“I’m so happy for both of you.”
Ember wiped the tears from her cheek. She pointed to Jasmine. “Sworn to secrecy.”
Jasmine nodded, but she had a sinking feeling. She knew Joseph would be able to tell something was up if he spoke to her. They were done with their daily update from Jared and she needed to brief Chad on the developments. Oh, well, that might work. Two or three birds with one stone. “I’m crap with these kinds of secrets, but Chad is riding fence line. I can pack a kit so we can spend the night out. That way I won’t ruin any of your surprises, and I can talk privately with Chad, and we can see where things go.”
“Perfect. Let me help you pack.” Ember popped another cracker into her mouth.
~~
Chad lifted into the saddle of the line-backed dun gelding he favored. The horse, Tango by name, had speed and spirit but was calm enough that Chad could relax and take off on long rides and think. He’d been doing that a lot the last couple of weeks. He’d announced to his management team that he’d be taking a hiatus. He hadn’t had the satisfaction of firing Millicent yet, but when that day came, he’d be glad to see the back of that woman.
He lifted a hand and waved at some of the ranch hands as he left the barn. He’d started working with them in the mornings, helping to feed the animals and do odd jobs around the ranch. He had plenty of time to write music, but just sitting up at the ranch house doing nothing drove him insane. Jasmine spent most days at the training complex, either going through refresher training or working with Jared on his case. There hadn’t been any movement on it yet. That frustrated him to no end. Since he’d been spirited from Nashville, two more people who had lawsuits against him had been found murdered. The press had put two and two together and discovered the link after the third person had died. Now? Well, now the press had strung him up—tried him and found him guilty without any evidence, only speculation. His record sales, however, had skyrocketed. He shook his head. People confused the hell out of him sometimes.
He checked on his mom daily by telephone. She and Zelda didn’t watch too much television, so at least her exposure to the media circus that surrounded his hiatus and disappearance had been minimal. The last headline he’d read had him involuntarily committed to a mental institution somewhere in France. He chuckled and tickled his mount’s ribs, sending it into a slow lope. He’d told John Smith, the ranch foreman, that he’d ride the eastern pasture and check the fence line before the cattle in the upper pastures were brought down. There was a nip in the air in the mornings now. The evenings required light jackets, and the leaves were starting to turn colors. He’d fallen in love with the simple life surrounding the ranch just as quickly as he’d fallen in love with Jasmine. He hadn’t told her yet. The long-legged filly spooked easily, and getting her to open up and allow him in was a never-ending battle. She still kept a large portion of herself from him. He could feel it, but he wasn’t sure where it was coming from.
Chad slowed his horse to a walk. The sun rose steadily as he followed the fence line from one pasture to the next. He stopped periodically to mend broken strands of barbed wire. His thoughts returned to Jasmine. They had chemistry, in spades. Hot, explosive chemistry. They’d made love every night for the last three weeks, most nights more than once. Did he wonder what it would be like to dominate that woman? Hell yeah. Did he miss it?
Tango’s ears shot up, his lungs filled with air, and he whinnied, shaking Chad out of his contemplation. He lifted the brow of his baseball cap and saw the rider coming over the small knoll behind him. A smile spread across his face at the sight of Jasmine on that dapple gray mare she always rode. He reined in and waited for her to catch up.
Did he miss doing scenes? In reality, no. He wasn’t sadistic, and while he did enjoy giving the subs he did scenes with the pleasure they desired, pain wasn’t his thing. He was a sensualist through and through. He could imagine Jasmine tied and writhing under his touch as he denied her orgasm only to build it back. He wanted to have her beg him for release and then choose whether or not to give it to her. The idea of finding and pushing her boundaries turned his crank with one hell of a lot of force, but if she never got to the point where that could happen? Her smile came into view as she rode closer. If that didn’t happen, he’d be just fine as long as he still had her.
“Hey.” She pulled up alongside him. He took in her pack, which included a sleeping bag.
“Hey, yourself. Whatcha got there?” He nodded to the filled saddle pack and sleeping bag.
