Page 12 of Wild and Unruly (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #3)

bonnie

I’m acting braver than I actually am as I place his hat on my head and bend back down to kiss him, my hands able to freely roam into his slightly long hair.

He moves his mouth against mine, his hand rubbing up and down my back, pulling me as close to him as he possibly can and making my insides heat at a rapid pace. I don’t believe I’ve ever felt the need to get so physically close to someone in my life.

But with Stetson, I can’t seem to get enough, and I want to have all of his attention and his hands on me at all times.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since he took me in that hallway yesterday and made me forget how to even breathe properly.

Then I took his hat? His hat?! Like a dummy. Everyone knows that once you place a cowboy’s hat on your head, you’re basically giving them the green light that you want to go to the next level .

Which I do.

But still, it’s the principle of the thing.

I desperately want to take his shirt off, but I’m worried the bark on the tree will scratch him up. I run my hands down his arms and reach the hem of his shirt, pushing it up and running my fingertips over his well-defined stomach.

“No fair. Men can just, like, have abs without even trying.”

Stetson coughs a laugh, and I realize I said that thought out loud. Oh well. Still true. “Hey, I try.”

“Sure, honey.” I pull his mouth back to mine, shutting him up and ignoring my own dialogue that I can’t seem to stop streaming from my mouth.

I realize that his hands have pushed my shirt up until it’s right beneath my bra, and I do him a favor by holding his hat in one hand and gesture for him to take off my shirt. We successfully get it off, and he pulls me back into him as I replace the hat.

His lips attach to my neck, and he moves down onto my bare chest. I can’t tell if the sweat I’m producing is due to the sun or the heat we have between us.

“If this was a book, the heat would be from us, so I’m just going to go with that.”

Stetson chuckles deeply, and I pinch my eyes closed. “I never knew the random thoughts that pop out of your mouth would turn me on, but it’s working.”

I bite my lip. “Well, if you were kissing me more, then I wouldn’t be talking so much.”

Fucking bold, Bonnie . Damn.

I’m proud of myself for that one.

Stetson’s heated gaze meets mine, and he grins wickedly. “Well, now that’s a toss-up. As much as I love what comes out of your mouth, I’d much rather put something in it. ”

My jaw drops at the brazen words, and that’s exactly what he wants as he puts his mouth back on mine and sucks my tongue into his mouth.

Holy…hell.

Who is this man, and where has he been all my life?

We turn, and he lays me on the ground, taking care to tip his hat forward. I’m now essentially blindfolded and on the ground, allowing this man to ravish me, and I don’t even know who I am right now.

“This okay, Bo? Be honest.” His voice is rough with need, and I lift a hand up, giving him a thumbs-up.

Suddenly, his mouth comes down on my thumb, making my lips part in shock, and I lift my head, tipping the hat up to see him lying over me. His shirt is gone, and I take a moment to enjoy the sight.

“I need verbal confirmation.”

“Verbal confirmation,” I repeat, mostly because it’s the only thing I can do right now when all I want is to rip my jeans off and spread myself for this man.

“You have to say it’s okay. You have to tell me I’m not hurting you or moving too fast.”

“It’s not too fast.”

He hesitates and I worry maybe I’m pushing him, maybe he’s not ready. “Stetson, if you’re not ready for this step, we can stop.”

His gaze meets mine, and I’ve never seen a look like that on any man before. It makes me feel like I’m going to melt into a puddle.

“Bo.” He swallows and licks his lips. “I’m trying real hard to hold back, but if you tell me it’s okay, I’m about to strip these jeans off and taste you until you’re screaming my name loud enough for the neighbors to hear.”

I frown for a moment and look around at the empty woods, then look back to Stetson, who raises an eyebrow and nods. “Exactly.”

I sit up further until we’re almost chest to chest, and I give him a long kiss, pulling us back in the moment.

Then, I lie down and start to unbutton my jeans, scooting them down my legs, and watch as Stetson takes the job into his own hands and slides my boots and jeans off.

Then he reaches up and tears my panties down my legs, leaving me completely exposed.

I can tell by looking at him that it would be relieving for him to take his own jeans off, but then he looks at me and says, “Lie back. Lay the hat over your eyes.”

“Over my eyes?”

His eyes hold mine as he says, “I want you to focus only on my touch.”

Holy heck, this is actually happening.

I do as I’m told. I feel him move my thighs up and out of the way, lying them on his shoulders, and I have a brief thought that I’m so glad I got a pedicure last week.

“Honey, I’m not focusing on your toes.”

I pinch my eyes shut at the realization that I said that out loud, but the worry over embarrassing myself ends abruptly when his tongue hits my core.

I feel my muscles tense and feel his hands come and wrap around my hips, holding me to him as he kisses over my mound and down over my clit before licking my core again.

I let out a rough breath of air and focus on the feel of him working me over. It was sadly not going to take much to get me to the end, but I was enjoying every little second of what this man’s tongue was doing to me.

I reach for something, anything to hold while I let him take care of…whatever he needs to take care of. I let a moan out, and he hums back in a new kind of communication I didn’t know existed.

He lifts me higher, holding me while his tongue drives forward, making me gasp and moan louder.

Finally, my hands find his, and he manages to hold on to my hands, pulling me closer and closer.

His tongue works in and out, leaving me breathless, and when he lets go of one of my hands, I let it wind into his hair while his fingers find my clit.

The magic the man works over me has me breathless in seconds, and I moan and gasp as I come harder than I’ve ever come in my life. For a few seconds, he continues to work me over until I’m trembling so hard I’m afraid my muscles are going to freeze up.

