Cowboy, Take Me Away (Montana Cowboys/ Country Music) (4 page)

             
She bit her lower lip and looked a little bit guilty. He arched a brow. She admitted, “I looked up the number and called Jan and asked what time Buck usually made it home. She did one better and just had your brother call me when you left the station. I put the roast in the oven and ran the bath in hopes that by the time you were done with one, the other would be ready for you.”

             
“’Sat right?” He would deal with his nosy little brother later. She nodded. “I don’t take baths.”

             
“Of course not. I could tell because this tub is brand new. You’ve never used it. I had to finish peeling off some of the stickers near the faucet. I don’t want you to take a bath, Roy. I want you to just soak in the hot tub for a few minutes to relax your muscles. You had a hard day.”  She started to undress him and he wanted to take a step back but couldn’t seem to find the energy to do so.

             
“What do you know about my day?” He watched her carry his shirt from one spot to the next not sure what to do with it. He pointed to the dry cleaning bag hanging from the hook on the wall. He rarely got more than one day wear out of anything around here, especially in the summer.

             
She pulled at his t-shirt as she stood behind him. She spoke as she pushed it up and struggled to get it over his shoulders. He wasn’t being much help but he was really a bit curious about this whole undressing him bit. She sounded winded as she said, “I know you didn’t call or text me, so I imagine you must have had a hell of a day or else you would have. You said you would if you could and you didn’t, so I knew.”

             
He was glad she took him at his word. He leaned a little forward and she pulled the shirt the rest of the way off. She reached for the belt and he put his hands on hers. She looked up at him. “Why are you undressing me?”

             
She looked up at him and then down at their hands. She went a bit wide eyed and stepped back letting go of his belt as she did. She looked at the water in the tub, then at his chest. “I don’t know. I mean I just wanted to run a hot bath and have dinner ready, but then you were here and you had your clothes on and I…just started undressing you. I’m sorry.”

             
“You didn’t plan to do that?” He quirked a brow at her. She shook her head no. He dropped his hands to his side. He was a bit curious and said, “Come back to me.”

             
She took the steps forward and blinked up at him. Something primal, something urgent and necessary flashed through his blood and the feelings were stronger than he knew possible. “Are you going to finish?”

             
“Do you want me to?” She looked as confused as he felt about it all. He nodded. Her hands tentatively moved back to his belt and pulled the leather loose. He had never thought much about this uniform before, but the sound of that leather slipping through the belt loops combined with the sight of her hands rolling it up as she pulled, had him appreciating it in a new way.

             
She placed the belt on the counter. He liked that she was being careful with his stuff. He hadn’t dated a lot of women since becoming a sheriff. There were a limited supply of local gals and the tourists were more interested in rodeo cowboys and guys dressed up like cowboys. He understood it. Hell, he was a decent cowboy himself before he chose this path instead. None of the women he had met had made him feel like this before.

             
He didn’t just want her, he wanted to possess her, he wanted to make her his and his alone. He sucked in a breath as she slid to her knees and untied each shoe. It was the strangest feeling to let her do this to him, for him,
whatever,
it was odd, but he was strangely enjoying it. Maybe because no one ever coddled him, not even as a child. His parents were characters, and they treated him and Buck like they were grown even when they were little. They were not always on the right side of the law so it broke their hearts when not one, but both of their children grew up to become law enforcement.

             
He stopped thinking about his odd childhood and started paying more attention to what she was doing when she was back at his zipper and pulling it down. Her hands slid into his pants around both of his hips and pushed the fabric down.

             
He let out a hissing sound because she didn’t just take his pants down, she took his underwear with them and her lips passed over his erection as she did. She was too short to get on her knees in front of him without a little assistance. She pulled out whatever he seemed to have left in his pockets and placed it on the countertop. Then she put the pants in the bag with the shirt. She stopped and opened the door to the small closet he forgot was even there. He never used it. She reached down and brought out a little stool he didn’t know was in there either.

             
He thought for sure she was going to take him in her mouth and turn his entire night around. She didn’t. She sat the stool behind the back of the tub and said, “Get in.”

             
He grumbled because he really did want to get in, just not in the tub. It was probably for the best. When her hands pushed into the water and brought it up to smooth the way over his shoulders as she began massaging, he decided he would let her undress him any time she wanted from now on.

             
“Good Lord, your muscles are so tense.” She worked them hard and he enjoyed every minute of it, even the twinge of pain when her elbow dug into a particularly tight spot. By the end of his soak and her rubbing he wasn’t hard anymore, he was relaxed and content. “Okay, now you can get up and get out of that tub and take your shower.”

             
He grabbed her hands as she tried to slip them away. He pulled her by one until she was at the side of the tub looking down at him. She seemed pretty pleased with the current mood she had put him in. He said, “Lean down.”

***

             
She saw the twinkle of his eye a little too late to do anything about it. She was dressed for crying out loud and now she was soaking wet. She was also in the tub with him. He was also pulling her closer to kiss her lips. He made quick work of her clothes and she knew with every garment he dropped over the side a puddle of water accumulated around it.

