by CP Smith
Sienna handed the towel over her shoulder, still avoiding his body, so Bo took it and wrapped it around his waist. “I’m decent now,” he rumbled low. “Let’s head to the house and take a shower, then we can talk about Boris.”
“Is he alive?” Poppy asked.
“He is, but he needs surgery,” he responded, grabbing the extra towel from Poppy and wrapping it around Sienna so she was covered from her chest to below the knee.
“How is Natasha holdin’ up?” Sienna asked.
“She won’t leave his side. I promised you ladies would bring her clothes to the hospital.”
“What about the ranch? Can their son come here and run it for them while Boris is ill?”
Bo picked up their clothes and boots, then wrapped his arm around Sienna’s shoulder and began heading toward the ranch house. “That’s what we need to talk about. The son lives in China. He’s an investment banker, not a rancher like his dad.”
“So he’s not comin’ to see his father?” Poppy asked.
Bo gritted his teeth and shook his head.
“Asshat,” Sienna spit out.
“Boris’ surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Natasha won’t leave until she knows he’s gonna live, so she needs someone to oversee things for her while she’s away.”
“We could do it,” Poppy jumped in. “We were plannin’ on bein’ here ‘til Saturday anyway.”
Bo nodded. “I told her you’d say that. If you ladies could handle the meals, I’ll make sure the men get their work done.”
“Did the other workers come back with you?” Sienna asked, looking around the yard as they walked up.
Bo’s brow creased. “Come back with me? They were here when we left. There was an ambulance waitin’ for us when we arrived back, and I drove Natasha to the hospital.” Bo searched the compound until he saw Troy. He put his tongue to his teeth and whistled. Troy turned and started walking in their direction.
“Get inside, baby. Take a shower.”
He expected Sienna to argue, but she shocked him and dashed up the steps with Poppy in her wake.
“About earlier,” Troy said as he walked up.
Bo raised his hand and cut the man off. “Save it. Just keep your eyes off my woman, and we’ll have no problems.”
Troy jerked his head in agreement, and Bo let it go. He needed information, not a battle on his hands.
“How’s Boris?”
“He’s alive for now. He needs a bypass.”
“He’s a stubborn man. He’ll live,” Troy stated.
Bo nodded in agreement. “Where are the other workers?”
Troy looked confused, then scanned the yard. “I thought they followed you?”
“No one came with me but Natasha. Could they be out with the cattle?”
He shook his head. “Brantley and I handle the cattle with Boris. The other men are seasonal.”
Bo rubbed his hands across his face as fatigue from the past week set in. “So they hightailed it out of here when they thought the old man was dead. Probably moved on to the next job. How many men do you normally hire on during the spring and summer?”
Troy thought for a moment. “Four, maybe five. If we had men with strong backs and good work ethic, we could get away with two, maybe three.”
Bo dug his phone out of his jeans. “You’ve got me, and a man whose back is as broad as a barn and doesn’t quit. Is that enough for a few days until Natasha can get Boris settled and hire some new men?”
“Can this man ride? We need to bring the cattle down tomorrow. There’s a storm comin’ in sooner than we expected, and we need them in the lower pasture where we can keep an eye on them.”
“If he can’t, I’ll teach him,” Bo stated, opening his phone and hitting ‘Call Devin.’
“You ride like you grew up on a ranch,” Troy said.
Bo put the phone to his ear and answered. “I did. My dad was a rancher.”
“Is he still raising cattle?”
Bo shook his head. “Died when I was nineteen.”
Devin’s deep timbre cut across the line, pulling Bo from his thoughts about his father. The man never recovered from his mother’s death and ended up drinking himself into a coma he never woke up from.
“You find her?”
“Yeah. Can you ride a horse?”
“I grew up in the country, what do you think?”
“I think you need to get your ass up here and help me bring in the herd, is what I think.”
There was a pause, and then Devin began to chuckle. “They landed in a mess, didn’t they?”
