The Riding Master (24 page)

“I can’t believe you’ve never done any of this before.”

“I’m beginning to see there are a lot of things I have missed out on when it comes to sex.” She wrapped her lean legs about his hips.

“I’m going to have a lot of fun expanding your sexual horizons.” Trent kissed her chin as he rubbed his hips against her.

She rolled her head back, laughing with happiness. “You mean there’s more?”

He grabbed her firm butt, raising her hips higher in the air. “Lot’s more.” Slowly, he pushed all the way into her. “Now, let’s see if I can make you scream even louder.” He pulled out and thrust into her wet flesh.

Rayne bit down on his shoulder. Her folds were so sensitive that even the slightest touch from him made her body tremble.

“Yes, again,” she cried into his chest as he dove into her, even harder than before. “Don’t stop.”

“I won’t, baby.” He kissed her neck. “I promise.”

Chapter 17

They were sitting naked on the burgundy living room carpet, with Frank spread out between them, snoring, while cartons of half-eaten Chinese food were littered about.

“I think we killed Frank.” Trent gestured to the large dog.

Rayne wiped the crumbs from the egg roll she had just eaten from her hands. “After the amount of boneless chicken you fed him, he’ll probably sleep for a week.”

“Well, I felt guilty. I forgot he was in the kitchen while we were out here rolling around on the carpet like two teenagers.”

Rayne blushed. “Yeah, I think all my screaming might have scared him just a tad.”

Trent leaned over and kissed her cheek. “You didn’t scare me. I love it when you scream.”

Her blush quickly turned into a warm burning on her cheeks and chest.

“I love it when I can make you blush, too.” Trent’s beaming smile lit up his face. “I still can’t believe that…well, that Foster was such a neglectful lover.”

Rayne rested her back against the edge of a white ottoman behind her. “He was just set in his ways. I realize that now. Maybe if I had been more experienced in bed, I might never have settled for him.”

Trent reached for a glass of water next to him on the floor. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about something, but every time I want to bring it up I get…distracted.”

Rayne pensively furrowed her brow. “What is it?”

He rolled the glass in his hands. “Perhaps you should consider going on birth control, because we have slipped up once, and probably will again. We should discuss it. Just in case.”

“In case I get pregnant?”

He took a sip of water. “It has crossed my mind.”

“Don’t worry, Trent. If that did happen I wouldn’t expect you to be responsible. It would be my problem, not yours.”

He put his glass down and nestled in beside her. “Our problem, Rayne. I would never shirk my responsibilities, and I would always be there if we did have a child…that is, if you wanted to keep it.”

Keep it?
How could she tell him what a baby would mean to her? After all the years she had spent alone, to have someone who would forever be a part of her life was beyond imagining.

“Foster was not capable of being a father. He had undergone a vasectomy during his first marriage to ensure his wife would never get pregnant again.” She let her eyes wander back to Trent. “I could never entertain the idea of having a child until….”

Trent nudged her shoulder. “Until what?”

“Until…you.” Dreading his response, Rayne shrank from his side. “I shouldn’t have said that. That was probably more than you wanted to hear.”

His arms went about her, pulling her close. “That is exactly what I wanted to hear.”

She avoided his penetrating gaze. “Is it?”

“Here I am practically throwing myself at you, and you can ask such a question?” He shook his head, chuckling. “You’re one tough cookie to crack, but I think I’m finally starting to get through.”

She settled into his strong arms. “Perhaps a little.”

“Just a little?” His hand stroked suggestively up and down her naked back.

“Okay, a lot.”

“That’s better.” He kissed her forehead and let his lips meander their way to her mouth. As his kiss intensified, he pushed her body down on the floor.

“Again?” Rayne giggled.

“I can’t get enough of you.”

“Yeah, I’m beginning to feel exactly the same way.” She then raked her nails across his round ass.

He sucked in a gasp of air. “You’re gonna pay for that.”

She pushed her hips into him. “I’m counting on it.” 

***

Rayne awoke with a start and rolled over in her queen-sized brass bed to the digital alarm clock on the nightstand next to her. It was a little after one in the morning and she questioned what had roused her from such a sound sleep. Then, Frank’s snoring started up from the floor next to the bed. When she sat up and saw Trent asleep beside her, a warm, fuzzy feeling of contentment tugged at her heart.

He had been so tender the second time he had taken her that night. His kisses and even the way he moved inside her felt different. It was almost as if she could feel his emotions. If that was making love, it was something she had never experienced with Foster. How could she have wasted all those years with such a man?

As she watched the rise and fall of Trent’s chest, Rayne caressed the wavy black hair about his temples. Fleeting images of waking up beside him every morning for the rest of her life were soon replaced by her voice of reason, squelching her daydreams.

A loud snort from the floor next to the bed made her jump. A gray eye popped open, and Trent bolted upright.

“What was that?”

She smiled apologetically. “Frank. I told you he snored.”

Trent peered over the edge of the bed to the sleeping ball of fur on the floor. “That’s not snoring, that sounded like vacuuming.”

“He is rather loud. I have to poke him a few times during the night to get him to stop.”

Trent ran his hand through his hair. “Ever consider a dog house?”

    “Of course not.”

    “I’ll put one at my place. He can sleep there when you stay with me.” He pulled her back down in the bed.

Rayne snuggled against his bare chest and smelled the last hints of his cologne on his skin. “Maybe I’ll just leave him here. He might get upset being stuck outside in a dog house.”

Trent closed his eyes. “I’ll put it in the kitchen then, if that will make you happy.”

