One Night Rodeo

by Lorelei James

  early on?

  “I don’t see Kyle as the type to fault you for that.”

  Celia sighed. “Do you think the guys are out there talking about this stuff?”

  “Chances are high they’re discussing cows,” Lainie said.

  “Cows?”

  “Yes, cows are a major topic of discussion. All the freakin’ time,” Harper complained.

  “But Hank and Abe have complained that all Janie and I talk about is babies,” Lainie pointed out.

  “And Bran reminds me that if we have Renner and Tierney over, all we talk about is the Split Rock Ranch and Resort.” Harper’s eyes twinkled. “So maybe we oughta talk about one thing that’s always on our minds. Sex.”

  Lainie frowned. “I think I hear Brianna.” She scooted out of the kitchen.

  Talk about abrupt. Was Lainie uncomfortable talking about this because Hank was Celia’s brother? Or because Lainie had been with Kyle during that summer she’d traveled the circuit with Hank and Kyle?

  Harper leaned forward. “Spill the juicy details, Cele. You and Kyle.”

  “The man is amazing in bed. Like gold-medal amazing.”

  “I bet that was on the plus side of you deciding to marry him, huh?”

  Celia spun her coffee cup around. “Believe it or not, Kyle and I didn’t have sex until after we were married.”

  “Seriously?”

  “It truly was one of those we-looked-at-each-other-and-everything-just-fell-into-place type of moments.” She grinned. “So the fact he has the mad bedroom skills is a serious bonus.”

  She dropped the subject when Lainie returned with Brianna. Although it kept popping into her head that her husband had had sex with Lainie. Kinky sex. She was starting to wish she didn’t know the backstory between her new husband and her brother and his wife. She wasn’t jealous. Okay, she was jealous, but how did she bring it up with him?

  So…Kyle, is there anything that you, Hank, and Lainie didn’t do together that you wanna try with me?

  Brianna held out her arms for Celia and thoughts of various threesome positions were forgotten. She kissed her niece’s head, the coppery ringlets tickling her nose. Brianna had her mother’s hair, but her eyes were exactly like Hank’s.

  Celia wandered to the window and looked out, but didn’t see Kyle or Bran anywhere.

  Maybe they really were out in the pasture talking about cows.

  Kyle took Bran into the barn and they sat across from each other on the ATVs.

  “So you and Celia? I ain’t surprised. You’ve wanted to tap that for a long time,” Bran said.

  “No lie. Always made me feel like a fuckin’ pervert.” Kyle grinned. “Still makes me feel like a pervert when I think of all the raunchy stuff I can do with my sexy wife any freakin’ time I want.”

  Bran laughed. “Ain’t that the truth.” He sipped his beer. “I just gotta throw this out there. Hank and Abe were wrong. And you get props from me for not knocking them both on their asses. I had to stop Harper from goin’ over there.”

  Kyle couldn’t help but smile, thinking about sweet-mouthed Harper marching over and giving the gruff ranchers what for.

  “They’re good guys, but they’ve treated Celia like she was eleven long after she ain’t been eleven. We all kinda did it too, up to a point, but never like her brothers did. And it pissed me off how they threatened us with bodily harm if we ever touched her. Took her a long time to see herself as an attractive girl—woman—and not as a tomboy. I hated that we played a part in that.”

  Kyle was glad he wasn’t the only one who’d seen that. “Me too.”

  “Hank and Abe will come around. They already have, according to Lainie, but I guess I don’t blame you and Celia for needing some time to cool off.”

  “We sure as shit got plenty to do around here to keep ourselves occupied.”

  “How shocked were you to find out Marshall Townsend was your father?”

  “Ask me when the shock wears off. It’s like I’ll wake up and find it’s all a damn dream. I went from saving as much money as possible to buy my own place to inheriting a place complete with cows, horses, a house, and barns.”

  “Why do you think your mom didn’t tell you?”

  “Who the fuck knows? I gotta be honest, I’m too pissed off at her right now to be civil, so I’ve warned her to give me some time.” Kyle shook his head, thinking back to his most recent conversation with his mother and her insistence on explaining things. “I’m pissed off at him too, even though he’s dead. He looked me right in the goddamn eye that night at Cactus Jack’s. He fucking talked to me and never said a word about any of this.”

  Bran frowned. “Wait. You mean that time a bunch of us went out in Rawlins a few years back when Hank and Lainie were dating?”

  “Yeah. He approached me. Babbled some drunken bullshit, but nothing like, Hey, I’m your father, lemme buy you a drink and we’ll talk.” Kyle counted to ten. “In the fourteen years since he learned the truth about me, he never tried to get in contact with me. Then he has an attack of conscience on his deathbed and reaches out?”

  “Man, that sucks. But at least he done right by you by leaving you this place.”

  “I guess. It’s just weird. All those years growing up, I’d wondered who my father was. I imagine you did too, since we’re the only ones of our group who grew up fatherless. But I’d always wondered if I looked like him. Or if he had kids besides me. If maybe he’d died. Or maybe he was famous.”

