And fall I do.
“Dane,” I scream into the night. The world bursts before my eyes as the top of my head threatens to explode. I grip his ass, the muscles flexing under my fingers, as I urge him on.
He doesn’t stop. Doesn’t slow. Just milks every last ounce of pleasure from my body as only he can. As the colors slow and the final jolts of orgasm roll through my legs, he pushes into me one final time.
My body tenses around him as his cock swells. He closes his eyes and groans the sweetest, sexiest sound I’ve ever heard.
The muscles in his neck flex as he works out his orgasm. His body trembles against mine. I bury my head in his chest and listen to his heartbeat patter wildly inside.
By the time he pulls out and lowers me back to my feet, I can barely stand. Keeping my eyes open is a challenge.
I lean against the wood, letting my eyes close, as he pulls on his pants. Before I know it, he’s lifting me in his arms and carrying me through the barn. My head rests on his shoulder.
A door creaks open before I’m laid gently on a blanket. I want to ask where I am or what he’s doing, but it’s too soft and I’m too sleepy. Another blanket is placed over my body before I feel Dane curl up against me.
He kisses me on the top of the head. “Sweet dreams, Neely.”
“Mm-hmm . . . ,” I say before slipping off to sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY
NEELY
Should I walk you to the door? I feel like that’s the gentlemanly thing to do.” Dane looks at me from across the truck with a shit-eating grin. “It’s less of a walk of shame if I do that, right?”
“I’m a mess.” I look down at my clothes. We dusted them off the best we could and picked all the hay we could find from my hair. Still, every time I move, I find more evidence of the night spent in the horse barn, besides the fact that I smell like it. “I don’t think now is the time to start behaving like a gentleman.”
“Here’s the question—did it make you forget Manhattan?”
The dull ache between my legs flares. “Yes.”
He smiles like he’s won a prize.
“Thanks for last night . . .” I cringe. “Did that sound like I was thanking you for sex?”
“Weren’t you?”
“No,” I say, nudging him with my shoulder. “I was just thanking you for spending time with me. Or something.”
He leans over the console, his eyes shining. “I’d rather like to believe you were thanking me for sex.”
I press a kiss to his lips in a move that shouldn’t be as thoughtless as it was. “I gotta go. My mom is probably watching out the window and gearing up to play Twenty Questions.”
“She is.”
“Huh?”
He nods over my shoulder. “She is watching. Look.”
By the time I turn around, the curtains are fluttering closed. “She really was.” I gasp. “I was just being facetious.”
I grab the door handle but am stopped by Dane’s palm on my forearm. “Neely?”
“Yeah?”
“I hope this doesn’t make things hard between us. I know what we’ve both said about relationships and you leaving and all that, but I’d like to think we’re both adults who can handle this without screwing everything up.”
He’s too handsome for that. Too sexy. Too kind and considerate and too good of a man to have sex with and walk away. But that’s what I have to do.
“Of course we are,” I say. “We knew what it was when it happened. Right?”
“Right.” The words lack the assuredness I hoped to hear. “Better get in there and talk to your mom. Tell her I said hi.”
“Will do.” I hop out of the truck, and with a final wave, I make my way up the sidewalk. I no more than get inside the house before Mom rounds the corner, acting surprised.
“Well, good morning to you.”
“Cut it,” I say. “I know you were looking out the window.”
“I heard a truck pull up. What do you expect?” She leans over and plucks a piece of hay out of my hair. “This is a good sign,” she says, waving it in front of me.
I laugh. “Will you stop it?” I work my way around her, avoiding eye contact. I learned as a child she has a hard time asking questions if you don’t look at her. “I’m going to grab a shower.”
“Good, because you smell like a barn.”
“Fitting.”
I hear her quick intake of breath behind me but continue looking forward. Once in my room, I find my phone just as it starts to ring.
“Hello?” I ask, not recognizing the number.
“Is this Neely Kimber?”
“It is,” I say, grabbing a set of clean clothes from my suitcase.
“This is James Snow. I wanted to call and let you know personally that we were highly impressed with your résumé and interview. We’d like to offer you the editorial position, contingent upon a face-to-face interview.”
I sit on my bed and stare blankly at the wall. “Oh. That’s great,” I say, hoping he takes my tone more enthusiastically than it sounds to me.
“I’ve sent you an email that goes over our proposal of employment. If you find it acceptable, we’d want you to get in here by the end of the week. You have lots of ideas and so do we. We believe that, together, we can make a great team and have a wonderful impact in our industry.”
He continues on, rattling off their distribution statistics and plans for expansion. I nod, even though he can’t see me. It’s all I’ve got. My emotions are tied up in a man in a truck heading to pick up a sweet little girl from a sleepover.
“How does that sound?” James asks.
“Great,” I say, despite not having heard anything he said. “I’ll take a look at your proposal and get back to you.”
“Wonderful. I hope this is the start of a successful relationship.”
“Me too. Talk soon.”
“Goodbye, Miss Kimber.”
The phone falls from my hands and lands on the bed. My heart falls, too, but I’m not sure where it lands quite yet.
DANE
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I pull my truck into my driveway and park next to my dad’s.
He’s sitting on the porch, reclined back in a chair, drinking a bottle of water I’m sure came from my refrigerator. Inside the house.
I sigh.
“Hey,” I say, climbing out of the truck. “What’s happening?”
“Not much.”
“Must be pretty bored to be coming by here this early.”
“Nah. Just thought I’d check in and see how you were doing.”
I take the steps toward him. He has one leg bent, his ankle resting on his knee. The worrying part is he doesn’t quite look pissed. I’m not sure how to deal with him when he isn’t half-pissed about something.
With a curious look, I sit in the chair beside him.
“You smell like shit,” he says.
“Ah, there you are. I was starting to get worried you were getting soft on me.”
He looks at me over the top of his glasses. “Where’s Mia? I thought maybe she’d want to take a ride with me over to get a couple new koi.”
“I gotta pick her up in a few. She’s over at Madison and Keyarah’s. You know the Tiptons.”
“I saw their granddad in the feedstore the other day. I didn’t realize that’s who they belong to. They’re good people.”
“I told you that.” I sigh. “If you want to pick her up, I can call over and let their mom know.”
Please say yes and go.
He takes a little tube from his pocket. The toothpicks inside rattle as he shakes it until one is free in his palm. Studying me intently, he squeezes a little wooden stick between his lips and works it around.
“Can you just tell me why you’re really here so I can go get a shower?” I ask. “Not that seeing you first thing isn’t a fine way to start the day. I just have things I need to do.”
“I’m worried about you, Dane.”
“Here we go.” I groan.
His foot drops to the floor with a thud. He sits upright and takes the toothpick from his mouth. “I was watching you with Neely the other night, and I’ve about worried myself sick you’re gonna let her go again.”
“That’s not your business, is it?” I chew on the inside of my cheek to keep from saying anything more. Everything inside me tells me to rip his ass and ask him where he gets off giving anyone relationship advice when he let my mother get into a drunken rage and whack me and Matt with a belt a few times a week.
“If it were just you? No. I don’t give a damn who you hole up with if it’s just you. But you have a little girl who needs a mama and—”
“Hold your horses, Pops.”
“I’m not holding anything except you by the scruff if you don’t start listening to me, kid.” He shakes his head. “I’m not taking anything away from you by saying that. You’re a hell of a father, Dane. Better than I was with you and Matt. But Mia deserves to have a mother, and as much as I like Haley, she doesn’t fit those shoes.”
He has a point. He knows he does, and he knows I know he does. That’s why he doesn’t flinch when I start to stand.