Midnight Wrangler (18 page)

Lifting her hips put him in exactly the position she wanted him to be. She pulled and he slid inside her.

She gasped at finally getting what she'd longed for as he filled her completely. He didn't seem in any hurry to move, but she didn't mind. It was too amazing being joined with him. She needed to wrap her mind around the fact that he was here, with her, in her, again.

Finally.

Rohn leaned low and pressed his lips to hers. He kissed her with a tender gentleness that had her heart opening further to this man even when she should be locking that rebellious organ down tight.

He intensified the kiss, taking her mouth with his tongue as he began to slowly rock his hips. That region was still so sensitive she felt every one of his strokes tenfold, no matter how slow or small.

“Rohn.” She had nothing else to say. She just wanted to say his name to remind herself he was really here with her. That they were really doing this.

He answered her with a groan.

His breaths sped along with the stroke of his body into hers. He groaned on every downstroke. They abandoned trying to kiss. Breathing was hard enough as it was as they both gasped for air.

He opened his eyes and captured her gaze as he stroked into her. She could see his emotions so near the surface. As if there were unspoken words on the tip of his tongue. Then they were gone. He closed his eyes. His body bowed above her as the intensity of his lovemaking deepened.

She closed her eyes, but missed the connection and forced them open again. She wanted to see him as well as feel and hear him.

His strokes sped up. He reached beneath her and lifted her hips. The change of angle had her crying out with her head thrown back.

“You doing a'ight, Bonnie Blue?” His voice was husky and breathless against her ear yet she heard the smile in it. “Don't pass out on me, darlin'. I'm not nearly done yet.”

Her eyes popped wide. “You're not?”

“Nuh-uh. Not even close.” This time she saw the smile as well as heard it in his proclamation.

“That's because you're holding back.” Bonnie had noticed the change in his stroke.

“Yup. I'm not crazy enough to want this to end yet. I might not be young anymore, but I've learned a little bit about control.” He grinned. “And that blow job helped me let off a little steam.”

“Maybe I should always give you a blow job before we have sex.”

He lifted one brow. “If you think I won't agree to that, you're wrong. I'm totally onboard with your plan. Can you handle that?”

“Yes.”

A plan for a repeat of this with him—she wanted nothing better. His steady rocking into her, the slide of his body against hers, had clearly made her incapable of thinking rationally.

“Good.” Rohn gripped her hips tighter and began to love her in earnest. That ended the conversation.

The noises of the night went on around them. The peepers and crickets filled the air with the symphony of nature only interrupted by another sound—that of two people making love.

Bonnie realized Rohn had been very serious when he said his goal was to make this last. He worked until they were both breathless and sweaty, until her body clamped down around his, primed for another release.

When it broke over her, she cried out and grasped him tight. Needing an anchor, she braced herself with a grip on his forearms.

Her climax broke through his tightly held control. His strokes became short and fast until his groan seemed to bounce back from the dark edges of the night surrounding them.

He collapsed on top of her, a hot, heaving mass of hard-muscled, sweaty man.

The comfortable silence stretched between them as their breath began to even out.

Eventually, he lifted his head from where he'd lain against her chest. He stroked a finger down her cheek. “I missed this with you, my beautiful Bonnie Blue.”

Rohn's endearment made her feel as boneless as their lovemaking had.

“Missed what? Sex?” She made the silly joke to take the seriousness down a notch.

“No.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “This. Lying in the truck. Your head on my chest while we both stare up at the stars . . . and the sex, too.”

She swatted at his chest. “See. I knew it.”

“Do you blame me?” He rolled them both over so he was above her. “We're good together. Always were, even that first time when I was a virgin but pretending not to be.”

She widened her eyes and lifted her head to try to see his face in the growing darkness. “You were a virgin our first time?”

“Yes.” He avoided eye contact, finally bringing his gaze to meet hers.

“I didn't know.”

He let out a short laugh. “That's because I didn't want you to know.”

“Why not?”

He shrugged. “All the other guys had lost it years before. I guess I was embarrassed to be a late bloomer.”

