Promises Prevail

by Sarah McCarty

  “You’re making me burn, Sunshine.”

  Power and pride washed through her in equal parts. She waved her ass again.

  He laughed. “What happened to my timid little wife?”

  She gave him the truth. “She’s tired of being afraid all the time.”

  “I like how she’s chasing away her fear.” A ghost of a caress on her right buttock and then he said, “Spread your legs a little more so I can see that sweet pussy.”

  A wave of awkwardness washed over her, blending with the heat simmering through her, but she didn’t give into it. Refused to give into it. This was her husband and he wanted to see her. What was wrong with that? She spread her legs.

  “Now, that’s a pretty sight.”

  She wondered how she looked to him, if the swollen, achy feeling in her pussy was visible. She arched her back and presented him a better view. When he moaned, she curved her spine, taking his view away, smiling when he hissed, “Witch,” knowing from the stroke of his hand on her flank that he liked it. Rewarding him by arching her back again. Moaning when the smooth move sent those devilish balls shifting inside of her again.

  “Damn, Sunshine, you’re going to make me come.”

  “From just this?” she gasped.

  “Yes.”

  “You don’t mind?”

  “That my wife is such a hot little temptress that just the sight of her makes me want to come?”

  “Yes.”

  “Not a bit. Tempt away.” His finger dragged along the sensitive crease where her buttock met her thigh before sliding inward, the move enhanced by the juices coating her thighs.

  His finger circled her clit with the barest of touches. She took it as an incentive, riding the wave of pleasure that he drew from her with each delicious circle of his finger. Wanting to give him the same pleasure that he gave her, she waved her ass at him like a cat in heat, letting him see what he did to her, hoping he liked it, wanting to be the kind of lover he deserved.

  “Son of a bitch.” The curse came out a hoarse parody of Clint’s normally soothing drawl. The smile that rose from deep within shocked her as much as it delighted her. She was a temptress, because only a temptress could bring a sound that tortured, that delighted from a man’s lips. From Clint McKinnely’s lips. She pushed back with her arms, reaching for him with her ass. His fingers slid off her clit, but that didn’t matter, because she found something better. The broad head of his cock nudged her thigh. “Is that what you want, Jenna?”

  The head moved up until it settled against the pad of her pussy. He had to be holding it with his hand. His cock was too long, the head too heavy to stand on its own. He shifted. The rim behind the head caught on her clit, plucking it gently.

  “Yes.” She closed her eyes and threw her head back as the sensation charged through her. Oh yes. That was definitely what she wanted.

  “Good, because it’s what I want, too.” He pressed the head of his thick cock against her clit, pushing it up into her vulva, holding it against her so tightly that she felt the heavy throb of his pulse vibrating down her engorged clit. She bit her lip and bent her knees. Wanting more.

  She almost cried when he pulled away. She tried to close her thighs, but he slipped along the well-juiced flesh with no resistance.

  “Shhh, baby.” His hand patted her ass. “We’ll get back to that, but there’s something I’ve been dreaming about all morning that I want to get to.”

  What could be better than what they were doing now? She didn’t have to wait long to find out. There was a soft thud and then the moist heat of his breath on her starving pussy.

  “A little wider, Sunshine.” The order was emphasized by his palms on the insides of her thighs. She shifted her grip and her feet until she was braced to the side of the stairs.

  “I can’t go any further.”

  “That’ll do.” His tongue lapped the juices on the inside of her thighs. “Damn, you’re sweet.”

  She looked between her legs to see him running his tongue over his lips, savoring her taste. His gaze, blacker than night with the emotions riding him, met hers. She closed her eyes as mortification and lust rolled over her, but nothing could block the memory of his expression, the desire stamped on the lean, chiseled features, the lust burning inside him, the openness with which he showed her his desire. Not as though it was something dirty, but something to cherish. As if it was a…gift, she realized. She opened her eyes.

  “Clint?”

  “What?”

