by Liz Peters
She stepped out of the shower, wrapped in a towel and made her way over to the suitcase in the corner of the room after a few stops to pick up the clothes strewn across the room after last night. She dropped them in a heap in the empty part of her suitcase without bothering to fold them. There would be time for that later. She was planning to leave tomorrow. Sunday would be her last day on the ranch. Sam would be heading back into the real world and back to work with nothing but the memory of what happened here to take with her along with maybe a few sore muscles that would work themselves out in time.
She pulled out another pair of jeans and a shirt she’d bought just for the trip to pull on for the day and tried to clear her thoughts. She needed to be in the game today after slipping out early from the party last night. Hopefully, no one had noticed.
Her hopes were shot when she walked out to find where the rest of them were eating breakfast and Ingersoll slipped into the line for the small breakfast buffet behind her, clearing her throat.
“Well, Miss Crawford, we missed you at the party last night. I thought I saw you come in, but I couldn’t find you later on in the night.”
Sam kicked herself internally, knowing she’d potentially screwed up a shot at a promotion, but there was nothing she could do about it now. The only thing remaining was to make sure she covered her ass as much as possible and telling her boss that she’d snuck off with a hot ranch hand to have a one night stand was the last thing she needed to do.
“My apologies, Mr. Ingersoll. I was there for a while, but I got a bit of a headache. Must have been all that time in the sun yesterday afternoon. I just decided to head to bed early. I know we have a long day ahead of us.”
She breathed a soft sigh of relief when he nodded and chuckled softly. “I suppose you had the right idea there, Crawford. I was wishing I’d gotten a full night in myself when I rolled out of bed with the sunrise this morning. Well done there.”
The chit-chat continued throughout breakfast, and she did her best to keep up, though Sam couldn’t help but wonder what they’d all be saying if they knew how little sleep she really had gotten last night. She’d been up to all hours of the night with Reid doing things she would have blushed to admit out loud in front of anyone here. Even the memory of it brought a smile to her face. She couldn’t find it in herself to feel as stupid about it all as she had when she woke up this morning.
Breakfast passed quickly enough, and the group of them were directed out to the stables where some of the hands were supposed to be waiting to outfit them all with horses for the day. Her heart skipped a beat when she recognized Reid standing in the doorway of one of the stalls. He hadn’t even turned around, but she knew who it was before he even made a move. She’d spent long enough yesterday staring at him from any angle she could manage that recognizing him now took almost no effort.
Sam didn’t know if she wanted to back off and go hide or go charging into the stable like nothing at all had happened. Her hesitation put her at the back of the group getting saddled up, and eventually, there was no one left in the stables beside her and the blonde ranch hand she’d spent an entire night with the evening before. The two of them were alone for the first time since she’d passed out with her head resting on his chest at who knew what hour of the morning.
“Hey there, Legs. Fancy seeing you here.” He shot her that smile that made her knees go weak. The one that had her crawling into his lap the night before. There was nothing she could do but smile back up at him.
“So, you took off kind of early this morning…” Her voice trailed off, betraying the uncertainty she’d felt upon seeing him. She was bad at hiding things around him. Sam wasn’t even certain why she’d tried.
Reid’s face twisted and his brows knitted together in a look of concern. “Hey listen, I had to get to work before sun-up this morning. I would have stayed. Trust me. I wanted to stay more than anything, but I didn’t think either one of us needed everyone finding out where the two of us spent the night.” He took a step in closer, scanning the stable around them as he cupped her chin and tilted her face up to meet his, his blue eyes searing into hers for a moment before he leaned in to steal a kiss, murmuring into her lips. “Tonight… I’d like to see you again if you want to.”
She lingered there for a moment, savoring the way the kiss tasted on her lips. It was like last night all over again, and she needed more of it before she had to leave here for good. There was no way she’d miss seeing him again tonight, even if she wasn’t ever going to be able to see him again. It was a little reckless of her, but there was something about him that made her feel like she could absolutely abandon caution. All she could do was nod as she looked up at him.
“Good girl.” He smiled and moved to help her onto the horse he’d had waiting for her. “The rest of the staff have Saturday nights off. They all go into town and drink too much and stay with one of the guys who has a house closer to the bars so they don’t have to drive. Tonight should just be the two of us.”
Sam settled onto the saddle and looked down at him with a grin. “I’ll be looking forward to it.” It was the truth. She was already looking forward to it. It was probably all she was going to be able to think about for the rest of the day.
“So will I. Now, promise me you’ll take good care of my girl here.” He ran a hand along the flank of the horse she was perched on top of. “She’s my horse, not the ranch’s. You looked like you could handle yourself well enough yesterday, and I wouldn’t trust her to just anyone.”
