Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(66)

“Do we have a time limit between takeoff and the next turn?” She gasped when he bent and strung soft kisses from the top of her sock to below her knee.

“Three minutes or we’ll lose too much time,” he drawled.

“My turn.” She sat up, pushed him back on the bed, and straddled his waist. The silver buckle of the leather belt hooked into a hole, so it was easy to undo. Getting it through the loops with him lying on his back was another thing but she managed with thirty seconds to go. She covered the bulge behind his zipper with her hand and massaged gently.

“Oh. My. God. That’s not fair,” he groaned.

“All’s fair in love and war.” She leaned forward and claimed his lips with a long, hot kiss.

“Love and war?” He teased his tongue between her lips.

“Right now the lines are pretty blurred,” she said breathlessly when the kiss ended.

He chose her shirt next and proceeded to kiss every inch of flesh above her bra. She fought the urge to shuck her bra and throw it across the room. A few more minutes of that and she was fully well ready to forget about making love and go back to plain old cowboy hot sex.

By the time they were both fully naked, every nerve in her body tingled. Every hormone hummed.

“Please,” she said.

“Now?”

“God, yes.”

He pulled a condom from the nightstand and she watched him unroll it onto his erection.

She slid into position and locked her legs around him. “I want you, Jud.”

With a firm thrust, he entered her and they rocked together in perfect tempo to the buzzing in their ears. Then, just as she was ready to dig her fingers into his back and squeal his name, he slowed down.

“No!” she whimpered.

“We still have thirty minutes.” He smiled.

“I’ll be nothing but a pile of ashes on your sheets in thirty minutes,” she said breathlessly.

The tempo sped up. The noise in her ears got louder and louder. Sparks bounced off the walls and then he said something that had the word love in it, or did he? She might have imagined that part in her flight to the top of the sex mountain, where she plunged off the side of the cliff into the cool lake below.

“Holy shit!” she muttered.

“Beats the hell out of sex.” He rolled to one side but kept her in his arms.

All the sparks in the room blended together to make a blanket of satisfaction that surrounded them like the warmth of a hot summer night under the stars.

“I’ve never…,” she said.

“Me neither.” His lips closed over hers.

Her last thought as she fell asleep in his arms was that she never wanted to leave, not this bed, this house, or Dry Creek.



On Friday, Jud awoke and watched Fiona sleep for several minutes before he eased out of bed, took a quick shower, dressed, and went to breakfast. He would have far rather spent the whole day in bed with her than have breakfast with Truman and Dora June and then go feed goats.

This thing he felt for her went deeper than anything he’d ever experienced. If this was love, no wonder his cousins were willing to hang up their party boots and settle down. He wanted to awake every morning with Fiona curled up beside him. He wanted to talk to her every night before they went to sleep. Did that mean he was falling in love?

Love!

His fork stopped midway to his mouth.

“What’s the matter with you?” Truman asked gruffly. “Got something stuck in your craw?”

Jud downed half a glass of orange juice before he stopped. “Yes, sir, I did but it’s better now.”

“Well, don’t go gettin’ sick on me just because the sun is out a little bit today. That don’t mean it’s not cold as ice cubes out there.”

Dora June giggled softly. “You are spoiled, Truman. In two weeks you are spoiled rotten to having someone help you and listen to your stories while y’all work.”

“I am not,” he protested loudly.

“Yes, you are, whether you admit it or not. Frankly, darlin’, I like you better and better.” She dropped a kiss on the top of his near-bald head.

Jud bit back the laughter when high color filled Truman’s cheeks.

“Hmmph!” The old guy grunted and kept his eyes on his plate until his food was totally gone.

After breakfast, they bundled up and set about doing Truman’s chores before Jud went over to Blake’s place to work on his own property. Truman acted as if nothing happened and prattled on about the weather, the new president who’d be taking office in a few weeks, and the state the world was in. Jud nodded at the right times, took care of the goats and fed the cattle, chipped ice from the watering troughs, and listened sporadically so if Truman asked a question, he might be able to answer it.

But his mind was on that one word that stunned him that morning as well as sleeping with Fiona. Not having sex or making love but sleeping with her in his arms all night. He’d slept with women before on occasion when he couldn’t figure out a tactful way to leave, but not a single woman in his past had stirred him like Fiona. And it wasn’t just the amazing sex. She was dependable, kind, hardworking, loved her family, and then there was the way her smile lit up the whole room and that cute temper when something like a tire blew out. Just exactly the kind of woman Jud needed: sass and love all rolled into one beautiful woman.