Moving to You (Rolling Thunder Book 5) Read online

  Gunnar stood behind the bar, leaned down and began pulling beers from the refrigerator underneath. “What’ll you have, Kayden?” he asked.

  JT placed his hand on the small of her back and led her toward his siblings. When she hesitated, Molly giggled. “Emma and I are drinking Peach Mango Bellinis. Gunnar makes them perfectly. Please join us.”

  Kayden looked from Molly to Emma then to their drinks. JT reached across the bar and took the beer Gunnar offered him and nodded once. He glanced down at Kayden and raised his eyebrows.

  She folded her hands together before her and quietly said, “Sure, I’ll give it a try.”

  Gunnar winked at Emma. “Shall I make another pitcher?”

  She giggled and nodded. Gunnar leaned across the bar and kissed her lightly and JT felt a pang in his heart at the love he saw in his brother’s eyes. He wasn’t jealous of Gunnar in any way, but all of a sudden, he wanted to feel that. He wanted a woman to look at him like Emma looked at Gunnar.

  Gunnar slid Kayden’s drink across the bar, and JT leaned forward to pick it up. He handed it to Kayden and the room suddenly grew quiet. He tapped the top of his bottle against her glass and downed about half his beer in one drink.

  Kayden sipped her drink, watching this family tease and share stories. JT was right; it had been an emotional day. As she finished her drink, a tiredness fell over her, and she longed to climb into bed and sleep.

  She looked over at JT and saw him watching her with something unspoken in his eyes. Of course, she’d taunted him a while ago; he probably thought she was a cock tease. Twice today she’d laced her commnets with innuendo, and their make-out session in Sturgis still had her tingling deep inside. This family was good. They were just good people, and for not the first time, she wondered if she was getting herself or them into something that would change all of them. They were going home in a couple of weeks. Would she be heartbroken when he left? Suddenly climbing between the sheets with him seemed like a dangerous idea—at least to her heart. Just what she needed on top of everything else, to be shattered and unable to pick up the pieces. Better to steer clear.

  Gunnar chuckled at something Emma said. “Okay. I think it’s time for my future wife to go to bed.” She giggled as he walked around from behind the bar, scooped her up in his arms and started toward the stairs.

  “Say goodnight, Emma.”

  Emma giggled. “Goodnight, everyone.”

  They disappeared up the stairs as Ryder and Molly stood, and hand in hand walked toward the stairs as well.

  “Goodnight, you two.” Molly sweetly asked, “Kayden, do you need a t-shirt or something to sleep in?”

  Kayden genuinely smiled at her. How sweet. “No, thank you. I’ll be fine. Goodnight.”

  Without thinking, Kayden stepped behind the bar and began cleaning up the dirty glasses and throwing away the empty bottles.

  JT came around the bar with her. “You’re not here to clean, Kayd.”

  Rinsing a rag in the sink, she looked up at him. “I can’t help it. It’s who I am.” She swiped the damp rag across the top of the bar, smirking as JT began washing the dirty glasses in the sink. They quietly finished cleaning, each avoiding the next step – the sleeping arrangements.

  Kayden stood straight. “I can sleep in one of the recliners out here if you can just get me a blanket from the closet in the bedroom.”

  “No.” His voice broke, and he cleared it as he pulled the band from his hair and rubbed his fingers through it. Kayden watched with rapt attention as his fingers slid through the blond strands, easily gliding along. Her fingers tingled as she wondered what it felt like. The muscles in his arms and shoulders bunched and flexed and she felt moisture gather between her legs and her nipples puckered tightly. He was too handsome for his own good. Hers too.

  “I’ll sleep out here; just let me brush my teeth and change into sweat pants.” He strode toward the bedroom, while she watched his ass, which look fabulous in those tight jeans he wore. He disappeared into the room, and she rolled her eyes in her head and mumbled, “Shit.”

  17

  JT slipped on his sweat pants and a clean t-shirt. It was going to be a miserable night sleeping out there knowing she was in here. He pulled an Army green t-shirt from the drawer and laid it at the foot of the bed for Kayden. He stared longingly at the bed, shook his head, and strode toward the door.

