Show-Off in Spurs (Crossroads Book 5)

by Em Petrova

  “I’ve never tried that wine.” His voice roughened, exactly the way she preferred her man’s hands.

  She cocked a brow at him. “You single? I mean…maybe you want to share the bottle with me.”

  The corners of his lips inched up farther. “I’m single, and I’d love to.” He closed the hood and faced her. “Turn off the engine and grab the bottle. There’s a good view of the sunset a little ways from here.”

  She loved his country drawl, his accent and all the country talk a woman like her missed in her life.

  “Should I ride with you?” she asked.

  His light brown brow hitched upward. “If you trust me.”

  “Do I have a reason not to?”

  “I’m completely harmless.”

  Except a man such as this could imprint himself on a woman, leave her thinking of him long after he tumbled her into bed. Or in this case, she suspected the back seat of his truck.

  Burning up at the idea, she grabbed the bottle and her purse just in case and then climbed into his truck next to him.

  Theo hadn’t given his review of the view and sunset justice, because they parked at the top of a hill with what appeared to be the entire world spread out around them. The sky lit up with orange and red and deep pink before he even reached out and cupped her cheek in his big palm.

  She leaned across the console, staring at the mouth she wanted on hers—and on every inch of her body.

  “Who are you?” he whispered, gazing deep into her eyes.

  “I’m someone making a fresh start.” Her voice wobbled from the quick gulp of air she took.

  “Well let me be the first to welcome you to Crossroads.” He leaned in and claimed her mouth. The hard lips weren’t so hard after all, but soft and plump enough to steal her mind. She moaned at her first contact with a man after so long.

  He answered with a low growl…applied a bit of pressure to her jaw with his fingertip until she opened her mouth wider for him. As soon as she did, he swept his tongue inside in an all-consuming claiming.

  She threw herself over the console. He caught her and shoved her into the back seat. She hit the vinyl, grabbed the front of Theo’s shirt and yanked him down on top of her. Crushing his mouth firmly on hers, he stole her cry of need even as he coasted a hand up her torso, under her top, to cup her breast.

  Tearing his mouth free, he panted as he stared down at her. She hooked her calf around his and stared back. Was it her inexperience at only having one lover in her entire life or was that electricity pumping between their gazes normal?

  “I never do this, Sadie. I want you to know.”

  “Me either. But I want you.”

  He groaned out and ducked his head again, trapping her lower lip between his and tugging lightly. She sucked in a harsh breath and latched onto those steely planes of his spine as he continued kissing down the point of her chin. She angled her head back so he could suck on her throat while slowly teasing the tip of her nipple with a callused thumb.

  Her insides clamped tight on the wild need to be touched, held, cherished even for a brief minute.

  When she worked his T-shirt up and off, grappling to touch all of his ripped muscles at once, he tore off her top.

  “Christ, you’re sexy.”

  The flutter of excitement kicked up a notch at his words. She wasn’t a vain woman, but after being told every day since she met Jackson that she was appealing, she’d missed the hell out of hearing it.

  His hat had tumbled off, and she dug her fingers into his thick hair, pulling him down to her breast. He flashed his eyes at her before taking her nipple between his lips and sucking hard.

  She arched off the seat and wrapped her legs around him. The thick bulge of his erection dug into her pussy, through her jeans. He suckled her nipple until she gasped and begged for more. When he raised his head with a grin and only moved to her other breast, she groaned in frustration.

  His laugh rumbled through her, and all of a sudden, the raw hunger to be touched also turned fun.

  She bit into his shoulder and gave a playful nip. He growled in response, which only sent them both into a frenzy. He leaned back on his knees to pull off her boots. “I gotta get a look at this ass, sweet thing. You had my balls bursting when you bent over that hood.”

  “I have a confession,” she panted, twisting and turning to help him remove her jeans. “I didn’t have engine trouble.”

  He flashed a white-toothed grin that made the sunset blasting in all the windows dim. “I like a woman who knows what she wants.”

