“Why? I know you like me better without them.”
“Last night I would have agreed with you. Today I don’t.”
She gazed at him in confusion. “There’s nothing sexy about these clothes.”
“There is when I know what they’re disguising.” He slid his hand under her unfastened bra. “Plain white cotton covers warm, satin skin and nipples like ripe raspberries. It’s a secret you and I share but no one else knows. That gets me hot.”
“I wouldn’t have thought of the raspberry part.” She arched into his hand, reveling in the way he touched her.
“That’s my job, to look at you and think of raspberries.” He brushed his thumb over her nipple. “Meanwhile no one else guesses what’s hiding under baggy jeans and oversize shirts. I feel like a privileged insider. That’s a turn-on.”
She thought about Mandy’s alterations. Guaranteed those clothes would turn him on more. “But you still want to get these off, right?”
“Yes, but slowly. I want to take time to enjoy each bit of sexy woman I uncover as I go.”
“We didn’t go slow last night.” She snuggled closer, knowing how that affected him.
“That sleep outfit was unexpected. I went a little crazy when I saw you in that.”
“Exactly.” She wiggled out of his embrace and took off her shirt. “I like it when you go crazy.”
Her move got the result she was looking for. He sucked in a breath when she shrugged out of her bra. Fire in his eyes, he started toward her.
“Hang on.” She backed away from him. “I have to ditch my boots.” She hopped on one foot and pulled off the first one.
He groaned as if in pain.
“Are you okay?” She hopped on the other foot to get the second boot off.
He gulped. “That hopping maneuver.”
“What about it?”
“I almost came just watching you. You’ve taken jiggle to a whole new level.” He crossed to her, swept her up in his arms and deposited her on the blanket. “You’re right. Slow is overrated.” He had her out of her jeans and panties in no time, partly because the jeans were so loose.
His clothes came off fast after that, too. He tossed his boots aside, flung off his shirt and shucked his jeans and briefs. But before he discarded the jeans, he pulled a condom out of the pocket and rolled it over his impressive erection.
Heart pounding in anticipation, she watched him. “I still can’t believe that fits inside me.”
“Barely. That’s something we are gonna take slow.” He moved over her and his gaze lingered on her breasts. “The light’s fading, but I can still see your freckles.”
She’d learned that when his eyes turned navy blue, he was becoming crazy with lust. “Ladies in olden days weren’t supposed to have freckles.”
“I’m glad we don’t live in olden days. You’re like a delicious pastry sprinkled with cinnamon.” Braced on his forearms, he leaned down and placed kisses all over her breasts. “With a raspberry on top.”
When he took one into his mouth and rolled it over his tongue, she felt the zing in a place that was becoming increasingly important to her. She wanted him there again, filling and stretching her, making her come. Cupping his butt cheeks, she tried to pull him down, but his muscles were rock hard. No wonder he looked so good in jeans.
He seemed enamored with her breasts, and what he was doing felt great, but she was impatient for the main event. She wrapped her legs around his and tugged again. “Cody, do it.”
Lifting his head, he gazed into her eyes. “Once I start, I’ll forget everything but being inside you.”
“Fine with me.”
“But you have such gorgeous breasts. And when you were taking off your boots…” His eyes glazed over and his breathing quickened. “Spectacular.”
“You can love on them next time.” Once again she was assuming they’d keep doing this, but his eyes were even darker, now, so she thought they would. “As long as you want.”
“Mm.” He kissed his way back to her mouth and brushed his lips over hers. “I like the way you think.”
She pressed her fingertips into his backside. “You like the way I feel, too.” She lifted her hips until she nudged the tip of his cock with her damp curls, but she couldn’t get closer without some cooperation. “Remember how much you liked it last night when I was gradually sliding—”
“Heck, yeah.” He stopped resisting her and sank partway in with a soft groan.
Oh, dear heaven, that felt amazing. She quivered with eagerness. “More.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” His voice had gone from mellow to husky.
There it was, the tightening she remembered. “I’ll say something if you do.” Then she decided to clarify. “I’ll say stop. If I start babbling about anything else, assume it’s all good.”
“Remember that we can’t spook the horses.”
“I’ll remember.”
“I said it to remind me, not you.” He eased in deeper.
Her first spasm hit.
His breath caught. “Faith?”
“Thrust, Cody.”
He managed three strokes before she slapped a hand over her mouth to smother her cry as a climax rolled through her. He held very still as she gasped and trembled beneath him. As the lovely sensations gradually ebbed, she kept expecting him to come, too, just as he had the night before. But although he was breathing hard, he didn’t have an orgasm.
When she’d dragged in enough air to ask him about it, he raised his head and smiled down at her. “That one was so quick, I thought you might like to go for another.”
“Now?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Are you sure?”
She checked in with her body. “I’m done.”
“It’s been known to happen if the guy can hold back.”
“You held back so I could come twice?”
“Uh-huh.”
“That’s sweet, but…you go ahead.”
