I grab the blanket and wrap it around my shoulders, then I sit on the floor by the fire to watch him undress the rest of the way. Outside, the wind howls and batters the weathered cabin. Inside, the storm is just as fierce.
Colt removes his jeans and his hard-on pushes against the thin, wet fabric of his boxers as he covers himself from view and grabs the blanket to wrap himself in. He sits before the fire, his large frame dwarfing the lower part of his body.
“You know we should huddle together to generate more warmth,” I suggest.
Colt smirks.
“I mean, purely by survival standards, that is.”
“You know what will generate more heat?”
“What?” I wince as the word comes out breathier than I intended, and Colt’s face almost looks pained.
“Whiskey.” He hands the giant bottle to me.
I sigh. Well, he’s not wrong. I press the lip to my mouth and take a hearty gulp. It burns on the way down but the warmth it produces low in my belly slakes the hunger within me. Some of it, anyway.
I hand the bottle back to him and we sit in silence as we eat our granola bars. The wind outside makes me wince and I bite my lip. Colt catches the action and says, “We’ll be okay.”
“I’m more worried about Mama and the boys.”
“They got the cellar. They’ll be fine. They’re more protected than we are.”
“Well now I am worried.” I laugh. Colt shakes his head and hands me the bottle of whiskey. I swallow another mouthful and relish the buzz as the whiskey warms my throat.
“We’ll have to get Wyatt to build us a tornado cellar.”
I chuckle, the whiskey and adrenaline going straight to my head. “How many men do you think he’s brought back here?”
“A few.”
“How safe do you think that mattress is?”
“I’m thinkin’ maybe we might be safer out there with the storm.”
“Poor Wyatt.”
“Poor Wyatt? At least he’s getting laid.”
“Oh, come on. Tell me every single woman who comes through those doors of the B and B aren’t falling all over themselves to spend the night in your cabin?”
“They could fall all over my big, fat cock and I still wouldn’t be interested.”
I shiver at the crassness of his words, liking this dirtier, grown-up side of Colt. “Why wouldn’t you be interested?”
“Because I don’t want just another piece of ass.”
“So, what? You’re just gonna stay single forever?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?”
“You tell me—is it any better than agreeing to marry a man you don’t love?”
I swallow hard and glower. “I never said I didn’t love him.”
“You didn’t have to. I know you when you’re in love, Lemonade. Nothing on God’s green earth could hold you back, yet you skipped town the second things got rough.”
I frown. Is he talking about my ex now or him? Either way, I decide a subject change is in order. “Why didn’t we ever think to restore this shack?”
“Because we didn’t care who we were kissin’ in front of. Everything back then was sweet and wild, and we didn’t even notice we were burning alive.”
I sip the whiskey and pull the blanket tighter around my shoulders, shifting closer to the fire. “Do you ever wonder where we’d be if I hadn’t lost the baby?”
“We.”
“What?”
“If we hadn’t lost her. We both lost her.”
“You don’t know that it was a her.”
“You don’t know she wasn’t.”
I nod and stare into the flames licking at the stone walls of the fireplace.
“And no. I try not to think about what might’ve been. There ain’t no sense in that.”
“I do.” I swallow hard and meet his gaze. “I think about the two of us, what might’ve happened if I hadn’t left you. We’d probably have eight adopted children by now, all just as stubborn as their daddy.”
“Me, stubborn?” He arches a brow, trying to make light of the mood, but there is no making light of us. We were never light. We were fire and heat, and it engulfed us, razed us to the ground. “And what do you mean adopted?”
“Why don’t you think about that?” I frown, changing the subject, wanting more from him than he’s obviously willing to give. “Did your hate for me consume any love you had left?”
“I never hated you, Lemon. God, I never stopped loving you. You left me, and my heart shattered into a hundred-thousand pieces. I didn’t have a hope in hell of putting it back together.”
“Then why didn’t you come find me?”
“And say what? You took off in the middle of the night. You made it pretty clear that you wanted nothing more to do with me.”
