“Now, aren’t you sorry you didn’t stay put like I instructed?” He slapped her again, a little harder, the pain a touch sharper, the encompassing warmth a degree hotter.
Dangling face down kept her from trying to look back up at him, but she shook her head in denial. “No. You walked away after…” Tamara paused to suck in a gasp as he delivered a volley of quick, hard swats that covered her entire backside before pausing to slip on the red grooming mitt. “Con,” she groaned, shaking from the light stroke of PVC bristles scraping over her throbbing flesh.
“That’s Master Con, little one,” he reminded her, the smile in his voice warming her in a different way. She did love his teasing side. “Your pretty red ass is too tempting. I think you’ve had enough.” He scraped the bristles once more over her buttocks before turning the mitt around and soothing the ache with the softer massage side, gliding over her tortured flesh and spreading tingles down her legs. “See? Not so bad, is it?” Not sparing an inch of her entire, upturned butt, the small nodules left behind small tremors in their wake that increased her ache for his rough possession.
“Not now,” she admitted, the pain subsiding as fast as he’d initiated it, leaving her buttocks to pulse softly.
“I love your honesty.” Connor pulled off the mitt and tossed it onto the hay before dragging one finger up her wet seam. “And how you respond to me, no matter what I do to your delectable body.” With a laugh of pure pleasure that gave Tamara a warm fuzzy feeling, he lifted her, yanked her jeans down further and helped her work her right leg free of the denim without removing her sneaker.
“Now,” she demanded, throwing her arms around his broad shoulders, desperate to feel him thrusting inside her again. “Leave on your hat.”
He chuckled and followed her down onto the hay bale, one hand going to his zipper. “Yes, ma’am. Anything to please.”
It took just seconds before his heated flesh sprung free against her bare leg, her breathing turning to heavy pants as he sheathed himself then spread her thighs by settling his hips between them. Tamara lifted her leg around his lower back as he thrust into her welcoming body, her copious juices making it easy for him to bury himself to the hilt. “Oh God,” she groaned as he reared back and plunged forward again without pause.
“You said now. I’m just giving you want you want,” Connor rasped above her mouth before molding his lips over hers again, swallowing her next low moan.
Her hips bucked against his marauding shaft, her body shaking as flames of rippling heat spread straight up her pussy. She wondered if she would ever get enough of him, and then thought of nothing else except the pleasure spiraling her headlong to that plane where nothing mattered except the sweeping ecstasy only he had ever brought her to.
Connor released her mouth as his cock jerked with his orgasm, his breathless curse mingling with her cry. Putting his mouth to her ear as he ground into her, his quiet laugh reverberated in her head. “Be quiet unless you want to draw a crowd,” he panted.
Tamara bit her lip, basking in the way his cock stretched and filled her, in the spasms continuing to engulf her from head to toe, in his pleasure and amusement. Nothing had ever been this good, nothing could be. There was no one but Con, could never be anyone else. As he eased back, she kept her eyes closed, hoping to hear him say this was going where she wanted it to, afraid to read nothing more on his face than the sated pleasure and fondness he’d been showing her all week.
Connor pulled from Tam’s snug heat, groaning as her slick muscles continued to clench along his withdrawal. Jesus. Would he ever get enough of her? He shook his head at the thought that had never entered his mind with any other woman, listening to make sure no one had taken it upon themselves to either follow them or had the same idea as he when he’d planned this little diversion. Other than the calves moving around their stalls and the occasional low bawling, all was quiet except for their labored breathing.
Shifting to her side, he ran a hand over her quivering stomach, smiling down at her flushed face and closed eyes as her chest rose and fell with her heavy breathing. His chest tightened, as it always did when he gazed at her after they’d made love, but fear of losing her still clogged his throat, stalling the words he knew he should say. Instead, he pinched her chin and quipped lightly, “Are you going to make it, little one?”
Her lids lifted slowly, and he found himself drowning in the glazed depths of her pewter eyes. “Maybe. I’m not sure yet.” She wiggled, grimacing as her buttocks scraped over the scratchy hay. “Oh, that wasn’t smart.”
Connor chuckled and gave Tamara a quick kiss before standing. “We better get back.” He disposed of the condom in a corner trash bin and turned to see her pulling her jeans back up over that delectable, red ass. With a sigh, he reined in the urge to fill his hands with those tempting globes and test the lingering warmth. “Tam…” Connor started toward her and then froze as the faint clang of a bell drifted through the barn walls. “Shit. Come on, let’s…” His phone buzzed and he yanked it out of his pocket, seeing Caden’s number. Dread had him gripping Tam’s elbow and steering her outside as he barked into the phone, “What’s up?”
“That’s the fire alarm from Barton’s. Where are you?” Caden snapped with urgency.
“We went for a walk, we’re on our way back.” Connor’s gaze sliced down at Tam and he could tell she heard his brother’s bad news. He listened to Caden a minute more before hanging up.
“It’s my place?” Her voice quivered but she didn’t slow her steps as they dashed back toward the house.
Connor nodded with regret. “One of your hands called Jason. A fire in one of the barns. He and Amy are already on their way back and others are following. Let’s hurry.”
He prayed her employees had it under control before it spread or did too much damage. The warning bells a lot of the ranchers had worked well in sending out a fast plea for help in situations like this, where every second counted if both livestock and buildings were going to be saved. The Barton ranch abutted theirs, close enough everyone heard the bell and acted without hesitation in hightailing it over there. Everything is going to be fine, he kept telling himself as he ushered her into his truck and took off for her place, leaving behind only a few of the older neighbors to clean up what they could of the remnants of the barbeque.
Chapter 12
Tamara had gone cold from head to toe the moment she heard Caden’s voice over the phone, the word ‘fire’ causing fear to block all rational thought. As soon as Connor pulled in front of her house and she saw the flames licking up the side of the stable, her heart lodged in her throat and terror for her beloved stallion and the other horses put a stranglehold on her emotions. She flew out of the truck the moment he stopped, never hearing his shout for her to wait. As she dashed across the wide lawn, she never saw her friends and neighbors working together to pump water from the well onto the fire, didn’t hear the wail of sirens as the volunteer fire truck roared up the drive and didn’t think about her own safety as she ran into the stable and was met with a stifling wall of heat.
Gasping, she shielded her eyes against the stinging smoke and almost crumpled to the ground in relief when she saw the empty stalls. Coughing, she spotted Mark right before he took her arm and ushered her toward the back.
“We’ve got it under control, but the structure isn’t safe,” he said, handing her his kerchief to hold over her nose and mouth as they stumbled back outside.
Blinking her eyes against the watery blur, Tamara made out the wavery forms of her horses grazing in the pasture, at least a mile away. Galahad’s silver-white coat stood out among the brown and black shades of the other horses. “Thank God.” She coughed, her hands shaking in relief. “Where’s Jason? What… what happened?”
Before Mark could answer, Connor’s furious voice blasted her from behind. “Goddamn it, Tam! What were you thinking?” Wrapping his hands around her upper arms, he hauled her against him and up on her toes until they were nose to nose. “You ju
st took ten years off my life,” he growled in a voice that shook with more than anger.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I had to make sure they were okay. Galahad, he’s…” Tamara choked up, her eyes filling with tears as she imagined losing the precious gift from her father in such a horrendous way, a gift that had meant so much at a critical time in her life.
Connor sighed and hugged her, the rapid beat of his heart under her ear a soothing balm for her own out of control, staccato rhythm. The shouts from people banding together to help them out finally reached her ears, as did the sizzle of doused flames. The scent of charred wood stung her nose, but the stable remained standing and she prayed the damage was limited to the one side.