by Em Petrova
The action did unspeakable things to his insides.
“Will you come upstairs?” she rasped.
He pegged her in his stare. Her lips were damp, her eyes hazy with pleasure he still felt in the tremors racking her body. “You sure?”
“Yes. Please, Judd.”
He opened his mouth to correct her with Please, Sir but snapped his jaw shut again. He couldn’t let that side of his nature come out. He dropped his forehead and considered what he was about to do.
Then he scooped her up in his arms and ran the stairs with her. She cupped his face and kissed him the entire way. He lost count of the steps, but at her door, he paused to let her unlock it.
He could have just kicked it in—had considered it. But he didn’t want her stressing about paying for another door, so he was patient. In the back of his mind, he registered how flimsy the locks were. Next time he visited, he’d bring a few chain latches and a deadbolt.
Her place was small and still cluttered with boxes. One corner of the living room in front of the windows had a patterned mat on the floor and some candles lined up around it where she must meditate or something.
“I want you, Judd,” she murmured against his lips.
Need jerked his cock—and him with it. He didn’t recall taking the few steps that led to her bedroom or crossing the room until his ankles came up against something soft. He looked down to see a mattress on the floor, spread with more patterned quilts and fluffy pillows.
“We need to get your bed set up.”
“This is my bed.” She giggled. “Now are you gonna lay me down on it or keep insulting my stuff?”
“Well at least we can’t break the headboard.”
She giggled. “Maybe I’m up for that.”
He growled against her throat and hit his knees, the mattress cushioning him. She rested back on the pillows, and he followed her down, down, down. The feel of her soft hips cradling his cock made him grind his teeth, but he held on to his control.
Barely.
When she wrapped her thighs around him, he paused to search her eyes. “You sure you want this?”
With her heels on his ass, she dragged him against her. “I wouldn’t have invited you in if I didn’t.”
“Damn, baby doll. You’re so fucking beautiful and this dress… I just want to tear it off you.”
“Do as you like. Zipper’s on the back.” She arched upward so he could slide his hands beneath her.
Head swirling with the control, he peeled the dress straps off her shoulders and slid away the cloth until he bared her to the waist.
He let out a puff of air. “You’re not wearing a bra.”
“Something told me you wouldn’t want me to.”
Born or trained? Had somebody had her before him?
Didn’t matter—he couldn’t go there. He wasn’t into kink anymore.
He stared at her breasts, and her nipples hardened under his gaze. The pink tips stuck upward, begging for one hell of a night.
“Fuck.” He dipped his head and took her nipple in his mouth.
A guttural moan left her. She wrapped her hand around his nape, guiding him as he drew on her hard bud. “Oh God,” she whimpered. “You’re so damn good at that. Do sheriffs take some class on driving their women wild?”
He groaned. “I can smell your desire for me. I have to fucking taste you.”
He pushed onto his knees and shimmied her dress south of her hips. Oh, he was going south all right. Working his way down her belly, leaving a trail of tender kisses. When he reached her panties, he cast a long look up her body to meet her gaze.
“You don’t have to, Judd. You can just—”
“Shhh.” He ran the point of his tongue back and forth over her inner thigh. Her eyes rolled back in her head. “I want this. Don’t you?”
She ran her fingers through his hair. “I want it.”
“Mmm. I need to look at you.” He discarded her dress. Then he caught the string that held her panties on her hip in his teeth. Damn, that filament of red silk was the only thing blocking him from taking what he wanted.
With a jerk of his head, he snapped the string. Her panties fluttered away from her mound, and Judd issued a primal growl.
Her breaths came in sharp pants as he snaked his tongue over her trimly-cut curls. “Mmm, I love seeing a woman natural.”
“You like the… hair?” Her breath hitched.
“Damn straight. Holds the flavors better.” He tugged aside the bit of panties left clinging to her other thigh and flattened his tongue over her pussy. She bowed off the mattress.
