The True Cowboy of Sunset Ridge (Gold Valley #14)(8)

He kissed her neck, her collarbone, moving down to her breasts, sucking her nipple deep into his mouth. He groaned.

“You’re so beautiful.”

“So are you,” she said, letting her hands wander all down that gorgeous body. Watching as her fingertips dipped and moved with those rippling ab muscles.

“We need one of those condoms,” she said.

He got off the bed, went back to his jeans, pulled his wallet out of them and grabbed three condoms out of it, throwing them down on the nightstand by the bed.

“Think that’ll cover it?”

“Honestly? Maybe not.”

“I will drive to the damn store,” he said, taking hold of the condom and tearing it open, rolling it over his thick length quickly before positioning himself over the top of her.

“I like the way you think.”

He kissed her, and as he did, he thrust home. She was so wet, so ready, that it was a relief when he filled her. He was thick, so big that she was utterly and completely filled. And she loved it. He started to move, that friction of his hard cock inside of her building her arousal to impossible heights yet again. She moved with him. Chasing that desire. He grabbed the back of her neck, lifting her head up off the mattress and kissing her as he continued to thrust, deep and hard into her.

And when they broke, it was together. The fierce growl of pleasure, the sensation of his body trembling, pulsing above her, set her on a long endless spiral of release that didn’t end. They clung to each other after, breathing hard.

“It’s a good thing we have two more,” he said.

And impossibly, she laughed.

“It’s an even better thing you’re willing to go to the store.”

WHEN MALLORY WOKE UP the next morning, the room was dark, and her bed was empty.

He was gone.

Of course he was. That was how these things went. She knew that. She did. And it was a good thing too. It really was. Because it was just a one-night stand. And she didn’t know his name, and she was never supposed to see him again.

It had been the longest, most amazing night of her life. There were condom wrappers... In several places about the room. And there was a condom box that had been torn open with absolutely no finesse at all. She lost track of the amount of times they’d... Well, she could always count.

He had gone to the store.

The last time had been at the gray light of dawn. He held her close, entered her from behind, turned her head and kissed her mouth as he thrust into her with a slow determination that had driven her wild. That had made her have a whole different kind of orgasm. One that made her shake and shudder, one that hadn’t seemed to end. One that had come from deep within her, racking her body over and over again.

And now he was gone. She lay there and looked up at the ceiling. This was her new life. She had started it with him. And now she would go on without him. She would go on alone because it was what she had to do. Because it was why she was here. She smiled as she lay there. She had learned new things about herself last night.

There was nothing wrong with her. There was nothing wrong with her body. And another man could want her. Those were all things that she would save for later. There was no room in her life for a man right now. This was her new beginning. Her fresh start.

She’d been a wild thing last night, and if she ever had to face that man again...

She done things with him that she’d never even fantasized about before. She’s been ravenous. She climbed all over him. She’d licked him like he was candy.

She’d take him over a lollipop any day.

And she didn’t have to be embarrassed about any of it. She took a deep breath and lay back against the pillows. Against the sheets. Which were no longer unfamiliar. Which smelled of him. He was a stranger. She didn’t even know his name. Except... In some ways she was now more familiar with him than any other person in the world.

She pushed that aside too. Because it was a pointless thought, and it wouldn’t get her anywhere. And maybe she would just sleep half the day away, because she could. Because no one expected anything from her. Because no one even knew she was here.

She tried to recapture that feeling of freedom from last night, and she felt the spark of it flickering inside of her.

Today was hers. To do with as she pleased. And beyond that, her life was hers.

And she was good with that. She really was.

Last night had been a fantasy.

But tomorrow was the first day of the rest of her life.



CHAPTER TWO


THE NEXT MORNING she got up with an actual bounce in her step and she put on red lipstick. She looked fantastic. She looked new. She didn’t care that it was six thirty in the morning and that she looked ready for a night out rather than a trip to get a morning coffee.

She looked like a woman who’d had a successful one-night stand last night. Happy, relaxed and satisfied. Maybe even a little bit shameless and audacious—two things she’d never been in her life, since shame was a frequent companion, adjacent to guilt, and audaciousness had never really occurred to her.

She was proud of herself. She had gone after what she wanted, and she had paid no heed to any consequences. To the future. She had done the kind of thing she had long dreamed of doing. Okay, maybe she hadn’t long dreamed of it. But she had dreamed of it the moment she had set eyes on him, and that was good enough.

An auspicious beginning.