Second Chances (18 page)

Her sweaty, pale skin glistened in the soft light that filtered through the wood planked walls of the stall. Her
soft, brown curls clung to the tiny beads of perspiration along her rosy cheeks, one small strand caught in the corner of her mouth. Her smoky brown eyes, glazed with passion, closed on a sigh as she leaned her forehead against his.

“How do you
know?” she asked, her voice laced with an odd mixture of pleasure and uncertainty.

Mason r
elaxed his grip. Claira unhooked her legs and he let her slide down his body until she stood on her own still trembling legs. “How do I know what, sweetheart?”

Claira clung to him
, her arms wrapped around his waist, her hands sliding up to feel the slick muscles in his back. She laid her head on his chest and felt the pounding of his heartbeat. She couldn’t reconcile the feelings that swelled in her own heart. Surely she couldn’t be in love with him, with them. It was too soon to feel this way about him, or anyone. Wasn’t it? “Earlier, you said you never thought about someone other than Sarah capturing your hearts until now. How do you know that? You don’t even know me.”

Mason gathered her close
, his hands roaming her bare back and shoulders. “Don’t you feel it?” He pulled back and tilted her chin up so that she was forced to look at him. “Do you think it’s like this with just anyone? I can’t deny that we’re little more than strangers, Claira, but there’s something familiar that my soul, our souls recognize in you. We were made to fall in love with you.” When she didn’t respond he lowered his lips to her ear and gently whispered against her. “What is your heart, your body telling you, sweetheart?”

Her head was telling her she was a being a slut, that there was no way she could justify loving and sleeping with two men, and wanting a third. Her mind was also trying to resurrect the guilt and fear she’d always harbored
for getting too close to anyone. If she cared for them they would suffer. She shook her head and forced herself to forget the past. Right now it was her heart that wouldn’t be denied.

She knew Mason was
right. There was a sacred place that had opened up and allowed these men to become more than just important. They were quickly becoming a vital part of her being. Was it normal? Definitely not. Was what she was feeling for him and Matt, and Grey, too, if she were honest, any less real or somehow cheap?
Absolutely
not. But, what was she supposed to do? Where does this go from here?

“Was it like this with Sarah? Is that how you know?”

Mason shook his head and stepped back from her. Reaching down, he carefully pulled off and discarded the condom, tossing it in a nearby trash bin. “Sarah was different. She’d always been a part of our lives.” Mason paused, and then bent to pick up some of their clothes. How did he explain without cheapening what they’d had with Sarah? None of them had felt like this before. How did he explain something that was so new to them, too?

He handed her clothes to her and bent to step
through the legs of his jeans. “Our dads knew the feeling. It happened with our mom. They just knew she was the one for them, but with Sarah it was more like a comfortable love rather than an overwhelming calling.” He slipped on his boots. Swinging his shirt over his shoulder he studied her as she slipped back into her pants and bra, not even remembering when they’d been discarded. He shook his head as he realized just how powerful an effect she had on him. It was mind blowing to think that less than a full week ago he hadn’t known she existed. Now he had a hard time remembering his life without her.

When she noticed him watching she blushed and turned her back
to him, as if he hadn’t just seen and fucked every beautiful inch of her. He slipped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist as she pulled her shirt over her head. “Don’t hide from me, sweetheart.” He kissed her ear and her neck, pulling her hair from the collar of her shirt. When she sighed and slumped against him in frustration he knew she was still struggling with her thoughts and feelings. “Claira, look at me.” He turned her in his arms and stooped down so they were eye to eye. “You do feel something, am I right?”

“Yes,” she nodded without hesitation. “But I…”

“Don’t over think it. Just give us a chance. That’s all I ask.”

“All of you?”
She knew she was taking a chance bringing up the elephant in the room, or barn as it may, but she couldn’t overlook Grey’s chosen absence from their plans. No. No matter what she felt for Mason and Matt she’d never allow herself to be a catalyst for discord in this family. She’d thought about their family dynamic a lot. This wouldn’t work without Grey.