“Then I will.” He held her gaze as he drew back and slid in again. “Too much?”
“No. Everything feels easier, now.”
“You’re relaxed.” He pushed in a little more, burying his cock to the hilt.
“Oh, I’m relaxed.“ She rested her hands on his firm buns and enjoyed the play of muscles as he kept up an easy rhythm.
“And juicy.”
“That, too.”
“Makes it nice for me.” He drove in tight.
Oh. A wave of feeling rose from somewhere deeper, catching her by surprise.
He eased back and came in at a slightly different angle.
She swallowed. There it was again, stronger this time.
“Hey, Faith.” His voice was roughened by passion. “What’s going on, pretty lady?”
“I don’t know, but—oh!” She dug her fingers into his butt as she rose to meet his next stroke. “I need to…”
“Come?”
“Maybe.” She began to pant. “Can you go faster?”
“Sure can.” His eyes were like midnight as he increased the pace.
The rapid friction drove her wild and the electric connection when he pushed home time after time after time built the waves of pleasure until they broke over her in a glorious deluge. At the last minute she put her hand over her mouth to muffle her wild cry. Moments later he shuddered against her, claiming his release with a low, triumphant groan.
As they lay crumpled together and gasping for breath she was the first to speak. “So I was wrong.”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
She stroked his hair as he lay with his head on her shoulder. Anytime. It was what people often said when they’d been thanked for doing something. An automatic response. But in this case, it didn’t fit. She wondered if he’d thought of that after he’d said it. Knowing Cody, he had.
He sighed and nestled closer. “It’s getting chilly. We should go back.”
>
“I’m not chilly.” She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around him.
“No, because you have a hot cowboy on top of you and an insulated camping mattress under you.”
“I appreciate both.”
“But which one do you appreciate more?”
“I don’t know. Let me think.”
“Hey. The answer is obvious.”
“You’re right. I appreciate the camping mattresses the most.”
“Wrong answer.”
“No, it’s not. The hot cowboy went to the trouble and expense of getting them, which shows me how worried he was about exposing my tender body to the cold, hard ground. Whereas the hot cowboy is on top of me for a mostly self-serving reason.”
“So you’re beautiful and logical.”
She smiled because at this very moment she could accept such extravagant praise. She was a woman who’d had two orgasms in a row. “Deal with it.”
He chuckled. “Give a woman a couple of orgasms and she gets attitude.”
“It’s your own fault, then, isn’t it?”
“Yes, and I—what was that?”
“What?”
“I think one of your horses just licked my ass.”
She opened her eyes. “It isn’t one of the horses.”
“No?” He sounded a little freaked out. “Then what the hell is it?”
“A cow.”
“Jesus Christ.” Grabbing the base of the condom, he rolled away from her and scrambled to his feet. “Beat it!” He waved his free arm at the cow, who just stared at him with her big brown eyes and swished her tail.
He likely could use her help if she could only stop laughing. “You probably taste like salt.”
“I don’t care if I taste like a big slice of homemade apple pie!” He slapped the cow hard on the rump. “Move it, bossy! And take that sloppy tongue with you!”
The cow ambled off. Bert and Ernie watched her go and then went back to plucking what small blades of grass they’d been able to find in the clearing.
Cody glared at the departing cow. “And stay gone! If anybody’s going to lick my ass, it sure as hell isn’t going to be you!”
Faith sat on the blanket and enjoyed the show. “Are you into that? I’m a beginner, so you’ll have to tell me these things.”
Stalking back to the blanket, Cody fished a bandanna out of his jeans pocket and used it to whisk off the condom. Then he gazed at Faith. “You’re welcome to put your tongue anywhere you want on this body. But a cow? I don’t think so.”
She struggled to keep her laughter under control. She’d never seen him lose his cool like that and she’d bet he hardly ever did. “I’m sorry. I swear that whenever I came out here, the cattle were far, far away.”
“Except for the kinky one who likes to sneak up on unsuspecting men and lick their privates.” But the dent had appeared in his cheek again, which meant he’d found his sense of humor.
“I’ll take a guess that you’d like to find a different venue for next time.”
“Good guess. I have a cozy camper. There must be a way we can enjoy it without anyone finding out.”
“I’m sure there is. I’ll think about it.”
“Me, too.”
She stood. “I feel bad, though, that you bought the camping mattresses and this might be the only time we use them.”
“I don’t feel the least bit bad about that.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “We had a cushioned bed where we discovered you’re multi-orgasmic. That’s worth a hundred camping mattresses.”
“You discovered it.” She cuddled against him, loving the skin-to-skin contact. “I had no clue, but you did. What made you think I was capable of that?”
“Easy. You’ve been super responsive ever since we started this adventure. You came three strokes into the first round. I had every reason to believe I could help you come again.”
“It felt different from the other times.”
“I think I’ve found your G-spot.”
“My what?”
