by Honor James
“I can only hope like hell your room is soundproofed.” She lifted a leg and hooked it at his back, pulling him closer and rubbing against him. “So good. So freaking damn good.” Her moans cut through the air and she opened her eyes to look up at him once more. With a smile on her face she whispered, “I need.” That was all she could say in that moment, that she needed.
“It’s not fully soundproofed but it’s not too bad,” he said quietly, smiling slightly. “We’ll have to see just how many comments we get at the breakfast table tomorrow. Shifting ever so slightly, he pressed his cock into her slowly, the sensations making them both moan in need as he filled her.
She shivered in reaction to his dick filling her. “Yes. That’s then.” She wrapped her other leg around him so that now both of her legs held him tight, her heels digging into his far too perfect ass and tugging him closer and deeper into her body.
Seated deep inside, he shivered. “Too damn long,” he muttered against her cheek. Pulling out slowly, he thrust back faster, harder. A few more slow thrusts and then he picked up his speed, jolting her with every push of his cock through her folds.
“Far too damn long.” She clenched her pelvic muscles to hold him tighter. She was determined to make him come with her, she was in need, desperate and insane need right now. “So close,” she whimpered. “Come, come with me.” She wanted him to fly right along with her, dammit.
“I’m with you all the way,” he panted out. His breath was coming fast as he pounded into her over and over again. “I love you, Jen,” he groaned before kissing her. Another couple of hard thrusts and he came, taking her over the edge with him.
She shuddered and held on to him. “I love you too, Carson, so much,” she whispered before she went right over that edge with him. Her whole body clenched at his, her very being wrapped up and into him.
Later, they lay gasping for air in each other’s arms and she could only smile. “I think that I’m ready for a short nap now.” She didn’t want to let him go though, didn’t think she ever could. “Don’t let me go?” she whispered softly.
“Not ever again,” he whispered back. Kissing her hard, he rolled them to their side and fumbled around for the blankets. Falling back down with her, he held her close, his hands pressing her into his body as their breathing began to calm.
Jen curled in close to him and sighed. “This is what I’ve been missing in my life,” she whispered. “Tomorrow you can start to get to know our daughter. She’s just like you, by the way.” She was talking with a slow tone, sleepy to the nth degree. “Goodness, I’m exhausted. Good night, Carson,” she murmured before drifting to sleep.
Chapter Five
His smile was the first thing she saw when she woke up. “Good morning,” he said quietly, brushing a finger down her nose lightly. “Did you sleep well?” he asked, his hand settling down on her hip. Leaning in closer, Carson brushed a kiss to her cheek lightly.
“Better than I can recall sleeping in so very, very long. How about you?” she asked and moved to rub her cheek to his, reveling in the stubble of his morning beard against her face. “Do we have to get out of bed today? Can’t we just spend the day locked away from the world?” she asked hopefully.
“I slept better than I ever have,” he admitted with a nip of teeth to her jaw. “I wish we could stay in bed all day, but we have the rest of your city-folk types showing up today. Which means I get to play tour guide and tell them all the do’s and don’ts of living and working on a ranch. Should be a very long and seriously trying day.”
“Crap,” she muttered. “Just so you know, the male co-star is an ass. Like, a massive one. He seems to think that because our characters hook up, we should too. He knows that I don’t date. Hell, everyone in Hollywood knows that I don’t. They all think that I’m pining for a lost love.” Which was totally true. “So don’t be offended at anything he says, please?”
Snorting at that, Carson just lifted a pale eyebrow. “Darling, I have a great many acres of land in which a man can get lost. And there are even a few spots that a man could take a nasty tumble and never ever be found. Shit happens.” Then he smiled that purely angelic one he’d used to get out of trouble all the time as a kid.
“Oh, that is bad. So very bad.” But she loved it and showed him how much by kissing him. She pulled him as close as she could get him and kissed him with all she had. Finally, she pulled back and panted. “Goodness gracious, I want you. How about we go and shower together? Make love in the shower before we have to face the wolves?”
