He unzipped his pants, and she stared like a woman obsessed. She’d never understood those women who became preoccupied with someone so they couldn’t stop thinking about them. Yet she could now see how that could happen. Men like Wyatt inspired that kind of preoccupation by being so damned sexy.
His jeans came off slower than she might have liked, but then her attention totally turned in the direction of his cock. It was long, hard, thick. All the adjectives she could think of leaned toward the sheer size of him. She lifted her gaze to meet his.
He took off his underwear. She didn’t get the impression that Wyatt was trying to put on a show of any kind, but the result was the same. Faith couldn’t take her eyes off him. She reached forward to touch him, half expecting him to stop her. But instead he closed his eyes, hissing in a long breath. “You’re so fucking hot. Too much of that and this is going to be over before it ever begins.”
She had that much effect on him? A wave of female empowerment moved through her. It was a heady sensation, one that made her feel both slightly dizzy and powerful at the same time. “Thank you. That was fucking awesome.”
“Don’t thank me, sweetheart. I’m only stating the truth.” Wyatt climbed over her. “Hands over your head.”
He pressed down on her, holding both of her arms down in one of his big hands. Why did that feel so good? Why did it feel so protective of him to do that? Why was she overthinking this? It felt good. She needed to get out of her own head.
A second later she really was. Wyatt undid the condom package and after discarding the package onto the floor of his truck, sheathed himself. He was a truly beautiful man. He pressed against her. “Not till I tell you.”
Her hands were still above her head. Did he think she’d suddenly forgotten? “Wyatt, please.”
He nodded. “Good girl.”
A second later, he surged inside her, balls-deep. She cried out, the invasion sudden and fantastic. It felt like a claiming. She squirmed but didn’t come. Her pussy was sensitive, worked up from the tonguing he’d already given her.
He pushed in and out of her, slowly at first, and then faster, each pass hitting her just where she needed it. Did this man read a book at some point to tell him how to pleasure women? He could give lessons.
Holding back the pleasure was its own kind of pain. The buildup ached inside her. She’d never stopped to consider if there could be too much. Her body burned. Every nerve ending was on fire. And then he grinned at her. The smile was mesmerizing. She hadn’t seen that much of Wyatt in her life, but she knew she’d never seen him grin exactly like that before.
He cupped the side of her face, and she moved her arms down to caress his face while he moved inside her. For a second, it was like the world outside vanished. He leaned over, kissing her mouth tenderly. “Come anytime you want, sweetheart.”
She sucked in a breath as the world seemed to explode around her. Maybe she quit breathing. Wyatt shouted her name. Faith didn’t know how much time had passed, just that she knew she was never going to forget these few minutes in this truck with Wyatt.
Sometime later, after they’d shifted so that she lay on him, and he’d turned on the engine to play the radio low, she found herself humming along to some song she vaguely knew. Wyatt stroked her back.
“I never do this.”
She leaned up to regard him. “Seems like you pretty much knew what you were doing there, Sheriff.”
He winced. “That’s the point. I don’t go out on a job and have sex in the back seat of my truck.”
She waved her hand in the air. “I don’t feel taken advantage of, Wyatt, you can drop that.”
“The point remains that I’ve lost my mind with you here.”
She should take that as a compliment, but he’d put that phrasing out there in the world and now it banged around in her brain. “As you think I’ve lost my mind with the aliens?”
Wyatt sighed. “Faith, that isn’t what I meant.”
“I’m being oversensitive then?” Her good mood fled as fast as it had started.
He shook his head. “Someone has done a number on you emotionally, haven’t they? That isn’t me saying that. That’s you. Don’t put that on me.”
She scooted off him, grabbing her clothes that had been discarded all over the car. Her underpants weren’t easy to find, and she decided to leave them. She’d go buy some new ones later in the week. Take the girls. They’d make a whole day out of purchasing panties.
“Faith.” He scooted out of the car after her. “I wasn’t even thinking about the aliens. But the fact remains, sweetheart, they don’t exist. You might be seeing something, but you’re not seeing them. End of story. There it is. I’m not even finding evidence of anything at all. I wish that I were for your sake. Not that I’m at all interested in becoming the next Roswell.”
Now that was an interesting picture. They could save the ranch by selling tickets to her backyard. Five dollars a head.
“It would be easy if I were crazy, wouldn’t it?” Sadness replaced her anger. Truth was, she was so damned tired she couldn’t see straight half the time. But she wasn’t imagining what she was seeing.
“Not easier, no. Something we could work with. I could recommend someone for you to go talk to.”
He would, wouldn’t he? He was sweet, and she supposed if she stood in his shoes she’d be thinking the same damn things. Crazy single woman out there on her falling-apart ranch with twins, an ex who didn’t give a shit, bills she can’t pay, and she thinks she’s seeing aliens.
“I don’t need counseling, Wyatt. I need someone to believe me.”
He shook his head, finishing zipping up his pants. “I can’t do that, Faith. I’d like to but I have no evidence of aliens in your backyard.”
“I think you should go now. Thanks for…this. It was unforgettable. Too bad I’m still sure of my own mind. Not drunk. Not on drugs. Just right. Your magic cock didn’t make that go away.”
