Chapter Twenty-Six
Hailey
A Few Days Later, Early September
It didn’t take Cash very long to get back on his feet again, not that I let him jump right back into his work on the farm. He tried, but I shut that right down. Eric was a champ, taking a few days’ vacation from work and driving up every morning with a few more friends of his to get the necessary work done on the farm. A day after Cash woke up after his fever finally broke all the way, he was strong enough to take a meal sitting at the table. He insisted on going out to check on his animals, but I made him wait until the following morning when he was a little stronger, and only after he had breakfast. It calmed him a great deal to see what an amazing job Eric and his friends had done during his convalescence. I was actually able to get him to relax in bed without a fight. The following morning, he was much better, and the one after that, he was able to go back to working on the ranch.
Now we sat at the dining room table on the night after he’d been able to get back to work—with Eric’s help, though he was going back to his own job in the morning—finishing up the steak and potatoes Cash had promised me after waking from his long, feverish sleep. He’d cooked one of the best steaks I’d ever had in my life, and I’d been all over the country, including Texas, where they had a patent on cooking every kind of beef. Or so I thought. There’d be some pissed off cowboys if they tasted what Cash was able to do with a steak.
“This is amazing,” I told him for probably the seventh time. My food was almost gone, which was a shame, but I’d made him promise to make this again before I went back to the East Coast.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said, smiling at me, his green eyes clear and healthy. It was good to see him back to his normal self. And it felt like we’d gotten closer by weathering that ordeal together. Besides our fun day at the rodeo, I hadn’t really had much time to spend alone with him. Granted, most of that was spent with him drifting in and out of sleep, but we’d had plenty of opportunities to talk as well. We’d even played some card games when he was stuck in bed. I really hadn’t been able to leave him alone for a second for fear of him escaping outside and trying to overdo it, so I’d had to find ways to keep him occupied. I was grateful for Eric, who’d shadowed Cash on his first two days back on the job to make sure he wasn’t pushing himself too hard.
“This makes you a riding, roping, reading, cooking cowboy,” I said with a smile. “What else do you have up your sleeves?”
He smiled again. He’d shaved all the dark stubble off his jaw from the days he’d been recovering. I kind of liked the rugged, grizzled look, although he looked great this way too. I kept catching myself gazing at him way too long. Watching over him while he’d been drifting in and out of sleep had given me way too much time to commit every finely formed feature of his face to memory. It was going to be painful to leave in October if I never got the chance to feel his shapely lips pressed against mine. Paige’s voice piped up in my head, telling me to go for it. But I just couldn’t. I might regret it for the rest of my life, but I just wasn’t as brave as she was. Besides, what if kissing was just as great as I imagined it to be? What if we forged some great, mind-blowing connection? What then? How would I ever leave Jackson to return to where I belonged?
“That sounds like me in a nutshell,” Cash said, his pretty eyes shining as they looked me over. He had a way of staring that started a flame burning in my chest. But then he’d look away, leaving me to immediately question whether or not I’d actually felt something real between us. I hated this tendency in myself where men were concerned—to just go with the flow and not put my foot down to decide my own damned destiny—but had no idea what I could do to change it. I couldn’t blame it all on indecisiveness. So much of it was fear of rejection. If I told Cash I liked him, and he didn’t feel the same way, how would I continue to live here for another month? I’d have to leave right away, which meant paying out of my own pocket for a place to stay in Jackson and taking care to avoid both Cash and Eric for the rest of my stay. That was too complicated and risky when just doing nothing would allow me to remain here as planned until I was ready to go home. It felt like the coward’s way out, but what choice did I have?
“I just like it when a guy cooks for me,” I said simply, my cheeks reddening a little at the way he lifted his eyebrows at me. It felt hotter than usual in here, not that he seemed to notice.
“You have that happen a lot?” His mouth curled into an attractive half grin that I wanted to slide across the table and kiss off. Something about the emotional intensity of the last week had stirred up all kinds of deep feelings for Cash that went beyond simply admiring how muscly and good-looking he was.
