Worth the Trouble (18 page)

After she stood, s
he picked up the bucket and shoved it at him.  "Bait your hook, sucker, you're about to get schooled," she told him then stood up and held the line out so the worm dangled in front of her face.  When she spit on it for luck, Ethan howled and she glanced down to see him laughing so hard he was holding his stomach, his eyes watering. 

The sound echoed through the trees and danced inside of Rocky's chest
. 

"Quiet, you're gonna scare the fish away,"
Rocky chastised, then lifted her chin and held her rod back then swung it forward letting the line fly out into the water.  It landed with a plunk near the middle and she said indignantly,  "You won't be laughing when I hook into Big Bubba."

Rocky found a sturdy forked stick and drove it into the mud, then leaned her rod in the fork to wait.
  Ethan gasped a few times then asked in a weak voice, "Is that a friend of yours?"

"Catfish, biggest one in here
, he's a legend," she told him smartly then sat back down beside him.  She leaned back on her elbows and asked, "You gonna sit there all night, or you gonna fish?"

"You were supposed to teach me how to do it correctly," he told her and laughter rumbled out of his chest again.

"Quit yanking my rope and bait your damned hook," she grumbled.  "You know you've been fishing before."

"A time or two, but only
offshore fishing for sharks.  A totally different type of fishing for sure.  We didn't slap the squid and rays around before we baited our hooks."

Rocky grinned at him then said, "Bet you didn't spit on them either.  You probably would have caught more."

"I'm definitely paying attention to the master here, darlin'," he told her then dug a worm out of the bucket and smiled as he put it on the blanket and slapped it into submission before he slid it on his hook.

"Don't slap them so hard,
" she corrected then added, "You don't want to kill 'em, just temporarily stun."

"Yes, ma'am," Ethan replied then stood and expertly cast his line out near hers.  Like she had, he found a forked
stick and rested his rod on it then sat back down and leaned back on his elbows.  "So we just sit here and watch the poles?"

"Yep, if it wiggles and bends you have a bite."

Ethan rolled over on his side to prop his head on his hand. "And what do we do while we wait?"

"Watch out for coyotes," she recommended teasingly.

He scrambled up to sit again, looked at her intensely, then asked with concern, "Are there coyotes out here?"

She snorted then replied, "Hell yeah, and probably cougars and bears.
  That's another reason I wanted to start the fire."

"Do you have a shotgun with you?"

"Never leave home without one.  No worries, I'll protect you," she assured him with her tongue in her cheek.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you so much," he said with a chuckle.

"Can I ask you something, Ethan?" she asked wanting an answer to the question that had bugged her from the get go with this handsome, charming man.

"Sure, anything," he replied.

"Why me?"  If he answered it correctly, maybe another of her concerns about getting involved with him would go away, that he had just pursued her because she was convenient.

"Why you what?" he repeated then laid back down on the blanket resting his arms under his head
, a position that brought back memories of his sexy oil-slick body that day she had spied on him during his massage in the spa.  Quicksilver desire shot through her and spread along her nerve endings.

"Why do you want me?  I'm not exactly a feminine city girl, which I'm sure you're used to being with.  I have the social skills of a hermit crab, don't wear makeup or dresses, and my sister got the beauty in the family."

"Your freckles and competency turn me on," he told her seriously, then added, "And the fact you don't mind getting dirty is a
major
turn on," he glanced at her and smiled, before continuing, "Nothing scares you, you have courage in spades, and your legs make me want to wrap them around my neck and hang myself with them.  Don't shortchange yourself either, sweetheart, you are one of the most naturally beautiful women I've ever met."

Pleasure at his words flowed through her, but she was afraid to let herself believe he meant them. 
She had been down that road and had been burnt.  Rocky snorted and shook her head.  "You're a bullshit artist, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Can't say they have, because I don't bullshit
," he said looking at her directly.  The moonlight sparkled in his eyes when he finished, "If I say something, it's because that's how I feel...and it's true."

Rocky swallowed down the emotion that surged up into her own throat.  "Thank you," she finally said.

"Why is it so hard to believe that I feel that way?" he asked curiously.  He leaned up on his elbow to stare at her intently, as if trying to read her thoughts.