He winced. “Once again, I think you’re yelling at me when you’d like to say something nasty to someone else. I get that, but I’m not going to internalize someone else’s shit just so you can sling it somewhere.”
He was right. “I apologize for that last thing, but only that one alone.”
Wyatt walked toward her. “I would have done anything to get you to notice me in high school, Faith. I’ll always be grateful you let me spend this evening with you like this. I’m afraid there are no aliens here.”
She pointed at him. “You wait. I’m going to prove you wrong. And I was nothing special in high school. Trust me on this. Completely taken in by someone who wasn’t capable of love even though I was too stupid to know it. Took me way too long to figure it out, too. If I learned anything surviving that time, it was that I can trust myself. I can be sure of me.”
He nodded. “Tell you what? I’ll come back tomorrow and stay through dinner, presuming nothing happens that needs to be addressed anywhere else in town by me. I’ll be right here at the time the aliens would usually show up. If they’re here, I’ll see them.”
He didn’t believe her, but he was willing to stretch himself that far? “That sounds perfect. Thank you.”
The sheriff who had made her come twice searched for something in her face. She didn’t know what, but he eventually stepped back. “Faith, go inside. I’m going to stay right here and watch you lock the door. Then I’ll take off.”
She sighed. This had been the strangest day. Maybe ever.
Chapter Three
He was so not getting out to see Faith in time to not see the aliens she kept thinking she saw. He lifted up his phone as discreetly as he could and sent her a note.
Stuck here. All day.
He wished he were exaggerating. When he’d taken the job he’d been more than aware that there would be politics involved in his day-to-day life. He hadn’t stopped to consider just how much time that would take. But as he sat across from the mayor and the council, all crowded into his office as though he coul
d settle the argument about whether or not to add a fifteenth stoplight to the outskirts of town, he couldn’t help but wince at how much he’d underestimated the length of time this was going to take. He rubbed the back of his neck while his mind drifted.
This was what he’d wanted. Peace. They had it here. It was fine to fight over small, seemingly unimportant decisions as though they mattered in the huge grand scheme of things, because they didn’t have to worry so often about life-and-death issues that rode people daily in other places. The trade-off was that sometimes he was bored out of his mind on things that other people were going to obsess over for the next forty years.
He couldn’t help but think about Faith. All day. Every second he wasn’t speaking, he had to force his mind away from her. She had taken his directions so well. He still wasn’t exactly sure why he gave them to her, and if he ever got the chance to be with her again he didn’t think he’d do it. She’d listened to him, and it had been so damned hot.
Wyatt got hard even thinking about it again and had to squirm in his seat.
She texted back. Are you sure it’s not something else? Maybe because I apparently turn into a total bitch after sex.
He smirked before he managed to cover the sign that he wasn’t paying attention. The mayor was going on and on about the differences between small towns and big ones. Wyatt couldn’t have been less interested if he tried.
The bite of her words hardened his cock again. He loved the spirit inside her. Whatever it was that happened to her in her life, it hadn’t broken her. She was solid inside. Anger was a powerful tool to keep moving on. Her words, delivered to the wrong person, had told him she would never let anyone walk all over her again.
You’re a beautiful, smart woman, Faith. I plan to see you again.
Whether she knew it or not, she had all the power in this relationship. If she told him to go, he’d go. If she wanted him to stay, he’d stay. If she never wanted to see him again except passing him on the street, then that’s what she’d have. Last night, she’d owned him. That was all there was to it.
He got up to go to the bathroom. He had no choice. Wyatt had to do something about his hard-on or he wasn’t going to get through this meeting without killing anyone. With his head down, he found the private, staff-only bathroom and locked the door behind him. Hopefully no one would notice that he was in here just a little bit too long.
She’d left her panties in his truck, and he’d found them. Fuck, they smelled like her. He’d had them in the inside pocket of his jacket, zipped up, where only he would know they were there. All day. Yeah…he’d set himself up to be hard like this. Maybe he was a glutton for punishment. Maybe she was just so fucking hot.
He took them out, quickly, and brought them to his nose. The way she smelled was intoxicating, and it went right to his head. He quickly put them away. This had to be fast, it had to be hard, and no one could ever know the sheriff of Rose jerked off in the staff bathroom thinking about how hot Faith Carmen was in bed.
He unzipped his pants and pulled himself out. There had never been a woman, anywhere, who did this to him. He’d always had control over his urges.
Her ass…
He stroked himself hard, from tip to balls and back again. Wyatt closed his eyes. With her scent in his nose, he imagined it was her hand on his dick. The two of them together in this ridiculous bathroom. She’d come to find him; she’d dragged him in here. And…yes.
Wyatt stroked himself, faster. He bit down on his lip to keep from making any sounds. Her breasts. The pink color of her nipples. He stroked, up and down again, up and down.
His imagination worked overtime. He could practically hear her voice in his ear. “Wyatt, I want you.”
Yes, that was what he needed. If Faith wanted him, if she wished for him to be around not just every once in a while but with her all the time, that would be so hot. He wanted to own her. What was more, he wanted her to own him.
