25 Reasons to Hate Christmas and Cowboys

by Elle Thorpe

  My face heated. The term had just slipped out.

  But…wasn’t that what he was? We’d spent practically every day together since we’d met. We’d had dinners and watched movies and made out when we thought people weren’t watching. Wasn’t that what people in a relationship did?

  I was sick of the barrier that my leaving put between us. I wanted Johnny. And even if I would be back in Sydney in a week, I wanted to call him my boyfriend until then.

  “Yeah. Boyfriend. Is that okay?”

  He grinned. “It’s more than okay.”

  Butterflies filled my stomach, but the head judge shot us an annoyed look and Johnny cringed, straightening so his arm was just around my shoulder and a little more respectable. There was a titter of laughter from somewhere in the crowd and my cheeks warmed.

  “It’s been another amazing year from our lighters.”

  I couldn’t help the small snort that escaped at the term “lighters”. Johnny shushed me.

  “The competition just gets tougher and tougher each year, and each and every participant has brought their A game. Or, maybe their C game? For Christmas?”

  I groaned, and this time I didn’t get told off, because most of the crowd was groaning at the lame dad joke as well. The head judge cleared his throat before continuing. “Okay, without further ado, this year’s winner of the Two Creek Plains Annual Christmas Light and Holiday Decorations Competition is…”

  “Damn, that was a mouthful,” I whispered, but I snaked my arm around Johnny’s lower back and crossed my fingers for good luck. Beside me, Johnny held his breath.

  “Charlie Bateman!”

  Breath whooshed out of Johnny at the same time disappointment crushed down on me.

  Charlie let out a whoop of excitement and strode forward to collect his trophy, fist pumping the air like a loon while the crowd around him clapped enthusiastically.

  Johnny and I joined them, but I shot Johnny a sympathetic look. “That sucks. I’m sorry. If the music had worked…” But I wasn’t sure Johnny even heard me. He jogged down the steps and strode across the snow-covered lawn to offer Charlie his hand again. This time, when Charlie shook it, it was with arrogance.

  “Sorry to take the crown from you this year, West.” He didn’t sound sorry at all.

  Johnny just smiled. “You deserve it. Merry Christmas.” Johnny’s reply was warm and sincere, and pride made my chest inflate. He might have lost, but he was still the better, and bigger, man.

  Charlie did a lap of honor through the crowd, stopping to show his trophy to every person there. Many of the onlookers approached Johnny and me to express their condolences over his loss. Johnny thanked each and every one for coming and wished them all a happy holiday.

  As the last car pulled away, Johnny and I went back into the cabin. He’d left the fire burning low while we’d been out, so it was already toasty warm inside. He picked up another log from the wood bin and tossed it into the fireplace, sparks flying up in a spray of glowing embers. I closed the heavy door behind me and leaned back on it.

  “You were a very gracious loser out there.”

  Johnny shrugged. “Charlie needed the win more than I did.”

  My eyebrows pulled together. “What do you mean?”

  Johnny stood and brushed off his hands on his jeans. “When we were over at his place. Did you see the red Mustang he was cleaning off?”

  “Yes,” I said slowly. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  Johnny perched on the arm of the couch. “I’d forgotten all about that car. It was Charlie’s dad’s. His dad would pick him up from school and football practice in it and I remember being so jealous. My parents had the Jeep they still drive today. And it wasn’t in any better condition back then. I would have given my right arm for Charlie’s Mustang.”

  I wandered over to sit next to him, sensing there was more to the story. I rested a hand on his thigh, but didn’t say anything, waiting for him to continue.

  “Charlie lost his dad last January. To cancer.”

  “Oh.” The word escaped as sympathy washed over me. As much as Charlie was a douche canoe, no one deserved to lose their father this young. “That’s awful.”

  Johnny nodded. “I feel shitty saying it, but I’d kind of forgotten about it until I saw him with that car. Just made me realize that he’s on his own this Christmas.”

  “What about his mother?”

