Wrangler

by Dani Wyatt

  “Rachel! What is the matter with you?”

  “Sorry, Jessie. I’m not myself today.”

  I pull the heavy black pan off the top of the stove and scrape the blackened corn cake stuck to the bottom into the trash. It’s half past five and Vanessa’s already outside getting the fire going and the kids are running around in the garden.

  My mind plays out a hundred different versions of the night in front of us. Chad sits next to me, letting his leg touch mine. No, not his leg, his arm brushing against me as he asks me to take a walk with him. Then maybe...

  Stop it. NO way. It’s not going to happen. Look at him! He’s a sculpted cowboy God. Guys like that are not into fluffy, plain girls who like to daydream and talk to themselves.

  Well, but he was pretty far into me last night.

  Stop.

  Eventually, I manage to get a couple batches of corn cakes done without burning them. When that’s done, I head upstairs to my room and lay out some clean clothes.

  “Jessie! I’m getting in the shower!”

  We have to give each other a heads up when we are using the hot water. There’s nothing quite like a blast of freezing cold water when you’re in the shower and someone else decides to use the hot tap.

  “Ok, honey.” Her voice trails up from the kitchen.

  I close the bathroom door. My belly tightens and a little vibration starts between my legs.

  Happy birthday to me.

  “Sure, let’s go.” I’m talking out loud to myself like I’m talking to him. “In the shower? Why not?”

  Stripping my clothes off feels good. It’s a hot day out there, and they’re stuck with sweat. I step into the shower and let the warm water run down my back, over my full breasts, the curves of my body.

  I imagine walking with him, his hand brushing against mine. As I lather soap suds over my belly I think of him grabbing my waist, pulling me close in an urgent kiss. His rough, strong hand pushing up against the back to my neck, tangling in strands of my hair. I imagine what his mouth tastes like as it moves against mine. Tangy, salty, like grit and prime beef. His hands cupping my breasts as his lips move down my body.

  In my head, he’s a character out of a romance novel. I have stacks of them in my closet and under my bed, and they’ve taught me a thing or two about single-handed reading.

  My thighs are tight as my fingers delve into the hot pink slit between my legs. I press hard, rubbing back and forth, letting the hot water cascade over my shoulders and down my back. My fingers are Chad’s fingers, working inside me while his mouth kisses my breasts. My hands fumble against his pants, working the strained zipper.

  Sounds escape my lips. I drive my fingers hard and deep, feel the surging release building as I moan and gasp into the warm water. The hard, swollen nub of my clit sends lightning bolts through my body as my fingers drive inside my wet canal, and I imagine it’s Chad’s huge cock entering me, pressing into me for the first time.

  I close my eyes and see his face, his mouth open, his eyes focused on me, and only me.

  I spasm and quiver as my fingers complete the job, my free hand darting out to steady me against the wall of the shower, shuddering until the waves of pleasure subside.

  Panting, I arch my neck letting my head fall back into the shower spray, the water tingles against my tightened nipples.

  When I step out of the shower I can hear talking and laughing from outside. The smell of burning wood drifts into the house, carrying with it the intoxicating scents of Vanessa’s cooking: grilled vegetables, beans, chicken and sautéed onions.

  My mouth is already watering as I turn the doorknob to my room and hesitate. I can feel the tension growing, the edge of something about to happen. I’m just not sure what it is yet.

  I blow out a breath. “Come on, Rachel.”

  Whatever’s about to happen, I need to see it through.

  Moving through the house, the smells just get stronger, and when I step out the back door the fire is high and bright against the pink and orange sky over the corn field. Enrique stands behind Vanessa, his hands on her shoulders, her fingers settled on top.

  They are such a contrast. Enrique stout size with warm caramel skin against Vanessa’s near translucent complexion and ivory blond hair. They met at the community college a few towns over and from the way Enrique tells the story, she was his the moment he set his eyes on her.

  Chad looks up as my boots hit the first step down off the back porch. I’m wearing my usual farm jeans and shirt. I thought about putting on one of my skirts and a pair of my patent leather flats I like to wear when I work at the bar, but it felt too hopeful. I didn’t want to look like I was trying.

