by Summers, MJ
"That's nothing," she said with a coy smile.
"It's a good thing we're already fucking, because that is the kind of information that would make me as hard as a rock."
Claire grinned as she tilted her hips up bringing him in deeper. He grabbed onto his wrought iron headboard with one hand and used the strength of his arm to pull himself forward in a slow, hard motion. Claire squeezed his cock with her pussy as he pulled forward into her. He thrust himself inside her in long, hard movements, the intensity building for both of them as he moved faster and faster. Cole looked directly into Claire's navy blue eyes as he pulled himself forward and back. The lust between them was overwhelming.
"Oh yes Cole, fuck me! Fuck me so hard!" she cried out.
Those words brought on an orgasm strong enough to cause Cole to see stars. He plunged his tongue into her mouth as he came, his entire body shuddering with the force of it. Claire could feel the pulse of him coming so deep inside her that her own orgasm erupted wildly and for what seemed like minutes.
They were both left glistening with sweat as they tried to recover their breath. Cole lifted himself off of Claire and lay down on his side, the length of his body touching her, with one arm holding her around her waist.
"That was....just...wow."
He reached down and tugged the covers up to tuck them in. Claire gave him a sleepy smile, "I would tell you that you can do better, but I frankly don't have the energy left to experience round four."
Cole kissed her neck softly, "Rest up. What I have planned for tomorrow will make tonight seem boring."
"Really? Are we going shopping for a new dishwasher?" she planted a firm kiss on his lips and then turned away from him onto her side, snuggling into him with the back of her naked body.
He wrapped his arm around her top arm and held onto her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. Claire fell asleep immediately with a sense of peaceful bliss that she had never felt before. Cole lay awake for a while, feeling slightly panicked at how strong his feelings were for someone he hardly knew.
Chapter 16
The next few days were heavenly. Claire and Cole decided not to tell anyone, so they would try hard to act very professional while managing to steal a few moments together to drive each other crazy. After the supper clean-up each evening, Claire would sneak over to Cole's cabin and they would make love until late in the night. Claire felt like she was in a constant haze, brought on by a combination of exhaustion and their lust for each other. When he wasn't around, she still had a reminder of him in her somewhat sore muscles and her slightly raw pussy. She was completely caught up in him, thinking only of the next time she could touch him, kiss him, feel him inside her. She had no desire to sleep and she barely thought about eating, even though she was around food all day.
Cole's feeling of panic on their first night together subsided. He could see how well they worked together and loved hearing her ideas for the restaurant. Everything about her seemed to scream out that she would stay, which was all he really wanted. Sex with her was the most intense and amazing experience of his life. She was always ready for him, sometimes waking him up in the middle of the night to make love. He had never been so tired or so happy before.
One day, while Alicia and Claire were cleaning up from breakfast, Alicia asked, "So, how are things with Cole?"
"Oh great," Claire said avoiding eye contact with her new friend, "He's a great boss. Really open to new ideas and very positive all the time."
"No, I meant how's the sex?" Alicia replied with a wry smile.
Claire's face flushed to a bright pink hue, "Is it that obvious?"
"Let me put it this way honey, Ben figured it out and he doesn't notice anything."
Claire covered her mouth with her hand and laughed with embarrassment. "Okay, I don't want to kiss and tell, but let’s just say I can hardly walk some mornings when I wake up and I don't even care."
"Wow, really? Sounds like he takes after his big brother."
The two friends giggled naughtily just as Cole walked into the kitchen.
He picked a grape from the fruit tray and popped it in his mouth, "What's so funny?"
Claire gave him a sheepish look, "Apparently you and I aren't fooling anyone."
Cole closed his eyes for a moment, cringing with the thought of being found out. She was the new chef and he definitely shouldn't have been involved with her romantically. After a moment, he walked over to Claire and said, "Fuck it. I'm glad if people know you're mine."
He put his arm around her back and kissed her hard on the mouth, bending her body back into a dip. When he let go, he gave her a slap on the ass and walked out the backdoor. Claire's face was flushed again - this time with lust.
Later that morning, Claire snuck into Cole's office while he was on the phone. She quietly shut the door and locked it, then crossed the room to stand in front of his desk. Staring directly into his eyes with a naughty grin, she started swaying her hips from side to side as if moving to a sexy beat. Then she lifted her pink sweater over her head, revealing a lacy light blue tank top underneath. Her light blue push up bra was clearly visible through the shirt. She tossed the sweater to Cole and watched as his jaw dropped and he had to adjust himself on his seat.
Claire kept swaying and licked her lips slowly as she pulled her tank over her head and tossed it at him next. He caught it with one hand and a big grin on his face.
His expression changed suddenly as he became aware of the person on the other end of the phone, "Sorry, can you repeat that? Someone came into my office and distracted me for a minute.....uh huh.....okay.....okay, can I get back to you on Monday about that? I'll just have to check on that."
