What The Rancher Wants... (Mills & Boon Modern)

by Monroe, Lucy

  She shook her head, but he ignored the refusal and just kept tormenting her with almost touches. He’d press his erection against the juncture of her thighs and then pull back. One erotic squeeze of her bottom and then his hands would move back up to knead her back. All the while he kept her hands trapped against heated, tantalizing flesh.

  “I want you to touch me like you did in the courtyard,” she finally blurted out when she could take no more of his teasing. Once she got started, she couldn’t stop. “I want you to take off my top and my bra and touch my breasts. With your hands and your mouth. I want you touch me between my legs. Only this time, I won’t make you stop. I want to touch you too.”

  She brushed her thumbs up and down, moving them as much as the tight position they were in would allow. His arms tightened around her and he groaned.

  “That’s good because I want to do all those things and more.”

  More? What more? She almost asked him, but decided she probably wasn’t prepared for the answer. She’d let him show her. “Then do it,” she all but shouted.

  He chuckled. “You’d better keep it down, honey.”

  She stifled a scream of mounting frustration.

  And then she forgot her frustration as Win pulled away and started undressing her. He tugged off her top, pulling it over her head and letting it fall to the floor.

  When he’d looked at her before, there had only been the illumination of moonlight. Now they were in her room with both the overhead light and the lamp on. Embarrassment heated her skin. She wanted his touch, but she didn’t want him looking at her. She crossed her arms over her chest and gazed fixedly at the black T-shirt covering his torso.

  “Look at me, baby.” The words were spoken soft and low, but held such an unmistakable air of authority that she raised her head.

  His eyes were midnight blue pools of wanting. “I want to see you. Will you let me?”

  She nodded her head, but still didn’t move her arms.

  He waited.

  She chewed on her lip. “Could we turn off the lights?”

  He shook his head, but said, “I’ll compromise.”

  And he walked over to flip down the switch for the overhead light, leaving the room bathed in the soft yellow glow from the reading lamp by the bed.

  Then he waited. Right where he was. On the other side of the room and somehow the distance between them gave her the courage to lower her arms.

  His focus did not at first waver from her face and she was grateful. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded, mute.

  “Good.” Then he let his gaze slide down and she felt as if he were touching her breasts with his fingertips.

  Her nipples, already tight, puckered further against the lace of her bra.

  “Take it off,” he demanded in a guttural voice.

  Taking a deep breath, she reached behind and unhooked the clasp of her bra. Then, shrugging her shoulders, she let it fall to the carpet with her shirt.

  His breathing turned shallow and raspy. “I’m really glad you didn’t listen to your mom.”

  For a minute his words confused her and then she remembered telling him about her mom suggesting a breast reduction. “They’re not that big.” And they weren’t. Certainly not large enough to justify surgery, even if she’d agreed with her mom.

  “They’re perfect.”

  She felt her mouth tip in a smile and for the first time she was glad her body was built like a centerfold instead of a schoolmarm. “Thank you.”

  His hands fisted and then relaxed at his side as if he wanted to reach out and touch her, but had stopped himself.

  “Your turn. Take off your T-shirt.” She waited to see if he would comply.

  He did. With a sexy smile that made her toes curl into the carpet. He did it slowly, revealing an inch of his rock-hard chest at a time until he finally pulled the black knit over his head and tossed it aside. The partial striptease had a direct effect on the spot between her legs and she could feel herself growing wetter.

  “Now your pants,” he said.

  She thought about refusing, unsure if she could strip for him, but then realized that he would remove his too and the anticipation of watching such a spectacle made up her mind for her. She unsnapped her jeans and following his lead, unzipped her fly one little centimeter at a time. By the time she had the zipper down and had started pushing the waistband over her hips, Win had a fine sheen of sweat on his body.

  He swallowed convulsively as she pushed the colored denim completely down her legs and kicked it away. She stood naked except for the silky panties covering her most feminine place. Could he see how wet they were?

