Page 33 of Smokin’ Situation (Masked Men of Sage Springs #3)

Tristan

Rhey was curled up in the passenger seat by the time I pulled the truck into the oversized garage, where all the ranch trucks were stored during the winter.

Marty had moved all of them in during the fire because of the ash spread.

And since I didn’t feel like hiking the keys back to the lodge right now, I returned his truck to where I’d borrowed it from and pocketed them to return tomorrow.

“Sweetheart, we’re home,” I whispered, leaning over the console to unbuckle her seatbelt. She stirred, curling up tighter against the doorframe where she’d leaned her head after we left Baker’s.

Guess both Thomas sisters were going to need carried to bed tonight. But at least I got to join mine in the bed, unlike my coworker who was clearly smitten with Rhey’s younger sister but hadn’t cracked through her hard shell yet.

Reese had watched me interacting with her sister earlier in the night, but we hadn’t really talked much. She was distracted by spending the first half of the night avoiding Baker, and the second half pretending she wasn’t just as attracted to him as he was to her.

But I wasn’t concerned about my friend’s relationship—or lack thereof—right now, I was worried about mine.

Surely it wasn’t normal to be this in sync with someone days after meeting them.

Spending a night out sober wasn’t uncommon for me.

Back when I was in Wyoming, it was usually done spinning a glass of water while I was seated at the bar all night waiting for my former friends, whereas tonight, I’d danced and laughed with this feisty woman until we were both breathless .

A few months ago, I’d dreaded coming back home, feeling like I was starting over, but now, pulling Rhey out of a pickup truck—yet again—felt like returning to Sage Springs was coming home.

There wasn’t any other way to describe it. Meeting her at the festival and then the events of the crazy forty-eight hours that followed were like something out of a movie. I still felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I couldn’t stop myself from falling for her if I tried.

Rhey stirred as I carried her down the path to my cabin, sleepily blinking up at me.

“Did I fall asleep?” Her voice was raspy and low, drowsy with sleep.

“Mhmm.” I nodded, keeping my eyes on the path.

Earlier today, I’d teased her about bending her over the porch railing and ripping her dress off, but now I wasn’t so sure I was in the mood for something frantic.

Rhey had cast a spell over me earlier as we swayed in each other’s arms whenever the music slowed.

Her body curled into mine naturally, feeling like we were one.

It was like this world didn’t seem so out of touch.

She made me crave the feeling of her soft skin beneath my fingertips, of breathing her in and watching her eyes as I slipped inside her.

“It still seems hazy out here,” she whispered, combing her fingers through the hair on the back of my head. I loved how she seemed to want to touch me as much as I wanted to do the same to her.

She’d been the first person I’d let close since my skin grafts healed, and they didn’t seem to bother her.

Jay had been horrified by the ugly pink skin every time he’d peeled back a dressing, both in the hospital and once I was staying at his place.

He never said anything, but I saw the looks in the bathroom mirror, and someone who’d once been my jovial, affectionate brother hadn’t hugged me in months.

Not that my sour mood had lifted until a few days ago, so I guess I couldn’t blame him entirely for being standoffish .

My own mother looked at me with pity and hugged me like I was made of glass, but this gorgeous creature in my arms hadn’t even flinched and touched me like she wanted to. Like she wanted me.

“Sometimes it takes a while for the smoke to dissipate. It was good to control the fire when the winds died down, but it might be a few more days until the smoke clears out so we can see the stars again.”

She arched an eyebrow as I stepped onto the porch, the light next to the door illuminating her grin. “Someone promised to make me see stars earlier. I believe we have a date with a porch railing.”

“Maybe another night,” I said, lowering her to her feet by the front door.

“Why not now?” she asked, nodding toward the rail I’d wanted to bend her over earlier.

“Because the air quality still isn’t great out here, and there are plenty of other places inside that cabin to break in first. But don’t worry, sweetheart, I always keep my promises.”

“Hmm,” she hummed, stepping close and slipping her palm behind my neck. She tugged, and I leaned forward, bracing my hand on the door above her head as she rose to whisper in my ear. “Does my good boy want to lay me out on that kitchen island and have a late-night snack?”

“I am feeling a bit hungry ,“ I growled in her ear, loving the way she kept asking me for what she wanted. It was undeniably sexy when a woman took control of her own pleasure.

