The Polo Prince (Foxworth Stud Ranch Book 4)

by Mia Madison

I can imagine what happened.

  He woke up in the night and freaked out to find himself still in my bed. Then he got to wondering how we'd face each other in the morning, tousled and not looking as good as we looked the night before. In my case at least. I can't imagine Quint ever looks anything other than god-like.

  Now I don't have Quint as a friend and I don't have him as my lover either. But if he had regrets, I wish he'd shared them because now I've lost on both sides. Knowing each other so long and sharing plenty of past secrets, it was clearly a bad idea to sleep together.

  I get that we should never have done it except that I'm finding it hard to maintain the sense of regret and not only because I feel so put back together. So complete after going without a man in my bed for so long.

  The door being opened and closed makes me look up. I should have locked it behind me when I took out the trash. It's the stranger – the one whose name I still don't know, the one who sends the wrong kinds of shivers up my spine.

  “Howdy,” he says and it comes out sounding unnatural from him.

  “Hi. I'm not open yet.”

  “I'm not drinking,” he says with a leer. “I came to ask whether you'd have time for a bartender's vacation.”

  “Sorry?”

  “You and me having a drink together. After hours.”

  “Oh. Like a date?”

  “Exactly like a date.”

  “I'm er -”

  Damn, what can I say to blow him off? I'm not usually coy with men but I'm sure this one's a killer.

  “I don't even know your name.”

  Does that work?

  “Baron. And you're Edie, am I right?”

  “I, yes I am.”

  Christ, yesterday I'd have been up for a date and more with the dude, but now, there's only one man I want at my bar and in my bed. I stare out the window and see Dallyce emerging from the five and dime store across the street.

  “Ohmigod, I have to go,” I bluster.

  “Go to where?” he says in that accent that sounds menacing now.

  “Sorry, I'm in a rush to see my friend. Can we talk later?”

  I hustle him out the door and lock up. Dallyce isn't a friend at all, I barely know her from the times she's come in with Shea. But she's a good girl and she'll cover me. I'm sure she'll let me hitch a ride out to Foxworth. I need to get away from this guy with the weird accent that won't leave me alone.

  “Dallyce,” I call as she's about to climb into Shea's truck.

  She looks around then waves.

  “Hi, Edie.”

  “Sorry, I have to go,” I repeat.

  Baron, if that really is his name, frowns then remembers himself and forces a grin.

  “See you later tonight,” he says with a grimace. How did I ever find this guy remotely attractive?

  I dash across the street to where Dallyce is waiting by the truck door.

  “Can you give me a ride to the ranch?” I plead.

  “Oh sure, are you visiting Quint again?” she asks.

  I climb up and scoot over then lift her packages in so she can pull herself up.

  “News travels fast,” I say with a chuckle.

  “Oh, we weren't gossiping, promise,” she says. “Shea's been waiting for Quint to get around to asking you out. Ever since I met him he's insisted it's clear as night and day that you two were made for each other.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Absolutely. It's so nice that Quint finally has someone. He's a bit of a lone wolf but he's such a nice guy. And so dedicated to his work which is amazing.”

  “Yes it is. I mean he is.”

  “And you know, it's really nice being with a guy that much older. They're just more like real men, don't you think?”

  “Hmmm.”

  I can hardly believe what she's telling me and I let her chatter all the way out to the ranch while I look out the window, interjecting agreement enough that she keeps talking while I think about what she told me.

  Despite that admission, it doesn't detract from the fact that whatever Quint make have secretly felt for me, he's now gone into regret mode. The old male fright and flight. By the time Dallyce stops the truck close to the ranch hand's cabins, I've worked myself back up into a fury.

  “Thanks Dallyce, I owe you.”

  “No problem, it was nice to have a girl's talk for once.”

  “Yeah it was.” I feel a bit guilty for not doing much of the, but she seems happy so I stalk across the yard straight into the forge. I'm pulled up short by he sight of Quint wearing only his low slung black jeans and completely shirtless.

