Suspended (27 page)

“Fuck, Kendall.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

He tried to slow down. His jaw ached from grinding his
molars together to fight back the growls. She left him stripped bare. He might
as well be the one bound. He wanted to climb inside and soak in that intrinsic
slice of sunshine that lived within her skin.

He didn’t have a condom with him, so he’d have to be content
with watching her fall apart around his hand. Restless hips undulated against him
in sinuous circles. She was splayed across his dash, her forehead kissing the
window as she writhed above him.

Fitting a third finger inside her pussy, he hissed and
hammered into her. She clenched around him, and God, he wanted it to be his
cock.

She ground down on his hand. “Harder. I need more.”

“I didn’t plan this.” His voice came out more of a growl. “I
don’t have anything.”

She rose on her knees. “I don’t care.”

He pressed his cheek against her chest, then pulled her
upright. With his hand trapped inside her, she shifted back and forth. He
brought his other hand up to cup the back of her neck until their gazes
collided. “I care.”

“I’m protected. Girl stuff,” she said on a pant. “I’ve been
on an IUD since I was twenty.”

“You can’t—”

“I’ll chance it.” Her dark eyes were wide with intent. “I
trust you.”

He shook his head. The one thing he’d wanted was to feel her
wrapped around him without any barriers. And here, he could have that. He
flicked his thumb under her clit. “I want to. God, I want to. But I don’t want
to take any chances with you.”

He changed the angle of his fingers and felt her body
free-falling into orgasm. She stilled completely, her thighs quivering around
his wrist.

He was already halfway gone over her; there was no way he
could survive knowing just how perfect she felt. How could he ever walk away
from her, then?

She screamed out her frustration, and he took every grinding
punishment she could give him until she finally shuddered to a halt. Her chest
heaved, and a fine sheen of sweat slicked her beautiful breasts.

He reached behind her to undo the belt and cradled her when
her arms came up around his neck. She rested her cheek against his shoulder and
sighed.

Nothing about Kendall was what he expected. She was one of
the warmest and most giving people he’d ever been in contact with. Without
guile, she was everything he hadn’t known he wanted.

The playful edge they’d started with was as distant as the
little town they were headed for.

She sat back on his lap. She brought her hands up to his
face, then ran her thumbs over the hollows of his cheeks. “I’m not sure where
you went at the end of that, but I just wanted to apologize. You were right. I
was in the moment and shouldn’t have demanded that. You were only being safe.”

If only it was because of safe sex. He wasn’t sure he could
hand her any more of himself.

He gently pulled her bra forward and snapped it closed in
between her breasts. “I knew you’d be mad at yourself after the lust faded.”

She quickly did up the buttons that survived. “Right. Of
course.” She climbed off his lap and twisted the denim skirt around and down
until she was covered.

Already he wanted to jam it up and lap at her pussy until
she screamed again. Until he could drive into her and the ache in his chest
dissipated. Instead, he slid behind the wheel and dug for his keys. His belt
lay discarded between them, the mangled end of the strap reminding him just how
amazing she looked as she came apart in his arms.

The ride back to the ranch was a quiet one. Kendall’s
silvery profile was pensive. Their agreement to have a fun road trip was
falling by the wayside. The flash of her phone’s screen lit up the interior of
the truck.

“Son of a—” She tapped the screen a few times and lifted the
phone to her ear. “Bells?”

He tried to listen but got distracted by Kendall’s body
language. She curled in on herself, her arms tight across her chest as she
leaned forward to listen. Most of her side of the conversation was mumbles and
yeses and nos. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t good.

His fingers ached by the end of the ride. As they were
pulling up the drive, she finally hung up.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath.
“How much time do you have left on this job?”

He parked and turned to her. “If I push it, I’ll be done by
Sunday.”

“I’d appreciate anything you can do to get us on the road by
Monday. The hot water heater went, and our usual handyman is working on it, but
it might be above his abilities. I’ll need to get a plumber in.” She fiddled
with her phone, flashing the screen on and off.

