Page 30 of Forbidden Cowboy

“I already told you, and if you ask again, I’m going to—”

I sheathed myself in her, mid-sentence. Her voice cut off with a gasp, and I leaned down so I was next to her ear.

“You’re going towhatexactly?”

“Just move,” she begged.

I nipped the shell of her ear, and she moaned at that small amount of stimulation. I began rocking my hips slowly, but as she began following the line of my hips, I moved faster, if only to see the way she canted her pelvis in anticipation.

Having her wrapped around me, seeing the expressions she made as she fell into some kind of mess, I loved every second of it, and my own breathing became ragged as I began to feel myself following her into oblivion. I moved faster inside of her, chasing the high that felt only just out of reach, and wondered how I had gotten so lucky as to have found this woman.

When I came, it was with her, and I pulled her in for a kiss deeper and more satisfying than any we had shared before as I spilled into her.

* * *

It took a few minutes to come down from the high, and when I did, Sierra was still lying next to me, panting and looking up at the ceiling.

There was a faint, sated smile on her lips, and she turned her head towards mine.

“Hi,” she breathed.

“Hi,” I replied.

She went back to staring at the ceiling, and I got up.

“Where are you going?” She asked with concern.

“Just to get some things to wash you up,” I said.

I pecked her on the lips, and then walked to the bathroom. I came back with a warm, wet washcloth and a t-shirt of mine. She was pretty much asleep when I reappeared, so I carefully washed her so she wouldn’t feel gross in the morning, and encouraged her to sit up, no matter how limply, so I could put the shirt on her. I fumbled with the clasps on her bra for a moment, wondering how women dealt with such a feat of engineering every day. When I pulled it off of her, my hand brushed past one of her nipples that was probably still very sensitive, and I had to close my eyes against the sound she let out. It went straight to my groin, but I knew it wouldn’t be fair of me to try anything when she was so sleepy, so I stilled and willed the arousal away. Once it had gone, I slipped the shirt over her head, and her arms through the holes.

Sierra opened her sleepy eyes, just a crack, and looked at me.

“Thank you,” she mumbled sleepily, burying her head in my shoulder, “I love you.”

The words went straight to my heart, but I knew she was probably just saying them because of what happened. We’d have time for this conversation, but later. I just hummed in response, and carried her up to the top of the bed. I laid her there gently, making sure her long hair wasn’t caught under her arms awkwardly, and then tucked her in, finishing with a kiss to her forehead.

I stayed in the dim room for a moment more, just watching her sleep, before I collected all our clothes from the floor, hung up her dress and my suit, and found a place to plug her phone in. I set up coffee for the morning, and when I finally crawled in beside her, there was such a sense of contentment in my heart that I didn’t know how anything could bring me down.

The first time I woke up to a ringing noise, I ignored it. It was in the other room, and I couldn’t quite understand where it was coming from. So, I pulled Sierra closer to me, and she nuzzled her head into my chest.

The second time I woke up, it was to a knocking sound. Irritated, I got up, and pulled a pair of sweatpants on. I stumbled over to the door with my bedhead and my sleep face on, and opened it, expecting someone from the hotel to be standing there.

Instead, it was my daughter, looking all too happy with the early hour, Alia Rinaldi, and Eric Rinaldi, son of the man who I was trying to convince to re-sign the contract my ranch needed. And I was topless and wearing sweats. My bedhead was probably also terrible, given how much Sierra had played with it the night before and—oh.

Eric’s eyes trained right on the bruises Sierra had left on my shoulder, and an amused eyebrow quirked up.

“Sorry to intrude,” he said in his dry way. “You said eight would be a fine time to drop Anna off.”

“Yes,” I cleared my throat, “of-of course, um, sorry for my appearance, I—”

“You don’t have to worry about it,” Eric said, still with an amused quirk to his expression, “I get how difficult having time… to yourself can be with a kid.”

“Yes,” I said. “Of course. Thanks.”

I had forgotten that Eric was also a single dad.

“What’d you do to your shoulder, Dad?” Anna asked as I waved Eric and Alia goodbye.