by S Doyle
Maddie was in Jake’s grade growing up and made me look diminutive.
He shook his head and took my hand (that’s right, we were HOLDING HANDS) as we made our way to the restaurant. He held the chair out for me and I sat. And when he pushed the seat back in, he bent down and whispered in my ear.
“You look beautiful tonight.”
I blushed. I had to be blushing. This was unlike anything I expected. Maybe a little too over the top.
“Jake,” I started as he sat down across from me. “You know you don’t have to… I mean I know what I said about the wooing and everything, but I don’t… well, I don’t want you to force it or anything.”
“Force it?”
“Yeah. Like calling me beautiful.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and focused on placing my cloth napkin perfectly in my lap.
When I glanced up, he was looking at me strangely. As if I was this new exotic creature to him.
“Ellie, you’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever known. Part of that is the way you look and part of that is who you are. I couldn’t tell you those things before because… I couldn’t. Now I can.”
“Oh.”
“I get to say that’s my favorite dress.”
“Mine too.”
“I know, because you always wear it on special occasions. Which means you think this is a special occasion, and I like that.”
“It’s our first date.”
“Right. And if I’m going to get you to go out with me again, I’m going to have to both flatter and impress you with my manners.”
Who was I to fight it?
“Okay, Jake. Impress away.”
Jake pulled the truck up to the Hair Stop and turned off the engine.
“Want to come upstairs?” I didn’t have to tell you it had been without a doubt the best night of my life. After all it was me and Jake, but with Jake making every effort to be even more perfect.
So naturally I wanted to jump his bones.
“Yes.” Only he said it with this deep sigh. “But I’m not going to.”
This didn’t make sense. “Why?”
He turned to face me. “Because we’re not lovers anymore, Ellie.”
That totally didn’t make sense. “You don’t want to have sex with me?”
“Of course I do, but we’re dating. Dating means taking things slow.”
“But we’ve already done it. Like a lot.”
“Will you cut me some slack here? I’m trying to be a gentleman. Trying to do this the right way.”
Okay. I got it. Jake wanted to show me that being with me wasn’t all about sex and getting laid.
I was worth more to him than that. Which was sweet. It really was. But also a little disappointing, because apparently I wasn’t going to get to jump his bones.
“Okay, Jake.”
“May I kiss you?” he asked. Actually asked.
“Yes.”
It was beautiful. Soft kisses on my lips. Deep stirring kisses with this tongue. He kissed me slowly and leisurely, like we could sit out here all night and make out. Until finally he pulled away from me. “That’s enough. I’m a man, Ellie. There is only so much I can take.”
“When can I see you again?”
“Are you working tomorrow?”
I nodded. “A full eight-hour shift, too. But Sunday I’m free after one.”
“Why don’t you drive out to the ranch and we’ll go for a ride? Plus I want to show you some changes I’ve made.”
“Sounds good.”
He sighed again like he was reluctant for the night to end, and that made me feel special.
This time I knew to stay put. When he opened my door and lifted me out of the truck I didn’t complain. I might have even pressed myself against him, which caused him to moan a little in the back of his throat.
He walked in front of me up the stairs to my room. Took my key and unlocked the door for me.
Then he handed me back my key and waited until I was inside. I started to close the door when he said, “Ellie…”
“Yes?” I held my breath, because I couldn’t imagine what he was going to say next when basically everything out of his mouth tonight had been mind blowing.
“On a scale of one to ten, how did I do?”
A ten. He would forever and always be a ten. But I wasn’t going to let him know that. I nodded my head as if I was seriously considering my answers. “I’m going with a solid eight. Good start, but let’s leave a little room for improvement.”
He smiled and I thought he was the most handsome creature on the planet.
“I’ll see you Sunday.”
“I’ll see you Sunday. Night, Jake. Dream of me.”
He nodded and then headed down the stairs.
I closed and locked the door behind me, kicked off my shoes right there, and sighed.
Best date ever.
Ten
Jake
Sunday afternoon
It was a little crazy to me how excited I was for her to get here. I had known this girl, now woman, all her life. Dating Ellie should have felt easy. Comfortable. Like putting on a favorite old coat.
It wasn’t anything like that. She was new to me in a way I hadn’t seen before. She’d blushed when I had called her beautiful, and I thought it was sweet. Of course I didn’t know she would do that, because I had never said it to her so directly.
I wanted that blush back. I wanted that blush when she was naked and underneath me.
Although I tried hard not to think about that. I was going to need the same kind of willpower today as I had the other night. I meant what I told Ellie. We should take this slow. I wanted her to know she was worth waiting for. But I had had the sexual experience of my life with her, and she was pretty hard to resist, knowing she wanted me the same way.
Ultimately we would get back there. As long as I knew that, I could keep a grip on my dick. Figuratively, not literally.
Then I heard her truck pull up. I had returned it to her yesterday while she was at work. I had Rich follow me into town so he could take me back to the ranch. I thought about stopping by Frank’s, but thought that might make me look too eager. Better to be cool about this.