  “I had those thoughts a time or two myself. I asked my grandma about it and she was always honest, as much as it pained her. She said my mom hadn’t been sure who’d impregnated her because she’d been with lots of guys. So I let it go.”

  “I thought I’d let it go too, but then this comes from out of nowhere.”

  “He didn’t write you a letter, or anything explaining it?”

  Kyle wondered how he could talk about this without coming across as sounding ungrateful. “No. A warning would’ve been nice. Christ. All those years I helped you guys out on your places? It was like I was playing. I really had no fucking idea how much work is involved in raising cattle.”

  “And you haven’t gotten to the fun parts yet. Two months of limited sleep and frigid nights tracking down an angry mama and sickly calves. Or hot summer days when I literally fall off the rake or the baler because I’ve been on the machine for sixteen hours straight. Or when you haul cattle to market and lose your ass, but why is steak twelve bucks a pound in the grocery store?”

  “I ain’t really bitching, you know. I’m just overwhelmed.” Kyle grimaced and drained his beer. “And a damn greenhorn.”

  Bran laughed. “You got yourself a mighty fine ranch hand in Celia. She ain’t gonna steer you wrong. She knows more about ranching than her brothers ever gave her credit for. But if you have questions, Kyle, for chrissake, don’t have too much pride to call me, okay? You know I ain’t the type of guy to make fun of you or make you feel like an idiot for askin’.”

  “Thanks, Bran. I appreciate it more than you know.”

  “So, whatdya say we take these ATVs for a spin and you show me your herd?”

  After an hour of dinking around, they returned to the house. It loosened something around his heart to see Celia holding Brianna. He’d never seen her around kids; she’d always been the youngest one in their group. Brianna seemed as enamored of Celia as Celia was of her. He knew Celia would make a good mother. Loving. Fierce. Kind. Fair.

  Get those kinds of thoughts right outta your head.

  “Now, Lainie, I’m gonna respectfully request you take your darlin’ daughter away from my wife, so as to not give her any ideas about babies, bein’s we’ve only been married a week.”

  Celia laughed and nuzzled Brianna’s plump cheek before handing her off to Lainie. “She is adorable. But I agree. Let’s get through calving season together before we start planning a nursery.”

  Bran helped Harper on with her coat and Lainie dressed Brianna. She hoisted her
daughter on her hip and looked at Celia. “Your brother is going to apologize. Not because I’m making him, but because Hank knows he was wrong. So my question is, will you let him apologize to you?”

  She nodded.

  Kyle turned to kiss Celia’s forehead. Because he couldn’t not touch her all the time. He loved that she wanted and accepted his open affection. He’d never had that. Never been with a woman long enough to show that part of himself. He noticed the stitches were gone. “Please tell me that Lainie took these out?”

  “Yeah. Sorry it looks so hideous.”

  “Huh-uh. Every time I look at it I’ll be reminded of the day we got married.”

  Her eyes softened.

  “And it sorta does look like a small K, kinda like you branded my initial on your face to forever commemorate the event.”

  Celia elbowed him. “Jerk.”

  He laughed.

  After Lainie’s car disappeared down the driveway, Kyle murmured, “You okay?”

  “I’m glad they came.”

  “Me too.” He slapped her butt. “But break is over. We need to finish prepping this room so we can slap on the first coat of paint.”

  He’d found a Sawzall in the garage and marked off the section of shelving to remove. It bolstered his masculine pride to do something around the house without Celia’s help, since he needed her constant supervision when it came to the ranch and ranch chores.

  Celia continued filling nail holes and repairing cracks in the walls. When she finished, she began scuffing the paint on the shelves. Almost violently. She hadn’t said anything for a while, which wasn’t completely odd. He’d discovered she didn’t talk all the time, but when he glanced over at her, she had that stubborn set to her mouth. “Something wrong?”

  “No.”

  Silence.

  Then she started sanding harder.

  “Come on, Celia, what’s goin’ on?”

  She whirled around. “When you see Lainie do you think of that summer you traveled with her and Hank during Cowboy Christmas? And of all the wild, kinky, crazy sex you had? When you see her do you imagine her naked? Do you remember how it was to fuck her?” Celia’s voice escalated so she’d shouted that last part.

  Kyle’s jaw nearly hit the floor. Then he snapped it shut. “That was a long goddamn time ago.”

  “Some memories are forever. There are some images you can’t erase.”

  “Like the image of you on your knees sucking Breck off?”

  “You’re never gonna let me forget that, are you?”

  “Like you’re not letting me forget something that happened a damn lifetime ago for me?”

  She notched her chin higher. “You still haven’t answered the question, Kyle. When you see Lainie, is that what you think of? How wild and raunchy and uninhibited she was?”

  “You have a high opinion of me, if you believe I’m thinking about fucking another woman when I’m standing next to my wife.”

  “Oh, don’t pull that bullshit answer. I’m not really your wife and we both know it.”

  Stunned silence filled the air.

  “You really are my wife and you really don’t wanna push me on this point. I promised you I’d be faithful. For me that means faithful in body and in mind. You owe me the same courtesy.”

