Chapter Six
Wynonna hadn’t come down for breakfast, and nobody in her family raised the question why. Mav sat through the meal, barely eating, her flavors still taking over his senses. The Calhouns were luckily a quiet bunch the first meal of the day, and nobody spoke to him directly.
He quickly buried his uneaten food in the trash and then put his plate in the dishwasher for Mrs. Calhoun. After that, he went out into the air. It was impossible not to shoot a look at Wynonna’s window and remember her coming across the dewed grass toward him in bare feet. How she’d come apart so many times—
He went into the barn and set about his chores, always keeping watch over his shoulder. If Wynonna had gone quiet, it couldn’t be a good sign. She was staging an attack, and she’d know when to catch him at his most vulnerable.
She wasn’t vindictive, but she’d been scorned, and well, he’d seen some bad shit from her over the years. Didn’t stop him from wanting her, though. Especially now that he knew he could tame her with two fingers buried in her pussy.
He mounted up and rode out to check the herd. The day was dawning bright, the clouds drifting on a light breeze and making way for the vast blue that was an Oklahoma sky.
There was word from West that a few buyers were expected this week, come down from North Carolina to look into some of the Calhoun beef for a ritzy restaurant. They wanted the best of the best. Which Calhoun beef was.
The horse rolled under him, but it didn’t take his mind off the woman who’d been there just hours before. He never should have laid a hand on her. Purging her from his system would take a lifetime.
And it worried the hell out of him, thinking what she’d do next. She could force a reckoning between them by simply telling one of her brothers what had happened. Mav thought of them as a kid brothers, and any animosity from them would cut him. But he was more concerned with her just running back to Austin and saying she’d made a mistake.
He guided his horse along the outer edge of the herd. With the rains gone overnight, the dry land had sucked up most of the excess water. He skirted the spot where he and Wyn had built the bridge and found it dry, just some mud sucking at the edge of the boards. When it was drier, he’d come up with some more permanent solution for that stretch of ground. Since they’d never had this trouble in all his years on the ranch, he had a feeling the ground had eroded over time.
He began circling the herd, looking for limping cattle or ones that didn’t want to get up. When he spotted a calf lying off on its own, he drew up. A few beasts scattered as he made his way to the calf.
When he swung down from his mount, hoofbeats filled his ears. He looked around to see West and Ridge coming his way. He couldn’t help but glance at their faces, trying to read if they knew anything. But their expressions didn’t give anything away.
He strode to the calf and knelt next to it. The scent of illness hit him hard, and he shook his head. “Fuck. Better hold my breath for this.”
He eased the calf up. It was dead weight, weak from a case of the scours. If left untreated, it would die, and especially out here with the herd. He’d take it back to the barn and nurse it.
“What you got there, Mav?” Ridge called out.
“Scours.”
“Bet that smells good.”
“Yep.” The diarrhea smell made him breathe shallowly as he carried the animal back to his horse. He got the calf up into the saddle and kept one hand braced on it so it didn’t fall as he swung up behind it.
“There’s Wyn. What’s she doin’?” West asked.
Mav jerked his head up to see the woman riding flat-out across the field on Zodiac. Damn her, she loved a thrill and a good adrenaline rush, but he couldn’t help but think she was taunting him. Knowing what had happened last time she’d ridden the devil.
“Something’s up with her,” Ridge said. “I’m willing to lay down a twenty that it’s to do with her fiancé. Mav, you want in on the bet?”
He grunted but didn’t answer.
“Nobody’s gonna bet against you, West.” Ridge twisted his head right and left, looking out for more injured or sick among the herd as they rode. “She’s a country girl who needs a country guy. I could hook her up with Wyatt Harper. He’s shown some interest.”
“Not Harper,” Mav said and then almost bit off his tongue.
Ridge nudged his hat back to look at Mav. Damn, now he was under scrutiny. Mav kept his expression flat. “What’s wrong with Harper?”
“Heard some rumors ’bout him,” Mav lied. “Down at the feed store. Something about two-timing.”
“Oh crap. Hadn’t heard that. There’s gotta be someone we can throw in Wyn’s path to get her unhooked from this city slicker who’s all wrong for her.”
“Maybe one of the guys comin’ down from North Carolina will tip her hat,” West said.
Mav issued a low, rasping growl the brothers wouldn’t hear. Wynonna galloped past, and his thigh muscles tensed. She looked his way, and he turned his head aside. She slowed and looped back their direction.
Shit. Now she was coming over.
He made sure the calf was secured in the saddle and tried to slow his pounding heart. In his pocket, his phone went off as a flurry of text messages and voicemails came in.
