Retreat (Getaway #1)

by Jay Crownover

  Emrys and Evan were both watching us with narrowed eyes. Emrys’s were full of curiosity and question. She was worried about me, but she didn’t want to get in the way of whatever it was that had Cy’s arms wrapped so tightly around me. Evan was silently wishing horrible things upon me with every glare and glower she shot my way, but I was in way too much pain to worry about her innocent crush getting obliterated. She would survive and be stronger for it. I wish someone had taken the time to teach me that young hearts could heal so quickly before I built a fortress around mine.

  I returned the weak smile he was giving me. “A secret spot? How can it be secret if you know about it?”

  He blinked in surprise and lifted an eyebrow at me. “She’s still mouthy. That’s a good sign.” He turned to walk away but not before throwing over his shoulder, “I know all kinds of things no one else knows, Leo.”

  That was the truth. He knew how to push and pull me at the same time. He was the only person who made me want to chase full speed after heartbreak. He was the only one who saw through all my standard defenses and barreled his way past them like they weren’t even there. He knew I was prickly and pointy, but more than that, he knew the reasons why and my thorns didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest.

  Grady and Webb had wandered off to start setting up camp. As usual, they were having an intent conversation between themselves and didn’t seem at all interested in what was going on with the rest of the group. Frankly, I was surprised they were still with us. The pretense that they were here on some kind of business trip seemed long abandoned. They had ulterior motives for being out here in the woods with the rest of us and their focus on who else might be lurking on the remote and hard-to-reach trails was so obvious there was no ignoring it. I couldn’t worry about that either because Cy turned me around, plastered my back to his front and started marching me toward the river and away from camp. He was still holding me up and each step he took, he bore most of my weight as I tripped and lagged in front of him. I was nothing more than a Leo-sized marionette and all my strings were wrapped around Cy’s fingers.

  “You want me to come after you if you’re gone for more than an hour?” Lane’s voice shifted from serious to salacious and a knowing light glinted in his denim eyes. The smile on his face made me blush.

  “Give me a little longer than that. We’re going to have to alternate being on lookout tonight, so we can keep an eye out for Sutton.” And for whoever else might be lurking in the woods, but he didn’t say that part out loud. “Get everyone fed and settled in. We’ll be back in a bit.”

  Cy started marching me in the opposite direction we’d started out in. Lane started laughing and shouted at me, “Remember that there’s nothing to block sound out here, Leo. If you’re a screamer the entire camp is going to know it.”

  I blushed even hotter and tried to turn my head so I could tell him to fuck off, but Cy wouldn’t let me. He was on a mission and nothing was going to deter him from it. When my legs quit working because the pain from my shoulder sucked all of my remaining energy and stamina, he simply picked me up and carried me like I was a baby, cradled against his chest for the last ten minutes of the trek to the hidden hot springs.

  There was a bend in the river and an outcropping of rocks that looked too steep to climb. Cy walked us around the back of the formation and I was shocked to see a bubbling pool of water that was about the size of an apartment swimming pool behind the boulders. Someone had walled the water in with stone so that it was a natural hot tub hidden away in the middle of nowhere.

  “This place is insane.” I exhaled the words out in awe. It was surrounded by nothing but wide open sky and craggy rocks. It was like something out of a movie or a glossy ‘Come to Wyoming’ travel brochure.

  “Wyoming is covered with thermal vents. There are all kinds of spots along the river folks have blocked off to make natural soaking pools. This one is hidden because it’s behind the rocks. Dad used to bring us out here in the middle of winter.” He stepped away from me and turned me around to face him.

  “Why in winter?” I asked the question as he rubbed his hand over his face like his patience was at the breaking point.

  “He always told us we wouldn’t appreciate it fully in the summertime. Ranch work is always hard and grueling on your body, but that goes into overdrive in winter. You aren’t just battling stubborn livestock and unforgiving landscape, you’re also trying to fight Mother Nature, and that bitch is undefeated around here.” He tilted his head toward the water. “It’s hot, but I think it will help some of those bumps and bruises.”

