Back at the Ranch

by Em Ashcroft

  “Fuck.” He went back on his haunches, eating her up with his eyes. “You are gorgeous.” He frowned. “Do we need to use protection?”

  “I don’t know. Do we? I’m on the pill.”

  “Ah.” His gaze roamed over her body, claiming it as he was claiming her. “I can’t give you anything, disease or baby. Listen, I want you bareback. I want our connection to be complete, nothing between us, but you’re safe, I swear it.”

  She gave a single, terse nod. She trusted him to tell her the truth.

  Thea fought the urge to cross her arms over her nearly naked body. She wasn’t used to anyone looking at her like that, but the admiration on his handsome features was there for her to see. Before she could filter her words, she responded. “Not compared to your usual girlfriends.”

  A slight frown creased his brow and hardened his mouth. “I don’t compare. But, Thea, you should use a mirror more. These are magnificent.” Bending, he touched his tongue to one nipple and moaned. “And taste just as good.” Sucking her into his mouth, he continued. From the minute I saw you I wanted to do this. You’re delicious, sweet like strawberries.

  Thea melted. Everyone knew shape-shifters communicated telepathically but they rarely did it with humans. The sound thrummed through her, vibrating to her innermost self.

  When he urged her back, she lay down and just let him––do what he liked. Because she wanted it, too. His compliments overwhelmed her, and when he spoke to her mind-to-mind, she sensed his sincerity.

  That’s right, sweetheart. We can’t lie to our––He broke the thought abruptly, as if shock had cut him off midway. What was he thinking? She didn’t understand half enough about telepathy, but then, she hadn’t known she’d ever get this close to someone who could use it. But fuck, she was glad she was.

  This man wrought miracles with his tongue. Even working on one nipple he brought her close to orgasm, everything in her body rising to fever pitch. But when instinct drove her to push her hand between his body and hers in a desperate effort to get to her clit and give herself some ease, he chuckled low in his throat. He moved to stop her, temporarily squashing her hand, and started work on her other breast. I do that.

  And he did. As she eased her hand to one side, he took over, shoving her panties aside and roughly pressing down on her clit with his thumb.

  Just once, that was all it took. Her body rocketed up and over. Beyond words, Thea screamed and lost her breath until she got back in touch with her senses.

  He lifted his head. “Now that is what I call a reaction.” His lips were full, his grin irresistible. “Just to take the edge off.”

  Swinging away from her, he got to his feet and stripped. Not a striptease, but a fast shedding of a suit she suspected cost more than she earned in a month. Two months. Three. Whatever, it went on the floor, tossed carelessly aside as he tugged off his shirt and pants and kicked out of his highly polished Italian loafers.

  Naked, he looked bigger than he did in his business gear. Broad shoulders with well-defined muscles tapered to narrow hips and long, strong legs. But what stood to attention between them drew her eyes. The cap lushly purple, his cock reared up, its tip kissing his navel, with plenty to spare.

  Thea licked her lips. He gripped the stalk, pushing more blood to the tip. A drop of clear liquid oozed from the tiny hole. “You want a taste?”

  Words lost, she sat up and nodded. Obligingly, he brought it to her, taking the one step she needed. Eagerly, she grasped it and sucked it between her lips. Never before had she enjoyed giving head. She’d always considered it a favor, or a favor she had to do to get something back. But this was enough.

  He tasted of spice and musk, all male, with a sharp undercurrent that must be addictive. Licking around the head, claiming it for her own, she brought her hand up to explore the plump, hairy balls that swung below and the base of this magnificence. His low groan drove her to do more, but although she tried, opening her throat and relaxing the muscles, there was no way she could swallow him whole.

  “Fuck!”

  He erupted into her mouth. His cock pulsed, and his balls drew tight against his body as he gave her a mouthful of Blade. She drank it down greedily in great gulps, trying to keep it all.

  His hands firmed on her shoulders, and he eased her away. His cock left her mouth with a pop. It was still hard, but not like it had been a moment ago, and she wanted it back, to lick and suck it into life.

