“Yeah, yeah, I get you’ve got the biggest set of balls in the McKay family. But I also know why Casper is such a big prick. He gets it from you.” Charlie left.
Carson’s eyes met Cal’s. Charlie had been in a funk since his jailbait girlfriend had suddenly moved away a few months ago. With the way Charlie talked, they half-expected to show up one morning and find him gone. Their youngest brother was the smartest of the lot. He owned his truck so he did have the means to leave if he so chose.
“You got anything to add?” their dad asked Cal.
“Just the same thing that me’n Carson have brought up several times. Dividing the land so we’re each workin’ our own section. The way it sets now it’s not equal pay for equal work.”
“You just had to get a shot in at me, didn’t you?” Casper demanded. “You act like I don’t do nothin’ around here.”
“You do about half as much work as Carson, get paid the same and he has a wife and kid to support,” Cal snapped. “That ain’t a shot, that’s the honest truth.”
“Enough,” their father said. “Only thing that’s changing is Casper is getting married and movin’ out.”
Carson looked at his son, wearing secondhand clothes, and swallowed his pride. “So this ain’t the time to ask for a pay raise?”
“Not when I just bought the Ingalls place.”
“Even if we have a good year?”
“Depends. A bonus might be in order, but you know any profits pay off existing debt and then what’s left goes in the expansion fund. It’s about the long term and the future.”
Think before you speak.
But Carson couldn’t hold it in. “So in the short term, I have three mouths to feed, plus soon a fourth, on the same salary you’re payin’ yourself and your single sons. Think on the fairness of how we’re raising beef for other folks to eat, while your grandkids and the future of this ranch are eatin’ canned beans and powdered milk because that’s the only food I can afford to buy for my family.” He glanced down at Cord. His lip quivered and his blue eyes were enormous with fear. Great. Now he’d scared his son. He picked the boy up and nuzzled his cheek. “It’s okay. Let’s go home to Mama.”
Carson had made it to his truck when he heard Cal say, “Wait up.”
He opened the passenger door and set Cord on the seat. “Stay down, okay?”
“’Kay.”
Then he faced his twin. “What?”
“Is it really that rough for you and Carolyn?”
He felt his cheeks heat and he looked away. “Yeah.”
“Dammit, Carse, why didn’t you say something?”
“Because it’s embarrassing. I put off askin’ him and now I see I shoulda kept my mouth shut. Jesus. I hate that I damn near begged for a few extra bucks and he didn’t even consider it.” Carson closed his eyes. “Casper fucks up, knocks up a chick that he doesn’t even like and he gets a house? I don’t know where Casper gets the idea I’m the favorite child because from where I’m sittin’ in my cramped trailer? He is.”
“I’ll give you some of my salary if it helps. I just spend the extra on stupid shit anyway.”
Between his frustration and his brother’s kindness, he might just break down. He took in a deep breath and let it out before he patted Cal on the back. “Thanks. I mean it. But I can’t take your money.”
“Carson—”
“But I will let you buy me a bottle or two of whiskey if you promise to drink it with me when I drown my sorrows about bein’ broke.”
“That I can do.”
“Gotta get home and check on my wife.”
Cord had sacked out by the time Carson pulled up to the trailer. He carried the boy inside and placed him in the crib—boots and all.
Carolyn was stretched out on the bed in their room, a washrag over her eyes, a package of saltines on the dresser next to a Coke.
He perched on the edge of the bed. “Hey, sugar. How you feelin’?”
“A little less like dog poop than I did when you left.”
“Sorry. What can I do?”
She lowered the cloth from her eyes. “Where’s Cord?”
“Sleepin’ off a drunk on the tractor. That boy needs to learn how to hold his whiskey.”
“Funny.”
“He crashed.” Carson slipped off his boots and crawled up next to her. “C’mere. I need to hold you.” He tucked her under his arm and she rested the side of her face on his chest. He closed his eyes and breathed her in. Within a few minutes the world of the McKay ranch faded. She gave that to him. Calmness. Softness. She was the one thing in the world that was completely his.
“Carson, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
Money is tight, my father is a controlling ass, I’m pissed off at Casper, money is tight, I’m worried about you with this pregnancy and have I mentioned money is tight?
But he couldn’t—wouldn’t—add extra stress on her. He’d sworn to her on the day they married he’d spend his life making her happy, and taking care of her, so he’d keep his worries to himself.
“Nothin’. Everything is as it should be when we’re together like this.”
“I agree. But you’re not telling me everything. So start talking, cowboy.”
Where to start? “Looks like you’ll be getting a sister-in-law in the next couple weeks. I’d say she’s lucky since she’ll be movin’ into a real house down on the new south section of the McKay Ranch and not a shithole trailer, but the fact of it is, she’ll still be married to my asshole brother Casper no matter where they live, so maybe she ain’t as lucky as she seems. I just wish…”
Carolyn sat up.
Carson kept his eyes closed. Then he felt her straddling him and her hands landed on his chest.
“You wish what? That I hadn’t gotten pregnant again?”
His eyes flew open and he put a protective hand over her belly. “God no. I love that we’re adding to our family.”
