In the Cowboy's Bed (Pleasure Ridge Ranch) Page 2

  All she could manage was a nod while hoping she didn’t look like an addlepated idiot. It didn’t help matters one bit when he turned and gave her a view of how very nicely his jeans showcased his ass. She imagined it bare and tensed as he drove into her, over and over and over again.

  She slipped on a rock and nearly landed on her own ass. Only two very strong hands were there to grab her.

  * * * *

  Justin felt the shiver go through the woman he’d just saved from falling on her cute little behind. He’d met all kinds of women in this job, still felt an anxious knot in his gut each time he drove up to meet a new client, worrying they’d be one of the really kinky ones. He liked sex as much as the next guy, but even he had lines he wouldn’t cross. Some of the other guys probably had no problem with that stuff, but he’d screw twice as many women as long as he didn’t have to go down certain roads. Heidi knew that, so she must suspect Erin wasn’t into the whips and chains and worse shit.

  Erin righted herself and took a few steps down the trail. He fell into step beside her, adjusting his natural stride to match her shorter one.

  "So, Heidi says your friends sent you here. Why? Birthday present?" he asked.

  "Because I found my boyfriend having sex with another woman," she said as she shoved her hands in her jeans’ back pockets.

  Did she know how that made her green cotton T-shirt stretch across her breasts? When he looked at her face, her thoughts were a million miles away, totally oblivious that she was giving a show that was sure to cause hard-ons to any man within sight of her.

  "I’m sorry," he said, dragging his attention away from her full, round breasts, from their perfect size.

  She shrugged. "Just the latest in my string of bad choices when it comes to men. I really think you all should come with warning labels."

  He barked out a laugh. Five minutes with this woman, and he already liked her. Yes, she’d ogled him a bit back at the cabin, but he hadn’t minded. He was doing a bit of ogling himself and, he had to admit, hoping that she ended up wanting more than this traipse through nature. Time to start guiding her thoughts in that very erotic direction.

  "Hard to imagine you having guy trouble," he said. "The guy who cheated on you must have been an idiot or blind. You’re beautiful."

  "You’re paid to say that."

  "Yes, but it doesn’t make it any less true."

  Her step faltered for a moment, but she did an admirable job of covering it up. When they reached the point that overlooked the lake before the trail turned away from the ridge, Erin stopped and stared down. "Does it have a name?"

  "Enchantment Lake."

  She nodded. "Appropriate. It looks like something out of a fairy tale."

  "Or a fantasy," he said, stepping closer. He caught a whiff of some fruity scent. He liked that it wasn’t overwhelming. Neither was her makeup, and her hair fell in soft, natural waves. And he’d bed a month’s pay that blond didn’t come out of a bottle.

  She didn’t acknowledge his words, just continued to stare down at that picture-perfect lake. He let the moments stretch, allowing her to set the pace of whatever there would be between them. He flirted and tempted, but he never forced. He’d heard there were women who liked being dominated, but he wasn’t into that crap either.

  "So, do you all specialize in different things?" Erin asked suddenly without looking at him.

  "Some do, some are open to lots of options."

  "What about you?"

  "I’m not a bondage or punishment kind of guy. If that’s what you want, I’ll have Heidi send you someone else."

  She stared at him them. "Good grief, no." She pointed back toward the cabin. "I found a whip in the dresser and jumped back about ten feet."

  He laughed a little. "There are some people who really like that kind of thing."

  "Yeah, well, they’re welcome to it." She shook her head and looked off into the distance. "I’ve never been what you’d call adventurous. I believe the technical term is goodygoody. But..." She took a slow, deep breath. "I’m wondering if maybe I should try to add a little adventure to my life."

  "Want some help with that?"

  For a moment, he thought she wouldn’t answer, that she might be regretting cracking that door even a little bit. But then she turned her head toward him. "Yeah, I think I do."

  He took a couple of slow steps toward her. "Turn around."

  Her eyes widened a bit. "What?"

