Chapter 21
21
Brax
I took one look at Essie’s damp face and fled.
I didn’t run, precisely, but it wasn’t a casual stroll, either. It was more like a brisk speed-walk, interspersed with bouts of jogging.
I had never considered myself a coward, but standing there with Essie’s taste on my tongue, that stricken look on her face, I knew I had reached my limit. She had come apart for me, my name on her lips, and I was not going to stand there and listen to her say she regretted it. It would kill me.
So I speed-walked my cowardly ass right on out of there.
I was halfway to my truck before I remembered I was her ride. It didn’t matter how I felt, how terrified I was that I had just fucked everything up, I couldn’t leave her stranded at Lodestar Ranch. She’d kill me. And if she didn’t, my dad sure would, and then my mom would rise up from the grave and kill me a second time for good measure.
I groaned, jangling the keys in my hand.
Which reminded me that one of those keys happened to unlock the door to my old cabin, where Essie had spent the night before our wedding. I changed direction, sending a text to Essie as I went.
Have to take care of something. Meet you at my truck in an hour?
An hour should be enough time to get my head on straight. Or at least pull myself together enough to fake it.
I buried my face in my hands and made a sound of extreme self-loathing. Fucking hell. What had I done?
I didn’t have anywhere near an hour to ponder that question, because about three minutes after I closed the cabin door behind me, it banged open again, and there was Essie.
Shit.
“You have to take care of something?” she demanded. Her cheeks were bright pink from the cold and also a healthy amount of rage, I would hazard to guess. “The only thing you have to take care of is removing my foot from your ass, because I’m about to put it there. ”
“Listen,” I started, and then stopped because I hadn’t gotten so far as figuring out what it was I wanted her to listen to .
“I don’t want to listen,” she growled. “I want you to fuck me.”
That drew me up quick. “Come again?” I asked, just to be sure I heard her correctly.
“Yes,” she said. “That is exactly what I’m trying to accomplish.”
“But you cried,” I said, like an idiot.
“So what?” She scowled at me. “It was a lot, okay? Sometimes I cry when I’m overwhelmed. Doesn’t matter if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. I cry. Is that too much for you?”
I laughed and grabbed a handful of that oversized sweater she was wearing, using it to pull her to me. “Hellion, you’ve always been too much for me.”
Her face did something awful and she struggled, trying to get away from me without ruining her sweater. But I had her now, and I wasn’t letting go.
I lowered my face closer to hers until she had nowhere to look but me. “So I guess I’ll have to become more, so I can be enough for you.”
She leaned back and her eyebrows furrowed with confusion as she scanned my face. “What?”
“I told you, honey. You’re bigger than the whole damn sky. How could I ever hope to hold onto the sky? ”
But she still looked at me with confusion, like she couldn’t make sense of my words. That was fine. Maybe it was even better that she didn’t.
I wrapped a chunk of rainbow striped hair around my fist and gave it a tug. “You want to fuck, hellion? Let’s fuck.”
Her hands were already on my belt buckle before I even finished that sentence.
With a rough tug, she had it open. The snap was next and then the zipper. I loved that she wasn’t gentle or shy about it. Her eyes looked right into mine as she slid her hand into my boxers, nothing demure about it, just desire. I gave a single, sharp inhale as she wrapped her hand around my dick.
And for the first time, she faltered. Her eyes lowered to where her hand disappeared beneath the cotton paisley fabric.
“Don’t even think about stopping this now.” I knew I sounded desperate, and I didn’t fucking care. I would beg if I had to. Get right back on my knees and convince her with my mouth.
“Oh, I’m not changing my mind.” Air hissed between my teeth as she ran her palm up and down my dick like she was taking its measurement. “I’m just wondering how much of your cock I can stuff in my mouth before it hits the back of my throat.”
My eyes crossed. My dick twitched .
Essie smiled. “I’m thinking, not all of it, but enough that with my hand on the rest of it, you might not notice a difference.”
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
“Wait, you just got bigger.” She stroked me again, thoughtfully. Up and down, up and down. Squeeze . “Okay, I can fit a little less than I thought, then. We’ll just have to find out, won’t we?”
“No,” I choked out.
She didn’t listen—of fucking course, she didn’t listen—but before her knees could hit the floor, I scooped her under the armpits and put her back on her feet again.
“Why not?” she demanded, sounding angry.
“You got me all worked up. I won’t last with your mouth on me. The first time I come with you is going to be inside you.” I whipped her sweater over her head and groaned at the sight of her breasts wrapped up in a sports bra. “But just so you know, that’s going to go quick, too.”
“Oh,” she said dryly. “How lucky for me.”
“You came on my mouth ten minutes ago. You’re going to come on my fingers next. Before we leave this cabin, you will come on my dick. Do you still want to complain?” I asked, unzipping her bra and freeing her breasts into my waiting hands. I rubbed my thumbs back and forth over her nipples until they formed tight buds .
“I’ll save my comments until the end,” she said in a husky voice that thickened my dick even more.
I huffed a laugh as I lowered my head to her breast. “Not all of them, I hope. I’m a big fan of positive reinforcement.”
“You have to earn it first.”
I grazed my teeth over her nipple before giving it a hard suck. Her hand clamped down on the back of my skull.
“Good boy,” she gasped out.
And fuck if that didn’t have me almost blow in my jeans like a goddamn virgin.
I let go of her nipple with a loud pop. “Take your clothes off and get on the bed.”
