Chapter Fourteen

Moving through the darkened rooms of the house where she’d grown up was nothing new to Meadow. Doing it in Colton’s arms was something altogether different.
He could try to push her away, but she refused to let him. It wasn’t even possible now—her heart was entangled.
It sounded crazy even to herself, but from the minute she got word from Forest’s friend that he was coming to the ranch and would need a ride from the airport, Meadow had felt connected to Colton.
She couldn’t help but wonder if her big brother had seen something in Colton that he just knew would light a spark in her.
When they reached the open door of her room, she saw his face for the first time in the light of the lamp burning on her nightstand.
He looked just as shocked as she felt to see him here, carrying her to bed after he’d just thoroughly fucked her up against the wall.
The thick feeling of his release between her thighs turned her on so much more. Everything inside her wanted him again.
And if he denied her?
Well, he wouldn’t. That much was clear as he laid her down and began to strip off his clothes.
This moment already felt different from the others. He looked at her, so calm, as if the storm inside him had passed as fast as the one they’d waited out in that cave.
She cut her gaze over his rugged features to the swell of his chest. The muscles of his arms bulged as he reached for her again.
She rolled into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
“Meadow…” His throat worked on a hard swallow.
She brushed the strands of hair off his tanned forehead. “Yes?”
“I’ve never wanted anyone like this. I…don’t think I ever will again.”
His confession stunned her speechless. Her heart pinched painfully. Breathless, she searched his dark eyes and saw the truth behind his words.
Her own throat thickened with emotion. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you either.”
With a harsh noise, he took her mouth captive again, kissing her until she felt her limbs go boneless and her pussy throb. At the moment when he tore the nightgown off her and began kissing every inch of her body, she knew—without a doubt in the world—that she was in love with Colton Nox.
They moved in a new rhythm. His kisses took on new meaning. Did he feel the change too?
He fed her passion through his tongue that traveled down the column of her throat to worship each of her breasts. When he edged his fingers between her legs and found the hard nubbin of her clit, she lost heart-racing minutes to bliss.
When she came up for air, gasping, his name on her lips, he rolled her underneath him.
She stopped breathing again. Looking up at the man she loved about to enter her, was powerful—an experience to forever mark in her mind.
“Look at me, Colton.” Her voice was a soft plea. “Don’t look away.”
His dark eyes glittered with emotion. “I can’t.”
She rocked her hips up to meet him, and in one smooth glide, he filled her.
Need curled inside her like hot smoke. Digging her fingers into his hard shoulders, she tugged him closer. When he swiped his tongue across her lips, she issued a cry and opened to him.
In all ways.
That kiss dominated. He owned her body. Passion swept through her, dizzying her.
Out of control with the lust pounding through her system, she clutched him tighter.
As if he understood, he began to whisper in her ear. “I’ve got you.” He rocked his hips back, dragging his cock through her aching walls. “Let go for me. I’ve got you.”
“Colton!”
He stared down at her until her eyes blurred with tears. Then he swept in and claimed her mouth.
The flavor of him coupled with his hard thrusts overtook her. Out of nowhere, her orgasm struck.
Rising up on a swell of a wave, she rode the peak for pounding seconds. When she began to tumble down the other side, she felt her lover stiffen.
His muscles steeled. His body arched.
A long groan rumbled through his chest, and he began to soak her inner walls with hot cum.
Holding him closer, she rode out the waves of pleasure with him. Whatever switch had flipped in Colton, she felt the change. He wasn’t acting cold and distant or keeping her at arm’s length.
In fact, the opposite had been happening ever since they were stranded together in that storm.
His rough pants rasped in her ear. In a move only a capable man who’d served his country could perform, he pushed off her and rolled onto his back, taking her with him.
With her leg draped over his muscled thighs and her head pillowed on his rounded pec, she fought to catch her breath as well as summon some semblance of reality.
If only this feeling would last. If only he would stay.
