by Alison Bliss
After the second orgasm, my hands twined into his hair. “Cowboy? Please…I need you to…”
“What, baby? What do you want?” He wanted to hear me say it.
“I want you inside me.”
Obviously quite pleased with himself, he chuckled at the desperation in my voice and rose to a standing position. “I’ll be right back. Let me get a condom.”
I reached over, slid open the drawer next to my bed, and withdrew one. As I handed it to him, he caught sight of the large box I’d pulled it from and grinned. Seconds later, he was crawling up between my legs, condom in place, as he kneed my thighs apart.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to take it slow and easy. I’ll make it feel good for you.”
I didn’t bother to tell him I was already feeling pretty darn good.
Sliding his hands over my shaky knees, he spread my legs wider and positioned himself at my entrance. Slowly and gently, he increased pressure until he entered me. I tensed up.
He groaned. “Jesus, Anna, maybe we should stop.”
“No, don’t.”
“You’re really tight. I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, shifting his weight a little.
I shook my head. “You’re not. Keep going.”
But he must’ve known I lied by the way I closed my eyes and braced for the burning sensation of being stretched by his large member. “Look at me, honey.”
I did, but not before latching my ankles around his hips and pulling him slightly forward, laminating him to me. I gasped at the increased penetration and the uncomfortable fullness, while he swore under his breath. He stalled and balanced himself over me, probably afraid to move in case he hurt me more.
“I need this. I need you,” I pleaded with him. “Please don’t stop now.”
Determined to give me what I needed, he slowly increased the heavy pressure until he was seated fully inside me. He leaned down and brushed my hair away from my face. “You okay, sweetheart?” Once I nodded, he kissed my forehead softly and said, “It’s going to feel much better in a second.”
It was a snug fit with a lot of heightened sensitivity—on both our parts, judging by his low, pleasure-filled grunts—but soon he was rotating his hips and gradually moving in and out. Suddenly, as he predicted, the pain vanished and was replaced with a new sensation, a better one. Beneath him, my body shimmied against his until I was undulating like crazy and speeding up the rhythm he had set.
“Are you going for extra credit, young lady?” he teased.
I grinned at that, but thrust my hips again, matching his every stroke. He lifted my ankles, holding them at hip level while he continued to spur me on to new heights. When he couldn’t stop me from gyrating my hips, he draped my legs over his shoulder in an interesting new position.
“Darlin’, slow down. I want to make love to you for longer than three minutes.”
I ignored him, enjoying the sensation of him digging his fingers into my hips as he tried to slow my movements. He took my mouth forcefully, probing his tongue inside, as he rocked his hips into mine, thrusting deeper inside me. Flesh pounded against flesh as he tried to control my eagerness and keep himself from going over the edge. When that didn’t work, he pressed my knees into my chest and made shallower thrusts.
He was still inside me when the orgasm overtook me and my contractions milked him to his own. His jaw clenched tight and the veins in his neck protruded as his release rendered him immobile.
Finally, he collapsed next to me and patted my bare bottom. “Fuck,” he said, blowing out a hard breath. “You’ve got to show me those videos you’ve been watching.” He panted heavily and ran his fingers through his sweat-soaked hair. “Then we’re going to have a cram session with those books. Holy shit!”
Chapter Sixteen
Early the next morning, I awoke curled into a hard chest with an arm tucked firmly around me as a large hand stroked leisurely down the curve of my spine. I reveled in the sensation of his rough, calloused fingertips traveling over my smooth bare skin and let out a small sigh. I hadn’t slept that soundly in years.
Cowboy shifted to look at my face, apparently checking to see if I was awake. When he saw my eyes open, he grinned. “Morning, darlin’.”
The sun hadn’t risen fully, but soft blue morning light illuminated his too-good-to-be-true face. He stayed? All night? I gazed into his twinkling green eyes and smiled sweetly at him. “Good morning.”
