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“Tomorrow then. He’ll want to help.” Even after all that had happened, my confidence in Daniel’s ability to repair this situation was solid. If anyone could get the Jacobs family out of this mess, it was him.
Stone squinted out at the horizon. “Mulaney is in cahoots with some high-powered attorneys in Houston, but Granddaddy doesn’t want the rest of the family to know about this. Not until they have to.”
My initial reaction rebelled against his logic. I’d seen first-hand what secrets could do. “If you don’t fight together, you could lose the ranch.”
“We may lose it no matter what.”
The ranch meant more to him than anything. On a shaky breath, I covered his hand with mine. Stone stared at where I touched him, then looked at me in disbelief before turning his palm up.
One finger at a time, I wrapped my hand around his. My breathing grew louder, more erratic.I’m okay. I’m okay.
“I got you, Muriella. I’ve always got you.” He clasped my hand.
I exhaled on a whoosh. Counted to ten in my head. Waited for the memories—forsomething—to put me back in the moments of horror.
When they didn’t come, I was just confused. The memories I knew how to handle. This? I was in uncharted territory without a map.
Stone steadied my trembling hand with his strong one. Once the initial panic cleared, I found I liked his touch. It was different than when Vivian and I held hands. She calmed me; he made me buzz.
I couldn’t stop looking at my small hand in his large one. I clutched it tightly. Every second it became easier, until I leaned back in my chair and the tension melted from my body.
“I did it,” I whispered. I could comfort him, be there in another way he needed me. Putting him first eased my fears, made me brave.
He gave me a gentle squeeze. “I think you just showed ‘I can’t’ where it can stick it.”
Chapter Seventeen
Stone
The water bottleslipped from my fingers, but I caught it just before it hit the floor.
Thank the Lord above for sunglasses.
If Muriella could have seen the way I was looking at her in a swimsuit, she’d have dived right off the boat and never come up for air.
It was a purplish one-piece. Strapless, revealing the smooth skin of her shoulders. I slid up my lounge chair and rested my drink on my crotch to hide my reaction.
She flopped down on the lounger beside me and stretched those slender legs. Her cinnamon skin shimmered in the sun. I followed the line of her leg all the way to her pointed toes. They starred in my fantasies every night, but in the flesh? I was about to lose my mind.
“You okay?” Her nose scrunched up. “You’re sweating, and it’s not even that hot out.”
If I was sweating, it had nothing to do with the outside temperature and everything to do with the woman who was trying to kill me with that swimsuit. My imagination ran wild with what was underneath. A mistake I paid for dearly as I tried to adjust for the bulge in my shorts.
“Do you want to go for a swim? The water looks nice.” She gazed out over the deck, finally relaxing a little.
What was it about her that flipped this switch in me? For six years, I’d only had eyes for her. No one else had held a candle. She gave me peace and kept me stirred up at the same time. It was a hell of a turn-on.
She threw a piece of ice at me to snap me out of my daydreaming. “Are you there?”
“Yeah. A swim sounds good.”
I followed her, praying she wouldn’t turn around and see how the way her ass swayed as she walked intensified my not so little problem.
“Um, you passed the pool,” I said as she continued to the swim platform.
“I meant that water looks nice.” She pointed toward the ocean where the blue met turquoise. “Do we have any snorkel gear?”
“We’re supposed to. Let me go hunt for it,” I said over my shoulder. Hopefully, I could deflate a little by then. “Don’t get in before I get back.”
