Not Looking for Love: A Cowboy Romance (14 page)

“Thank you,” Kara took the cold glass from Richie’s hand and took a sip of the Margarita. Then as she leaned back in the Adirondack chair facing the river she set the glass down on the small table between her chair and the chair Richie took a seat in. He sipped a bourbon.

“It’s beautiful here. So peaceful.” The sun was shining against a clear blue backdrop. A bead of sweat ran down in-between her breasts and she took the clip she had attached to her neon pink bikini bra strap and clipped her hair up.

“How’s your eye? Still throbbing?”

“A little.”

“Let me see it.”

She lifted up her large sunglasses and rested them on top of her head as Richie raised up and moved closer, inspecting it.

“At least it’s looking better.” He gently fingered it. “Oh, the swelling went down a lot,” he said as he looked into her eyes. He caught a whiff of her scent and breathed it in. That scent never failed to get him hard. She had been there for the past three days at that point and they only engaged in sexual relations that morning. Richie had wanted her to heal some more first. So he didn’t make any advances but couldn’t resist when he woke up with a raging hard-on. Damn, his dick had a mind of its own. It may be large but it had no brain.

He kissed her lips which also looked less swollen. “I’m sorry,” he said as he pulled back a little when she winced. “You taste delectable.” He moved a hand to her bikini bottom and pressed against her pussy. “I am dying to eat you.” He grinned.

She smiled at him as she let out a little moan. “Don’t let me stop you.” She gave him a coquettish smile as she slipped her sunglasses back down on her eyes and spread her legs.

He slid his finger inside her bikini bottom by her thigh, a deep, sexy moan escaping his mouth.

“Uncle Wichie!”

Richie yanked his finger out so fast, and as he jumped up at the sound of Heath’s voice, he accidently knocked Kara’s drink over. Quickly righting it, and licking the finger he had inside her bikini bottom, he squatted down and caught Heath in his arms, giving him a huge hug as he picked him up.

“Hey, Buckaroo.” He gave the kid a kiss on his head. “This is Kara.” He held his hand out to her.

Heath shyly smiled her way.

“Hi, Heath.” She smiled. “Nice to meet you.” She knew of him, Richie always related cute stories about Logan’s kid. She knew he loved the kid as much as he loved Logan.

Richie looked up behind the chairs and saw Logan and their friend, Jay, walking down to them. Heath began to trace circles with his index finger on Richie’s chest above his t-shirt and Richie looked back to him and smiled.

“Can I twim, Uncle Wichie?”

“Of course.” He held Heath up and out. “I’m gonna throw you in.” He swung Heath back and forth and Heath couldn’t stop giggling. Richie set Heath down on the ground and Heath began to run back to the pool they had to pass to get down to the river.

“Hey, hey. Where you going, Heath?” Logan said as he stretched his arm out and grabbed him.

“Uncle Wichie said I could go twimming.”

“Yeah, but not by yourself. You know that, buddy.” He dragged Heath back to Richie and Kara and gave Kara a kiss on her cheek. “How you feeling, sweetheart?”

“Better, thank you.” She looked to Jay and extended her hand as Richie introduced her to him.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kara,” Jay said as he took her outstretched hand and brought it to his lips and planted a kiss on the back of it.

Jay Grey Wolf, owner of Satan’s Skull, was tall and very thin. He had long, dry, black hair with gray streaks running though it in a ponytail hanging down and stopping just below his waist. His tattoo sleeves showing on both arms below his short sleeve black t-shirt, ended at his wrists. One sleeve had pictures of skulls and black roses with a fiery background, the other had a nude pinup. One side of her face was beautiful, the other was a skull with blood dripping from the eye socket and mouth. At her feet were skulls and snakes and one of those snakes strategically wrapped around her body. Both sides of his neck had a colorful tattoo of feathers, intricately defined.

They moved the party up to the pool. Richie was behind the bar replacing Kara’s Margarita while Jay and Kara were sitting down on the bar stools, Jay sipping from a beer bottle. Logan was in the pool with Heath, there was so much giggling coming from there.

