Hang Tough

by Lorelei James

  her lips, he murmured, “Can we be done talking now?”

  “Got something else in mind we could be doing, cowboy?”

  “I need a shower first.”

  “I’ll come along and wash your back.”

  Thirty minutes later he growled, “I love fucking you in the shower.”

  “I’d love it if you’d let me come.”

  “Let you come again,” he said, nipping her earlobe.

  “Tobin.”

  He had her bent at the waist with her palms flat on the wall. He stood behind her, his cock buried deep in that sweet, sweet pussy, slowly tunneling in and out. His hands were clamped on the backs of her thighs below the curve of her ass, keeping her spread wide so he could enjoy the show.

  “This isn’t fair,” she panted.

  Tobin chuckled and hoisted her slightly higher.

  She automatically curled the tops of her feet around the side of his calves. “No, no!”

  “Keep complaining, tiger, and your hands will be on the floor as I’m slamming into you.”

  “Oh god.”

  She’d tortured him earlier and he’d warned her what goes around comes around.

  Had she ever tortured him.

  He’d been standing in the shower, drying his hair with a towel after washing off the grime of the day when his naked woman had stepped into the enclosure with him.

  Immediately Jade had pushed him against the wall, dropped to her knees and gone to town on his cock. Since she’d started when it was soft and relaxed, she’d stuffed the entire thing in her mouth. But as soon as his dick had gotten with the holy fuck she’s sucking on me program, she switched it up. She’d sucked his balls until his damn legs shook. Until he was pretty sure the next swipe of her tongue would have him coming on her face.

  The truth was, the wide width of his dick stretched a mouth to the point of discomfort, and his length . . . he’d never felt a woman’s teeth at the base. Heck, he’d never felt a woman’s mouth past the halfway point. So he’d become accustomed to slick hand jobs with a sucking mouth over the head of his cock, figuring that was as close as he’d ever get to a normal blow job.

  But Jade was determined. She said, “Let’s see how far I can take you.” Then she angled her head differently and sucked him in halfway.

  “Jesus.”

  She released his shaft slowly. “You like that.”

  “I fucking love that. But baby, don’t make it uncomfortable for yourself. Please.” He traced her stretched lips with his thumbs.

  She nuzzled the hair between his legs. “I love the way you smell. I get the barest whiff of you and I’m instantly drenched.” She peered up at him with a cocky smile. “Drenched because my body knows how much lube it needs to take you now.”

  “Let me fuck you.”

  Her superior smirk vanished. “Let me taste you first. No pulling out, Tobin. I want your come in my mouth. All of it.”

  He knew she’d change her mind once he hit that point, but he agreed.

  Then she’d absolutely blown his fucking mind.

  She used both of her hands on his shaft and his balls. Her mouth was an unstoppable force of suction and wet heat.

  Normally he didn’t allow himself to hold on to her head because in that moment when his body erupted, his brain shorted out and he couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t pull her hair and shove his cock in deeper than expected.

  This time when his balls drew up and her mouth was still halfway down his cock, he grabbed that black silk in his hand. He’d been so focused on that, that the finger sliding in his ass as he started to come had caught him off guard completely.

  And he’d shouted.

  Shouted.

  Loud.

  For like an hour. Because it seemed like he came for an hour amid her sucking mouth and stroking finger.

  After he’d come that fucking hard, he’d had to goddamned sit down in the shower.

  Sit down.

  Jade had soothed him with loving touches and sweet nuzzles until he’d caught his breath.

  Then she’d stood, her beautiful face a mix of pride and need as she straddled his mouth with her juicy cunt and said, “As long as you’re down there . . .”

  Smart-ass.

  He’d made her come so hard she screamed.

  Then again, she usually did since she was a screamer.

  At that point Tobin was ready to fuck her.

  Which was what he was currently doing as she begged him to let her come again.

  “You close, sweetheart?” he managed.

  “Yes!”

  Grinning, Tobin dropped her feet to the floor for two seconds before he picked her up around the waist, spun her around and pinned her to the wall.

  One hard shove and he was back in that tight hot cunt.

  With her legs spread wide and the friction on her clit, his little screamer . . .

  Screamed again.

  Fuck. He loved that.

