Dark Horse: Bad Boy Cowboy Romance (10 page)

Inside of me, I felt him flex once more - and then wetness came pouring down, coating my thighs and running down. That little part of my mind sighed. Time to clean the sheets, it pointed out to me.

I stubbornly ignored its voice. I instead leaned down and kissed at the man's mouth, but it hung open, so I contented myself with nibbling on his cheek. "Come on, baby, give it all to me," I whispered in his ear, knowing that he liked when I talked to him as he came.

For a few more seconds, Marsden kept on moving slightly inside of me, pumping out every drop of his seed. But finally, he finished, and he dropped back, limp, onto the bed as his orgasm faded away.

"That was really good, babe," he said, finally opening his eyes and stretching his hands up above my head. "Wow, I missed that."

"Me, too," I replied, trying to not hear the words of the sarcastic little voice in my head.

Marsden reached around and patted me on the ass, although this was more of a friendly pat than a grab of passion. "Now, why don't you hop up, maybe go clean yourself up?" he suggested. "I'll wait here, get dressed."

He winked at me. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to give you a nice kiss goodbye before I leave."

I smiled back at him, wondering why I felt like I had to force the smile out. I quickly stood up, lifting myself up off of the now half-soft cock still inside of me, and headed for the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom, I stopped and stared at my reflection in the mirror for a moment, gripping the sides of the bathroom sink. My reflection stared back at me, eyes wide, but without a hint of a smile on her face.

Get it together, Gilly, I thought to myself. He's your fiancé. Be happy that the two of you are back on the same footing.

I forced myself to smile, checking in the mirror to make sure it looked normal and natural before turning and heading back out into the bedroom to say goodbye to Marsden.

Chapter fifteen

The next morning, I felt especially foul as I stumbled downstairs for coffee and breakfast.

"I feel like someone scooped out all of my brains and replaced them with cotton balls," I complained to Lance as I entered the kitchen. "That, or maybe steel wool."

"And a good morning to you, too," he replied, grinning a little as he noted my obvious discomfort. "If I had to make a doctor's guess, I'd say that you had quite a few glasses of wine with dinner, am I right?"

I stuck out my tongue at him as I took a seat on one of the stools next to the kitchen's center island. "It was celebration drinking," I replied, rubbing at my head as I sat down, propping myself up with both hands on my temples. "And at least we're back on better terms, Marsden and I."

"So I gathered." Lance turned back to the stove as I pondered these words.

"What exactly does that mean?" I asked his bare back as he hefted the pan, flipping the eggs sitting in it with an easy flip.

For a moment, he was silent, and the only sound in the kitchen was the crackling of the cooking eggs. "My room is down the hall from yours," Lance finally said, glancing back over his shoulder at me with one eye. "But that doesn't mean that the walls between our rooms block all sound."

It took a moment for the meaning of this comment to sink in, and a blush rushed to my cheeks. "Oh god," I groaned, dropping my head down to put my face flat against the cool stone counter of the center island. "So you could hear-"

"-just about everything, yeah."

I let out a wordless groan of embarrassment. Even pressed up against the cold counter, I felt my cheeks growing hot with blood.

I heard Lance chuckle. "Yeah, it sounded something like that."

I lifted my head up, feeling my hair fall messily down around my face. "Great," I remarked, waving one hand lazily in the air. "Just great. So now the guy living with me and helping repair my house and property has heard me having sex. I couldn't imagine things getting any better."

"Oh really?" Lance raised his eyebrows at me as he brought the two plates around, setting them down on the counter. He tipped an over easy egg onto the top of the toast and tomato slice, garnishing it with a couple little leaves of some green herb that I didn't recognize, and slid one over to me.

I took one look at the smirk on his face and let out another groan. "No, please no. What is it now?"

"After, um, hearing the commotion, I decided to go downstairs," Lance said, using the side of his fork to break his egg's yolk and watching in satisfaction as the golden liquid ran down onto the tomato and toast. "I was still down there when your fiancé came downstairs, still in the process of getting dressed. He made a few comments to me on the way out."

My mouth was filled at the moment with delicious egg and toast, but I rolled my eyes at my lodger. Lance just let out a little chuckle as he nodded.

"That's about how I felt about it, too," he agreed. "But I couldn't exactly just walk out on him, so I listened to him brag about how he 'rocked your world' just a few minutes previously."

The comment made me laugh out loud, little bits of food flying out of my mouth before I managed to cover it with my hand. "Yeah, right," I said, once I'd swallowed the bite of food. "Not that I don't love Marsden, but he sometimes brags a bit too much."

For a moment longer, we both grinned at my embarrassment. Finally, Lance gave himself a little shake and took another bite. "Well, in any case, it's interesting to put a face to your fiancé," he said. "And at least now you're not keeping me a secret from him."

Interesting. That was the word that Lance used, and I questioned it as I finished off my breakfast. What exactly did he mean by 'interesting'?

As I popped the last bite into my mouth, however, I realized how I could get my revenge on the man for teasing me so. When I next looked up at Lance, I put a wide, shit-eating grin on my face, and felt gratified to see him pause when he caught my expression.

"That doesn't bode well," he said slowly.

His suspicion just made my smile broader. "What, don't you think you're going to have fun?" I asked, teasing him.

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep him in the darkness any longer. Lance gave me a long, considering look, and then leaned back, picking up the dirty dishes. "This has something to do with the wedding, doesn't it," he said, not really asking a question.

I huffed, annoyed that he'd guessed my intention. "I need to go out and look at different locations," I confessed. "First thing on my wedding checklist. Want to come with me? I could use some more help with figuring out which place will work best."

"I did agree to help with this, didn't I? That wasn't just a nightmare?" Lance sighed as I stuck my tongue out at him, but he nodded after a second. "Fine. Let's go look at these places, if you're insisting on dragging me along."