  “She ran off when he was a baby. Never to be seen or heard from again. Mama used to say ‘that woman wasn’t cut out for country livin’’ when she thought I wasn’t listening.”

  “Shit. That’s awful. Poor Charlie.”

  “Yeah. He never had any siblings, or cousins. Was always just him and his pop. Seeing him with that car just got me to thinking. I got a great mama. And my old man is still here, kickin’ my ass every day over not working hard enough around the property. I got Levi, whose been my best friend since we were five.” He shifted on the couch to cup my face. “And I got you. The most beautiful girlfriend I could have ever hoped for. My life is pretty good.”

  My mouth dropped open. “You lost on purpose, didn’t you?”

  A soft smile lifted his lips. “I didn’t need the win. Charlie did.”

  I stretched up and kissed his mouth. “You’re a nice guy, Johnny West. And I—”

  Love you.

  That was what I’d been about to say.

  Johnny cocked his head to one side. “You what, Isabel?”

  I frantically wracked my brain for something to say. I couldn’t tell him I loved him. That was unfair when I was leaving in a few days.

  Even if it was true.

  Shit. How had I let this happen? This was supposed to be a fling! A fun, short-lived thing that didn’t end with anyone getting hurt. Especially not me.

  I swallowed down the words, tucking them away to examine at a later time, when I was alone and away from the intoxicating presence of this man I’d only known twenty days but felt like I’d known twenty years.

  I cleared my throat. “I want you to take me to bed.”

  12

  Isabel

  “I thought you’d never ask.” Heat sparked in Johnny’s eyes, and before I knew what was happening, he had me up in his arms, and my legs were wrapping around his middle.

  “I’ll have you know, I’ve been asking for this for weeks. It was you who was holding off.”

  His lips found my neck as he walked us to his bedroom, and I no longer felt like talking. Once the door closed behind us, he pushed me up against it, the bulge in his jeans pressing against my core. Oh God, yes.

  He dropped my legs so I could stand, and I went straight for the waistband of his jeans, flicking open his button and tugging down the zipper while he worked to get my sweater off. I shoved his jeans and boxer briefs down his legs, setting his cock free.

  He was big, and thick, and though it wasn’t the first time I’d seen it, it still made my downstairs lady bits tingle in anticipation. I was already imagining how his thick length would fill me so completely.

  But I wanted to do other things first. And we had all night.

  I untangled myself from the sweater Johnny was trying to peel off me and yanked off my undershirt with it. In a bra and jeans, I dropped to my knees in front of him. His cock bobbed in front of my face, and I opened my mouth to take him inside.

  The head of his dick was thick and blunt, and he slid into my mouth easily with a groan that I felt through my entire body. I glanced up at him, my lips still stretched wide around his cock, and he gathered up my hair, scraping it off my face and fisting it between his fingers. The tug at my scalp only heightened my need for him. He moved his hips, slowly at first, fucking in and out of my mouth in shallow thrusts.

  He hissed his pleasure, but he was being gentle with me, and I wasn’t having it. I gripped the base of his dick, my fingers circling his erection as best I could though they didn’t meet. And then I took control. I took him deeper into my mouth, using my hand
to work him at the same time. I swirled my tongue around his head and ignored the pulsing between my legs that only pounded more and more with each stroke. I ran the nails of my free hand over his thigh. Higher, I wandered to the trail of hair that led to his defined ab muscles, then back lower, to grip his balls.

  “Fuck, Isabel. Stop. I’m going to come.”

  I pulled my head away and stared up at him, panting and breathless. “It’s okay.”

  “No. Not yet.”

  He pulled me to my feet and his mouth caught mine in a bruising, claiming kiss that made my toes curl. He shoved his jeans off his feet while I worked to get his shirts off until he was naked. My jeans were the next to go, and then his fingers were gripping my ass, lifting me up and throwing me down on the bed.

  The soft mattress bounced beneath me and I waited, breathless, for what he’d do next. My nipples strained in my lace bra, and my panties were soaked through. I was so turned on from sucking him off that I knew it wouldn’t take much for him to get me to orgasm. And I rubbed my thighs together in anticipation of his touch.

