Rodeo Summer: A Camden Ranch Novel

by Jillian Neal

  “I’ve never seen a bull act that way,” Luke said. “There’s crazy and then there’s something else entirely. That was more than crazy.”

  “Yeah, well, if you give an animal steroids, they tend to react that way,” Summer fumed.

  “PBR is out there now talking to your ex.”

  “Good, but they’re not gonna do anything. His daddy will buy his way out. He always does.”

  “Not sure his daddy’s gonna be able to talk his way outta that,” Luke tried to sound reassuring.

  Determination formed on Summer’s features, and Austin wondered just what was going on in that head of hers.

  “If someone wanted to prove Brant was doping that bull, how would they?”

  “No,” Austin bellowed.

  She rolled her eyes. “Answer the question. You went to vet school or something, right?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Luke eyed Austin cautiously. “Best way to tell if a bull’s being drugged is to do blood work on the beast in question. Beyond that you’d need the prescriptions he has or the actual syringes and medication. For a bull that size you’d be looking for something with Trenbolone in it, and he’d have to be giving him quite a bit.”

  “Summer Malia Sanchez, you will not go near Brant or that bull ever, do you understand me?” Terror seized Austin’s gut every time he thought about her being in striking distance of her ex.

  Eventually, the qualifications were over. Austin had indeed come out on top. He mentally added the ten-thousand-dollar bank to his mounting winnings. He’d spent very little. There wasn’t anything he needed other than the woman on his arm and that little boy that needed a daddy worth having.

  The poster-sized check he accepted with Scott and Clint was a little over the top in his book, but he put on the show, posing for pictures with Summer, J.J., the Minton team, and his chute team, all with the check.

  “Tell us what you’re gonna do with the prize, Mr. Camden?” one of the Frontier Day event organizers thrust a mic in front of his face.

  “Uh …” Austin lifted his hat and ran his hands through his hair. He certainly had plans for the money, but he wasn’t ready to share them just yet. “I’m not sure. Have to see just how much Ms. Sanchez will let me spoil her. ‘Spect that’ll buy a bunch of diapers, as well.” He gestured to J.J.

  “Well, if that ain’t true love, I don’t know what is. He’s got it all ladies and gents, and that was one helluva ride. He’s the man to beat this season. I feel certain we’ll be seeing you in Vegas.” The man shook Austin’s hand. Summer shot him an incredulous look.

  “What’s that look for, darlin’?” He wrapped his arm back over her shoulders, drawing her closer as the crowds started to dissipate.

  “You showing off for all the cowgirls, talking about buying diapers. They’re all wishing they were lucky enough to be standing where I am.” She leaned up and whispered a kiss on his jawline that he swore he could feel all the way in his groin.

  “I only show off for you and occasionally for my mama, and I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”

  “You are not spending all of that money on me and J.J., cowboy.”

  He grunted his disdain. “Ordering me around might get you in a heap of trouble, doll baby. Don’t get in over your head. You know when you get to arguing with me with that smart mouth, it drives me crazy. Might take you back to the locker room, have you up against the wall, and not give a damn who sees me.”

  “I’m ready and willing, stud, but your mama is standing right over there, and I just bet you won’t drag me outta here with her standing nearby.”

  “Pretty sure I’ve more than shown you that nothing stands in my way when there’s something I want. I’m already hurtin’ for you, so don’t tempt me, darlin’.” Austin tried to blink the lusty haze from his eyes when a fan wanted a photo with him.

  “Minton’s buying everyone a round of shots at the Buckin’ A, and Austin and Summer can have the first dance. I think he probably deserves that,” Scott goaded the crowds. They broke out in another round of applause, and Austin sighed. Dancing at the Buckin’ A hadn’t been in his evening plans. Glancing at Summer, he smirked. The disappointment was evident in her eyes.

  “You’re cute when you’re pouty, but you keep frowning like that people are gonna think you don’t want to dance with me,” he whispered in her ear.

  She spun in his arms and stared him down. Her tongue slowly licked over her full bottom lip before she let her teeth make the same gentle path. His cock twitched, and his breaths picked up pace. Her eyes were full of darkened fire, anxious and craving. He swore the whiskey heat beneath her long lashes branded his body with pure yearning.