  He paused with his thumbs hooked in the strings of her panties cutting across her hips, gazing down at her with a burning heat in his eyes.

  “Take me, cowboy.”

  In one yank he ripped off her panties, spread her legs and trailed two fingers over the soaking seam of her pussy. A glance down showed that her lips were plump and swollen…needy.

  “Dammit, I said you were sexy but it’s so much more than that.” He slipped a hand under her ass, lifting her and fucking her with his fingers. Her muscles strained and her insides shivered. Need spiked in her core, and juices flooded out to drench his fingers.

  She wanted to reach for his belt buckle and withdraw what she suspected was a thick cock from his jeans, but she couldn’t think past the pleasure he was giving her. He dragged his fingers out and brushed them up her seam again, to her clit. She cried out and her eyes rolled back in her head.

  With his palm planted on her ass, he sank his fingers in again, burrowing into her sheath. Stretching her. Filling her up. She wasn’t ready to climax, for it to end so soon. But she couldn’t hold back the ache that shot her to the pinnacle and she shattered on a cry.

  Waves overtook her. She crested for what felt like a solid minute before she toppled off her high. But Theo wasn’t done with her yet. He worked his fingers in and out, filling the truck with juicy sounds and turning her on all over again.

  She looked into his eyes and that bolt of electricity hit again, a higher voltage this time. When she laid hands on his belt buckle, she didn’t look at the stamped words or image on it, too afraid what she saw could throw her into a tailspin. Her cowboy always wore the buckles he won in the rodeo.

  Shoving the thought aside along with the buckle, she popped the button of his jeans and unzipped his fly. He watched her expression when she learned the shape and length of him through his underwear. As she reached into his briefs and drew his cock free, he issued a breath, sounding as a slow trickling sigh.

  She wondered when he’d last been touched, and if it was as long as her last time. It didn’t matter—nothing did but getting his clothes off and a condom on.

  “Sadie.” He stopped her short of wrapping her fingers around his thickness and teasing the mushroomed head. Leaning over, he kissed her again, drawing on her lips and tongue until they were both gasping.

  The sun dropped in the sky, and shadows began to trickle into the back seat. Looking at Theo’s chiseled body bathed in shadows only made her hotter for him.

  “You’re beautiful,” she rasped, running both hands down his chest and abs.

  He grazed his teeth over her nipple and then looked into her eyes. Neither of them could stop now, or even pump the brakes. She needed him inside her, and he knew what she wanted and how to give it to her.

  He slammed a condom in place and they both looked down as she guided the fat head of his cock to her own plump lips.

  The head disappeared, burrowing into her folds…slipping inside her entrance…and then rooting balls-deep in her pussy.

  They stopped, and she enjoyed the glorious sensation of being filled by a flesh and blood man.

  With a slow gyration of his hips, he tested her depths, skimming the head over her inner point.

  She locked her legs around his back and rocked into him. “Kiss me, cowboy!”

  He did, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and his cock in her depths. Taking her, shaking her apart, remaking her into someone brand new who she�
��d need to get to know later on when they went their separate ways.

  She gripped his bulky shoulders and moved with his every plunge, giving them both the utmost pleasure. She felt his ass stiffen under her calves. His eyes burned, and she reached up to brush her thumb across his lips.

  The intimate gesture had Theo’s eyes shuttering. He groaned and then began to jerk his hips as his orgasm hit. Watching a man come apart for her this way sent her reeling too, and her insides clutched hard around his erection.

  He growled, slamming his lips over hers. She lost herself in their shared moans and his grunts as the final spurt of cum left his body.

  Raising a hand to his hair, she ruffled the thick strands as she fought to slow her heartrate. A long minute passed where neither moved or spoke, and she grew aware of an energy passing between them. Or was it only her imagination? Her need to strike a connection, even for a brief moment?

  When he turned his head and kissed her shoulder, she shivered in a heightened state of sexual haze. Then he did something she would think about long after they parted ways…

  He took her fingers and pressed a kiss to each pad, one after another, his lips warm and his eyes smoldering.

