Wicked Burn (29 page)

Meg hadn’t stood in the face of Vic’s rage, however. Niall was far from confident that Vic would ever give her the opportunity even to voice her explanation for her actions last fall, let alone that he would listen with a compassionate ear to her apology.

But her sole mission on coming to the farm hadn’t just been to reclaim Vic. She looked forward to teaching the art history class this summer, no matter what the circumstances. Being exposed to Donny’s raw talent and having him agree to take the class made her even more excited to teach this summer. She spent an hour that morning finalizing her lesson plans and organizing the materials she planned to use for her first week.

Vic refused to eat the lunch that she and Meg had prepared when the men returned from the fields. Instead, he barked at Donny from the driveway that he was taking him home and that they’d grab lunch in El Paso. Donny looked slightly disgruntled by the change of plans but rallied quickly enough.

“Uh . . . I guess I’ll see you . . . uh . . . at school then,” he said awkwardly to Niall after he’d grabbed his sketchbook off the table and shuffled toward the back door.

Niall noticed the look of longing the teenager gave the platter of fried chicken she’d just placed on the table. “I’m glad you’ll be there, Donny. Here. Take a piece with you,” she offered, handing him a napkin and nodding at the plate. He’d come from the stables about ten minutes ago and had already asked at least five times how long it was until they’d eat.

“I’ll get you registered, Donny. You just make sure you show up on Monday
on time
,” Meg added for emphasis before the boy bolted out the screen door with a napkin-wrapped drumstick in one hand and his sketchbook in the other.

Niall watched as he talked animatedly to Vic through bites of chicken as they walked to Vic’s truck. Vic’s head tilted slightly as he listened, his manner reminding her poignantly of the silent, stoic man with whom she’d fallen in love.

“They seem like they’re really close,” Niall said wistfully.

Meg glanced around from the counter. “They are. Eerily so. You’d never guess that they first met only half a year ago,” she said with a small laugh. “Vic thinks that I suggested he hire Donny on solely for the boy’s sake. Donny had been ditching school back in November, and then he got caught by the police with beer and pot in his car several weeks later. He was headed down a path that was bound to end up with him bunking with one of his brothers at the county jail—or worse, in Pontiac or Joliet Prison. Donny deserves better. You see how bright he is. I have to admit I’ve grown really fond of the kid. I’ve gotten to know him pretty well. I
should
have, considering how much time he spent in my office his freshman and sophomore years,” Meg joked as she placed the bowl of potato salad on the table.

“But I asked Vic to hire him on to help out in the stables as much for Vic as for Donny. Vic was so withdrawn after Christmas. I thought he needed something to pull him out of himself,” Meg continued. She glanced out the door thoughtfully as Vic backed his truck skillfully out the long drive. “And you know, I think I did a pretty good job of things. Donny needed a strong male role model, and Vic needed . . .”

Niall looked over at Meg sharply when she paused.

“He needed someone to need him,” Meg finished softly.

Niall’s heart felt like it skipped a beat. Had Vic’s depression originated from the fact that he’d fallen in love with her, just as Niall had with him? Or was his melancholy more based on the fact that he’d cautiously allowed someone else into his life after Jenny, only to believe that Niall had betrayed him just as callously? The expression on Meg’s face made Niall cringe inwardly with guilt.

“I’m sorry I hurt him, Meg,” she said softly. “No matter what happens between Vic and me, I want you to know that I appreciate you giving me this chance.”

Meg’s faraway look faded as she focused on Niall. “I like you, Niall. Mom and I were so bummed when you canceled your visit at Christmas, and you know how thrilled I am about having you here now. But I’m mostly doing this for Vic . . . and the kids at school, of course. Don’t think I don’t know that El Paso High is very lucky to get someone of your caliber as an instructor,” she added as an aside before she sighed. “I know Vic’s a stubborn ass at times, but I love him.”

“I do, too,” Niall said quietly.

“And it’s a good thing,” Meg stated with a wry grin as Tim and Andy came up the steps. “Because it looks like my little brother is bound and determined to prove that he couldn’t care less about you, Niall.”