"Most guys like you,
good looking and smooth-talking city boys, prefer shiny and sparkly women who know how to be women, not rough around the edges country girls.  I've been there, and have seen it for myself.  That's not me, I am who I am, take it or leave it."

"Is that what this is all about?" he asked with a laugh.
  "Some asshole hurt you, so all men are the devil?"

"Not exactly, I'm just a firm believer in once burned, twice shy," she told him.

"Tell me about him," Ethan invited then eased back down to listen.

"I'd rather not talk abo--" she started
, but he grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

"Tell me about him,
Roxanne," he repeated squeezing her hand again.  "He obviously meant something to you, or you wouldn't still be carrying around insecurities he put there."

She huffed out a breath and pulled her hand from under his then sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees.  "His name was Ashton
Pence and I met him in college.  His family had money, and he wouldn't know which end of a horse to avoid," she began.

"City boy then?" he inserted.

"Inside and out...good looking and smooth-talking too," she added with a snort.

"Go on," Ethan encouraged quietly.

"He was pre-med and I was pre-vet.  We dated six months or so, and I was the best thing since sliced bread until he met my sister.  According to him, he loved me, but after he met Leigh Ann, he asked why I couldn't be more like her, more feminine.  Told me to get her to give me some tips, because if our relationship progressed where he thought it was going, being a
doctor's
wife would require that I act and dress like my sister.  When I didn't change, he hit on Leigh Ann.  Needless to say, that ended things and I switched to equine science to graduate earlier, then got the hell out of Dallas."

"He was a blind, pompous ass, Roxanne.  Money doesn't buy sense," Ethan told her.  "Trust me when I tell you that not all men think like that, even city boys."

"Most men
do
think that way.  When my sister walks in a room, men's tongues roll out like a red carpet for her," she told him with a snort.  "Me, not so much, but I don't give a damn.  Like I said, I am who I am, and I'm not changing."

"Your sister is uncommonly beautiful, but you are the total package, Roxanne.  You have substance in addition to being
beautiful.  Physical beauty is nothing without that.  When the beauty fades, what's left?  Just what's in here," he said then tapped a finger between her breasts.

A twanging sound caught her attention and her gaze swung to the fishing rods.  Ethan's rod was bent in half and the stick it rested on was almost out of the ground. 

"
Fish
!" she yelled then lunged toward the rod, but her feet got tangled and she tripped, landing with an oomph on her stomach. 

Ethan jumped up
to grab the rod, but the pull on the pole was so great, he lost his balance.  Wobbling comically, he fought to steady himself and hold onto the rod.  He staggered to the edge of the water reeling the line, but his legs gave out, and Rocky held her breath as she watched him fall face first into the water with a loud splash.

Scrambling up to her feet, she
waded into the water to help him, but he came up suddenly and the top of his head clipped her in the chin.  Stunned, she fell back into the water herself then came back up sputtering.

"You got the pole?" she asked
breathlessly as she swiped her hair out of her face.

"Hell yeah, I would have drowned before I let
it go, that's a big damned fish!" he said with a chuckle then turned toward her and she saw he was still yanking and reeling.

"Holy hell, let me go get the net," she muttered then waded out of the lake
to slosh up the hill to the truck.  She grabbed the net and went back down there, just as Ethan lifted the line out of the water and she gasped at the size of the fish on the end of the line.  It was one of the biggest catfish Roxanne had ever seen in her life, it must have weighed twenty pounds or more, at least. 

He turned toward her
, holding his catch up proudly. 

"Roxanne Baker, meet
my
new friend, Bubba Catfish.  I think this means I win, sugar," he said smugly.

She shook her head and told him,
"That might be a relative, but that's not Bubba."  Whatever the fish's name, Rocky knew she had just lost their fishing contest, and it chapped her ass.  But there was more than one way to skin a catfish, she thought evilly, her hands going to the hem of her tank top, as she added, "And you have to get him on the bank for it to count.  You're still standing in the lake, sucker." 

Life was all about choices, and Ethan Cassidy was about to have to make one.  I
n one smooth motion, Rocky pulled the tank top over her head, then toed off her sneakers and began unbuttoning her shorts.

Ethan stood waist deep in the muddy water with his mouth hanging open
, as she slid her underwear down her legs and unhooked her bra.  By the time she dropped it on top of her underwear, the fish was almost submerged in the water again, along with his pole. 

