Their Ex's Redrock Midnight (Texas Alpha)

by Anders, Shirl

  His lips lowered to her ear. “That’s private, boo.”

  “Oops,” she whispered back. Then he made her nearly come right there in the hallway to his office.

  “Need a spanking for that.”

  Wow.

  She should not quiver!

  She did ...

  He felt it, and damn it, he chuckled. Knowingly. “You like that,” he murmured.

  She shook her head, denying it, but her mouth said, “Maybe.”

  He rubbed her lower with his hard interest, showing he liked it too. “We will explore that.”

  Then he stepped back and left her a puddle of arousal. But the look on his lean, chiseled features said he was just holding on to his own fierce arousal.

  “Come on, I have work to do.”

  Rusty thought Cabe had done a fine job of work all over her, but she followed him.

  That night in the shower in Cabe’s room at Rowdie’s, Rusty thought about Cabe’s work. She kind of knew from Tess that Vincent and Cabe had made money in oil after they’d both been in military service. That oil money meant they must choose to run the charity WTSF, which had to be time consuming and a pain in the ass but did worlds of good for people, which were life-changing worlds of good.

  Cabe was a complicated man. He never talked about his money or even acted like he had any, and she’d been very surprised to hear he was an orphan. Tess had told her Vincent was raised in a boys’ home several counties over, but Tess had never said Cabe had been there too. Knowing that, Rusty understood more why Cabe was running a place for at-danger kids.

  That afternoon, Cabe had checked her boredom by taking her to WTSF gun range at the back of the huge property. They’d gotten there by golf cart and Cabe had said he regularly checked that the weapons were accounted for, locked up, and even in good working order.

  He’d muttered, “After clueless girls get their hands on them while gossiping to each other.”

  Rusty had offered some advice: “Teach them one on one. Not in a group or pairing. It’d seem like it would take longer, but I’d bet you’d get more of their attention. Plus fire the first shot with no earplugs, scare them, then they’ll really listen.”

  Cabe had stopped on the long walk through the outdoor gun range posts, and turned to her. “Brilliant.” He’d grabbed her against him, holding her there. “First question, do you want to volunteer here, and second question, how’d you come up with that?”

  Cabe’s closeness had had Rusty’s mind instantly melting with pleasure, then her body had instantly heated with pleasure, and then the compliment had her belly fluttering with pleasure, so she’d had a pretty nice smile when she’d said, “Yes, I’d volunteer on my slow times, and my aunt taught me.”

  “She did?”

  Rusty knew that was probably a strange thing for a surrogate mom to teach their surrogate daughter, but her aunt had grown up as a farm girl and thought her daughter should learn to shoot; besides, her aunt didn’t let anyone mess around with her. That had come partially from Rusty’s mom being a dangerous, drugged-out flake before she’d died.

  Rusty had explained, “My aunt taught Tess too, out on her dad’s farm before he passed away.”

  “Did she use that gun scare tactic on you?”

  “Yes.” Rusty smiled up at Cabe so he wouldn’t get mad. “It was a .357 and she shot it right by me. Freaking got my attention. She knew it would scare me and get my attention, which it did, but I think I surprised her by really wanting to shoot it after that.”

  “Need to meet this aunt,” Cabe had said, tilting her chin up.

  Rusty had grabbed his wrist. “She’s gone; it’s one of the reasons I even ended up back here to look after her after her stroke. But she had another that was too big and it took her.”

  Cabe had wrapped her up in his embrace and it had felt so good. “Sorry, baby.” It was the first time since her aunt passed away that she’d felt really connected to something. Tess had been there, but that just wasn’t the same.

  “Means a lot,” she whispered to Cabe, and she’d shown him her eyes so he could see how much she meant it.

  Rusty dropped her bar of soap, lost her train of thought, and she muttered as she bent to pick it up, then she finished her shower quickly because Cabe was out getting them Mexican food from Los Toros. The best in town, and she hadn’t had any in forever.

  She was drying her hair, bent over to do it when she heard a loud knocking, but not on Cabe’s door—then a shrill-sounding woman’s voice. Rusty was wearing a tank top with no bra and some silky pajama shorts—no panties—so there was no way she was going out to see why the woman was yelling.

