Page 11 of Filthy and Fierce

I hold my hand out to her. “Well, can you come over here so I can kiss you?”

She puts her hand in mine, but she doesn’t move in my direction, and the thought of her holding back from me overwhelms me a little. She tilts her head to the side. “You want to kiss me?”

Fuck, how does she not know what she does to me? She makes me want to lose all control. “I want you in my arms. I want to be able to kiss you, and I want to be able to touch you.” I suck in a breath and remind her of earlier. “You said I could have tonight. Well, the ranch starts moving around four in the morning, so I need to have you back in the big house before then.” I look at the clock on the wall. “That only givesme five hours to touch, kiss, and taste every part of your body.”

She crawls over to me and settles herself in my lap. She’s straddling me with her legs on each side of my hips, and my cock is positioned at her entrance. “No. It’s too soon, and I won’t hurt you, Faith. Let me show you all the other ways I can make love to you.”

It’s only after her eyes widen that I realize the words I used, but they couldn’t be more true. I knew when she came in here demanding I sleep up at the big house that my feelings for her ran wide and deep. “But first, give me your lips.”

She leans into me, and when our lips touch, I kiss her like I’ve wanted to since I saw her in the Whiskey Whistler. She moans and whimpers as I stroke my tongue along hers, and I hold her to me, knowing that I’m not going to want to let her go. Not now, not five hours from now, not ever.

CHAPTER 8

FAITH

I overslept. Which is not something you do on a ranch. I walked into my bedroom at four a.m., and I told myself I was going to sleep for an hour, but here it is, ten o’clock, and I feel like I could have slept another five hours.

As I’m walking down to the barn, I have tiny slivers of pain in every muscle of my body. Hell, some muscles I didn't know anything about until last night. But now, as I stretch my body as I walk, I can’t seem to keep the smile off my face, and it stays there until I’m standing outside the barn, a little unsure how to proceed.

Dixon and I decided that one night was all this is going to be. It felt like more when he wouldn’t let me leave, making excuses to kiss me just one more time.

Maybe he’s had a change of heart. Maybe he’ll decide one night isn’t enough, and we can see if we can actually make a go of this… Whatever this is.

I stand outside the office, and I hear my father and Dixon talking about the rodeo this weekend.

I know I need to go in there because it will be embarrassing to be caught eavesdropping outside the door. I pull my shoulders back and wince because even that hurts. I force a smile onto my face and walk in the office, knocking on the open door as I go. “Hey, guys.”

My dad comes over and side-hugs me. “Well, well, there she is. I guess you decided to sleep in today.”

I nod, avoiding Dixon’s gaze. “Yes, I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

Dixon coughs. “So everything is set up for the weekend. We’ll take both trucks and trailers, rooms are booked, and?—”

Charlie points at me. “What about you, honey? What’s your plan for the weekend? You thinking about going into the city to see some of your friends? I’m sure you’ve been missing them.”

My forehead creases. “Uh, no. I was actually hoping to go to the rodeo this weekend, but I mean, if you think I’ll be in the way or…”

I let my voice trail off. I sound pathetic, but I don’t know what else to think. Dixon clears his throat. “You should go to the rodeo. I’ll book an extra room.”

I look at him curiously, trying to see if there’s something more to what he’s saying, but he changes the subject again. “Okay, well, that’s settled. I better get back to work.”

Dad nods his head. “Me too, me too. You have anything Faith can do to help out?”

Dixon huffs his breath like he’s over having to babysit me or something. “Yeah, I’m sure I can come up with something.”

Dad kisses the top of my head, tells Dixon and me bye, andthen walks out the door, leaving me staring at Dixon and him looking everywhere but at me.

He starts to ask a question while looking over my shoulder at the wall. I almost move around so he’s forced to look me in the eyes, but I don’t. I hold perfectly still. “You okay… I mean are you feeling… okay?”

I nod. “Yeah, sure. I’m fine. Are you okay?” I have to ask him because he looks anything but okay. As a matter of fact, he looks like he’s not doing well at all. His hair is all over the place, he has dark circles under his eyes, and his shirt is rumpled.

He nods, still not looking at me “Yeah, I’m fine.”

I slap my hands together softly. “Uh, okay, so I don’t want this to be weird.”

Finally, he looks at me, and all my hopes that he may have changed his mind and wants more than one night go down the drain. Only now, when I’m reassuring him that he has an out, does he look at me, and he’s obviously relieved. “Right, it doesn’t need to be weird.”

I nod. “We said one night. We did it and got it out of our systems.”

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