“Well, I kinda have to be out of the house or I may spill Ember’s big secret. I thought maybe you’d like to camp out with me tonight.”
“I could be convinced.” Chad avoided the halfhearted swat at his arm. “What is her big secret? Is she pregnant?”
“I didn’t tell you that.”
Chad chuckled at the wide-eyed look she turned on him.
“For future reference, sweetheart, anytime you tell a man a woman has a big secret, he will always assume she’s pregnant.”
“Why is that?”
Chad shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t have a clue. May be ingrained into our DNA.”
“Huh. Well, I have a big secret.”
Chad’s head whipped to the right. Jasmine nearly fell out of the saddle laughing at him. She pointed and laughed harder.
“Are you?”
“No! Oh… my… God… that was so funny! You freaked!”
“Woman, I should tan your ass for that.” Chad couldn’t help joining in on her laughter.
Jasmine stopped laughing suddenly and became silent. Yeah, he could have picked his words better. He saw the top strand of the fence line had snapped. He headed Tango in that direction and started the repair. He used pliers to form a loop from one of the two pieces. He wrapped it down and over on itself so it wouldn’t release or unravel. Jasmine’s silence while he worked bothered him. He’d obviously hit one of the things bothering her. She didn’t like the idea of a spanking, and that was okay. Chad pulled out the wire stretcher and attached both pieces of the strand before he started cranking the lever and pulling the snapped wire together. Once he had enough slack, he threaded the second piece of the barbed wire through the loop he’d made and wrapped the tail around the stretched wire, securing the repair. Come spring, they’d need to check this patch again and replace the entire run if it failed. He put away his tools and swung up into Tango’s saddle again.
“I’m sorry if what I said upset you.” His mount moved forward down the fence line, and hers kept pace.
“You didn’t upset me, but… I want to talk to you about that.”
“I’d never hurt you, Jasmine. Pain isn’t my thing.”
“Okay. But what is your thing?” She glanced over at him and away again. He stopped his horse and waited for her to face him.
“My thing is you.”
“But you want more.” She kicked her horse, and he caught up.
“I want you.”
“But am I enough? I don’t understand what you did at the clubs, but I know that it was important, that you took risks to go there and that you were looking for something specific. Why won’t you tell me what you want?”
Chad drew a breath and considered his answer. They’d gotten to know each other over the last three weeks. He knew every sensual spot on her body. He knew what kind of food she liked, the name of her first kitten and why her twin sister’s hyperactivity drove her up a wall. She knew everything about him except this. It probably wasn’t fair that he was keeping it from her.
“When I went to the clubs there were certain things that I enjoyed.”
“Like what?”
He drew a deep breath and let it hiss out as he tried to think of words that wouldn’t put her off completely. “I’m what is called a sensual dominant. I enjoy the lifestyle. But I don’t need that to be happy.”
“How would you do that?”
Jasmine’s question cut to the chase, didn’t it? “Do what?”
“What d
oes it entail, being a sensual dominant?”
They reined to the right and followed the slowly sloping strands of barbed wire in silence. He’d much rather show her the pleasure he could bring her. Telling her might not advance his case. He searched the horizon.
“Why won’t you tell me or… show me?”
Chad stopped Tango again and turned in the saddle. She was reaching out to him, and damned if he’d deny her. “Yes, I will, but to do that, you’d have to trust me to take care of you. Do you? Trust me?”
Jasmine’s horse shifted. She pulled her eyes away from his momentarily. When she returned to his gaze, she nodded. “I… yes, I do. I want to try to be the woman you want me to be.”
Chad shook his head, “Sweetheart, you are the woman I want you to be. If we never do a scene, I wouldn’t regret it, because it means I have you.”
“But you sought them out for years.”
Chad nodded. He wouldn’t deny it. He gave Tango some slack so he could rub his nose on Jasmine’s horse.
“Do you have to have a dungeon?”
A bark of surprised laughter launched from him without a thought. “No, I’m not a sadist. I’m not into pain. How long have you been wondering that?”
