“Are you a prepper?” she asks before I can reply to the first question.
“I’m the king of preppers,” I say with a laugh. “I’m always prepared for anything.”
“I see that.” She glances around. “Like the nuclear apocalypse.”
“Hey, you never know, right?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “If there’s a nuclear apocalypse, I don’t want to survive it. Do you know how horrible it would be? Horrible. That’s a solid ‘no, thanks’ for me.”
I laugh and tuck her hair behind her ear. “This isn’t here for that. If someone ever breached my property, and all hell broke loose, this is the most secure place on the ranch.”
Her eyes go wide, and she looks down again. “Jesus, Shane. You’re intense.”
“You have no idea.”
I look up at the sound of an engine, just in time to see Curt making his way over to us on an ATV.
“Hey, boss,” he says when he cuts the engine. “Welcome home.”
“Thanks. This is Ivie. Ivie, this is Curt.”
“Ma’am.” Curt offers her a nod. “Everything okay at the house?”
“It’s great. Cox is coming this afternoon.”
“He called me,” Curt confirms. “He should arrive around oh-sixteen-hundred. Been quiet around here while you were gone.”
“We like it quiet.”
“So, Curt, how long have you lived here?” Ivie asks, trying to make conversation.
“Oh, going on about eight years or so now, I guess.”
“Nice. And where are you from originally?”
Curt smiles politely but checks his watch. “I have some things to see to. Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
He nods and takes off to the other side of the ranch.
“What did I say?”
“He doesn’t like to talk about himself much.”
“He’s much younger than I expected,” she admits. “You said he doesn’t like to be around people?”
“No. He saw some bad things in action and has some pretty severe PTSD. He does better being a little isolated. The ranch suits him.”
“Poor guy,” she murmurs. “Okay, do I get to see this super-safe bunker?”
“Sure.”
I lead her down the stairs to the large room below. I flip on lights and step to the side so she can look around.
“Holy shit, Shane. This is huge.”
“Yeah.” I grin and take it all in. “Tunnels run throughout the ranch. There’s one to my house, Curt’s cabin, the barn, and the helipad. All hidden from view, of course.”
“Why are you showing me this?”
“I don’t know, I think it’s pretty cool.”
She laughs and leads me through two bedrooms, a bathroom, and the kitchen. “It is cool. Is this your toy? Like, some guys get expensive cars, and others like boats, but you have a crazy bunker?”
“Something like that, I guess.”
She grins. “You really are 007.”
I chuckle as she steps to me and drags her hands up my arms to my shoulders. Ivie’s never been the aggressor, so I wait to see what she’s got on her mind.
Those hands climb into my hair, and with her breasts pressed against me, she offers me her lips.
I won’t turn down an offer this gorgeous.
This time, the kiss is sweet and slow but no less full of passion. I boost her up so she can wrap her legs around my waist and carry her to the wall so I can let my hands do a little wandering over her gorgeous curves.
She bites my bottom lip, making my already-hard dick jump in surprise.
“God, you’re something.” I nibble my way down her neck, enjoying the scent of lemons on her skin. “I want to fucking consume you.”
“Three months of foreplay is a long time,” she says and hums in satisfaction when my lips return to hers.
Barely holding myself in check, I yank her shirt out of her jeans and let my hand roam over the warm, smooth skin of her side and stomach before cupping her firm breast.
She arches into my hand in invitation.
“Find a bed,” she instructs me. “We need more room, Shane. Somewhere softer.”
“Right. A bed.”
I carry her through a door to a small bedroom and tumble us both onto the unused mattress. No one has ever stayed down here.
Which means, we’ll be christening this room.
I take the tab of her jeans in my teeth and yank the button free, and just as I start to urge them down her hips, my phone beeps.
“Damn it,” I growl and look at the message. “I’m getting really sick and tired of being interrupted by technology.”
“What is it?” Her voice is breathless, and her eyes are on fire.
“Cameron just landed.”
“Oh, he has at least an hour until he’s here, right?”
“No, sweetheart.” I cover her again and kiss her softly. “He just landed on the helipad.”
“Well, damn.”
“Don’t worry.” I kiss her once more and then help us both to our feet. “The first time I have you isn’t going to be in my bunker. It’s going to be in my bed, where I can take my time and memorize every gorgeous inch of you.”
“I’m going to hold you to that, Shane Martinelli.”
I laugh and help her right herself. When we’re both put back together, I kiss her temple. “Let’s go put Cameron to work, shall we?”
“Oh, absolutely. I can’t wait to see what he does to bring that thing back to life.”
“He has tricks and secrets. He’ll get it figured out, and then we’ll know what your father was doing.”
“I’m not sure I want to know.”
“There’s no going back now.”
Chapter 6
~Ivie~
“Nice to meet you,” I say to a tall, dark, and ridiculously handsome Cameron Cox as the three of us walk from the helipad where Cameron just jumped out of a helicopter and to the house. “Is the pilot just going to wait there?”
“That’s his job,” Cameron says with a smile. “He’ll be fine.”
So, I guess he’s not planning to stay, then.
“I didn’t know helicopters could fly that far.”
“We just had to stop in Boise to fuel up,” Cameron replies as Shane opens the back door of the house, and we file inside. “So, your phone call was mysterious this morning.”
“I’m hoping you can help us solve something.” Shane unlocks the door to the basement, and we all go down the stairs.
Cameron has clearly been here before.
“Ivie has a flash drive that she needs to be able to read, and it’s encrypted. When we tried to decode it, it wiped itself.”
Cameron’s eyebrows climb in surprise. “Interesting. Okay, let me see what I can do.”
He sits behind the computer, and as it boots up, he slips black-rimmed glasses onto his nose and gets to work.
“Someone worked really hard to make sure this didn’t get into the wrong hands,” Cameron murmurs. “You have no idea what’s on it?”