by Desiree Holt
Mason touched her shoulder. “Let’s make sure the horses don’t decide to head home without us.”
He took Sassy’s reins and led both horses to one of the trees where he looped the strips of leather over low-hanging branches.
Kris frowned. “Are we staying here for some reason?”
“We are.” He walked back over to where she was standing.
“And that reason would be?” But she was sure she knew the answer before he said anything.
“This.”
He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her roughly to his body, pressing her against him tightly enough she could feel the hard length of his cock through the fabric of his jeans. She closed her eyes, giving herself over to the sensations rioting through her. His mouth was like a hot branding iron on hers, searing her lips, his tongue probing and searching, forcing her to open for him so he could dive inside.
Walk away, she told herself. Push him away. Get back on the horse and get the hell out of here. This man is more than a client, he’s big trouble. He pushed buttons she usually kept frozen in place. She was stupid to even have gone on this ride with him. She knew now what men meant when they said they were led around by their cocks. Being near Mason made her pussy clench and throb and her juices flow.
And her brain, obviously, take a vacation.
Completely unable to resist, she welcomed the intrusion of his tongue and let her own participate in the erotic dance.
His stroked up and down her back, the touch of his hands searing her even through the T-shirt she wore. Nerve endings crackled to life, sparking little explosions everywhere in her body. Her blood pumped in her veins, and her heart rate ratcheted up, the way it had been that night a year ago. The night she melted into him, her body craving his and everything she knew he could do to her. With her.
He lifted his head a fraction, and she opened her eyes to find his staring directly into hers.
“I’ll give you one chance to tell me to stop. Just one. I keep remembering how great the sex between us was. Don’t try to tell me you don’t think the same thing. If you don’t want this, I’ll keep away from you the rest of the time you’re here. Otherwise….”
He let the words trail off, his meaning clear. Unless she said no, he planned for them to have sex again while she was still here. And exactly how would that work?
“My team—” she began.
“You’re smart. So am I. We’ll figure it out.” He brushed his mouth over hers. “I’m not asking you for any kind of commitment here.”
“Good.” Asshole. “Because I don’t plan to give one. I like my life plenty fine the way it is.”
His muscles tensed. “So do I. Been there, done that, not willing to try it again.” He paused. “But nothing says we can’t enjoy each other when the opportunity presents itself. Not when the sex is off the charts.”
He was certainly right about that. And good sex was certainly hard to find. She could attest to that. Still. She opened her mouth to say no, but instead what came out was, “All right.”
He nipped her bottom lip. “Don’t move.”
She watched as he took something from behind his saddle and unrolled what appeared to be a blanket.
“You came prepared,” she observed, not sure whether to be irritated or glad.
His smile was purely sexual. “I was hopeful.”
Mason reached out his hand, she took it, and his mouth came down on hers again. The fire ignited. She was as hungry as he was, tasting him, dueling with his tongue. She reached up and anchored her fingers in his hair, holding his head in place. Mason reached down and tugged her T-shirt out of her jeans, sliding his hand beneath the fabric along her rib cage to cup a breast. The hot touch of his fingers grazed her through the thin satin of her bra.
She moaned when he pinched one nipple between thumb and forefinger and tugged gently. As he worked the hard bud, his mouth slid across her cheek to the line of her jaw. He sprinkled a light trail of kisses until he reached the spot behind her ear he knew drove her crazy and applied the tip of his tongue to it. Sensation splashed through her directly to her cunt, tremors vibrating in her internal muscles. Her panties were instantly soaked, the scent of her own musk drifting up to her nostrils. It mixed with the earthy aroma of Mason—something woodsy, a hint of horseflesh, and all male. She wanted to lick him all over, taste every inch of him as she’d done in that hotel room with the soft light of a lamp bathing them in its glow. At last, she could see all of him in the bright light of day. Her mouth watered at the prospect.
