“Why the hell are you in such a foul mood? If I was getting some regularly I’d walk around here whistling, maybe dancing a little jig.” Tanner flashed a smile while he twisted wire around a broken fence post.

“Me too,” I told him noncommittally. We’d been back from that amazing night in Houston for weeks, yet I hadn’t spent much alone time with Sage in almost a week. It was damn frustrating.

Tanner froze and looked up at me in shock. “You mean you and Sage aren’t gettin’ it on?”

“Not for the past week anyway,” I answered sounding like a grouchy bastard.

“Why the hell not?”

That was a good damn question. The whole world had been conspiring against me getting what I wanted this week. She’d been off-site plenty but she never said where she’d been or what she was doing, and one emergency after another had kept me dealing with the ranch until well after dinner.

“Don’t know.”

“Looks good,” he said, stepping back to take in the length of fence we’d spent the afternoon repairing.

“Sure does. Thanks for the help.” Having Tanner around certainly made life easier but this wasn’t his real life. “How long are you in town?”

“Can’t say for sure. Let’s just say that I’m reevaluating some things.”

That was cryptic as hell but the M&M was his home and he was welcome as long as he needed it. “It’s good to have you back. Lily loves having you around.”

He flashed a grin. “That’s because no one gives good piggyback rides like Uncle Tanner.” His expression sobered. “We’ve been out here all day Mase, go in there and get your girl. Unless this is giving you an excuse to stay away?”

“I’ll see you in the morning,” I growled and hopped on Shadow, urging him across the expanse of land that lead to the stable and ignoring the rumbling laughter behind me.

After a quick shower and a goodnight kiss for Lily I knocked on Sage’s door. Moments later she pulled her door open looking sexy and sleepy in almost nothing, so much skin on display I didn’t know where to look first. I pushed in and leaned against the closed door.

“What’s going on Sage?”

She shrugged, a coy smile on her lips. “Nothing much. Waiting for you.” Gathering the hem of her slinky camisole she pulled it over her head and tossed it on the chair by the window.

I swallowed the desire bubbling up inside of me and went to her, caressing her soft skin, smooth heavy breasts. This was what I needed right now. Not stolen kisses in the barn and late night make out sessions in front of the fire. This woman. This heat between us. It was indescribable.

“Good because I can’t stay away.”

“Glad to hear it.” Her hands slid up my abs, over my chest and around my neck before they gently cupped my face and she brushed a kiss against my lips. “What are you waiting for?”

Hell if I knew. The only thing I knew in that moment was that I would spend the rest of the night between her thighs, loving her, worshipping her, and seeking my own pleasure deep inside her heat.

That was exactly what I did, using her throaty cries of ecstasy to fuel my desire, to find different ways to make her moan my name. Finally, sometime before dawn, we fell asleep, bodies still entangled and skin slick with sweat.

When I woke up the next morning I was certain I was still dreaming, and it was wicked. Sage had me in her mouth, so hot and wet as her tongue slid over my cock. The feel of me deep in her throat had my eyes opening and looking down between my legs where the little minx caressed me with her hands, loved me with her mouth. “Sage,” I growled and reached for her.

“I thought maybe I was doing it wrong.”

My mouth kicked up in a lazy grin. “I thought I was dreaming. You’re lucky things didn’t get out of hand.” Hell it had been so long since I’d had a blow job I could have shocked her.

“How? I want you to show me how a sexy cowboy gets out of hand.”

I shook my head. She was too innocent, too inexperienced to understand what she was asking. “Darlin’ I can’t.”

“Please, Mase? I want to know and I want you to show me.”

Damn when she begged like that I was powerless to deny her. “Get on your knees.” Big blue eyes went wide but she quickly jumped off the bed and on her knees. I had to stifle a groan as I swung my legs to the floor and stood in front of her. The way she obeyed was humbling and intoxicating. “Open your mouth and stick out your tongue.” I grinned when she made the universal noise for ‘open up’. “Very good.”

Her eyes sparkled with amusement. Arousal. They never left my cock as I stroked and slid into her mouth, not all the way just enough for her to get the idea. Her tongue slid across the bottom of my shaft and I groaned. “More,” she insisted around the length and girth of me in her mouth.

I slid in deeper and her hands gripped the back of my thighs, not pulling me away but pushing me deeper into her wet heat. “Okay?” She nodded and swallowed around me, making my hips buck and sending me down her throat. She moaned and that about tore me apart, thinking she might be enjoying this as much as I was. Gripping her hair, I held her still and gently stroked in and out of her mouth, alternating deep and shallow thrusts as moisture grew. “Sage,” I groaned as she took me deeper and deeper, blue eyes smiling, teasing me.

