Rancher Untamed

He leaned down, his lips brushing the shell of her ear as he whispered, “This is what I was thinking about each time I held you close to me tonight.”

“Really?” she asked, opening her eyes and tipping her head back. Their eyes met and that dark chocolate gaze of his held secrets and passion. She wanted it all.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She fumbled around the elastic at the top of his boxers and reached inside to touch his naked flesh. “I was thinking about this.”

He didn’t say anything. His pupils dilated, and he brought his mouth down hard on hers. His tongue thrust deep into her mouth as he lightly drew his fingernail down her back, stopping at the small of her back. He dipped his finger lower, pushing aside the fabric of her thong panties.

An electric pulse of heat went through her as he cupped her butt and lifted her off her feet. She knew he was moving, but hardly paid any attention to it until he put her back down on the floor and lifted his head. They were in the master bedroom. She could tell by the deep, masculine colors and the large king-size bed behind her.

He disappeared for a minute and then was back with a box of condoms that he put on the nightstand. She was glad she hadn’t had to bring up protection, that he’d just taken care of it.

“Now, where were we?” he asked, putting his hands gently on either side of her head and tipping it back. Their eyes met again and he brought his mouth down on hers.

And she forgot about everything.

She let her hand fall from his face to his chest. He was warm. She rubbed her fingers over the scar under his tattoo and then down his abdomen. He shifted his hips and his trousers slid down his legs.

“Impressive,” she said.

He wriggled his eyebrows at her. “Thanks. I save that move for special occasions.”

She couldn’t help smiling at the way he said it. Of course, Diego wasn’t like any other man she’d had sex with. He was at ease with his body and with her. There was no pressure to get to it and get it over with. She had the feeling that he wanted her to enjoy this night and that he intended to take his time. There was something sexy in his confidence.

His trousers were pooled around his ankles, but his dress boots kept them in place. His erection was a hard ridge straining against his boxer briefs and his lips were slightly swollen from their kisses. She felt that pulsing between her legs again and knew that she’d never seen anything more erotic in her life. He wasn’t posing or pretending. He wanted her and he didn’t have to put on moves to impress her.

He lifted the hem of her dress up over her thighs and then all the way over her head, tossing it aside. She stood there in just her tiny panties and no bra.

He groaned, and when he reached out to touch her, she noticed his hand shook slightly. Then he was cupping her breasts with both hands, his palms rubbing over her nipples.

He caressed her from her neck down past her waist, lingering over each curve and making her aware of places on her body that she’d never thought about before, like the bottom of her ribs. His fingers dipped between her legs, pushing her panties down her legs until she stepped out of them, placing her hand on his shoulder to keep her balance. He dipped his hand between her legs, rubbing his finger over her clit until she felt her legs go week.

He put his arm around her waist and lowered her back on the bed, coming down over her. She drew her hand down the side of his body, wrapping her hand around him, stroking him from the root to the tip. On each stroke she ran her finger over the head and around to the back of his shaft. He shivered each time she touched him there.

He ran his hands all over her torso, cupping both of her breasts this time. She shifted, keeping her grip on him but moving so that he could touch her the way she liked it.

She pushed her shoulders back and watched as he leaned forward. She felt the warmth of his breath against her skin and then the brush of his tongue. He circled her nipple with it, then closed his mouth over her and suckled her deeply.

She stroked him until she felt his hips lift toward her, moving in counterpoint to her hand. She reached lower and cupped him, rolling the delicate weight of him in her fingers before squeezing slightly. He groaned and pulled his mouth from her breast. He gripped the back of her neck and brought her mouth to his.

As he drew her against him, she didn’t move her hand except to guide the tip of his erection to enter her.

He slid a little more into her and she reveled in the feel of his thick cock at the entrance of her body. But then he lifted his head and took her nipple in his mouth again, biting down lightly on her nipple, and she shuddered.

