Colton's Cowboy Code

by Melissa Cutler

  He took her by the wrist and pulled her behind him to the sofa. When they arrived, he guided her in front of him, facing the sofa. “Climb up. On your knees.”

  She obeyed his command, kneeling on the cushions. He pressed his hand between her shoulder blades, pushing her gently down until her chest rested on the sofa back.

  His next touch was his lips against her spine, kissing a path down.

  “You ready for me?” His words were thick and raspy. He might have complete command over her body and her pleasure, but she could tell he was hanging on to that careful control by only a tenuous thread.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Take me, please, Brett.”

  But rather than what she expected, his lips found her body’s center. Tender from her first orgasm, she cried out at the first touch of his tongue to her swollen flesh. He was relentless in his pursuit of her pleasure, working her body with his mouth and tongue until she was trembling and sweaty. Her chest had sunk down into the cushions and her hips reached for the ceiling, obscene and shameless, giving him unfettered access to her body.

  When at last she felt first tremors signaling the inevitability of another release, he ceased his ministrations.

  “Brett, I need...” she gasped.

  He surged into her with a groan. His hand smoothed up her sweat-slick back, then took hold of her shoulder. He lifted her torso until it’d cleared the cushions and her hands were braced on the sofa back, then his hand closed around her neck. He brought her body up close, her face near his.

  Her arms flew back and grasped at his head and his hair as her body exploded in a fierce, swift shock wave of bliss. His thrusts had grown harder, creating an aftershock of energy that rippled through her flesh every time their bodies collided. He turned her face sideways, then kissed her, as sloppy and wet and wicked as he had during their one-night stand.

  The hand on her neck shifted to her breast. His other hand moved from her hip around to her front. He tucked his arm between her hip bone and her belly, hooking his hand around to her pleasure center. At the first touch of his fingertip, her cry filled the room.

  He nipped her ear. “You’re going to come again.”

  “I can’t.”

  He pinched her nipple between his finger and thumb and tugged. “Yes, you can.”

  His touch was as insistent as his words.

  “Give it to me, baby. Give me one more release from your hot body. Come on.”

  His teeth bit down on her shoulder, a lightning bolt of the perfect storm he’d created within her. Ignition. Lost to the sweet agony of Brett’s total command over her body, she threw her head back and shattered again. He crooned his approval as he buckled forward, spending himself inside her with a roar of release.

  Chapter 14

  Brett woke disoriented by the brightness of the room. Ranchers’ schedules meant a lifetime of waking in the dark. He had, in fact, woken around 5:00 a.m., but had forced himself to stay in bed, not wanting Hannah to wake up alone and wonder why he’d left. Guess he’d drifted back off, because now her room was as bright as the middle of the day. His eyes, behind his eyelids, ached from the light.

  He peeled one eye open. The sun was shining through the open windows. Sleeping next to Hannah had felt like heaven. He’d been so tired lately. He hadn’t realized how on edge he’d been—about the ranch, about Hannah. But somehow, knowing that she was going to stay at the ranch, that she was going to fight for a future with him, lifted a huge rock from his chest. He was more determined than ever to make the ranch a safe place for her and their child.

  “Good morning,” she croaked.

  “Did I wake you?”

  “No. Our little guy—or girl—did. Baby’s crazy active right now. I think he’s learning how to play soccer.” She took his hand and set it over her belly. “He or she has no respect for its mama’s need for sleep. So rude.”

  He heard the love in her every word and snuggled back into the pillow, no longer in a hurry to get to work.

  It wasn’t long before something thumped against his palm. He couldn’t speak, it was such a miracle. He buried his face in Hannah’s hair, gritting his teeth against a wave of emotion. That was his child in there. His healthy, growing child that he’d get to meet in only a few months.

  What a thin line he was walking, sleeping with her, risking losing full-time fatherhood if he and Hannah’s relationship crashed and burned. Last night, that risk had paled in comparison to his blinding need to claim Hannah’s body, but with the light of day and the feel of his child moving beneath his palm came a clarity of perspective about everything he stood to lose.

