Texas Kissing

by Newbury, Helena

  She stared at me for three quick breaths. “Remember my safeword?”

  “Rhinoceros,” I said without hesitation. “Why?”

  “Because you’ve got to catch me first.” She used my surprise to get a head start, twisting away and launching into a powerful stroke.

  A split-second later, I flung myself after her. By then, she was already ten feet away. I really was going to have to catch her before I could—

  I could see her ass through the crystal-clear water, the creamy moons of her cheeks gleaming wetly. When she rippled sinuously with her stroke, I caught a glimpse of pink lips beneath them and dark curls of submerged hair.

  I splashed to a standstill, transfixed. She pulled away another ten feet and only then did I wake up and swim after her. She was fast, too. She must have been a serious swimmer, at some point in her life. Her gleaming body sliced through the water, her shoulders and ass just breaking the surface. Meanwhile, I blundered along behind her, making up in power what I lacked in finesse. I was like a sailor chasing a mermaid, eager to claim his prize but hopelessly outmatched.

  Then she twisted to look back at me, her whole body lifting up onto one shoulder, and one naked breast came into view, shining as if varnished, milky-white skin and hard pink nipple—

  I growled and went for it, full power. No matter that I was about as good at cutting through the water as a barn. I just pushed the damn water aside.

  Her eyes grew big as she saw me pick up the pace. She kicked for the shore, but I’d already closed the gap to half what it was. By the time she made it out, I was already splashing through the shallows.

  And then we were on land. My territory.

  She checked over her shoulder again, panting and giggling...and something else. That wild-eyed, heady arousal I’d seen when I’d tied her up. The thrill of being chased. Of being taken.

  She ran. I ran faster.

  I thundered across the field like my namesake, eating up the ground in long strides. Every time she glanced back to see where I was, she lost a little more of her lead. And panted a little harder.

  I caught her just at the base of one of the hills, where the ground started to rise. Grabbing her wrist, I jerked her back and threw her to the ground, keeping hold of her as she fell so that she didn’t hurt herself. She landed with a whump on the soft grass, surrounded by wildflowers. She looked like some goddess of nature, naked and pure.

  Her legs were a little way apart. I dropped to my knees, opening them farther. She’d given up on the game of resistance, now. She was too turned on, staring up at me with half-closed eyes, her chest heaving.

  My cock had softened—an icy dip will do that to you. Now, it rose and stiffened and I enjoyed the sight of her eyes locking onto it hungrily.

  “Now,” I said. “I’m going to fuck you.”

  Lily

  I swallowed and looked up at him. More specifically, I looked up at his cock, angry and erect, throbbing above me in a way that sent dark tremors through me.

  If what had happened before the swim had been spiritual and beautiful, what had happened afterward had been base and kinky...in the best possible way. What better feeling than to be chased, naked, by a powerful man who wants to throw you down and—God! It was the knowledge that he’d never hurt me, that he’d stop as soon as I said the word, that made it fun. He was so big, as he climbed down on top of me, so hugely powerful. Those broad shoulders, the heavy swell of his pecs. Intimidating, but in a good way. In a makes-you-feel-weak-and-helpless way.

  His knees pushed mine apart. I bent them, so that the soles of my feet were flat on the ground, and opened myself to him. Bull planted his hands on my thighs and the feel of his touch there made me groan. Then he was moving forward, positioning himself. I felt the kiss of his naked cock against my lips, damp from the lake on the outside and slickly wet inside.

  Both of us were still dripping. The sun was warm on our skin, but it was the heat inside that kept me from shivering. I felt charged up and ready in a way I’d never been before. Each time, with Bull, it had been about losing control, about my feelings for him taking over. For the first time, there were no arguments in my head. Even my fears about our future had retreated. Maybe it was because we were away from town or maybe it was something to do with my new-found body confidence but everything was right. This felt right, me and Bull together, with green grass and water. It reminded me of something….