West shook his head. “Damn, you’re popular. Got a new woman?”
Wynonna drew Zodiac up in time to overhear the question. “What’s this about a new woman?”
His ears burned, and he feared he was blushing. He dipped his head. “It’s just my brother.”
“He still in Oregon?” West asked.
“Yeah. Askin’ me to come help with our ma.”
“If you need some time off, Mav, all you gotta do is ask. You’ve been here for us forever, never taking time off for yourself.”
He felt Wynonna’s keen gaze on him, prying at the edges of his life he kept firmly nailed down. “Nah, I’m good, thanks. I’m going to get this calf on back to the barn and dosed.”
“Make sure you take a shower too. We can smell it from here,” Wynonna called sweetly.
He carefully avoided her stare and heeled his mount. He had to get away from the one person he wanted to avoid even as his body urged him to go back, grab her and claim her right in front of her brothers.
* * * * *
“Why’s Mav so close-lipped about his family?” Wynonna asked.
Ridge lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “Don’t know much about it, to be honest. He’s always been private.”
“Seems there’s something more there,” she said.
“Don’t go stickin’ your nose in where it doesn’t belong,” West advised.
She made a face at him, and he made one right back. They shared a chuckle but he didn’t say more on the topic.
They continued scanning the herd, nobody speaking. She was a bit saddle-sore today, and it had nothing to do with horses. Mav had given her a thorough workout, and her girly-bits were tender. Each time her bottom came down on the leather, she remembered what he’d done to her.
The best night of her life, the best sex too. Yet he’d pulled exactly what she’d expected come morning—telling her it was all wrong and never should have happened. The stubborn ass of a man didn’t know what was good for him when it was sitting in his lap.
Mmm. She thought of crawling into his lap, straddling him wearing nothing more than a sundress. Him finding her wet and ready—irresistible.
She’d always been stuck on him, but now, when she’d seen him with that vulnerable calf slung over his saddle, his hat sitting slightly askew, her heart had done a loop-de-loop. She was like a girl at the country fair again, riding all the fastest, whippiest rides just for the thrill. But Mav did that to her just by looking at him.
“Maybe we should insist he take a vacation and go back to Oregon,” she said.
Her brothers exchanged a look. “Wyn,” West said.
“Your tone couldn’t warn off little Cho,” she shot back.
“No, you’re right. My daughter’s got me wrapped around her little finger. I’m pretty sure my nieces and nephews are afraid of me, though.”
At that, Ridge laughed. “Keep thinkin’ it, bro.”
Wynonna only kept half an ear on their banter, because her mind was stuck in Mav’s business in Oregon.
That and on Austin. When she’d looked at her phone this morning, she’d found several messages from him begging her to reconsider. Which had only triggered an avalanche of guilt. She’d gone straight from telling her fiancé she needed more time and into Mav’s bed.
Thing was, she had no guilt about that part. Everything they’d done had been… Well, right.
“I’m going back and see if Mav needs any help nursing that calf.” Without waiting for responses, she rode away from her brothers.
In her experience, men needed beat over the head with information to ingest it. Mav wouldn’t be any different. Plus, she had the perfect outfit to persuade him.
* * * * *
What the fuck was Wynonna doing wearing that skimpy little sundress? Holy hell. Mav ran a hand over his face to try to wipe the vision from his memory. Of course, it didn’t work. Her curves in bombshell red material was emblazoned on his mind, and his cock knew it no matter how many times he tried to blink it away.
The pressure in his jeans quadrupled as she sauntered toward him. He grabbed the end of the rope he was holding with his teeth and jerked his head to tug it tight. The knot tightened around the bale of hay he was holding together with both hands to keep it from blowing apart all over the barn floor.
“Looks like you could use a hand.” Her perfume struck him before she brought her hands down on his ass cheeks.
He let go of the bale, and hay scattered. He whirled and tried to put some distance between him and the beauty who gave him a raging hard-on.
“Wyn, you can’t do that. We talked—”
She cast a look beyond him to the yard. “My brothers are all back at their places for lunch, and Momma’s having a nap after gardening all morning. So, that leaves us.” When she smiled, she looked like a cat who’d just licked all the cream, especially when she already possessed the cat-shaped eyes and the corners of her lips tipped upward to match.
“We can’t, Wyn. It was one night.”
She nibbled her lower lip and caught her hem up in one fist. The fabric tugged up to reveal the smooth muscles of her thigh—and her dripping-wet pussy.
He groaned. “Fuck.”
“You’re not finished with me, are you, Mav?”
“Yes.”
She moved closer and pulled the bottom of her dress higher to expose both naked legs and her full pussy. Red curls and a seam of slick wetness that was the highway to hell.