  Kayden had curled up in a recliner, her knees pulled up to her belly, her hands tucked under her chin. Her long brown hair fell over her shoulder, the waves cupping her chin. Her thick lashes rested on her cheek. He reached forward and moved the soft silky strands of hair from her beautiful face with his forefinger. She didn’t move. He listened to her deep steady breathing and shook his head.

  He looked around as if something in the room would tell him what to do, but of course, no answers were written on the wall. He ran his hand across the top of his head and through his hair. Without another thought, he leaned forward and scooped her into his arms.

  Her eyes fluttered open, and a soft smile played on her exquisite face, then she closed her eyes again. He strode with her to the bedroom, carefully maneuvering them through the door so as not to bang her head or feet. Gently laying her on the bed, he watched as she rolled over and snuggled into the pillow. Stepping out to the bar area, he checked the door and locked it, turned the light switch off and quietly stepped into the bedroom, closing the door behind him. He leaned down and untied her boots slowly and pulled them from her feet. He grinned as he compared her boots to Dakota’s little red cowboy boots. Though she’d look stunning in any footwear she chose, something gave him a little thrill that she wore the clothing that not only reflected her strength but also mirrored his lifestyle.

  He thought she’d be more comfortable with her jeans off, but if she woke up, she might think the wrong thing. He did pull her gun from her concealed carry belt, which had exposed itself when she rolled to the side and snuggled into the pillow. Opening the nightstand drawer, he set it inside and silently slid the drawer closed. Remembering the blanket she’d mentioned was in the closet, he pulled it from the shelf and covered her with it. He glanced at the door, but the cold comfort of the easy chair was no match for lying next to Kayden's warmth. Carefully walking to the other side of the bed, he easily slipped in beside her, the king size bed allowing each of them space. He didn’t want the space, though, so he snuggled close to her and pulled the edge of the blanket over himself.

  She instinctively rolled toward him, and he slipped his arm under her head. He breathed in the scent of her hair and closed his eyes.

  Opening her eyes, she saw the soft light that streamed into the room through a slit in the curtains and danced on the bed next to her face. She slowly focused on the room. Registering where she was, she looked at the room through the eyes of an occupant of this house for the first time; normally she was the cleaning lady/caretaker. The deep Scandia Blue color on the walls was her father’s favorite color, and she chose this room color for him. She remembered the smile on his face when he’d first walked in here after she’d finished. He told her he was so flattered that she’d picked this room for him. When she’d finished the walls and decorated the room with this comforter in tans and reds, he whistled and stood in the room for a long time, simply looking around at everything she’d done.

  She closed her eyes again and exhaled. Her eyes flew open when she realized the slight weight around her waist was an arm. Breathing deeply, the scent of JT floated over her, and her nipples puckered. He always smelled so damn good, spicy and sensual. The man was dangerous to her; she was beginning to feel things for him, and she didn’t want Dakota to grow to close to him. That little girl of hers was so loving, and she wanted a daddy so bad. She didn’t even realize Rog was her father; he’d seldom spent any amount of time with her, and when he did, it was mostly to watch her play, never to interact with her.

  “Mornin’.” JT’s raspy, sleep-tinged voice, slid over her and kicked her heartbeat up a notch.
He nestled his nose into her hair and breathed her in.

  He felt good behind her, spooning with her. Then she felt his desire nestled and growing at her backside, and she let out a shaky breath.

  She rolled her body, so she stared at the ceiling. She felt the bed dip and glanced up into JT’s eyes as he leaned on his elbow over her.

  She looked into his eyes. “Morning.” She tried not to sound all breathy, but her efforts fell short.

  He smiled at her, and damn it all, he was sexy. “Did you sleep well?” His eyes scanned hers, then he glanced down at her breasts, slowly touching her with just a look, then back up to her eyes.

  She whispered, “Yeah.”

  Lust on some men was repulsive, but on JT? Crap, it just made her wet. She tightened her Kegels to make the ache go away, but it made her shiver and feel needy. As he slowly leaned forward to kiss her, she thought about jumping up and leaving the room, but the thought quickly left her mind when his scent swirled around her again, and his hair fell forward and brushed her shoulder, and those damn lips touched hers.