Sam didn’t know what to make of what he’d just told her. She had no way of knowing if he made a habit of putting guests on his own personal horse, but something about him and the way he ran a loving hand along her back before moving off to mount another one of the horses in the stable told her that he didn’t. She tried to push down the questions as she rode out of the stables and joined the rest of them outside. The two of them could explain why it had taken a few moments to get her on the horse’s back, but they couldn’t have pushed it too much longer without arousing suspicion.
The rest of the day was a blur. The cattle roundup was pretty much exactly what she’d been expecting, but it was complicated by the fact that Reid was there around every corner. He looked just as good on a horse as he did off of one. It was hard to concentrate knowing that they had plans for the rest of that night, and the anticipation made the time pass that much more slowly.
There was a lot of work to do, and it should have made the time go faster, but it was a failure. She tried to focus on what she was doing, but her mind kept wandering. She still managed to hold her own on the cattle drive, though something told her these cattle would have moved themselves even if they hadn’t been there on horseback. They probably did this all the time, which meant that Sam just had to keep at least half her wits about her to make sure things went smoothly.
Everything was all wrapped up, the horses were back in the stables and dinner was served before five o’clock that evening. Their last night at the ranch was supposed to be time for everyone to rest. They all had flights waiting for them the next morning and a full day of work the day after.
Dinner was more of the same mindless chatting that had been the last two nights. More of what she was used to at work every day. It didn’t take much energy to get through it all, especially not when the rest of them were worn out from riding all day.
Almost every one of them was moving like an eighty-year-old man, and excusing herself to go to bed early didn’t even get a question from anyone in the dining hall. She wasn’t even the first one to head to bed for the night, but once she thought enough time had passed she was headed to the place Reid had told her to meet him when they’d put the horses away for the day. Samantha had left him behind in the barn, running a brush over the flanks of the horse he’d given her to ride for the day and watching her leave with a hungry look in his eyes.
She knocked on the cabin door gently, letting herself in when she heard him tell her to come in from insid
e the room. He had a fire burning in the small fireplace that all the cabins had and he was sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for her when she walked in the door. It was clear that he shared this space with someone else who worked at the ranch. The two full-sized beds were her first clue, along with the two sets of almost everything that she could notice. It would have been awkward walking into the room if his roommate had been home, but the two of them were alone for the rest of the night.
“Hey there, Legs.” He grinned as he pushed up from the bed, walking over to where she stood in the doorway and closing the door behind her. He didn’t even wait for it to click into place before he gathered her up into his arms and crushed a kiss to her lips, his hands pressing into her back to mold her into his frame.
There was something about his kiss that made Sam want to beg him for more every single time their lips met. It wasn’t enough to just be wrapped up in his arms. She needed more. She needed every inch of him, and he made her feel unafraid to plead for what her body was craving.
It was only when the two of them had to break the kiss for a deep gasp of air that she was able to half-whisper her greeting to him. “Hey there, Stranger.”
He grinned down at her, moving to land a gentle but firm smack on the curve of her ass. It wasn’t something that Sam had even known she would enjoy, but the shock of it went straight to her core, tensing every muscle in her stomach as she leaned into him with a soft sigh. She could tell from the look on his face that it was the exact reaction he was looking for.
“Let’s get that pretty ass out of those jeans and in my bed, Baby Girl.” He chuckled and let her go just long enough to start stripping her out of her clothes before landing another gentle smack on the curve of her ass. Reid was still fully clothed, but he put all his focus on getting Sam exactly like he wanted her.
He pulled her over to his bed, picking her up when they got there and laying her out across the bed with a string of kisses along her stomach before he stood up at the edge of the bed, moving to work open the buttons on his shirt one at a time while he appraised the woman laid out across the bed in front of him.
“Do you have any god damned idea how gorgeous you are?”
She looked up at him, pulling her lower lip between her teeth as she watched his deliberate movements, working his shirt out of his jeans and tossing it to the floor. Sam shook her head, not certain she was going to be able to come up with a reply to the question. She didn’t normally think she was anything special, but the way Reid looked at her made her feel like that instinct was wrong.
He stopped moving, running his hands along her legs and up her waist to hover over her, leaving another kiss on her lips.
“I tell you what, keep biting that lip like that, and I’ll show you exactly how gorgeous you are.” He grinned, reaching down to let his jeans join his shirt on the floor as his cock sprung free. Sam hadn’t had a chance to watch him the night before. The two of them had been too wrapped up in each other for her to take her time and really pay attention to him.
He kept saying she was gorgeous, but she thought the exact opposite was true. His body was all angles and lines in just the right places. She could tell he worked for a living every day. Muscles outlined under the skin as he moved and everything set off just perfectly by the ink that lined his skin. She could have watched him all night long if he hadn’t settled himself between her thighs in just the perfect way, snapping her attention back to the way his body felt against hers.
