All the King's Horses

by Lauren Gallagher

  He pinned me up against his bedroom door. I gripped his shirt, he gripped my hair, and we kissed like it didn’t matter why this might be a bad idea.

  “Jesus Christ,” he growled, pressing his erection against me as he dipped his head to kiss my neck. “I want… Fuck, I want you so bad.”

  Panting as his lips skated up and down the side of my throat, I managed to whisper, “Do you have condoms?”

  Dustin froze. He turned his head, furrowing his brow at the bedside table. “You know, I’m not sure if I do or not.”

  “Maybe we should check.” I swept my tongue across my lower lip. “Before we need them.”

  “Good idea.” He kissed me again, even as he pulled his body away from mine, like he knew we needed to pry ourselves apart but he just couldn’t make himself go all the way.

  “Dustin… check…”

  Abruptly, he pulled away and started toward the bedside table, throwing a slurred, “Let me look” over his shoulder. I stayed up against the door because my knees shook too much to walk, and I was sure if I even moved, I’d wake up and this would be over.

  Dustin pulled open the drawer. “I’ll be damned.” He reached in and pulled out the box. “I actually do.”

  “Oh, thank God.” I started toward the bed, but then Dustin did a double take at the box in his hand, and the scowl that followed stopped me in my tracks. “What?”

  He swore, dropped the box back in the drawer, and looked at me. “They’re expired.”

  Our eyes met.

  I couldn’t keep a snort of laughter from escaping and clapped my hand over my mouth.

  Dustin laughed too. “Figures, doesn’t it?”

  “Just our luck, right?”

  He put his hands on my waist and leaned in to kiss me. “Yeah, just our luck.” He pressed his lips to mine, and our bodies melted together again. “I don’t suppose you have any?”

  I shook my head. “Not a one.”

  “Damn it,” he whispered but pulled me into a kiss anyway. Frustration tried to hold me back, but need drove me closer to him, and I returned his kiss as passionately as he gave it. We were against the door again, pressed together and pulling each other closer, and I couldn’t find my breath, but I found his, and that was good enough.

  “God,” he growled, sliding his hands under the back of my shirt. “This has got to be the worst possible time to be out of condoms.”

  “Maybe we should go get some, then.”

  Dustin blinked. “You…do know the nearest place to buy them is forty-five minutes away, right?”

  I pulled his hips against mine, pressing myself against his rock-hard cock until he closed his eyes and groaned.

  “I’ll make it worth the drive,” I said.

  “I’ll get my keys.” He kissed me once more, then broke away from me again.

  “Is anything even open this time of night?”

  “There’s a Walmart in town.”

  I snickered.

  He eyed me. “What?”

  Shaking my head, I waved a hand but couldn’t keep myself from giggling. “Just that we’re stopping in the middle of this to drive an hour to Walmart…”

  He laughed. Hooking a finger in one of my belt loops, he pulled me back to him. “Well, it’s either Walmart, or tonight’s not the night I get to find out what it feels like to fuck you.”

  My knees turned to liquid. He wasn’t a man I’d expected to speak so bluntly, and it drove me wild. “Truck. Now.”

  “That’s what I thought.” He kissed me, then let me go.

  We stepped outside into the drizzly summer evening and climbed into Dustin’s truck. As the engine roared to life, my heart beat faster. There was plenty of time to change our minds between now and when we got back. I silently begged Dustin not to change his mind and secretly worried I’d be the one to pull the plug because this was…this…it was a stupid, reckless thing to do. Stupid, reckless and completely out of character for me, but “out of character” these days was anything that wasn’t being under an oppressive thumb and resenting a career I was supposed to love, so bring on reckless and stupid. To hell with how I’d feel tomorrow, because I needed this tonight.

  We were five miles down the road when Dustin broke the silence. “You ever done something like this before?”

  I might have thought he was just making conversation, but the way he rapidly tapped his fingers on the steering wheel gave away his nerves. Or maybe anticipation, but his left knee bounced a little too. Definitely nerves.