  "Turn around."

  She hesitated before slowly turning her back to him. He closed the rest of the distance between them and leaned next to her ear.

  "I’m going to make you a very happy woman."

  By the jerk of his cock in his jeans, he thought maybe he might make himself a very happy man, too. At least as happy as he ever got.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Justin’s words in her ear made all of Erin’s nerve endings spark like live wires. What was she doing? She didn’t even know this man and she was going to let him touch her? She closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. This place was all about fantasy and letting go of inhibitions, right? Could she do that, let go?

  An unexpected determination to do exactly that shot through her a moment before Justin’s hands skimmed up her ribs from her waist and drifted beneath her breasts. When he cupped them, the warmth of his hands soaked through the thin fabric of her T-shirt and caused a little "umm" to slip from her lips.

  Justin chuckled a little, his warm breath tickling her ear. "You’re sounding happy, and I haven’t even done anything yet."

  Oh, yeah, you have. She didn’t speak because she didn’t know what she could possibly say without sounding stupid.

  Justin’s hands moved upward, and the next thing she knew his forefingers were making lazy circles around the tips of her breasts. Her whole body stiffened.

  "Just lean back and enjoy it," Justin said. "Don’t think about anything but the sensation of me touching you."

  She was beyond crazy, but she did what he said. With her eyes still closed, she leaned her head back against his shoulder and thought only of the feel of those fingers on her nipples. The zing of awareness radiated out, racing along her nerves to reach every part of her body. When it reached the center of her, she imagined those fingers dipping lower, much lower, and into her. She squirmed.

  "What do you want?" Justin whispered, punctuating the question with a little lap of his tongue around the curve her ear.

  You to fuck me harder than I’ve ever been fucked. She thought it, but there was enough of the real Erin James left that she couldn’t say it. Instead, she breathed a single word. "More."

  Justin slid his hands with agonizing slowness back down her ribs then tugged at the bottom of her T-shirt. When it slipped free, his hands drifted below the cotton and touched bare skin. She jerked a little.

  "Relax," he breathed.

  Yeah, like that was possible.

  Her entire body vibrated with yearning. If he could do this with just his hands sliding over her belly, what would having all of him in that big bed be like? Or riding him while hanging on to those handles in the shower? She shifted, pressing her flesh closer to the warm, wide breadth of his hands.

  He grabbed the edges of her shirt and pulled it farther up.

  "What are you doing?" she asked.

  "Removing barriers."

  Her eyes popped open and she scanned the land surrounding them. "We’re out here in broad daylight."

  "That’s the idea."

  "What if someone sees us?"

  "So what if they do?" he said, his voice dipping even lower.

  She would have never thought it of herself in a million years, but the idea of someone seeing them like this sent a thrill through her. So she lifted her arms, allowing him to remove her shirt. He tossed it onto the top of a low-lying bush she couldn’t identify. Then his lips touched her bare shoulder. Oh, those lips. Warm, wet, practiced. This man knew how to set a woman’s desires on fire.

  He let his
lips drift across the top of her back, up her neck, down her spine. When his hands went to her bra clasp, another wave of "What the hell am I doing?" zipped through her. But he popped open the clasp and guided the bra from her so expertly that she didn’t have time to voice the thought. He cupped her breasts again as he trailed his tongue along the side of her neck.

  When he started to turn her to face him, she balked. It was one thing to allow all of this when she didn’t have to look into anyone’s eyes, especially a stranger’s, but it was another entirely when she had to face what she was doing head on.

  "You want this," he said, and the little devil on her shoulder started nodding enthusiastically.

  His lips went to her neck, and the feel of that wet heat had her bowing backward. He used the opportunity to shift to the front of her, taking his hat and plopping it atop her head as he moved. He held her at her waist as he used his tongue to make those little circles around the tips of her breasts, same as his fingers had done moments before. He lapped at her as if she were an ice cream cone, and she found herself running her hands through his short, blondish-brown hair.

