Passion on the Ranch: Books 1-4 (4-Book Bundle) (Erotic Romance - Western Romance)

by Hart, Melissa F.

  When they were both naked, they climbed into the rushing stream together. The cool water on their hot skin was exhilarating and heightened their excitement for each other. Colton’s hands felt warm and firm as he ran them up and down her body, massaging, caressing, and fondling every part of her.

  When he entered her with his manhood, her slot was hot and rippling. He moved with slow thrusts, as the cold water rushed around them.

  “Yes, faster!” Suzanna cried out in pleasure, as she moved her hips in unison with his.

  “Naughty girl. Don’t forget I’m the one in charge here,” Colton admonished playfully. He deliberately slowed the speed of his thrusts, just to tease her.

  Suzanna writhed and moaned, every nerve of her body pulsating with pleasure. Then, suddenly, Colton increased the speed of his thrusts, pounding deeply into her with fast, powerful movements that made her cry out in ecstasy.

  Suzanna orgasmed loudly; her cries of exquisite pleasure echoing in the Montana sky. Colton shuddered and groaned as he climaxed along with her. It was one of the most intense orgasms either of them had ever had, heightened by the cold water and their love for each other.

  When at last it was finished, they bathed in the water, cleaning the juices of their passion from their bodies, and lay in the sun to dry.

  “That was amazing,” Colton said, holding her hand as they lay on the warm rocks and felt the sun on their bodies.

  “It was,” Suzanna agreed, then laughed and said, “Just don’t tell anybody I agreed with you about something.”

  “Don’t worry; I won’t. Besides, nobody would believe me if I told them that you and I had stopped bickering and had become lovers.”

  “Is that what we are?” Suzanna asked, stroking his bare chest and gazing at him with adoring eyes.

  “Well, I know I’m in love with you,” Colton said tenderly and kissed her on the lips.

  “I know I’m in love with you too,” Suzanna said, beaming at him. Then suddenly she jerked up her head and whispered, “No! It can’t be!”

  Colton cocked his head and joked, “No, you can’t be in love with me?”

  Suzanna smacked playfully at him and said, “No, it can’t be that I heard what I think I heard.”

  “Why, what did you hear?” Colton asked, curious now. Suzanna had already gotten up off the rock and was pulling on her clothes. Knowing full well that she’d leave him behind, Colton quickly started pulling on his jeans, too.

  Suzanna smiled brightly and said, “Behind that tall grass across the stream! I think I heard the sound of cubs mewling! Come on!”

  Suzanna pulled on her other boot, took off running toward the tall grass, and disappeared over the ridge where he could no longer see her.

  “Wait! You don’t know what dangers might be over there!” Colton called after her, but it was too late. Her scream already filled the air.

  ***

  Chapter Five

  “Suzanna!” Colton yelled, his heart pounding with fear. He chased after her, running through the tall grass until he crested the ridge and went tumbling down the same ravine where she had fallen just moments before.

  His body rolled over rocks and crashed through brambles, until he finally came to a painful stop at the bottom of the slope, right next to Suzanna.

  “Are you all right?” she asked him, as he pulled himself into a sitting position beside her.

  “I think so,” he grumbled but one look at her made him smile with barely-contained laughter. Her hair was in complete disarray, mud smudged her face, and her clothes were in tatters. He thought she’d never looked bore beautiful. He plucked a broken twig from her hair and said, “Are you okay?”

  “Shhhh!” Suzanna said harshly and pressed her fingers to her lips in a silencing gesture. “It’s louder down here. Do you hear it?”

  Colton cocked his head and listened, and then his eyes flew open wide. She was right! He could hear it now too. “Cubs mewling!”

  “I knew I heard it!” Suzanna said and started to get up onto her feet, but Colton grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back down. Trying to wrench her arm free, she glared at him and said “What the hell are you doing? Let’s go find them!”

  Colton held his finger to his lips in the shushing gesture and whispered “We’re not the only ones looking.”

  Suzanna followed his gaze and gasped when she saw it too. A jeep was rolling up from a distance with a large cage fashioned to the back. “Poachers!”

