Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
DAKOTA
The barn goes quiet in pieces.
Rain softens against the roof. The horses settle. I rest against his chest, reclining back in an empty stall against a soft mound of hay. Both of us breathe like we’ve run hard.
I should say something. Maybe he should.
But what?
His hand moves through my damp hair, smoothing it back from my face. Like this means more than sex. Like he wants to care for me despite himself.
“That was amazing,” I whisper, still trying to slow my heartbeat. “Wish we hadn’t waited so long.”
His body stiffens next to mine, face going guarded. “Why?”
“Because we could’ve been enjoying this all week,” I say, hand coming up to wrap about his cock.
He moans softly as I pump it once, twice, feeling it grow beneath my hand.
“Definitely have lots of time to make up for,” he grumbles.
The words surprise me.
They’re almost enough to make me hope.
“And how do you propose doing that?” I ask, side-eying the rugged cowboy with a giggle.
“Like I told you,” he drawls low and slow. “Gonna clean you up… with my tongue. Then do this all over again.”
My heart thuds against my ribs. A kink I never knew I had.
“But it’s messy down there,” I say, throb starting again between my legs. Like I could never get enough of him.
“Made you taste yourself on my mouth. Why would it work any different for me? ‘Sides I used a condom. I’m getting off easy… this time.”
There it is again. Him breaking his own rules.
He rolls me over, sliding between my legs like he owns that spot. My throat thickens, wishing it were true.
“Unlike other men, I always clean up my messes.” He stares at me long and hard then, throat working, like he wants to say more.
But he doesn’t.
His hand finds me again, fingers sliding and teasing. “Worst part’ll be eating hay, anyway. No stranger to that.”
Before I can respond, even laugh, he raises my leg in the air, moving slow. Starting at my knee and kissing up my inner thigh slowly. His tongue comes out, swiping at my juices.
“You were slick to the knee for me. Never seen anything more beautiful in my life.” He pauses, mouth hovering over my flesh. Just eyeing me like he wants to say more but won’t.
“That’s a lie,” he says after a long, breathless moment. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Thought that since the first time you walked in this barn.”
“Really?” I gasp as he continues sliding and kissing with his mouth. Each touch is a revelation, a slow awakening until I’m dripping all over again.
My legs fall open, giving him every part of me. Letting him tease me and suck me.
Swirl me and play with me until all that’s left is the pulse rushing in my temples, the throb between my legs, and the feel of him in total control.
He sinks both fingers deep, working me. Applying pressure where I need him, unraveling me with that wicked tongue that already knows me too well.
Sucking, nipping, lapping until all I hear is my own voice echoing through the stables.
It pierces the storm. The wind. Everything.
Hot release. More than I ever thought possible. He devours me until there’s nothing left. Staying with me through it.
Then, he lies next to me, chin on his hands, a lopsided grin plastered on his face. “That what you need?”
I can only nod. My voice no longer works.
He leans forward, pecking my lips. Still smelling and tasting like me.
Thunder rattles through the rafters. Lightning flashes in the window panes. But none of it can touch us here. There’s only him and me.
His big hand comes out, settling at my waist, caressing me softly now. The way he does the horses he trains.
“Can’t make any promises,” he reminds, jaw tightening. “Just make sure you never forget this. Never forget us.”
“Careful,” I whisper. “Sounds like you’re drowning.”
His eyes are warm, warmer than I’ve ever seen them. “Maybe.”
“And what are you going to do to make sure I never forget us?” I whisper, fingers settling at the back of his neck in his hair.
“Want to take you different this time,” he whispers, settling his weight over me. “Want to see you unravel face to face. If that’s okay?”
My chest tightens hard enough to hurt. “Yes, of course.”
“Good. Gonna take my time with you now. The way you deserve.”
“You know, I never could,” I gasp.
His hands are on me again.
“What?”
“Forget you.”
He stills, frown capturing his mouth. “You should. You need to.”
My heart drops, heard speeches like this before.
But then, his eyes go wicked, black and focused like a wolf stalking prey. “But I won’t let you.”
He slides on a condom. My breath catches in my throat. Anticipation pricking across my betraying body.
Levi grabs one leg, bending it at the knee to make the slide easier. He inches into me, slow, sensual. Always kissing my mouth, always talking me through it.
The cowboy who can tame anything. Even me.
His mouth dips, devouring my breasts one at a time. Like this will never end. Like I’m the only flavor he needs.
I float higher and higher beneath his body and hands. He always pulls back when I start to clamp down, when I beg him not to stop.
His smile is dark and devastating, like he knows exactly what he’s doing to me. Re-angling my hips, sliding slow and firm against my G-spot until stars float behind my eyes.
He spits in his palm, slides his hand between us, spreading it on my clit. I gasp, eyes rolling back.
