Tied

by KB Winters

  The longing in her voice made me wish we were anywhere but at work.

  One hand pressed flat against her belly, and I tugged her back against my cock.

  “You had me at four lips and two tongues on my cock.” I ground against her ass and smiled against her neck when she shuddered against me.

  “He does look pretty damn pleased,” she said as she slid a hand between us and curled it around my cock, stroking me through my jeans. “So, so pleased.” Her voice was low and deep, thick with desire.

  A throat cleared behind us, and I knew it was Slayer, but still I turned to verify. He gave a brief nod and disappeared. Shit. “Gotta go.”

  I stepped back but Hennessy’s hand curled into my shirt, keeping me right there with her soft curves in my hands.

  “Tonight, I’m thinking sixty-nine. Whoever comes first has to take orders. Sex slave. All night.”

  I groaned and leaned in for another kiss, unable to believe this fake marriage had already been so much fun.

  “Deal,” I told her and took off with a limp, forcing my mind to cite military code to get rid of my boner.

  “What’s up?”

  Slayer stood at the top of the stairs, his gaze scanning the room on a nonstop swivel.

  “Peaches called Gunnar with some intel from the twins at the B&B. Two newcomers in town, they said. Turns out they’re McArthur’s men.”

  “Fuck.” They were already in town which meant we were already two steps behind. I guess this was where my bubble—filled with homecooked meals and fucking each other hard and fast and on top of and up against every flat surface we could find—burst.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Hennessy

  “Where in the hell have you been?”

  The anger in Cruz’s deep voice pulled me from my thoughts and brought me up short. The path to his cabin from the main entrance of Hardtail Ranch was close to a mile, and I used that time to get my thoughts straight. Peaches had insisted on coming with me to pick up the marriage certificate.

  She was weird and standoffish the entire time so when we got back to the ranch, I was happy to have the peace and quiet the long walk provided me.

  “I was out,” I told him easily, not bothering to look up to confirm the tone of his voice.

  “That’s not fucking good enough, Hennessy.”

  I sighed, wondering if this was where he got all possessive and abusive on me. I wasn’t so high and mighty that I couldn’t admit Cruz wouldn’t be the first man in my life to show his true colors too soon, but his one-eighty threw me for a loop.

  “That’s too bad, Cruz. You don’t own me.”

  “I don’t own…are you fucking kidding me?”

  At his incredulous tone, I did look up just in time to see him shake his head, an incoherent sound coming from his thick lips.

  “I’m not trying to own you; I’m trying to keep you safe. Like you asked me to do!”

  Okay, so he had me there.

  “Fine, Peaches and I went into town to pick up our marriage certificate.”

  I pulled the plastic-covered document from the tote bag on my shoulder and showed it to him.

  “Figured if I sent it to Homer, this might put a quick end to things.”

  Cruz wasn’t just a pretty face. Nope, he was smart as hell, too, and he missed nothing.

  “A quick end to what things, Hennessy? Did something happen?”

  I sighed and leaned against the sturdy porch.

  “Not really, no. It’s just that I’ve had this weird feeling for the past few days, like I’m being watched. I know it’s crazy, and it’s probably one of your MC guys, but I felt it even more today.”

  I shivered at the memory. “Maybe I’ve been stuck on the ranch so long that normal human interaction scares me now.” I let out a bitter laugh but Cruz wasn’t having it.

  He took the bag from my shoulder and set it beside the door, nodding for me to take a seat in one of the chairs on the front porch.

  “We got some intel that says a few of McArthur’s men are in Opey. They’ve been asking questions.”

  His words hit me like a ton of bricks. While I’ve been over here acting like a silly fucking housewife, cooking up homemade meals and fucking like I had any ownership of this man, Eugene’s men were closing in. But something else niggled at me, how calm Cruz was.

  “How long have they been in town?” I don’t know what possessed me to ask the question, but the moment I did, I knew.

