Page 78 of Long Hard Road

“Good.” She rubbed the spot over my heart. “If she hurt you again, I was going to get out my brass knuckles.”

“You have brass knuckles?” The tension hadn’t completely left his jaw, but his smile softened his rough edges.

“Take a seat on the bed. I will give you an amazing shoulder rub while you tell me what happened.”

He nodded while his eyes scanned every inch of my face. “Thank you for taking care of me, Madison.”

“Someone has to do it since you’re always too busy taking care of everyone else.” I had realized that after knowing him for only a few hours, but it had been reinforced when Harper had told me the same thing. “Sit.” I nudged him toward the bed.

Once he was settled, I climbed behind him and settled my knees alongside his thighs. I pressed a kiss to his neck and slowly worked my thumbs into the hard muscles along the base of his neck.

“Oh, fuck. That feels incredible, babe.” His head dipped down and his shoulders dropped.

“Start talking.” I twisted my thumbs in deeper and he groaned.

For the next twenty minutes, Nate told me everything that had happened with Fiona and Ellison. My heart ached for him when he told me about how Fiona had thrown the kids in his face. I was confused when he only vaguely mentioned that Ellison had stuck around to have a drink after Fiona was arrested.

“Did you guys talk?” I asked, scratching my fingers lightly down his back before massaging my thumbs into the muscles on either side of his spine.

“A little bit.”

“What did you talk about?”

His back shuddered hard with an elaborate breath. “Does it matter?”

“It might.” I stopped the massage and slid my arms around his waist, resting my chin on his shoulder. “Did you talk about me?”

“Your name may have come up once or twice.” He was trying to sound teasing but I didn’t miss the slide of his jaw as his teeth came together hard.

“Tell me.” I nipped playfully at his earlobe and slid one hand under the waistband of his jeans. “Or I will torture the information out of you.”

“I choose the torture,” he grunted.

When my hand slipped over his hardened cock, a low growl caught in his throat. “You sure about that, Sullivan? Because I could do this for hours.”

He turned his head toward me and flashed a grin that made my core throb in anticipation. “Just remember that when you are done, it will be my turn to play.”

We had rented the Airstream through Monday morning. Nate had sold me on the idea by listing all the fun things we could do during the day in addition to the fun we’d have at night. There was talk of ice fishing, snowshoeing, sleigh rides, and skating on the frozen pond. Evenings cuddled by the fire and the roasting of marshmallows for s’mores. By Sunday afternoon, we had done none of those things. Yet we’d still managed to have a lot of fun without leaving our bed.

“I’m sure no one will miss us if we skip dinner,” Nate said as he watched me get dressed for the first time in two days. For our other meals, he had thrown on clothes and grabbed food from the lodge. Then he brought it back and we ate it in bed before quickly returning to our regularly scheduled programming. Tonight, that wasn’t an option. We had promised to attend his family’s Sunday dinner.

“We could use a good refuel, Nate. And I haven’t breathed fresh air in almost forty-eight hours.” Our Airstream reeked of sex and I probably did too. I was just glad that I’d been able to sneak in a shower. The Airstream had been retrofitted with a tiny bathroom along the wall across from the bed. It had a toilet with a sink over the back of it and a shower that was just barely big enough for one person.

“We could take a quick walk around the ranch instead,” he suggested hopefully.

“Honey, we can’t just do nothing but have sex for the foreseeable future,” I protested.

He shrugged. “Why not? We’ve only got a week left. Do you really want to spend some of that with my family?”

My heart cracked at the thought of leaving him in a week. At least now I knew why he was fighting so hard for us to stay inside. He wanted to squeeze everything he could from the time we had left together.

I finished tugging on my sweater and then went over to him, straddling his lap as I looped my arms around his neck. His hands went instantly to my hips. We’d just had sex in this same position about an hour ago.

“We have a whole week left, Nate. Plenty of time for us to be together. We can spare a couple of hours for me to hang out with your family and finally meet your niece. She would never forgive you if I left Crestwood without taking a selfie with her.” I rocked my hips against his. “Don’t you want to be the favorite uncle?”

“Babe, you can’t try to convince me to leave this bed and then dry hump me.”

“But that’s how I always convince you to do things.” I brushed my nose against his. “Like that thing you let me do last night.”

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