Rough and Ready (More Than A Cowboy Book 2)

by Vanessa Vale

  His touch slid down my belly to the edge of my leggings. “Do your panties match?” He flicked his gaze up to mine, and I had a feeling he might cry if I said the wrong answer. I nodded, and he gave me a wicked grin. “Show me?”

  I couldn’t resist that smile. They were rarely given, and it felt good to know I could make him happy. He wanted me, wanted to see me in just my skimpy bra and panties and more, but he was still letting me decide. To set the pace.

  I climbed from his lap, stood before him. With my hands at my hips, I shimmied out of my leggings and pushed my socks off at the same time. When I stood back up, he looked his fill, his penetrating gaze roaming over every inch of me. I felt exposed, vulnerable, but at the same time, cherished.

  Leaning forward in the seat, his arms came around me like steel bands, pulling me into him, so his cheek rested between my breasts, his hands at the small of my back, but his fingers angled down over the curve of my butt. My hands flew to his shoulders. The feel of his hot skin against mine had me gasping. His lips brushed the inside curve of one breast before he pulled back enough to begin kissing me. The under curve of my breasts, across my belly, my navel and around. He didn’t once touch my nipples, and I was growing impatient. Antsy. Needy. His mouth was hot, fierce and gentle at the same time. Little licks spread heat and then coolness as he dampened my skin. I had no idea when I threaded my fingers into his hair and began to press him closer, but the whimper of his name had him lifting his head.

  “Yes?” he asked. His eyes held such promise, such intense need I could only give one answer.

  “Yes.”

  With his arms still banded about me, he stood and lifted me up, carrying me into his bedroom. He seemed to like carrying me around. It made the differences between us so obvious. I wasn’t short, but I felt small and feminine in his strong arms. He laid me on the bed, lowering himself to hover over me, keeping his weight off me with his hand beside my head.

  The light wasn’t on, so the room was bathed in a soft yellow glow from the other room. I could see Reed clearly, but part of his face was in shadow. It had only been a week, and only a few hours of that in each other’s company, and yet I wanted him. I wanted this.

  “I’ve never done it like this before,” I admitted.

  His eyes roamed over my face.

  “Missionary?”

  “When it means something.”

  He sucked in a breath then lowered his body, so we touched from chest to hips. Shifting my legs, I made room for him to settle between my thighs as he kissed me.

  With the soft bed at my back and a very solid Reed on top of me, I was just where I wanted to be. I felt safe. So very safe. And he was right. There was nothing between us.

  21

  REED

  Fuck.

  She was so soft, so sweet, so perfect beneath me. Reaching up, I carefully worked the tie from her hair, so it was loose across my pillow. My fingers were blunt and clumsy, afraid to snag all that silky softness. I breathed in the scent of strawberries. I met her eyes, held them.

  Yeah, this fucking meant something.

  “No more running, princess.”

  Her pink tongue darted out, licked her lip. “No more running,” she whispered.

  “I’m here, yeah?”

  She gave a slight nod. “Don’t… don’t leave.”

  I stroked her hair, this time catching it in my grip and tugging lightly, so she couldn’t look away. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  She frowned, and I pushed on.

  “I want everything from you. Everything. The difference between me and your family is that I’m not going to take. I want you to give it to me. Yeah?”

  I was a selfish fuck. I wanted every bit of her. Her body, her mind, her heart. Her soul.

  “You’re not like them,” she whispered. “You’re not anything like them. You’re giving yourself in return.”

  I couldn’t resist, leaning down and kissing her forehead. “That’s right. You’ve got me. The good and the bad. The stuff you don’t know about.”

  Her hand came up, cupped my jaw. “I know you’re good.”

  I was the one to look away. “I’m not, princess.”

  “Tell me then.”

  She was beneath me in my bed, my hard dick pressing into her, and I was going to have to bare myself to her. I could shed my clothes, I didn’t give a shit about modesty, but baring my soul, to have her know how bad I really was, it was heavy.

