22. Cash
CHAPTER 22
Cash
GOD BLESS TEXAS
The band starts playing again, but people still stare as I lead Mollie by the hand out of The Rattler.
I couldn’t give two fucks. Maybe they heard us. Maybe they didn’t. Maybe they thought we were just clearing the air with some good old conflict resolution back there in the bathroom.
Whatever the case, I know no one is going to fuck with Mollie Luck ever again.
No one’s going to touch her. No one but me. And that suits me just fine.
Wyatt eyes me as we pass. “Y’all good?”
“Fine,” I grunt. “Get everyone home safe, you hear?”
He holds up two fingers. “Sally said she’d give us a ride.”
“Good.”
“Y’all behave!” Duke calls after us.
The bar erupts in laughter. My own lips twitch.
Behaving is exactly what I plan on not doing tonight.
I can still taste Mollie’s pussy on my lips as I open the passenger-side door of my truck and help her inside.
Her cheeks are bright pink. Eyes hazy—that look girls get when they’ve been well taken care of .
You don’t see it often enough.
I already don’t want this ride to end. Who knows what will happen after tonight? She said she wants to fool around, sure. But that’s no commitment.
If I’m being honest, commitment is what I’m looking for. Maybe it’s being around Mollie. Maybe it’s losing Garrett. Or maybe it was Wyatt’s little speech earlier at the bar. But something’s got me wanting to make a change.
Or maybe something is changing the way I think. The way my family needs me—that hasn’t changed. Neither have my responsibilities on the ranch. But I’m starting to understand that those commitments shouldn’t hold me back from commitments I want to make to myself .
For myself. That’s the only way I’m ever gonna have a life of my own.
I’ve missed out on so much trying to be everything to everybody else. No one asked me to be the hero. The savior. And maybe—hell, maybe they don’t need me to be their savior. Maybe it’s time they learned to save themselves.
Laughing with Mollie, dancing with her—I’ve missed out on that shit, and I want more of how it makes me feel. Free. Happy. Glad to be alive.
I notice Mollie’s hand shakes a little as she buckles her seat belt.
“You all right?” My voice is husky. Probably because my dick is hard enough to hammer nails.
Her eyes flick to meet mine. “I just witnessed my first bar fight, and then you made me come on a bathroom sink. Of course I’m not all right. I’m fucking awesome.”
I laugh, even as the pain in my hand and face pulses. “Maybe you really are a cowgirl at heart.”
She smiles. I smile.
Lord above, I’m in trouble.
I close the door and jog around the front of the truck. Don’t got time to waste. If I don’t get Mollie home and in my bed soon, I’m gonna come in my pants like a fucking teenager.
Wrong. Right. Sleeping with Mollie is one of those things. But too late to go back now. She needs to be shown how a real man does it.
How a real man treats her.
Fuck, but I feel lucky I’m that man tonight.
I’m glad Palmer is out of the picture and on his way back to Dallas with a fat lip. Hopefully, he knows better than to come back.
Hopefully, he knows better than to ever, ever touch Mollie again.
I peel out of the parking lot and head home. It’s dark now. No stars, though, on account of the clouds.
When is the rain gonna come?
We’re just passing Goody’s office when Mollie reaches across and puts her hand on my leg. My dick jumps. She smirks.
Her hand moves to my crotch. She cups my erection and gives it a squeeze.
“Jesus fuck,” I sputter.
“Road head gonna be too much of a distraction for you?”
I draw a deep, slightly panicked breath. “But I wanna be inside you.”
“We can do that later. It’s Friday night, Cash, and we live in the middle of nowhere.” She nods at the vast darkness outside the windshield. “What the hell else are we gonna do except fool around?”
I chuckle. “Good point.”
Scooting closer, she starts unbuckling my belt. “You give good head. Bet I give better.”
“Brat.” I look at her.
She looks back. Unzips my fly and reaches inside my jeans. “I’m the worst, aren’t I?”
I nearly jump out the window when she wraps her hand around me and gives me a slow, hard tug through my briefs. She circles her thumb over my head, and I feel my underwear go damp as I start to leak.
My balls are in agony.
Still, I drive slowly. I don’t want to lose control. I want to enjoy every minute of my time with Mollie.
Up until this point, life’s been about survival. It had to be when I was in the trenches after my parents died. But now that my brothers are grown and the ranch is thriving, I see that maybe being in survival mode is a choice I’ve made.
