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He pulled her to the edge of the table and stripped her of her jeans. His green eyes were wild and his jaw hard as granite. She kicked off one pant leg. He pushed aside the elastic of her panties, and then he was finally there—inside her.
The metal table rocked with the force of his thrusts. She cried out and took each one like a punishment. Her swollen heat clasped around him and held him tight as he ground against her pelvis.
Her nails bit into his shoulder, and the smoky scent of sawdust drifted up with the musky scent of them together. She whispered his name, her knees flexing at his hips as she took every thrust.
She came so hard her teeth rattled. And when she opened her eyes, Shane’s fierce and focused face burned itself in her memory. He lifted her knee higher and slid just that much deeper into her, and then she heard the guttural groan as he filled her.
Unable to stay upright, she dropped her forehead onto his shoulder.
“Shane.”
He backed up, and she locked her legs around his hips. “No. Don’t go.”
“Kendall, I have to.”
Sunshine. She missed the soft, gravelly way he’d saySunshinelike it was an endearment. “I’m sorry.” Her voice broke. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you to want to be here without it being a perfect bed-and-breakfast. I just didn’t want to lose you.”
“Or the Heron,” he said quietly.
“No. I don’t want to lose my home either.”
He slid his hands along her knees and pulled her away from his hips. Feeling exposed, she jumped down and jerked her jeans back on. Turning away from him, she fixed her bra and sweater.
From the outside she didn’t look any different. Inside, she knew she was changed yet again. The disappointment in his voice scooped out the pleasure and left it with the sawdust on the ground.
“I don’t know what to say to make you understand why I did what I did.”
“I was all the way in. And now I just don’t know.” He tipped his head back. “Now all I see are the things that need to be done. And all the return we’ll never get.”
She clenched her fists. Return on the business or them? “Don’t you have any faith?”
“I thought I did.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and backed out of the barn. How was she supposed to have enough faith for both of them when she was teetering on the edge alone?
She wanted to believe that she and Shane made sense, that they could pull the Heron out of the mire with faith alone, but what if he was right? What if it was smarter to sell and start over somewhere else?
Maybe she should let someone else shoulder the burden and find a job where she could put her managing skills to work without the responsibility of ownership.
She climbed the side stairs and heard her mother singing in the kitchen. She bypassed that route and headed for her bedroom. She quickly cleaned up, her insides still reeling from the sex and their confessions.
Before she could change her mind, she called Bells, and they agreed to meet in town. She backed her Outback down the drive and out to Heron Way. She needed someone else’s point of view.
Kendall bustled into the pizza place, elbowed her way to the counter, and ordered a pie before she claimed a booth against the window. Bells waved to her and wove her way through the Friday-night crowd.
“How’d you get a booth?”
“There might have been snarling involved.”
Bells flipped her thick red hair over her shoulder and quickly braided the end to keep it under control. She waved two fingers in the air at the waitress, and two Stellas landed on the table.
It was good to be a regular.
“Okay, spill it, sister. You have scruff burn on your neck, and you look miserable. Orgasms are supposed to end with sighs, not cries.”
Kendall shook her head. “Knowing someone from second grade sucks sometimes.”
Bells grinned and took a sip from her beer. “I’m jealous. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve even had a whiff of whisker burn?”
