“Did they indicate why they were terminating the contract?”

“They’re bringing the baked goods in-house.”

“No wonder you’re upset,” he murmured.

Now that she’d opened her mouth, everything just spilled out. “The Twin Pines is the first place that contracted me for baked goods before the bakery closed. So it feels like I’m losing a cornerstone of my business, even when their orders had dropped off in the last year.”

“I understand that. But the upside of this situation is that it isn’t the quality of your product that caused their decision. So there’s nothing you could’ve done to prevent it.”

Gavin wasn’t just being the sweet supportive boyfriend, but he looked at this from the business side and she appreciated that.

“Are you worried other restaurants and businesses will follow suit and take the baking in-house?”

“That’s part of it. But I know a big plus to the restaurants I supply is my products are unique to each place. The only restaurant you can get the savory and honey seven-grain rolls is at Fields. Same with the other five restaurants I supply.”

“Which is smart. You don’t need me to tell you that.” Gavin gently turned her around to face him. “What else has put that wrinkle in your brow and the clouds in your eyes?”

“After I left the Twin Pines today, I didn’t immediately start researching other restaurants I could sell to, to fill the gap.”

“You’ve always done that in the past?”

She nodded. “I’ve always needed to replace the income right away. Over the last few hours as I’ve dissected this reaction every possible way, I realized I don’t want to seek out replacement restaurants.” She hated talking about money with Gavin, but her mindset in this case went beyond money and it involved him. “So I have to ask myself: Have I gotten lazy?”

Gavin burst out laughing.

“Gavin. I’m serious.”

“Ree. Honey, rest assured you’re not a slacker. I’m pretty sure losing the Twin Pines and Creekside B&B business will only be a blip in your daily routine. If the income loss isn’t substantial enough to worry you at all, then you’re exactly right in questioning the immediate need to find replacement income.”

She kissed his smirking mouth. “You’re so…I hesitate to say right because you’ll get a swelled head, but you are. Even if you are pushy.”

“Only so I won’t have to push you again and you’ll come to me on your own next time.”

“I will. I promise. Thank you.”

“What else?”

“I also had to question whether the reason I didn’t want to add more business was because of you.” She hadn’t choked on admitting that either.

His brow furrowed. “Personally or professionally?”

“Both.”

“Because filling that gap is no longer a financial necessity? Since you now have me as a fall back guy?”

She blushed. “Does that make any sense?”

“Whacked out Ree sense, yes, but that’s why I love you.” His eyes grew serious. “You’re permanently involved with me, a guy who has no financial worries. If you lost all your businesses now it wouldn’t affect your standard of living because I’m there to pick up the financial slack—even when I know you’d never ask me for a dime. You’ve never had that long-term stability before and it scares you.” His voice dropped to a husky whisper. “You know I’d like to make your life easier.

“Don’t let that be an issue between us. I love your independence and that you are a self-made woman. I still think you work too hard, but that’s a huge part of who you are and what formed you. I love the whole of you, Ree. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that counting on me—physically, emotionally, financially—doesn’t make you soft or lazy.”

“Gavin. I…” She forced the words past the lump in her throat. “I don’t want you to make my life easier. But you already make it better. That’s all I want from you.”

He rested his forehead to hers. “I know. Just don’t shut me out anymore, okay?”

“Okay.”

An odd sort of acceptance shifted between them in the silence.

“Can I make love to you now?”

“Yes. Please.”

“Close your eyes,” he murmured and kissed her eyelids to ensure she did.

Gavin’s hands cradled her face and he kissed her so softly, so sweetly, she felt tears welling again. Then his hands moved down her neck and beneath the collar of her robe. He said, “Untie the sash.” As soon as the tie fell free, he slid her satin robe off her shoulders until it pooled on the floor, leaving her naked.

“So beautiful, every inch of you,” he breathed against her skin.

His mouth cruised to all the hot spots he’d discovered. The arch of her neck. The side of her right breast. He feasted on her nipples until she became dizzy and wet with want. The entire time his sucking mouth and flickering tongue drove her out of her mind, his hands were on her. Caressing. Squeezing. Soft at times, rough at others, but every sweep and brush of his fingers and mouth told her of his possession.

Rielle gave herself over to him completely, understanding that’s what he wanted—her total surrender.

