Kickin' Up Dust: Operation Cowboy, Book 1 (17 page)

If he hadn’t been a suspicious jerk.

“No, I can’t listen to this,” she whispered hotly.

“Danica. Darlin’, please.” His ragged tone threatened to rip away her self-control. She felt herself skidding down a steep slope. But at the bottom, what was there for her?

“Stop. I can’t.” She shoved past him, too aware of the warm steel of his body. With extreme willpower, she walked to the door and opened it. “Go.”

She saw real pain in his eyes. Her heart crushed a bit more. “You really want me to go?”

Dragging in a deep breath, she considered his question. “I’m not the kind of person who jumps to a decision before I’ve given it a lot of thought. But you hurt me, Brodie. I can’t forget that so quickly.”

He dropped his hand to his side, where it hung limply. “Is it him then?”

“Are you still beating that dead horse? Dammit, Brodie, I left here and drove straight to Wayne’s house, and I told him whatever relationship was between us was all in his head.”

He blinked at her. “So you didn’t spend the night with him?”

“Hell no. I slept in my truck in the school parking lot. Now get the hell out so I can think.”

His throat worked as he swallowed. Then he gave a defeated nod. “All right. You deserve some time.” He came toward her, his stare scalding. When he stopped in the doorway, he hovered close, his lips a scant breath away. “This ain’t over, darlin’. I’m going to prove to you that I’m the man for you.”

Squelching a shiver, she gestured to the door. After she was alone she tucked herself into bed and let her mind work the problem before her. Brodie was in love with her? It explained his jealousy over Wayne. She’d allow him that, but she couldn’t get over him throwing her brother up as a barrier between them.

Part of her ached to call him back to her. Another part urged her to let him suffer for a bit longer.

She got up and started the shower. Once steam filled the space, she slipped under the hot spray, dragging in a breath. A sudden noise lifted the hairs all over her body. Seconds later a big male body crowded into the shower with her.

“Brodie, get out!”

He pulled her against him. “I know you love me, you stubborn cowgirl. I’m not leaving until I hear the words.”

“Why do you get the words and I had to wait for them?”

“I haven’t heard them even one time, dammit. I said them already, but I’ll say them a million times if you need to hear them. I love you, Danica Pope. I fell for you the minute I walked back onto this ranch.”

Her insides were singing and they’d brought backup dancers, an orchestra, and, hell, a choir. Heart thundering, she stared at his lips, waiting for him to change his story. When he didn’t, she couldn’t resist cupping his chiseled jaw. She stared into his sincere gaze. “You fell for Matt’s little sister? The girl they called Easter who bugged you all the time?”

“That girl is a fond reminder of my childhood. But no, I fell in love with the beautiful woman with enough grit to stand by her parents and try to hold together a ranch.” He ran a hand down her slick spine to her backside. She tensed. Brodie had made her anticipate erotic spankings, but he just held her.

Her throat was tight when she finally got the words through them. “I love you, Brodie.”

With a growl, he swooped in, flattening her lips beneath his a split second before he swept her mouth with his tongue in wild abandon. She clung to him, water sluicing off their entwined bodies. All the excitement of being in his arms replaced the pain she’d been living with.

As he pressed her to the shower wall, his thick hardness probing her throbbing pussy, he held her gaze. “I want you, darlin’. You belong to me.”

“I have for a while now,” she said breathlessly. Reaching past him, she grabbed the shampoo. The fruity scents fogged the air as she squirted it directly onto his head. His eyes darkened as she set the bottle down again and plunged her fingers into his hair. Lathering it, massaging his scalp with slow thoroughness.

Once his head was foamy, she ran her hands through the suds on his bulging shoulders, down his back to his carved ass.

A grunt left him. In one of those military-fast moves, he spun her to face the wall. His big body hemmed her in as he fumbled over her head. When the shower spray moved, she gasped. He angled the head right at her pussy.

“Spread your thighs.” She did, and he held the water right over the place she needed it most.

Shuddering at the intense feel of warm water massaging her clit, she barely had time to process his words because he scooped her breasts together, cradling them in one big hand. His thumb tweaked one while his long-reaching middle finger flicked her other.

His mouth was hot at her ear. “Feels good, doesn’t it, darlin’? You’re going to come for me.”

“Yesss.”

