Hard As Rock (18 page)

“I have some underwear that says otherwise.”

He sniffed the air. “Is that what I smell?”

I slapped his shoulder lightly. “It was a figure of speech!”

“Watch the trees,” he whispered.

I went back to watching the forest with almost religious fervor.

It took us nearly 30 minutes to get down to flat land again. He carried me the entire way, never complaining, never faltering. Over and over I tried to get him to let me walk, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

“I hear cougars know when their prey is wounded,” he whispered to me. “They can tell if it’s hopping that it’s easy pickings.”

I stared at him in fear. “Really?”

“Yeah. Things that hop in the wild? They go after those first. Wounded deer… rabbits… frogs…”

I watched him, fear and adrenalin coursing through my body… until I saw the corner of his mouth turn up the slightest.

“You’re just
saying
that!” I hissed, and slapped his shoulder again.

He burst out into a grin. “Regardless, I think I should carry you.”

“Why?!”

“Because I’m enjoying it.”

…oh.

After that, I didn’t complain any more.

I began to relax once we’d made it to level ground, and the probability of ‘death by giant cat’ began to diminish.

“We’re probably safe now,” I said. “You can put me down.”

“We’ll go a lot faster if you let me carry you.”

“Are you sure? You’re not tired?”

“I’m fine.”

So I let him.

By now I was enjoying the feel of his arms cradling me, the sensation of my body pressed against his chest. He was surprisingly strong. I liked the feel of him carrying me; I
loved
the feeling of having been rescued by him.

So I let him carry me the extra fifteen minutes back to the ranch. Though I felt a little guilty about it.

As soon as we got back to the property, he yelled out, “Mrs. MacCruder!”

No answer.

“Mr. MacCruder?!”

Silence.

He checked the garage. The MacCruders’ old Chevy truck was gone.

“Damn it, they must have gone out,” Ryan muttered.

We passed by the barn. Sure enough, Bessie and Fat Albert were hanging out in the entrance, calm as could be.

“Thanks for nothing,” I said to the horses as Ryan walked past.

He grinned. “Don’t blame them, they were the smartest ones on the trail.”

“I guess I owe you five bucks, huh.”

“For what?”

“The bet. ‘Five’ll get you twenty’?” I reminded him.

“Oh, yeah. I thought you meant for taxi fare.”

“For carrying me down the trail? I think I owe you a lot more than that.”

He grinned again. “We can work something out.”

I wasn’t sure if that was a flirty sexual entendre.

I kind of wanted it to be, but in case I was wrong, I kept quiet.

He got me to the house and opened the front door, then walked me inside, careful not to bang my leg against anything as he took me back to my bedroom. He started to lower me onto the bed –

“I’m all dirty!” I exclaimed. “I’ll mess up the bedspread!”

“Kaitlyn, I really couldn’t give a damn about the bedspread right now.”

I looked at him and smiled. He smiled back, then gingerly laid me down. Once I was comfortably situated, he moved down to my foot. “I’m going to take your boot off, okay?”

I nodded, and winced as he slowly slid it off my calf and ankle. He gently moved the jeans pants leg up and softly peeled off my sock.

“It’s swollen, all right… does this hurt?” he asked as he gently manipulated the area.

“Yeah,” I grunted.

“But you’re not screaming, so that’s good.”

“I guess.”

“Does it feel broken?”

“No, it’s just throbbing, that’s all.”

“Lie here for a minute, I’m going to go fix you an ice pack.”

As I lay there on the bed listening to him in the kitchen, the enormity of what had just happened began to sink in.

I had just gotten thrown off a horse.

Then we had faced down a cougar.

Actually,
Ryan
had faced down a cougar. I’d just lain there on the ground.

He had stood between me and it, and put his life on the line to scare the thing away.

Once that was done, he had carried me almost an hour down a mountain and back to the ranch.

And now he was taking care of me, attending to my wounds.

Tears sprang to my eyes.

Had Derek ever risked his life for me?

Had Derek ever carried me anywhere, when there wasn’t anything in it for him? Like sex in a hotel room?

