Gentling the Cowboy (15 page)

“Do they arrest you in Texas for this?” she asked in a rush, seatbelting herself back into the driver’s seat.

“I don’t know,” Tony said, his senses still full of her sweetness. “I’m not sure I care.”

The officer banged on the window again.

Sarah reluctantly turned on her car and pushed the button to lower the window.

Shaking his head at the two of them, Dean said, “If you’re going to do shit like this, could you at least do it where no one knows you?”

Fuck.

The mocking lecture continued. “How about over the county line? Anywhere but here. Do you know how many calls I received?”

Sarah met Tony’s eyes and shook with a nervous giggle. She choked on the next and then bit her lip and sounded like she was wheezing as she tried to contain another burst of amusement.

Her laughter was as irresistible as she was, and Tony found himself fighting back a chuckle, too. She caved first and laughed out loud. He joined her until they were both laughing so hard they couldn’t speak.

Dean leaned in and said something, but Tony didn’t hear what he said and he didn’t care what he’d missed. He’d never seen anything more beautiful than Sarah, mussed from sex, laughing until she was crying. Gasping for air, she said, “I wasn’t sure I could pull off anything worse than this morning, but I think this tops it.”

Normally, the shocked expression on his brother’s face would have made Tony defensive, but he was already laughing, and somehow the stern expression only made the situation more amusing. He felt giddy. “I promised myself I would be more discrete with you, so no one would know.”

Sarah let out another peal of laughter. “Good plan, poor execution.”

Dean said, “Should I ask if you two are fit to drive?”

Sarah looked up at Dean and said, “This is not chemically induced.”

With one final measured look, Dean banged on the side of her SUV door and said, “I’m sure I don’t want to know then. Just get to where you’re going before you cause an accident.”

For the first time in a long time, Tony was grateful that his brother was the local law. He leaned across Sarah and said, “Thanks, Dean.”

Dean’s jaw fell open and he shook his head in amused disbelief. “You’re welcome. I guess. Get out of here.”

Sarah started the car and as they pulled back onto the road she pointed to a sign. She said, “He’s right. We didn’t even make it out of the county.”

“You know what that means?” he asked as a wonderful thought came to him.

“No,” she answered, glancing over at him, her laughter finally subsiding.

“We still have a long drive ahead of us.”

The heated look she gave him knocked all thought clear out of his head. “Good,” she said softly, and he marveled at how one simple word could make him want to throw away years of carefully staying out of the public eye and take her again on the side of the road.

Sarah Dery is one dangerous woman.

Tony parked her SUV in the driveway of a small, secluded cabin. Neither of them moved at first. Tony unbuckled his seat belt but didn’t open the driver’s door. He leaned back and looked over at her, apparently as relaxed as she was.

Sarah undid her own belt and smiled at him, not straightening from her reclined pose. The afternoon sun was hidden deep in the tree line. “I thought you said it was a two-hour drive.”

Humor lit his eyes. “It always has been. We might’ve never gotten here if I hadn’t taken the wheel. You’re far too much of a distraction.”

Me?
“I have never taken off and put on jeans so many times in my life.”

A smile spread across his face. “I believe that’s why man invented the dress.”

“Really? You’re claiming that one for Team Men?”

“Wear one for me sometime and I’ll demonstrate the genius of it.”

Sarah shook her head with amusement. “You’re incorrigible.”

He leaned across and kissed her lightly on the lips. “And you’re addictive. Let’s go inside.”

The kiss he gave her was so tender, so sweet, that she had to remind herself of his earlier warning. This wasn’t the beginning of something. This wasn’t even the end of something. This was just two people stepping outside of their normal lives to appease a mutual hunger.

Believing for a second that it was anything more than that would only lead to heartache. He’d stated what he could offer her and she’d accepted.
Only a fool would start hoping for more.

