Cowboy 12 Pack
Page 143
She felt him pull almost all the way out, and then slowly glide back in again. “Oh, that felt good.” And it had. The shock had worn off and all that remained was a good burn and this incredible feeling of being stretched and filled. “More…” She raised her hips to meet his thrusts. Her request seemed to be what he needed to hear, because he let go. Avery had never dreamed that the connection between a man and a woman could be so complete and electric. As her father’s wedding sermons always said, two became one. Isaac was inside of her, on top of her, wrapped around her and she felt like she wanted to stay that way forever. This was so much more than sex. To her this was everything.
“Are you okay?” His voice was hoarse with passion.
“God, yes. This is what I’ve wanted for so long.”
Isaac stopped and was still.
“No! Why did you quit?” Avery clutched his shoulders and looked into his eyes. She couldn’t read his expression. “What’s wrong?”
Isaac dipped down and kissed her lips softly. His weight was pressing her into the bed and she couldn’t believe how safe it made her feel. “Nothing’s wrong, except I’m too excited.”
He nuzzled her neck and sucked. Avery hoped it would leave a mark.
“You’re squeezing me so tight and it feels so damn good. I don’t want to come before you do.”
Joy bubbled up inside of Avery. “I don’t mind.” She rubbed her lips on his shoulder. “I’m just happy to be here with you like this.”
“Well, I mind. Give me your hands.” He held up enough so he could take each of her hands in his and he held them on either side of her head. “Hold on, Love. I’ve about to make both of us feel really good.” Her legs were spread wide with her knees bent and he was covering her completely. With her hands immobilized, she felt captured like an Arabian slave girl commanded to do her Master’s bidding. Isaac was everything she’d ever wanted; caring, passionate and with a fierce edge which made her heart race. Somehow, he angled his body so that every thrust he made was giving her extreme pleasure. “Better?” He managed to ask through gritted teeth.
“Uh-huh,” that was all she could manage. Something was building. She didn’t know if it was due to how he was making her feel or the thrill of knowing that Isaac was enjoying her gift to him. “I love it.”
“Avery, Sugar, God, this is good.”
Yes, it was. Heat, light, and an electric fizz sizzled from deep within her and radiated out to every part of her body. “Isaac! Yes! God, yes!” she cried as her climax overwhelmed her.
When Avery came, he knew it. There was no way he could miss it. Her folds milked him like a velvet fist. And she lifted, her whole body arched up into him. With her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, she came up to him, clinging like the sweetest vine. It was the most touching, erotic display he’d ever witnessed. When Avery climaxed, she gifted him with her whole body, her sweet cries and whispers a testimony to the rapture she was experiencing. If he hadn’t been about to erupt anyway, her total euphoric reaction would have been enough to send him over the edge. The rush was so powerful and so sweet, Isaac shouted his release. “Avery! Sweet Baby! Yes! Yes!” Waves of ecstasy swept over his body, and all the while he held her tight, loving the little ripples of aftershocks around his erection as the orgasm swept over them both.
Coming down from that incredible high took a few minutes and he rolled over on his back and took her with him. Damn, she felt so good in his arms. With a shaky hand, he pushed a lock of hair back from her damp forehead, and planted a kiss there for good measure. His heart lurched when she exhaled a big satisfied sigh and nestled down in his embrace. What he wanted to do was stay like this forever, but there were things that needed to be said, and they just wouldn’t wait another day. So with reluctance, he eased out from under her and sat up so he could see her face.
“Avery, I think it’s about time you told me what the hell is going on. Don’t you?”
Chapter Four
‡
AVERY LAY IN Isaac McCoy’s bed, naked. That fact, in and of itself, was truly huge. Even better, Isaac was standing, heart-stoppingly nude, just a few feet away. What a pity he wanted to blow the mood by talking. “What do you mean? There’s nothing going on.” Avery felt a twinge of guilt. She didn’t like to lie, and this was a form of fibbing, because she had a pretty good idea what he was talking about.
Isaac looked at her sternly. “Avery Rose, you know exactly what I mean.”
