by Vivian Arend
Dare leaned forward and pressed a hand to the wall for balance. “Your tongue is magic,” she whispered.
“Your pussy is fucking delicious,” he answered back. “Hold on tight, darlin’, this is going to get wild.”
He took control then, locking her in place with his hands so his tongue could explore. Leisurely at first, slipping through her folds as if he were on a casual exploration. Licking with tiny motions over her clit. Her hips quivered as he increased pressure, stabbing his tongue deeper. Fucking her with it as he caressed her ass and stroked her smooth skin.
His cock was hard, his balls buzzing, his mouth watering with the taste of her. Every time she moaned it encouraged him, and he fucked her harder. Licked more. Teased and taunted until her clit was all but vibrating under his tongue.
He stroked a finger between her ass cheeks and teased there as well. All of her. He wanted every fucking bit of her.
Dare threaded the fingers of her free hand through his hair then clenched them into a fist. “Oh, God. I’m so close.”
Jesse hummed his encouragement, licking greedily. Needing to hear her go over the edge. Needing to send her there.
Another sharp tug at his head was joined by a low gasp, and she rocked over him, grinding down on his face as she came. He didn’t slow, didn’t ease off, and she swore, wiggling to get away from his relentless mouth.
He rolled her to the side, ripping open his jeans so he could haul his cock into his hand.
Dare relaxed into a puddle in front of him, legs open, wetness from his mouth and her orgasm painting the lips of her pussy. Her heavy breasts moved with every hard breath she panted out even as her satisfied smile turned her into an erotic statue before him.
“So freaking gorgeous.” Inspiration hit, and he reached between her legs, rubbing as gently as possible when everything in him screamed to go hard and fast. Heat and wetness covered his palm as he stroked, and Dare groaned again, her eyes widening as she realized what he was up to.
“You’re a dirty bastard,” she whispered. “You’re going to make me hot all over again.
“Yup,” he agreed. He stroked his fingers into her, shaking with need as he pulled back and covered his cock with her moisture.
“Much better.” He pumped hard, stroking over the head and using his thumb on the most sensitive spot as he let his gaze drift over her. “Touch your tits for me. Hold them up. That’s it. Now open your legs, darlin’. God damn. So fucking right. Every inch of you is perfect and so fucking delicious, and later I’m going to fuck you from one end to the other, but right now…?”
He was seconds away from losing control. The sight of her all sexy and sated made him sweat. A pretty flush coloured her cheeks, partly from her orgasm and the rest from watching him jerk himself off. Her gaze was fixed on his fist where the head of his cock appeared over and over.
She licked her lips, and lightning sizzled up his spine. Dare wiggled upright, her breasts shifting, and he let loose a long, needy moan. And when she reached for him, fingers dusting his thigh, that was it. That was all it took to shove him over the edge.
Semen exploded from his cock to land in stripes over her breasts and belly. He knelt on the bed, determined to mark her all over, like a fucking caveman, branding her with his come.
Asshole move, maybe, but Dare didn’t seem to mind. Instead she hummed happily, dragging a finger through a streak of white, and another hard jolt hit.
“You’ve fucking killed me,” Jesse complained as he collapsed to the mattress beside her, happy but spent.
“Hmm. You’re a messy creature,” she teased, rubbing her palms over her naked curves and covering herself with his seed. “Since I’m all sticky and messy—what else can we do that’s dirty? I’ll have to go have a shower before bed, anyway.”
She knew exactly how to bring a dead man back to life. His blood heated to boiling and his heart pounded. “I have a few ideas,” he offered, crawling over her and taking her lips.
Round two, starting now.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Blog post: Dates and Time
When people warn that the older you get, the faster time flies, it scares me. I can’t imagine the days disappearing any quicker than they already do.
It’s the beginning of August. It’s been just over two weeks since we moved to Rocky.
It’s been less than a month since we showed up for our first visit.
We won’t talk about how short a time on the calendar it’s been since Buckaroo announced he was planning to impact my life, but I’m already twenty-seven weeks into this pregnancy gig. Just three months to go before the kid stops poking me from the inside. Although, don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining because that is one cool sensation.
But here I am, having new adventures and new challenges, and I swear every day disappears before I’ve had a chance to fully wake up… Did I mention I’m hanging around with a shit-ton of Colemans? Me, the person who barely recognizes my own face in the mirror in the morning, suddenly has a lot of faces to put names to. I apologize again, cousin Steve, for walking straight past you the other day. You were very gracious to accept “pregnancy brain” as an excuse for my forgetfulness.
To my reading audience, remember how I mentioned the Colemans are pretty much all cut from the same cloth? There is no way I shouldn’t have recognized him as a relative.
Maybe time is moving so fast he was blurry—
The days fell into the familiar routine of ranch work, very much the same as what Jesse had experienced since the time he was old enough to toddle after his dad to help with chores. The only difference was now Jesse didn’t get to work side by side with his brothers as often since Blake had him on rotation as one of the hands. Sometimes an edge of frustration struck before Jesse shoved it down mercilessly and focused instead on all the privileges he’d been granted that he didn’t really deserve.