  “A week or so,” he said with a casual shrug, like it wasn’t a big fucking deal.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I felt my anger rising, and I tried to keep it in check, since he was doing me a really big fucking favor and all.

  “I didn’t want you to freak out.” Again with the calm and cool tone, like I was a frightened pet he had to coax into the warm house. “I was afraid you might do something stupid like run off without telling me. Or worse, confront them.”

  “I wouldn’t,” I insisted even in the face of his incredulous expression. “I wouldn’t.”

  “Not even to gloat that you won by getting married and away from McArthur?”

  How in the hell? I gasped.

  “Okay maybe it would have been a little gloating but only in a text and only to Homer.”

  And that wasn’t even the fucking point, was it?

  “What else do I need to know?”

  “Nothing. You’re safe, and that’s what matters.”

  “Now who’s fucking kidding who? I went into town today, Cruz, completely oblivious that Eugene’s men were so close. I want to know what’s going on in my life, Cruz.” That was a non-starter as far as I was concerned.

  He sighed, blue eyes staring a hole in my forehead. “Thank you would have worked better than all of this bull shit,” he said, his voice angry. Ice cold.

  “Thanks,” I shouted back, sarcastic as ever. “Just don’t keep shit from me.”

  When Cruz hit me with that nonchalant stare again, I lost it and got in his face.

  He stepped away and shook his head but I was there, right back in his face. Spoiling for a fight. “You want to do this now?”

  He cocked a brow at me and I nodded, ready to let him have it.

  “Good,” he said.

  He knelt down and tossed me over his shoulder.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Put me down!” He did. Eventually. Tossing me onto the back seat of the four wheeler.

  “We’re doing this, apparently.”

  “Where are we going?”

  Cruz cast a quick look over his shoulder. “No talking,” he said and started the engine, leaving me to keep arguing and risk falling off, or wrapping my arms around his hard body and temporarily forget why we were fighting.

  He pulled to a stop in front of The Barn Door, which oddly enough looked like little more than one of many farm buildings in the cold, harsh light of day. I couldn’t speak as we entered, not when he took my hand and clasped it with his and not when he led me downstairs to one of the private rooms.

  The room was done up in red and blue and purple silk and satin, like some sex room in a middle eastern palace. The colors were erotic and soothing at the same time and instantly my pulse kicked up.

  “Get naked,” he barked at me.

  I stared at him for a long moment and then found my fingers working quickly to do his bidding. I peeled off every stitch of clothing until I stood in the middle of the room, bed on one side and a wall full of toys on the other, stark naked.

  “And?”

  “Lie on the bed.” His back was still to me, and Cruz was fully dressed, but that only amped up my arousal. My nipples were hard as rocks and my pussy clenched and ached as I climbed on top of the high, oversized black steel frame bed.

  “Good girl,” he groaned and got busy tying each of my limbs to a corner of the bed. Leather straps softened with a fur lining felt erotic against my overheated skin.

  “Too bad you can’t always be so good.” He tightened th
e straps at my wrist and looked at my tits, heat darkening his eyes to damn near black. “You said you wouldn’t question me,” he grumbled and fastened my left leg and then my right to the bed, giving each one an extra tug.

  “You’re safe.”

  “I know,” I told him, my heart thudding against my rib cage. “But I have a right to know.”

  Cruz nodded and ran one finger from my ankle all the way up to the top of my thigh until one knuckle grazed my clit.

  “You make me crazy, Hennessy.”

  I rolled my eyes at his growly words, but secretly, I was thrilled. It wasn’t often I made a guy lose his good sense.

  “And now I think it’s time I returned the favor.”

  Before I could ask Cruz what he meant by that, his lips grabbed my clit and slurped, sending a tidal wave of vibrations through my body.

  “So good.”

  A slow grin spread across his face. Cruz licked me in slow, gentle strokes before he slipped his tongue inside my pussy. My eyes slid shut and my back arched as much as it could with the restraints. That was when I heard the telltale buzz of a motor. My eyes flew open and looked down at Cruz, tongue deep in my pussy with a vibrating bullet pressed firmly against my clit.

