Wrangled and Tangled (22 page)

Up close, the cockhead was purplish-red. The vein running up the underside pulsed, almost angrily. A clear bead trickled from the tiny slit. Curious about the taste and texture, her tongue darted out and she licked it.

Sticky. A little salty. She circled her fingers around the base, leaning closer to take just the head into her mouth.

Renner groaned, “Sweet Jesus.”

She moved her lips down his shaft, swallowing him an inch at a time, fighting her gag reflex when the tip reached the back of her tongue.

He rasped, “Stop. Look at me, but keep that hot fuckin’ mouth right where it is.”

Tierney raised her gaze to his, her heart pounding with the fear she’d done something wrong.

But he touched her face reverently. “Lookit you, sexy girl, on your knees, with your lips wrapped around my dick. You have no idea how many times I’ve imagined this.” He paused and seemed strangely conflicted. “But there’s something missing.”

With her mouth full of him, she couldn’t ask what.

Renner reached over and grabbed her glasses. “This is gonna sound weird as hell, but I want you to wear these while you’re blowin’ me because in my fantasies, you’ve always got them on. Hold still.” Once they were in place, he murmured, “Better. Now it’s really you.”

His admission that he’d fantasized about her knocked her for a loop. She wanted to make his reality better than the fantasy. She circled her index finger and thumb at the root of his cock, sliding them up his length as she suckled the head, using fast flicks of her tongue on the rim below the slit.

As much as this was about pushing Renner to the edge of ecstasy, this was also about Tierney pleasing herself. Learning the taste, the feel, and the scent of him. Her heart sped up, her nipples tightened from contact with the coarse hair on his thighs. His every sexy grunt, his every muttered curse, every impatient bump of his hips fired her blood. She never imagined doing this would make
her
body so hot and eager—the
how to please a man in bed
books she’d boned up on had definitely left that part out.

“More. Faster. So good I’m already there.”

Her hand increased the speed. Any fear that she pulled too much was lost in Renner’s guttural sounds. Keeping the head of his cock balanced in the middle of her tongue, she sucked harder, stroked harder with her hand and swore she felt his cock get harder.

“Like that. Yes. Almost... Fuck. Yes!”

His cock pulsed in her mouth. She didn’t pull back, even when it appeared Renner expected her to. Instead she matched her sucking motions to the contractions traveling up his shaft and swallowed each hot burst.

After the last pulse, Tierney was curious to see if she could fit his entire length in her mouth. She removed her hand and slid her lips down his shaft until the hair tickled her nose. She swallowed, just to see what’d happen. When she did it again, Renner palmed the top of her head.

“Christ,” he panted. “You’re killin’ me. Tierney. Stop. Please.”

She savored the sensation of the separation of his hot flesh skimming her tongue and teeth as he pulled out. She licked her lips. They were fuller than normal. Smoother than normal too.

A clank from his belt buckle hitting the door sounded as he jerked up his jeans, zipping and buckling faster than she’d ever imagined possible.

Renner hauled her to her feet and kissed her wildly, his hands fisting her hair, then trailing down her throat, squeezing her breasts, spreading his palms down her rib cage and stopping to span her waist.

“Goddamn, I wanna put my mouth on you.”

That wet ache between her thighs became more pronounced. “Yes.”

He fell to his knees and unhooked the clasp on her trousers. Tugging the zipper down, he parted the material to reveal her black and white zebra-print thong.

His breath fanned the damp skin of her belly and she shivered. When he licked the sheen of sweat from that same section of skin, more slowly, more thoroughly, she shivered again and closed her eyes.

“Huh-uh. Watch me.”

His penetrating blue gaze fastened on hers as he planted kisses down the rise of her mound over her panties.

Three sharp knocks on the door vibrated against her back. By some miracle Tierney didn’t jump and knock Renner on his butt.

Renner left his mouth right where it was and his eyes burned into hers with a hot challenge.

“Tierney? Renner?” Janie’s voice sounded through the cracks. “Did you guys kill each other?”

Maybe if they ignored her she’d get the hint and go away.

“I swear to God if you don’t open this door and prove to me you’re not in the midst of a bloodbath I will kick it in.”

“Answer her,” Renner hissed.

“We’re hashing things out, Janie,” Tierney said loudly. “No blood spatters on the wall.”

“Prove it. Open the door. Now. Guests are staring at me.”

“I don’t fuckin’ believe this.” After Renner zipped and hooked her pants, he rolled to his feet and snapped his own shirt.

Tierney’s fingers weren’t cooperating. He took over with a whispered, “Let me, okay?” and she could only nod in response.

He kissed her sweetly, murmuring, “We’ll pick this up later. For now, follow my lead. Go stand by the windows and pretend you’re so mad you can’t even look at me.”

She blinked at the brightness of the overhead lights when Renner turned them on. The lock disengaged and he opened the door.

“Took you long enough,” Janie complained.

“We were in the middle of something.”

“What?”

“Not your concern. From now on if the door is shut and locked, that’s a big hint to stay the fuck out, understand?”

“Sheesh. All right. But in my own defense, I’ve gotten used to running interference between you two, so don’t blame me for worrying I’d come up here and find bloody entrails on the floor.”

“That’s in the past. We’re tryin’ a new approach.”

