Chapter Twelve

Colton lifted Meadow off his cock with so much tenderness on his face that her heart couldn’t help giving a hard throb. When he arranged her on the dry side of his coat and covered her with his body, she let out another soft cry, wrapping her arms and legs around her lover—yes, he was her lover. At long last, she had a lover.

And he was the right one.

Alternately, he nuzzled her lips and tugged the bottom one with his teeth.

Gliding her hands over his muscular shoulders and down the chiseled planes of his spine, she latched on to his carved ass. She tugged him closer so the tip of his cock penetrated her pussy again.

He fixed his stare on hers and in one hard thrust, filled her again.

This time she didn’t feel that pinch of pain. He just fit perfectly inside her. As if he belonged there the entire time.

“I’m going to hell,” he roughed out.

“Then I’m going with you.” She leaned up to bite into his bottom lip and tugged it the way he had hers.

He issued a primal noise and sank into her with a slowness that stole her breath.

“Look at me, Meadow. Don’t look away.”

Heart hammering, she met his stare and did his bidding. The order burrowed deep in her psyche, and she knew she’d never again have sex with him—or any man—without hearing his voice at that very moment, demanding that she look at him.

In a slow glide, he withdrew from her body, inch by inch, teasing her to a new level of ecstasy. She rolled her body to meet his thrusts. His body flexed and bowed over her, curled around her almost protectively even as he rocked her world.

“Kiss me!” she rasped.

He did, his mouth capturing her cries and feeding her roughened moans of his own as he took them to another pinnacle.

She hung in the throes between bliss and reality. The pleasure beating down on her seemed too big, too much to bear.

But then she looked into Colton’s eyes and knew he’d guide her to safety.

“I’m close.” His jaw flexed, the tendons seeming about to snap with the effort to hold back.

His cock slid over the perfect spot, the one he’d primed over and over again, until she felt the telltale quiver.

“Fuck yeah, baby. Come for me. Come on my cock!” He released a roar as he pounded into her.

Her body squeezed him tight and let go. The world tumbled for several minutes, until she realized that she had landed, safe and secure, in Colton’s arms.

They lay on their sides. His arms shrouded her, and his chest cloaked her spine, keeping her warm.

The mouth of the cave was a dark hole of blackness, but once in a while lightning would flash and she could see the rain falling in silvery streaks beyond the tarp where the animals sheltered.

Tenderness washed over her. Never in her life had she felt a connection to any person like she did to him.

“Think it’s ever going to let up?” His soft tone ghosted over her ear.

“I hope not.”

He squeezed her closer. Tracing her fingers over the length of his forearm, she settled into thoughts of what they’d just done. How differently the day could have turned out.

“What were you doing out on that hill, anyway? Were you looking for the cow?” His question made her flip in his hold. He hovered over her, eyes hooded as he searched her face.

She hooked her arms around his neck and drew him down until his forehead rested against hers. “Truth?”

He nodded against her.

“I was having a picnic.”

He pulled away. The darkness let her see how his eyes glittered, but not much else about how he was looking at her.

“Do you have any food left?”

A laugh bubbled out of her. “You’re thinking about your stomach right now?”

“Hell yeah. Aren’t you?”

Now that she thought about it, she was too.

“There’s a little food left. I ate the sandwich, but there are a couple apples—I brought one for my horse. And some beef jerky and potato chips.”

“Hot damn! I did pick the right woman to get stranded with.” He performed a pushup over her, shoving to his feet. In the flickering light, she watched the hard planes of his shadowed form move toward the horse.

A minute later, he returned with his hands full of the detritus of her picnic.

When he took a seat cross-legged beside her and handed her an apple, she sat up and took it. With their bodies still touching, they settled in for a meager supper.

The best of her life.

The apple was sweet and crisp. The beef jerky hit the spot, and the chips they shared topped it all off.

She couldn’t think of the last time she’d felt so happy. So at ease.

She started to say so to Colton but stopped at seeing the twin creases between his brows as he stared off into space. While she felt like their time together couldn’t be more perfect…it was obvious the SEAL-turned-cowboy was in deep torment.

* * * * *

Meadow galloped around the training ring on the back of her mare. Two days after being marooned in a storm, the duo didn’t seem as if they were affected at all. The horse sailed around a barrel, and the rider had all the stamina and skill to lead her through the turn.

Colton let out a low groan.

She bounced up and down in that saddle the same way she had on his cock. And she didn’t look as if him taking her virginity was causing her an ounce of trouble either.

He watched her circling the perimeter. Her blonde hair fluttered loose and free behind her, making his fingers curl, ready to grab the mass and thrust his cock inside her again.

Damn if he wanted to admit it, but two nights alone in his bunk left him burning for her. He’d managed to steer clear of her too, always working with one of the other ranch hands. If she asked to talk to him alone, she risked them telling her father.

That was another thing—the man still hadn’t returned from his conference. Colton didn’t know a hell of a lot about the ranching business, but the conference couldn’t have lasted so many weeks.

Dirt and dust sprayed over his shirt and legs. He looked up to see Meadow doing a turn-and-burn on horseback, the hooves spraying up earth. His grunt mingled with Meadow’s tinkle of laughter.

The little brat. She did that on purpose.

Before she could gloat about him brushing the dust off his shirt, he strolled away from the training ring.

A sharp voice carried across the yard to him. “Hey, Nox!”

He turned to see Webb unloading feed from the back of one of the ranch pickups. Great—what did that asshole want?

His next statement made it clear. “Didn’t I assign you a job this morning?”

“Yeah.” He tugged the brim of his hat lower. The gesture was becoming a habit fast considering he hadn’t been here all that long.

“So what are you standing around watching Meadow training horses for?” He cocked a brow at Colton. “Or do I have to ask?”

