Gentling the Cowboy (14 page)

In a suggestive tone, Tony said, “I have a cabin a couple of hours from here. It’s nothing fancy, but no one goes there except me.”

His offer sucked the air from her lungs. Sarah opened one eye cautiously. “Are you asking me to go with you?”

Standing before her, he tucked a loose tendril behind one of her ears, and a hint of a smile softened his features. “You could go alone, but you’re not real good at finding places on your own.”

Sarah dropped both of her bags at her feet and searched his face for answers to the myriad of questions rushing through her. “I’m not ready to laugh about this yet.”

He pulled her to him and whispered in her ear, “That’s good, because there is nothing funny about what I want to do with you at my cabin.”

Sarah sagged against him, reveling in the strength of him as he held her. “You still want me after seeing me like this? I don’t normally run around and threaten everyone I come across.”

He smiled for the first time that day, and it transformed him from attractive to knee-melting gorgeous. “Give me five minutes to gather a few things and I’ll take you where we both want to be.” With one parting kiss he added, “And I’ll read your message.”

She would have answered him, but his kiss emptied what was left of her coherent thoughts. She was lost in the heat of his lips on hers, the feel of his tongue in her mouth. Every place their bodies touched was burning with anticipation.

He left her standing there against her SUV as he sprinted back into the house. Sarah touched her throbbing lips with a hand that shook.

Now that’s what I’m talking about, Texas.

I forgive you for last night.

Sarah was pretty sure she didn’t start breathing again until she and Tony were driving down the dirt road that led away from his ranch. It surprised her when he took the passenger seat. Yes, they’d decided to take her SUV since she’d already packed her luggage into it, but she’d expected him to demand the car keys like every other man she knew—including her brother.

The mundane act of driving was soothing to her frayed nerves. Emotionally she’d been all over the place that morning. Her thoughts still hadn’t settled in the aftermath of what now ranked in the top three most embarrassing moments of her life. She wished she could claim it stood out as her worst one, but it didn’t.

“You’ll be on this road for about an hour before we hit the highway.”

“That long?” she asked, without looking away from the path before them.

“And then another hour after that.”

Sarah cleared her throat nervously.
That sounds like a long time to think about how wise it is to disappear into the woods of Texas with a man I hardly know.
She sneaked a quick look at his profile.
What am I doing? I’ve spent the last few days fantasizing about this happening. This is not the time to second-guess myself.
“Have you done this before? Brought someone to your cabin?”

Like Melanie?

Is that why she has a son?

I really am an idiot.

Why can’t I turn off my stupid internal dialogue and enjoy this?

Sarah gripped the steering wheel as she chastised herself silently.

He reached over, pried one of her hands off the wheel, and held it in his left hand. “You’re the first.” He placed her hand on his jean-clad thigh and said, “Relax.”

Her hand shook beneath his. “That’s easy for you to say.”

“It’s not, actually. Nothing about this makes any sense, but . . .”

Sarah glanced at him quickly again and her stomach clenched at the tortured expression in his eyes.
How can I want to ravish him one moment and then the next want to pull the car over and hug his pain away?
“But?” she pushed softly.

His hand tightened on top of hers. “I couldn’t let you go. You’re all I think about. Tasting you again. Finishing what we started up in that field. No more interruptions. Just you and me and however much time we need.”

Oh, boy.

He turned in his seat and slowly unbuttoned her blouse, sliding his open hand beneath one of the lace cups of her bra and teasing her instantly hard nipple with his fingertips. “I want to fuck you again and again until I’m all you can think about.”

She let out an audible sigh of disappointment when he removed his hand and then gasped when he used it to tug her shirt from her pants waistband with one strong move. Deftly he unsnapped her jeans. Her stomach shuddered against his hand. He unzipped her jeans and slid his hand in to cup her now-soaked silk crotch. “You want it just as badly, don’t you?” He teased the inside seam of her panties, hinting that he’d like to push them aside, but not yet doing so. “Say it, Sarah.”

Keeping her eyes on the long straight road ahead, Sarah said, “I want you.”