Or heaven.
No.
Fucking hell, woman. Let me taste you.
He fisted his hands to keep from touching her. “You need taught a lesson in modesty,” he choked.
She went on tiptoe to brush her lips over his jaw. “Why would I want to do that when you’re enjoying the show?”
“Dammit, Wyn.”
She rubbed against him, and white fire seared through his groin. “You want me. You can have me. Come and get me.” She spun away and walked into the barn.
For ten full seconds, he thought about not following. Battled to keep from walking through that door after her, but fuck if he could. He was weak.
Before he realized he’d taken a step, his boots scuffed on the wooden barn floor. He bit back a growl as his gaze landed on Wynonna, bent over a few hay bales, hands braced on them and legs spread wide. The lines of her round ass and the slippery juices glistening lower ripped a growl from him.
She threw a look over her shoulder. Damn little seductress knew exactly what she was doing to him. He stepped up and let her feel his body heat on her bare flesh a split second before he wrapped her hair around his fist and jerked her head back to receive his kiss.
He plunged his tongue between her lips as he found the center of her with his fingers. He thrust his fingers in time with his kiss, and harsh little moans tore from her throat. His cock was about to burst his Wranglers. Good thing yesterday they’d established no need for condoms, because he wasn’t slowing down to slip one on.
“A better man wouldn’t touch you, Wyn. I’m not a better man. But I did try.” He sucked on her tongue as he pulled more noises from her with his fingers. Pushing deep, withdrawing to the tips and then spreading her wetness over her swollen folds. Her clit was distended for him just right, and damn if his mouth wasn’t watering with the need to taste her.
“Mav.” She panted.
He released his grip on her hair and whirled her into his arms. Lifting her under the ass and supporting her on one arm while he tore at his belt. In seconds he had his cock free and was settling her over it.
Inch by hot inch she sank down his shaft until his balls were snug against her body. Her bright eyes were wide, glazed with lust. He carried her into a beam of sunlight slanting through a high window so he could watch her in the light of day the way he had in the moonlight. Maybe then he could purge her from his system.
Who’re you kidding? You’ll want her for a midmorning snack and a predinner appetizer. Not to mention five ways before supper.
He rocked his hips, burying himself deeper yet. She cried out as he hit that innermost point, and there was no help for it—he was starting to think of that spot as belonging to him.
“Is this what you want? My cock buried in your wet pussy?”
“Yes!” She dropped her head back, and he couldn’t resist sucking on the thrumming bit of skin over her pulse as he speared her once more.
“You want this total self-destruction?”
She looked at him, brow furrowing at his words but her eyes no less blurred with desire. “I want you, always have.”
Fuck, how to shake that off? He churned his hips, sinking his cock so deep that he bottomed out. She gave a shudder of pleasure, and then nothing could have stopped him from giving her that final bliss she craved. Bulls could stampede through that door. Or hell, her brothers, and he wouldn’t stop.
He fucked her standing up, and when his legs threatened to buckle with the need scorching through him, he pressed her against the nearest wall. With his hands splayed across her spine to shield her from splinters, he bored into her.
“Mav, I’m…”
“I know.” He felt it—those small tremors of her inner walls that told him she was about to rocket into a realm of ecstasy. Before she could find her release, he lifted her off his cock and set her on her feet.
“What the hell? You’re leaving me hanging?”
He gave her a dark look as he dropped to his knees. With hands on her inner thighs, he parted her with the tips of his fingers. Spreading her pussy open for his tongue.
* * * * *
A string of curse words left Wynonna that had Mav rumbling a laugh against her. But the sensation only drove her upward. She was so close, on the very rocky cliff about to leap. He lapped from bottom to top of her pussy, burrowing his tongue deeper with each pass.
She curled her fingers into his hair and guided him exactly where she wanted him. That knot of nerves pulsated, needing just a few flicks of his tongue to grasp the golden star of light hovering just within reach.
“Mmm. So fucking tasty.” He opened his mouth and sucked her pussy. Five o’clock shadow burned oh, so right against her swollen folds and his tongue worked her nubbin like it was his occupation.
She let her head drop back, harsh rasps escaping her lips. If he wasn’t supporting her with his hands, she’d crumple. With Mav she felt so strong and yet so weak. And just what had he meant when he’d asked if she wanted this total self-destruction?
She couldn’t catch hold of that thought—it revolved through her mind, obliterated by sensations. Her muscles trembled, quaked.