  “They’ll be here in a matter of minutes. We’ve got to hurry!” Colton said and for once, Suzanna agreed with him.

  The mewling sound was coming from their left and Suzanna headed that direction hoping she could protect the defenseless babies, but Colton shook his head. “No time for them! We’ve got to hide or we’re as good as dead!”

  Colton moved quickly toward a pile of boulders about twenty feet away, expecting Suzanna to follow him. When he reached the safety of the cover, he turned around to find she was nowhere to be seen. Shaking his head, Colton realized the defiant filly must have gone to protect the cubs.

  “Damn it!” he hissed under his breath. There was no time to stop her now, the jeep had just pulled up and four men armed with guns climbed out and began stomping through the grass.

  “I thought you said they were here!” the largest of the men barked.

  “They’re here. I saw the mother cougar leave them here when she went hunting for the day. I can’t believe she escaped my trap,” a younger, skinnier man said.

  “That’s because your traps suck!” a third man with a black hat pushed the skinny man roughly on the back and knocked him down into the grass.

  “They don’t suck! You just didn’t set it right and the spring wasn’t tight enough” the skinny man got back to his feet with a scowl. Searching through the grass again, he said, “We were able to follow the blood trail though and we still got her. I just wonder who the hell shot her.”

  “I don’t care who shot her!” the large man barked. “The important thing is they were stupid enough to leave the body where we could take it. We’ll still get our money for all the pieces when we hack her up.”

  “Yeah, but we’ll get even more money for those cubs of hers if we can find them. Now where the hell are they?”

  “They’re here! Just shut up and listen. We’ll be able to hear them a lot easier than you can spot them!”

  “I think I found something even more interesting than a couple of cubs. What are you doing here, darling?”

  Suzanna stood up from where she’d been hiding in the tall grass, with a tiny sleeping mountain lion cub tucked under each arm. Colton felt his heart catch right in his throat and his heart was pounding so hard he thought it would explode. He couldn’t let them hurt her! His rifle was still lying in the grass where he had tumbled down the ravine, but even if he had it, he was still outgunned four against one. He had to think of a better way to save the woman he loved.

  Of course, Suzanna was never one to be the damsel in distress and there was no doubt she was thinking of a plan to escape all on her own. Colton just had to try and determine what her plan was and help her the best he could.

  “You’ve got no right to sell these cubs!” Suzanna shouted angrily to the men.

  “It don’t matter if we have the right to or not; there ain’t nobody here to stop us,” the large man said, sauntering toward them.

  “Yeah, well, my father’s men are the ones who shot the mother cougar and they’re combing these hills right now, looking for the cubs. If you were smart, you’d just get the hell out of here right now.”

  “I don’t think anyone has ever accused Jasper here of being smart, have they?” the large man slapped the man holding the revolver on the shoulder, clearly indicating that he was Jasper.

  Jasper shook his head and said, “No, I can’t say no one ever has. I might just be dumb enough to shoot this thing off accidentally.”

  Jasper cocked the hammer back on the gun and took aim right at Suzanna’
s heart. Holding her head up high in defiance, Suzanna said, “Well, that would be dumb because you’d be missing out on a hell of lot more money than you could get with just these cubs.”

  The large man put his hand on top of Jaspers, indicating for him to hold fire. He eyed Suzanna harshly and said, “What makes you say that?”

  “I don’t think you know who my father is. He’s Jeremiah Wheeler. He donates tons of money to animal conservation groups. Let me take these cubs home and he’ll pay you a reward for saving them that’s ten times bigger than what you’d get on the black market.”

  “And what would he pay to get you back? I bet I could get a ransom that was a thousand times bigger? Perhaps even a million times bigger.”

  “My Daddy won’t give in to kidnappers! If you lay one hand on me, he’ll hunt you down and perform a good ’ole-fashioned lynching! Your only hope is to let me go and collect a reward for animal rescue! That’s it! Take it or leave it!”

  “Well, since you put it that way darling, I think we’ll take it; as in taking you!”