“I was wrong. I was a dumb kid, and I was scared. I brought shame on my family, Colt. Everyone in town looked at me like I was worthless, and after I lost the baby, I couldn’t stand the pity in their eyes. ‘There goes Lemon Winchester. Such a shame that girl was so wild.’”
Colt shakes his head. “No one was looking at you like that, and even if they did. Who cares? Aren’t you the one who always told me just to let them talk, they didn’t matter?”
“I thought I wanted more for my life than just being some rancher’s wife. I just … I needed to get out. If I didn’t, I was going to get pregnant again, we’d be married, and I wanted more for my life than that.”
“You wanted more than just being my wife. Let’s be honest here.”
I shake my head. “I grew up the daughter of a third-generation rancher’s wife.”
“I know how you grew up,” he says through his teeth. “I was there for every goddamn step of the way … before you left me, that is.”
“That wasn’t my future. I needed to find myself. I needed to make my own mark on the world.”
“And how’s that working out for you, Lemonade?”
All the wind leaves my sails and I sigh. “Pretty terrible actually.”
“I woulda given you everything. If you’d told me that’s what you wanted, I would have followed you to New York and washed dishes to keep a roof over our heads while you went to art school, but you never gave me the chance.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. The idea of Colton Hayes living in New York is as unfamiliar as a fish out of water … it’s as foreign as me living in New York. I never belonged there. All the noise, the city lights, the confined apartments and traffic drove me mad, and still I stayed because I wasn’t sure I deserved this. I wasn’t sure I deserved to come home. Now I know there’s no place else where I’ll ever belong quite like Winchester Wild Ranch.
“I didn’t want another baby, Colt,” I blurt, and then I wet my lips and soften my tone, because I know this must be hard for him to hear. “Not then. I knew you’d want a whole football team of kids you could teach to ride and work the land. I didn’t know if I could give you that. I still don’t.” I swipe my tears away with the back of my hand.
His brow furrows and those deep gray eyes of his turn mercurial. “You left me because you thought you couldn’t get pregnant?”
I nod.
“Why the fuck wouldn’t you tell me that, Lemon?”
“I made a mistake.”
“You’re goddamn right, you did.” He rakes a hand through his hair and picks up the whiskey. “All this time, wasted, because you got it in your head that I wanted to use you like a brood mare. Is that what you thought of me?”
“Will you shut up and let me speak, please?”
He gives me a sidelong glance that says he’s losing his patience, but he nods and gestures with his whiskey that I should ‘take it away.’
“I screwed up. I didn’t know how to deal with everything that happened, with losing that little baby. I was scared and I ran, and this whole time I’ve been runnin’ in the wrong direction.”
“I don’t know if it’s the whiskey talking or the pollution you’v
e been breathin’ livin’ in that big ’ole city that’s messed with your head, but I don’t know what the hell you’re getting’ at.”
“I’m sayin’ I still love you, Colton Hayes. Some days I hate you too, but for the most part my heart still beats for you, for only you.”
Colt’s lips turn up in a sneer and he crawls toward me, but I don’t budge. I ain’t afraid of him.
“You still love me?”
“Yep,” I whisper. “Pretty much that’s what I just said.”
“What about your life in New York?”
“I don’t have a life there. I never did.” I shrug. Ambrose has been holding down the fort just fine without me, and being here inspires me to paint like the city never could. “I always felt like I was walking in borrowed shoes. Ambrose can run the gallery for me, and I’ll send my paintings via courier if I have to. I don’t want to give up on something that I worked so hard for, but I also don’t want to be without you, Colt. I suppose the real question is—do you want me?”
“All the time.” He reaches out and draws me to him, pressing his body against mine. He’s hard all over and I’m no longer so worried about my panties being wet. “I want you all the goddamn time. There’s never been anyone else but you, Lemonade. There never will be anyone else but you.”