Because they were living with Joel and Vicki, he got to spend more time with his twin than he had in the years before he left. That was a sweet enough reward to put up with the moments when he wanted to slap himself silly for his past sins.
And Dare was there. The woman was a bundle of positive energy, and every time he found himself slipping toward brooding, she would subtly, or sometimes not-so-subtly, remind him to mind his manners.
Like the time they were sitting around the bonfire in the evening, a couple more of the cousins and their partners joining the conversation.
Out of the blue Dare stood, stepping on his foot in the process before stumbling into his arms and clinging to him like a princess in need of rescuing.
“Oh, my hero,” she declared dramatically before kissing him thoroughly. Appreciative wolf whistles exploded from the rest of his family.
“Not that I’m going to complain about you kissing me, but what was that about?” he asked as they made their way hand-in-hand back to the trailer a while later. “I didn’t think you were into public displays of affection.”
She shrugged. “You were glaring at Vicki. You weren’t even aware of it, so I thought a little distraction all around might go a long way.”
Jesse cursed. “I don’t even know what I was thinking. Why would I be glaring at her?”
Dare tugged on his hand. “Old habits die hard. Do you still feel horrible inside when you look at her?”
“Guilty?” Jesse thought it through. “Yes, but it’s different now. Less intense. Honestly, every time we’re in the trailer and I feel it, I get up and clean something.”
A burst of laughter escaped her lips. “I wondered what was up with your Mr. Clean imitation.”
“You think it’s stupid?” Jesse asked.
“Nope. I think it’s a brilliant way to redirect your need for punishment into something that is good for everybody.” She offered him a sweet smirk. “I like that there is less for me to tidy.”
So daily he got up, reluctantly uncurled himself from the bundle of heat that was Dare, then headed into a full day of work follow
They visited with each of his brothers and their wives, and with Mike and Marion, but they also did more ordinary dating kinds of things, and those were the moments he’d catch himself forgetting the reason they were together was because of one hot night back in cold February.
Sitting in the movie theatre holding her hand felt right.
“Hey. Stop daydreaming and get moving,” Matt ordered, leaning on his shovel at the other end of the ditch they were digging by hand.
Jesse blinked himself back to the here and now, which was a distant field at the edge of Coleman property where they needed to fix a broken standpipe. “Shit. Sorry about that.”
Matt glanced at his watch. “Coffee break. You and me are both foggy today.”
“You skipping sleep to party?” Jesse teased.
“Colt’s teething, and Hope has a summer cold. They’re both miserable.”
A moment later they’d both climbed out of the hole, sitting on the ground with cups of coffee. Jesse popped open his lunchbox to discover Dare had snuck in a pile of brownies, and he passed one over to his brother.
“Vicki makes the best brownies.” An appreciative sound escaped Matt an instant after he bit into the chocolatey goodness. He took a sip of his coffee then gave Jesse a strange look.
“What’s that about?” Jesse demanded. “I sacrifice one of my brownies, and you make a face?”
“How’s it going, living with Joel and Vicki?”
That was a question to stop a man in his tracks. Ever cautious of Dare’s warning in the back of his brain to keep his stupidity on the down low, Jesse considered what to say. He didn’t want to flip off something nonchalant, but there was no way he could explain how earth-shatteringly monumental it was to slowly accept his mistakes and move on.
“Did you ever have something you spent a lot of time and energy on before realizing you were focusing on the wrong thing?”
A derisive snort escaped his brother.
Jesse eyed him in confusion.
“You’re asking a man who wasted years trying to make someone happy when the one woman who means everything to me was right there under my nose.” Matt leaned forward on an elbow. “Sometimes I kick myself for having been so stupid, and then Hope catches me and points out that we can’t change the past, we can only enjoy the future. So that’s what I do, every damn day.”
A huge shot of guilt and regret washed over Jesse. He really was a sorry son of a gun.
“I’m an ass,” Jesse said. “I’ve been so focused on me and my world that it didn’t even hit until now what kind of hell you went through.”
“Yet every day I get to spend time with the woman I love, and we’ve got a great if slightly cranky kid that we made—life’s pretty damn good,” Matt insisted. Then he grinned. “Look at you. You might actually be growing up.”
“Shut up.”
“No, I mean it, this is a good thing.” Matt’s grin got wider. “I can hardly wait to see you all thrown out of kilter down the road when you’re trying to figure out how to convince your baby girl that she really does want to go to sleep because you can’t keep your eyes open an instant longer.”
Jesse smirked. “You think Dare’s having a girl?”
“Got my bid in. Girl, November third.”
“Dare is going to hate you for that,” Jesse warned. “She’s already insisting Buckaroo will arrive early.”
Matt slapped him on the shoulder, and they finished their break before climbing back into the ditch and getting muddy. But Jesse was grateful that the entire conversation—other than the talking-about-babies bit—had been so completely normal.
He was back with his family, and this felt right too.
Friday night after supper, he and Joel washed up the dishes while the girls took off to get changed. A visit to Traders was on the agenda—finally. It was the first time they’d been able to make it since Dare got out of the hospital, and they were both looking forward to dancing and relaxing.
