Stripped Down
Page 5
“Three of a kind with deuces?” she tsk-tsked. “With two players that’s never a good gamble.” She eyed his shirt collar and imagined peeling that pristine white shirt off his broad shoulders and down his muscular arms. Her gaze caught on the thick column of his neck. She wanted to sink her teeth into that hard flesh. Taste the salt and musk on his skin. Fill her senses with the overpowering maleness of him.
“Melissa, darlin’? You okay?”
Her focus snapped back to him. “I’m fine. Why?”
“You moaned like you were in pain.”
She leaned forward. “That moan was your fault. See, I imagined stripping you out of that pesky shirt and my mind wandered south from there.”
“You’re already kicking my ass at poker and now you gotta give me a hard-on in the waiting room?”
“Just keeping you updated on how eager I am to get my greedy hands all over your naked body. You had way too many clothes on before.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
But he was distracted when he said that so Melissa turned toward the front entrance when he muttered, “I’ll be damned.”
The good-looking military guy who’d first offered Jim medical assistance at the wedding paused inside the doors and scanned the waiting area. At the end of the row, Cres straightened up and ran his hand over his hair before he stood.
The guy saw him and smiled. Cres met him halfway and they shook hands, but not in the usual way guys shook hands. Their connection lingered.
Holy crap. Cres Grant was gay.
She sent a sidelong glance at Wynton. Did he know?
He watched the two men, not exactly circumspectly, as he shuffled the deck.
“Is that a friend of your brother’s? I saw them talking at the wedding. And he left with Sutton’s boss when I got here. Think he came back to see how your dad’s doing?”
Wynton said nothing but then she felt him staring at her.
When their eyes met, she got her answer—wariness. Like he was afraid she’d pass judgment on his brother.
As if.
Other people’s sexual preferences weren’t her concern—she had enough issues with her own sexual needs to worry about someone else’s. “How long have you known that Cres is…?”
“Gay?” he said softly. “He came out to us last year. Right after Sutton and London got engaged.” His eyes narrowed. “But it’s not common knowledge.”
“Those two keep looking at each other like that in public and it will be,” Mel said dryly. She picked up her cards without really looking at them. “I’d never take it upon myself to point out the obvious to others who can’t see it.”
“Thank God for that.”
“Were you surprised when he came out?”
“Honestly? Yeah. I guess the signs were there if I cared to look. He hadn’t had a serious girlfriend…ever really. Hadn’t dated any girl since high school. He didn’t like trolling the bars with me. Even before I hit pause on my libido last year, he preferred that we hang out and play video games on the weekends.”
What did he mean…hit pause on his libido?
“And he always did love men’s wrestling a little too much.”
Mel’s gaze snapped to his. “Seriously?”
He smirked. “Nah. Just seein’ if you’re paying attention.”
“Jerk.” She tossed her cards down. “This hand is crap. Re-deal.”
Wynton shuffled again. Surprisingly, he kept talking. “As an adult, Cres has always seemed preoccupied. When I think back…I just wish he would’ve told us sooner. Because right after he told us, it was as if a giant weight had been lifted from him. I hated that he carried that weight at all.”
You sweet, thoughtful man. He was a good brother—did his brothers appreciate that? “So your family is fine with everything?”
“Cres has always been tight-lipped. But like I said, it filled in some of the pieces about Cres that hadn’t fit before. So he’s got our acceptance, and I think that’s all that really worried him. Who else he chooses to tell ain’t my concern. It sure as hell ain’t my business who he dates. I’m just happy he can be himself and date who he wants.”
Mel held her fist out for a bump. “Amen. I’ll just throw it out there that we wouldn’t be having this conversation if Cres was on the rodeo circuit. If there’s even a whisper of that kind of relationship, they’re unofficially blackballed.”
“That’s what Sutton said too.” Wynton dealt them each a new hand. “So tell me about your sister. You said she had an accident. What happened?”
How did she explain this? The few times she’d bothered, she worried she’d come off sounding like a poor little rich girl or resentful, which wasn’t the case. So she usually avoided the topic entirely with men by just dropping to her knees.
A rough-skinned hand skated up her arm. “With all that we’ve been through today, I hope you won’t start holdin’ back on me now.”
She inhaled a deep breath and let it all spill out. “My parents are loaded, okay? One of those requirements of being a Lockhart was making sure I excelled at riding, horsemanship, dressage, the whole package. The camp I attended when my sister Alyssa was injured was an exclusive, by-invitation-only camp at a training facility for Olympic athletes. The best trainers in the world were there. So in my parent’s eyes, pulling me from camp would’ve been viewed in the same horrifying light as dropping out of the program because I couldn’t cut it. And the Lockharts couldn’t have anyone believing that of them or their human progeny.” She closed her eyes. The ache of that time had lessened but hadn’t disappeared completely.
Wynton cupped her jaw in his hand and lifted her face to his. “Hey. If it bothers you too much to tell me—”
“It doesn’t. I just haven’t talked about it in a while.”
“Then I’m flattered you’re sharing all this with me.”