  But she dropped the towel she’d been using to dry her hair and she tiptoed to the blinds, which were pulled closed. She heard another knocking closer, then the woman’s shriek again. One peek had Rusty’s heartbeat hammering.

  Vega.

  “Damn,” Rusty cussed lowly, suddenly feeling very guilty.

  Vega had to be knocking on every door, and Rusty realized what Vega was screeching: it was Cabe’s name. By the time Vega reached Cabe’s door, which Rusty hoped she could not know was Cabe’s door, Rusty was plastered with her back against it. As if she could hold Vega back from plowing inside.

  Right after Vega’s pounding on the door vibrated through Rusty’s body, she heard Finn’s voice outside. “Vega, you can’t fucking pound on every door here.”

  Vega’s overwrought voice cried, “He’s here! I heard he’s here and I have to see him, it’s an emergency!”

  “Emergencies, you call the police,” Finn’s voice growled right back at Vega, while Rusty cringed, then she got mad at cringing, because this was not another woman with a married man thing to feel guilty over. This was an “already-getting-divorced crazy wife stalking her husband she’d tried to use like a chump” thing.

  “I need him!” Vega cried, and Rusty felt the agony of it through the door.

  “Oh, she’s good, really good at the needy guilt play,” Rusty muttered. Of course Vega would be, being able to hang on to Cabe as long as she had, while screwing around with other men.

  “You fucking bang on one more door, Vega, and I’m calling the police,” Finn’s voice warned.

  “Go, Finn,” Rusty cheered under her breath, while hoping so hard Cabe did not return to see this.

  Finn must have used more than words, because Rusty heard the sounds of a scuffle, and she peeked to see Finn hauling Vega to her car. “But is he here?” Vega demanded.

  “Confidential info, lady,” Finn replied, pulling open the door to Vega’s car. “I see you around here again I won’t do you the courtesy of warning you, I’ll just call the police.”

  Rusty turned more to get both eyes on them, then she gasped as Vega pushed up against Finn with a sultry look. “I love a man in control,” Vega said with breathy suggestiveness.

  Vega was not just making a play for—

  “I can be really good, Finn. I know you and your wife are like me and Cabe. We can console each other. I bet you like it kinky—”

  She did!

  Rusty made a startled sound at watching Finn practically throwing Vega into her car. “Not fucking interested,” Finn snarled, in such a way Rusty would believe him.

  But Vega still acted like a horny witch. “I’ll do rough, babe. You’ll love it.”

  Finn slammed Vega’s door shut, which moved her hands that had been trying to grope him as he swore lowly, “Get the hell out of here. Don’t fucking come back. Ever.”

  “Wow.” Rusty moved her back against the door. She couldn’t believe she’d seen that. Was that a severe case of using womanly wiles to try to get what she wanted, namely face time with Cabe, or was Vega that freaking crazy?

  Rusty hugged her waist, amazed that Cabe could be as normal as he was after being in with someone so manipulative. She’d heard of women with sexual disorders, and she was beginning to think Vega Santos must have one. Then she wondered what she should tell Cabe—if anything.
/>   “Well, of course I have to tell him Vega’s been here looking for him,” she muttered, chewing her inner lip.

  That made her wonder if she really should be getting into the middle of all of it? She decided she was crazy too, because to be with Cabe she’d probably do anything. It kind of startled her at how intensely she felt about it.

  But her cell phone rang, jerking her out of her thoughts as she ran to get it. When she answered it she heard Tess’ voice.

  “Babe, I need you at dinner tomorrow night, seven o’clock at the Italian place downtown.”

  “Sure,” Rusty replied automatically, but when she was going to ask why, Tess said, “Later, honey. Love ya, thanks.”

  The connection went dead and Rusty lowered her cell to look at it. “That was weird,” she muttered, but just then she heard a key in the door.

  It opened and she saw Cabe looking all five o’clock shadow rough and hunky, carrying a big bag from Los Toros. She thought the combination might be orgasm-worthy.