“What do you mean?
” Mason asked stepping back when he saw the sudden shift in her expression.

“Grey obviously doesn’t share this mystical feeling you talk about. He’s just a
s much a part of this decision as you and Matt are. This won’t work without him.” She tried to keep her voice from betraying her emotional turmoil but her trembling lower lip gave her away.

Mason stepped up and took her in his arms, capturing her quivering lip in a quick, sensual kiss. “You’re both right and wrong, sweetheart. This won’t work without him, but the good news is that he’s completely overwhelmed by what he feels for you.” His thumbs wiped away the tears that had formed at the outside corners of her eyes. “He’s stubborn, but he’ll come around. And man, when he does, you’d
better watch out,” he chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief.

Claira froze
. She was sure she didn’t want to know why he said that but she couldn’t help but ask. “Why?”

Mason chuckled again, his chest rumbling beneath her cheek. One hand slid down and caressed her ass, then gave it a playful pat, startling her enough to pull back and give him a questioning glance. He kissed her forehead and moved his other hand down, cupping her butt and pulling her into his
groin. “You’ll see soon enough, sweetheart.”

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Grey shouted at Mason as he and Matt stormed through the front door of the small town Sheriff’s office, his long strides eating up the sidewalk as he stomped toward Mason’s truck.

“What was
I
thinking? I’m not the one who just got his ass arrested for assault. You two are lucky old man Grunion dropped the charges against you.”

“She shouldn’t be home
alone, Mace!” Grey grumbled as he reached up and caught the wad of keys Mason tossed him from across the hood. “She shouldn’t be there at all! I can’t believe you let her go!”

“What was I supposed to do, tie her up?” Mason caught the
heated flash of approval in Grey’s eyes but ignored it. “After waiting on you guys for two hours after dinner, she wanted to go home. I checked the house before I left. She’s fine, which is more than I can say for you two! What the hell happened?”

“You won’t believe it.” Matt said as Grey backed the King Cab, four wheel drive out of the angled parking slot and pulled onto the two-lane Main Street. “Damn heifer was cut up wo
rse than a butchered catfish.” Matt’s fists tightened and he struck out at the truck’s dashboard, the pain from his swollen knuckles radiating up through his entire arm. “Damn that bastard!”

“Who?
Grunion? Was he there?” Mason knew they had been picked up at Grunion’s ranch, but he had no idea why they’d gone there in the first place.

Grey shook his head in disgust. “No one
was there but the dead heifer.” Sending a sideways glance at Matt he said, “I tried to stop his crazy ass from riding over to Grunion’s, but he was gone before I could mount up and catch him.”

“Again,” Mason growled. “What the fuck happened up there?”

“We spotted the downed line of fence before we spotted the heifer,” Grey snarled, still focused on the road ahead of them as they made their way through town. “When we saw the cuts on her we thought, at first, she’d gotten tangled up in the razor wire. When we got close enough to dismount, I nearly lost my lunch. She was completely mutilated.” Grey pounded his fists on the steering wheel. “Her throat was cut and she’d bled out, but before whatever bastard did that, he carved up her flanks. Bastard carved the word “
Mine
” into her hide like some sick message.”

“What the…
? Grunion carved her up? How do you know it was him?” Mason pushed at Matt’s shoulder for an answer. “Did you see him or any of his men there?”

Matt shook his head.
“Didn’t need to see em’. It was Grunion, or his crony’s. You can bet the farm he ordered it done. He wanted that stallion. He wants Falcon Ridge, too. Always has. I know he cut Bernie up, too.”

“He’s bitter,” Grey swore, “But he wouldn’t do this. This was sick. You saw the look of surprise in his eyes when you flew off your horse and decked him.
Speaking of which, have you completely lost your fucking mind? Pull that shit again and you won’t have to bet the farm. With his greedy lawyers, he’ll own Falcon Ridge for sure if you keep that shit up, Matt.”

