Tempting the Rancher

by Brenda Jackson

  Ryan gripped the base of his cock and pressed its head to her entrance. He inched inside, and Tess whimpered softly. She dug her fingers into his hips, her eyes meeting his as he slid the rest of the way home. Until he was nestled as deeply inside her as the laws of physics would allow.

  When he was fully seated, her slick, heated flesh surrounding him, an involuntary growl escaped his mouth at the delicious feel of this woman who was all softness and curves. Sweetness and beauty. His friend and his lover.

  His gaze met hers as he hovered above her and moved inside her. His voice rasping, he whispered to her. Told her how incredible she made him feel.

  Then, lifting her legs, he hooked them over his shoulders as he leaned over her, his weight on his hands as he moved.

  She gasped, her eyes widening at the sensation of him going deep and hitting bottom due to the sudden shift in position.

  “Ryan... I...oh... God.” Tessa squeezed her eyes shut.

  “C’mon, Tess.” He arched his back as he shifted his hips forward, beads of sweat forming on his brow and trickling down his back. “Just let go. Don’t think. Just feel.”

  Her breath came in quick pants, and she dug her nails in his biceps. Suddenly, her mouth formed a little O and her eyes opened wide. The unmistakable expression of pure satisfaction that overtook her as she called his name was one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen. Something he wanted to see again and again.

  Her flesh throbbed and pulsed around him, bringing him to his peak. He tensed, shuddering as he cursed and called her name.

  Ryan collapsed on to the bed beside her, both of them breathing hard and staring at the ceiling overhead for a few moments.

  Finally, she draped an arm over his abdomen and rested her head on his shoulder.

  He kissed the top of her head, pulled the covers over them, and slipped an arm around her. He lay there, still and quiet, fighting his natural tendency to slip out into the night. His usual MO after a one-night stand. Only he couldn’t do that. Partly because it was Tess. Partly because what he’d felt between them was something he couldn’t quite name, and he wanted to feel it again.

  Ryan propped an arm beneath his head and stared at the ceiling as Tessa’s soft breathing indicated she’d fallen asleep.

  * * *

  Intimacy.

  That was the elusive word he’d been searching for all night. The thing he’d felt when his eyes had met hers as he’d roared, buried deep inside her. He’d sounded ridiculous. Like a wounded animal, in pain. Needing someone to save him.

  Ryan scrubbed a hand down his face, one arm still wrapped around his best friend. Whom he’d made love to. The woman who knew him better than anyone in the world.

  And now they knew each other in a way they’d never allowed themselves to before. A way that made him feel raw and exposed, like a live wire.

  While making love to Tess, he’d felt a surge of power as he’d teased her gorgeous body and coaxed her over the edge. Watched her free-fall into ecstasy, her body trembling.

  But as her inner walls pulsed, pulling him over the cliff after her, he’d felt something completely foreign and yet vaguely familiar. It was a thing he couldn’t name. Or maybe he hadn’t wanted to.

  Then when he’d startled awake, his arm slightly numb from being wedged beneath her, the answer was on his tongue.

  Intimacy.

  How was it that he’d managed to have gratifying sex with women without ever experiencing this heightened level of intimacy? Not even with his ex—the woman he’d planned to marry.

  He and Sabrina had known each other. What the other wanted for breakfast. Each other’s preferred drinks. They’d even known each other’s bodies. Well. And yet he’d never experienced this depth of connection. Of truly being known by someone who could practically finish his sentences. Not because Tessa was so like him, but because she understood him in a way no one else did.

  Ryan swallowed the hard lump clogging his throat and swiped the backs of his fingers over his damp brow.

  Why is it suddenly so goddamned hot in here?

  He blew out a long, slow breath. Tried to slow the rhythm of his heart, suddenly beating like a drum.

  What the hell had he just done?

  He’d satisfied the curiosity that had been simmering just below the surface of his friendship with Tessa. The desire to know her intimately. To know how it would feel to have her soft curves pressed against him as he’d surged inside her.

