Chapter 20
I ’ve officially lost my grip on reality.
“You should have a damn sign hanging around your neck.” My mouth presses against Sage’s wet hair.
I’m inhaling that scent of her mixed with all the familiar notes of summer swirling in the air. Hay and wildflowers and the rushing water merge to give me the same feeling as being drowned in warm rain. My hands find her hips beneath the surface, and I’m so goddamn hard for this girl. Completely and utterly lost, surrendered to the relentless ache to have her. To be near her. So wildly frustrated, not just with Sage for giving me a heart attack, but the endless reminders of our god-awful circumstances. To the point that I’ve long since forgotten all the very reasons I shouldn’t be acting on this impulse and yearning.
“I’ve got horses to settle in, the herd to check on, and I’m spending time I don’t fucking have combing every inch of this ranch looking for you. Expecting to find you broken or bleeding somewhere… and instead…” My teeth pin her shoulder as I fist the ties of her tiny bikini bottom.
I can’t even say the words out loud—of pulling up in the truck and seeing her looking like my every dirty fucking fantasy standing in the water damn near naked. Wildflowers and geometric patterns climb up Sage’s thigh, scaling the swell of her right hip, leading to the side of her stomach. Of course, the ways this woman continues to be so effortlessly tempting and damn sexy keep mounting. Of course, she has a tattoo covering an ocean of flesh that is hidden away from sight until the opportunity arises to see her bared like this.
An urgency thunders in my veins, raw and desperate. My chest feels like it’s being ripped apart by the pounding going on inside my rib cage.
“That sounds like a you problem.” She hisses and tries to wriggle out of my hold. Here in the deeper water, she floats without being able to get a foothold, trapped and out of her depth as I easily stand my ground.
What the fuck am I doing? I’m fully clothed, plunging into this swimming hole without a second thought. Following after her, all because I’ve been driven beyond the brink of what I thought I knew how to handle. This girl has consumed every single aspect of my days and nights for over a week—in reality, for far longer than just the amount of time I’ve been away from the ranch—and I’m done trying to wrestle with myself anymore.
She’s so damn soft beneath my touch, and the feel of her writhing against my body, fighting me to get away, officially undoes any last semblance of restraint I might have had.
Sliding one hand across her front, I feel her stomach cave beneath my touch. Sage lets out a noise that matches my agony. She knows just as well as I do that we can’t be here like this, and yet there’s no stopping where we’re headed.
I grab her chin and tilt her face forcefully to the side in order to meet me. It only takes a split second, but I’m defenseless against all the ways I desire to bust past that forbidden boundary between us.
My mouth sinks against hers.
As I kiss Sage, I catch the briefest flash of honey in those dark eyes, and a cursed protest disappears beneath the force of my need for her. Those wetted lips I’ve imagined tasting in so many different moments are pillowy soft, so sweet, tinged with the heat of her fiery embers and sparks she’s intent on kicking back my way. I’m hungry for every single one of those devilish noises and wicked flames I should know better than to be lingering here with.
Sage growls into my mouth, and it’s a sound that races straight to my cock.
I dive forward, drawing her tighter against my body as I do so.
“You.” Kiss. “Drive.” Nip. “Me.” Suck. “Fucking.” Lick. “Insane.”
With each word, I draw back enough to speak against her lips while keeping a fiercely tight hold on her. Not trusting my hands to resist wandering straight to the most intimate parts of this girl. The moment I allow my fingers to leave her jaw and waist, I’ll be in even more peril than I am currently. There’s too much of Sage on display right now for my brain to comprehend.
Does she have any idea the things I want with her? From her? The filthy fucking thoughts I’ve been plagued with since that night? Ever since I first laid eyes on her with that gaze tempting me into all kinds of trouble.
I pinch her bottom lip between my teeth, and her feistiness dissolves into a noise that spells my absolute ruination. A moan of frustration laced with pleasure escapes her, and I feel my cock thicken inside my jeans.
“We can’t do this.” It’s more of a plea than anything that she gives me, as I back us toward the riverbank, stopping once we’re shallow enough for the water to lap at my hips.
Spinning her around, I cup her face with both hands. “I know.” I fucking know.
My lips trace her nose, her cheeks, back down to the corners of her mouth. I fucking need to taste her properly. This time, when I sink against the seam of her mouth demanding entrance, there’s no stopping or pausing. A surge of fierce satisfaction roars straight through me when I press my tongue forward, and Sage kisses me back.
Her tongue slides against mine, and we’re lost to the tangle of hunger swirling between our bodies. She makes the softest growling noise, a moan that I greedily drink down as her fingers curl into fists, bunched in the front of my sodden t-shirt.
“We shouldn’t.” Sage is a better person than I’ll ever be. Reminding me of the exact words I’ve so determinedly tossed aside, as I let my mouth begin to roam freely. Working my way along her jaw, I’m biting and sucking a trail following her pulse point.
“I can’t fight this, baby. I’m not supposed to crave you, but I can’t find any more reasons not to.” Goddamn, I’ll get down on my knees and beg this girl right here, right now, if that’s what she needs.
“Beau. You’re married.” Her fists stay clenched in my shirt, but she rails harder against my torso. An act that shoves me away and clutches me near, all in the same action.