I had obsessed over
him
all this time, while distancing myself from Ryan.

But it was Ryan who had put himself between me and certain death.

It was Ryan who had carried me down the mountain.

All this time, I had been pining away for the wrong man.

Ryan came back in the room with a plastic bag filled with ice and a small towel. “I think this’ll do for now. We can put some cold on it and see how – hey – hey, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

I realized that tears were streaming down my face.

I shook my head ‘no.’

“What’s wrong?” he asked, alarmed. He put the ice and towel down on the bed and sat down beside me. “Does it hurt a lot worse?”

I reached up and put my hand on his face… and then placed it behind his neck. And slowly pulled him down to me.

His eyes widened in surprise. “Kaitlyn – ” he whispered, right before I kissed him.

It was a beautiful kiss. Soft and gentle, filled with the sweetness of just having cheated death – and the joy of being with someone you’d just figured out you were in love with.

After about twenty seconds of his lips on mine, he pulled away and looked me in the eyes. He looked a little bewildered. “…are you… going into shock or something?”

I burst out laughing, and pulled him down to kiss me again.

This time the softness and gentleness yielded a bit more to passion.

I brushed my lips over his and opened them up to him. He paused just the slightest, and then I felt his tongue, warm and soft, slowly enter me.

He put his hands around my face, cradling me as though I were something precious, as he slowly, sensually deepened our kiss. I pulled him in, sucking on him, tasting him, growing wet with the idea of more.

When he finally broke off, he pulled away to look at me.

He smiled.

I smiled back, then whispered, “Take off my clothes.”

His smile dropped away in surprise. “Are you – are you sure?”

“Take off my clothes.”

“But your leg – ”

I got up right against his ear and just barely breathed into it, “Take off my clothes. And take off yours, too.”

Our eyes stayed locked as he unbuttoned my jeans and began to pull them off. The only time he looked away was so that he could concentrate on getting the pants leg over my hurt ankle. He was so careful… so gentle. Like I was incredibly precious, and that he would do anything to make sure I was alright.

I arched my back to help him. Once my jeans were off, I was lying there in my underwear, with my bare legs against the bedspread.

He just looked at them in wonder and a kind of hunger, like he had wanted to see them for so long, but never thought he would be able to. He trailed his fingers along my calf, then over my knee and up to my thigh, slowly brushing his skin across mine.

I shivered with pleasure. (And was eternally grateful that I had shaved last night.)

I started to undo the buttons on my long-sleeve shirt –

“Wait,” he whispered, his voice thick with desire. He moved across the bed and took over. One by one he undid the buttons, then slowly pulled back the two halves to reveal my bra.

He stared at my breasts beneath the black lace, and I could hear his breathing change.

His eyes wandered up to mine.

“Now you,” I whispered.

He pulled off his boots and stood up. I watched him with the same rapt attention he had given me. He unbuttoned his shirt, then let it drop to the floor. God, he had a nice body. Long and lean, with hard, flat muscles. Very little chest hair, but a nice little happy trail along his pronounced abs… which I got to see more of when he unbuckled his belt and slipped off his jeans. Long, strong legs underneath… cotton boxers… and a bulge beneath the cloth that made my mouth water.

He sat back down on the bed beside me.

I struggled up onto my elbows so I could get rid of my shirt. The whole time I was looking at that firm shape beneath his underwear.

As soon as my shirt was on the floor, he leaned over and kissed me again. Warm, soft, deep. I closed my eyes and relaxed in bliss… and then felt his large hand, calloused from his guitar playing, hesitantly touch my bra.

I reached up and put my hand over his, pressing him against my left breast.

He began to caress me, stroking his fingers across my skin.

I reached out to his leg… trailed up his thigh… found the cotton of his boxers… and kept going until I found what I wanted.

My fingers touched the hard shape beneath the cloth and gently closed around it.

Oh God – I felt it strain against my touch.

He made a low, throaty sound as he continued to kiss me. I felt his hands reach around me, and seconds later my bra slipped off my shoulders.