  NINE ] MAKES US SO REAL

  Cabe was slowly chewing a great fucking bite of chili rellenos from Los Toros that was just the perfect amount of cheesy and spicy, right after Rusty told him Vega had shown up while he was gone getting food. The problem with his reaction was Rusty was sitting on the bed in front of him looking sexy as hell, he had great food, and he’d not been stressing about anything except which ways he was going to fuck his baby alone in his motel room.

  He really didn’t want to leave that place in his head.

  But he could see Rusty was freaked out and trying not to show it. Cabe set the plastic box of heavenly chili rellenos down on the bed between them, while going over what Rusty said in his mind. Vega had shown up ... check. Vega had acted crazy on the motel room doors looking for him ... check. Vega did not find him and left ... check.

  Only Rusty wasn’t eating, and she was doing that worried inner-lip-biting thing. So he was getting there was more. Not that all that wasn’t enough. Therefore, he had a feeling Rusty must have given him a trimmed-down save-Cabe’s-feelings version.

  “Boo, tell me the rest,” he ordered lowly.

  He watched Rusty’s eyes widen, then look guilty as he appreciated the fact of having a hot babe that did not get in his shit for ordering her to do stuff. Hell, he liked that.

  “You are a freaking mind reader,” she exclaimed, then she muttered, “I just knew you were like an expert at all things girls because of where you work.”

  He didn’t know what to do with that statement, but he thought it could not hurt him that she thought he read her mind, and he was good figuring out where she was coming from, which had been non-fucking-existent in his marriage.

  So since she wasn’t eating, he started to crawl over the food, then over her, and she had no choice but to lie back until he was over her and their noses touched.

  “Being good at all things you, I am not finding a problem with that, boo,” he told her as her arms wound over his shoulders. “In fact,” he said lowly, looking deep in violet eyes that made him hard just because of the color, “I’m planning on getting better at it.”

  “Wow,” she whispered, then she told him Vega came on to Finn ... hard.

  Cabe really tried to not let it affect what he and Rusty were doing, but—“Fuck,” he growled, then he rolled to the side of Rusty and lay on his back while rubbing his chest.

  Why? Why? He’d asked himself that a thousand times. Why hadn’t he been enough? Rusty rolled—not over him but next to him, and she pressed her face into his bicep as she grasped his hand on that side. She intertwined their fingers together.

  He felt better.

  “So Tess called and said that I had to go to dinner with her tomorrow night,” Rusty said into the muscle of his bicep.

  Cabe knew why Tess had called, and he looked down at Rusty. He also knew Rusty was trying to distract him.

  “You going to tell her about us?” he asked. It was his way of saying he knew she’d have to go out with her best friend that it was an obvious conclusion.

  “Um,” she muttered. Okay, she already had. “I told her the first time, but not about the second yet.”

  He squeezed her hand. “Tell her.” Then he added, “Vincent’s figuring it out too.”

  Rusty sighed, and said lowly, “Makes us so real.”

  Yeah, he remembered that thing—she didn’t want them thinking about them actually being together. He really liked that not-thinking part, so for a major diversion, he asked, “You wanting that spanking, ’cause I’m ready to give it.”

  Rusty blushed and hemmed about being spanked, so he just took it. Very ... extremely unlike him, but it felt fucking great. And very sexual.

  “Cabe, I’m not sure!” Rusty exclaimed as he grabbed her waist before she could get off the bed.

  He lifted her while he sat upright on the end of the bed and he tossed her, belly down, over his thighs. Her silky shorts clung to her perfect ass. He swatted the round cheeks of her ass, feeling the silk was no barrier to the sting he felt in his palm, and he was certain Rusty felt it intensely.

  “Cabe!” Her legs kicked and he spanked her again.

  He felt something deep inside him gain power as his cock hardened and he spanked her more. Her ass was womanly plump, and it jiggled with each stinging swat he took. Then he felt Rusty rub her mound on his thigh.

  She was turned on.

  He grabbed her hands, keeping them out of the way as he spanked her again. She moaned and wriggled more over his thighs. He swatted her ass.

