by Sofia Tate
“Blakely, calm down, please,” he pleaded with her. “You’re safe. Just let go.”
“No! You let go!”
“I’m not going to hurt you. Just let go. Let go of it all.”
I’m safe.
A gaze of recognition crossed Blakely’s face as she looked up into Ronan’s eyes. She stopped moving as her heart beat furiously, desperate for oxygen.
Ronan spoke barely above a whisper. “I’m here, Blakely. I’ve got you.”
She started sinking to the ground, despite Ronan’s arms around her. But he was there. He held her up. Her body had gone limp like a rag doll, her head sinking into his broad chest. The gut-wrenching sobs emanating from her echoed that of a wounded animal who had finally found its salvation.
Blakely began shaking, her chest heaving from the release of emotion that she had suppressed for so long. She couldn’t stop crying. Ronan held her, steady and strong.
He cooed to her. “Shhh. It’s okay, baby.” He shifted his arms, with one holding her up, the other cradling her head as if he were holding a newborn.
After her breathing slowly began to return to normal, Blakely looked up into his sapphire eyes. They never wavered, his gaze firmly fixed on hers.
Ronan abruptly picked Blakely up in his arms and slowly brought her back to the blanket. She could feel his feet kicking away the containers to make room for her. He laid her down gently, rolling together one end of the blanket to cushion her head.
Blakely watched as he came down next to her, his head held up by his left hand. He took Blakely’s right hand into his as they quietly stared at each other.
They remained like that for some time, not wanting to break the sanctity of the moment.
It was Blakely who broke the silence. “Ronan?”
“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Ronan stared at Blakely’s bloodshot eyes and blotchy face. Her hair looked like a wild bird had attacked it.
He waited patiently. He would wait as long as it took.
Blakely cleared her throat. “Could you get me some water?”
He nodded, sitting up and reaching for the basket. He pulled out a bottle of water, twisting off the top and handing it to her. She sat up slightly, taking the liquid in large gulps.
She handed the bottle back to Ronan before lying back down. He took the same position as before, with her hand back in his.
Blakely turned to him and began to speak.
“When I was growing up, I went to an all-girls’ private school. I was jealous of all the girls in my class. Because of my mom’s Slavic heritage, I got the pear-shaped body with tree trunks for legs. The other girls in my class had legs that resembled sticks. They were so skinny that I always imagined them snapping like twigs.”
Ronan kept silent as she continued.
“Image was and still is a big deal to my father. He had an unhappy childhood, always in boarding school away from his family. I guess he married my mom because she’s so warm and loving. He was the disciplinarian. He thought my mom spoiled me, especially where food was concerned. He wanted me to look like the skinny girls. I was such a disappointment to him because I wasn’t perfect in his eyes.
When I was ten, he made my mom send me to summer camp. I told you that I’d always gone to my grandparents’ house for the summer, but he thought they indulged me too much like my mom did, and he’d had enough.”
Ronan noticed Blakely’s voice drop. He leaned in closer to hear her better.
“The camp was for rich kids in Massachusetts. None of my friends went to this camp. My father picked it because it was the most expensive one with the best reputation. I knew from the first day that it was going to be hell. The other girls were skinny, wore bikinis, talked about boys. I was miserable.
“The first day we went swimming, I put on my bathing suit. It was a one-piece with a skirt around it. It was the only one that fit me. The minute the girls saw me in it, they laughed. I went in the water, but that skirt floated around me on top of the water. I looked hideous.”
“From that point on, those bitches would always taunt me by singing this song:
‘Piggy Pierce, Piggy Pierce
Oh look, boo-hoo, here come her stupid tears.’
“Did you tell the counselors what they were doing to you?” Ronan’s voice rasped.
She shook her head. “No. They threatened me if I did. But it didn’t matter, because a week after camp started, I went home.”
He cringed and shut his eyes. “Tell me.”
“One morning when we were taking showers, the girls took my clothes and towel and hid them. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I had to take paper towels and hide my body with them to get back to the cabin. But that was also the time the older boys were walking by and they all pointed at me and laughed. I hid behind a cabin, and I was crying so hard that I fell asleep there. The head counselor found me and took me to the main office. I finally told the counselors what had been happening to me. They called my parents. My father was so embarrassed that he wouldn’t even let my mother come get me. He sent a limousine for me instead. Albert, our butler, came to pick me up. I found out later that it was my mother who insisted to my father that at least someone familiar should do it, which is just as well since I was closer to Albert than my own damn father. I never went to another summer camp after that.”
Ronan released Blakely’s hand and began to caress her face with his fingertips. “I’m so sorry, Blakely.”
“It’s done,” she exhaled. “I’ve been working with the same trainer for three years now. Dante’s been amazing. A life saver. I’m not quite there yet, but—”
“Hold on. What do you mean by that? You’re ‘not quite there yet?’”
“Exactly what I said. I still have about ten pounds to lose.”
Ronan shook his head and sat up, pulling Blakely up with his hands. He cupped her face in his hands, as her confused eyes stared back at him. “Do you know why I didn’t want you to wear that ridiculous sweatshirt today?”
