Forbidden Gold (Providence Gold 5)

Refusing to look away, I glared back. “Attitude’s fierce in you, kid.”

When I realized what I’d called it and the unintentional pun, I burst out laughing, the noise sounding like a loud bark. Sure as shit, the goat went rigid and fell off the bucket, ending up on its side with its legs like sticks in front of it.

Looking around, I saw Sean and Ari watching me with a smile on their faces and gave them a forced smile that covered up the panic I was feeling at that moment.

I’d killed a fucking goat. I’d given it a heart attack.

How would I make it up to its goat family? Surely there was something I could do? I felt like the biggest rat bastard in the world, a goat murderer. I spent my days helping people who were sick, doing my best to save as many lives as I could, helping them recover from pain and illnesses… and I’d killed a fucking goat.

The longer I stared at it, the more I beat myself up. Then a flicker of movement from its hoof got my attention. Slowly but surely, the asshole started to come back to life, moving its joints and raising its head to look around until it stopped on me and glared then bleated at me.

Covering Gaynor’s ears, I hissed, “Back at you, you little shit.”

Because it was bleating at me, I didn’t hear the footsteps. I sure as hell felt the hand that smacked down on my shoulder, though, and the voice that said, “Ah, I see you’ve met Angry.”

The noise that came out of me was like a human goat noise, but it was so loud that the asshole who’d only just been reborn froze and dropped dead again.

Fuck’s sake!

It wasn’t until I was dropping her home, pulling up in front of her house, the light from her living room that she’d left on for her dogs allowing me to see her in the dark of my vehicle, that I approached what’d been weighing on me since our talk on the way to the farm.

“Are you afraid of me now?”

Her head jerked slightly at the question, followed by a frown. “What? No. Why would you ask that?”

Looking away from her, I said quietly, “I know that my past is hard to accept, and I’d understand if you wanted to just be friends,” I trailed off and then shook my head. “Actually, no, it would fucking suck if you want just to be friends, but I’d accept it.”

Anything else that I would have said after it disappeared as she reached across the center console and wrapped her hand around the back of my neck, pulling me toward her in a move so quick, I didn’t register what she was doing until her lips were on mine.

I could feel her trembling as she deepened the kiss slightly, only just dipping the tip of her tongue into my mouth. The groan that came out of me was loud and part relief, part torture.

Without moving away from her, I pulled her closer to me and pushed her tongue out of my mouth, then took control of the kiss. With every dip and lick into her mouth, the taste of her, the beauty of her, filled me.

How I’d lived without this, I didn’t know. But what I did know was that I was going to do everything I could to make myself worthy of keeping it for the rest of our lives.SevenArianaI hadn’t seen Parker since he’d taken me to the goat farm three days ago, and I’d used the time to help me come to terms with the change in our relationship. I was a thinker, so it’d been good for me. Sure, I’d heard from him, but two doctors had come down with food poisoning, so he and Chris had been covering for them. I couldn’t understand the system they had for work, but doctors were always needed, so he had to be there.

“So, you’re adopting goat babies together,” Sadie said as she wiped down the bar. “Seems like a level of commitment most couples aspire to.”

Looking over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow, Beau snorted, “Not me. Goat babies has got to be one of the most random things I’ve heard, and that includes everything your family’s gotten up to.”

She had a point.

“What are you calling them?” Sadie asked as she waved at the members of my family entering the bar.

“Not a clue. Right now they’re called Gaynor and Sneezy and they suit the names, so I might just leave them.”

“You could always ask Lily to name them,” Beau suggested snickering as Lily stopped in front of us.

“I’ll do it. What needs naming?” she agreed excitedly, making my stomach drop slightly.

Before I could distract her, a deep voice belonging to the man I’d just been thinking about spoke behind me. “She’s not going near their names. They’ll end up with something fucked up.”