“I do.”
“Good.” He clapped Nate’s shoulder. “Let’s set you up with a mount. I’ll go with you. I sure as hell can’t sit around here. I have to do something. Besides, it’s not good for you to go alone. Javelina can be aggressive and very dangerous. And I know the property better. Big spread. You don’t want to lose your way.” He snickered. “Or, God forbid, somehow wander onto the Turnbauer spread. The Turnbauers and the Fords have been frenemies since way back. Tito wouldn’t bat an eye about arresting you for trespassing on Turnbauer land. The town’s growing but still maintains a small-town mentality with ties that bind. Up until recently, we were still considered outsiders. Hell, we probably always will be. These people could close ranks fast.”
“Or turn on each other just as fast,” Nate said. “Two pairs of eyes and ears are always best. I appreciate the company.” Nate jerked his head toward the rack of cowboy hats by the front door. “Don’t suppose you’ve got a hat I could borrow.”
Tyler snickered. “That’s like asking to borrow a man’s woman. But”—he shot Tessa a glance from the corner of his eye—“I’m not averse to sharing, under the right circumstances.”
He slid his hat on slow and easy. Tyler’s gaze did an equally slow pass over Tessa’s body that sent shivers through her. The invitation he extended when he tipped the brim her way was obvious. Come get me. Have your way with me.
“Nothing to share there as far as I’m concerned.” Nate grabbed a hat from the rack and slipped it on. “I’m not Tessa’s boyfriend. I’m just a friend who didn’t want her to fly all this way alone. End of story. So now you can all kiss and make up.”
“Don’t worry. We will.” Rex edged up right behind Tessa. His intent was very clear in the ripples of heat she felt curling around her, touching yet not touching.
The lure crumbled what little remained of Tessa’s resistance, even while she cursed Nate for having given her up. It was a meager defense at best. She’d been without them too long. Probably shouldn’t have left in the first place. But damn it, she had her dignity. Pride. Right was right. Derek deserved this land more than she did. If Rex and Tyler really cared, they would have followed her. They would have understood.
Now here they were, almost together again. Tension and want swirled around her. If left alone with them, how long before they moved in to take what they wanted? It would be no-holds-barred, and in seconds, she’d find herself pressed between them.
Safe.
The word and the feeling that went with it jolted her wayward thoughts to a standstill. Her heartbeat was another matter. It raced in time with the boot steps thudding across the polished wooden floor and out the kitchen door.
“Anything else, Kevin?”
Rex’s question pulled her into the present.
“We’ll talk more business tomorrow.” Kevin stacked his documents into one little pile. “Tessa, you’ll need to make sure your estate is in order, advise your attorney, and—”
“As you said, tomorrow is fine.” Tessa snapped the words out without intending to. Her control was slipping. The thought of having to deal with one more thing, one more revelation, was too much.
“I’ll call you. You’ll need to make funeral arrangements and—”
“Kevin, please.” She gripped her hands before her, trying to stay calm. “Not now. I need some time to process all this.”
“Don’t we all.” He shoved the papers into his briefcase, snapped it closed, and hurried off.
Tessa felt like the biggest bitch in the world. Kevin was only trying to do his job. Derek was his client. He’d be feeling the loss too, though he locked his emotions behind an anal-retentive wall of professionalism. Very similar to her own actions. The realization didn’t sit well.
“I think we could both use a few minutes to collect our thoughts.” Rex skirted around her, skimming his fingers over her back as he went.
Though he was a good two feet away, he felt too close yet not close enough. Ache crawled inside her. Why didn’t he take what he wanted? Unless he didn’t want her anymore.
“Want something to drink?” he asked. “Coffee? Iced tea?”
Tessa forced herself to stand still, hoping it would break the pull his body had on hers and guard her heart. It didn’t help. She wanted to be alone so she could order her thoughts, cry out her grief, scream at the injustice…calm her raging hormones with an orgasm or two.
“Don’t you want to go with Tyler and Nate?” A breathless whisper threaded itself into her words.
