by Vonna Harper
Her toes and fingers curled inward the instant he ran his damp tongue over the spot where his teeth had just been. He continued to bathe her. Each wet stroke reached beyond her skin and found a connection with her pussy. Moaning, she turned away so, maybe, he wouldn’t see the naked lust she knew lay in her eyes.
She wished she could give him equal pleasure, but those thoughts only flitted through her because inch by wonderful inch his tongue and teeth forged a path. When he reached the base of her spine, he spread her butt cheeks and feathered his tongue along the valley, stopping short of her ass. She shuddered, her muscles continued their disjointed dance.
He continued working her buttocks, hips, the insides of her thighs with his mouth. Her mons pressed against the spread, and her pussy felt trapped, but she vowed to remain accessible to him for as long as he wanted.
Or so she believed until he moved between her legs, pushing her onto her knees with her legs spread wide at the same time. She didn’t try to lift her upper body. Instead, she gasped and shuddered and hung at the edge of climax while he bathed her labia. Soon, soon, he’d conquer her most sensitive organ, but although she thought she was prepared, when he closed his lips around her clit, she nearly came undone.
She couldn’t—couldn’t stop him!
But even as she frantically worked herself onto her back again, she acknowledged something incredible. He wasn’t bending her to his will. Whatever she wanted to do this morning would happen.
Delighted with her newfound knowledge, she spread her legs so he was again housed between them. Reaching up, she gripped his shoulders and leveraged herself off the spread. They touched from pelvis to breasts. He leaned away slightly to support her weight and slid his hands behind her buttocks. The position, although not entirely comfortable, sustained her while she studied him.
He needed a shave. His hair looked as if it had never seen a comb. A sleep-crease marked his cheek.
“What do you see?” he asked.
“A man. One who accepts what life made him and apologizes for nothing.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“Your background is what it is, like mine.”
“Good.” His mouth moved as if he was about to say something. Then he touched his lips to hers and she returned the gesture and nothing else mattered. At first his lips barely grazed hers, like a boy testing the waters with some girl he has a crush on. But she was no shy young girl. She matched his pace and slowly, wonderfully, the contact increased. Their mouths parted, tongues came out, and the dance heated. She allowed him entrance and then asked for and received the same gift.
For a moment she thought he was leaning toward her. Too late she realized he was no longer trying to maintain them in an upright position and fell back on the bed. He stretched over her, arms on either side of her shoulders, legs out behind him and his knees supporting his lower body.
“Got you,” he announced.
Earlier in their relationship, the announcement would signal a final rope tie or a chain lock slipping into place, but this time he held her with his greater size, his warmth and muscle. Her trust of him.
Signaling acceptance, she remained still under him, arms out, legs spread so he’d fit. His cock brushed her labia, and with his every breath, it slid over her hot and willing flesh.
“You’re ready?” he asked.
“Yes. Yes!”
While she tried to keep him in focus, he rocked back. Although the need to house him in her throbbed through her, she simply lifted her hips. Flesh slid over flesh. As the contact deepened, she again took hold of his shoulders. He began pumping into her. His expression turned intense, a man concentrating on one thing. He filled her, his shaft adding more fuel until she forgot everything except this moment, this man. Her cunt muscles began to spasm, holding him prisoner and bringing her closer to her personal mountain.
His thrusts became long, slow, and powerful. With each drive, she felt herself sliding a few inches on the bed. The friction along her back contrasted with their sweat-slickened bellies. Discomfort warred with pleasure, the sensations locking her even tighter into herself.
Thinking to give him something to ram himself against, she dug her heels into the sheet, but although their movement slowed, it didn’t stop. Her head was over the side of the bed before she realized she’d reached the edge.
He stopped, cock buried deep and full. She lifted her head and stared at him. A smile touched his beautiful mouth. “Trust me,” he said and used his thighs and cock to shove her even further. For a moment she hung in space. Her grip shifted to his waist, he reached out and placed his hands on the floor.
“Trust you?” she chided. “Are you crazy?”
“Probably.”
Their gymnastics had caused him to slip out of her, but he quickly remedied that and again began pumping. Because the alternative was to bang the back of her head on the floor, she gripped his waist, dug her heels into the bed and absorbed him. The change of position brought his cock fully against the front of her pussy.
No longer slow and long, he drove into her over and over again. Trying to brace herself became impossible so she rode with him. They now moved as one. Her pussy tightened down around him, held him long and strong. Her cunt muscles burned, adding to the fast-building climax.
When it hit, she dug her nails into his flesh, pulled herself up so her breasts kissed his chest. A sharp cry exploded from her. Another followed. Then her contractions came one upon another, signaling her climax’s breadth and intensity.
Love you, love you, love you.
* * * * *
“Enough?”
“God yes.”
“Think you’re going to be able to ride tonight?”
