Herd That ARC

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I tried in vain to keep my gaze focused on the chest up, but then she looked down at my dick and I couldn’t help but look down at her pussy.

  She had a landing strip.

  It was cute. Adorable. I wanted to trace it with my lips all the way to the juncture of her thighs right where I could barely see the tip of her clit poking out.

  Oh fuck.

  I stripped my sweats off with one fell swoop, taking my boots right along with them.

  It was so quick and fast that she blinked at me, then smiled.

  “I’m not going to regret this in the morning,” she informed me. “I’ve been wanting this for a long time.”

  I grinned and gestured for her to get back into the steaming shower that was still spraying away.

  If I touched her, I knew I wouldn’t be letting her go.

  So, I allowed her to move on her own and followed her inside.

  My mind was no longer on my cold body, though. The heat, although it felt good if only peripherally, was an afterthought as I clenched and unclenched my fists. I told myself that I needed to have patience. That I needed to…

  “Today was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me,” she whispered. “And I wouldn’t have a job right now if it weren’t for you.” She swallowed. “Now are you going to fuck me or what?”

  The matter of fact way she asked it, paired with the laughter in her eyes?

  That made me grin. Just before I launched myself at her, scooped her up by her ass, and slammed her back to the tile as my mouth descended on hers.

  She gasped at what I guessed was the cool tile hitting her back, but I couldn’t stop myself from kissing her anyway. I pressed her against the freezing cold wall despite her discomfort.

  That was likely because my cock was sandwiched between us and her pussy lips had parted enough to allow my cock to tunnel between them.

  I was seeing stars just from that alone, and I couldn’t force myself to be the gentleman any longer.

  Then again, I’d never claimed to be a gentleman.

  My hands clenched on her ass, and I loved how pliable it was to my fingers. I loved the way she moaned into my mouth, too, when I started to slowly rock myself back and forth into her heat.

  She tightened her legs around my hips, and I couldn’t help but pull back enough that she could see the look on my face. The total and complete rightness of what we were about to do.

  Her mouth fell open slightly, and she breathed out roughly.

  “I know this sounds cheesy, but I’m about to come,” she whispered.

  I slowed down, causing her to curse.

  “I want to come with you… inside you,” I whispered.

  She looked into my eyes, and I saw a flash of something there before she closed her eyes and threw her head back.

  “Then you better get on with it because even with you going slow, I’m about to come anyway,” she informed me.

  Grinning, I brought my hand down to cup her breast, bringing the delicious morsel to my mouth and dragging my tongue along the distended peak.

  “You’ll hold off,” I said teasingly. “I know you can. I’ve also seen you in the gym, so I know how much iron-clad control you have when you put your mind to something.”

  She snarled a curse and brought her hands up to my hair, yanking on it slightly.

  “There’s a difference here,” she said fiercely. “I don’t want to hold off. You want me to. Biiiiiiig difference.”

  She started snickering when I shook my head at her, a grin playing at the corner of my lips.

  “I don’t have any condoms,” I told her.

  She looked at me so long that I paused in what I was doing.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I’ve only ever had three sexual partners, and none of those went without a condom. I tested myself after them. I’m clean.”

  I knew where she was going with this.

  “Codie…”

  “I’m not Catholic.”

  I blinked. “Ummm, okay?”

  She grinned. “It means that my religion doesn’t have a problem with me using birth control. Which I do. Have been since I was sixteen and… bad according to my mother.”

  I didn’t waste time lining my cock up with her entrance. Nor did I think about how bad of an idea this was.

  Not because I didn’t trust her, but because I did.

  I really, really did.

  I was starting to fall really hard for her.

  Hell, if I was being truthful, I’d already fallen hard for her.

  I just needed to bide my time. To make sure that she didn’t spook and bolt like a nervous filly scared to be tamed.

  And she was.

  I’d done a lot of taming in my time, and Codie was everything I ever looked for in a horse worth taming—spirited and strong, determined yet willing to learn. Loving and kind. Patient and forgiving.

  Yeah, she’d do nicely.

  “Ace?” she asked softly, pressing her hand to my cheek. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” I murmured, my hands moving. “I kept getting really random text messages from you… and I started to think that maybe something was wrong. Like you were dying and trying to send out an SOS or something.”

  I dropped her down until she took even more of me, answering with my actions instead of answering her with my words.

  Her lips parted, and her eyes went hot.

  “I’ll take that as a ‘You’re just fine,’” he whispered gruffly.

  Winking at her, I dropped her down even more, not stopping until she was all the way full of me.

  She swallowed hard, and I saw for the first time that she wanted me as badly as I wanted her.

  It was also then that I realized she’d done a great job at holding herself back, not giving everything to me that she could, and I knew then and there that I was going to break down every single wall she had.

  “You scared the shit out of me,” I admitted, pressing forward until my chest was pressed against her tits.

  She wrapped both arms around my neck and pulled me impossibly closer.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I need a new phone.”

  I pulled out of her and thrust back inside, making her cry out against my mouth.

