Cowboys Last All Night

by Jennifer Ashley

  He didn’t stop with her lips this time. He moved lower, easing along her jawline, nuzzling her neck as his fingers worked the buttons of her shirt. When he slipped a hand under the fabric, his palm was cool against her skin, but that was fine because she was suddenly far more heated than the small stove could account for.

  “I take it this means we’re finally fooling around?”

  Lee nipped at her earlobe. “No, but I need to make the earth move. I have my reputation as a fortuneteller on the line.”

  She could work with this. Especially as his hand cupped her breast, and a sigh of happiness escaped.

  She should’ve saved her air because a second later he’d shoved her shirt and bra out of the way and his lips were wrapped around her nipple. She gasped, the sensation causing the heat in her body to spike rapidly.

  “My God, that feels good.” She rolled toward him, threading her fingers into his hair as he alternated between one breast and the other. No hesitation in his touch. Nothing but approval in the noises he made as he broke off to stare down in satisfaction.

  “I’m an idiot,” he confessed in a whisper. “I swore we’d wait, but I want this. Tell me I can touch you. Tell me I can—”

  “Touch me,” she demanded. “Anywhere. All of it. Now.”

  His lips were on hers again, and her brain got tangled up in his demanding kiss. Then the talented man moved his hand, teasing her breasts for another moment before skimming over her belly and heading under the edge of her sweatpants.

  She’d never been more thankful for elastic waistbands in her life.

  He groaned against her mouth as his hand slipped through her folds, fingers sliding in the wetness between her legs. She was turned on and there was no way to deny it. No reason to deny it either, since he was the one who’d caused it in the first place.

  “So soft. So soft and wet.” He slipped a finger into her, his thumb settling over her clit, and Rachel shuddered. “Oh yeah. Let me see what you like. I fucking love it.”

  “Not as much as I do.” Rachel breathed the words out the first chance she could, but it took a while because he was tormenting her tight bundle of nerves like it was a trigger. His fingers stretched her, his fingertips rubbing just right and causing electric zings to shoot from her core to everywhere else in her body.

  She glanced up to discover he was staring, his attention fixed on her face as he brought her to the edge of pleasure. “Does this mean you’re the jack?” she teased when she could speak.

  “Of course.”

  Her breathing shook. “And you have a big spade?”

  His grin vanished as he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her fiercely before returning his attention to her breast and sucking hard. The joint sensations from his hand and mouth sent her spiraling while in her head a skipping tune played. Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate?

  She knew exactly who, at least at that moment.

  Lee pushed her until she broke, her limbs shaking and the bed rattling under them as she pulsed against his fingers. Her breathing grew ragged, and she gasped for air.

  Then he slowed his touch, pressing a final kiss to her nipple before adjusting position so he could brush their lips together. “Did you enjoy your earthquake?”

  Oh boy. “I’m not sure,” she said. “We might need to try that again another dozen times, or so.”

  Lee rolled to his side and pulled her against him as she relaxed and let all the happy endorphins flood her system. “Any time, honey. Any time at all.”

  Chapter Five

  She thought things between them would be more awkward after he’d made her come, but that bit of fooling around seemed to knock the edge off the tension. She still wanted him, but it was as if having opened the door partway, neither of them was in a rush anymore.

  They played cards. Cooked on the surface of the tiny woodstove. They sat and stared into the fire and talked about their families, and about their jobs. In the evening Lee hauled in the enormous washbasin he’d found hanging outside, filled it with hot water made from melted snow, and they took turns having a sponge bath to clean up from the day’s chores.

  She was clean, well fed and well entertained—it all felt strangely normal, even though outside the snow continued to fall, efficiently trapping them in place.

  Rachel thought again how grateful she was it had been Lee who stumbled to the cabin that first night.

  “What shifts will you be working at the café?” he asked.

