Page 45 of Bull Rush

“No condom,” I hiss.

“I asked if there was something you wanted to save for him.” I hear him let out a dark chuckle.

But he pulls out of me and grabs his cock, pressing it against my cheeks as he uses his hand to finish himself, and the last few surges of his warmth seep down between them.

“Fuck me. Look at you covered in me. Just like you should be.” He uses his come like lube and his finger presses into my ass one last time. His free hand grabbing a fistful of my hair and pulling me straight again.

“I’m gonna get my money’s worth and fill every single fucking part of this gorgeous body. Every fucking day. Until you’re so fucking broken for me, you can’t even fathom coming without me.” His lips make their way down the side of my neck, punctuating the descent with kisses. He bites my shoulder as he pulls away from me. “Now, go get cleaned up so you can put on your dress. You can go back to your guests at the inn and pretend like you didn’t just enjoy your husband fucking you like an obedient little wife.”

I pull my jeans up while he watches, tucking himself back in and buttoning his pants once more. His eyes follow me as Ileave, and I take my time doing it, half wishing he’d come with me and take me again on the bed.

I need to get a grip.

When I get back to the master bathroom, I collapse against the sink, taking in a deep breath and my freshly fucked appearance in the mirror. I’m fucked—in every possible way—because I hate my husband to my core, but I’m also addicted to everything he gives me. One little taste won’t be enough to last me as long as I’ll need it to in a life without him.

TWENTY

Ramsey

After I helpwith chores in the stables, I take a break, sitting on one of the fences. The sun’s setting, and the ranch has that perfect golden-hour glow. It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth when it looks like this. I can understand exactly why my family settled here decades ago, and why my parents held on so tight even as their interests drew them away from it. If I have to leave here, walk away from it, and give it to her, I will. I’ll know it’s in good hands but…

I want to stay. Every moment I’ve been back on this ranch has made me sorry I ever left. I just don’t know how I could have done things differently. Football was the only thing I was ever good at, and staying here, reliving finding my parents in a pool of their own blood on the front porch every day I walked past it, would have driven me mad. It reopened the wound every time I saw the stains in the boards. The ones no amount of scrubbing could ever get out.

Now, at least, they’ve been replaced. The old wooden porch swapped with a modern one, the door that had been splattered with blood tossed for a gorgeous hand-carved piece one of the woodworkers in town created, and the rare flowers that my mother had always grown along the front, the ones that wilted so quickly in her absence, replaced by wildflowers—Hazel’s favorite. But I could still see the good moments—my dad, sitting at the dining table Hazel kept, smiling as my mother made her casserole in the kitchen. Hazel updated the counters to quartz and replaced the backsplash with a color she loves, but the mosaics my mom and she picked out together still sit over the kitchen sink.

This whole place is a patchwork of the people I love, their mark on everything from the house to the stables to the inn, and I’m not about to let it go without a fight. One I imagine is going to be hard fought when I see Hazel leave the inn and cross the lawn to the house in a huff. She’s going to make me crawl on my hands and knees over broken glass for any glimmer of a chance at making things right. A chance I feel like is fading faster than I can fight for it.

But for her and this place, I’d do just about anything.

I pull my cowboy hat off the post and put it back on my head before I hop off the fence. I drop the last of the gear back in the stables, take off my gloves, and bid Wolfsbane and the rest of the horses a goodnight before I wave off Kell and Elliot for the evening too. Then I sneak back into the house quietly, hoping I can get a shower in, then find her to spend a couple of hours with my face between her thighs, apologizing for how rough I was with her.

But I only get as far as the door of the master bath when I find her. The massive copper tub that sits in front of the even larger picture window is drawn with hot water. She’s spread out in it, looking like a goddess, her blue hair draped over theback, and her hands gripping the sides. Her eyes are closed, and steam rolls off the surface of the water as she takes it all in. Her chest rises and falls, her breasts cresting over the water, and her nipples bob in and out of it with each breath.

“Long day?” I ask. She barely startles, like she knew I was there and didn’t care but just didn’t expect me to speak.

“Incredibly long. That woman with the kid is leaving tomorrow, but she wanted to air all her grievances first. My asshole ex-husband didn’t appreciate the dinner I cooked him that took two hours to make. There’s a leak in one of the radiators in the drawing room, and Albert’s off for the week.”

I cross the room to the tub, kneeling down at the side of it and taking my hat off, placing it at my knees. One of her eyes pops open as she presses the other tighter shut to study my behavior, but she stays quiet like she’s waiting for my thoughts on her situation.

“The good news is she’ll be gone soon. I can look at the radiator tomorrow and at least patch it until Al can take care of it. I don’t know about your ex-husband, but your current husband loved the dinner.”

“The dinner or what came after it?” Her eyes close again.

“Both.” I clear my throat. “I said some things in the heat of the moment, Haze, that I—”

Her hand, perfumed and damp from the bath, covers my mouth, and she shakes her head.

“Don’t ruin it by apologizing.”

I can’t see the emotion in her eyes, but her lips curl at the edge, and my heart rate thrums in response.

“I hadn’t planned on apologizing, just keeping the promise I made earlier.” I kiss her fingertips, and her hand slips off my mouth and down my chest.

“Hmm,” she hums in response. “I was just thinking that I wish I had my toys, sincesomeonestill hasn’t given them back.”

“Let me back in my bed, and they all go back where I found them.”

Her eyes open ever so slightly and drift over my form.

---