She shook her head.
“It’s because I wanted to finally see this.” Ronan dropped his hands from her face, and began to roam them over her sides, up from her hips and waist, being careful to avoid touching her breasts without her permission. “I’ve missed this ever since I danced with you at the barbecue. I hated it the minute I saw it the first time on that trail ride when you fell into my arms.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“What?”
“The look on your face when you were holding me. I was too heavy for you. I could see it in your eyes.”
“I don’t know what you thought you saw, but it sure as hell wasn’t displeasure.”
“But you were sweating.”
“Because it was boiling hot, not because I was getting tired from holding you. Every time you wore that damn sweatshirt, you were hiding those amazing curves of yours from me, and it was killing me.”
“Ronan, have you looked in the mirror lately? You can have any woman you want, like Staci or Camille. Why me?”
Ronan pulled her closer to him, straddling her over his legs, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Christ, you have no idea how beautiful you are, do you? And it’s not just your physical beauty that turns me on. You are so damn smart. And the way you talk, fuck, it makes me so hard. No woman in this town has the guts to tell me off like you do because they all want to marry me because as you put it in the café, I’m the town catch.”
He wiped the tears from Blakely’s face with his thumbs. “You are the strongest woman I’ve ever met. You don’t depend on anyone else for anything, and after what you just told me, it just makes me want you even more, because despite everything that happened to you, you just kept going and look where you are now.”
“Sitting on a rancher’s son’s lap in Blossom, Nevada,” she replied deadpan.
“Damn right you are. You know what else I’ve wanted to do ever since I talked to you in the café?”
“What?”
“This.”
Ronan’s hands moved to Blakely’s face. He pulled her in, placing his lips over hers.
Her lips were soft, even more now because of what had happened.
He kissed her once, twice, waiting for her to welcome him in.
He didn’t have to wait long. Blakely’s mouth opened, taking his tongue in and sucking on it like sweet candy. She quietly moaned, which set him off as he placed more pressure on her mouth. Her arms came around him, gripping his shirt in her fists.
Ronan stopped kissing her reluctantly only because he needed to come up for air. She panted as his mouth left hers. She leaned into him, begging for more. He settled his mouth on her left ear, tickling it with his tongue as she began to giggle. He smiled. He had found a sensitive spot on her, one of many he reckoned, and he wanted to discover more.
“So beautiful,” he whispered to her. “Fuck, I want you so much.”
“Please don’t stop, Ronan,” she begged.
Something in her voice made him pull back to look at her. She looked scared, as if she could do something at any moment that would make him turn away from her.
His warm eyes looked into her frightened green ones. “Baby, this is only the warm-up.”
The smile that came over Blakely lit up her face like a Christmas tree as her emerald eyes softened, which only made his cock even harder than it already was.
Ronan began to take off his shirt, but then she placed her hand over his. He looked at her quizzically.
“Something wrong?”
She stared at him with lust in her eyes as she placed her hands over his. “I want to do that.”
He grinned at her slyly. “Help yourself, baby.”
After Blakely removed his shirt, she threw it to the side and ran her hands over his body, caressing his muscled chest and abdomen as if she were admiring a work of art.
She turned his left arm toward her. A tattoo of a Celtic cross, black in color, designed in intricate knots and angles with a splash of color thanks to a dark green shamrock in the center, took up most of Ronan’s left outer bicep.
“Oh my God. That is so hot.”
She laid back down on the blanket, as if overcome by something. She had a strange look on her face.
He began to worry. “What?”
“You, Ronan. You’re just….”
“What?”
She stared at him in awe. “Exquisite.”
Ronan smiled. “So are you, baby.”
Blakely hadn’t slept with many men. She probably could’ve counted the number on one hand. But the men who she had been with were professionals, usually businessmen or lawyers. Their bodies had been honed to perfection by hours spent in an expensive gym with the aid of a personal trainer.
But Ronan…Ronan was different. His body had been sculpted not by treadmills or free weights, but by true, honest work. Piling hay bales, corralling horses, shoveling manure, mending fences around the ranch. Even though he had never told her what his specific duties were, she could tell what they were from the calluses on his rough hands.
He matched exactly as she had envisioned him. Every inch of his body was defined. His pecs stood at attention. From the top of his chest down to his happy trail was a deep narrow crevice formed by the muscles that lined both sides of his abdomen, a fine V-cut prominent on his torso.
Ronan’s arms formed peaks and valleys, his biceps and triceps the tops of the peaks that rolled down into the valleys that lied between them. The veins that corded through them acted as the rivers carrying the blood that pumped throughout.
Oh God. I want him right fucking now.
Ronan’s voice snapped her out of her trance. “Okay, that’s long enough.”
Blakely laughed as he pulled her back up to her feet, her entire face now a full shade of red from blushing.
He began to pull off her sweater. “It’s my turn. You are way too overdressed.”
Her sweater gone, he put her arms over her head and removed her t-shirt.
A white lace bra stared back at Ronan. “Take it off, baby,” he ordered her in a rough voice.