Rocky grinned at him and then took off running.  At the edge of the water, she dove out
past him.  He reached for her but missed, and she plunged under the cool water feeling it caress her naked skin as she swam underwater toward the middle of the lake.

When her lungs started burning, she pushed upward and took a deep lungful of air
as her head broke the surface.  Spinning around she scanned the bank to find Ethan, but he wasn't anywhere to be found and worry crept up inside of her.  When he grabbed for her had he gone under and not resurfaced? Did his legs get stuck in the mud?

He was hurt and not one hundred percent physically, so it could have happened.  Panic hit her in the chest and she kicked hard back toward the bank, but didn't go anywhere.
  Steel bands wrapped around her waist and she was dragged back under the surface.  Cool, wet naked skin slid against hers and she took a huge gulp of water. 

Rocky struggle
d to free herself, but couldn't, so she was glad when he kicked and their heads popped out of the water.  With several coughs, she cleared the water from her lungs then grated, "You almost drowned me, fool!"

He held her against his hard body and treaded water
, then kicked toward the bank, swimming until his feet evidently touched bottom.  Hers were still a few inches shy of touching, and he still hadn't released her. 

"You made me lose my fish," he informed grumpily.  "What you did was cheating."

"What?  I went swimming, that's not rulebreaking," she argued, then told him with a smug laugh, "All's fair in love and fishing, Ethan.  That's the first rule of fishing."

His arms loosened
around her, but instead of letting her go, his hands slid down over her hips and he gripped her butt.  Pulling her tight against him, he fit the head of his rock hard erection in the cradle of her thighs.  Hot electricity shot through her carrying liquid desire  to every cell in her body.

"Okay,
so this would be fair game too then," he drawled in that deep sexy voice, his hot breath whispering over her lips, before he closed his mouth over hers.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Fish and fishing competition totally forgotten, Rocky held onto Ethan like she was a drowning woman and he was her only hope of salvation.  Wrapping her legs around his waist, she rubbed herself against him in long slow strokes, making the water around them lap at their bodies.  With every stroke, her breathing ratcheted up another level and his kiss got hotter, more desperate. 

His fingers dug into her flesh and he moaned, then his hips matched her rhythm.
  The slow steady friction between their bodies had her reaching for the release that was fast approaching.  His hips stilled, then he dragged his mouth from hers.  In between gasping breaths, he told her, "We need to get out of this water...."

"Yes," she huffed then when he didn't move, she realized he was not going to be able to carry her out.  Rocky unclasped her legs and slid down his body, until her feet rested on his, then with one last kiss, she took his hand and led him toward the bank.

When they reached the shallows, she stopped so he could keep his balance in the sucking mud, but when they reached firm ground, she pulled him the last few steps to the blanket.  In a tangle of arms, legs and lips they fell onto the slightly scratchy blanket.

Ethan's hands were everywhere, burning a trail of fire wherever he touched her.
  He rolled them, so he was on top of her, then took her hands and held them above her head.

"Got to slow down," he breathed in and out a few times, then finished, "I've waited
months to have you again, I'm not rushing it."

Emotion clogged her throat and she wasn't able to speak, so she nodded.  Ethan released her hands then
rolled away and his eyes tracked over every inch of her body.

"Beautiful," he whispered gruffly, then kissed her cheek, before his lips found hers again.  This kiss was like the one in the spa that night, slow and inviting.  He sampled her lips like he was savoring each taste
, committing it to memory, fanning the flames inside of her with each pass of his lips over hers. 

His warm palm rested on her stomach
as he kissed her and mentally she urged him to move it either up or down to help extinguish the ache he was creating inside of her.  When he finally moved his hand slowly upward, she sucked in a breath as tingles of anticipation skittered through her.  It seemed like forever until he reached her breast, but it was only seconds before he was cupping her, and her nipple hardened anticipating his touch there too.

He kissed her deeply, then pulled his lips from hers to kiss across her cheek, down her throat to her collarbone then her shoulder
, the top of her breast, and finally his hot mouth closed over her breast. 

T
he feeling was so good, so intense, Rocky moaned long and low in her throat, and she felt his smile against her skin.  His tongue skirted around her nipple then he sucked her deeply.  Her back arched off the blanket and she shoved her hand into his wet hair to hold his head to her.  Ethan rolled her other nipple between his long fingers, then sucked her again and Rocky felt the tug all the way at her core.