  Now he knew what it was like for their bodies to move together. As if they were a single being. How it made his pulse race like a freight train as she called his name in a sweet, husky voice he’d never heard her use before. The delicious burn of her nails gently scraping his back as she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him in deeper.

  And how it felt as she’d throbbed and pulsed around his heated flesh until he could no longer hold back his release.

  Now, all he could think about was feeling all of those things again. Watching her shed the inhibitions that had held her back at first. Taking her a little further.

  But Tessa was his best friend, and a very good friend’s sister. He’d crossed the line. Broken a promise and taken them to a place they could never venture back from. After last night, he couldn’t see her and not want her. Would never forget the taste and feel of her.

  So what now?

  Tess was sweet and sensitive. Warm and thoughtful. She deserved more than being friends with benefits. She deserved a man as kind and loving as she was.

  Was he even capable of being that kind of man?

  His family was nothing like the Nobles. Hank and Loretta Bateman weren’t the doting parents that kissed injured knees and cheered effort. They believed in tough love, hard lessons and that failure wasn’t to be tolerated by anyone with the last name Bateman.

  Ryan knew unequivocally that his parents loved him, but he was twenty-nine years old and could never recall hearing either of them say the words explicitly.

  He’d taken the same approach in his relationships. It was how he was built, all he’d ever known. But Tess could never be happy in a relationship like that.

  Ryan sucked in another deep breath and released it quietly. He gently kissed the top of her head and screwed his eyes shut. Allowed himself to surrender to the sleep that had eluded him until now.

  They’d figure it all out in the morning. After he’d gotten some much-needed sleep. He always thought better with a clear head and a full stomach.

  Chapter 12

  Tessa’s eyes fluttered opened. She blinked against the rays of light peeking through the hotel room curtain and rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her fist. Her leg was entwined with Ryan’s, and one of her arms was buried beneath him.

  She groaned, pressing a hand to her mouth to prevent a curse from erupting from her lips. She’d made love with her best friend. Had fallen asleep with him. She peeked beneath the covers, her mouth falling open.

  Naked. Both of them.

  Tessa snapped her mouth shut and eased the cover back down. Though it didn’t exactly lie flat. Not with Ryan Bateman sporting a textbook definition of morning wood.

  She sank her teeth into her lower lip and groaned internally. Her nipples hardened, and the space between her thighs grew incredibly wet. Heat filled her cheeks.

  She’d been with Ryan in the most intimate way imaginable. And it had been...incredible. Better than anything she’d imagined. And she’d imagined it more than she cared to admit.

  Ryan had been intense, passionate and completely unselfish. He seemed to get off on pleasing her. Had evoked reactions from her body she hadn’t believed it capable of. And the higher he’d taken her, the more desperate she became to shatter the mask of control that gripped his handsome face.

  Tessa drew her knees to her chest and took slow, deep breaths. Willed her hands to stop shaking. Tried t
o tap into the brain cells that had taken a siesta the moment she’d pressed her lips to Ryan’s.

  Yes, sex between them had been phenomenal. But the friendship they shared for more than two decades—that was something she honestly couldn’t do without.

  She needed some space, so she could clear her head and make better decisions than she had last night. Last night she’d allowed her stupid crush on her best friend to run wild. She’d bought into the Cinderella fantasy. Lock, stock and barrel.

  What did she think would happen next? That he’d suddenly realize she was in love with him? Maybe even realize he was in love with her, too?

  Not in this lifetime or the next.

  She simply wasn’t that lucky. Ryan had always considered her a friend. His best friend, but nothing more. A few hours together naked between the sheets wouldn’t change that.

  Besides, as her mother often reminded her, tigers don’t change their stripes.

  How many times had Ryan said it? Sex is just sex. A way to have a little fun and let off a little steam. Why would she expect him to feel differently just because it was her?

