by Jaye Ripley
One finger slips inside her, and she rocks her body against my hand. Without moving in and out too much, already her channel tells me she won’t last long. She breathes out the same words.
“I’ve gotta get you ready. Neither of us will, baby.” Another finger joins the first one, and she gasps. My mouth captures her moans as I lather her up.
“Unzip me.” My hands are occupied, so she has to do the work to release me.
After a few fumbles made more difficult by a few extra flicks of her clit, she pushes my jeans and boxer briefs down and holds onto my painful erection. Her hand slides up and down on me, and stars break in front of my eyes. Anymore of that, and I’ll come nowhere near where I want to.
“Mel,” I pant.
“Lift me up.” She breaks away from kissing my neck and driving me crazy. Her eyes, full of desire, direct me.
Reluctantly, I pull my hands out and away from her. She hitches a leg around me and boosts herself on her tiptoes as I pick her up, balancing her in my hands and against the wall. The physical exertion feels fucking fantastic. The only thing better would be to bury myself in her.
Her hand grips my hard penis and guides it against her slick folds, coating it in her arousal. My balls tighten at her warmth and wetness. She moves my dick in front of her entrance.
“Fuck me.”
Sweat beads on my brow. I shake my head. “I can’t hold back once I start. And I’ll hurt your back against the brick.”
She loops her arms around my neck and kisses me with gentle force. “Scrapes and bruises will heal. You not being in me may hurt me more. I love you, Hunter.”
With her declaration, my heart soars, and I lose control. I push all the way into her with one thrust. Our mouths swallow our collective groans. Her muscles contract around me, and it won’t take long until we both explode.
My eyes squeeze shut. Tingles work their way down my spine to my base. My stomach tightens.
Mel rocks against me once, twice, pushing me in even deeper. Her legs squeeze around my middle. She moans and bites down hard on my earlobe.
Losing it, my hips surge and pump myself in and out of her with sharp thrusts, knocking the breath out of both of us. We teeter on the edge of sanity. It will only last few more lunges.
“Yes,” she cries out.
“Fuck. I fucking love you, Melody.”
Her entire body quivers against me, and her head leans back as she comes hard on my dick. The spasms pull me in and push me off my own cliff. With a few harder pounds, I spill all of myself inside of her.
Too much. It’s all too much for me to handle. Her wrapped around me in all ways. Our love made stronger as we work our way through our mistakes. Her desire to stay with me.
Feather kisses on my neck wake me up from my haze of mixed thoughts and feelings. The sound coming from her can only be compared to a purring cat.
“Well, that was definitely not slow.” She laughs. Her body shakes around my sensitive dick, and I jerk inside her.
“Keep laughing, and you might get another fast response. We’ll do slow later.” With care, I lift her off of me. Taking off my shirt, I let her use it to clean herself. I pull up my pants. “Did I hurt your back or shoulders?”
She shrugs. “Who cares? Like I said, they’ll heal. It was worth it.” She leans up and kisses my lips. “Guess I need to take you home with me. Can’t send you back inside looking like that.” Her finger traces from my sternum down to the edge of my jeans, my muscles jumping underneath her touch. She grabs my pants and pulls me against her. “Not for them. You’re mine.”
Her possessiveness slays me. Surprisingly, my dick pays attention. I kiss her one last time and move out of her grasp. “Come on. Take me back to your place and sing that song for me again.”
She rolls her eyes and takes my hand. “It’s not a full song.”
“It’s all I ever need to hear.”
We walk over to her car. We left her back door wide open. She leans in and digs around for the keys she left inside. Her ass wiggles, and again, thoughts of taking her bent over like this swirl in my head.
She finds her keys and stands up. Without saying anything, she figures out what I was thinking and smacks the back of my head. She throws a T-shirt at me to put on. Holding up the black shirt, it says, “You read my shirt. That’s enough interaction for today.” Its size is laughable, but I put it on. It stretches over my chest, and falls at least an inch short of the top of my jeans.
“Can’t take any chances in case we run into one of your female fans. Hot Hunter better remember who loves him and keep his body covered.”
She unlocks the doors, and I get in the passenger side after flipping her the bird.
As we both settle and buckle up, she turns toward me. Her bright eyes regard me for a long moment. With a sigh, she starts the car. A long moment of silence passes without us moving.
Shifting to look at me, she puts the car back in park. “I need to know something.”