But the people she truly cared about always left. First her mother, and then Forest. Ivy took off, dropping only the occasional text to let Meadow know that she was okay. And her father…well, he had been absent for a long time.
She truly was alone.
But she wasn’t alone tonight.
Smoothing her hand down Colton’s chest, she trapped any words of love inside. If she uttered a single declaration, he’d think her impulsive and flippant. The last thing she needed was for him to call her immature again.
“Your father stays away a lot, doesn’t he?” His question surprised her.
Lifting her head, she looked at him. From this angle, she had the perfect view of his chiseled jaw, firm lips and flawlessly carved nose set between the angled planes of his cheeks. Above that, his eyes were soft, dark pools.
“He’s been traveling more lately.”
“Is that typical?”
She rested her head on his chest once more. “It depends. There are plenty of auctions at this time of year when early calves are being sold. Since we have both cows and horses to sell, my father likes to get out and make connections that will earn the ranch the best bottom line.”
“I see.”
She ran her hand up his chest again. “What do you see?”
“That he leaves you alone far too much.”
His words planted a hard lump in her throat, too big to swallow around. She struggled for a moment before she was able to speak. “I’m fine.”
“No. You’re not.” He threaded his fingers in her hair. When he twisted the strands and raised her head, forcing her to meet his gaze, she gulped back more emotion.
“Don’t look at me that way. Don’t you dare.” She tried to shake him off.
“Like what, Meadow?” His tone was a warm whip across her senses.
“Like you feel sorry for me. Dead mom, dead brother, no father. Sister off in God knows what city.”
His nod only made her choke up again. “You shouldn’t be left alone here.”
“I can make decisions about the ranch. But it sort of runs itself.”
His chest heaved in a sigh.
She cocked a brow. “Does that not-so-small sigh mean that you think otherwise?”
“I think Webb believes he’s got a handle on everything.” He ended on a growl.
She studied him. “You gave Zach that black eye.”
He bristled.
“Why?” she pushed.
The determined way he firmed his jaw told her that he wasn’t willing to share with her.
“Colton, tell me why you punched Zach.”
He grunted. “He runs his goddamn mouth too much.”
A trickle of apprehension lifted the hair on the back of her neck. “Was it about Forest?”
He blinked at her. “Forest? Why would he talk about your brother?”
Realizing he’d loosened his hold on her hair, she ducked her head to avoid his stare. “He and Forest butted heads.”
For long moments, he was silent, as if wrestling with his feelings about Forest.
“Forest felt like Zach had a little too much control. Whenever Forest would try to override his decision, he’d get pissed off. One night, Forest stormed into the house and slammed the door so hard that it cracked. The split is still in the wood.” On the door to her brother’s room. A room that nobody ever entered now.
She continued, needing to get the story out suddenly. “When I asked him what happened, he told me that he and Zach argued. He refused to tell me why…but later, one of the other hands told me that my name was mentioned.”
Colton hooked his finger beneath her chin, drawing her gaze back to his. “And do you know why that was?”
She shook her head. “Do you?”
He swallowed hard. “I can guess.”
When she waited for more, his words came forth in a low rumble. “I think he’s in love with you.”
She jerked into a sitting position. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders to cover her bare breasts, and Colton raked his gaze over her.
“You’re crazy! Zach isn’t in…love with me! He’s my friend.”
“Don’t you see it? How he looks at you? Follows you with his eyes? How he’s so eager to rush to do whatever you need?”
She sputtered, at a loss for words. “That’s only because he’s kissing up to my father!”
Colton’s expression softened. As he brushed her thick hair off her face and tucked it over her shoulder, he searched her eyes. “Have you looked in a mirror, honey?”
She shivered at what he was insinuating.
“If you think I’m attractive, you should see Ivy.”
Curling his hand around her arm, he drew her back down to lie on top of him. His hard, warm body was a solid anchor to this world that she was beginning to understand less and less instead of more with age.
“I don’t think about Zach like that.”
