by Delta James
“Uhm, no. But thanks for offering.”
“Anytime, sweetheart. As I said, your ass felt nice bouncing under my hand as I spanked you.”
“Well, your hand didn’t feel so nice to my ass when you were doing it.”
He stopped in front of the house and kissed her. “I think that’s the way it’s supposed to work.”
They got out of the truck and walked up to the house with their arms wrapped around each other. The front door opened and Hank Malone stepped out. Ryder barely managed to suppress a groan.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said, coming down the front porch steps. “I didn’t expect to see you two all cozied up so soon. I heard in town that John set it up so you could get your girl back.”
“Hey, Hank. Good to see you too. I don’t suppose that red Beamer is a rental?” asked Ryder, already knowing the answer.
“Hell, no. I need a car to get around in and you sold my last one.”
“I sold it because it belonged to the ranch and believe it or not, the ranch doesn’t need a Beamer.”
“It’s my ranch and I need it.”
Sierra could see the tension and anger building in Ryder. “Hank, I think Ryder was just trying to get Crooked Creek back on better footing. What with you not being here…”
“Your daddy may be dead, Sierra, but I’m not. And this is still my ranch.”
Ryder glanced at Sierra. She knew that her facial expression showed the pain Hank Malone’s words had caused her. Ryder stepped in front of her. “That’s enough, Hank. You want to be pissed at me, that’s fine. But you don’t talk to my fiancée that way.”
“Fiancée? That was quick work, boy, but I don’t see a ring on her finger.”
Ryder pushed by him. “We were just coming to remedy that. Now, if you’ll excuse us.” He took Sierra by the hand and they went up the steps and into the house.
“If you want to do this later, we can. Maybe it’s not the best time.”
Ryder turned to her, pulled her into his body and kissed her hard. “Oh, no, you don’t, little girl. That ring’s been missing off your finger for far too long. And you remember what I said about if you ever take it off again.”
She smiled. “Yes, sir.”
He chuckled. “Damn right, yes, sir.”
They walked into the study and Ryder opened the safe. There, nestled in a dark blue velvet box, was his grandmother’s ring. He pulled it out, opened the box, and once again placed it on Sierra’s finger. “I mean it, Freckles. Don’t you ever take it off again.”
She nodded solemnly. “Never again.”
“Did I ever tell you how I got my grandmother’s ring?”
Sierra shook her head.
“When my grandfather died, my grandmother took off her wedding set and my grandfather’s ring. She gave them to me and told me I was to save them for the right girl. She couldn’t see being buried with a diamond and pearl ring on her finger. She replaced both her ring and his with plain gold bands engraved with ‘Always Together’ and the date they got married. That’s what they were buried in.”
Sierra felt choked up; she could see the emotion in Ryder too. “I always thought your grandmother was the ultimate ranch wife. So pretty and so classy. Always a lady. I remember thinking she was going to hate me.”
“Sierra, my grandmother adored you. She always knew you were the girl I was going to marry.”
Sierra giggled. “I liked her too. I didn’t think we had anything in common until I saw her rope and hogtie a steer. Then I knew she was exactly what I wanted to be.”
She was kissing Ryder when his father joined them. “Hey, who told you that you could take over my bedroom? I’m not sleeping upstairs. This is my…”
Ryder was bristling and Sierra knew he’d had about as much of Hank Malone as he was willing to take. “Hank, you just go ahead and take over your old bedroom. Ryder won’t be staying here anyway.”
“Well, where the hell is he going to stay?”
Sierra leaned up and kissed Hank on the cheek. “Why, that would be with me,” she said with a giggle.
Ryder chuckled. “And that, Hank, outweighs any accommodation at Crooked Creek. I’ve asked Charlie Lawson to work out of Crooked Creek for a while. We’re going to exchange out some men over the winter to give ours a bit more seasoning. You can ask Charlie anything as I’ve brought him up to speed and I’ll be at the Flying M if you need anything.”
He wrapped his arm around Sierra and steered her toward the door. Sierra couldn’t stop looking at her ring.
When they were out of earshot, he said softly, “I never asked you last time if you wanted to wear my grandmother’s ring. If you want I can buy you another.”
“And give you an excuse to take your belt to my ass? No way. I may have been dumb enough to let you go once, but I’m not so stupid as to give you a reason to put me over your knee again.”
He laughed at her. “Don’t kid yourself, Freckles, I’m sure you’ll give me plenty of reasons. I’m not so stupid as to think one spanking, a good hard fucking, and my grandmother’s ring will tame my wild cowgirl and truth to tell, I’m pretty okay with that.”
“Let’s go home. You’re not the only one I need to apologize to.”
He chuckled. “You were kind of a brat to Charlie and Ruth.”
“Charlie is used to the sharp side of my temper and the minute Ruthie spies this ring, all will be forgiven. You know, she never did believe what I thought and people said. She always said it didn’t make sense to her.”
“Ruth is a wise woman and an excellent judge of character. So should I tell Ruth she needs to make up the other guest room?”
“I think that would be kind of silly, don’t you?”
“I do. I’m thinking I’m going to be sleeping in that big old iron bed of yours.”
