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Liam nuzzled my neck, kissing and licking the sensitive skin, soothing the spot he’d just bitten.
“I promise I’ll get off you when I can feel my legs again,” I whimpered. My body felt weightless, and I didn’t know when I’d be able to move. I loved the feeling of lying there with Liam.
“Never,dulcinée.” Liam wrapped his arms around my waist and held me tight as I collapsed against his chest.
“Get some rest, darlin’. I have a feeling that won’t be your last orgasm tonight,” Duke’s voice was breathy, and I didn’t know where he was, but I would have loved to watch him stroke himself to completion.
“Have a good night, Duke. I miss you already.”
“Don’t you worry, darlin’, you won’t be waiting much longer for me.” He drew in a deep breath. “I miss you too.”
I wanted to swoon. After the most amazing night with Liam, I got to hear Duke share his feelings with me. A tiny kernel of satisfaction grew in my chest, knowing he missed me as much as I missed him.
DUKE
Over the next week, Liam and I turned the spare room into a studio for Abbey. She wasn’t using it anymore, and Liam’s idea had been a good one. The way her eyes lit up when we brought her into the room was more than worth it.
She had her own private space to be creative. Even with the supplies Tori had already ordered, we sat with Abbey to get everything she needed to live her dream. Some evenings, we’d find her painting late into the night, completely lost to her muse, with paint on her cheek or across her arms and fingers. It was adorable to see her doing something she loved.
When she let us see her latest masterpiece, I could hardly believe my eyes. She painted one of the paddocks with a few of the horses running through it being chased by Jax. It was incredible, and I immediately thought of a place in the house to hang it—right on the wall where the living room opened. It could be seen from at least three different rooms. She wasn’t completely finished with it yet, but when she was, we’d be ready to show it off to anyone who visited.
I tried to put the fence incident behind me, but it was nearly impossible. We hadn’t had any other issues since, but nothing added up. The cameras had only caught a silhouette of someone cutting the one fence that didn’t have the dead heifers, but why would someone do that? King’s Ranch had few enemies, and we could rule most of them out. As of now, all evidence pointed to kids cutting the fence and the deaths being an accident, but there was nothing specific pointing to that either. And it didn’t help I still didn’t have a report on what might have killed those heifers. The frustration of living in a small town is that toxicology reports took forever to process.
My phone beeped in my pocket. I was sprawled on the guest bed, watching Abbey’s brush grace the canvas in her newest creation. It was way better than watching tv, and I got to see her face light up when her creativity was at an all-time high.
Looking at the screen, it was an urgent message from our ranch group.
Gavin: 911 in barn one.
I scrambled out of bed, and Abbey looked over her shoulder.
“Sorry, darlin’. I need to rush out.” I kissed the top of her head and gave Jax a scratch between the ears.
“Is everything okay?” Her forehead scrunched, and her eyes narrowed.
“Everything’s fine. I’ll be back soon.” I left the room, slid my shoes on at the door, and rushed out. I ran as fast as I could to barn one to see smoke rising from the north corner.
What the fuck?
Smoke billowed out the side door. Liam rushed out with Zeus, coughing and trying his best to wrangle the spooked horse.
“Get the horses,” was all he could manage in a raspy voice.
I headed in, darting past Zeus’ stall where there was a blaze alight in the hay.
Fuck.This was bad.
I rushed to the next stall where its occupant paced at the door, eyes wide. Grabbing the lead rope, I clipped it on the halter and threw open the door. The mare bolted out, nearly pulling my arm from its socket. I broke into a jog to the door away from the fire. As I passed the other stalls, I saw Hunter and Kyle grabbing their horses and leading them to safety.
Handing off my rescue to Kyle, I jogged back in to see Matt and Gavin grabbing water buckets from the closest stalls, throwing them on the fire. Liam pulled another horse out, and I went into the stall after he left to retrieve the water bucket. When I reached Zeus’ stall, the fire was extinguished. I threw my bucket on the smoking pile of hay for good measure.
Gavin stepped into the aisle and ordered all the riders to evacuate the remaining horses and put them out in the paddocks. Everyone went from stall to stall, opening all the doors to vent the barn. Through the haze, I could see Thomas and Declan talking to the riders as they exited with the horses in their grasp.
“Can someone please tell me how the fuck this happened?” Thomas boomed, his accent thicker with his rage.
“No one noticed anything until it was too late. When we heard the horses going crazy, we rushed out, and the fire was already ablaze,” Liam choked out, then coughed. “It was isolated to Zeus’ stall. We caught it before it could spread.”
Thomas’ jaw tightened, but he went to Liam and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Did you bring him to Caleb for a look?”
