CHAPTER SEVEN
Jamie
I’d never confess to anyone that I’d spent my vacation at a dude ranch watching one very sexy cowboy ride a horse.
Especially Paige. Although I had a feeling, she’d take one look at me and know.
Know that I was falling for all that charm and swagger.
Know that I was falling for a cowboy.
He was the embodiment of every cowboy romance I’d ever read. And, I thought with a sigh, just as unobtainable.
Slade might act like he was attracted to me, but we were on vacation. So that’s all it would ever be.
Would that be so bad? Paige’s voice whispered in my ear, but I ignored it.
Just like her other words. What you need was a cowboy rubbing your clit.
That had been playing in my mind like the soundtrack of a song.
And thanks to it, I’d had approximately forty-seven fantasies about Slade Everett and my clit, and they had all been spectacular.
My panties had been wet for four days.
I continued down the path from my cabin, dreading the next few hours.
By nature, I was a person who did not participate.
I liked city parks in the early morning when nobody else was in them.
I liked a good latte in a quiet corner of a café with a book I’d been saving.
I liked Saturday afternoons at home with no agenda and no people and the particular luxury of existing without having to perform for anyone.
I was an introvert who had learned to be social in public and then needed forty-eight hours alone to recover from it.
I did not do group activities.
I’d had two options about what to do today.
A guided hike to the fishing pond or learning to curry a horse.
Curvy librarians did not hike. We sat in air conditioning and judged people who did.
I’d enjoyed my ride on Buttercup, so I’d signed up for currying a horse and hoped I didn’t get kicked in the head.
Although, that might have helped considering I’d lost most of my brain cells already.
Falling for a cowboy, indeed.
I made it to the barn without incident, expecting to find Carl waiting for me. Of course, it was Slade instead. I had thought to give myself some distance from the distracting man by signing up for this activity, but apparently that wasn’t in the cards for me.
He was leaning against the stall door, hat pushed back, looking at me with that same sexy certainty he’d used to wreck my composure against the oak tree the night before.
The man was a walking argument for things I’d told myself I wasn’t doing.
“Parker.” Again, with the drawl that should absolutely be outlawed.
“Everett,” I looked around, expecting to at least some of the guests. Surely, they all hadn’t wanted to go hiking. “No one else signed up?”
“Nope. It’s just you and me.”
I looked at him a little suspiciously. As if he’d planned this entire thing just to get me alone. Behind him was a massive black horse tossing his heavy head and letting out a huff of air that sounded like a warning.
“That’s a very big horse. A lot bigger than Buttercup.”
“That’s Whirlwind.” His voice was heavy with pride. “He’s my personal mount.”
“He’s enormous.”
“He’s just a horse, Jamie.”
He smiled—not the full one, the smaller version that lived at the corner of his mouth and was somehow worse—and pushed off the stall door and went to collect the curry brushes.
My feet started turning toward the door. Like I was going to just walk up to a beast the size of a compact car and start combing it.
“Hold on there.” He grabbed my arm and turned me back to face him. And the horse. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Jamie. Do you believe me?”
I nodded my head reluctantly.
“Good girl. I’m going to show you the proper way to curry a horse.”
Those two words ran straight through me and immediately I wondered what else he could show me how to do. Naughty, very specific things to do.
“Great,” I said, hoping nothing of what I was thinking showed on my face.
“And then you’re going to do it.”
“Somewhat less great.”
He held the brush out. I didn’t take it. He looked at the brush. Looked at me.
“Come on, I know you’re braver than that. You got on Buttercup like a champ.”
“Yesterday I was distracted.” I could have died from that unintentional slip. I knew he knew what I was talking about when he grinned at me.
“So, I’ll distract you today, too.”
I grabbed the brush and walked toward the horse, his laugh following me.
“Okay, first thing, you want to let him know you’re here.” He smoothed a hand down the stallion’s neck and the horse tossed his head.
I immediately stepped behind Slade. “See, horses are dangerous.” I whispered the words as if the horse could hear me.
“No, they’re not.” He pulled me gently back to his side. Now you try.”
I did, lifting the hand not holding the brush, and ran it from his neck down his side, just like Slade had. I felt a shiver run through the big horse and I immedicably dropped my hand. My gaze flew to Slade. “Did I hurt him?”
“No, he just likes it when you do that.” He reached out and stroked the horse again.
“Okay, so show me.” And he did. He stepped behind me and put his large hand over mine, guiding my hand over the horse. We groomed the stallion together for several minutes.
“So, why did your friend send you to a dude ranch.”
“When I obviously am not an outdoor kind of girl? Because she hates me.”
He bumped his shoulder against mine. “Come on, Jamie. Spill the tea.”
I laughed at the expression he used. It should have sounded ridiculous coming from a big, hulking cowboy, but somehow it suited him. “She said I needed dirt under my boots and stars over my head.”
