“There are gonna be a million people there,” Cam warned. “And my family will grill both of us on our marriage, if we’re gonna start havin’ kids—”Her stomach knotted, but she tossed out a breezy, “Maybe they won’t, since we already have a kid.”Anton and Gracie burst into the kitchen. “Is it time to go yet?”Domini gave Cam a we-don’t-want-to-disappoint-Anton look.Cam sighed. “Fine. But if you look the slightest bit faint, we’re comin’ home and I’m tyin’ you to the bed for a solid week.”She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. Her lips slid to his ear and she whispered, “Is that a promise, Deputy?”“Yep.”“Good because I miss that side of you. You’ve been too careful with me lately. You know I won’t break.”He eased back to look at her face. “Domini, I—”“Are you two gonna suck face or are we going?”“Suck face. Definitely.” Cam teased his mouth over hers and her heart jumped.“Yuck. We’re outta here.” The sliding glass door slammed.Domini stepped back. “We’ll be lucky if any of t
Domini and Skylar turned.Chassie shifted her roly-poly baby boy from one hip to the next. One chubby hand gripped Chassie’s long braid. “Westin, honey, let go of mama’s hair.”He cooed, blinked enormous hazel eyes and blew a big spit bubble.“Blowing me kisses won’t charm me, buddy boy.” She kissed the top of his blond head and attempted to pry his fingers off her braid.“Need some help?” Domini asked.“It’d be great if you’d distract him.”Domini made goofy faces. Poked his round belly until he giggled while Chassie freed her hair.“Thanks.” She smooched Westin’s plump cheek. “You should show Domini how good you are at giving kisses.”“I’ll take a kiss,” she said, leaning in. She caught a whiff of powdery baby smell as Westin’s cool mouth connected with her cheek, leaving a drooly wet mark. She laughed and looked up to see Cam staring at her.The soft, wistful look in his eyes caused her to break eye contact. Caused her stomach to lurch with dread. Caused an immense amount of guilt.
“Right now?”“Yes. I didn’t want to do this here, with your family around but I have to do it before I lose my nerve.”Cursing, Cam dragged her around the corner of the house, out of sight. He braced her spine against the trunk of an old oak tree and framed her face in his hands, not saying a word, just watching her with those dark blue eyes.Domini attempted to push him back because he was crowding her, but he didn’t allow it. “Talk.”“I haven’t been…honest about something. Something big. Something that will probably change everything between us.”“What?”Breathe. Own up to it. Just say it straight out like he would. “You know that scar on my abdomen?”He nodded guardedly.“It’s not from getting my appendix taken out. It’s from getting my uterus taken out.” Domini detailed the short version of her medical history. She finished by saying; “I know I should’ve told you I can’t have children before you married me. I’m sorry. It was selfish. You deserve better, Cam. You deserve more. You
Figure it out.“Why so glum chum?” Cam asked from the bottom of the stairs. “Why aren’t you playing games with the rest of your—” cousins, but Cam amended it to, “—buddies?”Anton didn’t look up. “I don’t know how to throw a rope. How to hook something with a rope. How to tie something up with a rope. I don’t know how to do any of that ranch and cowboy stuff.”“That’s all they’re doin’?”“No. There was a foot race. I got third. Colt got first and Ky got second.”Cam bit back a groan. Colt’s competitive streak would never go away. “Third is damn good.”Anton finally looked at him. “You really think so?”“Sure. What other games does Grama have planned?”“Some pin chaps on the cowboy for the little kids and a three-legged race.”Cam’s stomach did a loop-de-loop. Anything but that. He managed, “Do you want to enter that one?”“Yeah, but Domini’s sick and she can’t do it.”Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. You will fall on your ass and embarrass yourself in front of your entire family.Bu