  Slowly, his hand slid up her body and caressed her breast, lightly kneading and making her nipples pucker so tight they hurt. A sigh escaped her traitorous mouth, and he leaned into her, pushing his erection into her thigh. At the feel of his hardness, she arched her hips into his thigh and he deepened his kiss. His hands grew more insistent and quickly he’d moved, so his hand was under her shirt and bra and pinching her tight nipple. It almost made her explode.

  Footsteps on the stairs just outside the bedroom door forced both of them to freeze.

  “Is he outside?” Molly asked.

  A door opened and closed, and Ryder said. “Nope.”

  “Oh…” Molly giggled.

  “Okay, let’s go upstairs and leave them alone. I’ll talk to him later.” Ryder chuckled.

  JT exhaled slowly and rolled to his back. He croaked out, “Well, they’re up, so we’d better get going.” He rubbed his face with his fingers, wiping the sleep from his eyes and rolled to the side, setting his feet on the floor. “What time do we pick up your dad?”

  Kayden twisted to her side and rested her head on her hand. “I think around eleven, but I’ll call in a little while. I need to go to the bar and see what needs to be done. Then I need to go see Dakota for a while, then pick up Dad before we head back to Sturgis.”

  She slid to the edge of the bed and climbed from under the blanket. Standing at the edge, she stretched and watched JT lean forward and straighten the comforter and fluff the pillow—essentially making the bed. She cocked her head to the side in wonder. He reached forward and pulled the blanket toward him and began folding it. His eyes met hers. “What?”

  “I don’t know.” She smiled. “I guess I’m surprised you make the bed.”

  He glanced down at the bed and back to her. “Why?”

  She shrugged.

  He shook his head and continued folding the blanket, put it back on the shelf in the closet and turned toward her.

  “I put your gun in the drawer.” He pointed to the nightstand.

  She opened the drawer and picked up her gun. Reaching behind her, she slid it into the pocket created just for that purpose in her newest designed belt.

  “I’ll bet Mom has coffee upstairs; you drink it?”

  “Yeah.” She glanced around the room and slipped her fingers in her front pockets. She glanced down at her shirt, noting the wrinkles were few; it could have been worse.

  As JT walked toward her, she couldn’t help but admire the way his t-shirt stretched across his broad muscular chest. His arms filled the short sleeves and extended out in rippled chords and taut skin; the tribal tattoos wrapped their way around his biceps. He looked badass in a wholly sensual way, not like the nasty Devils. He stopped in front of her, and she tilted her head up to look into the green pools of awesomeness she was growing to love. Wait, no. Like, she liked his eyes.

  “You dealt with a plethora of emotions yesterday, Kayd. I know some of this must feel overwhelming, but I’m here for you and Dakota. My whole family is here for you. Yeah?”

  Swallowing the tightness his nearness elicited in her throat, she nodded. “Why?”

  His brows furrowed as his eyes assessed hers. “Why?” His voice took on a note of incredulity.

  “We barely know each other. Sure, we’re attracted to each other.” Her hand rose and fell in front of him. “But, you don’t really know Dakota or me. We haven’t had a lot of time to get to know each other; we’re always dealing with shit.”

  Her shoulders prickled where he placed his hands on them. He dipped down, so they were eye level. “I know all that. Believe me, I do. And, I can’t explain it—this feeling.” He took a deep breath. “But, it’s different; I’m different with you.” He stood and raked a hand through his hair, then put his hands on his hips. “It’s…just…” He exhaled again. “You’re different than anyone I’ve ever met. For the first time, I want to get to know someo…you.”

  Her heart raced in her chest, and heat so intense she thought she might catch fire roared up her body. She swallowed to quench her suddenly parched throat, but she couldn’t look away from him. And he didn’t look away from her—not once. That had never happened to her before, a man looking at her while sharing feelings. A man sharing feelings was new to her—period.

