by Lauren Wood
“Dante, oh God, yes!”
Another rush of fluid and I knew that she was coming on my cock again. Her body vibrated and her legs visibly shook as she clenched my dick with her inner muscles.
I couldn’t take anymore and I finally filled her with my hot seed. It was intense and I had to brace myself to the stable in front of us to guarantee that I wasn’t going to fall myself. Every time with her was better than the last, but there was something different this time around. It was more than I could ask for.
As I pulled out of her finally, I saw a bit of the stickiness coming out of her and running down her leg with the trails that her own orgasm had made. I had never seen such a beautiful sight before. As always, she was more than I could stand.
When she moved back to her knees and took me back into her mouth, my tip was so sensitive that I had to pull away.
“Cece.”
“What? I was just helping you clean it off a little.”
I didn’t know what to say, but I knew that I wanted more of what she was offering. I could have had her again, but Cece slapped my hand away.
“That’s enough. I have to get to bed. I just wanted to see you before I went upstairs.”
Cecelia was putting her clothes on and I was looking after her like she have very well just lost her mind. I don’t know what game she was playing, but I still wanted to talk. We had a lot of unfinished business that had to be attended to, one way or another. I wasn’t going to be able to just let it all go. I wasn’t able.
“I think that we should have a conversation Cece, don’t you? I mean, after the day we have had, after that…”
Cece just shook her head no. “No I think no words are needed. Thanks for that Dante. I really needed it.”
Chapter 20
Cecelia
It had been a couple of weeks since the fiasco with Dante and Darryl. Ashlea finally came clean about being with Dante a few times when she found out that I knew. I hated to hear about him and at some point I confessed that I was with Dante now. The silence was awkward, but it was no better than when Karen found out. Conroe was a small town and when I got Karen’s voicemail that she as coming over, I knew what it was that she wanted to talk about.
Now she was here and by the look on her face, she wasn’t going to give me a break on this.
“Hey girl, how have you been? It’s been a while since I have seen you Karen.”
“Don’t hey girl me. You know what I want to talk about and I am going to say now that I am a little mad that I had to hear from Ashlea about the new man in your life. No wonder you have been avoiding me.”
I had been avoiding her just a little bit, but that wasn’t the sole reason or even the biggest one.
“Karen, you know it is not like that. I have just been really busy since we started renting out the horses for shows and stuff. I can’t believe how much revenue it has brought in, but it is still taking up all of my time.”
“Uh huh.”
She didn’t believe me and she sat down on the stool at the bar, letting me know that she wasn’t budging until she got what she wanted. What she wanted was the scoop and it was not something that I was even sure about myself.
“So…”
I sighed and sat down next to her. I was starting to wonder if I needed to get some wine. I started to have a feeling that I was going to need it. I hadn’t really thought to myself what this was with Dante yet. I knew that I was being a lot more careful about how I approached it all because I wasn’t sure what it was that I wanted to do. I didn’t know what we were, but I know that I had backed up a lot with my heart. We still made love almost nightly and I felt myself falling a little more every night, but I still tried to tell myself that it was a good thing.
“So, I don’t know what to say. Dante and I have been having a little fun on the side. That’s it.”
She looked at me with an accusatory look and I know that she had every reason to feel that way. I still remembered what I said to her about him months ago when she asked. I was always clear that he wasn’t a guy that I wanted to have anything to do with. Was I the whole time trying to defer her so that he could be mine? I didn’t like to think that it was true, but I knew that it was a good possibility. There had always been something about him that pulled me in.
“You told me that he wasn’t a good boyfriend type. Remember?”
“I do remember and I still hold to that. He isn’t a good boyfriend type, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends.”
“That is not what you told me. You told me that I would fall in love and he would break my heart.”
I started to feel a redness come over me and my eyes burned, a knot formed in my throat. It was exactly that way. It was exactly what had happened to me and as much as I hated it, I had been right.
“Cecelia, what is wrong?”
I didn’t want to look at her, but Karen wasn’t going to let it go. I didn’t cry much, never had been one to break down, but to say out loud what was happening to me just crack my veneer just a little bit. It was hard to hear out loud why I hurt so much.
She put her arm around me and told me that it was going to be okay.
“I don’t think it is. I fell for him hard and I don’t know if I am ever going to feel better. Sometimes I really don’t know if I am or not. All I can think about is that he is not mine and he never will be. I didn’t want this to happen to you. I still don’t know how it happened, but now I am in way too deep.”
It felt good to get it out, like a flood gate was finally releasing all of the water that was rushing through. I stayed that way for a moment before I moved back a bit. “I am going to get some wine.”
“Yes girl, I think we need it.”
She made me laugh when I had literally just been crying and that was why she was so special to me. I don’t know what I would do without her and I never wanted to find out. It wasn’t something that I ever wanted to have to think about.
“I am sorry I pushed you away from him.”
