Patty's Homecoming, page 6
part #1 of Montana Wranglers Series
“Sounds good. Do what you need to do, Blake. I will be on the bed. I will be face down but not asleep.” It would be nice to be in her bed again, and even better to have him wrapped around her and holding her close through the night. Something she never did, sleep with a man for the night.
“Promises, promises.” He grinned and shook his head. “I’ll be surprised if you’re still coherent when I come out.” He was undoing his buttons as he talked, not really looking at her as he bared his chest. A quick shrug and the shirt was gone, his hands dropping to his belt buckle. “You’re staring, Tish darling, don’t you think you should go and get in bed?”
“Right, bed.” She couldn’t stop looking at him though. Good heavens, the man was simply perfect. He was beautiful and so hard. All over. “Right, moving.” But she wasn’t. She was perfectly content to stand there and watch him, but the longer she watched the longer it would be until he got in the shower. Shaking herself out of her stupor, she smiled. “See you in a few,” she called over her shoulder and turned to walk out of the bathroom, when all she wanted to do was step into the shower with him.
His deep chuckle was behind her, followed by the clink of his belt hitting the ground. A moment later the sound of water on tile could be heard. “You’d better be putting that stuff on you, Patricia. I’ll be out in two minutes and if you haven’t done your part this could make for a very long night.” There was nothing but the sound of the water after that.
“Good heavens.” Patty shook her head and then after drying off began to put the rub on her body. She hissed from time to time but finally she put the container on the bedside table and crawled up and into the bed. Moving to the side closest to the wall, she spread out on her stomach and listened as the water was shut off and smiled when she heard the door of the bathroom open and close. “All done with my front and from my knees down, which thankfully weren’t all that bad, so the rest is all you.”
He was silent for a moment but she could hear him moving. The bed near her hip sank down, his heat right there. “I want you to know something, darling,” he said quietly as the bed shifted. When she looked his way, he had the jar in hand and was digging out some of the rub. “When this asshole finally shows up. I’m going to hurt him, bad. Not just because of what he did to your beautiful body. But because he made you afraid, and that I won’t tolerate.”
Patty reached out and touched him, she couldn’t help herself. “Just as long as you don’t let him hurt you,” she whispered quietly. “He’s a monster through and through, Blake. You can’t even begin to understand just how much of one he is. Good lord, I didn’t know until I began to do some research on my own about him. He’s bad news, B, seriously bad news. I just hope and pray that he forgets me. Forever.”
“He won’t forget you. He’s got a sickness that will only make whatever he feels for you to fester and grow until the disease consumes him and everyone around him. I’m going to make some calls tomorrow at lunch and see if we can’t get even more on him.” He turned slightly on the bed, his knee coming up next to her ribs as he started to rub the cream to her skin. “Information is power and this guy has too much over you right now. We need to level the playing field and make sure that when this shit hits the fan, we come out smelling like roses.”
“I understand that one.” She hated that he made sense too. Dammit to hell and back again. “I was hoping that he would forget me. I don’t even know why he decided to latch onto me in the first place.” And that was the kicker. She honestly had no freaking idea why the hell the guy had latched onto her. Why he suddenly came out of seemingly nowhere and all but decided that she was the perfect little missus for him.
“There is no rhyme or reason for most of these guys. It was, more than likely, in that precise moment there was something about you, your hair, the look on your face, or your clothing that set something off in him. It could have been as simple as the way you were standing or a flick of your wrist while you were talking.” He looked to her and sighed. “I wish I could tell you just what it was, Tish, but I have no clue. And I seriously doubt, should we get the chance to ask, that he will ever tell us the truth. He may not even know what it was that set him off, it could have been something subconscious.”
“Heaven’s sakes.” She sighed and put her head back on her hands and winced. “Tender there.” She bit her lower lip and turned from him so that he couldn’t see her hurt. So that he couldn’t tell how frustrated she was that there was no real answer to the idiocy that the asshole back in NYC was tossing her way.
She felt his weight moving again, his hand on her back gone and then his breath on her skin. “Tish,” he whispered, and she felt his lips on her back. “It will be all right, baby. I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but you need to believe it will be soon. But you also can’t let him steal away your life. You have to keep living or he wins.”
“I’m trying,” she whispered. “I really and truly am. I don’t want him to steal away my happiness but I’m frankly terrified,” she admitted quietly to Blake. “I’m scared to death he will hurt you or Daddy or anyone of the other innocents on the ranch. I don’t want that. I don’t think that I could live with that,” she confessed to him. “So what do we do now?”
He sat back and she felt his hands on her again for a time, but he stayed silent. Only when he was done, had gone to wash his hands and then climbed in next to her with the lights off did he finally speak. “We live, Tish darling,” he said softly to her. Wrapping an arm around her, he pulled her into his arms and pressed a kiss to her lips.
Wrapping her arms around him, she kissed him back. She turned in the bed, her body pressing up against his, and sighed happily as she did so. When they parted, she licked her lips and lay her head on his shoulder. “I think that I could easily drown in your kisses,” she admitted to him honestly.
