Chapter 8 Reece
Reece.
Ichewed my lip watching Ro swiping through my phone, checking out my site.
I had been making custom pieces for years and never once cared about other’s thoughts on my designs.
Reece’s Pieces was my baby, and as protective as I was about my art, I believed in my talent.
So if someone disapproved, my reaction had always been “oh well, it’s not for them”.
If they were disrespectful about it, my go to was middle finger up and they could get it. But not once had I been so needy for approval of the thing I held nearest and dearest to my heart. However, that was exactly where I was at this very moment.
I was pretty sure I was dramatically holding my breath while I studied Ro’s face, attempting to decipher whether or not he liked my work. A smile ghosted his lips but not even that provided comfort. He could have been silently dragging my work in his mind.
“Why are you over there about to have a panic attack? This is good shit, Reece. I know you’re not stressed thinking I won’t see how dope these are.”
My eyes snapped to his and he was grinning sexily, which allowed me to relax. “I wasn’t about to have a panic attack.”
“Yeah you were but I get it. This is important to you and you want people to fuck with it.”
No, I want you to fuck with it…
“I do, only because it means they’ll buy it, but that’s my thing. People don’t have to like it in order for me to keep at it.”
He nodded and swiped a few more times before handing my phone back. I grinned, noticing what page he was on.
“You gonna make me one?” He motioned toward the screen that displayed my latest buckles.
“You want me to?”
“Yeah, them shits are dope. You customize, right?”
“I do. You just have to tell me what you want. I can pretty much do anything.”
“Surprise me…” His smile was beautiful. Shit, I was so gone for this man, and after the way he just thoroughly catered to every inch of my body, I had good reason to be.
Ro was cool, down to earth, and easy to be around.
Nothing about what we were doing felt complicated.
I’d dated men in the past. Some great, some not so much, but never had I been with anyone who didn’t feel like work.
They were either complicated to understand, vibe with, be myself around, or be at peace with.
That wasn’t the case with Ro. We just clicked.
Him being here felt easy, spending time with him felt easy, and settling into a rhythm damn sure was easy.
And damn if we didn’t have a rhythm while he worked my body into orgasmic bliss.
Barely even two days had passed and I was convinced I wanted something more than this man being here temporarily.
“So…” I lifted from the sofa, collected our mugs, and headed to the kitchen. I didn’t want to be close to Ro when I asked my next question, so I focused on washing the mugs when I delivered it. “Mrs. Mel said that you were originally here to get hired at Phoxes Den as seasonal help.”
I glanced over my shoulder and quickly turned back to my sudsy hands when I found Ro’s eyes on me.
“That was the plan but I messed around and got here too late.”
“And what’s next?”
“Next, as in?” he asked with a neutral expression that didn’t provide any indication of how he felt about my question.
Sex didn’t give me the right to pry into his life, asking for details of his future plans.
I wouldn’t dare assume that what happened between us was anything more than the two of us having a moment.
A very sexually charged moment, but still, there shouldn’t have been expectations attached.
But I want to know…
“Like what city or ranch are you hitting next? I mean, if you even know…” I let the sentence linger, giving him another glance over my shoulder before I rinsed the mugs, shook them dry, and placed them into the strainer next to the sink.
Instead of answering from the sofa, he crossed the room and joined me in the kitchen.
Ro leaned against the counter next to where I was standing, dropping his chin to allow his eyes to search my face.
“I haven’t put much thought into where I’m going next.”
Where I’m going next…
That meant he was leaving but what the hell did I expect?
“Oh…” I nodded and reached for a dish towel which I intended to use, busying myself drying the mugs.
Before I could reach for the first, Ro pushed away from the counter and boxed me in.
At first he simply stood there with a cocky grin.
The silence felt more weighted because both of us breathed slowly, not speaking.
I yelped seconds later when his hands found their way to my waist and I was hoisted onto the counter.
Ro pushed his lengthy body between my legs, spreading my thighs.
His hands moved to the counter, palms flat, then his eyes were on me, slightly narrowed with that unreadable expression making another appearance.
