by S Doyle
“Talk to me, Brin.”
But I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to keep moving. “Unnnnhhh. Unnnnnhhh.”
His hand on my ass, his other at my hip, guiding me, helped me to focus on getting there. Like I could thrash and flail about, but he had me under control. Steadily letting me use his cock until my nipples seemed to become these hard, tiny points. My whole body was shaking as I came.
“Garrett!” Fuck, had I been too loud? Was I screaming? I didn’t know because I was too busy just feeling all of it. Suddenly I was flipped onto my back. Instinctively I wrapped my legs around his hips, forcing him to return to the place I wanted.
He used his hand to position himself again, and then slowly he was thrusting back inside me.
“Okay, baby. I think you felt pretty good fucking me. Now let’s see how you like to get fucked. Talk to me. Tell me if this is good for you.”
Talk? Form sentences? He was ridiculous. I slapped his shoulders instead, and arched my back and said the only thing that made sense.
“Please! Please! Please!”
He grunted and then moved faster, harder, and more deeply inside me than I’d imagined anybody could. Or that I would ever want. There was so much of him. In me. Around me. It was like I wasn’t a single person anymore, but part of this larger moment.
“Garrett!” Another orgasm enveloped me, and my mouth was open and I had no idea what sounds were coming out because I didn’t care. I just felt and it was so good.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he grunted even as he shoved hard with the three short thrusts. He groaned then and collapsed on me.
I turned my head and kissed his ear.
“Please don’t forget me,” I whispered.
GARRETT
Later That Morning
“It is incredible how I feel. Like I have no bones in my body. No wonder everyone brags about good sex.”
Brin was sitting on the couch with Romeo cuddled to her chest as she fed him. It made me feel something in my chest that bothered me. I was actually rubbing a hand over the area that hurt and it bothered me again when I saw it was over my heart. I reached for the coffee cup in front of me and had the overwhelming sense that I needed to get out of there.
Brin’s glow was blinding me, and while part of me wanted stand up on the roof of my home and shout to the world that I had been the one to bring her to orgasm, another part of me wanted to bolt.
“I need to head into the office,” I said a little gruffly. “You’re going to stay put today.”
She nodded. “I have plenty of stuff to do to get ready for the engagement party.”
“I thought you were planning the wedding.”
“Yes,” she beamed. “After the engagement party. But I can do everything I need to online or over the phone. Speaking of which, I need to call Ronnie and let her know my number changed. Again. Ugh. She’s going to freak out when I tell her what’s been going on.”
“She’s your sister. She should know what’s happening.”
Brin just rolled her eyes at me. “Bea is my sister, too, and she’ll think I’m being dramatic. And Dylan’s my brother and I doubt he would care at all.”
“You ever talk to him?” I asked her. I couldn’t fathom that. Having a family that was lost to me. When I used to think about having kids, I’d thought that part of being a parent was to make sure that my children understood that family was everything. After growing up an only child, I wanted to make sure my kids had more. Maybe even four or five kids. One big, massive, chaotic, loving mess.
Then I let all of that go.
The ache was back in my chest.
Brin shook her head. “The most we get is a text or maybe an email. That usually goes through Ronnie.”
It made her sad. I could see it in her eyes. The next time I saw Dylan I was going to give him a piece of my mind. Hurting his sister, being absent from her life, was not cool.
Not that I would have any reason to see him. Once I found out who was terrorizing her and put an end to it, she would go back home.
To The King’s Land. Where the Kings belonged.
“Well, have fun planning your party,” I said in lieu of goodbye.
I should have just walked out. Kept things simple. Instead, I didn’t move from where I was rooted.
Romeo, apparently having eaten his fill, had passed out. Gently she set him down on the cat bed she’d bought for him. She came up to me and I could see she was just as uncertain about what to do.
I had already laid (no pun intended) it out for her about what this was. I didn’t do relationships. I didn’t do long-term.
No, asshole. You fuck them and forget them. And you told her that.
She rocked on her toes. “So, ‘bye, I guess.”
“Stay on the ranch. No surprises. I’ll do a drive-by at some point and be home around five.”
“Okay.”
Yeah, I definitely should have left then, but I didn’t, and she didn’t move either.
“I’ll make dinner,” she said, trying to fill the awkward silence. And it was me doing it. I was making things awkward because I wouldn’t do what I said I was going to do and just leave.
“You don’t have to.”
“No, I insist. It’s the least I can do. What do you like?”
What did I like? The sound of her screaming my name as she came. I liked that a whole fucking lot.
“Anything. I’m pretty easy.”
“I can do easy. I don’t cook as well as I bake. It’s not as fun to me, but I’ll see what you have in the pantry.”
I didn’t want to disappoint her but I doubted I had much in the pantry. “Just promise me no grocery-store trips if I don’t have something you think you need. Make do with what’s here. Got it?”
She pursed her lips. “You’ve told me, like, a thousand times to stay put. I’ve got it. Now you go off to work like the big bad sheriff you are while I stay here and futz around. I might even go muck the stables again. And I can’t believe that’s a sentence that came out of my mouth!”
