by Cat Johnson
She waited until he settled on his back in a comfortable position. Instead of straddling his hips, as she assumed he thought she would do, she leaned over and engulfed his cock in her mouth.
Nick hissed. “Christ!”
He bucked his hips so hard, he would’ve rammed his shaft down her throat if she hadn’t gripped the base. She circled the head with her tongue, slowly let her lips slide down the hard column to his balls, then back up to the head. She repeated the trip, licking his cock the same slow way he’d licked her pussy a short time ago.
Nick ran his fingers into her hair, not guiding her but simply holding her head as he began to pump. Keely lifted her mouth from his cock, although she continued to grip the base. “Uh-uh. No moving. I’m doing all the work.”
An expression of pain mixed with frustration crossed Nick’s face. Blowing out a huge breath, he let his head fall back to the pillow. “Okay. I won’t move.”
Keely bit down on her bottom lip to keep from grinning. He acted as if she planned to kill him instead of giving him an immense amount of pleasure.
Cradling his tight balls in one hand, she glided her other hand up and down his shaft. Pre-cum formed at the slit. Keely used her thumb to spread it over the crown, then licked it off. Her action earned a growl from Nick.
“God, babe, that feels good.”
She knew something that would feel better. All the attention he’d paid to her breasts last night proved Nick truly liked that part of her body. “Where’s your lube?”
Nick lifted his head from the pillow, his eyebrows drawn together. “My what?”
“Don’t try to tell me you don’t have any.”
“Yeah, I have some. Second drawer of that nightstand.” He pointed to the stand on her left. She licked his crown again before releasing him. Pushing aside a couple of paperbacks and other items she would relegate to a junk drawer, she located a small bottle of gel.
“Uh, Keely, I don’t think you need that. You’re already really wet.”
“Not everywhere.” She moved between his legs, careful to push his left leg slowly so as not to hurt his ankle. Holding his cock straight up, she squirted lube on the head and let it run down the sides. Then she squirted a generous amount between her breasts.
“Fuck,” Nick whispered.
She could almost see the light bulb above his head when he figured out what she planned to do. “No moving,” she reminded him.
He nodded. He pulled another pillow beneath his head, his gaze latched on to her wet breasts. Keely surrounded his shaft with the soft mounds, adjusting it so it would easily slide through the lube. It took her a few tries to get a smooth rhythm, but soon Nick’s ragged breathing and sweat-coated skin showed her he enjoyed her surprise.
“Babe, I’ve got to move. Please.”
“Do what you need to do, Nick. I want you to come.”
He cradled the sides of her breasts. Seeing the lust in his eyes drove up her desire to a fever pitch again. Keely slipped one hand between her thighs, fingered her clit while Nick fucked her breasts.
He yelled when he came, a sound between a shout of pain and a groan of pleasure. Warm semen splashed beneath her chin, on her chest, her breasts. The last drop landed on the inner curve of her breast. Keely’s second orgasm rushed through her, leaving her legs weak and curling every hair on her body.
“My God,” he rasped, “it’s hot watching you get yourself off.”
Nick grabbed her upper arms and pulled her on top of him. He held her head while he kissed her as if he hadn’t eaten for days and she was a steak dinner. Still kissing her, he rolled her beneath him.
Suddenly his body tightened and he jerked his mouth away from hers. Eyes clenched shut, he threw back his head. “Shit-damnhell fuck!”
“Well, that covers all the main curse words. Did you bump your foot?”
“Yes. Shit!”
He fell to his back, an arm over his eyes. Keely propped up on her elbow. She didn’t know whether to feel sympathy for his pain or laugh at the situation.
He uncovered his eyes, ran his hands down his face. “Well, that’s a mood breaker.”
“I’d say so.”
He looked at her. His lips twitched, then widened into a grin. Soon he laughed out loud and Keely joined him.
“I think that’s it for sex this morning,” she said.
