The Rancher's Baby

by Maisey Yates

  Eventually, they did come to that river, and they found themselves beneath the canopy of trees as the sun rose high in the sky. They arrived at camp before the sun began to set, a glorious, serene tent out in the middle of nowhere right next to the river.

  There were Texas bluebells in the grass that surrounded it. A little oasis just for them. There was a fire pit, places to sit. It really was the most civilized camping she had ever seen.

  “I am going to jump in the river,” Knox said. He got off the horse and stripped his shirt off over his head.

  And she froze. Just absolutely froze as the shirt’s fabric slowly rolled up over his torso and revealed his body.

  Lord, what a body.

  “What?” he asked.

  Well, great. She’d been caught staring openly. At her friend’s half-naked body. Talk about telegraphing her seduction plans.

  “Nothing.” She blinked. “I’ll go... We can get the horses settled and then I’ll get my swimsuit.”

  But her gaze was fully fixed on his broad, bare chest. On all those fantastic, perfect muscles. Which she had felt through his shirt a time or two in the past few days. But now... Seeing it like that, dusted with just the right amount of pale hair, glistening with sweat... She wanted to lick him.

  She imagined the rules of friendship generally prevented that. But she was fully violating those anyway, so she was just going to embrace the feeling.

  “Come on,” he said, nodding once. “Let’s get the horses into the corral.”

  She went through the motions of leading the horses into the gated area and making sure there was fresh water in the trough, but really, she was just watching Knox.

  The way the sun glinted on his golden hair and highlighted the scruff on his face—she wanted so badly to run her fingers over it. The way the muscles in his forearms went taut as he removed the horses’ bridles and saddles...

  He bent down low, setting about cleaning their hooves, his body putting on a glorious play of strength and sculpted masculinity that took her breath away.

  He was such a familiar sight. But in context with desire, with what she wanted to have happen later, he was like a stranger. And that both thrilled and excited her.

  When they finished taking care of the animals, he straightened, and she was momentarily struck dumb again by his beauty. It was a wonder she’d ever managed to get to know the guy. His looks were a serious barrier to her ability to form cogent thoughts and words that were more than noises.

  “Why don’t you go on in and get your suit?” he asked, handing her her pack.

  His fingers brushed against hers and she felt the touch like a bolt of lightning. All the way through her body.

  Selena scurried into the tent, barely able to take in the glory of it. There was an actual bed inside, seating, a woodstove, all surrounded by beautifully draped canvas. The bed was covered in furs and other soft, sumptuous things. It was the perfect place to make love to a man you had been fantasizing about all of your life.

  And when darkness fell, she was going to do just that.

  The corners of her lips turned upward when she realized there was only one bed in the place. And she wondered if Scarlett was matchmaking. If Selena had been that damned transparent. She changed quickly into a black bikini, ignoring the moment of wishing it covered more of her body, and headed outside.

  She was gratified when Knox’s expression took on that similar “hit with a shovel” quality she had been pretty sure her own had possessed a few moments ago when he had stripped off his shirt.

  “Nice suit,” he said.

  He was wearing a pair of swim shorts that she wondered if he’d been wearing beneath everything else the whole time. Or if he had just quickly gotten naked outside.

  And then she thought way too long and hard about that.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  The shorts rode low, revealing every sculpted line just above that part of him that was still a mystery to her. She was doing her best not to look like a guppy spit out onto the shore. Gaping and gasping. She had a feeling she was only semi-successful.

  “There’s only one bed,” she commented. “I didn’t realize that.”

  As if that mattered. She was planning to seduce him anyway.

  “Oh,” he said. “Well, I can sleep on the floor.”

  “Let’s worry about that later,” she said, because she hoped that both of them would be completely all right with the fact that there was only one bed just a little bit later.

  They went down toward the river, and in spite of the heat, when she stuck her toe in the slow-moving water, she shuddered slightly.

  “Oh, come on,” he said. “It’s not that cold.”

  As if to demonstrate all of his masculine bravado, he went straight into the water, wading in up to his hips and then lying flat on his stomach and paddling out toward the center of the wide body of water.

  She took a deep breath and followed suit, screeching as the water made contact with the tender skin on her stomach. “It is cold,” she shouted at him.

  “You’re a baby,” he responded, turning over onto his back and paddling away from her.

  “I am not a baby,” she said. She swam toward him and then splashed at him. He laughed, reaching out and grabbing her wrist, drawing her against him. She didn’t know what the intent had been. Maybe to stop her from splashing him, but suddenly, her legs were all tangled up with his and her breasts were pressed against his bare chest. The wet swimsuit fabric did absolutely nothing to provide a barrier between them. Her nipples were hard, sensitive, partly from the chill of the water and partly just from him. From her desire for him.

  “Knox,” she said. “If you don’t like it, tell me. I don’t want to be tea.”

  “You’re not tea,” he said.

  “Good. I’d hate for you to sleep with me because of good manners. A girl wants to be wanted.”

  And something in his eyes changed. His jaw was tight, the lines by his mouth drawn, deep. And she could see the struggle there. The fight.

