pack on his thigh and pressed her lips to his. When Hank’s hand lifted to her face, she replaced it by his side.
Kissing him let that sweet heat build until she abruptly ripped free from the kiss and dropped to her knees. She had his cock in her mouth before he’d figured out her intention.
“Sweet Jesus, Lainie. That’s . . . Ah, damn. You don’t have to . . . Fuck. That’s good.”
She hummed and sucked, briefly releasing him with a soft pop.
“This is a new therapy I’m trying.”
Hank laughed quietly, although it resembled a strangled groan.
She wrapped her fingers around the base, pleased that the gruff cowboy kept the pubic hair trimmed. She lost herself in the warm smoothness of his shaft sliding back and forth over her tongue.
With each sucking pass she brought him deeper until the cock head rubbed against her soft palate. Then she teased him by flicking her tongue over the sweet spot below the plump head. The clean taste of him flowed through her. Hank always came to her clean. Just once she’d like to taste him natural. No sweet- smelling soap. Nothing but the raw, salty, dark taste of Hank.
Lainie took her time, eking out every ounce of pleasure for him, every bit of power for herself.
Hank’s moans escalated. His hips twisted off the bed. Lainie knew he struggled not to grab her hair, forcing her to satisfy him the fast way he preferred. His fist stayed clenched at his right side, while his left hand maintained a death grip on the bag of ice on his leg.
She looked up at him when the entire length of his cock was lodged deep. He peered at her from beneath heavy- lidded eyes.
His nostrils flared. His full lips were parted, allowing his breath to escape in short, hot bursts.
“Lainie. Finish me. Please.”
With a slight nod, she reached between his legs and stroked his balls. She rubbed the section of skin in front of his anus and his shaft seemed to lengthen across her tongue. Using her hand in tandem with her mouth, Lainie sent him soaring.
She swallowed each creamy spurt as he came. His unintelligible mutterings were as musical to her ears as the sweet nothings he murmured on occasion.
After Hank’s softened dick slipped from her mouth, he flopped back on the bed.
Grinning, Lainie rolled to her toes and kissed his taut belly.
“I’m going to help Abe make lunch, whether he wants me to or not. Leave that ice pack on for at least ten minutes.”
She’d made it to the door when he rasped, “As far as therapy?
Darlin’, that’s my very favorite ever.”
Chapter IX
In the kitchen, a long- legged blonde was stretched out on the bar stool at the center island.
Abe scowled at his cutting board.
“. . . not fair and you both know it,” the woman said.
Lainie accidentally tripped over a dog sprawled on the rug. At the dog’s yelp, both heads snapped in her direction.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” She bent down to pet the black Labrador. “Sorry to you too.” The dog licked her palm.
“Murray is very forgiving, unlike some people I know,” the blonde huffed.
“I can’t forgive you until I have an inkling of what you’ve done wrong.” Abe gestured with the knife. “Lainie, this is our sister, Celia. Celia, this is Hank’s girlfriend, Lainie Capshaw.” His tone and posture said, Be nice.
Lainie braced herself for the inevitable Are you related to Jason Capshaw?
But Celia offered her hand. “Nice to meetcha. Whoa. You’re a lot . . . smaller than Hank’s other girlfriends. He usually goes for the tall and lanky type.”
“Celia Rose Lawson,” Abe scolded. “What is wrong with you?”
“What? Just sayin’. She’s petite. And stacked. It’s a refreshing change.” Celia smiled coyly. “Welcome to the testosterone ranch.”
“Thanks. Anything I can help with, Abe?”
“Nah. This is for supper tonight. Got a few guys coming over to help us load the camper and I promised them food and beer. If you’re hungry now, there’s sandwiches in the fridge.”
“Thanks, but I’ll wait for Hank to wake up.”
“Wore him out good, didja?” Celia snickered.
“Dammit, Celia, knock it the hell off,” Abe growled.
Celia blew Abe a kiss before facing Lainie with determined eyes. “So, you and Hank, huh? He’s been pretty mum about you. I had no idea he was seeing anyone.”
“I knew.”
Lainie looked at Abe. “He told you about me?”
“Not specifics. Just that he’d met someone on the tour.”
“This is exactly what I meant by unfair, Abe. If I woulda brought a guy home and announced, ‘He’s staying with me in my room,’ both you and Hank would’ve trussed him up and dragged him off Lawson land.”
“Not the same thing, Celia.”
Her gray eyes narrowed. “Why? Because you both have dicks?
Or because you both are dicks?”
