Beauty and the Bull Rider (Hotel Rodeo #3)(44)

She gripped his ass cheeks, urging him deeper, harder. Plunging and retreating, he moved like a piston while she lay beneath him, golden hair lay splayed out on the pillow, blue eyes heavily lidded and lips parted in panting passion. Her breaths came sharper and faster, her gasps piercing the air, mixing with the erotic slap of flesh on flesh. Surrounded in her slick, hot flesh, his cadence intensified to a frantic frenzy at the finish. His lungs burned. His balls throbbed with the intense need for release, a need that had become the essence of his being.

“Please don’t stop, Zac.” His chest seized as she whispered his name. “Don’t ever stop. Promise me you’ll never stop . . . loving me.”

Her words crashed over him like a tidal wave. Madly pumping, he poured himself into her body and soul. She released a sob as her legs clamped tightly around him, then trembled convulsively as her climax overtook her. He shut his eyes on a primal roar, as her inner walls squeezed him with pulsatile contractions that milked him to a state of utter sated repletion.



Delaney never wanted to open her eyes again. She wished she could lie here forever, totally and completely immersed in Zac—in the taste of his lips still lingering on hers, in his musky, heady scent filling her nostrils, in the sounds of his passion still echoing in her ears, and most of all, in the sensation of his body joined with hers. She’d never felt so at peace and complete as in this moment, lying cradled in his big, strong arms. After a while he stirred, rousing her out of her reverie. She opened her eyes to find him staring intently into her face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“You asked me to make a promise I can’t keep.”

“What promise? What are you talking about?”

“When we were making love,” he said. “I was buried to the hilt in you and you asked me to never stop loving you. You asked for my promise.”

She swallowed hard and looked away. Once a fool, always a fool. She’d thrown her heart away once more. “It was spoken in the heat of passion, Zac. It doesn’t mean anything. I won’t hold you to it.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to make that promise,” he continued. “It’s that I can’t.”

Her chest constricted. “What do you mean, you can’t? What are you saying?”

He cupped her face. “I’m saying that I want to make you that promise, but I can’t love you if you won’t let me.” His voice was husky with emotion as his gaze held hers. “I’m saying that I love you and I want to love you every day for the rest of my days. I’m asking you to let me, Delaney. You told me you feel something for me. Is it only friendship? Respect? Those are at least foundations to build on.”

Her pulse raced madly and her eyes burned with welling tears. She never thought she’d ever hear those words. She’d even married a man who’d never spoken them to her.

“Marry me, Delaney,” Zac continued. “I think I can make you happy—if you’ll only let me love you.”

He wanted to marry her? She tried to speak, but her throat was too tight. She swallowed hard and then nodded vigorously.

Zac’s gaze narrowed. “Is that a yes?”

“Yes, Zac,” she croaked in a barely audible whisper.

He pulled her into his arms for a long, tender kiss. “You’ve made me a happy man. I never thought I’d hear you say it.”

Finding her voice, Delaney replied. “I didn’t think I needed a man. I didn’t think I’d need anything more in my life to be happy once I had a baby, but sometimes you don’t recognize what’s wrong until the right thing comes along . . . and that’s you, Zac. You’re everything that’s right. So yes, I mean it . . . and even more . . . I promise with all my heart to love you back.”





CHAPTER TWELVE


Las Vegas


“’Bout damned time you got here!” Ty exclaimed as Zac threw a leg over the bar stool in the Last Chance Saloon. “I’ve got a lot of shit to wrap up before I get on that plane tomorrow.”

“Sorry, ’bout that,” Zac grunted. “I got waylaid in Albuquerque.” Or better said, laid really great. He and Delaney had passed all night and most of the following day making love in that honeymoon cabin. He couldn’t wait to go back.

Ty signaled Gabby for two beers. “So what brought you out here? You’ve had me wondering about this whole face-to-face thing. You haven’t changed your mind about our deal, have you?”

“Matter of fact, I have. That’s what I came to talk about. I’ve been thinking Ty, between rebuilding the hotel and running the Circle B, how are you really gonna have time for stock contracting?”

“That’s what I’ve got you for,” Ty said.

“Thanks.” Zac nodded to Gabby as she slid a foamy mug in front of him. He turned back to Ty. “But why me? Delaney’s done a fine job running your place and she knows her livestock. Why not give her the contracting business?”

“Are you for real? Shit, Zac, you know a woman can’t handle bulls.”

“Maybe not alone, but what if she had some experienced help?”

“Wait a minute.” Ty’s gaze narrowed. “Are you saying you want to work for her?”

“Not exactly.” Zac raised the mug to his lips. “I’d like to work with her.”