by Susan Stoker
“You’ve dated. You’ve been in love before.”
“Yeah.”
“So if you’re imagining yourself being with him when you’re old and gray, I think you owe it to yourself, and to Wes, to take it seriously. No one’s asking you to run off and marry him tomorrow. But don’t sell yourself short. Date him. Sleep with him. See how things go. But whatever you do, don’t end things before they get started because you’re scared you might actually be compatible and could live happily ever after.”
“Why do you have to be so damn smart?”
“Because,” Mack said smugly. “And you know what else?”
“What?”
“Just remember who set you up.”
Laine rolled her eyes and threw the pillow she’d been clutching at Mackenzie. “I knew you were going to go there sooner or later. You didn’t actually set us up. You backed out of your commitment and made me go by myself. If he would’ve been a serial killer, you’d be thinking differently right about now.”
“Yeah, well, he wasn’t and he’s not. And you’re gonna get some fantastic sex next weekend . . . so you should be buying me a present every year on that date for forcing you to go without me.”
Laine laughed. “You know what? You’re right. And I swear, if this ends up good, I’ll send you a dozen roses every year on the anniversary of that damn calendar photo shoot in thanks.”
“Deal.”
The two friends smiled at each other for a beat before Mack leaned over and took Laine in her arms. “I love you. I always wished I had a blood sister, but even if I did, she wouldn’t be as wonderful as you are.”
“Ditto.”
They hugged for a moment before Mackenzie pulled away. “Come on, I’m starved. I think we’ve got some leftovers we can dig into.”
“Sounds good.”
“Laine?”
“Yeah.”
“You had better call me as soon as you come up for air next weekend.”
“I will. You know I will.”
Chapter Six
‡
“You’re coming over tomorrow still, right?” Wes asked Laine the following Friday toward the end of their nightly phone call. Even though they’d both been extremely busy, they’d found the time to connect via the phone each night. One night they’d only been able to talk for ten minutes, but another they’d carved out a couple of hours.
“Of course. I thought I’d get there around eleven or so. Is that too early?”
“No. That’ll give me enough time to get most of the chores knocked out. I’ll talk to my foreman and make sure he’s got everything under control, although I have no doubt he will. Want to take a ride with me?”
“A ride? On a horse?”
“Yes. On a horse.” Wes laughed.
“Sure, but I should warn you, I’m not that good. I’ve been on a few trail rides and stuff, but I think the last nag I was on was about four hundred years old. The only thing it was interested in was getting back to the barn and eating some hay.”
“I’ll take care of you, Laine. I won’t let you get hurt.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Okay then. But not a long one . . . okay? I don’t want to be too sore.”
“You got it. I wouldn’t do that to you . . . or us. Just a short ride. I need to check the fence line to see if there’re any holes or if it otherwise needs repairing, so we’ll go nice and easy and take as many breaks as you need. How about we have a picnic lunch while we’re out too?”
“You’re too good to be true.”
“Nah, I just know how hungry I get while I’m riding the fence.”
Laine laughed. “Okay, if you say so.”
“I’m looking forward to spending time with you. And I’m not just talking about in bed.”
“Me too. It’s been a long week.”
“Very long. It’s weird, the things that reminded me of you as I went through my days.”
“Really? Like what?”
“Lots of things. A billboard for a winery. A news article about a meteorite shower coming up next week. I pulled over a woman and she was wearing a purple shirt . . . I even let her off with a warning because what she was wearing reminded me so much of you. Hearing one of my fellow Rangers talk about a rodeo.”
“A rodeo made you think about me?”
“Yeah . . . rodeo . . . cowboys . . . rope . . . made me think about you eyeballin’ me during my photo shoot.”
“Whatever, smarty.”
“I just wanted you to know that as much as I’m looking forward to seeing you naked on my sheets, I’m just as much looking forward to holding your hand, watching you enjoy your lunch, seeing you interact with Star . . . it’s everything. I feel like a little kid who gets to spend all day at the amusement park. I feel like a teenager again, looking forward to a first date. The anticipation is killing me.”
