Rough Rider (16 page)

Dirk seemed to fill the tiny kitchenette with his overpowering male presence.

“Coffee?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes, please.”

He filled her cup before sitting down with his own. “How old is Cody now?”

“He'll be ten in March.”

“Is he really?”

“Yeah. I can't believe how fast he's growing up.”

“How's he dealt with his father's death?”

Janice stared into her coffee mug. Recalling the look of stark incomprehension on her six-year-old's face when she'd tried to explain that his father would never be coming home again.

“Fairly well, actually,” she answered at length. “Once he was over the initial shock, his acceptance surprised me. But they were never very close. I used to resent that Grady didn't take much interest in him, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise. On the flip side, I'm afraid I've overcompensated a bit.”

“How's that?”

“I've kept him too close. He needs more freedom. He needs to be a boy.”

“True enough.” Dirk nodded. “All boys need to raise a little hell.”

“You're right. And I think coming back to Montana has been really good for him. He's already made some friends and now he's learning to ride.”

“He's riding? You still got horses?” Dirk asked with surprise.

She shook her head wistfully. “No, we don't. He's learning on a friend's horse, but I hope maybe one day we can get a couple of our own. We still have a small paddock and a hay shed. It would be nice to ride again.”

“Dig in,” he said, indicating her plate. “Syrup?”

Janice noticed four bottles of gourmet syrup and laughed. “Where's the Aunt Jemima?”

“Only the good stuff here. I might have something going soon with this same gourmet foods company. They want to expand into high-end meats. Here. Try this one.”

Janice poured the blueberry syrup on her pancakes and took a bite. It was delicious. So were the pancakes. Dirk hadn't exaggerated his cooking skills.

“If you want to ride, why don't you bring Cody out here?” Dirk said after a time. “We've still got a couple dozen horses and Red Man's the best babysitter you'll ever find.”

“You really mean that?” Janice's gaze met his over her coffee cup. “I don't even know what to say.”

“They're all getting fat and lazy. Hell, they need to do
something
to earn their keep.”

“Thanks,” she said.

Dirk flushed. He seemed almost embarrassed by his offer. “Eat up,” he grunted and then attacked his own plate, downing the pancakes in record time. He looked up in surprise when Janice pushed away her half-full plate. “You aren't gonna finish?”

“God no!” she exclaimed. “I'm about to burst.”

“Waste not, want not.” He stabbed his fork into the remains of her stack and wolfed them down as well. It suddenly seemed so natural, so comfortable to be sitting across the table from him like this. She'd never had that with Grady. He was too restless…too preoccupied…or too absent. Afraid to linger on domestic fantasies that could never come true, Janice stood and started clearing the table.

“Just leave it,” he said. “Time's a wastin'.”

“Cleaning up is the least I can do when you did the cooking,” Janice protested.

“Fine. Just throw them in the sink.”

But Janice was already filling it with hot, soapy water.

Dirk came up from behind, reaching around her to turn off the tap. “You don't take orders very well, do you?” he rumbled in her ear. “You need to know something straight up, Red. I don't brook disobedience to direct orders.” His body was warm and hard behind hers, his breath sweetly scented. His tone, however, was anything but sweet.

She froze with her hands braced on the countertop. She swallowed hard. “I—I was just trying to help.”

His other arm came around her, trapping her body between his and the sink, his hands gripping the counter top beside hers. His chest and hips pressed against her back, sending a flood of heat to her core. She shut her eyes and tipped her head back, breathing him in, filling her lungs to capacity with the scent of musky male.
Dear
God, I want him. Right here. Right now.

Did he feel it too? He must have but he continued, cool and controlled. “I know that, Red, but I'm in charge here,” he said. “You can chalk it up to my time in the Marine Corps, but I'm gonna expect you to do
exactly
as I tell you.”

“Or what?” she asked breathlessly and arched into him.

His breath hitched. His arms tightened. “You're playing with fire, Red. You better think real hard what you're doing, 'cause this time I'm not about to let you walk outta here.”