  The silence grew between them, and she had no words. She stepped into his body, took his head in her hands and tilted it down to hers and kissed him. Her tongue instantly commanded his mouth, stroking along his tongue; her lips covered his, and her hands shook on his head. She curled her fingers and dug into his silky hair, and a sob escaped her body. Tightening her hold on his hair, she was consumed by him.

  He quickly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tight to his body. His hand snaked down to her ass and pulled her into his growing erection, and she whimpered again. He rocked into her, grinding himself against her, hitting her in the perfect spot and she lost control, wrapping a leg around him to hang on.

  JT groaned and pulled slightly away from her. She could feel him shaking and knew he was insanely turned on: that made two of them. He lightly cleared his throat and eased back just a bit. “There’s a house full of people here.” His voice was gruff and his breathing choppy.

  Kayden rested her forehead on his chest and felt the rapid beat of his heart, so much like her own. “Yeah,” she whispered.

  He dipped down again and looked into her eyes. “To be continued.” She smiled and nodded. “And finished,” he added. He touched her lips with his, then took a step back. “Do you want to use the shower or go up for breakfast?”

  She raised her eyebrows; she hadn’t thought about breakfast. “Um. I…”

  He chuckled. “So, you have a full day ahead and so do I. You’re here, and everyone knows it. Take a shower and I can ask the women to lend you clean clothes to wear. You can throw your clothing into the wash while we eat. Once we’re clean and fed and talk to my dad about what he and my brothers did at the bar last night, we’ll have a game plan for today. And, we’ll be ready to face it. Yeah?”

  She smiled. “Yeah. If you just get me one of your t-shirts and a pair of shorts or something, I won’t need to bother anyone else.” She looked around. “Where’s my purse?”

  He pointed toward the door. “On the bar.”

  She nodded and turned toward the door. She needed to check her phone and call Payton to explain what happened before anything else. She looked at the clock above the bar—seven o’clock. Payton was surely up with three little ones there.

  18

  The temporary wooden door creaked and groaned as JT and Gunnar pried it lose from the building.

  “How many damn nails did you guys use?” JT griped.

  At only nine-thirty in the morning, the sweat dripped from his forehead and trickled down his back—the temperature already a balmy ninety-two.

  Gunnar chuckled. “We wanted it secure. Since we didn’t know what we were dealing wit
h, we made sure it would take someone a hell of a long time to break in.”

  The last nail pulled free, and Gunnar grabbed the four-by-eight sheet of plywood they’d found in the garage last night to use for the makeshift door and set it alongside the doorway. Kayden stepped forward, and JT grabbed her hand.

  “We’ll go in together. Yeah?” He wiped his brow as he waited for her to respond.

  Her lips hitched up on one side, and she nodded. “Yeah.”

  Their feet crunched on broken glass as they slowly made their way inside. It felt creepy as he looked around at the mess. Looking at it in the light of day, he could see how much glass there was. Something he hadn’t noticed last night was the blood spatter on the floor. Bar stools had been strewn about and still laid haphazardly around the bar, and alcohol had been spilled or thrown across the floor. He looked down to see how Kayden was handling it. She swallowed, and her breathing hitched up a bit. He gave her hand a squeeze, and when she turned her gorgeous face up to his, his stomach flipped as his eyes met hers. He turned his head toward the bar and moved them forward. Too much intensity.

  JT tried focusing on matters at hand, specifically the men who’d run from the bar last night. Oakes had insisted that it was just some kids needing money, but that didn’t make sense, since the bar was barely making ends meet. Any locals would know there wouldn’t be much cash. The locals also knew that Oakes had guns and wasn’t afraid to use them. His head jerked up; he turned to Kayden.

  “How many guns does your dad own?”

  Her brows raised into her hairline as she studied his face. “I honestly don’t know for sure. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say around fifteen.”

  “Where does he keep them?”

  “A couple of them are in here.”

  Kayden’s steps were loud in the quiet bar as her shoes stuck and released from the sticky mess on the floor. She walked around the bar and pulled keys from her back pocket. Opening a hidden drawer on the side of the back bar, she pulled it out to show a shotgun laid in the cutout and an empty space next to it that only held small pieces of broken glass. He watched her brows furrow.