  And then all conscious thought ceased because he was driving slowly up into me, the blunt head of him spreading me, sliding on my wetness, slipping inside—

  I groaned as he entered me, his size making me stretch in that delicious, bite-your-lip-it-feels-so-good way. He surged up inside me, groaning himself as he felt my tightness. I saw his toes dig into the soft ground as he pushed on, determined to fill me completely in one, long thrust. And at last he did, my back arching and my eyes going wide as his balls kissed up against my ass, his muscled thighs pressing my own legs wide.

  He stayed there for a moment, not moving, and I reached up and gripped his shoulders, staring at him wordlessly. Something was happening, something I didn’t fully understand. The feel of him there, so big and naked. This, the two of us outdoors under a massive sky with just a couple of horses tethered and not a modern trapping in sight. It could have been a hundred years ago, two hundred—

  And then I realized what it reminded me of: my dream. A simple life in the old west.

  With my husband.

  Bull moved his hands up to my breasts and deftly stroked them, my skin wet under his fingers, my nipples achingly hard. Then he began to move, sliding from me and then thrusting into me again, filling me so fast and hard that my pleasure escaped as a high little cry.

  He pushed his hands under my ass and lifted me a little, presenting me to him more fully. We both groaned as the angle changed. His hips rose and fell, his muscled ass powering him again and again into my wetness and heat.

  My hands searched across his back, tracing every muscle, my fingertips digging in. I clutched him to me, wanting him harder, deeper, more. I started to toss my head against the grass, wet strands of hair sticking to my forehead. “God,” I moaned, relishing the hardness of his body, the sheer size of him. “God!”

  His lips drew back from his teeth—almost a snarl. I remembered what he’d said, then—that he’d fuck me harder than I’d ever been fucked before, and the thought made the heat whirlpool down to my groin. His pace picked up again, his body brutally strong between my legs, his groin pounding mine. Every thrust sent bolts of silver pleasure rippling through my entire body.

  I ran my hands down his body, just managing to reach his ass. So smooth, so hard, flexing and plunging. He growled as I fondled it. I could tell from the tension in his arms and shoulders that he was getting close, holding himself back until he was sure I’d come first.

  I suddenly gripped his arm. The orgasm was blasting up towards my brain now, seconds away. We were in the old west and I wasn’t some lonely girl eking out a life making fake passports, I was a normal, happy woman and I’d found my man.

  I wrapped my legs around Bull, my heels kicking at his ass—

  His cock was so, so deep inside me, throbbing and hot and—

  I lifted my head off the ground, eyes still squeezed shut. My whole upper body came up, my breasts pillowing against his chest. “H—Husband!” I blurted.

  The orgasm arrived a micro-second before the horrifying realization of what I’d just said. My arms and legs clenched tight around him as the explosion went off in my mind. I tightened around his plunging cock, triggering a whole new wave of sensations. My head and shoulders fell back against the grass but my chest thrust up, back arching and breasts mashing against his pecs.

  —WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!

  My eyes flew open and I just had time to see Bull’s expression. He was startled, for once, genuinely thrown. And then the feel of my body spasming around him took him over the edge and he groaned. He stared down at me and his eyes too
k on a look of such burning, all-out lust that my climax collapsed in on itself and exploded again like a dying star, blowing away all coherent thought.

  He shoved his hips forward, burying himself, and I felt the long, hot streams of him.

  And then I was collapsing back onto the grass, panting and sticky with sweat. And I wondered what the hell would come next.

  Lily

  He rolled off of me, but caught me around the waist as he did it so that we were lying on our sides, facing each other. “That was unexpected,” he said, when he got his breath back.

  “What do you mean?” I said hopefully. Maybe he didn’t hear it.

  He looked me in the eye. Yes he did.

  I jumped to my feet, my face scarlet, and started walking around the lake towards our clothes. I heard the rustle of grass as he got up and, after only a few steps, he grabbed my arm. “Hey!”

  I turned to him.

  “Talk to me, Lily!”

  “What? It was just some stupid—” I sighed. He was doing his stern expression. “I had this dream, okay?”