  I looked at the water and then back to him. I could feel heat rising in my neck and my cheeks getting warm. My reaction made his eyes spark with silver threads of arousal.

  “Great. But I don’t think I can get in there by myself.” If I did get in, there was no way I was getting myself back out.

  “I’ll help you in.” His deep voice was dripping with velvet and promise.

  I flushed under his unwavering scrutiny. “We didn’t bring anything to change into.”

  That almost smile lifted the edges of his mouth and I knew if he ever managed to get all the way there, I was going to hand my heart over to him with no questions asked. His half a smile already owned me, his entire smile was bound to consume me.

  “We’re going in the water, our clothes aren’t.”

  Well, when you put it like that . . .

  I moved to start unbuttoning my shirt and almost ended up on my knees in front of him as searing agony shot through me when I tried to move my bad wrist to grab the buttons. Through watery eyes and a tight throat, I told him, “I don’t think I can get undressed either. This is going to be incredibly awkward.”

  He took a step toward me, then another. We were almost touching chest to chest and we were sharing breaths and heartbeats. He lifted his hands to the front of my shirt and was achingly gentle as he slid one button after the other free. “Don’t worry, Leo, I’ve got you and I’ll take care of you the best I can.”

  He did have me. More of me than I’d ever let anyone have before. He had my attention and my time. He had my interest and my investment. He had my heart and my mind at war over him. One demanding that I leave him and the devastation that he would be responsible for in the dust, the other clamoring at me to open up, to embrace the memories we were bound to make together. We might not get forever together, but we could cram a lot into the moments we did get. They could be more important than any of the other ones I’d had with anyone else. He got me because I gave myself to him and I was about to give him so much more.

  It wasn’t like anything was on display that he hadn’t seen already. He took my shirt off so carefully I almost didn’t feel the fabric leave until the mountain air hit my skin. I shivered as he rubbed the back of his knuckles along the edge of my boring cotton bra and tingled like only he could make me do when his other hand snaked around my back to release the hook.

  My instinct was to reach up and cover myself as the bra fell away, but I couldn’t move my arms and the hungry look that cut into his face when I was exposed before him kept me still. I’d never had a man look at me like I was anything special before. Cy looked at me like I was everything special and that had my body warming and twitching with desire. I was used to being average and acceptable. Being more and magnificent was heady enough to make me drunk on swirling lust and longing.

  “You’ve seen me naked, Cy. What’s the holdup?” My voice quivered as his palm skimmed across my lower ribcage and played teasingly below the top of my jeans. He flicked open my belt buckle and smirked at me.

  “I haven’t been given many gifts in my life, so when I do get one I like to take my time getting the wrapping off of it.” His eyes glinted with sexy intent and humor. He wasn’t going to be rushed and I might die waiting for him to get to the good stuff.

  “Our time is limited. You might want to keep that in mind.” I didn’t want to remind him that this was destined to end. That we were
on borrowed time, working with stolen seconds. I felt there was a clock counting down, hanging over our heads, ticking away with every blink and every word uttered.

  “I’m not going to worry about the time we don’t have. I’m going to focus making the time that we do have count.” He had my belt undone and my pants open before I could think of something fitting to say about his poignant declaration.

  I put the hand of my uninjured arm on his shoulder as he crouched down in front of me and began to work on getting my boots off of my feet. The new position had his face directly in line with the part of me that had never been shy about getting all kinds of wet and ready when he was in the vicinity. I was on the verge of falling over again, only this time it had nothing to do with pain.

  “I don’t know that I’m up for any strenuous activities at the moment, Cy. I’m not exactly in tip-top form.” I hated admitting it but I didn’t want to end up in the dirt on my ass, naked and sprawled out like an uncoordinated centerfold in front of him. My newly repaired ego couldn’t take a hit like that so soon. My wrist hurt when I moved it but the rest of me was all onboard for letting him do whatever the hell he wanted.

