Worldly: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants #9) Read online

  WORLDLY

  AN OLDER MAN YOUNGER WOMAN ROMANCE

  _______________________

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS, 9

  FLORA FERRARI

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  A Man Who Knows What He Wants Series

  Worldly

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Extended Epilogue

  Sneak Peek: Pistol

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2017 by Flora Ferrari.

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations. It is intended for mature readers.

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

  Book 1: Baby Lust

  Book 2: Veteran

  Book 3: Built

  Book 4: Bambino

  Book 5: Rescued

  Book 6: Leader

  Book 7: Professor

  Book 8: Burned

  Book 9: Worldly

  Book 10: Pistol

  WORLDLY

  Twenty years as a Delta Force operator. Seventy-three in-country tours of duty. Hundreds of reasons I want to be left alone.

  But one reason I can’t.

  Her.

  My best friend’s daughter. My entire career I had her dad’s back. Now all I can think about is putting his daughter on hers.

  I see her at the feed store in town. She’s itching to get a taste of the world. I need a taste of her.

  She’s studying to be a vet. I’m trained as a combat medic. We patch up my horse, but when things get hot and heavy can we patch up the damage with her father?

  Will she choose the only family she has or will she choose to start a family with me?

  I’ll show her I’m the only man for her. And I’ll show my best friend why his daughter’s meant for me.

  I’ve only ever wanted one thing in this world. Her. And I’ll do whatever it takes to make her mine.

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  CHAPTER 1

  Maria

  A dry, earthy scent cloaks me and I know he’s here. It’s a stark contrast to the sweet smelling creosote bush, which tourists often credit with the smell of desert rain. His scent contrasts the land just as much as his personality contrasts the people who inhabit it. People around here are usually a fun loving bunch. He’s serious and matter of fact. I think all those years abroad hardened him. It certainly hardened his body. I’ve seen pictures of him with my dad. When “The Sandbox” got too hot they removed their shirts. What a sight to see such a chiseled man standing there in his desert fatigues with the Afghanistan landscape projecting deep into the distance.

  But he’s not in Afghanistan anymore. He’s here. He’s back. I had seen his online order come in over the weekend. I made up an excuse with Natalie to change shifts so I could be here when he came to pick it up. I had to trade three shifts for the favor. She thought she got over on me on that deal. If she was where I was now, she would have realized I was the one who got the better of our swap.

  I notice the long shadow next to me. The one so wide and long that it can only be him.

  I turn my head from the feed sack I’m filling and my eyes take their time taking in every inch of him. My gaze lingering a little too long around his thick, muscular thighs. My mind wandering as I glance at his groin. I can see he’s getting hard. God, I hope I’m the reason why. I recognize the V shape of his torso as my eyes move up his beautiful body. His chest is wide and defined. And his shoulders. Oh my, his shoulders. He could move mountains with those things. I’m just hoping one day soon I’ll feel their power while I’m underneath him. Feel him pick me up and throw me like a rag doll. Own me before he hovers over me and shows me just how much power and anger he possesses. I want him. I want to feel all those emotions I can see his face tries to hide. And I want to use every womanly quality I have inside my being to show him the world’s not the cold, lonely place he exists in now.

  He’s just finished twenty years service to our country. Expending every drop of blood and sweat he had to keep us safe, but he forgot to protect one person. Himself. I can see he’s been torn apart. Chewed up and spit out. I can only imagine the things he’s seen, and which he was called upon to do.

  But now it’s time for someone to look after him. Me. I want to be that someone. I need to be that woman. I’m willing to do whatever it takes, no matter the consequences. And the consequences will be plenty. But I understand him. I’ve watched him change just as much as he’s watched me change. I’ve gone from a little girl to a young woman. He’s gone from a serious but happy man, to one who now just seems to exist just for the sake of existing. It’s tearing my heart up inside. And I can’t watch it any longer. I’m going to put a stop to it. And in doing so I’m going to start something between us…if something doesn’t exist already. He must know the effect he has on me. The way I freeze up in his presence. The way he makes me feel so small and feminine. How my body reacts to him. I look down and see my nipples have already pebbled underneath my tank top. There’s no hiding my desires. I’m not ashamed. I want him to know.

