“Jesus Christ." My patience snaps. "Would you quit calling me a liar? I’m trying to explain—”
“You don’t owe me anything, Wes. I don’t need an explanation, okay? We’ve always had an expiration date on this thing.”
I wanted her to talk before. Now, she won’t shut up long enough for me to get a damn word in.
I step further into the room, crowding her against the table. “Do I need to shut you up with my cock, or will you behave and let me talk?”
Her chin tips up defiantly, but her mouth stays shut, jaw clenched tight.
I pinch her chin gently between my thumb and forefinger. “I’m not in love with Hannah. I told her I wasn’t interested in gettingback together because there was someone else I had feelings for. I thought it would be cruel to tell her that in a room full of people—right in front of the woman I’m falling for.”
Sawyer’s blue eyes go wide. She tries to look away, but her chin is still caught in my grip and I’m not about to let her go.
Her throat bobs as she swallows. “Don’t you think we’re too old to be dragging this thing out when we both know it can’t go anywhere?”
Did I believe that?
No. I didn't.
We'd been together for mere weeks, but she had seen the parts of me I'd buried under suits and quiet compliance for over a decade. And I'd seen her just as clearly. I met her fire with my own and loved every second of it.
I arc my thumb along her jaw and stare into the bottomless depths of her eyes, every inch of my skin prickling with the need to have her right now. “I’m old enough to know better than to throw away something this good and pretend it’s nothing.”
Her lips part—stunned, caught off guard by my words.
"Oh."
Well, that shut her up.
“Yeah,oh. If you’d have let me talk sooner, you could have saved your voice for something more entertaining, like screaming my name.”
She drops her eyes as her cheeks go pink. “I shouldn’t have—”
I shut her up with a finger against her lips.
“I’ll take you every single way I can have you. Sweet. Sassy. Wild. Gentle. It doesn’t make a difference to me. I’ll want you regardless.”
I grip her hips and lift her onto the narrow table before ravishing her mouth with mine. Her legs wrap around my waist, and I dig my fingers into the flesh of her backside as her lips part on a heady sigh that sends blood straight to my cock.
My hands slide under her sweatshirt, and I follow the curve of her breast with my thumb, making her shudder under my touch.
She pulls her sweatshirt over her head, and I take a moment to enjoy how soft she looks out here in the warm light of the tack room. She’s practically glowing, an ethereal beauty. Her copper hair falls gently over her shoulder, and I reach out to tuck it behind her ear before leaningdown to suck her nipple into my mouth while my hand grasps her other breast.
When she squirms, I leave a trail of kisses up her neck and find her lips again, soft and pliant and warm. Her arms wrap around my neck, pulling me closer as I slowly devour her. She tastes like whiskey, and the richness of it makes me want her even more than I already do.
I want this woman in the worst way possible. I want more than just her body. After weeks of trying to convince myself that we were just having a good time, she’s taken my heart, and I’m dying to have hers in return.
"This means something to me, Sawyer.Youmean something to me. I won't let a misunderstanding ruin it. Let me make it up to you."
She nods, eyes wide, and I claim her mouth with mine once more. Her tongue glides past my lips, and I growl low in my throat. It only serves to spur her on. Her fingers play with the hem of my undershirt, and then she’s tugging it over my head, desperate to have her skin against mine. My shirt lands on the floor, and I immediately yank her sweatpants off in one smooth motion.
My hands trail down her arms, my fingers threading through hers before I pin them above her head in a tangle of bridles. My eyes snag on the rope that hangs on the wall behind her.
Before I can rethink it, I capture her wrists in one hand and grab the rope with my other. Once it’s in place, I tighten the lariat and wrap it around her wrists a few more times for good measure, knotting it before I attach it to the hook again, stringing her up in front of me.
Her eyes are alight with desire, and I’m so damn hard it hurts. Her back arches and her bare breasts thrust forward, her sex, swollen and begging for attention, as the flush of her desire creeps up her chest.
“Damn, Red. I can’t take my eyes off you. You’re so damn pretty trussed up like that, pussy ondisplay for me.”
