Montana Rescue (The Wildes of Birch Bay Book 2) (13 page)

When the muscles of her thighs clenched tighter, whatever blood that remained in his head went south.

“Nick,” she whispered.

Her chest arched toward him and her entire body grew tight. He dug his fingers deeper into the curves of her rear. “Me, too,” he panted.

A shout ripped from her, quickly joined by the one from him, and he pumped himself dry, his hips clenching rhythmically with his release. When he was finally empty, he collapsed, pinning her between him and the wall. Her legs remained around his hips—now trapped there by his weight—but they hung as boneless as his entire body felt.

Ninety minutes later, they were in Nick’s bed, propped up against the headboard. Harper had a beer in her hand—with an eye on Nick’s hand as his fingers stroked along her inner thigh. He didn’t seem to be aware that he was touching her. On his other side, he worked the remote, and she’d swear all his attention was focused on that task. Yet those fingers . . .

For someone who’d not only had one mind-blowing orgasm at the front door but another after Nick had brought her upstairs, his fingers shouldn’t be messing with her the way they were. Yet she was about to toss both beer and remote and climb back on top of him if he didn’t put a stop to it.

“I just got this today,” Nick said as a picture finally filled the screen.

“Is it any good?” It was a preview copy of his latest commercial.

“Haven’t watched it yet.” He hit “Pause,” then reached over and stole her beer and took a deep pull. “I was saving it until I was in a better mood.”

“You were in a bad mood before?”

He handed back the bottle and waggled his brows. “I was sexually frustrated before.”

He hit “Play,” and the screen filled with a nasty-looking bull standing in a chute, its head the size of a small country, and its horns nothing short of terrifying. The animal snorted and reared back, and then a single leg dropped down over its side. At the glimpse of the denim and chaps, Harper caught her breath. Now it only took the sight of the man’s
leg
to turn her on.

She shook her head at the absurdity and tried to block out the burn of Nick’s fingers, where they were still drawing circles on her thigh. She watched the remaining forty seconds of the commercial, and as it ended, with Nick’s naughty smile front and center, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?” The grin he directed her way was cute, but she detected embarrassment as well as humor.

“Isn’t this commercial to promote clothing? That other
men
wear?” She pointed the tip of her beer bottle at the screen. “Yet that whole thing was about sex. Or made to make women think about sex.”

“Who do you think buys those men most of their clothes?” He smirked. He leaned over and nuzzled her behind the ear. “Women eat this stuff up.”

“I can see why.”

“So you like it, do you?” He pulled back slightly, and his gaze landed on her lips. And his fingers inched farther north.

“We still talking about the commercial, Wilde?”

He shook his head. “Not the commercial. Tell me you like it,” he murmured. He nibbled at the corner of her mouth.

“Well, the man in it
has
gotten me naked twice now, so”—she gasped when a finger slipped inside her—“I’d say I like it at least a little,” she finished on a whisper. She slid a couple of inches back down on the bed and opened her legs a little wider. He had really good technique with his fingers.

“I like it a
lot
.” He went back to nuzzling her ear. “You.” His fingers continued to work her down below. “Sex with you.” He sucked her earlobe between his teeth. “Anything I can get with you.”

His words had her edging away from him, the need to make sure they were on the same page suddenly paramount. “This
is
just sex, right? Because I don’t want anything else.”

Nick didn’t pause. “I’m right there with you.”

He brought his mouth to hers and kissed her, his tongue mimicking the action of his, now
two
,
fingers inside of her, and he made her forget everything else. When he ended the kiss, they were both out of breath.

“I’m just saying that I want a
lot
of sex,” he clarified. His lips closed over hers again.

“A lot of sex,” she agreed when they next came up for air. They were both once again horizontal, and getting naked with Nick as often as possible suddenly made perfect sense. “I can do that. As long as you’re okay with the fact that I’m a little too old for you.”

He pulled back. “How do you figure that?”

“I’m not one of your rodeo girls, Nick. I’ll be thirty in a couple of years.”

His thumb rubbed a tight circle between her legs. “Are you saying you can’t keep up with me?”

“Oh, I can keep up.”