  Completely naked, he stood unashamed at the end of the bed and lifted one of my legs. For a brief moment of horror, I thought he’d suck my toes or something equally hideous, but he bypassed my feet entirely. Thank God. Because although I’d had a pedicure last week when he’d organized his friend to pamper me all morning at her salon, I wasn’t the sort of woman who wanted to be touched there. Instead he placed a chaste kiss on my ankle, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I’d been stupid to be momentarily worried. Johnny always seemed to know exactly the right thing to do when it came to my body.

  His next few kisses trailed up my calves, until he reached the inside of my thigh, and my knees fell apart, an open invitation for him to go higher. His stubble rasped over my sensitive skin, only heightening the sensation, and he cupped me between my legs.

  “These panties are so fucking sexy,” he whispered.

  “I thought you might like them.” His fingers were maddeningly warm over my center. “But I don’t like them much.”

  “Why?”

  I laughed. “Because they’re stopping you from putting your cock inside me? Seems pretty obvious.”

  He chuckled, and I grinned.

  He tucked his fingers in the sides of my underwear and pulled them down my legs, and I undid the clasp on my bra, slipping it off and tossing it somewhere on the floor.

  He hovered over me and kissed my mouth, his tongue moving in slow, drugging strokes. I spread my legs, inviting him to lie between them while we kissed, and the hot tip of him nudged against my entrance.

  I pouted when he moved away, but then he was trailing open-mouthed kisses down my jaw and neck. Each suck and lick driving me wild, and by the time his mouth closed over my nipple, I was writhing beneath him, desperate for him to fill the ache inside me.

  “Fuck, you’re so sexy, Isabel. I don’t know how I’m going to last one second once I’m inside you.”

  I shifted my hips, seeking more contact. “Just think about one-eyed baby puppies. Or your mum and dad getting it on.”

  He pulled back and made a face so horrified that I cracked up laughing.

  “Ugh, Isabel! Why would you say that when I’m just about to sink my cock inside you?”

  I giggled, but then I pulled him back down to meet my mouth, sobering. “Because I want to do this slow and sweet with you. And then after, I want you to fuck me hard. So I need you to last more than a second.”

  A new wave of lust crested in Johnny’s eyes, and his mouth covered mine. His fingers moved between us, finding my entrance and slipping inside me. I moaned my encouragement as his thumb found my clit and lifted my hips in time with the flex of his hand.

  My eyes were rolling back in my head when he withdrew, and a condom wrapper crinkled. I hadn’t even had a chance to open my eyes though, when he was back, his now sheathed cock between my thighs once more.

  “Look at me,” he whispered.

  And so I did, helpless to argue with him. I stared up into the depths of his chocolate brown eyes and memorized the planes and ridges of his face. His stubbled jaw. The tiniest hint of dimple in his left cheek that wasn’t mirrored on the right.

  His cock slid inside me. Inch by inch, he sank deeper and deeper, my walls stretching around him until he was all the way inside.

  He kissed me softly, pausing to give me time to adjust to the size of him, and then his hips began to move. I wrapped my arms around his back and pressed my nails into his skin, holding on to this man who’d managed to make me feel so much in the shortest amount of time. He rolled his hips, thrusting in and out of me, his pace gradually increasing with each stroke.

  And I met each and every one.

  With an orgasm already building low in my belly, I moaned, loudly, when his fingers found my clit and rubbed small, slow circles on it. Our gazes locked, and in his eyes, I saw a depth of emotion that surprised me. He didn’t look at me like this was the first time we’d ever been truly intimate. He didn’t look at me like I was a woman who he’d barely spent three weeks with.

  He looked at me like I was his entire world.

  That look made my heart stop. It sucked the air from my lungs and made my stomach explode into butterflies. My entire body was overwhelmed by the thought that this man loved me. He didn’t need to say it. I felt it, right down to my toes. He could have flat out denied it, but that look told me everything I needed to know.

  “Fuck me,” I murmured.