Abe’s knife thwacked into the cutting board. “Goddammit, Celia, drop it. Can you at least try to act civil when we have guests in the house? This is pointless and you know it.”
“We need another female opinion on whether it’s a pointless discussion.” Celia whirled around on the bar stool, giving Abe her back. “Lainie, help me out. Since Abe’s whiny ex- wife left, there’ve been no female views here but mine, which, naturally, they think is totally wrong. Isn’t it a double standard? They can have overnight houseguests of the opposite sex and I can’t?”
“I really don’t think I should—”
“Go ahead. I’m dyin’ to hear your opinion,” Abe encouraged.
Lainie examined Celia from bare toes to ponytail. “How old are you?”
“Twenty- one.”
“Oh.”
“Oh, what?” Celia demanded.
“You’re an adult. It seems the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ rule is in effect for you. I don’t see why you can’t have an overnight male guest if you want.”
Abe studied her coolly. “How long you sticking around, Lainie?”
“I’m hoping forever,” Celia retorted. “Of course, this is all hypothetical, because few cowboys around here arouse my interest. Or if they do, they’re my brother’s buddies and treat me like a pigtailed third grader.”
Abe leaned over and playfully yanked on her ponytail. “If the hairdo fits, baby sis . . .”
“So, you teaching Celia to rebel?” Hank said behind her, right before his arms circled her waist and his chin grazed the top of her head.
Lainie wasn’t used to the demonstrative side of Hank in public, but it gave her a little thrill . . . which lasted until she saw the smiles his siblings beamed at them.
They’re happy for him. They think this is real.
“At least someone has taken Celia’s hell- raising education to task.”
All heads turned to Kyle leaning in the doorway.
“You’d know all about that, Gilly,” Celia said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Why don’t you share a few hell- raising pointers with me?”
“Because I don’t have a death wish, girlie. Your brothers would kill me. And I need Hank to keep me alive in the ring, not let a bull trample me into a bag of meat.”
“I am not a girl,” Celia sniped.
Kyle purposely avoided meeting Lainie’s eyes. He’d forgotten her father had become a bag of meat at the horns and hooves of a bull.
Lainie wanted to reassure Kyle that offhand comments like that didn’t bother her. She’d gotten used to them in the last two years. But he wouldn’t look at her at all now.
“I’m outta here,” Celia announced, and hopped off the bar stool. She whistled and the dog followed.
“Maybe you can work on her surly attitude while you’re at it,”
Abe said to Lainie.
“I heard that,” Celia shouted just before the door slammed.
“I’ll talk to her,” Lainie said, trying to free herself from Hank’s embrace and Kyle’s too obvious indifference.
“She’s fine. Just hotheaded. It’ll blow over.” Hank kissed her crown. “Stay put, since I’ve got you right where I want you.”
Stay put, since I’ve got you right where I want you.
Kyle gritted his teeth. It ticked him off that Hank was acting so possessive with Lainie the first chance he got.
If you were standing in your mother’s kitchen, wouldn’t your arms be around Lainie? Wouldn’t you bury your nose in the sweet scent of her hair?
Hell, yeah.
So it pissed him off that he couldn’t fault Hank for his behavior, because Kyle would do the same damn thing.
Regardless, it’d be a long damn night if he had to watch the two of them playing grab- ass.
Kyle pushed off the doorjamb. “I’ll see if wannabe wild child is out loading her pistols, gunning for me, since I’m the one who set her off.”
“Thanks, man,” Hank said as Kyle passed by him.
He paused on the porch steps. Well, looky there.
Celia had already bent the ear of the first non–family member of the male persuasion who’d crossed her warpath. She stood on the running board of Bran Turner’s rig. And Bran was getting a huge chuckle out of whatever tale of woe Celia spun.
The instant Celia noticed Kyle, she scowled. She whistled for the grungy dog, which was never more than ten feet away from her, and sauntered off to the horse barn.
Bran’s head whipped around as he shamelessly watched her walk away.
“Fuckin’ perv,” Kyle said.
“And proud of it.” Bran craned his neck for one last look. “Jesus. That woman has the finest ass. Sometimes I wonder if she rides as good between the sheets as she does on a horse.”
“Probably. Wouldn’t be bad if you could keep a bit in her mouth. Or take a crop to her if she got too bossy.”
“Who’s the fuckin’ perv now?”
Kyle grinned. “And proud of it.”
“So, you ain’t all busted up, which is a good sign. The bull ridin’ biz went well?”
“Placed first in Lamar.”
“Gotta feel good to put a little jingle in your pocket after the run of bad luck you’ve had the last couple months.”
