A Cowboy's Salvation, page 14
West licked his way down her throat, and she moaned, sensations exploding along her body, straight down to her center. She tightened her legs around him, rubbing against his erection, trying to drive him as crazy as she was feeling, as out of control as she was. He growled and lifted his head, fixing her with a stern glare, and he pushed her into the wall harder, holding her in place.
“Stay still, dammit,” he said.
“Make me,” she replied and grabbed his head and pulled him to her.
She thrust her tongue deep, leaving no doubt what her body wanted from him, what she desperately needed in that moment.
His hand teased under her bra and lifted it out of the way, circling and teasing her nipple into a hard point. She jerked under his ministrations and nipped his lower lip. He grinned and tweaked her peak between two fingers, causing her to gasp and then sag a moment as her pussy flooded.
She let out a moan that reverberated through her whole body. “Oh God.”
“You like that, princess?” His eyes flashed.
He gently circled the areola again, once, twice, three times, then gave another pinch and she flinched again, warmth building in her lower regions, her legs clasping him tightly.
She gasped, her back arching. “Again.”
“Am I interrupting something?”
Tara stiffened and West pinned her closer to the wall, covering her from view. He glared at Chase in the doorway of the barn.
“What do you want?” he snarled.
“Breakfast is ready. And we have to get moving to get to the upper pasture. Unless you have something more important to do.” The younger man smirked, not at all cowed.
“We’ll be there in a minute,” Tara called back, her voice shaky, her body still humming from arousal.
Chase grinned and walked away. West’s head fell forward onto her chest.
“I’m sorry my brother’s an ass.” He was shaking a little but not running away so that was progress.
Tara ran her hands up and down his back. She wasn’t sure if she was soothing him or her at that moment, although they both needed it. Her body still vibrated with arousal and she wanted nothing more than to finish what they started, but clearly this wasn’t the time or the place for any of that.
West’s breath was hot and fast on her chest, his hand still resting on the skin just below her breast, his thumb tracing light, gentle circles on her skin. He pressed a kiss to the hollow at the base of her throat and eased up on the pressure holding her against the wall, letting her legs drop to the ground. He held her until her shaky legs would support her.
He cupped her cheek in a hand and tilted her face to his, taking her lips in another, gentle, sweet kiss this time. “I’m sorry.”
Then he turned and left the barn without ever really explaining what he meant.
*
After that scorching hot kiss in the barn, Tara had been able to avoid West by heading to her room to change before breakfast. He and Chase must have grabbed something quick and bolted to avoid her, so she was left with Ty, who seemed oblivious to the tension. He disappeared quickly, leaving Tara to finish her chores and hang out on her own for the day.
She had spent time the previous few days doing research on guest ranches, but she needed to see more of the ranch before she could decide if the idea was viable before she pitched the details to West. She went hunting for someone to be a guide and she found Ty in the barn grooming a pretty, but undernourished, mare. When he heard her plan, he helped saddle a couple of horses, including that mare, and they headed out for a gentle ride, starting at her grandparents’ old ranch.
They stopped at a line of cabins between the two main ranches. They both dismounted and tied the horses loosely so they could graze, and she and Ty wandered the cabins on foot.
“Why don’t the ranch hands stay here instead of the bunkhouse? You’d think they’d want their own space.”
Tara waited while Ty opened one of the doors with the keys. It was a small cabin, three rooms maybe. A bedroom, bathroom, and a living room and kitchenette combined. This cabin seemed like it had been recently occupied. The furniture was slightly newer and maintained. There was a state-of-the-art sound system and a stack of CDs piled in the corner, along with a couple of guitars. The refrigerator hummed with electricity, and Tara opened it to see beer, water, and soda inside.
She eyed Ty, who only met her gaze blandly. She headed down the hall to the bedroom that featured the most wonderful bedroom set made from a series of logs lashed together. The room overall was decorated in masculine colors—green, maroon, and cream—and there was a gorgeous painting above the headboard of the Bitterroot Mountain range.
It was exactly as she would have designed for a guest cottage… well, maybe with a few more amenities. Overall, it would be a charming cabin for a stay. She felt that immediate rush that came with the creative juices, a rush she hadn’t felt in months, maybe even a year or more.
Outside the bedroom, Ty leaned against the wall next to the door, looking bored. She poked him in the chest. “Is this your cabin?”
Ty shrugged as he stared around the room. “Yeah. I stay here sometimes. I thought you’d want to see one that was clean and presentable. The other cabins haven’t been used in a while. Most of the guys are single and prefer to stay in the bunkhouse to share the cooking and stuff. Besides, these cabins are farther away from where we keep the herd now. We only bring the herd this close during calving or branding time. Otherwise, they’re out at the other pastures, and we built places there for the guys to stay.”
“I had wondered why I didn’t see many ranch hands,” she murmured. “Why did you let me think you stay at the house?”