* * *
The sun had set and darkness was beginning to gather by the time they reached the Flying M. They walked up to the kitchen door and entered to find Charlie having a beer at the kitchen table and the table set for four.
“Well now, Ruth,” drawled Charlie. “This looks promising. Neither of them look like the other managed to injure them and Sierra’s not hissing and spitting at Ryder.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” Sierra quipped. “You want a beer, babe?”
“Babe, is it?” laughed Charlie.
“Whatever she wants to call me is fine with me with certain exceptions about cursing at me.”
Ruth turned around smiling and Sierra brought her left hand up in front of her face, waggling her fingers. “Oh, my heavens!” Ruth exclaimed happily as she rushed to Sierra and hugged her.
Charlie laughed out loud, grinning at Ryder. “Well, I’ll be damned. I guess you got things worked out?”
“You might say that.”
Ruth rushed over to him and hugged him as well. “I always knew you two would get back together. This calls for a celebration.”
“Do you think it’s too soon?” asked Sierra quietly.
“Oh, hell, no,” said Charlie. “Your daddy would have been the first to say that life goes on. We’re given plenty of sorrows. We have to enjoy all the good things as they come our way.”
“Babe, if you don’t feel up to it or it’s too soon for you…”
She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. “No, I’d say it was about damn time. And Charlie is right… Daddy would have agreed with me. And Ruthie, you don’t need to worry about making up the guest room.”
“I already did. But the worst part is I owe that old cahoot over there twenty dollars.” In answer to the unasked question on Sierra’s and Ryder’s faces, she said, “When Ryder took off after you this morning, Charlie said he’d bet money you two would put your differences aside and be back together by the time you got home tonight. I told him to put his money where his mouth was. Best twenty-dollar bet I ever lost.”
Ryder reached into his wallet, pulled out a twenty-dollar bill, and handed it to Charlie. “Don’t worry
about it, Ruth. I’ll cover that loss for you, but let that be a lesson to you not to bet against me… especially where my freckle-faced cowgirl is concerned.”
Sierra handed Ryder his beer and went to help Ruth finish putting their meal together. After dinner, Ruth shooed everyone out of her kitchen. Charlie headed for his foreman’s cottage and Ryder and Sierra went into the main living area of the house. Ryder headed toward the couch, but Sierra headed toward the stairs.
“Tired of me already?” she teased.
Ryder jumped the low-backed couch and rushed her, scooping her up and throwing her over his shoulder as he ran up the stairs. “Hell, no, woman. I was just trying to be a gentleman.” He got to their room and tossed her onto the bed before turning and closing the door.
“Youch! Could you be a bit more careful about my sore butt?” she said, laughing at him. “It still hurts… a lot.”
“And will probably have some residual sting for a few days.”
“Are you the least bit sorry that it hurts when I sit or lie down on my back?”
He shook his head. “Nope. And I’m not going to be the least bit sorry come tomorrow morning when your girlie parts are sore as hell from my use of them all night.”
“Oh, you think you’re going to make me sore? How do you know I haven’t been out fucking every cowboy in the county?”
“Because I know you. I don’t expect you to have lived like a nun, but promiscuous just isn’t part of who you are. Besides which I asked your father if there was anybody I needed to worry about where staking my claim on you was concerned.”
“And he told you the truth? That rat!” she giggled.
“Don’t take what I’m about to say wrong, but I’ve missed sleeping with you. God knows I missed the mind-blowing sex and the way you were always responsive to me, but I remember waking up really early one morning in your bed and thinking I couldn’t wait until I could do so and not worry about your daddy finding me there.”
“I missed you too. I didn’t wash the pillowcase you’d used the last time you were in my bed until I couldn’t smell you anymore.”
Ryder sat down on the edge of the bed and ran his hand over her possessively. Taking his wallet and keys out of his jeans, he went to place them in the upper drawer of her nightstand. Sierra tried to stop him. He prevented her from doing so and opened the drawer.
Chuckling, he pulled out her vibrator and held it up before walking into the bathroom with it and tossing it in the garbage. Returning to the bedroom, he looked at her blush-stained cheeks.
“You won’t be needing that anymore,” he said, grinning at her.
“Oh, God, could the earth just swallow me up now?”
He laughed as he crawled across the bed for her. “And for the record, little girl, all those girlie parts I alluded to earlier?” She nodded. “Are mine and I don’t share my favorite toys with anyone… including you.”
She looked at him and then placed her hand possessively on his package. “Neither do I.”
“Good. Now get naked, woman. I want to play with my toys and I want to do so right now.”
Chapter Sixteen
Ryder had made good on his promise to make her girlie parts sore. Sierra could hardly believe how her body felt when she went to slip out of bed. Not only was she worn out but her pussy was throbbing, although she wasn’t sure if that was from need or from the use it had received the night before. Her nipples and clit weren’t in any better shape. Ryder had improved his skills as a lover while they were apart. His ability to arouse her, keep her just on the edge of orgasm, and then send her into a frenzy of orgasms had left her exhausted and extremely tender this morning.
