Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
She looks up at me like I’m her home, and I feel undone.
Her hand finds mine, fingers lacing without hesitation. Her leg shifts, brushing my thigh, and I want to pull her into my lap, wrap her in my arms and never let her go.
Instead, I lean in, brushing a kiss over her brow.
Her breath catches, and I feel the quiet, overwhelming wave rolling through her again. Another orgasm. Jesus. It’s like Levi opened the faucet and now she can’t switch it off. And I know she’s feeling all of us still inside her; the weight and heft of our cocks, the power of our thrusts and our releases that trickle out of her, making a sticky mess of the horse blanket we’re using as a makeshift bed.
And I know it without her saying a word.
Dylan’s hand skims along her waist, resting on the dip of her hip. Lennon releases, his big body seizing like he felt the slice of a horse whip across his skin.
We surround her, and cocoon her like shelter made of muscle and heat and breath.
And she isn’t running.
Not yet.
“Talk to me,” I say, voice barely audible.
She finally meets my eyes. Her voice is hoarse, raw from moaning and kissing and gasping for air.
“McCartney.” My name comes out on a whispered breath, like she’s too dazed to say anything more.
“This isn’t just sex,” I tell her. She has to know. She has to feel it.
“No,” she whispers, her fingers squeezing mine. “What do we do now?”
Everyone stills. I feel all three of them freeze around us. Nobody says a word, like they’re all waiting for me to answer. But hell if I know. I’m the dreamer, the painter, the poet; the one who believes in magic and timing. But none of that has prepared me for this.
Still, I say what I mean.
“You stay as long as you want,” I murmur. “We want forever, but we’ll be damn grateful for every second you gave us.”
She swallows. Tears brim in her eyes.
“I don’t want to leave.”
That’s when I break. I pull her into my arms, hold her against my chest so she feels as well as hears me. Her leg drapes over my hip, her face tucks under my chin, and the others shift closer, like we’re protecting her from the idea of the outside world.
Dylan kisses the back of her shoulder. “So, don’t, pretty girl. Don’t go.”
Harrison runs a palm down her side. “Stay here.”
Lennon strokes her hair with slow, steady fingers like he’s writing a love letter without ink. “Let us keep you, Gracie.”
We hold her. Breathe her in.
And let her belong to us for as long as she can.
36
LENNON
“No, Mom. Of course I didn’t tell them,” Grace says.
I pause in the hallway outside the tack room when Grace’s voice carries through the half-open door. I’m supposed to check the ledger for next week’s feed delivery, but Grace is hiding out here on the phone, and she’s pacing.
“Because I don’t want a fuss. You know I hate that.”
There’s a beat of silence, long enough that I imagine her mom is lecturing her.
“I don’t need a birthday party,” Grace adds. “Seriously. I’ll go for a ride in the morning and work on my edits in the afternoon. It’s just another day.”
Another pause.
“Yeah. I miss you, too. But it’s good here… like a vacation. And I haven’t finished the article yet.”
She laughs.
“They’ve got me working, don’t you worry, but it doesn’t feel like graft when you’re building something for family.”
Another pause.
“I know I’m not family, Mom. For their family. Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”
She ends the call with a quiet sigh that sounds lonely, if you’re listening close.
And I am.
She steps out of the tack room seconds later, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, startled when she sees me there. She covers it fast by flashing that easy, scarlet smile.
“Hey,” she says. “Didn’t know anyone else was around.”
“Grabbing the inventory,” I reply, lifting the clipboard. Looking at her makes my body flush hot. Reaching out, I take her hand and pull her close. She’s so much smaller than me, but the strength of her body is still clear in my mind, and how well she took us all, over and over. “You feeling okay?”
Grace nods, dragging her bottom lip through her teeth as she blushes. “A little sore, but it’s all good.”
“Me, too,” I smile. “That’s what happens when there are four men in a barn. The drive to one-up each other is real.”
She grins shyly. “No need for competition when you work so well as a team.”
I bend to press a chaste kiss to her lips. “I still taste you,” I say as I draw back, and the flush develops into a full-scale blush.
“I still taste you.”
I wink. “Better than strawberry sundaes.”