Page 58 of Alive and Wells

Snap me perfectly in half.

The heel of his hand presses against the back of my thigh. He’s driving deeper and harder, fucking me like he’s lost any semblance of control. He’s reckless and finally taking what he wants, and I love it. My entire body sinks further into the pillowy mattress, every fibre in the soft bedspread skimming across my tingling skin. His thumb falls against my clit, rubbing smooth circles in time with his thrusts, until I’m screaming into the comforter I’m evidently biting.

“Austin, I’m going to—” My sentence is cut off by my own guttural moan.

“Let it out, darlin’. I want to feel you let go. You’re so beautiful when you come for me.”

Hot honey melts me from head to toe as I shatter around him. Austin falls forward, kissing my ear and neck as he pumps in and out. Sweat beads along his hairline and his thrusts become sloppier, frenzied, and desperate. I hold tight to his quivering biceps and, in moments, his release has him falling apart on top of me. His lips press to my forehead while his body stiffens with a pause, then slowly relaxes, melting into me. Our sweat-slicked chests press together, leaving us to pant and fight for life. He buries his face in the crook of my neck. His breath hot and uneven on my skin.

“That was…you’refucking incredible.” He kisses my shoulder and rolls onto the bed next to me, keeping my body tucked into his. I lazily wrap a leg across his torso, still yearning for skin-to-skin contact.

“I could do that every day for the rest of my life.”

“For as long as you’re here, I have no problem making that happen.”

For as long as I’m here?What more can I do to make him believe I’m not planning on going anywhere? I don’t get the feeling Austinwantsme to go. It’s more that he’s come to expect it from people. I imagine his dad leaving has something to do with it. Savannah, too.

The feeling of being watched makes my skin tingle and I turn my head to find exactly that: Austin looking at me with an amused expression. “Daydreaming?”

“Something like that.” I caress his face and plant a kiss on his soft lips.

“Well, I just said we should go shower you off again.”

“I don’t know if I can move.” I groan. “Might need to leave me here to die.”

“The last time I left you somewhere to die, I almost got replaced by a showerhead less than an hour later. I don’t know if I should let you out of my sight just yet.”

“Now that I’ve had the real deal, there’s zero danger you’ll be replaced.” I laugh, curling around him more, so my head is comfortable on his chest. His heartbeat pounds in my ear. “Can we stay here all day?”

“Unfortunately, I have to get some work done today or we’ll have a couple hundred head without transport in a few weeks.”

The silly, city-girl part of me thinks it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Imagine that—having sex with Austin could potentially save hundreds of lives. Except that’s not how this works, and the part of me who’s been working on this ranch knows that. It’s how Wells Ranch makes money. How food gets on people’s plates. Hell, it’s how I have a roof over my head.

He shifts to look at the clock next to the bed. “And I have a meeting I really can’t miss in two hours.”

“A meeting? In town?”

“Yeah, it’s… uh, just some ranch stuff with the lawyers.” Grabbing my hand, he pulls me into a seated position. “Anyway, forget about it. Come get washed up.”

I step into the shower after him, and he takes his time lathering my body with soap, massaging and gently washing me from head to toe. I kiss him, running my hands through his hair and holding our bodies together under the warm water. No man has ever cared for me this much in my entire life. And I can’t help it when I start to cry.

“What’s wrong?” His fingers pull my chin up, forcing my tear-filled gaze to meet his. “It breaks my heart when you cry.”

“It’s good tears. I just—I’ve never had a guy do this kind of thing before.” My bottom lip trembles and his thumb softly strokes it. “Thank you.”

“Darlin’, I don’t want to hear you thank me for doing the bare minimum any more than I want to hear you apologize for shit. There’s no place I’d rather be right now than in this tiny shower with you.” The fact he considers allthisto be the bare minimum is shocking. Although, my history with men is severely disappointing; I suppose showing affection after sex might be normal for other people.

The water stops, and he wraps a towel around me. Correction: he wraps a luxurious, buttery soft, white bath sheet around me. When I look over my shoulder at him, he’s wearing a smug smile.

“You went back to the ‘girly store’ by yourself to buy towels?” I don’t bother hiding my delight, rubbing the soft fabric against my cheek with a grin. I love the picture of him I have in my mind; in his dirty ranch clothes, ambling through the aisles looking for the fluffiest bath towels they had.

“Well, you only had the two and, unless we want to be doing laundry all the time, I figured I should get more. So I went yesterday. They’re definitely infinitely better than the crappy ones I had before.” He thumbs the terry cloth, tucking it tighter around me. “They were out of the grey, so I went with white. Hope that’s okay.”

Now I’m fully sobbing.Over towels. Or maybe over the fact that I am inexplicably falling in love with him.

23

Austin

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