  It was too much. It wasn’t enough, either, but mostly it was too much, sending shivers racing up and down my sweat-slicked skin. My nipples were so hard they ached, and my pussy leaked so much, I felt embarrassment trying to creep into the moment.

  “Cruz.” His name came out on a strangled cry, and he smiled, his eyes never leaving mine. “Please.”

  He chuckled and another lightning bolt of pleasure shot through me, but there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t reach for him, couldn’t touch him and urge him on. The fact that I couldn’t do what I wanted only made me hotter, made me want to come more.

  But the more I tried to reach for it, the more Cruz kept it out of my reach. So I gave in, enjoying the way his finger fucked me while the bullet pleased me until my eyes crossed. I cried real tears when he tossed the bullet aside and made love to my clit while two fingers pumped in and out of me, sending a rush of liquid out of me on the third orgasm.

  “Cruz, please.”

  “Please, what?” He licked me again, right across my pussy.

  “Tell me, Hennessy.” The tip of his tongue flicked my clit. “Tell me what you want.”

  He was teasing me beyond all reason, and I could barely breathe or see straight. I didn’t even have enough oxygen to speak. “You. I want your cock. I need it.” He’d made me come every way imaginable, and still my pussy wanted more. It had to be him. “Please, Cruz. Fuck me.”

  He let out a growl, and moments later I felt the restraints loosen on my legs and his big body was there, his cock teasing my clit and my opening until unintelligible groans slipped from my lips. His cock invaded my cunt, thick and hard and determined to fuck me to within an inch of my life. I watched his face, twisted in beautiful agony as he thrust in and out of me.

  “Yes! Oh fuck yes!” Harder and harder he slammed into me and that was it, exactly what I needed to give me one final push over the edge. I flew apart into a billion tiny shards of pleasure, every piece vibrating as if becoming one with the universe. His hips bucked harder and harder and then they stilled, tiny vibrating shocks shook his body as his orgasm flooded out of him and straight into me.

  It was more explosive than I could have imagined. More intoxicating than Texas moonshine, more addictive than any drug, Cruz had me firmly under his spell.

  By the time he freed my hands and took me back to the cabin, I could barely walk and couldn’t even remember what we were fighting about.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Cruz

  “Hey. Where the hell are you?” I said into the phone. I didn’t mean to come off sounding like some jealous asshole, but Hennessy had been gone for more than an hour, and I was antsy as fuck. She laughed and the sound in my ear was sweet and husky, the rush of blood to my cock was almost enough to make me forget. Almost. “Well?”

  She laughed again. “I’m busy working. What are you doing?”

  Working was right. For the past few days she’d been helping me work on planning the party that was supposed to help The Barn Door members forget that a dude had shot his fucking brains out where they fuck.

  The truth was that Hennessy was doing most of the work, and she was doing a damn good job. “I’m waiting on you so we can both get to work. What’s taking so long?”

  “Regretting giving the old wifey a little freedom?” She asked.

  Hell yes. “Not at all. Just concerned is all.” It went against my better judgment to let her go out on her own, but after days of her giving me shit, I let her go, and it wasn’t sitting well with me. At all.

  “Are you on your way home?” Home. Was that what this was for her?

  “Yes. And I found the perfect party favors for the guests. That’s why I was gone longer than we agreed.”

  At least her tone was apologetic, but I would rather she was already on the ranch.

  “Wait until you see them. They’re already in the trunk to keep them safe from the heat and the small town gossip.”

  “Safe from the heat? You know there’s still a full week until the party, right?”

  “Yep. I already called Aspen, and she’s letting me store them in her and Holden’s deep freezer.”

  “You’ve been busy.” She was supposed to go into town to pick up the handwritten invitations and decorations and that was it.

  “I could have gone with you to do this.”

