Stetson

by Danielle Norman

  I hadn’t realized how long we’d been kissing until music started playing and the credits from the movie started to roll.

  Still, London was the one who pulled away because I couldn’t seem to make myself let her go.

  “I’d better get going,” London said as she glanced at her watch. “It’s after ten and sunrise comes all too soon.”

  I walked her out to her truck, fighting every step of the way not to stop in the middle of the sidewalk and pull her into my arms for another kiss. “I get off at six, want to do something?” I trailed my fingers up and down her back.

  “How about you come to my house and hang out with us? That way, it doesn’t count as a date.”

  “I can do that.” I pulled her into me when we finally got to the truck and moved my mouth to hers. Wrapping my arms around her, holding her flush against my body. “I’m working the next two days, so let’s plan date two for after that, want to say Saturday?” I gave her one more deep kiss then broke our contact so I could open her door for her. She slid in behind the steering wheel and then looked over at me with her lust-filled eyes.

  Yeah, not long, London, not long.

  I wanted to make up to her for that one night, but once I got her into bed again, I wasn’t sure that I’d let her out.

  * * *

  The next day, I came up with an idea for date number two, something that would hopefully make London happy and not have her rushing away at ten o’clock.

  My plan wasn’t something I could pull off by myself, so I enlisted a bit of help.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Paris, this is Braden. I’ve got a favor to ask.”

  “Okayyy.” She sounded a little apprehensive as she waited for my reply.

  “I want to take London out for a picnic Saturday night. I know that she hates being away from the ranch so I figured that we could have a date right there but away from everyone.”

  “That is so romantic. What were you thinking?”

  “A picnic, but I was hoping you would help.”

  “What do you need?” She sounded far more excited than she had a minute ago, and I grinned.

  “Well, I was hoping you would be able to pack the basket for us.” Asking her to put together something like that seemed a bit strange, almost as if I should have done it myself so the thought behind the date seemed more authentic, but I didn’t have a picnic basket and I didn’t have the first clue as to what London would enjoy. Plus, Paris loved cooking.

  “We have a big basket I can put together for you. I’ll ask Holland to have Mim and Jafar ready, and I’ll have the basket set. Do you work that day?”

  “No, but I have some errands to do before I head over. I thought that I’d get there around six.”

  “Leave it to me, she’s going to love it. Braden...”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t hurt her.”

  “Not planning on it.” I disconnected with Paris. I’d told her the truth, hurting London was the last thing in the world that I’d want to do.

  * * *

  I pulled up to the Kelly Ranch a few minutes after six. I trusted Paris to pack enough food, but I wasn’t sure about the other things. So, I’d packed a small blanket, two lanterns, and some bug repellant—this was Florida after all. I had also downloaded some playlists from Spotify. All of that I left in my truck for later.

  “Come in, door’s open,” someone called from inside, but my hand hesitated on the knob. It was just a little weird to be walking in like this. Asher and Marcus didn’t bother to knock, but it still felt like intruding.

  My only other choice was to stand there like an idiot, so I twisted the knob and entered.

  Paris gave me a bright smile as she turned off the stove and then picked up a basket and carried it over to me. Grabbing the basket, I thanked her for organizing everything as well as whatever she’d packed inside. Turning I didn’t see Holland to thank her for getting Mim and Jafar saddled and ready as well.

  “Will you thank Holland for me? I really appreciate this.”

  “Of course, now we expect you to keep her out all night.”

  “I’ll try my best. Paris, while we have a second, I wanted to get your take on the whole situation. You seem to be awfully trusting of Ryan.”

  “Yep, you know why?”

  I shook my head.

  “Do you know the easiest way to catch a traitor? It is to make them believe that you still trust him.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t trust Ryan, but he doesn’t know that.”

  “But your sister—”

  “London thinks trust has to be established between employer and workers or it somehow makes us bad bosses. But Ryan was hired by Daddy, so to me, he isn’t our employee.”

  “So, you really think he’s doing all of this?”

  Paris nodded but didn’t answer before she stepped back and smiled at something behind me. I turned, and London took my breath away. She was wearing a pair of dark jeans that graced the curves of her body like they were made for her. Her blonde hair was down again and if it weren’t for the fact that she was wearing cowboy boots, I’d think that she was getting ready to model somewhere. The woman was beautiful, and I didn’t think she had a clue about her beauty, which made her all the more attractive. She never did any of those hair tosses that so many women did when they were trying to flirt that half the time only sent stray strands floating in your face.

  “Good evening.” I winked at London, who was smiling, and I knew that I was lost.

  “Hey.”

  “You ready to go?” She stepped forward and reached for me as if she didn’t require any coaxing to take my hand in her own.

  Leading London outside, I carried the basket, and then grabbed the extra stuff from my truck and took it to the horses where Holland had tied them to the hitching post that was staked along side the house.

  “Where are we going? I thought that you were taking me out?”

  I ignored London’s question. “Do you have an area of the ranch, somewhere that you find peaceful?”

