Page 20 of Huckleberry Hill (Saddles & Spurs #1)

Chapter Nineteen

The Ranch

My heart pounded.

Declan carried me into the bedroom and flipped on the light. “I’m leaving it on this time. I want to see every bit of you.”

I shivered and nodded.

He placed me in the center of his neatly made bed.

I scrambled up to sit on my haunches and faced him. And then my hands went for his belt buckle.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I want to . . . what you did to me the other night.” I looked up at him through the sweep of my lashes. “I want to taste you. Please?”

His jaw clenched as he stared down at me, and then he nodded.

My fingers shook as I slid off his belt. And then I went for the button of his fly. It popped open. I slowly tugged down his zipper.

He let out a frustrated groan. “Evil.”

“Hmm. Maybe I do have a cruel streak,” I said with a husky laugh.

Declan’s pants dropped down to his ankles and he was tenting his navy-blue boxer briefs. I gently stroked him over the fabric.

He shuddered with pleasure.

I slowly grasped the band of his boxers and lowered them so that he was completely revealed to me.

A sigh of pleasure escaped my lips.

I gently grasped the root of him and slid my hand up his engorged shaft. I swiped my finger across the head, feeling the bead of pre-come and then I placed it on my tongue.

“Fuck, Hadley.” Declan’s voice was strangled and his eyes were lit with desire.

Grinning, I bent my head. Slow—achingly slow—I took him into my mouth. He was large, but I was determined.

I felt him at the back of my throat, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted to make him lose control the way he’d made me lose control the first night we’d been together.

As I teased and sucked, changing the rhythm so he was always on edge, I gently cradled him. And then I glided my fingertips up and down his thighs, tantalizing him with a teasing touch.

I took him as far into my throat as I could and then backed off. I tongued the crown of his shaft before engulfing his length once again.

Finally, Declan couldn’t stand the torment any longer. His hands sank into my hair and grabbed my head and ruthlessly began using me.

“I’m gonna come.”

And with a groan, he emptied himself into my welcoming mouth.

He was warm and salty and I swallowed him down.

Declan’s hold on my head loosened and he backed up a step. He slid out of my mouth, and I licked my lips.

“You swallowed every bit of me,” he said gruffly.

I nodded.

“Show me. Open your mouth.”

I did as he commanded.

His hand softly cradled my jaw and he skimmed a finger across my cheek. “So fucking perfect.”

Declan let go and then his hand wandered down my neck and teased the strap of my dress. “I’m hungry.”

“Let’s eat.” I made a move to get off the bed.

A low laugh escaped his lips. “I wasn’t talking about food, Hadley.”

“Oh.” My cheeks flushed with heat.

He continued to tease my strap until it fell off my shoulder. He slid the other down as well. And then he went for the buttons at the front of my dress, slowly undoing them until the garment fell off me, baring my breasts to him.

Declan leaned forward and captured a nipple in his mouth, sucking it into a hard pebble. A thread of pleasure shot from my breast to my core. He released my nipple and then gently urged me to lie down on my back.

He slid off my panties.

His grin was wolfish. “Now it’s my turn to be completely evil.” And then he bent his head and made good on his word.

My stomach rumbled.

Declan laughed and held me tighter. “I’m a terrible date. I promised to feed you.”

I stroked a finger across his pelty chest. “You fed me. You fed me good .”

“Did you just—tease me? With an innuendo?”

“Maybe.”

He kissed the top of my head, his hand stroking down my back. “You’ve got to get up.”

I snuggled closer. “But I’m comfortable.”

“It’ll be worth it, I promise.”

With a sigh, I rolled off him and sat up, my back facing him.

“What’s this?” Declan asked, brushing my hair off my shoulder and touching the ink on my shoulder blade.

“My tattoo,” I said. “I’m going to wear your shirt. Where is it?”

“I’ll get it for you. And I know it’s a tattoo. I just didn’t know you had one.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached for his shirt to hand me.

“Well, I was on my back. So how could you see my hummingbird tattoo?”

“Just . . . you didn’t seem like the type to have any ink.”

“Everyone has ink,” I said. “Even my friend Poet has a tattoo. And she’s not the tattoo type.”

I slid into his flannel shirt and buttoned it. I stood. It fell to the middle of my thighs and I rolled up the sleeves.

“You look good in my shirt,” he said gruffly. He grabbed his discarded boxer briefs and pulled them on. “You care if I get into sweats, or is it too early for me in our relationship to get comfortable?”

My hands stilled and I looked at him. “Relationship?”

“Bad word choice,” Declan said.

“Hmm.” I went back to rolling up the sleeves and then I found my underwear. I didn’t like Declan’s casual use of the word relationship . I wasn’t sure what we were doing, but I wasn’t ready for anything resembling a relationship—not after what I’d just gone through.

