Fall to Pieces (23 page)

"Fine. We can start tomorrow."

###

As much as Sadie tried to keep a certain
distance—emotionally anyway—over the next few days she found it
nearly impossible not to fall more completely in love with
Dylan.

How could she not? During the days, he was
her rock, busting his ass in the field, greeting her at the end of
his day with a stolen kiss as he smoothed the lines between her
eyebrows with his callused thumb.

And the nights...

Though she knew she was only digging a deeper
hole for herself, she was unable to make herself stay away after
that one night. Even then, she had lain awake, restless, twitchy,
like a junkie craving a fix.

Enjoy what's happening now. Don't worry
about what happens next. God knows right now being with Dylan is
one of the few high points of your days.

Although she knew her secret desire for some
thing more serious was one sided, it didn't mean Dylan was
completely casual about everything.

As proven by the way he bristled when she
told him Tucker Madsen was coming out the following afternoon to
pick up the horse her father had finally deigned to sell him.

And the way he so coincidentally showed up
back at the barn mere minutes after Tucker arrived.

Almost as though he'd been watching the road
from the hay meadow, waiting for the sight of Tucker's shiny new
Ford pulling a trailer turning into the drive.

Sadie walked over to the truck as Tucker got
out of the driver's seat followed by one of the hands from his
ranch.

Tucker flashed her a wide grin. "Sadie, it's
great to see you again," he said. As he pulled her into his arms to
give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, she could feel Dylan's
stare burning a hole in her back.

"Great to see you too," she said, pulling
away as unobtrusively as possible.

"This is Rob," Tucker said, indicating the
lanky cowboy to his left. "He's here to help me make sure Thunder
gets to our place in one piece, since my trailer hauling skills are
still developing."

"Ma'am," Rob said, giving her a quick tip of
his straw hat in a typical cowboy greeting.

"You remember Dylan," Sadie said, wincing
when Dylan offered no more than a grunt as he shook Tucker's
hand.

She motioned for Tucker to follow her as she
went to the barn to retrieve a halter.

"I've been looking forward to seeing you,"
Tucker said as he fell in step next to her. "I'm going to be in
town for at least a month—maybe we can grab dinner again."

"Maybe," she replied, unable to keep her gaze
from flicking over to Dylan, and what she saw wasn't good. Jaw
clenched, every muscle radiating tension, he looked like a bull
about to charge. "Dylan," she said as she pulled a halter off a
hook on the wall, "do you mind taking Rob to Thunder while Tucker
and I take care of the paper work?"

He held her stare for several long seconds,
his eyes narrowed, before he finally gave a curt nod and motioned
for Rob to follow him.

"So you and Dylan..." Tucker said as she
retrieved the papers for him to sign.

Sadie sighed and gave a reluctant nod. "It's
not serious."

"I don't think he knows that."

Her lips pulled in a reluctant half smile and
she gave him a quick overview of Dylan's situation. "So really,
there's not much long term potential."

"Maybe I can try again once he's out of the
picture," Tucker said with a chuckle as he took the paperwork from
Sadie and signed where necessary. "And this is for you," he said
and handed her a check for the agreed upon sale price.

"Then I guess we're all set," she said and
started outside, where she could hear the metallic clang of the
tailgate being lowered to load Thunder.

"There is something else I wanted to talk to
you," he said, staying her with a hand to her elbow. "I've recently
invested in a company in the Bay Area—a former colleague of mine is
starting a company that offers online personal stylist services,
and they're looking for someone to run their mobile division. I
think you'd be a great fit."

"Wow," Sadie replied. "That sounds like an
amazing opportunity, and I'm really flattered. But right now
everything is still in flux, and I don't know that I can plan to
move back any time soon."

Tucker shrugged. "Ideally you'd work on site,
but they're willing to be flexible if you're really interested in
the role. You could start out remotely, until things here settle
down to the point where you can leave. Just think about it."

