In the Cowboy's Bed (Pleasure Ridge Ranch) (6 page)

"You want me to fuck you from behind? Fuck you hard and fast?"

His words, the growl of them made her go really, really wet. "Yes."

Justin grabbed the side of her hips and rammed his length into her, pulled out, and rammed in again. "Tell me what you want."

"Again."

Erin gripped the table tighter as Justin pistoned in and out of her.

"Tell me," he breathed.

"Take me, fuck me. Harder, harder, harder." Her breath started coming as fast has Justin’s thrusts, and she spread her legs wider. Oh, she liked this. She really, really liked this. In between breaths, she kept saying the words over and over, telling him to fuck her. She’d never used the word so much in her life, but it fit. And she never wanted this feeling of mind-blowing passion to ever end. She wanted to come and keep on going.

"You’re so wet, so warm," Justin breathed out as he continued to thrust into her.

Neither of them held back the moans and grunts of pleasure. They were no more than rutting animals, and Erin couldn’t believe how awesome it felt. How freeing. Her center started tightening around him, and Justin moaned again in response.

"I’m coming," he said, and it sounded like he was gritting his teeth. He pumped faster and faster until he spilled his hot, wet orgasm into her.

She felt her own orgasm building. "Keep going," she said, an urgent plea.

Even though he was spent, he complied, slipping in and out of her soaking-wet core.

"Yes," she said. Then louder as the orgasm got closer with each stroke, "Yes, yes, yes!" She came in a massive shudder as she rammed herself back against him.

She collapsed against the table and he on top of her. "I may never have sex the normal way again," she said.

He laughed against her back. "I told you that you’d like it."

She liked it so much that they spent the entire day naked and fucking on just about every surface in the cabin. With her bent over the end of the couch, her sitting facing him on a dining room chair, even sitting on the edge of the front porch with the warm sun beating down on them. By the time night fell again and they took a quick shower, she was stunned that Justin had enough strength to carry her to bed because she was absolute toast.

Once they were curled together beneath the covers, Erin placed her palm against his chest, feeling the thump of his heartbeat. "Thank you."

"For keeping you naked and busy all day?"

"Yes, but it’s more than that. I’ve never felt so free in my life. I feel like I’ve broken through some sort of shell I never knew was there." She smiled. "I feel like I could do anything now, and that I just might." And she didn’t just mean sex. Something was shifting, changing within her, and maybe once she got some sleep to recover from today’s marathon of sex, she’d be able to pinpoint what it was.

Justin didn’t respond, but she wasn’t awake long enough to question why.

Justin lay awake staring at the ceiling the next morning while Erin continued to sleep deeply next to him. After the vigorous day he’d spent with Erin the day before, he should have been sleeping for a solid twenty-four hours. But his racing thoughts had kept him awake long after she’d fallen asleep and awakened him at first light. The same question kept playing over and over in his mind — how was he going to make it the rest of the week with her?

Oh, the sex he could do, and gladly. But it was the part of him that no one on the ranch ever saw that was in danger. Working here was supposed to help him forget. Instead, each moment he spent with Erin was making him remember more and more what it felt like to truly be alive. He loved having sex with her, yes, but there was something else about her that was worming its way past the stone wall he’d built around his heart. He couldn’t even really put a finger on it. Some potent combination of beauty, vulnerability, strength, laughter, and caring that had him thinking of her as more than a client. And that was a dangerous way to think.

But God help him, he couldn’t seem to stop his thoughts from racing down that path.

He’d thought to remind himself of her status as a client, someone he’d never see again after a few more days, by taking her from behind. Yes, he’d been telling the truth when he’d told her that he thought it would help her get over her ex, but he’d made the suggestion for himself to. If he didn’t have to look into her eyes as he took her, it’d be easier to deal with the fact their time together was ticking away.

It shouldn’t matter anyway, but it did. Sometime in the past couple of days, she’d started meaning something to him, no matter how crazy that sounded. He wanted to beat the guy who’d cheated on her, wanted to help her find a life that made her truly happy, where she could be who she was meant to be.

Erin stirred next to him and he placed a soft kiss on her forehead as she came awake.

"Good morning," she said.

"Good morning."

Her phone beeped at an incoming text message, so she rolled away toward the nightstand. Justin took the opportunity to snag some clean clothes and head for the bathroom. As he brushed his teeth and hair and got dressed, a plan for the day formed in his head. Erin had seemed to really appreciate the scenery, so maybe she’d like to explore beyond the ranch. He tried not to think about how he’d never taken any other client anywhere not on the ranch or why he might feel the urge to do so with Erin.

He ran cold water over his face and back through his close-cropped hair. As he stared at himself in the mirror, he took a deep, fortifying breath.

By the time he left the bathroom, Erin had vacated the bedroom. He followed the sounds of her banging around to the kitchen. Already, she was pouring pancakes onto a griddle.

