by Liz Peters
Sam was sitting there nursing a glass of whiskey while the ice melted into it and the condensation ran down the sides and pooled on the lacquered bar. She ran a finger around the rim, and it was all he could do not to just get hypnotized by the way the slender digit swirled around the curved edge of the glass. She was alone, for the first time all night, and he wasn’t going to be able to stop himself from walking over there to at least have a drink. He could manage that much without looking like a stupid, love-struck puppy of a teenaged boy. He was long beyond that, but there was something about the woman sitting, legs crossed at the bar that did a number on him.
The bartender saw him coming before he ever got there. She knew what he was going to drink without him ever having to open his mouth, and it just happened to be the same whiskey he’d watched her pour for Sam before he’d gotten the courage up to walk over to her. He held up a couple of fingers and nodded to Melissa.
“Make a double, Melissa.” He looked over at the almost empty glass in front of Sam and nodded towards her with a soft grin. “And get Legs here another one, too. She looks like she needs it.” He wasn’t wrong. This place wasn’t his idea of a good time.
Sam leaned on one elbow shooting him a look as Mel brought over a glass and the bottle and topped them both off with a knowing glance at Reid. That one was smarter than most of the people around here gave her credit for, but his focus for tonight was on Samantha.
“Come here often?” She raised an eyebrow as he brought the glass to his lips and felt the burn of the amber liquid roll down his throat, almost choking to stifle a laugh.
“You might say that. And what about you? This doesn’t look exactly like your scene, Legs.” He laid the glass on the bar, forgetting about it as he turned to face his drinking companion of the moment.
She kept her legs crossed, looking back down to the glass in front of her with a shrug and a half sarcastic laugh. One foot kicking a little as she replied, “Well, it might be exactly my scene, but it’s not my idea of a good time.” She darted up another glance and locked eyes with him, running her lower lip between her teeth as the two of them looked at each other. She was gorgeous, but it was obvious she didn’t really know it or what her biting down on that bottom lip of hers was doing to Reid.
“Well, it’s probably not my place, but I’m going to say it anyway. You look like you haven’t had a good time in a while.” He didn’t wait for her to reply before he took another sip from his drink and turned around to rest his back against the bar to survey the room. It was everything you’d expect, a bunch of upper-class guys who wouldn’t know a good time if it bit them in the ass, milling around with glasses of alcohol that cost what he made in an hour. She stood out like a sore thumb.
He heard Sam make a small sound like she was choking on her own drink, but she might have just been clearing her throat. He wasn’t certain, and he wasn’t going to look at her to find out. Instead, he just let a grin spread across his cheeks. Either way, he’d gotten to her with that last line because she was stammering.
“I… well…” Sam rested her drink on the bar and took a deep breath, letting it out in a long, slow exhale. “You know what? I haven’t had a good time in a long time. Too damned long actually.”
That was exactly what Reid wanted to hear. He pushed himself off the stool, reaching over the bar to the place where he’d known Melissa had left the mostly full whiskey bottle she’d filled their glasses from, bringing it up to tap the brim of his hat when she glanced his way.
“Add it to my tab, Mel.” She grinned and nodded at him as he turned to face Sam. “Then what do you say we get the hell out of here, Legs? I think I can manage to be more fun than these stuffed shirts around here. I’ll at least be good for a laugh or two, and this bottle of whiskey has both our names written on it tonight.”
She looked around the room, checking out what was going on here before she turned to face him with a half shrug, but only half-concealed excitement in her eyes.
“Alright then, Stranger. Doesn’t look I’m going to be missing out on much around here anyway, and I’m not one to turn down a drink.” She stood up, straightening her shirt as she walked over to stand at his side. “After you.”
He led her out of the room and down to the area where they had bonfires during some of the guest weekends. There was already a small fire there, but he’d known there would be. Even if the guests didn’t come down here, the staff kept a fire lit every night when there was a party just in case. Those guys back in the main house didn’t look like they were going to wander out of doors unless they had to, so with any luck they were going to have the place to themselves for the rest of the night. At least that was his intention.
Reid settled onto one of the logs that surrounded the fire, rested the bottle between his knees and patted the seat next to him for Sam to join him. She slid in, closer than he’d expected and he got a whiff of the perfume she was wearing again. It brought back the memory of the moment she was wrapped in his arms this afternoon. He wanted more of that.
Reid opened the bottle and dropped the cap into his shirt pocket, pulling a long swig off the top of the bottle before offering it to his companion. She took the bottle and brought it to her lips, taking a swallow before she passed it back and turned to face him.
“So, where this good time I was promised?” She grinned up at him, and it was everything he could do not to claim those lips with his. Instead, he leaned back and looked up at the stars that twinkled in the night sky before glancing back at her.