  She looked up. His chest was heaving, and veins stood out on his arms. “That was wicked,” he said, gazing at her through slumberous eyes. But in a few seconds, that look was gone. She went for his cock again, but he stepped back, enough to take himself out of her reach.

  “No, honey, another time,” he said as he rolled her on to her front. “Up on all fours.”

  The tap he gave her ass stung, making her skin tingle. But she did as he told her, letting him place her exactly as he wanted her. She had her knees apart, supporting herself on her bent elbows, leaning forward so her backside stuck in the air.

  “You’re magnificent. He stroked down the cleft between her buttocks, circling her tiny rosette, making her flinch. “Has anybody fucked you in the ass? No?”

  “Yes. It hurt.” She didn’t like it, had decided it wasn’t for her.

  “When I do it, it won’t hurt. I promise you’ll feel nothing but pleasure. I want all of you, sweetheart. Every fucking hole, every response. While you’re with me, it’s all mine. Understand?”

  His control thrilled her. While she didn’t want domination, this edge added a touch of helplessness that she enjoyed. The option was implied––if she did as he told her, she’d get it good, and she’d have a much better time.

  “That’s it. Let me take you there.” He crooned endearments and compliments about her body. Spreading his hand over her buttocks, he ran his palm up the length of her spine and over her shoulders. “Your skin is so soft. I’ve honestly never felt skin this good before.” Bending, he peppered kisses over her shoulder blades. She shivered. Who knew shoulders were so erotic? Well, she did now.

  “Now, Thea, now I have some control back. You took it all from me. Did you know that?” He gave her ass another tap, a bit harder this time. She lapped it up, her body on high alert. Briefly, he pressed his cock against the crease, pushing to let her know it was ready for her again. “You get it all this time. As hard as you want. As hard as I want, and I want it hard. To shove it right inside, where nobody’s ever been before, discover parts of you that you don’t know about. Yet.”

  Every word urged her higher. “If you don’t fuck me soon, I’ll die,” she moaned.

  “No you won’t. But you won’t have to wait. Give it to me. Hollow your back, stick that pretty ass right up. Let me see where I’m going.” When she did as he said, he touched her, pushed his finger into her, but immediately withdrew. “Hot and wet. Perfect.”

  He notched his cock to her cunt and thrust.

  Open and wet through she was, her pussy still resisted his entry, because she’d never taken anything that size before. He filled her, and when she thought he was all the way in. He proved her wrong. He kept going. His groin pressed against her body, his cock completely embedded inside her.

  “Ready?”

  Before she had time to reply, he pulled out and drove straight back in, their bodies colliding with a wet slap. He gripped her upper thighs to steady her but stood behind her, and with a grunt, he did it again.

  Warmth entered her mind. Already she knew his touch. He was sensing her. That was so fucking hot she moaned.

  “Yes, I want to feel you. I want to know what you like. Open to me, Thea. Let me in.” He didn’t mean just their bodies. He wanted her total surrender, and in return, he’d give her everything, whether she knew what it was or not.

  She gave it. Barriers she wasn’t aware of until now came down at his gentle urging until she was as connected with Blade as she had been to anyone in her life before. More so.

  For a reward, he chan
ged his angle of entry, lifted higher, and then thrust again. She cried out. With every drive, he pushed her further toward an orgasm. Before, coming had been like climbing a hill and admiring the view. This was Everest, and she didn’t bother looking at the sky.

  Six strokes it took her before she spasmed, crying out as she clenched his cock with her cunt, her whole body quivering as the sensation conquered her. Tears leaked from her eyes, and she lost touch with reality. His presence swamped her mind, sucking up her reaction, sharing it with her.

  But he didn’t come. He just kept pounding into her. She went through her orgasm and immediately began to climb up to another, one that terrified and thrilled her in equal measure. His hands gripped her legs so tightly she’d bruise, but she gloried in the marks. They’d last for a week or more, and she’d be able to look at them and remember. So fucking good.

  Time stopped, and her body froze in the instant before she fell, soaring through space, the tumble fathomlessly deep.