  “Gone to Wamart in the middle of the night for condoms?” I shrugged. “Can’t say I have.”

  He laughed, and it was undeniably a nervous sound. “You know what I mean.”

  I chewed my lip. “It’s been a long time. A really long time. What about you? Have you done something like this before?”

  “No.” He swallowed hard. “I’ve… No. I haven’t.”

  I watched his fingers tapping on the wheel. “We can still turn around if you don’t—”

  “I didn’t say I didn’t want to.” He glanced at me, and apparently Dustin King was capable of something like a shy smile. “I just said I’ve never done it.” The smile faded a little, and he asked, “Do you want to go back?”

  “Not without a few condoms.”

  He drove on.

  The miles crawled past. We made a few halfhearted attempts at conversation, but our minds couldn’t hold on to anything more than a few minutes of small talk here and there. Dustin’s fingers kept tapping. The speedometer needle crept toward a little too fast for the weather, but no farther, and we flew down the same road we’d been down and back once already tonight. Too bad the song on the dance floor had changed at just the wrong time tonight, or we probably would have stopped on the way home, and we’d have had three orgasms apiece by now.

  I clasped my hands together in my lap and tried not to go crazy. I was afraid to touch him. I itched to just put a hand on his leg or find his hand in the darkness, but one touch and we were running off the road. Or pulling over and giving in as much as we could without condoms. And I couldn’t handle a delay, not a single delay, that would keep me from feeling him inside me, so torture or not, for now I kept my hands to myself.

  I dug my teeth even harder into my lip and tried not to squirm in my seat. He hadn’t changed his mind. I hadn’t changed mine. We were long past succumbing to the heat of the moment and well into the realms of premeditated, and with every mile, I cared a little less.

  Up ahead in the rain, one of the few stoplights in town came into view, and Dustin put on his right turn signal. As he made the turn, my heart beat faster because the blue and white Walmart sign glowed like a massive beacon. I tried not to remember we still had a forty-five minute drive back to the ranch, and as he pulled into a parking space, I wondered if I could talk him into one of the motels I swore I’d seen on the other side of town.

  He put the truck in Park but left the engine running.

  “So, um,” I said. “Do we both go in, or…”

  He cleared his throat. “Well, I know the store pretty well.”

  “And half this town probably knows you.”

  Oh, yeah. Boy was nervous. If his fingers tapped any faster…

  “I’ll go.” Dustin put his hand on my leg. “Like I said, I know the layout, so I’ll be in and out in—”

  I snorted.

  He rolled his eyes.

  I laughed. “I’m sorry. I have the maturity of a twelve-year-old when I’m nervous.”

  He tilted his head. “You’re nervous?”

  “A little.”

  He smiled. “Well, I don’t feel so bad, then.” He leaned across the seat and kissed me. Quickly, lightly, just enough to make me crazy, but he ended it before I could grab on and drag him down across the seats. As he pulled away, he paused like he was tempted to come in for another, but then drew back completely. He probably knew damn well one kiss wouldn’t get him into and out of the store any time soon. “I’ll be right back.”
/>   “I’ll be here.”

  “You’d better be.” He winked and then got out of the truck. He left the engine running and walked toward the doors under the brightly lit sign, his hands in his pockets and his steps fast and sure. Anyone who saw him like I did now probably wouldn’t think for a second he was as nervous as I was.

  And why the hell was I so nervous? Okay, so maybe I’d just had a goddamned breakdown last night. And maybe I still had a lot of shit to deal with before I was in the same ZIP code as sane. So what? Tonight was probably the closest to sane I’d been in years. And that was my story and I was sticking to it because only a few minutes of shopping and forty-five of driving stood between me and some desperately needed sex with a man who, if only for tonight, wanted me as bad as I wanted him.

  The parking lot was mostly deserted, the night completely silent except the rumbling of the truck’s idling diesel engine. I squirmed in my seat.