Sierra was coming out of their bathroom as he started to wake. His hand reached for her and not finding her, he started to come fully awake. “Sierra?”
She crossed the room and sat down on the edge next to him. “I’m right here, Ryder.”
That seemed to soothe him and he returned to sleep. She smiled and smoothed his hair off of his face. Had it really been more than five years since she’d last seen him sleeping in her bed? She walked over to the window to check on the weather… snow, and lots of it!
Sierra quickly put on her robe and grabbed her clothes and boots. She ran down the stairs and ducked into her father’s room. She pulled on her clothes and then sat on the edge of the bed to put on her socks and boots. Sierra was suddenly taken back to the last time she’d been in that room. It was the night her father had died. She wondered if he would be happy about her and Ryder and then laughed. Of course he would. He’d helped Ryder engineer the whole thing.
She thought briefly about waking Ryder and then remembered he wasn’t a big fan of mustangs. Sierra was also fairly sure that the idea of her riding out into an early winter storm—and storms were usually brutal in this part of the country—would be a non-starter. Knowing precisely which side of the argument Ruth and Charlie would come down on, Sierra opted to slip out the French doors from her father’s bedroom and hurry down the hill to the barn.
It was still early and Joker had not yet finished his breakfast. Sierra saddled him while he cleaned up the last of his hay and then quietly led him out of the barn. She put her foot in the stirrup and swung her leg over his back. She sat down and was reminded in a very visceral way of what likely awaited her when she returned tonight. Ryder had made it perfectly clear that he was the dominant partner in their relationship and when she ‘misbehaved’ as he called it, she could expect to find herself face down over his knee for a bare-bottom spanking. Sierra did not doubt for even a minute that he had been quite serious and that going up to check on the mustangs without talking to him first would constitute ‘misbehaving’ in his view.
The only good thing about the snow was that it deadened the sound of her departure. She had left a note on the blackboard that she had gone out for a ride and should be home in several hours. Sierra tried not to think of just how pissed her new—or was he her old—fiancé would be when she returned. She cued Joker up to a lope as she headed for the high pasture.
The snow was still falling. It wasn’t what most people thought of as a blizzard, but it was heavy and steady. She had no doubt there would be several feet in the next few hours. She needed to get hay out to the stallion and his herd. As she rode toward them, she checked her cell phone and the weather report. The snow looked likely for a day or two, but then should abate with temperatures returning to above freezing, allowing the snow to melt. She would check the stream in that pasture. Normally it flowed all winter long. If it was still running, she could set out enough hay for the herd for three or four days and then organize some rescue volunteers to move them to protected land, or at least down to one of the lower pastures where she could provide for them over the winter.
* * *
Ryder woke and reached for Sierra. He vaguely remembered waking earlier and hearing her assure him that she was there. At the thought of her, his cock began to harden. He probably owed her an apology for last night. He was quite certain she was going to be sore from the hard use he’d given her. Something primal in him had driven him to take her repeatedly. All Ryder wanted to do last night was fuck her. He didn’t seem to be able to relax mentally unless he was physically inside her thrusting in and out and feeling her pussy spasm around his cock each time she cried out his name and climaxed.
As he became not only awake but cognizant of his surroundings he realized the morning had the soft, silent sound usually associated with snowfall. He rolled out of bed and looked out the curtains. Sure enough, there had to be at least eighteen inches of snow on the ground. He checked his cell phone for the weather report. A day or two shouldn’t cause any problems and perhaps he could convince Sierra that she should just remain in bed with him.
He pulled on his clothes and noticed that Sierra’s boots were not in the closet. He grabbed his boots and trotted down the stairs in his socks and into the kitchen. As he passed by the antique grandfather clock in sitting room, Ryder saw th
at it wasn’t as late as he had feared. He went into the kitchen to see Ruth, Charlie, and only three place settings.
“And she is where?”
“Not sure, boss,” said Charlie. “She left a note saying she’d be gone on a ride for the next several hours.”
“On a ride? In the heavily falling snow, by herself, with not even a hint of which direction she’s gone and the snow having covered her tracks…”
“Now, Ryder,” started Ruth. “I’m sure Sierra wasn’t thinking…”
“Ruth, you and I both know Sierra knew exactly what she was doing. She slips out of our bed without waking me, goes out through any door but the one she usually uses so as to not alert you, and leaves a vague note about her plans. So, tell me, Charlie, any idea where she might have put that herd of mustangs the BLM was going to round up?”
Charlie chuckled. Ryder appeared to have done a lot of maturing the past five or so years. He was no longer the volatile youth Charlie remembered, but he didn’t think much of Sierra’s chances for a comfortable reunion when Ryder caught up with her or she returned.
“Most likely the high pasture on the western boundary.”
“How dangerous to get up there?” asked Ryder, sipping the coffee offered by Ruth.
“Not especially if you know your way around, which Sierra does. Not too bad either if you drive to the western fence line and then enter from there. If that’s where you’re headed, that’s what I’d do. I can show you how to get there or me or one of the boys can go with you.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Ryder said in a low tone. “I’m sure I can find it and we’ll most likely need some privacy when I catch up with my naughty fiancée.”