She smiled at him. “Talking doesn’t sound fun. We just made love and it was something that I’d like to repeat at the earliest opportunity.” Jeepers. Why couldn’t she be sexy? She made their rowdy bout of sex sound like a coffee klatch.
Isaac did his best not to smile. She had to be the sweetest thing in the world. For just a second he let himself look at her. She was his pin-up girl. Avery wasn’t stick skinny like most of the women nowadays. She was curvy and soft, voluptuous and sexy-as-hell. Hell, he was getting hard again. He pushed it down with his hand and it bounced back up and Avery giggled.
“Lord, deliver me,” he prayed.
“The Lord might not help you with that, but I can,” she purred.
“Stop it, Avery Rose! Let’s not piss off the Almighty. I think we have enough problems, as it is. This is serious.” He didn’t get dressed, but he did sit down and pull the bedspread over his adventurous appendage. She pouted, sticking that sweet bottom lip out, and he had to fight himself to keep from kissing it. “Now, explain yourself.”
With a huff, she flounced on her back and pulled the other side of the bedspread across her middle, effectively covering her body from his hungry gaze.
“What do you want to know, exactly?” One did not cooperate with the enemy. She was almost tempted to just give him name, rank and serial number or in her case, name, age and tax number.
Isaac frowned. “I don’t even know where to start.” Thinking back over the last wild twenty-four hours, he started with the obvious. “What are you trying to accomplish by acting so out of character? And don’t try making something up, I’ll know.” He used his best Dom tone, which was a miracle, since his body wanted to bow at her feet and grant her every wish.
Avery admitted defeat. She would never be able to pull the wool over his eyes. Scootching around, keeping herself covered, she managed to sit up and face him. “Isn’t it obvious?” At his stern look, she let her shoulders slump. “Okay, I’ll tell you. I was trying to convince you that I could be the type of woman you could be attracted to.”
‘Hot damn!’ was his first thought, but then he pulled himself back on point, for her sake. “This isn’t you, Avery. You can’t force yourself to be something you’re not.” Isaac was trying to convince himself as well as her.
Avery clutched the blanket closer to her. How could he say that, after what they’d shared? Unless it meant more to her than it did to him. “I think we’re perfect together. I love you, Isaac.” She poured her whole heart into the words, and waited.
Torture, sheer soul-wrenching torture. It felt like he was turning his back on the greatest miracle of his life, but he couldn’t stand to face a future where he was doomed to disappoint, perhaps horrify, this gentle, perfect woman. So, he played his ace. Reaching to the floor, he picked up his vest and took the newspaper article out of his pocket. “Explain this. Is there any chance this was photoshopped?”
“Oh, no!” She grabbed the offending piece of paper from his hand. “How did you get a copy of this? It only ran in the Nevada paper.”
Nevada paper? Hell! “Sorry, this is the local rag.”
Avery let out a screech and the sheet dropped without her even noticing. “Holy Crap!” Thoughts of the Women’s Missionary Union and the Deacon Board and the Library Council and the Junior Service League kept running through her mind. “How did this happen?” She fell forward on the bed, hiding her face, not noticing that her heart-shaped rump was turned up right in front of Isaac.
He stared at the temptation in front of hi
m. Lord, how he would love to mold and squeeze that darling behind of hers. His errant dick tented the bedspread and he had the devil of a time trying to arrange the covers to keep them from looking like a Ringling Bros. Big top.
“I don’t know, but what in the name of goodness were you doing at a Brothel? Was that where you were all the time I was turning the world upside down trying to find you?”
“Yes,” she answered with a muffled voice, her head still buried in the blankets. Then she bounced up. “Why were you turning the world upside down?” Hope lit her eyes.
Squash! “Because, I felt guilty. You disappeared right after I told you Hardbodies was not the best place for you to hang out.”
Hanging her head, Avery confessed. “After you told me that I wasn’t your type, I decided to try and change. I went to the brothel to acquire needed skills and knowledge.”
