Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(43)

He put his hand over hers. “You have a home, Adrienne. Here. With me.” As her eyes filled again with tears, he leaned over her and laid his mouth on hers.

She deepened the kiss herself, right away, needing him to be heavy and hard in a way he hadn’t been since she’d asked for a break. Since that day, he’d only been gentle with her, and careful, and it was lovely.

Always sexy and sweet and loving. But now she wanted more from him. She wanted him to make her feel as much as she could that was good, to make her heart forget for a minute what her father had said.

Thinking that perhaps she understood a little of the need that sometimes rode him, she took his hand and pushed it into her panties.

When she pressed his fingers between her legs, on her clit, they both grunted, and he pulled away to look down at her. Feeling too shy to say what she wanted, she pushed harder on his fingers and flexed, her eyes not leaving his. His eyes flared, and then his hand moved on her, roughly, and she wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes, letting him make her feel good.



oOo



After, Adrienne lay on her stomach, Badger resting half on her back, kissing her shoulder, brushing his beard lightly over her skin. Their legs were entwined, and she could feel him, now soft, lying along her butt and lower back. She felt better, relaxed and comfortably sleepy, like she could set her worries about her dad aside until daylight. She even made a little purring sound when Badger ran his hand up and down her arm.

“Your dad loves you, babe. He didn’t mean it. People say shit they don’t mean all the time when they’re mad.”

She scowled, feeling resentful of the intrusion of that thought into this cozy moment. “I don’t want to talk about it, Badge. Not now.”

“Okay. I’m just sayin’. I can’t believe anybody would ever turn away from you.”

Well, now she did want to talk about it. Because that was a pretty hypocritical thing for him to say. “You did.”

He stopped caressing her. “That was different.”

She rolled under him until she was on her back and they were chest to chest. “How?”

“I was trying to keep you away from my shit.”

“So’s he.”

He pushed away from her and sat up. “Are you trying to start a fight?”

She realized that was exactly what she was doing, and she wasn’t sure why. But she couldn’t stop.

Pulling the covers up over her naked body and tucking them snugly under her arms, she said, “I hate getting set aside. It hurts. I don’t understand how you can just do something like that. Seems like I’m not that important in the first place if you can just decide you don’t want me around.”

Where was all that coming from? She had no idea, and she could tell that Badger was as shocked as she was to hear what she suddenly had to say. But shock turned to anger, and his face went dark.

“That’s not true, and it’s not fair.”

“Sure it is. My own father just told me I couldn’t go home at all if I didn’t go home right now. You threw me away. Literally. To the floor.”

He flinched hard. “Adrienne, don’t do that.”

“I didn’t do it. You did.”

He got up and grabbed his jeans, shoving his legs into them as he stalked across the room. “Fuck. I thought you forgave me. I don’t know how to be sorrier than I already am for that. It won’t happen again. I was f*cked up. I’m clean now. I need you to forgive me.” He came back and dropped to his knees in front of her. “Please, babe.”

Why was she trying to rip apart what she had that was good? She didn’t want to fight. She wanted him close. She wanted him to hold her. Closing her eyes, she took a breath. “I do. I did. I’m sorry. I don’t know what…why I said any of that. I’m sorry.” She crawled to him, onto his lap, and sighed again, this time with relief, when his arms went around her. “I love you, Badge. I just want to be close to you.”

“I love you, too. I love you so much.” He kissed her temple. “Do we need to talk?”

“No. I don’t want to talk. I just want to be close.” Her head was a muddle, the restorative benefits of their sex evaporated. So she wrapped herself around him and let him lay her down again.



CHAPTER TEN



“Stalls are done.”

Standing in the middle of the corral, longe line in one hand and longeing whip in the other, Badger glanced over to see Nolan with his feet on the bottom rail of the fence, leaning over. Spirit was finally in a good rhythm, circling Badger at a slow trot, so he took a second to answer Nolan.

“Good. Got their feed buckets clean, too?”

“Yeah. My mom’s not gonna be here for almost an hour. Can I watch you do whatever you’re doing?”

“Working on getting Spirit under saddle is what I’m doing.” He made the clucking sound he used to cue his horses, and gave the longe a light tug. Spirit picked up his pace. He was a smart colt. Headstrong, but smart. He’d have been great on barrels. But that was women’s riding, the kind of riding Havoc’s sister had done—and had intended to do with Spirit. There wasn’t anybody to ride him like that now. So Badger figured he’d get him on the trail when he was old enough.

“How does him running around in circles help?”