  I wouldn’t take her until she knew the truth though. I wouldn’t be like her brother, like that asshole who took her virginity. She needed to be with me, completely, knowing everything.

  She’d shared her secrets with me, and fuck, I had to share mine with her. That way if she had to walk away, she could because once I sank into her, she’d be mine, and there would be no going back.

  I shifted, so I laid beside her, my head propped up with my hand. I swirled a finger around her navel.

  “I grew up, like you, in Denver. A different part of town. A very different neighborhood. My mother was an alcoholic who slept with a bottle of whisky. Forgot about me. Food. Clothes. My dad worked a long line of dead-end jobs, got fired from every one of them. Took it out on us. When that didn’t bring in the cash he wanted, he broke the law. He took me with him on armed robberies.”

  Yeah, that was when she sucked in a breath, her belly stilling beneath my fingers. She didn’t say anything, so I pushed on.

  “By the time I was twelve, I was his getaway driver. I could just reach the pedals, and I was an accessory to state and federal crimes.”

  Her mouth fell open.

  I lifted my gaze from those lips, met her dark eyes. “I killed him. My father. When I was seventeen. We’d come back from a botched job. He got drunk, hit my mother. By then, I was too big for him to fight—I’d learned some things on how to defend myself on the streets, the playgrounds. But when I protected her, he came at me with a tire iron. She ran out. I’d heard later she went to the corner bar to forget it all in the bottom of a bottle of Jack. Left me to fight him on my own. He broke my arm before I got the weapon from him, turned it on him, knocked him out. The cigarette he’d been smoking fell, and it set the cheap carpet on fire. I walked out.”

  She just stared at me, wide eyed. Yeah, now she knew the real me. All of it.

  “I killed my father and got a stint in juvie for it, Harper. And I’m what you want?”

  Her eyes were wide as she processed my words. Now, I knew her childhood had also been shit. Money sure as fuck didn’t buy happiness, but she’d had clothes, food, the finest schools. She hadn’t had love. Neither had I.

  “Reed,” she whispered.

  “You stayed good. You didn’t sink to the same shit as your brother, as your parents. I did.”

  She shook her head, then pushed at me, so I’d move. She sat up and straddled my waist, forcing me to roll from my side onto my back. I set my hands on her thighs, looked up at how fucking gorgeous she was.

  Every inch of her was blemish free, inside and out. She was like an angel in her pretty bra and panties, as if just putting my hands on her would get her dirty.

  “You’re not what you say. Not even close.”

  My fingers gripped her hips.

  “You said I was smart—I know things. I know you’re good—you helped me. You could have taken from me, fucked me that night you found me with Larry. Could have let me blow you like I’d tried.”

  My dick hardened at those crude words coming from her lips.

  Her hair slid over her shoulders as she shook her head. “You didn’t. You’re honorable. Brave.”

  “I’m not good enough for you,” I said, getting the rest of the truth out.

  Her dark brow winged up. Slowly, she shook her head, her hair sliding over her shoulders, some of it falling down in front, the ends of it touching the swell of her breasts.

  “You don’t get to decide that for me. You don’t get to tell me how I feel about you.”

  “Gray saved
me.”

  “No. No way. You saved yourself.”

  My thumbs slid over her silky skin. “I met him in the army. In fucking Afghanistan. We grew up within two hundred miles of each other, and we met a world away. Told me to look him up when I got out. I did. He gave me an outlet for all my shit. Now I only fight in the ring. With rules.”

  She licked her lips as she just stared down at me. I waited for her to climb off my lap and leave.

  “What happened to you wasn’t your fault. You were a kid.”

  “So were you, princess,” I said, my voice soft.

  Her eyes flared at what I was talking about, and she nodded. Swallowed hard. “You went to juvie because of your dad’s actions not your own.”

  “I killed him,” I said, gripping her hips hard.

  “Would you still call me princess if you knew I wanted Cam dead?”