She arched a sardonic brow at me, but shimmied her sports bra off her shoulders, tugged off her boots, and peeled her leggings down before kicking them aside. And then she sauntered past me with a little smirk, like she knew exactly how much I was going to enjoy watching her pert ass go by.
And I very much did.
“Spread your legs, honey,” I said. “I want to see.”
She opened her legs maybe half an inch. From the teasing expression in her eyes, I had the feeling she wasn’t being shy. Brat .
I pulled my henley off over my head and heard her suck in a sharp breath. My jeans and boots followed. She had propped herself up on her elbows to watch, so I gave her something to look at, wrapping my hand around my aching dick and giving it a long, slow pull. She licked her lips and that was nearly the end of me.
“Wider,” I gritted out. “Show me where you want me to touch you.”
This time, she obeyed. Her thighs parted, revealing her pretty pussy. She dragged her index finger up the seam and tapped her clit. “Right… there .”
But she didn’t stop touching, and she moaned a little. In two strides I was next to her, then over her. I grabbed her wrist and captured her finger in my mouth, sucking the taste of her pussy.
“Tastes like mine,” I murmured.
“Then make it happy,” she demanded.
My fingers touched where she had touched, tracing small, delicate circles over her clit that had her hips bucking into my hand.
“Harder,” she pleaded.
I wanted to resist, to tease her the way she teased me, but I couldn’t stop myself from doing exactly what she demanded. There wasn’t a damn thing in this world Essie could ask of me that I wouldn’t give her.
My fingers rubbed harder. It was almost too intense, the way she watched me, her gaze pinned to my face like what she saw there was even more important than what I was doing with my hand. Like I might disappear if she blinked.
I slid a finger inside her soaked pussy, then added a second. Her muscles tensed around my fingers and my dick leaked pre-cum out of pure jealousy. “Tell me,” I rasped.
“Yes.” She arched into my hand. “Exactly like that. You’re doing such a good job, baby.”
And then she came, her inner muscles gripping my fingers in rhythmic spasms. “Fuck,” I hissed. “ Yes . God, you’re so fucking beautiful.” It bordered on pain, watching her release like that while struggling to keep my own need in check.
I reached for my jeans, and the wallet I kept in my back pocket—and shit?—
“I don’t have a condom,” I remembered out loud.
I had never been a one-night-stand kind of guy, but I generally kept a condom in my wallet for spontaneity. After I parted ways with my last girlfriend a little over a year ago—around the same time Essie retired from barrel racing—I hadn’t bothered to replace it.
Essie looked at my dick and then up to my face. “I have an IUD, because periods are kind of a bummer when it comes to riding horses. And I got tested after my last encounter nine months ago. No diseases.”
“It’s been a little over a year for me. All clear.”
If she noticed the timeline coincided with her permanent return to Aspen Springs, she didn’t acknowledge it. “Fuck me, Brax,” she ordered.
She pushed my shoulders until I rolled onto my back, then hiked one leg over my waist, straddling me while my hands settled on the curve of her hips. She wiggled a little, gliding her pussy over my aching shaft until I was soaked from her wetness. And then she paused, staring down at my chest.
“What is this?” Her fingertips trailed the red mark guarding my heart and she squinted in the dim light. “You have a tattoo?”
I grabbed her hand, stilling her. My heart thumped hard underneath our palms. “That’s not important right now. What’s important is getting my dick inside you.”
“All right, then,” she purred, and swiveled her body against me.
My hands dug into her hips. “Are you sure?” I asked, my voice more than a little desperate.
She laughed, soft and husky. “I’m sure,” she said.
I swallowed hard. God. I was about to fuck my wife for the first time, and I was going to do that bare.
I shot up to capture her mouth in a kiss. “Then take my cock and put it inside you. I want to watch you fuck me.”
With one hand splayed on my chest, she rose onto her knees and reached between us and wrapped her hand around my length. When she notched my crown against her entrance, we both groaned in unison.
My hips bucked up and she sank down, meeting each other half way. The fit was exquisitely tight, so goddamn perfect.
My voice was all gravel when I asked, “Are you okay?” Because she hadn’t moved in a few seconds, and I was only halfway inside her.
“Yes,” she said, her voice strained. “Just going to take this slow so you don’t split me in two.”
She slid down another inch, and then another, both of us riveted to the sight of her body stretching to take me.
“Fuck, honey, you take me so well,” I encouraged.
Her hands slid to my shoulders and she used the leverage to take the last couple inches. With her fully seated on my cock, the last thread of my control snapped so sharply I could almost hear the ping .
“Sorry, honey. I told you this was going to go quick.” My hands clenched her hips with almost bruising force as I lifted her off my dick and slammed her back down again. Over and over, her tits bouncing, her nails digging into my shoulders, as she whispered filthy things into my ear.
And then it really was too much, and I rolled her onto her back, twined our fingers together, and pounded into her until white lights exploded behind my eyes and I came harder than I’d ever come in my life.
We didn’t make it back to our house in town that night. Each time one of us sat up and made some move to put clothes back on, the other would put a stop to that right quick. We explored each other thoroughly, reaching for each other again and again in between drowsy half-naps. Her mouth on me, my mouth on her, my dick driving into her from behind, her riding me slow and deep until my eyes crossed.
But no matter how we started, we always ended the same. Face to face, Essie flat on her back, our hands intertwined over her head, my body pleading for what I could never say out loud.
Stay with me .