Claire turned her back to him and ran her hands up and down her sides and danced in a little circle. She unbuttoned the top button on her jeans and wiggled them down her hips a little, revealing a lacy blue thong.
"Okay....right....right. Yeah....no, I meant no, of course not. Okay. Talk to you Monday." Cole hung up the phone and exhaled with a moan, "You are trouble, you know that?"
Claire bent forward, pressing her head down to her knees with her legs perfectly straight. He watched as loose curls of her long hair touched the floor. She arched her back and lifted herself to stand up.
"Yoga" she said simply as she stopped dancing. She leaned over onto Cole's desk and snatched her tank top back. With a nonchalant look, she slipped it back on as if to say, “That's all you get. No big deal."
She grabbed her sweater and slid it over her head, then buttoned her jeans. Cole groaned, "Oh come on!" he said in exasperation.
"I need to get lunch prepared," she said with a shrug. And with that she blew him a kiss, turned and walked out the door, leaving him with an erection and very little clue as to what he had agreed to on the phone.
Claire laughed as she exited the lodge, thinking of the expression on his face. She had never felt this sexy before. She felt wild and powerful around Cole, like she could do anything.
Chapter 17
That afternoon the next group of guests arrived. They were to stay for one night at the lodge, two nights of camping, followed by one more night back at the ranch. Claire was clearing tables on the restaurant patio and had an excellent vantage point of the guests exiting the airport shuttle. A feeling of dread passed over her as she watched them. It was a group of tall, thin women in their early twenties, each one hotter than the last.
"Shit," she muttered. It was her worst nightmare. The thought of Cole out watching over them as they rode and camped made her feel nauseous. She was suddenly and completely deflated. In an instant there was no trace of that sexy woman who had been doing a strip tease in Cole's office that morning.
Trey, Dustin and the other guys seemed to appear out of nowhere to welcome the girls, looking like kids on Christmas morning. Alicia, who had seen Claire standing motionless, came out onto the patio and stood beside her.
"It's a group of volleyball players from Colorado State. They were the national
champs last year and they are here for a celebratory trip. Yuck, right?"
Claire never took her eyes off them, "Yeah, this is going to be a challenge for me. My ex tossed me aside for a tall, 22-year-old stick bug, without bothering to mention to me that we were over."
Alicia put her arm around Claire's shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze. "Well, Cole is hot and they may try to get his attention. It won't work though. I've known him all my life and I have never seen him come close to cheating. I've also never seen him this crazy about anyone before," Alicia paused, "Still sucks balls though, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," Claire said as she rested her head against Alicia's shoulder for a second. "I have a bad feeling that I'm not going to handle this gracefully."
"Just keep reminding yourself that he's one of the good ones and if he did mess around - which he won't - he wouldn't be worth your tears anyway."
Claire nodded as she saw Cole exit the lodge to greet the girls, "I'll try."
She took a deep breath and turned back to Alicia. “Let's cook.”
* * *
When supper rolled around, the guests and ranch hands all piled into the restaurant and onto the patio. There was an energy of sexual tension making the place feel more like a night club than a ranch cookhouse. The dozen volleyball girls were done up in casual, sexy clothes, some with their own spin on western wear. They had spent the last couple of hours with the guys testing their horse-riding skills.
Before dinner Claire had rushed back to her cabin to freshen up her makeup and change into a sexy black top in a clingy fabric with a low v-neck. She looked at herself in the mirror and tried to convince herself that she looked every bit as good as those girls out there. It was a stretch though, at 5'4" and 31 years old, she knew they were in a whole different league.
Cole arrived a few minutes later than the rest of the group, along with a tall, blonde girl, Brittany. From the kitchen window, Claire observed their entrance. Brittany, it seemed, was a novice rider and needed some “extra attention”. She was gushing over Cole, who was smiling and trying to reassure her that she would be just fine tomorrow.
One of the other girls, who was sitting next to Trey called out to her, "Brittany! You and Cole should come sit with us!"
Brittany waved back, "Ok!" She reached for Cole's arm in a far too familiar way, "Come on!"
He excused himself to head back to the kitchen and told her he hoped she enjoyed her dinner. Brittany gave a pouty look, walking over to her friend and dropping onto the chair.
Cole stepped into the kitchen, happy to find Claire on her own. "There's my bendy girl," he said, giving her a peck on the cheek, "I've been missing you since your little dance earlier - I can't wait to see the rest of it."
Claire gave him a brief, fake smile and turned back to the oven to take some chicken out. "Oh hey," she said with very little enthusiasm. She was suddenly humiliated at her brazen attempt to seduce him in light of the new arrivals.
"What's wrong, Claire?" Cole asked with concern.
Claire didn't look up, "I'm just having a crappy afternoon, that's all," she said with a tight voice.
