Chapter 5
Roman
She looks like sugar and sunshine that just took a couple shots of Jack. Her cheeks are red like a stop sign, her little brow all tight, and she’s stabbing me with her eyes.
How the fuck am I going to spend the coming hours knowing she’s here in my room, ready and willing, and not storm in here and twist her up like a soft baked pretzel and teach her what daddy needs?
“We can just be fast.” She pouts, and it takes all of God’s will for me to not raw dog her on all fours right here, ring or no ring. “I mean, we’re married in spirit already, aren’t we? I want to walk up the aisle?—”
She stops herself with a squint, then goes on as I visually devour every inch of her naked flesh. The moment we got in here, she stripped down, doing that little cowgirl shimmy out of her jeans until all she was wearing was my cowboy hat on her pretty little head.
Her ankles are crossed until she’s got my undivided attention, then she plants her feet wide, launching herself backward onto the end of the bed with a shriek and halo of dark hair landing and giving me a knees wide pussy view that will live with me until my last breath.
“Just put it in me!” She kicks at the mattress like a petulant child.“ I swear, Daddy, I’m hurting down there. It needs you. Guys get blue balls Well girls get purple pussy. It’s not healthy. Pretty please? Give your baby her first creampie, so when we take our vows, I could already be pregnant.”
The vision of her spread wide, willing…her arms braced at her sides, those lush tits settling low on her chest, and my hat on her head, it’s more than I can take.
My need to lock her down pounds in my skull like it has for so many fucking years.
How much I want her doesn’t just hurt, it’s a wincing, palpable pain that runs down my spine and feels like barbed wire around my balls, and a cannonball in my gut.
I’m losing my fucking mind here. Her rosy little nipples all pinched up, those heavy, tits jiggling, as she opens and closes her knees giving me a pink flash then taking it away.
I’m so close to giving in, but she won’t break me.
She won’t.
I close the charged space between us, and she gives me that sweet-tea smile thinking she’s won.
God, she’s more than most men could handle. One second, she’s tempting me with her bare pussy, other times bending over, offering me her ass because, in her mind, if I fucked her there, technically we’d both still be virgins.
Dirty fucking gorgeous girl.
Then she smiles that smile I remember from when we were kids, and suddenly she’s all innocence and hometown sweetness.
I grab my hat from her head and secure it on mine, reaching down to pinch her chin and force her hellcat eyes up to meet mine.
“No means no, baby girl.”
“Ugh. Fine.” She hisses through pursed lips, the sound of Casey texting me over and over coming through from my back pocket. “I want you to go do your deal. I’m proud of you, but I’m going to take a bath and think about how mad I am at you the whole time you’re gone.”
I reach down and grab handful of her pussy and squeeze, my other hand doing the same to her jaw holding her by the cunt and the chin.
“All fucking mine. Do what you gotta do, lil Kicker. When this deal is signed, we’re heading out, and you’re gonna be my wife by the time the sun comes up tomorrow.”
She juices all over as I shove one finger into that glorious tightness and lean down, kissing her with lips and tongue, and a growl that lets her know she can play up all she wants, but I’m in charge, and she loves it.
I give her enough tongue to make her moan, then pull back, bring my wet fingers up from her pussy, and shove them into her mouth before she can pop off.
“You’ll be sucking a lot more than fingers tonight, baby.”
I leave her with her cheeks red, her pussy wet, and her mouth cursing me. I chuckle as she throws a pillow and hits me in the back as I open the door, then head out and down the hall toward the bar.
And our future.
“She’s as hot as a rattlesnake on asphalt.” I run my palm down my face as I pull my phone out of my pocket.
Focus, man. This is your chance. This is the thing that sets you free of your past. That sets you up for the future you want.
For both of you.
Casey’s hand is on my wrist, stopping me from making the third call to my future wife in the ten minutes since we got to the bar. “Carrie is right next door, bro. She’s fine. They’ll spend the time while we’re here making our fortunes watching reruns of Drag Race or something.”
He’s right. This is priority one right now.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and raise my shot glass to the bartender, then nod at Casey’s as well.
