CHAPTER 6
KENDRICK
Even though everything inside of me is screaming to strip her down and take her right here and now, with only the stars as witnesses, I slow down our kiss. Fuck, it is not easy to do because she tastes so damn sweet and I want more. So much fucking more.
But I don’t want her to think she’s some fling who doesn’t mean everything to me. I’m not going to start this thing out between us with something meaningless, not when I need her to believe in me and in us.
“Eliza,” I groan as her fingertips trail down my neck until she grips my shoulder like she needs to hold onto me before she floats away.
“Kendrick,” the way she moans my name, a breathy sound filled with need, is almost too much to take.
“We need to slow down,” I murmur against her lips.
I’m not strong enough to pull away from her completely and I’m not even a little bit ashamed about it. She should know what she does to me and how I can’t get enough of her.
“You taste so damn good. I’m already addicted,” I growl the words before kissing her again, softly, and chastely this time.
“But you just said we need to slow down?” I can hear the pout in her voice and it’s adorable as hell.
When I pull back just enough to look down at her, the way her gray eyes are glazed over with desire has my cock throbbing behind the fly of my jeans.
It would be so easy out here; no one can see us, and no one knows where we are.
But she deserves more than some scratchy blankets and a rusty truck bed.
“I want you so damn bad, Baby,” I tell her honestly.
The look in her eyes tells me she doesn’t believe me. But she will. While keeping the blanket around her, which isn’t easy to do, I position her until she’s straddling my lap. I use my grip on her hips to pull her down against me.
Her eyes widen as she feels just how hard I am for her, how much I want her. There’s no way I could hide it, and I want her to know. She’s the sexiest fucking woman I’ve ever met. And I’m not walking away.
“You feel that?” I grunt the question after burying my face in her neck, my panting breaths not helping my control.
Not when she smells sweet, like vanilla and cherry.
She lets out a sound from the back of her throat as she rocks her hips.
The way she shakes in my arms is answer enough for me.
“That’s what you do to me, Eliza. That’s how much I want you and how badly I need you. ”
“Then why are you stopping?” Her voice is higher and full of need.
When I roll her underneath me, I cradle the back of her head in my hand to make sure it doesn’t hit against the truck bed while she lets out a gasp of surprise. Her gray eyes are wide and wild, but they’re also full of questions. And doubts.
Which is why it’s not time.
“As much as I want to strip you right here where the stars can witness our vows and the way we would become one,” my voice is husky and thick like molasses, “it’s not the right time.”
Her chest is rising and falling with each shallow, rapid breath she takes. As she brings her knees up to grip my hips, her eyes glaze over. She rocks up against me, seeking the friction her body is begging for.
“But I need you,” she purrs the words. Talk about fucking temptation.
She’s almost too much to resist.
“You need me?” The question comes out choked to the point I should be embarrassed. I’m not.
I sound like some pubescent teenager instead of the experienced man I am. But that’s just what this woman does to me.
“Yes,” she pants, “please.”
“Fucking hell,” I groan, “how can I say no to that?”
Eliza bites her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling. She thinks she’s won and, maybe, in a sense she has, but I’m still not going to allow our first time together to be in the bed of my father’s rust bucket of a truck. She deserves someplace soft. She deserves special.
“Kendrick,” she moans and arches her body and rolls her hips against mine in search of what she needs.
“I’ve got you, Baby,” I murmur as one of my hands grips her hip and pushes her down against the truck bed.
She stills, thinking I’m giving in. I’ll give her what she needs, but I’m not fucking her. Not here and now. But there’s no way I can leave her wanting either.
My fingers are deft as I unbutton and unzip her jeans. When my hand slides underneath the denim and into the silky fabric of her panties, I let out a grunt of approval. And then my fingertips glide along her soaking wet slit.
I’m fucking lost in the feel of her.
So soft.
So fucking wet.
And all mine.
My lips slam down on hers when she lets out a loud moan as I part her pussy lips and circle her clit with my finger. Her hips buck as if she’s trying to spur me on, but I use my body to keep her in place. Right where I fucking want her.