Which means I can choose a different way of living.
What about Rivers Ranch, though? My plans for my family’s land were destroyed when Mollie inherited Lucky Ranch. I still don’t know how to fix that. What our next step should be. Which means it’s a bad time to be reckless. To choose freedom over safety.
Then again, I thought if I played by the rules and did everything right, life would work out. What a crock of shit that’s turned out to be. If anything, losing out to Mollie is teaching me I don’t have much control over what does and doesn’t happen. And if that’s the case…
Why not have a little fun?
Why not try something new, whether it’s road head or the idea of starting a life of my own?
I watch Mollie tuck stray strands of hair out of her face. Then she pulls my dick through the gap in my briefs. Gives me another tug, this one harder, faster, my whole body clenching.
She looks me in the eye. Smirks and says, “Eyes on the road. Don’t kill us.”
Goddamn, girl, you’re the one killing me .
One hand on the wheel, I put the other on the back of her head. “Little less talkin’, honey.”
“I hate being told what to do.”
“Then you’re gonna hate me. ”
I push her head down, her shoulders shaking with laughter. I’m being lewd, obscene even, handling her this way. But Mollie doesn’t seem to mind. I see stars when she opens her mouth and licks my tip, lapping up my pre-cum with eager strokes of her tongue.
“Aw, honey ,” I groan.
Thank God the road is empty. God bless Texas and her wide-open spaces.
Mollie sucks my head into her mouth. I slam the heel of my hand against the wheel.
She sucks harder. Takes me deeper.
My head falls back against the headrest as heat rips through my bloodstream. Heaviness gathers between my legs as Mollie bobs her head, her hand tugging my shaft in time to her movements.
“You suck my dick like you love it,” I breathe. “I love watchin’ you like this, honey. You’re beautiful. You’re fucking?—”
She takes me deep. My head hits the back of her throat, and my hips jerk.
“You got me so fucking keyed up. I’m not gonna last long. Look at me.”
But Mollie, being Mollie, doesn’t listen. She bobs up, down.
So I grab her chin. “ Look at me .”
Her brown eyes gleam in the light of the dash when they meet mine. She turns her head a little so my dick slips out from between her lips. “You came in my mouth, I wanna come in yours. If that’s gonna be a problem, stop now.”
I should’ve known Mollie doesn’t play. She turns back to my dick and swallows me deep, so deep that I’m in her throat, and I thrust my hips. She gags, but doesn’t stop.
Her willingness to approach the point of pain.
Her adventurousness.
Her magic fucking tongue .
It all does me in. My balls contract, and heat streaks through my dick. Mollie moans when my cum hits her mouth.
And, Christ, do I come. You’d think I hadn’t orgasmed in years for how long and hard I come. The release pounds through me, drawing a shout from my lips. My stomach caves, knees go numb.
I fucking love every second of it.
“Show me how good you can swallow it,” I manage. “Every last drop, Mollie. Don’t you fucking stop.”
I have no idea how I manage to keep us on the road, but we’re still safe and sound when Mollie straightens. Licks her lips.
“Did my swallowing meet your standards?”
I can’t breathe.
Can’t think.
I just grab her neck and pull her in for a kiss. One eye on the road the whole time.
“Yeah, honey. You’re…really fucking good at that.”
She grins. “Thank you.”
She tries to scoot back to the passenger side, but I grab her knee. “Nope. You’re stayin’ right there. Need anything at the New House?”
Mollie blinks. “What? Why?”
“You think after you gave me head like that, I’m lettin’ you outta my sight? You’re sleeping at the cabin tonight.”
She blinks again, a small smile curling at the edges of her lips. “Yessir.”
I groan.
“You really do like that, don’t you?” she asks. “Being called sir .”
“When you do it, yeah.”
“Noted.”
Her doing the things I like on purpose—her noticing my likes and dislikes, wanting to please me—it makes my chest swell.
I wanna please her too.
I like this girl. This ain’t gonna be some stupid half-in, half-out hookup. Not for me.
Her saying that mean this’ll be the kind of sex that sticks for her too?
I turn into the ranch. The breeze blows through the window, sending Mollie’s ponytail flying. She reaches for the knob on the stereo and turns up the radio. Trisha Yearwood now.
Mollie sings along. And seeing her smile, close her eyes, and lose herself in one of my favorite songs, I feel short of breath. She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip after the chorus ends and shimmies her hips in time to the beat. Her long, bare legs seem to go on forever in the dark.
