outside of the bar.”
“And ain’t that a sad state of affairs?”
“It is if you’re not happy. So, who’s runnin’ Buckeye’s tonight?”
“No one. I closed it since everyone in town was gonna be here.” She toasted him with a drink that appeared to be eggnog. “Cheers. Helluva place you’ve got. Glad you didn’t open a public bar. I couldn’t compete.”
“Wasn’t my intention to compete with the businesses in Muddy Gap. My goal is to become part of the community, not apart from it.”
“I’d say so far you’re doin’ a good job.”
“Thanks.” He found a spot where he could watch the goings on, and keep an eye out for Tierney. He hadn’t seen the woman yet, but he knew she was here someplace.
The slow song by Keith Urban ended, but Bran and Harper Turner kept dancing, so lost in each other that Renner’s heart ached. What would it feel like to have that bone-deep kind of love? And not care who knew you felt that way about the person who filled you with that love?
You’re a sentimental fool.
As the next slow song started, more couples joined Harper and Bran. Including Hank and Lainie Lawson, although they weren’t dancing close, given Lainie’s pregnant state. Abe led Janie onto the dance floor, crushing her against his chest—Renner wondered how Janie could breathe, but Janie’s face read joy, not oxygen starvation. Over the last few weeks, things had changed between Janie and Abe. He just hoped Janie was smart enough not to run this time.
Several of Hank, Abe and Bran’s buddies were dancing with the Mud Lilies—Ike with Pearl, Fletch with Tilda, and Eli with Maybelle. Tobin was stuck with Garnet again, but he seemed to be enjoying himself.
Everyone was paired up.
Everyone but you.
Since he’d had one beer, he couldn’t even blame his melancholy mood on booze.
But he could blame his agitation on the woman who’d set this shindig up, who was MIA.
He wended his way through the crowd on a mission to find her. She wasn’t lurking by the buffet tables. She wasn’t in line for the bathroom. She wasn’t lingering near the bar. For some reason when the song ended, he glanced at the main doorway leading to the dining room and saw her.
Only her.
He stilled.
She stilled.
Everyone and everything faded into the background.
She was a goddess. An angel. A siren in a red dress.
Then he moved toward her without conscious thought.
In that instant, as Tierney was backlit by the glow of the exit sign, Renner knew he loved her. Not because she wore a slinky dress or the sleek way she’d styled her hair, or the sweet smile on her red lips, but because she’d waited for him. She’d seen him and stopped, knowing he’d come to her.
He stood before her, a changed man, a man in love with her for Christsake, and he couldn’t seem to make his mouth function.
Smooth.
Tierney, his beautiful brainiac, placed her hand on his chest above his heart, like she did whenever they were alone. “What’s wrong?”
I love you.
“Renner?”
“Dance with me.”
“What?” Her hand dropped. “No.”
“Yes. Now.”
“No way. I’m a terrible dancer.”
“I’m not. Just follow my lead.”
“Are you crazy? People are watching us.”
“I don’t care.”
“People who don’t like each other usually don’t dance together,” she pointed out. “We’re not supposed to like each other, remember?”
“So act like you hate that I’m dragging you onto the dance floor with me.” Renner snagged her hand.
“I cannot believe you’re making me do this,” she muttered. “It’s unnatural.”
“You bein’ resistant to my charms in public is natural.” He fought the temptation to tuck her against his chest and rest his chin on the top of her head. “But there’s no resistance in private, is there, sweet darlin’?”
Tierney was having none of it. She pulled farther away. “What’s gotten into you?”
“You.” He spun them so no one could see his face. So he could show her the heat in his eyes. “Where’d you get the dress?”
“I bought it from Harper a couple of weeks ago. Why? Don’t you like it?”
Renner leaned closer. “I fucking love it. You are so goddamn gorgeous you make it hard for me to fucking breathe.”
Her eyes went a soft, liquid brown. “Oh, you suck. Giving me a compliment like that when I can’t even kiss you.”
He turned his head, allowing his mouth to touch the shell of her ear. Her shudder of pleasure mollified him until he could elicit the real thing when they were alone. “You can kiss me any time you want. But if you need a little prompting, I’m sure Garnet would let you borrow her mistletoe.”
“Right. Us. Kissing.”
“I’m serious. At least if you kissed me even with the excuse of mistletoe we might have a chance of keeping it an innocent peck.”