He fingered the seam again. “I want to hear you beg for it. I’ll teach you, but only if you give yourself to me totally. I told you if you stay, you stay on my terms. You’re mine, Sarah. For this trip. For however long I want you. Say it.”

His hand rested possessively over her wet lips, already claiming what he demanded she surrender. This was her fantasy—the adventure she’d never dared to believe she could have. He wasn’t asking for forever and he wasn’t allowing her to do this halfway. He wanted to be in control, to own her, if only for a short time. Another woman might have resisted the idea, but the pleasure Tony had already brought her made surrendering a temptation Sarah didn’t even try to resist. “I’m yours.”

He rewarded her by pushing the silk aside, finding her wet clit with his thumb, and circling it ever so slowly until she was rubbing against his hand. “Now tell me what you wrote in your notebook for me.”

Sarah froze. “No.”

His hand did, too. He leaned over and grazed her neck with his hot lips. “The deal is everything or nothing. Turn the car around if you can’t handle it.”

Damn him.
He wouldn’t settle for less than everything. With a flush of embarrassment spreading across her chest and neck, Sarah admitted, “I wrote a masturbation scene.”

His fingers began their sweet, sweet torture again. His tongue lapped at the sensitive area behind her neck. “Describe it.”

As she did, his fingers explored her, delved within her, played with her until she pulled off the road and threw her head back from the pleasure of it. She could barely remember what she’d written now, but he pushed her to share more, to describe each graphic detail. When she got to the part where she was tasting her own fingers and imagining it was him, he sat back, freed his eager dick from his pants, released her seatbelt, and pulled her head toward it.

“Show me.”

She did without hesitation, taking him deep within her mouth. Alternately sucking and stroking him with her lips. She’d tried going down on her ex-boyfriend once but hadn’t found pleasure in it. With Tony, every touch brought her as much pleasure as it brought him. The breadth of him was stimulating.

Already larger than she’d ever experienced, he continued to grow and harden against her attentive tongue until all she could imagine was how he’d feel in her later. She circled his tip with a teasing flick and gasped with pleasure as his hand fisted in her hair in response. She welcomed him deeper into her mouth, slowly opening her jaw wider until he was moaning with pleasure and she wasn’t sure she could take in more of him.

His free hand sought her nub again and her arousal soared to meet his. Lost in the pleasure of her mouth, his touch was rougher, more demanding. His middle finger sought the G-spot she’d given up ever finding and sent her into near convulsions as a new level of heat swept through her. She wanted to beg him not to stop, but he held her head and thrust deeper into her mouth. She cupped his balls with one eager hand and felt them tense and tighten as he neared release.

And still his finger fucked her, in and out, pushing her to a frenzy of writhing against it and sucking wildly on him at the same time. He held her head in place as he came with a deep, satisfied groan. His pleasure was now her pleasure. Heat shot through her, and she shuddered from the intensity of it as she came on his hand.

He raised her head and kissed her still open mouth. When his hand began to move again, she pulled back and huskily admitted, “I came, too.” And waited for him to pull back.

He kissed her neck hungrily, slid her shirt off her shoulders and began to suckle her through the lace of her bra. He eased her back against her car door. His mouth was everywhere as his hands impatiently removed her clothing, both seeking entry into every crevice of her body. Unbelievably, the heat began to build again.

“This is only the beginning,” he murmured against her skin.

Half out of her mind, she spoke her thoughts aloud in wonder. “It gets better?”

He chuckled against her stomach, pausing on his path to lick her intimately again. “Oh, Sarah, you have no idea.” What his fingers had possessed, his lips now claimed. He parted her lower lips, rousing her with his talented tongue. He rolled his tongue, teasing her outer folds, then ramming it inside her again and again, reaching deeper with each thrust. Wet, hot, and demanding. He ran his tongue over her nub again, flicking it before diving back inside.

Sarah tensed against the door as her body again approached the unthinkable. Laid out before him, she gave herself over to the pleasure, calling out his name as she came and clutching at him as he’d clutched at her. He lifted her and pulled her onto his lap. Spent and safely tucked into his arms, Sarah rested her head on his chest and listened to the slowing beat of his heart as they both came back to earth.

