I unclasp my bra, but he doesn’t let it fall. “What if someone comes up on us?” he asks.
“How likely is it?”
He glances around. “It’s a Saturday. Lots of riders will be on the ranch. Maybe a fifty percent chance.”
I move his hands, and my bra falls onto his chest. “I’ll take those odds.”
His eyes devour me. “Why do I get the feeling you wouldn’t even care if someone saw us like this?”
I roll off him and onto my back to remove my pants. I feel a sting and sit up. “Ouch!”
He plucks something off my back and shows it to me. “Sand spur.” Then he stands, undresses, removes a condom from his wallet, and lies back down. He places his shirt and jeans on either side of his waist. “For your knees.”
“What about you?”
“Believe me, I won’t feel any pain.”
I move his clothes up to either side of his head. He questions me with his eyes. “For my knees,” I say.
His smile grows as I settle myself over his face. Hands grip my hips and pull me to his mouth. When his tongue touches me, electricity pulses through my entire body. I grip the headstone in front of me as his tongue works in and out of me. He sucks on my clit, then runs circles around it. I try not to move as he expertly feasts on me. If I go an inch either way, he’ll lose the spot, and I’m about to come. “Right there,” I say so he knows to keep doing exactly what he’s doing.
I grip harder, the stone not giving way to my nails. I’m building, spiraling up, wanting to go higher before he breaks me. “Don’t. Fucking. Stop.” Each word is a command he gladly follows. When he hums against my clit, I spasm in the most delicious way, shouting to the empty fields surrounding us.
When I scoot down him, he asks, “Did you just come while holding on to one of my ancestors’ headstones?”
I smile.
“Damn, woman.” He shakes his head. “That’s wrong on so many levels.”
He’s right. It’s wrong. Wild. Hot. And we both know it. I grab the condom and roll it on, then I sink down onto him. He bucks his hips and I ride him, thinking of how he rode the horse earlier. Everything about him is sexy. His name. His body. His professions—all of them. Even his emptiness. Maybe especially his emptiness. Because, somehow, I know he’s lost like I am. And I know that makes him dangerous. Dangerous for me.
He fondles my breasts and pinches my nipples. He rubs my clit. He works me until he sees I’m ready to explode once more. I’m riding him hard. He repeats my words back to me. “Don’t fucking stop.”
His raspy, needy voice is enough to push me over the edge. “God, yes!” I shout. I try to keep moving on him until he comes too, which is about ten seconds after I do.
“Damn. That was…” He catches his breath and takes in our surroundings. “Twisted.”
I giggle and pull myself off him. He winces and lies back, gazing up at the sky. I steady myself on the headstone as I dress.
As he buries the condom under some dirt, I see the damage we did to his back. “Your back is all scraped up.”
“Totally worth it,” he says. Then he stands, staring at me pensively. “Wait, I didn’t get to see your tattoo. Where is it?”
“Guess you have to search for it some other time.”
“So we’re doing this?” He looks like a kid who just walked into a candy store.
“Easy, cowboy. Make no mistake, this thing has an expiration date.”
He pulls on his skivvies. “Do you see anyone complaining? I get to sleep with a gorgeous woman for the next ten days and not have anything expected of me afterward? That makes you a damn angel in my book.”
“Ha! I’m no angel.”
“If you’re the devil, sweetheart, go ahead and take me to hell.”
I watch as he gets dressed. Ten days of Quinn Thompson. Cowboy. Pilot. Rancher. He’s got me wishing my leg wasn’t just sprained. I wish it were broken.
Back at the ranch, Quinn straps a five-gallon gas can to a larger ATV and asks a ranch hand to ride out with him to retrieve the other four-wheeler.
“See you later, then?” he says, before driving off.
“I’ll check my schedule,” I tease. Then I reach into my back pocket for my phone. It’s not there. I yell, “Quinn! I left my phone in the compartment on the ATV.”
“I’ll bring it to you as soon as we’re back.”
I wave him off.
Aaron is walking a horse to the stable. “Hey, Amber. You and Quinn getting along okay?”
“Yes.”
“You let me know if he crosses a line. I know he can be a little feral.”
“And what makes you think I’m not?”
He chuckles. “How’s the leg?”
“Pretty good. I think I’ll be ready to ditch these things for a walking boot soon.”
“That will make things easier. Let me know if you need a ride to the doctor, or anywhere.”
“Actually, I need to get to the grocery store. Would you mind?”
“Say no more. I’ll put Reuben in his stall, and we’ll take Quinn’s truck. Mine’s back at the lodge.”
“You guys really are one big family, aren’t you?” I mutter.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing. I’ll wait by the truck.”
A few minutes later, we’re driving into town. He stops at a traffic light and turns my way. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Okay,” I say, bracing myself for some deep, prying inquisition.
“Do you think we should paint the guest rooms at the lodge blue? Devyn says they’re too plain the way they are.”
“That’s your question?”
“What did you think I was going to ask?”
I shake my head. “I think Devyn’s right. The rooms are great, but a touch of color wouldn’t be bad. You know what I did at my house—well, my dad’s house? I painted just one wall of my bedroom, where the bed sits. It looks really good. Maybe you could do the same.”
“Good idea. And a lot less work. I’ll discuss it with Devyn.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“What’s with Quinn’s family? We ran into his mom earlier. They don’t even get along. He says the whole town hates them.”
“Nobody’s told you?”
“Told me what? I gather they wanted this ranch or something, and it turned into some kind of family feud.”
“That’s the understatement of the year. It’s all a big shit storm really, but the gist of it is that Quinn’s uncle, Jon, was trying to conceal the fact that Joel—Quinn’s grandfather—ordered Maddox’s grandmother to be killed, and in the process of the cover-up, Jon kidnapped Andie.”
My jaw goes slack. “Oh my god.”
“Andie was okay. Yeah, she was terrified, but luckily, they found her in less than a day. But Jon is in jail, Joel had a heart attack and died, and Karen—well, I don’t really know what she does now other than try to coax Quinn into rejoining their family.”
“But he wants nothing to do with them.”