  I pressed my mouth against hers, silencing her with a kiss.

  “No moans or cries,” I ordered. “We don’t want your grandpa coming in here checking on you.”

  She scoffed.

  “I’m fairly sure that he’s out at the bar like he’s been all week,” she said. “I’m fairly sure that I’ll be going to look at RVs tomorrow because he’s driving me absolutely insane.”

  I frowned. “We have a building on the back acreage that Colt was staying in. He just came back up to the main house… but that house? It’s livable. It’s a two-bedroom ranch with just enough space to make it livable but needs some work. I can work on it while you’re living there if you want to take it.”

  She squeezed her pussy around my cock, and I forgot what I’d been talking about.

  Honestly, I forgot a lot of things.

  Such as, we were supposed to be quiet because she had a grandfather that lived with her. Also, that I was taking her roughly against the shower wall.

  “Oh, God.” I squeezed my eyes tightly shut.

  Then, since I couldn’t help it, I started moving again even though I’d literally just told myself that I needed to get myself under control first.

  I hadn’t been this goddamn horny—or wanted a woman so desperately—since forever.

  In fact, even in high school when the only thing that’d been on my mind was teenage pussy, I hadn’t been this out of control.

  Her pussy started to tighten and contract, and before I could tell myself to stop, her pussy clamped down so hard that I could no longer hold back.

  My cock started moving in deep, uneven thrusts. Taking her hard and fast while also not giving one flying fuck who
or what could hear me.

  By the time I was coming, her head was thrown back as she desperately tried to hold on for dear life, and I was blowing air in and out of my lungs like I’d just run a marathon.

  Hell, even squatting over four hundred pounds this morning hadn’t elicited that kind of response from me.

  “There’s something wrong with my legs,” she whispered with her eyes closed.

  I dropped her lower half until she was holding her weight, then asked, “What’s wrong with them?”

  “They feel like Jell-O,” she whispered. “I’m fairly sure I can’t go to the gym tomorrow.”

  Smacking my hand down hard on her ass, hard enough that I knew there’d be a handprint there for the next hour, I said, “You’re going to the gym. With me.”

  She rolled her eyes but didn’t make a sound about the smack.

  “Let’s get out of here,” she suggested. “The water is cold.”

  I agreed and backed up, being sure to stay out of the spray of the shower as I made my way out of the stall.

  When I turned to look at her, it was to see my release leave her in a rush, hitting the tile of the floor between her splayed thighs as well as running down the inside of her left thigh.

  Once I was there, I grabbed the closest towel, which happened to be bright pink, and leveled her with a stare as I watched her wash away the remnants of my ejaculation.

  I watched her with so much avid fascination that it took me a while to get to the question that’d been on the tip of my tongue before she’d started washing herself.

  “About that house,” I said long moments later. “Do you want to go look at it?”

  “Will you rent it to me?” she asked. “When I get that job at the police department, I’ll finally have money to spare.”

  “When you get it?” I teased.

  Her cheeks heated. “He guaranteed me the job today after he left,” she said. “I just have to go up there for a formal interview, pass a lie detector test, and fill out some paperwork. He was even able to pull up my background check while we were there. As far as he’s concerned, I have the job… so he said.”

  “When is all that going down?”

  My dick twitched and started to lengthen.

  “No.” She shook her head, seeing the way my cock tented the front of the pink towel. “My vagina is off limits for about twenty minutes while I regain my faculties.”

  I snorted and informed my dick that it needed to calm down—mentally of course.

  I didn’t need to give her any reasons to pull away.

  “And to answer your question,” she said as she stepped back into the shower spray, shivering at the icy temperature of the water. “I have to do that really early, at like nine o’clock. I think I’ll take a shower at the gym and head straight over there once I’m done working out. Damn Desi.”

  “Tomorrow I have to go to the lawyer,” I said. “I’m going to talk to them about the life insurance claim that they’re still waffling over.” I paused as she stepped out of the shower, too, all hot and wet and mine. “Do you want to get some lunch after you’re all done? I have to be back at the ranch at two to show a horse, but after that, I’m done.”

  She looked at me quizzically. “That life insurance problem isn’t fixed yet?”

  I shook my head.

  “Do you want me to ask my dad?” she asked curiously.

  Codie’s father, Takumi, was the sweetest man in the world—at least from what I’d remembered. But get him in a courtroom and he turned into a little bulldog who always won, no matter what he had to do to accomplish that goal.

  I frowned.

  “How about you let me see what the lawyer says tomorrow.” I nodded my head. “Then, if I don’t like what he has to say, then I might very well take you up on that offer.”

  She frowned. “I can go with you to that if I skip working out.”

  Her eyes lit.

  “I don’t know…”

  “How about we go work out in the evening?” she suggested. “I’ll just ask Desi to go later with me.”

  “Or I can go with you by myself,” I offered.

  Her cheeks heated.

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Chapter 14

  I have the patience of a saint. Saint zero fucking patience.