“Think you can run your end of the show?”
Kade didn’t answer, not that she cared. Once she’d regained control over her body, she’d taken note of the well-used carpet and had crawled back on the bed. Kade had joined her and she now lay in the crook of his arm, his deflated penis and her spent cunt all but forgotten. Thoughts and emotions she’d shoved aside earlier came back to life, but she held them at bay and concentrated on him.
“Your trailer doesn’t have a shower in it, does it?” he asked. “This one isn’t much, but it’ll work.”
“I appreciate it.” She made no effort to get up. Their sex had quite literally blown her away with its intensity, her body felt satiated. And yet—
“Are you ovulating?”
“What? I-I don’t think so. We forgot again.”
When he didn’t respond, she wondered if maybe he hadn’t forgotten protection. She started to sit up. He tightened his hold. “Not yet. We have things to talk about.”
Yes, we do. “Like what?”
“Maita, I know you raised yourself. After what was done to you, you don’t want anyone telling you how to live your life.”
“I hear a but,” she prompted when he fell silent.
“Yeah, you do.” He ran a hand along her neck then started a slow journey toward her breasts. “Damn it, you’re living out of a trailer. You don’t know where your next paycheck is coming from. If you get hurt, how are you going to support yourself?”
“I have insurance. Besides, it’s my problem, not yours.” In truth she’d been asking herself the same things.
“It won’t be if you’re carrying my child.”
My child. Touched by the emotion behind his words, she watched as he began playing with her nipple. Much more of that and she’d want a repeat performance of what had taken place half on the bed and half on the floor. “Women have been known to raise children alone. Your mother did it.”
“Hell of a job she did! Almost as good as the one that was done to you. Besides, it doesn’t have to be like that for you, for us.”
Sudden fear gripped her, prompting her to pull out of his embrace and stand. Being naked made her feel so damn vulnerable. Or was her nudity responsible?
“What is this, a proposal?” The moment she asked,
she regretted uttering the words.
He sat up. “You don’t look like a woman who’s just been proposed to. In truth, you look as if you just got thrown and stomped on.”
“Do I?”
He nodded and stood but made no move to touch her. “What was what we just did?” he demanded. “A roll in the hay? You needed an itch scratched and I was handy?”
“Stop it!” She fought the impulse to run. “Our relationship has never been like that.”
“What has it been?”
Has? Past tense? She felt lightheaded and on the brink of tears. “Life-changing,” she whispered.
His nod made her wonder if he felt the same way. But he dealt in numbers, boobs, butts. Women were a dime a dozen to him. “Did you try to make me pregnant?”
He groaned. “I don’t know.”
“What?”
“What do you want me to say?” He started to reach for her then stopped. His gaze slipped from her eyes down over her body. “Maita, when that bronc threw you and I carried you out of the arena…I don’t think I’ve ever felt such fear.”
“I…was all right.”
“I know. And I’ve seen countless cowboys thrown. Few are badly injured. Always before I figured they knew what they were getting into. Their risks weren’t my business.”
He was staring at her feet now, but she doubted he saw them. “But when I held you, something changed.”
“What did?”
“I don’t know. Damn it! I have to stop saying that! You changed something about me,” he said and met her eyes again.
“I understand,” she admitted. If only she dared touch him! “I felt— I felt as if I’d shifted inside. The world didn’t look the same anymore, my priorities changed.”
“Because I fucked you in ways you’ve never been fucked.” He sounded bitter.
“No.” She shook her head. “Yes, that was part of it but not all.”
“You mean it?”
This man had always been in control. No matter whether he was handling stock or women, he knew what he was doing. Didn’t he? “When I first realized what you did, I was both scared and eager to have you do me. At the same time I was seeing another part of you. Kade, in many respects we live in the same world.”
“What respects?”
“Rodeos. Man against animal. Challenge and risk. A return to a time when things were basic.”
“No safety nets. Life and death played out daily.”
“Exactly.” She took his hands. A moment later she slid into his arms. But even as she lifted her head for another kiss, she trembled.
“What is it?” he asked when they were done. “Something’s still wrong.”
If she was as brave as rodeo fans thought she was, she would walk away from him and be done with whatever had gone on between them. But she couldn’t, not yet. “I can’t do it, Kade.”
“Can’t do what?”
“Share you with those other women.” The words exhausted her. Although she’d spoken the death notes to their relationship, she continued to cling to him. “You want me to give up riding, but what about what you’re asking me to do?”
He stepped back but continued to hold her. She felt small and weak in his grip and wondered when she’d die inside.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She waited for the rest. If she could bring herself to speak, she’d tell him she understood—he couldn’t change who he was any more than she could. They’d shake hands and go their own way. She’d continue to ride. He’d return to his ranch with the private building. And if she turned out to be pregnant—
“Sorry I didn’t tell you this before,” he said. “I’ve worked with my last woman.”
