A Knight In Cowboy Boots (27 page)

Their coupling was too turbulent to last. The need for satisfaction escalated with each vicious thrust until a shockwave of shattering intensity took her.

Chapter Ninteen

When Maddie returned to reality, Zach was laying limp and drained on top of her, as heavy as ever. Instead of complaining, she wrapped her legs around him, holding him to her.

He arched his back, seeking the depth he’d achieved such a short time before. The movement brought him in hard contact with her clitoris. Maddie gasped and pressed her cheek against his shoulder as aftershocks rolled through her.

Zach held her until they passed, then he lifted himself onto his elbows to look down into her face. His thumb wiped her wet cheek. Maddie was stunned to realize that at some point she’d shed tears.

“I’m sorry, Maddie. I didn’t mean to … I want … I wanted to be tender.” He paused as though seeking some excuse, but he didn’t seem to find one. “I just couldn’t.”

“It’s okay, Zach. It’s what I needed, too.”

She saw disbelief in his eyes.

“Then how come you’re crying?”

“I don’t know. It was just … so intense.”

“Then I didn’t … I didn’t hurt you?”

“No more than I hurt you.” Maddie unlocked her ankles and brushed her hand over the indentations her nails had made.

Zach flinched under her hand, driving himself momentarily deeper inside her. “Funny how it didn’t hurt at the time.”

“You promised me last night I’d walk funny today. I think you may just have made good on that threat.”

“Then we’re even coz I think I’m going to be sitting gentle like.” He dropped his head, resting his forehead against her shoulder. “Shit!”

“What?”

“I’ve gone and done it again.”

“What?”

“Condoms.”

Shit!
Maddie echoed silently. There were a dozen condoms within easy reach in the nightstand. Why hadn’t she even thought about them?

“I’m sorry, Maddie. I didn’t mean to risk giving you a baby.”

He made an odd move as he spoke, one that brushed his belly against hers.

Maddie’s sudden interpretation of the Zach’s unconscious movement made her gasp. “You— You—“

“What?”

“You’re turned on by … by the risk,” Maddie accused. “You think it’s sexy!”

“What? Where’d you get a crazy idea like that?” He looked like a guilty man trying to play innocent.

Maddie hit his shoulder with her fist. “Get off me!”

But Zach refused to move.

Maddie bucked, but even limp, he was too deep inside her to dislodge. Even worse, she thought she felt him stiffen.

He caught her wrists and held them against the bed, ignoring the fists above his hands.

“Okay. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I think knocking you up wouldn’t be the worst thing I could do.”

“And I don’t get a vote?” Maddie spat at him.

“You ain’t yet told me to stop and put on a condom. In fact, as I recall it, the first time was your idea.”

Maddie lay under him, her breath coming hard with anger, unable to deny it. Zach lowered himself until each rise of her chest brought her nipples into contact with the springy hairs on his chest. Against her will, her nipples hardened.

“I think, deep down, you like the risk, too. I think you get hotter when you know I’m gonna spill inside you. I think you like the idea of carrying a part of me around like a secret.”

Maddie’s cheeks burned hot. “That doesn’t mean I want to have your baby.”

“Maybe not. Then again, maybe you just ain’t thought that far ahead yet.” Zach lowered his head to the hollow where her neck met her shoulder, his lips brushing against her skin as he spoke, sending shivers the length of her body. “Maybe you ain’t thought how it would feel to put your hand on your belly and feel a baby we made move inside you.”

Not for all the bucking bulls in the world would she admit that the picture he was painting had some appeal.

“When you bring Jesse into our bed,” Zach murmured, “and he lies between us, with you all naked and beautiful, I can almost see a baby at your breast, and I feel a deep need to put that baby inside you.”

Maddie was no more stunned by the picture he painted than by the awakening that he harbored such thoughts. Was it part of a biological imperative that made her melt inside? Or was it the unexpected revelation that a man could think this way?

He pressed deeper inside her as he turned himself on with his words.

“Diapers,” Maddie murmured, her eyes closed.

“What?”

“Diapers and morning sickness. Swollen ankles. Hemorrhoids. Two A.M. feedings, potty training, getting kicked in the bladder in the middle of the grocery store.” She opened her eyes to meet his. “Those are the realities, Zach. What you’re talking about is fantasy.”

“Some people would think the sex we have is a fantasy. We can make our fantasies real if we’re willing to work at it.” He proved his point by moving inside her.

Maddie fought to keep from being swept away. How could he possibly arouse her again so soon? But he could. And he did.

He made love to her with all the tenderness that had been lacking in their last coupling, and when he arched his back, doing his damnedest to make the baby he’d talked to her about, Maddie climaxed. It may not have been as earth shattering as the one before, but it made up for it by shaking her to her soul as she experienced her first multiple orgasm.

Chapter Twenty

Having wanted their last day together to be memorable, Maddie had to admit she’d gotten her wish. She should have been more careful about what she’d wished for.