I had to be at work by ten o’clock, but I didn’t care. All I wanted to do was snuggle back in and sleep the day away wrapped in his arms. Because when he did finally leave, he wouldn’t be back. This moment would be our last together and I never wanted it to end. Nothing could ruin this for me.
For a moment, he was silent, then he said, “I didn’t know you had a photo of us at camp.”
Crap!
I’d forgotten all about the framed print sitting on my nightstand. Had I known he’d wind up in my bedroom yesterday, I would’ve shoved the picture in a drawer or closet. “Bobbie Jo sent it to me.”
“We were young. I was a cocky little bastard back then.” He chuckled. “Not that I’ve changed all that much since.” I grinned, but my mouth melted when he added, “And look at you. So sweet and innocent and…completely infatuated with me.”
Kill me now. “Oh, stop it. Just because I was looking at you in the photo didn’t mean I was infatuated with you. Maybe I was just stunned by your arrogance and your—”
“Impressive boner?”
Shocked, I glanced over my shoulder at him as a smile erupted on his gorgeous face. “You did not have…one of those.”
His hand moved lower and massaged my rear firmly, grinding my pelvis against his rapidly hardening length. “No, but I damn sure do right now.”
A rush of heat climbed my neck and flooded my face. I did the coy look-away thing, not wanting him to know how much his words and actions affected me.
When I tried to pull away, he wouldn’t allow it. He grasped my chin with his free hand and tilted my face back to his. “What’s this?” he asked, brushing a finger along my cheek. “After all the things we did last night, you’re still blushing?”
I shook my head. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what, darlin’?”
“Don’t humiliate me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said with another grin as his finger doodled lazy circles over my collarbone. “Though I do like it when you blush from head to toe. Everything on you turns pink. Your neck, your ears, your…” He glanced down at my nipples and they instantly hardened. His eyes darkened with desire.
Gently, he flicked the bud with the tip of his finger. It tightened even more as a tingling sensation rocketed through my body.
“Hmm. Interesting,” he noted casually, as if he hadn’t realized he’d just awoken hundreds of nerve endings in that one touch.
With warp speed, he rolled me onto my back and draped himself halfway over me, being careful not to crush me under his weight. He ran his tongue around my nipple, doing this little suck-nibble thing with his lips and teeth as his hand traveled farther south. By the time he reached the notch between my legs, my chest had already expanded with an inhaled breath. Surely he couldn’t want to do it again, could he?
His knuckles brushed my nether region and he whispered, “Open your legs.”
Guess so.
I started to do as he asked, but stopped, remembering the thick baseball bat digging into my hipbone. As much as I would’ve loved to play ball with him, my muscles were already deliciously sore from last night’s overtime innings. And it wouldn’t be fair to invite him up to bat only to let him strike out before reaching home plate. God, why was I thinking in baseball terms?
His fingers wiggled into the crevice between my thighs and moved upward, but I squeezed my legs together and bit my lip. “Um, Cowboy?”
He chuckled softly under his breath. “Don’t worry. I’m not asking for anything in return. I just want to make you feel good. Now be a g
ood girl and do as I asked.”
Reluctantly, I relaxed my legs, allowing them to fall open. His fingers traced carelessly over my flesh, moving up my thigh, until they reached their destination. The moment he found me, he kissed my mouth. Once. Twice. Then he deepened the kiss, pulsing his tongue against mine, as his fingers provided gentle stimulation.
His thumb settled over my clit and kept a firm pressure as he slid two large fingers inside me. I gasped into his mouth from the sheer electric shock that jolted through my system in lusty waves of pleasure. I closed my eyes, but could feel his grin against my open mouth as he worked his fingers in and out of me.
When he suddenly froze, I opened my eyes to find him staring at me. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You’re so…responsive,” he said, slowly twisting his fingers deeper inside me. “It’s like seeing an invisible girl come to life before my very eyes.”