  He nipped the inside of her thigh. She jerked. He steadied her with his hands as she gasped, “I need to say this.”

  “No one’s stopping you.” He breathed the words against her. The reverberations shivered up her spine. His tongue tapped at the seam of her labia, wiggling between the soft nether lips.

  He was. How could she talk with that insidious tongue vibrating against her? He turned beneath her.

  “Bend your knees.” As soon as she did Clint slid his massive shoulders through as he leaned back on the stair under her. His mouth was even with her groin. He looked up at her as he cupped her buttocks in his big hands. “Sit back on my hands.”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Your leg’s hurting.”

  “I’m all right.” It was, but how could he know?

  “Sit back, Jenna.”

  “I’m too heavy.”

  “Sit back.” She did, eyes closed, keeping most of her weight on her hands, gingerly giving him just a tiny fraction of it. Enough to satisfy him. She was wrong. “All of it, Sunshine.”

  “You can’t—”

  “I can.” There was no hesitation in his voice or his expression. He expected complete obedience.

  She gave it, expecting his arms to buckle. Instead, he didn’t even seem to notice, merely humming in satisfaction as he tilted his head in and pressed a kiss at the top of her pussy.

  “Now, what did you want to tell me?”

  She was used to feeling big. Awkward. Bulky. Clint made her feel dainty, feminine, and beautiful. Irresistibly beautiful.

  “I just wanted to say thank you.”

  He drew back, the tip of his tongue lingering against her moist flesh as he cocked an eyebrow at her. “For what?”

  Heat washed over her cheeks. Darn it, she was blushing again. But how could she not when the handsomest man alive knelt between her thighs, his mouth an inch from her throbbing pussy, anticipation lightening his expression and tilting the corners of his beautiful mouth?

  “For…” Oh God, what had she been going to say? For liking her? That was too pathetic and not at all who she wanted to be. And it wasn’t even what she wanted to say. She gathered her courage and the truth he deserved. “For making this beautiful.”

  Approval joined the other emotions on his face. “Sunshine, if anyone is going to be thanking anyone, it’s me.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “You make me feel.”

  “I’m glad.” She noted that he didn’t add anything to the end of that. Not good, not hot. Just feel. She touched his hair where it pooled on the step between her hands. It was cool and silky. Soothing.

  “Good,” he murmured as he leaned in.

  She felt as though he touched her with more than his tongue. That in this moment, she had more of him than she’d ever had before. She didn’t know what it was, but she wanted it. She wanted this openness with her husband, even if she didn’t know what to do with it.

  And then she stopped thinking as he took her into his mouth, holding her in the position he wanted with his hands, nibbling and sucking at her clit before lapping at the juices that welled, humming against her sensitive bud as he took his pleasure, causing more cream to flow, driving her higher—away from conscious thought, straight into pure sensation.

  She rocked on his mouth, the little balls going with her, adding their own brand of torment to the moment. With every stroke of his tongue, she climbed higher. With every nibble of his lips, the invisible wires inside coiled tighter and
tighter, until she couldn’t hold back her scream.

  “Shh, baby,” he murmured. “I’ll make it better in a minute.”

  She didn’t want to wait a minute. She wanted it now. As he attempted to slide out from between her thighs, she clamped down. Her strength was no match for his. He laughed, nipped her inner thigh and slid free, shifting her weight back to her responsibility as he rose behind her.

  His fingers slipped into her wet slit, moving gently against her flesh, and then he pulled out. The balls shifted, moved, stretched her outward before popping free. He dropped them, catching her as her knees buckled. The balls rolled down the stairs with loud thumps as she futilely tried to suppress a scream. Her body ached for him.

  “I’m right here, Jenna.”

  His chest came down over her back, his hands settled beside hers. Between her thighs she could see his cock, hard and engorged, stretching almost to the stair with the weight of the wide plum-shaped head. As she watched, a pearl of fluid beaded the tip, dangled precariously a second before falling to the stair tread.

  “Oh God.”

