7
Maverick
Clara laid before me, eyes wide and trusting, her limbs slightly trembling. I understood. I felt the same way. This would change everything between us. But I was okay with it.
“Maybe,” she started, “maybe we should set some ground rules so things don't get too messy.”
I couldn't help myself. I smirked. “Oh, darlin, things are about to get real messy.”
She giggled. “Don't be gross.”
A laugh escaped my chest. “I’m not being gross. I'm just telling the truth. I know what I'm doing, and if you don't get messy, I'm not doing my job.”
Her eyes darkened with lust at the promise in my words. “Your job?”
“Yes, my job. You made me an offer. I accepted. And now I have a job to do. And I'm not going to stop until you've got exactly what you want.” I palmed my aching cock. “My baby inside you.”
She bit her lower lip, then propped herself up on her elbows. “This is weird.”
My chest tightened, my heart sinking. It was weird for her to be with me? Why did that hurt so bad?
“We don’t . . . we don't talk to each other like this,” she said.
“Like what?”
“Like lovers.” Her cheeks turned pink, and she looked away from me. “I don't talk to anybody like this. No one ever approaches me or hits on me. I haven't had sex in so long, I don't even know if I remember how it feels.”
I sat down next to her as she brought herself up to a seated position. Threading our fingers, I ran my thumb across her knuckles. “Clara, the only reason no one flirts with you is that you work with them all. We're not supposed to. You don't dip your pen in company ink, and you are company ink all across Sunrise. You'd be hard-pressed to find a cowboy around these parts who would take the risk of fucking up his ranch and his relationship with the best vet we've ever known.”
She nodded. “I know. I know. It's not fair, though. Clint Ryker married his reality TV show producer. Sam and Tucker are rancher and ranch hand. Why can't I find something when they did?”
“I don't know. Maybe you will.” The thought of her with someone else had a twist building in my chest. “We don't have to do this tonight. If you want to wait and see if maybe”—I had to swallow past the bitterness in my voice— “the right one comes along, I won't stand in your way.”
She turned to stare at me, blue eyes blazing. “I don't want to wait for the right one. I want to do this. And I want to do it with you.”
The spark of possibility of something more between us died when she said that. I wasn’t the right one. I was the present one. “All right, but you want to set some rules?”
“Yeah, I do. The kissing. It’s . . .” She hesitated. “It's too personal, too intense. It crosses a line I don't think I'm prepared for.”
“All right. We don't have to do that. I just thought it might set the mood.”
“I understand. I like it; I just think it's best if we don’t. I don't know if I can separate the kissing from the sex. Kissing . . . it’s intimate. It's more vulnerable, I guess.”
I nodded. “Fine. No more kissing.”
“And stop being so . . .”
“What?”
“Stop treating me like someone you’re trying to get into bed.”
It was hard not to chuckle, and I was sure I didn’t keep any of the amusement from my tone. “I am trying to get you into bed.”
The pink in her cheeks darkened. “I know, but this is different. Just . . . fuck me and get it over with. Don’t make it a whole thing.”
“I have an idea,” I murmured.
“What’s that?”
“What if you stop focusing on what we shouldn’t do and just let yourself enjoy the process? I’m not talking about falling in love. But I can make this good for you if you’ll let me.”
Her tongue darted across her bottom lip as she let her gaze trail down my body, landing on my crotch, specifically on my cock, which had already flared to life again.
“Touch me, Clara. Feel how much I want you.”
She reached out, and I shivered with anticipation. God, I wanted her hand on me.
“Wow, you’re . . .”
“What, darlin’?” I said around a moan as she stroked me.
She swallowed, gaze never leaving my cock. “Big.”
Pure alpha-male pride washed over me. I’d heard it before. It’s not like I didn’t know I was blessed, but hearing it from her meant more. “I promise you, I’ll make it fit.”
Clara
Mav’s harsh gasps and tight, tense moans told me I was on the right track with my long, slow strokes up his length and back to the root. I was going to get him worked up just like he'd done to me. I’d planned on getting this over with, but the sounds he was making made this way too much fun. Fair was fair, right?
He leaned forward and sucked my nipple into his mouth, the shockwave of pleasure hitting me right where it counted. But all too soon, he released the sensitive bud and glanced up at me, making eye contact and then biting his full lower lip with a spark of mischief in his eyes.
“You better hold on to something, darlin’.”
“What? Why?”
He slid down between my legs, hooking my knees over his shoulders before he shoved his face into my pussy. I cried out, closing my eyes, arching my back, my hand immediately finding purchase in his hair as I grabbed the thick, soft strands and held on for dear life. As he licked and sucked at my clit, his fingers sank inside me, working at that special spot, and I cried his name. Writhing, I ground myself into him.
The moans that came out of him against my slick flesh had me desperate and begging for him to let me come. I grabbed his head with both hands, pulling his mouth away because the pleasure was too intense. I couldn't take it.
“I need you.”
He smirked. “You have me. My face wasn't buried between your thighs for nothing.”
“No, I need more. I need you inside me. Please. I want to feel it.”
His expression went serious as he pulled his fingers from deep within me and sat back on his heels. “Don't close your eyes. I want to see the flicker of pleasure when I push into you for the first time, Clara.”
I swallowed, my heart in my throat, but I nodded and locked gazes with him. He positioned himself between my thighs, his length pressed against me, nudging my opening. For the briefest instant, a flicker of panic rushed across his face before he shook his head.
“What was that?” I asked.
If he didn't want this, we needed to stop. He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing with the motion, and let out a shuddering breath. “I just . . . I'm bare. And it feels so good already.”
“Have you ever been with anyone without a condom?”
“No. Never.”
Oh, that was a surprise. I knew he'd had at least one long-term relationship. He didn't talk much about her. She was back in Texas, but they’d been together for two years. When he came back to Sunrise, things had ended between them.
I couldn't believe he’d kept it wrapped up all this time. “You were really serious about not wanting to be a dad, weren’t you?”