She was smiling and glowing. Relaxed from a hard fuck and a few orgasms, and if I didn’t leave that second I was going to have her again. And again and again until I purged myself of this ache in my chest.
“’Bye,” I said curtly and turned before I kissed her. Because that’s what I wanted to do. Not as any kind of foreplay. Not as a buildup to something better. I wanted the last thing I did before leaving for work to be planting a kiss on her smiling mouth.
Because I wanted it so much I couldn’t let myself have it.
I walked out the front door, letting the storm door swing shut. I got in my truck, only to realize she was standing at the door waving at me. Like my leaving was a big deal.
She’s high on good sex. It means nothing.
Except, as I started my truck and pulled out of the driveway, she stood there the whole time. I forced myself to look away from that, as well.
15
SABRINA
Pine’s Ranch
“Ronnie, I know you’re not picking up because it’s a strange number, but it’s Sabrina. Call me back on this number when you get a chance.” I left the voice mail then hung up.
I checked on Romeo but he was still sleeping. Maybe it was my imagination, but after two days of constant feeding and a lot of love he looked stronger to me. My phone, still in my hand, buzzed and Ronnie’s name appeared on the screen.
I took a deep breath and prepared myself for a dose of older sistering.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Don’t hey me. Why are you calling me on yet another new number? You just changed it a few weeks ago.”
“Because I got hacked. Again.”
There was a pause.
“Sabrina King, tell me right now what’s going on.”
“There is someone…” Another deep breath. “There is someone stalking me. Targeting me. It started with emails. Then it escalated. It’s part of the reason why I left LA. Why I went back to the ranch
…although I think he’s here in Dusty Creek.”
“Holy shit! Sabrina. You need to pack your bags and come here now. Clayton will have a team of security lined up to protect you at all times.”
It was funny. I hadn’t considered it at the time, but Ronnie was right. Clatyon would do anything for Ronnie, and if Ronnie wanted me to be safe then he would make that happen.
“It’s okay. I have protection.”
“Who did you hire?”
That was a fair question. I hadn’t really hired anyone. I probably should talk to Garrett about that. But talking about money after we’d had sex seemed icky. In fact, I was pretty sure that if I brought up the idea of paying him he would freak out on me.
“Um. Well it’s more like he’s doing me a favor. It’s the sheriff.”
I wasn’t sure if Ronnie would pick up on…
“You mean Garrett Pine? You mean Garrett—whom you’ve had a crush on your entire life—Pine is your bodyguard?”
I winced. “Yes. I’m staying with him, actually. The stalker would know about The King’s Land, but likely not about Garrett. So I’m safe until we find out who this person is.”
“Sabrina.” Ronnie sighed. “What are you doing?”
There it was. The doubt. The thought that I might be trying to pull some prank to get Garrett’s attention. Having a sister kind of sucked when she basically knew everything about you, including all the dumb stuff you used to do as a kid.
“I’m not doing anything. There is a person out there who, I believe, wants to hurt me. Garrett is making sure that doesn’t happen.”
“And you’re going to tell me that you no longer have any feelings for Garrett? That this is strictly professional?”
Well, let’s see. Three orgasms. A lot of screaming and yelling. Kisses that made me whimper…no. It was not strictly professional.
“I know what I’m doing.”
She had the nerve to snort. “Sabrina, ysou know I’m only thinking about your best interest when I tell you, you should leave and come here. Bea once told me that everyone says his fiancée leaving him, literally on his wedding day, twisted him. Garrett’s not the guy from high school you remember.”
“I know that.”
I fuck women. I fuck them and forget them.
Which was maybe why things had been so awkward this morning. For the first time he’d been stuck with a woman he’d had sex with. A woman he couldn’t put out of his mind because I was essentially his part-time job.
“Do you? Because I don’t want to see you get hurt. And the truth is, Garrett Pine has only ever hurt you.”
Right. Except last night and this morning. And the orgasms. What was going to happen when he came home? Were we going to do it again and again? Or would he tell me it was a one-time thing that he wanted to put behind him?
This morning, after the sex, it had felt a lot like regret on his part. And he’d kept rubbing his chest.
“I know what I’m doing,” I repeated firmly, because when you absolutely didn’t know what you were doing, the only thing you could do was lie.
“Okay. Fine. I’ll let it go. But can you tell me why I got a save-the-date card for my ENGAGEMENT PARTY?”
I smiled. “I told you I was throwing you one.”
“And I told you I didn’t want one. The wedding isn’t that far off. Isn’t that enough?”
“Who doesn’t like a party? Besides, you can’t back out now. I’ve invited a hundred of your closest friends and family, and Clayton’s business associates. I even invited Bea.”
“Sabrina!” It was her frustrated voice.
“Please, Ronnie. Let me do this. I’ve been going stir-crazy ever since this stalking madness started happening. It gives me something to do besides bake, and like I said, I think it will be good for you and Clayton to put all the old memories behind you and build new ones. Happy ones. Because you are happy, aren’t you?”
She sighed. It was a happy sigh. “I’m ecstatic. If we’re being technical.”
Ecstatic. In love. Loved in return. I couldn’t imagine what that would be like.