The slide of Mason’s hot, wet mouth down the line of her neck was so erotic, she cried out in protest when he lifted his head. But, then, in seconds, he had her T-shirt and bra gone, tossed to the quilt, and that same searing mouth closed over one nipple while his fingers pinched and squeezed the other. Her legs were so shaky she could barely stand, digging her fingers into his hard biceps for balance.
He read her signals, lowering her to the quilt without moving either his mouth or his hand. She slipped her hands between them and began yanking on his shirt, pulling it from his jeans and digging for the buckle on his belt. She had gone from zero to one hundred on the ready meter from nothing more than his kisses and his touch. But hadn’t he been able to do that to her the last time, too? And more than once. Many times more.
He lifted his head, giving the nipple one last lick.
“Not yet.” He moved her hand from his waist. “If they come off now so will my self-control.” His voice was rough with lust, the timbre of it reverberating through her. “There are things I want to do with you first. To you.”
He disposed of her boots and slid her jeans down her legs, tossing them on top of her T-shirt. Kneeling between her thighs, he leaned down and took the lacy top edge of her panties in his teeth, slowly dragging them down the surface of her mound. When he had them barely past the tops of her thighs, he dipped his head and stroked his tongue along her slit, pushing the silky fabric into her drenched folds.
She fisted her hands in his hair, pulling him even closer, lifting herself to his teasing, clever touch. The pulse in her womb escalated, the beat vibrating through her body. She heard soft moaning and realized it was coming from her, as she thrust herself against his mouth. But overlaid was a growl rumbling from Mason’s throat as he dragged her panties down farther and pressed his tongue against her clit.
When he finally pulled the scrap of satin the rest of the way down her body, she opened her legs for him, and his mouth closed over her. He licked her slit, probed her opening with his tongue, and swirled the tip around her sensitive clit. Sharp sensations rippled through her, from her pussy to her breasts to her painfully turgid nipples.
“More,” she whimpered. “Inside me. I want you inside me.”
He gave a rough laugh, the sound pulsating through her overstimulated cunt. “Not yet. I’m not through tasting you.”
In the next instant, he thrust his stiffened tongue inside her, scraping it against her delicate walls. When he curled it enough to rasp the tip against her sweet spot, she was so primed in such a short time that she convulsed immediately, an orgasm washing over her. Her body shook and trembled, and she anchored herself with her hold on his hair. It was impossible to squeeze her legs together against the spasms, his broad shoulders holding them apart as he feasted and tasted and teased.
When the ripples subsided, at last, she unclenched her fingers from Mason’s hair and let her arms fall to the side, her breathing a stutter in her throat. He lifted his eyes that had darkened to the color of espresso. His mouth glistened with the liquid from her pussy. Very slowly, he swiped his tongue across his bottom lip, the sight so erotic, her depleted body was instantly aroused again.
God! The man was going to kill her.
She grabbed the bottom of his shirt again and tugged it upward. Her hands itched to touch the hard planes of his chest and feel the softness of the dusting of hair covering it.
“Off,” she urged. “Now. Please.”
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Mason’s cock was hard as a spike, and he was so aroused he was afraid it would break through his jeans and his balls would explode. He had entertained the false hope that once he got his hands on Kris Gauthier again, it would satisfy the intense craving he’d been harboring for a year and that would be that, But the gods were having a huge laugh at his expense. Not only was his craving not appeased, it had ramped up to an unbelievable level.
She tasted as sweet as she had all those months ago, her scent as intoxicating. Maybe more. He was stunned by the thought he might never get enough of this woman, and then where would he be? This couldn’t go anywhere except where it was right this moment. The disastrous destruction of his engagement had left him bitter about relationships. So what if he grew old alone. It was better than opening himself up to pain again.
Deliberately, he closed his mind to that train of thought. He had the hottest woman he’d ever met naked before him. He didn’t plan to waste this moment being depressed about something he couldn’t change, something that had happened more than a year ago.