“You in pain now?”“Yeah.”“How bad?”“It’s been worse.”Domini rattled off a Russian phrase.Hell, she only swore in Russian when she was really pissed. He attempted to remove his stump from her hands. “Let me do this. I…you know my family ain’t ever seen me—”“Vulnerable?” she supplied. “The injured war hero Cameron McKay has a chip on his shoulder the size of his missing leg, when it comes to letting his family see his stump.”Cam’s mouth dropped open in shock.But his wife wasn’t finished. “I can see how you’d hate all the love, support and help they’ve offered you. That has to suck.”“Domini—”She got right in his face. “I understand that you don’t want to show your stump to the world at large. But these people—” she gestured to the group watching them very closely from afar, “—aren’t the world at large. They care about you. They always have, they always will. What don’t you get about that?”“You sent Keely away,” he pointed out.“I’m not talking about Keely. Besides, if I wouldn
“I never meant to hurt any of you.”“But you did.”“I’m sorry.”“I know you are. And I forgive you even when I still want to paddle your butt.” She kissed his forehead. “But it needed to be said.”He owed her more than a perfunctory I’m sorry. He owed his entire family more than that.“Being kicked around by my family when I’ve been down today has been a good thing, believe it or not.” He smiled at Domini. “I don’t want to go back to being the man I was because some changes are for the better.”“That’s good to hear and I’m happy for you, son. Let us share in your happiness, okay? Let us get to know the different man you’ve become.”Cam nodded.“I meant it when I said you’re welcome at our house any time, Carolyn,” Domini said. “You too, Carson.”Carolyn squeezed their joined hands. “That means a lot. Cameron’s been back in Wyoming for a while but it took you to really bring him home to us. Thank you.”His dad just patted his shoulder and then Domini’s. Twice. Then he slipped his arm a
Keely McKay’s lucky cowgirl boots kicked up clouds of dust as she paced across the wooden plank floor.A mouse skittered in front of her and she jumped like a scalded cat.So much for maintaining nerves of steel.Well, at least she hadn’t shrieked like a scream queen from some cheesy slasher flick.In the last twenty-three minutes and forty-two seconds she’d chewed her bottom lip to the point she tasted blood beneath the cherry-flavored lip gloss. Not only that, her fingers hurt from continually cracking her knuckles. Frogs jumped in her stomach and were stuck in her throat. She’d clenched her jaw hard enough to make her earlobes sting. Given her erratic physical reactions, one would believe she was facing the hangman’s noose. An executioner’s blade. Or a blind date.She was meeting a man. A man she didn’t know. A man she’d never spoken to. A man who held her entire future in his hands.And that absolutely chapped her ass, sucked balls and blew donkey dick.No man ever had that much p
He recognized Keely’s frustration at having a vision no one else saw or understood.“I wanted something that was just mine. I wanted to do it my way, with my money, and my ideas. But this clinic would benefit everyone, not just me, so it’s not about my ego but about me wanting to help people.” Her eyes searched his, almost frantically. “Haven’t you ever wanted to prove yourself? To be different or do something different from what people expect of you?”“Of course.”“So I was feeling cocky that I’d pulled it off. Everything was going miraculously well. The real estate broker kept quiet. As did the banker. I thought I’d jumped through all the proper hoops. Imagine my surprise when I learned I can’t change a freakin’ thing on the building that I now own without the step-by-step approval of some damn committee.”Welcome to his world.“Oh, and on top of that, I have to hire a qualified expert, already certified by the committee, to oversee the remodeling process. So the specialist can reas