“You’d really lay a sloppy, wet one on me? Here in public? In front of our employees and the whole damn town?”
“Yep.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Any kiss I’d give you would leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that we’re lovers, Tierney.” He spoke by her ear. “What you don’t understand? I’d love for every man in this place to know you’re mine. That I can kiss you any goddamn time I please. I’d happily rub it in their faces that you’re goin’ home with me. And that sexy little fucking dress will be on the floor by my bed tonight.”
She froze. “The dress did all this?”
“No. You did this.”
“How much have you been drinking?” she demanded in a fierce whisper.
He chuckled. “I’m drunk on you. Absolutely intoxicated. Totally wasted on nothin’ but you.”
A second later, she sighed dreamily. “You are so getting some when we get out of here.”
“Will you leave them shoes on?”
“As hot as you’re making me I’ll probably end up leaving the dress on too.” She whispered, “Oh. FYI. I’m wearing those thigh highs you like. And a matching thong.”
“For God’s sake, Tierney, do you have to torture me?”
“You started it.”
“And I’m ending it. Right now. Let’s go. No one will miss us—”
“Stop.” Tierney quit swaying to the beat and repeated, “Just stop.”
Janie and Abe danced alongside them. Janie asked, “Is everything all right?”
Renner scowled at her. “Yeah. Why?”
“Looks like you two might come to blows. Need I remind you we don’t need a repeat of the drink-tossing episode—”
“We’re fine,” Tierney snipped. “We’re not children.”
He didn’t need Janie and Tierney getting into it either. “Ladies—”
“No, Renner, let’s find out what it’d take to prove to Janie that we’re fine. Want me to kiss him?”
Janie’s eyes narrowed. “Very funny. I oughta make you two do it just to see you both squirm. In fact, pucker up. Both of you.”
“And . . . we’re leaving,” Abe said, directing Janie to the bar.
“Damn,” Renner said. “For a second I thought we’d get a chance to blow our cover.”
“Not tonight.”
The music stopped.
“I’ll see you later.” She gracefully disentangled from his embrace and vanished into the crowd.
Took ten minutes to reach the back of the room since people were expressing thanks for the party. Lots of thanks. Renner was pretty bowled over by the amount of good wishes.
Tobin nudged a beer toward him. “Seems folks are heading home.”
“Getting to be that time.”
“Who’s on cleanup duty?”
Renner shrugged. “You volunteering?”
“Given the choice between cleaning up here or bein’ the designated
driver for Garnet and her Mud Lilies pals? No contest.”
“A contest you just won by default.” He pointed to Tobin’s beer. “Last call for you, buddy.”
“Me and my big mouth,” he muttered. “If I start gathering them up now, maybe I’ll be back before five a.m. when we start chores.”
“Ain’t no we in those chores tomorrow mornin’.”
“That sucks.”
“Yep.”
“What’re you gonna be doin’ that’s so important you’ll leave me to my own devices?”
Spending as much time as possible in Tierney’s bed.
Tobin sent him a sidelong glance. “Man. Tierney is smokin’ tonight. I mean, she always looks fantastic, but she kicked it up a notch or twenty in that slinky dress, didn’t she?”
A snarl arose. “If I catch you lookin’ at her again I will blacken both your eyes so you can’t see nothin’ outta them.”
Tobin laughed. “Dude. You are so whipped over her.”
“No lie.”
“So what are you gonna do about it?”
“Need me to draw you a diagram about the birds and the bees, college boy?” Renner taunted.
“With all due respect, boss, fuck off.”
The molten stares Renner sent her way were making her nervous.
Don’t you mean making you wet?
That too.
Could the man be any sexier? And the heated compliments he’d tossed off in that gruff cowboy way caused her stomach to cartwheel.
The community party had been a huge success. Any attitudes that “highfalutin huntin’ place” were too good to mingle with the locals had been laid to rest. Seemed the citizens of Muddy Gap considered the Split Rock a real part of the community.
Tierney organized the cleanup, shooing Janie and Abe out the door, since they had a way to drive and it’d started snowing. Lisa and Denise stuck around, providing a buffer between Tierney and Renner, but as soon as those women clocked out, he’d make good on the hot promises in his eyes.
She couldn’t wait.
“Anything else?” Denise asked as she grabbed her coat and stood next to Lisa.
