26. Ranger
Chapter 26
Ranger
The roar of the rushing river was no match against the thrumming of my pulse in my ears. It took every bit of my restraint to not lay Sarah in that field and claim her right then and there.
I’d heard what she said to Deacon over the phone a few weeks back about being a virgin. While I wanted nothing more than to bury myself inside of her right this fucking second, I also didn’t want to act like a wild man and scare her off. We’d have plenty of time for that later. Our first time, I wanted to savor.
“Have you ever gone skinny dipping?”
I groaned as my cock immediately hardened at her question. Looking over at her riding Honey Blossom next to me.
“Here I was trying to be a good boy and not let my thoughts stray to dangerous topics and then you wreck my plans with that question, sugar. ”
Her quiet laugh sent a jolt through me. It was the best fucking sound I’d ever heard. I knew at that moment I wanted to make her laugh for the rest of our lives if she’d let me.
Fire shimmered in her gaze. “Well, have you?”
“Of all the wild things I’ve done in life, no. I haven’t gone skinny dipping.”
Honey Blossom stopped walking as Sarah pulled the reins back slightly. “What’re you doing?” I asked, turning Hank around before cuing him to stop.
“The craziest thing I’ve ever done is wreck my parents’ plan of having a perfect daughter who married a rich man. I’m thirty years old and I have very little to show for it, Ranger. I want to live .”
The gleam in her eyes had my chest fluttering as I slipped off the saddle and followed her to the bank of the river. “Living is one thing, Sarah. But jumping into a cold river in the middle of fall will only give you hypothermia. Get your ass back here.”
With a wink over her shoulder, I watched as she shed her jacket and hastily lifted her long-sleeved top over her head. Those long curls bounced with the movement, cascading over her bare back where only the strip of her lacey pink bra remained.
“Fuck me,” I groaned under my breath, immediately feeling the strain of my cock against my jeans. She was beautiful. The feminine muscles of her back worked as she lifted her hands to unclasp her bra. The swell of the side of her breast made my palms ache to reach out and touch her, but I couldn’t fucking move. She was a vision under the dim twinkle of stars and I didn’t want to look away. I couldn’t look away. Not as she bent over to take off her boots and socks before shimmying out of her jeans.
“Sarah,” a guttural growl ripped from my chest when her thumbs hooked into her tiny thong and she pulled the fabric down, tossing it on top of her discarded jeans.
“Come on, cowboy.” She looked at me over her shoulder again with a come-get-me swagger I didn’t know she had. Then she dashed into the water.
I looked up at the stars for a brief moment, wondering how the hell I got so damn lucky to end up in this exact moment when I got to chase a very naked Sarah Williams into a river. Truth be told, I didn’t care how I got here. I was just thankful that I did.
With lightning speed, I shed all my layers and walked to the edge of the river bank. Sarah’s sultry gaze landed on me as she swirled her arms through the water. This part of the river was shallow, the current moving at a leisurely pace around her. Her eyes slid down my body and I was thankful for the pure masculine desire that kept the cold from shriveling my manhood.
Frigid water hit my skin and I hissed at the contact, but kept pushing forward to where Sarah was wading in the middle.
“You’re the only thing that could get me in this cold ass water, you know that?”
She smirked. “Then I consider myself a very lucky lady. ”
“Come here,” I coaxed. Her breath clouded in front of her face as she swam the rest of the gap between us. When I snaked my arms around her waist, pulling her naked body flush against me, she gasped.
“You didn’t think you could taunt me with that beautiful body of yours and have me keep my hands off you, did you?”
Her breathy giggle had my cock nearly standing at attention despite the cold water. “The whole point of me getting in this cold water naked was to have you follow me in. I wanted to see what I was working with.” She arched a brow.
“Hmm. Maybe you’re not so sweet after all.” She yipped as I nipped her bottom lip with my teeth.
Then she pouted at me. “But I like being your sugar.”
I chuckled. “And did you like what you saw?”
Even in the impeding darkness, I could see the faint blush creeping along her neck and cheeks.
She nodded, eyes casting downward. Even though her legs were wrapped around my waist, she kept her middle from touching me, her breasts away from my chest. And that simply wouldn’t do.
“Well, I can tell you one thing for sure. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and I don’t want you ever hiding your body from me.” With my hand at the small of her back, I pressed her against me until I could feel the tender flesh of her clit and her hard nipples against my body.
It was so fucking divine, a shiver racked through my body.
“Are you cold?” she asked, finally leaning into my touch, draping her arms over my shoulders. I could already feel the heat of her arousal where her center was settled just below my belly button.
“Not even a little bit,” I admitted, having completely forgotten about the cold water moving past us. My other hand trailed up her back until my palm settled at her neck. “Look up,” I whispered.
Her lips parted with a sigh as she took in the sky above us. A blanket of darkness was dusted with emerging stars, a bright crescent moon slowly rose from the horizon.
“Is this living enough for you?” I asked.
A smile split her face and her arms pulled me closer. It felt so damn good to feel her against me with nothing between us.
“It’s beautiful.” She looked back at me, wonderment shining in her eyes. “I never get to see the stars like this at my place. There’s too many lights in the neighborhood.”
“Well, you’re welcome to come here any time you like.” I nuzzled my chin against the crook of her neck. She smelled so good, it was hard to keep myself in check.
“Ranger.” My name on her lips had me squeezing her tighter against me. Close. She was so damn close and I could feel her body melding into mine like she was made for me.