“Not for me.” Casey hits me with a hard stare, then shoots a look over his shoulder to the entrance of the bar area. “This Emmett Smith guy will be here in less than five minutes.”
“We’re signing a deal on a gambling app that allows people to bet on rodeo outcomes. These are not monks we’re dealing with. Cowboy mobsters connected in the casino world will be far more likely to take kindly to you if your breath smells like whiskey.”
The bartender tips the bottle and fills both the tiny glasses, setting it down and tipping his head to the side, looking at me.
Here it comes.
“Ain’t you Roman Marshall?”
I throw back my shot, letting the burning liquid do its work before I nod, churning over in my mind the ten ways I’m going to need to hold myself back if he pops off about the whole doping bullshit that went down at the reining finals this last May that ended my white hot career with a planted syringe and a jealous competitor with an evil streak he inherited from his father.
Casey has my back. He always does. “Yes, he is, and we are done here.” He throws an arm around my shoulder, nods at the bartender, and spins me around. “Time to sit and wait for this guy to show up.”
He looks back to the bar. “Send over a bottle of whiskey and three glasses.”
We work our way to a corner table, and my eyes catch a black Stetson coming through the front door. Everything freezes. I squint, making sure I’m seeing what I’m seeing.
“You said the guy’s name was Emmett Smith.” I tense, and Casey knows me well enough to know something’s up. The timbre of my voice, the energy in my body...
“Yeah, Emmett Smith. So what?”
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I hustle Casey to the corner just as a waitress with red curly hair and white Tony Llamas sets down the bottle and glasses on the table.
I snatch away one of the shot glasses as Casey throws up his hands.
“Dude, what the fuck?”
“Take a look at who’s walking through the door, bro. He said he’d be wearing a gray hat, brown blazer and Lucchese’s with silver tips?”
I bob my eyebrows as my brother plays catch up, eyes connecting to hte man in the doorway. ”That’s Emmett Smith.”
His face turns whiter than Wonder Bread. “What? I don’t?—”
“That’s Emmett Smith.” Luckily, the guy’s paused in the doorway, talking on his phone.
“Fucker. That’s also Buck Ryder, Colt Ryder’s dad.
Shit. It always sounded like an alias, but I never cared enough to look into it.
We’re screwed. He fucking hates me, ever since I knocked out a couple of his son’s teeth for talking shit about Emily. Does he know I’m your partner?”
I raise my eyebrows, backing toward the other exit to my left that leads to the hotel pool and elevators. If I exchange words with Buck Ryder, fucking Emmett Smith, it won’t end well. I fucking know it. He’s an asshole who’s in love with his own rodeo legend, and his son’s a motherfucker.
And, if I’m placing bets the two that set me up at the finals.
Casey is shaking his head. “Naw, I didn’t give a name. Since you had the problem, you said just keep the corporation in my name. I told them I was bringing along someone that helped me build the app, but that’s all. I don’t think they even asked for a name. I’m it.”
“Good.”
The two of them ended my riding career, even if I can’t prove it, and I won’t let Buck Ryder, Emmett Smith or any other name he chooses to use fuck up this deal as well.
“Land this deal. He obviously doesn’t know who you are, or that I’m in it with you.
We shook hands five years ago on this, I trust you.
But if I’m here, this shit is not gonna go the way we want.
I’ll send Carrie down to be your…silent app partner.
All you told him is your partner would be with you, right? ”
Casey nods jaw hanging unhinged.
“So Carrie’s gonna be your partner for today, and you are gonna close this.”
Casey looks like he’s gonna throw up. He’s more brains than me, and he’s tough, but together we are exponentially more intimidating and stronger than apart. But he’s gonna have to man up, because that’s the only way we get this deal.
And despite my personal feelings about Smith or Ryder or whatever, and his maggot of a son, I’m ready to take the money his conglomerate is offering. I just can’t be at the table when the contract is signed.
I spin on my heel, jogging backward toward the exit, shaking my head and pointing at Casey. “He’s coming. I gotta go.”