Dalton Boys Box Set Books 1-5 (The Dalton Boys)

by Em Petrova

  His gut clenched. The kiss they’d shared had only been a warm-up for what he really wanted. She was sweet and tempting, and while he didn’t know her favorite dessert or childhood nickname, he knew she was a kind person. The way she treated his parents and the animals conveyed that.

  In the past few days she’d been on the ranch, he’d analyzed his attraction over and over. While pitching hay, while nailing in a loose board. Was he only interested because she was convenient?

  No. If he’d seen her on the county fair, he’d buy her a candy apple and beg her to go on the Ferris wheel. She was the kind of girl that got under a man’s skin.

  He gnashed his back teeth together. Every Dalton boy was too aware of Charlotte’s charms. Since his brothers had come home, Hank felt as if he was defending his chicken from the foxes. While they completed the chores together, they’d drilled him with questions about her. His answers had been short and hard, so much that even Cash got the point.

  “You layin’ claim, brother?” he’d asked.

  Hank filled two horse troughs with grain before answering. “Maybe I am.”

  But he’d never been more unsure in his life. He didn’t want her to believe he was taking advantage. He was a gentleman through and through—he would never compromise her or make promises he wouldn’t keep.

  A few stolen kisses could be forgotten, but she would be on the ranch for several more weeks. He wasn’t a full-time mechanic, and Momma needed help. A lot could happen in a few weeks.

  We could get to know each other better. Explore this attraction.

  Or she could fall for one of my brothers.

  With a groan, he slung his arm over his eyes. The night sounds of crickets and insects should have soothed him, but he felt hot, tense—and he had a raging hard-on for that woman.

  In the distance, a coyote barked. He’d have to set Beck on the trail tomorrow morning so the predator didn’t get one of their calves.

  He crossed his feet at the ankles, visions of Charlotte doing a country line dance in his head. Flying down a back road with her, making her giggle until her curls danced.

  He pushed out a breath. When had he gone all-in?

  The minute I laid my hands on her.

  He needed to know so much more about her. Did she like to sing? Had she ever gone fishin’, and could a city girl live happily in the country? Were there pages in her history that hurt too bad to flip through?

  He knew there were—after their kiss, dark pain had smoldered in her gray eyes.

  “Dammit.” He flipped onto his side, but the wooden floor was unforgiving. His shoulder dug in and he ended up turning onto his back once more. At least the night was cool. In Texas, that didn’t happen often. Rain was on the way, and by week’s end, he and his brothers would be up to their asses in mud.

  The yellow light had vanished. Hell, the urge to go upstairs and slide into bed with her scorched hot. The way she’d felt against him, curves fitting into his hard angles…

  At the creak of the door opening, he jackknifed into a sitting position. The drum of his heart gave away his hope that it wasn’t a family member sneaking out of the house. When the bare toes curled onto the cool porch boards, Hank stopped breathing.

  Charlotte drifted out in a nightgown that glowed blue in the moonlight.

  His cock jerked against the fly of his jeans he’d chosen to sleep in. As she turned to quietly close the door behind her, his ability to breathe returned. He sucked in a long breath, fighting for control.

  “What are you doing out here?” His voice was a stranger’s croak.

  She held up a hand. Two longnecks glistened. “Thought you might have a beer with me.”

  As his mouth was suddenly as dry as the cracked Texas sod in July, a beer was a damned good idea. He tucked his knees up and gathered himself into a crouch before standing.

  Charlotte padded barefoot to the porch swing and sat down. When he crowded beside her, she passed him a beer.

  “It’s a cool night.” Her voice was sweet music.

  He twisted off the cap and drank to keep from yanking her across his knees and plunging his tongue into her mouth. When he lowered the beer, he said, “There’s a front coming in.”

  “Really?” She looked beyond him into the dark fields. “I suppose you didn’t hear that from the six o’clock weather report.”

  “Nope.” He smiled, unable to resist meeting her gaze. Light and shadows played over her features, highlighting her delicate bones and turning him into a raving lunatic, hungry for a taste of her.