“Or you can just stay at my place when you want to see me,” she sheepishly offered.

“No way. Your bed is too small. We can work out some kind of arrangement between both our places.”

“You sure that isn’t moving too fast for you?”

“Rayne, stop putting up road blocks.”

She raised her head slightly, resting her chin on his chest. “I’m not putting up road blocks; I’ve just never done this before. You know, juggling the sleeping arrangements.”

“Sometimes you remind me of a little girl, and then at other times you are so determined and self-reliant.”

“You’ve met Estelle, so you know why I’ve had to be self-reliant.”

“What about your father? What was he like?”

“Dad?” She sighed, remembering the lanky, easy-going man. “He was nothing like my mother. In fact, he was the total opposite…kind, willing to help anyone, and funny. Dad was always cracking jokes for Jaime and me at the dinner table. Every night when he would get home from the office, he would have a new joke for us. I still miss his jokes.”

His fingers combed through her unruly hair. “I think you’re more like him than your mother. I just don’t see you when I look at her.”

“Jaime was the one who favored my mother. She was the pretty one all the boys followed around.”

“Do you have a picture of her?”

Rayne shook her head. “After she and Dad died, Estelle burned every picture in the house, every memento my sister had collected, her stuffed toys, and all the papers from my father’s desk, everything.” A single teardrop cascaded down her cheek. “I have nothing from either one of them. What she didn’t burn, she sold. The clothes, jewelry, and even Dad’s collection of antique law books he had once prized. Everything is gone.”

“But why?”

“Because they were dead, and Mother said we had to forget about them. After that, the drinking sort of took over her life.”

Trent sat up next to her and wiped the tear from her cheek. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like to lose your family. I know mine helps keep me sane.”

“I hoped when I married Foster I was getting a family. But he was never close with any of his relatives. He claimed they were all after his money. So holidays were spent with friends. Foster always had a lot of those. Funny thing was, every holiday there was a whole new set of friends. I guess he never kept anybody in his life for long.”

“You know what would make you feel better?” He kissed her neck.

“I think I’m getting an inkling.”

“Dessert,” he announced.

“Dessert?” She was not sure if he was talking about the actual food or the alluding to another round beneath the sheets.

He scooted across the bed and threw off the covers. “I’ll be right back.”

A little mystified, Rayne watched as he jogged out of the darkened room and into the hallway. She sat up and flipped on a small lamp on the carved night table next to her bed. After a few minutes he reappeared in her bedroom doorway, flaunting a red and white ice cream carton and two spoons.

“We forgot my surprise dessert.” He came toward the bed and Rayne ogled over the rippled muscles in his abdomen, and the size of his…. “I went to the best ice cream place in Lewisville,” he went on, distracting her.

“The one you told me about on the phone?”

He climbed back in the bed and handed her a spoon. “Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy.” He tore the top off the red and white carton. “Mocha chocolate chip. You need to be adventurous.”

Dipping her spoon into the ice cream, she smiled. “Thank you.”

As she tasted the ice cream, a dull thumping arose from the floor next to the bed, followed by a large, furry brown head staring up at them.

“What? Does he only move when there is food close by?”

Rayne nodded her head. “Basically. If he’s not eating, he’s sleeping.”

“What about the squirrel he was obsessed with earlier?”

“Isolated incident.” Rayne licked her spoon. “He’s never that energetic for very long.”

Trent scooped a large chunk of ice cream from the container as Frank’s big brown eyes concentrated on him. “What do you do with him when you have to go out of town?” He placed the carton on the night table next to Rayne, noting how the dog’s eyes fixated on the ice cream.

“I’ve never gone out of town since I got him.”

Trent lapped the coffee-colored ice cream from his spoon. “What if I wanted to take you out of town next weekend?”

“To where?”

“My friend, Tyler Moore—the one I did that consulting job for—has invited us to a party at his house in North Dallas next weekend. We could get a hotel room close by and stay the night after the party, so we wouldn’t have to drive all the way back here.”

“Invited
us
?”

“His wife Monique wants to meet you. So yes, he invited us.”

“Why does she want to meet me?” Rayne’s concern permeated her voice.

He polished off the last of the ice cream on his spoon. “Monique is curious about you. She claims you bewitched me.”

Rayne laughed and put her spoon on top of the carton of ice cream. He leaned across the bed and rested his spoon next to hers.

“I don’t know. You’re pretty bewitching, especially with an ice cream stain on your chin.” He licked the spot of ice cream away from her chin.

“Perhaps I should find some other places to spill ice cream.”

“Don’t give me any ideas.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

He lowered her to the bed. “Say you’ll go with me next weekend.”

“What about Frank?”

Trent careened his head to the side as Frank was inching closer to the open carton of ice cream sitting on the night table. “I think I know the perfect babysitter for the monster.”

“Who is that?”

Trent gazed down at her naked body. “I’ll tell you later.” His hands slipped behind her back and ran down to her round butt. “It’s time to try something different for dessert.”

“No more ice cream?” she playfully teased, reaching for his erection.

Trent kissed her belly button, and then slowly spread her legs apart. “This is going to taste much better than ice cream.
"

Chapter 18

“I don’t babysit dogs!” Rebecca howled, standing before Rayne’s tack room door a few days later. “But when your boyfriend basically threatened to quit unless I took your oversized fur coat, I had no choice.”

Rayne walked out her tack room door, carrying her English riding saddle and blanket in her arms. “I can’t believe he talked you into babysitting Frank this weekend.”