“You were not a late bloomer.” She remembered his strong chin and cut, capable muscles. He'd looked more like a man than a boy from freshman year. Of course, that was back when she'd been slyly watching him, while he'd yet to notice her.

“I'm glad I waited for you, Bonnie Blue.” Smiling, he drew her closer to him. “Then and now.”

Laying her head on his chest, she heard his heart beat in time with her own. She was falling for him again. Head over heels.

That was probably the worst thing that could happen. What she didn't know was what the hell she was going to do about it.

 

 

“So don't get me wrong, I am very happy to be here with you, but damn, it sure is hot.” Rohn mopped the sweat from his brow and felt where he and Bonnie were adhered by their wet skin. “I'm sorry. I'm sweating all over you.”

“It's okay.”

“No, it's not.” He cringed as he remembered that sometime during their lovemaking the sweat from his face had actually dripped on Bonnie.

Times like these were why man invented air-conditioning, and he was old enough and successful enough to have a damn good unit at his house. Yet here they were in the bed of his truck, drenched in sweat.

He lifted his head to glance down at her face. “Come back to my place and spend the night. I've got a nice big bed and an air-conditioning unit strong enough to cool off a stadium.”

Bonnie wrinkled her nose. “I think I'd better go back to my house.”

There was something wrong. Rohn could see it in her expression. Hear it in the hesitation in her words. “Why don't you want to be at my house?”

She shrugged.

“Bonnie . . . tell me.”

She hesitated and finally said, “I can feel your late wife everywhere. It was strange being there just for dinner. I know there's no way I could sleep—or do anything else—in the bed you used to share with her.”

He contemplated that. Maybe that was one of the reasons why he hadn't moved on even after five years. Not until Bonnie had come back into his life. He could feel Lila everywhere, too. He'd clung to that shadow of her presence after her death.

Now, he realized that comfort he'd depended on just to get through another day might be the very thing holding him back.

“Okay. I understand.” He didn't want to let her go. He wanted to hold her all night long, but she had yet to invite him back to her place. Not that it would be comfortable, both of them on that old sofa, since apparently there wasn't even a mattress in the house anymore. Still, he'd do it to be with her.

To be with Bonnie, he'd do just about anything.

She got slowly, gradually heavier against him. Glancing down, he saw her eyes were closed. He could literally feel her fall into sleep. She obviously needed the rest even though she would never admit it and kept refusing his offer of a decent place to lay her head at night.

Where her head lay right now felt perfect to him.

They couldn't stay all night. Maybe if she had something on below the waist they could get away with remaining just like this until morning. The dew would settle on them, but it was warm enough they wouldn't get cold.

Crazy that he'd willingly sleep in the bed of a pickup when he had a perfectly good house to go home to, but he'd rather be uncomfortable with Bonnie than have all the comforts and luxuries in the world without her.

He'd wake her up eventually and drive her home, but the peace of sleep had settled over her features and he wasn't about to disturb her yet. Besides, who knew when or if they'd ever be in this position again?

Given that uncertainty, Rohn was in no rush to end this moment.

Chapter Nineteen

Bonnie had insisted he take her home instead of to his house, but that was fine with Rohn. As she'd slept, his mind had worked, forming a plan of action.

When he did finally get home, he went right to work. Yes, it had been much too late at night to start such a massive project, but he'd waited long enough already. He wouldn't delay longer.

He figured once he'd finished with his plan, he'd see about wooing Bonnie back into his life full-time. Back where she belonged—in Oklahoma and in his world. If that had to start with getting her into his bed in his house, then so be it. The rest would fall into place later.

The piles of household items around Rohn grew, expanding as if they were a living organism spreading out of control, invading all parts of the house and yard. But unlike a cancer, this growth was a good thing.

He'd finally given in and lain down to sleep at about two in the morning. He was awake again by sunrise, but that was enough rest. He was running on caffeine and adrenaline.

As the morning sun crept higher over the horizon, he took a moment to pause in his perpetual motion and evaluate all he'd done and what was left to do.

