Edie Earns Her Saddle

by Edie Earns Her Saddle (lit)

  “Get out before I throw you out. And I will. Don’t think I won’t.”

  “Well, you’ll just have to force me, then,” Cassandra shot back.

  Jason didn’t answer. Instead, his giant hand shot out and grabbed her arm, and he pulled her out of the room. Seth sidled up to Edie, the skin of his arm brushing against her shoulder. The silence buzzed around them, or maybe that was the ringing in her ears. Edie could not decide. She just needed to avoid eye contact with Seth for as long as possible. If she saw any sort of expression she did not like on their faces—regret, pity, frustration, anything—she would give them a piece of her mind, and it would not be pretty. She might say things she would never be able to take back. She did not want to do that to them, no matter how angry or embarrassed or confused she was.

  She tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and made a show of checking to see if her hairstyle was still in place on her head while she inched away from Seth. He let her have her space. He didn’t move to follow her, and she breathed a quiet sigh of relief. She just needed a few moments to collect herself.

  She headed toward the kitchen island and started cleaning up the coffee mugs and cookie crumbs she and Cassandra left. Her hands shook so badly that the coffee sloshed and threatened to spill. She placed them in the sink with a little too much emphasis, and the clattering sound filled the empty space around her.

  Edie went rigid to cover up her startled jump.

  She felt Seth’s gaze on her like a heated beam, and her body responded to it, slowly melting and loosening until her shoulders lowered themselves from around her ears. She still didn’t face him, though. No matter how much her traitorous body desired to feel him press against her, her mind still reeled from everything that just happened, and she still felt the residual tension hanging in the air.

  She blew out a breath, gathered her cleaning supplies, and decided to take out her frustration on the countertops.

  Edie put her whole body into her mad, obsessive scrubbing, and her hair started coming out of the bobby pins. She swatted at it and repeatedly swept her forearm over it to smooth back the loose tendrils, but they fell into her face, creating a curtain around her eyes. She stomped her foot and shook her hair loose, but when she tipped her head back she saw Seth coming for her.

  She straightened and watched, transfixed, as he crossed the room. He part stalked, part teased her as he closed the space between them, his cocksure swagger telling her that he knew she wanted him. The air sizzled around them, the angry tension from before turning into something hotter and full of promises of passion. He didn’t speak to her. He didn’t have to. He simply held her captive in his midnight blue gaze, and she was helpless to look away. His eyes smoldered and sparkled with erotic intent.

  She clenched her thighs together.

  He kissed her. She didn’t have any warning. One minute, he stared at her as if trying to see through her, and then the next his lips were on hers, taking, claiming, coaxing. He was not gentle with her, and when she would have pulled away, his hand wove into her hair and pressed her closer. She collapsed into him and let him hold her weight so she could clutch at him. His hands were everywhere, touching, caressing, pressing, stroking. Her nipples turned to sensitive, demanding peaks, and her pussy throbbed with her desire.

  Seth yanked her shirt open and caught one of her nipples in his mouth, the suction and sweet, sweet pleasure making her head roll back on her shoulders. She clutched him to her, pressed him closer, and then suddenly he spun her around. She caught the edge of the countertop with her palms to steady herself. He pressed her against it, and the edge pushed into her tummy. She closed her eyes when his lips left soft kisses on her neck. The light pressure and his warm, moist breath lit her skin on fire. Passion and heat bubbled under her goose-bumped skin, and she trembled with the force of it.

  He reached around her and pulled one of the floor cabinets open.

  “Put your leg up.”

  Edie shook her head, trying to clear the sex haze clouding her thoughts. “What?”

  “Your leg.”

  “I don’t...”

  Then his hand was under her knee and lifting it. She fell back against his chest, but he didn’t show any signs of not being able to hold her weight. He did not sag back, did not stumble. He accepted her weight and pulled her closer with his free arm while his hand propped her foot on one of the shelves and held her knee out so that her pussy was fully exposed.

  “Oh, God,” she whimpered.

