by Vivian Arend
“It’s not over.” He turned up the music and sang along, Becky watching intently as he drove them past weathered old barns and alfalfa fields.
He slipped toward the ravine overlooking the river, backing the truck carefully into place so that the tailgate aimed toward a fine view of the Rocky Mountains.
“Come on.” Anticipation made him grin as he guided Becky out of the truck, pausing to reach behind the seat for the thick blanket he kept there.
He dropped the tailgate, spreading the blanket with a snap before catching hold of Becky and lifting her to sit on the soft surface.
He hopped up beside her. “Want to watch the sunset with me?”
She was back against his side, her hand resting lightly on his thigh. “Is that all we’re going to do?” she asked shyly.
“You think I have some ulterior motive in getting you all alone?”
“I hope so.”
Hell, yeah. He slipped his arms around her, accepting the lips she’d raised toward him for a kiss. Sweet, soft. Everything about her called to him, and when she twisted closer, fingers catching hold of the front of his shirt, Trevor leaned over her and took her down to the blanket. Stretching them out full-length, his hips tight to hers, one leg pressing between hers.
He kept one hand on the bed of the truck to hold his body weight off her but they were still connected. Thighs and hips, and his chest against the soft swell of her breasts. Mouth-to-mouth, tongues tangling. Becky’s fingers clutched his shoulders as she held him to her. Totally on board, no hesitation.
He undid the buttons at the top of her shirt, nibbling a path to her ear as she shivered under him. “Okay?”
“Uh-huh. Feels so good when you touch me,” she confessed, her eyes bright as he checked to make sure she was still having fun.
His gaze drifted downward, the creamy complexion of her skin glowing with the sunlight bathing them as he peeled back the sides of her shirt. Slowly exposing more of her pale bra and her rapidly shifting chest.
“You’re breathing pretty hard there, Rodeo.”
“I have never done anything like this,” she confessed. “Outdoors, where I can see you, and you can see me.”
“That’s one of the best parts of it.” Trevor ran his finger along the edge of her bra, loving how her nipples stabbed upward against the soft fabric. “I like seeing all of you. It turns me on.”
She pushed at fabric of his shirt. “Take yours off too.”
He didn’t really want to stop what he was doing, but he’d want to stop even less a few moments from now, so he pulled back obediently and stripped off his shirt. “Your turn,” he teased.
Becky wiggled out from under him, or at least partially. She was close enough that as she pushed the shirt from her shoulders, the warmth of her skin brushed his a half-dozen times before she laid the fabric on top of where his rested.
She paused, wearing nothing up top but her bra and glanced at him from under her lashes. “Oh, boy.”
Trevor caressed her waist, sliding up the side of her body until he cupped one beautiful breast. “You have no idea how much you are turning me on.”
He rubbed his thumb over her nipple, and she arched against him, a soft sigh of pleasure escaping. “I want more.”
Not a fucking problem. Trevor pressed his lips to the curve of her neck. He licked a trail up to her ear and drove her wild as he reached around and undid her bra one-handedly. He kept kissing her as he smoothed the straps from her shoulders, their bodies tight enough that the cups stayed in place until he pulled back.
Neither of them moved as the material fell away and she sat there, finally naked from the waist up. So intensely provocative and innocent at the same time Trevor’s brain was having trouble functioning.
He knew he was staring but he couldn’t stop.
He lifted his hand back to where it had been before, only now there was no barrier between them, and the warmth and weight of her breast made him groan with need.
Trevor put his mouth over her nipple, licking first before pursing his lips and sucking lightly.
“Oh. Oh, that’s good.” Becky held his head and curved her body toward him, her response a reassurance she was enjoying this as much as he was.
She tasted amazing, so he licked a trail from one breast to the other, teasing gently with his teeth until she gasped with delight. He got lost for a while—they both did—because by the time he pushed her to the blanket again the sun had vanished behind the mountain, leaving nothing but fading sunset streaks to light the sky.
More than enough light to see, though, especially when he used his hands, trickling them down her body to unsnap her jeans and slide his fingers into her underwear.
“Let me touch you,” Becky whispered.
“Not this time,” Trevor murmured. “This time, I’m in charge of what we’re playing. Trust me, you’ll enjoy it.”
There was nothing he would’ve liked more than to strip them both down and take this to its natural conclusion, but it was too soon. Far too soon, no matter how hard Becky was writhing under his touch, little gasps escaping her lips, teasing noises rumbling up as he returned to her breasts, his fingers sliding through her folds to tease her clit.
“You’re so wet, Rodeo. Your body likes it when I touch you. You were made for passion and pleasure. Made to enjoy this.”
“I am,” she agreed. “I like everything you’re doing to me. Oh yes, right there…”
Her hips rose against his hand as she rocked into his touch. Trevor’s jeans were far too tight, his erection pressed hard to her hip.
So much pleasure was contained in the back of the four-by-six truck bed. The blanket could’ve been a luxurious mattress. Hell, they could have been lying in the most expensive suite in some fancy hotel, and it still would’ve come back to the sensations of sex. The outpouring of physical desire.
