“Wow. That feels amazing. Oh God. Seriously. Where did you learn to do that?”

Met Hernandez was pretty sure that the mattress right beneath his cheek was probably saturated with drool. He had been lying here for what felt like forever, and yet Daphne never seemed to tire. Her hands were magic. She had been kneading and pounding on his shoulders and back with enough skill that he would have thought she was a professional masseuse.

“I’ve learned a few things over the years because of playing sports,” she explained in a tight voice. She was leaning over to put her whole weight on him. “I actually took sports training in high school, and part of the class was to help the school’s athletic trainer at the games. You would have thought that every single student in our high school was determined to rip off a limb before the end of the season.”

He was going to answer but could not. Her fingers had found a particularly tight muscle right around his right rotator cuff. At the moment, she was gently loosening it as though she intended to put him to sleep.

Met had no idea how long they’d been in his bedroom. They were both mostly naked. Daphne was still wearing her bra and panties. He wasn’t wearing anything, and at the moment, she was actually sitting on his bare bottom. Not that when they had initially gotten naked this had been exactly what he had in mind. He’d been thinking mostly about being inside her. Then he’d groaned a bit when he tried to lie down, and Daphne had suddenly been consumed with the thought of helping him feel better.

“You’re really tight,” she murmured. “Do you feel that? It’s incredible to think that this muscle right here is supposed to be moving your shoulder joint. The thing is rock hard.”

“It’s not the only thing that’s rock hard,” he teased.

She wiggled herself, which effectively wiggled his buttocks. “Oh, really? And what else could you possibly be thinking about when it comes to hardness? Is it here?” She smoothed her palms down his back toward the lower portion of his spine. He groaned as she started to use her clever fingers to loosen the thick muscles there. “Or maybe is it here? Because you’re really hard right here. In fact, I don’t think you’re even healthy enough to think about hanky panky.”

“Hanky panky?” He could not help but laugh. “You’re adorable. Did you know that?”

“Adorable.” She leaned forward and added extra pressure to his spine. It felt so good. Then he could have sworn he felt her lips graze his skin. “That’s what every woman wants, you know. To be called adorable.”

She kissed his shoulders. Anything Met might have been about to say flew right out of his head. He could not think. The whisper of her lips across his shoulders was too much. He braced his elbows beneath his body and half lifted his torso off the bed. She gave a little squeak but managed to stay put on his buttocks. Then she pressed her breasts to his back and nuzzled the base of his neck.

He loved the way it felt when she kissed him. The sensations were so exciting. He hadn’t expected that kind of response or reaction from his own body. He’d had sex before. A woman had touched him plenty of times before. Yet right here and now, it was different. This was more.

He could feel her move, but he could not see what she was doing. The contrast was thrilling. There was a snap, like elastic coming undone. Then he felt her lean over once again, and suddenly her bare breasts were pressed against his back.

Met cursed. A surge of blood to his groin made it almost painful to remain there on his belly, but he would not have moved for the world. He could feel her nipples growing harder as they rubbed lightly against his skin. The warmth was incredible.

Daphne placed her hands on either side of his arms. The position had her effectively on her hands and knees while straddling his body. Her knees barely touched the bed on either side of his hips. She undulated against him. The silken sensation of her skin sliding past his was intoxicating. He could not bite back the growl of appreciation that wanted to roar forth.

“You feel really good,” she whispered.

She kissed his right shoulder and then moved to the left. Then her lips traveled up toward his neck and his left ear. She nuzzled the sensitive shell of that ear and let her tongue skate lightly over the whorls. The resulting shiver nearly drove him crazy with need.

He didn’t know how much longer he could last. He wanted her with a deep passion he’d never experienced before. And right now, he just wanted to be on his back. He wanted to see her. He wanted to touch.

With that in mind, he bounced lightly on the bed to gently toss her up before rolling over onto his back. He took hold of her hips and pulled her down firmly against his groin. His erection was pinned between them. He didn’t care. The pressure was exquisite.