“No. We’re done.” Tierney couldn’t resist poking the antsy man a little. “Renner? Can you think of anything Denise and Lisa need to do before they take off?”
“Nah. I’ll walk you ladies out to your cars.” He pinned Tierney with a look. “Then I’ll be right back to help you lock up.”
There was that swooping sense of excitement. She bolted the back door. As she debated on whether to wait for Renner in the dining room or the kitchen, he paused in the doorway. Even duded up in his Western-cut suit he exuded an edge of danger. He was primed. A glorious male animal on the hunt for his mate.
Then his long-legged strides ate up the distance between them. His hands cupped her face and his mouth—God, his mouth—devoured hers.
The heat of his body and his tenacity immediately pushed her to a place where the only thing that mattered was satisfying this yearning for him. Her back met something solid and cold.
And still he kissed her. “First time, fast. Really, really fast,” he muttered against her lips. “Need you here. Now. Like this.”
With a drawn-out groan, Renner kissed the keyhole playing peek-a-boo with her cleavage. He traced the cutout with his mouth as his hands followed the silhouette of her body. When his fingers reached the curve of her hips, he slowly and steadily tugged the dress up.
The leisurely slide of the satin lining across her legs was as erotic as the slide of his satiny tongue across her bare skin. Once the fabric bunched around her waist, his lips returned to hers to kiss her hotly. Urgently.
She reached for his belt buckle the same time he did. He gently placed her hand over his racing heart, a gesture that proved beyond a doubt his need, his passion, matched hers.
Fabric whooshed on the front of her knees as his pants hit the floor. He clutched the back of her left thigh and urged, “Wrap your leg around me.”
Tierney didn’t worry about losing her balance, because as soon as she’d pressed the crease of her knee to his butt, he pulled her thong aside and that thick male hardness was filling her up. Holding her up. Burning her up.
Renner hissed, “So hot. Wet. Tight. Goddamn, you are . . .”
She snaked her arms around his neck and nibbled on his earlobe, absorbing his shudder. “I’m what?”
No immediate answer because Renner was obsessed with bringing them to climax in record time. His hips pistoned with enough force her butt slapped into the metal door. He’d pressed his lips against her temple and his every stuttered breath sent chills rippling across her skin.
The angle of her leg allowed direct contact with her clit. That telltale tingle swelled from the apex of her sex to her nipples. He wound her tighter. And tighter until she was dizzy. “Renner.”
“I know, baby, me too.” He dragged scorching kisses across her collarbone up to the tender spot below her ear. “You know what you are, Tierney?”
“What?” she panted as he continued to hammer into her.
“Everything. Sweet Jesus, you are everything.”
His cock pulsed, hitting her sweet spot and the orgasm consumed her in a throbbing wave of heat. The intensity faded quickly, and Tierney felt him hard and urgent as his seed filled her. Warmed her in more ways than she could fathom.
His body stilled and he murmured her name like a benediction. Before she could speak, his mouth was on hers, letting her know this interlude was more than just a quick fuck against the walk-in refrigerator.
Renner had taken things between them a step further tonight, and Tierney needed to meet him halfway. She eased from his bone-melting kisses to whisper, “Will you spend Christmas with me? Watch sappy holiday movies. String popcorn and cranberries and hang the strands on the tree? Sip mulled wine as we snuggle up on the couch and watch it snow.”
He tipped her face up and peered into her eyes. “You aren’t leaving to spend Christmas with your family?”
“No. My father isn’t a holiday person. Christmas was just another day.” She backtracked. “No big deal if you have plans.”
“Tierney. I’d love to spend Christmas with you.”
Relief flowed through her. She hugged him. “Thank you. And will you please stay with me tonight?”
“You cooking me breakfast?”
“No.”
“Then I’m definitely staying.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
What a beautiful, perfect night. Janie stared out the windshield of Abe’s truck at the snow flurries shifting across the road in a ballet of white. She might’ve missed the movement if she hadn’t become so rapt watching the shapes and shadows in the stream of headlights. Her fingers tightened around Abe’s. “What’s that?”
“What?”
“That.” She pointed. “See? Right there. Abe, stop the truck.”
He hit the brakes.
Janie unbuckled and jumped from the cab as soon as he put it in park. The box on the shoulder moved. She hung back for a second, not sure what might be lurking inside.
It sure ain’t gonna be a nest of snakes in this weather.