  God. Another forty-five minutes. I wasn’t sure I could wait that long. Nerves or not, there was no going back, because I needed him, and I needed him now.

  There had to be some way to cut down on the time. One of the seedy motels a mile or two in the other direction, maybe? Something?

  I glanced at the empty driver’s seat. Then the giant store with the bright lights and sign that now blurred with the rainwater smearing down the windshield.

  Well, I knew at least one way to cut a minute or two off the time. Grinning to myself, I slid across to the driver’s seat. I adjusted the seat, shifted into drive, and pulled up as close to the entrance as a vehicle was allowed.

  I’d barely put the truck in park when Dustin stepped through the automatic doors. I flashed the headlights, and he turned, blinking as he met my eyes through the windshield.

  I gestured at the passenger side.

  He chuckled and shook his head, then went around to the other side. He climbed inside, and as I put the truck back in gear, I said, “You don’t mind a girl driving your truck, do you?”

  “Not if it means getting out of here faster.” He buckled his seat belt and glanced at me as he dropped the plastic bag at his feet.

  On the way out of the parking lot, I said, “You know, I saw a few motels on my way into town when I first came here.”

  Dustin gulped. “There’s an idea.”

  “Which way?” I asked.

  He pointed to the left, and I turned onto the main road. Thank God this was a small town, because it took just minutes to get to the tiny cluster of motels huddled around a couple of stop signs.

  A red neon sign glowed in the rain: No Vacancy.

  At the next motel: No Vacancy.

  No Vacancy.

  No Vacancy.

  No goddamned vacancy.

  I thumped my hand on the wheel. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Must be something going on at the fairgrounds,” Dustin muttered. “We get some of their overflow when the motels in that area are full.”

  “Guess we’re going home.”

  “Apparently we are.”

  We exchanged glances, and seeing my own impatience in his eyes did nothing to help me convince myself I’d stay sane for the next forty-five fucking minutes.

  Neither of us spoke. Our earlier halfhearted attempts at conversation were long gone now. It was a distraction then, but now, there was nothing but some clothes and a muddy stretch of two-lane highway standing between us and what we wanted, and we just stared straight ahead. Driving was more complicated than it should have been, but with Dustin so close to me and a pack of condoms at his feet, just breathing was a lot to ask.

  And like nothing else in the world, silence could stretch long miles into endless ones, and I was too nervous, too excited, too uncertain, too determined, too scared half to death to say anything for fear of fucking up the moment like I’d scared off a wary bird.

  Trees. Fences. More trees. Never-ending fences and a never-ending road and my God we were still so far away. Everything we needed was right here in this truck—him, me, a box of condoms—but we still had miles to go. Too damned many miles.

  I glanced at Dustin.

  At the plastic bag that was barely visible in the darkness at his feet.

  At him again.

  At the odometer that indicated we were still twenty-five long minutes from home.

  To hell with it.

  I slowed down and pulled over. Gravel crunched, and mud sloshed beneath the tires as rocks bounced sharply off the undercarriage.

  Dustin eyed me. “Uh, what are you doing?”

  “Pulling over.” I threw the truck into park.

  “But we’re—”

  “I don’t care.” I unbuckled my seat belt. “This is what you get for living so far from town.” And I didn’t give Dustin a chance to speak before I grabbed his shirt and kissed him hard.

  He froze for a split second but then wrapped his arms around me and returned my kiss as he pulled me into his lap. His hands drifted down my back, then around to my hips. He gripped my belt and pulled me against him, and when his erection pressed against me, my mouth watered. I hadn’t been this turned on in…I didn’t even know how long. Ever?

  The engine purred in the background, and the rain fell a little harder now, crackling on the windshield like the electricity coming to life on all my nerve endings. The seat creaked softly every time one of us shifted, but nothing was louder than the whisper of hands across clothes and hot breaths across skin. We were frantic now, desperate, and for all our combined nerves, we kissed fearlessly and hungrily.