  When he began to suck on her, she gripped the back of his head, pushing him harder against her. She was out here on a mountaintop half-naked with a stranger’s mouth on her breast, and she didn’t care. In fact, she couldn’t believe she’d waited this long to experience something like this.

  Justin shifted his mouth to her other breast, sending a flood of pure, hot pleasure coursing through her like liquid fire. He slid his hand below the waistband of her jeans, and her mind started screaming, Yes! Yes! Yes! His fingers threaded through the hair down there, expertly zeroing in on the little nub that had her pressing herself as close to his hand as she could.

  "Yes," she breathed, this time out loud.

  Justin withdrew his hand, making her want to whimper. "Don’t worry," he said. "I’m not going anywhere." He resumed the wonderful assault on her breast as he unbuttoned and upzipped her jeans, granting him easier access. When his hand slid back beneath her simple cotton panties, she suddenly wished she had something solid to lean against.

  His fingers slid between her folds, beginning a gentle back and forth rhythm that had her slicked in a microsecond. The heel of his hand pressed against her mound, drawing a moan from her. She wondered if that sound turned him on because his action on her breasts ticked up a notch.

  He increased the pace of his movements down below until she began to pant. That’s when he slid a finger inside her and she damned near crumpled. Justin wrapped his other arm around her lower back, his strength evident. He eased the finger in slowly, swirled it inside, then slid it back out. Then he did the same thing again, just a little quicker but still not fast enough to satisfy what was building inside her.

  "Faster," she said.

  "Your wish is my command."

  Gradually, he increased the pace, the slight roughness of his finger causing her core to shiver in the most erotic way, the heal of his hand beginning to bump against her harder and harder. She began to move against his hand, reaching for what was no doubt going to be the best climax of her life.

  Suddenly, Justin really increased the speed, and he slipped a second finger into the center of her. His tongue ran all around her breasts as his hand pistoned away. She flung her head back and moaned, shoving herself against each thrust of his hand. She started to pant, and when she heard his breath coming quickly too her core began to pulse and contract around his fingers.

  "Faster," she said again.

  Impossibly, he complied as his breath huffed out against her wet breasts.

  Oh, oh, she was going to come. Her breath got faster, faster, faster until she came and cried out her intense satisfaction. She sucked in great gulps of air, trying to recover, but Justin didn’t give her time. He grabbed hold of the waistband of her jeans and pulled them downward.

  "What?" This was so much, so fast, but she couldn’t deny the desire throbbing throughout her entire body.

  "Step out," he said, his voice rough and aroused.

  And didn’t that just get her ready all over again. She lifted her foot out of the jeans pooling around her ankles, but left the other in. Justin slid his fingers under the edge of her panties, driving her crazy. And then he lowered himself, taking her panties with him.

  When he looked up at her, she saw red, hot desire blazing in his eyes, prompting her to step out of one half of her panties, too. Justin guided her legs apart, and amazingly her knees didn’t buckle. And then his mouth was on her, that talented tongue lapping at her center. He grabbed hold of her hips, one in each hand, and she pressed her hands against the back of his head, urging him to keep doing what he was doing. Licking, flicking, and then, oh, oh, oh, sucking at her hot core, dipping his tongue inside and flicking it so fast she nearly collapsed on his face.

  She started rocking her hips forward as she got closer and closer and closer to coming again. Their pants and gasps for breath only made her hotter.

  "I’m coming," she said between ragged breaths, and those words seemed to encourage him.

  Justin dug his fingers into her hips and urged her against his tongue thrusts. Faster, deeper, faster, deeper. And then she spasmed and truly came apart.

  * * * *

  Justin turned his back to give Erin a few moments to collect herself and get dressed. Who was he kidding? He needed a moment to get himself under control, too. Truth was if they’d been somewhere with a nice bed of soft grass instead of a scrubby, dirty, rocky trail, he might have laid her down and rutted her like a bull.

