by Jillian Neal
For the moment, she forgot all about her mother, the mayor, the book, the affair, the town, and every other shadow of her past that always darkened her trips home. Every cell in her body needed to feel his touch. She scooted closer, letting everything go. Nuzzling her head on his shoulder she grinned as he wrapped his arms around her.
“That’s it. There’s my girl. I’ve got you, honey.”
She wished she could take back that shithouse rat comment. God, why did she have to be so bitchy all the time? What was wrong with her? He was offering her every single thing she’d ever wanted. She just couldn’t bring herself to apologize.
“You okay?” he soothed.
“Yeah.” She swallowed down the raw regret that had been housed in her soul since she’d left him standing in his dorm room holding an engagement ring so many years ago. “Maybe better than I’ve been in a long time. This is crazy though, Luke. We’re just gonna get hurt all over again.”
“Hey,” he cradled her face in his hands. “You promised me you’d give me a chance. You said you wouldn’t go into this damned and determined to leave again.”
And that, right there, was the scariest thing she could ever have agreed to. If she waved the white flag, if she didn’t constantly harness her stubborn resolve throughout all of this, she’d lose herself all over again. It was inevitable.
“I have an amendment to our bedroom agreement, actually.” The low smooth gravel of his voice sent a hot flash of lightning through her veins, kindling the fire between her legs.
“What’s that?” She felt her face pull into a grin, the one she only ever gave to him.
“Me being in control doesn’t only exist in my bedroom. If I tell you to get nekkid for me, say, in the mayor’s mansion, a barn, Saddlebacks, my truck, hell, in the church bathroom, you do it. You drive me crazy with wantin’ you, honey. Your sexy body, the way you smell, the way you argue with me, the way you look at me like you’re lookin’ at me right now like you want me to fuck the life out of you and then you want to argue with me, it all drives me nuts. There’s sure to be a time or two over the next few weeks that I ain’t gonna make it back to my house. I’m gonna need you right then and there, up against a wall, over a fence, back of my truck, wherever. I’ve never had any patience when it came to you. That fact hadn’t changed.”
Delight surged through Indie as she laughed. “Well, I did swear to always keep you wild, but I’m curious. Just what does the tiny, sleepy town of Pleasant Glen think of this side of calm, cool, and collected Luke Camden, town vet, ever-reliable cowboy, eldest son of the highly respected Camden family, and partial owner of the legendary Camden Ranch?”
His dark chuckle sizzled across her skin. “Not too sure anyone could ever be legendary in the Glen, and truthfully, I don’t give a damn. I got the impression shocking people was on top of your list of desires.”
“Well, yeah, it is. I just didn’t know you’d be up for it.”
“Oh honey, you have so many surprises in store, but know this, I don’t share this side of myself with anyone else. Only you. You’ve always brought out my more basic nature. When you’re around, I can’t help myself. I believe you’re currently wearing my mark in a real apparent locale. That won’t be the only way I let everyone know you’re mine again.”
The anxious shiver that worked through her had nothing to do with the cool Nebraskan temperature that night. “I suddenly have a deep desire to get nekkid for you in the mayor’s house, but seeing as we’re in my daddy’s barn, that horse stall is available.”
“Anxious, sugar?”
Indie swore the wicked grin he gave her should be illegal. Every reproductive organ in her body was damn near line dancing.
“First time I have you won’t be in your daddy’s barn, but don’t worry, I ain’t opposed to it in the future. Been thinking about making good use of that rope and the hay bale pulley up there.”
“Oh, okay, I get it. I’m dreaming, right? In a minute, I’m gonna appear in the school cafeteria nekkid, or my teeth are gonna fall out, or some other bizarre thing will happen, and I’ll wake up.”
Humored skepticism formed on the chiseled lines of his face. “If this were a dream, would me wanting to tie you up and have my way with you be good or bad?”
A surge of heated blood scalded her cheeks. She still wasn’t totally convinced she was actually awake. “Good,” she admitted cautiously.