I grab one, curling my hand around her thigh. She cuts me a look, and I move my hand up, slipping my last two fingers underneath her skirt.
Her bare pussy is soft to the touch. Her breath hitches. I hit the gas. We bump over the dirt road as Trisha sings.
Mollie says she needs to grab some contact solution at the New House. After making her promise not to grab anything else—specifically any extra clothes—I pull up to the front door. Long as she’s at my place, she’s either naked or wearing my shit.
She darts inside and emerges a few minutes later with a small cosmetic case. She jumps in the truck, and I peel out of the driveway.
After a small eternity, I pull into my parking spot in the grass beside the cabin and cut the ignition. The night sounds of the ranch fill the silence: crickets, trees moving in a breeze.
“Cash?” Mollie asks.
I shove open the door. “Yeah? ”
“What’s everyone going to say when they find out I slept here?”
Everyone meaning the people who live and work on Lucky Ranch. She’s worried they’ll think less of her. Maybe they’ll think she slept with me to get something.
Or I slept with her to get something. Namely the ranch.
“They say anything, I’ll take care of ’em.” I hop out of the truck and hold out my hand.
She tilts her head and pins me with a stare. “Easy for you to say. Everyone respects the hell out of you.”
“They respect the hell out of you too. You’ve earned it this week, working your ass off like you have.”
“And now I’m going to lose that respect by fucking my foreman.”
My lips twitch. “I promise I’m worth the risk.”
“You would say that.”
“Look, I get why you’re worried. There’s a double standard when it comes to this stuff. But people around here—I wouldn’t say they mind their own business, but they know better than to meddle in other people’s lives. I’ll have you home before sunrise. That a deal? No one’ll see you.”
“And if they do?”
“That’s what a shotgun is for. C’mon.” I bend my fingers, motioning her out of the car.
“No shotguns.” Mollie takes my hand. “But I’ll take the early ride home.”
“Consider it done.”
I don’t let go of her hand as we walk up the steps. My heart beats a little harder when Mollie doesn’t let go of mine either.
The door is unlocked. Tonight will be the first time in an age that I’ll bolt it. Don’t want any interruptions.
I open the door for Mollie, and the old floorboards creak as she steps inside the cabin .
“I’m not sure I appreciated how pretty your place was before,” she says, taking in the tiny kitchen to our right and the living room to our left. The front of the cabin is all one big room, the floors, walls, and ceiling crafted of salvaged oak. “You’re an excellent caretaker.”
“Workin’ in the dirt all day, it’s nice to come home to a place that’s clean.” I take off my hat and toss it onto the counter. “What can I get you? A beer? Water? I have tequila too.”
Mollie arches a brow. “What do you make with that tequila?”
“I’m famous for my spicy ranch waters.”
“No, you’re not.”
I laugh, swiping my hand across the counter. “Lemme make you one. I’ll change your mind.”
“Who the hell are you making spicy ranch waters for?”
“They were a favorite of Garrett’s, for starters.”
Mollie’s expression softens. Only it’s not sadness I see in her eyes. It’s more like interest. Curiosity.
She didn’t know her daddy all that well. It hits me that in a way, she’s learning him through me.
Considering Garrett was one of my favorite people, I’m more than happy to teach her.
“I’d love one,” she says. “Thank you.”
I nod at the table and chairs. “Sit. Prepare to be amazed.”
“Can I snoop around instead?” She glances across the cabin. “I’m not sure if I’ll ever be invited back.”
“Because you’re a terrible houseguest?” I open the fridge and pull out a bottle of Topo Chico—Mexican sparkling mineral water.
“Because I’m about to break some furniture with you,” she replies with a smirk.
Letting out a bark of laughter, I grab a jalape?o from a bowl on the counter and wash it at the sink. “You’re funny.”
“I know.” She’s in the living room now, looking at my bookshelves. “This is impressive, Cash. I didn’t know you were a reader.”
“Have been my whole life. Guess it’s my way of staying connected to that part of me—the part that likes ideas. Stories.”
She glances at me over her shoulder. “That’s hot.”
“I know.”
Rolling her eyes, she smiles as she moves to the silver picture frames on the mantel. “So you and Dad would drink these spicy ranch waters together?”
“When it was hot like it is now, yeah.” I slice up the jalape?o and put it in a glass, pouring several fingers of tequila over it. I give the slices a quick muddle with the back of a spoon. “At quittin’ time, Garrett would join us at the bunkhouse for beers. It was lonely at his place, you know?”