“Not of their own doin’. But yeah, I need your help.”
“I’ll be there in a few hours,” was Devin’s only response before the line went dead.
“He’ll be here by tonight,” Bo informed Troy.
“Appreciate the help,” Troy mumbled, then turned to leave. He made it two steps before he turned back to Bo. “Just so you know, your woman . . . she’s not stubborn, she’s all bluster.”
Bo raised a brow.
“She doesn’t disobey like you think; she’s like a dog that growls when you try to pet her, and continues to growl while she rolls on her back to submit. She doesn’t want to appear weak. I got a friend who’s the same way. Her parents praised her brother and showed her little attention. She came across as bull-headed, but the minute she met a man who respected her, she turned into a kitten.”
“A kitten?” Bo asked in disbelief.
“More like a tigress, but the right man can tame the wildest of cats. Just ask Boris when he recovers,” Troy chuckled, then jerked his head and left.
Bo smiled. He liked the idea of Sienna curled up in his lap like a kitten waiting to be petted.
Looking around the yard for a moment, Bo felt the familiar tug that comes with being in the country around livestock. Ranching was in his blood, but he’d turned his back on it in favor of law enforcement, just like his mother had turned her back on it. He figured he had a bit of his mother in him after all. She’d hated being isolated on the ranch and went out in search of excitement that didn’t have to do with bulls and heifers. He had washed his hands of that life for two reasons: to gain the structure he needed after a childhood full of chaos, and to forget his past.
He knew you couldn’t run from your past; it eventually caught up with you, and you had to face it head-on. Distancing himself had worked for a while, but falling for Sienna—a woman who looked like his mother—and now spending time on a ranch had brought him full circle. Facing them both was like playing chicken with a Mack truck . . . on a horse.
He looked up at the house and started climbing the steps. Knowing Sienna was inside quickened his steps and strengthened his resolve. He may be on a horse facing down a Mack truck, but he felt like he could leap any obstacle as long as Sienna’s brand of sun kept shining down on him.
Five
ARE YOU REAL?
“DID YOU TELL HIM?” POPPY asked as we bounded up the stairs to our shared room. “Did you tell him you’re still as pure as the driven snow?”
I spun around and shook my head. “No, not yet. And I’m not pure in thought, just untouched.”
“How untouched?” Poppy returned with wide eyes.
“Bases wise,” I said as I pushed through the door and began to unbutton my shirt. “One guy got his hand under my bra for about three seconds.”
“Oh, my God. I don’t even think that counts,” she answered in awe. “You’re like Snow White. I’m bettin’ the seven dwarves saw more of her body than any man has seen of you.”
I snorted, then grabbed a towel from the pile inside the armoire. Our bedroom was decorated with log pine everything. Pine bed, nightstands, and a pine rocking chair that sat next to a big bay window. “I’ll have you know, that in my head, I could teach a porn star a few things.”
Poppy crawled onto the bed and curled her arms around her legs, smiling like a loon. “Wait until Cali hears how much of a Wallflower you really are. She’ll h
ave to give up her title as reignin’ president.”
“I think she lost that title when Devin took her on the dinin’ room table, don’t you?”
“You have a point,” she laughed. “So, when are you gonna tell him?”
“As soon as we’re alone again.”
I looked out the window to see if Bo was still talking to Troy. I caught a glimpse of him as he turned and headed up the front steps.
“He’s on his way up,” I rushed out. “I need to take a shower and make sure the pig poo is gone.”
Ripping open the bathroom door, I turned on the shower then stripped out of my bra and panties. When the water was warm enough, I stepped in and grabbed my shampoo. I’d just lathered my hair into a soapy ball, when I heard the bathroom door shut behind Poppy.
“What do you think Bo’s reaction will be when he finds out I’m a virgin? I hope he doesn’t keep his distance, thinkin’ I’m not ready.”