“Then I don’t see a problem.” His mouth returned to her neck, and he mumbled, “And you’re far from too old for me.”

“Yeah, but,” she panted, “I’m also saying—”

He gripped both of her hips and dragged her under him, and her words snapped off like a twig. The man’s body touched hers from head to toe. His thighs stretched just on the outside of hers, trapping her into immobility, with his thick, nudging erection pressing hard against her belly. He planted his elbows directly above her shoulders, then he held her head steady between his large hands. She tried to concentrate on what else she’d wanted to say, but as he angled his head and took her lips in a slow, exploratory kiss, focus became impossible.

So she closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment.

He kissed her for a long time, seeming to put all his attention into that single act, and when he finally lifted his mouth, she was left staring up at him in wonder. That had been a hell of a kiss. He’d slowed them down, but she knew it would be only temporary. This man wasn’t made for slow.

The slight break, though, let her previous thought return.

“The other thing I wanted to say,” she breathed out, “was that
because
I’m older, I’m not simply going to stand around and fawn over you at rodeos. We may not be dating, but I did have fun with you the other day. As friends. So, consider this your warning. I might try to talk you into doing things
other
than sex.” She gave him a crooked smile. “In fact, that’s actually why I came over here tonight. I had an idea for something fun we could do.”

His hand once again headed south. “That isn’t why you came over here tonight.”

His deep rumbling words had her chuckling. “Maybe not. But it is the excuse I’d planned to use.”

“Is it?” He nibbled her shoulder.

Her eyes fluttered closed as he slid off her, and his fingers returned to tweaking and probing and touching her in all the ways she liked best. And it occurred to her that he’d certainly learned the needs of her body awfully fast.

“Lay it on me,” he murmured as his mouth made its way to her breast. “This great plan of yours. The one you have to talk me into.”

She sucked in a deep breath as moist heat covered her nipple. “Racecar driving,” she whispered. At his surprised glance, she nodded, unconcerned with her unladylike panting. “There’s a track about thirty minutes from here. We could go Tuesday.”

He rose to one elbow. “Or I could clear my day tomorrow.”

“I can’t tomorrow. I’m taking a couple to the top of Mount Cleveland in the morning for a marriage proposal.” She gasped when he suddenly picked her up, and she landed on top of him. Her thighs straddled his waist.

“I didn’t think it was standard to fly up that high.” Though he continued talking, his hands remained focused on her body. He inched her higher on his torso until she covered his chest, then lifted her rear off him and directed her hands to his headboard. She now leaned over his face, her breasts swinging free, and he groaned like a man who’d just discovered the female anatomy for the very first time.

“It’s fine,” she answered. The look on his face could only be described as rapturous. “I’ve flown up there many times.”

His teeth closed around the tip of her breast, and at the same time his thumbs spread her open below the waist. And again, she gasped at his touch. He kept her trapped between his teeth as she squirmed due to his finger movements, pulling at her in an almost painful—yet highly pleasurable—way.

“Scoot up,” he mumbled a few minutes later.

She looked down at him, her eyes almost completely glazed over now, willing to do anything he asked. But when she saw the intent in his eyes, she paused. And though she had the thought to refuse the act out of sheer respect—Thomas had been the only one who’d ever touched her in that way—she couldn’t bring herself to see what they were about to do as wrong.

Nerve-racking, yes. But not wrong.

Nick nudged her rear, and she lifted fully to her knees. She repositioned her knees above his shoulders, breathing hard as she stared down at his mouth. It was only inches away. But he clearly felt her nerves, because he didn’t immediately put his lips on her. Instead he spent several minutes running his palms over her arms and thighs, down her back. He even caressed her calves and the bottoms of her feet. He soothed her in a way she hadn’t realized she’d needed. And when he reached up to bring her face down to his for a soul-searching kiss, she melted in his hands.

When he pulled back and looked into her eyes, she nodded. She’d never have guessed she needed gentleness like this.

Nick took his time, bringing his attention to her center. He nudged her back up to her knees—she’d dropped to his chest while he’d kissed her—and he once again slid his palms up and over her body. He stroked along the sides of her waist, across her shoulders, and down her arms to where she once again had a firm grip on the headboard. And when she looked down at him, he kissed her right at her belly button.