“…so now we’re standing around Logan’s truck in our friend Doug’s driveway drinking a beer and reliving our adventure. I see Logan’s head going in circles and his eyes were crossed.” Jay was chuckling as he told Kara one of their hunting stories. “I look to Richie, but he’s in a deep conversation with Doug, he don’t see—”

Richie let out a boisterous laugh. “Deep conversation? He bent my ear telling me how he didn’t shit the whole trip. And, yeah, I saw Logan, his head was weaving all over and I even heard him scream like a little girl at one point. Hahaha.”

Kara looked from Jay to Richie and was hysterical laughing. Richie locked eyes with her and paused. His smile faded and Kara saw the heat in his eyes. She had gotten used to seeing that look. That look was the prelude to the most amazing, kinkiest sex she’d ever had.

She bit her lip.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot the scream.” Jay let out a loud laugh also. “All of a sudden Logan goes to—”

“Oh, no. Is he telling that hunting story again?” Logan yelled from inside the pool, a grin on his face. When Kara looked his way he said, “He’s a habitual liar. Don’t believe a word he says.” They shared a laugh, then Logan gave Heath his attention and he pulled the kid around the shallow end of the pool, telling him to kick.

“Yeah, you wish,” Jay shot back. “So, he goes to the other side of his truck and comes back around with his shotgun and waits and waits. We’re still talking. I vaguely acknowledge him. Then all of a sudden, BAM! Shot goes flying all over and we’re all deaf from the proximity of the blast.”

“Me and Jay duck for cover. Doug tried too but he wound up getting peppered with shot,” Richie picked up the story. “I look up and see smoke coming out of Logan’s barrel and a satisfied smile on his face.” They all began laughing hard.

“I got that son-of-a-bitch right in its body. It blew apart and went every which way,” Logan said as he walked up to them holding Heath’s hand.

“Daddy? What’s some-a-bitch?”

Logan’s eyes grew wide and his jaw hung, and the others just couldn’t stop laughing.

“No, Heath. Don’t repeat that.”

“But what does it mean?”

“It’s a bad word. Don’t repeat it.” He scooped Heath up and sat him on a bar stool just as Richie brought up some crackers for him and poured a cup of apple juice. He then handed Logan a beer.

“So what did you shoot?” Kara turned to Logan and asked as she brought her Margarita to her lips.

“A bee.”

Margarita started spraying from Kara’s mouth and she put her hand in front of it. “A bee? You shot a bee?”

“I hate bees.” Logan shrugged and grinned.

“Yeah, but, come on, tell her you were still upset. Come on.” Jay said, his grin reaching his eyes.

“What?” Logan grinned then took a sip of his beer.

Kara swung her head back and forth between the two like she was watching a tennis match.

“Jay bagged a ten point buck that Logan said was his,” Richie said. Everyone looked to Richie.

“It was!” Logan said. “I’d been scoping it for over a hundred yards.”

“I was tracking it for a hundred yards,” Jay said.

“It was coming closer to me,” Logan said.

“If you didn’t have that old Winchester, you could have taken a shot at it while it was further away,” Jay said.

“I ain’t giving up my shotgun. I told ya that.”

“Oh, here we go. Guys, you gotta let it go,” Richie said. He turned to Kara. “Swim?”

She nodded as she smiled at the boys. They were arguing but it seemed like playful banter.

Richie removed his shirt as they walked over to the deep end of the pool. As soon as he flung it on a lounge chair, Kara grabbed his arm and walked into him. “Mmmm, Richie, I love seeing your body—” She brought her hands up to his chest and caressed it. “—and feeling you up.”

She looked up and he brought his lips down to hers as he brought a hand up and through her hair drawing her in close, a hand roaming her body, settling on her ass.

“Hey knock it off over there!” Logan said.

They turned around to see Logan covering his son’s eyes with a silly grin on his face.

“Daaaad, daaaad!”  Heath unsuccessfully tried to pry his father’s hands from his eyes.

