EPILOGUE
MADDOX
Austin’s giggles echo in the empty bar and the sound of them erases everything that went wrong today. The argument with Colt, the broken water heater in our cabin, the snowstorm coming in a few days… all of it is just… so unimportant.
The only important thing to me right now is the glee on her face as I set her down on the bar top and sidle my way between her thighs.
She grins down at me, knocking my hat off my head just to be a brat.
Her fingers thread through my hair and I can’t help but lean into her touch like Mama’s barn cat does when you pet him.
“Are you ready for the grand re-opening?” I ask her, though I already know she is. She’s been ready and raring to reopen Quitter’s for over a week now.
There weren’t many changes. Austin had wanted to keep the integrity of Dale’s bar but with updates to make it more cost-efficient and convenient.
She had a draft system installed so she wouldn’t have to continue ordering beer by the bottles, and replaced the old scuffed floors with new ones.
To my disdain, she’d also added a mechanical bull.
“I’m ready for you to fuck me on this bar,” Austin answers, and I snort.
“Not quite what I asked, brat. Besides, who said anything about fucking you on the bar? I still think it’s unsanitary.”
She looks at me like I’m full of shit, which is fair, because I am. “Fine,” she says, swinging her legs over the top of the bar and dropping down behind it. “I’ll remember how much you care about being sanitary the next time you come in from working and wanna fuck before you shower.”
“You’re the one who’s always wanting to fuck before I shower,” I remind her, reaching over the bar to snatch her closer. She weaves out of my grip, giggling again. I love seeing her happy. There’s really nothing like it. I’d commit unspeakable acts to make sure that smile remains on her face.
The last three months since she returned to Cedar Creek have been the best three months of my life.
They’ve also been the most anxiety-ridden.
I wake up most nights, checking to make sure she’s still beside me, feel a pit in my stomach any time I get home from work and her pickup isn’t outside.
I think she knows though. The other night, she grabbed my phone and messed around with a few things and then tossed it in my lap.
A little square map was on my phone screen that showed me her location now.
Austin hums in response, fiddling around with the picks. I huff, pushing away from the bar and rounding it.
“Sir, you’re not really allowed to be back here. This space is for employees only,” she chides.
“Kneel.”
Thank God for the anti-fatigue mats behind the bar that protect her precious knees from the impact of how quickly she obeys. She grins up at me and I don’t think I’ll ever get over seeing her like this, knowing I’m the only one who gets to.
I unbuckle my belt, eyes locked on hers.
She stopped flinching at the sound of the buckle a few weeks ago and I wonder if she even notices.
I sure as shit won’t be bringing it up. I try to think about her father as little as possible or else I just might drive out to Deer Lodge and request a meeting with him.
I don’t think I’d leave the jail if I did that though, and there’s cattle to raise, so I figure I better not.
I pull my cock out of the top of my pants and Austin sticks her tongue out for it, leaning forward. “Aht,” I chide. I don’t even have to pull away because she freezes and then sits back like the good girl she only is for me. “Do you think you deserve to get fucked on the bar, Tex?”
She struggles to decide if she’s going to be a brat or not.
It’s one of my favorite things to watch, second only to that glee from earlier.
She shifts on her knees and I immediately reach for her to pull her up but she smacks my hand away.
I should punish her for that, but it was probably warranted.
It pisses her off when I worry unnecessarily, especially now that she’s fully healed.
I make it up to her by reaching for her again, this time to fist her hair and pull her face against my cock. She sets her tongue flat and bobs her head just right so I slip inside her mouth without her even having to use her hands to guide me there.
Her mouth is just as plush and hot as it always is, and it makes me hiss and grab the edge of the bar with my other hand. “Fuck, baby, I love your mouth.”
She hums around my cock with smug eyes, lazily sucking me off like we’ve got all the time in the world. I guess now, we sort of do. The impending sense of doom I’d always had about saying the wrong thing has mostly gone away, so I don’t shy away from the ‘L’ word anymore.
I only last a few minutes before I’m tugging her off with a growl. “Fuck it, get up on the bar.”
Austin laughs and takes far too long getting off her knees for my liking. I finally hoist her up myself, hands on her hips as I set her ass back down on the bar top and start working on unbuttoning her jeans for her. “Damn, Rancher. You’re acting like you love me or something.”
I tear her jeans and panties down her legs and she helps me by kicking off her boots. The clatter of them echoes through the empty bar. “You know damn well I’m stupidly in love with you, Tex.”
Before she can snark back about me being stupid, I shove two of my fingers past her lips and press down on her tongue. “Something to say, baby?”
Her saliva pools around my fingers, coating them as I step forward between her legs. I wrap my other hand under the fold of her knee and tug her forward until her ass is just barely perched on the bar.
I want to choke her again. She looked so pretty when we played around with that before, but the first time we tried after she returned to Cedar Creek, she used her safe word. As much as I miss seeing her face all pretty and pink, the panic I saw in her eyes that night haunts me.
I pull my fingers free, brushing them across her cheek and down her neck until I’m not leaving behind a trail of her spit anymore. “Did we lock the door when we came in?” she finally speaks up. Her voice is breathy already, just how I like it.
My eyes flick over to the door. “Nope. Guess that means your pretty tits won’t be getting any attention.”
She whines, but it dissolves into a moan when I push the fingers I’d had in her mouth into her pussy instead. “I’m not risking someone walking in and seeing what’s mine, and your gorgeous tits are hard to hide, baby.”
“My subscribers see what’s yours all of the time,” she reminds me.
I can’t help but grin though. I’m still getting used to her agreeing she’s mine. “That’s different.” I don’t know how or why it is, but it is. Austin’s been trying to talk me into performing with her on the show, but I’m not there yet.
I cut off her retort by crooking my fingers just right, rubbing that spot inside of her that makes her brain short circuit and her breath hitch. “Anything else you want to chat about or can I fuck you now?”
I think one day I might like to make Austin beg for me, but that would require me to have a lot more control of how badly I want her, and I don’t think that day will ever come.
“I suppose I wouldn’t mind letting you fuck me now, Rancher,” she says, doing her best to keep that sassy little tone in her voice, but the breathiness is still there.
With a huff, I back away from her just enough to undo my jeans completely. She uses the distance I’ve created between us to slip down from the bar.
“I put you exactly where I wanted you, brat.”
She only hums and turns around, pressing her bare ass against my cock as she bends forward over the cooler. I groan at the view, deciding to just lose the jeans entirely. That ass does not deserve half-assed sex.
“I seem to recall you saying something about wanting to watch your fingers indent the skin on my hips and my ass shake as you plowed into me.”
“God, I fucking love you so much.”
“I fucking love you, too. Now get to it, Rancher.”