8. Colt
8
COLT
I can’t keep my hands off her.
I wake up with Lena, my angel, naked in my arms, her soft body curled against mine. Her scent is soft and settled in my lungs, and her taste is still on my tongue.
And I want more. Always more.
It’s like a dam broke inside me last night and unleashed the wild fury of lust I’ve been fighting to hold back. There’s no going back. No pretending like I don’t need her. No convincing myself that I can keep my distance.
I was fooling myself the whole time–I know that. Ever since the first moment I saw her, standing there wide-eyed and defiant, I knew I had to have her. I knew I was already hers.
And now that I’ve had her, I’m not letting go. Ever .
She stirs beside me as I nuzzle into her neck, breathing in her scrumptious scent. A soft sound slips from her throat–something like a moan–and it goes straight to my dick, which hardens instantly against her ass. I’m always hard around Lena. It’s just my natural state now.
“Colt,” she whispers, still half-asleep as she twists her head toward me.
I press my lips to hers and kiss her, slow and deep, sliding my hand around to cup her breast. She moans into my mouth as her nipple peaks against my calluses. I can hardly believe she’s here right now. She’s like a dream I don’t even deserve to have. But here she is.
And she’s mine.
“Good morning, city girl,” I growl against her lips.
She smiles up at me, her eyes still sleepy, her face glowing with an expression that makes my whole body go tight like I’ve just taken a punch to the gut. Before I can think twice, I’ve got her on her back and I’m spreading her legs and sliding inside.
No hesitation, no warning, just taking her like she belongs to me.
She gasps, wrapping her legs around me instantly like her body was made specifically for mine. And maybe it was.
“Again?” she breathes.
“What’s the matter? Can’t handle another round?”
She clicks her tongue to her teeth and shakes her head, smiling. “Oh, I can handle it, cowboy. I just didn’t expect for you to be such a…”
Her voice trails off. “Such a what?” I ask.
Her smile widens, and her eyes blaze. “Such a machine.”
I slide deeper and feel her stretch around me. She’s already wet and arches her hips to accept my length, moaning my name as I lose myself in her again.
* * *
We do eventually make it out of bed, but only because I carry her over my shoulder to the shower and turn the water on. I’m still hard, and I press her up against the tile so I can take her one more time while the steam fogs around us. She clings desperately to me, like I’m the only man who’s ever touched her.
Which I am. And always will be.
No man on Earth would ever survive setting a finger on her. If he even tried, I’d break his goddamn hands. Hell, I might do worse than that. Even thinking about another man looking at her has me hot with jealousy.
I dry off her gorgeous body and take her down and make her breakfast: eggs, toast, roasted tomatoes grown on the ranch, and some delicious bacon. She sits at the table wearing nothing but one of my flannel shirts that’s way too big on her, and when she shifts just the right way, it rides up and gives me a glimpse of her tiny pink slit.
I can barely focus.
This woman owns me.
And then it hits me–just how far I’ve fallen for her. How this forbidden thing between us has twisted into something deep and permanent.
I want everything.
I want to keep her here, in this house, with me, forever .
I want to put a ring on her finger and a baby in her belly. But there’s one big problem…
Lena’s father.
If I stay with her, he will find out. And when he does, shit’s gonna hit the fan. And I don’t know what’s worse–the fact that he’ll try to take her away or that for us to be together, I’ll have to take her away from him .
I run my hand down her thigh as she talks, but I’m not even hearing the words. I’m just staring at her gorgeous lips, wondering if I can somehow get away with skipping the chores and just dragging her back into the bedroom for the rest of the day.
“Colt, you’re not listening to me,” she accuses, smacking me on the chest.
“I am,” I lie, kissing her on the cheek.
She giggles. “Liar.”
“What are you gonna do about it?” I tease. “Punish me?”
The most adorable blush rises in her cheeks, and she squirms in her seat, showing off her thighs, which only gets me even hotter for her–and harder.
“I have to go muck out the stalls,” she says as she stands. I reach out and take her by the hand.
“Later.”
