Back to the Heart (14 page)

Ryan wasn’t the only one who thought Ana looked stunning. That was apparent by all the stares she was getting at the fair. And all the while, she seemed oblivious. Did she have any idea what a beautiful woman she was?

Even though he thought he had a pretty good reign on Ana’s heart, Ryan couldn’t help but feel possessive. It was important to him that every man understood she belonged to him, and so he made sure the second they stepped out of his truck, their hands were clasped together, and he was walking close enough to her that there was no mistake that they were more than friends.

Thankfully, Molly broke away from them when they got to the fair. While Ryan wouldn’t have minded spending time with them together, he wanted this to feel more like a date. But Molly seemed to understand. She even gave him a little wink and told them to go have fun as they parted ways.
Bless that woman
.
Even though she seems uncertain at times, she’s still on my side.

And so he whisked Ana away toward some of the craft booths, and they walked together and talked about the things they saw, and he flirted and brushed her hair behind her ear and touched her whenever he had a chance, showing his affection for her, showing the world that she was his.

“Would you like something to drink?” he asked once they had made the rounds.

“Sure.” She followed him to a lemonade stand to wait in line. “Nothing changes here,” she said with a sigh, looking around the small fairgrounds.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No. It’s nostalgic, but a bit boring.”

“Boring?” He laughed. “Are you saying I’m boring you?”

“No.” She stepped up close to him, tugging on the front of his shirt. “I’m saying that I can think of other things I’d rather be doing.”

The heat seared through Ryan’s body like a flash of lightning as he caught her meaning. When she looked up at him, her eyes reflected his own desire. Their lips met with all the want they had held back in front of her mother, and they kissed like lovers, not caring who saw.

All Ryan could think about was how sweet Ana tasted, and how much he longed to have her in his arms, beneath his body, in his bed. His thumb brushed across the sleeve of her dress, and he pictured himself slipping it over her shoulder, exposing her in preparation to savor her fully. When they broke free from each other, they were both breathless.

“You make it hard to resist you,” he told her, caressing her face.

“Then don’t. Don’t resist me.” The need in her voice about made Ryan want to take her down right then and there.

“This isn’t the place for that.”

“Then take me to the place. I don’t want to wait anymore, Ryan.”

Just then, Molly came walking up with two bags in her hands and a smile on her face. As much as Ryan was sad the passionate moment was lost, he was also glad. He was two seconds short of dragging Ana off to his truck, and that just wouldn’t be right. He wanted the first time with her to be special, something they’d both remember for the rest of their lives. Having sex in the back of a pickup truck in the parking lot of the county fair—she deserved better than that.

“Look at you, getting your shopping on,” he teased Molly, looking down at the bags, which were no doubt filled with crafts.

“Look at you two, sucking face in the middle of the fair,” she quipped back.

Ryan felt like he should have a witty comeback, or maybe an apology, but he was certain that Molly wasn’t upset with them.

“What did you buy?” Ana pointed to the bags.

“Candles and a wreath. They always have such neat things here.”

“They do.” She nodded with a short laugh.

“The two of you are causing quite a ruckus.” Molly’s eyebrows lifted.

“Looks like you’re the talk of the town, Sunshine, sweeping my daughter off her feet. You can’t run away now.” She patted Ryan on the cheek before walking off.

“Oh my God, that was so awkward.” Ana burst out laughing, and Ryan couldn’t help but join her. He got Molly’s message clearly.
Don’t hurt my daughter. You better be sincere, because you’ve taken things too far now.

Ana and Ryan made their way back to the truck.

Ryan’s eyes fell to Ana’s stomach as she walked. The dress hid her pregnancy, for the most part, though it wouldn’t be much longer before she wouldn’t be able to hide it, no matter what she wore. He didn’t mind. If anything, it made her glow.

“Do you want it to be a boy or a girl?” he asked.

“I want it to be healthy,” she told him with a smile, cradling her stomach. “Gender doesn’t matter.”

“Most people have a preference.”

“What would you want? A boy, I bet.” She grinned.

“What man doesn’t want a son? A daughter would be nice too.”

“I love the way you talk about the baby like it’s yours.”

He turned to her, taking both of her hands in his and giving her a sincere look. “I want the baby to be mine.”

She blushed then, unable to look him in the eye. “You haven’t even gotten me in bed yet, and you’re already talking about adopting my child.”

“I’ve always looked toward the future. It’s one of the things that has made me so successful.”

“Successful at fixing fences and barns,” she teased, letting go of one of his hands to continue walking.

He was just about to counter her statement with something playful when his phone rang.

“I’ve got to take this,” he said apologetically as he pulled the phone out of his pocket. When Elias’s number flashed across his caller ID, his chest tightened.

Up until now, Ryan had been able to forget about Ana’s defamation case. Just thinking about what had happened to her made him angry. Rick Fasken had used the woman he loved and discarded her like a piece of trash. A man like that didn’t even deserve to breathe. All he could do was hope Elias would pull through, and that Rick Fasken would never be able to do this to another woman ever again.

“Hey, Elias.”

Ryan listened to what Elias had to say, nodding every few seconds, relief rushing through him. By the time he hung up the phone, his serious expression had cracked into a smile.

“Great news.” Ryan beamed. “Elias got a reply from Rick Fasken. He said he’s willing to settle out of court.”

Ana’s eyes widened in excitement, and she squealed and jumped up and down. Knowing he had helped her gave Ryan a huge sense of accomplishment, better even than when he had made his first billion dollars. The smallest sign of her contentment could fill him with joy.

“Are you serious? He really didn’t put up a fight?”

“I’m serious. Rick must have known he was in the wrong, and that he wouldn’t get away with it.”

