by Vicki Tharp
“What are you doing?” She sounded more worked up than worried.
Pressing a kiss between her shoulder blades, he said, “You’re about to find out.”
He dropped to his knees, using her towel for protection against the bite of the hardwood floors. Olivia let out a long, slow breath, her leg muscles quaking as he ran his hands down the outside of her legs. Then he traced a languorous trail up the inside of her thighs.
Olivia shifted, as if aching for that intimate touch that eased ever so close but never came. She made a sound somewhere between a subtle whine and a disgruntled growl. “Banks, I swear if you don’t—”
He dipped his head between her legs, breathing in her scent and tracing her folds with his tongue, loving her taste and how wet she was for him. Her complaints died and were replaced by low moans and breathing that came in hitching huffs and puffs.
Reaching up, he added his broad thumb to the mix as it pushed deep inside, her warmth collapsing around him as his finger traced up her folds and found that taut bundle of nerves.
She bent over further, allowing better access as her hand came around, pressing against the back of his head. He nipped and sucked as she rode his thumb and rubbed up against his finger. The pleasure she took from him made him even harder. He’d planned on making her come that way, but he felt the tingling at the base of his spine, and he knew he’d never last.
He pulled back, giving one ass cheek a playful bite as he stood.
“Don’t you dare stop now, Banks.” The harshness of her tone was delightfully deadly, and he couldn’t wait to be inside her.
He pulled his hand free.
She glared at him over her shoulder.
He smiled. “Tsk, tsk,” he said. “Aren’t we getting a tad worked up?”
“You got me worked up,” she groused. “And you damn well better fix it. Now.”
God, he loved it when she got aroused, her threats only making him want to drag the torture out longer. But, good and bad, what he did to her was equally torturous for him. He wasn’t a masochist. There was only so much self-flagellation that he could take.
He positioned himself at her entrance, prepared for an exquisitely long and slow slide in, but Olivia wasn’t a woman who waited to be serviced. She was the type of woman who took what she wanted and didn’t apologize for her greediness.
He loved that about her.
In one motion, she thrust back against him until he was balls deep in her warmth, a light flutter of contractions tightened her walls around him. She thumped her forehead against the desk. “You feel—Oompfh—”
He pulled out and thrust in again, his hands gripping her hips until he bottomed out inside her.
“Like that,” she said.
He wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her to him. Then his hands started roaming up her stomach to the swell of her breasts. He lightly pinched her peaked nipples. Olivia raised her head and she drove her ass deep, deep into his pelvis.
She braced her hands on the edge of the desk for leverage. “Fuck me, Banks.”
For support, he braced one hand on her shoulder and the other at her hip, then he did what she so succinctly, so eloquently, so candidly asked for—he fucked her.
His breathing came hot and heavy as he pounded into her, her counter thrusts taking him incredibly deep. Their powerful strokes made the desk thump into the wall. The pictures in the frames shook, and between the banging on the walls, and Olivia’s cries, they were either going to bust through the wall or shatter her grandmother’s old crystal in the kitchen. If she had any.
Or worse, wake Clementine.
He slowed, but not before a picture fell onto the desk and tumbled onto the floor. He thought he heard the glass crack. He pulled Olivia up against him, her back to his chest, changing the angle as well as the speed. Her legs quaked, and he reached around to her clit.
“Oh, yeah,” she said, her voice sultry, smoky.
“You like that?” He dipped his finger into her wetness and teased the tiny nub.
In place of an answer, she reached a hand back and cupped his head, her other covered his busy hand as she ground against the pressure. Though his thrusts had slowed, they became erratic as he pushed them both toward a climax, the sensations zipping along his spine setting his nerves alight.
Then her body stiffened, and her breath caught, and her walls clamped down around him. He crossed his arms over her chest, holding her tight, thrusting one more time until he, too, took a tumbling swan dive off that high cliff.
