Page 7 of My Cowboy Boss (Lucky River Cowboys #2)

Flint

As we’d walked, Arizona had mentioned how much she and her sister struggled with money and how they’d hurt emotionally. I think about how she’d reacted when her beat up old car wouldn’t start.

Maybe like my family and I are doing, she’s just trying to do the best she can in life. When she says she just wants someone to hug her sometimes, I take a step closer to her.

She doesn’t move away and when I wrap my arms around her, a long sigh escapes her. I tighten my hold. I’m strong and my back is broad. I would make a fine shield for this woman. I could stand in the way and the bad stuff lobbed her direction could hit me instead.

The thought shocks me. I don’t know why it does. I reckon it’s been brewing for a while, these feelings of mine that I didn’t want to poke at and examine. This woman is important to me, and despite what I know now, I think she’s a good person.

I don’t know why she’s lying but I’m willing to trust that there’s a solid reason for her doing so.

As I’m thinking these things my body starts reacting. My cock surges, giving me a hell of a hard on. My length presses against her and she still doesn’t move away. That’s a kind of torture right there. The sweet kind I don’t mind experiencing.

But not here. Not right by the barn where everyone can see us. I’m not ashamed of holding her. Of wanting to kiss her.

It’s my brothers. They’d tease the hell out of her. Not from a mean spiritedness because they’re not like that. But they’d treat her like she was a soon-to-be sister-in-law and they can be a little overwhelming when they come at someone all at once.

Taking her hand, I pull her along after me until we’re behind the barn away from prying eyes.

“I’m sorry you had a bad day,” I say softly. “I want you to be happy.”

She bites her lower lip.

I run my thumb across it and her eyes widen. “I also want you to leave here today not looking like you got ravaged but that’s not going to happen if you don’t go now.”

She touches my shirt, her fingers toying with the top button. “What if I want to look like I got ravaged?”

Did I hear her correctly? “What?”

She repeats what she said, then adds, “Last night, I had a dream about you.”

My cock gets harder if that’s possible. “What did you dream?” I ask in a thick voice.

“I dreamed I was here in the office looking out the window. My back was to the door. You came in without me hearing you and walked up behind me and cupped my breasts.”

Color floods her cheeks and she rests her forehead against my chest, her voice muffled. “And then…then…”

“Don’t stop before you get to the good parts,” I say, tipping her chin up.

“You…um…you pinched my nipples and used your hold on them to turn me around to face you. I probably shouldn’t be dreaming about things like that.”

“I’ve dreamed about you, too,” I admit.

“You have?”

I nod, “I have, and in my dreams, I know what you taste like.” I put my hand on her waist and pull her tight against me. “It’s too public here so for now, this is the only taste I can let myself have.”

Lowering my head, I take her lips and claim her sweet softness, caressing her hips as I glide my tongue across hers.

She moans and opens up to me. My temptation. My woman.

We dance through the heat between us and I’m ready to throw her across my shoulder, beat my chest and run away with her. It’s a primal uprising in my brain and body that doesn’t surprise me. She was mine the minute I saw her but my brain didn’t know what my heart instinctively did.

I lift my head. I have to. I’m less than a second away of thinking only with my cock and then we’d put on quite the show should anyone stumble across us.

“Flint!” Wilder calls my name from somewhere in the distance.

Arizona tenses and immediately smooths her hair. “I should get going. I’m leaving early today.”

“Wait. Tomorrow is Saturday.”

She nods.

“Your day off. Come over and go horseback riding with me.”

Arizona doesn’t even hesitate. “I’ll be here.”

I walk her to her car, then see what Wilder wanted.

Later that evening, I’m packing a picnic basket, and realize I’m humming, excited that she said yes, excited to spend time with her. I set some napkins in the basket then I realize why I’m excited.

It’s next level stuff that has me feeling this way. During all those years stuck in The Gentle Children’s Home, I kept thinking that maybe there was someone that a ragged little boy could love forever.

And now I’ve found her.

Arizona

I strip off the clothes I was wearing and dump them on the bed with the others. Nothing seems right. In my bra and panties, I stare at the pile, then realize why I’m troubled.