“Mav, I’m coming. I’m coming. I’m—” Her words cut off on a squeaking cry. He pumped his tongue in and out of her as he used his upper lip to pin her clit to her body. She tumbled into a warm sea, floating on the swirls of his tongue and ripples he created with his fingers.
She hadn’t worked through her sexual fog before he was on his feet and spinning her to the wall. He trapped her hands under his and his hot words at her ear made her shiver. “You need me fucking you. Need me splitting you.” He rocked his hips, drawing his steely erection over her pussy.
“Took you long enough, Cowboy.”
He bit into her earlobe hard enough to make her yip. “Thought you promised not to call me that.”
“The deal was I wouldn’t if you don’t kiss me. Figure we broke that.”
He bit her again. Somehow the pain only heightened her awareness of what he was doing to her below. He slid his cock between her thighs, and she savored the slick feel for all of half a minute before she started to get frustrated.
“Fuck me,” she demanded.
“Damn, you don’t really get who’s in charge of this game yet, do you?” He teased her with lingering strokes over her needy, pulsating folds. But he still didn’t shove it home the way she wanted.
A frustrated cry broke from her, and his chest vibrated a laugh against her spine. So he thought he was in charge of her sexual pleasure, but she knew how to tip him off-balance too. Stubborn man may believe he had a firm grip on his control, but he was easily led by a lifted hem.
She hung her head and breathed heavily around her unfulfilled desires. Her pussy was soaked from him eating her, and wetness slid down her inner thighs. With each pass of his cock over her flesh, more juices squeezed free. The moist sound filled the barn, seeming so loud to her ears. Her nipples ached, and she hiccupped back another demand. Let him have his fun—she’d turn the tables soon enough.
“You want my cock deep, honey?” he whispered into her ear.
The hairs stood up on her arms and neck. She had half a mind to tell him he was boring her with all his teasing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. She loved every tormenting, vexing, sexy and breathless moment.
In fact, she could go on forever this way, with his cock rubbing over her pussy, her hands pinned to the wall and her skirt thrown up over her hips. The more patience she had, Mav lost some. She bit down on a harsh groan. On his next shove, he was balls-deep.
“Mav!”
“That’s it, honey. Tell me who’s fucking this sweet pussy. Say it!”
“You.” She unleashed a primal moan as he struck that deep spot. It didn’t seem to matter which position he fucked her in—he managed to hit it. She realized it had to do with the fit of their bodies and could never be achieved by another man.
She pushed back into him, hollowing her lower back to fit him deeper. He sucked on her neck, trailing his tongue through the perspiration there. Churning his hips, the rhythm setting her on a fast horse to ecstasy.
“Come for me. Fuck, you’re so wet and tight, I can’t—”
Hearing him so undone sent her shooting upward. Her mind stopped working and her body took over. Pangs of sensation slithered through her body. Mav hooked an arm around her middle and plastered her to his hard body as he fucked her faster.
When he ran his hand down her belly and buried his fingers in her mound of curls, she splintered. His liquid heat rushed her as she came on his erection. Five pulsations turned into eight, and she had no idea how long it went on because she lost count.
He stilled, cupping her breasts through her sundress, his lips at her ear, his breath a soft music.
“I love me some self-destruction.” She reached back and squeezed his hard hip.
He grunted and pulled free. “Go on up to the house and don’t come down dressed like that again.” He yanked her skirt into place, but his seed ran down her thigh. She’d have to walk funny and hope nobody stopped her so she could get to the shower and clean up.
She twisted and gave him a coy look. “You don’t like this dress? I have others.”
“Wynonna.” His voice warned, but she just let out a carefree laugh. She felt more alive and ready to take on the world than ever. And that was saying something. She’d hit some big highs the past year. But somehow, having Mav’s attention gave her a brand-new confidence.
“When you run your hand through your hair like that, it only makes me want you again.” She leaned in and kissed him. Before he could jerk back, she snaked her tongue between his lips and raised a strangled noise from his throat.
With a smile and a swish of her hips, she pushed by him and stepped out the barn door.
* * * * *
At least the damn woman was dressed tonight. Wynonna sprawled in a lawn chair, ankles crossed and her jeans fitted to her contoured thighs. She wore flip-flops, and one dangled off her toe, but when he took a seat around the bonfire, she let it drop to the ground and didn’t bother slipping it back on again.
When Mav was summoned to the family bonfire, he’d thought up half a dozen excuses to tell Ryder why he couldn’t go. I have glaucoma. I’m attending a mad midnight manure shoveling party. My horoscope says to stay in tonight—Saturn is out of my house.
None of them had a cricket’s chirp to do with Wynonna, when she was really his whole reason for wanting to avoid the family.