Her knees went to rubber, and he took her weight in his arms. He breathed her in again, loving the musky, steamy mix of sweat and sex, and how Olivia gave as good as she got.
He kissed across her shoulder to the crook of her neck. “You’re extraordinary.”
She chuckled, her breath coming easier. “I could say the same about you, but I’d be afraid it would go straight to your head.”
“Best keep it to yourself then.”
“Agreed.”
He would have liked to have stayed in her for the rest of the night, or the week, or... you know... his life.
This was always a temporary thing. You knew that going in.
Yeah, but knowing it and liking it were two entirely different things.
As he grew soft, he pulled out and disposed of the condom in the trash can under the desk. He picked up the photo that had fallen. She came up beside him, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “First place show steer, not too shabby, Miss FFA Badass.”
“Yeah, in this part of Texas, you either play football or join the Future Farmers of America. There’s not much middle ground. And since I’m shit at throwing spirals...”
Then he looked again at the pictures. Frame after frame of FFA wins. “You really dominated. There must have been a countywide collective cheer when you aged out of the competition.”
She laughed as she ran her fingers across his flank. If she didn’t stop that, they’d be on to round two in no time. “I didn’t always win first place.”
He glanced at a cord stretched across from one side of the room to the other with blue ribbon after blue ribbon clipped to it. “Uh, huh,” he said, his bullshit detector set on high. No wonder she had some of the best rodeo stock in the business.
He led her by the hand to her full-sized bed. It was the only thing in the room that didn’t look like it had been there since her teenage years.
They adjusted the pillows, and he settled against the headboard, with her back to his chest between his legs. He draped his arms over her shoulders. “Doesn’t look like your room’s changed much since high school.”
“My dad got a new job the summer after my sophomore year. They moved to Chicago but let me stay behind for my junior and senior year. My grandmother helped me redecorate after they moved out. She died not long after. A massive stroke.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. It was hard at the time. But Gramps and I got through it together. I haven’t been able to bring myself to change anything since she’s been gone. I like the reminder of the time we’d spent making this room mine.”
“That’s sweet.”
“Maybe. But kind of a turn off to invite your boyfriend into a kid’s room to have sex.”
Boyfriend. Levi stiffened.
She tilted her head up to meet his gaze. “Don’t freak. I didn’t mean it. It’s the sex fog talking.”
“I wasn’t freaking out. I was… surprised.” He brought his mouth down on hers for a quick touch, linking his hands with hers. “In fact, I kind of like the sound of it.”
“You do?”
The way she said it, he couldn’t tell if she was enamored or repulsed by it. He took a chance. “I do.”
“Hmmm,” she said as she settled back against his chest. “It doesn’t sound too awful.”
He dropped her hands and went after her ribs. She laughed and tried to get away as he tickled her into submission.
“Okay, okay, okay,” she s
aid.
He stopped tickling long enough to ask, “Okay, what?”
“I kind of like the sound of it, too.”
* * *
When Olivia woke, it was still dark outside, but it wouldn’t be for long. She turned in Levi’s arms, loving the tenderness between her thighs and the way their bodies fit together. But that tenderness didn’t deter her, it only made her want for more.
Too bad ranch life and little girls couldn’t always wait.
She pressed kisses along his jawline and the prickle of scruff that had grown there overnight. “Time to wake up.”
He grunted and pulled her in tighter, his breathing evened out almost instantly as he fell back asleep. She reached her hand down and gripped his morning wood.
His eyes partially opened. “If you were trying to wake me, that’s my favorite way, but if you want me out of bed anytime in the next hour or two, that strategy won’t work.”
“I didn’t know how else to get your attention.”
Rising up on an elbow, he skimmed his hand across her torso, his broad hand practically spanning her abdomen. He kissed her on the lips but didn’t take it any further. “Liar.”
“Okay, that wasn’t the only way to get your attention, but it was the most fun way.”
“Agreed. I promise I’ll never complain about you waking me up like that.”