A while later, dressed again, Sarah pulled out onto the road and was shocked when a car skidded and swerved around them.
This would be awkward to explain to my insurance company.
I was temporarily in an orgasmic daze. Sure I saw it coming, but I was too relaxed to care.

She hadn’t considered how public the setting had been until another car flew by, impatient at her inability to determine the speed limit. “Do you think anyone saw us?” she asked.

“The press doesn’t stalk me anymore, thank God, so no.”

“The press?”
Wow, cowboys are big news down here. Who knew?

He looked irritated with himself for his spontaneous comment. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You brought it up.”

His face tightened with a guarded expression she was getting used to seeing. “Drop it.”

Sarah relented temporarily. “I don’t mean to pry. I’m just trying to get to know you.”

One of his eyebrows raised and he said, “I’d say we know each other just fine.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

His expression darkened again. “Don’t get confused about what we’re doing together.”

Sarah looked straight ahead. Pride made her say, “This is research to me. Nothing more.”

“Good, because when this is over, I don’t want you thinking I led you to believe differently.”

You really are a bastard sometimes, Tony.

What am I doing with you?

Her nether regions tingled in memory and she thought,
Besides that.
“You couldn’t be more clear,” Sarah said sarcastically. “But then I wouldn’t expect much from a man who won’t let a kid talk to him.”

“How I run my ranch is none of your business,” he said coldly.

Sarah threw her hands up in the air. “I get it. I get it. You don’t have to take out a billboard.” The car swerved into the left lane, which thankfully had no oncoming traffic.

Tony grabbed the wheel, correcting their path, and said, “Pay attention to where you’re going.”

Sarah took the steering wheel back and said, “You weren’t worried about that earlier.”

One side of Tony’s mouth curled in a hint of amusement. “Why are we fighting?” he asked huskily.

Heat spread through Sarah’s stomach at his coaxing tone. Still, she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “Because you’re an ass?”

Too seriously, he said, “I’m not going to change. Not for you. Not for anyone.”

“And what if I told you that I like a little ass in a man?” she asked, giving them both an out from the awkward turn the conversation had taken.

Fire leapt back into his eyes and in a flash he went from defensive to persuasive. “Then I’d say we have better things to do than argue.” He slid a hand between her thighs and rubbed her through the material of her jeans. Sarah couldn’t think of anything besides how good his hands felt and how soon she could pull over again.

What he thought could wait for the cabin became a feverish necessity on the side of the road. She was already wet and ready when he yanked her pants off and his cock needed no coaxing, it sprang upright as soon as he freed it. He sheathed it in a condom and pulled her from her seat to straddle him.

And slowly, ever so slowly, lowered her hot and wet onto his cock. She rested her forearms on his shoulders and threw her head back, exposing her neck once again to his eager mouth. She was so small, so tight. He lifted her effortlessly up and down on him.

The pleasure he’d experienced earlier paled in comparison to how it felt to finally be beneath her, inside her. All his senses surrounded by the sweetness of her. He tried to take his time, but they soon found the frantic rhythm of new lovers. He pounded upward and she ground herself greedily down onto him. When he thought he could go no deeper, she opened herself wider for him and he groaned from the pleasure of it. He was normally a methodical lover, ensuring that he gave as much pleasure as he took, but this time he couldn’t wait. He couldn’t think. All he could do was try to slow her down. Her desire was destroying his ability to hold out.

The honk of passing cars barely registered. She was his. Completely his. Nothing else mattered. A fire spread through him, so intense he gripped her hips desperately while he came within her, loving that she cried out and collapsed onto him only seconds later.

He kissed her damp forehead.

The siren of a police car pulling up behind them set them both to scrambling for their clothing. Sarah shimmied into her underwear in record time, but was halfway through pulling on her jeans when the officer started pounding on the window. Tony had disposed of the condom in a small bag of trash on the floor and was zippered and presentable even as Sarah double-checked her shirt to make sure it was still buttoned.