"We could have ordered breakfast," he said as he leaned his shoulder against the doorway to the kitchen.

"Yes, but they wouldn’t be my mom’s famous apple cinnamon pancakes."

She was cooking a treasured family dish for him? That caused his heart to squeeze a little, reminding him too much of other family dishes, other breakfasts with a beautiful woman.

He pushed those thoughts aside as he watched Erin cook then as they ate and talked about things like the books they liked to read, their favorite movies, even football.

"I’m not sure I can live down that I’ve been spending so much intimate time with a Redskins fan," he said, teasing her.

"Hey, I can’t help it. My dad is a huge fan, even has a Redskins room where he watches the games," she said. "He didn’t have any boys, so I had what I called Tomboy Sundays with my dad. Football, bowls of chips, takeout pizza."

"Sounds like fun. I was more into college football until I moved to San Fran."

"You lived in San Francisco?"

He hadn’t even really realized he’d said it until she pointed it out. It was so easy to talk to Erin, so much so that he seemed to divulge things he’d never shared with a ranch guest before. "Uh, yeah. For a few years before I came here."

"I visited with a friend a couple of years ago. I absolutely loved Muir Woods. You go to places like that, and it’s easy to marvel at the beauty of Mother Nature."

Her words made him even more sure about his plan for the day. "You ever been to Lake Tahoe?"

She shook her head. "But I hear it’s beautiful."

"It is. Would you like to go today?"

She looked up at him with excitement bright in her blue eyes. "Could we?" She sounded like a kid being tempted with the possibility of going to see the famous mouse.

He couldn’t help smiling at her as he nodded. "But I think you’ll need to wear a little bit more than that robe."

When she started to clear the table, he stopped her. "I’ll do it. You go get ready."

A couple of hours later, he guided his truck into a pull-off with a stunning view of Lake Tahoe.

"Oh, my," Erin said as she leaned forward. "It’s gorgeous." She opened her door and slid out. She walked to the edge of the overlook and scanned the view spread out before. "I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life."

"I’m glad you like it."

"Like it?" she said, looking over at him. "I’m ready to move here right now."

She laughed a little, but a part of his heart sparked to life at her words. How could that part suddenly want that so much? A few days with her, and everything he’d done for the past two years was ready to drift away like fog in the morning.

They took their time driving around the lake, stopping now and then to take pictures and to explore the little towns hugging the coastline. When they reached Azure Bay, Erin pointed out the window at a line of shops nestled together. "Can we stop here?"

"Sure." He parked in front of the grouping of five shops, all connected by an old-fashioned wooden sidewalk.

When Erin got out of the truck, she headed straight for an antique store. Once inside, her eyes lit up like a kid’s on Christmas morning.

"You like antiques?" he asked.

"I love antiquing. I’ve been going with my mom since I was young, though I haven’t been able to go with her as much since she and dad took to the road in their RV after retiring. It’s like a treasure hunt each time I step through the front door of an antique store. My favorite TV show is
Antiques Roadshow
."

As they picked their way through tables and shelves laden with all manner of old stuff, he couldn’t pick a true antique worth real money from junk from someone’s barn. But Erin, she knew her stuff. She rattled off stats and values like a pro.

"You really know your merchandise," said an older man when they moved close enough for him to hear their conversation.

Erin and the guy, the store’s owner, chatted for a few minutes about the business and the town. Justin stood to the side and admired the excitement filling Erin’s face.

"Any chance you might want to take this place off my hands?" the guy said. "Been trying to sell it for five years, no takers."

Erin looked around with yearning. "I’d love to, but unfortunately I live in Virginia." She looked genuinely disappointed, so much so that Justin took her to the old-time soda fountain next door and bought her a big chocolate sundae. It was so huge that they shared it and took turns feeding each other bites.

He realized he was going to miss her when she left. And that for the first time since he’d started at Pleasure Ridge, he wasn’t looking forward to burying the past with his next client. He didn’t want to move on from this one.

* * * *

"This has been a wonderful day," Erin said as Justin steered away from the lake and back toward Nevada.

"I’m glad you enjoyed it."

"Did you?"

He looked a little surprised by her question, but then he visibly relaxed. "I did. I haven’t been over here in a long time."

As they popped over a hill, Justin cursed and hit his brakes. Debris from a wreck littered the road, and he guided the truck through it and pulled into a dirt road that led into a pasture. With another curse, he unbuckled his seatbelt and hurried back toward where a small car and an SUV sat tangled together halfway into a ditch.

Erin slid out of the truck and followed him. She arrived in time to hear him taking charge, calming freaked-out drivers and passengers, assessing the situation.

"Do you feel any numbness?" he asked the driver of the car. "Any tingling sensations?"

