by Em Petrova
Lane tipped his brim to Mav and clapped him on the back. “Good to see you, man.” She was sure her brothers had filled Lane in on everything.
“You too,” Mav replied, trying his best to drift into the background. But several other guests greeted him, and he leaned against the railing shooting the breeze with the old-timers.
Lane mounted the porch steps, and Wyn got up to hug her brother. Once Lane’s arms came around her, he tucked his lips next to her ear. “Good to see you’re well. Seems like Mav’s still keeping watch over you.”
She couldn’t think of a response, so she pinched his ear to make him yowl. After that, it seemed the yard was flooded with guests, and the house filling up. She was lost in a whirlwind of activity. Momma needed her to help serving lemonade and sweet tea. She grabbed a few bottles of alcohol to spike it, and her mother gave a shake of her head, though Wynonna saw the twinkle in her eyes. Daddy wouldn’t mind a little whiskey with his lemonade.
Standing behind a table like a kid at a lemonade stand, she served Buck Jr. a cup, which he promptly tipped into a puddle on the ground for the puppy to lap. She peered over the table with a laugh. “You know you should give him water.”
“He likes lemonade. Can I have another?”
“For you this time?”
He nodded, so she served him. When little Merry toddled up, Wynonna smiled at the little girl. Her blond pigtails and summery dress screamed country girl.
“You want lemonade? I’ll have to see some ID if you’re having a splash of whiskey.”
Buck Jr. howled with laughter, holding his belly. “She can’t have whiskey! She’s too little.”
“Oh good thing you reminded me. Here you go, Merry. Can you drink from that cup?” She passed the child a cup half full of lemonade, which she took with both hands and proceeded to dribble down her clean sundress.
Wynonna’s daddy would have been so darn proud of his clan. It was sad to think he’d never met her sisters-in-law besides Kashley, since she’d been the neighbor girl. And he’d never meet whoever Wynonna decided to settle down with.
Except, the man who I want my daddy DID meet.
He’d met him and stamped him with approval. She looked around for Mav and spotted him standing not far off, staring at her. She pointed to the lemonade and raised a brow. He gave her a small crooked smile and sauntered over.
“Belly up to the bar, Cowboy. Can I offer you a cool one?”
“Sure. No alcohol.”
“Why not? Afraid you’ll lose control?” She gave him a coy look.
His eyes seemed to burn out from under the brim of his hat. “Don’t tempt me, woman.”
A shiver of excitement moved through her body, and she barely kept from hurling herself across the table and knocking him flat so she could straddle him. What happened if she took things that direction today? Showed all her family and friends who she really wanted?
“I don’t like that look you’re givin’ me, Wyn.”
“Is that so?” She leaned a hip against the table.
Just as she’d expected, he followed the movement, his gaze latching onto her body. Good—she hoped he was picturing her naked, gyrating as she ground down on his cock.
His eyes flashed back to her face, and he grabbed the neck of the whiskey bottle and dumped a copious amount into his lemonade. “Thanks.” Before she could make sense of the fact he was walking away, he was gone, immersed in the crowd again.
She saw him later, talking to West and Ridge. He glanced at her when he thought she wasn’t paying attention. But her friend Maren caught her looking his way one time too often and commented.
“What’s up with you and that cowboy in the black hat?”
“That’s Mav, the foreman here.”
“That isn’t what I asked.” Maren’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “He hasn’t peeled his eyes off you all day.”
Spoken in that deep Southern drawl, how could Wynonna ignore what her friend had said? She cast Mav a look and found his stare riveted on her.
“I don’t know what’s going on, Maren.”
“He’s half in love with you, that’s what. Believe me, I’ve seen lust and I’ve seen love. That’s both.”
She didn’t want to talk about it, so it was good at that moment that Momma needed her.
She went onto the highest point around—the top step of the porch—and stood before the huge group who’d come to remember and honor her father.
“Thank y’all for coming today and celebrating the life of my father. A respected man in the community, and one still talked about in rodeo bars.” A cheer went up. “Beloved husband and father.”
Several heads bowed, but not Mav’s. He was standing at the base of the stairs, lingering close to her as he’d been all day. Their gazes caught and electricity zapped between them.
The big pickle jar filled with bits of paper was thrust her direction, and she blinked at her mother. “Read the memories, please, Wynonna.” Her mother gave her a soft smile as if she understood Wynonna was dazed and confused. If Maren could see what was going on, then surely her whole family caught on. They all knew Wynonna better than anyone in the world.
She dipped her hand into the pickle jar and pulled out a folded slip of paper. She read what it said in a clear voice that carried across the yard.
“I once saw Buck Sr. dancing out in the field and rode up to him to ask what sort of music he was listening to. ‘The humming of bees. Not so good to dance to,’ he replied, and started humming to a popular country tune.”
Laughter rippled through the crowd. Wynonna smiled at the memory, seeing her father so clearly in this way she hadn’t ever seen him before. But thanks to the neighbor who’d shared the memory, now she did.
“I knew Buck Sr. back in high school, when he rode a motorcycle that smoked more than a Vermont chimney.” More laughter. “And somehow, he always got the ladies on the back of it. I always wondered if he dropped them off at home for their daddies, hickory smoked.”