  “Yes, I always loved going to that area where my daddy planted tons of palm trees, it reminds me of a little oasis.”

  “Where I was the other day, where we made the bet?”

  “Yeah, that’s the one.”

  We climbed up on the horses and galloped across the open fields. I stayed about a leg behind her just so I could watch the graceful move of her body in the saddle.

  Once we were unpacked, I opened the picnic basket and could have kissed Paris for what I found inside. The girl had packed a can of whipped cream and a squeeze bottle of chocolate syrup. I shook my head and laughed since it appeared that she wasn’t intending our dessert to just be chocolate chip cookies.

  I opened one of the two bottles of wine Paris packed and poured London a glass before pouring one for myself. Turning on some music from my iPhone, we took a seat, and listened.

  “Now this is what I call a concert. I’m not sure which is my favorite sound: nature’s song of crickets and cicadas or Morgan Evans singing ‘I Do.’”

  She laughed and tipped her head back, angling herself so that her face shone bright in the setting sun. She looked good, her lips were lightly stained from the wine, and her cheeks still pale pink from the ride over here.

  She glanced in my direction and cocked her head at me, sending a strand of hair falling down over her face.

  “What?” She smiled.

  “Nothing.” I shifted a little closer to her. My pulse picked up as I pushed her hair back from where it had fallen, tracing my fingers around the outline of her face. I could feel the chemistry crackling in the air between us, the same as it had been before, but there was something more intense to it.

  She let out the softest moan as our mouths met, and I deepened the kiss, pushing my tongue into her mouth and drawing her toward me. It had been almost two months since the night I ran into her at the bar, and I had been dying to feel her next to me again. I pulled her onto
my lap, and one of the bottles of wine that her sister had packed for me knocked over as I did so, but it was hard to give a shit when her soft body was pressed against mine.

  I fell back against the hard ground, pulling her down on top of me so her hands were on my chest, and her fingers curled around the top of my shirt as we kissed. I was hard, my cock straining against the constraints of my jeans as she moved her hips ever-so-slightly against me. She pushed her fingers through my hair, fisting her hand and tugging slightly, and the pain mellowed to pleasure as she moved her hand over my chest so she could feel my heart thumping through my shirt.

  I let my hands stray down her back to her waist. Good god, she felt better than my memory of her. The inward curve of her waist down to her hips, the softness of her skin, the sweet scent of her...it was intoxicating.

  I rolled her over, and she giggled and clutched on to my arms as I moved on top of her, sliding my hands up and over her body to push her arms above her head. She wriggled tantalizingly against me as I leaned down to capture her lips before moving over her chin and her neck, letting my teeth play against her throat for a moment.

  “Ah...” she groaned, and she arched her back a little to push her hips against mine, her silent permission to continue. I moved back against her, needing to be closer.

  My mouth brushed along her collarbone and toward her breasts, and my fingers popped each button on her blouse free.

  She wasn’t wearing a bra.

  Fuck.

  I leaned down to take one of her nipples between my lips, teasing it with my tongue, baring my teeth until the bud hardened in my mouth. She clutched my head, holding me in place, as I moved to her other breast, letting my hand come to rest on the softness of her lower belly as I tormented her with my mouth.

  The subtle rise and fall of her hips was almost too much. I grazed my fingers over the top of her jeans and looked up to find her eyes, which were darker than they had been moments ago, watching me with an intent I had never seen on her face before. I shifted down the length of her body without dropping her attention and brushed my mouth along the strip of skin just above her pants, and she shuddered with desire.

  I undid her jeans and pulled them down her legs, London lifting her hips to make it easy for me. She was wearing a pair of simple black cotton panties underneath, and I brushed my lips against her through them, making sure she could feel me.

  The sound she made as I touched her was the hottest thing I’d ever heard, somewhere between a moan and a cry of impatience. I didn’t intend to make her wait any longer.

  What the lady wants, the lady gets.

  I hooked my fingers around the edge and eased them down, and finally I slipped between her thighs, drank in her needy expression one last time, and pressed my mouth against her pussy.

  She was already slick with need, my tongue moving easily against her soft flesh. She tasted as good as she smelled, sweet and musky and tempting, and I soon found that I couldn’t get enough of her as I sucked softly and tasted every inch of her.

  She was writhing beneath me on the cool earth and rocking her hips against my mouth in encouragement, and I pulled her closer. Slipping my hands beneath her ass, I lifted her hips as her hands dove into my hair, almost frantic in her need for me. I was happy to oblige, guiding her close and closer to the edge with my tongue, stroking her clit in long, slow, relentless caresses until she was mindless.

  “Oh my god, Braden,” she gasped, yanking me away from her soft flesh and pulling my body on top of hers. “I need you.”

  My mouth slammed down onto hers in a tangled mess of teeth and tongue and frantic moans as I blindly reached for the basket. Her hands were at my belt, ripping it open and then pulling my button free. By the time she managed to get the zipper down and was nudging my jeans over my hips, I had a condom in my hand and was tearing the package open.

  “Hurry,” she breathed. “I’m so close...”

