Fate (Steel Brothers Saga #13) - Helen Hardt Page 0,44

But I’m their only kid, so I guess it’ll be mine someday.” I breathed in. “I love this place. It’s in my blood. I know it like I know the back of my hand.”

“You want to run the ranch someday?”

“I do. I really do. My dad isn’t in the best of health, but it will still be a while before I take over.”

“Kind of morbid, isn’t it?” she said. “You love your parents, but you want the ranch to be yours.”

Not as morbid as she might think. My father was a Grade A asshole whose arteries were hardening and lungs were failing because he’d smoked his whole life. My mother deserved better. He was a hell of a rancher, though. He’d taken this place from his father’s dream to a multimillion-dollar operation. We’d recently passed into eight figures because of his shrewd investments. I planned to take it into the billions. Our cattle and our fruit were the best on the slope, our vineyards were starting to produce, and Dad was looking at hiring a winemaker.

I’d spent the last three years studying the business of agriculture, and I was going to take this place into the twenty-first century.

With Daphne at my side.

What?

Had I just thought that?

The words had fallen into my head as if they’d always been there and always would.

I still hardly knew this woman, but she was the one who’d used the word destiny.

Damn.

Daphne would be at my side as I ran this place.

I knew it as if it had been foretold by Nostradamus himself.

I kissed her forehead and then her lips. “Get some sleep. We rise early around here.”

“What time?”

“Five, usually.”

“In three hours?”

I laughed. “You don’t have to get up that early. Sleep as late as you want to. But since I’m home, I’ll be helping my dad.”

“Don’t you have…I don’t know. Cowboys to do that work?”

“Ranch hands you mean? We have lots of them, but Dad’s a hands-on kind of guy, and frankly, so am I. I know how to do almost every job around here. Dad made sure of it.”

“Your dad sounds like an amazing guy.”

I kissed her lips again. “In some ways. Go to sleep.” I walked toward the door.

“Brad?”

“Yeah?”

“Aren’t you going to stay with me?”

“Baby, if I stay in here with you, neither of us will get any sleep.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Daphne

“I’m not asking for sex, Brad,” I said. “But I’m in a strange house with people I’ve never met. I want something familiar next to me for the rest of the night.”

“The rest of the night is three hours, baby. Then I’ll be getting up.”

“I know. Please?”

“You think I can sleep next to you, have your body next to mine, and not want you?”

“I think you’re a grown man and you can control yourself. Just like I’m a grown woman and I can control myself.”

“You’re eighteen, Daphne.”

“And you’re twenty-two. If I can control myself, you should be able to.”

He laughed then. “Men and women are different.”

“Please, Brad?” I tried not to sound too needy, but I’d come along at his insistence, and now I felt…well…weird. His parents didn’t know I was here. What would they think when they woke up and found he’d brought a strange girl home? A strange girl he’d known for less than a week?

I opened my mouth to say as much, but he finally relented.

“All right. I’ll stay in here with you. I’m going to go to my room to get ready for bed because all my stuff is there. You get ready for bed as well, and I’ll meet you back here in a few minutes. Okay?”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

Already just knowing he’d be with me blanketed me in warm comfort. A warm comfort I’d never known. Not even my parents had given me such comfort and such a feeling of protection.

I might be imagining things, but oh, it was wonderful to imagine. In Brad’s arms, I was safe, protected, comforted.

Loved.

I grabbed the small bag I’d packed and headed into the bathroom. The room was a full bath worthy of the most elegant hotel. Separate shower and bathtub, two vanities, and a toilet and bidet. I only knew what a bidet was from French class.

I washed my face and brushed my teeth. I usually only washed my private parts once a day, in the morning when I showered, but I ran the soapy cloth over them now. Just in case Brad couldn’t control himself. I almost hoped he couldn’t. But he most likely could, since he’d been the one