Colt lowers his head and leans in. His hand strokes the back of my neck while the other slides over my hip to cup my ass cheek. I smile because he always was an ass man. He presses his lips to mine and the second our mouths meet we both lose control. My hands are in his hair, he grabs the globes of my ass and squeezes. I moan as my fingers explore the hard planes of his muscled body. His hard-on pushes against my stomach and we fall back on the worn floorboards. I no longer care about the bed, or the fact that this cabin may not survive the storm. I only care about his hands on my body, his lips on mine, and him inside me.
I slip my hand into his boxers and take his heavy cock in my palm. He groans as I slide from base to tip. Colt makes light work of my bra, slipping it off and cupping my breasts in his huge palms. He pinches my nipples. Pleasure arcs through me. I grab the waistband of my panties, desperate to get them out of the way. But Colt places his hands over mine and pulls away from my lips. “When you give a gift to a man, Lemonade, at least give him a chance to unwrap it himself.”
I giggle and let my hands fall by my sides. He hooks his forefinger into the elastic and draws me closer. I stumble into him and Colt steadies me. Then he glides my panties over my hips and thighs, following them down. He lifts one ankle and slides the thin fabric off my heel, then follows suit with the other. I expect him to stand and lead me to the bed, but in one swift movement, he grabs hold of my ankle and throws it over his shoulder, burying his face in me.
I gasp and jerk back, but he holds me firm and pulls the other leg over his shoulder, stands, and shoves me up against the wall. The wood is rough and cold at my back, but it makes the warmth of his mouth and breath on me so much more potent. I slide my fingers through his hair as he eats me out. My whole world just explodes as he licks and sucks my clit, and then I come so hard I see stars.
With trembling limbs, I climb down with Colt’s help, and he has to hold me to keep me from toppling over because my legs have turned to Jell-O.
“You taste just as sweet as you always did, Lemonade.”
“And you kiss even better than I remembered,” I whisper breathlessly, and I try hard not to think about all of the women he might’ve practiced on since he first went down on me. Daisy-Mae said he didn’t date, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t find solace with other women, just like I tried to with Stavros.
“Shit.”
“What?”
“I don’t have a condom.”
I huff. “Seriously?”
“I don’t carry my wallet when I ride. It’d just be nailing me in the ass every time I bounce in the saddle.”
“Good point.” I glance up at the ceiling and roll my head to the side. A big blue box catches my eye, and I chuckle.
“What’s so funny?”
I reach under the bed and pull out the object in question—a jumbo box of condoms. “Thank God for kinky brothers who prepare like Boy Scouts.”
Colt’s lips turn up into that crooked smile I love so much, and he takes a condom from the box and tears the package open with his teeth. Then he sits back on his knees and rolls the condom on. “Get on up here and ride me, cowgirl.”
I crawl toward him before climbing into his lap. As I slowly lower myself onto his hardness, I wrap my legs around his hips, my arms over his broad shoulders, and stare down into those stormy gray eyes. There’s nothing but love and need reflected back at me now, and after so many years of unrest, I finally feel like my soul is slowly stitching itself back together. Here in this moment, I’m finally home.
Colt buries his face in my breasts, licking my nipple before sucking it into his mouth. I rock my hips back and forth, enjoying the exchange of power. Colton is a gentleman everywhere but in bed, and in the past he might’ve waited for my consent, but immediately afterward he always took the lead. I like seeing him powerless and submitting to my will for once. He leans on his forearms, clearly appreciating my tits bouncing with each rotation of my hips. I grab his hat off the floor beside us and place it on my head. It’s soaked through, but I don’t care.
“Jesus, woman. Every fantasy I ever had with you in it just came true.”
I ride him like the bulls I saw him conquer in our youth, wild and rough, nothing sweet about it, just animal instinct and a hell of a lot of moaning. I’m sweating and my whole body shakes when Colt begins bucking underneath me, pushing his cock deeper, driving me closer to the edge. I clench around him, crying out his name as my orgasm sluices through me.
“Enjoy the ride, missy?” He ducks his head beneath the brim of the hat and whispers against the shell of my ear. His breath is hot and fiery like whiskey.
