Her Forbidden Cowboy (Cowboys After Dark Book 12)

by Carpenter, Maggie

  “Sorry,” she mumbled, finally breaking away.

  “You have nothin’ to be sorry for,” he said softly. “Here, put on your sweater. Do you want me to take you home?”

  “No, I don’t want to go back to my place.”

  “Your parent’s house?”

  “No, definitely not,” she replied, picking up her sweater and pulling her sweater over her head.

  “Then let’s go somewhere and have a drink.”

  “I’m not in the mood to be around people.”

  “I’d say my office, but there’s nowhere to sit, the sofa’s gone.”

  “Really? I loved that raggedy old thing,” she said sadly.

  “So that only leaves my place. Would you like to come home with me for a bit?”

  “Yes, please, if you don’t mind.”

  “You’ll have to excuse the mess. I’m in the middle of packin’. There are boxes everywhere.”

  “I don’t care, I’m just so…”

  “So what?”

  “Upset,” she whimpered, her brow crinkling as the threat of tears returned.

  “And you’re also freezin’,” he remarked, rubbing the sides of her arms. “Where are your shoes? You need to start tellin’ me what this is all about.”

  She’d started shivering again, and he saw the sheen of a lone tear dripping down her cheek.

  “Come here,” he said tenderly, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Where are your shoes?”

  “Over there,” she replied, waving her arm behind her. “I can get them in the morning.”

  “No, you won’t. We don’t need anyone trippin’ over ‘em.”

  Looking back he saw the black glossy heels laying on the ground, and after quickly fetching them, he returned to her, putting his arm protectively around her shoulders and guiding her forward.

  “Rough night at your dinner?” he asked, as they made their way down the barn aisle.

  “You could say that.”

  “So rough you had to come here. I get that. Horses have a way of soothin’ our souls.”

  “They do,” she sighed. “I’m really glad you turned up. I might have ended up sleeping in Cinnamon’s stall.”

  “Why don’t you wanna go back to your place?” he asked as they walked outside and approached his SUV.

  “My mother, she’s relentless,” Cathy replied, climbing into his car.

  He closed her door, and as she watched him walk briskly around to join her, she ran her fingers through her tangled hair.

  What am I supposed to tell you? That she’s horrified at the thought of us being together? That she actually tried forbid me seeing you? That she wants to see me with a guy at least a decade older than me because he’s filthy, stinking rich? I know her. She won’t give this up.

  “At least it’s not far to my place,” he remarked as he climbed in behind the wheel.

  “You said you were packing? I don’t understand. Are you moving house as well?”

  “There’s a lotta news,” he replied, starting his car and heading down the gravel drive. “The answer to that last question is, yep, my house is on the market, and my realtor says it’s gonna move fast.”

  “Oh, my gosh, where are you going?”

  “I’ll show you tomorrow,” he said, smiling across at her. “It’s a special place. I’ve owned it for almost a year now. It had been on the market for a while and I managed to wangle a great deal. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.”

  “Because?”

  “Because, Cathy,” he said, turning up the heater as he headed down the road, “it’s isolated. It’s a real log cabin, and it’s on a hundred empty acres.”

  “You’re kidding? Is it far?”

  “Nope, about ten minutes down route six. You turn off a gravel road, go down about a mile, up a little hill, and there it is. I’m gonna go back to doin’ what I do best.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Horses. That’s what I do best,” he repeated. “Horses. Not people. Horses I can deal with. I’m gonna set up a rescue, maybe do some retirement boardin,’ but mostly trainin’, breedin’ and sales, but when I say trainin, I mean, just my own horses.”

  “Wow.”

  “I made a sweet lease deal on the barn, and you don’t have to worry. The trainer comin’ in is gonna keep everythin’ pretty much the same, and he’s not a trainer like you think. His name is Matt Montgomery, and he rides his horses with nothin’, and I mean, not even a rope around their necks. I went out to the place he’s at now, and I’ve never seen anythin’ like it. He’s real mellow, and I’ve warned him about the difficulties with boarders, but it didn’t seem to faze him.”

