Pure Bliss

Chapter Five

James walked through the house, carefully avoiding the crowd in the living area. His cock was still righteously hard, and his brain was in a damn tailspin.

She’d been so soft and sweet underneath him. She’d flowered open, her whole body blooming under his. He’d gotten a hand on her breast, and just as he’d suspected, they were real and perfect, the nipples pointing beneath his palm. If they’d been skin to skin, they would have pressed against his chest until he wouldn’t have been able to handle it, and he would have been forced to drag his mouth to her breasts and suck them inside.

James strode through the kitchen, cursing his brother’s name. He slammed through the back screen door and dragged cool air into his lungs. This was what he needed. He needed to be outside, where every wall of the house didn’t press at him with some memory of his childhood.

Sometimes he thought he’d tear the fucker down and rebuild. Every room contained a memory. He couldn’t walk into the parlor without seeing his mom putting up a Christmas tree. She’d never had one of those Martha Stewart perfect trees he’d seen on TV. She’d said that having a theme for a Christmas tree went against the spirit. Their tree was decorated in a wild kaleidoscope of color. In the attic, there were boxes and boxes of ornaments his dads had thought would please her and pieces of crap that he and Noah had made. Every one she’d treasured and displayed despite the fact they weren’t her blood. They were more than blood, she’d told him once. Ellen Glen-Bennett had looked down at him, tears filling her brown eyes, and told him that she’d chosen to be his mom. She’d picked him and Noah as surely as she’d picked their fathers.

Fuck, he missed his mom.

Hope reminded him of her. Not in any physical way. It was there in her sweetness. It was in the way she took care of the people around her. She made sure Logan got his lunch. She baked cookies for everyone on their birthdays. She’d brought salad to Nell and Henry when their protests lasted longer than expected, and when Mel and Cassidy had taken to their bunker, she’d made sure Cassidy got her favorite mystery novels.

Hope McLean knew how to take care of a person. She knew how to love.

And that scared the fuck out of him.

He walked toward the stable. What was he doing? Hope was too close to perfect. Hope was the type of woman who could help on a ranch because she would understand. She would get that it was a team effort, and she would throw herself into it.

And that was perfectly fine. He wanted and needed that in a wife. What he didn’t need was a wife who made his heart pound at the very thought of her. He couldn’t do it. He didn’t want what his parents had. He didn’t want to fade away when his love was gone. His father had only been sixty-seven, and after his wife and friend were gone, he’d faded. There wasn’t another word for it. Fred Glen had been a ghost of himself after their deaths.

James didn’t want that.

And yet he wasn’t sure he could walk away from Hope.

He found himself standing at the fence of the training area. It was a large, round, three-tiered wooden fence. It was where he trained his horses, but lately it was where he got his ass kicked. Red had been brought out for his daily exercise. James nodded at Kirk, one of his newly hired hands. Kirk nodded back. He was standing far from Red, who snorted and put up a good front. Red was a magnificent horse with amazing lines and a sturdy frame, but he snorted and bit at everybody. The minute he felt a man’s weight on him, he bucked and went crazy.

Red was a good summation of his life for the last couple of years. Harsh. Rough. Brutal.

He should find a wife who wouldn’t disrupt his life and be done with it. He should find a wife and have some kids and just move on.

But now Noah was back, and James wasn’t sure what the fuck that meant.

“Pretty boy.” Rye Harper put a booted foot on the second ring of the fence and stared out at Red.

James sighed. At least they hadn’t sent Max out. He had no delusions that the group hadn’t decided to “talk” to him. No one in the entire town understood what it meant to stay out of other people’s business. “He’s a pain in my ass.”

“The good ones always are.” Rye tipped his hat back. “In horses and women.”

Yep. He should have known. “Are you here to talk to me about Hope? You’re wasting your time because she’s told me she isn’t interested.”

But she had been. He’d felt her nipples and smelled the lovely scent of her arousal. If that fucker Noah hadn’t interrupted, he would have been balls deep inside her and groaning out his orgasm more than once. He knew that was true because once wouldn’t be enough. He’d need her over and over again. He would fucking imprint himself on her.

“I doubt that. But you have ignored her for nearly a year. You must suspect that would make an impression on her,” Rye replied.

If only he’d been able to ignore her. He’d always known the minute she walked in a room. “Rye, you know how hard it’s been. I haven’t had time to really date. This ranch took up every minute of the day until Trev and Bo got here.”