  “I told Sherry I was open to whatever she needed. It’s not as if I’m juggling a family or kids’ schedules like some of the other girls.” Rachel sipped the whiskey concoction Lee had put together for her, pristine snow mixed with Orange Tang to cut the throat-searing alcohol he’d brought.

  No way could she handle drinking the hootch straight like he did, but with the addition of the bright orange crystals, it was like consuming a Creamsicle that kicked ass and took names.

  “Best part of working with family is scheduling.” Lee moved his chair closer to hers, draping his arm around the back so he could play with her hair. “Of course, it’s a pain in the butt when we all decide we want to do something at the same time, but for the most part it works.”

  “You never fight with your brothers?”

  Lee laughed. “We fight all the time, but never about anything important. Besides, they know better than to argue with me.”

  “Because you’re stubborn?”

  He twirled a strand of her hair around his finger, and her attention divided in two. Half of it focused on the sensations rippling through her body just from having him near, the other half intently focused on what he was saying because it was interesting to find out more.

  He tugged on her hair. “Because I’m always right.”

  That was a challenge if she’d ever heard one. “Really. You’ve never been wrong, ever?”

  He sat forward, peering into her eyes. “I never said that. I meant when it comes to dealing with my brothers, I’m never wrong. I’ve been wrong before. Horribly, terribly, completely wrong, and I’m sorry.”

  The sincerity in his tone struck hard. “If this has something to do with me and Gary, you aren’t responsible for my mistakes.”

  “No, I’m not. But I am responsible for my own.” He stroked a finger down the side of her face, his expression gone serious. “I thought we would be good together, yet for some reason when you told me to back off, I did. That might be the first time in my life I didn’t do what I thought was right. I wish I’d been more stubborn.”

  Rachel swallowed hard, a lump in her throat that shouldn’t have been there. “I’ll say it again, my mistakes are not your responsibility. And it’s over now. Gary and I are finished, and he can’t hurt me anymore.”

  “Good.” He leaned toward her, and she tilted her head back to accept his kiss.

  They might not be having sex, but the bits of fooling around they were doing—she was surprisingly pleased at how excited it all made her, and how much anticipation worked in his favour. Most of his kisses and caresses were as R-rated as Disney primetime, but they left her squirming and wanting so much more.

  Lee walked around the cabin with a noticeable bulge in his pants. Not that she was looking or anything, except she totally was. But he didn’t seem to mind. Didn’t give her grief, or in any way attempt to make her feel guilty for never getting him to completion.

  He crawled into bed the third night of the storm dressed in nothing but his boxers, tugging her against him in a now-familiar way. She opened her mouth and straight out asked in spite of her flaming-hot cheeks. “Aren’t you getting tired of not coming?”

  His hands rested on her belly, a safe, nonsexual spot that still sent tingles racing over her skin. “Blue balls don’t actually kill a guy.”

  Rachel laughed. “But they do make you uncomfortable, and you’ve been very generous in making me feel good.”

  “We’ll wait.” He rotated her to face him, dropping a kiss on her nose. Pulling her
higher on the mattress until their faces were directly in line. His lips brushed hers as he changed the topic. “I think the storm has weakened enough. Tomorrow we can get out of here, one way or another.”

  “Really? You think my car can make it down the road already?”

  He took his time answering, kissing her first until she was breathless, a soft laugh whispering over her skin. “Your car might not move until the spring.”

  “Don’t joke.”

  He bit her lower lip. “Well, it won’t leave the parking spot until we get some sleds ahead of her to clear a path. But we can use the snowshoes to get to Maxwell’s tomorrow. It’ll take us most of the day, but it’s downhill the entire time. They’re close enough to the highway they’ll have a landline we can use to call one of my brothers to come rescue us.”

  “But what about—?”

  He rolled her under him and covered her lips with his, cutting off any further questions.

  There. That was the answer to why he always won his arguments, at least with her. He never let conversations go on for long enough to actually become a debate.