“The camera showed you that?”“Ava. I don’t need to look through a viewfinder to see you’re upset.”Damn intuitive man.“The camera is off. Talk to me.”“My grandfather commissioned a necklace for my sixteenth birthday. A tiny beautiful Swarovski crystal rose with a gold stem artfully twisted into an ‘A’. The one time I didn’t take it off before I jumped into the ocean? I lost it. I don’t know if the chain broke or what, but I was devastated because it happened about a month after he died.”“Aw, sugar, I’m so sorry.”Evidently Chase had enough taping. He returned the camera to the case and faced forward, wiggling to get comfortable.“Before you nod off, tell me why we’re backtracking. You planned a route through Montana and now we’re back in Cornhusker territory.”He rolled his eyes. “South Dakota is not Cornhusker territory. The reason I’m not goin’ to the event in Billings is because Ryan told me a former PBR bull rider who switched to the PRCA circuit will be competing. I don’t wan
He’d known the second he touched her he was done for. Ava needed him in a way no other woman ever had. He was a different man when he was with her, regardless if they were naked. So maybe that’s why he couldn’t freakin’ wait to get naked with her again, day after day after day.Seemed to take forever to check-in. He ditched the bags in the corner of the room. In the mirror above the sink, he saw Ava flop on the bed and heave a huge sigh.“Before you get too comfy, maybe you oughta see if you got the door shut.”She popped to her feet and resituated her skirt as she crossed the room, those fucking sexy little pleats teasing the back of her legs.When he’d gotten a look at her outfit this morning—short plaid skirt, plain white blouse, black ballet shoes—his cock had been hard all day as his head conjured up bad-schoolgirl-needing-a-spanking scenarios.Ava tested the door by pushing on it. “I don’t know why you were worried it wasn’t shut—”“Lock it.” He put his mouth below her ear and p
He stirred, moaning as his cock hardened. Lengthened.When Ava started sliding his shaft over her tongue, his hand landed on her head.Immediately it snapped back and Chase scrambled upright. “Ava? What the devil are you doin’?” He inhaled a sharp breath through his teeth when she tongued the tip. “Hell. I thought it was a dream.”She pulled off his shaft long enough to say, “Nope. I want to make this buff body to squirm.” She licked him like a lollipop.“Oh, I’ve no doubt you can make me squirm. You probably could get me to beg.” He brushed her hair back from where it’d fallen in her face. “But—”Again, Ava eased off and met his gaze in the near darkness. “But nothing. You don’t get to direct this.”If she thought he’d lovingly pet her, agree, and murmur encouragement, she was mistaken. Chase’s big hands were on her face, gripping her jaw. “Yes, I do.”His answer turned her panties damp. As did his explicit command, “On the floor. On your knees.”As Ava moved, so did Chase. He perche
She loved his reaction to the scrape of her teeth, the sucking kisses, the feather light placement of her lips in random spots on his neck. Goose bumps spread across his arms and up his nape. He shifted on the bed, not thrashing, but wiggling enough she knew he liked what she was doing to him. She reveled in this immense power of worshipping rather than being worshipped.Ava immersed herself in him. The scent of his skin. The tangy taste of his sweat. The way his muscles strained beneath her tongue. She kissed, licked and nibbled her way down the center of his throat, from his square jaw to his breastbone. And could she get a halleluiah that he had chest hair? Talk about manly, masculine goodness. She rubbed her face over the dark patch of hair, breathing him in, listening to the pounding of his heart, warmed by the heat from his skin, and knowing his body’s response to her was echoed in her body.Bracing herself on all fours above him, she watched his face as she tongued his nipple.