Karen scoffed. “I don’t blame you. That man is fine. You know you are going to have to tell me everything. I took off the rest of the afternoon for this and I was supposed to work this evening, so we are going to drink wine and you are going to dish on that sexy ass man that you are having ‘fun’ with.”
I sighed at her air quotes and took a drink of the wine. She had a good plan and as we moved upstairs, it was good to finally have someone to talk to about this. I needed some prospective more than anything else. I needed someone to tell me if I was just being an idiot or what it was that was going on. She was the only one that I trusted with this kind of thing and for once, it felt like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulder.
“So?”
“Are we not going to ease into it?”
Karen shook her head that we weren’t and I had to admit, she had the funniest look on her face. I don’t know what I was supposed to say to that, but I really couldn’t help it.
“Well let’s just say that he is everything that you would hope he is, and so much more.”
***
“See you later Dante. It was good to see you again.”
Dante waved at Karen and then looked at me confused. “Haven’t seen her in a while.”
“It’s been a busy month or so.”
He agreed and then pulled me to him. “I was thinking about you all day.”
“Were you?”
Dante nodded his head that he was and it made me smile inside. I liked to hear things like that, but as I had told Karen, I still wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with Dante. I knew how I felt, but I also knew that I couldn’t trust him. How could we be together if I couldn’t trust him? It just didn’t seem to make any sense to me at all. How could we ever be anything more if he was a certain way? More importantly, why was I still playing this game if I knew that I was going to lose?
“Yes, are you ready to go upstairs and see if we can find something to entertain ourselves?”
I liked the sound of it, but I wasn’t ready to fall into his vortex again. I needed some more time and I knew once I was in his arms for the night, I wouldn’t get anything else done. I couldn’t even think when he had his hands on me.
“No Dante, I have to get some thinking done.”
“Uh, oh. Every time you get to thinking, something bad happens.”
I pushed him away and told him that it wasn’t true. “You want to talk now and that means that I am not going to get any nookie.”
“I didn’t say you wouldn’t, just not right now. Why don’t we talk for a little bit? I have a few new jobs lined up for next week that are a little different and I want to know how you feel about them.”
“Oh?”
He didn’t look like he was that happy to hear about it, but I was going to ignore his reaction. After talking to Karen, she had me thinking about where this was all supposed to lead to. I knew that I wanted him in my life, but could my heart really take it?
But in the end I told him about the driving job for him and another person to take a couple of horses and help drive some cattle about a hundred miles away. It was for an old family friend, so I wouldn’t usually offer. I would have liked to go myself, but I was due at another rodeo looking for more clients.
His reaction was not what I thought it would be. “How long is it going to be for?”
I shrugged and told him that it was usually a week or so.
“You want me to stay away for a week?”
“No, it’s not like that Dante. I have things I have to do here. I have done it for them for years, my parents had always helped them. It would be a favor to me and I will make sure to give you a good bonus for it. I don’t want to break the tradition.”
“Who else is going?”
There weren’t that many people that could go, that were capable enough and had enough experience to take on such a challenge. I know who I had in mind for it, but I wanted to give Dante the option to choose for himself. I wasn’t going to make him go with someone he didn’t like.
“It’s up to you. Whoever you think is willing and able. They will get a good bump in pay as well. I have to go out to Houston or I would go. I have to leave out in the morning and I wanted to make sure it was taken care of. I am counting on you.”
It was hard for me to say such a thing to him, but he smiled at me and told me that he would take care of everything. That was all I wanted to hear and I was finally ready to push it all out of my mind. Dante had an idea of what he wanted to do.
“Are we done talking now Cece, because if I am not going to see you for a week, I am going to need some good loving tonight.”
I groaned at the way he said it. He was being cheesy, but when he wrapped his arms around me and bent down to kiss me on the lips, there was nothing else I could do but go with it.
It was going to be the longest we had been apart. But I figured it would be good for us. I would be able to get my mind right and I could keep a promise that my father made to Mr. Murphy many years before. I wanted to keep it going because it felt like it was keeping the memory of my father alive as well. It was the little things like that making it bearable to move on from it all.
Dante was there to keep my mind off of everything and I followed him upstairs to my room. If this was going to be our last night together for a while, I agreed wholeheartedly on making it one to remember.
But come on, how could I ever forget about Dante?
Chapter 21
Dante
By the time I finally got to bed, it was well into the morning. It was almost light outside when we finally decided that we had had enough. My body was sore, something that didn’t happen very often, but what surprised me more was the fact that I was alone when I woke up and the sun was shining. It was too late for it to be seven and where was Cece?
I got up and started to get dressed when I saw a note on the nightstand. She was on her way to Houston and she told me to have a safe trip. It was just signed with her familiar cursive scrawl and I didn’t know how I felt. She didn’t even say good bye. Cece was really bad about taking off, though again I never knew what was on her mind.