“You’re so fucking beautiful under the starlight, Eliza,” I murmur against her lips.
Her legs fall open as I slide my finger down and plunge it inside of her easily because of how soaked she is for me. The way she feels around my finger has my cock throbbing in my pants. I’m almost afraid of how she’ll feel around me. There’s no way I won’t lose control.
“Please,” she breathes out.
When I push a second finger inside of her and then start fucking her, the sound of contentment she lets out would make me laugh if it weren’t so fucking hot.
“I feel you already starting to squeeze my fingers,” I taunt her, my voice a low rumble against her neck where I’m kissing, licking, and nipping at her skin. “You’re not going to be able to stop yourself from coming all over me.”
My words are a prophecy. One I’ll ensure comes true.
As I bite down on her neck, she lets out a gasping moan, and I can feel the way her body is vibrating underneath me.
I shift to the side to give myself more room to work with because when my woman comes, I want her to see fucking stars.
My cock is so fucking hard, and my body is desperate for some relief.
“I can’t wait to bury my cock inside of you,” I grit out the words as I rock the bulge trapped in my jeans against her hip. It’s not enough.
But fuck, if I pull my dick out now, I’ll be fucking her before I even realize it. She’s pure sin and calls to me like a siren.
Her pussy walls squeeze my fingers as I pump them in and out of her. When I press my thumb down on her clit, she keens out a sexy as hell sound.
“You’re close,” I’m not sure if I’m warning her or me. “Let go,” I murmur. As my teeth scrape against her collarbone, I love the way her hips move to meet me and my fingers. “Fuck, wish I could taste you.”
“Kiss me,” she hisses, her voice filled with demand.
She kisses me hard. It’s messy and sharp as our teeth come out to play. It’s fucking perfect.
As our bodies move, straining for more, my cock feels strangled, and my balls start to tingle right along with the base of my spine. I clench my jaw and try to think about anything to stop me from coming in my jeans.
“Kendrick,” she holds my name out in a long, low moan wrapped up in pure bliss.
“Let me feel you,” I grunt.
And with just my words, she falls over the edge of her orgasm. The walls of her pussy clamp down on my fingers and I gentle the pressure against her clit.
Her body rocks against mine and her lips part as she breathes hard. It’s too much for me to take. She’s so damn hot and the way her pussy squeezes my fingers makes it extremely easy to imagine how it would feel being inside of her. She’s so tight; I swear I can feel it.
“Fuck,” I growl, unable to stop myself from coming.
Eliza is completely oblivious as she clings to me, her body rigid as she rides out the end of her orgasm. Her kiss softens into something sweeter, but no less needy. She’s no longer kissing me with desperation.
I roll us until we’re on our sides and facing each other after I gently pull my fingers from her pussy. Her eyes widen when I slide my fingers into my mouth and let out a sound of approval from the back of my throat at her taste. Fuck, she’s cute.
“Knew you’d taste good,” I rumble.
Eliza bites her lip and buries her face against my chest. I can’t help but chuckle at the way she’s trying to hide from me. As if I’d let that happen. When she peeks up at me, the only thing I can do is laugh harder.
“I can’t believe you said that,” she whispers.
“Just speaking the truth,” I shoot back at her, not even a little bit ashamed. When she looks at me again, her eyes curious, I lay it out there. “You’re mine, Eliza.”
She blinks up at me a few times before she swallows hard. “That’s a lot,” she murmurs, but something doesn’t ring true in her tone, like she doesn’t believe her own words. “We don’t even know each other.”
“Yeah,” I admit, “but that doesn’t mean what I’m saying isn’t true. You are mine. I knew it the moment you turned around and almost knocked me over.”
She gasps and rears back slightly, but I don’t let her get far. “I did not almost knock you over.” She looks me over, her gray eyes heating, “You’re like a mountain.”
I smile at her and flex. “A mountain?”
With a roll of her eyes, she pokes my chest with a look of amusement dancing across her features. As much as I want to stay out under the stars with her all night, I know I can’t.