  Blade’s cock throbbed and pulsed inside her. He roared her name, falling over her, his hands planted on either side of her as he shook helplessly with the force of his own climax.

  Their bodies stuck together, they gasped, drawing in great gulps of air until he grunted and rolled her on to her side, spooning her body into his.

  Blade enclosed her, wrapping his arms around her, tucking his legs under hers, supporting and cradling. He cupped her breasts in one hand, idly playing with her nipples as she spun back to reality.

  He kissed her shoulder where it met her neck. “That was pretty good, for starters.”

  She laughed weakly. “I guess.”

  “Shower and then we’ll do it some more.”

  That wasn’t a request or a suggestion. It sounded like a command. She really shouldn’t feel that thrill of arousal when he told her so firmly, but she wouldn’t deny it.

  Chapter Four

  Thea slipped into her room the next day, praying nobody would notice or make a big thing about her being absent all night.

  “Hey, here she is! So what’s it like, fucking a shape-shifter?”

  So much for that.

  Pasting on a smile, she faced the aggressively blonde, but super-nice Andie. “Great. But don’t tell anybody, please.”

  Andie propped her hands on her hips. “Are you kidding me? They didn’t talk about anything else at dinner last night. Watch out for Ladonna, though. She’s on the warpath, going screaming fucking nuts. I don’t suppose he has any friends, does he?”

  “Lots, but I can’t hire them out.” Thea grinned. “While we’re here, he’s mine.”

  “Lucky you.” Andie turned to the mirror, wielding her lipstick. “Breakfast?”

  “I had some.” Waffles, to be precise, gobbled hastily before she left Blade’s apartment. Her final shower there had been fast since they’d stayed in bed until the last possible moment. She couldn’t get enough of him.

  “She’ll want you there.”

  Thea was in no mood to pander to her sister. They’d almost arrived at the end of this ordeal, thank fuck. Then she could go home and get to looking through the videos and crafting the promotional snippets for the company. Back to normal. Her heart sank. Normal didn’t appeal any more. She’d been aching for it since she got here, no, longer, since the bachelorette party.

  Andie glanced over, pressing her lips together to spread the lipstick. Why did women do that? Thea didn’t know, but she did it, too. Not today, because she’d applied the minimum, and Blade had kissed off her lip-gloss before she left.

  A man that gorgeous had chosen her. True, she’d literally fallen into his arms, but he could have handed her off to somebody else or helped her recover and then taken her back to her room. He’d done neither of those things. He’d kissed her because he wanted her.

  That part made her happier than she’d been for a long time. As Andie left, Thea skipped into the bathroom, grabbing a change of clothes from her case as she went. Just as she was buttoning her white shirt, a knock sounded on the door. Damn, had her sister come upstairs to whine at her?

  But when she opened the door, bracing herself for the worst, she blinked at who was standing there. “Chester!”

  “Can I speak to you for a moment?” His customary half-amused expression was absent, his green eyes wide, his full mouth straight.

  Chester was classically handsome, the subject of many a paparazzi photo. Although his branch of the Rayburn family didn’t have the wealth of the others, his birth made up for that. He wore chinos and a Pringle sweater because Chester liked his labels. She didn’t have a clue what labels Blade wore, just that whatever he put on he wore it well.

  Without waiting for permission, he stepped into the packed bedroom. He glanced around ruefully. Dresses foamed out of the small wardrobe, and open suitcases littered the room and the beds. “You girls can’t keep tidy, can you?”

  “With four of us in here, and the bridesmaid dresses to house, what do you expect?”

  Grasping her waist, he moved forward. He always kissed women on each cheek, so Thea braced herself. Except he didn’t go for her cheeks. Before Thea could move out of the way, he planted a kiss full on her lips.

  Thea kept her mouth tightly shut, but that didn’t stop him going for her, his tongue probing the seam. Since he had her firmly gripped, Thea had to tip back her chin to break the kiss. If she’d expected an apology, she was to be mistaken.

  “Thea, please, darling, listen to me.”