He shrugged again, a casual motion, as if he didn’t matter, as if the conversation didn’t matter, when it did. “I was staying there after Douglas died, mainly for West. It was better for us to be close by. But when you came, I cleared out to give you space. I like to stay here. I can think out here.”
She looked around the small space, noting the music and guitars, the picks on the side table and the paper with music on them. “Do you play? I’d love to hear you sometime.”
He smiled, a bit shyly. “I sometimes play for the calves or the heavies at calving time. It passes the time.”
Four well-loved guitars were more than passing the time, but she wasn’t going to push, especially when he didn’t seem to want to talk about it. So, she changed the subject.
“These cabins are perfect for guest lodging. People would pay to stay in their own cabins with a central place to eat.”
Ty frowned as he looked around the place. “Do you really think people would pay to come up here? I mean, what would we have to do for them?”
Tara leaned against the kitchenette counter. “We’d offer trail rides, maybe some hunting and fishing, hiking, mountain biking. We could have four wheeling on certain trails, some kids’ activities, like summer camp things, anything really. Some places have a spa and offer spa services like massages, pedicures, manicures and facials.”
Ty stared at her like she was a creature from a horror flick. “Someone needs to organize all of that, and we need staff to run that. We don’t have time to cater to city people out here. We have a ranch to run.”
Tara grinned. “Now you sound like West. That’s where hiring people comes into play. This could bring some business to the town and the surrounding area, providing options for people in Granite Junction.”
“So, how do we do this if we owe money on taxes? I mean, you’re going to need funds to do this dude ranch thing.”
Tara’s eyes shifted away. “Guest ranches sounds better. I haven’t figured that out yet. But the ranch can’t go on the way it has been.”
Ty grunted. “West explained that to us. But I’m not sure any of us are sold on this idea, not completely.”
Tara cocked her head and studied him. “What would you do, Ty? I mean, if you weren’t here on the ranch. I know Chase is the rodeo king, although who knows for how long. But what would you want to do? Is ranching in your blood like West? Or is music?”
Ty’s face shuttered immediately, shut down at her words. “It’s home. More than anyone, I understand what it’s like to lose a home and I don’t want to lose another one.” With those cryptic words, he pushed off of the doorjamb. “Want to check out the others? I don’t think they’re all this small and might not be in as good of shape.”
She snapped a few pictures of some of the furniture, careful not to capture any of Ty’s personal effects, then followed him outside. They checked out all eight of the cabins and found them to be in decent condition. Some of them had two bedrooms and others only one. All were in desperate need of cleaning and a major redecoration. But all doable for their efforts. And there was plenty of space to add more cabins if the need was there.
They collected the horses and rode the short distance to her grandparents’ main house and ranch area. That area had fallen out of use, was mainly storage now for ranch and farm equipment, and the house hadn’t been lived in for a few years but was in good condition with a little repair needed. She closed her eyes and swore she could hear the voices, see her grandparents and herself as a child. The laundry on the line. The chickens in the yard. Her grandfather teasing her grandmother. The dog running through the yard, barking.
When she opened her eyes, it was back to the slightly worn and neglected ranch, empty.
But she had a vision. She only had to make it a reality, and hope West could see it too.
*
Later that evening, Tara was bent over the dining room table, sketching out some ideas on her designs. She needed to spend some time working on the office design for MilRed, as they had a presentation still due and her partner had sent the notes earlier that day from the client. Apparently, the client had yet to find any design firm who had satisfied their standards, so they were giving their top three firms a second chance. Unsaid was that it was their last chance, and Angela was pulling out all the stops. She had asked Tara to do some work on it and was even having some of the junior designers pitch some ideas. This was their chance to show they could play with the big boys and move beyond homes and small offices. It was their chance to remain viable in the market.
Yet Tara’s mind kept drifting to the small cabins and her ideas for guest ranch getaways. Themed cabins. Family vacations. Cozy hideaways. That was what drew her mind, got her creative juices flowing, not a floor plan for a start-up tech company that clearly didn’t know what it wanted, especially if they hadn’t gotten what they were looking for from several major design firms.
She sighed and leaned back in her chair, wincing as her muscles protested the move. Riding for a second day was not helping her soreness, and a hot shower didn’t either. Too bad West had hightailed it out of here right after dinner, with a cattleman’s meeting at the grange in town. Chase and Ty had also disappeared, leaving the house quiet.
Then Tara remembered what West had mentioned the previous night. She headed for the deck and saw it. The promised land. Heaven and bliss rolled up into one, wet tub of happiness.
No one was around. Besides, she had her suit so it wouldn’t be a big deal if she was found. Just what the doctor ordered.
*
West got out of the truck, wincing as he landed on his leg. Those damn horny bulls. They had been putting bulls in with the heifers for breeding that afternoon and one of the younger ones had gotten a bit too excited and kicked him in the upper thigh. A glancing blow, but it hurt like a bitch. Of course, he knew how that bull felt, being cock-blocked constantly from what he wanted, and that bull had decided no more.