  Her orgasm drove him to the edge.

  Then Jade’s teeth scraping down his neck with her fingernails digging into his scalp kicked him over.

  They clung to each other. Bodies wet. Breathing labored. Minds scrambled. Tobin placed a soft kiss below her ear. “Every time I think it can’t get better, you prove me wrong. I love bein’ with you like this.”

  He didn’t have to explain what he meant by “this” because Jade understood he meant more than just sex.

  “Me too.”

  “Although . . . now that I know you can get my cock halfway in your mouth . . . we could try . . . ?”

  Jade snickered against his neck. “You really think you’ll be able to stop if you get this cock halfway up my ass?”

  “We’ll never know unless we try.”

  The next night Tobin let Jade drive to Rawlins so she could drop him off at the restaurant and return for the dessert course. But he knew even when it was her car, he’d be driving it home. The woman hadn’t lied; she was a shitty driver.

  He found his dad and Driscoll at a table in the back of the restaurant. He’d arrived on time but it appeared they’d already knocked back a couple of Jack and Cokes. “Hey.”

  The cocktail waitress took his order and he stuck with beer.

  “So we were mighty surprised to get the call from you,” Driscoll said. “Kind of a shocker to find out you have a serious girlfriend.”

  Puzzled, he said, “Why?”

  “Kinda always thought you were gay.”

  And how did he respond to that? Like a dickhead little brother. “Really? That’s funny. I kinda always thought you were gay. You’ve had way more years to settle down than I have. I don’t know that I ever remember seeing you with a woman neither. Not that it matters, Dris. I’d be fine with you havin’ a boyfriend.”

  “Enough,” their dad said. “Gives me the fuckin’ creeps to talk about that stuff.”

  Tobin’s beer arrived.

  They ordered steaks. Since his dad and brother believed the meal was on Tobin’s dime, they ordered crab legs too.

  “Besides you finding a girlfriend, what else is goin’ on up at the Split Rock?”

  “I haven’t worked at the lodge much since Renner expanded the cattle company. I heard from the GM there isn’t an open room from mid-September until the first part of November during huntin’ season.”

  “It still burns my ass that as soon as you went to work for them, they stopped askin’ me to be a huntin’ guide,” his dad complained.

  “I recall you only did it for a few weeks during the grand opening. Besides, Renner hired me because of my educational background to help him get a genetics lab up and running, but that hasn’t panned out yet.” He sipped his beer. “What’s goin’ on at the ranch?”

  “Not much. Nothin’ really changes.”

  “How’s Streeter doin’?”

  His dad and his brother both stiffened.

  Jackpot.

  “We have no idea how Streeter is doin’ since he don’t work for us no more.”
>
  “Whoa. What do you mean he doesn’t work for you? I thought Dad owned forty percent and you and Streeter each owned thirty percent?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Luckily I’ve got a couple of college degrees so I can probably follow along just fine.”

  “Always were a smart-ass,” his dad grumbled. “Bottom line? Streeter’s been distracted, missing work a lot because he’s babysitting.”

  “Babysitting,” Tobin repeated. “He’s Olivia’s only parent so I don’t see how that is babysitting. He’s taking care of his child.”

  “Whatever. He ain’t taking care of his responsibilities at the ranch. The calf weights are already low this year.”

  Tobin wanted to ask how that was Streeter’s fault. “Did you buy him out? Or give him a year’s pay on the buyout?”

  Driscoll gaped at Tobin as if he’d sprouted alien tentacles. “No. Why would we?”

  “How is he supposed to support himself and Olivia? He’s been earning a ranch salary from you since he was what? Seventeen?”

  “He got a life insurance settlement.”

  Was that why they’d cut him out? They saw Streeter’s money as a windfall for him, which meant they’d no longer have to shell out wages and could split the profits two ways instead of three? “When did all of this happen?”

  “Maybe three weeks ago.”

  “So the whole ‘nothin’ much really changes’ was a lie? Because you guys kicking Streeter out of the cattle business is a whole lot of something.”

  Driscoll leaned back in his chair. He picked up his lowball glass and studied Tobin over the rim. “Dad’s name is on the deed. No one else’s. It’s his decision who he wants to pass the land down to. Since you ain’t on that list, I don’t see how it’s any of your concern.”