I released my hold on his cock long enough for him to remove the bra completely. Then I fumbled my hand back to his lap and continued stroking him as he cupped my breasts in his palms, toying with their weight, brushing his thumbs against my erect nipples.

Throughout it all, he never stopped kissing me. His tongue just played across mine, hot and wet and sensual.

Feeling him through the cloth was nice, but I wanted more. I slid my fingers over and found the front flap of his boxers… and slowly inched my fingers inside.

Unnnhhh.

The softness of his skin, the hardness of his shaft… I wrapped my hand around him and began to caress him up and down, brushing against the ridge of his swollen head, feeling the veins beneath his skin.

Finally he broke off our kiss – but only so he could move his mouth down to my breasts. He sucked gently at first, then greedily at my left nipple, running his tongue around the swollen tip.

I arched my head back and moaned with desire. As he moved his wet tongue from one breast to the other, I worked his cock free of his boxers and began to stroke him more vigorously.

“I need to go get a condom,” he gasped.

I thought about telling him we could have unprotected sex – that I was on the NuvaRing – but I figured that could wait.

“Okay,” I whispered back.

He stood up, grinned like a kid on Christmas morning, and leaned over and kissed me. “Be right back.”

While he was gone, I took the opportunity to pull off the bedspread and toss it on the floor.

Ryan was back within thirty seconds, a strand of condom packages trailing from his hand. He stopped at the doorway and gawked at me.

I was sitting up on the bed after throwing the bedspread off. I looked at him over my shoulder, my hair spilling down my back, and consciously thrust my breasts out the tiniest bit.

“My god, you’re gorgeous,” he whispered.

I smiled at him, and then sat on the edge of the bed. “Come here.”

He walked over in front of me, his cock jutting stiffly upwards. I worked him back inside his boxers, then pulled the waistband over the head and tugged his underwear down over his hips and ass and thighs until they dropped to the floor.

Oh my.

His cock was right there in front of me as I sat on the edge of the bed. It wasn’t incredibly long, but it was definitely bigger than average. He was also a lot thicker than I was expecting, maybe because his body was on the thin side.

Brown curls formed a heavenly little thatch around the base of his shaft. I trailed my fingers over them, then cupped his sack and balls in my palm. His cock jumped the slightest, and a bead of pre-cum welled up on the slit of his head.

I don’t know why… I normally didn’t like giving head… but I had the strangest urge to kiss him down there.

I looked up. “Have you been with anybody since Kristin?”

She was his ex-girlfriend, whom he’d broken up with a month before I had joined Bigger on tour.

He gazed down at me with an expression of slight alarm. “No… I haven’t been with anybody else.”

I smiled at him, and leaned forward and kissed the head of his cock.

Unnhh.

Soft, hot flesh pressed against my mouth, and I felt his pre-cum dab wetly at my skin. I licked my lips; it tasted slightly salty.

The best part of it, though, was his reaction.

“Oh my god,” he whispered, as though he’d just seen the 8th Wonder of the World.

I liked that.

Derek had been so demanding about getting a blowjob, like he’d deserved one.

Ryan… Ryan sounded appreciative of just that one little touch.
Really
appreciative.

I decided to give him a little more.

I bent my head at an angle and kissed the little ridge of skin beneath his head.

“Oh my
god,
” he whispered again, even more intense than the first time.

Damn
that turned me on.

It’s nice to be appreciated.

I started kissing him all the way down his shaft, light little kisses – and was rewarded with a flurry of
oh my god’
s, which turned me on even more.

So I started to lick.

He
definitely
liked THAT.

“oh my god oh my god oh my god,” he whispered repeatedly, like he was having some kind of religious experience.

My mouth moved wet and hot along his skin… long strokes with the flat of my tongue, followed by tiny licks with the tip.

For the first time ever, I was enjoying going down on a guy.

I was even getting really turned on by it… so much so that I took the tip of his head into my lips and played my tongue along the ridge of skin beneath.

“Oh my GOD!” he cried out, like he’d just seen some sort of Heavenly Light.