by Em Petrova
“Fuck, we’ll never get any work done,” he muttered before taking her mouth. She moaned at the first caress, and he deepened it, angling his head and swiping his tongue over her sultry lips, seeking entry.
She opened her mouth on a gasp, and he plunged in, tongue questing for all the dirty little moans she’d give him.
With a hand around his nape, she pulled him into the kiss, and he planted a hand on her round ass. Visions of pulling off her panties, spreading her golden thighs and thrusting his tongue into the treasure between them had him throbbing and fully hard in seconds.
“Theo,” she gasped out between deep passes of his tongue, “you have to…work.”
“I am. Workin’ on you.” He grinned, and she returned it before kissing him again. Need blasted through him, and he tugged her hips flush to his, letting her feel his bulging hardness.
A shiver ran through her. “Do you have time for”—she sucked in sharply as he captured her earlobe between his teeth and lightly nibbled it—“a quickie?”
“I couldn’t go quick with you if I tried. But I got time.” He caught her under the thighs and pulled her up and around him. She clung to his neck and rubbed against him as he strode to the front of the schoolhouse and blasted through the door.
He didn’t bother to kick it shut behind him but whirled her to the wall, planting her against it and trapping her with his body. Panting for air and control, he knew he sat precariously on the brink of losing his damn mind.
“What do you do to me, woman?”
“Same thing you do to me.”
He let her slide down, slowly, inch by inch so he could feel her body rubbing against his on the way.
Her feet hit the floor, and she toed off the old sneakers she wore. With her lip compressed in her teeth, she looked up at him.
Unable to stop now, he whirled her to face the wall. She planted her hands as he sank to his knees behind her gorgeous ass. Spreading his hands across the round globes, he drank in the moment.
She twisted her head to look back at him.
Then he yanked her sweats down.
“Jesus God, you’re not wearing underwear.” His mouth, dry before, began to water.
“I…don’t have any clean and I haven’t gotten to a laundry facility.” Her breath hitched on every word or two and jumped a frequency when he leaned in and kissed her sweet ass.
His sole focus was to make her scream his name. Over and over again.
As he worked his lips across one globe, over the seam and to the next, she froze. Then he thumbed her apart and dipped his tongue into her pussy. As he tasted her honey, she screamed his name.
She arched her back and thrust her ass out to give him access. He licked her slick folds and continued to tongue her in quick laps and flicks. She went on tiptoe, straining. He knew she was close from such little contact that she must have been thinking of him doing this since the moment he stepped onto her property.
Maybe before that, when she chose to go bare beneath her sweatpants.
He reached around her and found her swollen clit. Pressing down on it with a fingertip, he tormented her front and back for long minutes. She held out, fingers dug into the wall.
Her pussy contracted, alerting him she was close to coming. He delved his tongue inside and circled her clit with a fingertip.
“Theo! Oh my God, Theo!” She issued a cry that would rock any man’s ego. Hot juices coated his tongue and fingers, and she shook all over as her orgasm washed over her.
He couldn’t stop there and dragged more little moans from her, while his dick begged and pleaded with him to stop and take her.
As she collapsed against the wall, cheek pressed against the plaster, he leaned back with a satisfied smile.
When he stood, his cock swelled in preparation.
He wrapped his arm around her middle and closed his other hand over her breast. Her breaths came fast.
“Guess I’d better get back to the Bellamy,” he rumbled against her throat.
That got a rise from her. She whirled to him, a wicked gleam in her eyes. “Not so fast, cowboy. It’s my turn.”
Chapter Five
She hit her knees, and her loose T-shirt slid down to cover her hips. But that didn’t stop the tingle of awareness that she was bare and dripping from her release.
While she unbuckled Theo’s belt, she ignored his rodeo buckle and focused on his hard, rigid length snaked under his boxers.
Flashing a look at his face, she pulled his shaft free. He seemed to hold his breath but the burn in his eyes scorched through her. As she circled his thickness with her fingers and drew the plump, purple head to her mouth, he closed his eyes.
She swished her tongue through the precum pooled at the tip, and he issued a low growl in his throat. He tasted clean and salty, and she wanted more. She dipped her tongue into the depression to collect it.
“Holy hell…” His rugged features creased in pleasure, and a bead of wetness trickled out of her folds and made its way down her inner thigh in response.
She guided his cock deeper. When the plump head hit the back of her throat, she swallowed.
“Fuck!” He dug his fingers into her hair, anchoring her. Feeling more turned on by the second, she sucked him, swirling her tongue up the veined shaft to the flared head.
When she sucked him into her throat again, a rough animal sound emitted from him. She jacked the base of his cock as she sucked the length.
He bowed his head, eyes intense on her. He watched his cock disappear into her mouth and groaned. She withdrew and he closed his eyes and fisted her hair.
Every muscle that tensed on his body fueled her fire. Making him lose control and come became the only thought in her head. She pulled off his shaft and licked around the head before sucking him deep again.
“Sadie…sweet thing.” He swallowed hard and his fingers convulsed in her hair as she sucked him to the base once more. “Stop. You’re driving me crazy.”