After a second, the man grinned and flexed his biceps. "Should I go shirtless?" he asked.

I made sure to accent my loud groan, although I couldn't help spending a few extra moments checking out how Lance's abs pulled tight. No extra fat on this man! It's okay for me to look, I told myself, watching his muscles flex. It wasn't like I was even thinking about what it would be like to let Lance put his hands on my body.

Still grinning, Lance dropped his arms, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, let me put on a shirt," he said, stepping out of the kitchen. "I'll be ready in a few minutes."

"Sure thing," I replied, my thoughts still a little muddled with the sight of his muscles.

As he stepped out of the kitchen, I thought that I heard Lance murmur something under his breath. He spoke almost too quietly for me to catch the words, and I didn't hear everything - but I did catch something about "doesn't deserve." Was he talking about me? DId I not deserve something? Or was he just complaining about not deserving the torture of being dragged out to see different wedding venues?

I finished off my cup of coffee, putting that little muttered comment out of my head. Glancing down at myself, I nearly jumped out of my own seat. I had to go get dressed, as well!

Back upstairs in my room, I put my hands on my hips as I stared around at the mess. I had piles of clothes everywhere! Muttering a little curse at myself for letting things get so messy, I started picking up some of the dirty outfits and dumping them in the hamper, ready to go get cleaned at some later point.

It wasn't until i was scooping up the last pile of clothing that I remembered that I'd come up here to get dressed! I glanced into my closet, searching for an outfit.

I had to discard several options before I found the right choice - a cute little skirt, white with little red hearts dotted across the fabric. Perfect! That choice definitely said light, happy, and ready to plan a wedding.

I shrugged my way out of my robe, tugged off the shirt that I'd pulled on beneath, and reached for the dress - and then froze as I heard the floorboards creak behind me.

I turned - and there was Lance, standing with his hand still raised to knock on the open door, his eyes wide.

For a second, we both stared blankly at each other, both of us frozen.

Finally, I managed to regain control of my muscles, clapping my hands up to cover my bare breasts, glaring bloody murder at the man. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I burst out.

Lance's eyes were still wide, and although he quickly took a couple of steps back from me, he couldn't seem to tear his gaze away from my chest. "Sorry, I didn't realize that you weren't ready yet," he stammered, still gaping at my breasts.

"No! I was busy cleaning up - don't you knock?"

"I- the door was open," he replied, still seemingly unable to drag his eyes away.

I finally reached out and, turning my body so he couldn't see my nipple as I pulled one hand away, slammed the door closed. "Just give me a minute!" I shouted out to him, still feeling myself blushing a furious red as I climbed into my dress.

Great, just great. As if I needed any more embarrassment this morning.

Chapter sixteen

When I opened the door, finally dressed and ready to go, I glared at Lance, as if trying to use the heat of my gaze to burn his recent sighting of my chest out of his mind. "Now, I want you to forget whatever you saw, okay?" I challenged him. "So what did you see?"

He held his hands up. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"Good," I nodded. "Now, let's go out and visit some places around town where I might have my wedding - to another man! So you shouldn't be picturing me naked, since I'm not even on the market!"

I watched as Lance nodded, but from the slightly poleaxed look still in his eyes, I could tell that he hadn't gotten the message and was still picturing what he'd seen. Great.

We left the house in silence, climbing into my truck and heading down the bumpy road of my driveway. From the edge of the pasture, I saw Merlot and Shadow both watching us go, the two horses standing next to each other without looking bothered. I was happy to see that the two of them had grown comfortable in each other's presence, at least.

Unfortunately, the day didn't grow any less awkward as it went on.

We visited three locations that morning - a large pavilion at the Derby grounds, one of the oldest and largest churches in the area, and a downtown banquet hall often used for conferences and other gatherings. All of them were nice, I had to admit, but none of them felt quite right, quite as perfect as I somehow expected.

And even worse, the event planners who met us at each location kept on mistaking the two of us for a couple.

"Oh, you two look so cute together!" gushed the stout little middle-aged lady at the Derby pavilion, clapping her hands together. "Tell me, how did the two of you meet? I bet it's a really romantic tale!"

"Gosh, you two seem like the perfect pair," commented the severely dressed woman at the banquet hall, observing us over a pair of black plastic rimmed librarian's glasses. "Somehow, I can see the two of you riding together out on the range. Monteclaire - you're one of the old horse raising families from the area, aren't you?"

"I hope that the two of you are going to speak with me before the wedding," the priest at the church commented, his Bible tucked under one arm as if he couldn't even bear to set it down. "Getting married in a church involves more than just the location, you know. You both must agree to respect our principles, yes?"

At each location, we fell over ourselves to quickly clarify that we weren't couple. "He's just a friend, here to help me choose a good location," I insisted, stepping away from Lance as if, by physically separating ourselves from each other, we could show that we definitely didn't have any sort of romantic entanglement.

"I'm just along to provide a man's perspective," Lance tossed out, his words right on the heels of my own. "I'm just the stand-in for the husband."

Our quick excuses and stammering replies received mixed responses. The stout little woman at the Derby pavilion just nodded and winked at us, laughing, no matter how much we tried to convince her. The priest gave a sniff, as if the idea of a bride-to-be having male friends was utterly ridiculous.

Perhaps the most interesting response came from the stern-looking woman at the banquet hall, the one who kept on putting me in mind of a rather authoritative librarian. As soon as she heard that Lance and I weren't an item, she began sidling up to Lance at every opportunity available, murmuring little comments to him that I couldn't hear - but made the man step away quickly, his ears reddening. When we finished looking around the banquet hall, I caught her slipping a little piece of paper into his pocket, and then patting him on the ass as she turned away!