For endless minutes, he worshipped her breasts driving her to the brink of insanity, then his hand moved south, and tingles followed its path over her skin.  The closer his hand moved to her center, anticipation built between her legs and a slow dull throb started there.

"You're driving me insane," she told him
breathlessly, squirming beneath him.

He released her nipple with a pop, then lifted his head to meet her eyes. 

"You've been driving me crazy for a year, baby, it's time for a little payback," he grumbled, but tempered it with a sexy smile that hit her in the center of her chest.  Ethan held her gaze, and his hand brushed across her hip to her upper thigh, before he cupped her mound and rested his fingers on her folds.

She whimpered and moved her hips against his hand, because she needed him to touch her there.  Slow was one thing, what he was doing amounted to sensual torture.

"Touch me," she whispered, her voice a low and needy plea.

Nev
er in her life had Rocky needed something more, someone more.  Ashton had never taken the time to build the anticipation, he went straight for the finish line, usually leaving her in the dust behind him.  Ethan was taking it to the other extreme and nearly driving her out of her mind with need.

"So impatient," he said with a chuckle and
quickly dipped his fingers inside of her, before finding her core where he made slow rhythmic circles.

"Mmm..." she murmured
, her eyes drifting shut to enjoy the waves of pleasure radiating through her body.

"Look at me, Roxanne," he demanded and she opened her eyes.
 

Instead of breaking the magic spell he was weaving, seeing the passion glittering in his eyes sent her stumbling toward a release so intense she could barely
breathe.  Ethan threw his leg over hers and spread her legs wider, then increased the pressure of his fingers at her center, "No more hiding, sweetheart," he whispered.  "I want to see you want me."

"I do," she told him brokenly then sucked in a sharp breath
when all the shards of pleasure inside of her converged and slammed into her so hard she was left shaking and stunned. 

He slowly guided her back down to Earth, and when
the last tremor faded he kissed her deeply then lifted his head and whispered, "Beautiful."

When she reclaimed her senses, Rocky pushed against his chest, then shoved him over onto his back.  "Put on your seatbelt, Ethan Cassidy, because it's your turn now," she warned.

He laughed when she straddled his waist, but that laughter quickly faded when she
put her hands on his rock hard abdomen then slid down his body to cover his erection with her wet folds,  Slowly, she began moving her hips over his steely length and excitement ratcheted up in her too with each forward motion that sent his tip against her core.  Ethan moaned and his hands dug into the sides of her thighs.

Very near another orgasm, Rocky threw her head back to savor it, but gasped when his hands dug into her hips and held her still. 

"Whoa, cowgirl...slow down, I'm about to lose it," he told, his breathing erratic as a tremor passed through his body.

Her drugged senses cleared and embarrassment shot through her killing the pleasant euphoria.  "
I got carried away, I'm sorr--"

Ethan growled and put a finger over her lips to keep the words in her mouth.  "Don't
!" he hissed then grabbed her and rolled her under him.  He was damned sick of her apologizing.  "You didn't do a damned thing wrong.  I
loved
what you were doing--
too much
."

Hell, he'd almost come like a teenager, before he ever got inside of her. 

The need to be inside of her body, feel her heat close around him was too great for him to let that happen.  There would be time later, he hoped, for fast and furious, this time he wanted to savor this moment. 

And he didn't have a condom on either, otherwise he would have just slipped inside of her and let her ride him
.  The thought had entered his mind, and it had been damned hard for him not to do just that. 

Only the memory of the close call he'd had with Sarah a couple of months before his accident had stopped him.  Th
e tense waiting after that experience was not something he ever wanted to repeat.

"There's a condom in my wallet," he told her then pushed up to his feet to go get it out of the wet jeans he'd taken off near the water.

He heard her sigh behind him, as he searched around for his jeans, and Ethan smiled.  For someone who had resisted him so long, she sure was in a hurry now.  He counted himself damned lucky she had changed her mind at all, though.  Knowing her stubborn streak, he realized that wasn't a common thing, and kind of wondered what had prompted it now.  At least now he understood why she had resisted him.  Some asshole city boy had hurt her, and she thought he was going to do the same.