It wasn’t just Trev and Bo that had made a difference. It was the cash infusion they had brought with them. For the last year, it had been just him and Wolf and the hands he could hire for what little he could pay. Now he had some experienced hands, and it made a huge difference. He could breathe again. He could have a life again.

Rye leaned against the fence, looking every bit like a slightly disapproving older brother. “But you have something going with that woman right? The one with the dark-brown hair?”

Dark brown? That wasn’t the way he would describe Hope’s hair. Her hair was a rich brown threaded with gold, and when the light hit it just right, red. It was a soft color, and there was so damn much of it that he just wanted to thrust his hands in and pull on it. He could braid rope into it and make it so it was a gorgeous testament to D/s, the rope hanging lower than her hair, ready for her Master’s tug. “What are you talking about?”

“The woman from the Rep Theater?” Rye’s mouth flattened. “She’s telling every girl in town that she’s your girlfriend and they better back off. I was surprised. I was pretty sure you had a no-dating policy.”

Fuck a goddamn duck. “No. We went out a couple of times.”

“By going out, I assume you mean you fucked her a couple of times.”

He felt himself flush. Rye Harper was only a couple of years older than he was, but he’d been like a big brother to him and Noah. Max, Rye, and Stef Talbot had been the older boys they had looked up to. “Yeah. But, Rye, I made it clear I wasn’t looking for anything serious. I never lie to a woman. I want a good time and that’s all. You know how much time this ranch costs me? It isn’t exactly an eight-hour-a-day job.”

Even with his breathing room, he still didn’t have a ton of time. It would be years before the Circle G attained the kind of wealth that would allow him some real free time.

Rye’s face softened. “I know, Jamie. It’s twenty-four-seven and only because that’s all there is to give. It’s blood and sweat and tears, and never think for a single minute that your dads wouldn’t be proud of you.”

He hated the tears that threatened. “I don’t think so. I sold half our land.”

“Fred and Brian would have done the same damn thing. Don’t you dare think otherwise. They would have done anything it took to keep this place afloat. Your dads understood the meaning of compromise and partnership. Now, they would have preferred that it was Noah who stepped in, but in his absence, they would be proud of everything you did to keep their legacy alive.”

James found the words comforting even though he wasn’t sure he believed them. “I had friends who helped me.”

Max and Rye had supplied unpaid labor in bringing the herd in when the winter proved too much. The owner of the Feed Store Church had given him credit when he couldn’t pay. Mel had sat up with him during calving season, pulling each calf free of his momma and pronouncing them all free of alien influence. Nell and Holly had brought him food and sat with him while his father was dying. He loved this town. It was home. It was his heart. He would never be able to understand how Noah had left.

“And you always will. I know you’ll do right by Hope. Oh, you’re going to fight it and make some dumb-ass mistakes that you’ll pay for. If I could stop you, I would, but this is your path, and you’ll walk down it as you will. We all know Hope is going to be good for you. You’ll wise up. They didn’t send me out here to talk about Hope. I’m here to talk to you about Noah.”

Fuck. That was worse. He’d had months to think about Hope. He hadn’t had more than an hour to process the fact that Noah was back. “I don’t want to talk about Noah.”

“He’s your brother,” Rye pointed out.

“He left me.”

“And now he’s back, and you have to deal with him. The question is are you going to make him pay or are you going to be the magnanimous brother who welcomes him home?”

There was no question about that. “Make his ass pay.”

Rye laughed, the sound filling the air.

“I told you he was more like you than me.” Max sidled up to his brother. Their identical faces settled into grins.

“You did, indeed, brother.” Rye slapped his brother on the back.

It was what people who didn’t know them always mistook. James had known the brothers all of his life, and despite Max’s outer shell, he was actually the softer of the two. Max could growl all he liked, but when it came down to it, he found it difficult to maintain a true grudge. He would scratch and claw when he thought he was being rejected, but the minute someone needed something, he would quietly help.

Rather like Noah.

Just because he understood Noah didn’t mean James was willing to forgive him yet. “He leaves for five years with barely a phone call and then just waltzes in and expects me to welcome him with open arms? When he left, it didn’t just hurt me. It hurt this whole town. We were all counting on him.”

Max frowned. “You won’t get an argument out of me. We haven’t had a vet for four years because your brother is a dumb-ass, but we all knew he would be back. I can curse his name and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but damn, that boy’s been through something hard.”

“He’s not the same Noah who left here,” Rye added. “Talking to him for ten minutes proved that to me. He’s harder, and he’s just waiting for you to reject him. I think there might be a little piece of him that wants you to reject him.”