“For whatever reason, someone killed Derek. I’m not leaving you here alone.”
Safe. Yet her insides trembled.
Rex loomed over her now, barely two inches between them. The heat was enormous, sweet in its own bizarre way.
She stretched as high as her sneakers allowed. It wasn’t enough to reach his tempting lips, and Rex did nothing to correct that. No arm hauling her closer. No dipping in to kiss her. It hurt, and it was no one’s fault but her own.
Tessa eased back down, fighting to erect walls around her emotions. “I’m capable of taking care of myself.” Rex stared her down. She fought not to look away. It wasn’t easy.
“Is that why you brought a guard dog? Tell me…did you fuck him?”
She refused to lie, but telling the truth nearly killed her. “On occasion. Tell me… Did you two do without this entire year?”
He stared down his nose at her. “That became none of your business the day you took off.”
“If it didn’t matter, why ask about Nate?” Rex’s eyes narrowed. Tessa knew he hated being trumped.
“You brought a stranger to this ranch. Your ranch. How are we to know he’s not the new Mr. Tessa Fairchild? Our welfares are at stake.”
“I quitclaimed everything to Derek.”
“I don’t believe you. He would have filed it.”
She splayed her fingers at the base of her throat. “Are you calling me a liar?”
He flipped his palms up. “Let’s see… You said you loved us, then blamed us for something we had no part of. You said you wanted nothing to do with this ranch or us ever again. Now you’re back with your fuck buddy—”
“Goddamn you, Rex!” She clenched her fists at her sides to keep from lashing out. “I did love you.” I still do, and it’s killing me inside. “I did do right by Derek. And if we’re talking lies, well, you’re just as much to blame. You said you loved me back, yet neither of you came after me.”
“We’re cowboys, not cavemen. Pardon us for not realizing you wanted us to drag you back to a place you hated.”
She shoved her face in his. “I didn’t want you to drag me back. I wanted you to leave it behind.”
Rex dropped his arms on a long exhale. “You place a high price on your love, Tessa. A selfish one too. Tyler and I put everything we had and then some into making Rustlers a success. Blood, sweat, money, and more than a few tears, thanks to you. And you expected us to give it all up because your pride got stung?”
There it was, that word again. One her conscience had flung in her face moments before. “Pride?” she screamed. “Mike Ford shattered my world. My mother and I barely speak. The man I knew as my father isn’t. My brothers and sisters—”
“If you’ve let this affect your relationship with your family, then that’s on you.”
Tessa reared from the verbal slap in her face. The hell of it was…Rex was right. She staggered under the weight. It was Rex’s hot hand pressed gently against her lower back that kept her in place. The way he pulled her into him without really doing so.
“I need…” Tessa swallowed past a throat gone dry.
“What? What do you need?” Rex traced his fingers up her back.
The resulting shivers buckled her knees, and she struggled to regain balance. He wrapped his arm around her waist and held her tight against him and that delicious swell of cock.
“I need to hurt something right now, and I’d really prefer that not be you.” Tessa needed the stress r
elief. To vent at the unfairness of it all and the rift that kept them apart the last year. The rift she’d caused.
“I know how you feel.” His hot hand brushed down to her ass. “Not that I would ever direct my anger and frustration toward you.” A slow gaze wandered over her features.
“Only Nate?” she asked with a tiny smile.
He replied with one of his own. “Do I really need to state the obvious?”
“You should.”
His eyebrow quirked with his lips. “Please allow me some semblance of dignity. Although, the fact you didn’t correct my presumptions should be considered a spanking offense.”
She cocked her head to one side and peeled away from his body. “So should the evil glare of death you shot my way. How was I to know it wasn’t directed at me?”
Grinning, Rex swept his gaze down her body, setting off more shivers Tessa struggled to hide. “Then I guess that makes us even.”