There was silence for a moment, then the shower door ripped open, and I gasped, turning around to ask Poppy what the heck she was doing. Instead of finding her peering in at me, I met gray eyes rimmed with long dark lashes, and I froze. I started to cover my breasts in embarrassment, but his eyes shot to mine, and I stopped. The look on his face was possessive, as if he owned every inch of my body, speaking without words not to cover what he deemed his. All the books I’d read, dreaming of the day a man would possess me physically, hadn’t prepared me for the moment a man saw me fully naked. I was terrified he’d find me lacking.
I lowered my eyes and waited for him to say something. In my periphery, I saw the towel he’d been wearing drop to the floor, and then his bare feet stepped inside. The silence was killing me, so I began to raise my eyes. My attention stopped at the apex between his thighs, and I took a step back. I’d seen enough images on Google to know Bo was larger than most men. Suddenly, the thought of having something that large in an area so small scared the crap out of me.
Peeling my eyes off his cock, I took in the hard lines of his body for the first time, licking my lips as my mouth ran dry. He was beautiful. Far more beautiful than described in books. His skin was kissed by the sun, pulled taut over muscles that bulged naturally at rest. His legs were long and heavily muscled, his abs chiseled like a Roman statue, and his chest was so defined it could inspire flowery poetry of mythological gods.
He was simply magnificent. And I was scared to death.
“I’m a virgin,” I whispered nervously, my voice shaking. “No man has ever touched me, so I don’t know what I’m doin’.”
When he didn’t answer, I raised my eyes from his body and found his were closed, his nostrils flared as if he were fighting for control.
“You’re angry with me?” I asked, puzzled.
Gray eyes popped open, and he moved instantly, pinning me against the wall. “Are you real?” he asked in a guttural tone.
“I . . . I don’t understand?”
“I’ve spent most of my life wonderin’ if I was cursed. Yet here you stand, a promise of somethin’ beautiful that belongs only to me. Are. You. Real?”
In that instant of brutal honesty, I saw not only hope but also fear written across his face. The little boy who had lost so much needed reassurance that I wouldn’t vanish like his mother did.
Raising my shaking hand, I ran the tip of my finger across his bottom lip. “I’ve spent my whole life dreamin’ of a man who’d be worthy of my trust. A man I could give myself to without hesitation. Are you real?”
Bo covered my mouth with his own the moment the words were spoken, wrapping his strong arms around my back. I arched into him, eager to feel the scratch of his chest hair on my sensitive nipples. With a growl, he broke from my mouth, running his tongue down my neck, then further down my chest until he captured a pebbled nipple in his warm mouth, and began to drive me wild with a pulsing need. I’d never felt this white-hot sensation, and my legs buckled in response. I realized then, in that moment, that the dreams I had about being taken by Bo didn’t do reality justice. Not in the slightest.
“You’re so fuckin’ soft,” Bo growled against my skin. “I could bury myself inside you and never come up for air.”
My clit began to throb, impatient for what I’d withheld from it the past twenty-five years. I instinctively rubbed my center on his leg as he continued his assault, moaning with a need I’d never experienced, didn’t understand. Bo raised his head at the sound and pressed his forehead to mine. “I’m not takin’ you the first time in a shower.”
The pressure for release was so great that I whimpered at the thought of waiting another minute. “You can’t leave me like this,” I cried out.
His eyes grew stormy as I begged for release, and he dropped to his knees. “Spread your legs for me,” he ordered. I complied without hesitation, anxious to feel his touch, and he covered my core with his mouth. My head hit the wall as lightning spiraled through my body. When he lifted my leg over his shoulder and continued his attack on my body, I grabbed his hair and held on.
Within moments, the lightning turned into a blazing-hot fire, followed by a burst of stars behind my eyes, and an orgasm rocked my body. My mouth opened, but no sound escaped, then a deep keening moan rose from my depths, and I fell off the precipice into mindless bliss.
Sienna slumped into Bo’s arms as he stood, and he crushed her to his chest, the gift she’d saved for him still rioting in his mind. She was his reward for having survived the first twenty-eight years of his bitter existence, and he planned to savor each day of it for the gift that it was.
