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‘But, TJ, we’re done with that now.’ It wasn’t a question.

TJ dropped his forehead to hers. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, as if he’d found his own safe space with her. ‘I’m not leaving you. I just got you back.’

Hearing it settled her. Trying to tether somebody who didn’t want to stay was a constantly terrifying task. It was soul-crushing, gruelling work that required encouraging, pleading, and even threatening. ‘I’m not going anywhere, Jesse Jones,’ she said. ‘You’re stuck with me.’

Skye rose onto her toes and took his mouth in a deep kiss, giving everything – all the fear and anxiety and hope she’d carried for him – back into to his care.

TJ’s hands dropped her to ass and squeezed. He used his grip there to pull her up against his hard body. He broke the kiss, but only to trail his lips down her neck. ‘Fuck. I can’t get enough of you, Skye.’

‘Who says you have to?’ Skye tipped her head back, giving him her throat in a gesture that was as natural as it was trusting. That familiar, insatiable need clawed mercilessly through her. Her body was heavy, everything tightly coiled.

TJ pulled open the stall door, ushered her out, and then closed Smokey in behind them. He used his body to walk her backwards, until her back hit the tack room door. His hands dropped to the front of her jeans, but he didn’t move to touch her yet, only whispered, ‘You know, we walked away from an opportunity to have sex in this barn once …’

Skye, too desperate to worry about being caught, opened the door and stepped inside. The smell of leather and oil and feed reached for her over the sharp edge of her desperation. She looked over her shoulder at TJ, said, ‘It would be a pity, don’t you think, to let an opportunity pass twice?’

‘Yes ma’am, I do.’ TJ placed his forearms on the doorway, but he didn’t come in. His green eyes were dark and focused, loving her even as he kept that torturously small distance between them, she knew, to tease her.

Unopposed to teasing him back, Skye took her hat off, but only for long enough to strip. She did so slowly, removing her clothes one piece at a time. It was only when she stood in front of him, gloriously naked, that she put her boots and hat back on.

TJ made that sound deep in the back of his throat; it zipped over her skin, pulling her peaked nipples painfully tight. His hungry gaze travelled slowly over her. ‘You’re fucking perfect, you know that?’

Skye raised her hands to her breasts, but she kept her eyes open and focused on him as she touched herself.

TJ bit off a pained groan. His arms dropped from the doorway. His fists clenched at his sides.

Skye could see his erection, long and hard, straining against his jeans. ‘You’re not gonna win this round, Cowboy,’ she taunted.

TJ just grinned wickedly. ‘Baby, I win this round either way.’ But he gave in to his need to touch her with one last cursed ‘Fuck.’ He stepped into the tack room and kicked the door shut behind him.

Skye had learned how to play the game, how to accommodate his pain without wounding his pride. So, she turned and leaned over a nearby saddle rack, resting her forearms on the leather seat of one of TJ’s old roping saddles, and then, looking back at him seductively, spread her legs wider.

TJ came to her immediately. He ran his hands down her sides before gripping her hip in one hand and sliding the other between her legs. He cupped her, said, ‘Fuck, baby, you’re so wet,’ and pushed two fingers deep inside her.

Skye tipped her hips back, taking more.

‘So greedy,’ TJ rasped. But he gave her what she wanted, and pumped his fingers into her, pushing her higher and higher with each thrust.

Too eager to wait any longer, Skye dropped her fingers to her clit, circling the knot of nerves with no self-consciousness, only desperation.

Her body tightened.

Her breaths became laboured.

That wave came, rising through her with destructive power.

But right as she rose with it, preparing to tumble down over the crest, TJ stopped. He pulled his fingers from her, making her whimper in protest. ‘TJ, please.’

‘Hold on, baby.’ She heard the sound of his zipper lowering. ‘You’re gonna come riding my cock.’

Skye closed her eyes as moisture slicked down her upper thighs. She might have been embarrassed had TJ not slid between her legs at that exact moment, lubricating himself with her. Instead, she whispered, ‘Holy shit.’

TJ grumbled in approval. He guided himself to her and teasingly eased the first inch of his penis into her and stopped.

‘TJ …’

‘Say my name.’

‘Jesse.’