  “When’s that ultrasound appointment?” he croaked. She’d wanted to wait until her Lucky C health insurance kicked in at the turn of the month, but Brett had been insistent that they spare no cost.

  “On Friday.”

  “I can’t wait. Is it too soon to talk about names?”

  She drew a circle over the back of his hand where it still sat on her belly. “I’d figured we’d wait until we found out the sex of the baby, but there’s nothing stopping us from throwing some names around. I was thinking, if it’s a boy, we should consider naming him John after your dad. If you’re open to that idea.”

  Brett rolled to his back. “Oooh, doggie. My dad would be the proudest grandpa in all Oklahoma. I don’t think his feet would ever touch the ground again.”

  “Then that settles it. John Colton it is, if it’s a boy. But I have no ideas if it’s a girl.”

  Brett hadn’t spent a single second considering names before this moment, but the perfect one popped into his head. It was time to fight for what he wanted instead of being paralyzed by fear. It was time to have faith in himself and in Hannah, just as he was asking her to have faith in him. “Faith.”

  “Why Faith?”

  He took her hand and threaded their fingers together. “Because that’s what you had to have in me to come to this ranch like you did. And to keep the baby, in the first place.”

  She rolled over to face him, which was no easy task given the size of her belly, and kissed him. “I love that idea. Faith Colton. It has a ring to it.”

  They lay in contented silence. Brett’s mind spun out in all different directions. About his future with Hannah and his legacy with the ranch, about the crimes that had been happening lately, about which room they’d transform into the nursery if he could convince her to stay by his side to raise their child at the ranch. After a while, he realized Hannah’s breathing had evened out. Her eyes were closed.

  As much as he hated to leave her, he really did need to get to work. Jack was probably impatiently waiting to ream him for sleeping in.

  When he eased out of the bed, her eyes fluttered open. “Are you going?”

  “Gotta work. You go back to sleep.”

  “If the baby will let me, then I’m going to try. I’m sleepy this morning.”

  He nuzzled her cheek. “Gee, I can’t imagine why.”

  They hadn’t fallen asleep until the wee hours of morning, and even though he didn’t know much about pregnant women, he figured they needed as much sleep as they could get. She hummed and snuggled more deeply into the pillow. He smoothed a hand over her hair, then tiptoed from the bedroom in search of his pants and underwear. He’d gotten his boxers on when the suite’s main door opened.

  Brett didn’t have time to do more than put on his underwear and hold his jeans up in front of him.

  “Oh!” Edith stood in the doorway holding a tray of food, her face beet red.

  “Oh is right.” After a moment’s hesitation while he processed Edith’s presence in the room and his state of undress, he decided he didn’t care. He was relatively decent and she was like a mom to him. “Come on in. Sorry to embarrass you like that.”

  He pulled his pants on, then wal
ked to the bedroom door and eased it closed.

  Edith set the tray on the coffee table. “She gets queasy in the morning. Biscuits and tea help,” she said in a quiet voice.

  He nodded. “Then thank you. I’m late for work, but I didn’t want her to wake up alone and wonder why I’d left without...” He shook his head, letting his voice trail off. And the why didn’t explain why he was talking about it to Edith.

  “A wise call, if you’re interested in this wrinkled old lady’s opinion.”

  He poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher atop a table near the door. “You’re too young to be calling yourself an old lady. I don’t see a single wrinkle on your pretty face.”

  She swatted away his comment, but blushed all the same. “Jack stopped through about an hour ago asking after you. I called your room, and when you didn’t answer, I suggested to him that you’d probably gone off to the backcountry early. You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

  “I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

  “I imagine you have.” She nodded toward the bedroom door, her hands clasped behind her back. “Are you going to marry her?”