Isaac jumped up, his pecker trying to be fully involved in the conversation. Grabbing one of the blankets, he wrapped it around his waist. “Do you know how stupid that was? Do you have any idea what could have happened to you? I ought to turn you over my lap and blister your butt!” When another hopeful gleam entered her eyes, he chided. “Stop that! Was this what you meant by the fact that you had been practicing? What did they make you do? Did strange men—”
Avery stopped him before he stroked. “Isaac, calm down, you look like a thundercloud.” This wasn’t going according to plan. “It was all academic, no hands-on contact. I practiced on a sex toy. Several of the girls gave me lessons on how to dress and walk and…well, you saw the dance.”
“Why would you do that?” He knew why, but he needed to hear her say it. More self-torture.
Her voice was small and uncertain. “I went to Shady Lady’s, because I wanted to learn how to please you. And I did, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.” He couldn’t lie to her about that. “You pleased me more than you’ll ever know. The problem is, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I want to do things to you that you’ve never dreamed of, that you’d never understand. My taste in sex is not what you deserve. You’re a lady, Avery. And I’m into kink that would scare you to death.”
“Try me,” she challenged him. “I’ll do anything for you.”
“No,” he argued, wishing it could be different. “You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. Do you know what a Dom/sub relationship is?”
She was quiet a moment, as if deep in thought. Then her head popped up and she looked him square in the eye. “Maybe. But, it doesn’t matter. If you like it and want it, then I want it, too.”
“Avery, dammit!” Isaac was feeling things he had no right to feel. “You don’t realize how tempting you are. I like you, I respect you. Lord knows, I want you. Hell, making love with you was beyond paradise. But it’s not going to happen again, we’re too different.”
She sat there, dead still for a long moment. Admitting defeat was hard, but he couldn’t make it any plainer than that. “Okay, my mistake.” She got up, her heart breaking, and started to pick up her clothes to redress. Isaac looked like he had more to say, but she didn’t think she could stand to hear more about how ill-suited they were for each other. All she knew was that she had offered herself to him on a silver platter, and he had rejected her gift. “I’ll show myself out.” As she started past him, he grabbed her arm, but both of them were taken by surprise by a loud banging and yelling at the door.
Isaac dropped the blanket and grabbed a towel as he went by the bathroom door. “Hold on! Give me a minute.”
Avery grabbed her clothes and headed to the bathroom. But a very familiar, irate voice stopped her in her tracks. “Where is she, McCoy? There are 30 people out in that bar that say they saw you bring my little girl in here thrown over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes! If you think you’re going to get away with besmirching her reputation, I’m here to tell you that you are dead wrong.”
“Daddy?” Not thinking, she trailed into the living room wrapped only in a sheet to see her bald, gesticulating father step right into Isaac’s face and shake his fist, menacingly.
“I blame you for all of this, McCoy! Have you any idea how people are talking? I’ve had dozens of phone calls, even one from the mayor. I may lose my church over this!” His face was so red that Avery was afraid he was having a heart attack.
“Daddy, are you all right? What are you doing here?” At her voice, Abe Sinclair wheeled around, still mad as a bull.
“There you are! Do you realize how big a disappointment to me you are? And look at the way you’re dressed. I don’t have to guess what you’ve been doing.” Turning on Isaac again, he continued his tirade. “Our good name is in shreds. I don’t see how we can hold our head up at the associational meetings. This…” He waved that dreaded newspaper article around. “…is being passed around among my friends like communion wafers.”
“Daddy, Isaac had nothing to do with that. Besides, I did nothing wrong. No one laid a hand on me while I was in Vegas.”
“Vegas!” Reverend Sinclair literally spat the word. “Can you say the same thing now? Has McCoy laid a hand on you?”
“That’s my business, Papa.” Avery stood as straight and dignified as she could in a taupe-colored, 800-thread count, Egyptian cotton sheet.
“That’s where you’re wrong. This is very much my business. What you do reflects directly on me and on the church.”
He wheeled on Isaac, and Isaac, to give him credit, showed the older man only respect.
“I am terribly sorry that this happened, Sir. I wouldn’t have hurt Avery or you for the world.”