  She wasn’t sure she liked how easily he could sidetrack her, and then she didn’t care anymore because the man kissed in a way that turned her brain to taffy. His long, hard body over hers was tantalizing in every way possible. The urge to rub against him was strong, but she respected the boundaries they’d set and simply enjoyed the sensation of being pinned in place by his weight as he kissed her to oblivion.

  She’d come to the cabin to forget Gary, and Lee Coleman had done a mighty fine job of helping her achieve that goal.

  Still, when she woke earlier than him the next morning, the temptation to do something about the heat between them was too great to ignore. With his arms around her she felt enclosed and safe, but still had room to move.

  They were entangled, a mass of heat and skin. It was late enough that a beam of pale light shone in the window and fell across the bed, making the shadow on Lee’s cheeks and chin appear thicker and rougher than even four days’ growth had marked him with.

  Rachel moved cautiously, skimming her fingers over his chest and down his ribs, distracted for a moment when she hit stomach muscles. Even in sleep they were taut enough the individual ridges of each muscle were firm under her touch.

  The edge of his boxers offered a challenge. Over or under? That was the question.

  Go big, or go home.

  She moved with extreme caution, dipping her fingers under the wide waistband until her entire hand rested where his leg met his groin.

  Under her ear, his heart rate picked up. He was awake.

  Rachel tilted her head back and caught his gaze as she snuck her hand over his erection.

  Lee sucked for air. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” she echoed. “I’d tell you it was time to get up, but you seem to have done a fabulous job with that.”

  His breathing was unsteady before he responded. “We said we would wait.”

  “To have sex. Since you’ve been touching me, I assumed it was okay for me to touch you.”

  His face split into the widest grin she’d seen yet. “Rachel Malone, are you going to tell me that even with your fingers wrapped around my cock, you can’t say the words?”

  Instead of answering she tightened her grip, stroking carefully as she measured his length. “I don’t need to say them to do it,” she assured him.

  His hand covered hers, and he pulled her to a halt.

  She pouted. “I want to, honestly.”

  The glint in his eyes moved to amusement as his lips curled up. “I’m not objecting to the hand job, only we don’t have any lube.”

  A light bulb went off. “Oh, is that all?”

  She let go of him and felt him exhale, relaxing back on the mattress. Probably hiding his disappointment the best he could.

  She wasn’t about to tell him he had no reason to worry. She swung her knee over him and straddled his body, wiggling under the covers and moving downward.

  The heavy sleeping bag cut off all light leaving her in pitch-blackness—the best possible of all reasons to feel her way. She kissed his chest and listened to the rumble of his laughter.

  “You’re just about as stubborn as I am,” he commented, the words muffled by the layers between them.

  He didn’t know the half of it.

  Under the sleeping bag it was toasty warm and getting hotter by the moment. She traced her tongue along the ridge of his abdomen, humming happily as his six pack tightened.

  She carefully covered his cock with her hand, lifting the hard length to vertical to use her tongue on the crown.

  Even with the thick layer between them his muted groan sounded like music.

  The thought of her mischief was enough to get her libido going as well, the taste of him pouring over her senses as she delicately licked her way. The ache between her legs made her squirm in place. Part of her wanted to rub against his thigh to relieve her tension. The other part was too focused on his pleasure to consider anything else as important.

  Once dozens of little licks all over his length ensured he was wet, she slowly engulfed him with her mouth. The flavour of his excitement raced through her system like the best of aphrodisiacs.

  She lowered her other hand to his balls, and if they were any indication, he was already on the edge.

  She pulled up just far enough to speak. “You okay?”

  “I can’t talk right now, my brain is mush.”

  Rachel was still laughing as she covered him again, his heated length filling her mouth and stretching her lips as she moved in rhythmic pulses. Her heartbeat increased in tempo. In volume. So much louder it sounded as if someone was banging loudly on the door, and—

  “Shit.”