  “I don’t ever mind dancin’ with you, cowboy. I’d just prefer to be doing it naked in your lap, or maybe dancin’ naked on your face. Hard to do that at the Buckin’ A.”

  Austin eliminated the space between them, pressing her body to his. He cupped her ass and gave a discreet thrust against that sweet heat he could feel from the crotch of her jeans. “You feel what you’re doing to me?” His low growl elicited a broken gasp of breath from her as she nodded. “You’re gonna take care of it for me over and over again tonight, so let’s go dance and tell my family good night, because as soon as I get you back to the cabin and we get J.J. in his crib, I’m not letting you out of my arms ‘til morning. I want to hear you scream for me tonight, honey. I’ll let you ride on my face, mark me with your scent, and then I’ll let you ride on my crotch, get me nice and slick with those creamy juices that drive me wild, but that’ll just be the beginning.”

  As the night wore on, he spun Summer around the dance floor, keeping their dancing entirely PG since half the saloon was full of families that night, all keeping an eye on him. It seemed he’d just become their hero, or that’s what they kept telling him anyway.

  “Being such a gentleman tonight. I miss my beast,” she purred in his ear as the lights lowered just a little more. He pulled her closer.

  “It’s taking everything I’ve got in me to keep from throwing you over my shoulder, flipping off every cowboy in here that stupidly thinks I don’t see them admirin’ you, and making sure you know who you belong to.”

  Her pouty little smirk only served to further tighten his groin. He already felt like he was being strangled.

  “Bet we could show them all where my loyalties lie, cowboy. Slip your hands down to my ass.” Too far gone not to be entranced by her directives, he followed her orders. Cupping the perfect curves in his hands, he began to massage as she proceeded to grind against him. He’d been at half-mast for the last two hours. To say he was craving and tired of being patient would have been a severe understatement. “Kiss me.”

  He took her mouth and her breath, stealing them all for himself in a kiss that ignited the very air enveloping them. He fed her his tongue softly and thoroughly, mapping her mouth with his own. Keeping his left hand working her ass, he brought his right hand up and let his fingertips gently trace over her cheek, down the delicate column of her neck, and to that vulnerable hollow just above her collarbone that he swore if he’d allowed himself to lean down and suck would’ve made her come for him standing on the dance floor of the saloon. His thumb teased the tender skin. His mark was branded there, just under the collar of the Camden t-shirt she was wearing. They both knew if he moved it slightly to the side the whole bar would see his brand. She shifted against him, lost in his touch, in his kiss, in him. He continued to tempt her with his thumb, exposing mere millimeters of the marked skin to brief seconds of air and then moving back to keep the secret hidden from view. Her breaths eluded her. She gripped his neck tighter as he turned his head and extended the kiss. The wolf-whistles and applause ripped them forcefully from the evocative world where they so longed to go.

  “Let’s get out of here, sugar. I’m outta patience.”

  She lifted her head from his shoulder and nodded her agreement. Laughter and a few more whistles rang out when they headed towards Holly, sitting at a tab
le holding a very sleepy baby J.J. Summer lifted him into her arms. He hugged her fiercely and then nuzzled his head into her shoulder and began to suck his thumb.

  Feeling bad they’d had him out so late, Austin waved to the crowds, thanked his sister for playing babysitter, and dragged Summer out to the truck. He’d called the Cheyenne Medical Center to check on the trampled rider a few hours before. He was casted head to toe but was expected to make a full recovery. Austin’s overturned bag in the locker room was all but forgotten as he navigated their way back to the ranch cabin. Finally, mercifully, they were alone.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Summer quickly changed J.J. into his pajamas and settled with him in the chair. Austin handed her a warmed bottle of milk. “Can you just make sure it isn’t too hot? He’s really too old for this, but I love snuggling with him at night, and the warm milk makes him sleepy.”

  Contemplating for a moment, he shrugged, held the bottle in front of his own mouth, and squirted a little milk inside.

