Dallas Nights (5 page)

Afraid to look up.

When a splash erupted, she gasped. Dallas’s socked feet disappeared under the surface of the pond.

Ellie jumped up and ran to the edge. Across the pond, his boots
and hat lay abandoned on the bank. Heart stuttering, she screamed, “Dallas!”

He didn
’t surface. Gaze fixed to the water, she waited for movement—ripples—anything to indicate he was okay.

Terror
iced down her spine. “Dallas!”

He broke the surface, gulped for air, and dove again. The flip of his feet cr
eated a splash, and she followed the rings out to the shore until they were as fine as rings in an old oak tree.

Her heart thudded wildly. There could only be one reason he
’d dive into the pond—to retrieve her necklace. But there was no way he’d find it—it had to be buried in the mud at the bottom, and the pond was large.

She hitched up a leg and ripped her boot off. Tossing it to the bank, she moved to the other.
Mud squished into her socks, and she yanked them off too.

When he didn
’t emerge, she panicked and dove into the water. The cold waters filled her sinuses and bubbles tingled over her skin. She pushed downward with a strong stroke. Opening her eyes afforded her a view of green, murky water and living things on the bottom.

No Dallas. She shoved up an
d drank in a lungful of air. At the same moment, Dallas wrapped his fingers around her upper arm. She jerked around.

Water streamed from his tanned skin, and his thick
brown hair was matted to his head. He grabbed her hand and pressed something into it. She clamped her fingers on the circle pendant.

As she opened her mouth to give him hell for scaring her, he closed the half an inch between them and covered her mouth with his.

The tender stroke of his tongue ignited her, and all of her worries flowed away. She locked her arms around him and fitted her body to his.

He kicked through the water, propelling them both toward the shore. When his feet touched, he dragged her up the bank like a big cat hauling its prey into a tree. She clung to him, helpless against
his strength.

But she didn
’t want to be anywhere else.

Chest heaving, she stared up at him, dizzy from her scare and from his hard body pressing her down.
He located her hand and plucked the pendant from it.

With eyes darker than night, he slid the cool metal onto her ring finger. Shock tore through her.

“It’s not a proper ring, Ellie, but I’ll put one there as soon as I get to town. Marry me, baby. There’s never been another woman for me. I knew it at fifteen, sixteen, eighteen years old. I tried to deny it all of this time, but I can’t anymore.” He trailed his lips between her brows.

A sob shook her chest, and she one-handedly gripped him, pulling his sodden body down until he crushed her perfectly. When th
ey got up, their depression would be visible in the soft earth, and they would have marked the ground around Hart’s Pond as surely as Dallas had marked her soul all those years ago when he’d taken her virginity.

“
Say the words,” he coaxed, voice gritty.

Sh
e folded her fingers around the loose metal pendant. His intense stare might frighten some, but not her. She sank into the depths of his eyes and never wanted to surface.

“
Yes, a thousand times, yes,” she gasped.

He kissed her, grin holding her prisoner, a
nd his arousal battering her lower belly. She rubbed against it, aching for it to stretch her, fill her. The character of the boy she’d loved had only been enhanced by time and distance—she couldn’t get enough of his commands or drive to own her.

He rocked
into her, and she shivered with cold and pleasure. “You’re mine. This body.” He skimmed her rib cage with a hand that suddenly felt molten. “This heart.” He kissed the crest of her breast, where her heart beat madly for him.

She wrapped her legs around hi
s waist and jerked him close. “Everything, Dallas. I’ve never loved anyone else.”

A rough groan rumbled in his chest. With slow, methodical movements, he peeled her wet clothes off.
By the time she fumbled off his soaking shirt and drenched Wranglers, she was burning up under the Texas sun.

His glorious body pinned her down.
He entangled their fingers and locked her to the dirt. The pressure of his swollen cock at her entrance turned her into a puddle of liquid.

Bucking upward, she fought to draw him deep.
He toyed with her, slipping the head past her folds, just inside her opening, then withdrawing.

“
Hell, baby. I can’t hold back.” In one solid thrust, he filled her. She cried out as his shaft split her needy channel.

She struggled to free her hands, aching
to touch him. Feel the velvet of his skin riding over those steely muscles. He ground deeper, burrowing into her, but he wouldn’t release his hold on her hands.

“
I want to touch you.”

“
I’m touching you deeper than anyone ever has,” he grated out.

“
I want to touch you,” she repeated.  She gasped as he withdrew then hammered into her body once more. Her pussy quivered around his invasion, juices flowing over his cock.

He flexed his fingers, confining her hands more securely.

As he yanked coos of delight from her, she realized he was afraid to give her control over him again. But they had to settle this. Now.

She shoved against his hold. Though unable to budge him, she broke through his passion, and he looked at her closely.

“I want to touch you,” she said a third time.

His Adam
’s apple bobbed. With extreme care, he unfolded his fingers and released her hands. Heart throbbing with joy, she caressed his cheeks and jaw, kissing him with every ounce of her love. When she skimmed his shoulders, feathering light touches out to his roped biceps then down the ridges of his chest to his abs, he fell still.

Dark power surged within her. In order for this to work, he must allow her to hold his heart once more. She pressed on his chest until he rolled onto his back. With h
im splayed on the bank, she took immediate advantage by kissing his neck, chest, and down to his erection.