“I hope the reality is as good as your expectations,” Laine said a bit nervously.
“I have absolutely no doubt it will be. So . . . eleven, right?”
“Yeah. That’ll give me time to sleep in, have my three cups of coffee so I can wake up, and to pretty myself up for you.”
“Bring an overnight bag.”
“I’d planned on it,” Laine told Wes without missing a beat.
“Shit. You’re perfect.”
“Not really, but I’ll happily let you think it.”
“Have a good rest of the night. I’ll see you in the morning,” Wes told her in a soft voice.
“You too. Later.”
Laine clicked off the phone and smiled. She’d thought a lot about what Mack had told her the other day. It had been very insightful and deep, and she’d been exactly right. Laine decided that whatever happened tomorrow, she wasn’t going to sweat it. She liked Wes a lot. He was handsome, sexy, and honorable, and she’d be an idiot to blow him off because she was afraid she liked him too much.
Eleven o’clock couldn’t come fast enough.
*
It was after dinner on Saturday night and Laine lay in the circle of Wes’s arms on his couch. She should’ve been tired after the long day, but she was wired and more than ready to take her relationship with Wes to the next level.
She’d arrived right at eleven that morning and was met by Wes in front of his house with a toe-curling kiss. He was wearing a tight T-shirt and a pair of jeans with his brown work boots. His ever-present cowboy hat on his head, shading his face from the sun. He’d taken her hand without a word and led her into the barn, where they had a bit more privacy, and proceeded to kiss her to within an inch of her life.
Reluctantly he’d pulled away, and had helped her mount a gentle mare. They’d ridden lazily along the fence line of his large property. Every now and then, he’d stop to make some adjustments to and reinforce parts of the fence. Each time, he’d helped Laine dismount and she’d assisted him where she could.
They’d stopped and had lunch under a few trees on the far north side of the pasture. They’d made out after they’d eaten and Wes had pulled back before they’d gone too far. He’d looked sheepishly at her and said, “I swear I had only planned for us to eat lunch.”
He’d been so earnest, all Laine could do was laugh.
They’d arrived back to the barn and made their way into the house. They’d talked some more, eaten a light dinner, and watched a movie. The show had long since been over, but neither had the desire to get up and put in a new one, so they sat in each other’s arms, enjoying being together.
“Tell me you feel it too,” Wes said during a lull in the conversation.
“What? The anticipation? The electricity? Yeah, I feel it too,” Laine reassured him.
“I keep telling myself that it’s too soon. I haven’t been this interested in a woman in a long time.”
“I know. I feel like I should consider myself a slut for even contemplating going to bed with you tonight, but I don’t. Not in the least. It feels right.” Laine looked up at Wes and put her hand
on his face. “Take me to bed?”
“With pleasure,” Wes told her, standing up, grabbing hold of her hand as he did.
Laine stood up with him and followed him into his bedroom.
*
Wes felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins. He was more hyped up to see Laine naked for the first time, to feel her skin next to his own, than he was when he tracked down a fugitive. He hadn’t really thought about finding a woman he could spend the rest of his life with . . . figuring no one would really want to hole themselves up on his ranch and all that came with being married to a rancher. He wasn’t ready to pull out a ring and ask Laine to marry him. But he liked her. A lot. He wanted to spend more time with her . . . not to mention, he really, really wanted to get her into his bed.
Reaching behind his neck, Wes pulled his T-shirt off with one quick tug. He smiled as Laine’s eyes widened at the sight of his wide chest. Not feeling self-conscious in the least, Wes undid his jeans and pushed them down his legs until he was standing in his boxer-briefs, which left nothing to the imagination. He was way too excited at this point to hide his erection or even try to control it.
Laine reached for the hem of her own shirt and slowly drew it up and over her head. She bit her lip and paused in her disrobing.