She tried to impale herself on him, but he wasn’t about to let her have him now. He held her where she was with just enough connection to drive both of them mad.

“Are you ready for me?”

“Yessss,” she said with a sigh.

A second later he thrust into her, filling her completely.

She rocked her hips, forcing him deeper into her body. He hit her in the right place and she saw stars dancing behind her closed eyelids as he pulled out and thrust back inside her.

He held her with his big hands on her ass, lifting her into each thrust, and soon she was senseless. She could do nothing but feel the power of his body as he moved over her and in her.

She held on to his sides while he continued to drive her higher and harder, and then she felt everything inside clench as her orgasm surged through her. She cried out his name as he tangled one hand in her hair and drove into her even harder and faster, and then she felt him tense and groan as he climaxed. He thrust into her two or three more times before shifting to rest his forehead against hers.

She looked into those dark eyes of his and knew that everything had changed. She had thought this night would be just sex. Just some fun. But Diego wasn’t just a fantasy—he was a real, flesh-and-blood man.

He rolled to his side and disposed of the condom before settling back into bed and pulling her into his arms. “Thank you for tonight.”

She nodded against his chest, unable to find the words she needed to say. He drifted off to sleep, but she lay there thinking about her future, which was so much more complicated now.

Four

Pippa stretched and rolled over, slowly opening her eyes. It was Monday morning. Usually Penny had her up before this, but then she remembered she’d stayed over at Diego’s. She sat up and looked around the empty room. The house was very quiet and, if she had to guess, empty.

“Crap.”

She hadn’t meant to stay out all night. She put her hand on her head, thinking of walking back to the country club in her dress from last night while parents were making the school run.

She wasn’t embarrassed by what had happened. She had woken up exactly where she wanted to be, but at the same time she had to face those moms and dads when she picked Penny up from preschool this afternoon.

She glanced at the nightstand. It was only seven. So not that late, but still. She saw there was a piece of monogrammed stationery with bold masculine handwriting on it. She reached for the note and rubbed her eyes before she read it.

Good morning,

I had to leave early to do the morning chores on the ranch. We have a mare coming in to be covered later today and I need to get things ready. I’d love to see you for lunch or dinner. Text me when you wake up. I had your car brought to the house and I’ve laid out some sweats and a T-shirt in the bathroom. Sorry I wasn’t here when you woke.

Diego

“What am I going to do?” she asked the empty room as she fell back on the pillows. Diego was her one-night hookup. Her bit of fun before she left Texas and went back to her real life. She could just say no and never see him again. There was nothing stopping her from doing just that.

But she didn’t want to.

She grabbed her phone to text Kinley and saw she had two messages. The first was clearly from Penny. The four-year-old used the text-to-talk feature on Kinley’s phone all the time. The message just said Pippy, where are you?

Kinley’s message said:

Ignore the scamp’s message. I told her you had the morning off. I assume you are with the hot rancher you outbid everyone for last night. I want deets.

Ugh.

Double ugh.

She tossed her phone on the nightstand without responding, made her way to the bathroom and took a quick shower, avoiding looking at herself in the mirror until she was clean and wearing Diego’s sweats. They were huge on her but super comfy. She took a deep breath. If she had a cup of coffee, she’d start to feel human again.

She went downstairs to find her clutch and found a coffee mug next to the Keurig machine. She made herself a cup and then went back up to the master bedroom to gather her stuff. Diego had even laid out a duffel bag and a pair of flip-flops near the foot of the bed. She had to smile. He’d thought of everything.

Which shouldn’t really influence her decision to see him again, but it did.

Heck, everything about Diego made her want to see him again. It would be easy to say that waiting four years to have sex would have made any partner seem...well, better than they might really be... What the hell was she thinking? She could have had sex a week earlier with someone else and Diego would have wiped that from her memory. Her body ached to have him again. She remembered the way he’d felt between her thighs and craved more of him.