These are Aspen’s clothes. And for today while I’m with Flint, I don’t want to be faking it as the woman with the business degree who knows how to handle an office. I want to be me, the head-in-the-clouds dreamer who loves books.

Leaving my sister’s things on her bed, I walk into my room and take out jeans and a t-shirt. I’m in the middle of deciding how to wear my hair when I think that the time with Flint today might not be what I hope for.

We’d started our walk because he said his parents thought I needed a tour of the ranch. He was trying to make feel better after seeing me crying.

Maybe the invitation to go horseback riding is part of that. Him wanting me to feel better. I frown. No…he kissed me and he also said he’d dreamed about me.

Troubled, I get a pair of sneakers and sit on the sofa to put them on. “But that’s physical.” I glance at Panda. “Maybe today is a work thing and yesterday was spur of the moment for him. If that’s true, then this could be nothing more than sex.”

Panda’s tail twitches.

“Am I overthinking?”

My cat meows and stalks across the sofa to rub against me.

I pet her silky fur. “Yeah, you’re probably right. But if it’s just sex, am I okay with that?” I scratch beneath her chin. “No answers huh? Me either.”

There are rumblings in my heart that bother me. A longing for some deeper connection. But the life I’ve presented to him is a lie. How can there be anything deeper between us?

“It’s not like I’ll say no to the sex.” Panda walks away. “You haven’t seen how handsome he is,” I tell her, following her into the kitchen to give her a treat. “But it’s also because under all the gruffness, he really is sweet.”

I leave her to her snack and head out to my beater car. It’s difficult to concentrate on the trip because I can’t prevent my brain from coming up with various scenes involving me and a very naked Flint.

At the ranch, I park and get out and there’s Flint walking down off the porch toward me. His body is strong and fit. He could easily toss me over his shoulder…he could easily hold his body aloft over mine before he lowers himself…

He smiles at me.

Lowers himself… ooh …right now he’s wearing snug jeans. I glance down the length of his legs and back up to another length of his. Hellooo big boy.

“Come on, I’m carrying everything we need.”

And then some. Oh. He means the picnic bag and blanket.

I’m divided. I do want this man. And I’m thinking sex with him would be phenomenal.

But I’m also thinking I’d be better off if this is not a date because I like him so much.

And if I get ousted because of my lie, then it’s gonna hurt.

More so if I get in too deeply with him which I fear, very much so, that it’s already an issue.

“Let me help you,” he says once the horses are ready to go. He walks around the mare to stand behind me and grips my waist with his big hands. But he doesn’t lift me. He holds me still and I angle my head to look at him.

“Are you nervous?” he asks.

“A little. I’m not sure of myself around horses.”

“You don’t have to be afraid. I’m right here.” His hands slide down the sides of my hips leaving heated trails. “I’ll help you get on now.” He lifts me like it takes him no effort at all, and I swing into the saddle.

He grins up at me, handsome and so sexy he should come with a warning. “And I’ll help get you off when you’re ready.”

“Is now a good time?” I answer with a laugh.

He laughs too and settles himself into his saddle. “Ride with me, baby.”

We ride for what feels like the entire day and when we stop my ass feels like it had a beating.

I groan as he helps me dismount in front of a sprawling oak tree.

He unloads a picnic bag and spreads a blanket beneath the canopy of branches.

I move to help, and my body instantly protests. “My ass is sore,” I complain.

“I’ll rub away the aches and pains.”

I fake gasp. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I’ll show you.” He motions for me to come closer. “Let’s go fornicate.”

I laugh when he wags his eyebrows. “You took the thought right out of my head.”

“Then get over here. It’s time for me to make my dream come true.” He grips the back of my neck. “I’m going to stop wondering what you taste like and see for myself.”

“But you already know because you kissed me earlier and—oh!” I blush as his meaning sinks in. This is it. The moment I’ve fantasized about.

His hand is warm on my skin as he slowly lowers his head. My nipples instantly become pebbles.

He’s soft and gentle at the first brush of his lips across mine. He’s toying with me. Little pecks of touch that aren’t enough to quench my thirst.

I press against him, flush against his swollen cock. He makes a noise, a cross between a growl and warning then he’s devouring me, and these words run through my head… I surrender. I surrender. Take me, cowboy. Taste me.