Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(74)

“Quite. I don’t recall your mother even knowing about them, now that you mention it.”

Harley let out a deep breath. “But you did. You had a right to be angry and take that from them.”

“I don’t recall having a right to be angry either.”

Harley let silence linger before she spoke again, in that moment she remembered every horrible thing her mother had yelled at her in the very room she was sitting in. Among those words were that she had shamed her father, beyond measure she had betrayed his trust.

“Dad, I never meant to hurt you with any of that, cause you stress, or let you down.”

Her father was quiet for a moment. “Harley, my heart condition had nothing to do with you. Nothing. You’ve never let me down. All I have ever wanted is for you to find your own footing. Your own passions. Because, Harley, if you do not have passions, life would be listless. Mine has fallen in the world of business. Your mother’s—entertainment, I suppose. You have to find your own.”

“I think I have.”

“Seems so.” She heard him shuffling a few things in the background. “Everything was finalized with your rig. The funds are in your trust. You may want to start looking for a replacement, if you can find the time, of course. It does sound like Camille is incorporating you well into Willowhaven Farms.”

A slow smile came to her face. “She is. They all are.”

“Right. Well then, I will let you go. My breakfast is getting cold.”

“Love you, Daddy,” Harley said. She waited for him to say the same back before she hung up and started to get dressed once more.

She was pulling on her tall socks when she heard a sound behind her. Thinking it was the wind, she went on with what she was doing. Before she had managed to pull on her next sock, she heard the window open. Right as she turned, Wyatt’s arms went around her, pulled her back to the bed, moved her legs around him.

He was still dressed for work. The scent of fire, earth, leather, and spice drove her mad as her hands rushed across his back and she laughed aloud. He captured that laugh with his lips, then pulled away to lean his forehead to hers.

“You’re in the wrong bed, princess,” he said as he leaned in and took her lips once more, letting out a playful moan as he did.

“Am I, Prince Doran?” she said as he pulled away and she squeezed her legs around his waist.

His hand reached up to caress her face. “After every shift, I cannot get to this farm fast enough, and each time I rush into the house, coffee and breakfast in hand, I find my bed made, empty and cold.”

All she could do was smile as her eyes moved across his addictive image. It was so hard to believe this was real, that any of it was.

“I guess I’m still stuck in secret mode,” she said, quietly tracing her hands across his face. He turned his lips just to kiss the palm of her hand. All at once, he crawled backward, pulling her legs until she was sitting on the edge of the bed. He knelt before her.

“Harley Adel Tatum, love of my life, will you please move your things into my house?”

He was being playful, almost dramatic about it, but behind his eyes she saw a seriousness there, him preparing for her to say no, to say not yet, slow down.

None of it felt fast to her, though. In actuality, it felt overdue.

She still teased him, though. “I don’t know, Mr. Doran. You see, I have lessons that I have to teach on the regular now, and currently I can walk to work. The commute may take precious time out of my day.”

His hands moved up her thighs. “That’s not what’s going to take time out of your day,” he said as he leaned up and gave her the deepest, most seductive kiss he could, one that would lead you to think that at any moment there would be nothing between them, but he pulled away all of a sudden.

“Teaching?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Don’t play dumb. I know you said something to your mom.”

His endless stare told her he didn’t.

“You didn’t?”

He almost laughed. “I didn’t, I swear. I planned to, I dropped a few hints, complimented how patient you were with the riders. But I thought I might have to talk her into it. With the show season in progress, I knew she wouldn’t want there to be a chance for the riders to lose a trainer.”

Harley’s smile fell a little. “I’m not going anywhere, Wyatt.”

“Promise?” he asked with that same haunted look on his face.

“Well, if you want me to stay at your house, I may have to go to the store, you know, for the little things like lunch.” He laughed at that. “I still need to leave to see my dad now and again.”

“I can handle that,” he said, reaching for her face. “I love your dad.”

“Do you?” she said with a slow smile.

Instead of answering, he kissed her once more, leaned her back, and let his hands move across her. “I’m late,” she said with a giggle as his hands feathered up her sides. “And you have to be exhausted.”

“Never too tired for you,” he said between the lavish kisses he was leaving across her neck.

The only thing that stopped them was the voices they could hear downstairs—his parents and grandparents having breakfast, Ava getting in the shower.

A playful groan left him as he felt her tense. He was on his feet in that instant. “I’m going to pick you up after your last lesson, steal you away. We’re going out tonight.”