Avery began to see where Isaac had been coming from. This is what he’d feared. A heavy guilt began to weigh on her heart, not for her circumstances, but for her father and Isaac. She’d gotten them both in trouble. It was time she stepped back and put this into perspective. Avery had no desire to go back to being the boring person she was before, but she could put some distance between herself and these people she loved, for their sakes.
“You’re going to do right by my daughter, McCoy.” Preacher Sinclair glared at them both.
What did he mean by that? Avery began to have a distinctly uneasy feeling.
“Sir, if you’ll give us a minute to get our clothes on, we’ll be glad to sit down with you and have a civil conversation.” He took Avery by the arm. “Come on, let’s get dressed.”
“What did he mean, do right by me?” Avery’s head was spinning.
“I’m not sure.” Isaac did have a pretty good inkling, and miraculously he was having a surprising reaction to what was running through his head. “Just pull on your clothes. No, don’t, that will only make things worse.” He snatched the red stripper outfit out of her hands. Digging in his chest of drawers, he handed her a T-shirt and a pair of Longhorn lounge pants. “Put these on. They’ll be big, but at least you’ll be covered up.”
She hurriedly pulled on the clothes. “Thanks, and I’m sorry about this. I’ll get him out of your hair as quickly as I can. I’ll just tell him that I’ll go home with him and Mom for a few days. That will pacify him, I hope.” She couldn’t believe she was calmly discussing her father while standing semi-nude with Isaac. Perhaps her mission hadn’t worked out as planned, but there was one thing for certain…her life would never be the same. The old boring, virginal Avery Rose Sinclair was a thing of the past.
Somehow, Isaac didn’t think that was going to cut it. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be just fine.” Funny, that’s the way he felt. Everything was going to be just fine.
When they were both dressed, Isaac held out his hand. “Shall we face this together, Sugar?”
“All right.” She put her hand in his, thinking this would probably be the last chance she got to touch him. “I’m sorry about all of this,” she tried to apologize. “I never meant to cause you trouble. I just wanted a chance to show you how good it could be between us.”
“Avery!” Her father’s shout put an end to her speech.
“Coming, Daddy.”
Together, they faced one very out-of-sorts Baptist preacher. “I’m glad to see you two have joined hands. That’s the first thing I’ll ask you to do in the wedding ceremony.”
“Wedding!?!” Avery tore her hand from Isaac’s. “Daddy, you can’t be serious?” She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Marrying Isaac was the dearest wish of her heart, but not like this.
“I’m dead serious, Girl.” Her father looked at her with disdain, as if she was a piece of garbage that had stuck to his shoe. “McCoy, I expect you to marry my daughter as soon as possible. You’ve taken her innocence and led her down the path of sin. The least you can do is give her the McCoy name and a modicum of respectability. Your name isn’t as good as your brothers, but a marriage certificate will go a long way in shutting up the gossips.”
“Now, wait a minute…” Avery searched for words to say that would get her father off this absurd idea he had pulled straight from the dark ages. “There’s no way that—”
“I think that’s an excellent idea, Pastor.” Isaac was calm, rational and more at peace than he had been in a long time. “It would be an honor for me to marry Avery. You can count this as my formal request for your daughter’s hand in marriage.”
Avery looked at Isaac and then at her father to be sure they hadn’t lost their minds. “There’s no way in hell I am going to marry you, Isaac McCoy.”
“Avery Rose! Such language,” her father sputtered.
A knife blade of uncertainty wounded him. Countless cuts from those who thought they knew better than he, began to bleed afresh. “Why not? Isn’t marriage to me what you were after all along?”
His simplistic take on things hurt her. Avery wasn’t ready to have a rational conversation. She was too shocked and horrified to think straight. No way was she going to let Isaac be forced to marry her. He didn’t want her. And she had no desire to have a husband who wasn’t desperately in love with her. “Not like this, it wasn’t.” She didn’t think she had to say anymore. It was too humiliating to enunciate. What he must think of her? She had to get out of here before she cried in front of them both. “I’m not going to discuss this anymore, with either of you.”