  * * * * *

  “Man, you should see this girl.” Theo’s fellow ranch hand, Cole Huxley, drew arcs in the air to mimic the curves he’d been raving about for five minutes. He cupped his palms on the invisible globes of a woman’s ass.

  Theo’s mouth dried out as he thought of Sadie’s ass. Round, tight, high…perfect. Dammit, he was getting hard again, and it’d been two weeks since he hooked up with her.

  He brought his water bottle to his lips. “Sounds like true love.”

  Huxley grinned. “If you saw her, you’d be in love too.”

  “Pretty sure that’s called lust, dude.”

  “Lust…love…what’s the difference? Anyway, I’m going back to the bar tonight to see her.”

  All Huxley had talked about for a week was the new waitress at the Crossroads bar. Theo knew far more about her than he cared to, having heard all about her second-best feature, which happened to be double D in size.

  Lately, he was an ass man and he hadn’t even gotten a chance to worship Sadie’s the way he wanted. He’d fantasized about it plenty since then…about licking, biting, slapping it.

  He tipped the cool water down his throat. It hit the spot and quenched his thirst but did nothing to cool his train of thought. Lowering the bottle, he backhanded the water off his lips and considered upending it over his head to cool off the rest of his body.

  “It’s a scorcher today,” he changed the subject.

  Huxley glanced up at the cloudless sky. “Sure is. Remind me why we picked the afternoon to work on the fence.”

  “Plain stupid, I guess.” He grinned at his buddy and set the water bottle in the back of the truck. “Best get back to it. We’ve got a lot more posts to set.”

  With the Bellamy Ranch expanding and doubling its business what felt like every few months, the ranch hands could barely keep up. The horse ranch had grown into a big business, owned and operated by Cort Bellamy and with the help of his cousins Kaoz and Aidan and a half dozen hands.

  Theo hefted another fence post from the truck bed and carried it to the spot where they’d set it for the new pasture enclosure. Huxley followed with a roll of electric fence wire. As soon as he got within earshot of Theo, he started up again on the beauty from the bar.

  “Do you know anything about her besides she has a great body?” Theo only half joked. He didn’t know much more about the woman he’d hooked up with. She was new to Crossroads, and he’d looked for her a few times, even going so far as to pay another visit to the winery hoping to run into her. He didn’t even like wine.

  Huxley scratched at his temple a moment, brows screwed up in thought. “Since she’s a woman, I’d say she enjoys salads and getting her nails done.”

  Theo gave a shake of his head. “That’s like saying all men like beer and barbecue. Oh wait—we do.”

  They shared a laugh.

  “Does she ride?” Theo hefted the post over his shoulder and headed to the hole they’d dug earlier.

  “Most likely. What woman around here doesn’t?”

  “She might be one o’ those city types who expects her man to have money and a fast car.” He was only messing with Huxley, but the guy’s brows tipped together into a V.

  “You don’t think that could be the case, do you?”

  Theo shrugged and lowered the new post into the hole. As they worked, he listened to Huxley talk about things that normal young single guys talked about. But he found his own mind drifting.

  He’d grown up fast after dropping out of college. Without his parents’ support of his decision—in fact, they were downright angry—Theo had little choice but to strike out on his own.

  Since he’d worked on a horse ranch here in Georgia during summers as a teen, he knew the hard work that faced him. He also preferred physical labor and working outdoors for a living. When compared to the classroom and teaching history, as he’d initially planned to do, the Bellamy Ranch won first prize. Theo couldn’t think of a better office than the wide open fields, sun and sky.

  The scent of fresh soil tingled in his nostrils, and he inhaled deeply, only half listening to Huxley’s ramblings now. Theo might love his job, but he couldn’t deny it’d become more than a little stressful the past few months.

  When he discovered Jordy hiding in the shed, he thought the boy would be gone by morning. One day turned to a week and then a month. Soon he realized Jordy had no intention of leaving the Bellamy, and that burden sat squarely on Theo’s shoulders.