He released the counter to skirt his hands slowly up her sides, cupping her breasts in his big strong hands, brushing his thumbs over her taut nipples.

She gasped.

“Last chance,” he warned, nuzzling his face into her neck and inciting another ripple of pleasure deep in her belly. “If you wanna leave, you'd better do it right-fucking-now.”

“No. I don't want to go,” she whispered, making no move to escape.

He released her and took a half step backward before he anchored his hands on her hips and spun her around to face him. His pupils were dilated, his mouth compressed as he backed her up to the table.

“What about the cattle?” she whispered.

“Fuck the cattle.” He tugged her shirttail out of her jeans. “They can damn well wait…I can't.”

His mouth came down on hers, hard and possessive, his tongue sweeping the seam of her mouth demanding entrance. She parted on a moan and he plunged into her mouth, his tongue tangling with hers, every touch sending echoes of sensation straight to her sex.

Janice opened eagerly, greedily taking him deeper and grinding her hips against his.

He proved a fine multitasker, unbuttoning her shirt and unhooking her bra without even releasing her for a breather. Now he was working on her zipper. She wriggled out of her shirt and bra as he worked her jeans down. They were only as far as her knees when she found herself sitting on his kitchen table. He tugged her boots off. They hit the floor with a dull thud and then the jeans joined them. Grabbing a kitchen knife, his motions were clean and efficient as he slit the side seams to dispense with her panties. There was no doubt Dirk meant business this time.

“Lie back,” he commanded low and husky.

Janice complied, only to be surprised by the sensation of something cold and wet on her chest and belly. She opened her eyes to find Dirk grinning down at her, and her upper body dripping blueberry syrup.

“Sorry, sweetheart. I couldn't resist the temptation.” Hunching over her, he proceeded to lick her off with long slow lashes of his hot tongue, lingering to lick, suck, and bite her nipples

“Please,” she begged, writhing in her need.

His mouth and tongue were all over her breasts and then her belly, his breath hot and moist against her skin as his mouth worked steadily southward. One hand ascended her leg to stroke between her thighs. She shuddered with raw pleasure.

He placed his hands on her ass, urging her to the edge, then gripped the table and lowered himself to his knees. “You don't have to,” she protested, realizing what he intended. Her pulse raced with panic even as her body remembered the pleasure. “I'm ready for you.”

“I
want
to,” he said. “Besides, if I don't get you off first, you might not get another chance. Once I'm gloved inside you, I'm gonna be blind and deaf and so caught up in my need to come that I'm not gonna give a goddamn about anything else… I told you it's been a long time, Red. A long fucking time.”

He'd said almost the same thing the very first time they were together.

He draped her thighs over his shoulders and rubbed his face in her mons with a low groan that vibrated clean through her. Janice shut her eyes, throwing her head back with a whimper at the first hot swipe of his tongue. By the second slow, wet sweep, she ground her pubis against his mouth, agonizing in the sweet torture.

“Please. Don't stop.”

Their moans mingled while he worked magic with his lips, teeth, and tongue, teasing, circling, and sucking, turning her mind to jelly. She glanced down at his face to find his eyes nearly black with lust and his lips curved up at the corners. He knew damn well what he was doing to her. His every touch invoked an increasingly needy response from her body. Her initial resistance forgotten, Janice lost herself in the pleasure of his mouth.

He nudged her thighs wider, gripping her hips tighter, and pulling her harder against his mouth working her with his skillful tongue as he plunged two fingers in and out, hard and fast in synchrony with the sweeps and swirls of his hot, velvet tongue. Her need for release was ramped to a fever pitch. She was quivering inside and out, her breath coming shorter, harder, as her climax coiled deep inside her belly.

“Give it up now, Red. Come for me. Now. I want
all
of it.”

Her mind was so far gone, her brain so drugged by sensation, that she barely heard the words. As he closed his lips and sucked her clit, one thought exploded in her mind along with the sobbing climax that rocked her body.
Be
careful
what
you
wish
for.