  The large man grabbed for Suzanna and she lashed at him, kicking and punching with all her strength. Colton winced, knowing how much a wallop from her could hurt, but then he realized she was providing him with the distraction he needed. He crawled through the tall grass at top speed toward her rifle, where it lay in the mud.

  By the time he reached it, all four men had entered into the fray and finally managed to pin Suzanna down. They tied her hands behind her back and then bound her feet together at the ankles. Still, she thrashed mightily in her bounds and managed to slam her head into the nose of one of them.

  “That bitch broke my nose!” the man hollered, trying to stop the bleeding.

  “That’s all right; we’ll get our money’s worth out of her old man. Throw her in the back of the jeep and let’s get her out of the open.”

  Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot rang through the air and the front tire of the jeep was blown out. The four men looked around with their guns pointed in the air, wondering who had just fired on them, but Suzanna grinned, knowing it was Colton.

  “I told you, my father’s men are going to lynch you. Now get the hell out of here while you still can!” Suzanna taunted smugly.

  “She’s right! Let’s get the hell out of here!” One of the men jumped into the driver’s seat of the jeep while Jasper helped the man with the broken nose climb into the back. They yelled at the large man, “Come on! Let’s go!”

  “Cowards! I ain’t letting this bitch get the best of me!” the large man shouted angrily. Another shot rang out, hitting the jeep’s other front tire. The man behind the wheel slammed his foot onto the gas pedal and the lopsided vehicle raced into the distance as fast as it could go on two flat tires.

  The large man shouted curses after them, and then turned sharply on Suzanna. Grabbing her by the hair, he pulled her roughly onto her feet and held her tightly against his chest like a shield. He pulled a knife from his belt and held it to her throat, making her cry out in fear.

  Staring at the ravine above, the large man called out, “I know there ain’t a whole posse out there! My guess is there’s just one man up there! Probably your boyfriend that you were taking for a summer romp! Well, fun time is over! Show yourself lover boy, or she’s dead!”

  “Don’t do it, Colton!” Suzanna shouted out in a terrified voice. “Stay up on the ridge where you’re safe! Ride home to Daddy and get help!”

  The large man grinned; smugly satisfied that he had been right. He kept his eyes trained up on the ravine. As soon as he caught sight of the girl’s boyfriend, he’d fire on him. Then he’d kill the girl and dump both their bodies in wilderness.

  Colton furrowed his brow. Suzanna knew he wasn’t on the ridge; then the brilliance of her ploy hit him and he thanked his lucky stars that he’d been blessed with such a wonderful girlfriend. Her ruse kept the poachers attention focused in the wrong direction and made it easy for Colton to move in the grass below.

  With careful aim, Colton positioned his sights. Then he took a deep breath for courage and pulled the trigger. The large man screamed out in pain as his finger was shot clean off. The gun he had been holding fell to the ground and he gripped his, trying to stop the bleeding and the pain.

  Suzanna picked up the gun from the ground and pointed at her former abductor just as Colton came running up to her from out of the tall grass.

  “Nice shooting,” she smiled proudly at the man she loved.

  “I couldn’t let them ransom you to your father,” Colton said with a charming wink. “Then the old man would know that you’d been out of house and I promised him I’d make sure you stayed put.”

  “Yeah, well I didn’t,” Suzanna said, leaning in to give him a passionate kiss.

  “No, you were definitely a very naughty girl today and look at all the trouble it caused. We’ve got two rescued cubs we have to turn over to the Bureau of Wildlife that will surely go to some preservation zoo. Plus we’ve got this jerk, bleeding from a missing finger that we have to take to the hospital and then have arrested for poaching and attempted kidnapping. So much for my quiet day of mending fences.”

  “Sorry about that. Perhaps you should punish me for it tonight, when we get back from filing a police report.”

  “Oh, I’m going to punish you just the way you want me to, as often as you want me to,” Colton grinned. He pulled Suzanna into his arms, crushing her breasts against his muscular chest and kissed her with all the passion he felt in his heart. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back just as feverishly.

  They both knew they had nothing more to fear from the large man, lying on the ground in agony, moaning and clutching his bleeding hand. What they didn’t know was that he wasn’t the one to fear; Jasper was. He watched the scene unfold from his binoculars a safe distance away and smiled at his men.