Then, his thumb starts. Tiny, perfect circles. Slow, persistent, firming, growing in rhythm and pace.
Pulling back suddenly, each time my breath stutters and my legs shake uncontrollably. Then, barely a touch, imperceptible motion.
“Shh,” he whispers against the crook of my neck. “Patience, Dakota. Want it all from you. Everything.”
He forces me to follow him, to concentrate on how he uncoils me one centimeter at a time. One slide of his slick thumb. One change of angle and direction.
Back and forth. Then, round and round. Then the other way, until my fingernails dig into his back, and I beg like a damn fool.
“Please, Levi. Please let me come.”
He chuckles dark, pupils blown. “Not yet. Need you messier. Need you so undone you can’t think. Or breathe.” He shifts inside, a slow tease.
“Already there,” I pant.
His hand stills, his body, too. I groan. Frustrated. On fire. So close, I’m pulsating around him.
“You have to trust me,” he says. “Let me give this to you… what you deserve. What you need.”
“Yes, please.” I’m desperate, pathetic.
Then, his hips start moving again. Incremental, controlled, his mouth finds mine, locking into me hard. My legs wrap around him now, my body coming off the ground as he drives into me.
His pace picks up, breath fast and hard.
“Yes,” I scream, urging him, taking everything he has to give. He grips my ass, shoving deeper. Too deep.
My body recoils, pain and pleasure mixing. But I need him too much to pull back now.
“Fuck me,” I whisper against his ear.
He’s all feral noises now. Grunts and deep groans. And the sound of our wet bodies slapping together. His pace slows, force merciless now.
“Gonna come hard,” he grunts. “Gonna fill you to the brim, Dakota.”
My head lolls back, whole body arching as I fracture, gripping him like a vice. He drives in again, hay shifting around us as he releases, wresting every last bit of satisfaction from me before he collapses.
“God,” he grunts, into my hair, pressing kisses against my neck. “How will I survive you?”
His voice is raw, panicked. That’s when I know he’s already looking for a way out.
This is the part I knew would come. Not the wanting. The aftermath.
The part where something real tries to take shape.
I lie back, trying to savor this moment. Not think ahead.
It’s impossible. Like tasting gourmet cuisine and then going back to frozen pizzas.
His expression changes when the distance opens between us. I feel it… the silence. The sliver of space he puts between our bodies.
I hate it more than I can say.
“Levi—”
“We shouldn’t have done this,” he says, and the words feel like tearing skin.
Thunder rolls farther off now, the worst of the storm already moving on.
I study him for a long second. “You don’t mean that.”
He looks away. “ You should get back to your cabin before the path floods.”
“But we’re not done yet.” My voice comes out a tremble, body still limp and jointless from too much ecstasy.
“Done before this started,” he grits out between clenched teeth. “Told you so. Warned you.”
Silence lingers too long, but still I snuggle into him. And still he grabs me with one arm, pulling me tightly against him.
“Levi.”
Something shifts in his face when I say his name. Like it could wreck him. But he won’t look at me.
“When this weather breaks, you go back to the house or your cabin,” he says. “And tomorrow, things go back to normal.”
Even as he says it, I know there’s no normal after this. No putting him back on the other side of the line.
“Right,” I say quietly, sitting up. Patting in the hay for my jeans.
“By the tack trunk,” he reminds, voice low and groggy.
Then… “Don’t go yet.”
The last three words put a sharp sting behind my sternum. “Why not?” I say too forcefully. “You can’t stop talking about it now that you’ve had me.”
His eyes pop open, pain behind them. “It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it, though?” I ask exasperated, struggling to my feet in the hay on a search for my clothes. “Never should’ve wanted this. Never should’ve thought this could be anything else but a complication.”
Levi doesn’t move, face a sour scowl.
I hurry into my clothes, vulnerable before him. His face is unreadable.
No after-care. No sharing or getting to know each. “Just a good fuck.” My voice sounds bitter now.
I look up in time to see where my words wound him. I instantly regret them, but it’s too late. His face is hard again as he sits up, rubbing his hands over his face.
“You must do this with all the tourists. How could I be such a fool?” The storm sounds distant now as I shove into my boots, standing in the wreckage of my own bad judgment.
Buddy shifts in his stall and looks at me like he knows.
“Yeah,” I mutter.
I know better. He said it himself. Just once.
But that was before I learned what it felt like to be in his arms. And now the truth is a live thing under my skin.
Once was never going to be enough.
Not for me.
I stare at him for one breathless moment, biting my bottom lip hard. Shame sliding through me.
I open my mouth to speak. Can’t find the words.
Instead, I tuck my shirt back in, smoothing the front. Then, I open the door to the barn, stepping out, attempting to hold my head high, though I swore I’d never fall for another rambler.