I fuck women. I fuck them and forget them.
“Fine. We’ll be there.”
“Wear a fabulous dress,” I told her. “And I promise to be in a slightly less fabulous dress so I don’t upstage you.”
“Somehow I don’t think that’s possible. Okay, tell me if I need to do…anything.”
I beamed. “Nope. You and Clayton just show up at The King’s Land in two weeks and smile.”
“I’m only doing this for you.”
She was. I knew that. Because Ronnie was the one person on this earth I think actually cared about me.
“I know. And Ronnie…you know I love you, right?”
“I love you too, sis.”
We hung up and I thought about what it would be like if Garrett also cared about me. There were times…no, I told myself. He was just being protective. And his having sex with me was probably more to prove how wrong I was about it than anything else. There was nothing I should expect from him, no matter how badly I wanted to expect something.
GARRETT
Dusty Creek
“Hey, Mary, I’m leaving a little early today,” I told the station’s admin.
“Sure thing, boss,” she said without looking up at me.
No questions about why. Where I was going. Why I needed to cut out of work. It wasn’t even like I had official hours. When I was out on a call or investigating a case, I might not even make it into town. But over the last year of having the top job I had established a pretty regular routine of staying and taking care of any paperwork until at least six.
But when I looked up at the clock in my office and saw it was only four-thirty I knew I wasn’t going to make it. I wanted…I needed to go home.
I needed to prove to myself that this anxious feeling I’d had all day about leaving Brin behind meant nothing. I needed to show her—and me, too—that just because we’d had sex didn’t mean anything had changed.
I needed to tell her that it was a one-time thing. And, despite it being the best sex either of us ever had, we wouldn’t be doing it again.
I shouldn’t tell her it was the best sex I’d ever had. She would read into that.
But it was. It was the way she just handed herself over to me. No restraint. No barriers. Hell, my ears were still ringing from how fucking loud she was. And it wasn’t some show. She’d just been in the moment, loving what I was doing to her body.
Loving…
Shit. Yeah, I needed to go and do this now. Set things straight with her before they got out of hand.
I drove back out to the ranch way too fast, but since I was the law in this town it wasn’t like anyone was going to stop me. I parked in my driveway and got out of my truck, and when I opened the door to my home I was hit with the smell of home cooking and chocolate.
I removed my utility belt and holster, set them on the table near the door, and slowly made my way to the kitchen. I saw the plate of brownies, the perfectly even, perfectly stacked confections on the kitchen island. Brin had her back to me while she was stirring something in a pan.
“Hey,” she said. “I know you’re thinking you want to eat a brownie. Which you should, because they are the best brownies ever. But you should save your appetite because dinner is going to be good.”
I looked her up and down. She’d changed into a pair of dark skinny jeans, an off-the-shoulder T-shirt, and a pair of red stiletto pumps.
“You cook in high heels?”
She glanced over her shoulder at me and winked. “I do everything in high heels.”
And suddenly they were gone. All the things I was going to say. Every line I had practiced in my truck getting here. The ache from this morning was back and I wanted to crush it.
I only knew one way to do that. I wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her away from the stove. I turned off the heat under what looked like some type of casserole.
“But…”
she protested.
“Come shower with me,” I said as I pressed a kiss against her neck. Then I rubbed my face against that smooth, soft skin. The day’s stubble would mark her, but I didn’t care. Because when I was done fucking her I wanted to see all the marks I was going to leave on her body while I ate the damn brownies she’d made for me.
She tightened for a second. Probably had no idea what to expect from me, and since I was doing the exact opposite of what I had told myself I would do, I couldn’t blame her.
But I was done thinking for now.
“Okay,” she sighed.
Right. Because when it came to me, she was helpless. I took her hand and pulled her along with me to my bedroom.
“Get naked. Now.”
I started working on the buttons of my uniform. I didn’t want to have to wait until I was naked to undress her. Another hesitation, but then she was lifting her shirt over her head. Stepping out of the stilettos. My mouth nearly ran dry when she pushed her pants down her legs and stood in front of me in a black lace bra and matching thong.
“Did you wear this for me?” I had pulled my shirt and undershirt off but that was it. I moved toward her and cupped her lace-covered breasts in my hands. “Did you put this on this morning hoping I would walk in and do this?”
I dropped my mouth to her hard nipple and bit down gently through the lace.
“Garrett,” she sighed.
“Tell me,” I said, moving on to her other breast, the other hard nipple. “You did, didn’t you? You wanted me to see you like this.” I slid my hand down over her flat stomach and pushed my fingers into her panties. She was already soaking wet for me.
“No, I…didn’t. It’s just my underwear.”
“Liar,” I said, even as I pushed a finger deep inside her. Her head fell back and she groaned in that loud way she had, like she wasn’t holding anything back.
I stepped away to give myself a minute. If I didn’t take a breath I was going to throw her on the bed and take her hard. She wasn’t ready for that yet. She needed to trust her partner. Needed to know completely that everything I was going to do to her was going to make her feel good. Until that point when she realized that a hard, mindless fuck sometimes felt better than anything.