“Yeah, sugar?”
That blush stained her cheeks again as she said, “I want to taste you.”
Fuck . I ground my molars together.
“We have a slight problem with that. ”
“Oh?” She looked nervous like I was about to let her down.
“I consider myself a gentleman and there’s no way in hell I’m letting you get a taste without me granting you pleasure first.”
Before she could say anything, I lowered myself into the river and grabbed the back of her thighs, lifting her up until they were draped over my shoulders and her pussy was inches from my watering mouth. Holding her firm, I took a few steps back until the water was only to my hips.
“Ranger!” she squealed, but I dug my fingers into her ass, keeping her firm in place.
Her hands roamed through my hair. I looked up at her and asked, “Is this what you want, Sarah?”
Without a second thought, she nodded, biting her bottom lip. Then I buried my face in her pussy, feeling the warmth of her body against my tongue as I licked her in one long stroke.
Her fingers pulled at my hair and I fucking loved it, watching her head lean back, her eyes close. I kept my gaze fixed on her beautiful face amongst the starry night sky as I sucked on her clit, letting her breathy moans drive me near the edge of insanity.
My length hardened so much it fucking hurt, but I didn’t care. All I wanted was to watch Sarah come undone before me, with my mouth drawing moans from her pink lips.
“Please.” Her legs quivered against my shoulders. “Please, don’t stop.”
I hummed in pure male satisfaction at her words, the vibration of my throat hitting her center. She shivered, fingers pulling tighter on my hair. She tasted so damn good I knew I could die a happy man with my face between her legs.
“Oh fuck,” she breathed into the night air, her breath gathering in front of her serene face.
I knew she was close, I could feel her thighs clamping down against the sides of my face. She started rolling her hips against my lips and I grasped her ass to make sure she wouldn’t fall. Running my tongue along the entire length of her sent her reeling off the edge. She pulsed beneath my tongue and I loved every fucking second of her undoing. With a final gentle suck over her slit, she nearly collapsed forward from her climax.
Lifting my arms to her ribcage, I pulled her down from my shoulders and cradled her in my arms. Eyes heavy with lust, she slowly blinked up at me. “That was amazing,” she whispered, voice hoarse from the pleasure I wrung from her.
“Next time, I’ll take my time with you, sugar. That wasn’t even a fraction of the pleasure I can make you feel.” And it was true. The next time I tasted her, I was going to spend all fucking night making her body writh in bliss. But the temperature was dropping and the last thing I wanted was for our first intimate moment to be tarnished with her catching pneumonia.
I waded us out of the river and up to Hank where I had stowed away two blankets behind the saddle for when I thought we might sit in the field for a while. Setting Sarah on her feet, I wrapped one of the blankets around her shoulders .
“I think next time we should go skinny dipping in the summer.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke. I cursed, rubbing my hands up and down her arms over the blanket. “You need a blanket too,” she said between quivering lips.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been in worse places than a cold fall night with a beautiful woman.”
My words must have hit home because something like regret flashed in her eyes. I didn’t comment on it though. I wasn’t going to let my time in prison ruin this moment between us.
When her shivering slowed, I grabbed the other blanket and dried myself off with one side before flipping it over and covering my body.
Sarah stepped toward me, opening her blanket a little as she let her hands settle on my hips. “I didn’t know it could feel like that.” Her voice was soft.
Bursting into my awareness, I read between the lines of what she wasn’t saying out loud. “You’ve never had a man pleasure you before? In any way?”
She bit her bottom lip again and I moved to hide my growing erection. I wanted to bite that lip while I slid into her, so fucking slow and deep.
“My mother…she always told me that my future husband would want me to be pure— untarnished —so I never let any of my school crushes go further than a peck on the lips. And when I moved out to pursue my own business…I don’t know. I think I was so consumed by making it work that I didn’t allow myself time for other things. I was so scared of my business failing and having to crawl back to my parents to beg for their help that I stopped living my life.”
Anger burned in my chest for her. For how her parents made her feel ashamed of the life she wanted for herself. That she felt so damn terrified of not making it on her own that she spent the last decade doing nothing but work.
“I think that was the other reason why I took the deal my mother made me about Jones. I’d never had her approval before.” Her nervous laugh struck me hard in the chest. “I honestly didn’t realize how badly I still wanted it until she was standing in my work kitchen and she looked at me like I wasn’t a complete failure when I agreed to date him. I guess some part of me will always want her approval.”
I tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting people to change, Sarah. I know what it feels like. I wanted my mom to come back to us after my dad died. To see her smile again. But looking back now, I think it was a good thing she left. If she hadn’t, Callie Rose and I would probably still be locked in that moment of losing our father forever.”
Sarah’s eyes shone. “How do I let go, Ranger?”
I sighed. She looked so fragile and small that it nearly crushed me. I wanted to take away all her pain, but I knew—better than most—that no one else could do it for her.
“I think the best thing you can do for yourself is find something worth changing for. Anything that will take the ease of losing your parents’ favor away. For me, it was taking care of Callie Rose. She was so young when our father died and our mother became depressed. I didn’t want her to live a life of sadness. I loved my sister so much I decided I couldn’t let the fear of being without our parents win.”
Her eyes slid down to my chest like she was mulling over what I’d said. “I haven’t been living at all,” she whispered. More to herself than me, I thought.
Seconds ticked by until she looked up at me, the high moon reflecting in her irises. “I want to live, Ranger.”
I smiled. “Then let me give you the world.”