  “Now you.”

  He didn’t make her say it again, or explain what she meant. He had to take off his boots first. Then his socks. The only sound in the room was their breathing as he unbuttoned his placket one brass button at a time until he could pull the worn blue denim completely off. He wore knit boxers that fit like a second skin, outlining the awesome length and breadth of his erection.

  She knew she didn’t have a lot of experience with men, had never actually seen a man’s engorged penis up close, but he looked big. Really big. Being inquisitive by nature, she’d seen pictures and none of them had prepared her for Win in the flesh.

  She swallowed and then licked her lips, unable to break her gaze away from his manhood.

  Laughter rumbled in his chest. “You look like you’re staring down a bobcat, hoping it won’t attack, baby.”

  The sound of his voice broke her reverie and she looked up to meet amused blue eyes. “I sort of feel like it, if you want the truth.”

  All amusement melted from his expression. “I’m not going to hurt you, baby.” Then he grimaced. “At least no more than absolutely necessary. I’ve heard it isn’t a picnic the first time for a woman.”

  “You’ve never made love to a virgin before?” Only the Lord knew why, but that knowledge comforted her.

  “No, but I’ll take care of you. I promise.”

  “I believe you, Win. I trust you.”

  He nodded. “Good.” Then he smiled. “Enough to take off those sexy little panties?”

  Her hands shook as she gave him her answer with action. Hooking her thumbs in the side elastic, she shimmied the silk down her hips until it slipped off and landed in a puddle at her feet. She stepped out of it.

  He didn’t wait for her to remind him it was his turn before following suit. Once his boxers were off, his erection jutted out from his body in imposing, bold glory. Bending down, he drew a foil packet from the pocket of his jeans and she wanted to tell him not to bother, but the dream for marriage and a family was hers. He didn’t share it and for just a moment pain cut through her excitement.

  Then he ripped open the packet and slid the protection over his hardness, bringing her attention back to his manhood. Somehow that was supposed to fit inside of her. She didn’t see how it could be possible, but she’d read romance novels. She wasn’t a complete innocent. Women stretched to accommodate their lovers, or so she’d read. She sure hoped that part of the romance wasn’t fantasy.

  He put his hand out. “Come here, baby.”

  She knew what he was asking. He wanted her to trust him. To come to him and show him that she knew she belonged to him. The message was in his eyes as his hand reached toward her. Without conscious volition, her feet started to move toward him, taking the rest of her body with them.

  When she reached him, he bent down and kissed her lips with surprising force.

  “You belong to me.”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t deny it and even if she had, he would know the truth.

  He swung her up into his arms, high against his chest, and carried her to the bed. “Hold my neck.”

  She did and he released her back in order to pull back the bedspread, blanket and sheet.

  Then he laid her with infinite care onto the cool sheet of the bed. She didn’t release his neck and he came down on top of her, allowing her to
feel the entire length of his body against her own for a full minute before rolling to the side. She protested the lack of contact with a soft murmur that turned into a moan as his hand cupped her breast.

  Then he touched her, just as he had in the courtyard, only this time she felt as if each whisper of his fingertips were a branding iron making her more completely his. His hands would not leave behind any marks, except on her heart, but she would be his all the same.

  And she would make him hers. She would brand him with her touch so that he would never be able to find fulfillment with another woman.

  She reached out and circled one turgid, small, male nipple. The hand on her breast tightened. Pleased with that response, she leaned forward and made the same circling motion, only this time with her tongue. He groaned and she did it again. Then, because she couldn’t help herself, she took that small, hard nub into her mouth and sucked.

  He shouted her name and pushed her away. “No more of that. I’m hanging on by a thread here, baby, and I can’t handle any more assaults from that talented little mouth of yours.”