She shivered, and suddenly she was the one no longer wanting to keep things slow. She edged closer to his mouth, and at the move, she caught the slash of masculine pride across his lips.

He spread her apart, but then he did no more than take her in.

“Please,” she whispered.

His mouth pursed and she felt a stream of air slide over her. She dropped her head, and the muscles in her thighs tensed.

“Nick,” she pleaded again when he still didn’t put his mouth on her.

“Will you promise to be careful tomorrow?”

“What?” Dazed, she looked at him. “When?”

“On your flight.”

She nodded. She would have a man and woman in the aircraft with her, their hopes high for a beautiful, long life ahead of them. Of course she’d be careful. “I promise.”

“Then come find me when you’re done. I don’t want to wait two days to see you again.”

She nodded once more, and when he stopped talking, he finally touched his lips to her body, and she got lost in the pure pleasure of how Nick could make her feel.

Chapter Twelve

O
n Monday afternoon, Nick once again sat at the worn wooden desk in the family study, working on cleaning up the farm’s books. He’d been through the last twelve months and confirmed that the problems hadn’t started until after his dad had taken over. So he’d saved a copy of the original before beginning the changes—in case he made things even worse—but as of that moment, the numbers once again balanced. He saved a backup copy of the updated file and shut down the accounting software. Then he brought up the website for the University of Montana.

Should he really consider going back? He hadn’t given it much thought since the idea had formed, but it
had
sat in the back of his mind.

If he did go, though, how would that even work? He needed to move forward in his career, not continue sitting still. His agent wouldn’t stick with him much longer if nothing changed. Commercials or not, Charlie had signed on with the intention of bigger things.

Yet attending school would require Nick to be in Montana. Unless he did online classes.

He thought about the one semester he’d spent on campus when he was eighteen. He’d enjoyed it. He might be older than everyone now, but he couldn’t help but think he’d get more out of the atmosphere by attending in person.

Or, hell, maybe he should just forget the whole idea. He’d chosen his path years ago, hadn’t he? He loved bull riding. He wouldn’t even know what to study at this point.

He clicked the link for the fall schedule and found the application deadline. There was still plenty of time to decide. Next he brought up a list of degrees and scanned it. Nothing stood out.

What kind of degree could bring me back to Birch Bay?

He blew out a breath at the thought. He hadn’t realized he wanted to come home for good. But he did. He missed it.

A ding sounded through the speakers, and he clicked over to his e-mail. His first thought was that it might be Harper e-mailing him. About what, he didn’t know. He just knew he wanted to hear from her. She hadn’t stayed over last night. She’d blamed it on her early flight, but, a couple of hours after she’d shown up, he’d seen the need in her to get out of there.

Once dressed, she’d practically run from the house, stopping only when she’d come upon the remains of the leftovers he’d brought home from Dani’s. Not that there was any food to be found. There’d been a couple of empty containers, a shred of the plastic from the bag it had all been carried in, and bear prints. But thankfully no sign of the bear.

But even though Harper had run, she would be back. Soon, actually. Her flight should have ended thirty minutes earlier, and the minute she returned, Nick intended to hustle her off to Kalispell. It might not be as exciting as tomorrow’s plans for the raceway, but he’d lined up a couple of horses for them to ride that afternoon.

Scanning his e-mail, he wasn’t surprised to see the incoming message from Charlie, and he opened it to find the same old thing. Pressure to make a decision. Giving it no thought, he went back to the university website, but there were too many what-ifs and not enough answers running through his mind to be able to focus. So he pulled out his phone and called his brother.

“It’s two o’clock in the afternoon there,” Nate said by way of greeting. “Shouldn’t you be watering a tree or something?”

Nick grunted. “The trees are being watered as we speak.”

“Sounds like you can barely keep the place running without me,” his brother returned sarcastically. “What’s up?”

Nick leaned back in the chair. “There’s something I need to talk through.”

“And you called me for advice? Smart man. About time you grew a brain. Is this about your girlfriend?”

“My what?” Nick shot up in the seat. “Who told you—”

He stopped talking and thought
Haley
at the exact second Nate said, “Haley.”