  He rocked back a little bit so that he was sitting on his heels. Those eyes the color of an angry heaven swirled with passion and promise as he gazed up at me. His heavy hands landed on either side of my hips and slowly, oh so slowly, he started to peel away the dirty and tattered jeans down my legs. Once I was mostly naked he leaned forward so that his soft lips and scratchy face marked each jutting hipbone. His nose dragged a tantalizing trail along the top of my underwear and his breath lapped hotly against the cotton that was barely covering my aching clit and clenching center.

  “Do you trust me, Leo?” It was a silly question. I hardly knew him, even if I felt like I understood him inside and out.

  I shifted my grip off of his shoulder and let my fingers drift through his thick hair. It was slippery against my fingers—not in an unpleasant way—from whatever he used to keep it styled. I liked the idea that when I was done with him he was going to be ruffled and sexed up. I wanted to leave those marks on him.

  “I trust what I know about you, Cy, which isn’t very much.” The last word ended up strangled and strained as his thumbs slipped inside the leg band of my panties and started rubbing in circles toward my damp folds and aching core. There was no hiding how much I wanted him or how effective his touch was at turning me on.

  “You trust what I’ve given you, and you trust what I tell you. I’m telling you I’ve got you, Leo. I’m not going to let you fall or hurt you.”

  Trust was huge for me. I didn’t give it lightly and I didn’t have a lot of it to spare. With him looking up at me, eyes bleeding promises and possibility, there was no way I could deny him anything . . . no way I could deny myself.

  No Going Back

  I never let anyone this close, physically or emotionally.

  There was no going back from this. I could feel it and him all the way through me. There was life before Cyrus Warner and life after. The two didn’t even slightly compare and neither did any amount of pleasure I had experienced before this big, brooding mystery of a man. Every touch between us was a memory in the making and every word as he eased me in the water was a vow I knew he intended to keep.

  He promised pleasure and passion.

  He promised gratification.

  He promised obliteration.

  He promised adoration.

  He promised a distraction from the pain that was still making my hand tingle and my fingers throb.

  I was ready to take him up on all of it because the warm water had worked wonders and I knew our time was limited. The ache in my wrist was bad, but so was the ache between my legs. One I had the opportunity to take care of as soon as I got back to the ranch. I had no idea if I would get another shot to soothe the other one with the man who was responsible for it.

  I gasped his name and pitched forward in shock and surrender as one of the hands clasping my ass slid between my legs and disappeared into the torrent of desire he had encouraged. I knew what he would find when his fingers slipped inside of me. Grasping muscles, silky moisture, a greedy channel that wanted more because with Cy there didn’t seem to be enough.

  I put my good hand on the rigid plane of his shoulder and almost exploded across his tongue as his pitch-black lashes lifted revealing eyes that were furious and thunderous with longing. It was a storm I wanted to come . . . on me or in me. I didn’t really care. His mouth was wet and red from working me over, and while he still wasn’t smiling, his usual smirk had much less of an edge to it. I wasn’t sure if he was happy or not, but whatever was happening between the two of us at this very moment had definitely given him a reason to forget that he only had half a heart. He wasn’t missing anything at the moment because he was focused entirely on me and on all the ways he was making my body give him the reactions that he wanted. Who knew that letting go could feel so fucking good?

  I lifted my hand so I could trace his chiseled jaw and almost went under the water when I felt his mouth move over mine, his tongue pushing between my lips and moving in time with his pumping and plunging fingers. The dual stimulation was too much to process and my body gave up trying. I was in his hands, and I was going to let him guide me somewhere I had never been before. I was used to giving orders and making sure what needed to get taken care of got done. With Cy, no direction was needed as he skillfully stroked and sucked, sending pleasure skating up and down my spine. The more I leaned on him, pressed in to him, the faster his fingers curled and tapped against some hidden hot spot inside of me I never knew existed.

