Page 34 of Saving Jared

"But…" He pointed an accusing finger at the doorway Joe had just exited. "That hick just sucker punched me."

"You’re lucky it was Joe who stopped you. If it had been me, you wouldn’t be getting up. Now, go to your cabin and start packing. You’re leaving."

"You can’t do that," Bobby yelled as he stumbled to his feet and brushed hay from his shirt. "My parents paid for us to be here."

"Son, they didn’t pay for you to abuse my animals or to disrespect my people."

"Don’t call me son," Bobby sneered as he backed away from Jared and angled toward the stable opening. "My dad’s a lawyer, and, and…"

Jared took a step toward the kid, and that was enough to send him running. He followed him out at a more leisurely pace and kept an eye on him heading toward the cabins. They’d only had to ask one other set of guests to leave, but it was a case of them stealing from other cabins.

This was worse.

He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Jude. His brother would have a more level head with assisting the family to leave. Because at the moment, Jared was anything but levelheaded.

Jude answered on the third ring with a distracted, "Hello."

Jared sighed, saying, "We’ve got a problem."

An hour later, Jared, Jude, and Russ stood side by side as the disgruntled Arnold family drove away. After reviewing what their security cameras had captured, Mr. Arnold was happy to be leaving without having to face a lawsuit of his own. Watching how the kid had hit, kicked, and slapped Wendy, Jared had been ready to go find Bobby Arnold and do the same thing to him.

"Good riddance," Russ grumbled as the Arnold’s electric blue Mercedes-Benz GLS SUV disappeared around the curve in the their private road. Jared nodded his agreement, then smiled when Willa’s Jeep appeared.

His day had suddenly gotten much better.

"I gotta go check on something," Russ quickly said, then took off.

"Me too," Jude added. "I’ve still got about five messages to return from the local media—two from that AJ Lacey with Action," Jude said using air quotes, "News Twenty-six. Bunch of vultures."

"Have fun with that." Jared laughed at his grousing brother heading back to the house as Willa pulled up beside him and stopped. Inside, she leaned over toward him as her passenger window rolled down.

"Need a ride, stranger?" He liked her playfulness.

"Depends on where you’re going." He leaned in and folded his arms, while her assessing gaze roamed over his face and down his chest. A slow grin spread over her face.

"Anywhere we can get naked."

All the air in his lungs left him in a long, low breath. "I think I know just the place."

Fifteen minutes later—some of those minutes spent riding in a silence fraught with sexual need—Jared had Willa stripped and lying atop a blanket under a stand of trees on the far side of the main pasture. His eyes traced over her as he undressed—how the sun shining through the leaves dappled over her tawny skin, the way her hands resting over her head clenched, while her lips parted on a sigh. She was magnificent. It was an image that would become just another perfect snapshot of this woman to file away in his memories.

Willa.

But then she added to perfection when she stretched her arms out toward him and, God help him, he was helpless not to go to her. They took their time after that, with Willa pressing him back onto the blanket to, "Do some exploring of my own."

And she did.

Each tentative kiss, lick, and long, slow tasting of his body was a lesson in passionate torture. She left no part of him untouched, and all of him wanting only what Willa could give him.

Then nothing he’d ever seen or felt was as sexy as Willa covering his aching flesh before she straddled him, then slowly—inch by agonizing inch—sheathed him with her body until nothing separated them but that thin barrier. A barrier he resented as his hands trailed over her trembling flesh and his eyes soaked in her tense features, eyes closed in pleasure, and dark head of curls tossing around her as she moved.

Too soon they both trembled as she draped her body over his—never stopping the now frantic press of her hips into his. He held her close, rising beneath her, giving himself to her—loving having her in his arms, loving the scent of her hair tickling his face, loving the heated words and promises she whispered in his ear.

"Just you, Jared. Only you."

Loving…

God, loving her.

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