“Anything. What is it?”
“You and Trey. Did you work things out?” Her face looks hopeful and full of regret at the same time.
She doesn’t need to know the words that passed between Trey and me. Or that he gave me the opportunity to hit him, and I almost took it. But since he helped me orchestrate my impromptu concert, forgiveness came a little faster than expected. Besides, he’ll suffer enough in the long run.
“Yeah, we worked things out. Nothing to worry about there.”
She studies me for a hot second. When she accepts the truth, she puts the car in reverse. “Okay, but tell me one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Did you kiss him?” The corner of her mouth crooks up in that sassy way that drives me crazy.
Laughing my ass off, I think back on the bargain she struck with me that first morning together. If we can find humor even in some of our worst moments, then I know we have a real shot. “I’ll never tell. I’m a gentleman.”
She scoffs, and I silence her next smartass comments with my lips covering hers. The only kisses I want her to think about or pay attention to are the ones we’re going to share. Pulling back from her way too soon, I readjust myself in the seat.
She looks at me with a goofy grin on her face. “Sing me your song.”
“But it’s fast. Not romantic like yours.”
The car backs out of her space. She drives us to the street entrance. The car idles as she stops and looks both ways.
“Who says romance has to be slow and not fast? According to us, it’s both.” She winks at me, and pulls out into the street.
Smiling, I watch the buildings pass us as we drive. “We have as long as it takes to find out.”
43
Epilogue: Hunter & Mel
Hunter
We finish listening to the latest version of the newly recorded demo of “Fast Love.” Mac talks to the sound engineer while EJ, Hart, and Levi move their chairs closer to the couch I sit on.
“Thought we hated those simple songs with only four or five chord changes,” EJ jokes.
Levi laughs. “Yeah, I hate that song.”
My eyes dart between them. “Do you really?”
Hart beats his sticks in rhythm against his thigh. “Naw, man. Told you that when we did the rough recording for you to use to win her back. It’s a solid song.”
“But is it a Tailgate Down song?” My knee bounces as adrenaline pumps nervous energy through me.
“I don’t know. We should ask the person it belongs to.” EJ sits backwards in his chair. I can still read the words on his T-shirt. After he saw Mel wearing that shirt she made me wear back to her place that night, he went and bought himself the same shirt, but in his size.
“What belongs to whom?” Mel asks as she walks in, carrying two grey cartons with eight coffees. She distributes them around the room. When she brings mine to me, she kisses me first and sits down in my lap, holding both of our drinks. My arms encircle her, and I kiss her neck, inhaling
her incredible scent, all soapy clean and sexy. I’d love to lay her down on the couch and make her smell like me.
“Yo, Romeo. Quit feeling up your girl.” EJ takes a drink from his coffee. “Remember, not during business hours. You guys can be all touchy when you’re in your own room. Unless you’d like us to watch. Or participate.”
Mel flips him off. “Drink your coffee, EJ. I dare you.”
He takes off the lid and examines the contents. Looking at his coffee and back to Mel, he narrows his eyes at her. “You wouldn’t.”
Her face breaks into a large, innocent smile. She bats her doe eyes at him.
EJ laughs, shrugs, and raises the cup to his lips, taking a drink. The rest of us crack up at both of them.
“Okay, now tell me what you were talking about as I walked in. Someone needs to make a decision?”
Mac turns around in his chair and takes his coffee from the table next to Hart. “Yep. Do we keep the song for our own album, or do we shop it around to other artists?”
Levi nods his head at Mel and me. “Seems to me it belongs to them. So they should have the say.” EJ and Hart agree.
All eyes turn on us. Mel squirms in my lap under their scrutiny. Her body moving against mine awakens my cock. Feeling it press against her ass, she smacks my arm and moves, sitting next to me on the couch.
She takes a cautious sip of her hot coffee first. “Well, you know I love that song for obvious reasons. And it’s a great song. My guess is that it will be a huge hit, especially if it drops during the summer. Or at least in the fall. Early enough to be considered for a Grammy or CMA award.”
Everyone in the room agrees. We can all see the potential for it to be popular enough to win “Single of the Year.” Although I wrote the words for Mel, they speak to a general audience. And even though we mocked the first songs we were forced to record for their simplicity, in this case, the simple tune allows the words to shine. Plus, they came from the heart, and that changes the whole game.