“You wish we were moving to that ranch house you showed me? Because to be honest? I’m happy we’re staying here. This is our home. It’s small but it’s ours. I love my garden spot. I can drop Cord off at Agnes’s place whenever I have work to finish for Maxine.”
“I wish I was makin’ enough money that you didn’t have to take those jobs. It feels like I’m failing to support you and our family.”
She slammed her hands down by his head on the mattress so they were eye to eye. “It falls on both of us to provide for our family. I won’t watch you kill yourself while I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs whenever Cord naps. Doing piece work keeps me sane, keeps my skills fresh. I imagine things will get busier with a new baby, but I don’t ever want to hear you say you don’t support this family. You love me. You love our son. You work hard. You make me happy. If that’s not support I don’t know what is.”
“Caro—”
“You listen to me. Everything I want—everything I need is right here. With you. It does not matter where we live. It matters how we live when we’re together.”
Maybe her pregnancy hormones were contagious because her sweet, heartfelt words made him misty-eyed. “I love you. So damn much.”
“Show me.” She swept her lips over his in that not-so-innocent way that he craved. “You needed to hold me? I need this.”
“You sure?” He stroked the swell of her belly. “You were sick—”
“Hours ago. I brushed my teeth, washed myself up and I need your mouth and your hands on me.”
Instant erection.
Carolyn shed her blouse and oh yeah, she hadn’t worn a bra. Her tits were enormous during pregnancy.
“Gimme.”
“Huh-uh. Take it if you want it.”
So she wanted to make him work for it? Fine by him. He jackknifed and nestled his face in her cleavage. He slid his hands down her naked back and beneath
the waistband of her pajama bottoms. His fingertips connected with more bare skin—no underwear either. He started his assault on her nipples. Softly sucking on the rigid tips, using his teeth, then backing off to rub his face against that abundant flesh and not giving her nipples any attention at all. He followed her ass crack to the wet opening of her cunt, slipping two fingers into her from behind.
“Carson.”
He grabbed her hand and placed it over her mound. “You want it, sugar, take it.”
She tightened her other hand on his shoulder, letting her head fall back as she rubbed that spot. Her hair swayed, teasing his forearm as she bumped her hips forward.
“Sexy fuckin’ woman. That’s it.”
Carson plunged his fingers into her pussy, sucking her nipple, then easing back to lightly flick it the same way he did when his mouth was on her clit.
The woman was so in tune with satisfying her sexual needs, her body so responsive to his, that it wasn’t long before goose bumps beaded across her skin. She released a tiny whimper, the one that drove him insane because he knew she was about to come. He loved watching her get off.
Her fingers began to move faster on her clit. When he felt the first spasm, he shoved his fingers deep, moving his mouth to her other nipple, sucking it in tandem with the pulsing of her pussy muscles around his fingers.
A gasp tore from her throat. Her hold on his neck increased to the point of pain. But he fucking loved that almost as much as when she damn near pulled out his hair when his face was buried in her cunt.
Abruptly Carolyn stopped moving. She shoved at his hand.
“What? Did I hurt you?”
“No. I need more. I’m still…” She released a frustrated noise and went straight for his belt buckle. “Take them off.”
“Sugar—”
“Now!”
The primitive need to satisfy his mate fired every cell in his body. He forced himself to be gentle as he set her aside and stripped, blood and possession roaring through him. He wanted to fuck her from behind, needing to prove to her that he could take care of her in the way that mattered most.
Since she was pregnant, he paused, waiting for the fog of lust to clear a bit. His Carolyn liked rougher sex. In the past she’d had teeth marks on her ass, finger-shaped bruises on her inner thighs, and purple love bites on her neck and chest as proof of the no-boundaries passion that exploded between them.
“What?” she asked in that husky, fuck me now, what are you waiting for tone.
“Just tryin’ to figure out how I want you first.”
“Hurry up and decide.”
Carson crawled across the bed, rolling her onto her side, then spooning behind her. He shifted her top leg back over his hip, sinking his teeth into the nape of her neck as he sank his cock into her hot, slick pussy. “Fuck, that feels good.”
“Harder.”
“I haven’t started to move yet.”
“I know. And I’m dying here.”
“Look at me.”
Carolyn turned her head. Her face was flushed and those blue eyes of hers were wild with need.
He was the luckiest damn man in the world.
“Hard and fast?” he murmured.
“Please. I love the way you fuck me with that big cock of yours, Carson McKay.”
Might send him straight to hell for loving the rare curse word coming from his good-girl Catholic wife, but so be it. So he pushed her to say it again. “I’m sorry, sugar, I didn’t quite hear that.”
“Fuck me. Make me come so hard I pass out from the sheer bliss of having your cock pounding into me.”
“That I can do.”
And he did.
He sent her over the edge twice—multiple orgasms for her was another benefit of pregnancy—and he roared like a beast when his balls finally released his seed.
Carolyn bore down with her cunt muscles, milking him so hard he swore he came twice in a row. Sweat coated his body. Her breath drifting across his skin as she spiraled down from her orgasm sent a shudder through him.