Gavin worshiped her. With his hands. With his words. “You’re so strong here,” he said, his voice soft against her throat as his fingertips mapped the muscles in her arms. Then the slope of her shoulders.

Normally she’d urge him to hurry, push her on the bed and mount her like a rutting beast. But she’d given him control and it appeared he intended to take his own sweet time in exercising it fully.

Not that she was complaining.

He stood behind her. Scattering openmouthed kisses down her nape and spine until she shook from the eroticism of it. His breath, his lips, the play of his hands all swirled together into an overwhelming maelstrom of sensation. Yet she felt every press of his fingertips, every kiss, every stuttered puff of air across her skin. And he left no section untouched. Unloved.

Then Gavin turned her around again. He lowered to his knees.

The muscles in her abdomen rippled as he pressed kisses from her belly button to the rise of her mound.

“You’re so sweet. My own personal honey pot. I love this hot, sticky honey your body makes just for me.” The tip of his tongue followed the slit down to her opening. After wiggling his tongue inside and softly sucking, he flattened his tongue and dragged it back up.

Rielle couldn’t keep her legs from wobbling.

Using his thumbs, he opened the folds of skin hiding her clit. He murmured something and settled his mouth on her sex.

He’d wound her so tight that thirty seconds after his wicked mouth began to suck, she unraveled. The short, intense orgasm had just primed her for more. She eagerly waited for him to command her to get on the bed.

But Gavin didn’t budge. His tongue traced the lines of muscles in her quads. His teeth nipped the inside of her thighs. When he fucked two fingers in and out of her swollen pussy, her legs became Jell-O again. That tingling tease of release hovered close to the surface.

“Come for me.”

“I…” She groaned when he slid his thumb over the seam of her sex.

Between the pressures of his thumb pushing her clit up so his tongue could torture her with wet swirls and the constant rubbing of his fingers on her inner vaginal wall, she hit that detonation point. The throbbing heat licked through her body. She felt the waves in her nipples. In her throat. In her lips. Gavin held on and held her up through every pulse. Then he nuzzled and petted her as she floated down from that foggy bank of pleasure.

As soon as he was on his feet, she tried to remove his clothes, but he stayed her hands. He kissed her fingertips. The center of her palms. The insides of her wrists. Planting his mouth on hers, he kissed her deeply, with sweetness, with finesse. Sharing her taste and giving her a taste of his need.

He kept touching her as he ditched his sweatpants and T-shirt. His hands were in her hair as they landed on the mattress, warm skin meeting warm skin.

His seduction was all consuming. Powerful in a quiet fever of desire. It seemed he’d shown her in a hundred different small ways that he loved her. But this was different. This was action speaking louder than words. This cemented their connection completely. Physically. Emotionally. Permanently.

Watching her eyes, he entered her, stopping when they were fully joined. Letting her see in his eyes everything she brought to him, everything she gave to him when their bodies became one.

Rielle wrapped her legs around his hips. She lifted her arms to circle his neck but he made a growling noise and pinned her right arm above her head. That brought their bodies even closer.

Then he started to move. Showing her that passion didn’t have a set speed. Gavin’s need for her was there in every measured undulation of his hips. In every drawn out glide of his chest against hers.

Sinking into the slow sizzle and burn of his kisses. Breathless in anticipation for the long thrusts of his body linking to hers. This was acceptance. This was love. This was perfection.

And this man was all hers.

By the time he’d taken them to that pinnacle of pleasure, sweat coated their skin. Their hearts thundered. Need clawed with tiny teeth.

He ground his pelvis into hers and her orgasm unfurled. Unending, glorious. And with her inner walls rhythmically clamping around his shaft, Gavin let himself go.

There was no need for words. Rielle wasn’t sure if there were words for what’d just happened between them.

They curled into each other and drifted into peaceful sleep.

Branding day dawned misty and warm. Gavin had no idea what to expect, so he asked his brothers. Ben and Quinn had looked at the sky, looked at the ground and said, “Mud.”

Dalton, Tell and Brandt arrived early to help round up cattle. Ben, Quinn and Brandt were on horseback, the rest of them were on ATVs. An hour and a half later the herd milled around the corrals. The calves inside; the mamas outside. Mamas did not like to be separated from their babies. Babies didn’t like being away from mamas. The noise was deafening. They all had to shout over the din.