by Camryn Rhys
This afternoon had been…humiliating. Like he was the john to her hooker. Did she really think they could ever be just sex?
He didn’t.
“You the Horse Whisperer too?” Mindy’s voice was soft and sweet in the dark. He had to blink to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, or fantasizing.
Leo worked the brush over Destry’s dark coat and pulled it down across her rib cage, perhaps a little too briskly. The filly stamped her foot, and behind him, Mindy gasped. He wanted to forget she was there, but it was hard, with her making sexy little noises over his shoulder, stroking him as surely as if she’d touched him.
“Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“It’s barely ten o’clock, Leo.”
“Well, you have to be up at four, don’t you?”
“I don’t want to go to bed. At least, not alone.” Her laughter flirted with every emotion inside him.
He stopped brushing. “Melinda.”
“Leo.” She stepped closer and put her hand on his back. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about this afternoon.”
Her soft strokes mirrored how he might have moved the brush on Destry’s coat. Only he couldn’t move any longer. He was afraid of spooking her, and he didn’t mean the horse.
He wanted to say that she didn’t have anything to be sorry for. But the bottom line was, he still had some residual anger. And it felt good to hear her apologize. She didn’t do that often. That he remembered, anyway.
“I don’t know what happened, but I know you’re mad at me,” she said.
“Not a big deal, Min.”
“Look, can we start again?” She moved her hand farther down his back, and the pressure increased.
That motion reminded him of her hand on his cock. And just like that, he started to get hard again. He’d love to have her come around his body right now.
Except if she gave him that vacant stare one more time, it would make the whole thing moot again. He’d rather have her with some other guy than look at him like that.
A quick image of someone else’s rough hands on those perky tits of hers didn’t produce the kind of relief he hoped it would. Instead, a big fist of jealousy struck him in the stomach, and he had to release a deep sigh to keep from striking back.
“You’re gonna have to stop touching me like that,” he said.
She grunted. “I don’t want to.”
His heart swelled, thinking about that first night and the way she’d initiated their tumble in the hay. It hadn’t been all that different from this. Her hands on his back, her whispered words. His fevered response, a long kiss. And a very long seduction culminated in a beautiful, long night together.
Which unfortunately ended with him waking to empty arms the next morning. And as good as this felt to have her with him, it would end the same way. He couldn’t take that again.
Leo turned, catching her hand and dropping the brush. Mindy had changed clothes completely. She wore a knee-length white skirt and a cotton blue shirt that made her eyes sparkle in the moonlight, but thankfully hid her body’s response to him with a little more grace. Those tweaking nipples, poking out of that pink shirt all day had been just too much for him. Whatever bra she’d changed into had significantly more coverage.
Thank the good Lord.
“Really, Min. We can’t do this.”
She leaned toward him, filling the space between them with breasts and hair and all the other parts of her that he just wanted to touch. “We never finished our afternoon.”
He remembered, oddly enough. “We can’t do anything. If they look outside right now, they can see us.”
“Let them watch, then.” She looped her fingers around his belt and pulled him the rest of the way in to her. “It’s dark and late. Bring the horse inside and we can be alone.”
***
Mindy relaxed into Leo’s hot, hard chest and strong arms that made her feel undeniably safe. The tightness in her belly unfurled as he latched the stall door closed with his free hand.
With her nose against his skin, she closed her eyes and let his scent fill her, the way he always filled her. Underneath the woodsy fragrance of the outdoors, she smelled the spicy, sexy rawness of his skin against hers—that smell that no other man had ever been able to replicate. Not that she’d gone around sniffing men, but she’d been at least this close to enough of them to have a good sample, and no one was quite like Leo.
He smelled like a French bakery, and after their first date, she’d kept the coat he gave her and inhaled his scent for days until it faded. The aroma of fresh bread sank into his skin like a brand, and for years after, every time she walked by a patisserie, she thought of him.
It had been a long six years apart, and by God, he smelled good enough to eat.
She opened her mouth and kissed the crook of his neck, pausing to slide her tongue along his skin. He tasted just as good as he smelled. Like fresh brioche, rich and buttery.
“Good Lord, Min,” he growled, pulling her to arm’s length. “What happened to ‘no fraternizing’?”
Mindy’s mouth hung open in hunger as she watched his chest rise and fall. “I just wanted to taste you.”
A deep groan rumbled in his throat and the distance closed between them. “I don’t think I could stop there.”
The softness of his lips shocked her, but they were just as sweet as she remembered. With swift surrender, he pressed his tongue between her lips and tasted her back. This was what she’d fantasized about for six years.
The feathery touch of his mouth moved to her neck and her heartbeat raced. She loved being kissed there. Could he remember that? He sure spent his time feasting on her pulse points and collarbone. Maybe he did remember.
She gasped as his hand trailed up her back to the clasp of her bra. In short order, the tension of the cups released, and Leo’s fingers were under the soft material, kneading the sensitive flesh in his calloused hands.
Oh, God, she loved the texture of his rough skin on her nipples. Mindy threw her head back and drew in a breath when he pressed the tip of one nipple between two fingers. She clawed at her shirt and pulled it over her head. Her bra fluttered onto Destry’s dusty hoof prints.
