Page 88 of Belong With Me

“I’m a very rich man, son. Rich enough to buy your measly property a hundred times over and still not feel it.”

“It’s not for sale,” I growled.

“Then why are you here?”

Swallowing my pride, I decided to give him a piece of my mind. “I’m here for your daughter, sir. I’m here to give her the love she truly deserves. The kind she never received from you.”

His eyes, so much like Sienna’s, captured me in an icy glare. “How dare you.” The phone on the receptionist’s desk rang, stopping him in his tracks, and his momentary hold on me broke. She looked at him after setting the phone in its cradle. “It’s for you, Mr. Anderson.”

He nodded, turning away from me and picking up the receiver. I clenched my fists and sat back down, facing the desk. I inhaled a few calming breaths. He barked a few words into the phone—there really was no other way to describe it—and then hung up.

A few moments later, I heard the door swing open, and the click clack of heels on tile flooring approached. After a few more steps, I turned and saw Sienna. My eyes scanned every inch of her, knowing she was as perfect as I remembered.

Her raven black hair was tied in a bun, with not a single strand out of place, and her hips swayed just a little as she strode confidently toward where her father stood at the reception desk. Finally, as she stopped between us, she looked up and her eyes found me in the waiting area. She halted.

“Sienna-Grace, this man is here to see you regarding the paperwork we sent. Follow me to the conference room and sit down so we can get this over with,” the pompous bastard of a father ordered her. But my woman looked at the female behind the desk and then toward where her father stood, holding open the glass door for her.

Standing from where I was seated, I brushed my hands over my jeans then took a step forward. It took her a moment, and if you didn’t know her as well as I liked to think I did, you’d never notice the small change in her. But as if on a whim, she headed to the desk and set the items she had in hand down and came to stand beside me.

What the hell was she doing? “Just follow my lead,” she said quietly as the sound of a cell phone filled the air. But I didn’t dare look over there, instead, my eyes didn’t leave her.

I drank her in, every moment of her movements as she strode toward where her father had disappeared, and followed her closely. When we entered the space with a large table taking center stage, she pulled out a chair on the opposite side of the table from her father.

Doing as she asked earlier, I took the seat beside her, turning my head enough to look at her. “What are you doing?” I needed to know.

Her hand moved to rest on my own, and those beautiful ice blue eyes looked deep into mine. “I’m on your side Ryder. I’ve been on your side since the moment you literally gave me the shirt off your back.”

My heart skipped and my thoughts scrambled to make sense of her words. I had expected her to be here, to run into her and have a conversation, but not right next to me, sitting across from her father. I bumped my knee against hers as we sat side by side and the most intense moment of my life began.

The whole thing wasn’t anything like I’d expected. I probably should have been more prepared and thought over what I would say to Sienna. When I had read over the paperwork, and saw the address of this office, I didn’t even stop to consider that her father would also be here. All that mattered was coming to find Sienna and speaking with her.

With a nod at each other, Mr. Anderson stood up and commenced pacing. What he said was lost to me as everything began and I was lost in the woman beside me. She became exactly that person I believed I’d never see. She wasn’t the woman who giggled nervously atop a horse right now. No, she was Sienna-Grace Anderson, attorney-at-law here.

She was a goddess in that room. I was completely spellbound watching her as she worked her magic. They continued to go back and forth, and I interjected a one-word answer here and there when she prompted me, but mostly it was her.

It wasn’t long before the entire thing was over. We all stood, and I headed out of the room and came to a standstill outside the glass doors.

When those doors finally swung open, my eyes pinned Sienna as she approached me. I dared not move as I waited in the outer area where I had been earlier and watched her closely as her demeanor changed. The first thing I noticed was her shoulders lowering, as though they lost the tension she had been holding in them.

Next, her hand reached up to grip her hair tie, and when she pulled it away, it released her jet-black tresses from the professional-style bun it was in. My eyes followed the strands as it flowed around her shoulders like oil as she shook it out. Replacing the lawyer she had just been, she became my Sin with every passing second.

“How’d it go?” I nabbed my hat from where I had it sitting on the sofa beside me. Standing, I impulsively opened my arms for her. Without any hesitation, she walked into them and finally, as her head rested against my chest, I relaxed properly.

She nuzzled into me further and when she replied it was slightly muffled. “He isn’t happy with me and my actions. But I don’t care. I don’t want to represent him ever again. I’m done with this life.”

Her head tilted and she looked up at me as I ran my hand through her hair. Enjoying the feel of her soft strands as they fell through my fingers, I blurted, “Come home with me.” I didn’t regret the words; I embraced them. I put my hat on her head to emphasize the idea of the ranch.

“But, Ryder, I don’t think you understand. I don’t fit in there. I’m not naïve enough to think I haven’t changed. That who I was is no longer who I am, and that is due to my time with you. I don’t really know if I belong in that world either. I just know I don’t belong in this one anymore.”

Her speech did nothing to dissuade me. “I’ll tell you where you belong, Sin. You belong on the ranch, you belong with me. I don’t give a fuck what anyone says. We belong together.” I took her hand and tugged her toward the entrance before she even knew what was happening. “Let’s leave this life of yours behind, shall we?”

“Where are we going?” She laughed lightheartedly, following me outside.

“Home. To Larsen Ranch. Together.” We reached the top of the stairs, and her smile was infectious. I let her laughter flow over me again as she laughed outright as I picked her up and swung her around.

“I told you once, that you would never have to question how much I burned for you if you were mine, and I hope to hell that I’ve proven that to you. Because, Sin, I fucking love you,” I told her as my brand-new hat fell off her head and rolled onto the road. “I love you with every single part of me, darlin’, I’m never going to stop loving you. You’re it for me, and I’ll continue to love you until the day I die, whether that’s in a month or a year’s time, let alone in twenty years when our children start leaving home or in fifty years when we’re sitting on rocking chairs on the porch watching our great-grandchildren running around.”

Her answering smile was brighter than the sun. “I love you too, Ryder. You’re everything I didn’t know I needed, a complete surprise to me. You’re a—”

I couldn’t wait for her to finish what she was saying, instead I crushed my lips to hers. Holding her even tighter to me.

Her hands curled around the back of my neck, and much like that moment after our first kiss, I was struck by how addicting this wonderful woman was. But this time, I didn’t have to let her go.

No, right here, right now, this moment was entirely ours. Her tongue danced with mine and it took every ounce of self-control I had in my entire body to not lay her on the ground and bury myself deep inside her and claim her in front of everyone. She brought out the caveman inside me.

No, I wasn’t going to do that right now. Only one thing mattered in this moment. She was coming home, where she belonged.

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