After dropping off Bonnie at her place, with the sweet taste of her good-night kiss still fresh on his lips, he'd gone home and headed directly into the living room.

The room had been like a shrine to Lila. In fact, the whole first floor was, except for his office, which had always been his domain, and the kitchen, which had slowly morphed into his personal space, changing to accommodate the way he liked to do things instead of how she'd always done them.

He looked around the stately but unused living room. In the past he'd thought he'd needed all of these things to remain the same in order to remember her. To honor her. To not lose the little details about their lives together to the ravages of time.

It had taken that one comment from Bonnie, that she didn't feel comfortable in his home because Lila was so present there, for Rohn to realize his error.

He would always remember Lila. She lived inside his heart and mind, not inside these dusty items. She was in every fiber of his being and that would never change.

Rohn knew Lila and the kind of woman she'd been, and because of that, he could guess what she'd want him to do now. She had the sweetest most giving soul of anyone he'd ever met. He wasn't honoring her by keeping things exactly the way she'd left them. She wouldn't want him to stop time, freeze everything at the moment of her death like a museum he was honor-bound to live in until the day he died.

She'd want him to live. To do that, he had to let go of the objects from their shared past and move forward.

That's what he'd done, starting last night. Of course, he kept the photos, but there was no need for them to cover every surface of the living room and dining room, not to mention his bedroom and office.

He took his favorite photo of Lila and gave it a place of honor on one of the bookshelves in the living room. The rest, he put in a box for now. He'd get to the store when he had a chance and buy one of those nice leather-bound photo albums. He'd put the photos, which had begun to show the effects of time, safely away. It would preserve them from the sun's rays, while still keeping them at hand so he could look at them whenever he wanted to.

There was furniture in the room he hadn't used in years. There were also items, if truth be told, that he'd never liked very much. He hadn't said anything to Lila because this was her domain—the house, the decor. But now, it was his.

Instead of having the room set up as a formal space with its stiff-backed sofa and fine wood coffee table, it would be a hell of a lot more comfortable—and useful—with casual furnishings.

He'd love to have the boys over to watch a football game on TV once in a while. Or have Bonnie snuggled up next to him on a nice big sofa as they watched a movie—or made out during one.

That idea was what led to the pile of small furnishings, whatever he could move alone, out on the lawn. It was all decent stuff that could go to the church for someone else to use.

There were some really good items he decided he had to keep. One valuable antique desk that had been handed down from one of Lila's ancestors was completely impractical for the room he was creating so he'd moved that upstairs to the guest room.

It fit nicely in front of the window with the view out over the pastures. If he couldn't convince Bonnie to come and sleep in his bedroom, perhaps sprucing up the guest room would get her to change her mind about sleeping in there.

There was a set of wooden end tables that he knew had been handed down from Lila's grandmother. He didn't feel right just dumping them off at the church for strangers. It felt like they should remain in the family. He could store them in the attic to be handed down, to whom he didn't know.

It wasn't as if he had kids of his own to pass things on to. Tyler had walked into Janie's house, which was fully furnished, so he wouldn't need anything. Maybe Justin or Colton would get married and need some nice tables. These boys were the closest thing he had to sons, anyway.

Even the carpet had come up. He and Lila had bought it the year they'd gotten married, and it showed. The sun hadn't been kind to the fibers. It hadn't been kind to his face, either, so he shouldn't expect the rug to survive any better than his skin had.

He'd rolled that up, debating whether it should go to the dump or the church. By then it was well past midnight and he figured the decision could be made in the morning. Rohn would take a fresh look at the rug later and if it was in good enough condition that it wouldn't insult the pastor, he'd let him decide whether he could use it for the church tag sale or the furniture warehouse for the needy.

It was a good start but Rohn wasn't done yet. He considered ordering new furniture online. Mostly because, all hyped up, he hadn't wanted to wait for the stores to open in the morning. But common sense had prevailed and he realized he'd only have to wait longer for shipping, so he'd held off.

Now that the sun was up and the boys would be here any moment, he could get down to serious work again.