It hit him how close he’d come to walking away from her, and he began to shake with anger. “I could have lost you because I was stubborn,” he hissed.
Sienna wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest. He tightened his hold on her, then leaned down and kissed the silky skin on her neck.
He tasted soap mixed with her salty skin and moved her under the water, grabbing the body wash resting on the shelf.
“Let’s get you clean,” he murmured thickly, his own arousal affecting his voice.
He flipped the top off the soap, but Sienna snatched it from him before he could pour the liquid into his hand.
“Not yet,” she whispered, then leaned in and kissed his chest. “I’ve dreamt about doin’ this all week.” Her warm hand wrapped around his cock, and he grit his teeth for control.
Her mouth began to blaze a trail down his stomach, nipping and kissing his abs experimentally, and his head fell back with a groan. When she kneeled and cupped his balls, and her tongue rimmed his sensitive head, he hissed and grabbed her hair for control.
“Open your mouth,” he ordered between clenched teeth.
Her eyes flashed with excitement, then hooded as she opened her pink lips and took him inside her wet, warm mouth.
He sucked a breath deep into his lungs, tightening his muscles to keep from exploding down her throat when she took him all the way to the back of her throat on her first attempt. His shaft was too long for her to take all of him, so he grabbed her hand and wrapped it around the base, showing her what he needed. Her inexperience on how to please a man only made him harder.
She was a quick study—which had him fighting for control within seconds. She experimented with her technique as he surged his hips forward, moaning her own approval when he tugged roughly on her hair.
He refused to come in her mouth, so when he felt the burn deep within his balls, he pulled her off him then wrapped his hand around his cock. Sienna stayed on her knees as he ran his hand up and down his shaft, her breath coming hard as she watched him jack off.
“Touch yourself,” he ordered. She didn’t hesitate to reach down and sink her fingers into her slick heat.
When her head fell back and she moaned, Bo barked out a grunt as his seed pumped from his body onto her chest. He shuddered with his release, pumping his cock three more times until he was empty, then he reached down and pulled Sienna from the shower floor. Her eyes were gla
zed, her lips red from using them on his cock. She was sex personified. It was a sight he’d never forget as long as he lived.
“I gave you my cock since you seemed to need it, but I don’t want you on your knees again. The next time you want me in your mouth, it’s on a bed where I can taste your sweet pussy at the same time. Do you understand?”
She slumped into him and nodded. “You can wash me now.”
Bo chuckled. She was back to bossy.
“If I can’t kneel to take you, does that mean you can’t either?”
“Nope. If I want to taste your heat, I’ll do it kneeling in the kitchen if I have a mind to.” She shuddered at his response, and he made a note to take her in his kitchen while she cooked for him as soon as he could.
After squirting a handful of soap into his hand, Bo turned her around so he could start with her back.
“Put your hands on the wall,” Bo ordered. Sienna complied immediately. He rewarded her with a nip to her shoulder.
“I don’t understand the difference. Why can’t I, but you can?” she asked as he began to knead the muscles in her shoulders.
“Because your body was meant to be worshiped, not the other way around.”
To explain his meaning, Bo ran his hand down her stomach, through the sexy thatch of curls covering her heat to her silken folds, then rolled her clit with his thumb until she arched her back into him. He surged his fingers deep inside her, grunting low at how tight she was, as his other hand wrapped around her breast.
“Do you get it yet?” he whispered. “Mine to touch. Mine to taste. Mine to fuck until you’re breathless . . . Mine to worship.”
She whimpered she understood, then her knees buckled as she reached for her climax, so he pinched her nipple hard until she exploded around his fingers.
Grabbing her hair, Bo pulled her head back and took her mouth as she rode out her climax. He moaned into her mouth as her taste overwhelmed his senses. She tasted like sex, like the most exquisite liquor money could buy. She also tasted like hope and forgiveness. But mostly, she tasted like home.