He yanked his shirt over his head and tossed it to the side, bending low again to pepper soft kisses on her throat, both breasts, down the little swell of her tummy, to the soft curls on her mound. He paused a moment to inhale her scent, savoring the richness of it before pushing himself to his feet.
He toed off his boots and socks, disposed of his jeans and boxer briefs with one shove of his hands, and stood before her naked, one hand wrapped around his aching shaft. He was torn between wanting to jack off all over her soft, scented skin; have her lips wrapped around him; or slide home into her pussy and fucking her brains out.
Finally, knowing his control was hanging by a thread, he reached down to his jeans and dug a condom out of a pocket.
Kris’s eyes widened. “Do you always carry one of those around with you?”
“No, only when I have something planned.” He let his gaze rake the length of her body. “And I’ve definitely been planning this since I laid eyes on you again.”
His hands actually trembled as he rolled the latex on his swollen cock and knelt again between her thighs. Spreading the lips of her pussy wide, he nudged at her with his dick, prodding her opening. He entered her slowly, savoring every hot inch of his entry. When he was fully seated inside her, he reached beneath her and palmed the cheeks of her ass, his fingers finding the hot crease.
“Remember when I fucked you here?” He barely recognized the hoarse voice as his own.
“Yes.” The word came out on a whisper of a sigh. Her eyes blazed at the memory, darkening to the blue of a stormy ocean.
“Before you leave the Double R, I’m going to do it again. I want you to suck my cock again, play with my balls while I shove my tongue onto your sweet cunt. And when we can’t last another minute, I’m going to turn you over, lube up that sweet, hot tunnel, and fill you so full of me, you’ll explode.”
Her small pink tongue came out to wet her lips, a habit that only made him harder.
“Would you like that?” He pressed into her again.
“Yessss,” she hissed. “Yes, yes, yes.”
Her fingers dug into his biceps as he moved over her. “Then count on it.”
He couldn’t wait one moment more. Lifting her to him, fingers digging into that hot crevice, he pounded into her, hitting the mouth of her womb with every stroke. She cried out but met him thrust for thrust. Soon there was nothing but the two of them, a cloud of heat scorching them, his thick shaft in her tight wet pussy, and the sexual tension building in his body.
He watched her, remembering from their first time together what the signals were, and when she was close to the peak, he ramped up his movement, hips pistoning. They exploded together, a cataclysmic eruption that shook them both. He held her tight to his body, the walls of her cunt squeezing his cock as it pulsed over and over again.
He lost track of time, had no idea how many seconds or minutes the climax lasted. Finally, though, the aftershocks lessened then subsided. He managed to drag enough air into his lungs to catch his breath, and his heart rate slowed to a manageable rhythm. He rolled to the side, taking Kris with him, unwilling to break their connection yet. Their sweat-slicked bodies were glued together, and he relished every point of contact.
When his dick began to soften, he eased himself from her wet clasp, carefully removed the condom, stuffed it into the foil packet, and turned to her again. Impulsively, he pressed a kiss to her lips, a soft one, not erotic, but full of so much tenderness, it shocked him.
He saw by the look in her eyes it stunned her, also.
“Mason?”
A question, and the sound of it so intimate it made something in his heart turn over. Exactly what was she asking? Nothing he wanted to answer. Not now. Not ever. He was prepared for hot, raunchy sex and nothing more. Nada. Zip. And certainly not with a woman who irritated the crap out of him.
And why is that, jerkhead? Because you’re afraid you feel something else for her? Afraid she’d laugh at you if you said something?
He was never going down that road again. Easing her from his arms, he rose and walked, naked, back to his horse. From one of the saddlebags, he grabbed two towels he’d tossed in at the barn and threw one to her.
“We’d better get back before people start asking questions.”
She shuttered her eyes, any emotion reflected in them disappearing. Good. Better for both of them. Sex, he reminded himself. Plain, raunchy sex.