"I will," Sadie said sincerely. How could she
not? From the little Tucker said, it sounded like her dream job.
And once her father was healthy and able to take over again full
time, it wasn't like there would be much keeping her in Big
Timber.

Admit it. Your father could pass his
physical tomorrow, but if Dylan weren't leaving and you thought
there was even a hair of a chance for the two of you, you wouldn't
even think about moving to California.
She shoved the thought
out of her head. No use wasting her time wallowing in what ifs.

"Good." He grinned. "I'll send you some
information and tell the founder to give you a call."

A few minutes later, Thunder was safely
loaded in the trailer and Rob was turning the truck down the drive,
and Sadie went back to the barn to retrieve the paperwork she'd
left inside.

Dylan followed so closely she could feel the
heat emanating off of his big body. "So, you two plan another hot
date?"

"Nope."

"Why not? He seems like the perfect
guy—someone you could get serious with."

She wondered if he even heard the jealousy
seething in his voice.

"I think we've established I'm not looking
for anything serious right now."
Not with Tucker, anyway.
She wandered over to one of the stalls where a little bay mare
stood with her head over the door, ears pricked forward as though
she was absorbing every word of their conversation. "Who said I
wanted anything more than a little fun?"

"Anyway, Tucker is a nice guy, smart,
attractive, and I'm sure he'd be fun to date," Sadie said. She held
her hand for the mare to nuzzle her palm. "But it all comes down to
the fact that I don't want to fuck him."

She dared a look over her shoulder, hiding a
smile when she saw her words had the desired affect. Dylan
swallowed hard, his eyes narrowing as a grin teased his own
lips.

He stalked toward her in that long-legged,
hip-rolling gait that never failed to get her pulse pounding. "Is
that so?" He stopped behind her, settled his hands on her hips, and
pulled her back against him. "And who is it you
do
want to
fuck?"

Just the sound of his voice was enough to
send a rush of wetness between her legs, make her sex swell against
the seam of her jeans. "I think we both know the answer to
that."

"I want to hear you say it," he murmured as
he sucked her earlobe between his lips and gave it a little
nip.

"You," she sighed, the feel of his lips on
her neck enough to make her nipples harden against the thin fabric
of her t-shirt. "You're the only one I want to fuck."

"Good," he murmured. His hands slid up to
cover her breasts and he ground himself against the curve of her
ass.

Then he was tugging her shirt from her
waistband, sliding it up so his hands could get at her bare skin.
She had the vague thought that at any point someone could walk in
the barn and see them.

He must have had it too because he turned her
in his arms and started moving her away from the stall. But instead
of heading for the door and making a break for his cabin, he pulled
her into the tack room, closed the door, and pressed her up against
it.

The scent of leather mingled with his own
musky, grassy smell as he wrapped his fist around her ponytail and
took her mouth in a hard, hungry kiss. She groaned and sucked his
tongue into her mouth.

###

"Say it again," Dylan murmured as he tugged
her shirt up her chest and slid one hand inside the silky cup of
her bra. "Tell me I'm the only one you want to fuck, the only one
you want touching you like this." He needed to hear the words,
needed to hear that he was the only one she wanted like this.

For a guy who claims he doesn't want
anything serious, you're acting awfully territorial.

Dylan shoved the thought aside, not wanting
to dwell right now—or ever—on why it was so important for him to
hear her say the words.

Why it had pissed him off so much when he'd
felt her pulling away, when he'd sensed she was trying to keep part
of herself from him these last few nights, ever since his blow up
with his father.

All of her.

That's what he wanted—no needed. Though he
knew he had no goddamn right, he refused to settle for anything
less.

He bent his head, tugged a nipple in between
his lips and bit down with just enough pressure to get her to make
that high pitched sigh he couldn't get enough of.

"You're the only one I want," she said, her
voice breaking as he slid a hand between her legs, the heat of her
burning his palm through the heavy denim.