“Well I feel the same for you,” he said quietly, his voice husky. “So I guess we’re in the same boat. Not a bad boat to be in really, especially since you’ll be there with me.” Blake pulled the blankets up higher before settling a light hand to hers over his chest.
“Agreed.” Patty yawned and rubbed her cheek to his chest. “Will you wake me before leaving me?” she whispered in a sleepy voice. “So that I can at least give you a kiss before you have to take off for a far too long and hard day ahead of you?”
“I hate to do it, but if you insist, I will. And I’ll be around the main ranch the entire day. I have to keep watch on Matilda, she’s ready to drop her foal any time now,” he said. “So when you get bored you can come out to the barns and give me a hand if you want. Or just come out and keep me company while I work on the tack.”
“I would like that. It’s been a long time since I’ve worked on tack but I still remember how.” Pressing a kiss on his chest, she yawned again. “I love you Blake. Not another day will pass without me telling you that,” she warned him softly before she dropped off and into sleep.
Chapter Five
It was just about lunchtime before she wandered into the barn. Looking up, Blake smiled slowly, his teeth white against his tanned skin. “Finally managed to escape your old man’s clutches, did you?” he asked. Standing, he set aside the bridle he’d been working on and moved to her. Sliding his arms around her slowly, he drew her into his body and kissed her gently.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she held him loosely when they parted lips. “Mmm.” She licked her lips and smiled. “Finally. He wanted to know what was happening.” She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know how long I can hold him off. I want to tell him. I know I should tell him but I don’t know how to,” she admitted honestly.
“Well, don’t tell him anything yet. We’ll wait until Corbin comes in and tell him. Then we’ll set some time aside, all three of us, and go and tell your dad as a group. That way we’re there for you when he goes off his rocker.” He pressed another kiss to her lips and then pulled back. “Come on, I’ve got some braiding for you to do. I’d do it but my fingers are apparently not talented enough for that.” The smirk on his face said that he very well could do the braiding, he simply wanted to give her something to do in order to keep her close to him.
“And you know that he will.” She muttered. “Braiding? Have I ever confessed to you a secret fantasy of mine?” Of course she hadn’t. She had spent far too much time running from them to confess anything. “Do you want to hear it? And are we alone?” Because it was one of those things that you did not tell when others could listen.
“I have the back doors closed because of the breeze, it was making Matilda jumpy. The doors are locked down, so the only way in is the way you came. We’re sitting right here, where we can see it, and no one has come in for a good long time. We are alone,” he told her, leading her to a hay bale he had a blanket spread over. “Sit, work, talk.”
She took the leather from him and took the seat that he had shown to her. “See, I think you just want to ensure that you are able to hear all of my deep dark fantasies.” She loved this man, and honestly loved the work. She found herself braiding and going back to that time when she was a kid and braiding. “I have always had this fantasy of you and Corbin having me tied up, fully naked and using one of the whips to spank my ass. The crack of the whip in the air as you alternated between the snap of pain and the soothing of your mouths over my body.”
He stilled at her side, where he was punching holes into new pieces of leather for strapping. Then the full brunt of his attention was on her. “I don’t mind tying you up and having you at my mercy, but the thought of a whip touching your skin, especially at this moment, makes me less than happy, darling.”
“I’m not talking about right now,” she admitted to him and smiled. “And it’s not something that I want to do right at this moment. Heavens, just the thought of being touched in several places right now makes me not like anything at all,” she told him honestly. “And I don’t mean hard or anything like that. I’m not one who wants a great deal of pain in the least, but yeah.” She shrugged. “Just a thought. However, you are very good on the ropes. So very, very good with ropes.”
He grunted and turned his attention back to what he was doing. After a time he looked to her again. “When you’re fully healed and we have the time to do whatever we want without worries, we’ll discuss it more fully. Right now, the idea of anything irritating your beautiful skin has me upset all over again. So yes, let’s wait until you’re better.”
“Yes, we will wait until I’m better.” She agreed. Finishing one, she passed it off and then accepted the next one. “After I am healed we will talk about more than just you tying me up.” She loved the idea of him tying her up. Very much so.
His fingers fumbled and he cursed. “More?” he asked. His tone, though, suggested that he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to know the answer to that query. “Patricia darling, just what all is this more you are hinting at? And use small words, I’m having problems thinking currently, the blood seems to have left my brain.”
She didn’t hesitate or try to play coy. Grinning, she said, “You tying me up and both you and Corbin making me yours. That’s what I want. I want all three of us to be in this. I want you both loving me from now until we no longer have tomorrows. That’s what I want, Blake. The ropes will be just a little extra and not very often. Just something for when we are feeling the need to play. Does that make sense or have I scared you shitless?”
He sat watching her and snorted. “That isn’t this more you spoke of. That’s the natural conclusion to us tying you up. I thought there would be something interesting you were keeping as a deep, dark secret in that head of yours. Something you fantasized about in the dark, when you were alone or just whenever you were feeling horny.”
“Nope, I’m not interesting in the least. I only want you,” she told him simply with a shrug. “I have only just thought of you spanking me, tying me up, and both of you inside of me at once. That is the one and only thing that I have ever wanted. Just the two of you.”