  My skin ripples as his sky blue eyes follow me down toward the group. It’s not just a glance either, he’s locked onto me. Challenging me to break the stare. My stomach dances under my shirt.

  He is so fucking beautiful...

  His jeans are perfect, just the right side of casual, loose but still straining a bit over his thighs. He wears a red and blue plaid shirt that’s unsnapped, with a clinging white tank top underneath. His pectoral muscles pressing on the white fabric and a hint of his dark chest hair decorating the scoop of the neckline. With wide spread knees his long fingers dangle down between his legs as he sits on one of the upturned logs that encircle the fire.

  I think I have lost the power of speech.

  “Hey, come on over here.” He jumps up, offering me his seat. “I’m jealous sitting here next to Enrique and Vanessa all coupled up. What do you say we give them some competition?” He tips his head to the side, urging me toward him. The flex of his square jaw moves with every word.

  Vanessa and Enrique lean into each other with a soft chuckle. Four of their kids are running around making machine gun noises as they play army with sticks. The other one is asleep near Vanessa’s feet, settled in a travel bassinet lined with quilts. The night air is full of the sounds of children, the crackling fire, and crickets, but all I can hear is my heart beating out of my chest.

  “Okay.” I fuss with my shirt and jerk one shoulder toward my ear as I step closer to the fire.

  Okay? That’s what you have to say? I’m an idiot.

  I glance at Jessie who doesn’t try to hide the wry smile on her face. I tighten my lips and glare at her with my best ‘don’t even start’ eyes.

  “Can I help with anything?” I ask Vanessa.

  I lick my lips and try to keep my voice steady as Chad steps sideways, politely giving me a bit of room to move past him. But his eyes inspect me from top to bottom, tracing each curve like they belong to him.

  “No, you sit.” Vanessa winks. “Have fun. The food is almost ready.” Enrique winks at me as well and I feel like the poor fat girl being set up with her cousin for prom. Except no poor fat girl ever had Chad as a cousin.

  His hand grazes the small of my back as I step past him, and it’s not accidental. His simple touch ignites a cascade of heat that makes the fire look frigid. He leans down and whispers in my ear, and I swear he draws in a breath like he’s smelling me.

  “You can help me.”

  Parts of my body just melted. “I can?”

  I settle my behind onto the upturned stump that was his seat until a moment ago and scratch at my temple.

  I’m still having a very hard time absorbing the fact that Chad is the mountain man from last night and I have to wonder whether it’s actually a coincidence that he ended up here again today. Or, that he’s the one that came along last night. That’s an awful lot of coincidences.

  And there’s also a steaming portion of embarrassment inside me right now over what actually did happen in the back of my pickup truck. I mean, less than twenty-four hours ago his fingers were inside me and his tongue played me like a fiddle.

  Oh, and the things he’d said to me. Oh my God.

  Who would have thought that kind of dirty talk would directly connect to my lady parts and send me rocketing into the night like some harlot? His eyes are on me
, and I swear I can actually feel it. Everywhere his eyes go, my skin tingles. And I can read his face. It’s like we have a seductive secret and it’s only multiplying the tension twisting around the flecks of bright ash swirling in the air around us.

  “Yep. You can help me remember how good it feels for a dumb ole cowboy to get a pretty girl like you to sit with him.”

  My cheeks turn into hot coals.

  Is he serious?

  Vanessa and Enrique chuckle, and I know if I look over at Jessie she’s going to know right away. My chest aches at the thought of his tongue. That first brush against my sensitive flesh. The way I opened my legs so wide for him, giving myself over.

  A shiver takes my shoulders. Chad only smiles bigger, like he knows what I’m thinking.

  Last night is a night I’ll never forget. I mean, for a girl’s first real kiss, I could have done a lot worse.

  And something tells me it won’t be the last.

  Chapter Ten

  CHAD

  The scents of rich, comforting food and campfire fill my nose.