  He’d taken care of the kid, and Jordy had come to rely on him. Why would he leave when he lived a comfy life and Theo took care of his need for food and clothing?

  He sighed and Huxley looked up. “Need another break?”

  “Nah, we’ve only been workin’ half hour since the last break.” Theo looked down the short row of posts, pleased that they stood upright in resemblance to a line of soldiers. He preferred order, plans and rules—but having Jordy in his life meant he’d thrown out half a dozen of those things and adopted new ones.

  Taking care of a teenager was one thing—hiding one on a ranch was another.

  Each day, he woke praying Jordy cleaned up his bedding from the shed where he slept and that his few personal items were also stashed in the place Theo showed him—beneath a floorboard that hadn’t been nailed on one end.

  All it would take was for one of the ranch hands to walk in and spot Jordy’s belongings for them to call the police. And if Jordy was found, he’d be sent back to his abusive, neglectful family or dumped into the system.

  As he and Huxley toiled over the fence, Theo tried to dismiss the thought that the kid was a drain on his energy, but he’d taken the responsibility and he’d see it through.

  They set the final post and strung the wire between it. Then they stood back to examine their handiwork.

  “We’re gettin’ pretty quick at setting fence,” Theo said.

  Huxley nodded. “Let’s go back and grab some lunch before we do the rest.”

  “Sounds like a good suggestion. Those grits wore off long ago.”

  They jumped into the truck and rolled across the field toward the bunkhouse. When they reached the parking area, Cort stepped out of the garage, a dark expression drawing his brows downward.

  Huxley threw the truck into park. “Boss is mad. Can’t be good.”

  A steel band of worry tightened around Theo’s chest, constricting his air. Had Cort discovered Jordy living in the other shed, the one he hadn’t burned down?

  He started walking toward his boss, prepared to take the heat.

  “We got an issue.” Cort’s hard tone ratcheted down that steel band even tighter around Theo’s ribs.

  He thumbed his hat. “What’s up?”

  Cort sent him a long stare before twitching his head. “Come with me.”
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br />   He threw Huxley a look, but he only shrugged. They both followed their boss around the garage and struck out across the yard to the barn. Some much needed air trickled into his lungs again as he realized they were walking in the opposite direction of the shed where Jordy’d been staying.

  Then he saw the water—inches of it standing in the back pasture where they kept the horses they were training.

  “What the hell?” Huxley asked as they approached.

  Cort gestured to the water tank outside the fencing. In warmer months when rainfall was low, they hauled water, and the 500-gallon tank was full—or had been a few hours earlier when Theo watered the horses and filled up his own bottle.

  “Jesus.” Theo grated out. The standing water in the pasture would be well up over the horses’ ankles, and standing in water wouldn’t be safe.

  “We moved all the horses out, but which one o’ you watered them this morning?” Cort leveled his stare first on Huxley.

  “It was me,” Theo said immediately.

  When Cort swung his gaze to him, he saw surprise overriding the anger in his boss’s eyes. “You did?”

  “Yeah. I know I closed the outlet securely, though. Did you check the outlet to see if it’s broken or faulty?”

  “Kaoz checked. The outlet isn’t faulty—it was left open.”

  Theo’s guts clenched. He clearly recalled closing the outlet, making certain it didn’t even drizzle an ounce more than what he needed. He wasn’t the one at fault—but he knew who might be.

  Son of a bitch.

  He looked at the field that didn’t appear to be draining at all. That in itself proved to be an issue around here, but typically they didn’t receive enough rain to hold water, let alone nearly five hundred gallons.

  “I’ll dig a ditch and drain the water from the pasture. And I’ll pay for the water lost. I’m sorry, man. I swear I shut the outlet.”

  Cort eyed him for a long minute. “First the shed and now this, Theo. I thought you were one of our reliable ranch hands.”

  Hell—what to say to that? Arguing wouldn’t do any good, unless he was willing to throw Jordy under the bus as the culprit, which he wouldn’t. He’d be seen as a delinquent and tossed into juvey.