“You’d know why, wouldn’t you? Didn’t I see you watching her half an hour ago?”

Even from several yards away, Colton read Webb’s glare loud and clear. But he wasn’t going to let the jerk challenge him, not when Webb was even guiltier of having a fixation on Meadow. Everyone around here knew it too.

They continued to stare each other down, neither willing to look away first.

Finally, Dude buzzed up on an ATV, cutting off their view of each other so neither had to wimp out and break the glare first.

Colton continued on to the paddock, where he chose his usual horse. When he picked it out of the herd that day he went looking for the missing cow, he hadn’t given much thought to the mount being an integral part of a cowboy’s arsenal. How the same way that weapons and body armor were part of a SEAL’s supplies, a horse could keep a cowboy alive too.

When he and Meadow returned to the ranch, looking like two mountain hermits who hadn’t emerged for years, the first thing Meadow did was spring to action caring for the horses.

He took charge of the heifer and led her to the brooding shed where she could wait out the rest of her pregnancy, safe from swamps and dangerous lightning storms. With the heifer tucked up with some fresh bedding and a full feed trough, he’d returned to the yard to find Meadow rubbing down the horses.

He stroked his hand over the black gelding’s coat. Meadow had brushed him to a gleam and checked his hooves before shutting him up in the barn with fresh hay to doze for the rest of the day.

The differences between him and Meadow were broad. But were they? He’d grown up practically alone. Instead of having his father discipline him, he had a military school sergeant. The only motherly love he experienced in his entire adolescence was the occasional visit to the nurse. While she bandaged up whatever wound he went to see her for, she spoke kindly and always pointed out the jar of treats on her desk before he left.

But Meadow had lost her mother young. Her father, from what he’d heard from Forest and seen with his own eyes, was absent.

Colton had slipped and gone too far with her, but who could blame him? He was mortal, a flesh and blood man, with a naked woman in his lap. One who wanted him and made no bones about it.

He saddled the horse. Hell, he didn’t even know if it had a name, but he’d find out. A fellow warrior deserved that much consideration.

After he rode out, he lifted his head and sniffed the air. He was starting to recognize the different smells around him. If the breeze was carried down from the mountains, it brought a piney, cutting chill that burned in his nostrils. When it crossed the fields, it came with an undercurrent of grass and loam.

For the first time in a long, long time—maybe longer than he could remember—he was content.

Happy wasn’t a word he often used in conjunction with himself, but this was as close as he’d come. With the sun on his shoulders, and the powerful horse carrying him out to the fence line he was supposed to inspect for damage after the harsh storm, he felt good.

At ease.

This was what Forest had talked about in those long hours of darkness as they kept watch while the rest of the squadron slept. The peace of the land.

Colton wouldn’t exactly call the working conditions on the Gracey peaceful, though. Not with Webb breathing down his neck every time he turned around. Then there was Meadow, tormenting him even in his dreams.

This morning, he woke from a dream about her. She was stripped naked, her curves glistening with droplets of water and her eyes blazing in a come-hither look as she slowly approached him.

He’d woken with his cock throbbing hard and his balls aching for the release he refused to let himself have. He’d given that woman enough energy in his thoughts. The only way to shake her was to ignore her.

Fat chance of that. She wasn’t going to let him ever forget what he’d done on that mountain.

Hell, neither was his mind. It was locked in a vault with a big screen playing the memory on loop—always there in the background of his thoughts.

After her father returned, Colton planned to tell him about his decision to leave the ranch. He figured he’d already fulfilled his promise to Forest. He never told his friend how long he’d stick around—only that he’d come if he ever died and that he’d look after Meadow.

Never during those conversations did Forest set a timeframe of how long to stay or watch over Meadow.

Funny how he wasn’t as worried about their youngest sister Ivy, although she was out on her own somewhere in Europe. While she might be traveling with a friend the way Forest told it, a single woman in foreign cities seemed a lot more perilous than Meadow sitting in the middle of Nowhere, Montana.

Even going to Badlands, everyone knew Meadow. The ranch hands—namely Webb—made sure she was never there alone.

Colton could see how she got herself in trouble, though. Everything that woman did spelled trouble.

There she was, taking over his thoughts again. Dammit, he had to focus.

As the long row of fencing that encircled acres of grazing land came into view, he slowed his horse. To him, it seemed fine to simply ride along the fence and ensure it was still standing after the storm. Webb had other ideas. Whether it was to get him out of the way for longer, he’d instructed Colton to test every single fencepost and ensure it was rock solid.

He dismounted and hobbled the horse so it grazed within whistling range. Then he set about testing the posts.

The low chirp of insects in the high grasses and the whisper of the wind provided soothing music. The sun warmed him through his shirt, and both conspired to make him sleepy.

After all, he wasn’t sleeping well with Meadow prancing around nude in his dreams.

When his phone buzzed, he jolted with surprise.

Only one person knew this number—Ross Wynton from WEST Protection. As soon as he glanced at the caller ID, he brought the phone to his ear.

“Wynton.”

“Hey, Nox. Just checking in on you. Haven’t heard anything in a couple days.”

“About that…the boss man’s still away. I just don’t think it’s right to take off without talking to him first.”

“Damn. We could really use another guy on the team. If we get you in here by week’s end, we can put you straight into the training program.”

Colton didn’t realize he’d twisted to stare out over the landscape. When he focused, he saw the big ranch house and thought of Meadow all alone here, with only that asshole Webb and a group of ranch hands who like watching out for her a little too much.

He bit back a groan. “Sorry, Ross. I need a little more time.”

“I understand. I’ll wait to hear from you.”

“Sounds good. Thanks.”

Long after the call ended, Colton stood there, fence forgotten, rethinking that promise he’d made to Forest. When had it become a commitment Colton made…but for his own reasons?