I reached beside her hip, turning the door handle and pushing the door in slightly before I grasped the backs of her thighs and lifted her.

She giggled as I carried her across the room, setting her on the edge of the island. I moved to grab the nearly empty fruit basket from behind her, but she put her hand on my chest.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” she giggled, reaching behind her to push the basket off with a sweep of her arm, the two apples that’d been inside rolling across the floor.

Next was the stack of mail I’d brought back with me from the post office, cascading to the floor on the far side of the island.

“And I’ve always wanted to do this,” I responded, placing my palms on her knees and slowly sliding them up her thighs underneath the material of her dress.

Dragging a knuckle down her bare slit when I reached the apex of her thighs, I relished in the breathy moan she let out.

Moving my hands to her hips, I yanked her to the edge of the counter.

“Pretty sure you’ve already done that…multiple times,” she teased, leaning back to brace her palms against the countertop.

“But I haven’t done this,” I responded, backing my hands out of her dress and gripping the fabric on either side of the slit in the material. With one swift yank, the stitches gave way, making a satisfying sound as it ripped to her navel.

“Well, you did promise.”

“And I’ll buy you a dozen more if you let me rip them off you like this,” I growled, yanking again and revealing the swells of her bare breasts. Halle- fucking -lujah for sundresses and no bras.

“Just going to leave it like this?” she asked, looking pointedly at the last few inches of material barely holding the sides of her dress together.

“What do you want from me, Rhey?” I asked, tracing the back of my finger along the underside of one breast, enjoying the breathy whimper she couldn’t keep inside.

“Rip it,” she demanded, tipping her head backward and moaning when the material gave way. I lowered the straps down her arms, leaving the destroyed dress in a puddle beneath her naked body.

“Fuck,” I groaned, taking in how hot she looked perched on the edge of my kitchen island, the moonlight caressing her spectacular curvy body from the window behind me.

“Not yet,” she teased, reaching up to unbutton my top two buttons. She bit the corner of her lip as she toyed with the third button, looking up at me.

“Do it,” I growled, knowing what she wanted .

Her smile grew, and she grasped the sides of my shirt in the opening, the sound of buttons flying making us both laugh as I looked down at the three buttons she’d managed to pop off my shirt.

I reached down to untuck it from my jeans, my hands pushing hers out of the way to rip it the rest of the way open.

“Oh no, your shirt is ruined. Guess you’ll have to take it off,” she laughed, and I shook my head at her, unbuttoning the cuffs and shrugging off the damaged material. “Now the belt.”

She grasped the end of my belt after I unbuckled it, slowly drawing it toward her. I watched as she folded it in half, playfully cracking the leather in front of herself. “Have you ever been spanked, Tripp?”

“There’s a first time for everything,” I mused, unbuttoning my jeans.

Rhey hooked a finger in the waistband of my boxer briefs, teasingly dragging her fingertip across the head of my hard cock. “Maybe I’ll bend you over this island next.”

“Maybe.” I grasped her hand, lifting it to kiss her palm. “But it won’t be tonight.”

Dropping to my knees, I yanked her forward, taking a slow lick up the center of her slit, groaning as I realized exactly how wet she was.

Her fingers dug into my hair, gripping hard and holding me in place as I licked and sucked her sensitive flesh, groaning into her pussy. The sounds of her moans and whimpers just spurred me on, my beard scraping against her skin in a way that was sure to leave marks.

“Oh fuck,” she moaned, cupping the back of my head as she panted, watching me with rapt attention. “Fingers, fuck me with your fingers.”

Leaning back to draw in a breath, I brought two fingers to her pussy, curling them inside until she drew in a sharp breath, letting out a loud moan as she clenched around them .

“Like that, baby?” I asked, knowing I hit the spot when her eyes rolled back in her head, her arms shaking as she struggled to hold herself up. “Are you going to come for me, beautiful girl?”

“Oh God, yes,” she keened, her entire body arching as she fell over the edge, milking my fingers. Once the pulses subsided, I removed them slowly and placed them into my mouth while I watched her catch her breath.

I was hard as fuck, but I’d wait to see if she wanted me to fuck her on the counter or take her back to my bed. With how amped up I was, I was down for both.