He drew the showerhead closer so the intensity increased on her pussy. She wiggled her ass against his cock, loving the vibration of his chest as he groaned. Biting down on her earlobe, he smoothed his hand down her belly to her pussy. When he parted her lips to give her better access to the water spray, she cried out.

Her entire body was on fire. Her pussy slickened as fast as her natural lubricant washed away. Reaching behind her, she locked her hand on his hip and supported herself against the wall. Legs jelly, a deep ache rising too fast, too sharply.

“Oh God, Brodie.” She gulped as her orgasm hit. Sweeping her up in its heated fingers, flipping her until she could barely draw breath.

The intensity of the spray vanished. The drops struck her throbbing flesh from farther away. As it disappeared altogether, he cupped her jaw and drew her face around for his kiss.

“I’m not finished with you,” he said, tearing away. Her body pulsated as she realized what she had before her—a beautiful man inside and out.

Water beaded on his shoulders, back, torso. When he twisted to give her a wicked grin, she zeroed in on the water on his tanned cheeks and unshaven jaw.

“Keep looking at me that way and I won’t even get you dried off.”

“Who needs a towel?” She stepped out of the shower. The curtain swayed behind her.

The water shut off and she heard the scrape of curtain rings along the rod as Brodie stepped out too. Putting extra sashay in her hips, she padded into her bedroom. She went directly to the door and checked the lock. The last thing she needed was her parents walking in on them. Especially this time—it was the first time she’d love Brodie with the words sealing the deal.

When she turned to face him, she found him barely dry too. He’d missed quite a lot of droplets and his dark hair was spiked from the rough toweling he’d given it.

Their gazes caught and held. He held out a hand. She closed the gap and placed her fingers atop his. He enfolded them in his warm, strong grip.

“You’re fucking beautiful, Danica. And I’m damn proud to have you.”

“Oh Brodie.” She wrapped her arms around him. The kiss of bare skin on skin thrilled her right down to her toes. She curled them into the carpet.

“I’m damn lucky too.” He nibbled her throat down to her collarbone.

“Mmm. Why’s that?”

“I got to the ranch before one of the other guys did. If I hadn’t, you would have thrown yourself into his arms.”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t have held on so long.” She stared into his eyes.

His throat worked as he swallowed hard, and then he began to walk her backward to the bed. When her knees struck the mattress, she lowered herself and stretched out, giving him a glimpse he’d remember. Her breasts jiggled and she parted her thighs.

“Stay just like that.” He turned away. A blink later his cock was sheathed, standing away from his body like a sword. And he was holding a big pump bottle of her favorite scented lotion.

“What are you doing with that?”

“You’ll see.” He climbed onto the bed and pumped two dollops into his palm. Then he set aside the lotion and with insane slowness, he rubbed his hands together.

Starting at her ankles, he caressed the lotion into her still-damp skin. Curling his fingers around her bones, making her feel fragile and cherished. He worked upward. Each trace of his finger on the soft underside of her knees sent ripples of pleasure through her whole body.

Then he hit her inner thighs.

She jackknifed, laughter bubbling from her.

He rumbled a laugh. “Ticklish?”

“Yes!”

Still, he wasn’t giving up. He splayed her legs and stroked lightly down her inner thighs, painting her with lotion. She giggled hysterically, writhing to get away.

As if he realized his light touches weren’t helping ease her fit, he kneaded harder.

She sobered as he ran his hands up to the V of her legs. Firmly trapping her gaze, he slid his hands down each side of her mound. Over her lips to the place where her legs joined her body. Juices flooded her pussy, and she barely bit off a rasping cry.

Carefully avoiding the spot she needed touched most, he continued to work the lotion into her skin. When he reached her nipples, she couldn’t hold still another minute. She wrapped her legs around him and yanked him atop her.

His cock crushed against her pussy, and they both fell still. “Little wench, I wasn’t finished.”

“You’ll have a lifetime to finish.” Her words roused a smile on his handsome face. The crooked grin made promises she couldn’t begin to imagine. Leaning in, he kissed her. Slowly, nibbling and twining his tongue with hers. When her pulse began to pound harder, he caught both her hands in his and pinned them above her head.

With a moan of desire, she did a slow roll beneath him, grinding her pussy against his cock. His foreplay had set the stage. Holding her gaze, he sank into her by degrees, holding her prisoner with his body and hands. She stopped breathing as he stretched her inner walls and gasped when he withdrew.