  Besides my dad, her brother was the only other person I ever wanted to see dead. What he’d done to Harper as a girl… fuck, and even now.

  “You don’t want his blood on your hands.” I jackknifed up, so she was still straddling me, but we were nose to nose. “You’re too good for that.”

  I wasn’t. I’d see her brother pay. Killing him would be a fucking pleasure. I’d only let out my anger, my violence in the ring now. I’d make an exception though.

  Fuck, I never imagined there would be someone who meant enough to go back. Harper was the only one who I’d ever do it for. I’d kill for her. No question.

  “So are you,” she said, lifting a hand to stroke over my head, down my cheek.

  I didn’t say anything because we could argue about this all fucking day, and what a waste that would be. I’d take care of Cam, but there was no fucking way he’d get between us now.

  Not here in my bed. Banding an arm about her waist, I rolled us, so she was beneath me once more. Eye to eye.

  She’d never bared herself to anyone before. She’d do it with me now. I doubted she’d ever fucked in a bed. If she had, it had been quick. This wasn’t going to be fast. I had her where I wanted her, and I wasn’t letting her up for anything.

  I met her dark stare. Held it. I saw into her so far. Past every wall she’d ever put up.

  “There you are,” I whispered, staring down at her with wonder. “All for me.”

  I lowered my head, kissed her. Kissed the fucking hell out her. She may have said the words, but I wanted to prove how different I was than the guys from her past. I wanted to wipe them from her mind with how good it was going to be.

  I wanted to show her what it was supposed to be like. So I would, too.

  My mouth slid along her jaw to the spot behind her ear. I licked down her neck, feeling how she shivered, how she caught her breath. When her fingers clenched on my arms. I wanted to know what got her hot.

  Her skin was like silk against my lips, the upper curves of her breasts above her bra sweet heaven. With a flick of my fingers, I opened the front clasp.

  “Beautiful.”

  “Reed,” she breathed then gasped when I took a nipple into my mouth. It hardened against my tongue, her fingers rubbing over my scalp. My hair was too short for her grab, but she held my head there.

  I looked up at her face, saw the way her eyes were closed, her mouth open, chin tilted toward the ceiling.

  I kissed across the valley between her breasts to her other nipple. Played with them, back and forth, until she writhed beneath me. Her legs parted, and I settled between. I was in no rush to go past this. Fuck, I could play with her tits all fucking day. But it was all about Harper. My dick could wait, or I’d come in my fucking pants if I had to. She came first. Always.

  I slid lower down her body, swirling my tongue around her navel, then along the edge of her panties. As I did the last time, I touched her through the sheer fabric. Gently, lightly, and I looked up her body to watch her reaction.

  I had no idea if something would set her off, if I’d trigger a memory that might freak her out. “You good, princess?” I asked, looking up her body from the most perfect place in the fucking world.

  She pushed up on her elbows, looked down at me. Flushed cheeks, hard nipples, taut belly. Fuck me.

  Her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing down there?”

  “You good?” I asked again.

  “I’ll be gooder if you would get with it.”

  I grinned then. “You’ve got a fancy doctorate and all you can come up with is gooder?”

  “Yes,” she snapped.

  “I’ll stop anytime you want, just say the word. Any word.”

  “Okay,” she said, softening a little.

  I held her gaze as I hooked my fingers in delicate edge of her panties and slid them down. She moved her legs to help me get them off, then with a flick of her foot, tossed them off the bed.

  “I’m not going to break, Reed,” she said.

  I watched her for a second longer, then even more.

  “Reed,” she repeated, almost begged.

  Her saying my name was like a bell at the beginning of a round, starting a fight. I focused on the task at hand, gave it my all. Won.

  I slid off the bed and to my knees, grasped her ankles and pulled her to the edge. Pushing her thighs apart, I looked my fill, took in how pink she was. How wet. How perfect.

  Then I put my mouth on her and got her taste all over my tongue. Worked her until she was clawing at my shoulders, crying out my name, her knees all but squeezing my ears.

