by SJ McCoy
“Nope.”
He switched sides and by the time he’d finished tormenting her neck and ear with his tongue, she was about ready to surrender and tell him where to look. “It’s – ”
“Nuh-uh.” He dropped another kiss on her lips. “You can’t tell me now. I need to find it for myself.”
Her body shuddered as she let out a sigh. “You could find it afterwards?”
He gave her a wicked smile. “Where’s the fun in that? You lie back and relax. I need to explore.”
She lay back and closed her eyes as he moved lower, kissing his way down her neck until he reached her breasts. He closed his hand around one, and when his mouth came down on the other, her back arched up, offering him more. He soon had her writhing beneath him from the attention he lavished on her nipples, his lips, tongue, and even his teeth driving her to the edge.
“Spider,” she breathed.
His hands spanned her ribcage, and he lifted his head. “Yes, sweetheart?”
“That feels amazing, but you’re killing me here. I need you.”
“You’ve got me.”
She narrowed her eyes at him and reached for him, curling her fingers around him. He was so damned hard. “I need this.”
“I haven’t found your tattoo yet.”
“I don’t care. I need you to fuck me. Now.”
The cocky smile disappeared from his face. His hand slid down between her legs, fingers tracing her opening before one dipped inside. “You want me in here?”
She nodded, gripping him tight as she worked her hand up and down him. “I don’t want you. I need you. And I don’t mean your fingers.”
He stroked her clit, circling gently before starting to tease harder. Her hips rocked in time with him. “You don’t like my fingers?
“They feel amazing, but I want you. I want all of you. Now.”
He turned away from her and reached over the side of the bed, coming back with a condom. He ripped it open with his teeth and she reluctantly let go of her hold on him so that he could roll it on.
“I wanted to take our time, sweetheart. Wanted us to get to know each other better. I don’t know how long I can last this first time. I wanted to get you off first.” He gave her a pained smile. “But when you demand now like that …” He brushed a strand of hair off her forehead as he positioned himself above her. “I can’t argue. I can’t hold back.”
“I don’t want you to hold back.” She spread her legs wider and looked down to watch him as he wrapped his hand around his cock and guided himself to her entrance. Her breath caught in her chest when he notched his head at her entrance. “I haven’t done this in a long time.”
He met her gaze and held it. “I’ll make it good for you.”
“I know.”
Her hands came up to grip his back as he pushed inside her, stretching her as he went deeper. He moved so slowly, it felt like the world stood still. She wanted to lift her hips to meet him, to start to move with him and to find their rhythm. But she didn’t want this feeling to end, as he pushed deeper and deeper until his hips were flush with hers. Her breath was coming fast and hard. She was on the edge already.
He dropped a kiss on her lips. “You okay?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak but the words wouldn’t be denied. “You feel so good. I’ve never felt so … full.”
He dropped his head onto her shoulder and said something she couldn’t understand.
“What?”
He nibbled her neck and then spoke in a ragged whisper into her ear. “I said, you’re fucking killing me.”
She giggled. She couldn’t help it. To her surprise, he chuckled with her, then pushed himself up on his forearms and smiled down at her. Then he pulled back, almost all the way out before thrusting deep and hard.
She brought her legs up around him and moved with him, gasping his name as they moved together. It felt like they were made to move together this way. As if her whole life had been leading up to him, to this moment. His hands closed around her waist, and he got to his knees.
“I’m not going to last,” he breathed.
She nodded. She wasn’t either. Especially not when he lifted her hips and held her in place so that he could drive deeper and harder. He took her straight to the edge and then he brushed his thumb over her clit, and she moaned.
“You’re going to make me … I’m going to … Spider!” She gasped his name as he drove her over the edge. Her mind flew away on waves of pleasure, carrying her higher and higher with each thrust of his hips until he tensed. He gripped her hips and thrust twice more, deep and hard before he stilled, every muscle in his body rigid as he lost himself inside her. His release drove her higher still, clenching around him as he filled her.
Her breath was coming in heaving gasps when they slumped together. She rested her head on his shoulder. “Wow!”
“Wow, is right.”
She tensed when he rolled away from her and stood up. He didn’t strike her as a snuggler, but she wasn’t sure she could stand to watch him just get up and pull his pants back on after what they’d just shared.
The expression on his face would have told her she had nothing to worry about, even if he hadn’t spoken. “Don’t move. I need to get rid of this. But I’ll be right back.”
She should have realized that he’d have to get rid of the condom. He disappeared into the bathroom and was back out within seconds. She didn’t even get the chance to admire his body. He was back on the bed beside her, wrapping up her up in his arms, and peppering kisses in her hair.
It made her smile. Not only did he tolerate snuggling, he was all about it. She loved it!
His hand rested on her shoulder, his thumb brushing back and forth. “I wanted to – ”
She reached up and put a finger over his lips. “It’s your turn to shush! Don’t you dare say you wanted that to be anything other than what it was. It was perfect.”
He propped his head up on his elbow and smiled down at her. “It was, wasn’t it?”
