At Wolf Ranch(108)
“What?”
“Do you love me?” Her voice went soft with the simple question that was more complicated than anything she could have asked him.
“Ella, what are you doing here?”
She threw up her hands and let them fall and slap the sides of her legs. “What am I doing here? You’re here. Wherever you are is where I want to be. Don’t you get it? I love you. I want to build a life with you. Here. With the horses and the cows and the children we’ll have. I thought that’s what you wanted too.”
“I want that more than I can tell you, but let’s face it, saying you want it is one thing. Making it happen—you living and working here and being happy—isn’t exactly going to be easy for you. It’ll be harder, especially when the power and Internet go down during a storm.”
“Gabe, I have a battalion of people working for me. I am not the end-all-be-all at the company. I don’t want to be. I want to have a full life. Yes, running the company, but also with the man I love and the children I want to share with you. What do I have to say to make you believe that the life we build here is what I want, what I need, what I long for every second of every day that we’re apart? I love you. Isn’t that enough to see us through whatever compromises we have to make?”
“My answer to your first question is yes.”
“What?”
“I love you. I want you. Wherever you are is where I want to be. I needed you to make the choice on your own, without everything that happened with your family clouding your mind, or me influencing you. I needed to know that you aren’t here for any other reason than this is where you want to be.”
“It is. Why do you think I set this all up? Why do you think I brought Angel and Belle here? This is the life and home I want. With you.”
“Then why are you still standing five feet away.” He held out his arms. “Come here before I tackle hug you to the ground. I need you.”
She flew into his arms. Her lips met his in a greedy kiss that nearly buckled his knees. Her legs wrapped around his waist and he slid his hands down her back to her hips.
Ella’s hands came up to cup his face. She broke the kiss and stared into his eyes. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I can’t sleep without you,” he admitted, seeing the dark smudges under her eyes as well.
“Take me to bed, cowboy. Make love to me. I need you wrapped around me.”
Gabe walked out the barn doors with her kissing her way from his ear and down his neck. “The house is too damn far,” he grumbled.
“I’ll build a cottage out by the stables.”
“Our love shack.”
She bit into his earlobe. “Yes,” she said, her voice all breathy. “My new office too, so I’ll never be too far away from you.”
Shivers ran down his spine. He squeezed her ass, raising her up the length of him and back down even as he walked the too long distance to the house. She sighed with pleasure and he desperately tried to reel in the urge to take her against the nearest tree. “You’re killing me.”
“You’re going too slow.” She clamped her legs tighter around his waist and grinded against him.
Gabe tried not to stumble, but the woman distracted him from walking to what he really wanted to do. Bury himself deep inside her heat.
Finally, he reached the front door, pushed it open, and kicked it closed with the back of his boot. He walked through the living room where Blake stood drinking a can of soda. Gabe didn’t say anything, just kept walking down the hall to his room, Ella kissing his neck, her legs around his waist, completely oblivious to his brother’s presence.
Before he kicked his bedroom door shut and made love to Ella the rest of the night, Blake’s amused words made him smile. “Lucky bastard. I guess she’s staying for dinner.”
Epilogue
Ella used her key to open the front door and stepped into the dark house, exhausted and so happy to be home. She hated all the times she left Gabe, but it had been necessary to put her company and her life in order. She had sold the penthouse and bought a quaint loft that suited her and Gabe’s taste for when she needed to be in New York. Her uncle didn’t take long to accept her offer of a lawyer in exchange for pleading guilty to all his heinous crimes. He’d spend the rest of his life in jail.
She’d found something infinitely better than living in the past. She’d found a future with the man she loved right here at Wolf Ranch.
Over the last two weeks, she’d made it back to the ranch once. For a day. Gabe grew as impatient as she to make their living arrangement permanent. They filled those days apart with work and hours talking on the phone together, sharing their lives in a way that might not have happened if she stayed with him day after day.