Page 241 of Ride a Cowboy

Mark’s hands flew to her head, tangling in her hair, tightening around the tresses almost painfully. The sensation drove her, encouraged her to take more. To take it all.

For several feral moments, they took their pleasures, heedless of their surroundings. The sounds of the city were overshadowed by slapping flesh and deep groans. Matt came first, his fingers gripping her hips tightly. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d left finger-sized bruises on her skin. She loved them, wore them with pride, jokingly called them her war wounds.

Mark came next, the first spurt of come splashing against her throat, awakening her own building climax. She moaned when Matt touched her clit. Both men had quickly learned the secret to her release. She trembled as Mark’s flesh began to deflate. She released him and then came, shuddering almost violently.

Mark backed away, his hands still supporting her head. She was sweating, panting, her skin too sensitive to the touch.

She jerked when Matt withdrew from her body and then bent over to lift her. “It’s okay,” he soothed.

He carried her to her bed. Both men took turns washing her as she lay on the mattress in a state of boneless, sated relief. Finally, they crawled in next to her. It was a tight fit, her double mattress a far cry from the king-size beds they’d shared in Wyoming. Her men were big; it stood to reason all their beds were big too.

She’d just about drifted off to sleep when Mark’s deep voice dragged her painfully back to reality. “We’re flying out in the morning.”

“What?”

Mark placed a soft kiss on her head. “We have to go home, Bridget. We’ve been away from the ranch for too long. We didn’t want to leave until we knew you were safe. With the trial over and the judge behind bars…”

She nodded, had known this moment was coming. That knowledge didn’t make it any easier. “I understand.”

Mark tipped her face up to his. She tried to force a smile, but failed. Her heart was breaking.

“Darlin’, we were going to ask you to come home with us. We even bought you a ticket. We wanted you to move to Wyoming and start a life with us.”

“Wanted? Past tense?”

She felt Matt shrug behind her, his fingers tracing light patterns on her hip. “You’ve been offered your dream job, Bridge. We’d never take that away from you, never ask you to give that up.”

Mark looked around the room. The lights from the street cast more than a dim glow in the room. Mark had remarked on how it never truly got dark his first night in the city. She’d laughed and told him how much she’d freaked out her first night in the woods when she realized she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face.

Mark glanced toward the window, the sounds of traffic on the street below filling the room. Horns blared, large trash trucks clattered, voices carried. “Your life is so different from ours. I don’t think I realized just how much until we landed in New York. We don’t have a lot to offer that can compete with this. The museums, the lights, the people, the restaurants. You could spend a lifetime in this city and never get bored. There are thousand things to do here on any given night, while I can name about five outlets for entertainment back home and some of those are only once-a-year deals.”

“You guys find your fun in a different way. Riding the horses, sitting in the gazebo and watching the sunset, taking long walks in the woods. That’s nothing to sneeze at, you know? That stuff’s really special. Nice.”

Matt chuckled. “My, how the tables have turned. The country mouse is impressed with the city, while the city girl finds joy in the country. Who’da thunk it?”

They laughed softly, until silence fell between them once more.

“So you aren’t going to ask me to come with you?”

Mark sighed. “Darlin’, it’s taking every ounce of strength in my body not to get down on my knees and beg you to come back with us. You know how we feel. The decision has to be yours. We can’t live in New York City. We just can’t.”

Matt moved closer, his chest pressing against her back in a way she’d grown to love. She wasn’t sure how she’d be able to sleep alone in her cold bed. “It’s not fair of us to ask you to do anything. You’d be the one making all the sacrifices, all the changes.”

“So if I stay here,” she started, then her words failed her. If she stayed here, what? Her heart ached, but she forced herself to finish. “If I stay here, it’s over?”

Mark cupped her cheek. “We could try the long-distance thing, but how long do you think that would last? Our days off are few and far between. These last two weeks are the longest we’ve ever been away from the ranch in our lives. You’re starting a new position with the paper. Chances are your vacation time will be limited too.”

“There’s always phone sex,” Matt suggested. While Mark was the voice of reason, the calm, practical one, Matt led with emotion. In this case, she felt more like Matt. She wanted to be impractical, to say they could make this relationship work despite the distance. She couldn’t do it.

She shook her head. “No. Mark’s right. It wouldn’t work. All or nothing.”

Mark kissed her forehead. “God, darlin’, I’m sorry. We were stupid to live in the moment, to walk into this blindly ignoring the outcome.”

“We weren’t wrong. I’ve lived every moment of the last seven months on borrowed time, knowing I could be killed at any second. I wouldn’t have missed our time together for all the money on earth. I don’t regret a single thing we’ve done.”

Matt’s lips brushed a soft kiss on her shoulder. “Me either, Bridget. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. To us.”

Mark and Matt had given her far more than she could ever say. They had a quiet, confident air that was charming, irresistible, so unlike the other men she’d dated in her life. They’d opened her eyes to a world she didn’t know existed—a world of horses and nature and peace. Of laughter and gazebos and off-the-charts amazing sex.

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