SIXTEEN
COLT
Blair’s asleep against the window when I turn off the exit toward Billings. I’ve never driven so carefully in my life. This trip would’ve taken half the time if it were just me in this truck, but the thought of wrapping this truck around a tree—or anything else—has become my worst nightmare.
Fuck, I can’t wait for my therapy appointment next week. Talking about everything had been hard at first, but each week it got easier.
I knew, logically, a lot of the affection I had for Blair was because she was my baby’s mother and I already loved the kid inside of her so, so much.
I also knew a large part of my psyche saw her as some sort of…
savior, perhaps. The woman who pulled me from the roof without even realizing it, who gave me a reason .
But it wasn’t fair to put all of that on her. Not when it wasn’t even love—yet, though I could see it going there pretty quickly.
Blair shifts with a quiet groan when I put the truck in park outside my favorite hotel in Billings.
“Hey,” I whisper, hating that I have to wake her up. “I’m gonna get us checked in. Do you want to stay in the truck, or do you wanna come in? It shouldn’t take long. ”
“Where are we?” she asks instead of answering, blinking blearily.
“Billings. A hotel.”
She yawns. “I thought we were going to your ranch.”
“We are. We’re about an hour out, but I figured you’d rather meet everyone tomorrow instead of after a long day of driving.”
Blair hums and then closes her eyes, resting her head against the window again. I lick away the dopey smile I want to give her.
“Stay awake long enough to lock the doors behind me at least.”
“Mmkay,” she says, but makes no moves to actually get ready to lock the truck. A second later, her eyes pop open and she sits up. “Wait, no, I’ll go in with you,” she decides, reaching for the door handle.
“Aht, let me get the door, mama. I’ll be right there.”
The first thing Blair does when we get in the lobby is ask where the restroom is, and I feel like a dick for not waking her up sooner to see if she needed to pee. Our last rest stop was two hours ago.
The receptionist is smiling when I turn back to face her after watching Blair disappear down the small hallway to the left.
“How far along is she?”
“Uh, twenty weeks,” I tell her, reaching into my wallet for my ID and debit card.
“Ooh, halfway!”
“Yeah.” I can’t help it if I don’t sound as enthusiastic as she does. I’m still a little bitter. “Just one night, please.”
I don’t think to verify anything else. I just swipe my card when she tells me the total, most of my attention on the hallway, waiting for Blair. When she comes out, hiding her mouth behind her hand while she yawns again, I let her know we’re all set.
It’s not until I push open the door to the room that I realize my mistake.
“Fuck. ”
“What?” Blair asks, pushing her hair away from her face as she looks up at mine… and then into the room herself. “Oh.”
There’s only one bed.
“Sorry, I swear this wasn’t on purpose. I think the receptionist just assumed, and I didn’t think to ask. I’m just used to booking hotels for just me, so?—”
“It’s fine, cowboy,” Blair says, pushing past me for the bathroom. If my kid is causing her to have to piss again, I swear I’m going to have to tattoo her name on my dick just to make up for the hell it’s put her through.
But she just turns on the shower instead. “Genuinely, I’m going to pass out the moment my head hits a pillow anyway. I don’t care where that pillow is.”
She crosses her arms over her front the way girls do when they’re about to take off their top, and I spin around, my back to her. There’s no way in hell I’ll be able to share a bed with her after seeing her naked again.
“You sure you don’t want me to go ask for a room swap?” I ask, even as I hear the whoosh of the fabric as her sweats hit the floor.
“I’m sure, cowboy.”
I nod and clear my throat, blindly reaching behind me for the door handle to try and shut the door for her. She huffs out a laugh, but pushes the door closed anyway.
With a groan, I start rifling through the bag I brought in. I’d had a feeling we’d be making this stop tonight, so I’d packed a couple of changes of clothes, just in case. Only one hat though. I grin as I toss it onto the dresser.
Girl Dad .
Every once in a while, I’m reminded and it feels like that moment on the back of the bull all over again. I’m gonna be the best fucking dad in the whole fucking world.
The shower cuts off during my daydreaming, and Blair walks out with a tiny little hotel towel wrapped around her body a few minutes later .
“Sorry, forgot my clothes,” she says, cheeks pink. God, she’s gorgeous.
I clear my throat again and avert my eyes, snatching a T-shirt and a pair of boxer briefs out of my bag.
“No problem. Are you done in the shower then?”
“Yep. It’s all yours.”
Thank fuck because I needed these jeans off yesterday.
I turn the water as cold as it’ll go—even though I know it’s not going to help anything—tripping over my boots as I kick them off in a rush to pull my jeans down.
My mind automatically measures time in seconds now.
Eight seconds on the back of a bull feels like an eternity sometimes, but the seconds it takes to get my hand around my cock somehow seem even longer than that.
The chilly water is enough to ensure the friction isn’t painful, and the smell of whatever soaps Blair used hangs in the air, giving my mind even more fuel for the fantasy of getting to fuck her again.
God, it’d been so fucking good last time. More than good. I knew good sex. I used to have it pretty regularly. But Blair? Fuck.
Just the thought of her naked and dripping wet with only a door between us is enough to make my hips flex, thrusting against my grip.
“Fuck,” I whisper as quietly as I can manage, pressing my forehead against the tile. I probably shouldn’t do that. Hotels aren’t exactly known for their cleanliness, but?—
“Colt? Do you have a preference for which side of the bed I take?” Blair’s voice sounds through the door, and my abs tighten in response, desperately hurtling toward the point of no return.
“Colt?” she asks when it takes me too long to reply.
“Yeah, uh.” I try to remember what the room looked like, the location of the bed related to the door, but focusing on that when all I really want to do is beg Blair to keep talking is a bit hard.
“I’ll sleep closest to the door,” I finally settle on, praying she leaves just as much as I’m praying she keeps talking to me.
It wouldn’t be right to bait her into talking more, right?
To use her voice as spank bank material without her knowledge?
She must leave because she doesn’t say anything else, but my mind has already taken her reminder that we’ll be sharing a bed and ran with it, because it doesn’t take much longer for my thighs to tense in a way I’ve long since recognized.
I hold my forearm against the wall, biting down on it as I fuck my fist until I’m spent.
My cum mixes with the water and swirls down the drain as I try and catch my breath.
“Fuck.”
My legs are jelly while I wash off, realizing too late that I’d forgotten to grab my shampoo and body wash out of my bag in my rush to get in here quickly. I use the hotel’s piddly sample sizes and hope for the best.
When I finally get back into the room, the lamp on Blair’s side is off and she’s made herself comfortable under the covers.
She must not have been kidding about her exhaustion, because I can hear her cute little snores already as I slip into bed beside her.
It takes everything in me to turn my back on her instead of spooning her.
I turn out my lamp and pray for a quick night.