“You’re going to come. Right here, outdoors, with me watching you.” Trevor pressed his forehead to hers and increased the tempo of his fingers. He couldn’t resist rocking against her, trying to ease the pressure in his cock as his body screamed for release.
Her lashes fluttered, but she looked him in the eye. Kept with him one hundred percent as her breath escaped in tight pants, tongue sneaking out to wet her lips a second before she quivered under him. Her eyes went out of focus as a cry of satisfaction rushed to greet him.
He rocked again, the tightness in his balls and the tingling at the base of his spine signaling the beginning of the end. A moment later he was gone, taking her lips and kissing her madly as he lost control.
Didn’t care one bit that he’d gone and messed in his clothes. Didn’t matter. What did matter was the woman under him looking satisfied and spent, wisps of hair around her face framing eyes that glowed with happiness.
Trevor rolled her on top of him, still skin to skin, her breasts pressing against him tightly and getting him riled up far sooner than he thought possible.
“And that’s the best part about dancing,” he said with a smile. “When you’re listening, you can always hear the music.”
Chapter Nineteen
It took another couple of weeks for Becky to finish filling out all the paperwork she needed to become an official part of society.
Anna Coleman helped her a few times when things got tricky, the patient RCMP officer going through each form one at a time. It had to be a foreign language because it wasn’t English, at least not to Becky.
Not to Trevor either who’d taken one look at the mass of papers she’d brought home one night and shook his head, reaching into his pocket for his phone to contact Anna once again.
“I’ll help you however I can,” he apologized, “but that’s a kind of puzzle I can’t get my head around.”
Not that she cared. Having Trevor there for all the other things he was teaching her was more than enough. He brought over music and books. Showed her TV shows and movies, some of which she watched for five minutes through her fingers before refusing to look any
longer.
He took her out to the fanciest restaurant in town, which happened to be run by another Coleman, and made her try a whole bunch of different foods that she’d never had before.
Most of the time, though, they ended up laughing so hard her stomach would hurt by the end of the evening. And then he would take his time and offer sweet, drugging kisses that made her ache for more, which he always willingly provided.
They were fooling around an awful lot, and none of it scared her. All of it just made her want to try the next thing.
She figured that might be the idea, but she wasn’t about to complain. He was setting the speed, and that was fine by her.
He’d showed up today after work, fresh scrubbed from a shower with a piping-hot casserole in hand. They demolished it while sitting at the table and talking about their days, and things were just about perfect.
Just about.
He wrapped his fingers around hers after they’d cleared away the plates. “That’s a sad expression. Are you tired?”
Becky shook her head. “Thinking about Sarah and the kids.”
He stiffened slightly like he always did when she mentioned Paradise, but he didn’t pull away. He guided her back to the table and sat her down, pulling his chair next to hers so he could sit with an arm resting along the back. As if he was holding her in an embrace. “Are you thinking about contacting her?”
Wariness in his voice. Concern.
“She’s not bad,” Becky insisted. “She’s as much a victim as I was.”
Trevor nodded slowly. “I won’t argue with you, because I have no idea what it’s like to be in that kind of hell, but I also don’t know her. I know you.” He tucked his free hand under her chin and tilted her head so he could kiss her, a brief, sweet connection that softened his words. “I don’t want you to hurt anymore, and talking about Paradise and the past makes me afraid for you.”
She curled her fingers around the back of his neck and pulled him in, resting their foreheads together.
It’d become something of a habit, and she really liked it. The position was warm and intimate, but if it got too much, she could close her eyes and still feel him there without him looking into her soul.
“Sarah’s got three kids.” Becky spoke softly, but she wanted to share this. “Isaac is her firstborn, and I think after he arrived, her life got a lot better. She was always kind to me, even when it was clear I didn’t really fit into the community very well.”
Tension stiffened his body and voice, but he was listening. Sharing. “And two little girls. Hannah and Mary?”
Becky nodded. She could picture the girls running up to her and crawling into her lap. She’d always tried to have time for them, especially after it seemed she wasn’t going to have any kids of her own. Someday I’ll get in touch, she’d promised herself. Promised them.
It was part of why she’d found the courage to run away in the first place. So she could offer them a different future as well.
But it was time for other distractions. She kissed Trevor on the cheek then reached past him to the top of the bookcase for a deck of cards. “Next lesson. You get to help me practice.”
A soft chuckle escaped him. “I heard you got tromped the other day.”
“They cheated.” Becky pulled out the deck and began shuffling awkwardly, the cards uncomfortable in her fingers as she learned how to handle them better. “Those little girls of Jaxi’s are mind readers. I swear every time I pulled a card, they asked for it on the next hand.”
“Cheating at Go Fish. That’s just wrong.” Trevor winked as he slipped the deck from her fingers and gave it an extra shuffle, bending the cards and sliding them together far faster than she could.
“I need to win the next time,” she insisted.
“Hmm, that’s going to take a lot more practice. You’ve got tells,” he said. “Little things you do that give away clues to what your hand holds.”
Playing cards with four-year-olds, and they could read her. “Great. I’m not going to a casino with anybody, not any time soon.”