Mute, she stared up at him.
“Maita, you don’t know how much I wanted to tell you of my decision, but I needed to know how you felt about me before I did.”
“You were afraid of being vulnerable.”
He seemed surprised by her wisdom, but it wasn’t that at all. What she understood was vulnerability, nothing else.
Before she could begin to pull her thoughts together, someone knocked on the door. “We’ve got a problem, boss,” a man yelled.
Kade swore under his breath. But instead of reaching for his clothes, he drew her against him. His erection grew. “Tonight,” he said.
“Tonight. Kade?”
“What?”
“I love you.”
“Oh god.” His grip tightened. “I love you, too.”
Epilogue
“I’m surrounded by women,” Kade muttered. “Everywhere I look, more females.”
“You’re complaining?” Maita teased and repositioned herself in the saddle. “Isn’t this every man’s dream?” She indicated the half dozen barrel racers who were working their horses in the corral she’d had him build on his property—their property now.
“If they were falling all over themselves trying to get to me, maybe.” He pasted on a stern expression she might have believed if he didn’t have his hand on her thigh. “But all they care about is their damn horses.”
“Speaking of, I’ve got to get to work.”
“Says who? This women’s lib thing has gotten out of control. Aren’t dutiful wives supposed to hop to when their husbands want a little midday quickie?” Despite the layer of denim between them, his sensual stroke accomplished what he obviously intended. Because she was on horseback with her mare between Kade and the other cowgirls she’d invited out to the ranch, hopefully they didn’t know what was happening.
“Quickie?” She glared down at him. “No wonder I’m tired. You kept me busy most of the night.”
“Busy?” His hand moved to her inner thigh, and he slid his fingers between her flesh and the saddle. “That’s not what I’d call it. If I recall, you were the insatiable one.”
“Me? What about you?”
Laughing, Kade stood on tiptoe. She leaned over and kissed her groom full and rich. Groom? Technically they’d gotten past the newlywed stage since they’d been married for three weeks now, but the honeymoon which had begun the last night of the Pendleton rodeo showed no sign of waning. If not for the strain on her back and her desire to work with the cowgirls she’d been competing against, she could have gone on kissing him, and more.
“All right, here’s the deal,” Kade said. His hand remained on her. “Since the vet’s coming in about a half hour, I’ll relent and let my woman go do her thing. But she’s going to have to pay me back for depriving me of my husbandly rights.”
“What did you have in mind?”
This time he laughed loud enough to startle her usually placid mare. “It’s for me to know and you to find out. Don’t forget, your man has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. A few tools and an occasional rope.”
Did he ever! If the others knew she and Kade had spent last night playing their own version of tag, they might kick her out of the informal barrel racing practice sessions—either that or insist on participating.
Fat chance. What went on in the bedroom and anywhere else they could think of was for the two of them.
Kade swatted her mare on the rump and turned away, but instead of joining the others, she continued to study the man she loved beyond comprehension. The last night at Pendleton had been a time for many things. Of course the sex had nearly blown the top off her head, but she’d also learned of a man who’d long wanted to belong with one woman but hadn’t known it until the right one had entered his life. She’d had revelations of her own, admissions of a lonely existence and a need to be part of someone she trusted. Although she’d always love competing, he’d changed her priorities. Now he came first—and second.
“Give it a rest!” one of the cowgirls called out. “You can scratch his itch later. We’ve got work to do.”
“I’m coming.” She urged her mare toward the women she already considered friends. They might compete against each other during a rodeo, but they helped her hone her skills in the rodeo event she and Kade had compromised
on, and she did the same for them.
Compromise was good. It meant she could continue to challenge herself doing something she loved. At the same time, Kade no longer endured the bareback event wondering whether he’d have to rush his wife and the mother of his future children to the emergency room.
“We’re taking bets,” the woman who’d yelled at her said when she joined them. “I say you’re already pregnant. Carol says three months before you’re knocked up even if you’re taking every birth control product on the market. Jane here doesn’t give a damn. She just wishes she was getting half the sex you obviously are. So…which of us wins?”
“Not until next year at the earliest,” she told them. “Before I give this all up for motherhood—” She indicated the waiting barrels. “I’m going to the finals.”
“Does your stud agree?”
“He does now.”
“Meaning?”
“Compromise.” And the world’s most understanding husband.
About the author
Vonna welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1337 Commerce Drive, #13, Stow, OH 44224.
Also by Vonna Harper:
Dark Touch
Equinox anthology
Equinox II anthology
Forced
Hard Bodies
Her Passionate Need
More Than Skin Deep anthology
Refuge
Scarlet Cavern
Storm Warnings anthology
Thunder
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
www.ellorascave.com