  Risking a fall over the shoes piled behind her, Thea stepped back. Fortunately she missed them. But he still wouldn’t let go. She had to reach down to grasp his wrists, but when she pulled, he resisted. Okay, so she’d listen. “You’re talking to the wrong sister. You’re marrying Ladonna, in case you’d forgotten.”

  “I don’t know how I let it get this far. I must have been mad.” He fixed his gaze on hers, his own wide and sincere. “I didn’t mean to do it. I want you, Thea, not Ladonna. She doesn’t hold a candle to you.”

  “You didn’t think that way when you dropped me like a hot potato. You didn’t look back.” And yet, she didn’t care. When he’d first left her, she’d longed for him to come back, to tell her he’d made a mistake. Now her dream was coming true. And there was no way she wanted it any more.

  A wry smile tilted his mouth. “You’ve got to admit she has the complete package. But it went too far. The first time I slept with her I was drunk, and then, when I realized what I’d done, I was too ashamed to come back. I should have done it then. I was a coward. Take me back, Thea, please.”

  What, did he want to marry her instead of Ladonna this weekend? “You can’t cross out one name on a license and scribble another in its place. The system doesn’t work like that.”

  He sighed. “I know. Come with me now, Thea. Let’s get away from here. We’ll go anywhere. Maybe to Acapulco, how about that? You always said you wanted to go. Or we can go to Vegas and get married there. I love you. I know it took me a while to come to my senses, but I’m sure now. I want you. I was an idiot. Forgive me?”

  And he came out with that half-smile, the sheepish look that made women forgive him anything. Fuck knew she had done that very thing in her time. More than once. But not now.

  She could tell him what she felt and what he’d done to her. But looking at his face, and that toned and honed body, she wondered if she should bother. She didn’t care any more, not about him or what he thought. And if she did tell him, point out how much he had hurt her and what that kind of behavior had done to her, he’d use it. Thea couldn’t trust him to repeat what she said to Ladonna and work her through it. Because that was what he wanted. He loved to control people with the kind of passive-aggressive stuff he had used on her in the past. That little sigh and the “It’s up to you of course…” If she’d heard it once, she’d heard it a thousand times.

  Already she moderated her words. “Chester, it was over between us a while back. And I won’t two-time my own sister.”

  Finally
he got the message and dropped his hands. “I’m not asking you to. I’d never ask you to do that. But come back to me, and we can leave. Tonight. I have my rental car outside. We can go away. Ladonna will forgive us when we tell her.”

  Thea frowned, struck by a sudden thought. “What made you do this? When I last saw you, you were all over Ladonna. Telling her you loved her and you couldn’t wait.”

  Half turning, he ran his hand over his hair, but he didn’t dislodge the careful style. Thea always wondered how he did that. True, it would take a bit more than that to completely mess up a thousand-dollar haircut, but not a hair went out of place. He gave another of his heavy sighs. “I’m sorry. It’s been coming for a while. Ladonna spends a hell of a lot of money. Did you know that?”

  “You always said you had to spend to get results.” Thea folded her arms so he couldn’t grab her again. How could she have ever wanted this man? For the first time, she saw Chester for what he was. Her ex was weak, a chancer, somebody who would do anything to further himself, no matter how many bodies he stepped on to get there. But he wasn’t ruthless. He didn’t like doing the killing. The only thing that kept her really lashing out was the reminder that he was still useful to them. Chester had contacts they couldn’t get on their own. He’d gotten them into a few social gatherings that looked good for them, and Thea had made some contacts that she was still busy developing.

  But Chester, the man who was shortly to become her brother-in-law? Forget him.

  A great weight lifted from her shoulders. She truly didn’t care that he was marrying her sister. No jealousy ate her up, no anger, no longing. Nothing. And that was fantastic.

  “Yes, but not like she does. Why did she want to come down here?”

  Thea knew the answer to that one. “Because Goldclaw Ranch is getting a great name as a wedding venue for the shiny.” “The shiny” was her personal name for the rich, well-connected customer. The ones they wanted most. “If we can make contacts here, we can come to some arrangements for future business.” And she’d get to see more of Blade. Oh, she didn’t have any illusions where he was concerned, but Blade had been nothing but honest.