She sought his mouth, shifting their position so he was on his back with her laying half on top of him. She whispered, “I love you,” against his lips and peppered kisses from his chin, up his jaw to his temple. “I am so lucky.”
He snorted. “Because I fucked you like an animal?”
“No.”
When she didn’t elaborate, he said, “You goin’ someplace with this? ’Cause woman, I don’t think my brain is firin’ on all cylinders.”
“I’m lucky because you are mine.” She bit his earlobe. “Everything about you is just…mmm. This long sweep of your neck? Drives me crazy. It’s warm and strong. Yet when I do this?” Carolyn sucked on the section of skin where his pulse pounded closest to the surface and he groaned. “I can make my big tough cowboy go weak in the knees.”
“You love that power,” he murmured.
“I love that I can spend just as much time worshipping your chest with my hands and mouth as you do worshipping mine.”
Then she proved it. Mapping the cut of his muscles with her tongue. Licking and sucking. Doing that nuzzle and bite thing on his pectorals and his nipples that could make him shoot all over his belly.
“I love that this hard body of yours is mine to play with whenever I want. Other women still look at you and want you. I can’t help but feel a little smug that these muscle-bound arms are around me every night.” She feathered her thumb over his lips. “That this sinful, playful, skillful mouth knows every inch of my body.”
“That’s definitely…mmm for me.”
Carolyn locked her gaze to his. “Nothing in my sheltered life prepared me for what it means to love Carson McKay, the gorgeous blue-eyed cowboy, third generation Wyoming rancher, hell-raiser of the first order. But nothing in my sheltered life prepared me either for the way you look at me, for the way you love me. With everything you have, with everything you are. I can’t believe with all the women you could’ve had who understand this ranch stuff, you picked me to build a life with.” She pressed her cheek against his heart. “I’m grateful for you, for this life and sometimes I forget to tell you that.”
This sweet, wonderful woman gave him so much and got so little in return. “I’m getting the better end of the deal, trust me.”
They stayed entwined together.
“You must’ve worn Cord out,” she said. “He never naps this long.”
“He acted a little scared when me’n Dad had words.”
“Wasn’t the first time, won’t be the last.”
He stroked the curve of her hip. “So you sayin’ Cord had better get used to it?”
“You tell me. Our son is the first born of the fourth generation of McKays. If he chooses to stay in the family business, he’ll have the same types of things weighing on him that you do with your father.”
“I can promise I’ll never be like my dad was to me to our kids. Never.”
Carson shifted in the hospital chair.
That hadn’t been a promise he’d been able to keep. As much as he’d hoped things would improve with his father and the ranch over the next couple years, the situation deteriorated even more.
Chapter Twenty
Hospital, Day 3—morning
Carson stared out the window.
Again.
He’d done solitary work a good part of his life. Normally he had no problem spending time alone. But he was really sick and fucking tired of his own company.
You’ve done this to yourself, even if it’s for Carolyn’s benefit.
His kids were sticking together as far as he could tell. None of them had called. None had stopped by.
They’d all rallied around their mother during his surgery a few months back.
But Caro didn’t bar them from contact with you. Not even after you coded
on the table for two minutes.
But it wasn’t the same.
The nurses left him alone—not that he expected them to entertain him. He’d never been much of a TV watcher, and having the boob tube on, even low volume, grated on his nerves. But he was so…bored he’d turned the damn thing on just for the company.
“Uncle Carson?”
He turned to see his nephew Quinn struggling with three bags. He crossed the small space. “Here, lemme help you.”
“Thanks. The nurses already checked them.”
Carson peered inside. The two heavy canvas bags contained stacks of magazines and the third bag food.
“Libby raided the retired periodical stacks at the public library, lookin’ for men’s magazines. But don’t be hopin’ for Playboy,” he said dryly.
“I’m afraid I was the blush and stammer type if I ever came across those, even in my youth.”
“Me too.”
“Tell Libby thanks. The distraction will be good. Not a helluva lot to do in here.”
“Ma made you a couple of sandwiches and other stuff. To ‘tide you over’, she said.”
“Vi’s gone above and beyond. Tell her thanks too.”
“Sure thing.” Then Quinn plopped down. “Go ahead and eat if you’re hungry.”
Carson remembered he hadn’t eaten today. “You’re sure? Looks like there’s plenty to share.”
“I just ate breakfast with Ben and Gavin. They wanted me to let you know that you’re in their thoughts.”
He nodded and removed the first sandwich—roast beef on rye—from the sandwich baggie and took a big bite.
Quinn rambled on about the ranch, not delving into anything too serious. Carson was grateful for the chatter while he polished off a sandwich and a slice of rhubarb pie. Vi’s pies had the tastiest crust—not that he’d ever tell his wife that.
“I probably shoulda told you first thing that Adam and Amelia are both one hundred percent healthy. I heard the docs are concerned about even a simple infection somehow getting to her.”
“That’s good, especially for you and Libby. In our house it seemed like one of the kids always had some kinda crap.”
Quinn grinned. “That’s because you had three times as many kids as we do, three times as many germ carriers.”
Cowboy Take Me Away (Rough Riders #16) Page 27