The world was finally waking up, and the businesses in town would open shortly. He'd send the boys to the church and the dump. Then he'd head to the off-price furniture store and see what they had in stock for immediate pickup. He didn't have the patience to order something. He wanted it now, today, so he could ask Bonnie over tonight and surprise her.

Rohn glanced at his watch and wondered where the boys were just before he heard Tyler's truck pulling into the driveway. About time, too. Tyler should be first to arrive. He was only driving from next door.

Now that Ty was here, Rohn could do the rest of what he needed.

Tyler ambled over from his parked truck and frowned. “What the hell?”

“I need your help.”

“Obviously. What, did you have a fire or something?” Tyler glanced around at the piles on the lawn.

“Nope. Just redecorating. I need a second set of hands to help me with the big stuff. The sofa has to go first. We can put that right in the truck to go to the church.”

“Is something going on I don't know about? Is the church paying top dollar for old stuff or something?”

“No, and I wouldn't take the money even if they were.”

“I was joking. Jeez. I'm just saying, first Miss Bonnie and now you.” Tyler's eyes widened. “Oh. Never mind. I get it.”

Rohn stifled a groan. Thinking he was probably going to hate what came out of Tyler's mouth next, he still asked, “What do you get?”

“You're redecorating to impress Miss Bonnie.” Tyler grinned, looking satisfied with himself.

“Yup. You guessed it.” Rohn could live with that assumption. It was better than the complete truth. That he was purging the house of his dead wife's things so his new girlfriend would come over and sleep with him.

“Wow. You're going all out for her.”

“I guess so.” God, was he an asshole for doing this? Was it a betrayal?

He knew he was overtired and he hadn't eaten since early yesterday evening. It was easy to feel overly emotional.

This was the right thing to do. He knew it deep down. He'd always remember Lila, but he didn't have to sit on her sofa to do it.

“When the other guys get here, I'll need you to go up to my bedroom and take out the bed and mattress.”

Tyler's brows rose. “You're wanting to impress her in your bedroom, too? Dang, what happened that I don't know about?”

Rohn cocked a brow. “Your ability to carry my twenty-year-old mattress doesn't depend on your knowing my personal shit, so enough with the questions.”

“Yes, boss.” A cocky smile tipped up Tyler's lips.

Rohn smothered a sigh. “Come on. Let's get that sofa out. Once that's in the truck, the little stuff can get put in around it.”

“Yes, sir.”

He ignored Tyler's attitude. He knew the kid only called him
sir
when he thought he was acting like an idiot, but at the moment Rohn didn't care. He had to get to the Megamart in town.

One of those big flat-screen televisions hanging above the fireplace would look really cool. It would modernize the room and be perfect for watching sports. Then he could grab something to eat and wait for the furniture store to open. Hopefully they had one of those wraparound sectional sofas. Nice and big in case he and Bonnie decided they didn't want to adjourn to the bedroom for some sport of their own.

Maybe he'd pick up a recliner to supplement the seating. That would be the way to kick back and watch a football game with the guys. A nice wide one so Bonnie could sit in his lap if he was feeling too far away from her.

He was getting way ahead of himself, but he couldn't help it. He hadn't felt this good in years. And it wasn't just because he'd had sex after a five-year dry spell, either. For the first time since Lila had died, Rohn was envisioning a bright and happy future instead of a lonely existence of just getting by.

He'd hopped out of bed before dawn after getting barely any sleep for a good reason. He was ready to get on with his life.

The sound of crunching gravel as another truck turned into the drive had Rohn glancing past Tyler. “Good. Justin's here.”

Tyler scowled. “Damn right it's good he's here. He can help with that sofa.”

“It's not that heavy.” Rohn shook his head. Tyler was built like a linebacker. He shouldn't worry about lifting half a sofa. “Now, the king-size mattress up in the bedroom, that we might want his help with.”

“You didn't say it was king-size.”

Rohn laughed when he saw Tyler's eyes pop wide at that information. Redecorating was turning out to be a lot of fun.