“Are y’all talking about that kid with the chip on his shoulder?” Nate asked. He walked up with Rafe, Cam, and Henry following behind him. It looked like all the men of Bliss had decided to descend. “That boy is in some kind of trouble.”

James rolled his eyes. “He’s not in trouble. He’s just out of money. His wife divorced him.”

Henry sighed. He looked slightly out of place among the ruggedly dressed men. Henry wore loose cotton pants and a sweater made out of something that didn’t involve an animal or manmade fibers. And the dude always rocked the Birkenstocks. Still, he had his unassailable place among these men. “We all knew that would happen, Jamie. She wasn’t good for him. It was only a matter of time until he came home.”

“So now I’m just supposed to forgive him and say, ‘hey, no problem. You weren’t here when I needed you most. You weren’t here when our dad was dying. You didn’t have to watch him fade away. You didn’t have to answer the questions he asked.’ I’m just supposed to forget?” It wasn’t fucking fair. All of his life he’d had to watch out for his little brother. Noah was smart, but that didn’t matter because James was stronger. Well, Noah had filled out. Maybe it was time for baby brother to stand on his own damn feet.

“Jamie, I’ve known you for a very long time,” Henry said, adjusting his glasses. “If I know one thing about you, it’s that you’re one of the kindest men I know. You won’t be able to hold out for long. All you do by being angry now is delay the inevitable. So do both of you a favor and sit down and talk to your brother. Don’t start a war, because that’s what this could turn into.”

“And I don’t want to see Hope get hurt,” Cam said. “If you and your brother are going to fight, then maybe she should come back with us.”

Rafe nodded in agreement. “She’s going to be stuck in the middle and not in a good way. You’re both looking at her like two dogs about to fight over a particularly juicy steak. She doesn’t need that.”

James felt his rage simmering just below the surface. “I’m not going to hurt Hope, and by god, you’re not taking her out of here. Doc left her care to me. Logan asked me to look after her. So all of you can leave it be. She steps foot off this ranch and there’s going to be hell to pay.”

Max snorted. “Well, I guess that answers that question. Someone needs to tell that actress chick to lay off.”

He was going to have to deal with Serena. What had happened to his formerly peaceful life? Oh, it had been full of backbreaking work and loneliness, but damn, he’d forgotten how obnoxious people could be. “I’ll handle her, and I’ll deal with Hope. Something’s up with her. I want everyone watching out for her.”

“Will do,” Nate replied with a smile. “We watch after our own.”

“Be careful what you promise, Jamie,” Henry said, his eyes lighting a little. “She’s going to help me and Nell run our little booth at the Festival of Spiritual Renewal.”

Everyone groaned.

“Woo Woo Fest,” Cam said.

“Yep.” Nate slapped the acting sheriff on the back. “Don’t let Nell hear you call it that.”

James shook his head. “She needs to rest, not sell stuff to people who come looking for Bigfoot.”

“Sasquatch,” Henry corrected. “They genuinely prefer Sasquatch. Nell and I can handle it, but Hope is a bit stubborn. I’m just warning you. I think you and your brother could greatly benefit from some of the psychic healing that goes on at these things. I believe someone is putting up a sweat lodge. After a couple of hours sweating out your inner turmoil, I think you and Noah will be just fine. Max and Rye could use it, too. They fight too much. I’ll make sure to set appointments for all of you.”

“Yeah,” Max replied, his eyes on his brother. “Brotherhood can be a rough thing.”

Rye snorted. “Damn straight. Especially when you’re tied to someone like him.”

Max came off the fence, his shoulders squaring. “Tied? Brother, you are lucky to have me.”

Rye’s face lit up. He took a step back. “Lucky? You’re the lucky one. You would spend every night in the doghouse if it wasn’t for me. You’re lucky our baby girl has my sweet temperament.”

Max attacked, his fist flying. Both brothers laughed. James sighed. That was Max and Rye. They fought, punching each other until one cried uncle or Rachel put her foot down.

“See, that wouldn’t happen in the sweat lodge,” Henry said with a long sigh.

“Why is Nell talking to your cattle?” Rafe asked, pointing toward the field where Henry’s wife stood, whispering into a cow’s ear.

Max and Rye continued pounding on each other. Max said something about Nate and a duck, and Nate joined in with a yell.

“She’s trying to talk the cows into passive resistance,” James explained.

“She’s such a beautiful soul,” Henry said with a happy grin as he watched his wife. “One day she’ll get through to them.”