“Fine. I will let you two kill each other from here on out,” Janie retorted. “But I wouldn’t have interrupted if it wasn’t important. I’m taking tomorrow off, remember? One of the hunting guides can’t make it and he wondered if his son could fill in.”

Renner frowned. “Who’s his son? Did he leave a number?”

“The son’s name is Tobin Hale. He’s downstairs. He wants to talk to you.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now.”

He gave Tierney a smoldering look that Janie didn’t see. “This’ll take about five minutes, and I’ll be right back so we can finish our previous discussion.”

Tempted as she was to sneak off to her cabin, Tierney stayed in her office. If Renner just happened to come back . . . she’d be ready.

But two hours passed and there was no sign of the hunky cowboy who’d turned her world upside down. She worked until she couldn’t keep her eyes open and then stumbled to her cabin.

The next morning she found a note on her desk. Renner had been called away to deal with a livestock issue at a rodeo and wouldn’t return for two days. Which left her more nervous than disappointed. Because with Janie gone, it also left her in charge.

Chapter Eighteen

“W
hat time is Holt supposed to be here?” Janie asked as she stripped the bedding.

Abe lounged in the bedroom doorway, wearing his lightweight coveralls. He’d already fed cattle, and probably constructed a new windmill. The man was almost too efficient. “He didn’t say. Happy as I am with the work he does when he’s here, I hate how them construction guys run on their own damn time frames. Christ. It’s almost noon.”

“I imagine that drives someone like you crazy.”

His dark eyebrows lifted. “Someone like me?”

“Yes.” She tucked the bundle of sheets under her arm and stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “Someone who doesn’t waste daylight. Who makes hay while the sun shines. Who doesn’t like to be beholden to anyone’s schedule but his own.”

He crowded her against the doorframe, rubbing his lips over hers with flirty kisses. “You oughta talk. I can’t believe you’re really takin’ today off.”

“I am. I deserve it.”

“That’s why I let you sleep in. I kept you up kinda late last night.”

Abe had locked himself in his office doing mysterious “paperwork” until past midnight. Then he’d woken her and rocked her world. “The late hours and the tangled sheets were well worth it.”

“Such a stroke to my ego. But I’ll take it. What are your plans for today?”

“Laundry.”

Abe frowned. “Janie. I already told you I don’t expect you to wash my clothes.”

“I don’t mind.” She ducked around him. For all the complaints she’d lodged during the last few months of their marriage about her household tasks, everything was different now. Abe didn’t expect her to do those things. Washing laundry and dishes, fixing meals and mopping floors wasn’t all she did—wasn’t all she was to him. Abe appreciated her efforts, which gave her a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Her inner feminist jeered.

But she’d refused to listen to a voice that she’d discovered wasn’t hers.

“Need me to come down and help you stuff that in?” he yelled from the hallway.

“Funny.”

When she returned upstairs, Abe loitered in the kitchen.

“Since it’s so gorgeous out, I think I’ll hang the clothes on the clothesline.”

“Great. Now I’ll have a hard-on all damn day.”

“Why?”

“I catch a glimpse of white cotton flapping in the wind, and I’ll think about all the dirty things I wanna do to you between those clean sheets tonight.”

Janie smirked. “Go do your manly ranching stuff, Abe.”

“You’ll be here when I get back?”

“I plan on it.”

He dropped another peck on her lips. “Good. As much as I love the smokin’-hot sex, I’m glad you can finally admit that’s not all there is between us.”

Last night, after a particularly intense moment, she’d whispered how much she liked being with him, regardless if they were naked. And Abe, being Abe, pushed the point until she confessed it’d been about more than sex with them from the start. Rather than feeling trapped by the admission, she’d felt . . . liberated. In control of her destiny for the first time in years.

The day was unseasonably warm for November, allowing her to leave the doors open to air out the house. She hung up the sheets and several pairs of Abe’s jeans, feeling like a total sap when she found herself humming while she worked. She’d started doing that a lot. Truth was, she was happy. Happier than she’d been in a long time.

She loved when evening rolled around and they chatted about their workdays. Cooking together. Snuggling on the couch after they’d loaded the dishwasher. No more of Abe plopping himself on the easy chair to watch TV after supper while she cleaned up the kitchen. Abe didn’t help because it was expected. He helped because he liked to spend time with her. No matter if they were cooking, or washing dishes, or fucking each other silly.

Their couple status meant they’d been invited to Hank and Lainie’s for supper a few times. And to Bran and Harper’s for dessert and poker. It was all so nauseatingly normal.

Yet, it wasn’t. New and improved didn’t begin to describe the changes in each of them individually and when they were together. It made her long for things she’d feared she could never have. Especially not with this man.

She swept the front deck with an old broom. She boiled potatoes for supper. Cranked the music while she vacuumed. Blissfully lost track of time. She’d wandered among the building debris downstairs, debating on whether Abe would ever consider masculine wallpaper instead of just paint.

The front door slammed. Then the back door slammed. Abe bellowed, “Janie? Where are you?”

“Down here.”

Thump thump thump
down the stairs. Abe rushed her, wrapping her in a bear hug that actually lifted her feet off the floor. He held her so tenaciously she felt his entire body vibrating.

“Abe? What’s going on?”

“I need you to come outside with me.” He leaned back and studied her, those serious gray eyes never wavering from hers.