  “He has no idea,” she murmured.

  “I kinda think he does, and I kinda think he knows how to deal with stuff like that better than I ever did, but I’m not gonna worry about it. He wants to do it, so, hey, it sure works for me.”

  “It won’t be the same without you,” she said sadly.

  “I’m not movin’ my horses just yet. I’ve gotta get some fencin’ done, and finish the outbuildin’s. The renovations on the house are finished, but everythin’ else there has a ways to go. Dusty, Duster and Pepper are gonna be stayin’ at the barn for at least, two, maybe three months.”

  “Talk about a night of surprises,” she muttered.

  “You can tell me all about it inside. We’re home.”

  She’d been so lost in his news, she’d not been paying attention to where they were, and looking out the window she saw he was pulling into the driveway of an attractive, traditional home. From what she could see, it was white, had eaves, and green shutters bordering the windows.

  “I can see why this house would sell,” she remarked. “It looks really inviting.”

  “It was too big for me when I bought it, still is, but I got a real good deal on it because it needed some cosmetic stuff. Not much at all, but it looked a mess at the time,” he said, pulling into the garage. “Come on, let’s get you inside. I’ll see if I can find you something warmer to wear than that piece of fabric wrapped around your body.”

  “You don’t like my dress?”

  “I couldn’t see your dress, only your skin, and there was plenty of that,” he grinned.

  “Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right,” she mumbled. “It’s black, and it was dark in the barn.”

  He climbed from the car, and as he hurried around to help her out, she slipped her shoes back on. Opening the door, he took her hand and helped her from the car, and in her three-inch heels, her face was almost level with his. His eyes caught hers, and in the confined space their bodies were touching.

  “Thank you for bringing me here,” she whispered, gazing up at him.

  It was an impulsive move, but as his fingers gripped her hair, he knew he couldn’t have stopped himself even if he’d wanted to. She gasped, then uttered a strange whimpering sound, and it was all he needed to plant his lips on hers. The kiss was filled with hunger, and as her arms came around his back and fervently clung to him, a deep craving engulfed them both, causing them to move their mouths frantically against each other until they breathlessly broke apart. Staring into her eyes he saw her carnal yearning, and though the space was cramped he managed to lift her into his arms. Moving carefully through the garage, grateful he’d left the door into his house unlocked, he walked inside, straight down the hallway and into his bedroom. As he laid her on the bed and stretched out on top of her, he heard her mumbling something.

  “What’d you say, sugar?” he whispered, raising his head and staring down at her.

  “Take me,” she breathed.

  He knew it wasn’t the truth, but he didn’t care, and traveling his lips to her neck, her soft, grateful moans sent a fresh wave of energy to his loins. Their moment was finally, unexpectedly, upon them

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Cathy watched him slowly remove his clothes. It was maddening. She’d wanted him to pull of his jacket, throw it on the floor, then rip away his shirt, but she sen
sed he knew that, and was deliberately taking his time, teasing her, making her wait, but never had impatience felt so good.

  She knew she was squirming on the bed, she couldn’t help it, but then he peeled off his shirt and she froze like a deer in headlights. It was no wonder his chest had felt like steel, and he’d lifted her as though she’d weighed an ounce. She’d seen a fit man before, her college sweetheart had been fanatical about working out, his body was feeble compared to Scott’s. His washboard stomach sat below hard-cut pecs, his arms looked as if he could bench press a car, and as he slid off his jeans and boxers, her eyes fell to his swollen cock.

  “It’s all for you, sugar,” he murmured, moving to stand by the bed, “but you’ve gotta make yourself naked for me.”

  “How can you be so calm?” she whispered.

  “Who said I was calm?”

  “You seem like you are.”

  “Believe me, I’m not calm, I’m controlled.”

  “Oh, my gosh,” she stammered, his comment sending her stomach tumbling.