His rumbled groan as he caged her body against the wall of the barn and affixed his lips to hers with enough heat to melt away any hesitation she might ever have had awoke Romeo, who came to check on Juliet. Luke’s hands raced over her body like he couldn’t decide where to touch her first.
“Oh God, yes,” she gasped as they settled on her tits, stroking softly, cupping their heavy weight in his strength, and soothing their need. Before she could process anything beyond how badly she’d wanted this and how good it felt, her shirt was up over her bra and she was helping him pull her arms out of the sleeves. Wasting no time in doing away with the red, lacey undergarment, he circled his tongue around her left nipple and gave several soft suckles before he nipped, drawing a gasp from her lungs.
“You let me know when you figure out that you’re awake, darlin’.” His teeth slipped along her wet nipple, and she writhed. Her hips thrust, so anxious to feel his weight on hers. Another hickey was branded between her breasts before he jerked away. “Dammit, I’m so fucking weak when it comes to you. We’re not doing this tonight.” Skipping the bra that had landed nearby in a pile of hay, he eased her shirt back down. Beyond frustrated, she begrudgingly shoved her arms back in the shirtsleeves.
“Why?” she all but whimpered. “It ain’t like we haven’t done it in a barn before.”
The memories of their wild youth painted themselves on the canvas of his ice blue eyes, but he shook his head. “Because you deserve better, Indie. You deserve my best. You deserve hours of extended foreplay, me making you so wet you drip down your thighs and soak my bed sheets. Me making you beg for all I can give you. Me worshipping you, kissing every single spot on your body, several of them more than once, a few I’m betting haven’t ever been kissed before. Me awakening sides of yourself you aren’t even aware exist, darlin’. That’s what you deserve, and for the next two weeks that’s the only kind of love we’ll be making.”
Her entire body vibrated in anticipation. Her breath continued elude her. The undiluted desire in his eyes was intoxicating. Her brain and her pussy went to war. Her brain said the scenario he’d just described would definitely be worth waiting for. Her clit had no patience, however. Before she could formulate either a demand to get on with it or an agreement which didn’t come easily to her in the first place, Luke knelt beside Juliet and eased her hoof from the bucket once more.
“Okay, girl. Let’s see if we can’t get this fixed up.”
“Let me help.” Indie ordered her lascivious side away for the moment.
“This shouldn’t hurt much, but try to keep her calm. I’ll try to be quick.”
An hour later, Luke had drained the abscess, doctored it, bandaged Juliet’s hoof, and had given her a shot of antibiotics to stop the chance of it spreading. Juliet was almost as good as new. Indie grinned when her horse nuzzled Luke’s chest in appreciation as she stood on all four of her hooves and then walked gingerly to her stall while he cleaned his hands with an antiseptic medical grade wipe.
“Thank you.” Indie threw her arms around Luke. “I can pay you.” That felt odd, but she was certain her father paid him when he saw to the horses in her absence.
Offense tensed the hard line of his jaw. “You ain’t paying me. Why would you even say that?”
“I just figured Daddy would’ve offered, and I’m not used to us being us again. Plus, I’m tired and cranky, so don’t get all huffy on me.”
“Yeah, I’m beat, too, I guess. I gotta be up in a little while for chores. I’m sorry, darlin’. I don’t think I’d be up for much tonight. Come home with me though. I lov
e wakin’ up with you in my arms. When I get back from chores, we’ll get started on our reconnecting.” He laced their fingers together and guided her out of the barn.
Delighted with that idea, Indie considered, but one glance towards her father’s house had her shaking her head. “I need to visit some with Daddy. I was at Mama’s longer than I was here this afternoon, and I know he gets his feelings hurt.”
The hot breath from his irritated sigh whispered through her hair and she almost gave in. “Fine, but I’ll be back to pick you up after chores tomorrow mornin’, so be ready for me, and I get a little something before I go.”
The heat that had been searing through her veins all damn night ignited in a blaze of yearning. The darkened need in his eyes emboldened. “And what is it you might like, cowboy?”