  He looked confused for a moment, and I knew it was because we’d been having a moment, and I’d ruined it by turning it back to the purely physical. But even though I loved him back, nothing could ever come of this. There was no point in spilling my feelings and telling him that I knew how he felt and that I felt it too. That would only make this harder.

  So instead, I asked him to fuck me.

  No eye contact. No kissing. No feeling. Just…fuck me.

  He flipped me onto my stomach and I was glad. Grateful even, for the chance to bury my face in the soft pillows and just lose myself in the orgasm barreling down on me. His fingers dug into the flesh of my hips and he pounded into me, with none of the quiet, thoughtful strokes from before. This was all raw, sexual energy, and even though my heart was hurting, every other part of me was singing hallelujah.

  My orgasm ripped through me like a freight train, my legs wobbling. But he held my legs and ass up to meet him as my cries of pleasure echoed through the silent bedroom.

  “Johnny!” I yelled, grateful his tiny cabin was so far from his parents’ house. Because in that moment, I couldn’t have stopped myself even if I’d wanted to. “Johnny!”

  Johnny pumped into me half a dozen more times as I shuddered and pulsed around him, and right when I thought I couldn’t take another stroke, he cried out his own release, stilling as his orgasm caught up with him.

  I collapsed down on the bed, and he followed, still inside me. He lay there for a moment, and I soaked in the delicious weight of him. With my face still pressed into the pillows, I fought desperately to control my feelings. To push down my own emotions as well as the things I’d seen in his eyes. Pushed them all down, way down, to a safer place. One I didn’t have to think about until I was back in Australia.

  Eventually he rolled off me, and I turned to face him.

  He gazed at me, but the love I’d seen before was replaced with worry. “Where’d you go there?”

  I shook my head slightly. “What do you mean?”

  He studied me intently. “You’re okay?”

  I forced a laugh. “I just had the most mind-blowing orgasm of my life. Yeah, I’m okay.” I grinned extra big, trying to drive home my point.

  Johnny still looked like he wasn’t sure he believed me, and I prayed he’d let it go. If he did, we could go back to the way things had been before we’d entered this room.

  I was good at pretending. I could pretend for the next week that the way my heart beat his name wasn’t a big a deal.


  13

  Isabel

  Long after Johnny’s breathing had evened out into sleep, I stared at the ceiling. It was late. Or rather, early, and when the first rays of morning light crept between the curtains of his bedroom, I still hadn’t slept.

  Admitting defeat, I grabbed my phone from the bedside table, quietly rolled off the bed, and tiptoed from the room, careful not to disturb him. When I got to the front door, I shoved my feet in my boots, slipped on my jacket, and grabbed a thick blanket from the back of the couch.

  The door squeaked when I opened it, and I paused, waiting to see if I’d woken Johnny, but when he neither called out, nor appeared from the depths of his bedroom, I slipped outside onto the porch.

  “Holy hell,” I bit out quietly. The air was like ice needles, but I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and shuffled over to the porch swing. I sat down heavily, my seat rocking silently beneath me while I stared out over the frosty landscape. The sun had risen just enough to splash the sky with brilliant oranges and yellows, and despite the frigid temperature, I sucked in deep, calming lungfuls of fresh air.

  It was so beautiful out here. Peaceful. At complete odds to the turmoil I felt inside. Last night had been amazing. There was no doubt about that. My body still sang with the delicious ache of multiple orgasms.

  But my head was a mess of epic proportions.

  I fished out my phone from my pocket and scrolled through until I found the Skype app. Johnny’s bedroom was at the back end of the cabin. It wasn’t far from the porch, being a small house, but I reasoned that the walls were thick to keep the warmth in and the cold out. And therefore, my phone call too. I needed to talk to my best friend.

  I hit the call button. Lila picked up on the first ring, and I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw her familiar face.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked immediately.

  “Nothing, I—”

  “Don’t bullshit me. It’s written all over your face. Oh noooo. Did Johnny West have a tiny cock? Is that why you’re upset? Was it mushroom-sized?”