She took her time, wanting to build up the anticipation. With her gaze never leaving Ronan’s, she unhooked the three notches, letting the straps fall softly down her shoulders. She shook it off her arms, culminating in a full reveal.
Her breasts were full and creamy, the dark pink of her pointed nipples contrasting against the light pink of their areolas.
She spotted Ronan’s cock expand against his jeans. His eyes grew dark, hunger making them heavy-lidded.
“Oh my God, baby. I’m going to suck you til you scream.”
He lunged at her like a wolf, forcing her back down on the blanket. He clamped his mouth to her left breast as he kneaded her right one with his hand. He feasted on her as if he could never have enough.
“Ahhh! Yes, Ronan!” Blakely cried out in ecstasy, which only seemed to encourage him more.
As much as she wanted to run her hands through his dark curly hair, her arms were thrown back over her head to give Ronan as much space as possible.
His moans were primal, guttural. He shifted back and forth between each breast, ensuring each was given proper attention. His mouth was hot, alternating between biting her nipples, suckling on the entire breast, or teasing the nipple with his tongue. Ronan’s mouth became more frenzied with each impassioned mewl that escaped from her mouth.
Her pussy was now fully drenched. Blakely couldn’t wait any longer. She was desperate for his cock.
She curled one of her hands through his hair. “Ronan.”
He grunted, as if to say, “Not now. I’m busy.”
She panted, barely able to form a sentence. “Ronan…I need you…inside me…please.”
Blakely watched as Ronan reared his head back. He looked like a man possessed, gone beyond the brink of his control.
“Not yet, baby. I need more.”
With shaking hands, Ronan undid Blakely’s jeans and pulled them down, but her boots posed a temporary obstruction. With barely any effort, he tugged them off in one motion. Then he saw her thong that matched her bra, and he froze.
His eyes fixed on her mound. “Oh my God.”
He jumped to his feet and looked at Blakely straight in the eyes. “Don’t move,” he growled.
With both hands, he tore the thong at its seams, then snatched it away from her body so effortlessly that it only increased her arousal.
“Ronan, please,” she begged him.
“Trust me. You need more, and I’m going to give it to you.”
He spread her legs wider, dropping to the apex between her thighs. Then she felt a fluttering between her folds.
Blakely heard him alternating between grunting and humming when he devoured her. His sounds made her hotter for him, wanting him inside her to the point where she was on the verge of tears from sheer need.
Then he entered her with his fingers, first one, then two, thrusting deeper and deeper into her folds. His head shifted, and she felt him take her clit into his mouth.
“Oh God! Ronan! Don’t stop!”
She was spiraling. He knew exactly what to do, to take her to the edge of the precipice where pure rapture awaited her.
The wave was coming. She was cresting, her body shaking.
“Ronan!” she screamed as she felt her essence flow from her pussy.
Her head lolled back. She was spent, but Ronan kept on licking her until there was nothing left.
She started to tingle as he placed gentle kisses on the soft flesh of her inner thigh. “Blakely, the sounds you made…I couldn’t stop,” she heard him declare.
“I’m glad you didn’t,” she said, smiling from ear to ear.
Ronan finally appeared in front of her. Blakely watched in total amusement as he stood up and ripped off his boots, socks, jeans, and briefs.
Now it was Blakely’s turn to be rendered speechless.
His huge, engorged cock was pointed right at her, slightly curv
ed upward. Its tip was a fiery shade of red. She was close enough to see the veins pulsing on it. It was ready for her. He began digging for something from the back pocket of his jeans.
He ripped the condom packet open with his teeth and sheathed himself.
She beamed at him. “I love a man who comes prepared.”
“Always, baby. Now, please be quiet because I’m going to fuck you.”
Blakely widened her legs to welcome him. He fell on top of her and settled himself between them. He entered her so smoothly, as if she were made for him.
He sighed in ecstasy, “Oh fuck, yes. You are so wet, baby.”
The power of his entrance sent her back arching. His cock throbbed inside her, growing larger with each thrust. She hugged him close to her, her hands kneading his tight ass, her legs coiled around his waist.
Blakely shut her eyes, reveling in the feel of Ronan bucking on top of her, pistoning into her. She was overcome by his strength, the smell of her come on his breath, the force of his weight on her. She wanted him so much.
He reached with one hand beneath her folds and found her clit, massaging it one minute, pinching it the next.
She thought she couldn’t come so easily again after he’d devoured her pussy, but with each thrust, the edge was approaching. She knew the release would be even more glorious this time.
Blakely clenched his cock inside her like a steel vise. She was coming. The wave was crashing again…
“Ronan!”
Her entire body began to shudder as Ronan threw his head back and shouted, “Yes! Blakely!” He kept coming as she milked his cock, riding the wave with him.
With a final shudder, his arms finally gave out, and Ronan collapsed on top of her. She wrapped her arms around him, their sweat-slicked bodies sticking to each other. His heart pounded against hers, his hot breath on her neck panting for fresh oxygen.
“Baby, I…that was…”
She smiled. “Don’t say anything.”
Blakely looked up into the trees and the sky beyond.