“Yeah, unfortunately.” He rubbed a drop of cum into her breast. “I guess we’d better shower and dress. I expect Dusty here soon, probably with his grandkids Robert and Jerry.”
His voice rose in pitch when he said Dusty’s son’s name. “You don’t like Jerry?”
“I like him fine, except when he comes sniffing around you.”
Keely didn’t believe what he’d said. “Sniffing?”
“Yeah, telling you he’d be back at Christmas and y’all should have coffee or lunch. Horny bastard.”
Keely tried not to grin but couldn’t help herself. “Are you jealous?”
“No. Yes. Hell, Keely, he’s good-looking and smart with a shitload of money. I’m in debt above my eyeballs.”
The Nick she knew didn’t have an ounce of self-doubt. This vulnerable Nick touched her heart. She leaned over and kissed him gently. “I have no desire to have coffee or lunch with Jerry.”
“You agreed when he suggested it.”
“I was being polite. I never would have gone out with him. I don’t want anyone but you.”
He cradled her cheek in his palm, swiped his thumb across her lips. “Are you sure? I can’t give you the things Jerry can, at least not until the bank loan is paid off.”
“I don’t need things, Nick.” She pressed his hand firmer against her cheek. “I just need you.”
Her kiss sealed that declaration and stirred the embers of desire again. Before they could turn into a full blaze, Keely ended the kiss and scooted to the edge of the bed. “Shower time, Mr. Fallon. You have an appointment to get a cast.”
“Yippee,” he said without a hint of enthusiasm.
“Look at the bright side. You won’t bump your ankle anymore while we’re making love.”
“There is that.” He sat up and accepted the crutches Keely handed him. “Do I get to wash your back?”
“You can wash anything you want to.”
He grinned. “Goody.”
Keely thought about her idea the rest of the morning, while she showered with Nick, cooked breakfast, and drove him to Dr. Brickman’s office in Nick’s four-wheel drive pickup. She’d never had to drive through almost eight inches of snow and ice. She knew the main highway through town would be cleared, but snow covered Nick’s driveway and the county roads. Tiny flakes fell with a forecast of heavier snow this afternoon. Snow and cold remained in the forecast before temperatures started to slowly climb above freezing on Tuesday.
By the time they arrived at the medical facility, Keely had made up her mind what to do. She held Nick’s arm to support him while he maneuvered over the slippery sidewalk. Once safely inside the warm building, she turned to him.
“I need to run a couple of errands. I won’t be long.”
“Errands? Keely, the roads are nasty.”
“I promise I’ll be careful with your pickup.”
“I’m not worried about my pickup, I’m worried about you.”
“I’ll be fine. I promise.” She kissed his cheek. “Be back soon.”
She left before he could try and stop her. Determined to help the man she loved, she got in his pickup and pulled away from the building.
10
It didn’t surprise Keely to discover Nick’s bad mood when he exited Dr. Brickman’s office two hours later. The cast that covered him from above his knee to the middle of his foot had to be uncomfortable. Even teasing him about how cute he looked in his sweatpants with one leg cut off to his knee didn’t ease his scowl.
She glanced at her purse on the seat next to her. It contained the perfect thing to wipe that scowl from his face. She could hardly wait to show it t
o him.
After trying twice to engage him in conversation and failing, she decided to leave him alone to stare out the passenger window. She needed to concentrate on her driving anyway, to avoid the worst icy spots.
Keely pulled the pickup into the yard as close to the porch as she could. She’d noticed the porch steps and walkway had been cleaned of snow when she and Nick left this morning. Everything appeared as if it had been freshly cleaned a short time ago. She silently blessed Dusty while she climbed down from the driver’s seat and rounded the hood to help Nick. He already had his door open and his crutches propped on the ground, ready to slide from the seat.
“Wait. Let me help—“
“I don’t need help. I can do it myself.”
She stepped back from him, but braced herself to hurry forward if he started to fall. He lumbered up the steps with her by his side. Once on the porch, she hurried to open the front door and stand aside so he could enter the house. He passed her without a look and headed for his recliner. Dropping the crutches to the floor, he jerked off his coat and let it fall on top of the crutches. He flopped down in the chair and pulled up his left leg to set his foot on the footrest.