Not to mention, I need to get out of these briefs and jeans. Soon.
But we’re not going anywhere until we get a few things straight.
My hand slides up her back until my fingers can tangle in the hair at the nape of her neck and give a tug. Her pupils dilate and her breathing starts to quicken. Having all of her focus on me has my cock twitching. The last thing I need to do is come in my jeans, again, which means I need to focus.
“You should know just how serious I am about sticking around, Eliza,” I tell her sincerely. “Even if Dad didn’t need help around Watts Ranch to keep everything going and help during his recovery, I’d be sticking around.”
Her eyebrows pull together in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re here, which means this is where I need to be. Nothing else to it,” I tell her simply.
“I think your dad and the ranch are good enough reasons to stay in Seneca Falls for a while,” she hedges.
I could not let her get away with it and push her but now is not the time. She’ll see soon enough all on her own.
“What kind of help will your dad need back at the ranch? Will he need a nurse or something?”
She looks at me with curiosity, her eyes bright and open.
Picturing her in a little nurse’s outfit is not helping me at all as my cock twitches again and starts to harden. I should take her home. Hell, I should get back to the ranch.
I need to let Cliff know I’ll be staying and make up a plan for how to keep what we have working for us. If we’re losing money, we’re failing and there’s no way I’m going to allow my family’s legacy to sink. Just no fucking way.
Instead of doing what I should do, I hold Eliza a little tighter against my chest.
“I’m not sure what he’ll need,” I admit, my voice strained while trying to keep it steady.
“I spoke with a doctor today and he let me know just how close I came to losing my dad. He’s the only family I have left,” the words come out as a whisper, and I have to swallow hard while my eyes slide closed to keep my emotions in check.
“I’m sorry,” Eliza’s sweet voice feels like hope as her words brush against my soul. “That must be difficult. He’s lucky to have you here with him.”
I snort, the sound loud in the quiet as night fully descends around us, deepening the sky further and giving the stars a better stage to dance upon.
“He would not agree with you,” I assert.
“He kept telling me to go back to Reno and not worry about what is going on with him and the ranch. He tried to make me feel guilty for leaving in the first place.”
She stiffens in my arms, and I run my nose along the curve of her cheek, needing to feel her softness for a moment to ground me. “Enough about that. Dad is going to be an ornery bastard, no matter what, but I’m going to make sure he recovers along with the ranch.”
“I don’t know anything, really, about running a ranch or what it takes,” she admits.
When I look into her eyes, all I see is earnest curiosity looking back at me. She’ll be perfect out on the land. She’ll open herself to it, respect it, and learn from it.
“I’ll show you,” I promise and she nods tentatively, like she’s unsure whether she should be indulging my whimsical fantasies or not.
Little does she know that my words are far from fantasy.
We lay like that for a few minutes, minutes which stretch up to meet the night sky, a greeting forged through time and space.
“My parents hardly look at me anymore,” her words are spoken quietly as if giving them volume with sharpen the truth of them into blades. “They’re disappointed because I didn’t go off to college. But I never dreamed of college.”
“What did you dream of?” She laughs, but the sound is self-deprecating instead of amused. I squeeze her before pushing, “I’m serious, I want to know.”
“I’ve always dreamed of a stained-glass studio. A place where I could finally take my grandmother’s supplies out of storage and make art. I want there to be room to teach classes or something where others can make their own stained-glass art.”
“Were you close with your grandmother?” My heart clenches because I never had the chance to meet my grandparents, they were gone long before I came around.
“Yeah,” Eliza breathes out, her voice turning whimsical, “Nana Z was something special.”
As she tells me all about her grandmother and the woman she showed Eliza how to be, the more I can picture a little building. It’s far too small to house my woman’s dreams but it will be enough to get started.
It’s only when we can’t put it off any longer that I drive her home and head out to the edge of town where Watts Ranch sits like it’s waiting for me. It used to be a feeling I was happy to leave in the past, but tonight it feels different.
Tonight, it feels like possibilities and it’s all because of Eliza.