“For the past six months I’ve been going with the flow.
Each place I stop, there’s always a recommendation for where I should head next.
This time’s a little different because I’m here.
I’m sure if I had made it to Phoxes in time to get hired, someone would have given me a suggestion on where else I could find temporary work… ”
I cringed. “I’m sure if you ask they’ll still recommend somewhere for you. I could call and…”
“I don’t need you to call anybody and I don’t need recommendations. I think I’m going to hang around here for a while.”
“Here?” I blurted and when his smile was back, I cringed again.
“Doesn’t have to be here at your ranch, Reece. I was thinking more of here in Miller’s Pointe.”
“You want to stay in Miller’s Pointe?”
“I’m thinking about it.” His eyes drifted over my body and Ro smiled before he added, “I’ve been thinking about a lot of things since I’ve been here…”
“Like what?”
“Like whether or not I want to head home and run my family’s ranch with my brother.”
My stomach sank.
“Oh! Is that what you want?”
He lifted his hands and moved them to my ass, jerking me forward until my body met his.
“No. That was always his thing. Never was mine. I respected how hard my family worked building the McCall legacy, and if that’s truly what my brother wants, I’ll be there with him, but he doesn’t need me.
At least not there on the ranch with him.
There are things I can do to help out that don’t require me being somewhere I don’t want to be. ”
“Where do you want to be?”
“That’s an interesting question.” He leaned in and kissed me.
“After the accident, I felt out of place on the ranch. I wasn’t connected.
I did my first real rodeo at nineteen and started competing seriously at twenty.
I traveled from state to state, qualifying and competing.
I was hardly ever home. I spent more time on the road than I did on the ranch.
When I met Karah, she traveled with me in the beginning, but rodeo circuits can be exhausting and eventually she stopped doing so.
We got engaged and I built a house because it just made sense.
The more I think about it, I wanted a place to come back to that felt like home. ”
“You built her a house?”
He grinned sexily. “I built us a house.”
“And she still left you.”
“She did.”
“You should give me her address. I think I want to see a woman about a cowboy.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“So you feel out of place because she left you with the house that you built for her?”
He shook his head. “That was part of it, but the biggest issue was I couldn’t process not competing.
Being on my family’s ranch, settling into a role by helping my brother run things, made the reality of what I’d lost more real.
I wasn’t ready to accept that my career was truly over, and moving on to something else, something more permanent like working alongside my brother, meant accepting the loss.
I left. Didn’t have a damn clue of where I was going or what I would do.
Ended up on a ranch right outside of Texas, mending fences, after having a beer with the owner one night.
He asked me to stay, but I declined and moved on to the next town.
The freedom felt good and I needed it, but more than anything, I needed to believe there was something out there for me, that didn’t have anything to do with rodeo or my family’s ranch, or at least I hoped that’s the case. ”
“Then maybe you should keep looking.”
“Yeah, maybe I should…” His mouth ghosted over mine. “Or I could just hang around here for a while because maybe it’s time to stop looking.”
“Hmm, that sounds promising. I might be able to come up with a few things to keep you busy…”
“I’m sure you could.” His mouth was on me again at the same time his fingers pressed into my skin, bringing me a smidge closer. His thick, hard dick was pressed to the apex of my thighs and I swallowed a moan before I angled my head back and grinned.
“Let’s see, the stables and storage shed will both need to be painted and the entire south pasture really should be rewired…”
He laughed lightly and kissed me again. “We’ll discuss my free labor another time. Right now I have a different kind of work in mind.”
I was lifted from the sofa and carried to the living room. With no objections from me, my bottoms were removed followed by Ro burying his face between my thighs. I wasn’t sure how long he planned on staying, so I might as well utilize all of his skills while he was here.
I woke up the next morning to a stiff neck, tangled in one of my cozy cable knitted blankets, feeling thoroughly satisfied and exhausted.
After our second round of sex, Ro insisted on heading back to the cabin to shower and get rest. I almost asked him to stay but didn’t want to seem too eager because what were we truly doing.