At that, tears of mirth squeezed from Wynonna’s eyes, and she swiped them away as she tried to regain her breath. She read several in a row that were sentimental, with times her father had helped people out. Then she got to one that made her throat close.
“Buck Sr. gave a chance to a beaten-down ex-soldier coming off a tour in Bosnia and needing refuge. He gave me a chance even though I hardly had any experience. Some people were born to cowboy, he’d told me later, and I think of that every day.”
She looked up directly into Mav’s eyes, her own trickling over with tears. At his side, Buck rested a hand on Mav’s shoulder. It was so obvious that Mav belonged with them. He was already one of them. All he needed to do was take that step to claim her, and they could live happily ever after.
Later, when he didn’t say another word to her and disappeared early from the party, she figured she might be fifty before the stubborn ass came around.
* * * * *
Mav leaned against the side of the barn, staring up at Wynonna’s window. Her pull on him was strong tonight. She was the moon on his sea, making waves.
He wasn’t ever going to shake her, was he? Did he even want to?
After seeing her hugging those young rodeo studs in an all too familiar way, he couldn’t stop thinking about having her.
“Fuck,” he muttered and slicked his fingers through his hair.
He bent and scooped up a pebble by his bare feet. Then he crossed the yard and aimed it for the windowpane. It smacked the glass true, and his heart thundered as he waited to see if she’d catch on to what it was. What it meant.
He wanted her.
His heart spun a donut. Had the curtain just twitched? He fisted his hands and held his breath to try to slow his hammering pulse. When the front door opened and the screen door creaked, he nearly swallowed his tongue.
Wynonna stood there in a tank top and shorts, and he knew—just fucking knew—she wasn’t wearing anything under them. His cock dug into his zipper with raw need.
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“You called?” Her voice, always throaty, seemed to be edged, a blade of honey meant to slay him. She descended the stairs with the light step of an angel and crossed the yard to where he stood.
“You answered.” He caught her against his chest and crushed his lips over hers. She molded her body against his, and he plunged his tongue deep into her mouth. A rough noise filled the night air, and he realized it was him.
As he dipped his tongue in again and again, pulling moans from her, he felt a high overcome him. This woman… He couldn’t let her go. But he couldn’t keep her.
I should open my arms and tell her to walk away from me.
Just one more night.
This inner war he’d been waging for years was a losing battle. He tore his mouth from hers and stared down at her, panting. He stroked his thumb along her high cheekbone.
“I never believed there was someone on earth who could make me feel this way,” he grated out.
He saw what his words did to her, and though his mind was telling him he couldn’t ruin her life by binding her to a much older man, he pulled her back in for another kiss.
Small mewls of need left her throat, rolling over his skin. His cock hardened to the point of pain, and he could smell her need.
“Take me to bed, Mav.” She placed little nipping bites along his lips.
He groaned and lifted her. She was the perfect weight in his hold, long legs slung over his forearm as he rounded the barn to his quarters. He’d left his door open and he nudged it farther, carrying her directly to his mattress. His sheets were twisted from sleeplessness, but she looked so beautiful lying there that his heart stopped.
“Honey, I can’t wait. I’m sorry.” He stripped her with quick movements. Sure enough, she wore no panties, and her slick seam glistened in the moonlight. He growled and dived between her legs.
She drew her knees up and back, splayed open for his hungry kisses. Her juices coated his lips—he couldn’t get enough. He delved his tongue into her slick opening, and she started to squirm, tightening around his invasion.
“Mav. Oh fuck, Mav.”
He sucked her clit into his mouth and batted it with his tongue. She stiffened, trembling… and tipped over the edge.
Her flavors poured over his tongue, and he spent long minutes drawing out her orgasm while his cock dug into the mattress, demanding its own ecstasy. He’d waited too long to claim her again. He’d pump his cock into her twice and blow. He had to slow it down.
“Hands above your head,” he commanded.
The whisper of her movements only heightened his senses. His hands shook, so he braced them on either side of her rapturous face as he hovered over her.
“Take me, Mav. I need you inside me.”
“Not yet,” he forced out.
Pressure built from his balls, but he focused on Wynonna. “I plan to taste every inch of your beautiful body.”
“Then I’m going to eat you up, cowboy.”
He hummed amusement and desire, but somehow kept his cock out of her tight pussy for another minute. He lowered his lips and skimmed them across hers. The barest of caresses that ended somewhere around her nipples. He plucked at the juicy buds with his teeth until she bucked for more.
Then he worshipped that tattoo wrapping around her ribs and found her soaking center with his fingers again.
She came in seconds, and he closed his eyes around the feel of her pulsating around him. His cock oozed precum, the skin close to bursting.
He started working his way back up her body, leaving a new trail of kisses.
“Please, Mav. I can’t wait anymore.” She stopped lying there at his mercy and became the wildcat he knew and loved. She sat up and hooked her legs around his hips as she dug her nails into his shoulders and yanked him down.
The ridge of his cock was cradled by her moist, plump pussy lips. He looked into her eyes and slid forward. Then stilled.