Keely removed her coat and laid it on the couch. “Do you want something to eat?”
“No.”
She picked up his coat and leaned the crutches against the end table within Nick’s reach. “How about some hot tea?”
“No, and before you ask about anything else, I don’t want it either.”
A bear with a thorn in its paw couldn’t have been more gruff. Keely glanced at her purse lying on the coffee table. Perhaps she should share her surprise now, to make him feel better.
She only made it one step when Nick shot out his hand and caught her arm. “I’m sorry, Keely. I don’t mean to be such a bastard. I’m just . . . frustrated.”
She covered his hand with hers. “I understand.”
Nick motioned toward his cast. “I have to wear that goddamned thing four to six weeks, or one like it. Don will check my ankle again in two weeks and maybe make the cast smaller then, depending on how my ankle is healing. But it’ll still be wrapped up and I won’t be able to get around the way I want to.”
“Four to six weeks isn’t that long. The time will fly by.”
He snorted. “I doubt that.”
Wanting to bring back his good mood, she smiled. “I have a surprise for you that’ll make you feel a lot better.”
“I’m all for something to make me feel better.”
Keely opened her purse and removed the sheaf of papers. Her heart took off in a gallop of excitement as she unfolded them and passed them to Nick. She loved that she could do something special for him.
Confusion filled his eyes as he flipped through the pages. “What is this?”
“It’s your bank loan paid in full.”
His gaze snapped to her face. “It’s what?”
Keely clasped her hands together at her waist. “I was five when my father walked out on his family. I never saw him again. A couple of years ago, his lawyer contacted me and Vivian. He’d been killed in a skiing accident. Vivian and I were his beneficiaries of a million-dollar life insurance policy.”
“A million dollars?” he asked, his eyes wide.
Keely nodded. “We each got five hundred thousand. The money felt like he was trying to make it up to us for leaving. I didn’t want anything from him. I stuck the money in the bank and haven’t touched any of it. Until today. I drew out enough to pay off your loan. I spoke privately with E.J. at the bank. He took care of everything for me.”
She expected a smile. She expected thanks. She didn’t expect the rage that filled his eyes. “You had no right to do this,” he said in a low, harsh voice.
His anger threw her for a moment. “I love you and wanted to help you. Now you don’t have to worry about the loan anymore. You can run the ranch however you need to without thinking about having to sell off more land to make the payments.”
When he still seemed angry, Keely scrambled for something to ease his rage. “You can pay me back if you want to, but there’s no rush and I won’t charge you any interest.”
“That isn’t the point, Keely. You had no right to butt into my personal affairs.” He grabbed his crutches and pulled himself out of the recliner. He seemed angrier in a standing position, even propped up on crutches. He waved the papers close to her face. “I didn’t ask you to do anything like this.”
“I know you didn’t ask me, but I wanted to do it. The money was just sitting in my bank account. Why shouldn’t I use it to help you?”
“Because you didn’t ask me!” He crumpled the papers in his fist, then tossed them toward the fireplace. They floated through the air to land on the hearth.
Tears filled Keely’s eyes. She’d never expected Nick to get so angry when she only wanted to help him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”
“Well, you did.” Nick ran one hand through his hair. “You need to go.”
Keely swallowed. “Go?”
“I don’t want you here.”
The fragile love they’d admitted to last night splintered. Keely felt as if her heart crumbled in her chest. “Nick, please, I—”
“I don’t want you here,” he repeated, his voice louder. “Go!”
Nothing she could say now would make any difference to the way Nick felt. She had no choice but to leave. She slipped on her coat and picked up her purse. Halfway to the front door, she turned and looked at him one final time.
“I love you. I’m sorry if I did something wrong.”
Pressing one hand against the pain in her chest, she walked out the door.