  He choked on the water he was sipping. After a coughing fit, he said, “You sound like my dad.”

  “Well, are you?”

  He swirled the water in his glass, considering his best, most diplomatic response. “It’s come up on and off since the day I found out she was pregnant. She and I have discussed it at length and neither of us want to end up in a loveless marriage like our parents have. Hers, too.”

  Edith crossed her arms over her chest. “All right, that’s a good plan. So are you going to marry her?”

  Brett gave a quiet chuckle. “I wish it was that simple, but first I’ve got to get her to fall in love with me.”

  “And what about you?”

  He set the water down and grinned at her because that was an easy question to answer. Hannah was smart and resourceful and sweet. She got him in a fundamental way and when she looked at him, she saw his best self, the man he’d worked so hard to become. She got along with his family and she had the most remarkable way of laughing with her whole face, eyes and cheeks and lips, that socked him in the heart every time. He loved talking with her, he loved working with her and he loved sex with her.

  “The truth? I’m already gone.”

  * * *

  Ready for another long evening of patrol, Brett bounded downstairs to grab a quick dinner with his dad and Hannah before heading out. It’d been a good week. The sale of Geronimo had gone through and the horse was settling down and getting used to his new digs at Daniel’s stable, which made Daniel and Jack happy. And Hannah’s morning sickness had subsided completely, which was one worry off his mind. Best of all, after he got home near midnight every night, instead of dragging his butt into a cold, lonely bed, he got to snuggle in close to Hannah.

  Adding to his peace of mind, there hadn’t been any more crimes or suspicious incidents around the ranch since the fire the week before. Sure, the police didn’t have any new leads, but he’d take the respite from trouble as the gift that it was.

  When he reached the dining room, he found his dad there, but not Hannah. Pops looked old tonight. And lonely. Not that Brett’s mom had been good company for him, but she’d been somebody, and her absence had a palpable effect on the feel of the house. Even Hannah had felt it her first day there. And for a man who’d fathered and raised six kids, it had to have been difficult on his dad to watch them grow up and leave to start their own lives, all but Brett.

  Brett absolutely could not wait to fill the house with the cries and laughter of a baby. The thought of it almost made him laugh, the thought filled him with so much joy.

  He rubbed his dad’s shoulder as he passed, then dropped into the chair next to him. “Hey, Pops. How are you tonight?”

  “Oh, fair to middling.”

  Brett nodded at the untouched place setting and empty chair where Hannah usually sat. “Where is she?”

  “Who, Abra? I don’t know where that woman goes when she disappears.”

  Alarm bells sounded in Brett’s mind. If his dad was confused about where Abra was, then they needed to get him evaluated by a doctor pronto because he was far worse off than they all believed.

  He studied Dad’s face, looking for signs of his usually sharp wit, proof that he was merely making some kind of inappropriate joke. But all he saw was the faraway look in Dad’s eyes, his slightly slack-jawed mouth and the tremors in his hands. With all that had happened recently, the transformation from the robust, charming man to a senior battling dementia gave Brett a sinking feeling in his stomach. It was all he could do not to grab Dad in a bear hug.

  “Mom’s still at the hospital,” he corrected, taking care to keep his tone patient and free of the worry that now plagued him. “I meant Hannah. Have you seen her?”

  He gripped his thighs, bracing himself for Dad not to remember who Hannah was, but to his great relief, Dad’s eyes sharpened and he seemed to fully inhabit his body again. “Huh? No. Not since this morning when I checked in at the office and she had her nose in the books. She’s a go-getter, that one. You should think about marrying her.”

  He patted Dad’s arm, his heart sinking all over again because his dad had given him that same advice almost daily since Hannah had arrived at the ranch. The only difference now was Brett’s response. “I am, Pops. Trust me on that.”

  A clatter of silverware and dishes preceded Edith’s arrival in the room. She slid a tray onto the table. “Good evening, Brett.”

  Brett bussed her cheek. “Good evening to you, too. Where’s Maria?”