Which kind of implied they would be doing this more than once. She liked that idea, even if the execution of it would be difficult since the brutal schedule of the rodeo circuit would conspire to keep them apart.
Before she could allow herself to sink back into him and give the chores on her list a big fat flying fuck you, she rolled out of bed.
Sometimes being an adult sucked donkey balls.
She held out her hand to him. “Come on.”
He grumbled and groaned but he allowed her to pull him out of bed. “Not even Clementine makes me get up this early.”
“Yeah, well we don’t want to traumatize her by having her find out her daddy is having sleepovers.”
He slipped on his jeans sans underwear and said, “I don’t think her finding me in bed with you would traumatize her. More than likely she’d want to join the sleepover which would traumatize me.”
“Then we’re doing the right thing. It would be a sad thing if you could never get it up again.” She threw on her robe to run to the bathroom for a quick shower before the day started, knowing she wouldn’t be able to concentrate if she had to go the whole day smelling him on her.
He came up behind her, one arm across her chest, the other slipping between the belted folds of her terrycloth robe until he found bare skin. He pressed his erection against her backside. “I think I could find a way to get over it. Might take a lot of one-on-one therapy with a certain kickass, super sexy, stock breeder I know.”
She tilted her head back to kiss him because that was her second favorite thing to do with him. “I don’t come cheap.”
Levi laughed. “I don’t doubt that for a second.”
He released her and gave her a playful swat on the rump as he gathered the rest of his clothes and swung the door open.
Gramps stopped in the hallway, the smile he’d had on his face dipped, then fell. He glanced between a half-naked Levi and her in her robe. Then to Levi, he said, “Get dressed and meet me outside.”
“Yes, sir.”
What the hell? That was the same thing her grandfather had said to her prom date—besides the ‘get dressed part’—when he’d grilled her date about his intentions with her. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right? This from the man who comes sneaking in at dawn from the widow Warren’s house?”
Gramps’ eyes drifted to her for the briefest of seconds before he straightened his shoulders and told Levi, “Five minutes.”
After Gramps disappeared inside his room, Olivia turned to Levi. “You don’t have to do this. When I decided to stay at the ranch and help with the business, he signed half the ranch over to me. This is as much my ranch as—”
He leaned in and shut her up with a kiss. When he pulled away, he had a hint of a grin on his face. “I’m a big boy, Marsh. I can take care of myself.”
“If this is where you tell me to get back in the kitchen and let the menfolk talk, you better rethink that.”
He wrapped his arms around her again. “Two of the things I love about you are your fire and your sass.”
She glared at him. “Don’t patronize me.”
“Listing your admirable qualities isn’t patronizing.”
He went in to kiss her again, but Gramps’ door opened. “Two minutes.” He stared Levi down as he passed by and stormed out the front door.
Olivia pointed an emphatic finger at Levi. “Don’t you dare go out there without me.”
“Where are you going?”
“To take the fastest shower ever. I refuse to talk to Gramps when I’m smelling of sex.”
He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “I like smelling me on you.”
She groaned but refused to admit the same or else they might end up back in her bedroom, and it wouldn’t take Gramps any time to find the key to the gun cabinet. Walking backward toward the bathroom, she said, “Wait for me, you got me?”
“Yes, boss.”
* * *
The sun peaked over the horizon as Levi leaned against the porch railing and stared at Olivia’s grandfather sitting on the porch swing. “What do you want to know?”
Olivia burst through the screen door, knocking it off one of the rusted hinges.
“I told you to wait for me.” Anger had painted her face red, as she aimed her murderous expression at Levi.
Damn, she was beautiful.
“And don’t smile at me like that.”
Levi held up his hands, happy to surrender. “I’m not smiling,” he said through his grin. Her gaze turned even darker. If he survived this conversation with Joe, she was going to kill him.