She eyed their clothes strewn all over the room like a cyclone had passed through.

“What time do you need to be at the rodeo to see that bull?”

Stretched out on his stomach beside her, Zach lifted his head as though it weighed a ton. He looked at the clock on his side of the bed. “Soon.” He let his head fall as though it was dead weight.

She lay there, savoring the feel of him next to her, storing it in her memory to recall after she was gone. In the quiet she heard his breathing change, and she tensed.

“Maddie—” His voice had that time-to-face-the-music tone.

In her mind, she heard him say
we need to talk.
Before he could utter the words, she sat up, swung her legs off the bed, and started gathering up her clothes. He released a long exhale that made her think of a death-row prisoner who’d just gotten an unexpected reprieve. Her heart broke a little to hear it.

She passed close to the bed, and Zach’s hand shot out, catching her wrist. He rolled over as he pulled her down to him, kissed her hard then whispered in her ear. “Don’t shower.”

“What? Why?”

“I want to be able to smell our love making on you tonight.”

“Zach!” She pulled back, shocked.

He didn’t ask again, but his eyes shone with subdued arousal and something deeper. Something Maddie’s heart echoed.

“You are an animal,” she accused, wanting to break the rush of sudden emotion.

“And an oversexed pervert.” Zach smiled. “I know. You’ve told me before.”

She stood up from the bed. He caught her wrist. “Don’t shower,” he said again before letting her go.

It went against her personal sense of hygiene, but in the end, she did as he asked.

They arrived at the rodeo halfway through the barrel racing. He was carrying Jesse to spare her the burden of his weight. After Zach’s earlier confession, it gave Maddie the strangest sensation in the pit of her stomach, seeing him with Jesse on his hip.

She hadn’t really had time to consider that the risk they’d taken today was far greater than what they’d taken before. So much greater that, if she were trying to get pregnant, this would be the week she’d have bet had the best odds. It gave her cold chills to even think about it.

“Damn!” Zach said under his breath just seconds after they’d walked into the arena.

Maddie followed his gaze to see Jake beckoning them from the beer stand.

“You didn’t want to find them?” Maddie asked.

“I wanted to spend the time until the bull riding sniffing you.”

“Now aren’t you sorry you wouldn’t let me shower?”

“Not even a little,” he said as they moved to join Jake.

“Was beginning to think you wasn’t going to make it in time,” Jake said.

Zach’s eyes caught Maddie’s. The corners of his mouth turned up in a smile meant just for her. “We wouldn’t miss the bull riding for nothing. Would we, Maddie?”

It didn’t escape her that he wasn’t talking about the bulls in the holding pens.

“Where’s Daisy? You ain’t left her alone, have you?” Zach asked, handing Jesse off to Maddie so he could get them two beers.

“I did. But she knows if she moves, next time, I’ll peg her down and hog tie her.”

They followed Jake to where he’d left Daisy in the third tier of the bleachers across from the bull chutes.

The cutoffs and midriff top had been replaced by a respectable pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Instead of a cowgirl Lolita, she looked like any other teenage girl as she accepted the large soda Jake had brought her. Somehow, Maddie ended up sitting next to her. Jake boxed his sister in on the other side. Zach stepped up one tier to sit behind Maddie.

Zach held her beer as she dug out a bottle of juice for Jesse. Daisy glanced at Jesse, then shifted her gaze back to Zach for a second. Maddie could almost see the wheels turning in her head, but the thoughts those wheels were churning out were a mystery to her. Daisy gave her a tentative smile that Maddie returned. “How old’s your baby?”

“Six months.”

“He’s cute. I like his hair.”

Maddie brushed a hand over Jesse’s fine red hair. She had left off the bonnet Zach found so offensive. Even she couldn’t justify it with the warm weather.

Zach leaned forward to ask, “You ever ride in a rodeo?”

She shook her head. “I never had a horse of my own.”

“Really?” Daisy said. “I can’t imagine not having a horse.”

“You’re lucky to have grown up with them, Deborah.” Unsure if the girl would welcome her using the family nickname, Maddie decided to err on the side of caution. “For most people, horses are a luxury item. My family sure couldn’t afford one.

“What kind of car do you drive?” Daisy asked abruptly.

It seemed like a peculiar question in the middle of all the rodeo talk, but that shouldn’t have caused the sudden tension Maddie thought she felt behind her. “A Lincoln Continental.”

Daisy’s eyebrows lifted as she shot another quick look at Zach. “You can call me Daisy. If you want to.”

“Thanks, Daisy.” With the lightning changes in the direction of Daisy’s conversation, Maddie wondered if the girl had grown up ADHD. “Your whole family seems rodeo afflicted. Why don’t you race?” Maddie asked, tipping her head toward the arena where a horse and rider cut around the second barrel.