  I catch another quick glance of his groin and see his member has gone from big to huge. He’s rock hard. My gaze shifts up to meet his. His dark eyes are locked on mine. I feel a bead of sweat forming on my temple and another sliding down my back. A cold drop of sweat giving me goose bumps. And it’s not the only moisture I feel. My panties are already wet and if I could have any wish in the world it would be for him to take me right now. To throw me down in the hay and take me like the savage man he is.

  To feel his strong hands claim me as their rough touch grabs my smooth body.

  To feel his massive arms pull me in close, engulfing me. His biceps and forearms wrapping around me, keeping me safe and protected.

  The size of him holding me down, taking anything and everything he wants.

  My lower lip quivers as I imagine all the things I want him to do to me, and the reaction he’s having in his jeans tells me he wants it too.

  His short cropped hair just adds to his masculinity. His dark, hooded eyes shooting daggers right through me.

  “There’s something else I need,” he says, his gravelly, dusty voice matching his earthly smell. “One more thing that I can only get here.”

  Me. You need me, damnit!

  I say not
hing hoping the silence will allow him to finish. To say what I want him to say. To say what he wants to say. I know he wants it too. I can feel the electricity between us. In the way we look at each other. The tension so thick I could cut it with a knife.

  And then it becomes too much. I can’t take it anymore and I have to end this suspense that is sending my pulse skyrocketing.

  “What’s that?” I ask.

  CHAPTER 2

  Travis

  I ’d sat there in my truck parked across the street for a solid fifteen minutes. Just watching her. How she moved from barn to barn gathering things. Even in those apple bottom jeans she moved as elegantly as a princess. Watching her ass as she bent over to fill feed bags. Seeing her tits raise as she reached for items on the top shelf. My dick was harder than the stick shift in my truck. And a whole lot thicker.

  It can’t take it anymore so I step out of the truck. I can barely stand my erection is so tight in my jeans. I cross the road and force myself to turn my head away as I approach. I’m losing my mind and I don’t want to trip on the loose gravel of their lot.

  Surely she can hear my boots grinding into the gravel, crunching with each step. But she doesn’t turn around.

  The sun’s coming up over the horizon, highlighting her golden brown skin tones, adding a warming shade of orange. Fuck, she looks incredible.

  But I’m so pissed. She’s too young for me. She’s too innocent for all the dirty thoughts I’ve been having about her. And to make matters worse her dad is my best friend. The man whose life I saved on the battlefield. And the man who was saving mine now.

  I was caught in a downward spiral, and practically forced out of The Unit. Sure the stress had been mounting over the years, but it was our last mission that sent me spiraling. And now I was a mess. I was lost without my brothers in arms, and suffering from what the head shrinker at Walter Reed said was a bad case of PTSD. What the fuck does she know? She’s never stepped on a battlefield. Sure, she’s only trying to help, I guess, but she’s got no right to judge me.

  But the writing was on the wall. As much as I hated to admit it she was right.

  Maria’s dad, Ed, had watched my descent and the second I told him I was on the outs, he had offered me a place to stay. I refused the free accommodation, but agreed to take it after he agreed to accept my payment on fair terms. I’d pay market value for his house out back and work his land. And there was one other thing. The thing I always wanted, and could finally have.

  A horse.

  I needed a horse as much as that horse needed me.

  I had found her up in New Jersey. She was a race horse that was struggling with the same problem I had. I had never heard about animals having PTSD, but it made complete sense when I visualized what she must have gone through all those years she was racing. I could hardly imagine.

  And I was learning more and more about her every day. I was intrigued at how a horse often matches its personality to its owner. We both needed each other to stay positive. We really relied on each other. And right now she was relying on me. She had hurt herself somehow in the night and instead of just my weekly run to pick up food, I would have to add in some supplies to fix her up. But that wasn’t the only thing I needed. I needed someone who knew how to tend to her.

  And that’s where Maria came in. At least that’s the lie I told myself.

  I was coming for her no matter what.

  It was only a bonus that she had a sixth sense with animals and a big heart. Damn did she ever have a big heart. She was rescuing everything when she was a kid. I had never met her back then, but Ed used to brag to us when we were deployed. All the little animals she’d find and patch up before sending them back on their way. She sounded like an amazing little girl. One with a special gift.