  “Yes but that would be the same as me staying at the ranch wouldn’t it?”

  Damn frustrating woman. “You’re making me crazy Hen, and not in a good way.” Keeping her safe was my job, dammit, and it was hard to do when she was miles away in town. “Come home.”

  She laughed. “I’m on my way to the car now. I promise I’m taking this serious Cruz. I’ve been watching my back and clocking all the cars I see. So far, there have been no repeats and no creepers.”

  “That you’ve seen.”

  “Yes.” She sighed her frustration. “None that I’ve seen. But Eugene doesn’t hire thugs for their brains.”

  “Doesn’t mean they don’t have ’em. Some people consider me a thug, ever consider that?”

  I knew she hadn’t because sometimes I still caught that gleam of hero worship in her eyes. Now I chalked it up to how good I made her feel rather than any real heroics on my part.

  “Okay, fuck. You’re right. I can see my car now, which means I’ll see your scowling face in about fifteen minutes. Twenty if I don’t manage to miss the goats rush hour.”

  A new farm had opened up on the property to the north and their goats had taken to gathering on the road every day at the same time.

  “Good luck.”

  “Oh crap. I need to pick up wings and thongs first. That’s where I was headed when I found the party favors. Make that forty minutes, maybe forty-five.”

  “Wings and thongs?”

  “Wings for dinner, and The Barn Door-branded thongs like we talked about?”

  I didn’t remember shit about thongs, but maybe that’s when she was grinding on my lap and kissing that spot on my neck.

  “We’ll do it tomorrow. Together.”

  “I’m already here,” she insisted, defiant. “And I’m already headed towards Opey Wings & Things.”

  Stubborn fucking woman. “I’ll meet you there. And if you’re not there when I get there, Hennessy, there will be hell to pay.”

  “I’m willing to risk it.”

  “I’m not.” The more casual she was about all this, the more worried I got. My gut was telling me to worry, and I learned early in my military career to listen to my gut.

  “Be there.”

  “I promise,” she sighed with annoyance, but I knew she’d keep her word. Hennessy might fight a little more than I’d like considering who was after her, but she wasn’t reckless or stupid.

 
Still, I moved a little faster, grabbing the key to my bike and heading off the ranch to find my woman. She might not be mine for real, or hell, maybe she was at this point, I didn’t even really know. The sex was incredible, the conversation was good, and we hadn’t run out of shit to say to each other yet. She cooked like a pro, but none of that added up to mine or any of this being real. Or permanent. Despite all that, keeping her safe was on me. That much I knew.

  I parked my bike behind the ranch truck I insisted she take just in case McArthur’s men were on the lookout for her rental, and walked the half a block to Wings & Things. The place was empty except for two old timers sharing an oversized pizza.

  “You guys seen a beautiful redhead?” I asked.

  “If I had, I’d be sweet talking her over this pizza instead of this old geezer,” one old dude said as he pointed to the other.

  “Been a slow day,” the kid behind the counter confirmed. “No one but these two for the past couple hours.”

  Shit! “Thanks,” I said, as that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach turned into a fucking boulder. I stepped back out onto the street, trying to figure out where Hennessy was when she called me. She said she could see the car so that’s where I started, beside the old blue truck. To the left was only the municipal building and a long block of no parking signs. Behind me was a park, which meant she was either coming from Main Street or Second Street.

  The printer was just off Second Street ,so that was where I headed, hoping like hell she was in there with a defiant grin on her face, while I scowled at her until she apologized for scaring the fuck out of me. I didn’t even make it to the printers before I spotted the unopened box of invitations, sitting there mocking me for being too late. They teetered on the edge of the curb, a bad fucking sign if I ever saw one.

  I picked them up, jumped on my bike and hurried back to the ranch, calling Hennessy every fifteen seconds the whole way back.

  “Hen, it’s me. Call me back. Please call me back.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Hennessy

  “Thanks Randi, enjoy the rest of your day!”