She felt her heart flutter when his gaze landed on her. She dropped the brush into the bucket, swiped her hands down the thighs of her jeans, and reached for her water. “I was lucky that Pedora came along. Who knows where I’d be now. Homeless. Or worse. This has become my safe space. I feel like I owe this place something.”
“What do you mean?”
“To make a long story short, it was Pedora that kept me from going hungry. Mom, my sister, and I lived over there for a long time.”
He scanned his gaze across the length of the pasture. “There’s nothing there.”
“That’s because it was condemned. It was a tiny trailer and was pulled off the property.” She settled her gaze on the empty land where the dilapidated trailer once sat. “I moved in here with Pedora after that. She saved my life, so to speak. With her help I decided to go to college. Saw a different way of life than just surviving. I didn’t know peace until I moved here.”
A glint of understanding developed in his eyes. “Peace is the backbone of existence. One must guard it with vigilance.”
“What made you decide to come here?” She shimmied up the wooden fence and sat on the top rail. Good thing she knew it had been repaired recently. Slowly they were getting things done.
“I guess I could say peace too.” He dropped his brush next to hers.
“And so you found it?” She took a long draw from her water. “I’m sure the military wasn’t peaceful.”
“I was fighting for peace. We all must do our part. Anyway, it’s a generational thing. My dad served. His dad served.”
“So, you didn’t want to go in? You were making him proud?”
“No. I wanted it.”
He came over to lean his shoulder against the rail near her hip. “I’m curious about your childhood. You seem to have overcome a lot.”
“I’m not sure it was overcoming as much as surviving. You’d be surprised what a kid will do to exist in their circumstances. There are things a woman doesn’t like to talk about.” Her throat tightened. There were things she would have never wanted Bentley to know. If he flipped out about the foot pics, he would have had a heart attack knowing some of her other secrets.
“I’m not one to judge. There are things I’ve been ordered to do in my military career that I’m not proud of.”
She heaved a sigh. “There are things we’ve all done.” She drank the last bit of water. “Like I said, hunger is painful. Feeling left out is too.”
“What happened?” he encouraged.
“I learned how to protect myself and lie. I’m not a liar, but it was more about hiding the truth. The bus dropped me off at the end of the lane here and I think most kids thought I lived in the farmhouse, but I lived in the trailer. I allowed them to believe what they wanted. I think a few suspected, but they knew if they dared say a word, I’d punch them in the mouth, so they stayed quiet.” She stared into the distance as if she were watching her past on the screen of the distant hills. “I dated Sawyer Gable because I knew he discarded all his change in his console. I learned to be thrifty. He caught me once gathering the nickels and dimes. Before I could come up with an excuse, he laughed and blew it off. I could see the disgust in his eyes. Instead of breaking up with me, he slipped me twenty every week. That was a lot of cash for this poor girl. I wasn’t sure whether Sawyer was helping me because he felt sorry for me or rewarding me for those nights in the back seat of his Mustang. I didn’t ask.”
“You are a survivor,” he said quietly, not much of a reaction but his lack of reaction was the reaction.
“Am I? If Bentley would have known he would haven’t touched me with a ten-foot pole. He once said “A man can’t take a whore and make her a housewife”. He wasn’t referring to me, but it could have easily bent in that direction. I’ve never been one to sleep around, but he made me feel dirty for my past—a past he had little clue about.”
“Fuck Bentley,” Bear muttered. “People like that bastard sit on their high horses and have no clue how the real world lives. He has no idea the struggles most people go through.”
“Okay. I’m making it a rule that we no longer discuss him. I mean it this time.” She jumped off the fence and swiped her bottom. They were standing very close, but he didn’t move.
The air between them grew heavy with unspoken desire. A silent tug of awareness couldn’t be avoided or ignored.
He closed the gap between them and slipped his hand behind her neck. She was sure she could feel the beating of his pulse in his fingertips. His touch, so warm and inviting, lingered, sending ripples down into her chest and into her stomach. She heard a low rumble and couldn’t tell if it was the sky or her heart.
When his lips descended onto hers, she let out a small moan. It wasn’t as much of a kiss as it was a declaration of sorts. He pulled back, looking down at her, and even in her confession he held no disgust or embarrassment for her. His lips were on her again. He tasted like rain, clean and refreshing.
Chaos simmered between them like a thunderstorm. The beating of her heart was the only sound in the world.
The kiss erupted into a needy act, like he’d been wanting her all his life. The pressure was firm, full of promise, full of all the unspoken words neither needed to say. She leaned into him, absorbing his strength and energy, finding her nest there in his arms. She pressed her hand against his broad chest, clutching the material of his shirt in her fists as she pulled him closer. The intensity grew like a dam bursting. Their bodies seemed to melt against each other, becoming one. She felt a part of him—a part of his world.
Nothing existed outside of their melded bodies.
Thunder rumbled, vibrating her core. The temperature dropped around them while the temperature rose between them. Birds squawked nearby as if warning that the sky was about to open up.
A fat raindrop splattered against her cheek then another on her forehead.