He broke off the kiss and exited the car. Before she had time to even fumble for the door he had opened it and was lifting her into his arms. He carried her up the steps, paused briefly to unlock the door, then carried her over the threshold—like a bride.

She kicked herself mentally for the image.

For once can’t I just enjoy something without overthinking it?

He closed the door behind him with a kick and carried her up the stairs to the bedroom where he laid her down on the soft coverings of a full-size bed. Wordlessly he began to remove her clothing.

He paused to admire each section he exposed and then kissed it—more an act of possession than foreplay. When she was completely nude before him, he ran a finger down her jaw, across her collarbone, and then over the aroused nipple of one of her breasts, circling it lightly. “You are so beautiful.”

Sarah held her breath. When he looked at her she felt alive, vibrant, and unable to deny him anything.

He continued his soft caresses across her stomach, moving down to tease her legs open by outlining one of her inner thighs. “Too beautiful for clothes.” He rolled up her clothing and threw them in the corner of the room. “While you’re here, I want you like this.” He bent and kissed the area just below her bared navel. “Just like this.”

Tony stood and shed his own clothing before lifting her in his arms again, sliding her beneath the covers, and joining her. He pulled her into his deliciously naked embrace and rolled her beneath him, his arousal boldly nudging against the inside of one of her thighs.

“And what about what I want?” she asked huskily.

Instead of answering, he sheathed himself in a condom.

I should tell him to go to hell.

I should demand he drive me back this very instant.

Tony took both of her hands in one of his and raised them above her head, holding them there effortlessly and then claiming her neck with his hot mouth. With one firm move, he slid a knee between hers and eased her legs wider. He poised himself above her, the head of his pulsing erection teasing the outer folds of her lips. Slowly he moved himself back and forth against her. Everywhere their bodies brushed ignited with consuming heat.

She opened her legs wider, exposing more of herself to his intimate strokes. The length of his dick rubbed up and down her clit until she was wild and wet with desire. He raised his head and stared down into her eyes, still holding her hands above her head, while his free hand explored every part of her he could reach.

Then he concentrated on her breasts. He lapped at one while he lightly pinched the nipple of the other. Sarah moaned and squirmed, which excited him more. He moved his hand to lift her ass for his deep thrust. Sarah bit her lip to hold in a cry of pleasure. He took her deeply, each thrust boldly claiming her while sending intense hot sensations through her. She wanted to hold him, kiss him. She struggled to free her hands, but he held them easily.

She gave in to the pleasure of being taken, completely taken. She closed her eyes, threw her head back into the pillows, and came with a shudder.

And still he moved within her. His attentive mouth turned less gentle as he suckled her breast. The hand beneath her ass gripped her and squeezed. Pleasure and pain mixed and brought a renewed passion to their joining. He grabbed her chin and held it firmly. “I told you, all or nothing. You’re mine now.”

Arrogant bastard.

He withdrew for a moment, let go of her hands, and adjusted their position so he could raise both her hips off the bed. He claimed her mouth with his, savoring the depth of it with his tongue while entering her again with one deep thrust, then another. Sarah found herself spiraling toward a second orgasm. She gripped the sheets on either side of her, turned her head to one side, and cried out as she peaked again, loving that with one final, shuddering pound he joined her.

He rolled to the side, disposed of his condom, then pulled her to him and tucked her into his side. Sarah closed her eyes and caught her breath.

Tony ran a hand gently up her spine and kissed her lightly on the lips. Sarah enjoyed the warm afterglow of the touch, then opened her eyes and met his, drawn again into their green depth.

Which one is the real Tony? The controlling man who makes rules and pushes everyone away, or the gentle, tortured soul I glimpse when he lets his guard down?

Both are amazing in bed, but which one will send me packing when this is over?

And could either of them love me?

As if he heard her question, he kissed her lightly on the forehead, then rested his chin on her hairline. She fell asleep to the sound of his deepening breaths and the steady beat of his heart beneath her ear.