  “I don’t need forever,” she said. Her seduction plan had just gone out the window. This electricity between them was sparking right now. And she was going to make the most of it. She was going to take it. “I just need you. For a little while. I’ve wanted you... Always. I have. This isn’t new for me. And it’s not going away.” She raised her hands, trusting him, trusting his strong, steady hold to keep her afloat. She traced those deep lines on either side of his lips with her thumbs, stroking him. Touching him the way she had always dreamed about touching him. Freely, without holding back.

  That was the sad thing. She felt a whole hell of a lot for him, and yet she’d always, always held it back, held back a part of herself.

  She was tired of that. And she was surrounded by reminders of why it was wrong. Time wasn’t infinite. She’d thought she’d missed a chance to apologize to Will.

  She wasn’t going to miss this chance.

  “You want this?” he asked, his voice rough. “You want me right now? Let me tell you, Selena, all I can give you is selfish. I haven’t had sex in two years. A little bit more, maybe. Because it’s not like there was a whole lot going on during the divorce. During the grief. And I...I don’t have any control left in me. I wanted to do the right thing. I wanted to be honest with you about what I could and couldn’t give you, but if you keep offering it to me...”

  “If I keep offering it to you then you need to trust me.” She met his gaze and held it. Tried to ignore her breathlessness, her nerves. “I’m your friend. I’ve been your friend for a long time. Haven’t I always taken what you’ve given to me? Haven’t we always been there for each other? That’s what this is. I want to be there for you. And I want this, too. This isn’t pity sex, Knox. I want it. I want you. I think you want me. So let’s... Let’s just trust that we’ll find our way. Because we are
friends. We’ve been through hell together. It wasn’t my hell, Knox, but I walked alongside you. Trust me. Trust me to keep walking with you.”

  She was on the verge of tears, emotion clogging her throat, and crying wasn’t what she wanted. It wasn’t what this was supposed to be. It was supposed to be physical, and it was becoming emotional. But too late she realized, as she clung to him while he treaded water for them both, with Knox it was never going to be anything but emotional. Because they cared for each other.

  And emotion was never going to stay outside of the sex. It was never going to be sex in one column and friendship in the other. They were bringing sex into a friendship. And that was big and scary, and not something she could turn away from.

  “Trust me,” she said, a final plea before he closed the distance between them.

  Eight

  Knox had known he was lost the moment she had come out of the tent wearing that bikini. He hadn’t even given himself a chance. When he had grabbed hold of her in the water... It hadn’t been to stop her from splashing him. It had simply been because he couldn’t stand to not touch her anymore. He had to do it. He’d had to bring her against his body. Because he couldn’t stand to not have his hands on her.

  And as he held her he had the fleeting concern that this was going to be the most selfish sex on the face of the planet, and he was going to treat his best friend to it. She didn’t deserve that. She deserved more. She deserved better. But he didn’t have control. Not anymore.

  He was a man stripped of everything. Life had simply stolen every fucking thing from him in the last two years. He couldn’t fight this. Not with what he had left.

  He just wanted. And he was so tired of wanting. There were so many things he couldn’t have. He could not have Eleanor back, no matter how much he wanted her.

  He couldn’t fight death. No matter how he wanted to. How he wished that there was a sword he could have picked up so he could do battle with death. Instead, he’d had to stand by helplessly, not able to do a damn thing. For a man who had never accepted the limits of life, losing to death with such resounding finality had been incomprehensible.

  But he could have this. He could have Selena.

  He didn’t have to fight it, and he damn sure wasn’t going to. Not anymore.

  So he kissed her. He kissed her like he was drowning in this river and she was the air. He kissed her like there wasn’t going to be anything after it. Because for all he knew, there wouldn’t be. Life was a bitch. A cruel, evil bitch who took as much as she gave, so he was going to take something of his own.

  Maybe anger at the world wasn’t the way to approach a seduction. Maybe it wasn’t the way to engage with his best friend, but he couldn’t help himself. Couldn’t do anything but lean into it. Lean into her. When she parted her lips and slid her tongue against his, he forgot to keep kicking, and they sank slightly beneath the water, the surface slipping past their shoulders. “We need to get out of here,” he said, paddling them both toward the shore.

  “There’s that bed,” she said softly, stroking her hand over his face, over his shoulders, the slide of skin against skin slick from the water.

  He looked into her dark eyes to get a read on what she was thinking. “Did you plan this?”

  “No,” she said, looking very much like the picture of pristine innocence. In a black bikini that looked like sin.

  “You didn’t.” Her eyes sparked with a little bit of heat, and a lot of the stubbornness he thought was cute about Selena at the best of times. It was cuter now, considering he was holding her nearly naked curves.

  “Well.” Her smile turned impish. “I didn’t know there would be one bed. But I did know that I wanted you. And I figured this was as good a way as any to go about having you.”

  “Minx,” he said, kissing her again. Kissing her until they were both breathless, out there in the bleached Texas sun.

  Then he swept her up and carried her back toward that tent.