“Why a hummingbird?” he asked, pulling me back to the present.

“Nachos, and I’ll tell you.”

We padded barefoot into the kitchen. He turned on the oven. “I’m going to throw the nachos back in for a few minutes. Let’s sit. It’ll take a bit for the oven to heat up.”

I took my glass of wine and sat at the end of the couch. Declan’s shirt rode up my legs, but I didn’t mind, especially because Declan couldn’t take his eyes off me.

He patted his thigh. I lifted my legs and placed them on his lap, and he held onto my ankle.

“You turned up the temperature,” I remarked.

He smiled. “Yeah. I’ll turn it down before we go to bed so we can sleep.”

My heart went gooey. “Thanks.”

He tweaked my big toe. “The hummingbird.”

“My mom . . . she loved hummingbirds.” I shrugged. “One drunken girls’ night, Salem pitched the idea that the four of us should get tattoos to solidify our friendship. So the next day, after a greasy diner breakfast, the four of us went to a tattoo parlor in the East Village and got inked.”

“The hummingbird has meaning for you—but I doubt your friends got the same thing, right?”

“Right. They got something that mattered to them. And my sister got something different too.”

“Tell me about your sister.”

“Why?”

“Curiosity. Are you identical twins or fraternal?”

“Fraternal. She’s about five inches taller than me. She’s got hazel eyes like Muddy and bright red hair. We both had the same shade of red hair when we were younger, but mine went chestnut. I got the blue eyes from Dad.”

The oven beeped and Declan let go of my ankle. I lifted my legs so he could get up and slide in the nachos. When he returned, I put my legs back on him and settled down.

“Do you have siblings?” I asked.

“No. Just me.” A phone began to ring.

“Not mine,” I said. “Mine’s on vibrate.”

“That would be mine.” He made no move to get up. “It can go to voicemail.”

“What if it’s important?”

“Nothing is more important than this moment. With a gorgeous woman wearing my shirt, sitting on my couch.”

I smiled.

The oven timer beeped, and Declan once again got up. I followed this time. I refilled our wine glasses while Declan served us and then we took our plates back to the couch.

“Well, dig in. I hope it’s good,” he said.

“It’s perfect,” I said before I even took a bite.

We fell silent while we devoured the nachos. When I’d had my fill, I pushed my empty plate away and settled back against the couch.

“Your turn,” I said as I took a sip of wine.

“My turn what?”

“You get to explain your tattoos and their meanings.”

“The horseshoe,” he pointed to the spot on his chest, “is for luck. I got it when I was eighteen. Riding motorcycles and roping calves . . . there was a good shot I was gonna find an early grave, ya know? I’m not superstitious by any means, but I thought, what the hell.”

“Kind of like a talisman.”

“Exactly.”

“And the arm brand?”

“Drunken stupidity.” He laughed. “My best friend has one too.”

“Ah, so it’s not just me and my friends who make drunken mistakes.”

“Nope.” He looked at me. “This is nice.”

“Yeah. It is.”

“Kinda feel like I’m shafting you though.”

I raised my brows. “You haven’t shafted me yet. Well, not tonight anyway.”

He grinned, but then his smile slipped. “No, I mean, this is great, don’t get me wrong. But you deserve more.”

“More than what? Good nachos, good conversation, good sex?”

“Good? Better than good,” he said.

“You’re right. The nachos were diabolical.”

He pinched my toe, causing me to laugh. “I meant you deserve a real date.”

“This is a real date.”

“No, this is the kind of thing you do when you’re settled with someone. Cozy night at home. You know, that kind of thing. And we’re not settled.”

“No, we’re not.” I sighed. “Look, it is what it is. We can’t really be out and about in town. This is fine. Better than fine.”

He ran his hand up and down my calf. “I still feel like you deserve more.”

“That’s sweet,” I said. “But if I’m being honest, I don’t want to do anything like it’s normally done. I played by the rules. I got burned.”

“What rules?”

“The relationship rules. But I don’t want to talk about my past. Not when our present is so good. Let’s no spoil it, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Speaking of sweet.” It was my turn to get up. I went to the bag I’d brought over and pulled out a pastry box. “I got us a little tart medley.”

Declan’s phone rested on the counter next to the bag. It was lit up with a voicemail. I grabbed it and brought it and the box to the couch. I handed him his cell.

“Thanks,” he said, glancing at the screen. “It’s my buddy. I’ll call him back later. See? Nothing that needs my immediate attention.”

“Your buddy?”

“From the rodeo circuit.”

I opened the box and lifted one of the banana cream tarts toward Declan. A glob of pudding fell onto his lap.

He raised his brows. “Well, this could get interesting.”

I scooped the pudding off his lap and stuck it into my mouth. “I’m game if you are.”