Jesse checked inside, shocked but grateful that the only thing he really felt about spending the evening with Joel and Vicki and the other Colemans who’d be there was anticipation.
He popped into their bedroom and found Dare standing in front of the closet in her underwear and bra.
He slipped behind her and pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck. “I don’t mind the outfit one bit, but I’m not letting you go to Traders like that,” he warned.
Dare turned, discontent written on her face. “I hate to be stereotypical, but I’ve got nothing to wear. Nothing I can go dancing in.”
He let his gaze drop over her body, tempted to suggest they stay home to do some horizontal dancing. She was an eager partner between the sheets, but getting out was important too, he was coming to realize.
He stroked a hand over her belly. She’d noticeably popped in the last week. It wasn’t something he’d expected, but in truth he thought the baby bump was damn sexy.
“Buckaroo making your favourite outfits not fit?” She didn’t answer, but her lower lip stuck out in a pout. He leaned forward and nipped at it. “I thought you were going to borrow some things from Jaxi and the other girls.”
“I did, but I skipped a size somewhere in the last two days.”
He reached into the closet and grabbed one of his shirts. “Wear the jeans you’ve got with that stretchy bit in the front, and put this on. With your boots, you’ll be the best-dressed cowgirl in the place.”
She went to take the shirt from his hands, but he held it hostage for a moment. “I get a kiss in payment.”
Dare give him a quick smooch before stepping away to get dressed. “I’m surprised you didn’t demand a blow job.”
He slapped his thigh. “Dammit, you’re right. I’ll remember that for next time.”
The Traders Pub parking lot was packed with a typical Friday-night summer crowd. He caught Dare by the hand, Joel and Vicki following, as they headed straight to the dance side of the place since Dare wasn’t drinking.
The Colemans had taken over the east corner of the standing tables off the dance floor. Couples slipped on and off the hardwood area, people shifting around enough that as the room warmed up, light coats were discarded and hung on the hooks attached to the vertical wooden posts.
They danced a little then visited. Dare only had to ask on the sly for name reminders a few times. Lee and Trevor were there from the Moonshine clan with Rachel and Becky, Rafe from Angel with Laurel. Tamara and Lisa from the Whiskey Creek side of things. Just him and Joel from Six Pack.
It was a far cry from the days when all fifteen of them had been single and out for a regular Friday-night whoop-up. Only seven cousins were out tonight, although five with partners. None of the couples with kids, though—maybe that’s what made it feel so different.
Come November, he and Dare wouldn’t be out on a regular basis either. Not without wrangling a babysitter.
The world was changing.
Dare took off toward the washroom, which gave Jesse his first opportunity to chat with Rafe about something that needed discussing. He motioned his cousin to the side, and they walked away, leaving the rest of the Colemans gathered at the edge of the dance floor.
Rafe ordered them a couple of beers and passed one to Jesse, a question in his eyes.
The place was noisy enough that where they were standing they were pretty much alone in a crowd. Jesse twisted toward the dance floor but spoke in Rafe’s direction. “You know the thing that I told you was an issue before I left?”
Rafe grinned briefly before washing it away with a swallow of beer. “You mean the thing that I said you didn’t need to worry about anymore? The thing I said wasn’t really a thing?”
“Jackass,” Jesse muttered.
“Jerk.” Rafe just stood there like a Sphinx. “I am waiting for you to admit I was right. You know, about the thing that I don’t even know what you’re talking about anymore because it never happened.”
So much for having to warn Rafe not to discuss what Jesse had confessed to last February.
Only something Dare had said stuck with him, hard, and it was important to share that bit. “Fine, you were right, but also wrong, because something did happen. I got my ass handed to me that night, and I hope I’m smarter because of it.”
Rafe smacked his hand on Jesse’s shoulder and squeezed tight. “I’m very glad that the King of Guilt has decided to abdicate his throne.”
It was taking a while to disassemble the thing, but that was a pretty accurate image. Pulling down his past regrets one brick at a time and using them to build that road into the future.
“How are things going with Laurel?” Jesse asked.
Rafe eased his back to the bar, leaning side-by-side with Jesse. His gaze found Laurel in the midst of the family gathering. “I’m in love. That pretty much sums it up. My heart beats faster every time I see her. I wake up every damn morning wondering what I did to deserve her—you know, all of the typically cheesy fallen head over heels in love things.”
“I’m glad. It’s pretty clear you two were meant to be together. You know, like I told you before I left,” he added.
“Jerk,” Rafe returned happily.
While they talked, Jesse watched the rhythm of the dance before them, as family and friends slipped off and on the floor and into conversations. Laughter and smiles and deep connection. It’s what had been there for so long, and yet so often Jesse had felt on the outskirts of it.
This time something seemed noticeably new, but he wasn’t quite sure what had changed.
His favourite redhead reentered the room, heading toward the family. She’d pulled on a pale blue T-shirt that stretched over her belly before tying his shirt over top, and she looked pretty damn cute. With the extra weight in front, her hips swayed more than before, but her strut across the wooden boards was enough to make his body instantly go into high alert.
When she stepped up to Joel and slipped a hand around his hip, Jesse’s spine straightened so fast it nearly snapped out of his skin.
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