Page 49 of The Rancher’s One and Only

And she felt a warm glow all over her body that was more than just physical. More than just sex.

It was connection. In this physical moment, and that was something she had never experienced before. She was always lost in her head. And no one else was ever lost in quite the same place that she was.

Right now, though, she felt like she was in exactly the same space and time as him. And that was deliciously wonderful. Then he lifted her up off the ground, and she scrunched her face up as she looped her arms around his neck. He held her against his body, naked like that and perfect. And her whole nervous system hummed with it.

He carried her out of the bathroom, through to the bedroom. Oh, she really hadn’t intended on using the bedroom for this. Her pajamas were on the floor. That felt a little bit embarrassing, but if he noticed he didn’t say anything. All he did was lay her down in the middle of the mattress, and look at her. His green eyes were intense, glorious. He was quite literally the most beautiful human being she’d ever seen in her life. No one else came close.

She ached with it. With him. And suddenly, she felt panicked. “I don’t have condoms,” she said. “I don’t… I’ve never had them. I’ve never even been down that aisle.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s true, but that is an issue.”

“It is,” she said.

“I’ve got one. In my wallet. Just give me a second.”

He disappeared from the room for a moment. She gave thanks that he had brought his wallet. Her eyebrows shot up when she heard the door open and close. Then again a couple of minutes later. He came back in, holding his wallet, still completely naked.

“Did you walk out to your truck without clothes on?”

“I did. In the interest of efficiency. If we had guests that would’ve been a problem. But there’s no one here.”

“Oh.”

Of course. There was no one there. No one there but the two of them. For miles.

It felt heartrendingly romantic in ways she couldn’t quite articulate. It was glorious and painful and lovely all at once. She was having so many emotions that she had never dealt with before. And it was both lovely and overwhelming at the same time.

There was also something deeply romantic in the strangest way that he had gone outside naked and barefoot to retrieve condoms because it was that urgent.

He threw his wallet down on the bed upon the pillow, and then brought himself down over her. Her heart climbed up into her throat, expanded there, made it impossible for her to breathe. He cupped her face, holding her chin steady. He liked to do that, and she liked for him to do it. It made her feel secure, and small, and she wouldn’t normally put those two things together, but they existed inside of her together then.

“I’m going to make this so good for you,” he said.

She was about to ask for details. She was about to ask for a map. She was curious—as ever. What did that mean to him? What would it entail? Was there a plan?

But then, she forgot everything because he kissed her neck. Kissed down to the tip of her breast and sucked her nipple into his mouth. Kissed down her stomach and…

Forced her thighs wide.

She was about to protest, about to say she needed some kind of warning, some kind of guidebook, when his mouth came down over the most intimate part of her, and he began to lick her, sucked her like she was the most glorious delicacy he’d ever encountered. Her hips bowed up off the bed, and he reached beneath her, cupping her rear and holding her against his face.

He was not going easy on her. This was not cunnilingus for beginners. This was advanced level.

He licked her deep, and then pushed one finger inside of her. The invasion was unfamiliar, but not unpleasant. It felt like exactly what she was yearning for, aching for, exactly what she didn’t quite have the vocabulary for.

Oh, it was just really hot.

She moved her hips in time with the rhythm of his mouth against her. Relished and reveled in the feel of him. And then suddenly, there was nothing but sensation. He focused all of his efforts on that sensitive bundle of nerves at the center of her thighs, and she felt like she was suddenly on a runaway train. Unable to stop. Unable to control anything. Her pleasure was building to dizzying heights, and then, she shattered. She didn’t have to try, she didn’t have to spin a fantasy in her mind, she didn’t have to move her body a certain way; he did it. All of it. His mouth, his tongue. He lifted his head, and she looked down, his eyes meeting hers, and she had to look away because it was too intense.

Then he kissed his way back up her body, and pressed his mouth to hers.

Her whole body was wracked with an aftershock. He was gorgeous and glorious, and it was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.

He claimed her mouth, kissing her deep, pushing his hand between her legs, and stroking her already sensitive flesh. He pushed his finger back inside of her, and then added another. “I’m not an expert on this, but as far as I know, the first time can be painful.”

“Well, the odds of my hymen surviving for twenty-eight years are low,” she said. She was surprised that she was even able to think, much less get out a sentence. Her lips felt numb. Her body was oversensitized.

“Oh,” he said, frowning. “Well… I still think we should probably go slow.”