“Well, if they do, I’m excellent at massage.”

I’m still lying there breathless when sunlight hits my eyelids again, and I see Stetson placing his hat on his own head, looking down at me with a satisfied grin on his face.

He lies down beside me, resting on one elbow and reaching over, cupping my jaw, and placing firm but sweet kisses on my mouth. I’m still lying there in just my bra as his hand moves down over my stomach and pulls me closer.

“You know you’re fucking gorgeous, right?”

I blush—actually blush—after what he’s done to me, and lift a hand to my forehead, shaking my head with a crazy smile on my face. “You know your tongue is magical, right?”

“Ah.” He leans back over me, nearly covering me again, and places several kisses all over my face before leaning back to look at me again. I can’t describe the look he’s giving me, and I almost don’t want to, scared I could be wrong. “We’re gonna have some fun together, Bo. Just wait and see.”

Smith Performance Horses had a brand-new facility, its old barn nowhere to be seen, and a new, huge, and shiny barn sat where it used to be. At the front of the entrance to the barn are white columns that are as big as the ones at the White House.

It’s excessive and showy and clearly spent using the money he takes from his poor, na?ve clients. I would know. I used to be one of them.

Walking inside, there’s a hallway that leads to the actual barn area, and I stop in horrified surprise to see a large trophy case extending what has to be twelve feet to take up one side. There are belt buckles and trophies, pictures of clients in the winner’s circle, and ribbons by the excess.

So much so that they’ve lined the bottom of the case with them.

If I were a new client walking in here, not knowing the truth about this facility and the team that ran it, I would be mesmerized by this display.

I blink and turn to walk away, but then something catches my eye.

Right there in the middle is a picture of me on my horse, smiling wide. We’re in the circle, with my brother and parents beside me and Richard Smith on the other side. Tommy was even in the picture, but back then, he was showing like the rest of us, not yet training.

“Good times, huh?” His voice hits me, and I cringe, quickly placing my reporter smile on before turning in Tommy’s direction.

“Oh, yeah.” I nod toward the trophy case. “This is quite the display.”

“We’ve come a long way.” He smirks, and I take him in. I don’t quite remember him being good-looking. He was a gangly teenager when I met him, and my brother was always there to intervene. But now, he stood tall and broad-shouldered, his crisp white cowboy hat setting a contrast against tan skin.

“Well, I can definitely see that.” I hitch my bag higher on my shoulder, and he reaches out a hand for me to shake.

“I can’t believe it’s been so long since you were here. It’s been what, seven or eight years?” he asks, holding my hand for a second too long before letting go.

I tell myself to chill out, that I don’t need to make a big deal out of that second, and nod my head. “Something like that.”

“Well, come on, Ms. Reporter, I’ll show you around.” He gives me a charming smile and I tip my head, smiling at his joke.

I know he’s a snake, so it’s crazy to see the facade he puts on to charm people. It was good. Really good.

As we walk, he introduces me to the staff, and they give polite nods before walking away. It’s weird. The staff at Three Rivers all stopped and talked with me, bright, happy, relaxed smiles on all of their faces. Tommy’s staff seems…stiff. Uncomfortable.

And I don’t think it’s my presence doing it.

“We’ve got over one hundred horses in training as of yesterday, actually.”

“One hundred?” I lift my brow and try to conceal my disbelief. “So, you must have a fleet of trainers who work for you. ”

“Only two other trainers work at this facility aside from myself,” he states as if it were a point of pride. I would have called it a point of stupidity.

“So, three trainers, one hundred horses…you ride roughly thirty-three horses a day?” The math was absolutely not adding up.

But he grins and nods. “Just about. Some horses I give breaks to. All our horses are ridden five days a week, and some are ridden by the clients on off days.”

“Still, that’s a lot of work,” I comment, holding up my phone a little higher, the recorder set already. He smiles at the sight of it. “How do you manage to run the barn and train?”

“Well, time management is something I’m good at, and keeping on top of the staff so I don’t have to worry about anything else is very important to me. They know what happens if they don’t get their work done.”

Thankfully, we’re still walking down the alleyway, so I can nonchalantly turn my head to a stall where a horse is hanging its head out. “What happens?”

I turn to him, and he shrugs, and for the first time, that charming smile slips into something…less charming. “They get let go. I don’t have time for people who can’t follow rules. This is a serious business. I need serious staff.”

I try and picture CT saying something like that about Three Rivers and can’t even fathom it.

Yes, they run a successful business, but maybe part of that success was because they were a family, both blood and not.

The hired hands they kept were always around, joking and laughing like they were family.

I make a mental note to add that to the article.

The horse with its head hanging out the window catches my attention, and I move over to him. “Do you mind?” I gesture, petting the horse, and his smile slips.

“Uh, no. It’s fine.”

I place my hand on the horse’s forelock and smooth it down, moving it aside to scratch its forehead. The horse barely moves, doesn’t lift its head to smell my hand, just hangs there like it would have after the vet has come to check their teeth or to do some other medical work.

I feel my heart rate tick up and turn to Tommy. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine.” Tommy places a smile on his face. “Just got done working, is all. He’s tired. Can I show you the outdoor arena?”

He places a hand on my back to usher me forward, and in that split second, I have to make the hard call to leave this horse here, to let Tommy lead me out, even with that horse’s image stuck in my mind.

Because the bigger picture was that I needed to take this whole operation down, not just save one horse.

If I play it right, I’ll be able to save every horse in this barn and find a way to put Tommy behind bars.