Sam’s legs went around his waist out of instinct, pulling him in even closer as their lips crashed together. It was out of pure instinct that she began to move under him, wanting more of him the more she got, but Reid kept her pinned to the bed with one hand at her hip.
“Slow down there, Baby Girl. I’m nowhere near ready to be done with you yet.” He grinned down at her, hands going to spread her legs and free himself from their grasp as she let out a frustrated whimper.
“Hey now, come here.” He stood at the edge of the bed, curling his finger to summon her in closer. Sam slowly moved to her knees crawling to the edge of the bed to run her tongue along the v-line of his hip in a slow, but hungry, motion. The groan that escaped his lips was well worth the effort.
Reid’s hands went to rest at the crown of her head as she kissed her way across the dip of his hips and take his cock inside her mouth, drawing another deep moan from him as she moved down his shaft.
“Damn.” The curse was involuntary, but it made her try that much harder. She wanted to know exactly what she was doing to this man who’d been able to bring her almost to her knees with a simple touch.
A swirl of the tongue and his hands pulled her in closer, guiding her movements along his cock as he leaned down and murmured words in a deep voice meant just for her.
“Fucking hell, Baby Girl. You’re going to be the death of me. I hope you know that, Legs.”
Sam couldn’t reply, but she responded by taking him in deeper until his thick tip hit the back of her throat, his fingers knotting into her hair as he held her there for a long moment while he caught his breath before letting her go.
“Don’t move a fucking muscle.” His voice was a low-groan, deep and almost a command, one that she wanted to follow as he pulled away, leaving her needy and waiting but still kneeling across the bed. She was waiting with a smile as he moved around the bed to move in behind her, his hands resting on the curve of her hips and pulling her backwards into him.
Reid leaned down, running a line of kisses along Sam’s back, sending a shiver through her as he thrust forward, burying himself to the hilt in one smooth motion. She cried out as he filled her again, back arching to press back into him. She wanted more, and he was there to give it to her as his hips set up a steady pace against hers.
Reid’s fingers twisted into her hair, gathering it into a knot at the base of her skull and giving it a tug. Sam responded by arching her back into the pull, letting him manhandle her into the shape that he wanted as he took her. She reached back, dragging her nails gently along his hips to pull him in more deeply until she could tell he was as deep inside her as they could manage.
His name was a chant on her lips with each forward-surging motion. Sam felt like she couldn’t take much more as he leaned in, pressing her back against his chest without letting up on the rhythm for even a moment.
“Cum for me, Baby Girl. Damn, I want to feel you cum for me.” His hand wrapped roughly around her hip, pulling her down onto his length every time he pulled back just to slam fully back into her. Sam had been barely holding on before he spoke, but his words were more than enough to send her over the edge, moaning his name one last time as her pussy clenched down around his shaft.
He yelled out in time with her, unable to hold back as her walls pulsed around his cock, sending him crashing down with her as he rode out his climax with her body wrapped in his arms. He held her close until the two of them began to catch their breath, still buried deep inside her.
She grinned and moved against him, hand stroking lightly along his outer thigh.
“Ummm damn. That was amazing.” She laughed softly trying to pull away when he wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling her back into him.
“Where do you think you’re going, Baby Girl? I’m nowhere near done with you yet.”
Chapter Six
Sam woke up Sunday morning, finding herself curled in up in Reid’s arms, the way she’d expected to wake up before. She was dressed in only his shirt and her head was still resting on his chest, exactly the way she’d fallen asleep. She had to admit to herself that this was probably her favorite way to wake up. It was at least the best way she’d woken up in a long time.
But it was a little bittersweet. She knew that the time the two of them had together was limited. In a few hours, a car was going to pull up to take her back to the airport, and Sam was going to board a flight to go back to real life. This weekend wasn’t going to be able to last. It made her chest ache a little to think about it.
Reid was still asleep as she crept her way out of the bed and got to looking for the rest of her clothes. She found her shirt draped across the foot of the bed, her bra and panties were on the other side of the room, but she had a hard time finding where her jeans had gotten to. She was bent over looking under the other bed in the room as she heard a laugh come from Reid’s bed.
“They’re on the TV, Legs. I threw them over there when we were getting undressed last night.” She straightened up and smiled over at the man resting his head on one elbow back in the bed before snagging the jeans hanging by one leg off the top of the television.
“Thanks, I…”
“You don’t have to thank me. I sat there and watched you look under the other bed for about five minutes before I told you anyway. Watching you crawl around in my shirt was just too good to pass up.”
She shook her head and walked back over to the bed, slowly unbuttoning the shirt that hung off her smaller frame.