Page 56 of Wild, Wild Cowboy

“You weresucha good boy,” she murmured. “I promised. And I want to.Iwant to.”

She said that last part with a ferocity that I didn’t understand, but before I could try to decipher it, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my leaking slit and that effectively put a stop to all brain activity. I whimpered and she parted her lips over the crown and sucked me into her mouth.

It didn’t take long. The woman was a genius with her mouth, and my body was primed and ready to go. With one hand gently kneading my balls, her lips and tongue worked my cock. I came in her mouth and she swallowed every drop.

“Sleep,” she whispered, kissing my forehead.

And for once, I did.

23

ZACK

“The rules of the game are simple,” Liam said. “Get from Pole A to Pole Z before anyone else, with more points than anyone else. Each wicket is five points. Hitting another player’s ball is ten points. Reaching Pole Z before anyone else is twenty points. Making someone bleed is fifty points.”

“Hence the name of the game?” I asked, watching Mateo set up the wickets and poles while Liam explained. They told me it was blood ball, but it looked an awful lot like croquet.

Seb snorted. “No. We call it blood ball because Holly said the four of us playing any game involving wooden mallets and balls, someone was going to bleed. She was right. So we figured we might as well award points for something that was going to happen anyway.”

I glanced at Holly, who stared back at me with a little smirk. I had the feeling she was plotting exactly which part of me would be the first to bleed.

“Don’t look her in the eyes, man,” Mateo muttered, shaking his head. “It’s a trap.”

That only served to pull her attention to him instead of me. His shit-eating grin made me wonder if maybe that was the whole point.

We had decided to stay an extra night at Mercy River Ranch and leave first thing tomorrow morning. It was more for Hurricane Red’s sake than ours, but I had to admit I was in no hurry to end this adventure Hannah and I found ourselves on. For the first time in months, I hadn’t thought about that fucking cliff. It was a relief. And even though I knew it was still there, waiting for me, it felt like there was a forest standing between us here. This road trip was a pause on real life. Here, I had a purpose.

And right now, with Hurricane Red finally getting the rest he deserved, my purpose was blood ball. I felt good about it. After Hannah’s attentions to every aching muscle and itchy scar last night, I had slept like a baby. Even better, I had woken up actually feeling good. I couldn’t remember the last time that had happened.

Hannah had opted out of blood ball, preferring to enjoy the spring weather with a mug of hot tea and a book. But I noticed her spot on the porch swing gave her the perfect viewpoint of our shenanigans.

“A few logistics,” Liam continued. “No carrying a weapon of any sort?—”

“Except the mallet,” Mateo broke in.

“No weapons except the mallet,” Liam agreed. “We don’t take turns. You just get your ball through the wickets and try to keep other players from doing the same. The game ends when the first player knocks his?—”

“Her,” Holly said.

“His or her ball into Pole Z. We stop the game and look at the video to determine who won. Winner is the player with the most points, even if they never made it to Pole Z.” Liam pointedacross the field, to where a camera was set up on a tripod. “There’s the camera. Don’t knock it over. It’s an automatic last place for fucking with the evidence, and you get latrine duty. Got it?”

I nodded. “Got it.”

“I saw the news articles on your injury. It looked brutal.” Jeremiah eyed me. Even odds on whether he was concerned for my health or checking for weaknesses to use to his advantage. “You sure you want to do this?”

“Bronc riding wasn’t my only rodeo event. I also wrestled steers. I think I can hold my own.” Even before the words left my lips, I had the feeling I was going to live to regret them.

Not that I was scared, exactly. It was just that the lack of tattoos that gave me pause, that was all. I had spent time with plenty of people who served in the military, and every last one of them had tattoos. Except for Jack Price, Essie’s twin brother. But Jack Price was a tier one operator with a team that wasn’t allowed to have tattoos.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe it meant nothing at all.

But I suspected it meant exactly what I thought it meant.

Jeremiah, Liam, Seb, Mateo, and Holly exchanged glances and in that glance, something was decided. I hoped it wasn’t my death.

Liam rubbed his hands together. “This should be fun.”

I grinned. “Absolutely, it will be.”

---