Richie looked to Kara, shaking his head laughing, then he walked with her to the edge of the pool. She wasn’t expecting it, but Richie scooped her up and threw her in. He jumped in right after her and swam to her, grabbing her sunglasses that got away and was floating nearby. She swatted him away with one hand as she pushed her hair out of her face with her other, giggling.

They looked up to see a shirtless Jay slowly walking down the steps on the shallow end of the pool. His long denim shorts slowly getting wet. The water must have been a bit cold for him. His rail-thin torso had goose bumps on it and his defined, yet, skinny arms did as well. Both of his pierced nipples were hard as a rock and stood out against the starburst tats that circled them. When he turned around, before falling backward into the water, Kara saw a large tattoo of a Native American Indian with a feathered headdress. He had black tears coming down from his eyes. The tat took up the whole back and it was a beautiful work of art. When he rose up he allowed Kara to study it.

After frolicking in the water a while, Richie got out and threw some steaks on the grill and Kara pulled together a salad.

As they ate they talked about motorcycles and horses. Kara, not having any experience with either just listened, finding it all fascinating.

“Logan, you mind if I bring Kara to the stables tomorrow to do some riding?”

“Of course not. I won’t be there. I’m heading to Fredericksburg. McCreedy has a horse he thinks I’d be interested in. But I’ll let Hank know you’ll be coming by.”

“Thanks.”

“You ever ride, Kara?” Logan asked.

“Only a couple of times, in my teen years.”

“I got just the horse for you.” He turned to Richie and they both said at the same time.

“Annabel.”

Richie turned to Kara. “She’s like a little old lady.” He chuckled. “Sweet and gentle.”

Richie held the door open for Kara, admiring her brown embellished cowgirl boots, as she got in the car. They had just left Geli’s Western Wear Boutique, the store Logan’s sister owned. Though Richie loved the high platform shoes Kara had chosen to wear he told her that they were great fuck-me shoes, but not apt for horseback riding.

Geli outfitted her with the cute, but practical pair of boots as Richie roamed the store and found a brown, Bullhide cowgirl hat with pale pink and white embroidered flowers decorating the hat band and the underside of the brim.

While Richie was paying for those items, he looked over to Kara who was trying on a leather fringed jacket and he told Geli to throw that in too.

She was taking it off when he was done and as he walked toward her he said, “Leave it on. I like it.”

When he got in the driver’s side of the car he turned to her as he started it. “Alright, now we ride.”

She cracked up laughing.

Richie brought out Bentley and Kara ooohhhed and aaahhhed at the handsome animal. When Hank brought out Annabel, Kara fell in love. Annabel was chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail.

Richie was by Kara’s side, introducing her to the horses.

“She’s beautiful,” Kara said.

“Yeah, she is. She’s a quarab,” Richie said.

“I’ve never heard of that.”

“She’s a cross, or mixed breed. She’s part quarter horse and part Arabian.”

Kara nodded.

“Come on.” He helped her up and stepped back. “A stunning woman on a splendid horse. Yeehaw, cowgirl!” He smiled and winked at her then turned to mount up.

They traveled for about twenty minutes at different gaits, not going to a full gallop. At one point Kara became so hot, she pulled back on the reins to stop and take off her new jacket. She tied the jacket around her waist and got Annabel moving again, lightly tapping her belly, just like Richie had shown her.

They dismounted at Blue Hole, a swimming spot lined with cypress trees in the center of Wimberley, and Richie dropped Bentley’s reins. Kara looked around with the reins in her hand. “Drop ‘em. Logan ground tie trains all his horses,” Richie said.

She dropped the reins and limped closer to Richie with a silly grin on her face.

“Using muscles you didn’t even know you had, huh?” Richie chuckled.

“I guess I can’t ride a horse as well as I ride you.” She said by his ear.

Her breath tickled his ear and a shudder ran through him.

They sat on the grass as they watched swimmers jump and dive into the water, and Kara was impressed with some of the kids who swung from a chain attached to one of the cypress trees and did flips into the water. One of them swung upside down without letting go that you could hear a collective ooohhh when he landed back on the bank. He didn’t get hurt though, he just laughed and readjusted so that on the very next swing he flipped into the water like a pro. When he surfaced everyone around him clapped, including Richie and Kara who were on the other side of the water, on private property.