             
“Ride me, Lexi.” He pulled her lips back to his as his hand pushed at her hip and she seated on his straining erection. She knew she was asking a lot of her body. It was still a bit sore from last night. The discomfort became second to the thrill of feeling his hands on her body, his tongue in her mouth, and then hearing the sweet nothings he whispered in her ear. Then he said, “Tell me you’re mine.”

             
“I’m yours,” she gasped with the depth of his thrust upward. His grip tightened around her, he held her still for a moment and looked into her eyes. The blue storm of emotions passing through his expression left her breathless. She saw a lot there, more than he wanted to reveal she was sure. He was turned on by it and began moving them again. He wanted her to say it not for dirty talk, but because he wanted it to be true. She could give him both. “I’m yours. God, I am yours. You feel so good right now. I want to be like this forever, in your arms, riding your cock...”

             
“Fuck,” he groaned and then released inside of her. She slumped against him and she could feel his forehead roll back and forth as if he were shaking his head no on her shoulder. “Damn, that happened too fast.”

             
She heard the buzzer on the stove sound and she smiled. “Looks like it happened right on time.”

             
She stood up against his protesting arms and stepped out of the tub. She picked up the soaked clothes and put them in the sink. She grabbed a towel and headed out to the kitchen. By the time they finished eating she was sure he was in love with her. He didn’t say it, but the look in his eye told her she was right to follow her gut on this one. He didn’t look like a man who got pampered very often.

             
The next morning she was awake before him again. She was still on East coast time. Her body was ready to sleep early and that suited him fine after such a long day. It also woke up earlier. She didn’t jump out of bed to make him coffee this morning. She had another wakeup call in mind.

             
As she slid down the length of his body, placing kisses along his side, his abs, dipping her tongue into his navel, he woke up and rolled to his back. She was sure he was going to say something but it cut off in a strangled breath the moment she licked up the length of his cock. She was fascinated by it. Really, it was the only one she had had any opportunity to play with.

             
After she was apparently torturing him for too long, he finally remembered she wasn’t doing it on purpose and started helping her out. Once she got the grip, the strength, and the motions down in a steady rhythm he was calling her name, calling out for God, and finally, he came. She was totally unprepared for it, but managed to handle it with some decorum nonetheless.

             
He was spent. She looked up at him and he looked down at her and then dropped his head back on the pillow with a thud. She crawled up his body and put her head on his chest, over his heart. “It’s beating so fast.”

             
He chuckled. “Yeah, you did that.”

***

              “If they start asking too much, just let me know. We can leave anytime you want. I mean it. I don’t normally come to these things anyways.” Roy held her hand as they stood outside the door to Jack Johnson’s house. It was apparently his turn to host the traditional Johnson family game night.

             
“Roy.” She smiled at him and he smiled back. “I love you.”

             
He couldn’t even respond before the door was open and they were facing the crowd. She walked in as nonchalant as though she just said she loved cake, but she didn’t love cake, she loved him. He was stunned as he sat next to her and looked around at the couples looking back at them. “So this is Lexi everyone. Lexi this is Jack and Bethany, it’s their house. That’s Heath and Chance. Rafe and Layla, you met their oldest boy Brice at the wedding. That’s Lucky and Hope, you crashed their wedding.” She elbowed him and he laughed. The crowd took in a collective gasp. He ignored it but she gave them all a weird look for it. “You know Jan and my brother, Buck.”

             
“Hi,” she said. She looked at him and then back at all of them. “It’s great being here. I’ve heard a lot about all of you.”

             
“You have?” Buck asked.

             
“Well yeah,” Lexi still looked at them like they were the ones being weird because she didn’t know how weird it was for them to see him happy, talking, or at game night. “You two met in Las Vegas and now you have three kids, a boy and two girls. You two were married, had some crazy split, then reunited and now have two little girls. Then you two have three and one on the way. Savannah and Brice are older, Coulter is…”

             
“Turning one, that egg was barely hatched.” He winked in Rafe and Layla’s direction and Rafe shrugged an admittance.

             
“You two just had your son, and you two just legally got married, but you’ve been married since winter.” She smiled. Then she looked at him and asked, “Did I miss anything?”

             
“No,” he said and stroked her hair. “You got it all.”

             
“Well, I got you.” She said softly.

             
He pulled her closer and kissed her cheek. He whispered in her ear, “I love you. You know that, right?”

             
She nodded, turned to look at him and he smooched her lips briefly before turning back to the crowd and saying, “Well, who goes first?”

***

              Lexi was sure the night couldn’t get any better, but then they pulled down one path and another until they were at a lake. He got out of the truck and came around to her side. He led her to the back of the pickup and opened the top of the storage bin that was as wide as the bed. He pulled out a blanket and put it down. She climbed in and they lay there looking up at the night sky.

             
“Lexi, if you want to go back to North Carolina and the aquarium, I’d move,” he said.

             
Her heart about burst from the offer. It was unexpected and overwhelming. She could feel the sting of tears. “I don’t want to go back there. I want to be here with you.”

             
“The winters are hard here, sweetheart. I can get a job at any police station, I feel sure of that. I looked into it a few times this past year and I know…”

             
She cut him off by kissing his lips. She pulled back and said “I don’t want to be anywhere other than here. I want to raise a family here, with family. I don’t have…have anyone back there, you know that.”