 

 

The first three weeks of Niall’s stay on the farm passed much more smoothly than she would have ever expected or perhaps hoped for, given that the easy going was mostly because Vic almost completely ignored her presence. His avoidance of her was compounded by the fact that he spent several days a week in Chicago, overseeing his play and running the Hesse Theater. She sometimes wondered if she would have had a better chance of running into Vic on a Chicago street than she would on his farm. At least the Hesse would be closed during July, and the chances were that he would spend less time in the city.

She hoped anyway, if his determination to stay away from her didn’t make the city seem more and more tempting to him. Maybe he and Eileen Moore were busy sharing dinners together at The Art after performances of
Alias X
, as well as Vic’s bed at the Riverview Towers—

Just the thought acted like a poison to Niall’s system, making nausea sweep through her like a wave.

June—perhaps one of the most changeable months in central Illinois—segued from a crisp, refreshing spring to a humid, sweltering summer with amazing rapidity. She enjoyed her class and found her twelve students a joy to teach. The class was held three days a week for two-hour sessions, however, so she found herself having a lot of time on her hands. She and Meg grew closer as they took on several projects on the farm—expanding Meg’s already extensive garden, refinishing the farmhouse’s enormous antique front porch swing, or taking shopping trips to Bloomington for bulk food items or art supplies. They also took long walks on the horse paths that cut through the large property, meandering by a wooded area and a small lake in addition to the vast acreage of the fields. Sometimes they’d see Tim or one of the men in the distance on a tractor, and they’d wave.

Niall felt invigorated by country living. She’d always been an early riser, finding early morning to be the best time to do her yoga routine. Lately she’d shifted her time for her workout to the evening, since she was often busy helping with the breakfast the men ate before they left for the fields. She enjoyed her solitary workout in the empty, spacious living room that Meg had decorated, like the rest of the farmhouse, in the arts and craft style. Last Monday night she’d sensed eyes on her while she was collapsed on the floor in a stretch, only to look up and see Vic. He seemed unbelievably tall from her position right next to the floor, the top of his head coming within less than a foot from the entry archway. The sight of him struck her as compelling . . . even impressive . . . in its unexpectedness.

Their gazes met and held. Niall eventually sat up slowly and struggled for something to say. But before she could, his eyes flickered over her. His nostrils flared. Desire bloomed in her lower belly and spread, making her sex ache with a dull throbbing pain when she realized her legs were completely spread while she faced him. She knew how much she hungered for him, but in that moment the magnitude of her primitive need felt overwhelming in its intensity.

His eyes skated back up to her face.

Niall wondered what she wouldn’t have given at that moment to have Vic kiss her once again, touch her, thrust his cock deep inside her to apply friction to that elemental ache. The last time they made love seemed like a distant, longed-for memory that she grasped at so frequently nowadays that it had started to take on the quality of a dream.

He seemed to hesitate for several seconds, as if he wanted to say something . . . as if he wanted to
do
something. But then he’d inhaled sharply and turned away.

And even that poignant, brief encounter had become nothing but a memory.

Niall began to cook more and more frequently for the family and farmhands once she had convinced Meg that she actually enjoyed it and wasn’t just being polite. She’d always been a good cook, and missed it sorely while she’d lived in Riverview Towers. She couldn’t help but be flattered by Tim, Andy, and Tony’s eager faces and exuberant praise over her cooking, or the fact that Donny planned his visits and work schedule in the stables to coincide with the meals that she prepared.

The few times that Vic did put in an appearance at the large oak table in the farmhouse kitchen, he remained silent while everyone else gushed about her homemade biscuits and sausage gravy, her marinated roast chicken and potatoes, or some other dish. But Niall couldn’t help but take some satisfaction from the fact that Vic always ate everything on his plate and, more often than not, fought Tim or Andy or Meg for seconds. She was glad when Meg or Tim questioned him about how things were going at the theater or about his writing, because she felt too self-conscious about doing it when everyone sitting at the table knew that Vic disapproved of her presence there.

