by Amelia Jade
His dragon leapt into the driver’s seat then without warning. Rowe’s hand slid up her thighs, not stopping until he reached her center. Using her moans as a guide, he quickly discovered the way she liked it.
Cheryl leaned into him, shaking each time his fingers pushed through her pants and across her clit. Rowe watched her intently, noting the way her face and body twitched as he touched her. Everything was filed away into his memory, furthering his own arousal.
“Rowe,” she gasped, shaking violently without any warning. “Oh fuck.”
He didn’t change a damn thing that his hand was doing as she climaxed right there on the kitchen table in front of him. Rowe growled and held her tight as she gasped and was suddenly done, going limp in his arms. She was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen, and now he was holding her after she’d just come for him.
Although his dragon was still riled up, it subsided as he watched his mate smile that happy, empty smile that signaled extreme satisfaction. For now it relinquished control. Rowe prepared to pay for its abrupt actions, but judging by the reddish glow in her face and the huge pupils, Cheryl wasn’t overly upset with him.
Slowly everything faded away, and he saw coherence return to Cheryl’s eyes. With it came realization of what they’d just done. She slipped from the table and faced him. Rowe immediately knew that was the end of the activities for the night.
“This is awkward.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” he told her, wishing it were true.
“Look, I’ll just straight-up say it. That was amazing. You’re good, and I apparently needed that. It’s just…”
“You don’t want to go any further,” he supplied.
Cheryl threw her hands in the air, frustrated. “I don’t know. I do, but I already have so much on my plate, and I don’t know. Now just doesn’t seem like the right time. Does that make any sense?”
“No,” he argued, letting his emotions show. “It doesn’t. Now is exactly the right time. You want it. I want it. It works, as we’ve just seen. So why not just let ourselves be happy? There’s no need to punish us; we haven’t done anything to deserve that.”
She hesitated, and hope blossomed inside him. Then whatever was blocking her slammed back into place and the hope went out. Rowe desperately wanted to know what it was that was preventing her from being with him.
It had to be something big. Something bad. Maybe she’d been horrifically hurt in the past? A betrayal so bad she no longer trusted anyone? There was something that kept sliding into place, scared of the power of their bond. If he could just figure out what that was, he could address it, and they could finally be happy together!
“Rowe, I need you to know, I don’t regret this. I enjoyed myself. I just can’t do more. I’m sorry. Not right now.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she slipped close, pressed a finger to his lips before tucking it under his jaw and pulling him down to her level. Then she kissed him hard and furious.
“Goodnight,” she whispered, and fled.
Rowe stood in the kitchen for a long time, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened between him and his mate.
It was good. Progress. And yet…it was really, really bad.
Women are so confusing.
Chapter Ten
Cheryl
The pulsing, throbbing ache didn’t fade from between her legs.
All that awakening did was strip her of the image of Rowe’s naked body as he mounted her, preparing to slide inside her. She’d been so gloriously close to getting fucked after a night’s worth of dreams that were all sexual in one manner or another. Then, just as she’d been about to get to the best parts, sleep had been stolen from her and she was left horny and covered in a thin sheen of perspiration.
Could there be no satisfaction? The orgasm she’d experienced at his hands the night before hadn’t been enough. She felt bad even thinking that, because it had been hot. The problem was, it had been so hot she wasn’t able to forget it, to calm down after it. Even after spending a good amount of time with her hand shoved down her underwear she hadn’t been able to satiate the craving.
Fucking him was the only thing that would do that, now that her body had been awakened to his touch. Unfortunately it was also completely out of the question. After the way she’d run from him the night before she wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted nothing to do with her for some time, insulted that she’d taken his pleasure and bolted, unwilling to reciprocate.
That was what her first dream had been about. Rowe had come to her, strong and powerful. He’d taken control of her body with his words, making her his own as he ordered her to her knees. She’d been told to pleasure him. Being under his command, made to please him like she was his toy to use however he wanted had been quite possibly the single hottest sex dream she’d ever had. Even now thinking about it her hand drifted toward her crotch, eager to try and relieve the craving for his cock inside her.
Her eyes drifted to the clock on the side of the bed, making sure she had time for one last personal pleasure session before—
“Oh shit,” she hissed to herself, throwing off the covers.
She’d overslept. A lot.
Hurriedly she got dressed, putting on fresh underwear and wishing fervently that she had time for a shower. There was exactly no way she didn’t smell like sex, and that was the last thing she needed right then. Especially if Rowe and his seemingly ultra-hyper sense of smell was nearby. If he smelled that on her, how was she ever going to resist him if he knew she secretly wanted him, but was just too overwhelmed by other things to do so?
The sounds of people shouting reached her ears, muffled by the window but still identifiable, even if the exact words weren’t. Perfect, she’d slept in and there’d been a problem. Everyone would be looking for her, and she hadn’t been there to address it. What a great start to the day.