* * *

Although his balls throbbed with need, Dirk wouldn't take back watching her climax for anything. In those last seconds, with her lips parted, her eyes shut, and her face flushed in ecstasy, he'd felt whole again for the first time in ages. In those precious seconds he was a man who could still please a woman. The knowledge made his chest ache almost as much as his dick.

He hauled himself to his feet with his mind conjuring visions of bending her over the table and plunging into her balls deep. Janice sat up and reached for his belt, but he'd already released the buckle and popped his jeans button. With shaking hands, he yanked his zipper down and released his erection. They were both panting with anticipation when he jerked her hips to the edge of the table and stepped between her parted thighs. He was primed and ready when he backed away, hissing a curse. “Shit! I almost forgot.”

“You don't need it on my account,” Janice blurted. “I can't get pregnant again.”

“Thank you, Jesus. We're doing this bareback.”

Parting her thighs, he took himself in hand, shutting his eyes on a groan at the sensation of his cock sliding through her wet folds. She raised her hips in invitation, crying out when he drove himself inside her, impaling his shaft to the hilt in a single deep, hard thrust. He stilled, his breathing ragged as he fought the urge to thrust again.

“You all right, Red?” He waited with sweat beading his brow.

“Dear God, yes. Don't stop.”

Dirk murmured another prayer of thanks. It felt so fucking good to be inside her, filling her. He laid her all the way back, wrapping her legs tightly around his flanks. Her eyes were shut as if lost in pure pleasure. He partially withdrew, only to drive back into her again, setting a steady and relentless rhythm of thrust and retreat, riding her slow and hard until her body vibrated beneath him. His balls tightened, drew up. He gripped her hips tightly, pinning her body against the table as he pumped in and out of her. Harder. Faster. Her hips met him in counterpoint until her inner muscles contracted around him in orgasmic waves.

“Shit. So fucking good. Can't hang on,” he groaned, driving into her again and again until a swell of sensation erupted. He squeezed his eyes shut on a groan, spending himself inside her in an explosive climax. Janice's body still quivered with aftershocks, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

“You OK, Red?” Dirk asked softly.

“Yes,” she whispered. “More than OK.”

Her expression brought a lump into his throat. He withdrew, physically depleted and mentally confused after a release that no amount of jacking off ever could have satisfied.

He'd sworn not to let sexual frustration interfere with business, but all that went out the window almost the moment she'd walked into his kitchen. He'd thought he could hold himself in check, but he couldn't even be in the same room with her without wanting her.

Hell, she'd only come out for a job. He didn't even want to think about how many acts of sexual harassment he'd just committed. He didn't have a clue how to deal with himself—or with Janice. He jerked his jeans up and turned to the sink, feeling like the lowest kind of predator for taking advantage of her.

He wet a towel with hot water for Janice, but when he turned back, his breath seized in his throat. She was buck naked and propped up on her elbows, hair tangled, face flushed, torso smeared with blueberry syrup, and a slow, shy, sexy-as-hell grin on her face. The vision jolted him to the core.

She looked down at herself and shook her head with a chuckle. “You sure made a real mess of me—inside and out.”

He was on her in two steps, marauding her mouth in a ferocious kiss that left them both reeling. He released her just as abruptly. “This towel ain't gonna cut it, Red. You need a shower.”

“I couldn't agree more, but I'm feeling kinda sorry for those hungry cows.”

“Another half hour won't kill them,” he grunted.

“A half hour? I can shower in ten minutes.”

“I don't think so. Blueberry stains. You're gonna need some help cleaning all that syrup off. It's dripped all over your back too.”

“So you're offering to scrub my back?” Janice's smile grew, stretching to heart-stopping proportions.

“Hell, I made the mess. Least I can do is clean it up properly.”

“You are such a hypocrite!” She laughed. “If I recall, all this began when I tried to clean up
your
mess.”

“That's right, sweetheart. I manage my own messes. And believe me when I say I've had plenty of experience at it,” he added dryly.