  He wrinkled his forehead. “Mary? That’s where that came from?”

  My jaw dropped. He remembered the fair! I dropped my eyes to the ground, cheeks flaring even hotter. Now he’d really mock me.

  Strong hands cupped my cheeks, lifting my head so that I was looking at him.

  “I’d marry you,” he said.

  I forgot how to breathe. I just stood there staring into his eyes for a second. But however hard I tried, however much I wanted to see it, I couldn’t see even a trace of his usual teasing.

  “People like us don’t get married,” I said hollowly. “Remember?”

  My hand was swallowed up in his warm grip, the heat radiating up my arm. “But if we did,” he said, “I’d marry you. And kids, someday. The whole damn shooting match.”

  I opened my mouth to speak once, twice—but couldn’t find any words. Eventually, I just nodded quickly and pulled my hand away, then hurried off towards our clothes.

  Before we were even halfway there, the Texas sun had blasted the remaining water from our bodies. But my cheeks still hadn’t cooled to their usual color. I stumbled along, trying to process it all.

  All that time out there on my own in the bus...I’d never needed anyone. Never been able to have anyone. Of course some vision of idyllic family life would gradually become a fantasy, bubbling away under the surface. That’s what I told myself. That’s all it was.

  But I knew it was more than that. This hadn’t started until I’d met Bull.

  It wasn’t about some need to get married. It wasn’t that literal.

  It was about sharing my life with someone. Finding someone I could finally open up to about everything: what I did for a living, my deepest insecurities...even, one day, the horrors of my past.

  I looked over my shoulder at Bull and he smiled at me. I whipped my head back to the front, wide-eyed and almost panting with fear and excitement.

  For the first time in a very long time, I dared to hope.

  ***

  When we’d dressed, Bull showed me how to build a campfire. Which involved an axe.

  “Aren’t I meant to just sit here?” I asked. “While you go off and be a lumberjack?”

  He rested the hand axe on his shoulder. “I could,” he said. “I can if you want. But then you’d never learn how to do it yourself.”

  It took me by surprise. I’d got it into my head that cowboys were, in some quaint and sort of understandable way, sexist. Especially ones like Bull, with his rodeo riding and arrogant attitude.

  He must have caught my expression because he said, “I don’t know what it’s like in the big city. But Texas girls learn to shoot and ride and make fires just the same as the men. ‘Least, they do if they’ve got a dad like mine.”

  “You’ve got a sister?”

  He nodded. “Just the one.” He grinned. “I guess that has something to do with it—my dad raised her just like the boys. What about you? Your family still in New York?”

  Shit. Now it was more difficult to dodge the questions because he thought I didn’t have any more secrets. I nodded quickly. “Yeah. I’ve, uh...sort of lost touch.” Then, because that sounded suspicious, I added, “I miss them, actually. I wish I saw more of them but...you know how it is.” There. That was good. I held out my hand. “Can I have a turn with the axe?”

  We worked together, stopping only to watch the sun go down and turn the lake to gold, just as the name promised. Chopping the wood and building the fire was strangely therapeutic—very different to the painstaking work I normally did. And the payoff was huge. As night fell, we cuddled up in front of our very own crackling fire, the smell of wood smoke in our noses. I tried to remember the last time I’d seen actual flames and not the sterile glow of light bulbs and computer screens.

  We ate chili and drank our way through the one luxury Bull had brought with us—a very good bottle of red wine. When the meal was over and we lay back on our bedrolls under the stars, my head slightly buzzing from the alcohol.

  “I can see the stars, reflected in your eyes,” said Bull.

  He snuggled up beside me and I nestled my head into his shoulder. Underneath that huge Texas sky, I felt tiny. Insignificant. But not lonely.

  Not anymore.

  I pressed the whole side of my body against his, from head to toe. I was convinced I’d made the right decision, back in his pick up. Bull never needed to know about my past. Tomorrow, Calahan would go home. And then we’d be safe.