  He has an apron tied around his chest but where he's bent over into the fire, his back is revealed all flexing as he bangs ferociously at the red hot iron in the fire. His biceps flex and bulge with every hammer and he's covered with a sheen of glistening sweat. He really is the hottest man on the planet and not because he's half buried into a firepit. The pulsations begin and a needy ache inserts itself between my thighs.

  “Hey, you,” I call and Quint startles.

  His shoulders flex with a surge of power as he stands up to straight and turns to face me. Black smears of soot line his bare chest so he looks like some kind of ripped gladiator warrior. I could swoon if I wasn't so mad at him.

  “You know you've got more disappearing acts than Chris Angel.”

  Chapter 16

  Quint

  Seeing her here, out at the ranch again for the second day in a row makes my heart swell, and what she does to my cock is beyond belief. She looks stunning, her cheeks all pink from the pounding last night, her hair is tousled and she's wearing a cute little dress.

  I've never seen Edie in a dress, looking so young but also like a real sexy woman, with her curves nicely highlighted and the tops of her breasts visible in the low cut bodice.

  She's a sight for the most jaded gaze and I can't stop the grin spreading across my face as I reach for the rag to wipe the sweat off my chest and shoulders. She's gaping at my chest like she's shocked to find me at the forge only half-dressed. She ought to know me well enough to know that I don't do protective gear. I like to be bare at much as possible. It highlights the connection to whatever I'm doing.

  I wipe the sweat trickling into my eyes from my brow, so that I can get a better look at my girl. Now I notice she's pink in the face and she's mad as hell about something.

  “You missed me already,” I say, thinking to lighten whatever mood she's in.

  Shit, I hope nothing happened. I locked the door to the bar extra carefully after I left, then kicked the key back under the frame. Perhaps she's mad about that.

  “Humph,” she lets out a sort of disgusted snort.

  “What is it, Babe? Did something happen.”

  I'm feeling so hopelessly mellow toward her, I don't get what can have upset her kitteny mood.

  “No, nothing happened,” she snaps. “It could have, Quint. It truly could. I'm sure of that, except that you have to pull your disappearance all the time. Does that make you look cool? No, I can tell you it doesn't. Because I thought we were friends. And friends talk to each other. So you could have told me you were feeling that we did the wrong thing. That we crossed the line and ruined a friendship for the sake of some steamy sex that wasn't worth the effort.”

  “It wasn't worth the effort?” She finality runs out of steam, allowing me the chance to say something. “Because I thought it was pretty fucking amazing.”

  “Yes, well maybe, but-”

  “Maybe?” I interrupt her, lifting my hand to let her know to cool it. We can work this out but not if she goes running off with assumptions. Like she says, friends talk to each other. Edie's my perfect beautiful lover now, but she's also my friend and always will be. “You mean that doesn't count?”

  “No, I mean yes. I mean it's ruined when the person sneaks off in the middle of the night because he hasn't got the balls to say he made a mistake.”

  At last I get what she's upset about now and I shake my head w
ith a rueful smile. My little grin gets her steamy again, her breasts going up and down as her breath speeds up, ready to start another rant at me. I lift my hand again to silence her and her mouth snaps shut in surprise. I take a few steps toward her, very slowly and her eyes stretch wide as she watches my huge frame loom up closer to her.

  “You think I don't have balls, Baby? You think I made a mistake?”

  I watch her mouth lose its poutiness and start to quiver as I approach. My mind is full of the things I could do to that mouth and what she could take inside it but we'll get to that.

  “Not when it comes to running away from being close to people,” she mewls out.

  I know she isn't scared of me but the turnaround in her attitude is huge. She's watching me and her eyes keep slipping down to my bare chest, the biceps and pectorals swelling from beneath the leather apron. I've wiped off most of the sweat but the soot has become ingrained into my pores and only comes off with a scrub in the shower.

  Yeah I'm filthy and perhaps she doesn't care for that, but she's gonna learn. My woman will have to take me sweating and soot stained because I can't clean up for her every time she comes bounding into my forge looking like an angel.