She was insane. But James loved her. Max, Rye, and Nate tried taunting Rafe and Cam to join them in their fist-flying free-for-all. Nell started to sing to the cows in his field. He heard Rachel slam out the back door and all of the women ran out, yelling at the men to stop acting like boys.

And Noah stood in the background of the gleeful chaos. He stood by the back door looking like the same sad five-year-old who had first come to live on the Circle G. Out of place. Small. Vulnerable.

He wasn’t small anymore, but his brother looked pretty damn vulnerable without even his dog at his side. Noah watched the fight from afar and then walked to his truck and grabbed a single bag.

That was all he had? One small gym bag? He’d left Bliss with a trunk packed full and ten million in the bank. He’d come back with nothing.

“Don’t even bother trying, Jamie,” Henry said as Rachel passed off her baby to Laura and threw herself in between Max and Rye. “He’s your brother. He’s home. Start over. That’s what families do.”

A hard lump formed in his throat. His family was gone. And he wasn’t sure he would ever get that feeling back.

Christian Grady liked Bliss. It was one of those sleepy towns that stuck together and had a can-do attitude. It was utterly ripe for the plucking.

Like Hope had been at one point in time.

Why was she wearing those ridiculous glasses and hiding her body under voluminous clothes? She was a goddess, but now she looked rather like some sad-sack housewife. She put her glorious hair in a bun and wore no makeup. It was wrong. When he had her back in his arms, he would make sure she showed herself off to perfection.

He walked into some place called Trio. She hadn’t been at the station today. Nor had she been at her tiny apartment. She’d left for somewhere. He needed to find out where. Though it was still early in the game, it was time to show his face around town a bit. The festival started soon. He could easily blend in with the idiots pouring into town. He’d made a careful practice of standing out, but he knew when to blend in as well.

“Hi, welcome to Trio.” A pretty woman with black hair greeted him. He was excellent at reading body language, and hers screamed out anxiety. Her smile was forced, her eyes slightly red. She was deeply upset, emotional. He loved emotional women. They were so very easy to manipulate. Of course, they could also go a bit insane if not properly handled. His Hope was proof of that. She’d tried to murder him, but he could forgive her. He had just murdered her friend, after all.

“Lovely town you have here.” He followed the pretty waitress to a small booth.

“Oh, yes, I’ve always loved Bliss.” Now her smile was genuine. “I grew up a couple of towns over, and I swore when I could I would move here. It took me more years than I would like, but I finally made it here. It’s the best town in the world.”

He pegged her age at roughly twenty-five to twenty-seven, but the little idiot sounded like a teenager. And she blushed like one when he smiled at her and held out a hand. “I’m Chris.”

No need to give away everything if he didn’t have to. Hope would have to deal with him soon enough.

“Lucy.” She shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

The door opened and a big man walked through. He was enormous, with broad shoulders and dark hair. Lucy’s whole face tightened again. She passed him a menu and promised to be back soon before scurrying behind the big man, calling out, “Alexei.”

The man named Alexei turned and smiled down at the waitress. It was a warm smile, but not intimate. The big guy might like Lucy, but he wasn’t interested in her sexually. Lucy spoke rapidly, her hands twisting around the towel she carried. Alexei’s hand came on to her shoulder in an almost brotherly gesture. He was trying to calm her down. He couldn’t see Lucy’s face, but the big guy was on full display, and Christian heard the one word he’d been dying to hear.

Hope.

He heard her name from the big man’s lips. Though he was across the room, the music in the tavern wasn’t loud, and Christian could make out a little. Alexei had obviously come from somewhere, and he’d seen Hope. Lucy was worried about her.

Well, that wasn’t surprising. His Hope had made friends so easily. She was smart and soft mannered, truly the perfect mate for a man of his stature.

Of course, she’d taken his stature down when she’d left him, but she was the one who could bring it all back, too.

Lucy walked back, her shoulders relaxed. There was a flush on her face. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t get your order. Do you want a beer?”

He never drank. He would never allow himself to be out of control. No alcohol and no drugs, though he found drugs very useful when it came to dealing with weaker minds. Drugs were a lovely way to keep his minions in line. “No. I’d like some hot tea if you have it.”

She nodded. “All kinds. Earl Grey. Jasmine. Oolong. Pretty much you name it and we got it. It’s an odd crowd. We have to be ready.”

He smiled, giving her his smoothest grin. “I’ll take green tea, please.”

He was patient as she nodded and turned. No need to push her. He was supremely confident in his ability to charm a woman into giving him the information he needed. He watched the slow roll of people as they came in and out of the establishment. He would almost bet his life on which ones were the locals and which were coming into town for the festival. The ones in the cowboy hats and sensible clothes were almost certainly locals. The ones who appeared to have watched far too much science-fiction television were the tourists. He bet he could manipulate both. It was all about figuring out what a person needed and giving it to them.