  But she wasn’t a girl anymore. She was a woman.

  For twenty years now she was just ‘Ed’s girl.’ I had never seen her, not even in a picture. I had heard a lot about her, but mostly just thought it was a dad who was proud of his daughter. And he had every right to be. He said she was beautiful, but when I laid eyes on her the first time last week I realized he was sorely mistaken. She was beyond beautiful.

  She was the most incredible thing I’d ever laid eyes on.

  I’d had seventy-three in-country tours of duty. I’d been all around the world and seen just about everything this world had to offer. From the most breathtaking waterfalls, to the most peaceful desert night skies. To the stars that sparkled over the New Zealand skyline to the lions on the plains of the Serengeti.

  Their was so much beauty in the world, but none of it held a candle to her.

  And now was my chance to tell her. The bulging erection in my pants was already giving me away when I approached. Why should I deny my feelings for her?

  Because I had my own problems to deal with first. Don’t bring her sunshine into my black hole. I need to fix myself first.

  You came all the way out here to get healed. Remember that.

  And despite all those thoughts sitting on the front of my brain, there was one that always came up and knocked them all back. One overriding desire and I knew there was only one way to make it stop. The pain of what I’d seen in my years as an operator for The Unit being multiplied exponentially by the pain of not having her.

  But I can’t blow it. If I approach too quickly I could ruin everything. I’d learned to take inventory of myself and slow down my actions abroad. ‘Don’t run to your death,’ to borrow a line from the SEALs.

  And it would literally be the death of me if I blew this. I was already on edge, and I didn’t need any help going over.

  First I need to find out if she desires me just as much as I desire her. I’m older. Inside I’m much darker.

  As much as I wanted to grab her and take her right there in the hay, I had to have restraint.

  “I need you,” I say. Fuck, my feelings are giving me away. I’m a pro at this calm, cool, and collected thing. Why does she make me lose control like this? “To help me out with Snowball if you can.”

  I can read the disappointment on her face. Shit!

  “Your dad said you’d know what to do,” I say, trying to recover.

  “I know what to do,” she says.

  And so do I. Whatever it fucking takes to make her mine.

  CHAPTER 3

  Maria

  N atalie’s late as I expected, putting me behind schedule. I told Travis I’d come right after I got off at three. Only problem is I’m walking out the door at three forty-five. Make that running out the door. I’m pushing the speed limit in my Honda Civic as I make my way out to dad’s place. It’s so nice to finally have him back in my life full time. He’d been everywhere but home while I was growing up and I watched the toll it took on my mom. I couldn’t blame her when she pulled up to the small apartment years ago and told me, “This is where we live now.” She didn’t even call it a home, because it wasn’t. It was nothing to me without dad there. I missed him so much.

  When dad retired he came back. As much as I hoped for a reconciliation between him and mom, it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

  I teased him that he should join me at A&M. He did still have his GI Bill which he contributed to twenty years ago when he first enlisted. He found out mom was pregnant and got real serious real quick. It was his best option. He wanted to do whatever it took to provide for mom and me. Unfortunately at the time that meant cash more than it meant time together.

  But these days things were quickly improving between us. And now he’d invited Travis to come and stay in the unused guest house on the small ranch and farm he’d bought with all the money he’d been able to save thanks to the scholarship I got. He called it his therapy. It was therapy for me too. I finally got time to connect with my dad.

  But dad’s reemergence had upset my mom and she moved back to Dallas. I was glad to have dad back, but not at the expense of mom.

  My head was everywhere right now trying to figure out how to balance my pa
rent’s affection and my thoughts about each of them. And now to make matters more complicated Travis had to show up.

  It should be so easy. The way I felt about him was so primal, so clear. But he was my dad’s best friend, and he was living a stone’s throw behind him.

  And of course I was heading right into the center of a Texas sized tornado.

  My dad still thought of me as his little girl, but I wasn’t a child anymore. I knew what I wanted in life. I wanted to be a veterinarian and help animals. And I wanted Travis. It was so simple, except that it wasn’t.

  And now I wasn’t even sure who the real Travis Lane was. And that was the first thing I needed to find out.