  She didn’t argue, but she had every intention of assaulting him all over his body. Later. Right after she caught her breath from the feelings coursing through her as his mouth closed over her nipple. He suckled her softly at first, his hand on her other nipple, gently rolling it between thumb and forefinger. She squirmed against him and he increased the pressure of both his fingers and his mouth.

  The sensation was so exquisite, so overwhelming, she didn’t know if she could stand it. Her pelvis rocked off the bed, seeking, needing, wanting. “Win.”

  He sucked harder and she bit back a scream. Then his hand was no longer on her breast, but had slid down her body to claim her feminine flesh. He continued the suckling of her nipple while slipping one hard finger between the folds of her tender flesh. She pushed against that invading finger, until it slid into her wet heat.

  Oh, my goodness. Oh, wow. “Win. That’s too…It’s way more…I can’t…” She couldn’t finish a sentence to save her life.

  It just felt so good. He slid in and out of her tight channel, stretching the previously untouched flesh, and she almost cried from the wonder of it. Then his thumb pressed between her lips at their apex and made a slow circle around the aroused bud there. She arched off the bed, the sensation so strong that she shook with it.

  And a delicious feeling began to throb within her. She felt as if nerve endings attached to her feminine core were radiating outward with a pleasure she’d never known. “Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please. Don’t stop. Win. Just don’t stop.”

  And then she was convulsing and crying and shuddering and he wasn’t stopping, even when she begged him. Even when it was so intense she thought she’d die from it and then he moved down her body until his mouth was where his thumb had been and he slipped two fingers inside of her. And it felt too tight, but she couldn’t make herself say so because his tongue and teeth were touching her intimately and it had begun all over again. This time her body went rigid and then it shook, and shook, and shook. Tears spilled over from her eyes, their damp warmth making tracks down her temples into her hair.

  Then she went limp. Unbelievably, bonelessly limp.

  He swarmed up her body, laying on top of her, dominating her flesh, though he hadn’t yet entered her. His mouth rocked over hers in a claiming kiss, his tongue thrusting inside. She tasted herself and she should have found that distasteful, but she didn’t. She reveled in the carnality of his kiss, in the heated eroticism of his tongue in her mouth.

  Then she felt him at the opening of her femininity. The broad head of his penis pushing against her, inexorably. He would take her now and she would welcome him and as he marked her with his body’s possession, she would mark him with hers.

  It hurt.

  It stretched.

  “Do you want me to stop?” His voice shook with strain.

  “No. Please, Win. Make me yours.”

  And he did, with one hard, painful thrust. She was so slick from her two orgasms that her body let him in, but she felt stretched to the limit and she lay under him in a state of semi-shock.

  He stilled and kissed her again. Soft, comforting kisses. She could feel his entire body tremble from the strain of not moving and yet his kisses held only patient reassurance.

  She loved him so much in that moment, the emotion nearly exploded from her chest. She shifted up, just a little bit, to show him that he could move.

  He did. Gently stroking in and out. She moaned in a combination of pain and pleasure. His control broke and he thrust in and out of her with hard, decisive thrusts. She cried out, startled by the pain. He stopped and would have drawn out, but she locked her legs around his hips and held him tight.

  “No. Don’t stop.”

  The new position opened her more fully to him and relieved some of the pressure between her legs. He must have felt the way her feminine flesh softened around him because he started thrusting again and this time although there was still some discomfort, it felt good too.

  He clamped his mouth back over hers and when he came, she absorbed his masculine shout of pleasure. He held her tightly for several minutes after he found his release and then rolled off of her and stood.

  He looked down at her thighs. “You bled.”

  She could see the evidence on him. “A little.”

  “I’ll take care of you.” Then he disappeared into the bathroom.

  She heard water running and he reappeared a few minutes later, a damp washcloth in his hand. He used it to wash between her thighs and the warmth soothed her flesh. He took it back into the bathroom and then returned to slide into the bed next to her.

  She went into his arms without protest, needing the assurance of his touch after the overwhelming events of the night.