He ordered off the menu. A salad and a bowl of soup. Too much meat wasn’t good for his digestion. He sipped his tea and contemplated just how to handle Hope.

He’d known what she’d needed once. She’d wanted a lover and a father figure all rolled into one. Her own father had left at an early age, and she’d had a rough time with her mother. He’d found her at the tender age of seventeen, so lovely and malleable that he was sure he’d found his perfect match. He was strong. She was sweet.

She’d played her part beautifully for eighteen months. She’d been his perfect angel, fully buying into everything he was selling. She was the embodiment of the “light” he’d preached.

Too bad she’d figured out that the whole religion thing was a front for selling drugs and women and other various sordid things. He’d never intended for her to discover the actual paying side of the business. It was a shame since it had worked beautifully up until the moment his lovely bride had decided to light him on fire.

“Here you go.” Lucy set the soup and salad in front of him.

He had to admit it smelled halfway decent, and given the fact that he’d spent the last several years in various shit holes trying to hide from the mob boss he owed money to, halfway decent was right up his alley. “Thanks. I really appreciate it. You seemed very upset when I first walked in. I’m glad you’re better now.”

She flushed under his words. She really was a lovely girl and obviously in desperate need of attention. “I was just worried about a friend. I heard a whole bunch of crazy stuff about her today, but it turns out she’s just a little under the weather. You never can tell around here. You know we’re like the murder capital of the world, right?”

This nothing town? “Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah, per capita, we’re terrible. Time Magazine did an article a while back, and then the serial killer came through and that assassin who tried to kill my shift manager. Alexei came out okay, but now we have this guy named Michael who lives in a cabin on the mountain and scares everyone. That’s a long story, but a good one. You see Michael was in love with his partner, and Holly had to kill her because she was trying to kill one of Holly’s lovers…”

If he let her go on, she wouldn’t talk about Hope for an hour. “I would rather hear about your friend.”

“Hope? Oh, she’s just overworked according to our doc. She needs rest, though I wonder if she’s going to get it out at the Circle G. She’s got a crazy crush on the rancher who owns it, but maybe it will finally work out for her. I’m just happy she didn’t get eaten by Sasquatch or the sand monster, and she’s not pregnant. She really shouldn’t be pregnant since she hasn’t had sex, you know.”

Oh, Lucy was a little sweet ball of snark. She had a saucy smile on her face that bespoke an intelligence he actually really liked. He appreciated smarts and innocence. It was what he’d found in Hope. And he was damn happy to discover she wasn’t sleeping around.

It meant he had less people to kill.

“I think it’s sweet you care about your friend.”

Her mouth widened. “Hope is the best. She’s such a sweetheart. I came into town about a month ago, and she was my first friend. You have no idea how much I need her. I hate the fact that I can’t go out there and see her, but my boss’s wife is the other waitress, and she just pumped out twins. I’m taking doubles to make up for her absence. Alexei is working overtime, too. We’re supposed to get some relief, but the new waitress isn’t coming until next week. I was supposed to have dinner with Hope, but now she’s stuck out on the G, and I just hope she gets well soon. She’s been acting a little weird.”

He bet she had. He knew she’d seen him standing there before. He’d stood under a big evergreen and watched as she talked to some overblown woman with plastic breasts. Hope had been shocked when she saw him. He’d slinked away, but he wouldn’t soon. Soon he would approach her, and she would be his again. She would fall into his arms because they were meant to be together. She couldn’t let a little thing like bourgeoisie morality keep them apart. Surely in the years that they had been alone, she’d been able to see what a mistake she’d made.

That dumb bitch Elaine couldn’t be the thing that broke up two soul mates.

“She sounds like a great friend.” He looked at Lucy’s chest. Her breasts were large and round. Pretty and perfect. Rather like his Hope’s. She might be a nice way to keep track of his girl. “She’s lucky to have you.”

Little Lucy blushed again. “I don’t know about that.” She sighed, her chest moving up and down. “Can I get you anything else?”

Your best friend on a silver platter? “I’m great. Thank you. But I’m alone in this town. I would appreciate it if you could point me the way to a guide.”

She hesitated only for a second. “I could show you around.”

He was in. She would lead him straight to Hope. “I would appreciate that.”

They made plans to meet later in the evening, but his mind was already on Hope. He would get her back. Or bury her.