Physically, I couldn’t pretend the power of his touch and the intensity in his eyes hadn’t affected me. But mentally, I cringed. Telling a woman that she’s only visible when she takes her clothes off wasn’t my idea of a compliment. At least not a good one.
Suddenly, his watchfulness affected me more than his fingers did…but not in a good way. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know…like you’re a hungry carnivore about to gobble up your prey.”
“Hmm. Good idea,” he said, sliding his fingers out of me. “I like the way you think.” He grasped my hips and rolled onto his back, taking me with him, until I was straddling his bare chest. “Don’t move,” he ordered firmly as he lifted me up just enough to slither down the bed until his face stopped between my thighs.
Holy hell. “Um, Cowboy?”
He ignored me. Hell, he didn’t even pause. Slow hands made their way up the inside of my trembling thighs. When he touched me intimately, my body jerked from the contact. He worked his two thick fingers back inside me, slow and deep, and lapped at my swollen clit with his tongue.
My heart stalled as my knees locked into position around his head and my hands fisted his hair. I think I even whimpered a little.
He stopped momentarily. “Darlin’, I’m not going to have any hair left if you keep pulling it all out.”
Closing my eyes, I let go of his hair and breathed out a sigh. “I need you to stop for a moment.”
“Uh-uh,” he said, nipping into the flesh of my right thigh and sending sparks through my central nervous system.
I started to move off him, but he gripped my hip with his free hand. “Whoa! Where do you think you’re going?”
“Stop, please. Just for a second.” Reluctantly, he released me and let me move off him. I turned around quickly and mounted him again, climbing astride his shoulders and situating myself over his mouth in the opposite direction. “If you don’t want me to pull all of your hair out, then you’re going to give me something else to hold onto,” I said, taking a firm hold of his manhood.
He released a guttural groan and swore under his breath. “Christ, Anna.”
I smiled at the strain in his voice and pumped his throbbing length in my hand, working it with the same pace as his tongue. I took in the planes of his body and nibbled on his stomach, giving him love-bites that left teeth marks. When his body stiffened, I considered apologizing for them. But his erection grew stronger in my hand and I got the message: no apology needed.
The sounds of his grunts delighted me as he dug his heels into the mattress. The vibrations his mouth provided sent me into overdrive, and my hips swiveled in circles, grinding into him as he continued to coax me to euphoria. Fingers here. A nibble there. Tongue everywhere.
When the blinding orgasm he facilitated hit me, I dropped my mouth over him and swallowed him whole. His hand shot downward and clasped my head, his fingers twining in my hair, as he tried to deter me from my mission.
“Anna…God… You need to stop. I’m about to—”
The only answer I gave was firmer suction as I took him deeper into my throat. I knew he tried not to thrust, but he did a little, anyway.
Quivering beneath me, Cowboy gripped the back of my thighs to steady himself as he vocalized his completion in grunts and groans and let himself go.
I came out of the bathroom swaddled in a robe with my wet hair wrapped in a white towel on top of my head. Cowboy still lay on the bed in all his blatant nudity while already sporting another massive hard-on. I shifted my eyes away, but my face flushed. “Oh, I guess I thought you would’ve gotten dressed by now.”
He chuckled. “Can’t seem to get past that shyness, can you?”
“I’m trying,” I said softly, keeping my back to him.
“Turn around, Anna.”
“Uh-uh.”
“Come on, darlin’. I want to see your pretty little face.”
“Fine.” Begrudgingly, I did as he asked, but kept my gaze above his waist. “There. Happy now?”
He grinned wide. “Sweetheart, if you keep twisting your fingers in your robe like that, you’re going to break them off.”
I settled my hands at my side. “Sorry. Nervous habit.”
Cowboy shook his head. “I just don’t get it. Why does seeing me naked make you so nervous? You weren’t this jittery when you were sitting on my face a few minutes ago.”
I gave him a stern look. “Do you have to refer to it as…that?”