  But, there is only one thing I want to eat right now and that’s her pussy. I’m sure all this food is delicious, but I’m not thinking about that. I’m not hungry nor thirsty. Fuck, I’m only breathing because it’s a reflex. All I can think about is how I can secure Rachel into my life for good.

  Okay, I’ll be honest. I’m thinking about other things too. My mouth is watering for another taste of her sweet cum for sure. But, I’m about to lose my mind thinking of fucking her for the first time. Sinking so deep inside her she’ll feel it in the back of her throat. I want her to remember our first time forever. I want her sore, taking tentative steps for a week so she doesn’t go a second without remembering when I claimed her for the first time.

  “You still got that dog I see.” Enrique’s says, the seemingly ever present smile curves at the corners of his lips as Leroy limps into the circle around the fire and plops down at Rachel’s feet giving me a territorial squint before setting his head on his front paw.

  Singular.

  Jessie laughs through closed lips. “Tell Chad how you got Leroy.”

  I look across and she meets my gaze, then throws up a long neck Budweiser to her lips and empties it. Her grin is both an acknowledgement and a warning. Just don’t hurt her. I nod, and the fire isn’t the only sparkle in her eye.

  “I found him,” Rachel replies, crossing and uncrossing her ankles with a shrug of her shoulders.

  Every cute thing she does like that makes it harder to stay focused. My thumping need for her is incessant. I want to know all her stories, listen to her talk all night, but this other force swirling inside me is sure making it difficult to sit still.

  A long silence falls between us all, tense like the edge of a thunderstorm. I’m waiting to hear the rest of the story but Rachel sits there thumbing something invisible on the knee of her jeans until Enrique waves his hands in the air.

  “Naw, naw, naw.” Enrique lets out a belly laugh breaking the tension. “That’s not it. She fought a grown man for that dog.” Enrique acts the part, punching the air.

  “No. It wasn’t like that.” Rachel tries to minimize Enrique’s dramatic reenactment. She lets out a long breath and her discomfort at being the center of attention makes me want to draw her in next to me, reassure her and tell her how amazing she is.

  “Tell me what happened,” I urge, eager to know everything about her. I want to listen to her stories until she has no more to tell, then make new ones with her. “Please.”

  “Fine.” She stuffs her hair behind her ears and I see her press her luscious thighs together, making my mouth water. Jessie and Enrique seem to already know the story, so she’s not telling them. She’s telling me and I can’t believe how much I want to know. “Jessie and I were in town. I was waiting for her to come back around and pick me up outside of McMillan’s market.”

  I roll another stump next to her and sit down. The warmth from the fire is pinking her cheeks and I watch the orange and yellow sparks reflect in her eyes.

  “So, this guy pulls up in a rust bucket of a truck. He’s got Leroy in the bed. He’s wagging his tail and looking up expectantly, like he’s eager to please this guy.” Rachel looks at me for a second as she pauses to take a breath.

  I see the flush on her cheeks seeping down her neck and over her chest. My thoughts are on the swell under her shirt and those nipples hardening in my mouth.

  “And?”

  “He just smacks the dog on the side of the head as he walks by, and Leroy looks so hurt.” She stiffens her spine and I love that she’s feeling that moment of confidence. “So I jumped up and told him that wasn’t nice.”

  “She was sixteen; he must have been forty, maybe forty-five, and rounding out at three-hundred pounds if he was an ounce.” Jessie adds with her head held high.

  “Well, anyone would have done it. You don’t do that.” Rachel screws up her face in disgust at the thought, and reaches down scratch Leroy’s head. “Anyway, he made some remark about the dog being his property and he can do what he wants or something. Then he grabs Leroy by the neck and hauls him up and over the bed of the pickup, dropping him like a sack of potatoes on the sidewalk. He doesn’t even look back, just starts to walk away expecting the dog to follow.”

  Rachel chuckles and the sound of her laughter only hardens my dick more. Her laugh is the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard. Outside of her moaning, and cumming, that is.