The dark promise of his rasp drove her on. She moaned around him, and he threw his head back, thigh muscles hardening to granite. She dug her fingers into the steel and bobbed her head down his cock.
“Sadie… Fuck!” He stiffened and then began to jerk. Cum spurted into her mouth. She took his essence and continued to tease his length with her lips and tongue while he issued the last with a strangled shout.
She ruffled her fingers over his pubic hair at the base of his cock and jacked him for one last slow pump. More juices dribbled from the tip onto her tongue.
She swallowed and smiled up at him.
“Did you…swallow?” he grated.
She ran her tongue over her lower lip. “You taste good.”
His eyes rolled back in his head, and she thought the man might hit the floor at her admission. Chest heaving, he moved his fingers through her hair and then drew her to her feet.
Their gazes locked. She could see he wasn’t done, and neither was she—far from it. She ached to be filled and tormented until she was sore all over from playing with Theo.
“You need to get back to work,” she whispered.
He gave a light shake of his head. “I don’t even remember my own name after that, let alone what I’m supposed to do on the ranch.”
She giggled.
He drew her against his chest, holding her for a brief moment. His cock stirred between them. He wasn’t finished with her either.
She reached down and wrapped her fingers around his erection. He hissed in reaction, but then she guided his length back into his briefs and pulled them up. “Go, cowboy. I don’t want to be the reason for you losing your job.”
A dark look pinched his brows. For a minute, he looked as though he wanted to say something to her. But then he nodded and stepped back. As he righted his clothing, she pulled on her sweats again.
He eyed her like a tiger about to pounce. “I know what’s under those sweats, sweet thing.”
“I know you do.” She suppressed a shudder. “I need to ge
t cleaned up anyway and go see a client.”
“A client?” The interest in his eyes sent a different kind of shiver through her. How long since anybody truly took interest in what she did? Her hopes and dreams hadn’t only been buried the day Jackson died—they’d been swept under a rug as people in her life stopped caring about them and instead grew concerned with her mental state.
She missed having something for herself, work that made her feel good. So Theo’s interest warmed her.
“There’s a house needing some updates, and the seller wants to get the best price for it. I spent the morning whipping up a plan and budget for her. I plan to drop it off this afternoon.”
“That’s great, Sadie. Really. When Dom told me what you do, I wasn’t sure how it would fit into our small town, but you seemed to have already found your place.” His wide grin flooded her with more warmth, and she realized she was in huge danger of liking Theo for more than a sex romp and his talented tongue.
She needed to see him out the door before she made any more mistakes.
She walked to the front door, which never got closed after they stumbled inside in the throes of lust.
“Well, I’ll have every mosquito in Georgia in bed with me tonight.”
With a chuckle, he followed her outside in that rolling, loping walk that fired all the cylinders that laid dormant this past year.
She also saw the vision of him leaping off that galloping horse.
Having sex with Theo was one thing, but she needed to keep it separate from her heart. She couldn’t take another risk with her feelings.
Outside, he turned to look at her. He’d found his hat dropped by the front door, and from under the brim, his eyes burned with an intensity that had her stomach flipping.
“Bye, Sadie.”
“Later, Theo.” She attempted a light tone while her insides jittered as though someone was using a jackhammer in there.
She watched him walk to his truck. Before he climbed in, he looked over the hood at her, not moving. For a breathless moment, she wondered if he might storm back over to her, pick her up and carry her to bed.
She unglued her feet from the grass and went back inside. She had to keep some distance between her and the gorgeous cowboy who could break her heart.
* * * * *
“Theo.”
He wheeled around at his name, heart pounding as he settled his gaze on Huxley. “Yeah?”
The ranch hand swept a look around the shed where Theo’d been looking for the boy. Had Jordy put away all his belongings? Theo held his breath, waiting.
“What are you doing?” Huxley asked.
“Nothin’.” He cleared his throat. “Makin’ sure none of the feed got stacked in here and needs moved.”
“Why would that happen? Never has before.”
“Never know around here.” He was digging a bigger hole for himself.
“Seems like you were lookin’ for something,” Huxley said.
Christ, he had to get out of this now. It wouldn’t be the first instance one of the ranch hands caught him skulking around somewhere unexpected, because he was searching for Jordy. Since the kid’s disappearance that morning, he got it into his head that he really might run away.
“What did you need?” he turned the tables on Huxley.
“Sherman’s got the new horses gathered in the training ring. He wants us all there when he starts training.”
He gave a dip of a nod. “I’m comin’.”
Huxley didn’t seem to be budging from the doorway, leaving Theo no choice but to walk out and hope that Jordy was still hanging around the Bellamy.
At the ring, he stood with the other guys looking on as the seasoned ranch foreman worked with the new horses, one by one. He wanted the ranch hands to train in the same way so as not to confuse the horses. But Theo’s mind kept wandering far outside the circular pen to Jordy.
They needed to talk—today. Sooner rather than later. He realized now more than ever that the boy really could up and run away again, and the urge to stop that before it happened made him tense as hell.