“Well, what the hell do you want me to call it? It’s what you were doing…and you liked it.” He licked his lips and winked lewdly at me. I rolled my eyes and wheeled around to return to the bathroom, but Cowboy shot off the bed and clasped his hands around my waist, turning me back to him. “All right, I’ll stop, I promise.”
“No, you won’t. You’ll keep saying things like that because that’s who you are.”
He smiled at that. “Okay, probably. But I’m not trying to embarrass you. I’m trying to understand how one minute you’re a sex kitten and the next you’re like a virginal blushing bride on her wedding night. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
I shrugged nonchalantly. “I was raised by my stepfather. We didn’t really talk about sex, or anything else for that matter, openly. It was very much his household, and he never let me forget it, either. I always knew that the day I turned eighteen I would have to find somewhere else to live. That’s why I started working at the summer camp when I turned sixteen. I had to save money, but needed a job that didn’t interfere with school. When school started back up, I babysat in the evenings to help get me into my own place.”
Cowboy’s jaw tightened. “All because that bastard kicked you out?”
“I wasn’t his responsibility. After my mother died, he was nice enough to take me in and keep a roof over my head until I became an adult. It’s more than most foster kids get.”
“You don’t have to make excuses for him.” His voice lowered and his eyes narrowed. “What he did to you wasn’t right.”
“Maybe not, Cowboy, but I understood why looking at me every day was so painful for him.”
“Because you weren’t his?”
“No. Because I look just like my mother.” Lowering my head, I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. So I tried again and managed to find my voice, even if it was a little shakier than before. “I reminded him every day of what he lost, and he hated me for it. That’s part of the reason I spent so much time at the library when I was younger.”
“It was a place to hide out…from him?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” I lowered my gaze. “Anything to make it easier for him to—”
“Goddamnit. What about him making it easier on you? You were just a kid.”
I glanced back at him and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. My stepfather provided for me when I had no one else.” My voice cracked with the desperate need to make him comprehend the guilt and shame that overwhelmed me. “He lost someone he loved dearly—my mother—and it broke him, but he didn’t abuse me or anything
.”
“Neglect is a form of abuse, Anna.”
I didn’t expect him to understand why my stepfather treated me the way he had. But since I was responsible for my mother’s death, I couldn’t blame the man for hating me. For years, I hated myself.
I sighed heavily. “I don’t want to talk about this. It’s in the past and it doesn’t matter anymore,” I told him, hoping to change the subject. “Why don’t you go hop in the shower while I run out and get my mail? I forgot to check it after you showed up yesterday, and I still have to get ready for work.”
He frowned, but didn’t press the issue. “I can go out and grab it for you, if you want.”
My eyes glanced up and down his nude figure and I plastered a grin on my face. “Not like that, you can’t.”
“All right, fine. I’ll shower, and you get the mail.” He leaned down and pressed a sweet kiss to the corner of my mouth and then turned and walked toward the bathroom, the muscles of his tight buns flexing with the motion. Within seconds, the water was running while he whistled a low tune.
I had a good mind to sneak over to the door and watch him soap up that magnificent, firm body of his, but thought better of it. Knowing Cowboy and his insatiable nature, he’d probably pull me into the shower with him and have me do it for him. Although it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to a girl.
No, Anna. Damn it. Mail first. Otherwise the “male” will have his hands all over you making you forget…well, everything. I released a long, slow breath and headed for the front door. Being responsible and logical really sucked sometimes.
When I stepped outside, I squinted in the bright morning sun as I strolled across the yard to the end of the driveway where my weathered mailbox sat just off the road. I grabbed the stack of mail inside and headed back to the house, shuffling through the pile of bills and junk mail as I walked.
I’d just stepped back inside and kicked the door shut with my heel when I noticed a small envelope stuffed between two coupon ads. My name was written illegibly on the outside in something that resembled a child’s handwriting. Just like the others. I tore it open and quickly read the note inside just as Cowboy called out from the bathroom, “Hey, darlin’, where are your towels?”