  -Codie’s secret thoughts

  Codie

  I was nervous as all get out.

  As I arrived at the first desk that I could see in the middle of the big room, my eyes went to the young woman sitting behind it, and I smiled.

  “Hello,” I said softly.

  She looked up with a warm expression on her face.

  “Hello,” she said. “Can I help you?”

  I nodded my head as I said, “I’m here to see Luke Roberts.”

  “I’ll take her, KK,” I heard from behind me.

  I turned to see Nico striding in with two men at his side, both of which I’d seen quite a few times around town since I’d been home.

  They were both on the SWAT team, obviously, seeing as they were each wearing the same “KPD SWAT’ shirt that Nico had on.

  They were also looking at me with huge smiles on their faces.

  “It’s the Devil whisperer.”

  I blinked in surprise at the obviously affectionate words aimed toward me coming from the man to my left.

  He had a gun on his hip, a shiny gold badge clipped to the belt, and his shoulders were so wide I could park a car on them.

  “Uhhh,” I hesitated. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Are you talking about Nico’s kids being the Devil, or are you talking about Ace being the devil?” the smaller of the two unknown men asked. “Because Nico said today that Ace has been the happiest that he’s ever seen him.”

  I stared at the two men in fascination, then glanced at Nico who was busy checking his phone.

  “Are you going to take her, or would you like me to?” KK asked sweetly. “Y’all still haven’t moved from standing in front of my desk.”

  “Saucy, I like it,” the man in the middle said. “This way, madam.”

  I looked at Nico who was now shoving the phone into his pocket and rolling his eyes.

  “I was referring to the fact that his kids wouldn’t shut up about her this morning,” the man on the right said. “My name is Miller, by the way. Miller Spurlock. This here is my gimp baby brother, Foster. I’m the cuter one in the family.”

  I blinked.

  “I thought that was your eldest brother, Trance?” Nico teased as he threw his arm around my shoulders. “And speaking of, my kids really did think a lot about you. If you want to babysit for me tonight, I’d be grateful. My wife is taking me out to dinner, I think, to spring another kid on me. I think I need a babysitter for that kind of news.”

  I blinked. “Umm,” I hesitated. “Unfortunately, I can’t. Ace and I have plans. We’re going to talk to his lawyer after this, then we’re going to work out, because I’m training for that race that’s happening in a couple of months. The one where you have to run really far, then go over obstacles and try not to break your neck. Then, after that, we’re headed out on a date of our own.” I paused for a breath. “But congrats on the new baby, I guess. Try not to let this one turn out like your others.”

  Miller started belly laughing behind us.

  Foster was wiping tears from his eyes.

  “My kids really aren’t that bad,” Nico defended them.

  I shook my head. “Maybe if you keep telling yourself, then you’ll even one day believe it.”

  Nico’s lips twitched. “Okay, they’re pretty bad. But… only with people they don’t know. Since last night, they’ve been talking about you nonstop. I imagine that they’ll try to start treating you better now.”

  The men we passed started laughing, and I knew that they felt the same way about Nico’s kids that I did.

  They really were hellions, whether he wante
d to admit it or not.

  “Weren’t your kids the ones that got expelled from school while y’all were on that cruise a couple of years ago?” a male officer in his late thirties asked from behind a counter. He had a large stamp of some sort in his hand, and he was staring at Nico with a raised brow.”

  “Listen here, Winscombe,” Nico sighed. “My kids are perfect angels.”

  With that, Miller took me by the elbow—like a police officer would a suspect—and led me further into the station while Nico continued to argue with the Winscombe individual.

  That, of course, was when we passed by Marie who had a large stack of files in her arms.

  The moment she saw me, then Miller leading me, I knew she automatically thought the worst.

  “Hello, Codie,” Marie sneered.

  She didn’t stop, but I could see the gloating smile on her face as we passed each other.

  When she was behind me, I looked over my shoulder to see her stop at a desk of a female officer and start to talk in hushed tones. Her eyes were laughing as she spoke animatedly with the woman. The female officer looked over her shoulder at me and frowned.

  “I see that you already have a friend here,” Miller said. “What’d you do to piss off Marie Glasgow?”

  I sighed and gently extracted my elbow from his grip, then brought my hand up to run through my hair. It was a nervous gesture, but I didn’t care. I was nervous. I was also crazy to think that working here would be something that we could accomplish without at least a few odd looks from the men and women who also worked there.

  “I once, very briefly, dated her husband,” I said. “We were in high school, and Jace took my virginity. It was a fling of about two weeks. Long enough to get myself into trouble.”

  Miller looked down at me with a look of shock on his face. “That was a lot of honesty there. I’m surprised.”

  I shrugged. “I have nothing to hide. I’m not bitter about it anymore, either. Just… resigned. But, Jace and I were young. Sixteen.”

  “I don’t like Jace,” Foster said from my side.

  I hadn’t even realized that he was there.

  I grinned. “Yeah?”

  He nodded once, stopping to allow me and Miller to go first into the long, narrow hallway.