I giggled, suddenly nervous by the stubborn turn of my thoughts. I just couldn’t get the thought of putting my hands—and lips—on him out of my head lately. It was becoming a real distraction, and I couldn’t stop blushing whenever Cash looked at me, sure he was able to read all the inappropriate—but delicious—things I was imagining doing to him.
“Definitely not as often as I’d like.”
Cash stared at me for a few seconds, his grin widening just a touch—seemingly reading my thoughts in that unnerving manner he had—and then he stood to begin collecting the dishes the way he did whenever I cooked. I usually sat at the table and let him clean up—though I’d gotten into the habit of cleaning as I cooked, so most of the dishes were rinsed and stacked in the sink, ready to be washed with soapy water, and the mess wiped from the countertops, as I knew how much the disorder I brought into the house drove him up the wall—but tonight I sprang to my feet. I reached to pull the plate out of his hand, but he didn’t let it go.
“You cooked dinner,” I said before he could open his mouth to protest this shift in our after dinner roles. I pulled at the plate, but he held firm. “Tonight, you get to sit at the table while I clean up.”
“How about you wash and I’ll dry?” he asked, grinning that sexy grin that was beginning to cause me almost physical pain whenever I saw it. I didn’t think standing next to him and feeling his body heat as we did the dishes together was really the best idea. I probably needed to start putting distance between us. This one-sided attraction was getting to be way too much to handle. I needed a cold shower and some alone time in my room.
“Sure,” I said, shrugging. As much as I knew keeping my distance from Cash was best, I was also desperate to spend time with him. After October, I’d probably never see or speak to him again. It wasn’t like we could keep emailing each other the way I did with others I’d met on my travels. Even Eric would likely bore of the pen pal thing eventually. It saddened me to think of leaving Cash behind as part of my Wyoming adventure, but what more could I do?
We took all the dishes to the sink, stacking them on my side. I filled one part of the sink with soapy water and got busy, scrubbing the dishes clean and then handing them over to Cash to rinse, dry, and stack on his side of the double sink.
“This is your last full month in Jackson,” Cash remarked, and I could feel his eyes on me, though I didn’t turn my face from the dish I was cleaning to meet his unwavering gaze.
“Hard to believe,” I said, trying to keep the words light. “The time has really flown by since I got here.” We worked in silence for a few moments before he spoke again.
“You could always stay longer.”
This time, I stopped what I was doing, my hands immersed in soapy water, and looked over at him in surprise. I knew he didn’t dislike me, but I hadn’t expected him to extend an invitation to stay longer than what I’d paid for upfront.
He seemed embarrassed, the color rushing to his cheeks as he watched me. “I mean, if you want to.”
“I figured you’d want your house back to normal as soon as possible,” I said. “I know you’re a private person.”
“Maybe I did want that at first,” he replied, that sexy smile rising back to the surface of his expression, the easy charm winning me over without really even trying. Up close, he smelled like the musky soap he used in the shower before he sat down to dinner. I actually loved the way he smelled after a hard day of work on the farm—like sunshine and sweet, manly sweat—but this was nice, too. Something about him had softened during the week he’d been trapped inside with me.
“And you don’t now?” I asked, lifting an eyebrow as I turned my shoulders slightly to face him.
“I’m getting used to you.”
I laughed, but it was full of nerves. “That almost sounds like a compliment.”
He shrugged and set down the plate and the towel he was using to dry it. “What I can’t figure is what you think about me.”
I blinked instead of responding.
“I haven’t wanted to mention what I was thinking because I didn’t find it appropriate. You’re paying to stay here, and it wasn’t right to take advantage of that.”
My stomach was twisting in anxious, anticipatory knots. Was he trying to say what I thought he was trying to say? I pulled my hands out of the soapy water and wiped them on my jeans, never looking away from him, not wanting to break his momentum. Because if he was about to say what I hoped he was, it was all I’d wanted to hear for weeks.
“But I can’t keep quiet any longer, even though I know I might be ruining the friendship between us. I’ve been attracted to you for weeks now, Hailey. I just want to say it plain.”
My heart soared, and something inside me unlocked at his confession. It was exactly what I needed to hear. He’d found the courage to take the first step. That meant I needed to take the second. Leaving the poor man hanging would be the definition of cruelty.