“I think this is a whole hell of a lot more fun than that party back there. I mean you’ve definitely got better things to do than sit around and listen to them talk shop and tell you about their summer houses up in the Hamptons or their bullshit boarding school education, right?” He took another drink of the whiskey enjoying the burn as it went down his throat.
“I’ve probably heard all those stories. There’s nothing new there. This is at least new.” Samantha looked up to the sky as well, sighing gently. “So, tell me you didn’t go to boarding school.”
Reid thought about how to answer her for a moment and decided to go for blunt. “Oh, I mean, I went to school. I went to a bunch of schools before all was said and done, but none of them were boarding schools. School wasn’t really my thing anyway. It was just a place I had to be until I could leave. Doesn’t matter anyway; not like wrangling cattle needs a college degree or anything, you know?”
Samantha nodded and leaned in closer, taking the bottle from him to drag another swallow of the liquid between her lips. Those lips were damned distracting. He was going to have to struggle with himself to keep from doing something that was going to get him fired tonight, like going off and planting a kiss on one of the guests, and she had no damned idea what she was doing to him.
Or maybe she did. He couldn’t know, but it was like she just wanted to be as tempting as humanly possible.
“College?” She laughed and shook her head. God, that laugh was gorgeous too. “I did way too much college, but that comes with the job I guess.”
“You like your job?” He looked over at her, giving up any pretense of looking at the sky. She was a lot better looking, and he’d seen these same stars every night for years now. This was something new.
“I’m good at my job. I enjoy it when it’s what it’s supposed to be. But things like this,” she gestured with the bottle back to the house where the lights shone into the dark night air, “that’s not what I got into all of this for. It’s just living up to expectations.”
“Expectations, eh?” He watched her take another drink from the bottle and grinned. “Expectations are overrated, and living up to them is even more overrated. I much prefer to do whatever it is that I want to do. At least most of the time.”
The smile she gave him was nothing short of diabolical. He was almost undone right then and there.
“So, what is it you want to do right now?” She had to know what she was asking. There was no way she was t
hat oblivious.
“What do I want to do?” He turned and looked her square in the eyes. “What don’t I want to do, Legs. That’s probably what you ought to be asking right now.”
Samantha moved to fast for Reid to stop her even if he’d wanted to. One moment she was sitting next to him by the fire, and the next she crawled into his lap, wrapping her legs around his waist as her lips crashed into his. It was better than he’d imagined by a whole hell of a lot. Samantha’s fingers were in his hair, twisting and pulling him closer and the kiss was hungry. She needed this just as much as he did.
He stood up, using his hands to cup her ass and keep her wrapped around him without breaking the kiss. He needed to get her out of here as soon as he could. There was no telling when someone was going to come walking out of the main house or look out of the windows and bust them. That was the last thing either of them needed since they were technically both here to work. The closest thing he could think of was her cabin since his was on the other side of the ranch from here.
Reid had no idea how they’d gotten through the front door of the cabin. He’d been far too concerned with keeping her legs around his waist and keeping her lips locked on his. Her fingers knotted into his shirt while his hands kept her as close to his body as he could manage it. Reid wanted all of it gone, nothing between the two of them as soon as he could manage it because he was pretty sure that being inside her was going to be his idea of heaven. If he was any kind of judge of what was going on, it was exactly what she wanted too.
He pressed her back into the closest wall, pinning her there as his hands went to work open the buttons of the shirt she was wearing as quickly as possible. Her own hands mirrored his, working so quickly he wasn’t entirely certain she hadn’t popped one of the buttons loose in her haste, but he didn’t care. It was giving him exactly what he wanted, her skin on his. Reid pulled away for a moment to catch his breath, his cock aching with every roll of her hips against his.
She was hungry for him as she tightened her legs and pulled him in closer, murmuring in a breathless whisper, “Please…”
He leaned in, resting his forehead on hers as his hands moved between them to give the button at the waist of her jeans a rough tug, snapping open the button and tugging open the zipper in one swift move before he began to peel them down her legs. He was going to have to unwind those legs from around his waist, and it was the last thing he really wanted to do. But it was a necessary evil if the two of them were going to get close to what they needed.
“Please what, Baby Girl?” He grinned and moved her feet to the floor, kissing a line down her throat and collarbone while he moved to slide her pants down into a puddle on the floor at her feet.
Sam gasped as the cool night air hit her heated skin, running her hands through his hair and leaning her head back against the wall with closed eyes. “Please fuck me.”
He grinned and kept on kissing his way down her stomach, pausing at the gentle dip of her navel to reply. “Be patient, Legs. I’m planning to enjoy the hell out of this.”
He could hear the groan that she let out melting into a moan as he draped one of her legs over his shoulder, leaning in to press a kiss to the flesh between her thighs before his tongue flicked out across her clit, sending a shiver through her frame. He kept her body pinned to the wall as he took his time in tasting her, enjoying every moan that it drug from her throat. Her nails dug into his scalp as her body shook and she cried out, but he took his time until he’d been certain she’d climaxed for what he intended to be the first of several times tonight.