“Well, that we can definitely do,” he told her with a grin. They continued to work slowly. “Though, we won’t use rope on your skin, it’s too harsh. Silk scarves, maybe a blindfold so you can’t see what we’re doing or when we’re going to do it.”
She shivered. “Damn, you say that and it makes me want to jump you. Right at this moment. Good lord,” she mumbled. “Have you heard from Corbin, by the way?” she asked suddenly. “Does he know anything that is going on right now? That I’m here and that I very, very much want to be with the both of you?”
“He’s on his way back. I managed to get him on the radio about a half hour ago, give or take. He should be here in roughly another hour and a bit, depending on how fast he’s riding. I told him I had a surprise for him that he’d actually like and probably even appreciate. But he had to get here first,” Blake said. “I figure we’ll just let you jump him. That should announce it all well enough.”
That had Patty grinning and she nodded. “Well, I can’t wait to jump him,” she admitted bluntly. “I truly can’t. I happen to really and truly love that man so I can’t wait to jump him. Maybe if I’m lucky I will get you boys to seal us into the barn here and you will both jump me.”
“Not until you’ve healed.” Blake shook his head at her. “Darling, you have to get better before we do much of anything. I can see how even sitting is hurting you, Tish. Having us rolling around with you in the hay would be much worse.”
She didn’t think he would notice just how much she was hurting. Damn him. “That’s just not fair,” she grumbled, and sighed. “Yes, I do hurt,” she admitted to him. “I really do and I hate it. I hope that with a couple more nights of hot baths and that rub, I will feel better.” And ready to have the men loving her.
“It’s working on you already, you’re moving much easier today. So a few more applications and you’ll be fine. Still likely a tad black and blue, or maybe by then more green and yellow. But at least you won’t hurt like you did yesterday.” He took the strap she was braiding from her and set it aside, passing a new one over.
She began to move her hands quickly and then nodded. “Yeah, I am moving a lot easier today than I was yesterday. Yesterday I hurt so badly that it hurt to breathe. Today it’s not nearly that bad. Yes, it still hurts, but at least I am able to move, and putting on clothes didn’t hurt nearly as badly today as it did yesterday.”
“I am glad,” he said softly with a grin. “Just think, tomorrow you’ll feel better than today and the day after even better than tomorrow. It’ll work out just fine,” he said quietly. Leaning in, he kissed her cheek gently.
“I know.” She leaned into him and sighed. “Just don’t you boys take off on me before then,” she grumbled. “I mean it.” She teased him with a smile. “When I’m feeling better I very, very much want to be able to have you both. Hopefully by then we will be moved into our home with a massive bed that will fit all three of us. I don’t think doing something like what I want to do to you boys in my childhood home would be a good idea, do you?”
“No, it probably wouldn’t be, especially considering how sound travels in that place. You screaming out commands might just send your dad around the bend. And since we all want to be fed there at some point again…”
“Good point,” she said with a smile. “So I think that you should take me to see your place, tomorrow maybe?” she asked hopefully. “That way I know what I have to work with and then we need to order a new bed. Maybe if I can get in touch with a few places that owe me favors, we will have a bed that is perfect for all of us?”
“We can go by there tomorrow, but it’ll have to be later in the day. With so many of the other hands moving the cattle in, I have to stay close to the ranch during the day. But after about midafternoon we could head over and you can figure out just how much help it really needs.”
“I know. Trust me, I know,” she told him with a shrug. “I know fully just how much time you have to spend here.” She wasn’t one of those idiots who thought that they could marry someone that owned a ranch and suddenly be so very rich that they didn’t have to do any work at all. “I look forward to it. The time that we will have together. Stolen moments like this.”
“Well, we will take time off from time to time,” he said softly. “It may not be a lot at one time and I can’t say it won’t be interrupted from time to time, but we will plan a good length of time away. Plan an honest-to-God vacation, two weeks somewhere without phones and all that.”
“I think that would be awesome. I look forward to being able to spend those two weeks with you boys doing nothing at all except each other,” she told him with a grin. “I happen to look forward to any time at all that I can get.”
“We’ll make it work, Tish,” he said softly. “It won’t always be easy, won’t always work like we’d originally hoped, but we’ll figure it out.” She’d grown up on the ranch so she knew better than most that plans had to be flexible in a lot of cases. But she also knew that when a vacation was planned, only God himself would keep a man from keeping his word to his kin.
“Believe me, I know we will make it work,” she said with a smile. “I know that, no matter what, we will figure this all out.” She said softly. “We will figure it out because I love you and I know that you boys love me,” she admitted happily.
“Took you long enough to figure it out,” he grumbled. He shot her a dark look but didn’t quite pull it off. The mischievous glint in his eyes gave him away. “But you always were the sort that couldn’t see what was right in front of you even if it was smacking you on the nose.”
“Yes, I know it did,” she muttered. “And it’s only where my heart is concerned. You have always known that where my heart is concerned I have been one who has always had issues with ensuring that my feelings are spoken aloud.”
