LOGINFor the first time in two days, Ainsley felt like the world wasn’t crumbling beneath her feet. On a professional level anyway.Leslie looked at them each in turn. “So. What’s it going to be?”Turton wouldn’t meet Ainsley’s gaze. “Make the call.”The district manager was notoriously cranky. After listening to Leslie’s question, he let fly. Chewing out both Ainsley and Turton for overstepping their bounds and reminding them National West assigned a loan officer at that location for a reason. Then he reminded them of their responsibilities and if they were too busy doing someone else’s job, they were neglecting their own. In a totally surprising move, he insisted Ainsley and Turton attend an interpersonal management skills workshop in Denver. Over the weekend. He commended Leslie for her attention to detail. All in all, the phone call was short and to the point.Ainsley sat in stunned silence when the dial tone echoed in the conference room. Turton didn’t say a word. He just left but he’
“Yeah.”“And do what?” She froze when he continued staring at her with that Dom look. “I can’t ever…be that.”Ben frowned. “Be what?”“A lifestyle submissive. Like Layla. With the collar, the full subservience and the discipline whippings.”“For Christsake!” he bellowed. “That’s what you think I want from you?”He never bellowed and Ainsley shrank back.“God, Ainsley, do you really think I’m some kind of controlling monster? That I purposely set out to f**k up your professional life so I could force you into a lifestyle that you’re not suited for, for my own selfish purposes?”When he put it like that, she felt petty. Bitchy. Ben knew all her vulnerabilities. And he’d never used them against her. Not once.But you’ve used his against him. You’re about to use them now.“No. But this circumstance has driven home the point I didn’t know what I was getting into with this Dom/sub thing.”“And now?”“Now I know I was naïve. Stupidly hopeful. Nothing but a tourist.”“What are you saying?” Be
His eyes gleamed with pure spite. “I’d never stoop to blackmail. I truly feel this situation needs to be brought to the attention of the management team at the corporate office in Denver.”Ainsley was infuriated because everything that’d been done on the up and up would now be brought into question. All her actions would be scrutinized. With the bank’s avoidance of scandal, after the fiasco with a nonprofit group that’d felled the man tapped to take the president’s position, she suspected she’d be fired. With jobs so hard to come by in the financial world, she’d be lucky to find another job anywhere in the banking industry.And admitting her sexual relationship with Ben had ended the day he applied for the loan would be a moot point. Another moot point would be defending her decision to process the loan herself because Leslie had left the office that day due to illness. And yet another moot point would be mentioning she’d sent loan paperwork through herself all the time in her previou
Ace and Deuce dozed by the woodstove. Ben had always kept his shit moods to himself, dealt with them himself. It worked for him.But wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to share this with? Someone to listen to you, verbally soothe you and then you could lose yourself in the heat, softness and surrender of her body to yours?Just another f**ked up situation in his life. Taking out the damn loan in the first place is what had caused him to lose Ainsley. All because he wanted to do something good, something helpful for his family. All his family saw was the loss of the land. There’s no way he could make them understand he’d lost something far more valuable.Grabbing the bottle, he flopped in front of the TV and flipped the channel to Wheel of Fortune. But he’d gotten so used to watching the show with Ainsley in the last month, it felt pathetic sitting by himself, guessing the puzzles out loud.Halfway through the program his phone buzzed. He didn’t recognize the number, but he answered i
“I’m not my cousins, Ree. You know that. I thought we were friends.”“I thought so too.” She tossed her head, trying to keep the wind from her face. “But you have enough friends these days. New friends.”“What?”“Don’t play that game. I know you’re sleeping with Ainsley Hamilton. I’ve seen her car at your place several times in the last few weeks. And isn’t it a coincidence the bank she runs wouldn’t lend me the money I needed to keep my land? But I’ll bet she was more than happy to loan money to you so you could buy it.”“So you’re what? Punishing me?”“This isn’t about you, McKay.”“I didn’t get you into the financial mess you’re in,” he retorted hotly, “and you don’t honestly believe I had dishonorable intentions when I offered to help bail you out of that situation.”Rielle shivered. “I didn’t know what to believe. That was the problem.”“Who’d you sell to?”It appeared she wouldn’t answer and then she said, “I sold it to Gavin.”Ben’s mouth nearly hit the porch slats. “Gavin? As
“Scheme is a little harsh,” Ben said.Colt whirled on him. “What about Quinn? Does he know?”“There’s nothin’ to know. Just something that Tell, Dalton and I discussed.”“Since you’ve been squawking about wanting an equal say in the operation, this is the type of thing that oughta be discussed by all of us,” Colt said.Pissed off, Ben shot back, “Like the acquisition of the Foster place was discussed by all of us? Or how about the acquisition of the Hackerly place? Or the acquisition of the Borden place? Or how about the separate section up north that Kade ran for a year? Were we part of that discussion, or did Carson and Cal decide to do that on their own? Oh, right, they didn’t even f**kin’ ask us.” His gesture included Tell, Dalton, and Brandt. “Any of us.”“Not the same and you know it, Ben.”“Bullshit. Alls I know is that it’s perfectly fine for your families to add to your sections whenever the f**k you feel like it and run it as a separate operation. But when we wanna do that?
“I know more than you do. When Samantha lived with Drex, she talked about turning the boy over to his father’s family so she could be free. Most the time she was so wasted she didn’t remember she even had a kid, let alone knowing how to take care of him. Get used to him being around permanently, bec
“Yeah, I do. But it still stings. It pisses me off that he can cut me so deeply so quickly.”“He’s always had that uncanny ability to know just where to put that knife. I’m sorry.”Jessie looked up at him. “Please don’t confront him about this. It’ll just make it worse.”“I won’t. In fact, let’s just f
She skirted the coffee table. “Is Landon sleeping?”“Yep. He’s been down about a half hour.”“Good. Then I timed it perfectly.”His eyebrows lifted. “Timed what perfectly?”“This.” She straddled his lap, held his face in her hands and kissed him. She tried to keep it easy, a deep, slow, wet reunion kiss
Without saying anything to her? That was strange. Brandt always searched her out when she did chores. Always.Maybe he was tired. Yesterday was long and emotionally trying for both of them. Not to mention he’d kept her up half the night, making love to her until they fell asleep still joined—which ha