He tipped her chin up and kissed her gently. “If I explain that, we’ll both get excited and climb back on that mattress to see if I can find it again. Then our kinky cow will show up and want in on the action. Let’s postpone that discussion until we’re naked and protected from cows.”
“I imagined conducting this affair would be so easy.”
He tucked her hair behind her ear. “It has been.”
“No, it hasn’t. It took more than I expected to get you to agree, and then it rained and you had to go to extra trouble.”
“Worth it.”
“Okay, I admit that turned out great, but when we finally follow my plan, the one I thought would be so uncomplicated, a cow licks your butt.”
“Details. The important part, the connection between you and me, has been…perfect.”
As the sun slipped below the horizon, she had just enough light to see into his eyes. She found sincerity and compassion there. And desire, an emotion she’d never shared with anyone except Cody. “It has been perfect.” She gave him a long, slow kiss. Thanks to Cody, she’d discovered she was multi-orgasmic. That must make her a really hot woman.
Chapter Twelve
Cody drove under the speed limit on the way home. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that. The needle on his dash routinely sat five miles over, or on an open road with no cops in sight, a lot more.
All his life he’d been in a hurry—to start school, get his license, graduate, drink legally, land a job away from home, and finally take his big trip. But he was in no hurry to put an end to this special time with Faith. He felt as if they were building something solid, something he couldn’t picture tearing down when he left at the end of next week.
She was thinking the exact opposite, though. He could see it in her eyes. She’d meant this to be temporary and she had a wrecking ball standing by. When the time was up, she’d deploy that sucker. Then again, she didn’t have any experience with these things. She had no idea how much she’d miss him after they called it quits.
He’d had his share of painful breakups, and saying goodbye had never been easy. With Faith, though, he was looking at impossible. How could he walk away from someone who had him laughing one minute and hotter than a skillet of hash browns the next? If his trip marked the end of hanging out with her, he didn’t want to go.
Yeah, there it was, the thing he hadn’t wanted to admit. The more time he spent with her, the less excited he was about a trip he’d eagerly anticipated for years. That alone should tell him that something significant was going on between them.
She wouldn’t want to hear it, though. Her neat little plan would collapse unless he left on schedule. She’d laid out exactly what she wanted—a brief, passionate interlude—so if he could forget about himself for five minutes and think about Faith, he’d give her that and blow out of town.
He’d managed to depress the hell out of himself by the time he parked next to the ranch house. He couldn’t go in dragging his ass or his mom would ask what was wrong. In the past, he’d been able to tell her, but this time he couldn’t. Damn.
Okay, he’d hit the shower before he spent any time talking with her. He could use one after all that activity topped off by cow slobber, and he’d have his happy face on by the time he came back out. When he breezed through the door, she was on the sofa reading. She glanced up.
He didn’t give her a chance to say anything. “Hey, Mom! Gonna take a quick shower before I eat. See you in a few.” He headed down the hall.
Fifteen minutes later, he emerged from his room prepped to tell her that Bert was an awesome horse and Faith’s dad would be coming to dinner. She wasn’t on the sofa anymore but he heard her moving around in the kitchen. He found her dishing out his dinner—meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy along with a side of green beans. His salad and an open bottle of beer already sat on the small kitchen table.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.�
��
“I wanted to. Have a seat.” She set his full plate on the table.
Her voice sounded funny, sort of choked up.
Instead of sitting down, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” She sniffed.
Gently he turned her to face him. “No, you’re not. You’ve been crying.”
“Which is stupid! Ryker is fine!”
“Did you talk to him?”
“He called.” She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her nose.
“Instead of the video chat? I thought he always—”
“He does do the video chat normally, so when he called, I got scared.”
“Why did he call?”
She gave him a watery smile. “The real reason or the excuse he used?”
“Both.”
“He said he called because he’s decided to buy a small plane and subcontract with the commuter airline that’s based outside of town. He wanted to make sure I wasn’t counting on him to work at the ranch when he came back.”
“Were you?”
“I was staying loose to see what happened. If he’d wanted to work here, I would have put him on the payroll, but I’d have to juggle the money because I’m determined to keep Faith.”
“So in a way, his decision is a good thing.”
She nodded. “If I had an emergency, like if Zane or Faith had some issue and couldn’t be here, I’m sure he’d fill in. But I know how he loves to fly, so his plan is good for everybody.”
“But you don’t think that’s why he called.”
“No.” She sniffed again. “We have a video chat scheduled for next week and he could have mentioned this then. I think he called because something bad happened and he needed to hear my voice.”
“Oh, Mom.” He gathered her close and mentally railed against his big brother for putting her through this. “Maybe that wasn’t it.”
“I’m pretty sure it was. When he was little and something scared or upset him, he’d stammer and trip over his words. Sometimes he still does that. He was doing it tonight.”
“That means he’s scared? I thought it meant he was mad.”
“Oh, no. When Ryker’s mad, his words come out like bullets from a machine gun and they’re deadly accurate. That’s assuming he’s talking at all.”
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