She felt like a thief, stealing glances at Vic covertly on those occasions. It heartened her to see that although his hair was still shaggy he at least wasn’t quite as thin as he had been when she first arrived. He was shaving again. The tan that he acquired so easily from riding or working on the farm made him even more magnetically attractive.

Niall found herself staring at his bare forearms while he ate, thinking they were a relatively safe target for her covetous glances. She’d never have guessed before she met Vic that a man’s bare, muscular arms or big, capable-looking hands could be so sexy. For Niall, however, Vic’s forearms and hands rivaled the sight of his long, hard thighs or his tight ass in his well-worn jeans. Well—they took a close second.

And beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Once he’d caught her staring and abruptly paused in the motion of cutting his pork chop. She’d looked up guiltily to find him gazing directly at her. His bronzed skin made his light eyes even more compelling in their impact. Niall froze in her chair like a small animal that had just come into the sight of a predator. She couldn’t read the inexplicable expression in Vic’s eyes in that moment. By the time he made his characteristic rolling motion with his jaw and glanced down, Niall was left breathless with confusion and longing.

He’d left the kitchen early that night, surprising Meg when he turned down a serving of her homemade strawberry shortcake.

Niall watched a few seconds later through the window over the sink as Vic backed out of the driveway. She’d tried not to think of where he might be going, but she was about as successful at that as she was at torturing herself by imagining what he was doing with Eileen Moore on those nights when he stayed in Chicago.

About two weeks after Niall’s arrival, Donny had innocently forced Vic to acknowledge her while they were eating dinner. It was a sunny, comfortably warm summer evening. The fact that it was a Friday night and that Vic was home from Chicago gave a festive air to dinner that night. Niall had spent a good part of the afternoon, after she’d returned from class, cleaning the enormous barbecue in the backyard, which Meg admitted hadn’t been used once since they’d moved into the farmhouse. When Niall’d finally cleaned the monstrous iron contraption to her satisfaction, she’d put it to good use by preparing some juicy steaks, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes on it. They were in the midst of enjoying their summertime feast when Donny suddenly sprung his unexpected question to Niall.

“Want me to teach you how to ride this summer, Ms. Chandler?”

Niall glanced up in surprise, noticing how Vic’s angular jaw paused in the motion of chewing his steak.

“Uh . . . I don’t know about that, Donny,” she equivocated with a nervous laugh. The idea of riding one of those beautiful animals fast and free undoubtedly appealed to her. But that was like saying that the thought of flying in a plane sounded exciting and wonderful when one was scared stiff of takeoff. It didn’t matter how great step two seemed if one was terrified of step one.

“Don’t you think she could learn on Velvet . . . or maybe Aster?” Donny asked Vic pointedly.

Niall waited in growing discomfort as Vic took his time chewing and swallowing. When he finally transferred his gaze to her, it made her feel hot and flustered.

“You’ve never ridden before, have you?”

She shook her head slowly. He’d asked her if she’d ever ridden once while they were dating in Chicago last year and Niall had told him that she hadn’t, then neatly changed the subject.

“I was enrolled for riding lessons when I was seven. On the day that I showed up, the horse they had picked out for me bolted as the instructor was helping me mount. I sort of . . . refused to go back after that, much to my mother’s dismay,” Niall added under her breath.

In fact, Alexis had been at her wits’ end trying to understand how her daughter had been so terrified by the rearing horse. She couldn’t comprehend Niall’s solemn and eventually fierce refusals to return to her lessons. Alexis had been an accomplished equestrian from an early age, and it was beyond her how her own flesh and blood could abhor what she so loved.

“What do you think, Vic?” Donny prompted when Vic just looked down at his plate and speared a piece of steak with his fork.

“It doesn’t matter how much you want her to do it. She’s got to want to do it herself,” Vic stated laconically before he ate the meat.

“But those horses are gentle! Aster wouldn’t . . .”

“Aster
would
. . . if someone made her nervous enough,” Vic told Donny with a pointed glance from beneath his lowered brow. “I haven’t got a horse in my stables that doesn’t have some spirit. None of them are appropriate for a gun-shy first timer . . . except maybe for Traveler,” he added under his breath.