“I imagine it was, yeah.”
“So one day, we ran out of Shiner Bock. All we had was tequila and Topo Chico, which Patsy buys in bulk. I’d had a ranch water at the rodeo a few times, so I decided to look for some limes and make my own. Your daddy was the one who requested the spicy tequila.”
Mollie smiles, arms crossed over her chest. “He loved his spice. He’d beg me to try it when I was little, but I didn’t start to love it until I was a teenager. Now I can’t get enough of it.”
“So you’re the reason we’re going through hot sauce like there’s no tomorrow.” I fill a pair of glasses with ice.
“You and your brothers are the reason. How much y’all eat—I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Patsy’s cooking is hard to resist.”
“No kidding. Best food I’ve had in my life. It’s so satisfying, you know, eating real food like that after working your body as hard as we do? Well, as hard as y’all do, anyway.”
I look up from the lime I’m juicing. “That a request? To work your body hard?”
“Hell yeah, it’s a request.” Her eyes dance .
“Don’t have to ask me twice. But really, you work hard too, Mollie. Give yourself more credit.”
“I work hard watching y’all work hard.” She crosses into the kitchen. “I work especially hard watching you.”
I pour tequila over the lime juice. Then I top off each glass with a good pour of Topo Chico and a slice of lime. “Then why’re you messin’ around with that jackass from Dallas?”
“Because!” Mollie takes the glass I hold out to her, eyes wide. “I was…frustrated, okay? It’s like the world’s worst best tease, being around you and your chaps and your fucking mustache all day, every day.”
My dick twitches at the idea that I turn Mollie on so much—so often—she had to call a friend for relief.
Aw, honey, you know you’re only gonna find relief if it’s with me .
“So you like the ’stache,” I manage.
“On everyone else, I hate it. On you?” Mollie’s nostrils flare. “It’s like the second coming of Tom Selleck.”
I can’t stop laughing when this girl is around. “What a stud that man is.”
“Stone-cold fox,” Mollie says with a solemn shake of her head.
“To Mr. Selleck.” I hold out my glass. “And to Garrett.”
“To Dad.” Mollie clinks her cocktail against mine. “May we make him proud.”
“I think we’re doing better in that department now.” I sip my drink. Cold, crisp, delicious. Hint of citrus and spice. It’s the perfect cocktail after a long, hot day.
Mollie smacks her lips after a sip. “That’s so, so good, Cash. Wow.” She sips again. “You really think Dad would be proud of us?”
“I do.” I drink, the tequila hitting my bloodstream. “A murder/homicide hasn’t happened yet. You’re looking mighty fine on horseback. You and the cowboys get along, and Patsy and John B just adore you.” I meet her eyes. “ You’re tryin’, Mollie. I think maybe that’s all he wanted when he gave you the ranch and said you had to live here for a bit. He wanted you to try it on.”
She blinks. “Why would he want that, though?”
“Not sure.” I shrug. “He knew you took after your mama. Could be he thought you might take after him too.”
“You think so?”
I set my glass down and lean my backside against the countertop. “I know so, honey.”
Her throat works as she swallows. “I like when you call me that. Sounds…so fucking good when you say it, Cash. By the way, is Cash your real name? Or is it a nickname?”
“It’s my real name.” My lips twitch. “My parents were obsessed with Johnny and June Carter Cash. The first song they danced to the night they met was ‘Walk the Line’.”
“Cute.”
“Right? Anyway, when they found out I was a boy, they knew right away they’d name me Cash Robert Rivers. Cash after Johnny, of course, and Robert after my grandfather.”
She grins. “That’s a good, strong name.”
“Thank you. Now get over here.”
Sipping her drink, she raises a brow. “Okay. Maybe I also like it a little bit when you tell me what to do.”
“You like it a lot. Get over here, honey.”
Mollie saunters toward me like I’m not about to yell from wanting her so bad. When she’s close enough, I reach out and grab her, yanking her against me so our hips are flush.
She lets out this startled, happy sound when I roll my erection against her.
“Already?” she pants.
“Already.”
“Let me finish this, then.” She drains most of her ranch water before setting it on the countertop beside mine. “Need some hydration before?—”
“I work you hard?” I bend down, wrap my arms around her knees, and toss her over my shoulder. “Good idea. You’re gonna need it.”
She laughs, and I make a beeline for the bedroom.