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“Much better than being alone,” he murmurs and I laugh, flushed with pleasure and still dizzy from coming twice.
“You know this is going to complicate things, right?” I look at him sideways and in the darkness of the room, he only smiles.
“If we let it,” he whispers and takes me by the hair and kisses me.
I kiss him back, but there’s a ticking clock in the back of my head: only a few more days and this is done, whatever this is, and I get paid and War can go back to doing whatever it is he does, and nothing will mean anything.
Chapter17
Melody
Renee sits down behind the desk in the office and drops a big binder in front of me. “That’s everything,” she says, grinning sheepishly.
I glance back at War and he only shrugs like he doesn’t know what to do with the thing. I take the book and flip it open, looking at the rows of numbers and trying to make sense of it all. “This is everything?”
“Oh, no,” Renee says with a laugh. “This is just this year. There are a dozen more binders like this one. I’ve been trying to digitize but—” She sighs and jabs a finger at her computer screen. “I’m not exactly tech savvy.”
“This is going to take all day,” I say and keep flipping the pages. “Actually, no, it’ll take all week.”
“We don’t have a week,” War points out.
“I don’t know what you two are looking for,” Renee says. “I manage the books and it’s all clean.”
“I believe you,” I tell her, but something’s still bugging me. “Do you have the books for the years Daisy first started taking over the ranch? And maybe a couple years before that?”
“Somewhere around here.” Renee gets up and starts going through a large bookcase in the back. “If you’re thinking there’s some sort of financial impropriety—” Her tone gets harder, almost warning. “Let me just say that Daisy isn’t the only person with access to all this.”
“Who else can get in the office?” War asks.
“Mostly everyone,” Renee says and drops a few more binders in front of me. “The door’s never locked.”
“Which means anyone could’ve come in here and made changes.” I rub my face and try to get a feel for the magnitude of the task ahead of me. “If we split this up—”
“Count me out,” Renee says and comes around the desk. “Honey, Melody, I love you, you know that. I would do anything for you. But this isn’t my fight.”
I lean back in surprise. “What do you mean?”
Renee crosses her arms and glances at War, looking uncomfortable. “I’m getting old, honey. I can’t work as a ranch hand forever.”
“That’s news to me,” I say and try to play my sudden pang of sorrow off by smiling, but I’m not doing a good job at hiding it. “I figured you’d keep on going—”
“Until I couldn’t?” she asks softly and her smile nearly kills me. “I know, honey, I know. Don’t look at me like that. I’ve given a lot to this place and I’ve tried my best to help it along, but I can’t do it forever.”
“I know,” I say and stand suddenly. “If anyone deserves to retire, it’s you, I just—what am I going to do?”
“Whatever you’ve been doing all these years. Sweetie, this place isn’t your burden anymore. You don’t have to sacrifice for Leader Ranch, not like I did.”
I walk over and give her a big hug. “I missed you. Everyone else is awful, but I always loved you.”
“I love you too, honey,” she says, tightening her grip. “Catch the bastards, will you? But don’t let them drag you down too.”
“I’ll try.”
I wipe the tears from my face as Renee heads out to the main barn and closes the door behind her. War says nothing, only walks over and takes one of the books before taking the chair next to mine and flipping it open in his lap. I study him for a second and feel the tingle of him between my legs, taste his tongue on my lips, hear his moans of pleasure course through my veins. I wonder how I let things get like this between us, where I’m not sure what’s happening, if this is still business or if we’re mixing in pleasure, and what that means for the future.
“This is a mess,” he says softly. “I mean, not in a surprising way, but still.”
“Have you looked at a business’s books before?”