“I’m good with them.”

She looked up. “I can’t ask you—”

“Ask me to what? Work on my house? We’re partners in this
now, Kendall. “

“I know, but this isn’t your problem.”

“It is. And even if we need to buy a new one, it won’t be half
as expensive if I get one from our wholesaler and do the work myself.”

“We lost two bookings because of it. And now with the
holiday…” She tipped her forehead against the glass. “I just need to get back.”

“What will your mom do until you get home?”

“Bells will take care of her.” She opened the door and
hopped down.

He did the same and stopped her at the front of the truck.
“You’re not alone in this anymore. I don’t know how else to make you understand
that.”

“I’m not used to having someone to rely on.”

“Not even your mother?”

“She…” Kendall flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Let’s
just say she’s not good in a crisis.” She laid a hand on his chest. “Are you
coming up to the house?”

“No, I’m going back down with the men. I want to get an
early start.”

She nodded. “Thanks for listening, Shane.”

He shrugged. “Not a big deal. We were going to have to talk
about it sooner or later.”

“Evidently sooner won that bet.”

He tucked her hair behind both ears. “You okay to walk up
alone?”

“Just fine.” For the first time, she looked the woman he’d
met at the will reading. Her shoulders were stooped a little, and her sassy,
sexy walk was missing.

Reality was here to stay, evidently.

Saturday had come and gone with Oscar in full effect. The
crew was exhausted, and Shane was on the knife-edge of surly. Evelyn was at a
horse show a few towns over, and Kendall had already done all her chores. There
was no way she could ignore her mother’s phone call this time. Especially when
it came directly after a text that demanded she answer the phone.

Well, not without a serious case of the guilts.

“Mom, I wanted to tell you earlier.”

“You could have told me before shipments started arriving at
the house, Kendall Marie Proctor.”

She winced and dropped onto her butt in the field. Salina
was enjoying another mild day. It was hard to remember it was almost
Thanksgiving when the temperatures felt more like September. Taking advantage
of the dry grass and some alone time, she stretched out and looked up at the
painfully blue sky.

How was she supposed to tell her mother that Lawrence
Justice had let her down again? She didn’t believe in miracles anymore, but her
mother certainly did. She’d wanted to break the news face-to-face, but as
usual, she’d had to adapt. Her situation was about to crash headlong into
reality in a few days anyway. Had it really only been ten days?

“How’s the hot water heater?”

“Broken. Now stop stalling.”

So she started at the beginning, and her mother stayed quiet
as she explained about the co-ownership, that the Justice money was as reliable
as the man she knew—minus the sarcasm to spare her mother—and that they’d have
another Justice under their roof.

“You mean to tell me that I sent you out to California for
an inheritance, and you’re bringing a man home with you instead?”

“Sort of—”

“So you’re not bringing home a strange man that Larry raised
as his son? And that same man isn’t coming here to take half of our house?”

“That part is positively true.”

“And you didn’t think this was information I needed to know?”

Kendall shut her eyes and counted to five. She could do this
and not incur the wrath of Lily Proctor. Her mother wasn’t exactly calm when it
came to change. “I wanted to talk to you, to be able to—”

“No, what you wanted to do was manage me. This isn’t one of
those times you can pat me on the top of my head and deal with it yourself.”

“I—”

Her mother cut her off again. “I let you think that you’re
running the Heron single-handedly most of the time, Kendall, but I know about
every bill, every loan, and every overdue notice we have in our name.”

Shocked, Kendall tried to assimilate that information. How
many times had she tried to include her mother in the day-to-day operations of
the business? Her mother always waved her away and said she’d take care of the
kitchen and the front desk and let Kendall handle the rest.

“You honestly think that the only thing I do is find
creative fish recipes and smile pretty at the front door?”

Her mother’s acerbic tone pushed down whatever arguments
Kendall was about to bring up. “Of course not.”