  “‘Oh, God’ is right, Edie. You’ll be saying that a lot before I’m done with you.” His hand slid up her leg toward her waiting pussy. With every inch he got closer, her pussy juices flowed more, and her cunt clenched when his fingertips brushed over the skin where her leg met her groin.

  Edie sucked in a breath and rubbed herself against his chest. She could feel his muscles bulging even through their clothes.

  The tip of his tongue dragged up the side of her neck, and his lips laid a kiss on her jaw before he blew on the trail he left. Edie grabbed at the countertop for balance even as he nipped on her earlobe and traced the shell of her ear.

  She let out a strangled sound and fought against collapsing into a horny, sex-starved heap on the floor. He made her so hot for him when he took his time. She wanted it hard, fast, now. He never gave it to her. He seemed to like it when she begged and pleaded with him. When she screamed at him to let her go over the edge please, please because the pleasure hurt too much. It was always worth it. She always came apart under his hands, his mouth, his body, and the look on his face every time was the same, and it told her that he reveled in it. He loved it when he made her come so hard she couldn’t stop her body from shaking and twitching with the aftereffects. Smug bastard. He was amazing, and he knew it.

  He gently separated her labia, and her clit throbbed when he barely brushed over it. She stilled in his arms and felt his chest vibrating.

  “It’s not funny, Seth!”

  He leaned in close. “I never said it was.”

  He pressed his fingertips against her cunt, and the soft pressure made her eyes roll back in her head. When his fingers slid into her, she let out a low moan and lowered her hips to accept more of him. He pressed against her G-spot, and pleasure bloomed under her skin. He swirled his fingers inside her again and pressed the heel of his hand against her clit, and her orgasm burst through her, sudden and violent.

  Without warning, he pushed her into the countertop and hiked her skirt up. The surface of it was cold to the touch, and her nipples tightened when they touched it. His hands wrapped around her hips and lifted them toward his cock so that she had to balance on her tip-toes. He thrust fully into her in one heavy stroke. He filled her so completely that she felt herself having to stretch around him, but he did not give her the time. He pulled back until she felt the thick tip of him almost pull out of her, then fucked himself back inside.

  Edie took a gasping breath and clutched at the counter, her fingers scraping at the white tile, trying to grab on to something, anything that would anchor her to reality. The air heaved out of her with every heavy stroke of his cock inside her, and he hit that special spot every time he drove in.

  His pace was fast, brutal, and luscious in its ferocity. She felt his urgency in the way he huddled around her and caged her in with his arms. It was as if he didn’t want to let her go, and he held her to him as if she would.

  Her mouth fell open when his fingertips brushed over her clit. It was too much. It wasn’t enough. He fucked her hard, then he fucked her softly. He overwhelmed her with sensation.

  Seth’s strokes grew shallower and faster, more desperate. He was close, she could feel it. She pressed her hips back into him, and he moaned from low in his chest. He grasped her hips harder and pumped her on and off his dick. Edie let him control the pace, gave herself over to his heady, untamed passion. All she could do was hold on to the counter as he overwhelmed her.

  This was not sex. This was branding. Marking. />
  He pulled out of her, yelling “Damn it” before he started pacing around the kitchen, his big cock leading the way. Edie slumped over the counter, her whole body rising and falling with her breathing.

  “Seth? What the hell?”

  “Did I hurt you? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine. What’s going on with you? Why didn’t you let yourself come?”

  “I almost lost it. I was so pissed off at the whole situation and at you for even thinking that Cassandra could even come close to meaning as much as you, and I almost lost myself in it, and then—” Seth blew out a breath and put his hands on his hips. He turned around and faced her. “You sure I didn’t hurt you?”

  “Yes. Seth, what—”

  Jason walked in. His piercing eyes went from her to Seth and a look she could not interpret came to his face. His jaw clenched. Not good. Jason gave Seth a hard stare, and Seth rolled his eyes and walked toward Edie. He planted a soft kiss between her shoulder blades and helped her straighten her clothes before he bent to put his own back on.

