Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain | Ryan || Yellowstone

Chapter 16

Ryan and I rode back to the ranch, quiet yet happy. We got into the stables, dismounted, and walked outside.

"So what now?" I asked him as I crossed my arms and leaned my back against a wall.

"Well," Ryan said and stood close in front of me. "We do whatever we want to do."

I looked up at him, his face close to me, and his hands moved to my hips. 

"Do we tell people?"

He shook his head. "Whatever you want."

I placed my hands on his shirt and moved them across his chest. I looked up at him, a smile on my face, and said in a quiet voice, "I think I just want you to kiss me right now."

He nodded and took his hat off, then smiled as he brought his lips close to mine. "I think I could do that."

I pulled on the collar of his shirt to bring his lips to mine. I smiled against his lips as my arms went around his neck, pulling on him with everything in me. His hands gripped my waist as he moved to kiss my neck.

I closed my eyes, sinking into his touch, then I heard a noise down the road. 

"Ryan," I said, but was more breathy than I meant as his hands roamed up my back. His kisses deepened against my skin, but I said again with as clear a voice as I could, "Ryan, look."

He turned to look where I was pointing, his hands still on my waist and my hands on the back of his neck with my fingers in his hair.

Two Yellowstone trucks were pulling up to the barn, quickly.

Ryan looked back at me, then down at my lips, his eyes near feral. My stomach flipped and all I wanted was for him to keep kissing me, but I cleared my voice and said, "We should see what's wrong."

He nodded, his eyes still going back and forth between my eyes and my lips. 

I took his hat, put it back on his head, and flattened his shirt where I had gripped it. I tucked my hair behind my ears, as I was sure it had gotten messy, and looked back up at him.

I heard the wranglers get out of the trucks, so I pressed a kiss to Ryan's cheek, then grabbed his hand and pulled him down to the bunkhouse.

We entered the bunkhouse, and it was quiet.

Everyone looked at Ryan and I as we entered, and Rip stood quickly from the table. 

"Where the fuck were you two?" He said and took a step towards us, but he froze.

I looked at him with a brow raised. "What?" Then I looked at Colby who was looking at Ryan and I with a smile. "What?" I said again.

"More like what were you two doing?" Colby said and raised an eyebrow.

But then I studied his face and all the other wrangler's faces. They were bruised and bleeding.

"What the fuck happened to you guys?" Ryan asked as he noticed too.

Colby held up his hands and walked towards us. "No, no. Don't change the topic at hand, you two."

I looked at Ryan, and I wanted to burst out laughing.

"What?" Ryan asked as I laughed.

"She put your hat on backward," Colby said with a mischievous smile.

I scoffed. "Okay, how do you know I put it on him."

Colby pointed at my chest.

I looked down. "Oh, shit."

My shirt had four buttons opened from when I had exposed my brand in the clearing, and my shirt was wrinkled and messy. But it sure looked like something else.

I buttoned my shirt back up, my face heating slightly.

I looked back up at Rip, who had been quiet. He stood rigid, and his eyes were fixed on Ryan. 

I was about to open my mouth to say something to him but Rip lunged forward, yanked Ryan by the collar, and dragged him out of the bunkhouse.

"Woah, woah-hey!" Ryan yelled as Rip pulled him outside.

I followed them out but stopped as Colby tried to follow. "Nuh-uh," I said and shut the door before he could come out too.

I turned to see Rip shove Ryan forward. I leaned my hip on the railing and said, "Don't worry Ryan, he's not gonna fight you."

"You sure?" He raised his brows at the murderous look in Rip's eyes.

Rip got in his face, but Ryan held his ground. "You hurt her, and I kill you." Ryan moved to take a step back, but Rip grabbed his shirt again and pulled him forward. "I said, if you hurt her, if you so much as raise your voice at her, I take you into the woods, kill you, and bury you where you'll never be found, understood?"

Ryan nodded. "Understood."

"Good." Rip released him, then turned back to me. Gone was his glare towards Ryan as he smiled at me, tipped his hat, and said, "Glad things finally worked out between you two," then walked away to his home.

I smiled at Ryan, who looked rather disheveled, as I leaned over the railing. 

Ryan smiled and shook his head as he came up and stood next to me. "I think he might be a little protective over you."

I nodded, then pulled Ryan onto me by his shirt. "Rip is a man of his word."

Ryan pushed my hair away from my face and then held my chin. "You know I'll never do anything like that to you."

"Ryan..." I moved my arms to rest on his shoulders. "I have plenty of scars from terrible men doing terrible things, and Rip knows that." I pushed back Ryan's hair and studied his face, his blue eyes, his sharp jaw. "You have comforted me in my hardest times." I ran a hand over his jaw, over his short beard, then ran a thumb over his lips. "You have been my rock in a sea full of pain for twenty years, whether I wanted to accept it or not until now."

Ryan nodded, then pulled on my waist and wrapped his arms around me, engulfing me in a hug. I raised onto my toes, pressing myself into him as my arms wrapped around his neck, and I breathed in his scent of leather and sage, memorizing it, drinking it in like I would never get to hold him like this again. Like I had been wanting to hold him for twenty years but was restraining myself, but I was now drinking him in like a smooth glass of whiskey.