  “I’m waitin’,”

  She hurriedly pulled off her sweater, then rolling on to her stomach, she looked at him over her shoulder.

  “Would you do the honors?”

  Leaning over her, he slowly unzipped her outfit and unsnapped her bra, and was about to trail his fingers across her skin when she abruptly kneeled up, frantically jerked her dress over her head, shimmied her hose and panties down her legs, then flopped on to her back and she stared up at him.

  “Please?” she bleated, raising her arms. “Please?”

  “Hold your hands above your head and spread your legs.”

  She paused for a moment, as if wrapping her brain around his instructions, then did as he said.

  He knew she’d been thinking about what was actually happening. He had told her what to do. It hadn’t been a request, it had been a direction, and her hesitation confirmed his belief that she’d never been in the company of a dominant. It also confirmed his suspicions that she longed to experience the joy of submission. Had he met the woman of his dreams? A woman who ached to learn what he had to teach? A woman that had stirred his heart? It was almost too much to hope for, and with his hopes swimming in his head, he climbed on the bed, positioning his body over hers, resting his knees between her legs and his elbows on either side of her head.

  “I’m gonna lower my weight on you,” he murmured. “Let your body totally relax and sink into the mattress, okay, sugar?”

  “Okay,” she breathed, but it had been a tentative response, and he moved his lips to her ear.

  “Close your eyes. Let your body go limp, totally limp. You’ve got nothin’ to worry about, nothin’ to think about, nothin’ but me, and how good this feels.”

  His words cloaked her like a soft, wool blanket, and she felt herself responding. She sucked in the air, then let it out, and as he lowered himself on top of her, she began to feel it; a release, a giving up, a sweet, delicious surrender.

  “There you go,” he whispered, “just like that.”

  As his weight descended, she wanted to tell him it was heaven, that it was the most divine thing in the whole world, but she didn’t want to break the magic of the moment by uttering even a single word. There was just him, and her, melting into each other. A trance had engulfed her, and as the minutes ticked by she fell deeper and deeper under his spell. When he moved his hands to her wrists and tightly gripped them, a surge of pleasure rippled through her body, and as he shifted his stiffened cock against her inner thigh, she tried to wriggle to bring it against her pussy, but his weight prevented any movement.

  “Tell me what you want,” he whispered, his mouth softly sucking her neck.

  “You, I want you inside me, I want this, I never want to wake up.”

  How easily she had surrendered. A joyous throbbing moved through his loins, and adjusting his hips, he managed to rest his cock between her legs.

  “Have you ever been bound in rope?”

  The question floated through her head, almost as if it were a dream, and she moaned softly at the thought.

  “Picture it, think about how it would feel,” he whispered, tightening his hold on her wrists as he pushed her into the fantasy. “Soft cotton rope, holdin’ you, keepin’ you exactly as I want you.”

  A picture began to form in her mind’s eye, and she could see her reflection in a mirror. She was naked, sitting on a straight-backed seat, her knees tied open on its legs, a white cord criss-crossing her breasts, then winding around her body like a coiled spring. She heard herself groan, but it sounded far away, then suddenly, he was kissing her.

  His mouth was soft, moist, and warm, drifting slowly over hers, bringing her up from her vision, but as she responded, his lips became demanding, and his tongue darted between her teeth. He was consuming her, and as his body’s weight lifted off her, his hands slipped from her wrists, and his fingers were suddenly delving into her pussy.

  “So wet,” he muttered, “so wonderfully wet.”

  He moved slightly to slip on a condom, but it had been a fleeting pause. His cock suddenly pushed inside her, eliciting a long, sonorous moan, and as he began to pump, his mouth devoured her breasts. He was sweeping her away, there was nothing but sublime sensations washing through every part of her. His lips and tongue were traversing her peaks and valleys, his cock was hammering, then abruptly slowing, but with strong, forceful thrusts that took her breath away, and when he rose abruptly to his knees and clutched her hips, pulling her against his pelvis, her eyes flew open.