“Anyway, throughout my entire life I’d been groomed to win the gold medal in the Olympics while riding a Lockhart horse, thereby increasing its worth and mine.”
“Harsh assessment, baby.”
“But it’s true.”
“How old is your sister?”
“Alyssa is six years younger than me.”
“What happened?”
“She was at a birthday party. There were go-cart races and she crashed through a fence. The fence crushed her legs and she ended up paralyzed from the waist down.”
His jaw dropped to the floor. After he picked it up, he said, “Keep goin’.”
“My parents focused completely on my sister—as they should have. Alyssa was really awful after the accident. She especially hated the sight of me. She resented me. Not solely because I wasn’t by her side immediately after the accident, but because I was…whole, if that makes sense. As accomplished a horsewoman that I was, Alyssa was better. I’d always known if I’d failed to meet my parent’s expectations, the Lockharts had another shot of having an Olympian in the family with Alyssa. I stopped riding and training after her accident because I wanted to be there for her. But she didn’t want me anywhere near her. After enduring two solid months of her screaming at me to get the hell away from her, the doctors and my parents asked me to stop coming to visit her, at least until she wasn’t so angry. And because it was in Alyssa’s best interest, I left.”
Wynton picked up her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist.
“So while my sister recovered from a near-fatal accident, I reset my priorities.”
“Ran away with the rodeo, did you?”
She smiled. “Something like that. I continued to check on her, but since I was out of sight, I wasn’t on my parents’ minds. And don’t think I was resentful because I wasn’t. I was an adult. Alyssa needed them so much more than I did.”
“Did your sister come around? Stop resenting you?”
“Yes. I never held the way she acted against her because she suffered a horrible life-altering ordeal at such a young age. Eventually we mended all fences. But I had no interest in going b
“I wish I had your attitude. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t. Not either time Sutton was injured. The second time I was so mad at him when he opted to go back into rodeo. It seemed selfish of him to continue. And when he was in the hospital, I stayed away. I claimed I had extra ranch work to do because Dad was at Sutton’s side, but that wasn’t the reason. I just couldn’t handle seein’ my brother like that. I don’t do well when it comes to illnesses and hospitals.”
She experienced that familiar punch of sadness. She’d heard that so many times—not only over the last six months, but whenever she talked about her sister’s struggles. She’d walked away for her sister’s benefit—not because she couldn’t deal with it. Now their relationship was solid, but she hadn’t even considered calling Alyssa when she’d gotten her diagnosis—especially not after how their mother had reacted when she’d finally told her.
“Hey, Kentucky, where’d you go?” he said softly.
Mel returned her focus to him. The man had the most expressive face. More rugged than handsome, if she had to put a name to it. His features weren’t as sharply defined as either of his brother’s—Sutton Grant defined gorgeous and Cres Grant was almost pretty—but Wynton’s raw-boned features gave him an equally striking look. His hair, in the vivid brightness of the fluorescent lights, held a dark red hue, which made the pieces curling around his ears more boyish looking.
“Darlin’, you keep lookin’ at me like that and I’m gonna start searching for a supply closet.”
“Don’t toss out suggestions you won’t follow through with,” she said.
He cocked a dark eyebrow. “Why don’t you think I’ll follow through?”
She threaded her fingers through his. “Because even with all this flirty and sexy banter, and me trying to convey my complicated past to try and take your mind off the present, I see the strain in your eyes. You’re worried about your dad. But you’re also worried about your mom. You feel guilty that you have someone out here with you—even if I wasn’t here you’d still have Cres to kill time with—whereas your mother is back there alone.”
“You caught all that?” He paused, brooding look in place. “What else?”
“I figured you’d play another two hands of poker with me, letting me believe I was successful at distracting you, before you wandered to the front desk to see if you could go back there and check on your mother, or try to get some kind of message to her to see how she’s doing.”
“How do you do that?”
“What?”
“Read my mind. It’s a little spooky.”
“Why?”
He frowned. “Because we’ve only known each other for a few hours.”
But I’ve known about you for almost a year. The man London claimed had sadness behind his perpetual smile. The man who used sex to combat loneliness, just like I do. The man I refused to let my best friend set me up with—and yet somehow, she did it anyway, without even knowing it.
“Melissa?”
She glanced up from staring at his hard-skinned knuckles. “But in those few hours we’ve fucked, swapped life stories, and shared some brutal truths, so we’re beyond the ‘what’s your favorite movie?’ first date type of bullshit.” She brought his hand to her mouth. “So go do what you have to. I’ll hang around in the off chance I can continue to be a distraction.”
He kissed her. “Thank you. I’ll be back.”
While Wynton was in the back with his mother, Mel did a little exploring. The hospital wasn’t very big and most of the private areas were in the back beyond the swinging doors, so that put a wrinkle in her plan.
When Wynton appeared about fifteen minutes later, Mel couldn’t help but watch him saunter toward her—his tall, muscular body a visual feast even covered in clothes. He exuded confidence, despite the worry wrinkling his brow, and it made her realize all the guys she’d been playing around with were just boys compared to this man.