She pushed her hips back, meeting his every hard thrust with a soft grunt. The fringe on his chaps swung forward, the leather connecting with her skin.Even as his cock plunged into her fully, even as his balls drew up, aching for release, even as his legs shook and sweat coated his skin, he planned for the next time he fucked her. The next hundred times.Chase closed his eyes; his hands yanking her body back to meet his escalating thrusts. Faster, harder, deeper, the only words echoed in his head as primal need roared. Impossible to hold off his orgasm, no matter how much he wanted to prolong the sensation of sinking into her soft, wet, flesh.He threw back his head, groaning as his cock emptied in hot pulses. Groaning louder when he felt Ava’s pussy contracting around his dick as she came again.Heart thumping, mouth dry, lungs lacking air, Chase fell forward onto Ava’s back, bracing himself on his hands. Although this rendezvous was supposed to’ve been a dare, a fun, wild slap and
“Who are you?” Douchebag demanded.“The guy tellin’ you to get the hell outta my room.”The douchebag looked at Ava. “I thought you said this was your room.”“Hey, fuckface, eyes on me, not her.” When douchebag turned, Chase stabbed his finger at the clothes by the bed. “You’re done. Grab your shit and get gone.”“Nuh-uh.” Douchebag gestured to Ava. “I get gone when she tells me to, not you, little man.”Ava said not one word.Chase’s anger hit the boiling point. Instead of yelling, his voice dropped lethally low. “Get. The. Fuck. Out.”“Or what? You gonna throw me out?” Douchebag sneered. “You’ll have to eat your spinach and grow some first.”Faking calmness he didn’t feel, Chase scooped up the man’s belongings, opened the door and dumped the pile onto the walkway.“What is wrong with you?” Douchebag loomed over Chase.“You have fifteen seconds to get out of my room and out of my face or I will beat you bloody. You’re not the first asshole who’s tried to take me on, believing a short
That vague comment got his back up. Was she trying to get rid of him? Just to be ornery, he said, “I hadn’t planned on goin’ anywhere today. Thought I’d stick around the room and rest up. Hang out with you, my friend.”Panic darted through her eyes. “Oh. Obviously since you’re paying for half the room that’s your prerogative. But I was hoping…”“Hoping for what?”“To have a few hours of quiet time so I can get your rides separated from the other footage.”Quiet time his ass. She wanted nookie time. And he’d be goddamned if he’d just fucking walk away and make it easy on her to bang a total stranger in his hotel room. “I’m not exactly loud, Ava.”“I know, Chase, but I need quiet. Complete silence. No TV. No talking. No cell phone conversations. No fighting.”The sneaky-ass woman knew that lying on his bed, counting the flaws in the ceiling tile for hours would drive him bonkers. But the idea of any man, in here—the private space Chase shared with Ava—touching her, kissing her, fucking
Ava nodded. “I’m new to the world of rodeo. He agreed to show me the inside scoop. That’s all.”“Dollface, that surely ain’t all. Not even close. The man has it bad for you.”Not bad enough to act on it.“I seen how he’s been lookin’ at you.”“And how’s that?”“Like you’re a hot, sweet fried Twinkie and he’d like to lick you up one side and down the other before devouring you completely.”“Except the man seems to be on a sugar-free diet,” she said wryly.Taz chuckled. “Maybe. But I reckon he’s just trying to keep from gorging himself.”“Such an overactive imagination, Taz.”“I try. Better to be one of them colorful characters folks talk about than an average Joe.”The conversation drifted to Ryan. Upcoming rodeos they’d all be attending. Other events. Then Taz took off, leaving Ava alone. It was enough to give a girl a complex about men.Right. She already had enough complexes, although she doubted anyone would look at her and believe that.A guy paused behind the barstool on Ava’s ri
“I’ve gotten up early to work out. I met this rookie kid last week. After I rode, he cornered me, calling me out as Chase McKay.” He smiled sheepishly. “The little shit promised to keep my secret if I gave him bull ridin’ pointers.”“Which you did.”“Not that he listened to me. Kid is such a greenhorn. And stubborn? He won’t turn his foot out, refuses to wear a helmet, won’t consider a trying a different wrap. So I gave up talking to him about bull ridin’ and we watched the slack competition. What did you do—” his knuckles grazed her breasts as he reached for the lanyard around her neck “—besides craft fake press passes?”“I had my assistant whip them up. Realistic, don’t you think? I needed access behind the chutes so I can video you from a closer angle. It’s made a huge difference. You won’t believe the footage I got today.”His rough-skinned hand enclosed hers. “Ava. We need to talk.”The lanky, shaggy-haired young rider inserted himself between Chase and Ava. “Man, that ride was e