“It ain’t what I’d like, sugar, it’s what I won’t survive without. I want to put you to bed tonight, strip you down, tuck you in, make sure you remember how good we are together. I’m about to go home and get off in the shower imagining it’s your hands wrapped around me instead of my own, but I don’t want you touching yourself unless I’m watching. There’s my first bedroom rule, but I figured I ought to give you a little something to tide you over. Like I said, I’ll be taking good care of you from now on.”
Indie’s mouth hung open in stupefied shock. Her mind raced through a thousand other bedroom rules she longed to hear him make. Her pussy tightened and throbbed at the very idea of allowing him total control of her pleasure. Her lungs begged for air it took far too long to provide. Fantasies swamped her brain. Tied up to his bed, or on her knees before his cock, arms bound behind her, him instructing her. Luke Camden watching her get herself off under his command. It took her typical stubborn irritation a full minute to re-engage. “Are you actually standing there telling me I can’t masturbate whenever the hell I want to, because .…” Suddenly, his index finger pressed over her lips and he narrowed his eyes. She opened her mouth again, but he shook his head.
“Do not bite me, and you just willingly said I could have total control in the bedroom, and don’t get ornery and tell me you’ll just do it in the shower. You can make yourself come as often as you’d like, long as it’s me you’re thinkin’ of and I’m right there watching. You got that, Indie Jane?”
“I will do whatever the hell I want to do whenever the hell I want to do it, whether you’re watchin’ or not, you got that Luke Camden?” Indie, shut the fuck up. This is precisely what you want.
The firm smack of his right hand against her ample ass brought another rush of wet heat to her pussy and added to the extreme confusion she was currently living. She tried to chase her breath simply so she could beg for more.
Before she could process beyond that, he consumed her mouth like a man possessed. Compliance. She understood. Her mind scrambled and she was unable to resist opening under the urging of his tongue. When he turned his head to extend the kiss, “You need another one, darlin’, or can you behave?” murmured against her lips.
Giving up any ability to reason through this new side to their relationship, she trembled in his arms. Some part of her mind longed to argue, but curiosity overrode her brain. Giving him compliance amped the desperate need consuming her entire body. What would it be like to let him own her like this? She had challenged him to be kinky, after all. She supposed she got what she’d deserved. And just then, this side of Luke Camden felt like a drug she longed to consume for as long as it was available, one she’d fantasized about more times than she could count. She had no idea where this was going, but she sure as hell wanted to find out. A soft, throaty moan escaped from deep in her chest.
He pulled away with that cocky smirk affixed to his face. “I’m gonna take that sexy little noise to mean you’re gonna behave.”
“Guess you’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you? I honestly can’t wait to find out just how far you’ll go for me.” She channeled her sexiest coo, watching the fire in his eyes roar to a blaze.
“Don’t push me, Indie, honey. I know precisely what you need, and I ain’t afraid to give it to you.” With that, he leaned and lifted her up into his arms. The move effectively ripped her out of the lusty haze filling her brain.
“Put me down. I’m too heavy to carry like this.”
“You’re testing my patience something fierce, Indieanna. You trying to earn another one? Next one I’m pulling your jeans down, and I’ll turn your sexy little ass as pink as your pussy. Now hush, or I am gonna take you in that barn and show you how fucking gorgeous you are. I’m putting you to bed, and I don’t want to be interrupted by your daddy. I’m flat out of patience. If I need to put something in your mouth to keep you quiet, believe me, honey, I will.”
Silently, he opened the back door to the home that had raised her, settled her on her feet, and closed it back. Taking her hand in his, he led her to her childhood bedroom and sealed them inside. Indie could just make out her father’s rhythmic snoring from the other side of the house.
“Now, I want you to sleep naked for me tonight, baby. I want to think about your sexy curves tangled up in them sheets needing me. Lift your arms.” His smooth, whispered gravel elicited another quick moan from her as she obeyed without hesitation this time.
He tossed her shirt away and tenderly ran his fingertips down her breasts, tracing her soft midsection until he landed on the snap of her jeans. Her body swayed anxiously.