  She pushed off with a toe, and they began to rock. The slow rhythm coupled with her feminine scents was anything but lulling. He swallowed more beer.

  “Why did you come out here, Charlotte?”

  Instead of answering his question, she said, “When I left Phoenix I could only think of getting away. I’d spent too much time there after…well, I just needed to get out. Far away. I thought I might end up in California, but I didn’t really have a destination in mind when I started driving.”

  He waited, listening to what she didn’t say as much as when she did.

  She stared at the beer in her hands. “I figured I’d just drive into a town where I’d instantly feel at home.”

  “That didn’t happen.”

  She looked at him for a long heartbeat. What was going on in that pretty little head of hers? Her lips had looked so damn gorgeous swollen from his kisses earlier. He needed to see them that way again.

  Gently he removed the beer from her hand and set it with a soft clink on the floor, along with his. Then he took her hand, her arm, shoulder, soft waist, and he pulled her into his arms. She came easily, leaning across his lap and making him burn with desire.

  Up close her eyes glittered. “I don’t know why I came out here, Hank.”

  “I do. You like my kisses.” Before she could deny it, he claimed her mouth. The initial crush of lips beneath his lit a fire he’d let go long untended. With a growl, he sank his tongue between her lips and drew a moan from her. Sweet torment, sweeter woman.

  Whatever she was working through, he’d wait for. If it meant he drove two hundred miles every weekend to visit her in some stinking, polluted city, he’d do it. He just didn’t want to let this chance fade. He didn’t have a lot of experience with women, but he knew this was something special.

  Pressure built in his chest as he slicked his tongue over hers again and again. Her arms wound around him, and she leaned close, breasts rising and falling. He nibbled her lower lip, then the point of her chin. She squeaked, and the sound pierced him deep.

  Need unlike any he’d ever known was a flare of warning he didn’t heed. He continued to kiss a path down her delicious throat to the crest of her breasts. Small, perky, only a handful each. So perfect for him.

  She arched against him, and he spattered kisses over the flesh then cupped her breasts. She issued a ragged sigh, which he took as consent.

  She dug the blunt points of her nails into his shoulders, pulling a primal groan from him. He released her breasts and yanked her closer to straddle him. Her cotton nightgown rode up, revealing smooth thighs and a shadow between.

  Pure heaven.

  “Charlotte, gorgeous woman. I can’t get enough of you.” He returned to kissing her as if it were his sole duty in the world. She grew weighted and pliant in his hold, exploring his back with her hands, down to his waist, then up again in slow, maddening increments.

  When he slipped a hand over her knee, she didn’t resist. Silken heat met his hand, and he followed it, up between her thighs to her center. The crotch of her panties was damp and distended by her swollen folds.

  “Hell, sugar. You’re so hot.” He edged a finger beneath the elastic of her panties and rumbled as he met slippery wetness.

  She threw her head back, parting her legs to give him access. As he explored her puffy outer lips then the wet inner folds, he watched her face ripple with pleasure. Spurred on, he ran a finger down her seam. She gave a mewl of d
elight, and he almost lost it then and there. Biting off his rising need to sink into her, he slowly glided his finger upward to the swollen bundle of nerves that would send her flying.

  She cried out, grinding down on his touch. God, he needed to see her stretched out in the moonlight, but he was terrified that if they moved to the floor, her haze of passion would vanish and she’d go inside, leaving him miserable and aching.

  He planted a hand on her ass cheek and pulled her into his hand while tweaking her nipple through the cloth of her nightgown. He slicked her juices over her nubbin, swirling around then into a figure eight pattern.

  Her breathing grew choppier, her movements jerkier. She was getting close, and goddamn, she was so ripe and beautiful. He didn’t care if he ever got off, as long as he got to witness her release.

  He pressed the hood of her clit, locating her hard core.

  “Ohhh!” She rocked, taking what she needed with no idea that he would give her the world.