Nick narrowed his eyes. His darling niece had ratted him out. So much for keeping her favorite uncle’s secrets. Not that he’d ever actually
told
her that Harper was his girlfriend.

“So who is it?” Nate asked.

“Who is what?”

“Clever. Play stupid. But you have to know that once she mentioned ‘girlfriend,’ I wouldn’t let it go at that.”

“And you have to know that the kid loves to make stuff up. Her favorite pastime is playing pretend. You can’t believe anything that comes out of her mouth.”

“I believed her when she said the girl has blue hair.”

Nick clamped his mouth shut.

“She also claims to have seen her.”

“No, she hasn’t.”

Nate laughed, and Nick could see the smirk that went along with it. “Still want to deny this woman exists?”

Nick sighed. “I don’t have a girlfriend. Where did Haley claim to have seen her?”

“You mean this blue-haired woman that doesn’t exist?”

“Just answer the damned question,” Nick gritted out.

Nate laughed again. “Said she saw her at the rodeo. Something about her being in the bathroom throwing up and begging for crackers.” There was a slight pause before Nate asked, “You’re not dating some pregnant chick, are you?”

“I’m not dating anyone.” And probably the throwing up had been Jewel. But he hadn’t realized that Haley had seen them. “She say anything else?”

“Only that she agrees with you. The girl is pretty. So who is she?”

“Nobody.”

“
Hmpf.
Just one of your groupies?”

“I don’t have groupies.” At least, never more than one at a time. Regardless of reputation, he didn’t switch up like some of the other guys. “And that was supposed to be my and Haley’s secret,” he grumbled.

“Well, she is only five. From what I’ve seen from both of our nieces, I’m not sure secrets are a high priority at that age. And anyway, she told me about her because I’m her favorite uncle.”

Nick frowned. Cute smile or not, that kid knew how to wheedle information out of people. “And the other night
I
was her favorite uncle,” he told his brother. “Right before she got a secret out of me. You reveal anything to her?”

“Do you think
I’m
an idiot?”

“Well—”

“Wrong,” Nate interjected. “If I were an idiot, I wouldn’t already know who this mysterious beauty is, now would I?”

Nick went silent. Because he suspected that Nate could easily figure out who she was. His brother’s memory had always been good, and no doubt he’d recall the one girl in town who Nick had crushed on, who’d also once been prone to uniquely colored hair.

“I thought she’d gotten married.” Nate said, his lowered tone showing his concern.

“Her husband died a year and a half ago.”

“Ouch.” They both fell silent before Nate added, “And what? You just happened to run into her? Figured you’d finally scratch that itch?”

“Something like that.” Though Nick didn’t personally like that phrasing when it came to Harper. “But that’s not why I called, so can we drop it?”

“For now. But if you didn’t call to discuss woman problems, then why did you call? Don’t tell me that you’ve finally fallen in love with cherry farming and decided to move back home to do it full time.”

Nick remained silent, if for no other reason than to annoy his brother.

“You’re kidding me.”

Nick grunted again. “Moron. Of course I haven’t.” But he did keep his mouth shut about his newfound desire to come home. “I did call to talk about my career, though.” He waited, already questioning if he should have even brought it up.

“You’re finally signing on with the PBR?”

“No,” he answered bluntly. “I haven’t made a decision on that yet. But I
am
considering going back to school. Or, at least taking some classes on the side.”

“Yes,” Nate replied without hesitation.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, go.”

“But then how do I fit it all in? If I register—honestly—I’d prefer to take a full load. Otherwise it’ll take me forever to earn a degree. But the logical thing is for me to go national. It’s time. Yet . . .” He sighed. “I can’t do that and go to school, as well.”

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t do everything.”

Such heavy silence came from on the other end of the phone that Nick pulled his cell away from his ear to make sure they hadn’t lost connection. When Nate finally spoke, his tone had grown serious. “Are you still letting her control your actions?”

“Letting who control my actions?” The hair rose on the back of Nick’s neck.

“Mom.”

“What are you talking about?” Anger sliced through him. “She never controlled my actions.”

“She always did.”