  Lee caught the back of her head, his other hand carefully disengaging his cock, and she whined in protest.

  “Rachel, honey, there’s someone at the door.”

  She burrowed her way back up top of the sleeping bag, her heart racing as Lee uncurled himself from the bed, pulled up his boxers and headed to the front door.

  He peered out the window and cursed, loudly and with great imagination, before yanking the door open.

  Trevor Coleman stepped in, his expression switching far too quickly from concern to amusement as his bright gaze took in the room, the bed and their disheveled condition. “I came to rescue you, but if you want, I can come back in half an hour.”

  **

  Fratricide was looked upon with disapproval. It was the only reason his big brother was still alive.

  Alive, and driving them down the hill in his oversized, souped-up truck that had made the back-roads trip to rescue them possible.

  It hadn’t taken long for them to gather their things, and Trevor had been mostly helpful while they got packed.

  Yep. It was the things his brother wasn’t saying that pissed Lee off.

  Still, at some point they would look back on this and laugh, but right now, if Trevor made one more smartass comment Lee was ready to bring up the time Trevor had wandered naked into church. He said he’d “misunderstood” the invitation on the sign outside the church to come to the altar like a newborn babe.

  He was pretty sure Trevor was still on the prayer list for the Anglican Women’s group, and if not, a few well-placed calls could put him back on it, with all the accompanying inconveniences that would involve.

  His brother grinned into space, oblivious to the fact he was walking a fine line. Fortunately, he turned his attention to catching them up on news regarding the storm. “We found the cattle you sheltered, and it looks as if there’s only one unaccounted for.”

  “The one I had to put down.”

  Trevor nodded, his eyes fully engaged on the twisting road ahead of them as he worked to keep them moving forward through the deep snow. “The Angel Colemans’ animals are okay as well. Not that Uncle Ben was any help. Me and Rafael were the ones who got the last of their sheep under cover in time.”
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br />   “What about the baby?” Rachel leaned against Lee’s shoulder as she faced Trevor. She was in the middle seat between them, but cuddled up a whole lot closer to his side than his brother’s.

  Something about that made Lee want to grin.

  “Baby was born just fine. Allison had to stay in the hospital for a couple days’ observation—I guess she bled pretty heavy, but the kid is doing great. Gabe’s somewhere between this proud beaming dad and worried sick at the same time.” Trevor shook his head. “Kids. Nasty things. Squawking, spitting messes at one end and nothing but poop out the other. No sirree, other people can have it.”

  Beside him, Rachel was laughing quietly, her shoulders shaking as she fought to hold it in. “And…? Are you going to let us know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

  Trevor opened his mouth then shut it, glancing over for a moment, a frown creasing his forehead. “You know, I didn’t ask.”

  Lee put a reassuring hand on Rachel’s leg as she went to give Trevor hell. “He’s joking. I mean, he wouldn’t have cared, but there’s no way he could get away without finding out, not with all the Coleman women giving updates.”

  Trevor lifted a finger and shook it at Lee. “You ruin all my fun.”

  It was on the tip of his tongue to snap back you ruined mine first.

  Resisting temptation—that’s what he did best, it seemed.

  “The baby?” Rachel prodded.

  “A boy. Micah.”

  Her laughter broke over them like a wave of sunshine. She twisted her smiling face toward Lee. “You were right.”

  “You say that like it’s a surprise.”

  To his delight, Rachel poked him in the ribs and tickled him, her comfort level with physical contact drawing a raised brow from his brother. Miraculously, Trevor kept his mouth shut even though Lee knew he’d get the third degree as soon as they were alone.

  “How did you know where to find us?” Rachel asked.

  “Stopped off at the café to check if anyone had word of Lee, and Connie told me where you were. She asked if I’d look in on you, and that’s when I realized Lee would wander your direction if he got in trouble. The storm was a nasty one—I hoped he hadn’t gotten stuck making a snow cave to last it out.”