“Does it?” Tessa dropped her gaze to his crotch and the erection stretching the confines of his worn jeans. She could draw him closer, fish his cock out for her pleasure, and give him the blowjob of his life. Remind this cowboy who was really in charge. She stepped forward, coming within inches of slithering against his long body.
Another sigh. “Yeah, there’ve been others since you left. But it was a hollow release.”
Soft, sad words that held despair with every syllable. Something Tessa knew all too well.
“I know,” she whispered. “So what do we do about it?” A stupidly obvious question.
“You know damn well how this is going to play out, sweet cheeks.”
Fire flared in his eyes, sending another jolt through Tessa. She barely held her ground. Subtle pressure against her back closed the distance between them. Rex was hard and hot against her, setting her afire…melting her, as crazy as that sounded.
“I do,” she managed to say.
“As great as this foreplay is, there’s still the issue of us needing to vent,” he said. “Bottles and cans at ten paces? The guests and hands are away. The corral is ours and all the privacy that goes with it.”
Tessa managed a small laugh and patted his solid chest. “Be forewarned. I’m a little rusty with a whip right now. I might need you to show me all over again.” That fire in his eyes doubled. She was playing with dynamite and loving every second.
His smile was slow in forming, as was the gleam in his eyes when he leaned her way. “My pleasure.”
She skimmed her hand over his hard chest, loving how his nipple thrust into her palm. “We could always skip the foreplay and move right to the main event.”
Rex cupped her ass and yanked her close. “Pleasure is meant to be savored.”
Tessa swore her knees buckled. “Then by all means…let’s go.”
He gave her butt a squeeze, then released her and strode forward to open the door. “Coming?”
His smirk layered the word with not so subtle innuendo. That was fine. She could give as good as she got. And she’d missed the giving as much as the receiving.
“In due time.” She flashed a smirk of her own. “Providing you’re up to it.”
One hand braced on the doorknob, he shot a glance at the bulge in his jeans. “Sweetheart, I’ve been up to it since you stepped off the plane.”
Tessa rubbed her chin. “From the glower on your face at the time… Well, can’t judge a book by its cover.”
“I might be agreeable to letting you riffle through the pages. Hell…I’ll even let you read a chapter or two.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. Tessa loved the play of words. “I wouldn’t mind a peek. Just to see what I’m getting into.”
Slow steps brought him her way. “Don’t you mean what’s getting into you?”
He swatted her backside, then walked through the door, leaving Tessa wanting so much more…and fighting the urge to drag him back over the threshold.
Chapter Five
Nate wasn’t her boyfriend. Not that that would have stopped Rex in the long run.
The hell it wouldn’t.
Rex braced his hands on the side of the scorching hot Suburban. Yeah, he wouldn’t have liked it, but what choice would he have had? It was her property, their livelihood. He would have sucked hind tit to keep their investment intact. That spawned an image he could live without.
“Fuck.” He scrubbed his palms over his face, trying to wipe away the memory of all they’d been through.
He replaced it with the image of her acquiescing to him in there, the way she lined up so fine against him, and the euphoria of knowing Nate was nothing more than a friend. He’d ignore the occasional fuck-buddy aspect of it. It threatened his control. Although there was nothing controlled about the way he felt now. He wanted her, plain and simple, and he wanted her now. He wanted Tessa to remember what it felt like when they were together. He sure as hell hadn’t forgotten. The memory gnawed at his gut day and night. Rex didn’t care that he was walking the road to heartache again. She’d leave just as soon as she was able. Nothing was going to stop her. But maybe, just maybe, they could give her one tie to the ranch she could never deny.
I should wait for Tyler.
“I locked up the house just in case.”
Rex jumped at the sound of her voice behind him. There was no sense hiding his reaction or the unrelenting erection he’d had since he set eyes on her. She was like a drug he couldn’t get enough of. He’d loved her more than his heart could bear at times. The hell with Tyler. He could have his time alone with her later.
Rex turned to face her. She stood with her hands clasped, blue eyes monitoring his every move and expression. “You do realize I am tempted to say screw foreplay.” He saw a barely perceptible gulp in her throat.