Although I did get a text from her last night.
New discovery. Mr. Nash has a fear of mayonnaise. Who fears mayonnaise?
I wrote back Mr. Nash, apparently.
Now she was here and we had the rest of the day. And I realized I was happy as shit.
“Jake!”
“In the kitchen,” I told her. I wanted to see her expression when saw what I had done.
“Oh my god!” She squealed and clapped. “It’s yellow. And that’s a new refrigerator and a new oven!”
“The old ones were about to go. I had to replace them, and since you said you always wanted a yellow kitchen I thought I was safe with the paint choice.”
“It’s perfect.”
“I was thinking we could redo the island and counters too. Put a granite top on them. I didn’t want to make that call without you.”
“That would be awesome. Can we afford it?”
I nodded. Then I reached out to take her hand. “Come on. Let me show you what else I’ve done.”
I took her out to the barn to show her the expansion I put on it. “If we ever have a storm like the one we had, I wanted to make sure we had the extra room.”
Then as we walked out to the pen I gave her the numbers breakdown on the herd and the count of calves.
“Jake, how did we do that? We’re almost back to full capacity.”
“And we’ve got a new bull,” I said, pointing to the pen where Rupert was currently having his way with a cow.
“This is impossible. I’ve been doing the books. I know every dollar that’s been spent. How did you afford all this?”’
I looked at her and that was all it took.
“Jake Talley! You used the money I gave you for your house and spent it on Long Valley instead!”
“Ellie,
if you thought there was a chance in hell I was going to keep that money, then you don’t know me as well you think do.”
She frowned. “I thought you caved too easily.”
“There was no use arguing about it.”
“But your house! How is that ever going to get built?”
“You spend a lot of time worrying about my house.”
“Because Jake, if this thing we’re doing doesn’t work, if we break up, you need to have somewhere to go.”
“If we break up,” I said (I have no idea why I made rabbit ears around that. I hate rabbit ears. Rabbit ears are stupid unless they are on real rabbits.) “I’ll cross that bridge then.”
She huffed, but didn’t say much after that. I walked her out to the bunk house and knocked on Rich’s door. He opened and I could smell the booze on him. It was his day off, but still. At some point I was going to have to address it with him. Especially now that Ellie was back and would be living out here sooner or later.
“Rich, I wanted to introduce you. This is Ellie Samson. Long Valley’s owner.”
Ellie stretched out her hand and Rich shook it.
“We’ve talked over the phone, but it’s nice to put a face to the person,” Ellie said.
“Miss Samson,” Rich said in acknowledgement. “Heard a lot of nice things about you.”
He didn’t slur or stumble. I had to give him that.
“Please. Call me Ellie.”
“We’re going to ride out,” I told Rich.
“I would head north. Ground’s still wet to the west.”
“Appreciated.”
Ellie and I left him to his day and headed back to the barn.
“How old is Rich? I thought he was in his early fifties.”
I nodded. I knew where she was going with her question. “That’s about right.”
“He looks older.”
“I get the impression it hasn’t been an easy life for Rich.”
“Well, I know how he’s self-medicating. He reeked of booze.”
“I’m aware. But he hasn’t missed a day of work. And he doesn’t drink while he’s working. I’m not saying I’m thrilled about the situation, but I can’t tell a man what to do on his down time.”
“You’re the boss.”
That stopped me. “No, Ellie. You are. I’m an employee. So is Rich. If you want him gone, all you have to do is say the word and it will be done. He probably won’t be the last person you have to hire or fire.”
She nodded. “I understand. It’s a man’s life we’re talking about and not a decision that should be made lightly.”
“You said you wanted to be a rancher. It’s all yours now, Ellie.”
Ellie
All mine. Only I didn’t want it to be all mine. I wanted it to be all ours. I didn’t say that, though. That was a lot of pressure on date two. Instead we made our way to the barn and I got to shower all my love on Petunia.
“Petunia! Did you miss me? I missed you. Did Jake talk to you?” She huffed and I thought I could hear a distinct not really in that answer.
“If you’re done with the reunion, can you put a saddle on her?”
I did that after I fed her a few apple slices I had in my pocket.
We headed north along the access road and it felt great. “See, this where I belong. On Petunia and on my land.”
“You can move back whenever you want to, Ellie. I can stay at the cabin and still manage to buy you flowers.”
“You forget about the boinking,” I reminded him.
“Can we stop calling it boinking? It sounds ridiculous.”
“You prefer banging?”
“I prefer not discussing it out loud.”
“Because you’re a prude.”
“I am NOT a prude,” he said, clearly offended.
“I think you’re going to have to prove that. You know I once read this historical western romance where the couple did it while riding horseback.”
“What! I would no sooner… On Wyatt?! That’s just disrespectful. Apologize to my horse.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you, Wyatt. But you know Jake, we are heading in the direction of the cabin…”
“I know what direction we’re heading.”
“We could maybe stop there for a… break,” I suggested.