Nodding, he looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, that works. The guys should be finishing up breakfast by the time we get down there. So all we’ll be facing will be Esther and her ‘I told you so’s’, and your daughter.” He made a face. “Our daughter. Sorry, still trying to wrap my head around that.”
“If it’s too much, tell me now. I know you never expected a ready-made family to walk into your life, so if it is too much for you, I need to know.” As much as she loved him, she had to watch out for her daughter. “It would break her heart if you couldn’t accept her, so please, I need to know that we will be okay?”
“Hey,” he put a hand on her cheek and leaned in. “I said I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, that’s all, promise. I like the idea a hell of a lot, but you have to admit this is huge. It’s going to take me a little bit of time to get it all sorted in my head. I won’t ever hurt her, or you,” he whispered. Pressing a light kiss to her lips, he drew back.
“I know that it’s huge and I feel like shit just dropping it into your lap.” She hesitated and then growled. “I’m going to beat your daughter. She found out where I was coming to and arranged it so that she had to be out of the school for a time and I had no choice but to bring her. That sneaky little brat did this to purposefully set us back into each other’s lives.” She then began to grin, a slow grin. “I could kiss her for that.”
“Definitely kiss her, then beat her.” He smiled back at her. “I’ll even pretend I don’t see you beating her if it helps at all.” Laughing softly, he pressed a kiss to her lips and slowly drew back. “Shower, we need to shower, and I really need to brush my teeth.”
“Me too.” She put her hand over her mouth and frowned. “Sorry for kissing you before I brushed.” She hadn’t even thought about it, simply reacted, and man, what a kiss it was! She loved it. “Okay, lets go and shower, brush teeth, and then track down our far too sneaky daughter, shall we?”
“Sounds like a good plan,” he agreed. Rolling away from her, he sat on the edge of the bed and stretched slowly, his arms up over his head. It gave her the perfect opportunity to see the heavy scarring on his right shoulder, the spot where Esther said the broken post had gored him. Dropping his arms, he got to his feet and turned to hold out a hand. “Coming along?” he asked softly.
She had sat stunned when she saw his back. Shaking herself out of her stupor, she rose from the bed and took his hand. “God, Carson, I should never have listened to your fucking sister.” She moved and hugged him tightly, couldn’t help herself. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here for you.”
He stood still, his body rigid at her sudden hug. Then his arms came up and around her to return the hug. “You couldn’t have known, love. Hell, I went and made it easy for you to believe her for behaving like a jackass. Have I apologized for that yet?” he asked softly. “If not, I truly am sorry. I can’t recall it but I should never have behaved that way, especially to you, Jen.”
She shrugged, “We were kids.” And she had to grow up fast. She had been kicked out of her house the night she confessed she was pregnant and had been on her own since. “We have each other now and that’s what matters. Just know that you are it for me, Carson MacDonald, you always have been.”
Squeezing her close, he leaned back and slid his hands up to her face. Tipping her face up, he kissed her lightly on the lips. “As you are it for me too, darling. Come on, my stomach is starting to rumble, which tells me I’ve missed my norm
al breakfast time. We need to shower and get out for breakfast before the rest of your folks show up.”
“Sounds good to me. I’m starving.” She eyed him up as they made their way into the shower and with a laugh said, “Then again, I had someone who gave me one heck of a workout last night. I really think we need many, many repeat performances. What do you say, Cowboy?”
“Giddyup,” he grinned over his shoulder at her. Chuckling softly, Carson shook his head and turned on the shower, fiddling with the knobs for a moment. “Word of warning, always start the water from outside the shower stall. For whatever reason that we’ve yet to determine, at around the one minute mark, all it will shoot out for ten seconds is water straight from the Arctic. And you do not ever, under any circumstances, want to be under the water when it happens. Trust me, been there, done it, more than once.”