“Fuck.”
“Yes,” she cried out.
He filled her in one hard, smooth glide and didn’t stop until his balls struck her ass.
* * * * *
Mav’s hard cock filled her so damn perfectly. Wynonna’s untamed cry seemed to resound in her ears as he fucked her. Each thrust striking that innermost point only he seemed to know existed.
She clasped his face and looked into his eyes. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was fevered. His eyes glittered.
Passion flared to life inside her, and she brought him down for a tongue-tangling kiss that only fueled their desire. He hooked his arm around her knee and threw it over his shoulder, drilling deeper into her body.
Her mouth opened on a silent scream.
“Fuck, are you coming? Jesus.” He gazed down at her as he slammed deep. She shook apart with a third orgasm that left her mind a puddle of goo and her body weak.
“Shit, Wynonna, you okay? You’re still weak from that flu.”
Her chest rose and fell, pushing her breasts against his sculpted chest. After a few moments, she recovered enough to shove him onto his back. Then with a grin, she threw her leg over his body.
“You’re in peak condition. I love touching you,” she murmured. Instead of starting at the top as he’d done, she wiggled down his body and trailed her lips over the light hairs on his inner thighs.
“Fuck.” He twisted his hands in her hair, and the sting on her scalp was so good. She bit his flesh, and he jerked upward, nearly bucking her off.
“Didn’t know I was bull ridin’ tonight.”
“If you keep that up, you’ll have to hold on better.”
She smiled against his skin, edging up to his balls. His sac was tight to his body, his scents alluring. She snaked out her tongue and flicked it over his sensitive skin.
“You mean to kill me?”
“Mmm-hmm. Are you saying you’re too old to handle me?”
“Fuck no.”
She smiled wider and lapped around his balls to the base of his cock. With short brushes of her tongue, she tasted his every ridged inch. In the darkness, his face was carved from marble. It stole her breath and distracted her so he was able to toss her off him and into the covers.
She barely bounced before he was covering her with his hard body, hands pinning her wrists and his gaze dark with intent. She had a feeling she’d pushed him one step too far. A shiver ran through her, and her pussy spilled fresh want.
His warm breath washed across her lips as he jerked his cock high into her body again.
They shared a groan and began to move in tandem. Bucking together, her clit rubbed against the hard steel of his body. Her mind clamped onto the feel of him coupled with the words he’d given her earlier. He’d never believed a person on earth could make him feel this way. That person was her.
Tenderness rolled through her, and she wished her hands were free so she could cradle his face as he fucked her to a frenzy. His chest vibrated with each thrust as a growl echoed there.
She was beyond words, though so many lay dormant inside her. She wanted to tell him she’d loved him forever, that today his memory of her dad had touched her more deeply and made her fall harder.
A long groan escaped him. The sound roused one from her, and when she felt the first splash of his cum in her pussy, she burst with a cry.
* * * * *
Watching Wynonna come down from a high he’d given her made him feel like he could conquer the fucking world. Take on a dozen bucking bulls and run the ranch backward blindfolded.
She lay in his arms, breathing just starting to return to normal rhythm and her thick hair spilled over his pillows. He knew when she left his bed, she’d leave her scents behind. Which was good, because it had to be the last time. A farewell fuck.
He winced at his own thought. He didn’t think of it as a fuck, but some part of him needed to throw up a wall or lose his mind. He couldn’t have her. She had so many good years left, and how long before his muscle tone faded, or he couldn’t even perform for her?
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br /> “I wish to fuck I was fifteen years younger.”
She stopped drawing circles over his shoulders. “What does age matter?”
“How can it not matter?”
“Because we love each other.”
His heart tumbled hard, hit the dirt and slammed to a stop. She loved him. Or believed she did. There was still time to make her see this was all wrong. Step one was evicting her from his bed.
By some deep-rooted perversion, he flexed his arms, drawing her closer. “Wyn—”
She slapped a hand over his mouth. The sting woke him completely from his daze of bliss, but the fight in her eyes brought him to full alertness.
“Don’t start that crap about you being all wrong for me, or me being self-destructive by being with you. We took care of that myth up in Oregon when you realized your family’s made you believe that bullshit about yourself. And I won’t listen to you say you’re too old for me. You said yourself I don’t need a boy toy—I need a man. Aren’t you man enough to step up, Mav?”
Their gazes locked. Then he rolled off. “Don’t know why I ever bother thinking I can convince you of anything. You’ve got your mind set.”
She sat up and crossed her arms over her bare breasts. The sight nearly landed him in bed with his cock buried in her again, but he had to draw the line. Find some self-control.
“Damn right my mind’s set. I’ve made plenty of mistakes when it comes to men, but you’re not one of them. Which is how I know it’s meant to be. Don’t deny it, Mav.”
“We’ve gotta be up early. You’d best go back to the house.”
He had no idea how he looked away from her when she climbed out of his bed and pulled her pajamas back on. Or how he kept from calling out to her when she slipped out the door and into the darkness.
He battled to keep from getting up and at least making sure she made it to the house okay, but he knew if he looked at her retreating back, he’d go after her.