“Brodie!”

He sank in hard and fast. Withdrew with a maddening slowness before slamming into her pussy again. She hitched her legs around his back, using her heels to try to lever him, but he refused to be rushed.

He rolled his hips like a Chippendale dancer, scraping her deepest spot with his thick cock head. Need bubbled in her veins, threatening to overflow. She jerked her hips into his.

Stealing a kiss again, he slowed the pace. She moaned and he swallowed it. Then he gave a rough plunge that made her cry out. And again. Five more times and she was frantic, reaching toward the bright, hot end only he could give her.

A guttural noise left him. She flashed her gaze to his face to see his features twisted in ecstasy. Knowing he was so close to the edge shot her skyward. With a full-body quake she came. Convulsing around his length, milking him with her inner muscles until she felt him stiffen and the warm jets of his release.

She clung to him as her body played through more than one peak.

Brodie returned to himself slowly, aware first of Danica’s warm breaths passing across his neck. He met her gaze, and she smiled. A ray of light in his life. He wasn’t ever going to let that glimmer go out.

Rolling to the side, he took her with him. She snuggled with her forehead on his chest and her eyes closed. Which was how he managed to reach over the side of the bed and find what he wanted in his jeans pocket.

When he slipped the humble woven grass ring onto her finger, her eyes flew open and she jerked upright. Her wet hair hung around her beautiful and astonished face. She blinked at the ring.

“Brodie, I never thought you’d remember that grass weaving lesson I’d given you all those years ago.”

He studied every nuance of her expression and found she was pleased and slightly pink with excitement. His heart lifted. “You like it?”

She clamped her fingers around it, her eyes flooding with tears. “I love it. I’m going to keep it forever and show our grandbabies.”

It was totally perfect for her to say such a thing—he couldn’t imagine any other life. “I promise to keep you smiling.”

She sniffled. “I promise to support you through all the frustrations of running the Pope-Bell Ranch and fixing our town.”

His smile spread. “I promise to take care of you and our families for all our days.”

“And I’ll learn how to cook.”

He chuckled. Turning onto his side, he walked his fingertips up her inner thigh. “I’ll own every bit of you.”

She pushed him down and stretched atop him. “I look forward to you trying.”

He arched a brow. “Trying? You don’t know how determined an ex-Marine turned cowboy can be if you think I’ll just be trying.”

Biting into his lower lip, she giggled. “I love you, Brodie.”

He kissed her temple, her eyelids, the tip of her nose, and finally her lips in a lingering caress. When he pulled free, he stared into her warm, happy eyes. “We’ll make Matt proud.”

She entwined their fingers and curled atop him, right where she belonged.

About the Author

Em Petrova lives in Backwoods, Pennsylvania, where she raises four kids and a Labradoodle named Daisy Hasselhoff. Her dream is to buy an old pickup and travel small-town USA meeting people and hearing their stories. Her heroes are hardworking—in bed and out—and she is known for panty-scorching erotic romance.

You can find Em at
www.empetrova.com
.

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The Boot Knockers Ranch

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Rope Burn

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Lip Lock

Unbroken

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She never expected to feel the vibrations all the way to her broken heartstrings.

The Boot Knockers Ranch,
Book 6

Diapers and baby food are uppermost in Skye Blackwood’s mind—at least until she’s alone at night. Two years is a long time, and her toy collection isn’t all that satisfying. Especially since her battery operated lovers came from Booker, her ex.

Everyone said they married too young, and they were right. He could be a bigger part of their daughter’s life, though, so she tracks him down—and is shocked to discover he’s working at a Texas sex therapy ranch. She reserves a week of something tall, dark, and cowboy for herself, planning to use her down time to talk to Booker.

When Skye steps onto the Boot Knockers stage, Booker doesn’t hesitate to pull the plug. A giant misunderstanding may have ended things between them, but no way is he letting another cowboy into her bed.

Once alone, their animal attraction flares back to life. But time hasn’t healed the emotional wounds that still run deep. And renewing their old bond could be the biggest mistake they ever made…

Warning: Contains smoking hot sex scenes with toys, without toys, with an extra partner, and just one-on-one. Suitable for beginner, intermediate, and advanced cowboy lovers. Sorry, you’ll have to supply your own batteries. Better buy a case. Oh, hell, just buy stock in the company.