over her lower lip. “I can be quick.”
“You’re never quick.”
I smirk. “That’s because I like to savor you, baby. Every inch of you. Once I get started, I lose myself.”
“I think you just upped the swoon factor to get into my shorts.”
I lick my lips. “Is it working?”
“Possibly.”
I bend and lift Willow onto my shoulder and carry her upstairs.
“Hey, I can walk, you know.”
“You’re not getting away from me. I’m getting you naked, and by the time I slide inside you, you’ll be begging me for it.”
“I don’t beg for anything.”
I smirk. “Challenge accepted, sweetheart.”
After dumping her on the bed, I don’t bother to take her shorts off. They’re loose and short, and I can push them to the side to slip inside her.
But I do want to see her gorgeous-as-fuck tits. So I push her shirt up and off, then unfasten her bra and pull one tight nub into my mouth, making her back arch and her hands plunge into my hair.
“God, Ry. It always feels so good.”
It’s only been one summer with her like this, and yet it feels like she’s been mine forever. I nibble my way up her chest, over her collarbone, and to her ear, where I press my lips against her smooth skin.
Reaching between us, I shimmy my sweats down, pull her shorts to the side, and push two fingers into her wet heat.
“Shit,” she moans.
“Mine,” I growl before replacing my fingers with my cock, and then I pause when I’m balls deep. “I used to think that it was this ranch that was my safe haven, but I was wrong.”
I nudge a lock of her hair off her cheek and sweep my thumb under her eye.
“It’s you, baby. You’re my safe place.”
“You’re all I need,” she says, tightening her walls around me. “Always.”
I pull back, then push inside her all the way and grin against her when she gasps.
“Always, Trouble.”
Epilogue
Ryker
One Year Later
“I’m not sleeping without you tonight.”
Willow is sitting at the kitchen island, marking things off her long-as-fuck to-do list. She glances up at me and raises an eyebrow.