  “My concern is that you turned my brother and my niece out.”

  “If you’re so worried, why don’t you invite them to live with you?” Driscoll smirked. “Right. Not a lot of room in the trailer you rent up at the Split Rock, is there?”

  Tobin’s neck heated. His brother still knew how to push his buttons.

  If the food hadn’t arrived, no doubt Driscoll would’ve tossed off a smart comment about Tobin’s degrees being worthless. There’d been a time when Tobin would’ve argued that his brother owed his entire way of life to being born first. He’d never had to leave the familiar and try to make his own way. And not for the first time, Tobin was thankful he’d been spared from spending his life in the small world his father and brother lived in.

  He ate so fast he didn’t taste anything. That antsy feeling dogged him—he kept waiting for his phone to buzz so he could grab Jade, ground himself and get the hell out of here.

  Then his phone did buzz with a text message. He said, “Excuse me,” and strode away from the table.

  Jade waited by the hostess stand. Her eyes lit up at seeing him.

  Everything in him settled. This woman was his future. She was joy and sweetness and kindness. Loving and smart and understanding. She got him. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “Hey. You ready for the trainwreck that is the Hale family?”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I’ll explain later.” He set his hand in the small of her back and directed her to the back of the restaurant.

  Neither his brother nor his dad stood when Tobin and Jade reached the table.

  He comforted himself with the fact that his mother would’ve been appalled by their lack of manners.

  “Jade, this is my father, Dan Hale, and my oldest brother, Driscoll. This is my girlfriend, Jade Evans.”

  “She ain’t white,” rolled out of his dad’s mouth.

  Jade patted her face and her hair. “Omigod, I’m not?” She gaped at Tobin. “Did you know this about me?”

  “Yeah, darlin’, I did.”

  “And you like me anyway?”

  “Very much.”

  “Oh. Well then. We’re good.”

  Tobin pulled out his wallet. “It was an enlightening conversation if nothin’ else.”

  Driscoll’s judgmental gaze winged between Tobin and Jade. “I thought you said your girlfriend was staying for dessert? Now you’re takin’ off?”

  “We have more important things to do than sit here and listen to a pair of windbags pass judgment and gas.” Tobin floated a fifty-dollar bill on the table. “That oughta cover my portion.”

  His dad dropped his elbows on the table. “Now wait just a damn minute. You invited us. You said you were payin’.”

  “You thought asking to meet you here meant I was paying for both of your dinners?” He snorted. “Hardly. When I said I’m paying, I meant for my own meal. I didn’t expect you to buy mine.”

  “That’s a shitty trick,” Driscoll snapped. “Letting us order—”

  “What you ordered went in your belly, not mine. And besides, Dris”—he hated that nickname—“I live in a rental trailer and I’m nothin’ but a lowly hired hand, right? I’ve gotta budget my money a lot tighter than two fat-cat landowners.”

  He draped his arm over Jade’s shoulder and didn’t look back.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Jade had to go upstairs because watching Tobin pace was driving her crazy.

  His nerves didn’t surprise her; he was a bit more high-strung than most people noticed.

  But she noticed everything about him.

  Everything.

  She loved everything about him.

  Now she had what she’d always wanted: A happy life doing the things she loved without living up to anyone’s definition of success but her own. Even though she and Tobin had only been together a short time, in her heart and her soul, she believed this love would stand the test of time. They’d already become more to each other than they’d known they could be. And it made her a little giddy to think this love would continue to expand.

  “Jade? Baby, they’re here.”

  She reached the bottom step just as Streeter and Olivia came through the door.

  The first thing she noticed was that Streeter resembled Tobin more than his dad or brother did. He looked a little gaunt—understandable given what he’d been through the last eight months.

  Olivia clung to her father, her face buried in his neck so all Jade could see were two tiny brown pigtails sticking up.

  Tobin rested his hand above Jade’s behind as he steered her closer. “Streeter, this is my girlfriend, Jade Evans. Jade, Streeter.”

  “It’s good to meet you,” Streeter said.

  “Same here.”

  Olivia lifted her head and stared at Jade.

  Jade said, “Hi, Olivia.”