With the darkening night brought crisper air, even inside the barn, and without her shirt, Mindy’s skin pebbled in gooseflesh. But Leo’s heated mouth on her breasts centered her, warmed her from her core to her toenails.
“We can’t stay down here,” she whispered.
Leo’s busy mouth on her breasts didn’t stop its work, but he picked her up, swinging her legs over one arm so he could keep his attention on her breasts. With his brown, feathery head buried in her chest, Mindy wondered if he could hear her heart thumping. She’d been replaying this fantasy since she first came back to Fortiss Ranch.
Some version of it, anyway. Either she and Leo fucking against the refrigerator or tangled in her bedsheets or on the back of a horse. But she’d never imagined they’d end up back in the hayloft. And as he carried her up the narrow stairs and they crested the musty room, a lump formed in her throat.
He laid her down in the hay near the stairs and continued suckling on her breasts. Each time he moved, the remnants of saliva on her nipples peaked the temperature of the air, intensifying the sensation of cold into a freezing point. She ached from his attention.
Mindy took his face in her hands and pulled it toward her, but he resisted and met her eyes, staying latched onto one breast.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He smiled around the dark skin of her areola. “Making up for lost time.” He pulled away far enough to take in her breasts. “They’re just like I remembered them.”
“How’s that?” Mindy gasped as he blew on her wetted nipples. Her pussy clenched, and she suddenly felt empty.
He sucked first one, then the other nipple and took some of the tissue of her small breast into his mouth as well. “Bite-sized.” He grazed the nipple with his teeth and she cried out. The sensation was pure, beautiful
pain.
But she wanted him inside her.
She reached between them and looped a finger into his belt. This time, she tugged hard enough to get his attention and he rose to her reach. Mindy unzipped his jeans and reached down inside his boxer-briefs. His erection was hot and stiff. A little wetness at the tip. Ready for her.
Mindy jumped when Leo’s hand was suddenly on her sex. She’d forgotten she was wearing a skirt, and with her legs spread to accommodate his body, she might as well be naked to him. His fingers pulled her panties to the side, spread the lips of her pussy and sank into her with a delicious sound.
“God, you’re so wet, Min.”
She pushed his pants and underwear down just far enough to free his cock and pulled him toward her. “Please, Leo.”
“Wait!” Leo went stiff. “I still don’t have a condom.”
Mindy smiled. What a man. Thwarted once and didn’t think to start stocking condoms in his pants. He was either unaware of his effect on her, or more of a gentleman than she thought.
She smoothed her skirt down and dug into the pocket. “I brought enough.” She pulled a foil wrapper from her skirt pocket and tore it open hastily. Without asking, she pushed the latex circle over his erection and revived her pull on him.
Leo’s breath caught when the tip of his cock penetrated her. The rightness of it spread through her, and she continued to guide his hips toward her, as he seemed almost frozen. Mindy relaxed her legs back to give him better access and kept pulling him into her. When he was fully engulfed in her, his balls tickling the sensitive skin of her ass, Leo paused and groaned.
“I’ve been waiting so long for this,” he said.
Mindy couldn’t see his face, as he loomed above her, backlit by the yard light, but she imagined it couldn’t be much different from the first time he’d entered her. She remembered that look perfectly. The open-mouthed wonder.
She hoped he looked like that now. It made her heart expand to think she could give him that kind of feeling. That he could take that much joy in her body. No one had ever looked at her like that before.
“I’m sorry.” Leo’s breath was uneven, like he was holding something back. Maybe he was going to come already. Mindy clutched at him. She wanted to be holding him when he came.
“Don’t be sorry, baby.”
“I didn’t want to move this fast.”
Something pushed at her chest and her eyes prickled. She had been the one who couldn’t wait to have him inside her. To hold him when he came. She almost didn’t remember the condoms, she wanted it so bad.
Jeez, what was wrong with her? The enormous slut who couldn’t wait to fuck the boss’s son because it was off-limits and the public sex made it hot. She’d passed up all the foreplay and gone straight for the money shot.
Tears threatened, but she breathed against them. “Don’t worry about it, baby.”
Apparently, she was so hard-up for sex, she had to jump the bones of the first available male who got a hard-on for her. Mindy turned her head to the side and expelled a breath. She prayed he couldn’t see her face.
Mindy wriggled her hips against him and he started to withdraw from her. The feeling of fullness she’d been feeling started to leave when he did, but as he thrust into her again and groaned, she relaxed again. This was what she wanted after all.
His hips moved faster and faster, and she found a rhythm with him. He bent down atop her and found her lips again. She pulled his head from hers and moved him to her neck, where he sucked the sensitive flesh. She turned her head and a tear ran down the right side of her face. For once, she was thankful for the dark.
Soon, he was quivering above her, and she held his head in a tight grip against her neck. His deep groans into her skin made a pulse thrill through her. She matched the ferocity of his moaning and another tear slid down her cheek. How much she wanted to be the same girl she had been the last time they were here together.
