Chapter 12 #2
“Good. Now, I want you to remember that I’m your boss.
So you do everything I tell you to do, right?
” He didn’t know why, but instinct told him this was going to make things easier for her.
She wasn’t going to have to worry about anything, not if he went this route.
“I’m going to guide you, I’m going to train you. Just like we did in the arena, okay?”
She looked a little confused, but she nodded.
“You don’t need to worry about doing the wrong thing. Because I’m going to give you the steps, right?”
“Okay.”
“You’re so beautiful.”
Her cheeks went pink.
“No. Don’t look away from me. I mean it.
You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
Because you have something beyond beauty.
It’s something about the way you’re made.
The way the sun reflects in your eyes, the way the wind blows through your hair.
The way you are when you move, when you walk, when you’re on the back of a horse.
All those things. They all go together to make you the woman you are. The woman I want.”
He’d never been one for soliloquies. Had never been one for grand gestures or statements of romance. But he wanted to give her everything.
He kissed her again, pulling her up against him, moving his arms down her back, down her ass, to her thighs. Then he picked her up, looping her legs around his waist and holding her with one arm as he began to walk them both toward the stairs.
She clung to him, burying her face in his neck.
“You okay?”
She nodded against his skin. He swore he felt something wet there. A tear, maybe.
“You want me?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
That killed him. Made him feel like climbing a damned mountain or maybe tearing one down to show her exactly how much he wanted this.
She wanted him in spite of everything. Even though this was intense, even though she was nervous, she still wanted him.
Wanted this. She didn’t have to come up to his homestead. She didn’t have to. But she had.
Now there was no going back.
They went upstairs to his big bedroom, where there were still no working lights. He had to turn on the construction lanterns, which he did after he set Cassidy down.
She stood there, her hands clasped in front of her as he lit the room.
There was one large bed, and two nightstands. Which really were unnecessary. They were there more for balance than anything else. There was never going to be another person sharing this room. Not for keeps.
“Nice,” she said.
“We don’t have to make small talk about the house,” he said, grabbing hold of his shirt and tugging it up over his head.
He watched as her eyes roamed over his body, her jaw going slightly slack as she openly admired him.
“Glad you’re happy with what you see.”
He realized it was important to him. He had never been insecure about his looks.
No woman had ever given him cause to be.
But he wanted Cassidy to be glad that this was the decision she’d made.
He wasn’t used to being directly compared to another man either.
A man she loved. Which meant he had some serious competition.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.” Her voice sounded strained, and he could tell that she was fighting to get the words out. “I think you’re … you’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.”
Beautiful. More beautiful than that bastard she supposedly loved. He wanted to crow with satisfaction. He wanted to pound his chest like a Neanderthal. Maybe he was a Neanderthal. Maybe he was proving it with every piece of himself now.
By taking her when he knew it wouldn’t be forever. When he knew she had feelings for someone else. Because he needed to. Needed to make his mark on her. Like an absolute caveman.
And then he couldn’t stand to be apart from her. He closed the distance between them, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck, sucking hard before biting down, knowing he was going to leave a little bit of a bruise, feeling aroused by the thought of it.
She gasped in pleasure, her head falling back as if she was surrendering to more than a little bite. Surrendering to him.
“Now, I want you to let me take your clothes off.”
She nodded, and he began to undress her.
He stripped her T-shirt up over her head and just about fell to his knees when he saw her wearing nothing but a bra.
Her breasts were small, but perfectly formed, her stomach flat and muscular, her arms toned.
She was beautiful. And he could see all the work she put in on the ranch, on the horses, in every line of her body.
She looked down. “I know I’m not curvy.”
“Cassidy, you’re perfect. You’re perfect in ways I can’t even describe. You make me feel like I’m going to lose it, and I’m not that man. I’m pretty goddamned experienced. You’re making me feel like the virgin.”
He tried to disguise his shaking hands when he reached around to unhook her bra. But he about damn near lost it when it fell free and revealed her tight nipples. He was so hard he was sure his cock was about to break through the front of his jeans.
But he owed her a little bit of restraint.
She kicked off her boots while he unsnapped her jeans, and he stripped off the rest of her clothes, then took a step back to admire all that beauty he had spent so many hours fantasizing about.
He waited. Waited for a light to shine through the ceiling.
For the clouds to part. This was it; the mystery was revealed.
His interest, his intensity of arousal should dim now.
Because that was who he was. He wanted answers. He wanted to discover.
But he still felt insatiable. He didn’t know even the smallest piece of what he wanted to discover with her. He felt as if he was standing at the shoreline of a bottomless, endless ocean.
Every layer she had taken off had only made him want more.
Nothing was satisfied.
Not even close.
He moved his hands to his belt, and she bit her lip, her eyes fixed to his body as he took his jeans off, as he exposed his raging hard-on.
He saw her swallow.
“Nervous?”
“A little,” she said.
He wanted to growl in satisfaction. Not because she was nervous, but because he was going to be the one to show her that there was nothing to be afraid of. That it was good.
He moved to her, putting his hands on her hips, pulling her up against him.
She closed her eyes, a jagged breath escaping her mouth.
He lowered his head and kissed her, kissed her until she was wrapping her arms around him, rolling her hips against him.
Until she was making soft cries of desire.
He recognized this from when they had kissed before.
When he had wedged his thigh between her legs and let her ride to completion.
This time, he put his hand between her legs, felt how slick she was, how ready.
“Oh yeah,” he said, his voice rough. “Now you get on the bed.”