Tony held her to him and tried to sort the day out.

She leaves as soon as I get her out of my system.

Even after their wild ride and his recent release, his cock stirred at the thought of having her again.
It may take a while, though.

He’d been far from celibate over the years, and he was comfortable with his routine. Sex was a natural function that two consenting adults engaged in without much drama. A leisurely fuck, a promise to call that neither believed, and the occasional repeat if the sex was good enough. Too much sex with one woman led to expectations that he had no intentions of honoring, so he kept it simple and brief.

So what was this?

If by some miracle the story of what we did today stayed out of the paper, there wasn’t a person in Fort Mavis who wouldn’t have heard about it
.
Was that why I did it? Some primal need to pound my chest and stake my claim?

What happened to wanting to save her reputation?

A realization sent his heart pounding in his chest.
I wasn’t thinking about what this would mean for her or for me. I wasn’t thinking at all.

Sarah nuzzled against his chest in her sleep and he wanted to wake her, to warn her again that her trust in him was misplaced. Instead, he held her to him and joined her in the escape of slumber.

The windows were dark with night when he sat up in bed, gasping for air, his cheeks wet from tears he shed only in his dreams. Sarah sat up and cupped his face in a move of comfort. Her hands stilled when she felt his tears.

He pulled back from her and turned away, dropping his feet to the floor on the side of the bed. She followed him and wrapped her arms around him from behind, laying her head on his back.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said harshly, fighting both the memories of his dream and a wave of shame.

“You don’t have to,” she said softly and held him tighter. Bare skin to bare skin, normally a source of excitement, brought him comfort this time. They simply sat there while his breathing returned to normal within her embrace.

Eventually he covered one of her delicate hands with his own. “You are a good woman, Sarah. You deserve a man who can treat you better than I will.”

“I had a good man. We bored ourselves into a breakup.”

Tony chuckled lightly, further distancing himself from the tortured images of his dreams. “I never know what you’re going to say.”

Sarah kissed the base of his neck, then hugged him again. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” When he didn’t respond to her joke, Sarah said, “Everyone has scars, Tony. If yours were on your skin and not in your heart, would you hide them from me? Would you be ashamed?”

Tony rolled onto his back and pulled her to his side again, looking at the dark ceiling instead of her. “If they were as ugly, I might.”

While rubbing one hand on his chest, Sarah said, “I killed my younger brother.”

Tony’s arm tightened around her, knowing that although she believed that, a woman like her never would have.

She said, “We were at my family’s lake house. My parents were cooking. Charlie went to ask them a question. I was supposed to watch Phil, but I didn’t notice that he’d stopped making his sandcastle. I don’t remember which daydream to blame. They found his body a few hundred feet away. He’d drowned. Not a sound. Not a scream. Just there and then gone. He was only three.”

“How old were you?” Tony asked, feeling her pain entwine with his own.

“Eight. Old enough to know better.” Five words, but they were heavy with years of self-recrimination.

“Too young to be responsible,” Tony growled.

Sarah shrugged and shook within his embrace. “That’s what everyone said, but I know the truth. It was my fault. I was supposed to watch him.”

He hugged her to him. He sought the words that would ease her pain, but he had never found them—not even for himself.

“Whatever you did, Tony, has keeping it inside made you feel better? Or has it festered? I would give anything to go back and undo what I did that day, but I can’t. All I can do is face it and try to go on.”

“Go to sleep, Sarah.”

She leaned up and kissed his jaw. “Okay, but think about what I said.”

He did.

Long after she fell asleep again, he stared into the darkness and thought about what she had shared and why hearing it had touched him so deeply.

Sarah woke up in Tony’s arms and froze. Her cheeks warmed as she remembered the drive to the cabin. Normally she would have said that most displays of affection were best kept private. She and Doug had shared quick public kisses at the beginning or end of a date, but they’d both agreed that more than that was inappropriate.

She and Tony had no such agreement.