  “What are you doing to me?” The words whispered out, surprised and questioning as I felt the crest of release uncoiling low in my belly and burning at the base of my spine. I had one hand in his hair, holding him. In fact, I felt the tip of his rigid shaft as close to my open and exposed center as it could get. He rocked himself between my slippery, silky folds as we both gasped from the contact.

  I was exhilarated and so, so close to coming undone all over his questing tongue and plundering fingers. I couldn’t feel my wrist anymore. Everything was a blur of blinding pleasure and decadent desire.

  His warm breath danced across my lips. “I’m making sure you know that you matter, Leo. Time might be limited, but all the different ways I want to make you whisper and then scream my name feel infinite now that I have the taste of you on my tongue and the feel of you on my fingers.”

  It wasn’t his fingers curving into my backside and disappearing to trip over places no man had ever dared try and touch before that set me off. It wasn’t the bite of his deep kiss or the talented twist of his tongue. It wasn’t the fingers touching, tapping, torturing all the sweet and starving places inside of me that seemed like they had been waiting for him to fill them up forever. It wasn’t the press of his leg between mine or the careful way he held my injured wrist against his chest, making sure it didn’t move that pulled my orgasm out of hiding and made me sob his name.

  It was his deep voice and the rumble of his words against my skin when he told me, “You are so much more than I expected you to be.”

  To have this extraordinary man, with all his history and heartbreak, tell me that I was something special, it tore me apart. I was buried under an avalanche of passion and praise. I shattered on waves of approval and bliss. I drifted away on an orgasm so intense that twisted me up and turned my idea of what sex and satisfaction should be on its head.

  He caught me as I fell against him and told me that he wanted to suck my nipples to see if they tasted like candy because they were so pink and pretty. He growled that he wanted to bend me over and take me from the back so he could lose his hands in my crazy hair.

  I nervously cleared my throat and untangled my hand from his hair so I could trace the arch of his eyebrow and sharp ridge of his cheek. I liked touching all his soft places.

  “I’ve always liked a man with a plan, Cyrus.” I sighed as he whisp
ered in my ear, that if we had enough time, he would show me how fun it could be if I let him take me in that place I never let anyone near before his gentle caresses went exploring there today. That sparked pulses of curiosity and interest inside a soaked center that was already begging for more of his attention. I wasn’t that daring, but for him I might be. His thumb rubbed circles on the back of my knee, as I shivered and shook my way down from the pinnacle of pleasure and back to reality. When I could think straight I realized he had me sprawled naked across his lap where I was straddling a very hard erection.

  He grabbed my chin in one of his hands and tilted my face up. His lips twitched and it was my heart that tugged in response instead of my greedy core. My body liked his mouth and his hands, my heart was all about the things that made him drop his stony, impenetrable shield. “When you’re not in pain, I’m going to fuck you with my face while you suck my cock. Then I’m going to have you ride me so hard that neither one of us will be able to walk straight for a week.”

  That was the best promise he’s made yet.

  I brushed my lips across the side of his neck and traced the vein that was throbbing there with the tip of my tongue. I felt his breathing hitch and the hardness underneath my ass pressed insistently into me, letting me know this moment was far from over.

  “Promises, promises.” I breathed the words into his ear and used the tip of my tongue to trace the shell. He tasted like mountains and man. The way his entire body shuddered at the light touch was almost enough to make me forget about my banged-up wrist.

  Considering I knew what kind of exciting equipment he was working with, I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my hips against the delicious length that was solid as steel and velvety soft against my opening. I rolled my hips, unknowingly searching for some kind of fulfillment. The seductive rocking motion had the abs I was pressed against pulling tight and shoulders I was held against locked hard and straight. I rubbed the end of my nose along the bristly edge of his jaw and touched my lips to the corner of his mouth.