He slid his fingers up her inner thighs. The instant he touched her outer lips, she bit off a cry. Of course, he wasn’t done tormenting her. He spread her open and sank his tongue into her pussy like it was an ice cream cone on a scorching hot day.
Painting his tongue over her clit, swirling, dipping lower, teasing her entrance. Guttural moans escaped her lips, and he loved her lack of embarrassment for her enthusiasm.
“Oh my God.”
He toyed with her until her ass was off the mattress and her hips thrusting up to meet his tongue. He worked his fingers up to her mound and down the crease of her inner thighs, stroking every inch of her pussy.
“Judd. Holy shit,” she squeaked.
“I don’t plan to stop until you’re shaking apart for me.” He lightly scraped his jaw over her pussy opening. The stubble against her sensitive tissues made her gasp.
“I’m gonna—” She broke off as he suctioned his lips over her clit. She dug her nails into his shoulders and ground her body against his mouth, taking every bit he had to give.
When she collapsed to the mattress, juices ran down her inner thighs and she looked like a well-loved goddess.
“That was so fucking hot, baby doll.”
“I’ve never…”
“Come that hard before?” He gave her a lazy smile.
She dragged him upward, but he paused at her breasts to suck and nibble her into a brand-new frenzy. “I want to undress you,” she whispered.
His eyelids grew heavy as he stared at her. “How bad do you want it?”
She shivered at his words. When she didn’t reply fast enough, he ducked his head and lightly bit the top of her breast. She moaned at the harsh caress, and he sucked her skin into his mouth as she scraped her nails across his shoulders.
He lifted his head and gazed down at the red mark, far more satisfied than he should be. “You need one to match on the other side.”
She grabbed him by the shoulders and used her thighs around his waist to draw him upward. Cupping his square jaw, she whispered, “I can’t wait anymore.”
Judd’s gut instinct was to demand she wait, to see her squirm with need.
To make her beg.
Fuck, she looked so beautiful, eyes glittering with desire, her nipples taut, practically demanding he take her.
Only one of us makes demands in this bed.
Hell, it’s not even a bed. It’s like a hippy college apartment.
The urge to run down the street to the local furniture shop and have a bed delivered next echoed somewhere in the back of his mind. But he would not, could not, be so highhanded. She’d taken the dress and date well enough, and had argued about the door for her shop, but she probably wouldn’t allow much more from him.
It was part of his makeup, the need to pamper and spoil. He’d even called her baby doll, an endearment that fit her so fucking well. She was a walking little doll he wanted to take care of.
His ex had taken advantage of this part of him, and he’d promised never to let that happen again. And here was a woman who roused all those old needs.
He rocked back onto his knees and reached for his bolo. He removed it and set it aside before going for his buttons. She watched him work each free. He was fit and wasn’t worried about appearance. What he worried about was showing her his insides, the parts he battled to keep hidden.
When he pulled his shirt off, Cecil
y ran her tongue over her lower lip. The plump skin gleamed with wetness. Fuck, now he couldn’t get the image of his pre-cum smeared across her pretty lips out of his head.
He had condoms in his pocket and slipped one out. He kept it discreetly in his palm, not wanting her to think he’d expected sex tonight. He hadn’t. But he had hoped like hell they’d end up here.
Probably good she didn’t have a headboard to tie her to.
“I want to touch you.”
He bit back a reply of ask me nicely and said, “Then touch me.”
She raised her hands, letting them hover a fraction over his chest. His heartbeat quickened as he waited to see what she would do, what she wanted.
This was how it should be between a man and woman—he’d gone wrong with his ex by taking over in the bedroom. But he wouldn’t make the same mistake with Cecily, even if it was a one-time encounter.
When she touched him, palms to pecs, he sucked in a breath. Her warm hands could steer a man straight to hell. By the time he was finished here tonight, he’d be praying for forgiveness.