  “Babe, I'm sorry if you woke up and were disappointed to find me gone, I really am,” I tell her.

  She opens her mouth to speak and again I hold up my hand for quiet. She does as I say and I wipe the towel across my bicep even though it's dried of sweat. Her eyes follow my trail over the bulge of muscle and she inhales hard. Her breath is quickening with every step I advance on her and her nipples are rock hard little points pushing out through the flowered material of her dress. I can't wait to bite those little bullets through the fabric and feel her squirm with pleasure in my hands.

  “I start work at 5am, Baby. It must seem weird to a bartender, but you won't catch a laboring man in bed past dawn. Does that bother you?”

  “No,” she whimpers and shakes her head quickly side to side.

  “Good. Look at me,” I tell her.

  I'm a step away and she can't stop staring at my bared torso, like she didn't have her hands full of me last night. I guess it was dark.

  “Eyes, baby.”

  She snaps her gaze up at me and I see how filled they are with desire and admiration and something else. I don't dare to hope it's affection. But I do – hope – because it's the feeling I've got for her.

  “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to freak you.”

  I reach to stroke her soft cheek with my huge filthy bear paw and am glad to see she doesn't flinch from the grime.

  “I thought you had second thoughts,” she whispers in a tiny soft tone. In that kitten voice I'm coming to love as the alternative side to her.

  Edie has two very disparate sides which makes it all the more fun to be with her. You never know which woman you're getting at any particular time but both are gorgeous and delicious and hotter than the fucking forge behind me.

  “I thought you regretted what we did.”

  “Are you freaking insane, lady? That was the best thing I've ever done in my life. Period.”

  I line my body up against hers and reach around to cup both ass cheeks in my palms.

  Mine.

  She exhales a sharp little gasp and her little hands slide up to my chest. I tip my head down to her and she lifts her eyelashes to meet my gaze. Her breasts rising and falling against my chest are almost too much to tolerate. My dick is rigid as cold steel in my pants and desperate to be inside her.

  “It better have been the same for you,” I tell her. Still cupping her round butt, my fingertips drag the soft cotton skirt of her dress up her legs inch by inch.

  She bites on the inside of her mouth and nods her head a little in agreement.

  “I don't hear you,” I tell her.

  The fabric is bunched in my huge hands now and her perfect round ass is naked in my palms. Fuck, there is nothing better in this world than my hands filled with my girl's soft pink flesh.

  “Say it.”

  “It was the best,” she whimpers, her body quivering in my hands. “Ever.”

  “Good girl,” I say. “Now turn around.”

  Chapter 17

  Edie

  Inside I'm shaking right to the very edges of my body. Quint half naked at his flames, his hard muscle bulges all glistening with sweat and stained with the black ash from the fire is enough to make a girl come apart. Add to that he's gone seriously alpha man on me, not allowing me to dominate or get too feisty.

  He calmly orders me to be quiet and hear him out and then, god, I can hardly breathe because he's up close, his massive chest a wall before me and he's got my bare ass in his huge hands. My panties are soaked right through already because I've been dripping since the moment I walked in here and found him focused on hammering out solid burning steel with a bared torso.

  “It was the best ever,” I tell him, meaning every word. “You're the best ever,” I add and then he gives my flesh a hard squeeze and orders me to turn around.

  I start to tremble in every cell, anticipating what's coming. I do as he says and turn around to face the long bench along the wall. He pushes me forwards so my hands have to catch on the surface to support myself. My dress is all bunched up around my waist at the back still and a quick glance over my shoulder tells me Quint's hooded gaze is burning into my bare ass.

  I gulp down hard, remembering how last night he flipped me around like this to drag my panties down my legs and part my lips with his face. Oh god, if he does that again right now I'm going to come completely undone right here in the forge, where anyone might walk in. It's dirty and decadent but it makes me wetter than ever.

  “You know what I'm going to do to you, don't you, Baby?” he husks, his voice has dropped to that low feral tone filled with lusty hunger.

