I nodded. His call and it just so happened that, even though I didn’t know her, it was the same one as mine.
Gray went on, “As for my mother, it was the right thing to do, it was a good thing to do and she has my gratitude. Whether I share that with her personally or not, I gotta chew on that awhile. You with me?”
I felt hope because I knew Gray and he might chew on it awhile but he’d do the right thing. And the right thing was sharing his gratitude personally then keeping that door open so she could walk through.
“Dollface,” Gray called and I left those thoughts and focused on him. “I see what you’re thinkin’ and I know you’re fired up to collect all the family you can get. But her stupid decision meant I didn’t have a mother for twelve years. She left my Dad but she also left me. One thing, as a wife, to have fucked up but understandable reasons to leave your husband. Another, as a mother, to have fucked up and not understandable reasons to leave behind your child. Maybe I got it in me to work with her to move past that, maybe I don’t. But don’t get your hopes up.”
“Okay,” I agreed because he was very right.
But I still had my hopes and Gray knew it because he grinned, giving me the dimple.
Then his eyes changed, my body responded to the change and they dropped to my mouth a second before they came back to mine and he pressed deeper into me as his face got closer.
“Now, you got a choice seein’ as this is a rerun, I don’t like this show anyway, you do. Still, I’m not watchin’ it and that means neither are you. Instead, you got the choice of takin’ my cock in your mouth then in you right here or doin’ it in the bedroom. We move, when we get up there, I want you on your knees in front of me. Either way, you got a second to decide.”
I didn’t need a second.
I’d been on my knees in front of Gray once before and I’d liked it. It was hot.
“Upstairs,” I whispered breathily.
He gave me the dimple again and I knew he knew what my answer would be. This was likely because, when he fucked my mouth when I was on my knees in front of him, it turned me on so much he barely got me to my back on the bed and thrust into me before I came. And when I came, I did it hard and I did it long.
Then I lost the dimple when he kissed me. And when he did, he did it hard and he did it long.
Then we went up to our room, lost our clothes and I gained my knees.
And I was pleased to find do-overs were no less hot.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I Still Want You to Take Mine
Four months later…
“Honey! We’re going to miss our reservation!” I called up the stairs to Gray who was changing into his suit.
Or at least I hoped he was. I heard the shower go off ten minutes ago and my man was not a man who primped.
“Be down in a minute, darlin’!” Gray shouted back, I sighed and walked on my high heels into the kitchen.
It was October and it was my birthday and we should have left the house in order to make our reservation at Jenkins five minutes ago.
Gray had gone into town and came back late. Now we were running late.
And I was hungry.
* * * * *
The last four months, things had settled on the land and in Mustang.
The barn was up, painted red with white trim and it was old-fashioned like the last one was. That one was old-fashioned because it was old; this one was because that was what Gray wanted it to be.
It was also enormous.
Seeing as horse breeding was the family business, the other one was too and had twenty-six stalls.
But this one had thirty, a big tack room, a big feed room and a hayloft complete with the pulley outside and double doors with criss-cross white boards on them that led to it.
I loved it because it looked awesome, because my man built it with his own hands, because I got to watch him do that and because, with it being there, it was easier to forget how the old one ceased to be.
And last, because Gray and I had broken in the hayloft by repeating history, kind of, as this time, he got his own treat.
It was awesome.
* * * * *
The peach crop came in and Gray taught me to hire and I helped him manage the dozen workers who worked right alongside Gray and me. It was mindless work, hours of it, but with the smell of peaches all around, the summer sun kissing your skin at times, the shade of the trees offering relief at others and cheerful banter (though most of it was in Spanish, a language I didn’t know, still, it was cheerful), there were worse things to do. Gray had replanted the lost trees but it would be awhile before they bore fruit and his new growth also wasn’t there. Still, his crop earned a load, so much I was surprised. Then again, he had a huge orchard so I supposed I shouldn’t be.