  His chin came to rest on her shoulder. His hair swung into view, bringing with it the scent of pine and smoke and outdoors. “Bring me home, Jenna.”

  She reached between them. His cock was hot to the touch. Rock-hard. She just needed to angle him up and they’d both have what they wanted. She hesitated.

  “What if someone comes in?”

  “Then you’ll stand up.”

  He was right, all she had to do was stand up and her skirts would fall into place and no one except she would know about the fire raging inside. She looked between their legs. Unless they recognized those little balls down there at the foot of the stairs.

  Another bead of moisture formed on the tip of his cock, growing bigger, stretching into a teardrop. She caught it with her thumb, smoothing it over the slit, tracing it back and forth, back and forth. She didn’t want to waste any of this.

  “Jenna, if you don’t want me to come in your hand, you’ll stop doing that.”

  On the next pass of her thumb, his hips bucked against her. His arms trembled against her shoulders. His lips brushed her ear as she debated what she wanted to do with all that power that was in her control.

  “Make a decision, Jenna.”

  In her. She wanted him in her. And to hell with who might see. She angled his cock up as he pulled back until he was nudging her pussy. With a pulse of his hips, he seated the head in the well of her vagina.

  She braced herself for his thrust. It didn’t come. Instead, he spread her slowly, giving her gentleness instead of possession, trapping her between seduction and expectation, making her burn and ache as her muscles parted to accept his breadth.

  “Nice and easy, baby,” he whispered against her ear, his breath wafting across her cheek. “Just relax and take me in.” His hips pulsed against hers. “A little at a time. Just you and me and nothing else.”

  Yes. Just them. Here. Together. She pushed back, taking him deeper, the pleasure spiking higher as his cock pierced the tight confines of her pussy.

  “Oh God!”

  He froze, his hands on her hips, keeping her still. “Damn it, Jenna, did I hurt you?”

  “No.” Nothing he did could ever hurt her. “Don’t stop.”

  He didn’t even seem to breathe as he asked, “Do you want more?”

  “Yes.” She wanted everything he had to give her.

  “Baby, how did I get so lucky as to marry you?”

  “You asked?”

  He laughed—a harsh tortured sound. “Now you chose to crack a joke?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He kissed her cheek. “Don’t be sorry,” he rasped as he wedged his cock deeper, “Just promise to do it again later when I can appreciate it.”

  Reason fled as he seated himself to the hilt and gave her everything he had.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”

  Jenna shook her head as Clint helped her down from the buckboard, pulling her cloak around her and Brianna as the wind blew down the busy street.

  “I’ll be fine.” In truth she was dreading the shopping trip. It was a safe bet that her marriage to Clint McKinnely was going to be the talk of the town. People would no doubt be curious. She’d just have to get through it.

  Clint straightened her collar. She glanced up. He didn’t bother to try to hide the concern in his eyes. She wasn’t very good at keeping things from him.

  “Sure?”

  She ducked her head so he wouldn’t see the nervousness she was sure was apparent in her eyes. Having to mingle in town was always dicey. In her restaurant she had control, but going from store to store meant exposure and risk.

  “You have your meeting.” She hefted Bri’s weight to her hip.

  His forefinger bumped up her chin. “I can reschedule.”

  “I’m just going to get some things.”

  “I have an account at the store. Get whatever you want.”

  “You told me that twice already.”

  His finger stroked her cheek as the wind blew his hair around his shoulders.

  “I’ll probably keep saying it until I believe you mean to spend it.”

  “We don’t need much.”

  “Sunshine, I’ve got more money than you could spend on your most frivolous day. It’s all just been sitting there, waiting for my wife to come along.”

  “I’ll take good care of it.” She rested her fingers on his arm, loving the way his muscles flexed under her touch.

  His breath hissed out from between his teeth. “I don’t want you to take care of it. I want you to run amok with it.” He tipped her chin up again with his thumb. The brim of his hat blocked the sun as his head tilted. “If I don’t come back to find this wagon loaded to the sides with every notion and knickknack that you need or fancy, I’m going to be pissed.”