  “Yes,” I squeak. “I think so.”

  So when the slap rains down on my cheek I squeal in shock. The pain isn't too bad, just a sensation of hot prickling in my right cheek. It was mostly the surprise of being spanked by the blacksmith that made me cry out. Oh my god what if someone heard and comes over to check it out.

  “Do I have to gag you or can you be quiet now?” Quint gruffs out.

  I nod agreement.

  “Say it,” he orders.

  “I can be quiet.”

  “Good girl.”

  Immediately another slap smothers my cheek, this one harder and I feel my flesh jiggling. I have to bite down on my lip, not to shriek but because it's so damn delicious. The tingles run from the spreading heat in my butt cheek all the way up through my core and straight back to my pussy. It's unbearably good.

  No one has ever spanked me like this and I absolutely love it from Quint. He tugs the straps of my dress off my shoulders and down so my naked tits fall free. I've never been happier that I dint' wear a bra for once and that I wore my prettiest lace panties, more thong than panty seeing as they cover very little of my butt cheeks.

  “Pinch your nipples,” he commands. When I do so, streaks of pleasure fly though me.

  “Harder,” he grits out. “Tug them, twist them. Do it like you'd want me to.”

  I do as he says and a throaty moan escapes me. It feels so good and so naughty to be bare-breasted and tweaking my own nipples for him right out here in the open where anyone might see. He rains down a series of hard slaps until my butt is stinging with prickling heat and my underwear is soaked right through. I have to place my hand back down on the wooden counter to hold myself steady.

  With every clap on my cheek, my breasts jiggle and sway, hanging down perkily where I'm bent over. I feel Quint's gaze burning into my shaking ass and jiggling boobs, adoring my body and its eager response to him. I had no idea my reticent mild-mannered blacksmith had this bestial nature buried inside all this time.

  He slows the spanking now. Each individual slap is separated by moments with Quint's hard hot hand resting on my bare cheeks giving me time to feel the sparks of electricity firing through me. Quin
t likes to be in charge of making me ready and I'm so ready. I don't care who might come in, who might discover us, I need him inside me right her and now.

  “Please,” I beg. The need inside making me plead for him to pull down his zipper, free his cock and part my lips again.

  One last slap across both cheeks, the flat of his palm connecting with my drenched panties, He must be completely aware of how soaking ready I am for him now. His palm rests there on my cheek, the burning flesh lining his searing hot hand. He seems to suck up the tingling heat through his skin and I wait, literally quaking and unable to draw breath.

  Then he inserts a fingertip into the opening of each side of my underwear and runs the length as though straightening them to be perfectly fitted. I shudder as his fingers graze along the outside folds of my clit, the swollen center throbbing out needily for his attention.

  I'm completely stilled, breathlessly anticipating the fingers hooking the lace to drag it down over my tingling buttocks. I can only imagine how scorching red my cheeks are and another quick glance back tells me Quint appreciates his handiwork. Once my underwear are neatly in place, he yanks the skirt down also and I'm left with the biggest vacancy inside me.

  I want to drop to my knees and beg him to fuck me. I'd unzip him and release the swollen bolt of iron I felt in his pants when he first came close. I want to fill my mouth with all of Quint, lick across him and worship the wide girth that fills me so perfectly. I can't leave like this. I need him inside me. I can't think of anything else.

  “You can't leave me like this,” I moan, turning to face him.

  His eyes are half hooded with desire as he drops his gaze lower to my bare breasts. He tips down to kiss each tip then realigns my dress, fitting it to me perfectly.

  “Quint, please,” I beg and it could well sound like whining I'm so avid with need to feel him filling me.

  “I want you hungry for him the rest of the day, he rasps. “Thinking only of me and as a lesson not to sass me like that again, unless you want another spanking.”

  Oh god I do want that. I'll be ripping into him constantly if that's my punishment. It seems more like a reward to me. My nipples are aching enough that I want to pinch them out through the cotton.