The Ranch Hand (7 page)

A clang and a crunch made her glance behind again. Harlan had jumped off the step and strode straight for her, forging his own path like a plow, his boots crunching through the snow.

It was true, part of her wanted to be caught. To hear what he had to say now. Hoping he’d changed his mind. But more of her didn’t, and that particular part was running her legs at the moment as she kicked her way through the snowpack. After all, she still had her pride didn’t she? Harlan was the one with something to prove.

She hurried toward the stables, almost running now.

“Carol!” he yelled from behind her.

She ignored him, didn’t turn, though it wrenched her heart so bad she moaned out a long cloud of breath. A moment later she heard him start running after her. She finally turned just as he reached her. He drew up short, put his arms on her shoulders, and looked into her face as she tilted her head to stare back at him, her eyes wide, her heart pounding away. His eyes were so big, so fierce with emotion, that winter-storm gray that seemed to stare right into the core of her. Then, when he seemed certain he had every bit of her attention, he kissed her.

His lips were shockingly warm. She pressed against him. He wrapped her in his arms and pulled her closer against the hard outline of his body, against muscles strong and tight from ranch work. She closed her eyes, savoring his lips, while the snowflakes blew against her face and melted. Her anger melted with them. She didn’t know what would come after, but for now she’d enjoy this moment to the fullest.

At last he broke the kiss, leaving the two of them panting. She touched her lips and smiled, almost shyly. “You better not tell me that was another goodbye kiss. Because if so, I’m not leaving.”

He mirrored her smile. “Come back inside, Carol. Please.”

It was the please that sealed the deal. “What took you so long, cowboy?” she whispered.

“I had to put my boots on.”

She laughed. Together they walked back to his trailer, his arm around her shoulders, and her snuggled up against his side. Her heart was still beating fast. Her thoughts zipped around her brain, too quick to be meaningful. She was nervous and excited at the same time, unable to settle between the two, but desire trumped them both, the heat pooling low in her groin, a tightening ache that tingled from her lips through every pleasure center in her brain and across her body.

She wanted him. The knowing was simple, her need overriding anything else. She wanted to be warm with him, wanted his lips on her again, his hands exploring her body, every curve and fold.

He’d left the camper trailer door open in his haste to reach her. Snow had blown in around the doorway, turning to slush in the hot air blowing from the heater. Inside again, they stood in the tiny front room of the camper, staring at one another as the snow melted on them. There were flakes of it in his eyebrows. She wanted to lick them away. It took all her self-control to stop from doing so. Instead she turned to face him, still in his arms, but back far enough to look into his eyes. First there was business between them.

“Do you know what you want?” she asked, watching him, waiting, her heart in her throat.

“I want to be done talking and I want to start kissing you.”

She started to reply, but he kissed the words back into her mouth. When he finally let her go again, his voice was a growl. “I could kiss you all night.”

Pleasure at his words washed through her. “I’m greedy. I want more than kissing.”

“That right?”

“That’s right, cowboy.”

His smile was slow and wicked. “You need these wet clothes off you.”

“I wouldn’t want to catch a cold.” She shucked out of her jacket and boots. Then she stepped on a patch of snow melting on the mat and sucked in breath at the icy wetness soaking through her sock.

He watched her as he yanked off his own jacket and boots. His eyes were so intense they seemed to burn along her skin. She began to unbutton her blouse with trembling fingers. He reached for her and took her hands, gently, in both of his and then pushed them away from her blouse. Slowly, he began to undo her buttons. His gaze seared her, he was so focused on the skin being revealed inch by inch. He reached the final one and slipped it free. Her shirt hung open, covering her breasts but revealing to him only a narrow stripe of her chest and stomach. Softly he touched her there, tracing a finger across her flat midriff, skirting lower toward the edge of her jeans. Flutters of desire rippled down toward her pussy and her thighs clenched. She was breathing faster.

He kissed her again, slow and sensuously, touching her only with his lips and drawing it out until she was nearly delirious for his touch. Then he drew her blouse back over her shoulders, down along her arms. She let it fall to the ground without a second look. She felt beautiful. So beautiful and powerful, to be able to hold him so rapt, reveling as he drank in every exposed part of her. Her nipples tightened, standing hard and erect against the thin cotton of her bra.