“That it does.”
Bran adjusted his hat, attempting to keep the sun out of his eyes. “Rumor is you and Hank are hitting the road as traveling partners.”
“Yep.”
“How long’s Hank planning on bein’ gone this time?”
“About three weeks— give or take. Cowboy Christmas can stretch clear up until the Days of ’76 Rodeo in Deadwood the end of July.”
“Huh. Hank’s never gone off like this before in the summer, during this . . . what’d you call it? Cowboy Christmas? I wonder what the big deal is now. Why this year?”
Kyle’s ears burned. Hank had volunteered to drag him from rodeo to rodeo because he knew Kyle wouldn’t go alone.
“Don’t mind tellin’ ya, since they bought that new parcel out by Green Bluffs, it’s getting harder for Abe to handle the ranch when Hank ain’t here.”
“Does Hank know that?”
“Abe ain’t exactly the type to run off at the mouth about his feelin’s.”
“No kiddin’. So what’s Abe been doin’ about it instead of talking?”
“Workin’. More workin’. Hell, what else can he do? What can any of us do?”
Growing up within a ranching community, Kyle knew the amount of time, money, and energy it took to run a ranch, even a small one. No days off. No sick days. Livelihood depended on the whims of the weather and the cattle market. His friends had either made the choice to stay on when tragedy struck— like Abe and Hank did after their parents died— or move on— like their friend Max Godfrey, who sold the family land to pursue his love of leatherwork. Or like Bran, raised by his grandparents and living on the ranch that’d been in his family for over a century. Kyle couldn’t count how many times over the years, over many beers, he’d heard his buddies discussing the pressures of the legacy left to them, whether they found it to be daunting, confining, or stimulating.
Bran sighed. “So, Hank said anything to you?”
“Hank is a world- class bullfighter, but he’s a rancher first. He cares more about this piece of Wyoming dirt than he does about hooking horns every weekend.”
“Sorry I said anything. Don’t say nothin’ to him.”
“No worries. Even on the road Hank ain’t any chattier than Abe, believe it or not.”
The porch door banged. They both looked in that direction.
“Who’s she?” Bran asked, keeping his gaze focused on the couple headed toward them.
“Lainie. She’s traveling with us.”
“Ah. It makes perfect sense why Hank’s ready to hit the road and ditch his brother. She’s the woman he’s been goin’ on about the last few months?”
That green- eyed monster reared its ugly head when Kyle realized Hank had talked to Bran about Lainie. Did that mean Hank was more serious about Lainie than he’d let on?
Aren’t you?
Hank kept his arm around Lainie’s shoulders. “Bran. Glad you could help out today.”
“No problem. Abe mentioned he was whipping up a batch of Wyoming jambalaya. Speaking as a bachelor, I’ll do anything not to eat my own cooking.” Bran thrust out his hand to Lainie. “Bran Turner. Friend and neighbor of the Lawsons.”
“Interesting how you threw in the bachelor part of your bio right away,” Hank said sarcastically. “This is Lainie Capshaw.”
Bran cranked the Turner charm to high, kissing Lainie’s knuckles. “I am so pleased to make your acquaintance, lovely Lainie. Are you by any chance related to—”
“Jason Capshaw?” she supplied.
He paused thoughtfully. “No. The Capshaws by Mule Creek Junction.”
“Never heard that one, but I’m afraid I don’t know them.”
“Pity. If you think you might be kin to ’em, I’d be more’n happy to drive you over and introduce you while Hank is off chasin’ his bulls.”
“Quit trying to steal my girl, Bran.” Hank dropped his hands low on Lainie’s hips protectively.
The situation would’ve amused Kyle highly if he hadn’t wanted his arms around Lainie. If he hadn’t been dying to introduce Lainie as his girlfriend. He managed a tight smile. “We gonna do this camper thing or what?”
“We’re waiting on Eli and Max.”
“Really think it’ll take six guys?”
“I can help,” Lainie offered.
“Like hell,” came from three different men.
“But—”
“I’m showing you the chauvinist side Celia referred to, Lainie, by saying no way. We’ve done this before and it’ll go lickety- split if I’m not worried about those magic hands of yours getting crushed,”
Hank said.
Lainie didn’t rail or argue like spitfire Celia would have. She shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“If we’re waiting on Eli and Max to get here, I need to catch up on some other stuff before we take off tomorrow.” Kyle wandered back inside, pausing when he heard Abe’s angry voice in the kitchen.
“Fuck that, Janie. No way. Why? Because you lost that fuckin’
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