by KB Winters
When his lips wrapped around one nipple and sucked it into his mouth, my head dropped back, and my eyes closed even as I arched into him, eager to give him as much of me as he could handle. “Yes, Holden.”
The growl my words produced had a small smile curling my lips, and I let my fingers slide through his hair so I could hold him right where I wanted him. Where I needed him.
“More. Please.” Holden released one breast with a pop and turned his attention to the other one while I let my hands roam every inch of him I could reach, starting with his strong, wide back. Reaching down for the hem of his shirt, I tugged it up and let my hands glide along the hard ridges of his back and then his chest before they found their way back to his thick hair.
“Fuck, yes, Holden.”
He pulled back with another pop and a cocky smile that promised more.
“Such a dirty mouth.” His hands were at my waist, unfastening my jeans and sliding them down my legs, taking my panties with them before I could take a second to reconsider.
“You like it.” I could tell he did by the way heat flared in his eyes. “But I wonder if you like this more.” My legs fell open and his gaze flew to my pussy, pink and swollen and dripping with desire.
“Fuck.” The word came out on a primal growl that hit me right in the clit, and I moaned. “So fuckin’ wet,” he said.
One blunt-tipped finger rubbed the length of my swollen pussy, up and down those sensitized bits of flesh before pushing the folds apart so he could get to the good stuff.
His fingers were a little rough, and that sharp contrast to the soft, slick skin of my clit was more than I could bear. My legs opened wantonly, begging for more.
“Holden, please.”
“Please what, Aspen?” Before I could answer, one long thick finger slipped inside of me, and my pussy clamped down on it, pulsing and leaking like it was his cock.
“I can’t hear you.”
“Holden.” The word came out harsh and guttural. My back arched into him again as his thumb slid over my clit.
“I need you. To. Fuck. Me.” This time I didn’t wait, couldn’t. I slid to the edge of the island counter and pulled him by the waistband, making quick work of his belt, button, and zipper, using my feet to shove them down his legs.
“Now.” I held his cock in my hand and moaned at how long and thick it was. How could I have forgotten that?
“Aspen.” He grabbed my wrist, those blue eyes dark and close to the edge.
“Holden.”
“You’re playing with fire.”
“No, I’m playing with your enormous cock. Is he ready to play, or do you need more priming?” My lips twitched at his offended growl, and I knew teasing him wasn’t smart, but it was so damn fun.
“I’m always ready, sweetheart.” As if to prove it, he laid one big hand across my chest and pushed me down, smiling at the squeal I released when the cool tile of the counter touched my hot flesh. “The question is, are you?”
I was more than ready, but before I could come up with something witty or flirty to say, he was sliding his ten impressive inches into my greedy little pussy.
“Fuck, I’m readier now.” How the hell one man could be so gorgeous, so sexy and so goddamn blessed with that big cock, I had no idea, but I was happy that events had lined up as they did, and I got a chance to sample the delicacy that was Holden Jennings.
“More, Holden. I need more.”
“What the lady wants,” he said with a cocky grin that he’d already earned, but that determined look on his face was a sign of good things to come.
“The lady,” he grabbed my hips and pulled me to him until my ass hung in the air and he was the only thing keeping me from falling. “Gets.” The word was slow and torturous, nothing like the hard deep thrust of his cock deep into my pussy.
“Oh, fuck. Yeah!” He gripped me so tight I knew there would be bruises tomorrow, but I couldn’t bring myself to give a damn, not when he was fucking me so good.
“Holden.”
He was gone, pumping into me hard and fast and deep like he was on a mission, almost as if he was programmed to lose himself in my body.
“Aspen, fuck.”
His hips moved even faster, and I felt goosebumps break out all over my skin, signaling my orgasm.
“Not yet,” he growled and slowed his pace.
“What happened to what the lady wants?”
That fucker had the nerve to laugh when I was so close to that rush of pleasure that I could feel it in the air.
“The lady’ll get what she wants when the man wants her to have it.”