  He closed his eyes and breathed deeply as he pressed his thumb and forefinger against the area between his eyes. When was the last time he’d gone crazy for a woman like that? Not anytime in recent memory. He hadn’t even...no, he wasn’t going to think of that.

  He’d met Erin, what, an hour ago? And already her mixture of beauty, hesitance, humor and vulnerability had seduced him. He was good at making women feel pleasures they never had, but what they didn’t know was that there was a barrier none of them ever got past. But Erin had gotten pretty damn close, and that freaked him the hell out.

  He considered calling Heidi and telling her to set Erin up with another one of the guys, but his hands fisted at the thought of someone else with her. What the hell was wrong with him? He didn’t even know this woman. She’d be gone in a week.

  "Um, I’m going to go back to the cabin," she said, sounding embarrassed and a little like she might bolt from the ranch altogether.

  With another breath, he turned slowly toward her. She was fully dressed again, but he doubted he’d ever forget what she looked like beneath that barrier of clothing. All that smooth, supple, creamy flesh.

  She couldn’t meet his eyes as she handed his hat back to him, and he didn’t urge her to. Instead, he fell into step beside her on the trail, trying not to remember what she looked like with her head thrown back. With his hat on her head and her breasts wet and gloriously free. Her sex rocking against his mouth.

  Damn, his dick went rock hard. How was he supposed to walk like this?

  "Have you ever been to a ranch before?" he asked, desperate for some topic that had nothing to do with sex. He had to get control of himself, get his mind back where it needed to be, his interior walls in place, before they got anywhere near having sex.

  "No, first time."

  Probably a first time for lots of things for her today.

  "Heidi has some good horses in the stables if you want to go for a ride sometime this week."

  "Sounds nice."

  He could tell from the distance in her voice that her mind was racing, not able to grasp what she’d just done, worrying about if when she went home people would be able to tell just by looking at her. He wanted to tell her it was okay, but he was also pretty good at reading people. And Erin needed time to process before he broached the subject or assaulted her senses any more.

  When they reached the cabin, she took the two steps up to the porch then tur
ned halfway back toward him. "So, um, do you stay here?"

  "I can, or I can go home and come back whenever you want me to. Do you want me to stay?"

  He saw the internal battle going on inside her, her common sense and societal strictures warring with animal instinct and desire. She hesitated so long that he wondered if she’d somehow forgotten the question. Then she met his eyes.

  "Yeah." She dropped her gaze to some spot on the porch floor. "Don’t know about you, but I’m starving. I think an order off that menu is in my immediate future."

  As he followed her inside, he appreciated her curves and wanted to order off an entirely different menu.

  She hurried to the kitchen and retrieved the menu of Chef Andre Pillar’s offerings. "What would you like?"

  "Surprise me. I like everything Andre makes."

  She gave him a quick, curious look before returning her gaze to the menu.

  Justin took the opportunity to go to the bathroom to wash his face and hands and brush his teeth. Once behind the closed door, he looked at himself in the mirror, wondering if someone else had inhabited his body. Nope, same old him. But he was definitely a little off today. He considered taking himself in hand and easing the ache, but he resisted. A part of him, the currently aching part, wanted to wait to see what the coming night would bring. He’d much rather release inside a beautiful woman than his own hand. And if that woman was the beautiful Erin, so much the better.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Erin stood in the kitchen with her hands braced against the sink to keep her wobbly legs from buckling beneath her. She had lost every last speck of her mind. That or some wanton crazy woman had inhabited her body without Erin knowing it. Seriously, who let a man she’d just met strip her naked in broad daylight and bring her to throbbing, exploding orgasms with both his hand and his tongue?

  Evidently, she did.

  She’d cracked. That was the only explanation.

  That or this powder keg of desire and yearning had been in her all along and she’d been too afraid to even acknowledge its existence. After all, she’d had some pretty erotic dreams in the past week, ones that left her panting like she had been out on that trail a few minutes ago.