Seeing her discomfort, Wes took over, not wanting to do anything to make her feel ill at ease. He soothed his hands from her shoulders to her wrists and back up. “You’re beautiful, Laine. Never doubt that I find you attractive.” He ran his palms over her breasts, still covered in her lacy bra. “I’ll never forget the sight of you standing in front of me outside my barn, blushing when you realized how hard your nipples were as you’d been gawking at me.”
She smiled up at him at that. “I was so embarrassed to know I was showing you a full nipple hard-on.”
Wes chuckled. “Nipple hard-on?”
Laine nodded. “Yeah, me and Mack came up with that term in the tenth grade. We’d been at a football game and it was raining. We’d forgotten our jackets and were freezing. A freshman cymbal player looked at us and his eyes got huge. We didn’t know what his problem was until we scrutinized each other. We decided our hard nipples were the equivalent to a guy getting a hard-on at an inconvenient time.”
Wes smiled at Laine’s story while he reached around her back, unhooked her bra, easing it down her arms and dropped it on the floor. He lifted her tits in his hands and gently squeezed, not taking his eyes away from her hard little nipples, amazed when they tightened further in front of his eyes.
“This moment will forever be engrained into my head.” He glanced up and looked Laine in the eyes for a moment, before gazing down at his prize again. “My mouth is watering, I want to taste you so badly.” He took a step closer to her so she could feel his erection against her lower stomach. “I feel like I could burst just from looking at you, from smelling your arousal.” When she moaned, he added, “From listening to the sounds you make.”
Wes ran his thumbs over her nipples once . . . then twice, before lowering his hands to her pants. “If I don’t get your pants off, I might just do that.” He deftly undid the button on her jeans and unzipped them, pushing them, along with her panties, down her legs without missing a beat. “Step out, darlin’, then scoot back on the bed.”
Wes took care of his own underwear as Laine moved onto his mattress. He noticed her eyes were taking in his body as much as he was taking in hers. She was all woman. Yes, she was tall and slender, but she had an hourglass shape, which made his hands itch to trace her slight curves, and she had a pair of tits that made him want to bury his head between them.
Laine licked her lips and she took her time taking him in as well. “My God, you are gorgeous, Wes. Seriously. I feel like the band geek who somehow managed to snare the quarterback.”
Wes crawled over to Laine on his hands and knees and his legs almost gave out when she took his cock in her hand and caressed him.
“You wouldn’t have liked me back in high school. I was a self-centered prick who probably wouldn’t have taken a second glance at anyone outside my own circle. I know better now. When I see the sexiest realtor I’ve ever seen in my life, I’m not dumb enough to hesitate to make her mine.”
Wes ran his hand from Laine’s hip up to her chest, taking her breast in his hand again, pushing it up as he came down onto his elbow next to her. He licked the rosy nipple begging for his touch, watching as her pectoral muscle jumped under his ministrations, before stating, “And make no mistake, Laine, after tonight, you’re mine. I’ll never get enough of this body . . . of you.”
Done talking, Wes leaned down to stake his claim once and for all. He engulfed her nipple in his mouth and sucked, hard, loving how her back arched into his touch. One of her hands came up to grab his naked ass, and the other landed on the back of his head and pushed him harder into her.
He took his time worshiping her breasts. First one nipple, then the other. He licked around the turgid bud then kissed along her collarbone. He nipped her earlobe and blew into her ear, loving how she shivered under him and goosebumps rose on her arms.
She tried several times to reciprocate, but Wes hadn’t had nearly enough of her to let her take her turn yet. She apparently got impatient with him taking, but not letting her give anything in return, because she pushed against him hard, and Wes rolled over onto his back.
Laine immediately straddled his stomach and put her hands on his chest. “My turn,” she demanded, waiting for him to argue.
The view Laine was giving him was heavenly and Wes had no desire to deny her. He put both hands on her hipbones, letting his thumbs rest in the creases where her legs met her groin . . . close to her folds, but not touching.
Without taking his eyes away from where she was weeping for him, Wes encouraged, “Knock yourself out. But I’m warning you, darlin’, you’ve only got a couple of minutes before I take over again. I need you too much.”