“I know.” He cupped her head to his chest. The thump of his heart calmed her.
“You think Forest suspected it too.”
“I do. We never discussed it—only that he wanted me to watch out for you. And to help on the ranch in the event…”
He broke off. Words weren’t necessary.
“You and my brother must have been really close.”
“We were.” His voice came thickly.
“I don’t believe that you were the reason he died, Colton.”
His fingers had been smoothing up and down her spine, but at that, he pulled them off her skin and slung his forearm across his eyes.
The pose was meant to shut her out.
Too bad Meadow wouldn’t easily be ignored.
She pushed his arm away and cradled his angular jaw, forcing him to look at her. “Listen to me, Colton. I don’t blame you. Forest wouldn’t either. So when are you going to forgive yourself?”

The last thing Colton wanted to discuss was Forest’s death and the role that he’d played in it. But he really didn’t want to talk about it with his sister.
Who he’d just fucked. Thoroughly. Twice.
Hell, his cum was oozing out of her sweet pussy right now.
The urge to get up and leave was strong, but the need to stay the night with this woman was much, much stronger. The invisible pull Meadow had on him wasn’t anything he could understand.
Or fight.
He just knew that even after he did force himself to walk away from her—and leave the ranch—it would take a long, long time to stop thinking about her.
Maybe forever.
Meadow moved up his body. Her breasts sliding over his chest tormented him. His cock had never stopped being hard for her, but it bobbed against his abs when she straddled him.
Christ, she was stunningly beautiful. Heartbreakingly so because he knew he could never have her. He wasn’t fit to be in a relationship, and anybody with a set of eyes could see that Meadow Gracey was the marrying kind. For all her wild ways, she really only wanted to be loved by one man for the rest of her life.
Her eyes blazed down into his like blue flames. “Colton…”
“Yes?”
“I want to tell you something.”
“What is it?”
She rolled her hips, bringing her wet pussy against the base of his cock. The throb increased. “When you turned me over your lap in the truck that night…”
He stopped breathing.
“And pulled up my skirt…”
God help him. He’d made it through countless battles and danced with death, but this woman was going to kill him.
“When you spanked me…”
“Meadow—”
“I liked it.”
His gaze shot to hers.
“A lot.” She bit down on her plump bottom lip.
His eyes shuttered. When he opened them again and saw that lust on her face, there was no stopping what he was about to do.
He flipped her into the mattress, face down. When he knelt behind her and grabbed her by the hips, she gasped.
With an upward jerk, he yanked her ass into the air and stuffed a pillow under her hips.
She twisted her fists in the sheets. “Oh god!”
Hell, one look at that round ass just waiting for him to mark her pale, perfect skin had his control not only slipping but running for the hills.
Slowly, he brushed his knuckles over the crest of her buttocks. She let out a moan.
He moved back and forth, getting her warmed up for him. “Are you wet for me, baby?”
“Yes!”
“Let’s find out.” He dipped two fingers between her legs and burrowed deep in her pussy, twisting.
She cried out.
“When you make that sound, I damn near lose it every time, Meadow. Coming on your beautiful ass right now would be the hottest thing ever. Just seeing you dripping with my juices before I spank this…perfect…ass…” he caressed it with each word, “would be fucking glorious.”
She whimpered. “Colton!”
“But I won’t do that. Not yet.”
“What…will you do?” she panted.
Without warning, he brought the palm of his hand against her ripe cheek—soft, yet enough to make it sting.
His cock swelled. The noise, the feel of flesh, the control…and Meadow…all proved too much.
“Tell me if you like it.”
“I do! Please, Colton!”
He smacked her again. Then again. The pink marks of his fingers stretching over her globe had his cock leaking precum. He took his cock in hand and smeared it over the mark, claiming her in another way.
With no ability to stop now, he plunged his fingers in her core again. Her pussy gripped him. She screamed his name and begged. When he could take it no more, he aimed his cock at her entrance and thrust inside her.
Fuck. Had he just come home?