Mel shifts forward as she continues. “The question is, do you guys want to be up on the stage accepting the award all together, or watching another band up there for the same song?”
Mac shakes his head as he smiles. EJ and Hart fist bump. Levi stays quiet, but winks at me when he catches me looking.
“Sounds to me like we’ve got ourselves a hit,” I say, squeezing her hand in mine. “Now to get final approval from Stacia’s team. Guess we can do that after your big meeting with her and Price.
Mel’s eyes shine back at me as a big goofy grin spreads on her face. My mind races through the different closets I can drag her into since I know we’re not going to be able to wait the whole day without having each other.
She wiggles her eyebrows at me. “Already found a place, but you’ll have to wait. We still have to record the ‘nah-nah’ section.”
The rest of the guys except Hart put down their coffees and head into the booth. I stand up and hold out my hand to help her up.
“Okay, we’ll record the ‘nah-nahs’, but after that you better take me to this magical place where they’re not going to hear you screaming out my name.” I pull on her hard so she stands fast and stumbles into me.
With a glint in her eye and a quick kiss, she winks. “Game on, Cowboy.”
* * *
Mel
I walk out the glass door in a daze. Price escorts me down the hall, still talking to me about terms. Stacia doesn’t follow us because she has another meeting upstairs. The quickness of the elevator increases my dizziness as I grapple with reality.
Hunter rushes over to me and puts his arm around me. He says words, but my mind can’t decipher them. He talks over my head at Price, and the two of them agree on something because they shake hands, all while Hunter holds on to me. He pinches my arm, and the world comes into focus.
“What?”
“Say goodbye to Price. He has to go to Stacia’s meeting upstairs.”
I stretch out my arm and shake my new manager’s hand. “Guess I’ll be seeing you soon.”
He winks at me. “Welcome to Long Road Records.”
Hunter picks me up and swings me around. “You got the contract?”
I giggle, holding on to him for all I’m worth. When he puts me down, the world spins for an extra second. “I got a spec contract. Meaning she gets to try me out and see where things go. Nothing like what you guys got. But she loves my voice, and assures me that just because I’m a rocker chick, that doesn’t mean I can’t fit into country.”
He kisses my cheek. “I already told you that. The entire band told you that.”
I close my eyes and breathe in deep. Blowing out the breath to help calm my jumping nerves, I nod. “I know. Everything’s moving so fast.”
He takes my hand and kisses the back of it. “Fast and slow, baby. So what does all this mean?”
I look around the enormous lobby of Lyric Ridge Records, and at the huge banners of its stars. One of them with the beautiful red hair just hugged me and welcomed me as part of her family.
When my eyes return from looking skyward, they fall on the man who’s helped bring love into my life and made me believe in dreams I never knew existed. Ignoring the people walking around us, I cup his face in my hands and pull him into my lips. I kiss him slow and soft, trying to push everything I’m feeling into the intimate touch. I open my eyes and see him smiling down at me, waiting for an answer to his question.
With a smile, I take his hand. “Guess it means that Trey has to start looking for a new bartender at the R&R. Come on. Let’s go celebrate with the boys.”
We walk out of the building and into our futures.
THE END
44
Songs
“Fast Love”
Verse 1
I know that we - - just met
After just a few times out
I can’t get over you yet
There’s no more doubt - - you’re mine
You can look inside my eyes and see
How brightly you shine
Trust that we can do this right
Just take my hand and hold on tight
Chorus
If you get scared, I’ll be right by your side
I won’t let you get off this ride
There’s no turning back
Don’t hide or run away from me
Where you go’s where I wanna be
I’ll wrap you up and won’t let go
If you fall fast, I’ll love you slow
Verse 2
Love at first sight - - it’s true
It’s everything I know I feel
When I look at you
And when we touch - - at night
We chase the dark away
When we burn so bright
They may question all this change
But finding love is wondrous strange
Chorus
Bridge
No more questions, no more doubt
No more time for backing out
Take a chance on what we’ve got
Give our love another shot
* * *
“Fast & Slow”
Verse 1
Love is a four-letter word
It’s just not something that I ever heard
No books or movies convince me it’s true
Until I met you
Chorus
Hold me fast
And don’t let me go
I’ll overcome my past
And I’ll let love grow
Together we can last
If you’ll let me know
We’ll take it slow
So hold me fast
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k & Rodeo Romance Book 1