Kara threw her legs out in front of her and her hands out behind her, soaking up the sun as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “Wow, Richie, this is such a wonderful little town. I don’t think I’ve felt this calm in a long time.”

“Yeah, I love it here. You know that saying ‘there’s no place like home’? It rings true for me. When I’m away whether for business or pleasure, I can’t wait to get back here… The only exception is being in California with you.”

“You’re such a charmer.”

He chuckled.

She smiled when she smelled Richie’s cologne as he inched close to her, and she softly moaned before he brought his lips down to hers. The kiss started out slow and sweet but soon escalated to an all-out make out session with him pushing her down to the ground and covering her body.

She opened her eyes when he pulled back a little, breathless as she watched him watch her.

He slowly shook his head. “What are you doing to me, Katherine Storm?” he whispered.

“I don’t know. What?”

He stared a moment longer, then moved off of her as he blew out a breath, and lied down, placing his head on her thighs, not wanting to answer, or admit anything, but he thought about Logan’s words ‘you’re hooked’.

She brought a hand to his hair and lazily ran her fingers through it, massaging his head.

“Mmmm, that feels good,” he said just before he fell asleep.

Shortly after, she followed.

Richie stirred as he sensed someone near them and quickly picked his head up to look around. He sighed as he realized it was just Bentley grazing on the grass near them.

The weight on Kara’s legs shifted and she knew Richie was awake. She stretched as she slowly opened her eyes. “How long were we asleep?”

He looked at his watch. “Not long, about twenty minutes.” He sat up and looked around as he took in the sounds of kids playing and laughing in the water. “I could go for some fried chicken steak from the Town Café. You hungry?”

She giggled. “Rich, you had a big breakfast this morning.”

He looked her way and shrugged. “I’m a growing boy. Come on.” He stood up and reached out his hand.

Knowing Milton, the owner of the Town Café, Richie led Kara to the back of the building and dismounted. Then he picked up his arms and grabbed Kara by the waist and brought her down from her mount, bringing her flush against his body and kissed her as she re-acclimated her legs to the ground.

*

Richie wiped his mouth with his napkin, pushed his chair back, and blew out a breath.

“Hah! You look like you’re going to bust,” Kara said to him. She had long since given up trying to finish her meal.

He grinned. “It was good. You didn’t even touch the gravy. You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“I haven’t stopped eating since I got here. I need to have some restraint.”

“Oh, you could afford it.” He looked up to Emily, Milton’s wife, as she walked over to them.

“You didn’t even leave a crumb for the birds,” Emily said laughing, as she picked up his plate to remove it.

“Do I ever?”

“No.” She shook her head then turned to Kara. “You want to wrap yours to go?”

“Yes, please. Thank you. That was delicious.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.” She turned back to Richie. “Can I get you anything else?” She looked to the front door and nodded to a couple who strolled in.

Richie looked to Kara who shook her head. “No, just the check, Emily. Thank you.” He looked to the couple and nodded then turned back to Kara. “Ready to go?”

*

Kara had been at Richie’s house for two weeks just chillin’ and healing, enjoying the atmosphere, and really enjoying Richie’s company. A few of those days he left for a few hours to check on the ranch and a couple of times he took her there to see the day to day operation. She hadn’t heard from Poppy, but didn’t think she would, him being in rehab and all. But she did feel the need to get back to California. She didn’t need to be at work for a while, Poppy had told her to take as much time as she needed when he spoke to her the day Danny beat her up. She knew she needed to get back to feeling comfortable in and around her environment though. Danny really freaked her out. Being with Richie had made her feel safe, too safe.

“I’d like to head back to California in the morning,” she said to Richie as they sat on the couch in Richie’s living room watching TV. The rain was coming down in buckets outside since the night before.

He looked to her. “Why?”

I’ve got to pay some bills.”             

“Pay them on line.”

“I’m really not comfortable with that.”

“Your book cover banking business is done on line.”