He slid his hands up her sides, and leaned in and kissed her neck. She closed her eyes and tilted her head for him, giving him better access to the sensitive skin there. He kissed along her neck up to her ear, caught her earlobe oh so gently between his teeth and flicked it with his tongue. She gave a little moan of delight. It made her want his tongue on another part of her, and she arched into him, pushing her breasts against him. He pulled her tighter against him and she could feel the hard length of his cock between them. The warmth of his body was far better than the camper’s heater. His strong arms held her close, and he moved his mouth from her ear to her lips. Her mouth parted for him again. His tongue slipped inside and tasted her.

She felt him unhook her bra and slide the straps down her shoulders. He broke the kiss. She slowly opened her eyes to see what was coming next, excitement and anticipation throbbing inside her. He traced his fingers from her shoulders to her chest, then down to her bare breasts. She glanced up into his face as he cupped them, and the look on his expression was almost reverent. He began to stroke her, caress her, teasing her erect nipples until they ached with exquisite pleasure. Her eyelids half closed as she lost herself in the sensations. Her core began to pulse with deeper desire, the need building. Her pussy was hot and slick. Her heart beat fast and hard. She felt like brittle glass—as if she might come apart in his hands at any instant.

He kissed her again, and she returned the kiss fiercely, trying to make him understand her growing need through her urgency, through the near savagery of her attack against his lips. He set his hands on her shoulders and drew back, his eyes flashing. Without a word, he yanked off the rest of his clothes. She unsnapped her jeans and kicked them off, and followed them with her panties. They flew through the air and landed on a lampshade. She left them there. They didn’t matter. She was finally naked and free and so was Harlan, so mouth-watering that she bit her lip with desire, letting her gaze trace lovingly over his wide shoulders, tight pecs, his flat stomach, and lower, to the hard length of his cock standing proud and erect.

She moved for him, meaning to wrap her hand around the silken skin of his cock. Harlan had other ideas. He scooped her up in his arms so fast she let out a surprised cry.

“Better in here,” he whispered in her ear as he carried her down the short hall. She smiled and snuggled against him, loving the rock-hard curve of his biceps and shoulder muscles.

He carried her into the camper’s back room where his bed sat neatly made, though he had to turn sideways and sidle down the narrow hall to fit them both. She laughed, but he leaned in and kissed the laughter back into her mouth, changing it to another groan of need.

Carefully, he set her down on his bed. She pulled him down on top of her. His tongue pushed into her mouth, flicking against her own, teasing her lips as his hand stroked one of her breasts, slipping the ball of his thumb over her nipple, stimulating the tip, keeping it stiff. Keeping her on edge. She reached for his cock, drew her hand up its hard length to the tip, but he gently drew her hand away.

“This is you,” he whispered. “Let me focus on you. You’re everything.”

She started to protest, but another kiss silenced her words into something half growl, half moan. He pinned her hands down, drew away and kissed her fingertips, her wrists, then he leaned back to stare at her. She stared back through half-lidded eyes, aching for him, wet for him, but letting him have his way.

He caressed her thighs, then pushed them apart. She spread for him, watching him intently, reveling in the nearly frenzied lust she saw on his face. But he was gentle, dipping down to spread her lower lips wider. His delightfully warm tongue tasted her. She cried out at the pleasure. His tongue teased her. Up and down her wet pussy, tracing around her clit, bringing her toward her edge, then holding back, and a second later he thrust his tongue deep inside again, changing the sensation until her head was spinning.

“Wait…wait,” she panted. She was so close to coming she felt the massive shadow of her orgasm looming over her, ready to crash down. He looked up at her from between her thighs, his expression focused. “I’m going to come if you don’t stop.”

He licked her once again, and the quick brush of his tongue over her clit pulled a scream of pleasure from her and left her trembling. He was grinning as he trailed kisses up from her wet slit, up her stomach. A pathway of kisses to her breasts. He did not linger over them. Kissed his way higher. To her collarbone, then to her neck, and again he found her mouth and claimed it. The kiss was deep. She gave herself to it.