  “And that didn’t sit well with Rachel,” Jessie adds, taking a draw on a fresh beer, her silver gray hair piled on top of her head and tied in place with a stretch of soft green cloth. Her weathered face is kind with a look of pride and admiration as she waits for Rachel to continue.

  “So?” I knock my knee into hers and that small touch sends my blood running through my ears and the wolf in me growling something about a mate. “Then what?”

  “Soooo,” she exaggerates the word. “That dog just sat his butt down and looked at me. Like he was sayin’, ‘Well? Are you going to help me or what?’ The guy turns around and calls him but Leroy doesn’t move, he just keeps looking at me. So the guy stomps back, starts to jerk his foot back like he’s going to kick him or something.” Her indignation lights a fire in her voice and my heart swells with pride.

  “I said, ‘If you kick that dog, I’m going to punch you right in your fat stomach.’ I stood up, shaking like a leaf. He laughs at me and cocks his foot back another few inches. I don’t think he expects me to be serious, but I jump forward and hit him as hard as I can, right where I thought his belly button would be, because for some reason I’ve got this notion that it’s his weakest point. I didn’t hurt him one bit. He just smiled at me. Then he leans down and starts to say something. That’s when he wasn’t expecting what came next.”

  Enrique can’t hold back his enthusiasm. “And then she comes up under his chin with another punch! Right under his chin, knocked his teeth together so hard, one of them flew out and landed on the sidewalk.”

  Vanessa lets out a hearty laugh at Enrique as he does his Rocky impression dancing around punching the night air.

  “And that dog been at her feet ever since.” Jessie smiles with a satisfied nod.

  I lean in to Rachel, wanting nothing more than to steal her away right now. Even over the smoke and delicious food smell, it’s her. A sweetness hangs in the air around her and I need it more than my body needs oxygen. I want to live off her body, she’s all the sustenance I’ll ever need.

  “You’re the most beautiful badass I’ve ever seen,” I tell her, watching her pull her shoulders up at my words. I lower my voice so only she hears. “And that ass is mine.”

  Chapter Eleven

  RACHEL

  We all laugh, and cut up and eat all the delicious food Vanessa cooked. We drink up the beer and wine, and revel in the cool air of late summer and I’m as close to heaven as I think God made here on earth.

  Much to my surprise, Chad doesn’t knock back
the Budweiser’s with Jessie and Enrique. And after some pushing from Jessie, he finally sips a bit of red wine from a Dixie cup but clearly the drink is not what he’s here for.

  “So, where are you from?” I pluck up a bit of courage to ask the gorgeous cowboy next to me an innocuous question.

  “Well, I’ve been living out west for a few years. Oklahoma.” He clears his throat and I watch his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallows. Even that part of him is sexy as heck; I imagine my lips there, feeling the masculine part of him move with the rasp of his day of beard under my lips.

  “And before that?” I bite into my last tamale, the red juice squirting out and dripping down my chin. Trying to slurp it back and hold it with one hand, I feel around for my napkin with the other before realizing I already tossed it in the fire.

  Why do I do this to myself? I was sure I wasn’t going to eat the last tamale because my stomach was already fit to burst.

  Before I stand up to go wipe my dripping chin like a four-year-old, Chad’s fingers are there, scooping the liquid off my chin.

  When he brings his fingers to his lips I can barely hold back the whimper that threatens to squeeze its way out of me. Some part of me wants to spread my legs for him right here and let him take what he wants, but instead I watch wide-eyed as he sucks his fingers clean, looking at me with eyes full of lust.

  “Delicious.” He bites his lip and another pair of panties bites the dust.

  As the night draws on, Enrique and Vanessa take the family and head off to their cabin.

  “I’m going inside too,” Jessie adds. “Now you kids stay out here and make the most of the evening...” Jessie looks over at me, then nods at Chad.

  “Wait. Jessie. Are you sure? I’ll come and help you clean up inside.”

  What is wrong with me?

  “Sit down, Rachel. I’m old but I’m not helpless. You stay out here, have a little fun.”

  “Yeah, Rachel, have some fun.” Chad’s mocking tone spins my head around.

  “Hey...I have fun!”