My response was to clench around his cock, letting my inner muscles pulse and squeeze around him until his knees went wonky.
“I hope he wants her to have it soon. Really soon.”
“Fuckin’ tease,” he growled and snatched me off the counter. He walked a few feet until my back slammed against one of the logs that made up the four walls of the cabin.
“You want it?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“You fuckin’ want it, Aspen?”
Holy fuck, had anything so hot ever happened in my life? Nope.
“Hell, yeah, I want it. Give it to me, Holden. All of it.”
He growled and slid all the way out of me, smiling at the sad choking sound I made before he slammed in hard. Deep. He did it again and again, leaving me no choice but to cling to him as he pounded his big, thick cock into me, pulling my orgasm closer and closer to the surface.
“Aspen,” he growled, a warning that was unnecessary because I could feel the way his cock thickened and hardened inside of me.
“Holden, yes.”
He growled again and swung me around, laying me across the kitchen table and grabbing my tits hard as he pounded into me with everything he had. His eyes were dark and unfocused, his muscles bunched and full of tension as his hips moved smoothly against mine. “Fuck!”
My orgasm started at my toes, making them curl next to Holden’s ears while his thrusts came in shorter and harder that kept hitting the spot guaranteed to make me go cross-eyed. The moment the orgasm hit I felt full. No, fuller. His thumb slipped inside my ass, startling me at first, and then intensifying my orgasm until I couldn’t think straight, couldn’t see, couldn’t do anything but feel the way his cock swelled inside of me as his hips surged over and over again.
“Holden, yes. Oh, fuck, yes!”
He growled and grunted and then froze before his body started to jerk with his own orgasm, sending another tidal wave through me that left me a sweaty, satisfied pile of woman. On his kitchen table.
“Damn.”
I smiled. “I guess that’s one way to get out of a conversation.”
His deep laugh skittered over my sensitized skin and then his lips closed over mine hungrily, kissing me until I couldn’t move.
“You complaining, sweetheart?”
“What are words?”
He laughed again, and I thought it was a sound I could easily become addicted to.
“Unimportant. Come on.” He scooped me up off the table and tossed me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing, smacking my ass hard enough to send a flood of liquid between my thighs.
Holden carried me to his bedroom, and we spent the rest of the night avoiding conversation.
***
A low, anguished moan pulled me from a deep sleep, and it took me a few moments to realize where I was. Holden’s cabin on the edge of Hardtail Ranch. After a long, exhausting night of the best orgasms of my life.
“No! Not Ria. It’s not fuckin’ Ria!” Holden’s voice was loud and sharp, the pain so visceral it was like a vise around my heart.
“It’s not Ria, goddammit!”
I sat up and looked at him through what I could see thanks to the moonlight spilling in through the curtains. He was asleep, deep asleep even though his face twisted in heartbreaking agony, the kind of pain I’d only ever read about.
I knew I had to do something. “Holden
, wake up.” I put my hand on his warm, hard arm and shook him gently.
“Holden, it’s okay. You’re just dreaming.”
But his legs merely kicked harder, and he thrashed even more, getting his limbs tangled up in the sheet draped across the middle of his body. I wondered who Ria was, this person who’d meant so much to Holden that he still dreamed about her.
What I wouldn’t give to have touched someone that deeply and in such a positive way.
“Holden, wake up!” I shook him hard enough that the whole mattress moved, and his eyes snapped open. “Holden!”
Blue, almost black eyes opened, but whatever they saw, it wasn’t me. And it wasn’t now. I knew I needed to move, but his reflexes were quicker than mine. Before I could even take a breath, his hand snaked out and wrapped around my neck. Then, he squeezed.
Shit. “Holden, wake up! Wake up, Holden, it’s me, Aspen!”
I smacked and scratched at his arm, even tried peeling his fingers off my skin, but none of it worked, dammit.
“Holden! Please, Holden. Stop.” I stopped struggling, remembering that terrible advice from some self-defense class I took in college, but his grip tightened, and I couldn’t get any air.