I couldn’t take it. Her mouth felt too good and the sight of her on her knees with no other thoughts than pleasing me, hell it made me hard as hell and I gripped her hair harder, thrust deeper and she took it all, moaning and squeezing my ass.

“Too much,” I told her and slid from her mouth.

“I get it,” she said with a smile as she stood, kissing her way up my body. “I liked it.” She stood closer and grabbed my hand, sliding it between her legs and through her damp opening. “Show me how much you liked it Mase.”

Damn why did her voice have to sound so sweet, so sexy and husky? My control snapped and I leaned back on the bed, pulling her on top of me until her weeping slit was directly over my mouth. “Show me how much you liked sucking me, Sage.”

“What? You mean you want me to…,” she couldn’t even say it and I knew this would be fun. For both of us.

Palms flat on her tight round ass, I pushed her forward until she slid across the length of my tongue. “Yes. Now, Sage.” She moved tentatively at first but her hips continued to buck at the sensations it caused and soon she was lost in her own pleasure, grinding and swirling and calling my name like it was the only word she knew.

Her movements were wild and soon she cried out, bearing down as I sucked her clit while she rode out her orgasm. In the next moment she was sliding over me, impaling herself on my cock and I too was lost. We came together fast and hard and satisfying, moaning mutual pleasure at each other. Sage wore a soft smile that hit me right in the chest.

“You’re even better than I thought you’d be,” she whispered in my ear and kissed me silly.

Like she, sweet and sexy Sage Manchester all grown up, couldn’t get enough of me. “You thought about how I’d be?”

She nodded. “I imaged you pleasuring me the way my pocket rocket did.”

The image that came, Sage flat on her back with her legs spread open using some battery-operated toy to learn about her pleasure, had me growing hard inside her again. “You’ll have to show me some time,” I told her and flexed my hips.

“Anytime.”

A door slammed downstairs and then a familiar voice. “Well don’t everybody come down here and greet me all at once. I’ve only been locked up in an old fogey home for months.”

We both froze. “Ma?”

“I guess that means I have to move.”

I pumped into her again. “Unfortunately.”

She rose slowly until our bodies parted and collapsed on her back, watching me dress. “Don’t be a stranger, Mase.”

I kissed her again. Long and sweetly, because she made me feel tender. “Like I could even if I wanted to.”

That much was damn true. This woman was an addiction I had no desire to get rid of.

“Care to tell me why that good lookin’ fella thinks you and Sage are getting hitched?” Tammy Manning was still a force to be reckoned with as a woman in her sixties. Hair that was more grey than blonde these days was still worn in the same long braid she’d had since I was a boy. Sharp brown eyes she’d passed on to me and Tanner looked deep inside me as though she knew all my secrets.

Based on past history, she probably did. “Ma,” I groaned in frustration. “I need to go to Mr. Graham.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “Sage and Tanner will show him everything you can. Now I’ve been patient and not asked any questions, particularly why that beautiful girl is now staying in the house. Sleeping next door to you.”

I felt heat flood my cheeks at her insinuation, but I sucked in a long breath and explained everything, starting with Walt’s visit. I knew I had to, my mother would give me no peace until she knew every detail.

“Walt made an incorrect assumption that I knew would hurt my chances at joining the TPBA so I let it stand.” An oversimplification of events but still true.

Steely brown eyes assessed me, lips twisted into a displeased scowl. “And Sage just agreed to this out of the goodness of her heart?”

“Yes. No. Sort of.” Hell, what did she want me to say?

Arms crossed she gave me that look, the one that made me confess all my sins as a boy. “Well which is it boy? I know that girl has carried a torch for you since she was a tiny little thang, all big blue eyes and wild brown hair. She followed you around like you were god’s gift made just for her.” She took a sip of tea and grinned. “Not much has changed I’d say.”

“What?” I shook my head because I didn’t want to think about that. My own feelings were already twisted up about her. “You’re wrong Ma. She wanted something in exchange but I offered money instead.”

“Did she accept it?”

“No. But she will.” I was almost certain of it.

“If you’re sure. I’d hate to see her get hurt and you lose your friendship with Jack because you were a coward.”

And that was the reminder I needed that this thing was getting out of control. It had gone beyond a temporary pretense into a real relationship, and with her lack of experience, Sage would have expectations. Despite her insistence that she was okay with our physical relationship she didn’t have all the information when she’d made that promise.

“Dammit!” I shouldn’t have gotten close to her. I should have backed away and let her find some nice guy looking for love and marriage to give herself to.

Ma just laughed and shook her head. “Looks like I came back at just the right time.”

With Maybelle now gone to see after her sister in Memphis, I agreed, but not for the same reasons.

Not at all.