“
Sheriff says Dirk’s going to file trespassing charges.” Mason didn’t like old man Grunion. He’d never been one to latch onto an emotion as destructive as hatred, but he nearly hated his son Dirk. They were a cruel and a cold hearted bunch, but still, surely they wouldn’t resort to butchering their cattle and slaying their pets.

“
He, or any of his fuckin’ family or cowhands show their coward ass faces on our land again, I’ll show em’ trespassin’ charges. Dead men can’t file charges.” Matt made to punch at the truck’s dash again but pulled the punch at the last minute, his hand still throbbing from the earlier abuse to Grunion’s face.

“Goddammit, Matt!” Grey growled. “This isn’t the wild west. You can’t go around threatening to kill people.”

“Who’s threatening?” Matt scoffed.

“The
Sheriff will have a team up there at first light to take a look. Let the law handle this.” Grey had a different agenda than to be keeping his hot headed brother from getting his hands on a Grunion, even if they did deserve it.

“Where we goin’?”
Matt asked as Grey turned onto one of the dark side streets before they reached the end of Main Street.

“We’re going to get Claira,”
Grey said as he turned onto one street after another, effortlessly weaving his way through the older, familiar community until he pulled onto the small lane where Claira lived.

“It’s after midnight!” Mason said, pulling himself to the edge of the back seat to peer out the windshield. “She has to work tomorrow, Grey. You can’t just show up at her door in the middle of the night and drag her out of her house like a freaking cave man. You’ll push her too far!”

Everything inside Grey wanted to tune Mason out and do exactly that, pound on Claira’s door and drag her back to the ranch. He didn’t feel the least bit guilty about those protective feelings for her, which surprised the living hell out him, but Mason was right about scaring her off.

He slowed to a quiet stop when they cam
e up to Claira’s little house, noticing the lit porch and the soft, faint glow of light coming from her bedroom. She couldn’t even sleep in the dark. His head throbbed with the enormous task of trying to figure out all the shit that was running through his head and heart.
She’s turning me into a fucking girl.
The one thing he did know? He couldn’t leave her alone if some lunatic was stalking her.

“Grey?” Matt questioned him when he threw the gear shift into park and opened his door.

“Come pick me up in the morning when you bring the boys to school,” Grey said as he left the keys in the ignition and loped through the dew covered grass of Claira’s front lawn and disappeared into the darkness as he headed around back.

“What
do you think he’s doin’?” Matt asked as he slid into the driver’s seat and stared after Grey.

Mason
watched his big brother disappear, his heart swelling to life with what he felt and saw happening in Grey. With a weary smile on his face, he swung his legs over the center console and plopped down into the passenger seat, clicking his seat belt in place. “He’s protecting our woman,” he nodded affirmatively as Matt slowly and quietly pulled away. “Let’s go get our boys and go home.”

“I have to meet up with the
Sheriff first thing, and we have a lot of fence to fix. Can you take the boy’s in tomorrow and pick up Grey?” Matt asked.

“You bet. I’ll take any excuse to see Claira again.” Mason was already feeling a heavy strain
to his soul, being away from her, even if it had only been a few hours. In a way, Grey was right. She belonged at Falcon Ridge, with all of them. She just didn’t know it yet.

***********************

Carefully raising his head, Grant Kendal peered into the darkness and watched carefully as the pickup truck slowly pulled away. He ducked carefully again just before the red glow of the brake lights illuminated the inside of his non-descript sedan. When the crimson glow dispersed, he straightened slowly and watched as the McLendon’s truck disappeared around the corner. He’d been a little surprised when they pulled up and stopped practically right in front of him. There were a few other cars parked on the otherwise quiet street, but it would have been more than suspicious if they’d seen him sitting there in the middle of the night, only a few yards from Miss Robbins’ house.