“And you.” She directed her ire at her grandfather, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I want to know his intentions,” Joe said. “I’m your grandfather. I have the right—”
“You have no rights where my personal life is concerned. You two can’t haggle over me like I’m your prize heifer. Like I’m not even here. This is the seventies, not the thirties. I don’t belong to anybody. I’m my own woman. I make my own decisions. If I want to have sex before getting married, that’s what I’m going to do. If you want to have a conversation about intentions, then you need to talk to me, not him.”
“I would tell you to run,” Joe said to Levi, with both pride and a touch of amused fear in his eyes, “but by the way you’re looking at her, I’m afraid it’s too late.”
“Yes, sir.” Levi didn’t have anything to hide. Not from Joe. Not from Olivia. Hadn’t he and Olivia gone over this already? Isn’t that what being boyfriend and girlfriend meant? That you’d found someone you were crazy about?
“Arrrrgh.” Olivia’s hands fell to her legs. “I love you, Gramps, but you can be impossible sometimes.”
Joe got a sad far off look in his eyes. “You’re so much like your grandmother, rest her soul.”
“Oh, Gramps.” Olivia sighed as she hugged her grandfather over the swing’s backrest.
He patted her hand that had come around his neck. His eyes had gone misty, and his voice shuddered when he said, “I’m looking out for my baby girl. You can’t fault an old man for that.”
“No, I can’t.” She kissed his cheek then came around and stood beside Levi at the rail. He put his arm behind her back and massaged the tense muscles at the base of her neck. “But this is my life we’re talking about. I have a right to be in on the conversation.”
“Grampy Joe?” Clementine toddled out of the cockeyed screen door, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“Hey, Clem.”
“Morning, Pix.”
“Did you have a good night’s sleep?” Olivia asked.
Clementine nodde
d and practically sleepwalked to the swing. When the time came, Levi pitied the poor man who would have to deal with Clementine before her morning cup of coffee.
When Joe turned his attention to Clementine, Levi leaned in and whispered in Olivia’s ear. “I can’t tell you how hot you are when you’re on the warpath. Do you think your grandfather would notice if we disappeared into the hayloft for about twenty minutes?”
Her response was a jab to his ribs with her elbow, but he caught the hint of a smile as she turned to her grandfather. With his good arm, Joe helped Clementine onto the swing. She leaned against Joe with her eyes at half-mast.
“What did you want to ask?” Olivia refocused Joe’s attention on her. “I’ve got a bunch of animals to feed before our meeting with the lawyer this morning.”
“I just want to know where this thing is going.”
Olivia laughed. “We don’t even know that, Gramps. This is so new.”
Then Joe’s eyes bored into his. “Do you like her enough to marry her?”
“Ahhh...” Levi squirmed, not knowing the right answer. Sure, he thought she was amazing. He enjoyed her company, found her smart and sassy and sexy as hell. But marry?
“Don’t answer that.” To Joe, Olivia said, “It’s nothing like that.”
Nothing? Sure as hell felt like something last night. Even if he wasn’t about to pop the question. “It’s not nothing. It’s something.”
She turned to look at him. “Then what is it?”
“I don’t know yet, but I want to find out.”
With the ongoing conversation, Clementine started to wake from her half-dead state. She climbed onto Joe’s lap and started playing with the loose flaps of skin under his neck.
“I don’t want you two making any big mistakes.” Joe’s eyes drifted to Clementine and back to Levi.
“You need to take that back,” Olivia said at the same time Levi said, “Clementine is not a mistake.”
If Clementine hadn’t been in the old man’s lap, Levi might have decked the old bastard.
Joe closed his eyes for a slow count of three. When he opened them again, he said, “My apologies. That didn’t come out right. Okay?” Joe glanced between Levi and Olivia until they both nodded. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re both young and you both have your own responsibilities. You can’t let whatever this is between you two get in the way of those things. Marriage is a commitment that takes a lot of thought and introspection. It’s not something to rush into.”