  “She asked for a night off to be with her parents, which I was more than happy to oblige. How’s that new horse of yours?”

  “Looking good. Now we just need to give Daniel some time and space to breed Geronimo, and I think we’re going to have the start of a great new direction for the ranch.”

  She served Dad a plate of lasagna. “Jack on board with you yet?”

  “Not yet.” With all the turmoil around the ranch, he’d decided to put off showing Jack the business plan that he and Hannah had created until things settled down. “But even Jack was as excited as a kid on Christmas when Geronimo walked down the trailer ramp.”

  Dad chuckled. “Attaboy. You’ll bring your brother around soon enough.”

  Edith set a plate of lasagna in front of Brett. “Is Hannah still at the office?”

  “That’s what we think,” Brett said. “She probably lost track of time.”

  “Shall I call her?” Edith asked.

  “Nah, I’ll run over and get her.” He loved catching her in the act of working. That look on her face of singular concentration, her reading glasses perched on the tip of her nose. Maybe he’d get to steal a kiss or two while he had her alone. “Don’t wait on dinner for us. We might be a while.”

  Edith’s eyes twinkled with delight. Geez. Hannah must’ve been rubbing off on him, that was such an obvious Freudian slip. “I meant because she might be in the middle of something. She’s been working magic with the ranch’s books and I’m not going to pull her away until she’s at a good stopping point. Not that we’d be late for dinner because I plan on holding her up.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” Edith said.

  “If that’s the case, then you’re not as smart as I thought,” Pops said.

  Shaking his head and grinning like a fool, Brett swatted the air behind him as he left, dismissing the teasing.

  “Hold on,” Edith said. “I’ll make you a tray. You two can eat dinner in private at the office. You’re riding patrol tonight with Ryan, correct? I thought I heard Jack say something to that effect this morning.”

  “I am, but Hannah and I’ll come back here for dinner. I don’t want Pops to eat alone.”

  Dad craned his
head around to glare at Brett. “Pshaw. I’m not some decrepit old geezer. I can entertain myself. Maybe there’s a game on TV.”

  Edith winked at Brett. “I’ll keep him company.”

  A few minutes later, loaded with plates of lasagna and red velvet cupcakes, he made his way along the dirt path to the office, anticipation speeding him along. He hadn’t seen Hannah all day, and though they’d texted each other a few times, he couldn’t wait to be near her again.

  Evening was descending on the ranch. It was bound to be a beautiful night, weather-wise. The sunset turned the whole sky orange and purple. The colors and clouds reflected off the office windows as Brett mounted the stairs to the office. He turned and watched the dark orange sun appear below a fluffy purple cloud above an expanse of deep green rolling hills as far as the eye could see. Brett defied any man to find a more breathtaking view than the Lucky C at sunset.

  He was nearly to the office when Ryan drove up in his unmarked police car. Damn. Guess he’d have to make his visit to Hannah faster than he’d wanted to.

  “You’re early!” Brett called.

  Ryan unfolded from the car and a grabbed a jacket from the backseat. “Been a while since I’ve been on a horse. Thought I’d brush up on my skills before we get going.”

  Like the rest of the Colton kids, Ryan had learned how to ride before he’d learned to walk, which meant he’d arrived at the ranch early for some other reason that he wasn’t keen on broadcasting. Something having to do with the investigation, Brett guessed. They’d have plenty of time that night to discuss the investigation. But for the next half hour or so, Ryan was on his own because Hannah was the only thing Brett wanted to think about.

  Brett held the tray of food aloft. “I’m going to go eat dinner with Hannah in the office. I’m sure there’s plenty of lasagna in the house if you’re hungry.”

  “I’m good. Take your time. Like I said, I’ve got some rust to brush off the old brain when it comes to riding.”

  Sure he did. Hopefully, when they were out on the range, Ryan would come clean about his true reason for poking around the ranch.