  Then he rubbed up between her thighs.

  “Cabe,” she exclaimed breathlessly. That fast ... fire. She was lit up, and when his Rusty was hot, it was golden. No other woman ever came to life in his hands like she did.

  Ten minutes later, he had her up on her hands and knees with the red-painted globes of her bare ass bouncing against his abdomen as he fucked her from behind. He was not easy with Rusty. Never easy. And she took all he gave, begging him to go even harder. All fucking woman.

  He reached over her hip and took hold of her excited clit, then he rubbed up deep, pushing her up into him while his hips piston-thrust.

  “Captain! Oh, oh, Captain. Oh! Oh!”

  “Give it to me, boo,” he growled against her nape. “Give me that hot pussy coming on my cock.”

  After she’d squealed and he’d felt her climax on his thrusting cock, he grabbed her up hard between her legs and he’d come so solidly it rocked his body as he held her to him, throbbing deep inside her. When he finally let her go, she sank, lowering to the bed and pulling off him while he looked over her ass with his red spank marks.

  “Fuck, I don’t know what this is, but I like it,” he uttered.

  Rusty looked over her bare shoulder up at him. “Me too,” she whispered, as if afraid to admit it out loud.

  He needed to get this straight between them. “You liked the spanking?” Her nod was a jerky, small one. “Roughness?” More jerky nodding. “Me being in control?” Really small nod. “Rusty,” he called, and he grabbed her hip, turning her over to him while he crouched over her. “Say it, baby. So I know. You like me being in control.”

  “In bed,” she said, looking to the side. “I didn’t know I liked it, but I really like it,” she admitted, giving it to him. Giving him precious.

  And he took it.

  “I think I’m needing it, boo—the control.”

  She grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss, then against his lips she said, “It’s hot.” Reassuring him.

  “Come on, I want a hot shower,” he told her.

  “I’ve had one—” she started to say.

  But over her, he ordered, “You’ll have another one.”

  Then in the shower, he showed her why his way was better as he soaped her luscious body until every curve of it was slick beneath his palms, then he took her facing into the shower stall wall. He moved from below her up into her, sliding her against the wall while she gasped and begge
d him for harder. His fists hit the wall and he gave her harder, until he had to hold her upright because she was coming so hard.

  When she could breathe again, she turned and went to her knees to give him her mouth. Water rushing over them, it was the most amazing feeling he’d had ... and he wanted more.

  TEN ] MAYBE WE BOTH JUST NEED IT

  Rusty had cuddled to him all night long. It wasn’t a flimsy, half-assed cuddle, either, but a deep embrace with her practically lying over him. Like she couldn’t get enough of him.

  After they were awake that morning, Cabe sat leaning back in the motel room chair by the window and watched Rusty putting on her makeup using the bathroom mirror over the sink. To get the angles she wanted, she had to arch over the sink, and that put her jean-clad ass pointed with invitation right at him.

  “Sweet fucking ass,” he muttered under his breath.

  Then he tore his gaze away so he wouldn’t be after getting it bared to him again with him plowed deep inside her. They had things to do—he’d save it for that night after dinner. Instead he rocked back in the chair and he looked out the window. A hot new affair was good on the soul, but this was more than that. Much more.

  Cabe knew everyone in town would claim he was rebounding off Vega, but none of them knew how deeply he felt the rightness of being with Rusty. He knew she felt it too. You didn’t know it until you felt it, but once you felt it ... you knew it.

  Cabe fisted his hair back on both sides of his scalp, tugging for a moment before he let go.

  Vega had been a mistake; a huge fucking mistake.

  It had taken being with Rusty for him to see that it wasn’t him that was lacking, it was Vega. She was warped in some way that couldn’t be fixed. He couldn’t love her out of it. Ever. The sad truth was she never should have married. It’d been cruel of her, and the simple fact was he hadn’t loved her for years.

  It’d been more about the commitment than about love for him. Where he came from and how he’d grown up made it twice as hard to give up on the vows he’d given with Vega. But his dad giving up on him was not the same thing as him giving up on Vega, and he was finally seeing the difference.