“Holden,” I gasped.
He blinked, finally, and focused his eyes.
“Shit! Fuck! Goddammit!”
That was the Holden I knew, angry first, always. He swung his big, muscular legs over the edge of the bed and stood, stomping off to the bathroom and slamming the door behind him.
I gave him space to deal with whatever the fuck had just happened because I needed to deal with it too—and catch my breath. My gaze never left the door, even as I rubbed the skin on my throat. I’d be red and probably bruised in the morning, which meant I would spend the next seven to ten days wearing turtlenecks in the hot Texas summer. Where in the hell could I even buy turtlenecks in Texas?
Ten minutes or so passed before I found my courage and slid to the edge of the bed. I sucked in a deep breath that I let out for a slow count of ten. The few steps to the bathroom seemed to take forever, and all I could hear was my heart thundering in my chest. It even masked the sound of my fist on the door.
“Holden, open up.”
He yanked the door open, an angry, emotionally shuttered look on his face that had me taking a step back.
“What do you want? You shouldn’t be here, Aspen. Go home.”
I laughed. “Home? I don’t have a home, Holden, or have you forgotten?”
I shook my head and let out a bitter laugh. “You’re gonna make me walk home in the middle of the night all because you had a bad dream?”
I snorted another un-amused laughed. “I guess I’m not the only asshole.”
I stared at him for several long moments, hoping, waiting for him to change his mind. When it became clear he wouldn’t, I shrugged, disappointed and turned to scan the room for my discarded clothes. In the kitchen.
“Shit. I’m sorry, Aspen, but you really shouldn’t be here.”
“Yeah, I got that part.”
“Why the fuck do you want to be here, anyway? I almost killed you.”
I whirled on him, my clothes suddenly forgotten in a mix of anger and sympathy and yeah, arousal at the sight of him naked.
“I care because I do, dammit. It’s clear you’re hurting, and maybe I can help.”
He snorted, and I didn’t miss the derision in that tone. “I’m beyond help, sweetheart.”
“Oh, fuck you. Don’t give me that sweetheart shit. You’re hurting and crying out the name Ria in the middle of the night. Clearly, something is bothering you.”
He opened his mouth, probably to say something shitty again and I pointed at him. “No! Don’t even think about denying it. At least show me the respect of telling me to butt the fuck out!”
“Fine, butt the fuck out, Aspen! This isn’t your concern. I’m not your concern.”
He was right about that, but I was still concerned. Whatever demons gripped his mind, he was suffering, and I wanted to help.
“Fine, then keep your feelings to your damn self. Just lie down.” One black brow arched in question, but he went to the bed and dropped down. Reluctantly.
“Happy?”
“Ecstatic,” I deadpanned and pushed him onto his back. “Lie back, close your eyes and shut the hell up, okay?”
Holden, thankfully, nodded and kept that sensual pucker pulled into a straight line.
I climbed his body until I straddled his waist, feeling his half-hard cock pressed against my pussy, making me shiver. My hands went to his shoulders and started a deep, gentle rub until he actually relaxed. “Just breathe and don’t think about anything.”
He grunted a response but did what I said, which was all I could ask for, really. His body was still warm, almost overheated as my hands slid from his shoulders to his pecs, letting my fingertips and knuckles alternate to massage all the stress from his body.
“That’s nice.”
“Quiet,” I said barely above a whisper because I didn’t want to talk, either. Not about whatever he went through and not about Ria, whoever he or she was. His pecs turned to his abs under my fingers, and his breathing was slow and relaxed.
“Thank you for your service, Holden.”
He grunted a response, and I smiled because it was exactly what I expected from him. Holden didn’t join the Army for the accolades or the applause. He did it for a way out of his circumstances, and that only made his service even more noble.
I slid down his legs, digging my fingers into his hips and thighs, watching in stunned fascination as his big cock grew right before my eyes. It was magnificent, so long and thick with that imposing vein along the underside. Intimidating. I wanted it. My mouth watered for it, and I didn’t know one red-blooded male who would turn down what I had in mind.