She didn’t argue, or hesitate. Laine ran her hands down his chest to the hair above his cock, then brought them back up and pinched his nipples. She leaned down, blocking his view of her gorgeous pussy, and sucked one of his small buds into her mouth. The position might have obstructed his view of her, but it also pushed her hips farther down his body. She shifted until she was straddling one of his legs.
Wes swore his vision went black for a moment when she sucked hard on his nipple, snaked one hand down his body until she grasped his hard length, and ground herself against his leg, smearing her wetness on his thigh in the process.
Before he even thought about what he was doing, Wes had pushed Laine over until she was on her back again and he was hovering over her. “Goddamn, darlin’, you make me lose my head. You’re so fucking perfect I can’t . . . shit, I can’t even talk,” he groused as he felt his balls pull up against his body.
“Bad timing, I know, we should’ve already talked about this,” Laine ground out, “but I’m on the pill. I haven’t had sex in a year and a half and I’m clean.”
“Fuck. I have condoms in the drawer. I meant for this to go slower. It’s been fourteen months for me. I’m clean too. Swear.” Wes groaned as Laine arched into him and his cock brushed against the trimmed hair above where he wanted to bury himself. He cleared his throat and rushed his words, wanting to get this part over with so he could experience bliss. “The papers are in a drawer in my kitchen. I’d planned to discuss this with you like a civilized person while we relaxed after dinner.”
“Fuck me, Wes. God, please. I’ve resisted the urge to get off this week because I wanted to wait and see if it made this better. I’m so damn horny I feel like my skin is on fire, and I need to come so bad. Please.”
Before the last word was out of her mouth, Wes took hold of the base of his dick and guided his way inside her hot folds. He slipped in easily, her excitement coating his way. They both groaned at the feel of him coming inside. He caught himself on his hands on the mattress next to her shoulders. He closed his eyes, not moving, wanting
to memorize the moment.
“Wes?”
“Shhhhhh.”
“What are you doing?” Laine whispered.
“I’m imprinting this exact moment to memory.” Wes opened his eyes and looked deep into Laine’s. “The first time I am inside you. How perfect it feels. How amazingly, wonderfully perfect this is.”
“Wes . . .” Laine’s voice trailed off as he pulled almost all the way out and pushed his way back inside.
“As much as I want this to last forever, I’m afraid it’s not going to,” Wes warned as he continued to thrust in and out of her.
“It’s okay, we can do it again.”
“There’ll never be another first time,” Wes told her a bit sadly.
Laine brought her hands up to his face and held it lovingly. “But there’ll be a second. And a third. And a fourth. And if we’re lucky, a four thousand one hundred and sixty-eighth. Make me come, Wes. I need you.”
Her words were all it took for him to let go of the iron control he’d been holding onto. He moved one hand down to where they were joined and used his thumb to press against her clit as he thrust harder into her. “I didn’t get the chance to taste you, but I will. That’s on my list . . . and you should know, my list of things I want to do with you is getting longer and longer. But for now I want to feel you come apart under me.” His thumb was relentless, dipping down to where they were joined to gather her juices, and caressing, rubbing, and pressing down on her sensitive bundle of nerves.
Wes felt her clit swell until the tip peeked out from the hood that usually protected it as she writhed under him. Loving that he could turn her on that much, he sped up his efforts until Laine was shaking on the verge of her orgasm.
He thrust inside her and held himself still as he felt Laine’s orgasm explode from the inside out. She gripped his cock so tightly, it was all Wes could do to hold off his own orgasm so he could fully appreciate her ecstasy.
Finally, Laine was only twitching in his grasp instead of out-and-out jerking. He pulled out then slammed back into her. Once. Twice. Then, knowing he was close, bit out, “I’m coming, darlin’. I’m coming.” He thrust into her to the hilt and held her to him as his balls drew up close to his skin and he burst forth harder than he’d ever done before.