“Bullsh—”

“You used to take every risk in the book just to get her attention.”

“No, I didn’t.” But his childhood flashed through his head. Hadn’t he come home with more than one cut or broken bone over the years? And he knew why. Because he’d learned it from her. He’d seen
her
do the exact same thing to get attention.

Only she’d never wanted
his
attention.

He swallowed his disgust, but he kept his mouth shut. Nate didn’t know what Nick had seen their mother do. Nick had never told anyone.

“Yet that all stopped after she died.” Nate’s words rang softly in Nick’s ear, and as clear as day, Nick understood that it had stopped after his mother died, not because Dani didn’t need the additional hassle but because he hadn’t had to do anything to get Dani’s attention. Because
she
had loved him. Just as he was.

Shit.
Why had he never seen that before?

“You know you’re full of it,” Nick growled out. Nate might know him better than anyone else, but some things they kept to themselves. And would go to their graves denying.

“And you know I’m right. And that nothing you tried got her attention. She always berated you for not being good enough. Not tough enough.”

“I did not call you to talk about her,” Nick bit out. He also hadn’t called to get into an argument, but he couldn’t stop the anger or the heated words. “I called because I,
stupidly
, wanted your thoughts on the matter of me going back to school.”

“And I gave them to you. Go. It’s about time that you went back.” Nate’s words remained calm, which only irritated Nick more. “In fact, you should never have quit. I always thought you wanted to do more with your life than chasing girls and trying to kill yourself on a bull.”

“Unlike you, who got a business degree and became a fisherman?” Nick sneered.

“Kiss my ass.”

“Dare to come home for once and I will.”

“I was home twice last year,” Nate snapped out. And finally, Nick could hear his brother’s annoyance. It made him feel better to know he wasn’t alone.

“Only because our entire family was on the brink of collapse,” Nick pointed out. The heat of his anger suddenly disappeared, leaving him drained. They were both so messed up. All of them were. And sometimes that came out by way of fights. But it didn’t keep them from having each other’s backs when the need arose. He crossed to the front window and dropped his forehead to the cool glass. “Isn’t it time to deal with your own crap, Nate? Quit hiding away in Alaska. It’s time for all of us to do more than spin in circles.”

“Yet it’s easier said than done, isn’t it?”

They both went silent. Being a Wilde had never been as black or white as outsiders might have believed. They hadn’t had a perfect family. And trying to dig out from that wouldn’t come easy. For any of them.

“We’re all doing just fine,” Nate said. “No need to mix things up simply because we’re not hiding from reality anymore.”

“Yet, you’re not happy stuck away up there.”

“Big deal. None of us are happy.”

Nick thought about the moment the night before when he’d been leaving Dani’s house. As he’d stood at the door and looked back at her. She’d seemed completely content for the first time in her life. “I think Dani might be,” he said, nearly under his breath.

Nate went silent for several seconds. “She deserves to be.”

“Maybe we all deserve it.”

Nick could hear Nate’s steady breathing, and he caught himself counting the exhalations. “Maybe we do,” Nate conceded after the count rose to seven. “And if going back to school is what will start you down that path, then do it. Everything else will fall into place somehow. And as for bull riding . . . I know it’s your life. I was only teasing with the crack about killing yourself. I get that you enjoy it and that you’re good at it.”

“I’m great at it.”

“Right. But have you never found it odd that you didn’t even get into the sport until after you graduated from high school? What I’m saying is, it wasn’t a dream of yours since childhood.”

The problem was, Nick had had no dreams. “I dislocated a shoulder when I was seven because I fell off a sheep,” he reminded his brother. “Of course I wasn’t excited to jump back on after that.” Especially given how that entire incident had played out afterward.

“But you didn’t even want to be on the sheep,” Nate pointed out. “I was there. She dared you. You only did it to win her approval.”

A jeep came into sight at the far end of the driveway, and Nick had never been so relieved to see signs of another human being in his life. This was supposed to have been a conversation about his potential future. Not about their mother or how she’d been living in their heads their whole lives. He left the room and headed for the front door, stepping onto the porch before Harper made it to the house. She waved when she saw him, and pleasure flooded him.