Just another reason why she shouldn’t give in to Rowe’s advances. This was the sort of distraction she’d been trying to avoid. While she was busy dreaming about sucking and fucking him, something had gone wrong on the farm. Cheryl just hoped nobody had been hurt. If it was something like what had happened to her yesterday, and Rowe hadn’t been around…
She shuddered and raced outside, taking only the barest moment to fix her hair and ensure she didn’t look entirely like crap.
“What’s going on!” she barked, approaching the gathered group of people.
They were around the back of one of the silos, somewhere mostly out of sight.
“Another message,” one of the farmhands said as she pushed through the crowd.
“Another?”
“Yeah, you know, the one on the barn too, remember?”
Cheryl just nodded, trying to act like she knew what the hell he was talking about. A message?
The crowd parted and she saw what he was talking about. In big letters across the back of the silo was the word “LEAVE” in bright blue spray paint.
“Leave what?” she muttered, confused by the clear yet cryptic message all at once.
“The property.”
She jerked in surprise as Rowe spoke from her side, having appeared at her elbow without warning.
“Don’t do that,” she hissed, trying to recover her poise, and also keep her clit from going into overdrive as her brain decided now was a perfectly appropriate time to assault her with a barrage of images from her dreams and reminders of how good the night before had felt.
Traitor.
“Okay everyone, I don’t know who the practical joker is that is tired of work already, but back to work. Remember, if you dislike it so much, you’re free to leave at any time.”
“Nobody is that stupid,” someone else said, half under their breath.
She whirled to see the lead hand from the barn the day before. “Explain.”
“The money here is crazy. Whoever is paying for all this is out of touch with the rest of the world.” He smiled. “There were people fighting over each ot
her to get assigned here. There’s a lot of work, sure, but when you’re getting paid nearly one and a half times the norm, well, you put up with it.” He pointed at the barn. “You don’t do this sort of thing.”
Cheryl nodded, and then waited as the rest of the laborers filed off to get back to work.
“If it wasn’t one of them, who could it be?” she asked curiously.
Rowe, being the only one left she could be talking to, just shrugged.
His cavalier attitude surprised her. Taking a closer look, she realized he looked like shit. There were huge bags under his eyes, the normal intelligence in them dulled, just as the green was dark. His hair was all tousled up, and he hadn’t shaved around his goatee.
“Are you okay?” she asked, worried. Was this because of what had happened the night before?
Cheryl needed him at his best. Despite her best efforts not to, she’d come to rely on him. It irritated her to some degree, knowing that her lack of discipline was robbing her of a good working relationship with someone who could really help her. She needed to put that back in place, to tamp down on her emotions and her hormones, and just get the job done.
Once she’d proven herself and the ranch was up and running, then he could fuck her silly. If he still wanted to. God she hoped he would want to. His strength, and that body…
“I’m fine,” he muttered, distracted.
“You’re not.” She stopped herself short of asking if it was because of her. “Someone said there was another on the barn?”
“The big one, yeah. Same thing, though it was a different person.”
“How can you tell?”
Rowe pointed at the lettering. “Size, for one. And two, this one used a block L. The other has a loop at the corner of the vertical and horizontal lines. Very distinct.”
“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say. That made a lot of sense.
“Yeah.” His eyes tightened at the corners.
“This is really bothering you.”
He inhaled sharply. “Palin asked me to look after the place while he was gone. I told him I would. This,” he flung up a hand at the graffiti, “isn’t helping.”
“Who could it be then?” she wondered. “Did the old owner not want to sell?”
Rowe’s reply was as deadpan as could be. “The old owner is dead. The bank repossessed it and Palin bought it.”
She frowned. “Did anyone get screwed over by that? Family or anything?”
“No idea.”
“How long ago did he die?”
“Two months, maybe three?”
Cheryl gaped at the big man. “What the hell? How did everything happen so quickly? I’ve been here two weeks myself!”
Rowe was looking confused. “I don’t get it.”
She snorted. “Two months is nowhere near enough time for things to have been done by the book! This sort of stuff takes years before the bank repossesses it and sells it off. There has to be time for family members to come forward and put a claim down on it.”
“I see. Well, maybe it is a disgruntled family member.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
Things were getting awkward in a hurry. Rowe didn’t seem to care about how quickly Palin had pushed things through the bank. He was obviously wealthy. Had he bribed someone?
Whatever it was, she was the one who had to deal with the fallout, especially now since Palin was apparently gone on some sort of trip, and hadn’t informed her that he was leaving, or when he would return. Just perfect. Everything was falling apart around her.
How was she supposed to hold this all together on her own?
“Cheryl?”
She looked up to see Rowe staring at her, concern filling his eyes, the first emotion she’d seen in them today. “Yes?”
“I don’t know. You were just making angry noises and looked upset. Kind of like you were beating yourself up.”
She choked back a laugh. “I guess I kind of was.”
“Why? This isn’t your fault. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“Don’t need to worry?” she laughed bitterly. “Spoken like someone who has nothing riding on this project at all.”