Daisy shrugged. “Barrel racing’s kind of tame. It’s really the only event they let women compete in though. Rodeo’s one of the last places where it’s politically correct for men to be macho jerks.”

Maddie laughed. “I hadn’t really thought about it that way, but you’re right.”

“Hey, Jake, I think we done been defamed,” Zach said.

“Yeah, I’ll worry about it when the buckle bunnies lose interest.” Jake stared at two shapely, twenty-something blondes in cowboy hats and tight jeans walking by. One of them caught him staring and smiled her best hey-cowboy smile.

“Long live the buckle bunnies,” Zach held out his paper cup full of beer. Jake bumped it gently with his own.

“Do I need to worry?” Maddie asked before she could stop herself.

“About them?”

Maddie grimaced. She had no right to ask the question when she wasn’t staying. “Never mind. I don’t know what made me even ask that.”

Zach’s arms wrapped around her. “I know what made you ask. It’s okay. I wouldn’t much care for it if you was to start looking at some other cowboy. And no, you ain’t got to worry. I’m bright enough to learn from other folks’ mistakes.”

“Zach—” Daisy interrupted. “There’s Becky Sue. Can I go watch the rodeo with her? Please?”

“You’ll stay where we can see you?”

“I promise.”

“Don’t you conveniently forget or I’ll come get you, and I ain’t shy about embarrassing you in front of your friends.”

Daisy grimaced. “I’ll stay where you can see me,” she promised again.

“Go then.”

Daisy practically vaulted over Jake’s knees in her rush to get off the bleachers.

“She does better on a short leash,” Jake observed.

Maddie had to agree but she wasn’t ready to let Zach’s ambiguous statement go unexplored. “What mistakes did you mean?”

Zach bent so that his eyes were on the same level as hers. “You see that girl there?”

Maddie’s gaze followed his discreetly pointed finger.

Like the two girls who had just passed them, the woman had long blonde hair and was dressed in western attire. Maddie guessed her to be in her late twenties. She was what men meant when they called a woman “stacked.” The woman was standing on one of the rungs that barred the spectators from the ring, leaning out over the top rung, pumping a fist with each voiced whoop, encouraging the girl rounding the barrels. The girls Jake and Zach had watched appreciatively looked like they should be handmaidens to this golden goddess.

“About ten years ago, she was my sister-in-law for about six and a half seconds.”

Maddie leaned sideways to get enough distance to look quizzically at Zach. “What?”

“What he means,” Jake said, “is that Sol was married to her for about six weeks.”

“Six weeks? Did they have to get married?”

“Nope,” Zach said. “They just got a wild hair and drove to Nevada and got hitched. She filed for divorce six weeks later.”

“You see that girl over there?” Jake pointed to the end of the arena where the rodeo queen was talking to a young girl also in western attire.

Maddie looked across the ring and saw a girl of about ten.

“Georgia wasn’t pregnant when they got married, but she was when they got divorced. Course she didn’t know it at the time.”

“So that’s your niece.”

“Yup,” Zach said. “That’s Eden, Mamma’s only grandchild.”

“Wow!” Maddie said.“How long did they date before they got married?”

“Not sure you’d ever call what they did dating,” Zach said.

“And you think you’ve learned from your brother’s mistake?” Maddie asked skeptically.

“Yup. I don’t go around knocking up buckle bunnies.”

To Maddie’s mind, Zach was drawing a very fine line. “Are you sure you’re not making the same mistake with me?”

Zach scooted up close behind her and put his lips next to her ear. “I’m willing to risk it.” With his hands on either side of her neck and his thumbs against her jaw line, he tipped her head back and kissed her mouth.

When he let her go, he dropped his face into her neck and inhaled deeply. Maddie felt herself go red.

The crowd’s interest sharpened when the barrel racing ended. The last thing on the program was the bull riding. As a finale, no other event could beat it.

Zach moved into the space Daisy had abandoned. “Which bull did Sol pull?”

“Jack’s Daniel,” Jake said.

“He might get a good ride then.”

Bull riding was always a few seconds of high excitement followed by a lot of waiting. Knowing that, Maddie perused the crowd, watching the fans interact. Zach elbowed her in the ribs just as the chute gate opened on the first bull, pulling her attention back to the action.

The rider started out well but six seconds into the ride, he lost his seat and went over the side. The crowd groaned, then gasped as the bull spun, his head down. He caught the cowboy still on the ground. The blunted horns came up, catching the rider’s arm. The crowd gasped as the cowboy’s feet lifted a couple of feet off the ground.

A bullfighter dashed in, grabbed the free horn, and jerked the bull’s head around. Distracted by this new irritant, the bull turned his attention away from the cowboy. The brightly dressed bullfighters tag-teamed for the bull’s attention until they could get him out of the arena.

The rider’s fellow cowboys ran to him. They held him down for a few moments, assuring themselves he was all right. Or at least as sound as anyone had a right to expect after such an encounter with a fifteen hundred pound bull.