Sherman gave them all instructions for future training sessions, and the guys dispersed to do their separate duties. Theo needed to do some trail maintenance, but luckily he could search Jordy’s other hiding spots on the way.
He barely poked his head inside the hay shed, when Max called his name.
Stomach clenching, Theo turned to the ranch hand.
“What are ya doin’? I thought you were going out to clear the trails.”
“Thought I might have left my gloves in here.”
Max glanced around him. “They’re in your back pocket, son. You losin’ your mind?”
He clapped a hand over his back pocket and the gloves dangling from it. “These are my spares. I lost my good ones.”
“Ah. Well, if I see ’em I’ll pick them up for you.”
“Appreciate it.” He hated fucking lying, and to a friend no less. This kid better be worth it in the end. The trouble he’d put Theo through since he’d been here seemed to be compounding by the day.
He exited the hay shed and pulled the door securely closed behind him. He hopped on an ATV loaded with a chainsaw for cutting downed trees across the trail, as well as a shovel and other tools in case he needed them. When he pulled his gloves on his hands, he felt a stab of irritation for lying to Max. Huxley too.
“Dammit,” he muttered and set to work. Throwing himself into hard labor helped his anger fade, and he drank in his surroundings.
The wide open sky didn’t have a cloud to mar its blue beauty, and the sun was bright but not overly hot for Georgia. The scent of grass filled his head, though it didn’t override the lingering memory of Sadie he couldn’t shake.
God, the woman was pure fire to his libido. Every time he was in her presence, he couldn’t keep his hands off her. She also intrigued the hell out of him. Part of him wanted to follow her around just watching her ideas spark and how she executed them, both in her line of work and in the schoolhouse.
After another hour, he finished the job and returned the ATV to the storage building. When he swept the interior for signs of Jordy, he heard angry voices. Kaoz’s first and then Cort’s.
Shit, that couldn’t be good.
He followed the voices and found both men standing in the pasture that had flooded, checking out a horse.
While Theo’s instinct was to make a run for it, he manned up and approached his bosses. They looked up at him, wearing almost twin frowns even though they were cousins and not brothers.
“What’s goin’ on?” he asked.
“This horse looks to have a skin infection around his hooves.”
Theo bent to look for himself. “I’ve seen similar. Not here, but on the ranch where I worked as a teenager. The vet will have some salve for it.”
Cort held his stare. “That’s not the question—the question is why five other horses who have been kept in this pasture all have the same condition in various levels of severity.”
Theo’s chest tightened. “You think the field getting flooded has somethin’ to do with it?”
“Yeah, I do.” He gave a nod and then turned back to the horse.
Theo didn’t know what to say or do. He respected the hell out of Cort and Kaoz, and the fact both men were looking at him like a careless, worthless clod made him want to kick puppies.
Well, maybe not puppies. But a certain young boy’s ass, for sure.
Fact was, his bank account had taken a hell of a hit after he paid for the supplies to rebuild the burned shed. He didn’t have funds to cover a vet’s fee for five horses, even if making the offer was the right thing to do.
Cort straightened and looked to Kaoz. “I’ll phone the vet. Every animal stays outta this field until we figure out what’s causing the skin infections.” He set off toward the house in long, clipped strides, leaving Theo to ask himself if he really was to blame. Even after he drained the pasture and got it to dry out, the mud might have s
tarted it.
He met Kaoz’s gaze. “If this is my fault…”
Kaoz shook his head. “No one is blaming you, Theo. But fact is, flooding can cause bacteria to linger in the soil and infect horses, and we did turn them loose in the pasture before it was fully dry. That was my call, so I’m as much to blame.”
Damn, could he feel any worse?
He scuffed at the ground with his boot. “If I can do anything, I’m willing. I’ll work longer hours or—”
“And work in the dark? Maybe by light of the moon?” Kaoz offered him a crooked smile, which didn’t make Theo feel better even though he was grateful for the overture.
Kaoz pointed to the other horses grazing in the same area. “Help us get them rounded up and keep them quiet while the vet examines them. All right?”
“Yeah, man. Of course.”
Jordy. Something had to change. He needed a different life and a school, a family who could watch over him and keep him out of trouble.
Theo knew this day was coming, that he couldn’t keep the kid hidden on the Bellamy forever. But he didn’t expect to feel the pang of sadness at knowing his days with the boy were limited.
* * * * *
Sadie fizzed with excitement as she stepped back to study the progress made in the schoolhouse.
She flicked her eyes over the two walls that enclosed her newly allocated kitchen and utilitarian areas from the cozier parts of the home. Everything played out in her mind, a puzzle being built from wood beams and two-by-fours to plasterboard, paint, moldings and even the pretty art she’d hang there.
“I love it!” Turning to Theo, she gave him a happy smile.
He moved to stand next to her as if he’d get a better view of their handiwork. His brows drew into a V. “It was good luck the structure started with a small room here in the old days.”
“I think it might have been where the schoolteacher lived back in those days.”
“I’m sure you’re right. I love the history.” His stare traveled over the walls to high ceilings, which were in remarkably good condition after standing empty so long.