He took the towel from her, when she’d finished wiping the perspiration from her body, and handed her the clothes she’d been wearing. Then he deliberately turned around to dress himself, the movement a symbolic closing of a door. When they were both ready, he rolled up the quilt and tied it behind the saddle again, stowed the towels, and freed the horses.
When he handed Kris the reins to Sassy, she stared at him for what seemed an eternity, her expression unreadable. Then, as smoothly as she’d done earlier, she swung up into the saddle and settled herself. Mason mounted his own horse and urged him forward, nodding for Kris to follow.
The ride back seemed both endless and too short. He wanted it to be over, yet he didn’t want it to end. Halfway there, Kris urged her horse into a canter and let the mare run full out, only slowing when they got closer and she needed to let the animal cool down. Mason lagged behind in a slower canter, admiring the way she sat a horse and the effortless control she had. A perfect match for a ranch.
Someone else’s, he reminded himself sternly. Not mine. Never mine.
But he’d have her again, before she and her team left. He’d make sure to imprint his presence on her without interfering with her job, and then one more night of down-and-dirty sex. He was sure that would get her out of his system, once and for all.
Chapter Four
Everyone was already digging into breakfast when Kris made it into the ranch house the next morning. She’d hoped by this time Mason would have eaten and gone to do whatever it was he normally did during the day.
Yesterday, as soon as she’d cooled her horse down and put her tack away, she’d disappeared into the bunkhouse. Last night, she’d had Lane ask Martina to fix a plate he could bring down to the bunkhouse for her. Her excuse was she wanted to spend more time studying the maps and going over some reports.
Avoiding Mason was more like it.
It was painfully obvious to her their sexual chemistry was so strong that just being with him zinged her brain waves. Having him fly in the copilot’s seat with her had been a big mistake, but she was torn between keeping miles of distance between them and treating him as she would any other client.
Why hadn’t she been smart and called Grey when she’d discovered who they were working for. She could have asked for reassignment?
Because you don’t want him to see you as different than the other agents, different than the men who work for him.
And every time she gave in to her desire for sex with Mason, she was digging a deeper hole for hers
elf.
Damn it all, anyway.
This morning, she had no excuse to avoid breakfast up at the house. She just made up her mind to ignore him and get on with business. She had some flying she wanted to do today and some information to go over with the team. She’d make herself plenty busy.
Her team was already seated and serving themselves.
“So, last night, we got nada.” Lane scooped scrambled eggs onto his plate and added some strips of bacon. “A couple of times, I got a blip from one of the sensors, but the heat signature wasn’t big enough for a human. Not even a small one.”
“Lots of wild animals out there,” Mason told him, reaching for the large basket of biscuits. “Raccoons, foxes, coyotes. Whole bunch of different ones.”
“Yeah.” Ted nodded. “We’ve had that before, animals tripping the sensors. We learned the hard way how to tell the difference.”
“This isn’t our first time in the wilds of Texas.” Kris hadn’t meant to snap the words, but apparently she had, because Lane gave her a puzzled look. She cleared her throat. “I meant we’ve been in terrain like this before.”
“We get it.” Mason’s voice was uninflected, the expression on his face unreadable.
Kris took an empty seat on the other side of the table, as far away from Mason as she could get. This was not going to be easy, when being in the same room with him sent her temperature into the red zone and her body humming with need. Maybe this was a disease, and she could find a cure. If not, she was in big trouble.
Yesterday could not happen again. No matter how much she wanted it. She was a freaking leader of a high-security ops team, for heaven’s sake. She could remain motionless watching for bad guys for hours, fly circles around nearly every other chopper pilot, and outscore every member of her team on the range. Except Ted, with his rifle, if course. Surely, she could keep her hormones in check for a few days.
Ray filled his own plate then shifted his gaze to Mason. “Ted and I thought we’d take a ride out to the area again today, if it’s okay with you.”