She laughed. “Thank you. Nothing you had in your mind could have made it any better than it was. You can’t beat perfection.”
“Nope. I won’t argue with you there.” He leaned in to kiss her softly. “But I’ll let you be the judge over the next couple rounds of what’s the most perfect.”
She laughed. “The next couple?”
He nodded happily. “We’re just getting started, sweetheart. And now that I’m over my initial … eagerness, we can slow down, take our time and work on improving perfection.”
She reached up and stroked his cheek. “You are perfect, you know.”
His smile faded.
“For me,” she added quickly before he had chance to spoil it. “There’s no such thing as perfect in any objective sense. We both know that. And I think it’s probably because we both know it and so we don’t strive to be whatever society deems to be perfect, that we’re actually perfect for each other.”
He held her gaze for a long moment before he nodded. “You’re pretty smart for a cowgirl, aren’t you?”
She laughed and pushed his arm out from under him so that he fell down on the mattress beside her. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed the tip of his nose. “I am, and you’d do well to remember it, mister.”
Chapter Thirteen
The sounds of birds chirping and rushing water made their way into Spider’s head. He couldn’t figure it out as he came up from the depths of a sound sleep. He slowly opened his eyes and had to blink a couple times when he did. He was looking up at a pine tongue and groove ceiling, with a fan turning lazily. He knew he wasn’t in his apartment, but Reid’s spare room wasn’t … and then it all came flooding back. Frankie. As soon as it hit him, he was aware of her, the warmth of her body next to his, the smell of her – he didn’t know what it was, but it was something airy and fresh that reminded him of the springtime. Her hand was warm on his chest. He looked down and his throat tightened at the sight of her fingers resting
on his scars. Damn.
They’d spent hours – some of the best hours of his life – in her bed last night. They’d both been exhausted. His limbs had felt boneless when he’d finally gotten up. But he’d declined her offer to stay the night. Ace had said that her brother might not mind him renting a cabin but that he wouldn’t be happy for him to be in the house. Spider respected that. The last thing he wanted to do was piss her brother off. He wanted what he and Frankie had to last for a while, and he didn’t want to make things difficult for either of them by antagonizing the only family she had. So, she’d driven him out here to the cabin, and he was glad. Even though he was renting the place from her, it felt like he was inviting her into his space. He didn’t want to be an intruder in hers.
What she’d said last night had touched him. She didn’t want to let him down. She knew herself – knew that the time when she wanted to move on would come soon enough. But she cared about him – that blew him away, that she cared enough to tell him beforehand. To give him the option to back out because she didn’t want to hurt him. Even if she hadn’t been so upfront with him, he knew the score. There were no guarantees in life, and no matter what people might say, what they might believe even, life was temporary, things changed. People who came into your life left it again sooner or later.
He looked down at her, her dark hair tangled around her face, her long dark eyelashes touching her cheeks. He wasn’t looking forward to the day that she would walk back out of his life. But he’d deal with it when it came. He’d lived through enough dark times, survived more than his share of evil bastards to know that when someone who felt like a ray of sunshine came along, you had to treasure every moment with them while you could. Good times ended just as surely as the bad times.
His arm tightened around her when she muttered something in her sleep, and his heart clenched when she burrowed deeper into his side. It had been a long time since he’d woken up with a woman. And he’d never been as happy to find one sharing his bed as he was this morning. He turned to look out the window and had to smile at the sight of the river glinting in the first rays of sunshine. The mountains provided a majestic backdrop. It looked like the stage was set for a beautiful day – in Montana and in his life.
“Good morning,” Frankie mumbled, her voice still sleepy and low. Every nerve ending in his body tingled at the sound of it.
He hugged her closer and kissed the top of her head. “Good morning. How did you sleep?”
She gave him a bleary-eyed smile. “Like a freaking log! You wore me out.”
He chuckled. “Hey, it was mutual.”
“Yeah. It was. Either way, I’m too tired to get up and go. I wish we could spend the day here in bed.” She stroked his chest. “The whole week would be good.”
He chuckled. “I like your enthusiasm, but if last night was anything to go by, we wouldn’t survive a whole week. We’d have screwed each other to death by Thursday.”
She laughed. “Yeah. Probably. So, instead of bitching about having to get up and go to work, I’ll try to be grateful for the break.” She winked. “I’ll treat it as an opportunity to build my strength back up so that we can go at it again tonight.”
“Go at it?” he asked with raised eyebrows. “That’s hardly romantic, is it, sweetheart?”
“Well, excuse me. I didn’t think you were a romantic kind of guy.”
He tried to look hurt, but he couldn’t pull it off. “Yeah, you got me. I never was.” He frowned.
“What?”
“I’m just surprised at myself thinking that, for you, I wouldn’t mind learning to be.”
She let out a short laugh. “Yeah. Don’t worry about it. There’s no need. A guy once told me that romance was wasted on me anyway.”
Spider tensed, gripped by a rush of … what? It wasn’t jealousy. He might not be a romantic, but he sure as hell wasn’t the jealous type. No. It wasn’t that he was jealous of some guy in her past. It was that he was pissed that any guy would ever tell her such a thing. “Well, whoever he was, he was an asshole.”