  Summer covered her mouth to keep from laughing at him outright.

  “What? It’s not too hot. It’s good.” Austin handed her the bottle.

  “You can just test it on your arm,” she snickered.

  The little guy had inhaled a huge supper with Austin’s parents before the Cinch Shoot-out, so he only downed about half of the bottle before he was sound asleep and the nipple slipped from his lips.

  While Summer was getting him in the crib, Austin decided to be a gentlemen and at least shower off before he did some decidedly ungentlemanly things to his girl in the bed. He turned the water on hot, shed his clothes, and stepped in. He let the water strip away the dirt from his skin and the tension knotted in his muscles. He ran his hands over his face and tried to get his head straight. He wanted her, needed a fix, was desperate for her hands on his fevered skin, and for that sexy little snatch of hers to wrap him up so tightly he walked a tight-wire of sanity before he lost it all. But if he didn’t get it together, he was gonna blow long before he was ready. She made him potent, brought him back faster than anyone ever had, but there were so many things he longed to do to her that night. They’d been playing out in great detail in his mind all damn day. She was too much.

  His cock throbbed against his abs, and he considered. As soon as he saw her laying in his bed swollen, wet, and begging, he’d be rock-hard again. There was no doubt. He could make it last for hours as soon as he’d blown off a little steam. Before he could wrap his hand around himself, he felt her naked breasts press against his back and watched her hands, slick from the water, slide upwards from his thighs and over his painfully hardened ridge.

  The satin-covered steel of his cock made Summer ache. There were so many things she wanted from him that evening, and the shower was the perfect place to start. A low craving growl echoed from Austin’s lungs. “Need a shower, darlin’?” He throbbed against her hand. Delighted with his reaction, Summer wound both hands around his cock and indulged herself in the feel of his thickness and rigidity as she milked his cock.

  “Dammit, woman, I’m not gonna last this first time. I’ve been thinking about you all fuckin’ day, how good you feel, how bad I need you. I swear I’m right there,” he grunted.

  Her entire body throbbed with need. She slid her nipples up and down his back, making him shudder against her. “Good.” She pumped him harder. “I want it all over me.”

  Before she quite knew what he was doing, he spun, turned her, grabbed her hands, and plastered them to the tile shower wall. “You wanna be marked, darlin’? Say it. Tell me where.”

  “Yes, God, yes. I told you the beast deserves a prize. Your choice, cowboy.” Giving him control tapped into a well of longing she’d never known was housed deep within her soul. She’d never been with anyone she trusted like the man currently pressing her to a shower wall. It was intoxicating. She’d never felt more alive than when she was in his arms, and never more content than when she answered his body’s demands with her own. Every single thing that had ever gone wrong in her life dissolved in the blazing heat of his intense gaze and his possessive arms.

  “I ain’t in the mood to be gentle, Summer, so if you want me to stop or to slow it down, I need you to fucking speak up now.”

  “You know exactly what I want, and it ain’t your gentlemanly side. Now fuck me … hard.”

  “Keep your hands up.” His fierce command made her moan. Her body rolled against his, desperate to feel the electricity that sparked between them. He dragged his cock up and down between her ass-cheeks, making her squirm as a rushed heat of wetness coated her pussy. “I don’t have any lube in here with me, sugar, but very, very soon I’m gonna have that sweet little puckered rosebud around my cock.”

  “Yes,” hissed from her lips. “Take me, please.” Nothing else mattered nothing but being owned, being filled to capacity with him. “So hard I feel it in the morning, so hard I know I’m yours every time I move.”

  “You okay with me not wearing a condom? I swear I’m clean. I’ve never done this with anyone else. This is for you, for us. I’m gonna pull out and come all over you. I swear, baby. I’d never do you wrong. You know that.”

  She considered, but she wanted to be owned by him completely, something he’d never shared with another woman. She wasn’t ready to have another baby, but if she ever did want more children, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt she wanted to have them with Austin. He wouldn’t come inside of her. She knew he’d keep his word. Her doubts sluiced away from her body with the pouring shower water and fled down the drain. “Yes, I want it all. I want it all with you.”