It glistened with her juices, but she didn
’t care. She swallowed it to the root. He groaned and clamped a hand on her nape. She poured herself into tasting him, giving back all of the pleasure she’d taken in the past two days.

“
Holy… fucking hell, baby.” He let her set the pace. She licked along his shaft, riding the vein down to his balls, lapping a circle around each, then gliding her tongue back to the creamy tip.

For long minutes she worked over him. When he started to shake, she knew he was close.

“No more,” he rasped. Dragging her up his body, he sank his fingers into her hips and settled her over his straining cock in one hard thrust.

She tossed
her head back, crying out with the exquisite heat splitting her. She throbbed around him, shivering on the edge of release.

He thumbed her clit, and she snapped her head forward, meeting his gaze. The love in his eyes projected like two suns. Passion flowe
d through her, and she circled her hips.

“
Love you, Ellie girl. Come for me.”

In a blinding burst, she obeyed him. Juices soaked his shaft. Waves of sensation flitted through her being. Her mind blanked, and she only knew this moment, under the blaring sun
, with Dallas surrounding her.

“
That’s it. Take from me.” He held her gaze as his release slammed him. He squeezed his eyes shut while his liquid heat showered her inner walls.

She fell forward into his embrace. He clamped her to his chest. For long minute
s, she listened to his heart race under her ear. When her breathing slowed, she turned her mouth against his skin and tasted the salt coating him.

A chickadee issued its sweet song, and the breeze soughing through the taller grasses would forever be her we
dding march in her mind. Ellie placed tender kisses up to the corner of Dallas’s mouth.

“
Mmm.” He twisted his neck to capture her lips. The soft flip of his tongue spoke of his love even if he didn’t say it.

She rubbed her finger over the metal around her
finger. “I’ll transfer to a pharmacy in the area. Commute to the next town if I have to.”

He scraped his rough jaw over her sensitive cheek. “
You can live with a cowboy, horses, and smelly barns?”

“
It’s all I want.” She delivered a nipping bite to his chin. “But you might have to protect me from Webster. He doesn’t seem to like me.”

Dallas flipped her over onto the bank and pressed her beneath his length. “
Nah, that dog is ornery, but he’ll like ya well enough.”

The way he said, “
ornery” sounded as “awnreee”. To think that she’d agreed to listen to him talk for the rest of her life sent shudders through her.

She couldn
’t stop the happiness that burbled to the surface. “How did you find that ring in that big pond?”

He shot her a look, part bad boy, part naugh
ty little boy. “I never threw it into the water. I hid it in the grass.”

“
What?” She shoved him in the chest, laughter seizing her. “You ass!”

His chest rumbled. “
You have to admit that I had you going.”

She grinned up at him.

“Uh-oh. What’s that smile for?”

She yanked on the hair on his nape and drew him down for a kiss. “
Let’s see if I can get you going with this. I was thinking it’s a good thing we’re getting hitched, because you might have just started a baby.”

He cocked a brow
, eyes creased with joy. “Yeah?”

“
Yeah. Let’s try again.” She tried to roll him over, but he flattened her like a butterfly on a pin.

Laughing, he started to lick a fiery trail between her breasts. “
I promise to let ya win sometimes, but right now?” He shook his head and sucked her nipple deep into his mouth.

She clenched her hands and gave herself up to all of the pleasure she
’d ever hoped for.

~THE END~

Read on for a sneak peek at
Slick Rider
, coming soon!

Slick Rider

The Quick and the Hot

by Em Petrova

The bell for room four pealed for the third time in a quarter of an hour. Lilly Hall whirled around and glared at the light flashing over the door.

“
Bed four needs something, Lilly. Don’t keep your patient waiting,” her fellow physical therapist assistant, Katie, said with a grin.

“
He needs something all right.”
A kick in the chaps. Bound and gagged.
The insufferable cowboy was driving her patience to the brink. If she heard his country drawl one more time, she was going to do something very bad.

Juss Rossie, star of the rodeo circuit, was injured and on her turf. He was everyt
hing Lilly had dreamed he’d be—his game was smoother than aged whiskey, and every hard inch of his body spoke of the power and control he exerted over the bulls he rode.

Now he was confined to a sling and an air splint after taking a fall from
Bushwhacker, one of the meanest, ugliest bulls on the PBR tour. Juss had ridden it for seven seconds before he was flung off laterally, tearing his knee and popping several ligaments on his dislocated shoulder. They’d brought him in gritting his teeth in pain, refusing to take any pain meds. The first thing Lilly had done was administer a big, fat shot to his tanned butt cheek.

Yes, he was wonderfully tanned
—all the way to his toes.

And horribly infuriating.

The light over his door flashed again. For two more weeks, she was stuck with him. He was in an offshoot of the hospital’s rehab center, and unfortunately she was assigned to this shift for every waking moment of those two weeks.

If she were honest with herself, she
’d admit that she was like a cat in heat for Juss Rossie. How many times had she watched him on the Jumbo-Tron being jerked all over the place and wished she could mount a man with that much skill?

As a physical therapist
’s assistant, she often traveled to the arena with Doctor Paddington, who personally saw to several of the riders. She’d seen Juss up close and personal before. Steely biceps, corded forearms, hard chest. Hat dipped low over those smoldering black eyes that went with a blacker reputation.

They called him Slick Rider, because
he’d started out riding broncos, and it was rumored he liked to ride bareback. Actually, his reputation was that he preferred everything bare.