  “I want to feel you come,” I murmured in her ear as I finally...finally slid into her heat.

  “Oh my god, you feel so good.” She began to rock her hips back against me, and I pushed deep before pulling almost all the way out of her and then thrusting back in. We moved against each other on instinct, as though this was what it had all been building toward all this time. She lifted her head and pressed it against mine, our breath mingling in the air between us, as I moved against her slowly, savoring the feeling of her, of her sweet body beneath mine.

  We were lost in our own world of mixed breaths, sweat-soaked skin, and murmured words. I could have spent the rest of my life there, and I would have, had she not tilted her hips, offering me an angle that would let me go deeper.

  “Fuck,” I groaned against her lips and slowed my pace to long, slow, deep thrusts that had me hanging on close to the edge. I caught her bottom lip between my teeth, and she let out that noise again—the one that sounded more like a growl than anything else, and finally, she came.

  She cried out, the sound slicing through the quiet air around us. Her pussy clenched around me, and I was on the verge of joining her, losing myself at any moment.

  Yeah...I was never walking away from this shit.

  The pleasure coursing through my system as I looked deep into her eyes as she came hard grew and swelled until I couldn’t take it any longer and my own pleasure took over.

  We both came back down to reality together, and I slowly, reluctantly, slid out of her and disposed of the condom. She was still lying on the ground, staring at the sky with hazy eyes, when I curled up on the blanket next to her.

  12

  London

  There were only a few things in my life that I found addictive. They were—in no particular order—ice cream and horse riding. Braden fucking McManus was just added to that list. He seemed to be the one addiction that I hadn’t counted on. Better than having a quart of my favorite ice cream, Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey all to myself. And no matter how hard I tried, I was afraid that I wasn’t going to get tired of him anytime soon.

  “Hey, beautiful, good morning.” Braden’s deep, smooth voice sent me bolting upright.

  “What time is it?” I looked around, trying to get my bearings.

  “A little after three.”

  “Holy shit.” We’d been out here for almost nine hours.

  “You fell asleep and were sleeping so solid that I hated to wake you.”

  Shit. My sisters would be up in, like, two hours. I twisted side to side and looked for my shirt, only to find that Braden had slipped it back on me while I slept.

  I reached for my boots that were still in a pile at the foot of the blanket, but Braden grabbed them first and handed me one.

  “You want to wait for sunrise before we head back?” he asked as he handed me my second boot.

  “I wish that I could, but being short-handed I do start my day before sunrise.”

  “That’s okay, I have another date to plan anyway. I want us to go out somewhere.” He cupped my face with both hands and brought his mouth down to mine in a kiss that sent shivers to my belly. I knew I needed to hurry; yet, I couldn’t seem to get myself to pull away. I wanted to stay right there for a little bit longer but the burden of responsibility was weighing heavily on me.

  He pulled back, saying, “I should take you back.”

  I knew we needed to, but that didn’t mean I wanted to. Still, I let him pull me to my feet and helped him collect our stuff.

  As we mounted the horses, neither of us seemed to be in a hurry to get back to my place. I was also fairly certain that neither one of us wanted this night to end.

  * * *

  “I can’t believe that you’ve spent your entire morning here helping me with chores.” I leaned back into the crook of Braden’s arm as we snuggled on the couch.

  “I didn’t mind one bit. Kind of liked it, in fact. It was nice seeing what all you do. You three work hard.”

  “Thanks—”

  “I can’t believe that asshole!” Holland screeched as
she slammed the door shut. She kicked off her cowboy boots and tossed them across the room and then threw her body onto the sofa next to us.

  “Care to fill a sister in?” I leaned forward and grabbed the remote to turn off the television.

  “Who’s an asshole?” Paris stepped into the living room, drying her hands off on a towel.

  “Reid Brooks, that’s who. He saw me riding Khan, and the asshole starts shouting at me and saying that I need to take better care of my horse, that he looks sick. Then he has the nerve to say that if I can’t ride him properly and can’t take care of him properly, then I should sell him to someone who can. Are you fucking ready for this? He offered me a price.”

  I gasped. Holland loved Khan, she loved all the horses and no one took better care of horses than she did.

  Before she could answer, the front door opened and Asher walked in. He took one look at all of us standing around and looking pissed and raised one brow as if trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I shook my head.

  “You know I find this totally offensive.” Holland stomped her foot. “Asshole doesn’t think that I know how to treat horses or ride. I should call him and tell him just how wrong he is.”

  Asher caught my eye, and I mouthed to him, Reid Brooks.

  “That may not be the best idea. The guy is a jerk, and nothing you say to him will change that.”

  “You don’t trust me to call him and set him straight?” Holland glared at me and I knew that my answer would make this situation either turn catastrophic or start to defuse it.

  “Of course I do. I just don’t think people like him ever see the reason.”

  “Him and Ryan deserve each other. Reid is a know-it-all, and Ryan doesn’t trust us to handle our own ranch business. Really? Why do I even stay around? None of y’all needs me.” Holland was on a roll.