“It’s just a job. You’re smart, you can get another one, though you won’t need to.”
“Just a job? Must be easy for you to say. Are you as rich as Palin as well? That would explain a lot.” Her voice was biting, almost angry. “Those of us without stacks of cash in the bank actually need to make money. To pay off debts.”
“Explain.” The single word should have set her off with anger, but she could sense his lack of understanding behind it all. Against her better judgment she took pity on him.
“I have debts to pay, Rowe. Big ones.” She sighed, wondering what in the hell was possessing her to open up like this. “In my family I was the first one to go to college. My parents came from small towns in the middle of nowhere. They didn’t even graduate high school. But me, I was the pride and joy. The firstborn. I was going to college. So I did. Four years at a prestigious out-of-state school.”
“Good for you.” Rowe’s face filled with pride, and it was tough for her to ignore the way that buoyed her spirits, to know he was proud of her.
“Thanks. Unfortunately it came with a hell of a price tag. My parents had saved up a few thousand dollars, but it was barely enough to cover food and textbooks for my first year. Which meant that I had to turn to the banks for money. A lot of money.”
Rowe had fully turned to face her now, broad shoulders blocking out everything behind him, even if she’d cared to look at it. Her eyes were locked on him now, admiring his thick black goatee, even amidst the stubble he’d left, a departure from the past few days where he’d been otherwise clean-shaven.
“You obviously graduated and got a job. No surprise there.”
Don’t blush. Do not blush.
She tried to keep her composure, but the continual flow of compliments was hard to ignore, especially from Rowe.
“Yes. Though this wasn’t the job. I was originally in administration.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I did paperwork,” she translated dryly. “It sucked. I felt like I was wasting my education. But it made my parents proud and happy, and that meant a lot to me. So I stuck with it. For eight years.” She shook her head, anger building. “Then I just couldn’t take it anymore. They kept pressuring me to settle down, find a man, and start popping out babies. Though somehow I was supposed to keep my job at the same time.”
Rowe’s face reflected her feelings on the matter perfectly. “How exactly were you to do that?”
“Work harder is apparently the answer.”
He snorted. “Right. You work plenty hard as it is.”
“I know that. You know that. But they didn’t know that. Anyway, we got in a fight, and I decided I was going to do something for myself for once. A new controller position opened up, I applied, and I got it.” She looked away. “My boss told me it was about time I did something more up to my capabilities.”
Rowe smirked. Clearly he agreed.
“Now I’m finally doing something that challenges me. It’s cost me a lot with my family though, and if I fail, it’s going to cost me a lot of money as well when I get fired.” She giggled, noting the mild hysteria mixed in. “No pressure, right?”
“You aren’t going to get fired,” Rowe said, leaning in close. “I promise you, this is going to work out just fine.”
Cheryl desperately wanted to believe him, to believe that it wasn’t already falling apart on her less than two weeks into the job. Unfortunately all the evidence pointed to things blowing up in her face.
No pressure.
Chapter Eleven
Rowe
A few hours later, Cheryl was still bothered and uptight.
“You can tell me what’s the matter,” he explained, hoping she might confide in him.
Whatever it was, he would fix it. The vandalism issue was going to have to wa
it for a bit, but even that too he would solve, ensuring it didn’t happen again. After all, he now had a much better idea of what was going on. The ground around the base of the silo had given it all away to anyone who looked.
Thankfully for him nobody else had seen fit to examine the various tracks on the ground. Otherwise they might have asked about a few things that didn’t entirely add up. Things Rowe wasn’t going to explain to anyone except perhaps Cheryl, and not until she trusted him more.
“I already told you.”
He shook his head. That wasn’t it, and they both knew it. Unfortunately, after his mega-blunder the night before, Rowe wasn’t able to push as much as he might have preferred. He was still trying to come to terms with being rejected. That was a first for him, and something he couldn’t quite reconcile.
In his mind his dragon was even worse. It had nearly gone ballistic when she left the kitchen, and Rowe had been halfway to the stairs chasing after her before he’d regained control of his body. The mighty winged lizard was restless now, and if he didn’t claim his mate soon, the fight to keep it under control would become harder still.
“Is it about last night?” he asked cautiously. “If so, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push the limits, I just…” Words failed him.
He needed her to understand somehow that there was more going on between them than she knew. That there was a reason they kept falling for each other, even when she tried to keep her distance. Fate was pulling them together, and it would only be denied for so long. That’s how he saw it at least, but to Cheryl it must be something entirely different.
Rowe wondered if perhaps there was something wrong with him. Did she not find him attractive enough to consider being with? He stroked his face. Maybe he should shave. He thought about asking her what she felt, but refrained. He’d already broached the subject of the night before, and now was not the time to ask which look she liked on him better.
“No, it’s not about last night,” she snapped.
He lifted an eyebrow at the outburst of anger.
“Okay, it’s mostly not about last night.”