Page 42 of Redemption in the Dark (The Righteous 5)
Her chest rose quickly, and his eyes were drawn to the subtle mounds on her chest. He remembered every little detail she had hidden under that shirt. The dark nipples that had been hard and begged to be sucked called to him. He was near the point of complete exhaustion after being at this all day, but one look at Maeve in his plaid shirt and his blood sang in his veins.
She had the shirt tied into a knot under her breasts. His eyes traveled along her body, and he licked his lips as he watched a trail of sweat trickle from the exposed skin of her abdomen.
“How much longer do you think you’re going to be? We’re done downstairs, and I need a shower before dinner.”
He had to force himself to look away from the tantalizing bit of skin and realized he was still holding the next square bale in his hands. His gloved hands were clenching the twine into fists, and he quickly tossed it up onto the top of the large stack.
There were still two loads to stack, but it was starting to get dark outside. “We can stop now. I’m getting hungry.”
“So am I,” she said, but the way she said it, he knew she didn’t mean food.
He wouldn’t admit it, but he chickened out at looking at her and stared at the tan deer skin on his hands like they had something exciting on them. He turned around, but he could feel Maeve’s eyes on him, and as good of a man as he liked to think he was, he wasn’t impervious to his body’s reaction to this woman. She affected him in ways he’d never experienced, and regardless of what his grandmother said, he wasn’t sure he wanted to put a toe in the water, let alone try and swim against that current.
Wolf made his way over to the ladder and started down. He made it halfway through the hatch before he dared to look into her eyes. She was fierce, and the look she was giving him clearly told the story of how he could be chewed up and spit out. Most wouldn’t give a shit and would be all too happy to allow her to use him for his body and move on, but that wasn’t him. Even worse, he didn’t want her to continue down the destructive path she had been on for so long.
Why he wanted to help was a question he was still trying to find an answer to, or more accurately, he feared the answer. One second, she was on the bale, and the next, she was crawling across the wooden floor toward him like a predator.
“You’re so sexy,” she said. “I could watch you work like this every day and never grow tired of the view,” her voice was laced with passion, and that didn’t compare to the heated look she was giving him.
He swallowed hard as she stopped moving, and she was no more than a breath away from him. Drawing in a deep breath, he felt his body shake as it and his mind warred with how to handle the situation.
Before his fried and fritzing brain could create a comprehensive sentence, Maeve grabbed his face and crashed her lips to his. He didn’t resist, and this time he didn’t pull away. Mimicking her position, he grabbed her face, and if it weren’t for the fact he was balancing on a ladder, he would have pulled her down on top of him. Everything narrowed into the feel and taste of her lips and the sound of the little moans escaping between their battling tongues. The world spun and stopped as he took what she offered him.
Wolf sucked her lower lip into his mouth and gave her luscious lip a gentle nip. Maeve moaned loudly, the tension between them filling like a helium balloon with each passing second.
“Waya?”
He sucked in a deep breath and broke the kiss with the sound of his father’s voice. He had to clear his throat before he could answer.
“Over here,” he answered.
Maeve was touching her bottom lip, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth.
He made his way down the rest of the rungs to the barn floor and was all too aware of the strain in his jeans. The view of Maeve’s ass coming down at him from the loft was not helping the situation, but it was too late to fix himself as his father came around the corner.
“I just wanted to tell you to head home. I’m done for the night,” he said. “More hands make for faster work. We got lots done today. Thank you for your help, Maeve.” Father turned away and then turned back and smiled. “You are much like Waya says you are, Walela.”
As his father disappeared around the corner once more, he could feel Maeve’s eyes staring up at him and making sure he showed no emotion as he looked into her eyes. “I hope you’re okay that I called you that to my family?”
Her eyes glittered with mischief that made every nerve-ending tingle making it hard to keep the brewing emotions at bay.
“I love it, actually,” she said, a rosy color spreading across her tanned cheeks. He had to look away before he did something he’d regret.
“Do you like it here,” he asked as they made their way out of the barn and toward his truck.
“I never saw myself as a country girl, but I have to admit I feel a lot more at peace here.” Maeve turned in a circle, her face stricken as she stared around. “Where’s Duke?”
He could hear the apprehension in her voice.
“He’s okay. He probably followed my mom to their house when you came up to the loft. Just call his name.”
“Duke?” Maeve called out, her voice sounding tentative. Within seconds the dog came streaking along the driveway, and her entire face lit up at the sight of him. “There you are. I was worried something happened to you.”
Maeve opened the back door on the truck, and Duke jumped in and sat up straight in the back seat, ready to be chauffeured around.
The drive to the end of his ranch was only five minutes, but it felt like hours with the thick silence and tension building between them. He didn’t want this to happen, this interest in a target, much less with someone with deep issues that needed to be addressed before any real relationship could happen. His gaze flicked over to Maeve, and she had her arms crossed over her chest, looking out the side window, but he could still feel her eyes on him.
“You can go ahead and use the shower first. I’ll get something started for dinner.” Wolf hopped out of the truck and grabbed the second bag his Mom had given him for Maeve. “Here, my mom found more things that should fit you better until we can get to a store safely.”