  He didn’t bother to dry either of them off when he deposited her on the plush bed at the far side of the canvas wall. He stood there, looking at every delicious inch of her. Those full breasts, barely contained by the swimsuit top, her small waist and firm stomach. Those hips. Wide and delicious, and her thighs, which were full and lovely. Shaped like a delicious pear he definitely wanted to take a bite out of.

  He pushed his wet shorts down his thighs, careful with his straining arousal. And it was gratifying to watch her mouth drop open, to watch her eyes go wide.

  She squeezed her thighs together, drawing one leg up slightly, biting her lip.

  “See something you like?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Yeah,” she said. And it was rare for Selena to not have a snarky comment follow.

  “Do you want this?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said, the word breathless. “I want it so much.” She rolled to her side, her wet hair falling over her shoulder, her eyes wide. “Don’t change your mind.”

  He glanced down at his extremely prominent erection. “Oh, I’m not in a position to change my mind. Or to do much of anything with my mind at the moment, especially thinking.”

  She settled back into the blankets, looking satisfied with that statement. “I’m okay with that.”

  He got onto the bed, moving over her, kissing her again, reaching behind her neck and undoing the tie on her bikini top in one fluid motion. Then he did the other one, taking the wet cups away from her breasts.

  His breath caught in his throat as he looked at her. At that glorious, golden skin, her tight, honey-colored nipples.

  He leaned forward, flicking the tip of one sensitive bud with his tongue, gratified when she gasped and arched against him. He sucked her deep into his mouth, lost completely in his own desire. His need to feast on her, to gorge himself on her beauty.

  He wasn’t thinking about anything in the past. Wasn’t thinking about anything but this. But her. There was no room for anything but desire inside of him. There was nothing else at all.

  He smoothed his hands down her narrow waist to those full hips, gripped her bikini bottoms and tugged them down her legs. And he groaned when he saw that dark thatch of curls at the apex of her thighs. He kissed her stomach, all the way down low to that tender skin beneath her belly button. Then he forced her legs apart, his cock pulsing, his stomach muscles getting impossibly tight as he looked at his friend like this for the first time. He felt her try to close her legs, try to move away from him.

  He wasn’t going to let her get away with that.

  She might have orchestrated this little camping trip. Might have thought she could conduct a seduction. And he was seduced; there was no doubt about that. But she wasn’t in charge. Not now. Hell no.

  He leaned forward, breathing in the scent of her. Musk and female and everything he craved. His mouth watered, and he leaned forward, sliding his tongue over her slick flesh, flicking that sweet little clit with the tip of his tongue. She gasped, her hips bucking off the bed, simultaneously moving toward him and away from him. He held her fast, grabbing hold of both hips, drawing her roughly against his mouth where he could have his fill and maintain control of the movements.

  She tried to twist and ride beneath him, but he held her fast, pleasuring her with his lips and his tongue, pressing his fingers deep inside of her until she cried out, until her internal muscles pulsed around him.

  “Knox,” she said, his name thin and shaky on her lips, her entire body boneless. And that satisfied him. Because it had been a long damn time since he’d had a woman, and there was a deep satisfaction to making her come that he couldn’t even describe.

  He could do that to her body. This need, this skill existed inside of him, and the desire to practice it was there. He’d left that need boxed up inside of him for years. In a stack in the corner of his soul. Anything that wasn’t work, anything that wasn’t breathing
.

  Right now, this felt like breathing. And he didn’t simply feel alive. He felt like Knox.

  He wanted to do it again. Again and again. He wanted to make her scream his name. But she was reaching for him, urging him up her body, urging him to kiss her again. Who was he to deny her?

  He was going to give her everything.

  Everything he had.

  He settled between her thighs, kissing her deeply. He wanted this to last longer. Wanted to go on. But he just didn’t possess the control. He needed to be inside of her. And he needed it now. He could only take so much satisfaction from her orgasm without desperately needing his own.

  He pressed the head of his cock to the entrance of her body, found her wet and ready for him. Then he slid himself upward, drawing his length over those slick folds, teasing her a little before moving back to her entrance and thrusting in hard.

  Then he froze as she tensed beneath him. As she let out a cry that had nothing at all to do with pleasure.

  Somehow, Selena was a virgin.

  * * *

  Selena tried so hard not to be a baby when the sharp, tearing pain moved through her. He had just made her feel so good. And really, she wanted this. She wanted him. But the invasion of his body into hers hurt and she hadn’t been able to keep back the cry of shock when he had entered her.

  Screaming in pain was probably not the best move on her part. A pretty surefire way to kill the mood. Knox froze, looking down at her with anger written all over his handsome face.

  She felt him start to move away from her, felt his muscles tense as he prepared to pull back. So he could stop touching her. So he could run out into the desert in the late afternoon and take his chances with the sun and snakes rather than with her. But she didn’t want him to go.

  So she clung to him, desperation probably leaving marks behind on his skin, digging her nails into his shoulders and kissing him fiercely, rocking her hips against his, ignoring the pain. She didn’t want him to stop. It was too late anyway. Her virginity was gone. The hard part, the scary part, was over.