  “She won’t be coming back any time soon.” Jason’s voice sounded as cold as his eyes looked.

  His tone went right through her and made her angry all over again. “Well, don’t sound so upset about it.” Edie smoothed her hands over her clothing. When she finally looked back up, she met Jason’s gaze and refused to look away.

  “Why shouldn’t I be pissed off? That woman is out of her damn mind. She’s controlling, she’s manipulative, and she’s one of the most selfish people I’ve met, and now she’s trying to sink her claws into you. Of course I’m pissed.”

  Edie shifted her weight to one leg and put her hands on her hips. “You know what your problem is, Jason? You think everyone is out to get you. And now your paranoia is taking over. Cassandra is just one of those people—”

  He took a step toward her, and Seth came to stand between them. “Whoa, Jace.”

  Jason just sidestepped his brother and towered over Edie. “Of course I’m paranoid! You have no idea what I’ve seen, Edie. Not everyone is like you! People aren’t always honest or honorable. They’re not even nice. But you are, and it scares the shit out of me.”

  Seth stepped in front of him again, but Jason just kept going. “You think people actually give a shit about everyone else, but they don’t. And people like that will take advantage of you every time. Why do you think we stop by this place every night? Why do you think we do background checks on everyone who stays here? You think that the world is full of butterflies and rainbows and sunshine, but it’s not, Edie! You don’t listen to me. You listen to the people who want to hurt you and pull us apart.”

  That just pissed her off. She took a breath, and her chest puffed out in anger. “Are you kidding me with this? Are you really serious? How dare you tell me that I need to be more careful about the people I let into my life when you’re the ones who had a relationship with her?” She shoved past Seth and pushed against Jason’s chest in her fury. He didn’t move an inch, but she didn’t care. The gloves were off now. “You hypocrite! So it’s okay for you to be with whoever you want, but I’m not allowed to make friends with whoever I want? Screw that, Jason! Don’t you dare try to control me.”

  The blood drained out of Jason’s face, and Seth’s eyes went saucer-like. “Edie,” Seth started.

  She held her hand out. “No. I’m not done with your brother yet.” She met Jason’s eyes. “I’m a big girl, Jason. I can take care of myself. I did it before you, and I’ll do it after you if it comes to that. Don’t be condescending to me by thinking that you can always protect me and take care of me like I’m some sort of wilting flower! I’m not one of your commandoes, Jason! I’m a woman. If you didn’t notice, I have a brain of my own, and I use it quite well, thank you very much, you chauvinist bastard.”

  “Is that what you really think of me?”

  “Based on the past hour of your behavior? Yes.”

  “You’re completely wrong, Edie.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “Really? Well, please correct me because I’m apparently incapable of making my own decisions!”

  Jason’s lips tightened, and his jaw ticked. “Fine. You’re right. I said some things that I should have explained better.”

  “Yes. You should have.”

  Seth broke in. “What he’s trying to say is that he’s worried Cassandra told you things about us that might make you second guess our feelings for you, but anything she said wasn’t true.”

  “So the time on the sailboat? That wasn’t true.”

  Seth looked chastened. “Okay, fine. That was true.”

  “And the time when you tied—”

  Jason muttered a curse and hit the wall before pacing around the kitchen. Seth released a clipped breath and squeezed his eyes closed before he put his palms up toward her.

  “All right, all right. Whatever she said about the time we spent with her is probably true. But anything she said about us loving her or having feelings for her is complete crap. Yes, Edie, we’ve both been with other women, together or otherwise, but that’s it. We’ve just been with them. There weren’t any feelings involved. None whatsoever.” He gently caressed her shoulders.

  She shrugged him off. So there might not have been any feelings between them, but she knew what they had done together, and the images wouldn’t stop flashing through her brain.

  Silence buzzed around them, and Jason’s heavy footsteps echoed around the room. He stopped in front of her. “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. But what I said was true. She’s trying to take you away from us, and the thought scares me.”