But he wanted... Well, it seemed like he wanted to get to know her. And until she reclaimed her inheritance, she really needed to lie low and stay off her father’s radar.

In Texas...

It had been the perfect spot for her to hide out until she came of age. But now that the time had come, starting something with Diego, all the while knowing she was leaving in a few weeks... Was that a dick move?

She felt like it might be.

She saw a message flash on her phone and went to pick it up. Kinley again.

At the office, stop by if you are still in town.

Pippa knew Kinley would be brutally honest with her about the situation with Diego. Her friend was just always that way with everyone.

She grabbed the duffel bag, her phone and Diego’s note and went downstairs to collect the rest of her things.

She found the alarm code on a Post-it on the inside of the front door and entered it to let herself out. She walked to her car without glancing at the street and got in, sitting there for a moment before starting the engine.

She drove through town to the bridal shop that Kinley ran as a satellite to her boss Jacs Veerling’s Vegas bridal operation. It was through her work that Kinley had first come to Cole’s Hill. She’d been sent here to plan former NFL wide receiver Hunter Caruthers’s wedding. Of course, she hadn’t wanted to come, given that Hunter was her baby-daddy’s brother and said baby-daddy had no clue he had a kid. There had been a bit of a rough patch where Nate hadn’t realized that Penny was his child, and when he found out, he blew up at Kinley. But after the family drama had died down they realized how much they loved each other and got married.

Pippa groaned as she noticed that all of the pull-in parking spaces were taken and she’d have to parallel park. When she was done about five minutes later, she walked into the bridal showroom. It was an elegant space that had been designed to suggest understated opulence. Classical music played in the background. Pippa knew that she’d take some of the design elements from this small bridal shop with her when she returned to London and claimed her place on the board of House of Hamilton. The royal jewelers needed to attract a younger crowd and Pippa was determined to do that.

She sighed, realizing she already knew the decision she would make regarding seeing Diego again.

It had to be a no.

She wanted the chance to prove herself to her family and the world more than she wanted a new lover.

* * *

Diego hadn’t expected his younger brother to be waiting when he got home to Arbol Verde, but Mauricio was sitting in the breakfast room enjoying huevos rancheros that had been prepared by Diego’s housekeeper, Mona. And he was drinking a Bloody Mary, unless Diego was mistaken.

“No need to ask how your night was,” Mo said as Diego entered the room.

“Same. Struck out?”

Mauricio shook his head. “You don’t even want to know. Breakfast or shower first?”

“Shower. I assume you’re going to still be waiting when I get out,” Diego said.

“Yes. It’s business. I have a line on a piece of property on the outskirts of town that is exactly what you’re looking for,” Mauricio said. “Go shower. I’ll wait here.”

Diego started to turn away, but Mo had that look like he’d been rode hard and put away wet, which wasn’t how Diego wanted to see any of his brothers.

He walked over and pulled out one of the ladder-back wooden chairs, spinning it around and straddling it. He reached out and snagged a piece of the maple and brown sugar bacon that Mona always had on the breakfast table.

“What happened last night?”

“Hadley was there,” Mauricio said.

Of course she was. “I thought she moved to Houston.”

“She did. But she came back for the auction,” Mauricio said before he took a long swallow of his Bloody Mary.

“You broke up with her,” Diego reminded his brother as gently as he could. Hadley and Mo had been a couple since high school. He’d followed her to the University of Texas, and when they’d come back to Cole’s Hill, everyone expected them to marry, including Hadley. After waiting five years—longer than most women would, according to Bianca—Hadley had given Mo an ultimatum and he’d balked.

Hadley had packed up and moved out of the town house they’d shared and started dating again. Since then, if gossip was to be believed, Mauricio had had some wild hookups out at the Bull Pen.

The Bull Pen was a large bar and Texas dance hall on the edge of Cole’s Hill. It had a mechanical bull in the back and live bands performed there nightly. It was respectable enough early in the evening, but after midnight things started to get rowdy.

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