  On his next low groan, he pulled her back over his cock, feeding himself into her pussy in one quick motion. She gasped from his sheer size and the lack of foreplay.

  “I said I wasn’t in the mood to be gentle. I wasn’t lying.” He pounded into her. She rocked with him, her entire body quaking and desperate for a release. Tensing her pelvic muscles around him, she reveled in his impatient moans.

  “Damn, that feels good. Keep doing that,” he ordered.

  Austin took her faster, helpless to resist. God, nothing had ever felt so good. The silky ripples of her pussy tugged in perfect rhythm. She fit him like she was made for him alone. His blood spiked with the creamy scent of her musk, ripe and potent, as it permeated the steamy air he forced into his lungs. He’d never felt her so tight, so warm against him. He throbbed fiercely, watching her body consume his. Hell-bent on spraying his cum all over her sexy ass and up her back, he’d had no idea how fucking fantastic it was going to feel without the Trojan. Suddenly, she was coming. Her body milked at his with frantic spasms. He wasn’t going to last. It felt too damn good. Jerking out of her, he unloaded all over her lower back, and watched his seed drip down the perfect hills of her ass. Running his fingers through the semen, he brought his fingers to her mouth. “Suck them for me, sugar. I wanna taste myself inside your mouth.”

  She lapped up his offering, aftershocks of her orgasm still rocketing through her. He spun her around and devoured her mouth, holding her steady in his arms, letting her body enjoy the release he provided. Dipping his tongue deep, he feasted on the mix of his seed and her saliva. Perfection, and he would never get enough. One lifetime that she hadn’t even agreed to yet wasn’t going to cut it. She’d let him take her without protection. That was something. It was the first time in his life that he had no concerns. If he got her pregnant, so be it. He wanted that with her and no one else.

  “I’m far from finished,” he admitted as he washed the remnants of semen from her back.

  “Good. Cause I’m ready for more.” She let him finish cleaning her up and climbed out of the shower. He shut down the water and wrapped her up in a towel, drying her thoroughly before he haphazardly ran the towel over himself.

  Letting the thin towel hang loosely off of her body, Summer backed towards the bed while Austin advanced on her. Her favorite expression burned in his eyes, scorching her skin. The one that said he was going
to fuck her senseless.

  His every move was laced with keen intention. Carnal hunger pulsed in the air between them. The raw masculine scent of him, leather and rosin spiked with sex, ripened the air. He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. The white-hot fire in his eyes said it all — the beast had shattered its chains. His spectacular win, the hours they’d been stalled from this, and their shower must’ve been more than the cage of his soul could contain.

  Summer’s nipples throbbed anxiously against the threadbare terry cloth. Her mouth watered, so hungry for whatever he might provide. Her body longed to fly with his. His cock thickened and grew as she watched. She longed to run her hands over him again. The feeling of his rock-hard strain made her weak with desire.

  Austin reached, took hold of the corner of the towel, and stripped it from her grasp. “I want to see your beautiful body, every square inch. It’s all mine.”

  A moan spilled from her mouth. Her eyes goggled as he proceeded to tear the towel in two vertical strips with ease. “What are you …?”

  “I’ll buy them another one. You mean what you said about not wanting plain, vanilla sex?”

  Understanding sent another wave of euphoric excitement spiraling through her body. “Yes. Damn you, yes, Austin. I told you this. I want whatever you’re about to do. I want it. I want you, all of you.”

  A low rumbled moan thundered from his tensed chest. “Good. I knew you were the perfect woman for me. Look at me, Summer.”

  Swallowing down a slight case of sudden nerves, she stared him down.

  “Does all of that wanting me mean you trust me?”

  “Yes.” She never hesitated. The answer came from her soul, her heart, most certainly not her head. Her head was opposed to her ever trusting anyone ever again, the very reason she couldn’t seem to admit that she’d already fallen in love with him. She’d been hurt far too many times. But she had no time for those thoughts currently. Her heart and her almost painfully swollen, fevered pussy were running the show. She rubbed her legs together, trying to bring herself some relief to no avail. She needed him. He was now a requirement.