  His cock throbbed behind his fly, and his heart beat double time. He wanted to sink into this woman, not just bodily, but in all ways. So odd, since he’d only known her a short spell. But he’d heard of relationship happening this way.

  Whatever was going on, he would hold onto it, not let it slip away.

  He splayed his fingers and pressed one inside her. Soaking heat clutched at his digit, driving him crazier. “Sugar, you’re killing me. You’re so beautiful, making those sounds.”

  Her lips opened wider, her eyes closed in concentration. He sucked on her throat and plucked her nipple while circling her clit and driving one finger into her tight sheath.

  “Hank!” The first pulsation travelled up his finger, through his wrist and arm. As she came apart around him, he gathered her closer and stole her cries with his kiss. Wild with need and wilder with the knowledge that he was giving her ecstasy, he delivered a bruising kiss.

  Cream flooded his fingers, and he burned to stretch her out on the bedroll, dive between her legs and taste her release.

  She went boneless in his hold, and he slowed his touch and kiss. Extreme tenderness welled in him, and words he probably shouldn’t utter landed on his tongue.

  When she leaned her forehead against his, panting hard, he lost it—his heart no longer beat to keep on living—it beat for Charlotte.

  * * *

  Charlotte’s body hummed and pleasure shocks still rolled through her. How had she come to be in this place? One minute she was stranded along a road and the next she was straddling a big cowboy with magical fingers.

  His arousal bulged between them, and she knew he must be aching for release too. Was she ready for intimacy? Getting to second base was very different from joining bodies.

  In a few weeks, she’d never see him again. It wasn’t fair to cross home plate—for either of them.

  “Hank…”

  He cradled her against his bare chest, and she breathed his manly scent. Her mind was whirling with scenarios and her body still pulsated. When he rubbed small circles on her back, she relaxed. He wasn’t an animal, pushing her to seal the deal right now.

  Leaning away, she drank in his god-like features. Straight nose, strong jaw, calm brow. His eyes turned her to jelly, because they were soft and warm with emotion.

  She pressed her palms against his chest, over hard pecs and the steely ridges just below. He was made for hard work—or hard work had made him. Stephen was nothing like this man, and that’s why she’d given a piece of her trust to Hank.

  But she couldn’t fool him into believing she’d be in his life for longer than a few days. She shivered.

  “You cold, sugar?” He wrapped his arms tighter around her, and her heart squeezed. He was thoughtful and giving. So different from anything she’d ever known.

  But she wasn’t for him. He deserved someone whole. Her body might be healed, even if it did bear a twisted scar, but her mind wasn’t sewn back together yet.

  She wasn’t ready for more, and Hank needed something better.

  “Hank, what are we doing?”

  He nuzzled her throat, rubbing his nose back and forth over her curls. “This is called country lovin’, sugar. I’ve never adored this porch swing so much.”

  Fighting a giggle, she was amazed by his words. His low tone buried deep in her, and the fires she’d thought to be doused rekindled.

  She slid off his lap and stood a foot away. If he leaned forward, he could grasp her and pull her back where she wanted to be so damn bad it hurt. She wanted to believe there could be more for her in life than pain and nightmares.

  A crease formed between his long brows, cutting her to the core.

  “I’m sorry, but we can’t do this.”

  He gave a small shake of his head. “I’m not asking you to go to bed with me, Charlotte. All I’m asking is to let this seed between us grow.” He held out a big hand, and she was unnerved to see it shake slightly.

  She stepped back. “What we just did—you’re amazing, Hank. But it can’t continue. I’m only here for a short time, then I’ll be on my way and you’ll lead your life.”

  He compressed his lips, huffing out a breath through his nose. His chest worked. “I don’t do things like this. I don’t lay hands on girls I don’t have feelings for.” His voice broke, ripping her open a little more.

  She spread her hands. “Me either. And it was…” she gave a full body shudder, “one of the best experiences of my life. But I need some distance.”

  He met her gaze. “You’re the one who came to me.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.”