“Right, gotcha. So unless I need a really cold shower to cool the hot thoughts and needs that I have for you, I should make sure to wait.” She was teasing him, the amusement in her gaze clear for him to see. She loved teasing him too, so very much.
“Unless you feel like screeching loud enough to wake the dead six counties over, I would advise you to wait.” He smiled at her and flinched. “And there it is,” he muttered, jerking his hand from the spray and shaking it. “I’m pretty sure for you, smart cookie that you are, once would be enough to remind you of that little event.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” She looked up at him and grinned, “If it got you running in to see just what was wrong, and you were naked, I think I might have to do it often. Yes. Very often in fact. I know that I would have to do it at least three times.” There was a long pause followed with, “A day.” Her teasing laugh there again.
“You might have someone running in, might not always be me though,” he said with a laugh. Pulling the door open further, he urged her into the cubicle and under the nice warm water. “Besides, I can count, I’d know why you were shrieking,” he said with a wink.
“And you would still come running. You would have a towel ready and waiting for me and you would be more than willing to warm me up, wouldn’t you?” She leaned her head back and allowed the water to flow over her. A happy sigh escaped her and she smiled. “I could get used to this.” So used to it. She had always loved the simplicity of small-town life, now she just had to figure out how to get out of her next contract so she could finally come home and stay home.
“Of course I’d warm you up. I’d turn on the heat lamp for you at the very least.” Grinning, he laughed at the look she shot him and shrugged. “But you’re thinking awfully hard for something as simple as a shower, Jen. What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked. Reaching around her, he squirted some shampoo into his hand and then began to work it through her hair.
“Just trying to think of how I’m going to get out of my next contract so that I can come home to stay. I have this movie to finish, and then there will be retakes of course, and one additional movie to film. It’s the additional movie that I’m trying to think of how to get out of. I’m ready to come home. I’ve missed small-town life, and I want our daughter to grow up in a small town just as we did.”
Frowning, he massaged her scalp. “Finish the movies,” he said quietly. “There’s no sense in breaking your contracts, Jen. It will only damage your good name and burn bridges. We’ve waited this long, I’m sure we can manage a little more time. Besides, when you have time you can come home and I’ll make time to come see you until it’s all done. Then, when it’s all over, we come home for good and never leave again. Well, maybe for the honeymoon, but that’d be about it.”
“I would like that.” She paused, “Wait, what? Honeymoon? Huh?” She was lost. Honeymoon? “And while I’m there, do you want to see if Carrie wants to stay here? See if she wants to get to know her dad?”
“Yes, a honeymoon,” he clicked his tongue at her. “Rinse,” he advised, stepping back a little. “And she’s more than welcome to stay if that’s what she’d like to do. But you should probably warn her she’ll be working while she’s here. Oh and the Wi-Fi will be turned off during daylight hours.” He had an evil grin on his face as he said that part and shrugged when she snickered.
“You are bad. But I love it,” she said as she rinsed her body. She began to hum lightly, a happiness surrounding her that hadn’t been there before. “She will stay though, I know that child. She wants to know you and as long as she’s working alongside you, I think that you will be fine with her.”
“All right, but you are totally not blaming me for anything she may or may not get up to while here. Just getting it out there right now. I grew up on this farm and mostly remember my teenage years. She’ll be calling you in a week bitching about what a slave driver I am, I’d nearly bet you on that one. I would except that it might take two weeks, you never know with kids.”
Jennifer began to laugh, she so couldn’t help herself. “You will hate yourself, darling. Just so you know. That girl knows how to twist and get what she wants out of life, this much I can promise you.” Carrie knew just how to get what she wanted out of her mom, that was for sure.
“Ah, but darling, what works on you won’t on me. At least not right off. I am the unknown factor in all this,” he reminded her, scrubbing his own hair. Ducking under the water, he came out with a grin. “Besides, what’s more fun than driving a teenager around the bend by being completely off the wall and unpredictable?”