Cole walked up behind her and put his big hands on her shoulders to massage her, "How can I help make it better?"
Her body stiffened in response to his touch.
"Okay, what's going on, seriously?" he asked as his hands dropped to his sides.
"Can we talk about this later? I am really busy right now trying to feed a bunch of starving volleyball goddesses."
"Oh. So that's what this is about," he said with a hint of amusement, "You're jealous?"
"I'm not sure what's so funny about that to you. You're about to leave with those girls for two nights and it's pretty obvious that at least one of them would like to ride something other than a horse during their trip," Claire's words cut through the air like a knife.
"Hey, relax, okay? It doesn't really matter what they want, it matters what we want. And I want you. Going away for two nights won't change that."
"Well, I hope you'll still feel that way when you are out in a tent surrounded by a bunch of horny college girls that look like supermodels!" Claire retorted, her voice rising.
"Ssshh! Calm down," Cole spoke in a low tone and made a downward motion with his hands while giving her an urgent look that told her to be quiet.
Being shushed was not high on her list of likes. Seeing red, she pointed her finger at him and loudly said, "Calm down? Calm down? You calm down!"
Cole walked to the back door, "You're right, we should talk about this later," he said as he let the door slam shut behind him.
Claire reached into the oven for a pan, forgetting her oven mitt and burning her fingers. She dropped the pan, spilling the chicken on the floor with a loud crash.
"Fuck!" she yelled.
Alicia came back into the kitchen just then, "Oh Claire, you okay?" she said with concern. "Here, run your hand under some water, I'll get this cleaned up."
Claire's eyes filled with tears, "I knew I wasn't going to be graceful about this. Shit," she paused for a moment, "could everyone hear me out there?"
Alicia winced, "Well, maybe not everyone. I don't think Bill had his hearing aid on."
"Ugh, I have fucked this up fast, haven't I?" Claire said, now moving into the ugly cry.
"Well, it's not anything you can't come back from I'm sure. Cole will understand once he knows what happened with your last relationship. For now, let’s figure out what to feed these people."
Claire nodded with resolve and blew her nose into a tissue, "Okay, you're right. There's salmon in the fridge, I can spice it and throw it on the barbeque fast. In the meantime, maybe see if anyone would like a bowl of wild mushroom soup while they are waiting."
"I'm on it!" Alicia said, moving quickly.
* * *
After dinner service was over and the guests had left the restaurant, Claire turned to Alicia, "You go home and spend time with Ben. I'll clean up."
"You sure? I was thinking you might want to go talk to Cole."
"I will. I just need to figure out what I'm going to say first, so I could use some time to think," Claire replied.
"Okay. You hang in there. I'll see you in the morning."
"You bet. And Alicia?" Claire turned from the sink to look at her, "Thank you so much - for everything. I don't know what I would do without you here."
Chapter 18
After finishing the dishes, Claire turned out the lights and locked up for the night. She looked wearily in the direction of Cole's cabin. It was completely dark. She sighed heavily and headed in the direction of the barn instead, hoping to catch him getting ready for the trip the next day. When she got there, she found him brushing Dudley, his back turned to her. She watched him for a long moment. He seemed so calm. She would have done anything to erase what had happened at supper.
She finally got up enough courage to speak, "Hi," she said quietly.
Cole stood frozen for a minute and then continued to brush Dudley without turning around, "What's up?" he replied impassively.
"I'm sorry Cole. I was being completely unfair and irrational earlier," her voice broke, "I embarrassed both of us and I would give anything to take it all back."
Cole turned to her and tossed the brush down on a table nearby, then leaned against the gate on the nearest stall and folded his arms. The sight of his muscles flexing as he moved made her ache with desire.
Cole's eyes were cold as he looked at her, "Yeah, what the hell happened there?"
Claire leaned her body against the barn door, "I lost it. Those girls are my worst nightmare. Antonio, my ex, was cheating on me with a very young, tall, skinny girl from my restaurant. It had been going on for months before I found out. Turned out everyone else there knew."
She sighed, "That was why I left Seattle. He made a fool out of me and now I've let him do it again, by lashing out at you in front of everyone. It's no excuse though. I know I'm responsible for what comes out of my mouth. It's just an ex
planation, I guess," she said shaking her head. "I felt so threatened when I saw them get off the shuttle this afternoon. It’s just that you’re so hot, you could have any woman and I don't measure up to any of those girls. They all have legs that go on for miles and they are so athletic. They probably look so graceful riding and I doubt any of them will fall in the river. And then when I saw you walk in to the restaurant with that girl, I thought, 'well she looks more like who he should be with.' I'm not fit like them and..."
Cole interrupted, "Stop it. That's enough."
Claire gasped at the harsh sound in his voice. Her heart jumped to her throat. She had fucked up this relationship before it could get started.