Nick slumped in his recliner and stared at the papers strewn over the hearth. He should’ve tossed them in the fire before he sat down. No, he couldn’t do that. He had to go to the bank and arrange for Keely’s payment to be returned to her account. He’d take care of his bills himself, without help from anyone.
He couldn’t believe she’d paid off his loan without talking to him about it. Just because they’d had sex didn’t give her the right to butt into his private life.
The back door opened and closed. Heavy footsteps crossed the kitchen and dining room. “Nick?” Dusty called out.
Great. Dusty probably saw Keely leave and would be curious why. “In here.”
Snow peppered his ranch hand’s hat and jacket. “Where’s Keely goin’ in this snow? And why didn’t she take your pickup? That little car of hers will slide all over the road.”
Nick hadn’t considered that when he told Keely to leave. Guilt welled up inside him at the thought of her car sliding on the ice. No matter how angry he might be, he didn’t want her to get hurt. “I don’t know where she’s going. Home, I guess.”
“Why?”
Nick knew Dusty wouldn’t give up until he learned everything. Nick huffed out a breath. “Because I told her to leave.”
“Why the hell would you do that?”
He pointed to the papers on the hearth. “Look at those.”
Walking to the fireplace, Dusty bent down and picked up the papers. A frown crossed his face as he perused the documents. “You paid off the loan?”
“No, Keely did.”
Nick didn’t think he’d ever seen such an expression of incredulity on Dusty’s face. “Keely paid off your loan? Where’d she get that kind of money?”
“Her bum of a father left a half a million dollars to her in a life insurance policy.”
Dusty released a long whistle. “Dayum. Why’s she workin’ as a waitress with that kind of money?”
His ranch hand seemed to be missing the whole point of this conversation. “I don’t know! Maybe she likes cowboys flirting with her. The thing is, she did it behind my back without talking to me about it.”
Dusty folded the papers and laid them on the table beneath the window. “Seems like she wouldn’ta done somethin’ like that for just anyone.” He narrowed his eyes. “Anythin’
other than caregivin’ goin’ on between y’all?”
To his surprise, heat rushed to Nick’s cheeks at the thought of Dusty knowing what had happened in the recliner last night. And the bed this morning. “Whatever happened between Keely and me doesn’t change the fact that she went behind my back. Now I owe the money to her instead of the bank.”
“And this is bad . . . why?”
“You can’t possibly think what she did is okay.”
Dusty straightened his hat. “My boys are leavin’ in the mornin’. I’m takin’ the last two days of the weekend so I can go with ’em and see my daughter-in-law. Luis and Quade said they’d take care of the cattle ’til Monday.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“What I think is yer lucky to have a sweet gal like Keely love you. And if you let her get away without telling her you love her, you’re a damned fool.”
Dusty left the way he’d come in, leaving Nick alone to wonder if he should’ve handled the situation with Keely differently.
Monday was no worse than any other day of the week on a ranch since the work never stopped. However, this particular Monday seemed worse than any Nick had experienced lately. He looked out the window in his living room at the brisk wind whipping the falling snow into almost zero visibility. The weather people must have screwed up again. He didn’t see how the sunshine predicted for tomorrow would actually happen, not with this storm.
He sighed. It didn’t matter what it did outside since he couldn’t leave the house. Ice, snow, and crutches did not mix.
Nick had watched Dusty’s pickup drive by the house about half an hour ago. He must have left San Angelo very early this morning to already be here by noon. Snow had fallen even heavier to the south and west of Lanville. Olive had called last night full of apologies for not getting back when she promised him she would. He’d told her to stay safe at her sister’s house and don’t even attempt to drive until the ice had melted off the roads.
He wondered if Keely had done okay over the weekend.
He’d stared at her number on his phone at least two dozen times since Friday afternoon, trying to decide whether or not to call her. He hated the way things had gone between them. He knew she’d paid off his loan because she loved him, but she’d hit him right smack in the ego. A man should provide for the woman he loved, not the other way around.