  While his words went straight to her heart and made it throb with something too big for words, the logic behind them incensed her. “You know what, Jason? The only person who can take me away from you is me. Me. I’m the one who makes the decision to be with the two of you, no one else.”

  “Edie, I didn’t mean—”

  “No. Don’t even start. Just get out. Leave. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I’ll call when I’m ready to talk.”

  She walked out of the room.

  Chapter Seven

  The music echoed and pounded through Edie’s chest as she walked through Cedar Ridge’s front doors. She glanced around, her eyes scanning the faces on the packed dance floor, the mahogany bar, and the small indoor stage where a band played a cover of a George Strait song. She hoped with every fiber of her depressed being she would see Jason and Seth, but she dreaded the moment more than she wanted to admit.

  What would they think? What would they say? She hadn’t spoken to them for almost a week, and they had respected her request to not contact her until she made the first move. Were they scanning the entrance to the bar, looking for her as anxiously as she looked for them? Did they look for signs of her everywhere they went? Did the ghost of her scent linger in the hallways and in their sheets?

  She followed Lena as they made their way through the crowd, weaving and winding their bodies around the people in their way.

  “Whatcha drinking, sweetie?” the bartender called out when they got to the bar.

  “A Malibu and Coke for me,” Edie said over the music. She pulled some cash out of her back pocket. “And a Dos Equis for her.” Edie tilted her head toward Lena, who leaned an elbow against the bar.

  Edie handed Lena their drinks and threw her hair up in a haphazard bun. “Where do you want to sit?”

  Lena pointed her longneck to the second floor of the bar. “Up there looks good.”

  “Okay. Sounds good to me.”

  They found a corner table overlooking the dance floor. After not seeing Jason outside, she wondered if he would be doing some crowd control inside. Edie looked at every face below her, but she could not see either of them. She took a deep breath and let it out. It sounded as heavy as her chest felt.

  “Are they not here?” Lena asked, a knowing look on her face.

  “I guess not.” She had no desire to come out tonight. Al
l she wanted to do was curl up in bed with a pint of green tea Haagen-Dazs and a Pride and Prejudice DVD, but Lena literally dragged her to the car saying there was not any point in sulking in the dark. Edie disagreed, but hey, girls’ nights did not just fall into their laps anymore.

  She gulped down half of her drink and sighed again. One of Lena’s eyebrows shot up in response, but Lena did not say anything about her moping just yet.

  “I’m just so frustrated with myself right now, Lena.”

  “I know. But, Edie, you have to realize that Jason and Seth are crazy about you. You have to stop questioning yourself when it comes to their feelings for you.” Lena reached across the table and grasped her hand for a moment. Edie squeezed it back.

  “You’re right. I know you are, but why would they want me when Cassandra is there looking so perfect in her tailored white suits and her ridiculously gorgeous shoes, even though she is a little crazy?” Edie looked down at herself. She wore a dark pair of jeans and a top she made herself out of silk handkerchiefs. It was shaped like a diamond, and only a single knot in the center of her back held it together. “I mean, look at me.”

  Lena rolled her eyes and clucked her tongue. “Jesus Christ, Edie. For the thousandth time this week, you’re not ugly!”

  “It’s not that. It’s just that next to Cassandra, I feel like this windblown, unkempt, messy street person. And the fact that they did the same things with her as with me—”

  “Edie, going through the motions with someone doesn’t mean the feelings were there behind everything, and know that’s how it is with you.”

  Edie finished her drink, the rum starting to settle warmly in her legs. “But you weren’t there. You didn’t feel the tension in that room. Why would there be tension if there weren’t feelings involved?”

  “They were probably just really unhappy and shocked to see her there. How would you feel if you saw one of your ex-boyfriends here?”

  “First off, I only have one ex-boyfriend. And secondly, I certainly wouldn’t get all hot and bothered by it. Underlying emotions signal underlying feelings.” Ha. She wanted to see Lena reason her way around that one.