The girl who let him lead, who let him worship her body, who let him love her. But she wasn’t that woman anymore. She just wanted the sex, the release, the feeling of knowing she could bring him to his knees.
Didn’t she?
Leo shuddered a last time into her neck and stopped moving. “God, I missed you, Min.” His breath came quick. “You have no idea.”
Of course, he’d missed her. Who else was gonna fuck him in the kitchen and the barn? Surely not any of the nice girls from town here. No, he needed the dirty city girl to come home, looking for a roof over her head and a job.
Something inside rebelled against thinking like that about Leo. But really, what else could she expect? He’d spent a week ignoring her around everyone else. Then, the one day he was here alone with her, he’d taken every opportunity he could to be with her, and she’d been so horny, she’d just fallen right back into the same old same old.
Why was she so stupid?
Here she was, spread beneath him, begging for his cock, and he hadn’t even taken his clothes off. Just like today in the kitchen. Wasn’t that just a metaphor for their relationship? She was the one who’d gotten metaphorically naked that first night they spent together, and he couldn’t handle it.
Well, she wasn’t going to do that again. Not with Leo Fortiss. Not with anybody.
She pushed at him and felt the physical withdrawal when his softening cock slid out of her. Mindy almost started crying again. There had been a moment where it was so perfect, and then it had all gone to hell, like it always did.
“I think there’s somebody outside,” she lied. She crossed her hands over her breasts, remembering her shirt and bra down in the stable. “Can you go down and get my clothes?”
Leo leapt up like there was a fire and pounded down the stairs in a few seconds. She sat up and dried her face with the palm of her hand. Why did she always have to do this? She’d been trying to keep her emotions at bay since she came back, but whenever she thought about Leo, she just warmed all over. She didn’t want to do that anymore. Leo was just another man. Now that he’d gotten what he wanted, he’d be on his way. Just like last time. She’d been too in love with him six years ago, and the rejection of not returning her love had been more pain than she could stand.
Well, she could beat him at his own game. He wasn’t going to hurt her again.
When Leo re-emerged from below, she was waiting for him at the mouth of the opening. She grabbed her clothes and pushed him back down.
“What are you doing?” he hissed, catching his balance. While he’d tucked his flesh back inside his underwear, his pants were still open, and a surge of warmth coursed through her remembering that feeling of being so connected to him, but she quickly buried it and shook her head.
“We need to go back inside separately. There’s someone outside and I can’t afford to get caught.”
Leo climbed a couple of stairs again, but she put her hand on his shoulder and pushed him again.
“Mindy, what are you doing?”
“You need to go inside. I’ll wait here for a bit and then come in the back way.” She pulled her shirt over her head, keeping her bra in one hand, not wanting to fuss with being naked in front of Leo any longer than she needed to be.
“What’s wrong with you?”
She leaned back, her neck straight. “I don’t want to get fired, Leo. Or have you forgotten? We get caught, you’re still his kid. I’m the one he’ll kick off the ranch, and I need this job.” She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. “Just go inside.”
Leo scanned the hayloft, his face light and shadows from underneath. “I thought we could stay up here.” His voice was warm, and he reached for her hand. “I want to sleep with you.”
Something twisted inside her. Sometimes, he could say the right words. For a moment, Mindy considered lying in the hay, side by side, holding him to her. But her common sense got the better of her. She knew how it would end. She’d wake up alone the next morning, crying. And would want to leave for parts unknown.
Only there w
ouldn’t be an offer from Portland this time to save her from her broken heart.
“Just go inside, Leo. There will be plenty of time for that later.” She pushed on his shoulder again, but he caught her hand. Her heart leapt.
He pulled her down to him and captured her mouth. For a moment, she sunk against him and melted into his kiss. “You amaze me,” he whispered against her mouth. “Don’t forget, I’m picking you up for the dance tomorrow.”
Mindy quirked her eyebrows. Warmth spread through her at the thought of being on his arm, even just for one night. “I thought you said forget about it.”
He kissed her again, holding her tightly to him. “Now I’m remembering.”
“What will you tell your Dad?”
His brow furrowed. There it was again, the moment where he would reject her. He’ll never choose me.
“Can we talk about this tomorrow?” His kiss was deeper, this time, more insistent. “Please, Min. Just let me stay for a bit.”
She shook her head. “Go inside before we get caught.” She forced a smile and put her finger over those lips. “There’s plenty of time.”
It was the last time she’d ever lie to him.
Chapter Seven
Leo came in early the next night from the Stackland place and went right up to his room to jump in the shower. He’d been planning this night all day long on horseback, surrounded by a bunch of other cowboys, trying not to think too much about last night.
The best way not to think about last night was to think about tonight instead.
Mindy had promised him the Barn Dance. He’d helped her with the cooking, taught her his tricks, and secured a promise in return, and he was going to make sure she couldn’t walk away from him again.
Last night had been so strange. It was like she checked out again once he got inside her. She’d been so eager and then she just shut him out. But after tonight, she wasn’t going to be able to shut him out ever again, because he was going to tell her how he felt. How he’d been feeling for six years.