  Her pent-up feelings for Ryan were her issue, not his.

  Tessa’s face burned with an intense heat, as if she was standing too close to a fire. Waking up naked with her best friend was awkward, but they could laugh it off. Blame it on the alcohol, like Jamie Foxx. Chalk it up to them both getting too carried away in the moment. But if she told him how she really felt about him, and he rejected her...

  Tessa sighed. The only thing worse than secretly lusting after her best friend was having had him, knowing just how good things could be, and then being patently rejected. She’d never recover from that. Would never be able to look him in the face and pretend everything was okay.

  And if, by some chance, Ryan was open to trying to turn this into something more, he’d eventually get bored with their relationship. As he had with every relationship he’d been in before. They’d risk destroying their friendship.

  It wasn’t worth the risk.

  Tessa wiped away tears that stung the corners of her eyes. She quietly climbed out of bed, in search of her clothing.

  She cursed under her breath as she retrieved her panties—the only clothing she’d been wearing when they entered the bedroom. Tessa pulled them on and grabbed Ryan’s shirt from the floor. She slipped it on and buttoned a few of the middle buttons. She glanced back at his handsome form as he slept soundly, hoping everything between them would be all right.

  Tessa slowly turned the doorknob and the door creaked open.

  Damn.

  Wasn’t oiling door hinges part of the planned maintenance for a place like this? Did they not realize the necessity of silent hinges in the event a hotel guest needed a quiet escape after making a questionable decision with her best friend the night before?

  Still, as soundly as Ryan was sleeping, odds were, he hadn’t heard it.

  “Tess?” Ryan called from behind her in that sexy, sleep-roughened voice that made her squirm.

  Every. Damn. Time.

  She sucked in a deep breath, forced a nonchalant smile and turned around. “Yes?”

  “Where are you going?”

  He’d propped himself up in bed on one elbow as he rubbed his eyes and squinted against the light. His brown hair stood all over his head in the hottest damn case of bed head she’d ever witnessed. And his bottle-green eyes glinted in the sunlight.

  Trying to escape before you woke up. Isn’t it obvious?

  Tessa jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “I was about to hop into the shower, and I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “Perfect.” He sat up and threw off the covers. “We can shower together.” A devilish smile curled his red lips. “I know how you feel about conserving water.”

  “You want to shower...together? The two of us?” She pointed to herself and then to him.

  “Why? Were you thinking of inviting someone else?”

  “Smart-ass.” Her cheeks burned with heat. Ryan was in rare form. “You know what I meant.”

  “Yes, I do.” He stalked toward her naked, at more than half-mast now. Looking like walking, talking sex-on-a-stick promising unicorn orgasms.

  Ryan looped his arms around her waist and pressed her back against the wall. He leaned down and nuzzled her neck.

  Tessa’s beaded nipples rubbed against his chest through the fabric of the shirt she was wearing. Her belly fluttered, and her knees trembled. Her chest rose and fell with heavy, labored breaths. As if Ryan was sucking all the oxygen from the room, making it harder for her to breathe.

  “C’mon, Tess.” He trailed kisses along her shoulder as he slipped the shirt from it. “Don’t make this weird. It’s just us.”

  She raised her eyes to his, her heart racing. “It’s already weird because it’s just us.”

  “Good point.” He gave her a cocky half smile and a micro nod. “Then we definitely need to do something to alleviate the weirdness.”

  “And how exactly are we going to do—” Tess squealed as Ryan suddenly lifted her and heaved her over his shoulder. He carried her, kicking and wiggling, into the master bathroom and turned on the water.

  “Ryan Bateman, don’t you dare even think about it,” Tessa called over her shoulder, kicking her feet and holding on to Ryan’s back for dear life.

  He wouldn’t drop her. She had every confidence of that. Still...

  “You’re going to ruin my hair.”

  “I like your curls better. In fact, I felt a little cheated that I didn’t get to run my fingers through them. I always wanted to do that.”