  She was going to come on my tongue and fingers before I got in her. I’d get her soft and ready for me because I was big, and I was primed.

  I’d wanted her since the moment those elevator doors opened. But no guy before had gotten her off, seen to her. Made her scream. They’d satisfied a need in her for a connection but nothing else. It hadn’t been real.

  This was. Her responses to me. The way her pussy clenched around my finger as she came. As she dripped all over my chin.

  Fuck yes. She was incredible. Responsive. Passionate. And she made me feel like the champion of the world because I’d given it to her. Her first man-made orgasm.

  She’d give me all the rest, too. Every single fucking one belonged to me.

  22

  HARPER

  God. Reed. He was… this was… I couldn’t think. I could only feel. Feel his body pressing into mine. Feel his heat, his strength. Feel his intensity, his desire for me.

  How had this guy gotten past every defense I ever raised? How did he see things no one else did?

  Why did he even want me? He knew every broken piece of me, and he was still here. Sure, it could be for the sex, but he’d touched me and never asked for reciprocation. Even now—

  I moaned, low and deep, coming hard. Coming all over him.

  He didn’t let up, licking and kissing my core as the best orgasm of my life slowly faded. I was relaxed—biggest understatement ever—and boneless. Sweaty. Content.

  He came up over me, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Good?”

  I rolled my eyes, and I couldn’t help the smile. “Looking for praise?”

  He didn’t say anything, only winked.

  “I’ve… I’ve never had a guy do that before.”

  He frowned down at me. “No one’s ever—”

  I shook my head.

  “Fuck, princess. I’d live between your thighs if I could. I love the taste of you on my tongue.”

  I could feel the blush that spread, but he was right, there was nothing between us any longer. “Do I get the taste of you on my tongue?”

  He groaned, and his hips thrust into me. I could feel how hard he was through his gym shorts.

  “Not this time, princess. I want to come buried in that gorgeous pussy this first time.”

  I didn’t think gorgeous was the adjective I’d use, but if he finally wanted to get inside me, I was all for it.

  I slipped my fingers into the waistband of his shorts and pushed them down, suddenly frantic for him.

  “Easy, I
’ll get in you. Yeah?”

  He pushed back and climbed from the bed. Stripped. When he was bare, he gripped his dick and stroked, eyeing me. Just as I was him.

  This was the first time I’d seen him like this. God, he was perfect. Muscled and toned, there wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. He didn’t think he was smart, but just looking at him, I knew he took his profession seriously. His body was his job. I’d never seen him in the ring, but he knew what he wanted and went after it. Took it seriously and gave it one hundred percent.

  Just like he was with me.

  He was all in, just as he’d said.

  Going around the bed, he opened the bedside drawer and pulled out an unopened box of condoms. “Got these for you,” he said as he opened the box, pulled out a strip. “I never have anyone here. Just you.”

  He ripped one off, left the rest on the bedside table.

  I watched as he rolled it down his length then grabbed me, moved me up the bed, then came over me once more.

  I couldn’t help but touch him, to run my hands over his bare chest, slide over his lean hips, cup his taut ass.

  “Fuck, you’re killing me.”

  Lowering to his forearm, his eyes met mine once again. Held. “Ready?”

  I bit my lip, nodded. He was ensuring I was right there with him.

  Reaching down between us, he notched the head of his dick at my entrance. Without looking away… without even blinking, he watched me as he slowly filled me.

  A whimper escaped, and I clenched down around him. He felt so good, so big.

  “Fuck, you’re perfect,” he said again. He held himself still inside me, and I didn’t like that. He was being too nice.

  “More,” I said. “Please.”

  He pulled back, thrust deep. Watched.

  I lifted my hips, met him. “More,” I said again.

  He did it once more.

  I grabbed his butt and pulled him toward me. “Harder.”

  He wasn’t going to let go unless I told him to, worried I’d cry or fall apart. That wasn’t going to happen now. No way was he giving me sweet.