  Antonio

  I stalked out of Lucky Pete’s, shoving the photo of Tessa back into my pocket. The guys there remembered her—she’d ridden the mechanical bull a little while ago, they said. And now she was fucking some cowboy named Bull. No one knew where she lived, but they knew all about him. He was some sort of rodeo rider, a local hero.

  I fingered the gun I had stashed under my jacket. Part of me really hoped he’d get in the way. I’d enjoy seeing Tessa’s face when I offed her boyfriend.

  Christ, but it was hot. I ran a finger around my collar. I’d already taken my tie off and still it was unbearable. Who the fuck would want to live in a desert?

  I tried the ranch first, but it was all closed up for the night. Then I tried Bull’s trailer but there was no one home.

  Well, fine. I knew they were here. I could wait it out.

  I found a motel to stay in—the Stallion Inn, cowboy-themed like every other thing in the fucking state. I grimaced. I was sick of cowboys already.

  It was when I was getting a soda from the machine that I saw him going into his room. Calahan. One of the FBI pricks who’d been hounding Erico for years. Shit! No way was that a coincidence. Tessa must be talking to him.

  I ducked back into the shadows so that he didn’t see me. Then I hurried to my room, called Erico, and told him to send me some men.

  Bull

  Lily was still asleep, but I’d gotten up early to make her breakfast. I had bacon sizzling on a skillet over the fire and coffee brewing in a metal jug.

  The real reason I’d risen early, though, was because I couldn’t sleep.

  I couldn’t lose her. I’d never felt this way about anyone. What if, when we got back to town, she ran again?

  I was scared of saying the wrong thing and driving her away. I was scared of not saying anything and losing her because she didn’t know how I felt.

  I rubbed my hand over my face and went over to Caliope. I needed to practice this. And if I was going to practice on a horse, I figured it should be the female.

  “Hey,” I said softly. I glanced over at Lily, but she was still fast asleep. “You and I need to talk.”

  Caliope blinked at me expectantly.

  “Look. I know I’m not much good at stuff like this.” I scratched the back of my neck. My stomach felt like a nest of rattlesnakes. “But I gotta tell you how I feel.”

  Caliope gave a little snort. But I plowed on.

  “Ever since I saw you, I wanted t
o bang the—I wanted to fuck you like—I wanted you. But I never said—” I swallowed. “I never said that I—”

  Lily

  Mmm, bacon.

  I could smell coffee, too. I sleepily opened my eyes to see that Bull had gotten a campfire going. My heart swelled. He was cooking me breakfast! God, he was too much!

  Then I heard him talking in a low voice. And not to me.

  “But I never said—” he said to Caliope. He broke off and swallowed. “I never said that I—” He stopped again.

  My forehead wrinkled. Either Caliope had been seeing him behind my back, the hussy, or—

  Bull sighed. “Look, you came into my life—“

  Oh God, I was right. He was rehearsing what he wanted to say to me!

  “...and I just—I don’t want to be with anyone else.” He paused. Then his shoulders set as firmly as if he was about to wrestle a bronco. “Lily, what I’m trying to say is—”

  I wanted to hear it so much. But I couldn’t let him say it.

  “...I lo—”

  Bull

  At that second, there was an enormous yawn from Lily’s direction. I snapped around so fast I got neck ache.

  Lily was sitting up and stretching, her magnificent breasts rising under her tight t-shirt. “Good morning,” she said between yawns. “Oh! You made breakfast!”

  “Did you hear any of that?” I asked.

  “Any of what?”

  I studied her for a moment. She blinked back at me sleepily.

  “Nothing.” I could feel my face going red. “Coffee’s ready. Let’s eat.”

  ***

  The bacon was crispy, the potato hash was soft and fluffy, and the eggs had perfect, oozing yellow yolks. I’d even brewed the coffee just right. But my carefully-rehearsed speech was in tatters. She’d interrupted me right before I got to I love you. That had to be fate, right? Someone was trying to tell me this wasn’t a good idea. Someone was trying to clue me in that Lily was going to run a mile if I said the L-word.