  “Jesus Christ,” he growled against my lips, curling his fingers around my hair. “I want you so bad, Amy.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” I smothered his response with a deep kiss.

  He tightened his grip on my hair and pulled my head back. “Get those jeans off,” he growled, and I just about came. Especially when he added, “Now.”

  Oh. God. Yes.

  I climbed back into the driver’s seat. While I toed off my boots and shimmied out of my jeans, Dustin opened the box of condoms. Gold foil reflected in the faint light as he tore one free, and my heart pounded harder as he dropped the rest to the floorboards.

  “You sure about this?” he asked.

  “Are you?”

  We looked at each other in the thin, turquoise glow of the dashboard lights and whatever headlight beams the trees threw back at us.

  Was I sure? All I knew was I’d never been so desperate, exhilarated, scared to death in my life, so hell, yes, I was sure.

  Dustin reached for me, and I reached back, and as soon as I was over him in the passenger seat, we were back to insatiable, feverish kissing. Still sitting up, we clawed and tore at each other’s clothes as we made out like a couple of teenagers. Fabric hissed against upholstery the way our hands hissed across each other’s skin. Somehow, we managed to undo his belt and zipper, tasks that might have been easier had we taken a few seconds to actually look at what we were doing. After some clumsiness, we succeeded, and only then did I break the kiss.

  His hands shook. I still couldn’t believe it was possible for Dustin to be this unsteady, but the flicker of light on the foil wrapper in his hand gave him away.

  When the condom was on, I licked my lips as he met my eyes in the low light. Nothing standing between us now, and oh God, I needed him.

  With a hand around the back of my neck, Dustin pulled me down to kiss him, and as the tip of his tongue slid under mine, his free hand slipped between my legs. I moaned softly into his kiss, and his palm pressed against my clit.

  “Oh God…” he said, barely breaking the kiss. “You’re so—”

  I gasped and pulled back, and he took advantage of the opportunity to kiss my neck in the same moment his fingers found their way into my pussy. “Dustin, please…”

  “Oh, I will,” he growled against my neck. “But I’m not…” His voice caught, and we both shivered as his fingers crooked inside me. “There’s no way I’m gonna last,” he murmured, “and I wa
nt you to come before I do.”

  “Dustin…” It wasn’t a protest this time, not even a plea, just the desperate need to taste his name. My hair grazed the low ceiling, and only that constant, soft tug kept me aware enough not to throw my head back. His free hand drifted up my shirt. When his fingers found my nipple through my bra, I leaned into him, pushing my nipple into one hand and my pussy against the other.

  “Oh God, baby,” he said. “Come for me.” The words came out like a soft plea, but my body reacted like they’d been a command, and as he murmured them again and again, my orgasm obediently built until I teetered at my breaking point, and I sucked in a breath and ground against his hand and couldn’t quite get over the edge, and then Dustin moaned, “Holy fuck, Amy…”

  And I lost it. All the tension coiled in every inch of my body released at once, and I couldn’t even say his name as I rode wave upon wave of the most incredible ecstasy.

  I was just at my peak when Dustin slipped his fingers free, and before I could protest or convince my vision to clear, he pulled me down onto him, and he was inside me, and I nearly went over the edge all over again as he guided me up, down, up, down on his thick cock.

  “Oh God…” I whimpered. “Dustin…”

  He groaned but didn’t speak. His fingers twitched on my hips, and every time he guided me upward, he tried to rise with me, as if he needed to stay all the way inside me. I rose and fell, riding him as white light crackled behind my eyelids and pure electric pleasure tingled along the length of my spine.

  Dustin slid his hands under the back of my shirt and curled his fingers around my bra straps like he needed something to hold on to. He groaned against my lips, thrusting up as much as he could in this position, and I rode him harder because I couldn’t get enough of him moving inside me.

  His head fell back. He screwed his eyes shut, and his lips parted in a silent cry as his hands slid down my back, down my sides, down to my hips, and the softest moan escaped his lips as his back arched off the seat.