“Why are your pants still on?” she laughed, reaching down to yank me toward her by a belt loop.

“Someone hasn’t told me to take them off.” I arched an eyebrow, and she shook her head at me, but her smile showed she liked it when I waited for her to tell me what to do.

“Well, I’m telling you now, lose the jeans and the underwear.”

She sat up, helping me slide the worn denim and cotton down, my hard cock bobbing in the space between us. Her warm palm encircled my shaft, and I groaned, watching her draw me between her spread legs.

“Now I need you to fuck me until you come inside me.”

Slowly shifting my hips forward, I slid through her wetness; the head dipping inside of her. “And if I don’t want to fuck you?”

“Pretty sure you already are,” she whispered, inching forward to take me in further.

“This isn’t fucking, baby. This is me loving on you.

” I hadn’t meant to say that word like this, but I didn’t regret it.

There was nothing more that I wanted right now than to love her with my body.

Show her how addicted I’d become to her.

To the smiles and the way she looked at me.

Even when I wanted to throttle her for putting herself in danger.

I wanted it all with her.

“Then love me.” Her voice was breathy as she wrapped her legs around my waist, drawing me into her fully. I braced my hands on either side of her hips, capturing her lips with mine as I drew back, plunging forward again and again.

Rhey was right there with me, rocking into my movements, gripping my hair, tracing my cheeks with her fingers, digging her nails into my chest, our mouths only parting to gasp in shaky breaths before we dove back in.

“I’m gonna come again,” she whimpered, wrapping her hands around my waist and rocking into my thrusts, clinging to me like she needed me as much as I needed her.

“Let go, sweetheart,” I whispered into her ear, grasping her hips and holding her still while I picked up the pace, pistoning my hips into the cradle of her thighs.

Her neck arched back, her body shaking as she fell over the edge, squeezing me with her release.

“Come in me,” she cried, watching me holding back, my hips faltering with the intense pleasure as the aftershocks of her orgasm rippled around my cock. “Please.”

“Hold on,” I panted, pulling her close and burying my face in her neck as my thrusts picked up.

She wrapped her arms around my waist, her fingers clenching my lower back, beneath the damaged skin.

She dug her nails in as she panted against my chest, little moans escaping her lips with each thrust. Spurred on, I groaned into her neck, loving that she wasn’t afraid to be rough with me.

“Fuck, sweetheart, I love your marks on me.”

Losing myself in the feeling of her body, I groaned against the soft, sweaty skin of her neck, plunging in all the way before I lost myself, emptying myself inside her warm, supple body.

“If that was loving me,” she breathed, pushing the sweaty hair off my forehead. “Then next time, maybe you need to hate me a little.”

I laughed, enjoying the way she giggled along with me. “Not sure that’s possible, but I can give it my best shot.”

“But right now you need to take me to bed,” she yawned, bracing her palms on the counter behind her.

Tracing the back of one knuckle across her breast, I leaned in to kiss her softly before I pulled away .

Leaning down to pull off my boots, I left them with the pile of clothes on the kitchen floor with my socks, jeans and underwear.

Scooping up Rhey’s warm, pliant, naked body, I kept her close as I navigated the path through the dimly lit cabin to my bed. Depositing her on the soft cotton, I smiled, climbing in behind her before I pulled the sheets over our sated bodies.

This was what I’d been missing. A connection with a woman that seemed more than just superficial.

The ability to curl myself around someone I’d just shared something intense with and interlace our fingers on her stomach without it feeling forced.

Without having to ask, I knew she’d be here when I woke up, ready to face whatever tomorrow threw at us.

I knew we still had so many unspoken things between us, but the more time we spent together, the more I craved it. Then there was the not so inconsequential task of figuring out the details around where she’d be living long term, but I wasn’t going anywhere, and I hoped she wouldn’t either.

“See you in the morning, sweetheart,” I whispered, kissing her shoulder and enjoying the way she wiggled her hips to get closer to me.

This living arrangement might be temporary in her eyes, but I was going to put up a fight to convince her she belonged here with me.

It might have been crazy fast and a bit reckless, but what hadn’t been with us at this point?

Maybe we all needed a bit of recklessness in our lives. Rhey was my little bit of chaos. And I’d never regret her.