Going downstairs, there were a couple of people kind of hanging around and it didn’t take long for me to realize that they were waiting for me. Cece had told them to wait around so that I could pick who I wanted. There were two new guys that I had no intentions on taking, Carl and then Barb.
“So Carl, you want to go for a little road trip for a week or so?”
He looked at me like I was crazy and I could tell that Cece had said nothing about it. I sighed to myself and tried not to let it get to me. She had left me without a goodbye and with some dirty work.
“What?”
“We need to do a cattle drive for Mr. Murphy to get his animals out to the grazing land. You haven’t done it before?”
He shook his head and I could tell that he didn’t want to go. It wasn’t hard to see as his face was all scrunched up. I think if he could have melted into the floor right then he would have.
“Well you know Marcy isn’t going to be too happy about me being gone that long.”
He was leaving it open, not outright refusing, but making it clear that he didn’t want to go. Which meant that I could force him, but it would be miserable for us both and I don’t think I was ready to give us such a death sentence. It was bad enough I was going to have to sleep in a tent the next week on the ground. I wasn’t looking forward to it either.
It also made me realize that there was only one viable option left. I turned to Barb and she smiled at me. She knew what I was going to ask and offered before I even got a chance to ask her about it.
“I will go with you Dante. I am sure that it will be better than staying around here.”
I groaned inwardly, but I wasn’t going to take two green guys. I would have to spend most of my time making sure they weren’t trampled. Cattle-driving wasn’t for the faint of heart, so I had no other choice. I had to wonder why Barb was an option given. Did Cece want me to pick her?
I pushed the thoughts from my head and told Barb that I was glad she was coming. “I appreciate the help, really I do. I know that this is important to the boss, so I am glad that you are willing to help.”
“Anything for you Dante.”
I looked away from the raw lust in her eyes and tried to pretend like I didn’t see it. Carl was happy that he didn’t have to go, but I could see the way he was looking from one to the other.
“Well thanks for not making me go. I would never hear the end of it from the old lady. The more pregnant she gets, the more she wants me around.”
“How far is she now?”
“Six months.”
“Well you should be home with her. She is going to need help and you trapesing around the countryside isn’t going to help her wellbeing.”
“I never thought I would be so excited about a family, but damned if I ain’t.”
I liked that someone at the ranch was finding true love. I never thought about kids either, but I was thinking about how I wanted things to change and how much I wanted Cece as my own. How would I feel if she turned out pregnant? Then she wouldn’t be able to just take off whenever she wanted and to me that sounded like a damn good thing.
I went back to upstairs and got a few things out of Cece’s room before I went to the hand house and packed a duffel bag. It was going to be a week and it wasn’t something I was looking forward to, but this was not the first time I had done this sort of thing. It used to be my job a long time ago when I first got into working on ranches. The worst part of it all was that I wasn’t going to be able to see Cece for all of that time.
“I am ready when you are boss.”
Barb was smiling again and I didn’t trust the expression on her face or the look in her eyes. I knew that she had something up her sleeve and I thought about picking the two greens instead. Maybe it would be easier than trying to keep a rope on Barb. She was nothing but trouble.
&nb
sp; “Yeah I guess I am.”
Her smile faltered a little bit. “Oh, well you don’t sound too excited about it.”
“It is a week sleeping on the ground. There isn’t much to get excited about.”
“I hear there is a pay bump that would be handy.”
I nodded my head, but didn’t answer one way or another. I wasn’t too worried about pay. I made enough as it was. I was only doing this because Cece asked me to and I would do anything to make her happy. Even if it meant that I had to deal with Barb for the next week. At least there would be more of us on the drive then just me and her. The Murphy’s had two sons that were going as well. Steve I had worked with before, but Kevin was a stranger. At least there would be one person sane enough to talk to.
We piled up in the truck and I tried to ignore her altogether on the short trip over there. The horses were already in the trailer, so when we got there, it was just unloading them and loading them up with our packs. Barb was pouting from being ignored, but I figured that it was better than getting into a conversation with her. Ever since that night at the bar and her comments when I got home, I decided that it was best just to keep my distance. That girl was just drama. When Kevin, the older brother started to flirt with her, I took that as a good sign. At least now she would be off of my back.
“Should I warn your brother about her?”
Steve grinned and shook his head no. “Nah, he wouldn’t listen anyways. He loves blondes.”
I held my tongue about her true nature. Steve knew a bit about her and I know that he at least had the sense to stay away. If he wanted his brother to know, he could warn him. I was just going to be Switzerland for the week, staying as far out of it as I possibly could.
***
The first night was pretty uneventful. We hadn’t been out on the range that long and we hadn’t all realized that we were going to be doing this night after night. At the moment it was new and even a little fun to cook a can of beans on an open fire and to just enjoy the cool breeze from the evening. I went to bed content with how everything was going, but my peace was quickly broken when I heard something in my tent.