He couldn’t trust her one bit, not after leaving him in the barn earlier, her kiss lingering on his lips and with the last word. Dammit, he hadn’t meant to fuck her again, but then she’d gone and twitched that dress up and shown him what heaven could be like.
He pushed out a breath as he settled between Ryder and Buck Jr. Wynonna sat directly across the fire from him, and that was bad luck. But he tried to ignore the sultry tilt of her head and the way her skin glowed in the firelight. Buck Jr. was hopping around asking Malou for the story of the Moon Man, a Native American story the kids all knew by heart now. Malou sure recited it enough for the youngsters that even Mav knew it.
“Aunt Wyn, can I have a marshmallow?” the boy asked.
“Sure thing, sugar.” She reached over the side of her lounge chair and found the bag. She got to her feet to hand him one, and her gaze landed squarely on Mav.
A crashing in his head might be a couple of bulls squaring up or the damn emotional tie to Wyn that he’d looked to escape. Shit, there was no help for it now. He’d have to avoid her at every turn until this feeling passed.
She handed Buck Jr. a marshmallow, and the boy speared it on the end of his stick. Then she turned to Mav. “Want one?”
He had a feeling she wasn’t talking about white lumps of sugar.
His gaze dropped to her breasts, spilling over the neckline of her T-shirt. Hell, that was worse. “No thanks,” he croaked.
She gave him a knowing smile and returned to her lounge chair. Taking her time getting situated so he couldn’t help but watch her every restless move. Was she sore from what he’d done to her? He hadn’t gone easy, especially that last time.
It can’t happen again.
She had no idea what she was getting with him. Fucked-up family, the son of a man with a violent history of mental illness. Symptoms that Mav himself had battled the past twenty years of his life. His mother and brother had forever been trying to push him toward help, but he’d seen what had happened with his dad. He wasn’t ever going down that road. And he wasn’t going back to Oregon, no matter how many times they called or texted him. He wasn’t getting in that hearse again either.
“Have you heard that Kody Jennings is getting married?” Ridge asked the group.
Wynonna snorted. “To that crazy Meredith woman. The one who’s followed him around for years on the rodeo circuit. The Buckle Bunny. She’ll make him as happy as a cow pie and I give their relationship five minutes.”
“Never know,” West said, reaching for Malou’s hand and entwining their fingers. Their rings glinted in the firelight. “They may be perfect for each other.”
“Or not,” Wynonna said.
“You’re one to talk, engaged to a guy who probably doesn’t even know how to seat a horse.”
Mav looked up sharply. She hadn’t told her family?
She cut her gaze away from him, and Mav noted she placed her hand under her thigh so they didn’t see she wasn’t wearing a ring. Not that she’d worn it from the beginning, which was surely a sign things weren’t all engagement bliss.
“What does it matter if he can seat a horse if he can buy me a horse? It’s not hard to make me happy—just tell me I’m beautiful and give me horses,” she shot back.
“Is pretty boy doing that for you?”
The words fell into the group, and it took Mav five full heartbeats before he understood who’d spoken—him.
His jaw popped and he realized he was grinding his teeth. Even the mention of other men in her life set him off. He didn’t have any place among the Calhouns to speak out, and now everyone was aware something bigger was at play.
Wynonna gave him a twisted little smile. “How nice of you to worry about me, Mav. I actually have enough horses at the moment.”
“Puppies too,” Buck Jr. piped up. “Did you know Mav’s been training Austin so he doesn’t cry at night?”
Mav couldn’t remember the dog crying at all the previous night, but then again, he’d been too busy listening to Wynonna begging for release.
They stared at each other.
“I did hear that, buddy. Mighty nice of Mav, isn’t it?”
The boy’s hat flopped as he nodded. Mav was too aware of the heated look she was giving him as well as interested stares from the rest of the family huddled around the flames.
He pushed to his feet. “Gonna put the animals to bed,” he muttered and walked off into the night. The farther from the glow of the fire he got, the heavier his steps became until he felt he was stomping all the way to the barn.
He poked his head in and checked on the horses, and they were fine. His excuse had gotten him away, but he knew there would be questions raised by her brothers in the morning. That moment between him and Wynonna had been charged with innuendo, and nobody had been able to ignore it.
Hell, he was fucking things up. If he hadn’t touched her, nobody would be wiser that his heart had been thumping strong for her for a while now. He’d need to come up with an excuse for saying that, just to kick them off his trail.
He went into his room and closed the door. For a second, he fingered the lock. If he left it open, a little redhaired vixen could steal in during the moonlight hours. His chest filled with an aching agony to feel her flush against him again.
He shot the bolt through the lock and began to undress. Alone.