She skated her gaze over him as she explored his chest down to his abs. He wasn’t as cut as he once had been when he worked on the ranch daily, but he hadn’t gone to flab yet either.
“I love a man with hair,” she said softly, rubbing back and forth over the patch on the center of his chest.
“What else do you like, baby doll?” His cock couldn’t get any harder. It was jammed against his fly, cramped and aching.
A smile tipped the corner of her lips. “I liked that thing you did with your tongue.”
“Mmm.”
“And that bite on my inner thigh.”
He stilled.
“And these.” She pointed to the matching marks on her breasts.
Fuck, all the roughness. She liked how rough he’d been with her. His head swam. For a tooth-grinding moment, he didn’t think he could speak, move or even breathe. He was too afraid of handcuffing her and using his palm on her round ass.
“Did you… like giving them to me?” Her whisper was too hot, so fucking arousing.
He managed a jerky nod and kicked at his boots to remove them. They didn’t have far to fall off the eight inches of mattress separating him from the floor. His pants didn’t take two seconds to take off. But he paused at shucking his boxers. This was where his real control came into play.
Did he have enough of what he needed to keep from frightening her?
“Dayummm, you look good to me, cowboy. Will you come here and let me feel you against me?” She was good at using those strong thighs of hers to pull him down. She yanked him in so his cock shoved against her pussy. The bit of cotton separating them didn’t leave a thing to the imagination. Her liquid heat enveloped him.
He couldn’t take another minute of this torture.
He shoved off his boxers and ripped open the condom. If she was surprised he had one in hand, she didn’t let on. She only stared up at him with those big green eyes and plump lips beckoning him for a kiss.
He claimed her mouth at the same minute he drove deep into her pussy. She reared up to meet him, and he felt himself bottom out. Fucking scorching liquid fire.
He moved, and she moaned.
“Don’t hold back, Judd. Please. I need you.”
Dizzy with power, he braced himself on his elbows and jerked his hips. She cried out. He withdrew with exquisite, insane slowness. He wanted it to last—needed to find that sweet spot between being in control and letting himself go.
She kissed him back, tongue dancing across his. His cock head throbbed, his balls clenched tight to his body. He angled his head and nipped at her lips until she was writhing underneath him.
Then he plunged his tongue into her mouth and his cock into her pussy at the same time. She started to tremble. Hell, she was coming. Squeezing him with her inner walls, trying to wring the cum up from his balls.
Hell, five strokes in and he was exploding. Bursting, control fled as he pounded into her. He sank his teeth into her lower lip, aware he could not hurt her, could not break skin.
She cried out around his assault, but his mind didn’t register pain from her. No, this was pure ecstasy.
When the last spurt left him, so did his energy. He collapsed to the side so he didn’t crush her but brought her up to cover his body. Plastered to him, her dark curls trailing over his skin. She made his chest into a pillow as she regained her breath.
Stroking her spine in long, slow sweeps of his hand, he tried to make sense of what had just happened to him.
She’d stolen his control, something that never happened. Not even with his ex-wife. He could lie to himself and say he hadn’t had sex in too long and was pent-up, but he didn’t hide behind illusions. He knew his shortcomings—that he was hot-tempered at times and he didn’t always put his socks in the hamper right away.
No, he couldn’t fake out his own mind with ideas that Cecily hadn’t just given him the most powerful orgasm he’d had in years.
* * * * *
Cecily listened to Judd’s heartbeat slow and his breathing grow more even. She lay draped over him like a satisfied cat in the sunshine and couldn’t find the energy to move. He continued rubbing her back, now in smaller circles that had her toes curling with pleasure into the sheets.
“Interesting aesthetic you have going on here.” His voice vibrated beneath her ear. “What do you call it? Hippy chic?”
She giggled. “Nobody calls it hippy. It’s boho.”