I giggle as he kisses my neck. “Yes, sir. But … I think I’d like to go again.”
He chuckles and plucks the hat from my head, tossing it on the ground. He devours my neck in kisses. “Well, if you climb in the saddle, you best be ready for the ride. Hold on, cowgirl, ’Cause we’re about to get wild.”
I squeeze my arms and legs tightly around him as he stands and deposits me on the table, he enters my body in one hard thrust that forces me to see stars. Colt grabs my ankle and lifts it so my foot is pressed flat against his chest, he dips his head and bites my flesh. I squeal and try to get away, but he grabs my hip and yanks me closer, his cock thrusting into me that much deeper. I slide my hand between my legs and stroke my clit.
“Fuck.” Colt’s eyes hood and he darts out his tongue to wet his lip as he watches me. My tits bounce with the violence of his thrusts and I stroke myself in time, bringing us both closer to the edge. “Come for me, Lemonade. Show me how much you missed my cock.”
I come undone, unravelling slowly, little by little as Colt shifts the angle of his thrusts. His hands grip my breasts, the trimmed nails pinching my nipples and opening me up to a whole new world of pleasure and pain. My core tightens and I pulse around him, coming for him just the way he demanded.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Colt whispers as he runs his hands over my body, his eyes following my taut curves and quivering muscles. He pulls free and helps me to my feet, kissing me so deeply I lose my mind. Too soon Colt pulls away. I frown, wondering why he’s depriving me of kisses now that we’ve literally kissed and made up. He grins as he pulls off the condom and discards it on the floor. His hands grip my hips, and he turns me to face the rest of the room. I almost lose my footing, but Colt steadies me with a hand splayed against my back. He pushes me forward, over the table, and he lifts my hips so that I’m standing on my tiptoes as he slips inside me.
He’s no longer wearing a condom, and the feeling of his skin against mine, entering me, and driving so deep inside that he hits my cervix causes my breath to catch. “Oh God.”
The s
ensations are so different without a condom, everything so raw and hot. Why the hell weren’t we doing this all along?
“Fuck! You’re so fucking hot for me, Lemon, so wet. I love feeling your velvet walls squeezing my dick.”
He pounds into me—fast, hard, and completely unapologetic. I scream just as loud as the wind outside as Colt keeps up his punishing pace and I fall over the edge. Colt pulls out, and a beat later hot cum spills onto my ass. I’m delirious as I chuckle. He grabs a handful of cheek and squeezes, making all the nerve endings in my body fire to life with desire again. The need I have for this man is insatiable. I can barely keep my eyes open, I’m so exhausted, body trembling as sweat cools against my skin, and yet I still want more. Colt uses one of the blankets to clean the mess he made from my backside and helps me up.
Turning me in his arms, he cups my face in his hands and places a kiss to my forehead. “I missed doing that.”
“I don’t think we ever did that.”
His grin is wide as he leans in to kiss my lips. “No, I guess we didn’t. But we’re gonna be doing a lot more in the future.”
“Well, there ain’t nothing wrong with making up for lost time.” I wink and lead him over to the bed. We’re not going anywhere until this storm blows over, and there’s no place else I’d rather be than right here in Colt’s arms.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Lemon
In the morning, I wake to the sound of horse hooves thundering toward the cabin, and a beat later, West busts through the door. His jaw drops open as he takes in Colt and I in bed, naked but covered by blankets, and several condom packets littering the floor.
“Oh my God, West!” I protest, clutching the blanket tightly to my chest. “Doesn’t anyone knock around here anymore?”
“You gotta be fuckin’ shittin’ me?”
Colt’s sleeping face down on the pillow but he stirs and opens his eyes. The cutest smile I’ve ever seen slips across that delectable mouth of his and I smile right back. That is, I’m smiling until Wyatt, Cash, and Wade come stomping through the front door of the cabin.
“Oh, gross. You’re doin’ our sister again?” Wade complains.
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