Trevor laughed as he dealt the cards for a game of rummy, patiently going over the rules again, but this one she’d begun to master.
After she laid down on the table ahead of him three times in a row, he gave her an evil eye. “Now who’s cheating?”
She leaned her elbows forward on the table, close enough she could smell his fresh scent. “Not cheating. I just know how to read you,” she teased.
Trevor raised a brow. “I guess that means it’s time to raise the stakes.”
Ha. “How do you bet on rummy?”
Trevor leaned back in his chair and stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Well, if you want to combine a couple of lessons here all at once, I suggest we play strip rummy.”
“Strip…” Becky swallowed hard as a sudden vision of Trevor in the exact position he was currently in, but with no clothes on, made her mouth go dry. “Okay.”
He leaned forward with a laugh, shuffling the deck once more before lifting the top off to show a card. “Then cut for deal, Rodeo. Play your hand the best you can, and instead of counting points, loser strips off one piece of clothing.”
Becky couldn’t wait. She concentrated hard on the cards, thrilled when her luck continued, at least for the first couple hands. Trevor pulled off his shirt, then his jeans, sitting at the table in a pair of boxer briefs and black socks.
She wasn’t sure she needed to play the game anymore. “How about I just sit here and stare at you? I’m happy.”
Trevor dealt the cards again, flipping up a wildcard for her and groaning in disgust. “At some point, one of us is going to be completely naked—”
“Or both of us.” Becky picked up the wildcard and tried desperately to rearrange the sets she held, but she couldn’t quite go out.
The next three hands found her losing her shirt, her jeans and her socks. She sat at the table with not much on, squirming as Trevor spent more time looking her over than looking at his cards.
He reached into his hand blindly and tossed a card on the pile, and she snatched it up eagerly. “I don’t think you meant to do that,” she teased, laying down her hand with the help of the wildcard he’d accidentally discarded.
Trevor sat back in his chair with a filthy satisfied smile on his face. “Gotta love this game,” he said. “The only time that when you lose, you win.”
She wasn’t the best of dealers regularly, but now that she had him in front of her, naked, it was even worse. Every inch of his body was highlighted by the sun shining into her kitchen. His muscles were relaxed but the outline of the six-pack was clear. His cock stood upright, tapping toward his belly.
She picked her cards off the table and tried to put them in order.
Another card flicked across to land in front of her. “Looks like you’re a little distracted, Rodeo,” he teased. “Having trouble counting?”
“Yes,” she admitted. She met his eyes straight on. “Now that you have no clothes on, what do you forfeit when I win?”
Trevor looked thoughtful. “Winner’s choice, I suppose, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.” He eyed her bra and panties, licking his lips as if he were preparing for dessert. “I have a feeling your luck is about change.
He won the next two hands, and Becky stood up to slowly slip off her panties, both of them naked in broad daylight.
Her heart was pounding so hard she could taste the rhythm.
“Next victory is winner’s choice.”
Opening her hand, it didn’t take long for Becky to realize she was outgunned. The cards held absolutely nothing that matched.
But when she glanced at Trevor, he was frowning, concern on his face as they both took turn after turn until finally she was one card away from winning.
He tossed down a seven, and she snatched it up, fanning her cards on the table with a racing pulse. “I win.”
He nodded, folding his cards and laying them aside before leaning his elbo
ws on the table and offering her a heated stare. “So, what do I have to do?”
Becky was sure. She was one hundred percent sure. “Take me to bed.”
Trevor stilled, a pulse beating hard in his throat. Then he held out a hand, bringing her to her feet as well. They stepped together, skin to skin in her kitchen, the old worn linoleum cool under their feet. A nice contrast to the steaming sensation between their bodies.
He pulled her with him, almost dancing as they moved toward the stairs. One hand cradled her head as he kissed her, the other on her back, his fingers splayed downward, trailing over her naked butt. His erection trapped between them, thick length of it unmistakable— unavoidable.
He guided her blindly to the foot of the stairs, kissing and caressing the entire way. She’d been turned on before, but now a fever had her tight in its grip. She stroked her hands over his ribs, swooping down to boldly catch hold of his naked butt. Firm muscles and soft skin, and a deep need pulsed in her core.
They broke apart for long enough to get to the top of the stairs, and then he was back, caressing her the entire way to her bedroom.
Trevor picked her up and laid her on the quilt, stepping back to offer a smile that had all kinds of mischief tied up in it as he glanced around. “I knew you had a thing for frills, Rodeo.”
She’d begun to decorate the room, each soft feminine touch making the house a bit more her own. “It’s nice to look around when I wake up and see things that make me happy.”
Becky curled herself up and caught his hand, tugging him toward her. Trevor crawled onto the mattress over her. His elbows supporting his weight, he leaned down and kissed her tenderly.
Every inch of her was covered by him, a weight pressing her to the mattress, and a flicker of unease struck, passing so fast she wasn’t sure it had really happened.
Not when he moved downward, his mouth on her breasts, hands holding her as his hips settled between her legs. Becky stroked her fingers through his hair and closed her eyes, soaking in the perfect sensation of his tongue stroking her nipples.