  “I’m gonna fuck you hard,” he growled, “and you’re gonna come.”

  It was a command. His steely confidence made her thighs tighten, and she saw the upward curl of his lips, like an all-knowing smile. Her eyes lowered to travel across his amazing chest, then at the veins ranging over his bulging, muscled arms. His fingers moved up to her waist, tightening around her skin, and her eyes shifted back to his face as he began to thrust.

  Her orgasm began as a vague sensation. His initial strokes were forceful and measured, but as he accelerated, the sensation transformed into a slowly enveloping need; a need to grip the bedsheets, a need to hold her breath, a need to call out his name, a need that suddenly saw her back arch as she sucked in a lungful of air.

  Scott was at his bursting point, but he’d managed to hold back enough to control the build-up of her release, and the sight of her was exquisite. Her nipples sat sharply pointed atop her fleshy breasts, and her fists were white knuckled, grasping the bedspread. Her high-pitched squeals were directing his thrusts, and when she abruptly lifted her chest with a crying gasp, he knew she at the edge. Clenching his teeth he surged forward with quick, powerful thrusts, and as her orgasmic cries filled the room, he gushed into the condom, his deep grunts in all almost perfect harmony with her glorious wails.

  Cathy thought the explosion would never end. The spasms swept through her again and again, until the last one abated, leaving her utterly limp and breathless. She had a notion that he’d moved off her, and when he pulled her into him, wrapping her up, she cocooned herself into his body, and let herself float into a heaven of tingling nothingness.

  When she opened her eyes she wasn’t sure now much time had passed, but she sensed it was the early hours of the morning, and she could hear the wind whipping around outside. She was under the covers, but she couldn’t remember how she got there, and she was laying on her side, with Scott holding her from behind. Letting out a contented sigh she wriggled against him, and as she started to fall back asleep, she reached up a hand and wrapped her fingers around his forearm.

  “How do you feel?” he whispered. “You okay?”

  “Safe, I feel safe, and I feel as if I’ve just had the best dream ever, except it wasn’t a dream, it was real, and it was amazing.”

  “You’re right, it wasn’t a dream, sugar,” he purred, “and you are…”

  “I’m what?” she asked softly, shifting in his arms in an attempt to turn and look
at him.

  “You’re gonna stay right there,” he murmured, tightening his hold.

  “Ooh, I love that.”

  “What?”

  “How you hold me like that, how I can’t move.”

  “I know,” he sighed.

  “I am, what?”

  “Sugar and spice, and all things nice,” he muttered. “Go to sleep.”

  She didn’t need to be told twice. A cloud of fatigue overwhelmed her, and yawning heavily, she burrowed down and let herself drift away.

  Across town in the magnificent Coleman house sitting on its knoll above the lake, Cathy’s mother was standing at the bedroom window, gazing out at the reflection of the street lights on the water. It was full of movement, like the water in a swimming pool with people splashing and playing, except there were no people, and the night was silent, but the reflected lights were alive. They sparkled and danced, then disappeared, only to reappear, as though a magician had waved his wand.

  “Come back to bed, Marianne. Get some sleep, it’ll work itself out.”

  “How can I sleep? My only child is being foolish, completely and utterly foolish. What does she think she’s doing, chasing after some lowlife cowboy when she could have a man like Renaldo?”

  “You don’t know she could have him. They’ve just met. Renaldo may think she’s too young for him. You’re assuming too much.”

  “Of course he’ll want her. He does already. Didn’t you see how he was eyeing her? You told me yourself he was looking to settle down, and that was months ago.”

  “Marianne, you-“

  “That cowboy is going to ruin Catherine’s life,” she interrupted. “I have to put a stop to it.”

  “The more you try to stop her, the more she’ll want him. You know that. Remember what it was like when your parents tried to stop you from dating a lowly construction worker? It made you want me all the more.”