“I do,” she said, her voice barely a notch above a whisper.
Nipples thrust out from behind her bra and T-shirt as if begging for his touch. He knew she’d be as hard elsewhere, wet and wanting there too.
Rex closed the distance between them and cupped his hand around her neck. Tessa’s lips parted, ready…expecting a kiss. It killed him not to give her one, but he knew one taste of her mouth and he’d have her splayed on the nearest flat surface and fucking her six ways to Sunday. This was about the buildup before the release. The dance before mating. Raw and untamed.
He burrowed his face into her neck, just below her ear, and licked down the column while he breathed deep. She trembled and finger-crawled her way up his torso. He clamped his hand on her ass and hauled her close enough to feel what she did to him. Torture was pulling away when she plucked at his nipple.
Tessa stared up at him, mouth open, lips moist. A silent battle of wills ensued between them. Rex nearly caved. God knew, his cock begged him to. Electricity crackled over his skin, urging his clothes to drop and his groin to tighten. Her long eyelashes swept downward, then up again, and those dark eyes peered at him.
“I’ve missed you.”
The acknowledgment stole his breath. Rex cupped her chin. “I’ve missed you too. We’ve missed you.” The three of them had something no one else would replace, and God knew he’d tried to replace her this last year.
He felt her heartbeat thud in time with his. She hypnotized him with the glide of her tongue over her wet lips. He imagined it around his cock, her on her knees before him, his fingers tangled in her long dark hair. She ran her finger up his torso, then parked it at the base of his throat. Her gaze locked on that spot, her tongue swiping again over her lips.
“I swear I don’t know whether to fuck you or spank you.”
“Or both?” she asked. “Right here? Right now?”
Oh yeah. “Is that what Nate did for you?” Rex cursed his impetuous tongue.
Tessa shoved him away. “That was uncalled for.” She turned and headed for the pipe corral. “The hell with you. I can do this on my own.”
Another image popped into his head. Rex forced it away and hurried to catch up with her. He snagged her around the waist before
she vaulted the fence. “Would it help to say I’m sorry?”
“It wouldn’t hurt.”
Tessa tugged away from him and looped her hand over the top rail. He expected her to crawl over. Instead, she slipped between the fence openings, giving him a very fine and tempting view of her sweet ass. Too tempting to resist.
Rex landed a hard smack. She sucked in a breath and bit her lower lip. He landed another. Her low groan speared his balls.
She eased from the opening, wrapped her hands over the middle pipe, and lifted her backside for more. “Is that the best you can do, cowboy? Goodness, you are out of practice.”
Rex chuckled. “Am I?”
He rubbed his hand between her thighs. Her knees buckled, and he swore he heard a tiny whimper. He palmed his crotch with his free hand and tried to find a comfortable position. The only one he could think of was buried deep inside her. Ass-hugging jeans and wide-open spaces made that tricky.
Rex slid his arm around her waist and pulled her flush against him. She curled her hand around his neck, lips seeking his. He ignored them. His target was lower. A flick of his thumb released her jeans. He shoved his hand inside. Silky panties offered no barrier to his goal. The jeans were a different matter. Finally, he shoved his middle finger between her slick folds. Her hard little clit greeted him.
Tessa writhed into the touch. He focused on her, on making her come, not on how damn fine her ass felt, grinding against his cock. Or how much he wanted to haul her back to the house and strip her naked. Sink into her heat. Fuck her to exhaustion, then spread her wide and do it all over again.
He shoved his hand under her T-shirt, yanked her bra down, and squeezed her breast. Another soft cry tightened his balls all the more.
Rex knew his crotch had a damp spot. It was the least of his concerns at the moment. Not coming all over himself was his biggest. He pinched her nipple, hoping to buy himself some time. Tessa enjoyed it too much. So did he.
Rex glanced around. No one for miles, as far as he could see, and the barn hid them from anyone peeking out the inn’s windows. “Ah, hell.”
Lies That Bind Page 5