“Yes, you do, but that’s all right. You might need to show
the world that you can handle everything, but I have a few tricks of my own,
Kendall Marie.”

“Obviously we need to have a little chat,” Kendall grumbled.

“I’m your mother, Kendall, not some helpless woman wringing
her hands at home. Do you think you could do all those tours and trails if I
didn’t have things handled at home?”

Kendall fisted her hands into her hair. Her mother always
had such a bright smile on her face, never letting on that she knew just how
bad things had gotten. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry.” Lily’s tone gentled. “I’m sorry it took
Larry’s death to make that clear to you. Even sorrier that you thought you had
to keep this from me. That you didn’t think I was strong enough to hear this.”

Kendall sat up and hugged her knees into her chest when her
mother’s voice broke. “No, Mom. That’s not it.”

“It is. I thought I was doing what was best for you, but I
was so far off.”

“You did the best you could.”

“I did. And Larry did what he could.”

“He didn’t do anything. You were the one who raised me,
loved me.” Kendall’s voice was harsher than she intended, but her mom had
nothing to answer for. Plenty of people had it far worse than she did.

“When you get home, we’ll talk about it. I just don’t want
you to hold back the bad news anymore. I’m getting tired of playing Sherlock to
find everything.”

Kendall laughed. “Did you really go through all our papers?”

“You’re frighteningly organized, sweetheart.”

When she had a bank account like theirs, she had no choice
but to be organized. “I don’t know how it’s going to work when Shane and I get
there. I’m so afraid he’ll want to sell.”

“We’ll do our best to convince him otherwise.”

“And you’re okay with this?” It had taken days for her to
wrap her mind around the fact that she now had a stranger—well, a man who used
to be a stranger—in her life and soon to be in her home. And that he legally
had as much right to be there as she did. She wasn’t sure she had totally come
to terms with it. It was such a nebulous future when they were so far away.

“Larry had a reason for doing this.”

“Yeah, a selfish reason. He screwed up his business, so all
he had left was our house to give—” She clutched her knees harder. Forced
herself to turn off the anger. When it came to Lawrence, there were only two
emotions that made sense to her, and neither would help right now.

“Did you ever think it was a way to make sure his son wasn’t
alone?”

“Why would I? He left us alone.”

“No, he didn’t. We had each other. We
always
had each other.”

Kendall pressed her forehead to her knees and felt a tear
roll down her nose and then another. She’d never thought about that part. How
could her mother continue to think in such generous terms about Lawrence? Even
now?

But if Lawrence hadn’t written the will like he had, she’d
never have known what it was like to…what? Be in love? Could it be love in such
a short time? Or was it just that fairy dust working overtime with
orgasm-blurred edges?

“Does that also mean he has to pay for half the repairs?
Because that part would be really helpful. Especially now.”

Kendall couldn’t stop her snorting laugh. “You got the part
that he’s coming to us without any money, right?”

Her mother blew out a breath. “Lawrence made everything so
much more complicated than it ever needed to be. So now he’s given me two
children to take care of.”

Kendall rolled her eyes. Leave it to her mother to slot
Shane into a son status. She adopted nearly everyone who came into the B and B.
Why should Shane be any different? “Shane’s thirty years old, Mom. I don’t
think he’s coming back with me to get nurtured. He doesn’t have anywhere else
to go.”

And that statement settled in her gut like a wet sandbag
along the river mouth in flooding season. No matter what happened after they
got home, Shane was there because he had no choice.

No matter how she painted it, no matter how she talked up
the Heron, in the end he was there because he was trapped. Once he realized
just how trapped, he’d be out of there so freaking fast.

God, she didn’t want him to go. Even without seeing him in
her space, in her home—now their home—she knew she couldn’t stand to watch him
walk away.

“When do you think you’ll be home?”

Kendall blinked back into the conversation. “I’m going to
make sure we do everything we can to get in before Thanksgiving.”