“Say the words, Sage. Tell me you don’t want me anywhere near you.” My palms skate down her shoulders, following the curve of her spine, as my lips keep descending to seek out her collarbone. Goddamn the feel of her soft breasts brushing against my torso is like heaven. I’m torn between the need to keep descending her body, to take them into my mouth, and the desire to feel her properly.
“Tell me you don’t want to know what my touch feels like.” I hum against her sun-kissed skin.
“Oh my fucking god.”
“Tell me to stop right now. I’ll walk away.” My voice is low and gritty to my own ears while my teeth graze back up the column of her throat. As I pursue that tender patch of skin, my tongue laps at her pulse, tasting the faint hint of saltiness and sweet fragrance there.
“You’re the one who had all the rules. Don’t do this to me.” She breathes, arching her neck to give me better access. “I’m not gonna be anyone’s second prize.”
That drives me further down this path of self-destruction. I sink my hands lower, palming and squeezing her ass beneath the water.
“There’s no putting you anywhere but front and center in my mind, baby. Did you think there would be anywhere else for you after taunting me out of my head with that little show of yours? Did you honestly think I’d be left doing anything but fucking my fist non-stop? You’ve got me so goddamn wrapped up in you, I’m out here forgetting any reason why I shouldn’t even look at you.”
“So what? You think you can just put your hands on me and murmur some pretty words, and I’ll give you what you want?” Sage’s hips chase my seeking, needy touch, even as she keeps sparring with me. This girl is clinging on with the same fervor I’ve been afflicted by. We’re both as fucking twisted up by this thing as each other.
In no reality should I be considering what I’m about to do. But there is a version of me who can’t think of any reason not to give us exactly what we’re craving.
“Oh, you talk a big game. Do you like the idea of me making you feel good? Think I can’t feel the way you’re grinding your hips for more?” I slip beneath the edge of the fabric and my pulse thrums at the first glimpse of her softness—of her; wet and warm and so eager to meet me in this. “Do you want to know just how good it will feel when I give you what you’ve been longing for?”
“You have no idea what I need, cowboy.” Sage’s fingernails dig into my stomach through the thin cotton she’s still got a death grip on.
Sliding my hand beneath her ass, I hitch her thigh, hooking her leg as high as possible, and damn near groan at what I find. It only takes the slightest nudge of that material to discover the slippery evidence waiting there for me.
“ Mmmfuck , baby. Your sweet little pussy gives away your secrets. I think you’ll like my fingers well enough when they know how to find that spot you love so much.” I press lower, and she’s so velvety soft as I reach that hidden junction of her thighs to begin toying with her entrance. “I’ll bet no idiot boy you’ve been with has ever bothered to take care of your pussy like I know you need. Never stroking that spot only your toys get to. None of them bothered to make the effort to get you off perfectly, did they?”
Sage lets her head sink forward against my chest, moaning louder as I start to explore. Pressing two fingers just inside her channel, holy fuck, I’m so painfully hard imagining what it might be like to finally feel her wrapped around me. My dick throbs with urgent need, and tight desperation takes hold in my groin. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve been struggling to go half a day without needing to relieve that tension. Only she has that sort of power over me, an all-consuming chokehold where I’m constantly lost to memories of the way she worked herself on camera.
“Fuck you, Beau.” She lets out a pained noise of pleasure, clenching around me. She can’t bring herself to stop this and I can’t bring myself to walk away. So it looks like we’re both selling our souls at this moment.
Her teeth bite down, and it’s the hottest fucking thing.
Leave me covered in her marks. I’d gladly have Sage brand me head to toe with her bruises and scratches.
“No, I think those boys were all too busy fumbling around. Idiots who think the only way to please a woman is to ram them with cock and don’t even know how to properly make a woman come.” As I speak, I keep slowly sinking two fingers inside her. Curling and stroking, I keep that rhythm, rubbing against her inner walls until Sage’s back arches and her thighs begin to shake.
“That’s it, baby. Give me all those dirty little noises.” I squeeze her ass, lifting her higher to open for me, dragging my knuckles through her seam, seeking out her swollen clit. “Do you know how impossible it was to avoid thinking of the way you looked on that camera? I’ve spent a whole week, supposed to be discussing horses and livestock, and no matter where I went, I kept getting hard at the memory of your wet cunt swallowing your fingers.”
It shouldn’t feel so satisfying to bear witness to the way her body jerks as I brush that sensitive little spot. It shouldn’t be the softest, most delicate petal beneath my calloused fingers. There are a multitude of reasons I should tear myself away from this girl, and yet I can’t find it within myself to let her go.
With a final firm stroke over her bud, I reluctantly drag my hand away. Not because I’m ending this, but rather that I’ve got plans for Sage. And for that, I need her out of this river.
This girl wanted to push me over the edge? Well, I’m plunging straight for the depths of ruin and dragging her down with me. My breath saws in and out of my chest as I sink my fingertips into her soft curves.
“You think you could get away with putting on that kind of performance and not face any consequences? You’re going to lie there and take your punishment because I’ve been in agony all week long. Now it’s my turn, baby.”