“Ellie, what did I tell you?” He was growling, so I knew he was at least thinking about it.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You respect the hell out of me. But Jake, it’s been WEEKS! Can’t you go back to respecting me on our next date?”
“Ellie…”
“If you’re worried about condoms, there are some at the cabin. Remember I stocked up for my prom date.”
“Okay, first of all I’m not using a two-year-old condom. Second of all, I’m not using a condom you intended for someone else to use. That’s also flat out wrong.”
“Do we even need condoms? We can do the other stuff. You know, try that… oh the number thing. Sixty-nine!”
“Ellie,” Jake barked. “Stop talking right now!”
“Because you’re imagining the number thing now, aren’t you?”
“Hell yes, I’m imagining the number thing, and riding a horse with an erection, despite what your romance novel education taught you, is not comfortable!”
“Sorry to hear that, but I for one am heading to cabin. I’m feeling awfully tired. So I think I’m just going to go there, take off all my clothes, slide into bed and see if I can sleep.”
I put pressure on Petunia with my thighs and clicked my tongue and she started to run. Which meant Jake was going to have to chase me, and the idea of it sounded hot. I let Petunia go at a full gallop and it was like flying. There was no other feeling like it in the world. Freedom. Exhilaration. Talk about an aphrodisiac. As we came up on the overhang that would lead down to the cabin, I slowed her up. She was breathing heavy so she walked us down the ridge to the cabin. I climbed off her and tied her reins to the post out front.
I stepped into the cabin and it was exactly like I had left it. I had both boots and socks off when the front door slammed open.
Jake didn’t hesitate. He just rushed toward me, picked me up around the waist, and the next thing I knew I was on my back on the bed with Jake’s tongue in my mouth and his body pressing down against mine.
It was crazy, and wild, and more fun than running Petunia at a full gallop. I was only wearing a t-shirt and jeans, but he almost seemed annoyed that he even had to bother with that. Together we pushed my shirt over my head and even as I was trying to undo my bra from behind he was pulling the cups down so that he could get to my nipples.
God, that felt so good. I had no idea how sensitive I was there until he pulled and pinched and sucked them into his mouth. Finally I was free of the bra and I arched my back and let him play with my body. Back and forth between teasing them and biting them gently.
“Jake, I think I could come from this.” I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. That it was happening so fast, because I didn’t want it to end.
He lifted his head and his eyes had that heavy half-mast look that told me how turned on he was.
“You were supposed to be naked.”
“Wyatt’s faster than I thought.”
“Get naked now.”
He rolled off me and got off the bed to watch. I unbuttoned my jeans and took them off first, leaving my panties on. (I wore my sexiest just in case—they were white and a little see-through). I loved watching him look at them as if just seeing them was making him hotter.
“Off,” he commanded.
I quickly obeyed. I slid my fingers into them and tugged them slowly down my legs. Until I was as promised. Naked and on the bed. Then I got to watch him. He stripped off his shirt first. Then he reached into his jean pocket and pulled out a condom and tossed it on the bed.
“Respect my ass,” I said even as I was smiling.
“I had a thought I should be prepared. That’s all.”
He sat on the bed to take off his boots and I came up to him from behind, pressing my breasts against his back. Letting him feel how hard my nipples still were.
“Ellie, I swear to God… you have to… let me.”
I don’t know why I thought of it. But I opened my mouth and bit down on the spot where his neck met his shoulder. Just enough pressure for him to feel it. He made this low bark, then shot off the bed.
Then in seconds his jeans were off and he was rolling the condom down over his very hard dick. He was on me and in me and it was just like the last time. A little snug, a little sting, but oh so good.
“You drive me insane,” he said into my ear as he started rolling his hips against me. “I can’t control myself around you.”
That might have been the second best thing he’d ever told me. Then he pulled out and I whimpered, but it was only so he could get on his knees between my legs.
“I haven’t… I should do more for you,” he said with an expression on his face that made me think he was in pain.
“I don’t want more. I want you,” I said, reaching for him.
He wrapped his hands around my hips and pulled me toward him and then he lifted my legs so they were around his waist. I squeezed him like I would Petunia when I wanted to go faster.
He reached down between his legs and then he was inside me again, only so deep this time I thought I could feel him against my heart. I tilted my hips and arched my back and the same feelings I had when I was flying on the back of Petunia came back. Freedom. Exhilaration. Then there was more. The slow build of pleasure. That sense that he was working me toward something with each thrust. I could hear my harsh breathing, his low grunts.
“Jake!”
Then it happened. That all-over body-consuming pleasure, like every muscle was being stretched and stroked at the same time. I felt his hips snapping against me. Felt that last thrust as he groaned the word fuck. And then he fell on top of me, crushing me in a way that was so delicious. Because while he was heavy, when he was on top of me like this I had this feeling of being consumed by him.
After a moment he lifted his weight from me and rolled onto his back. I rolled with him and tucked myself up against him. He stroked my hair and we didn’t talk. We didn’t need to. Because this was bliss.