Kneeling between his thighs, I checked. Holden’s eyes were closed. I knew they wouldn’t be, not for long. With a smile I wrapped a hand around his thick erection and stroked, drawing a moan from him.
“Aspen,” he groaned, and I just smiled.
“Fuck.”
“Not now.”
I didn’t want to fuck him, not with all the emotions going through me right now, but I wanted to do something for him. For his pain. Lowering my head, I wrapped my lips around his thick cock and let my tongue slide up and down the underside.
“Oh, fuck!”
His hips bucked, sending that giant dick down my throat until I nearly choked.
“Sorry,” he said.
“Don’t be.”
I was turned on as hell, but I didn’t want to be, not now. I felt confused and angry, and maybe even a little hurt that after a long night of sex, he was calling out another woman’s name.
Not the time; not the place.
I gave Holden’s cock my full attention, licking and sucking it like it was my favorite flavor of a lollipop, and it kind of was. He was a little salty and tangy, hard and strong. I took him as deep as I could, keeping my eyes closed so that his sounds of pleasure guided me to take him over the edge.
“Oh shit, Aspen. Yes! Fuck, yes!” His body thrashed, and his hips bucked as his orgasm shot out of him with the force of a volcano, and I stayed there, right between his legs, sucking until his body was relaxed and his breathing had evened out.
Then I curled up beside his sleeping body, resting my head on his chest while I listened to him sleep.
For just a little while.
Chapter Twenty-One
Holden
Aspen was late for work and not just a few minutes late, no. An hour had already gone by. And her pretty little ass hadn’t strolled over to the barn, or the stable, or the pastures, in jeans that were too damn tight for any man to focus on his work. Nope, she was a fucking no-show, and I was more pissed at myself for being surprised by her behavior.
No matter how hard she might have worked at The Crooked H, and I had my suspicions, she was still an over-privileged princess without any real work
ethic. Hell, she probably thought because she spent the night in my bed that she didn’t have to show up for work. That poor little Holden would do her work for her.
Well, she was wrong, goddammit, and to prove it, I let her chores go unfinished. If she wanted to earn her keep, she could do it the honest way. On her feet like the rest of us.
And yeah, maybe I felt a little bit guilty about what went down last night, or early this morning, which is why I hadn’t yet stormed the bunkhouse to figure out what the fuck was going on. I owed her an apology for choking the shit out of her, for thinking she was someone else, an enemy in a distant land. For accepting the peace and comfort she offered without giving anything back in return.
“Dammit!” My head felt like a goddamn pinball, bouncing off thoughts of Aspen. The trouble with her ex, the trouble facing the MC, and as always, memories of the past. Of wars won and lost, of people won. And people lost.
It was too much. Too damn much, and this shit right here, the confusion and the turmoil was exactly why I didn’t get too close. To anyone. Ever.
Still, Aspen had given me the gift of peace wrapped up in a good night of sleep. I owed her something. So when lunchtime had come and gone, I decided to go see what was up with the princess.
“Knock, knock, Aspen. Open up.” I knocked first because I wasn’t a complete asshole, and because this was her private space even if it was just temporary.
“Aspen, you’re late for work.”
She didn’t answer and worry set in. Maybe she’d gotten turned around on her way back from my cabin and was lost in the thick brush or the waist-high grass where the semi-tamed land became wild.
“Shit.” I pulled open the screen door that allowed the bunkhouse residents to enjoy some of the breeze that whipped through the ranch without letting in all the flies, gnats, and mosquitoes. The first thing I noticed when I stepped inside was the overwhelming stench of thick gas fumes, which didn’t make sense because Aspen didn’t cook. At least she hadn’t since she’d come to the ranch, choosing to eat with Peaches and Maisie at the big house or grabbing one of the pre-made lunches Martha made for all the ranch hands.
“Aspen?”