  He punctuated the statement with a hard kiss. It was over before it began. She licked her lips, catching a lingering flicker of his taste. “I’ll do my best.”

  “You sure you don’t want to tell me what has your tail in a twist about a day of shopping?” He smoothed his thumb over her lips, the worry still lingering in his dark eyes.

  “Yes.” She was one hundred percent sure. If she had her way she’d go to her grave with the information.

  He held her chin and her gaze. She tried not to flinch. She made it for as long as she could hold her breath before she had to lower hers. Before Clint, looking a man in the eye had always meant a severe beating. She felt his lips brush the top of her head.

  “You’re doing better, Sunshine.”

  “Thank you.”

  “If you need me I’ll be at the bank or the saloon.”

  “The saloon?” It came out sharper than she intended. The bitter taste of jealousy filled her mouth. She clenched her fingers on her cloak. It wasn’t her place to question Clint’s movements.

  “Jasper likes to talk business over a drink.”

  “You don’t drink.”

  “Sure I do.”

  “Oh.” A drink in his office wouldn’t be the same as in the saloon where there were loose women available to pour.

  “And Jenna?”

  The thumb under her chin insisted she raise her face. She didn’t want to. She knew he’d be able to see the truth. She didn’t want another woman anywhere near him.

  “Look at me, Jenna.”

  She did, blinking when wind whipped his hair across her face in a silken reprimand.

  “You don’t have to worry about me with other women.”

  “I wouldn’t presume—”

  His thumb stroked over her lower lip, pulling it away from her teeth as he drawled, “I want you to presume, baby. I want you to put your brand all over me.”

  She looked at him. There was no mockery in his gaze, no glimmer of humor. He was dead serious. She knew he meant that, but he didn’t know everything about her, what she’d done
. It was easy to make bold statements when a person didn’t know everything.

  “You’re going to be late for your meeting.”

  His hand dropped from her face. “And you have a ton of shopping to do.”

  “I’ve got my list.” The paper crinkled in her palm against Brianna’s back as she tightened her grip.

  “Let me see it.” She handed it over without a qualm. She’d been very thorough in assessing their needs. Running a house was her one area of expertise. There was absolutely no reason for his frown.

  “What?” Her tone brought a smile to the corners of his mouth. The man was pure contrary.

  “You forgot something.”

  “What.”

  “I’ve got it.” He pulled a pencil from his pocket and leaned the scrap of brown paper against the wagon. With every scratch of the pencil, her resentment grew. There was no way she’d forgotten all that. And still he kept writing. She tapped her toe impatiently. His smile broadened. “No sense tapping your foot and frowning. I’m not making another run into town until a week from Saturday. It’s important the list be complete.”

  “It is complete.”

  “Now it’s complete.” With a last tap of the lead point on paper, he folded the list and handed it back to her.

  She started to open it. He folded her hand around the paper and kissed her again, this time more softly and with an edge of humor. His tongue traced the seam of her lips—slow and easy—the way that he knew fractured her grasp on propriety until, right there in the street, in front of the mercantile, with her daughter in her arms, and the town no doubt watching, she leaned into him, needing more of his touch, his flavor, his heat.

  “Ah Sunshine, you tempt me.”

  He didn’t sound at all upset about it. Despite the blush that she knew made her cheeks cherry red, she smiled. “I’m doing my best.”

  The heat level in his gaze went from a spark to a flagrant roar. Against her thigh, his cock surged and thickened. Oh, he liked it when she was bold. And truth be told, with every attempt she was liking it more and more. She liked being a temptress. At least with Clint.

  “You, Sunshine, could burn a man to cinders.” He cupped her face in his callused palm. She hadn’t recognized the slight hitch in his breath before, but now she knew it for what it was. Desire. For her. A desire he wasn’t shy about showing her. She liked that, maybe best of all.