“You’re so hard.” She let her hands trail down his chest.

Her fingertips found his hard male nipples. She circled each one before plucking at them with her nails. The sharp sensation of pleasure mingled with pain caused him to gasp in delight. He moved his hands from her hips to her sides.

The athletic and muscular contours of her feminine build were so pleasing to him. He could not stop touching her. He ran his fingers over her ribs and her sides and up to her breasts. He traced the outline of each breast until they began to heave as her breathing grew ragged.

Each nipple puckered. He watched them tighten. The dark pink of her areolas hardened, and the taut buds began to elongate. He took each one between the pads of his thumbs and index fingers and twirled them gently until she arched her back and pressed her breasts even more insistently into his hands.

“Please,” she begged. “Oh please.”

He felt his hip strain as he struggled to sit up. That didn’t matter. Nothing did. The feel of her nipples against his tongue was his only goal. She pulled his head closer, threading her fingers through his hair as she held his mouth to her breast, and he sucked and licked each one until she was wild with passion.

All this time he could feel the heat and the dampness between her legs. She was spread against his groin in the most intimate manner possible. He took hold of her and helped her raise herself just a little. Reaching between them, he adjusted himself until he could enter her body.

Their joining was swift and filled with the desperation of two people who had almost waited too long. She wrapped her arms around him and lowered her mouth to his. He stopped kissing her breasts only to press his lips to hers. He slid his tongue inside her mouth and mated it to hers. She moved against him, rocking her body on top of his as she made love to him in every way possible.

The depth of the joining left him breathless. He could not think past the warmth of her skin beside his and the taste of her in his mouth. She wrapped her legs around his waist. The position left him vulnerable. He was at her mercy, and only her whim would send him spiraling toward fulfillment.

Friction built between them. Heat grew until he thought the bed might catch fire. Everything inside him was straining toward her. He wanted so badly to feel her coming undone around him. Taking her hips in his hands, he helped her to grind against him. Each motion of her hips sent that tiny bundle of nerves nestled in her folds thrusting against the root of him.

“Met!” she gasped and shuddered around him as she reached her peak.

The sensation of her body clenching tight around him sent him spiraling over the edge. Soon he was gasping and pulling her tight against him. He pressed his face to her breasts and held her close as he spent himself inside her body.

“Oh God,” she whispered.

He could feel her breath against his skin. It was so very light. The intimacy of that moment was more than he had ever imagined possible. Nothing he’d ever experienced with a woman had prepared him for this sensation sinking into his gut.

Finally, he rolled to his side, which sent her tumbling to the bed next to him. She giggled. The light sound made him smile. Then she nuzzled her way in close, and he wrapped his arms around her naked body. The air inside the bedroom was cool. Within seconds, he could feel the sweat on his skin beginning to evaporate. It left him chilled, and yet he was still so warm and cozy inside that he didn’t care.

“You spoil me.” The words sort of slipped out because they were an honest reflection of how he was feeling in that moment. Of course, what he could have said was that being with her was a very different and much better experience than being with anyone else, but the man who said such a thing to any naked woman in his arms was suicidal at best. “I can safely say I have never felt so relaxed before in my life.”

“Well, maybe that’s what I can promise you if you just stop drinking,” she said with a sauciness to her tone that left him feeling both elated and guilty. “You stop drinking. And I’ll just provide physical therapy every single night.”

Met rolled onto his back and stacked his hands beneath his head. “That would certainly be motivation.”

Why was he feeling so jumbled and confused all of a sudden? It wasn’t like he hadn’t been making an effort to drink less. He had been. He had no intention of quitting, which seemed to be a common theme of her conversations. Did she really expect him to just stop? That was a bit extreme in his opinion. There was a happy medium in there somewhere. And there were nights and even days when he could barely function because he was hurting so much.