She looked at the room within her scope of vision. Boxes still piled in the corner, an aqua blue curtain thumb-tacked to the window for privacy. A 1940s dressing table, the finish long ago worn away, covered over with white paint and little gold polka dots stamped across the front of it. She’d unpacked her makeup and body lotions, and those were lined up neatly on the surface. In one corner, she had an old metal coat rack serving as her closet.
“I put the money into the massage table instead of my bed frame. Seems like a good trade.”
“You’re comfortable on the floor like this?” He shifted under her as if he wasn’t.
“Never gave it a thought. I work until I’m exhausted, and by then I could fall down on the floor and sleep soundly.”
“So I’ve guessed. This isn’t much better than the floor, Cecily.”
“Then next time we’ll go to your place.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
What if he didn’t want a second round? She thought he’d enjoyed himself, but…
“Damn right. I’ll show you the finer points of spending the night in a real bed with box springs.”
She relaxed against his chest again. So he did want to see her again. Whatever was brewing between them had been coming since day one. She was in tune with her feelings and the vibes he’d sent her hadn’t been missed. But at times it was easy to second-guess herself.
Judd had seen many sides of her already. He’d witnessed the shock of her having her place broken into. Seen her in tears and even looked closely at the fear on her face.
He’d seen her coming apart for him.
Her inner muscles gripped at the thought of having him inside her again. Was it too soon to press for more?
She dropped a kiss to his chest. Then another. Spattering them across his skin and up to his jaw. He grabbed the back of her head and yanked her mouth to his, a hard kiss that set her juices flowing all over again.
“Hope you’ve got another condom.”
“I’m the goddamn sheriff. Of course I’m prepared.”
Rolling her into the mattress and trapping her hands overhead, he bent to ravish her breasts.
Oh yeah, her sixth sense hadn’t been off. Even if she hadn’t felt the bulge against her thigh, she’d know Judd wanted her.
Chapter Six
“Um, can I speak with Sheriff Roshannon?” Cecily’s voice wasn’t exactly steady when she approached the front desk of the sheriff’s office. The woman he called Birdie sat looking a
t her with gimlet eyes like the species she was nicknamed for.
The woman bobbed her head. “Sheriff’s in his office. Go on back.”
Cecily stood there another heartbeat, wondering if she’d heard right. Did everyone get an audience with the sheriff of Bracken just by walking through the front door or was she receiving special treatment?
It was no secret Judd had taken her out on a date the other night. Why, she’d had four different clients ask her about it. In a small town, word traveled.
She stepped toward the closed door with Judd’s name on it. When she knocked, her chest was tight with anticipation.
She hadn’t seen him since their encounter the other night, but he’d texted her every day since. Little things, asking if she was okay, if her shop was all right. Said he was caught up in a case and couldn’t get away but he’d see her soon.
Much more than she’d expect after one night together. She knew he was just being nice—Judd was a good guy and obviously had a momma who’d raised him right—but her female mind was like a balloon with helium, lifting off the solid ground at the first sweet croon of his voice.
“Yeah?” Judd’s voice projected through the door, rough and almost distracted.
She shot a look back at Birdie, who was staring at her, a smile on her face.
Taking a deep breath, Cecily opened the door and peeked in. Judd looked up, a crease between his brows, his hair mussed as if he’d been raking his fingers through it. His desk was a wreck of papers.
His face blanked and his eyes cleared. He got up. “Cecily.”
“Hi. I’m distracting you from your work.”
He came around his desk, shaking his head. “I’m happy to stop for a spell. What’s brought you here? Are you okay? Everything all right at the shop?”
“Yes, all good.” She saw the concern in the lines around his eyes and felt bad for worrying him.
He reached for her, and her heart leaped. She hadn’t known what to expect in coming here—if he’d treat her in a professional manner or give her the same hungry look he had when they were alone.
She slipped her arms around his neck and inhaled his outdoorsy scent. He brought her up against his body and held her there for a second. When she withdrew, she smiled.