Her blush rose quickly to her cheeks.
Chad reached over and touched her face with his leather-gloved fingertip. “I told you I wasn’t into pain. Bondage has its place, but I don’t need devices to limit your motions. Sometimes it’s just a matter of telling you not to move… watching you struggle to do as I ask while I drive you insane with my touch.” The tension drained from her shoulders. My God, the misinformation people were pummeled with about the BDSM community. Were there people who had a St. Andrew’s cross in their basement? Hell yeah, but there were also people like him who sought the commitment and the connection more than anything else. He’d never found it with another. He had an opportunity with Jasmine. If she’d just let go.
“Will you show me?”
He stared at her. Her beautiful green eyes searched his. He nodded. “I will.” He leaned over and kissed her quickly before Tango adjusted to his weight and shifted, pulling them apart. His cock pounded against his zipper. It was going to be one hell of a long afternoon.
~~
Chad was stretched out on the sleeping bag. It was unzipped and flopped open over a waterproof tarp that would keep the dew from soaking into the bag. The horses were haltered and tied to a high-line they had strung between two trees near a large stock pond. The small fire they’d built was banked in a ring of rocks. Brilliant red glowed between black and gray cracks in the coals and crags of the charred wood not completely consumed. “The stars are beautiful tonight.”
Jasmine looked up from where she sat near the fire.
Chad took off his baseball cap and hung it on his saddle, which he was using as a backrest. His eyes were on her, not the heavens.
She cocked her head and asked, “Are they?”
Chad nodded. “Come here.”
Jasmine felt a bolt of unease but lifted to walk over to him. He stopped her before she lay down with him.
“Sit down next to me.”
Jasmine blinked at the change in his voice. She looked around, although she knew they were alone.
“Jasmine, you asked me to show you. To do that, you have to trust that I won’t let anyone or anything hurt you. I’m not into humiliation. I don’t get off on suffering. I want you to feel pleasure and only pleasure. You have a decision to make. Do you trust me enough to take care of you, to ensure nothing happens to you when you are at your most vulnerable?”
She nodded and sat down with him. There was a cool breeze blowing, and the long pasture grasses bent subtly, sashaying back and forth to a concert only they could hear. Chad put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her back into him.
“Scenes aren’t something a couple rushes into. In the clubs, they are negotiated. Safe words are decided upon, and limits are outlined. The Dom and sub rarely, if ever, play the night they meet.”
“Why?” She felt like a child asking such basic questions, but she wanted to know, to understand him and what he wanted.
Chad drew a breath and looked up at the night sky. “Sex is an intimate act. Sex with a BDSM element is stripped raw, void of most of the armor a person wears on a normal day-to-day basis.”
Jasmine leaned her head on his shoulder and gazed up at the tens of thousands of flickering pinpoints of light cast across the massive South Dakota sky. “Why would anyone want to feel that way?”
Chad dropped his gaze and took her hand in his. “When you’re truly ready, you’ll know, and I’ll know.” He lifted his arm and pulled her into his lap facing him. “But the one thing you must remember above anything else, if we never get to that point… if we never cross that line, I don’t care.”
Jasmine dropped her eyes. She knew that was a lie.
He chucked her under her chin, lifting her face up, forcing her to meet his intense gaze. “This is me being as honest as I know how to be. What we have together, right now, at this minute, is better in every way than the lackluster life I led before I met you. I’m happy for the first time in as long as I can remember.”
“I never told you that I was engaged.” The blurted confession hurt in places she didn’t want to remember.
His gaze searched her face as if he wanted to be able to read her thoughts. “What happened?”
“He cheated on me. His lover got pregnant.”
“He’s a fucking fool.”
His anger was misplaced. She had to explain. “No, when he asked me to marry him, I…” Jasmine raked a hand through her hair and blew out a long breath, gathering her nerves. “What we had wasn’t like what is between you and me. He used me, and I think in a way I used him. I wanted to have someone who loved me. I wanted someone besides my brothers, sisters, and mom who cared whether or not I came back from assignments. Our relationship failed epically, because we didn’t want the same thing. Hell, we didn’t even like the same things. He would never sit and look at the stars with me. He would have considered it a waste of time.” Jasmine glanced up at Chad and admitted, “I don’t.”