And you're the only one I want.
The
thought flashed in his brain but he didn't dare say it out loud.
Afraid that if he did it meant he would have to think about what
that might mean, about how he ached when he thought about how
little time they had left. His feeling for Sadie grew stronger with
every second he spent in her company.

Every time he touched her.

He couldn't think about that right now, not
with the silky feel of her skin under his hands, the hard bud of
her nipple pressing insistently against his tongue. He couldn't
think past the urge to take her, claim her, so that even when she
eventually rode off into the sunset with a "nice" guy like Tucker,
she'd never forget Dylan.

Never forget that he was the only one who
made her feel this way.

He popped the button of her jeans and pulled
the zipper down. His hand slid down, his fingers delving into the
waistband of her panties.

Their moans echoed filled the small space as
he stroked her slick flesh until they were drenched with the
evidence of her need.

He shoved her pants down her hips and legs,
swearing when his progress was impeded by the boots she wore. He
knelt, grabbed one foot and wrestled a boot off. He tugged her
jeans and underwear off one leg and left them dangling from the
other.

Within seconds his own jeans were shoved down
his hips and she was wrapping those mile long legs around him
and—holy Christ—he was sliding inside her wet, tight heat.

Good, so good,
he thought as he
started to thrust. It always felt amazing, but this time it was,
tighter, hotter, every sensation ratcheted up to the next
level.

And she was feeling it too, her moans echoing
in his ear as his elbows hooked under her knees, holding her
impaled on his cock until he was as deep as he could possibly
go.

Within minutes she was coming, her slender
body shaking in his arms, her fingers fisting in the fabric of his
shirt as she clenched and pulsed around him.

That was all it took to send his own release
roaring through him. And only as he felt the first pulse and the
answering clutch of her body did he realize why this time, in
particular, it had felt even more mindblowing than ever.

"Oh my God, we didn't use anything," Sadie
said shakily.

"Shit," Dylan muttered as he jerked from her
body—for all the good that would do—and gently lowered her feet to
the floor. "I'm sorry. I didn't plan to..."

"Corner me in the barn and fuck me
senseless?" she said with a shaky laugh that tugged at his chest
even as a smile tugged his lips. "It's my fault too," she said,
quickly tugging her shirt down and her pants up. "I mean, I'm not
some irresponsible teenager, getting carried away."

He didn't bother to tell her that even when
he had been an irresponsible teenager, he'd never gotten too
carried away to have sex without any kind of birth control.

No, it was only Sadie who made him completely
lose his head.

"I'm totally, you don't have to worry about,"
he said clumsily, feeling like his tongue had wrapped around
itself.

"Me too," she said a little too brightly.
"And as far as..." she broke off. "I'm sure everything will be
fine."

Something in her voice told him she wasn't a
hundred percent about that. "Sadie, if anything happens—"

"Don't worry," she cut him off. "I would
never expect you to... I know what we're doing here isn't—" she
snapped her mouth closed with a shake of her head.

"Isn't what?" he couldn't keep himself from
asking.

"Isn't anything remotely close to something
we should bring a baby into," she said.

Even as he acknowledged the truth of that,
his brain flashed on an image of Sadie cradling a grinning baby
that had her auburn tinged hair and his blue eyes.

He shook his head, panic rising in his chest.
At his last psych eval, they'd told him he had no major
psychological issues.

Maybe someone had made a mistake.

"Right," he said. "But you'll let me know?"
he reached for her hand and laced his fingers through hers.

"Of course," she smiled, but he could see the
tinge of anxiety looming in her eyes. "But let's make sure we're
careful from here on out. Neither of us wants a permanent souvenir
once the 'fun' is over."

###

Over the next few days, whatever worries
Sadie had about their slip up in the barn took a back seat.

"There's a storm front moving in," Pete said
grimly over dinner. "If we don't finish in the next forty eight
hours we stand to lose the last twenty acres."

The already dry bite of chicken Sadie was
chewing turned to dust in her mouth. "That's over fifteen thousand
dollars."