“You’re mine, Sheriff.” Her soft voice in his ear, the husky whisper. Fuck him, that giggle.
His cock got wet in his hands and he hadn’t come yet. He closed his eyes. Faith would press her head to his shoulder, her hair falling down so he could smell it. Strawberries; yes, that had been the scent. Her shampoo. He wanted to watch it drip down her body when she showered. She had him by his cock.
“Come for me, Sheriff, you know that you want to.”
Yes, he did.
With the vision of her still in his eyes, Wyatt came hard in his own hand.
Thank fuck. That was what he’d needed more than anything. His head cleared even as his shoulders sagged. Jerking off as he thought of Faith’s body, her scent, her…everything was awesome, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Nothing would be until he had the real thing back in his arms and riding his cock, fucking him into oblivion.
…
The girls’ grandmother drove off with them to take them swimming.
Robbie had abandoned the girls, but his mother still showed up once a week to take them somewhere. Faith wasn’t going to complain. At least someone in that family still acknowledged the kids existed. They found a way to never mention Robbie’s name to each other in the five-minute exchanges that took place between them while the girls rushed off to see their grandmother. She was actually keeping them overnight this time.
Faith sighed. She’d cleaned the house. Twice. Finally, she slumped down in her couch.
She face-planted onto her pillow the night before, slept the sleep of the truly exhausted, and now with her second night with her children away, she was truly at odds. She was caught up at work. What girlfriends she had were busy with their husbands on a Saturday. And apparently Wyatt had to work all day.
He’d sent her the sexiest text. Why had that made her shudder so hard she wanted to take herself upstairs and touch herself until she relieved some of the ache? Even showering his scent off her body had felt like such a loss.
She shrugged. She was happy. That was a change. A big one, and even if she was a little bit bored today, she wasn’t going to complain.
Sure of what she wanted to say, she texted him back.
I’m not done with us. Not by a long shot. So don’t go moving back to Boston or anything.
It took him a minute to answer. I was living in New York City.
Dang it. She’d known that. She sighed. So much for constructing the perfect text.
Maybe we should go out sometime and go over details of our lives. If we’re going to spend more time together.
She’d no sooner sent it than she winced. Was this pushing things too far? She hadn’t dated since high school, and then it had been easy. Robbie had told two friends he liked her. Almost overnight they’d been boyfriend and girlfriend. Adult dating didn’t seem to be that easy.
Sounds like a plan. Let’s do that. Tonight?
She blinked. Actually, I can tonight. Not every night is so easy with the girls. But they’re out till tomorrow. Yes, I can.
She was officially rambling over text message. Now that was a talent most people couldn’t say they had. She sighed. At least she’d spelled everything right. Faith gulped. She hoped. The thought made her scan the texts again. Okay, yes, she’d done it correctly. She slumped down on the couch.
Talking to him in person was easier. Even when they were arguing.
Great. I’ll get you at seven.
She had a date, and maybe it could end with him in her bed doing more of what they’d done in the back of his truck.
The sound of wheels skidding to a stop outside her house caught her attention. She rose and made it to the front door to see who was there before they got too close to the house. When she spotted the person visiting, her good mood fled.
Robbie. Disgust cut off any hunger she’d been harboring for food. She might not eat again ever. She hadn’t seen or heard from him in six months. Did he have some kind of radar that she’d finally gotten happy and decided to show up today? She leaned against the door. He’d put on at least thirty po
unds and lost half of his hair. Did it make her a terrible person that this gave her some small bit of joy? His youthful good looks were long gone, and unlike some men, he really wasn’t getting better-looking with age.
This was her children’s father. She had to get hold of her worst instincts to be judgy and mean. She was at least managing to not say these things aloud.
“Robert.” She’d taken to using his full name when she’d caught him in bed with the neighbor. Robbie was the sweet guy she’d fallen in love with. Not this version of him that she was stuck with in some form, even when he’d all but abandoned his children and given her no financial support to take care of them at all.
He nodded at her, his eyes scanning the house. She knew what he and others saw. A place that was practically falling down around her. “Practically” was the key word. She would not lose this place; she would keep it up. Faith had promised herself that much, and she wouldn’t fail at this.
“Faith.” He stepped toward her, and she resisted the need to step backward. “Where are the girls?”
His mother didn’t speak to him much these days, somewhat disgusted by her son’s actions. It wouldn’t surprise her if he didn’t know the girls were with her. Or maybe he did and he was only pretending. That was the problem with sociopathic liars. It was hard to know when they lied if one wasn’t always checking up on them.
“With your mother.” She put her hands on her hips. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “I came to see you girls.”
“You know if you want to see the girls you need to schedule a date ahead of time.” This was ridiculous. She’d been right. He was lying. He’d known they wouldn’t be here. “What do you really want?”
He sighed. “Things aren’t great for me, Faithy.”
She hated that nickname. It made her skin crawl.
“I need some help.”
Money? Did he think she had money? She laughed, a long, hard sound that surprised her. “Take a look. Things aren’t going well.”
He pointed at the house. “Sell it.”
Men In Uniform Anthology Page 22