“Lord Almighty, you are so damn beautiful. You make me hurt,” he grunted as he popped the snap and slid the soft denim down her long legs. “I fucking burn for you, you know that?” Desperate to have some part of him in her hands, she slid her fingers over the rock hard bulge in his Wranglers. His eyes closed in an extended blink as air hissed through his teeth. Indie palmed him, wishing his clothes away but far too caught up in the low intonation of his voice to strip him. Her body was limp with need. “That’s right, beautiful. You feel what you do to me. It’s all for you. Step out of them boots.” When he called her beautiful, somehow she always believed him. His vows erased the taunts she’d endured for much of her life.
When she was bare save her red satin panties, he stepped back and licked his bottom lip like he couldn’t believe he was the guy lucky enough to see her this way. The fire in his gaze heated her flesh. His desire coursed through her veins taking residence between her legs. She shifted, sliding her thighs together back and forth, desperate for the friction she required to get relief.
His low growl summoned her gaze. “That’s my job, honey. I told you. You’re so damn needy aren’t you? Need me to touch you? Need me to make it feel better?”
“Now,” she whimpered. “Dammit, I’ll do what you say. I’ll let you be in control or whatever, just please get on with this. God, I need you.”
“Fuck, I like you like this, sugar. Needy and beggin’. Them panties so wet I can see how bad you’re cravin’ me.”
Luke stared unabashedly at the damp crotch of her pretty little panties. God, he wanted to tear them away from her, throw her on the bed, and take her hard and fast until he bathed her walls in his cum, made a claim she’d never forget. But not this time. He was playing this hand with deliberate, methodic design. There was only one way to get her to stay. He had to tap into that well of rebellion that housed all of the pain she’d endured long ago, silence those demons with his love, banish them completely, until he’d freed her so thoroughly she had no hope of recalling the cages that had once existed in her soul.
Bringing fresh air to her lungs to calm her rage had always been his job. He had a plan, and he was sticking to it this time. The prize was more than worth his patience. He wasn’t stopping until he was waiting on her at the end of an aisle. He’d existed without her long enough.
Stepping to her, he traced his fingertips over the wet satin, making her writhe. He tracked his hands back up her silky skin as he nibbled at her neck, listening to her impatient gasps of breath. “So fucking gorgeous. So wet. That all for me, sugar?”
“You know it is,” she whimpered.
“God, I can’t wait to kiss and lick every square inch of your skin. Can’t wait to feel you against me while I take you slow and gentle and then hard and fast over and over again. I dream, Indie, I dream of the way your beautiful tits feel against my thighs when I make you suck me.” He spun his thumbs around her diamond hard nipples. “Every single time I jack off, it’s your pussy and your ass I dream of filling so full of my cum you’re overflowing, dripping down your lips, coating your thighs. Want me to take your panties off, doll baby? I need to see that pretty snatch all pink and wet for me.”
“God, yes,” she groaned as her body leaned into him.
“Put arms hands around me. Hold onto me.”
She complied willingly. Docile and sweet when he had her like this. Working the panties over the lush curves of her ass, he helped himself to handfuls of her ample backside. He shoved the panties to the floor and cupped her mound, pressing his palm against her clit. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders. Perfection.
He pressed his middle and ring finger deep in her channel. His own eyes closed in pleasure as the heated liquid silk consumed him. Her body cinched, pulling him deeper, and his low groan filled the air around them. Ordering himself to keep it quiet lest her daddy know what they were up to, he slicked his thumb with her honey and teased at the hood of her clitoris.
“Yes, yes.” She began to ride his hand. He knew precisely where he was going. Knew how to give her what she wanted, but he wasn’t in any hurry. “More,” she pled.
“Not yet, darlin’. You’re gonna get used to coming when I tell you to. Been thinking about having my hands in you for so damn long, I intend to enjoy this.”
She ground harder against him, her body desperate and demanding. “That’s it. Let it feel good for me.” Curling his fingers, he stroked her g-spot, tentatively at first, making her quake in desperation. The spicy heat of her arousal filled his nostrils, thick, warm, and ripe with her rebellion. His mouth watered, so hungry to taste her juices. “You smell so damn good, baby. Make me crazy with wantin’ to taste your sweet cream.”