Chapter 36

Talk. She wants to talk. Well, cowboy, you knew you couldn't just sweep it under the rug, right?
Zach talked to himself while he sliced the roast and arranged plates with the meat, the perfectly done new potatoes and a serving of the green bean casserole. One last trip to the kitchen for the rolls and the bottle of wine and he slid into the chair opposite Maddie.
God, she's so beautiful. The firelight makes her hair look like spun gold and her skin absolutely glows. I'm glad she didn't snap up the front of my shirt, I love looking at her perfect breasts peeking out, those gorgeous nipples so rosy and still hard. I wonder if I'll ever get my fill of her.
"You're staring," she told him.
Zach mentally shook himself. "I could stare at you for the rest of my life, Maddie. You are so gorgeous. So perfect. You take my breath away."
She lowered her eyelids in that shy, sexy way she'd always had.
"You always did have a way with words, Zach Brennan." She pushed her empty plate away from her and picked up her wine. "And speaking of words, I think you have a few I need to hear. It's time for you to tell me why you treated me like such a piece of nothing that last day. Especially after we'd made love the night before and it was pure magic."
Zach laid his fork down and picked up his own wine, sipping at it while he gathered his thoughts.
"Thinking up a good story?" Maddie asked, her voice suddenly hard. "Any old one will do, you know." She pushed back from the table and stood up. "I think this whole thing was a mistake, Zach. All of it. Maybe you should just go on back to your cabin and tomorrow I'll see a lawyer - someone besides Ty - about the ranch situation."
"Maddie, no. Please." His heart raced with panic. He stood up so suddenly he knocked over his chair. "That isn't it at all."
She stalked away from him, heading toward the utility room but he was right on her heels. Grabbing his jacket and hat from the pegs where they were hanging, she shoved them into his hands.
"I'll see that you get your shirt back after I wash it. I wouldn't want any of my perfume to get on it and irritate your buckle bunnies."
"Maddie, please." This could not be happening. This wasn't the way it was supposed to go at all.
"Don't Maddie me." She jerked open the back door, then stepped back so fast she bumped into him. Hard.
He peered over her shoulder, shocked at the scene outside the house. Somehow the wind had kicked up to gale force, its chilly fingers swiping across the bare skin of his chest. The temperature had obviously plummeted and the rain that had started just as he reached the house earlier had turned to sleet. Everything, including the back porch and the steps, was a solid sheet of ice.
And it was still coming down.
Holy shit!
"Ohmigod!" She was still pressed hard against him, his cock nudging the soft curve of her ass. He wanted her so badly he nearly cried - and not just for an hour. He had to make her listen to him.
"You aren't going to send me out in that, are you, darlin'? Even you aren't that hardhearted."
"No." She sighed and hung his jacket and hat back up. "You'd break your neck before you ever got off the porch. Come on back in."
Thank you, God.
Somehow he coaxed her back to the living room but this time he took the big pillows off the couch, arranged them on the floor in front of the fire and pulled Maddie down with him. She tried to inch away but he wrapped his arm around her and held her tight to his side.
"No. No moving away. I want you right here next to me while I talk."
"Okay, then. Go ahead and talk."
He picked up her hand and stroked it with his thumb, just letting the words pour out of him.
"Remember that last night we were together?"
"Yes, I do." Her voice softened. "How could I forget." She tensed, "And then the next day - "
"No. Let me finish. When I got home that night my folks were waiting up for me. Very unusual. They never did that. Especially since my mom had been sick for a while and usually went to bed right after dinner."
"And?" she prompted when he paused.
"They'd been to San Antonio that day, to see a specialist. Mom had cancer. They knew that and they'd been keeping it from me. But the treatments weren't working and she was going to need surgery and long-term treatments. Very expensive treatments."
"Oh, Zach." Maddie turned her face toward him, her eyes filled with concern and caring. "How awful."
"Yeah, well, that was only part of it. They'd about maxed out their health insurance, the house was mortgaged to the hilt and the hardware store wasn't doing too good. I had only one way to help them and that was by going on the rodeo circuit full time."
"But - "
He pressed a finger to her lips. "Not yet. Anyway, I'd been doing real good just hitting the events in the area and I'd had a couple of sponsors approach me about doing this full-time. I just didn't see any other answer. Any other way out."
"Why didn't you tell me?" She turned and punched him in the chest. "Didn't you think I could take it? Did you think I was just someone who hung around for the good times?"
He cupped her cheek and pressed small kisses to her face. "You have to look at it from my side. I had no idea how long this would stretch out, how long I'd have to be out there. And the rodeo circuit is no place to drag along a wife. At least for me. It's a hard life and you deserved much, much more than that. I knew if I told you the truth, you'd put your life on hold and wait for me no matter how long it took. And I couldn't see asking that of you."
"But that was my choice to make, Zach Brennan. "He could hear the anger rising in her voice. "My decision. Not yours. Instead you threw those groupies at me and made me think you didn't care."
"I needed to drive you away, Maddie. Make you hate me so you could get on with your life. The minute you left the fairgrounds I hightailed it away from those women as fast as I could. Hurting you that way has haunted me every night since then."
"Why didn't you come back when your mom died?"
"The bank was taking the house. All the money I'd sent had gone for medical bills. And Dad was in such a deep depression I didn't know what to do with him. My brother and his wife really wanted him to come live with them. And it's been a wonderful thing for him. Given him a new outlook. What did I have to offer him, anyway?"
"Yourself," she said softly. "Wouldn't that have been enough?"
He shrugged. "Maybe. I just thought Jim's solution was the best. So I put what I could in storage and went back out on the circuit."
"But now you're back." Her hand was smoothing over his chest, her touch like the kiss of a magical faery.
"Yes. After Dad moved, I started socking away every nickel I could from my winnings and a few months ago decided I'd better quit the circuit while my bones were still intact." He placed his hand over hers and pressed them both against his heart. "Hear how that beats for you, Maddie? When I heard this place was for sale I knew I had to buy it. It was the only way I could figure out to somehow hold onto a piece of you, because I knew for sure you'd toss me out on my ass if I tried to make it up with you." He frowned at her. "Why didn't you, anyway? You started to and suddenly everything changed."
She looked up at him, one eyebrow quirked. "To tell the truth, I don't really know. Ever since this morning I've felt as if someone else has taken over my body and touched me with Christmas magic. I've felt things and done things that I never had any intention of doing. Like what happened this morning." She blushed. "And, well, you know."
He brushed a kiss across her lips. "Like shaving your pussy for me? And letting me eat you out until you came in my mouth?"
He laughed as her blush deepened.
She lowered her eyelids again. "Yes. Like that."
"So what now, Maddie? Where do we go from here?"
"I guess a lot of that depends on you, doesn't it?"
"If you're talking about the ranch, we'll get to that after a while because I have a very specific idea to present to you. If you're talking about the future, that's part of it." He lowered her to her back, arranging her on the cushions. "But if you're talking about right now, then I plan to fuck the hell out of you until you don't even know your own name. That sound okay to you?"