  “Of what? Wishing I had threesome tales to tell you so you could pretend it didn’t bother you? Well, fuck that. I’m not perfect like Lainie and I can’t just forget about it.”

  Then he roared, “That’s it!” and charged her, throwing her over his shoulder, jerking off her boots so she couldn’t kick him as he stormed to their bedroom.

  “Goddammit, Kyle, let me down right fucking now or I swear to God I’ll—” She gasped when he tossed her on the bed. She gasped louder and swore at him, thrashing beneath his body when he pinned her.

  He pulled one wrist up at a time and locked them in cuffs attached to the headboard. Then he rested on her thighs so she couldn’t move.

  Celia cranked her head, looked at the cuffs with total shock and then glared at him. “What the fuck kind of depraved thing were you planning with these?”

  “Something a lot more erotic than this, but you’ve just plain pissed me off, so we’re gonna do this my way. I will make you understand this, Celia. Even if it takes all damn night.”

  “Let me go.”

  “No.”

  “I’m warning you—”

  He laughed and reached inside a pillowcase, waving a bandana at her. “Gonna be pretty hard to warn me when you’re gagged, ain’t it?”

  “You wouldn’t dare. What the hell is wrong with you? You’ve hidden these marital aids all over the place? Do you have a stash of vi—”

  Kyle stretched the twisted bandana across her mouth and tied it behind her head. “For your sake, kitten, I hope you’d planned to ask if I have a stash of vibrators.”

  It was hard to smirk with her lips and tongue blocked, but Celia managed to do it. And that’s when he knew she was enjoying this lesson just as much as he was.

  “Now, we’re gonna get a couple of things straight. But first, I’m gonna strip you bare.”

  She thrashed.

  “No need to thank me. It’ll be my pleasure.” He ripped her blouse open, hearing ping ping as the buttons ricocheted off the wall. He tugged the blouse up her arms and tied the fabric around her wrists.

  So she hadn’t worn a bra after their sexy romp in the shower. Good. Watching her eyes, he palmed her sweet little tits. Squeezed and played with the firm flesh. Then he dragged the callused tips of his fingers down her body. He popped the top button on her jeans. “Don’t kick me. Because if you do? I will take great pleasure in paddling your ass until it’s good and red, understand?”

  A wide-eyed Celia nodded.

  Kyle whisked off her jeans. “I am your husband. That makes you my wife. No pretending. No bullshit games whether we’re alone or with other people. We are legally married. You will respect that between us, understood?”

  Something flashed in her eyes before she nodded again.

  “You have the nerve to throw something in my face that happened so long ago I barely remember it? When for the last two years I’ve had to watch you with Breck? Seeing you kiss him? Watching you two leave together? Knowing he had you in his bed and didn’t appreciate it? That fucking killed me, Celia.”

  She was trying to speak.

  “Listen to me. The only woman I think about fucking is you. But actions speak louder than words, don’t they, little wife of mine?” Kyle rubbed the rough edge of his whiskered jaw on her neck, on her chest, on her belly. “How many times do you think I can make you come? How many orgasms will it take for me to prove how much I want you? Only you.”

  Celia mumbled something around the gag.

  “Did you say…ten?”

  She shook her head wildly.

  Kyle squeezed her hips between his knees and lowered his mouth to her left nipple. He bit down hard enough to get her attention and suckled away the sting. He did that twice more. Content to take his time and enjoy the feel of her nipple tight and hard against his flicking tongue. Then he attacked her throat with sucking kisses. He wanted to mark her. So when she looked at her body she saw signs of his possession.

  When she closed her eyes, he tapped her on the ass.

  “Huh-uh. Look at me. Watch me enjoying your body.”

  Then he moved between her legs. Grabbing a handful of her ass, Kyle raised her juicy pussy to his mouth and feasted on her. Stabbing his tongue deep inside her cunt. Growling his pleasure at her tangy taste. Then swirling his tongue around her clit. Driving her to the point that she arched, she whimpered, and her thighs went rigid. And he backed off.

  Some inventive swear words were coming from behind that gag.

  He hung above her body on hands and knees. “I didn’t stop to torture you. I stopped so you can look in my eyes. Am I thinking about anyone but you?”

  Her breath was decidedly ragged when she slowly shook her head.
>
  “Relax, baby. ’Cause I’m nowhere near done. Seems I have a lot to prove to you.”

  Kyle whipped off his shirt. He focused all his attention on her skin. Lightly running the rough tips of his fingers down the outside of her legs from the curve of her thigh to the delicate section around her anklebone. He afforded the inside of her legs equal attention. Except when he stroked the crease where pelvis met thigh, he brushed his lips over that hypersensitive sweep of skin between her hipbones.

  She whimpered and her whole body twitched.

  His gentle strokes and swirling caresses sent goose bumps dancing across her flesh. He placed soft smooches over her abused ribs. He allowed the hair on his chest to rub against her nipples, learning that it made her squirmier than ever.

  Kyle’s dick protested when he bent forward. He’d be lucky if he didn’t shoot in his damn pants before this was done. Touching her like this, when she couldn’t do a thing but enjoy the erotic torture, made him