  “Did you hear what that little filly said? She said he father was the richest cattle rancher in the county.”

  “You’d be a fool to try and kidnap her again!” the man with the broken nose cried out.

  “Maybe, but it would be a good distraction for stealing all her father’s cattle, wouldn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, no one would be watching the herd if they were all looking for her; besides, no one ever accused me of being smart.”

  “Maybe not, but they should. You may like playing the part of the fool, but your plans never fail. Besides, that bitch owes me for breaking my nose.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get all the money we need from stealing her father’s heard and then you can have the bitch for yourself.”

  ***

  Chapter Six

  Suzanna collapsed into bed, utterly exhausted. It had been a long day, and an even longer night. Filing the report at the police station had taken hours and explaining things to her father had taken even longer.

  “I still don’t understand what you were doing outside the house to begin with?” Jeremiah Wheeler had barked at her, then he turned on Colton and said, “And you were supposed to be keeping an eye on her!”

  “Yes, Sir. I’m sorry I disappointed you. It won’t happen again,” Colton had said, respectfully holding his hat in his hand

  “Damn right it won’t!” Jeremiah had shouted at him. “You stand post by my little girl every second of the day from now on. I don’t care what it takes; you are not to leave her side ever! Camp outside her bedroom door! Hell, set up a cot by her bed and sleep in her room! I don’t want anything like that to happen to her ever again!”

  When father had finally calmed down and gone to bed, Suzanna treated herself to a long, hot shower and then climbed into bed naked, too tired to even bother putting on a nightgown.

  She was pleasantly surprised to find a man lying between the sheets. “Colton! What are you doing in here? Daddy will kill you!”

  “On the contrary, he told me never to leave your side,” Colton said and kissed her lovingly on the lips
.

  Smiling happily, Suzanna returned the kiss and said, “Well, in that case, I guess you’d better stay here.”

  She ran her fingers through Colton’s thick hair and guided his face toward her breasts. Eagerly, he took them into his hands, massaging and fondling them before putting his lips to her tender pink nipples.

  A sigh of pleasure escaped her lips as he suckled and licked them, and then gently nibbled them with his lips. She whispered, “Make love to me.”

  She reached down with her hands and found Colton’s manhood. He hardened immediately under her touch, as she massaged and stroked him there. He kissed her passionately, letting their tongues intertwine as the caressed each other intimately.

  “Easy, I don’t want to climax too soon.” Colton said, as he felt himself becoming increasingly stimulated by her touch. With a naughty smile, Suzanna massaged him even more aggressively, hoping to make him spill his seed. Colton recognized that she wanted to play and gripped her firmly by the wrist, pulling her hands over her head.

  “Naughty girl! Do I need to restrain you in order to make you behave?”

  “Yes, Sir. I think you do.” Suzanna smiled, confirming his suspicion that she wanted to play. Colton glanced around her bedroom but there were no restraints that he could see. Then, inspiration struck and he looped her long golden braid around her wrists.

  “Grip this braid and do not let it go,” he commanded sharply in the spirit of their game.

  “Yes, Sir,” Suzanna said, clearly delighted to obey.

  Colton then brought his lips to her body, kissing and caressing every inch of her. His lips kissed the nape of her neck, down the delicate hollow of her throat and up the curves of her ample breasts. He worked his way down her flat stomach, to the inner curves of her toned, muscular thighs. Finally, he found the triangle of her sex and made love to her there with his mouth.

  All the while, Suzanna longed to run her fingers through his hair, to scratch his back with her nails, or to stroke his throbbing his manhood. She forced herself to keep her hands behind her head, loosely looped into her braid, in the spirit of the game they were playing. She found that by denying herself use of her hands, her sense of touch was heightened. Every tingling nerve of her flesh was even more sensitive to the delights Colton was performing on her, and her pleasure was even intense and enjoyable. Colton found that it increased his pleasure too, to have tamed this wild filly, especially since she was completely consenting and gave her love to him with all her heart.