She looks down at me with exaggerated shock. “ Later?” she teases. “Mr. Hardass here is giving me a pass to skimp out on my chores? What is the world coming to?”
I reach out and snatch her by her bare ass and pull her down onto my lap. “I’m not done with you yet.”
An hour later, I’m pacing the barn, watching Lena muck out the stalls like she said she would be doing. I have my own shit to get done today, but I can’t leave her side. It’s like a gravitational pull. I can’t focus on anything but her. My mind is busy, swimming with dirty thoughts and desires. I can’t stop thinking about how she looked last night, this morning–her hair messy, lips red and swollen from kissing, her thighs marked up with my fingerprints.
She’s inside me now.
Deep in my core. In my blood. And I don’t know how to function anymore.
I grab a hay bale and give it a toss, just as an attempt to burn off some energy, but it doesn’t help. I’m just too worked up. Lena’s wearing short-shorts again, and my eyes are glued to her ass.
The thing is, it’s not just the sex.
It’s more.
It’s the way she looks at me–like I’m the whole world, like I’m a good man. Like I’m her strong protector who can keep her safe. It’s the way her eyes flare when she sasses me like the undeniable little brat she is.
This feeling that’s got such a deep hold on me–I think it’s love. I’m in love with the girl I was never even supposed to touch.
I want to build a life for her. Provide for her. Make her happy.
But I’ve got no business dreaming about a forever with Lena–not when her dad’s the one who signs my checks and decides if I still have a job. He’d lose his mind if he knew I was fucking his daughter last night. As he said, he’d kill me.
He wouldn’t even have to do it himself. I can picture a gang of suited fists-for-hire coming to get me–hear the crack of their fists against my jaw. I can imagine Lena sobbing as she’s forced to watch as she’s dragged away, and me too broken and bloody to stop it.
Or even worse, he’d just take Lena from me, ship her overseas to some fancy college and bribe her out of my life with all the money in the world.
And what would I do then?
What could I do?
Spend the rest of my life searching for her? I’d do it, even if it destroyed me.
Fear claws in my chest like the barbed wire I have to string today. I’ve never been scared of anything–fights, jail, not even pain. But losing Lena? That’s the one thing I could not survive.
* * *
She finds me by the vegetable garden later, and the second I see her, my whole body relaxes. The tension subsides, the tightness in my chest eases. And what’s more, I light up like a thousand-watt-bulb.
Her hair is up in a messy ponytail, and she’s got hay stuck to her shirt–well, my shirt. And she’s laughing at something that Missy, the gal from Boston who works here part-time, said to her.
She walks toward me like she’s drawn by a string–hooked on a fishline. And when she reaches me, she falls into my arms and presses her cheek to my chest. “Hey, you.”
“Hey, you,” I murmur, resting my chin on her head. I take a long, deep breath, drugging myself on her pheromones. My whole body reacts, and I know I’m done for.
“You all right?” she asks, looking up at me with such sweetness in her eyes.
I nod, but I’m lying again. I’m not okay. I’m a wreck. I’ve tasted heaven, and there’s a good chance it’s going to be torn away.
I take her again right behind the seed shed, her shorts around her ankles and my pants down to my knees. I watch her ass bounce on my cock and spank her smooth skin as I fuck her–roughly this time. Needy and desperate. I thrust hard inside her. Hard enough to make her sore.
She needs to know who it is she belongs to. Because if her dad finds out and takes her away, this time on the ranch could be our only time together.
I come inside her, causing her to buck back against me. We climax together, and I twist her over onto her back and press my body on top of her.
“I love you, Lena,” I whisper, even though I know I shouldn’t. Even though it’s absolutely the wrong thing to do.
But Lena’s eyes widen, and her lips curl up when she hears me say it. I can tell by her expression that she feels it too, and for a brief second, the fear of our future fades.
For a second, I think we can survive this.
“I love you too, Colt.”
But before she falls asleep in my arms that night–curled up against my chest, her fingers resting softly on my heart–I stare up at the ceiling and think about what’s coming.
Her father.
His money.
His rage.
And the impossible choice I’ll have to make when he finds out about us. Because no matter what happens, I’ll never stop loving her.