As she watched, she realized there was an entire Justin she didn’t know. He obviously had some sort of medical training. Maybe EMT training. If he’d grown up on a ranch in some rural part of Wyoming, that would have come in handy.

When the ambulance arrived, Justin gave the EMTs the rundown of what he’d learned. When he finally stepped away, he ran his hand over his face. That’s when she noticed he looked a little shaky. She stepped close to him and took his hand.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He nodded, but he was quiet all the way back to the ranch. He obviously tried to shake off whatever was bothering him by smiling and attempting to pull her close for a kiss. But she gently eluded him and guided him to the porch swing. He sat beside her.

"Tell me what’s wrong," she said.

He shook his head. "You didn’t pay to hear my problems."

"I didn’t pay for any of this. My friends did. But I believe the policy is whatever I want. And I want to talk about whatever it was about that wreck today that caused that haunted look on your face."

"I’m sorry," he said.

She took his hand and squeezed until his gaze met hers. "You don’t have to be sorry. And you don’t have to put on a mask for me."

He shifted his gaze out toward the setting sun. "I used to be a doctor, an oncologist in San Francisco. But about two and a half years ago, my wife died of ovarian cancer."

"Oh, I’m so sorry."

"I blamed myself for not knowing soon enough to help her. I couldn’t face going to work anymore after that. All I wanted was to escape, to find some way that I didn’t have to remember anymore. But there was enough survival instinct left that I didn’t want to destroy myself with drugs or alcohol either."

Erin’s heart broke for him. "So you came here."

He nodded. "I remembered a patient of mine telling me about it. She had terminal cancer and had never been married. Never even really had a serious boyfriend. So she came here for a week, and she said it was the best thing she’d ever done. She knew some people thought it was wrong, but it made her feel alive and happy, something she hadn’t felt in a long time. I...I thought maybe if I buried myself in a stream of women who were there only for a few days and then gone, I could forget Sara and what happened. And for a while it seemed to work."

"What changed?"

He hesitated for a long moment before turning his head toward her and answering. "I met you. For the first time in two years, I’d met someone who made me feel alive." He squeezed her hand. "But don’t worry. I know you’re leaving. You have a life to get back to."

Erin lifted her hand to his face. "Maybe you do, too. It wasn’t your fault, and I’m sure Sara knew that."

Later that night, they curled into bed together and made love slowly, tenderly. Erin’s heart swelled as she realized that this time, they were making love. It wasn’t fucking, and it wasn’t even sex. It was truly making love because she’d grown to care about this man. How in the world was she going to be able to go home and forget him and the way he’d made her feel?

* * * *

On her last day at Pleasure Ridge, Erin woke up early and left Justin a note that she was going out but would be back by lunch. Her flight home wasn’t until that evening, so she had time to go do what she had planned for this morning and still have the entire afternoon to spend with Justin. After all, he’d worked hard for the past week and deserved some extra rest.

But by the time she returned to the ranch, it felt as if she’d been gone days instead of hours. Her heartbeat kicked into overdrive when she pulled up in front of the cabin and found Justin’s truck gone. Had he left for good? Had she missed her final few hours with him? She tried not to panic, remembering that she was a new woman now. She didn’t have to have a serious relationship right now to make her complete. Would it be nice? Sure. But she wasn’t going to try so hard. If it came naturally, that’s when it would be right.

And she couldn’t allow herself to think about how easy this week with Justin had been. Even though she now knew the reason behind his working here, this was still his job. She blinked against stupid tears that next week he’d be in one of these cabins with someone else.

With a shake of her head, she went inside. She nibbled on a few grapes as she packed her bags. The sound of a vehicle outside had her rushing to the living room until she caught herself. She slowed and opened the door just as Justin was climbing the front steps.

"I thought maybe you’d gone home," she said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"No, just had something to take care of."

"Seems to be the morning for that," she said as she led the way back inside.

"Oh?"

She turned and leaned against the back of the couch. "Yes, and I have you to thank for that. I knew I didn’t like what I was doing before I came here, but I didn’t see a way out. Didn’t know what I wanted. But coming here, spending time with you has made me realize that it’s okay to throw caution to the wind and take chances. So this morning I drove over to Azure Bay and made arrangements to buy the antique store."

His eyes widened, making her laugh.

"I know. Crazy, right?"

He stepped toward her and took her hands. "I think it’s great. I saw how much you loved that place."

"And it’s not just the shop. The quaint little town, the fresh air, the slower pace. And I’ll still be by the water, which I like."

He smiled. "I have no doubt you’ll be a huge success."

"Thank you."

He reached up and smoothed a lock of hair away from her face. "I’m glad you’re staying in the area."

A jolt of surprise and anticipation shot through her. "You are?"

"Yeah. It’d be hard for me to ask you out on a proper date with you on the opposite side of the country."