“This is true. She will figure you out though.” Jen shrugged and then with a smile she got herself all rinsed off. “Now then, let’s get out of here so that we can go and eat, and get our ‘I told you so’s’ all out there.” Because she was sure that not only Carrie but Esther as well would tell them “I told you so.”
“This is going to be a very long morning, isn’t it?” he asked stepping out of the shower with her. “Thank God that a bunch of actors and assistants and such who want to be real cowboys are coming out. Cause there’s nothing more I love than having people that don’t even know the ass end of a horse around my animals. Thank God you have a clue,” he said, grinning as he passed her a towel.
“Yes, it’s going to be a very long morning. We both know it. I’m ready for it though,” she said with a grin. “I’m perfectly fine this morning with you. I just know that it will be more than this one morning, though, and I’m good with that. Are you? And yeah, there will be a great many people here far too soon. Dammit. Please tell me that they’re sleeping in the barn or something?”
“Bunkhouse, every last one of them. It was the one stipulation that wasn’t negotiable when we did the contract. Besides, your director thought it would work best to ensure they got into the role. They are really not going to be happy tomorrow when they start living the life at the crack of dawn until dusk.”
“Thank freaking God,” she muttered. “I’m just glad that I get to be here in the house with you.” She grinned and added, “Can I move my things into your room later today? Carrie should be fine sleeping in the room she’s in now, won’t she?” She hadn’t stopped to ask. She just knew she didn’t want to sleep alone, ever again.
“She will be just fine there and yes, you can move on in and take over,” he grinned. Bending over, he dried his legs before straightening and hanging up his towel. “Come on woman, let’s go and eat while we get smirked at and have them do their spiel. You know that by this point they will have worked one out, right?”
She giggled at that and shrugged. “Does it matter? I have you in my life again, Carson. I will take all of the ribbing that they can dish out, and then some. We are all that matters. Us, together.” And that was the God’s honest truth. She was finally home.
Epilogue
The last year and a half had been very hectic. Jennifer had done both her movies, including many long days and weeks where she’d had to do retakes of certain scenes. Though, at least for his sanity, she’d gotten the sex scenes cut down to a bare minimum. He so wasn’t ever watching that movie.
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br /> Between her filming schedule and the various things he’d been doing on the ranch, they’d seen each other a grand total of five weeks and eight hours, give or take a couple of minutes. Yeah, he’d counted each and every second of their time together, just as he’d counted every second they’d been apart.
Each and every night they’d gotten on the phone or Skype to talk, usually ending with them both more than a little hot and bothered. That usually led to a rather explosive meeting when they did finally get in the same room together. Very explosive.
But she was wrapping her last movie and he couldn’t be happier. She’d fulfilled her obligations to the studios and, despite rave reviews for the film prior to the one she’d just wrapped and many offers, she’d turned them all down. Her reputation was golden but she was stepping out of the spotlight. At least for now, he might let her back in eventually.
Carrie had blossomed on the ranch, turning from rebellious teen into a rebellious cowgirl. Yes, she still tested his boundaries each and every day, but he didn’t mind so much. And he’d been right, she’d called her mom exactly thirteen days into the initial trial run, and begged to be released from her ‘horse hell,’ as she’d phrased it.
Glancing over at her, he smiled. She was pretty damn amazing, if he did say so himself. Of course he knew that was all Jen, she’d raised their daughter to be independent and strong, just like her mother. She caught him looking at her and gave him the standard eye roll that really said so much. He turned his attention to the road again.
Jen didn’t know they were coming out. He’d talked to the director of her last movie and he’d gotten the location of the wrap party. So they were going to surprise her and then they would be checking into a hotel for the evening, maybe two, to get reacquainted. Carrie, despite her sarcastic eye rolls, was pretty excited. But she hid it well behind the “oh, woe is me” teenage facade that proclaimed to the universe just how tortured she was. He knew better, finally. He actually thought he was getting the hang of things. Oh, he’d never know it all, not with a daughter around, but he’d definitely picked up enough to know when the sneaky little shit was trying to pull the wool over his eyes.