Cres intercepted him before he reached the sitting area, and she tried to decipher their grim conversation. Cres nodded, clapped Wynton on the shoulder and stepped aside.
Then Wynton’s eyes met hers and she was on her feet by the time he stood in front of her. “No change.”
“Sorry.” She touched his cheek. “You look like you could use some fresh air.”
“That I could.” He squinted at the thin wrap covering her shoulders and shrugged out of his suit jacket. “Needing to clear my head don’t mean I want you to freeze, darlin’.” He draped the coat around her.
His scent enveloped her and his gesture warmed her more than the actual coat. “Thanks.”
“Let’s take a walk.” They exited through the emergency room doors and paused outside the building. The October air had a sharp bite. When Wynton exhaled, she saw some of the tension leave his shoulders. The rancher definitely didn’t like to be cooped up.
He dropped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close so he could kiss her temple. “If I haven’t said it enough, I appreciate you bein’ here, Melissa.”
The security lights lit the sidewalk as they walked around the building. They didn’t speak, but the silence didn’t seem forced or awkward.
When they reached the edge of the parking lot, Mel said, “My coat is in the car and I’d really love to change out of these shoes.”
“Of course.”
She hit the unlock button on the Jeep Cherokee and skirted the front end to slide into the driver’s side. Wynton slipped into the passenger’s seat. She started the engine. “No need for us to sit in the cold.” She felt his questioning gaze when she turned the dashboard lights off.
“This is a nice SUV,” he said. “It’s got enough horsepower to pull your horse trailer?”
“This isn’t mine. It belongs to the Gradsky’s. I borrow it when I’m not on the road.” Mel twisted around to dig on the floor behind Wynton for her athletic shoes. “It gets considerably better gas mileage than my Chevy Tahoe.” She kicked off her high-heeled boots and slipped her feet into athletic shoes.
“I never asked how much you’re on the road?”
She skirted his question with, “Give me the play-by-play of your multiple ménages, Wynton. Girl/girl/guy?”
“Yep.”
“Girl/guy/girl?”
“That too.”
“What about guy/girl/guy?”
“Yep, and before you go on, never been in a guy/guy/girl threesome.”
She grinned. “That’s funny because that’s the only type I’ve ever been in. And talk about scorching hot, watching the two guys together, their hands, mouths, and bodies all over each other. It was fucking powerful.”
Wynton reached over and tucked a flyaway curl behind her ear. “Same thing with the girl on girl action. Those soft hands and mouths exploring all that smooth and supple skin. I still remember the sucking sounds. The feminine squeaks and sighs. Then how hot it was to have them turn all that focus on me. Only time I wish I’d had a cock and a strap-on so I could fuck them both at once.”
“Put that in your spank bank, did you?”
“Hell, yeah.” Even in the dark she could see his eyes glittering when he ran the back of his knuckles down her jawline. “That encounter in the ready room is gonna go in there too.”
“I’m flattered.” Mel turned her head and rubbed her lips across the base of his hand. “Unzip your pants and pull your cock out. I’ll give you something else to file away for a future round of self-love.”
Those amazing eyes of his burned black with desire. He kept his gaze locked to hers when he unbuckled his belt. When he lowered the zipper. When he lifted his hips off the seat. When he tugged his pants and his boxer briefs to his knees. Then he eased the seat back and folded his arms behind his head.
Mel dropped her gaze to his groin, not surprised to see he already sported a full-blown erection. She shifted in her seat, angling forward across the console. Bracing one hand on his muscular thigh and the other on his chest, she parted her lips—after kissing the head—and let that hard satin heat pass over her teeth and tongue. She held her breath through the gag reflex when the tip connected with her soft palette and bumped the back of her throat.
Wynton made an inarticulate moan.
Encouraged, she started the long glide up and down his thick shaft, the wetness in her mouth easing her way, each pass progressively lower until she was deep-throating him every time. She didn’t use her hands. Just the wet heat of her mouth, the sassy flick of her tongue, and the suctioning power of her cheeks.
She shouldn’t have been surprised when his hand landed on the top of her head and held her in place the moment his cock was buried deep. Her eyes watered and her pulse whooshed in her ears, but she still heard him say, “That’s it, baby. Take it all. Now swallow. Fuck, yeah. Do that again.”
She did what he asked because she had no problem taking direction—except when she didn’t. But this wasn’t one of those times. And she didn’t intend to tease and drag this out. She knew they didn’t have much time, so she’d make this fast.
“You could own me with this mouth,” he said gruffly when she began bobbing her head, using shallower strokes and stopping to suckle on the tip.
The heater finally kicked out some warmth, turning the inside of the car sultry.
Mel felt that rush of primal satisfaction when he started to pump his hips up to meet the downward motion of her mouth. His grip tightened in her hair. He muttered something about her never fucking stopping when she earned her reward.
His cock got harder yet. In the next instant, it jerked against the roof of her mouth in hot bursts, sending his seed flowing down the back of her throat. She swallowed repeatedly, the mantra in her head gimme, gimme, gimme as he shot his load until he had nothing left.
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