  He clenched a fist and rested it on his knee. “Why not? What aren’t you telling me? Do you have a boyfriend somewhere? A fiancé? Husband, kids?”

  Shock tore through her. “No!”

  “Then what? I know you have secrets. We don’t know each other well, but I’m willing to learn.”

  He was breaking her heart, and she didn’t know how. She’d allowed him to touch her a little, kiss her and give her release. Somewhere along the way she’d given him a small chunk of herself. Now she had to take it back.

  “I’m sorry, Hank, but I can’t.” Before she could see the pain on his rugged face, she hurried to the door and slipped back inside. Breathing hard, she leaned against the door, staring at her dark surroundings.

  None of it belonged to her. It was easy to feel a sense of belonging, and the thought of leaving infused such a feeling of homesickness that she could barely breathe.

  As she mounted the stairs and climbed into Hank’s bed, she longed for the man lying out on the porch floor, probably kicking himself for bringing her home. He had to be thinking that she was no good.

  He was right.

  Chapter Five

  “What’s got your Wranglers up your butt?” Cash leaned on his shovel and eyed Hank.

  He shot him a warning look and kept shoveling. “No wedgies here.”

  “No? You’ve been in a funk for a week. Are you pissed that you didn’t go into Austin with us?”

  “Hell, no. I don’t believe for a minute you’re going to walk into a bar in Austin and find a girl who wants to live her life on a secluded ranch.”

  “Ah. So you believe that woman’s right under your nose, huh? Say, in the kitchen takin’ Momma’s orders?”

  Hank pushed out a sigh. Since Charlotte had left him reeling—aching—that night after he’d pleasured her, he’d had a hell of a time concentrating. There were jobs on the ranch that needed doing, but he couldn’t see anything but the sweet little woman he’d had in his arms.

  For hours after she’d gone back inside, he’d lain on the hard floor, beating himself up for making some mistake. As far as he could see, he hadn’t been in the wrong, though. She’d pulled away. He hadn’t pressured her. She’d walked.

  Still, he couldn’t stay away from her. He found himself in the house every chance he got, watching her whirl through rooms tidying up and learning to bake just like his Momma.

  An
d the way she threw him sidelong glances burned him up with desire. He could practically still smell her on his hands.

  He swiped a palm over his face. “I don’t want to discuss Charlotte. Only thing going on is me fixing her car.”

  “Yeah, and you spend all night doing it. No wonder you’re grumpy—you can’t be getting more than four hours of sleep.” Cash dug into the manure pile again. Scoop, pitch, scoop, pitch. They worked in a rhythm that provided a bit of calm to Hank. Before Charlotte, he’d been content. Now, he felt as if ants crawled under his skin.

  After half an hour of straight shoveling, Hank put his hand tool down and grabbed his thermos. It was filled with ice water, and he drank off most of it, sweat running down his body. He recapped the thermos and looked at his brother. “So how did the wife hunt go?”

  Closest in age, they’d always shared a lot. Cash was a prankster and had a tendency to make small things into a big deal, but his antics always made Hank smile. Right now, he could use some cheering up.

  “Well, we tried our best. We went as a group, thinking the ladies would fall all over us. I mean, we aren’t without good looks.” He plucked at the buttons of his western shirt.

  Hank smiled crookedly. Cash had always been cocky, but usually it just made him funnier.

  “And we got some attention. Danced and bought drinks for some cute gals. But we were a little country bumpkin compared to city slickers. We didn’t have fast cars, and the ladies wanted to leave in them. So we split up and tried some smaller bars around town. I found a nice girl who worked in the hotel lobby, but after talking to her for two days, I found out she was engaged.” He rolled his eyes.

  “Man, that sucks.”

  “Yeah, and she was the only one I was actually interested in learning more about.”

  Hank knew the feeling, but he didn’t say so.

  “So what’s really going on with you and Charlotte?”

  Time to shovel again. He picked up the tool and went at it. “Her car broke down, I picked her up. I’m fixing her tranny in exchange for her helping Momma. That’s it.”