It took a minute, but he found the dark jeans
laying half in the water at the edge of the bank and lifted them out.  After untangling his underwear, and shoving the legs back through, he patted the wet denim until he found the bulge of his wallet in the pocket. 

He had been so quick taking them off to swim after her when she dove in, he was surprised the wallet was even still in his pocket.
  God, only knew where the boots he'd tossed over his shoulder were.

"You making balloon animals over there with that condom?" she asked with an agitated snort.  Her voice echoed over the lake and Ethan flinched.  She was definitely a country girl, her volume control was set to blast,
so she could yell across pastures.

With a laugh,
he shoved his wallet back in his jeans and carefully picked his way back across the marshy ground to the blanket.  Roxanne was propped up on her elbows, glaring at him when he got there.  The moonlight made her long blonde hair glisten, and her skin glow.  She looked like a beautiful, angry wood sprite waiting there for him. 

He wondered what
her beautiful naked body would look like bathed in the glow of the early morning sun.  Ethan might just find out tomorrow morning, because he'd found three condoms in his wallet, not just one. 

Dropping his jeans near the blanket, he threw the condoms
down on the corner, then knelt at the edge telling her with a wide grin, "Put on
your
seatbelt, cowgirl...I'm about to rock your world."

"Words," she told him disbelievingly, but licked her full lips.

"Is that a challenge?" he asked, sitting back on his heels.  He held her eyes as he grabbed one of the packets and ripped it open.

Rocky scrambled up on her knees then crawled over to him
and snatched the latex ring from his fingers.  When her cool fingers closed around him, he sucked in a sharp breath. 

She stroked him and met his eyes.  "You always this chatty?  And slow?"

"Slow is good sometimes...real good," he informed with a shiver.  He looked forward to showing her how good it could be, several times, before the sun came up.

"You like slow, huh?" she asked with mischief sparkling in her eyes.

"Yeah, sometimes," he told her, wondering why she hadn't put the condom on him yet.  He was about to take it back and do the job himself, when she shoved his shoulder and he fell sideways onto the blanket, then she pinned his legs. 

"What the hell?"
he hooted and leaned up on his elbows to look at her.

Her mouth spread into a slow smile as she tossed the condom to the side.  "I still owe you for that stunt you pulled in the spa the other day...teasing me like that wasn't fair."

"You wanted to look, I just gave you something to look at...and a man has to do something when a woman won't give him the time of day."

"Well, payback is hell, sugar," she said.  "Let's see if I can make you moan l
ike you were moaning that day."

Ethan swallowed hard and wanted to moan at her words alone. 

That was until she pushed up to her knees and crawled up his body.  Pressing him into the blanket, she took
his
hands and held them up by his ears then leaned in to kiss him, fleeting kisses she wouldn't let him deepen when he tried.  Her mouth slid from his then she placed kisses across his face, then licked a spot behind his ear, before stopping to place an open mouthed kiss on his neck. 

E
than moaned then bucked against her, wanting to touch her, to kiss her.  "That's it," she praised, her hot breath whispering over his throat.  She released his hands and he tried to grab for her, but she pushed his arms back down. 

"Stay," she said as if she would to a horse.  Ethan huffed out a frustrated breath, but complied.

Placing a rope of hot kisses across the bottom of his throat, she stopped to suck a time or two and Ethan wanted to vault off the blanket and grab her, but he didn't.  To stop himself, he put his hands under his head to lift it up so he could watch her downward progress to his chest.

His whole body was on fire, and she was pouring gasoline on the flames when she met his eyes
as she ran her tongue in a long swath from the bottom of his pec over his nipple up to his shoulder.  Cool air brushed over the wet trail she left behind on his body, ramping up the flames. 

Her voice vibrated on his skin as she told him, "Your tattoos drive me wild."

Who would have thought his biceps were an erogenous zone?  She kissed then licked a circle around his arm and it was the sexiest thing anyone had ever done to him.   Ethan moaned and leaned up to watch her, straining to keep his hands behind his head.

She moved back to his pec and circled his nipple with her rough tongue then nipped it with her teeth and E
than sucked in a sharp breath and stifled a growl.

This woman was taking slow to another level, and she was driving him crazy. 

His body was buzzing like he was holding a hot electric wire.  In a zigzag path, she worked her way down his abdomen, her hair tickling as she moved.  He tensed his muscles there, then moaned when her tongue circled his navel.