She shrugged. “He was an asshole. But I think he was right about the romance thing.”
She kissed his shoulder and then started to move away from him. “I’m too practical for romance. I have to be. And right now, that means that instead of staying here with you, I have to drag my ass out of bed, go shower and get dressed and head out.”
He pulled her back against him before she could get up. She’d told him last night that she had to go to Billings today – to a cattle auction. Apparently, she helped her cousins out with their cattle ranch along with all her other jobs. He knew she had to leave, but he just wanted to feel her close one more time before she went.
She relaxed against him and looked up at him over her shoulder. “Would you have any interest in some company tonight?”
“Only if it’s you, and you let me make you dinner.”
She smiled. “You cook?”
“Yeah. I’m not bad at it either.”
“Awesome. Then I’ll be here. I don’t know what time I’ll be back yet.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m going to see Monica this morning. Then I’m going to spend a couple hours with Owen and Reid. I’ll head back here once Tara finishes work at four-thirty, leave them to their family time. I’ll get some supplies in and that should put me back here by what … five-thirty?”
She nodded.
“Okay. So, any time after that I’ll be here, and I’ll feed you.”
She relaxed against him. “Thank you. I’ll look forward to it. Have I told you that you’re awesome?”
He chuckled. “You may have mentioned it a time or two.”
“Well, you are.”
“I’m glad you think so.” He swept her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck before gently pushing her to the edge of the bed. “You’d better go. I don’t want to make you late.”
She moaned, and he smiled at the way goosebumps rose up on her skin. “You’re a bad, bad man, doing that to me and telling me I have to leave.”
He kissed her again. “I just want to give you a taste of what will be waiting for you when you get back.”
She laughed. “Keep doing that and I won’t be going anywhere.”
He pushed her again, even though he’d rather drag her back into bed and go with her vision of keeping her here for days. “I’ll stop then. I don’t want your cousins thinking that you’ve been kidnapped by the weird biker dude.”
She laughed. “They know better than that. For starters you’re not the weird biker dude, you’re the hot, tattooed stranger. And they wouldn’t for a minute think that you’d kidnapped me, more like the other way around – that I’d claimed you for my own and was never letting you go.”
Spider’s heart raced at her words. She was only joking. He knew she was. But the thought of her claiming him as her own? Of belonging with her? He forced himself to smile when he saw that she was looking worried. There was no way he could tell her how her words made him feel, so he went with, “I should be so lucky.”
She cupped his cheek in her hand and pressed her lips to his for a long moment. “I’ll see you later.”
~ ~ ~
Frankie climbed into the back of the truck and laughed when Tanner poked her in the ribs to move over.
“No way, mister! I’m not taking the middle and spending the next couple hours squashed between you big lugs.”
Tanner laughed and elbowed her again. “Go on. Scoot your skinny ass over. You’re right, we are big lugs, so we need the room.”
“Nope. Not moving.”
Ford turned around in the driver’s seat and scowled at them. “Jesus! It’s worse than having kids back there. Just get in, would you?”
Frankie eyed Tyler warily when he got in the other side and gave her an evil smile. “Come over and say hi, why don’t you?”
She shook her head with a laugh. “Nope. You’re not getting me over there so that Tan can get in here.”
Tyler winke
d at her and made a grab for her arm at the same time that Tanner started tickling her and shoving her ass into the middle of the back seat. She fought as hard as she could, but that wasn’t saying much; she was laughing too hard to put up any real resistance.
As soon as Tanner was in, he slammed the door shut after him, and Ford pulled away.
“God, I hate you guys! Now I remember why I never stick around for long. It’s because you’re all so mean to me!”
Wade turned to look back at her from the passenger seat with a grin. “Nah. You love us to pieces. We’re the only reason you keep coming back.”
She made a face at him. He might have a point there, but no way was she going to admit it – they’d think she’d gone soft, and that would wipe the smile off everyone’s faces.
“How long are you planning on sticking around this time?” Ford asked as he pulled out of the auction grounds.
Frankie met his gaze in the rearview mirror as he watched the trailer. “I don’t know yet. I’m enjoying working with little Owen. He needs stability and a predictable routine. So, I think I’m going to stay a good while. He’s used to me being around now and he’s making good progress.”
Tanner dug her in the ribs again. “Are you using the kid as an excuse?”
“For what?”
He waggled his eyebrows at her. “You know what.”
She had a feeling she knew what he was talking about – he meant Spider. She’d been expecting all four of her cousins to at least ask her about him today, and more likely to give her some grief. But they’d been busy at the auction between the cattle and catching up with ranchers, and none of them had, so far.
Tanner was grinning at her expectantly, but Tyler didn’t look so happy. “Yeah. What’s the deal with this Spider guy?”
She scowled at him. “None of your damned business!”
Wade laughed. “Uh-oh. Now you’ve got me worried.”
“Why?” She scowled at him, too. It was like she’d just told Ty – none of their damned business.