After this morning, he’d thought he was going to tear Chase a new one, but that bastard always knew how to keep just out of reach while laughing like a lunatic at him, wondering if Chase had any sympathy for those poor bulls, constantly separated from their ladies. He blamed Chase and a slow burn of arousal for his distraction today. He was damned lucky that bull was off the mark or it could have been worse.
Chase’s last words after dinner—“Get laid already, would you? We’ll even clear out but stop being an ass.”—haunted West and he resented the cattlemen’s meeting that night.
The house was dead quiet as he let himself in. Tara must have gone to bed since most of the lights were out except one in the dining room. He detoured quickly to see a bunch of drawings and sketches laid out on the table. He turned up the light and studied them more carefully. Most of them seemed to be of something he’d never seen before, an office space or something, and there were a few different options on the table. But then something else caught his eye. It looked like the interior of a cabin, a western design, with a rustic interior and cozy furniture, all done up in greens, reds and browns. Nothing fancy but warm, inviting. And nothing like the cold, impersonal designs of the office space. It was almost as if two different people drew them.
He laid them down and turned off the light. The night was still young, and his leg hurt like a bitch. Time to use that hot tub and work out the muscle so he could work tomorrow.
Chapter Fourteen
Tara laid her head against the edge of the tub and moaned, letting the heat seep into her muscles. The jets were hitting her lower back just right, almost as good as a massage. Although she’d give up this hot tub in a New York minute for another session with West and his magic fingers. He would work out all of her kinks and it would be much more satisfying, especially after leaving her hanging twice now. Damn him. And she hadn’t even had a chance to get herself off yet.
She glanced around. Well, no time like the present. There were only coyotes and other critters around. If West wouldn’t do it, she’d have to take matters into her own hands, so to speak.
Her hands ghosted down her stomach and into her bathing suit bottom to slip between her legs. She jerked at the soft pressure when she grazed her clit. Just thinking about West and their morning had already brought her halfway to pleasure. This wasn’t going to take long and that was great. She had never been a fan of public sex and, even though she was well out in the country, she had no idea when the others would be home. Although a part of her hoped that West would happen upon her, lured by the sound of the hot tub, and maybe he’d finish what they started that morning.
But he wouldn’t and she’d take care of herself, just like she’d done for longer than she’d care to admit to anyone.
She laid her head back and closed her eyes. Her fingers slid through her folds to swirl around her bud, her hips bucking at the pleasure. She plunged two fingers into her core, thinking about West and his teasing strokes the night before. It wasn’t long before she was moaning, her hips shifting and rolling in the water, as her fingers moved faster through her slick softness. Her back arched and she clenched as she came hard with a low cry.
She settled back on the shelf in the tub and withdrew her fingers, a languid peace stealing through her muscles. Damn, she needed that. Her arms floated gently in the warm water, her body relaxed and sleepy.
“Well, damn, princess. I’d love to know what you were thinking of just now.”
West’s low drawl from the side of hot tub made her jerk away. It was one thing to fantasize about seeing West but a whole other thing to see him in reality, when she was sweating from the heat, her hair wet and straggly, and completely unprepared for his larger-than-life presence. Then to have him see her having some DIY time? Could it get any worse?
She sank in the water, as if the bubbles and roiling water would hide her, and she glared toward the post where he was leaning, a pair of swim trunks hanging low on his hips, not hiding how affected he was by what he had seen. She fumbled for her towel, her face burning as she scrambled to get out of the tub, all sense of pleasure and relaxation completely gone now.
He took a step forward and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, hang on there. You don’t have to go anywhere. Not on my account.”
She shook her head. He had caught her masturbating in the tub! Having West watch was a fantasy, nothing more. She had never been that forward with sex or comfortable around the whole thing, something else her ex-husband complained about and used as an excuse for his frequent cheating. But as she raised off the shelf, she realized that might not be the best idea, as the bottom to her suit was still low and about to fall off. She sat back down and surreptitiously tried to adjust it without West noticing.
He smirked. “Mind if I join you? I’ll stay on this side.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Of course not. It’s your tub too, right?” As he climbed the step to the tub, she caught sight of a large bruise on his thigh. Forgetting her suit, she surged forward and touched the spot lightly. “What happened to you?”
He froze under her touch. “A bull took exception to how long I was taking to get him in with his ladies. He was a bit eager to get to his job, so he kicked out at me. This isn’t too bad. It’s a glancing blow.”
She traced the area lightly with her fingers, probing a little to test the injury. “Should you be in the hot tub tonight? Won’t it cause more problems?”
She pulled away to let him climb in the tub. He settled on the seat across from her and sighed as he stretched the leg. “I iced it today, but now it needs to work out so it doesn’t stiffen too much or let any of the blood pool there. Maybe later you can rub the liniment in there?”
He waggled his brow suggestively and she snorted. “You can reach your leg yourself.”
“You could reach your feet, too, but I helped you. It’s called being neighborly.”