  Something about his statement stopped her objections cold. Made visions dance in her head of them together in the shower with Ryan doing just that.

  “Okay. Just put me down.”

  Ryan smacked her bottom lightly before setting her down, her body sliding down his. Seeming to rev them both up as steam surrounded them.

  She slowly undid the three buttons of Ryan’s shirt and made a show of sliding the fabric down one shoulder, then the other.

  His green eyes darkened. His chest rose and fell heavily as his gaze met hers again after he’d followed the garment’s descent to the floor.

  Ryan hooked his thumbs into the sides of her panties and tugged her closer, dropping another kiss on her neck. He gently sank his teeth into her delicate flesh, nibbling the skin there as he glided her underwear over the swell of her bottom and down her hips.

  She stepped out of them and into the shower. Pressed her back against the cool tiles. A striking contrast to the warm water. Ryan stepped into the shower, too, closing the glass door behind him and covering her mouth with his.

  * * *

  Tessa lay on her back, her hair wound in one of Ryan’s clean, cotton T-shirts. He’d washed her hair and taken great delight in running a soapy loofah over every inch of her body.

  Then he’d set her on the shower bench and dropped to his knees. He’d used the removable shower head as a makeshift sex toy. Had used it to bring her to climax twice. Then showed her just how amazing he could be with his tongue.

  When he’d pressed the front of her body to the wall, lifted one of her legs, and taken her from behind, Tessa honestly hadn’t thought it would be possible for her to get there again.

  She was wrong.

  She came hard, her body tightening and convulsing, and his did the same soon afterward.

  They’d gone through their morning routines, brushing their teeth side by side, wrapped in towels from their shower together. Ryan ordered room service, and they ate breakfast in bed, catching the last half of a holiday comedy that was admittedly a pretty crappy movie overall. Still, it never failed to make the two of them laugh hysterically.

  When the movie ended, Ryan had clicked off the television and kissed her. A kiss that slowly stoked the fire low in her bel
ly all over again. Made her nipples tingle and the space between her thighs ache for him.

  She lay staring up at Ryan, his hair still damp from the shower. Clearly hell-bent on using every single condom in that strip before the morning ended, he’d sheathed himself and entered her again.

  Her eyes had fluttered closed at the delicious fullness as Ryan eased inside her. His movements were slow, deliberate, controlled.

  None of those words described the Ryan Bateman she knew. The man she’d been best friends with since they were both still in possession of their baby teeth.

  Ryan was impatient. Tenacious. Persistent. He wanted everything five minutes ago. But the man who hovered over her now, his piercing green eyes boring into her soul and grasping her heart, was in no hurry. He seemed to relish the torturously delicious pleasure he was giving her with his slow, languid movements.

  He was laser-focused. His brows furrowed, and his forehead beaded with sweat. The sudden swivel of his hips took her by surprise, and she whimpered with pleasure, her lips parting.

  Ryan leaned down and pressed his mouth to hers, slipping his tongue inside and caressing her tongue.

  Tessa got lost in his kiss. Let him rock them both into a sweet bliss that left her feeling like she was floating on a cloud.

  She held on to him as he arched his back, his muscles straining as his own orgasm overtook him. Allowed herself to savor the warmth that encircled her sated body.

  Then, gathering her to his chest, he removed her makeshift T-shirt turban and ran his fingers through her damp, curly hair.

  She’d never felt more cherished or been more satisfied in her life. Yet, when the weekend ended, it would be the equivalent of the clock striking twelve for Cinderella. The dream would be over, her carriage would turn back into a pumpkin, and she’d be the same old Tessa Noble whom Ryan only considered a friend.

  She inhaled his scent. Leather and cedar with a hint of patchouli. A scent she’d bought him for Christmas three years ago. Ryan had been wearing it ever since. Tess was never sure if he wore it because he truly liked it or because he’d wanted to make her happy.