“I just can’t believe that he’d lie down so easily. He always seemed so headstrong. Thank you. Thank you so much for everything. My mother was right, you truly are an angel.”

“Not even close.” Ryan smirked, thinking of all the devilish things he wanted to do to her now that he had ridden in on his white horse and saved the day.

“I’m not joking. My life was in shambles when I got here. Meeting you, it’s turned things around. Given me some hope.” The earnest way she said it made Ryan feel warm inside. He drew her to him and held her in his arms.

“I will always do whatever I can to protect you,” he said into her hair. The way she nuzzled against his chest made him feel content. If he could have captured that moment and kept it forever, he would have.

She pulled away. “I want to go home now. I want to go home and celebrate . . . with you.”

Ryan knew what that meant, and as much as he thought some sort of celebration was in order, he wasn’t sure if he could hold himself back from giving her the kind of celebration she was silently asking for.

The electricity between them had been sizzling ever since Ana first came downstairs in the white dress. When her eyes had landed on Ryan in his perfectly fitted outfit, all she’d wanted to do was drag him back upstairs and make love to him. If her mother hadn’t been there, they never would have made it out of the house.

They were in the barn now, but it didn’t matter. Ana was happy as long as she was in Ryan’s arms. As she gazed up into his eyes, she thought about how lucky she was. She hated how quickly Ryan had gotten to her, but she would be a fool not to love him. He had come to help out her mother on the farm without asking for anything other than a dank barn to sleep in and a few meager meals. He had offered to help her with the defamation case and pay for everything. He was a man worth loving, a man worth trusting, a man worth giving her heart to.

And now she was about to give him her body too.

“The fair was a lot of fun.” Ryan’s hands were already around her waist, his eyes bearing down on her with tempered heat. He was postponing the moment that the spark between them ignited and caught the whole barn on fire, fighting the urge to rip her dress off. She could see it. It was only a matter of time before the walls came down.

“It was,” she murmured, blushing. Ana’s mind was far removed from the fair, set on peeling Ryan’s clothes off and seeing him in his full glory.

“Would you like to go inside? I’m not that great at baking, but I think I could probably put together a cake for us to celebrate over.”

He was giving her a chance to escape, a chance to back out. The sentiment was sweet, but a cake wasn’t what she was hungry for.

“I had a different type of celebrating in mind.” She rested her forehead against his, splaying her fingers out across his chest to feel the strong muscle beneath, her voice breathy and needy.

“I told you we’d wait until I got back from my business trip. I don’t want you to have any doubts while I’m away.”

“No more waiting.” If Ana had to wait another moment to have him inside of her, she might die. Nothing would complete the day she’d had better than being with him like this. There would be no regrets. She knew that. “I want you to make love to me, right here, right now. I know that you’re leaving tomorrow, but I truly believe you’ll come back to me. That’s why I want this. But not the only reason. In a short few days, you’ve managed to steal my heart completely. Even if you didn’t come back . . .” She swallowed hard, feeling pain from the very words. “I would forever regret it if we didn’t do this now. So please, don’t deny me.”

He brushed the back of his fingers across her cheek, staring into her eyes with an intensity that aroused her to the very core. “I’ve been able to resist a lot of things in my life, but I can’t resist you. How could I possibly say no?”

He held her there, caressing her, like he was afraid that if he touched her, he’d break her. She took his hand in hers and drew it up to her lips for a gentle kiss. That was when she noticed he was trembling ever so slightly.

“Are you all right?”

“Just a little nervous,” he confessed.

The idea of Ryan Black being nervous about anything made no sense to Ana. All she had ever seen him as was strong and sure.

“It’s not like you to be nervous.”

“You deserve better than sex in a barn.”

“I don’t care where we have sex, as long as I’m with you.”

“I just want it to be perfect.”

“Life can’t always be perfect, Ryan,” she told him, adoring the fact that he was caught up in making sure the experience was the best it could be for her. He was so worried, in fact, that he wasn’t even thinking about what she wanted. It didn’t matter to her if they did it in the barn, or in his truck, or in the middle of the county fair. Sure, it would be more comfortable in the house, but her mother wouldn’t give them a chance. Molly had no qualms about going up into her daughters’ bedrooms. For some reason, though, Molly wouldn’t come out to the barn. This was the best place. “If what you say is true, that you’ll come back to me, then we’ll have plenty of time to do it in lots of other places.”

“You’re right, I suppose.” He relaxed a bit. “But I want you to remember this like it was your first time ever.”

“I’ve never had sex in a barn before.” She played with one of the buttons on his collar.

“I promise it won’t always be like this.”

“Don’t say that. I want every time to be exactly like this, for my body to react to your touch like this, for my heart to flutter whenever I’m near you. I’ve never wanted to make love to someone more in my entire life. If I feel like that every time, then—”

He cut her words off with a kiss so hot that it felt like fireworks had exploded all around them. Ryan’s fingers slid up the nape of Ana’s neck, fisting into her hair, and she grabbed desperately at the bottom of his shirt. Almost as soon as it had begun, the kiss was over. He was drawing away from her lips, and she chased him on tiptoe until she could no longer reach him. The heat in his eyes was unmistakable, and it made her feel small and vulnerable in a very good way, like he was a predator about to devour her completely.

“When I get done with you, it will be as if I’m the only man you’ve ever had,” he promised. “There will only be me. And you’ll never want another man again.”

It had taken all of Ryan’s restraint to get to this point. More than anything, he wanted this to be right for her. She had been betrayed before, and the fact that he would be leaving her tomorrow had to make her at least the smallest bit uncertain of what they were about to do. But if she still felt that way, she didn’t show it. The only thing blazing in Ana’s eyes was desire the likes of which Ryan had never seen before.