He growled—a deep masculine sound that sent trills of desire through her. He pushed her thighs wider, spreading her pussy for him. He grabbed his cock and a condom from out of the nightstand drawer. She stared, ogling him without the slightest embarrassment as he unwrapped the condom and unrolled it over his cock. He met her gaze again, moved over the top of her, then slowly, achingly slowly, eased himself into her heat.

She cried out, helpless to stop the pleasure in the sound. He pressed deeper, sinking all the way into her. She stretched for him as his cock filled her. Then he drew back and thrust again. She gasped. Again he thrust, building a steady rhythm that had her eyes rolling back in her head with ecstasy. He crushed a kiss to her lips as he leaned over her, supporting himself with his muscular arms. She kissed him back feverishly. Broke the kiss as moans escaped her lips. Helpless little moans.

He drove into her faster. She matched his pounding rhythm with her hips. The muscles in her pussy clenched around him, and she toppled off the cliff into orgasm, loosing a cry of intense pleasure that surprised her. But it surprised her for only an instant before she was lost in the explosive haze as she came hard around him. If he’d been holding himself back, he was no longer. He drove into her even faster, and she rocked with every thrust, her hands scrabbling for leverage as he pushed her back. His eyes were closed. His face rigid with his own world of pleasure as he fucked her. His cock still sent wild waves of pleasure through her every time he rocked her back, plunging deep into her pussy. Her breath rasped in and out of her mouth, her heart beating so fast it felt as if she’d sprinted a mile.

He said her name when he came inside her, shuddering, his muscles tensed and straining, his cock pulsing in her pussy. He leaned his head against hers, his breath warm on her neck. They stayed that way for awhile, locked together, riding the slowly diminishing waves of their pleasure.

Afterwards, she lay content in his arms, the scent of sex in the sheets, the unique smell of him all around her. And she loved it. She didn’t know what came next for them. But this had meant something special. Something she’d never forget. She traced her hand across his chest, and stared at the tiny skylight in the trailer’s ceiling. Snow had covered it, turning it into a white curve of mild light. More snow had stuck to all the windows, darkening the trailer enough that it seemed like dusk. A constant, soft tapping sounded at the glass as the wind blew flakes against it. The air was colder in here, but snuggled as she was against him, she felt good.

“You pushed me over the edge, girl,” Harlan said softly. “There’s no going back.”

She looked into his eyes. They were at first fierce, and then, as she gazed into them, they softened. He blinked slowly, and a smile curled on his lips.

“I don’t want to go back, cowboy,” she said, searching for the right words. “I’m just scared this is like…like a blizzard. Blows in, buries you, blows right back out again.”

“No. It’s a storm maybe. Been building for a long time.”

“We didn’t solve anything,” she said, hesitant, almost afraid another fight would erupt if she said the wrong thing. She desperately didn’t want that. All the same, she had to know. “I’m still leaving.”

He traced a finger along her jaw. The tenderness in the gesture filled her with hope. “We said what needed saying.”

“But—”

“You aren’t going far. Maybe I can ease up a bit.” His expression darkened. He looked away, up at the windows.

She stroked her hand along his slick cock. It twitched at her touch. “Not ease up too much, I hope.”

“You’ll be the end of me.” He kissed her deeply. She closed her eyes and gave herself to the kiss. She focused on the soft contact between their lips and how it warmed her better than the best cup of hot chocolate she’d ever had. He finally broke the kiss and looked deep into her eyes. “Ride the fences with me tomorrow.”

“That sounds like work,” she teased, though she was thrilled to have him ask. She’d ridden with him before and she’d worked alongside him before, but somehow this was different.

It was different because now everything had changed.

He favored her with a lopsided grin. “I need to look for damage. We’ll put the cattle to forage and go inspect it together.”

“You got it.” She closed her eyes, listening to his heart. She was already looking forward to riding with him tomorrow…but then again, she didn’t want this moment to ever end.