“Even though she knows you hate dirt, are allergic to smoke, and everything else that might live on a ranch?”
“Not the cowboys,” I blurted out before I thought about what I was saying.
He stopped. “Say what now?”
I could feel the color rush into my face. “Nothing.”
He took the brush from my hand and laid it down. “You can’t say something like that and then pretend you didn’t.”
“It was nothing.”
“I can tell when you’re lying, Jamie.” He took a step toward me and I instinctively backed away.
“No, you can’t.”
“I can. You don’t look me in the eye.”
My gaze flew to him, my eyes narrowed. “Not true.”
“Then tell me.”
“She said cowboys were dangerous.”
“We are, but that’s not what she said to you.”
“Fine, if you want to know the truth, she said… for my birthday what I really needed was a cowboy.” I threw my hair back, ready to bolt. “I needed a cowboy… rubbing my clit.”
The silence in the barn was absolute. I’d never seen his eyes as dark as they were now, the amber turning the color of scorched earth.
When he didn’t say anything, I knew it was time to run, but not before throwing out a little more snark. “I guess I’ll go find one.”
I didn’t get two steps.
Before I could even draw a breath, he moved. He was a blur of denim and muscle, pinning me between his heavy frame and the barn wall. Whirlwind danced away, snorting at the sudden violence of the movement.
“There will be no other cowboy touching any part of your body but me, Jamie Parker,” Slade growled, his face inches from mine. One of his big hands encircled my throat, the heat of his palm a brand on my skin. “Understand?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. He grabbed both of my wrists, his fingers like iron manacles, and shoved them above my head, pinning them against the wood. My breasts ached, straining against my blouse as I tried to get free. He simply stepped into my space, kicking my feet apart.
He didn’t kiss me yet. He let me feel the weight of him, the hard ridge of his cock pressing against my belly through two layers of denim. Then, his free hand traveled down my side, tracing my curves until he reached the junction of my thighs.
He didn’t hesitate. He cupped me firmly through my jeans, his palm molding to my shape.
I let out a broken sound—half-sob, half-moan—as he found the seam of my pants.
His thumb began to move, a slow, punishingly perfect circle right over my center.
He knew exactly where I was the most sensitive, and he pressed in with a dominance that made my knees turn to water.
“Is this what she meant, Jamie?” he whispered against my ear, his breath hot and demanding. “Is this what you’ve been thinking about? Me, making you come?”
“Yes,” I choked out, my hands twitching in his grip.
He increased the pressure, the rough fabric of my jeans becoming a weapon as he rubbed against my clit.
I was soaking wet, the heat blooming between my legs like a wildfire.
He was relentless, his hand possessive as he ground into me, making sure I felt every inch of his strength. His control over my body.
“I’m the man for the job, darlin’,” he muttered, and then he finally crashed his mouth down onto mine.
His tongue forced its way past my teeth, tasting like coffee and danger. So dangerous.
“Slade—”
“You’re going to come for me, Jamie,” he whispered against my ear, his voice a low, gravelly promise. “You’re going to come with me just touching you like this. You’re going to come hard and fast and you’re going to love it.”
I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t deny him. But the friction was making me frantic. I wanted the barriers gone. I wanted him touching me, fully.
“Touch me, Slade.” He knew exactly what I wanted.
“You want me to touch your pussy? I don’t need to.
I can make you scream just like this.” He shifted his weight, grinding the coarse, doubled-over seam of my jeans directly into my clit, using the heavy denim to drive me insane.
It was hard, deep, and relentless. He knew exactly where I was the most sensitive, and he didn’t give me a second to breathe, let alone think.
“Too much,” I whispered even though I was arching into him, begging for the very thing that was shattering me.
He didn’t answer, just kept up that relentless rhythm. I felt it start. That wave of pleasure. It was nothing like what I’d ever experienced. It was… everything and I let myself fall into it. In a barn. On a dude ranch. With a cowboy rubbing my clit.
I bit my lip, the scream building in my throat until it exploded.
Slade caught it, his mouth covering mine, swallowing my release as my body bucked against the barn wall.
The pleasure was so sharp it was almost painful.
My legs gave out entirely and the only thing keeping me upright was his heavy body pinning me against the wall.
Finally, he stopped and pulled back, watching the way I trembled. He looked like a man who had just proven a point.
I forced my eyes open. I didn’t know if I should be outraged at the way he’d controlled me, or ask him to do it again. “Thanks for the lesson,” I managed. “Very educational. See you at dinner.”
He growled my name, but I didn’t let it frighten me. I turned and walked out of the barn, my legs trembling so hard I almost stumbled. This time he didn’t try to stop me. He knew he’d won this round of whatever game we were playing.
The full force of the Texas heat hit me like a wall, but I kept walking. All the way back to my cabin. Once inside, I leaned back against the door. My phone rang and I didn’t have to look to know who was calling.
She’d always had a sixth sense about things like this.
“Paige, I need some advice.”