“Yes, but that’s a separate account, not my personal… Plus I really want to check up on the house.”

“It’ll still be there.” He forced a grin.

She smiled then grew serious. “Do you think Danny will give me any trouble?”

“No. He won’t be bothering you anymore.” He accepted her wish of not pressing charges, but he made damn sure he won’t be bothering her again. He had sent some heat to take care of him, but she didn’t have to know that. Danny would never work in that industry again. In fact Richie wouldn’t be surprised if he left town.

She tilted her head to the side as she looked at him, but didn’t question him. She trusted him to take care of her.

He blew out a breath. “Promise me you won’t go anywhere near Velocity.”

“I won’t, not until Poppy gets back.”

He nodded. He didn’t want her to leave and not just because he hadn’t yet told her what he had done. He enjoyed having her here. He told her she could stay as long as she wanted but he didn’t push it. He didn’t want her questioning why he was adamant about her staying. Richie knew he should have come clean then, but he wasn’t ready yet because even though he thought he knew her he couldn’t read her on this. He figured he had time to work it out. And though he couldn’t get away that week, he knew just as soon as he could he’d be on a flight out to see her.

Instead of going out that night for dinner Richie prepared a meal, and she was in charge of making cocktails. Margaritas were the drink of choice to go with the fajitas he was making. While he was stirring the chicken, onions, and peppers, she’d, every now and then, tilt her head to the side.

“What?” Richie had asked a few times.

The last time he said ‘what’ she walked over to him.” I think you’d look better like this.” She slowly, seductively, and while he copped feels of her breasts through her pretty pink sundress, unbuttoned his shirt and removed it and his t-shirt underneath. He didn’t stop her, he kept a grin on his face as he shook his head.

She backed up a bit nodding. “Better. Don’t burn yourself.” She winked then went back to whipping up another batch of Margaritas.

After refreshing their glasses she shook her head. “Nope. Still not right.”

Richie had since moved to the island and was spooning cheese sauce into a bowl. He looked to her. “What’s not right?”

She moved over to him and brought her hands to his belt buckle and undid the belt, then unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans.

“What are you doing?” He was laughing.

“Just trying to get it right. Lift,” she said as she bent down and tapped the foot of his right leg. She almost tipped over.

“Careful there,” He helped steady her, and complied and lifted his other foot also when she tapped it to remove his jeans.

“Oh, yeah. Now that’s hot,” she said as she backed up and ogled him in just his blue boxer briefs then took a gulp of her drink.

He gave her a sideways glance. “You’re drunk,” he said. “Your eyes are lit like a Christmas tree.” He chuckled as he wiggled his butt.

She giggled.

“Now you know, you won’t be able to eat until you strip down to your panties, right?” he said.

“Haha, shows what you know, I’m not wearing any panties.” She lifted up her dress and bared her pussy. She couldn’t wipe the silly grin from her face.

Oh, yeah she was drunk. Richie let out a boisterous laugh and slowly shook his head. He walked over to the stove and shut the flame. “No, no, keep that dress up,” he said when she began to bring it back down. “And turn around and show me that beautiful ass.”

Giggling she did as he asked.

“Yeah, like that. Now bend and touch your toes.”

She turned her head and laughed then complied with his request.

He sucked in a breath. “Oh, yeah…” He grabbed her by the hips and leaned his hard cock into her butt, the material of his underwear was the only thing preventing him from entering her, that and he didn’t have a condom nearby, so he got on his knees and spread her, licking her from front to back. He worked his fingers inside her and pumped as he swirled his thumb all around her clit while he nipped and licked her ass. He had her screaming in no time as she coated his mouth, and he had to throw an arm around her waist to steady her when her legs shook. After he finished her off, he rose up and stroked his cock. “Suck me,” he said when she turned around. She licked her lips at the sight of him touching himself and dropped to her knees and finished him off.

After dinner, in bed, he took her slow and sweet and wondered if she felt the shift in their relationship during their… love making that night.

The morning resumed to some raw hard riding then he took her to the airport and secured a seat for her, first class, on a flight back to California.