Chad leaned forward and kissed her softly. “Thank you.”
Jasmine leaned into him and whispered, “That line you talked about crossing? I want that, someday. With you.”
Chad caressed her cheek with his calloused fingertips. “Believe me, darling, when, and if the time is right, the stars will be as bright then as they are tonight.”
“Promise?” She couldn’t help replaying Evan’s betrayal over and over in her mind. Couldn’t help hearing his vicious words and knowing that he was right, that she had caused him to stray. Would she force Chad away too?
“I cross my heart.” Chad leaned forward until she was on her back under him. He nuzzled her neck and licked the shell of her ear, sending a shiver through her. “Now the question is, how do we make love without getting ourselves eaten alive by mosquitoes?”
Jasmine laughed and pushed him off of her. She lunged toward the saddle bags and pulled out a can of mosquito repellant. “I say spray the outside of the bag, strip, get in and zip that puppy up.”
The logistics of getting naked took less than thirty seconds after they coated the bag in bug juice. Getting in and getting it zipped took considerably longer. Jasmine hadn’t laughed so hard in years. When they finally got the bag zipped, Chad was on top of her. His long hard cock rested against her upper thigh and abdomen. Jasmine reached down to stroke the velvet soft skin as it moved over the hard contours of his shaft. She felt the wetness at the tip and swept it up in her palm as she lowered for another stroke.
Chad thrust his hips in time with her strokes. His lips sought out hers, and his tongue teased, coaxed and invited her response, taking as much as he was giving. Jasmine lost herself in his kiss and in his hands’ caresses. The press of material around them limited their movements. Chad cradled her, his arms under her back, hands wrapped around her shoulders. The
ir body heat and the sleeping bag’s warmth built a sheen of sweat between them. Chad entered her and buried himself deep.
“You feel so good,” Chad whispered as he started to withdraw. He slowed when her body stiffened, and she gasped. Jasmine’s eyes popped open, and she begged him, “Oh, my God, do that again!”
The wicked smile that blazed across his face held her eyes. He pushed forward and withdrew again, striking the same spot. Jasmine shivered at the combined sensation of his forward thrust against her clit and the slow drag of his hard cock against her channel. She closed her eyes and moaned, “Again.” And he did, over and over again. Jasmine was so close. She raked her nails across his shoulders, arching, trying desperately to get him to move just a bit faster. To hit her clit a little harder, thrust back just a bit harsher.
‘Please’ became the only word she knew. She clawed Chad’s back and shoulders, arched under him as far as his weight would allow. Chad’s hand grabbed her hair and pulled it just hard enough to still her and make her look at him. “Just feel, baby. Don’t fight it. Feel how good we are together.”
Jasmine panted for air but didn’t break the gaze they shared.
“That’s it. So good together.”
“Yes.” Her world shrunk to just Chad and the connection they shared.
“That’s right. Just us.”
Jasmine nodded, still caught in his hypnotic stare.
“So beautiful.” Chad lowered for a kiss and his hips changed tempo. Jasmine didn’t have time even to gasp for air before her orgasm tore through her. Every muscle in her body contracted and then expanded, sending her over into an avalanche of sensation that had been just out of reach for so long. She shuddered as he thrust deep and arched his back. His muscles bulged and his face transformed into a mask of pure bliss. He gasped for air before he slumped and dropped his head to her shoulder.
Jasmine floated on the wonderful sensations running through her body. She absentmindedly wove her fingers through Chad’s hair. Sex with this man was transformative. If only she could believe that she made him happy enough to forget the lifestyle he’d lived for so many years. He rolled over and pulled her onto her side. They pulled the sleeping bag as high as it would go over their heads, then held each other, unaware of the cool night breezes, the rustle of the pasture grasses or the soft snorts of their horses.
Jasmine (Kings of Guardian Book 6) Page 19