  Win held Carlene’s soft, warm body against his and wondered how in the hell she expected him to define what they’d just done. She’d let him make love to her, had in fact given herself with a sweet generosity that still had him reeling, but he knew she expected him to tell her where their relationship fit between a one-night stand and an affair.

  He didn’t have the words. Not now. Not when he felt as if his entire world had just been thrust into a new dimension. One that included the knowledge that no other man must ever see Carlene as Win had seen her tonight. All passion and promise.

  Tensed for a confrontation, it took him a moment to realize that Carlene was already dozing. Her body lay curled against his in trusting relaxation. She’d tucked her knee between his legs and her hand rested on his chest while she used his shoulder for a pillow, cuddling him as if she’d done it all her life…or would willingly do it for the remainder of his.

  Now that he knew about her plans to get back into teaching, his assumption that she was the type of woman to move on didn’t hold water. The way she talked, Carlene planned to hang around Sunshine Springs indefinitely. Her commitment to the community was definite.

  Was she as committed to him? More importantly, could her commitment to him last for a lifetime?

  The questions spinning through his head were interrupted when his beeper went off. The mare must have gone into labor. He gently eased out from Carlene’s clinging embrace, taking care not to wake her. He dressed quietly and turned off the lamp before tiptoeing from the room, waiting to put on his boots until he reached outside.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE next afternoon, Carlene had just gotten Shelly and Jared down for a nap when the doorbell rang.

  She hadn’t seen Win all day, but he’d called…just to see how she was. To tell her thank you for last night in a low, gravelly voice that made her wish he were with her in person—and naked. He couldn’t leave the stable and things sounded too tense down there for her to offer to bring the kids down to see the horses as she wanted to. With Lonny gone, Win and Shorty had their hands full.

  One of the ranch hands had taken food down to the stables at lunchtime and Carlene would have offered
to do it, but she didn’t want the first time she saw Win after last night to be in front of an audience.

  She rushed through the courtyard now to answer the door, wondering who it could be. She didn’t think that Leah would bother to ring. Besides, Win wasn’t expecting her for another day. Grant had said something about stopping by, but wouldn’t he have gone straight down to the stable?

  She quit her useless speculation and hurried to the door, wanting to open it before the visitor rang the bell again and perhaps woke one of the children. Carlene swung the door open and stared in open-mouthed amazement at the person standing on the other side.

  Zoe Strickland smiled. “Hi. Grant’s down at the stable picking Win’s brain. I thought I’d come up and say hello to Shelly and Jared.”

  Carlene forced her mouth to close and then form a somewhat strained smile of greeting. She stepped away from the door. “Come in. Um…the children just went down for their nap. I’m sorry, but I’d prefer not to wake them if you don’t mind.”

  Zoe smiled again. “Of course. Maybe if you’re not too busy, we could have some coffee, or something.”

  Zoe impressed her. A lot. If she was in Zoe’s place and someone had tried to seduce Win, she’d want to scratch the woman’s eyes out, not invite her to the wedding or drink coffee with her. “Sure. How about iced coffee in the courtyard?”

  “That sounds great.” Zoe followed Carlene down the hall and out into the courtyard.

  “Why don’t you wait here while I get the drinks?” Carlene asked. She needed a few moments alone to collect herself.

  When she returned, Carlene found Zoe playing idly with the children’s boats in the fountain. Zoe turned when Carlene set the tray down on the wrought iron table. “Shelly and Jared are really special.”

  “Yes. They are,” Carlene agreed.

  Zoe sat down. “Leah must be feeling pretty stressed to have left them with Win. I guess you’re helping him out?”

  Carlene didn’t want to gossip, but she didn’t see any harm in telling Zoe the circumstances surrounding her watching Leah’s children. “Win hired me as his cook and housekeeper a couple of weeks before Leah dropped by with Shelly and Jared. He asked me to add nanny duties to my job description, so here I am.”