“I think we should get you in to see a physical therapist.” She sounded excited.

Met could think of about a million things he would rather do. Getting a prostate exam was at the bottom of that list, and yet going to physical therapy still ranked below that. He cleared his throat. “I’m not a big fan of the physical therapy stuff.”

“Why not?” She sat up and pulled the sheet up to hide her breasts. “It would feel good. A lot of them combine massage therapy with the physical therapy exercises. You’d be surprised at how much it does for people.”

“Maybe some people,” he allowed.

His brother Darren went to a physical therapist for his knee issues. Darren had stopped drinking altogether, but that was partly because he had a young son to care for now. Met didn’t have kids. In fact, he wasn’t even sure he wanted any kids. He didn’t think he would be suited for fatherhood. He’d never stuck around in one place long enough to even consider it. Plus, there was that whole thing about coming from a dysfunctional family to deal with too. How could Met be a good father when his own father was such a shit?

“I wish you would just give it a try.” She exhaled a big sigh, and her expression sobered. “It would be so much healthier for you to do that and some kind of pain management rather than getting drunk whenever the pain is too much.”

“Is that what you think of me, really?” He was starting to believe that she did not recognize the fact that he had been sober every single time they had been together since she had made that request to him in her office.

“It’s not the only thing I think about you,” she said quickly. She shifted on the bed and looked distinctly uncomfortable. “But you have to admit that you drink pretty much every single time I see you.”

“But not to excess,” he pointed out quickly. “When you and I met with Laredo in your office, you were very specific that you would not deal with us if I couldn’t be sober. You did not say completely dry. You just said not drunk. Am I wrong about that?”

“Well, no.” She seemed hesitant to say anything else. “I was just making sure you understood that I didn’t intend to have you show up and stagger around at an interview.”

“And did I?”

“No.”

“So, why is it that you believe I just sit around getting drunk every night?” Met really wanted an answer to this question. “Because it bothers me to think that I’ve been trying my ass off for you and you just think I’m pretending or something.”

“No. It’s not like that!” she protested. “Please don’t be angry with me over something like this!”

He sighed. He didn’t want to be angry with her either, but he felt betrayed in a way. He was trying like hell. There had been a few slipups. That night at Cody’s was the most notable. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t kept up his end of the bargain.

“I love you,” she whispered. Snuggling down beside him, she reached for the covers and pulled the sheet over their bodies. “I don’t want you to be angry at me. Not now.”

“I’m not angry.” He sighed and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Everything is a mess right now. Huh? We don’t know what’s really happening with your secret admirer. My family is still involved in pretty much every single dramatic event happening in the Denver area right now.” Met could not help but snort at the thought of that bullshit. “I swear it’s like we make it up if there’s nothing going on.”

“It does seem like you guys are a magnet for this sort of thing,” she agreed. There was a moment of silence as they both seemed to be contemplating this stuff. Then Daphne rolled onto her belly and propped her chin on her hand. “Do you think it’s just because you guys have money?”

“I do think that’s a big part of it.” He thought about the whole money thing. “It isn’t just the money though. It’s always been the allocation of resources. You know? There are only so many livestock contracts available in this region. The bigger the ranch, the more contracts it needs to be lucrative. At some point, maybe we just need to scale back and be happy with where we’re at.”

“Do you think that’s what Paul Weatherby wants?” she wondered out loud.

“I don’t know what Paul Weatherby wants,” Met told her irritably. “And the stupidest thing is that I don’t think anyone has actually asked the man either. Maybe we should start there. Mediation. You know?”

“That would be awfully enlightened,” she teased. “Do you think a bunch of Hernandez brothers have that much civilized behavior between them?”

“Most days?” he drawled. “Not a chance in hell.”

“Then, I guess we’re all back to trying to rub each other off the earth.” She pressed a kiss to his arm and laid her cheek on his chest. “Hopefully the last man standing will have that HLC brand on his horse.”