Reid made his way back up her body, hands sliding up her sides and snaking down her arms to gather her wrists in his hands and pin them above her head against the wall. There were a lot of ways he would have liked to have seen her, but he thought that splayed against that wall and entirely at his mercy was probably his favorite. Though he intended to see if he was wrong by trying out a few more before the night was done.
Grinning down at her he leaned in and stole a kiss, letting Sam taste herself on his lips. “That’s my girl. Now be a good girl and tell me exactly what you want tonight.”
Sam took a breath, her body still shaky and blazing against his, though he wasn’t letting up on her for a moment. The fingers of his free hand moved between her thighs, teasing slowly around the taut nub of her clit. His cock was aching, and he wanted to be inside her more than almost anything else right now. The one thing he wanted more was to watch her head fall back again and to listen to her moan out another orgasm, but this time, he wanted to hear his name on those sexy lips when it happened.
She didn’t answer right away, and while he waited Reid couldn’t help but to lean in and steal another kiss, sliding his finger inside her with a wicked grin at the gasp that escaped her throat. “Now come on and tell me what you need, Baby Girl.” His voice was heavy with need as he gently curled a finger inside her, watching her squirm in response.
Her answer came finally, breathless and half-moaned. “You. I want you. I need you.”
That was all the encouragement he needed to peel out of his pants and move to pin her back against the wall with his hips, hands going to guide her legs back around his waist. He was going to give both of them what they wanted, and as he sank slowly into the tight heat of her pussy he let out a low growl, burying his face in the curve of her throat as his thrust pushed her body roughly into the wall.
She wrapped around him perfectly, soothing the ache that had been building since the moment he laid eyes on Sam with every deep thrust that got him a whimper or moan in return. He could have stayed like this forever. Her body fit his perfectly and she was just as hungry for him as he had been for her. Her nails dragged lightly across his back, growing rougher with each moment, the tension between them building. He could feel her body tightening around him, and he grasped her hip and pulled her down fully onto his length.
“You going to cum for me, Baby Girl?” His voice was deep and gravelly as he spoke close to her ear, dragging a shiver from her body even though it was pressed between his chest and the wall.
“Yes, Fuck…” The curse slipped from her lips as she clung to him, shuddering and crying out again. “Reid!” She yelled out his name, the sound echoing around the room as she fell apart in his arms. He couldn’t take much more of this and in the same moment he thrust roughly up inside her and climaxed along with her.
The pair of them rested for a moment, tangled in each other with Sam’s back still pressed against the wall. Her weight was fully supported by his body. Reid dipping in to press kisses to her swollen lips every few moments as they caught their breath.
“Well, well, Legs. I didn’t know you had that in you.”
She laughed at the joke and flexed her legs pulling him in closer. “Looks like I’ve got more than that in me, Stranger.”
A soft growl escaped from his lips as he stole another kiss. “So why don’t we make the best of that bed over there, then?”
A soft giggle escaped her lips as he lifted her, still buried deep inside her to carry her off to the bed for the rest of their night.
Chapter Five
Sam wasn’t sure what time it was when she woke with the morning sun blazing in her eyes, but she was disappointed to roll over and find out that she was the only person in the bed. The red letters on the nightstand clock told her it was morning, and Reid was long gone.
She sat up with a groan, the sheet falling around her waist as she stretched the soreness out of her back and legs without leaving the bed. She’d exercised muscles she’d forgotten she had last night, and if she was honest with herself, she’d enjoyed every minute of it. But in the light of day, it all felt kind of frivolous and pointless, especially when she wound up waking up alone.
It had been a brief fling, the kind of thing people did from time to time. At least that’s what she was telling herself. It helped her from feeling silly as she stretched and made her way out of the bed and towards the bathroom. A hot shower always mad
e everything better, and Sam knew she had a long day ahead of her. If things went according to the schedule she’d been given back at the office, they had a cattle drive planned for the day.
She’d already proven she knew how to ride. She could thank the riding lessons her grandfather had insisted she take as a little girl. He’d been sure they taught her how to really ride instead of just doing the basics. He’d been a farmer during the first part of his life, and he’d been adamant that his granddaughter was going to know her way around a horse if nothing else. For the same reason, Sam knew how much her legs were going to ache after today. A full day in the saddle was a workout like no one understood. It was almost amusing to think about most of the guys from the office finding it out the hard way. It would at least be a distraction from all of this.
Half of her wanted him not to be anywhere near the cattle drive today. She wasn’t sure she could handle being embarrassed if he acted as nothing had happened at all last night, but she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to hide the way her body reacted to his from everyone if he didn’t. The other half of her needed him to be there to prove she hadn’t been an absolute fool who made bad decisions fueled by way too much whiskey.