“I like you too, Cash,” I whispered, smiling up at him, the shock still clinging to me at his words. His face changed at hearing those words. He didn’t smile, but his eyes got even more intense than they already were, that green sizzling hot, like he was burning up again the way he had just a few days ago. “I have since the moment we met. It just didn’t seem like you felt the same way.”
He took hold of one of my wrists, the heat in his eyes spreading to the rest of his face. I was finding it harder to breathe at the sensation of that heat passing from his fingers into me. There was a deeper flame inside of me that was coming to life at the way he was staring at me, his eyes so green and so hungry, like he wanted to eat me alive.
“Let’s leave the dishes for a little later,” he whispered in his deep western drawl.
I widened my eyes questioningly, unable to believe what I’d just heard. Mr. Neat and Tidy, leaving a mess behind?
He pulled me closer, and though I was still surprised by all of this, I tilted my head back to receive his kiss as he leaned down to press his lips against mine. He kissed me deeply, his tongue entering my mouth and arms wrapping around me, just the way I’d been dreaming it would happen for weeks. I melted against him, my legs weakening as the kiss continued, both of us discovering the other’s mouth and tasting as much as we could, tongues probing and fingers squeezing flesh. We broke apart, breathless, staring into each other’s eyes and smiling dreamily. I didn’t want it to end, but he dropped his arms from around me, took my hand, and began to lead me out of the kitchen, leaving the dishes unwashed behind us. Right now, he only had eyes for me. I still felt mildly in shock as we passed through the living room and to the closed door of his bedroom. We went inside, and I waited at the foot of the bed while Cash turned on the bedside lamp, filling the space with low, comforting light.
He turned, his face flushed with color, the look in his eyes sizzling hot, even more so than it had been in the kitchen. He began to unbutton his shirt as I watched, biting my bottom lip in anticipation. I’d seen him with most of his clothes off when he was sick, but it hadn’t been erotic the way it was now, watching him strip down to his boxers, exposing every inch of his tanned body, his muscles sculpted from so much time working on the farm. I couldn’t wait to run my hands over him, followed by my mouth, tasting his salty sweet skin. I was getting wet just thinking of it. I’d spent so much time wanting him, dreaming about him, waking up with the sensation of him on my fingertips only to disappointingly realize that I hadn’t been with him at all.
I crossed the room as he finished stripping to his boxers, pulling my shirt off. I didn’t even get the chance to start on my jeans before he was kissing me again, his passion overtaking me, my mouth filling with his hunger and his deep, musky taste. I burrowed into him as we went at each other, our shared need building, the heat rising inside me and tingling between my legs, where I was so ready for him. We broke apart again, breathing heavily, and I finished getting out of my pants as he sat on the bed to slide his fingers over my hips and legs as I exposed them.
I set my glasses on the night table, and then we climbed under the blankets together, relishing the feeling of our bodies moving against each other, all that naked flesh and heat. He unhooked my bra, pushing it up over my breasts so he could tease my sensitive nipples with the tips of his calloused fingers. I moaned and pushed my lips against his, opening his mouth with my tongue, just wanting to taste as much of him as I could. He was hot and sweet, his body hard as a rock but smooth to the touch on mine. I ran my hands up and down his muscly back as I mauled his mouth, getting my tongue as deep as I could as he worked his boxers off and then started on my panties.
He pulled back, and I moaned at the loss of his lips. “I’ve wanted this for months,” he whispered, touching my face as I reached for his, tracing the hard line of his jaw and cheekbones.
“Me too,” I said, but I didn’t want to talk, I just wanted him on top of me, inside me. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted it. The fire inside me was stoked and building, the tingling starting between my legs that only he could quench with the hard shape of his cock that I could feel pressing against my leg.
He climbed on top of me, pushing my legs open with the shape of his hips. He kissed me again, that heat passing from his lips to mine, his tongue probing deeply into my mouth and hands working over my breasts, squeezing my nipples so I writhed beneath him in agonizing pleasure. The tip of his cock was pressing into the center of my hot, needy sex. I was so wet for him, so ready to swallow him whole. I’d been ready since the day I stepped onto this farm. If he’d come to me that night, I’d have been surprised, but I would have welcomed him into my bed. I could admit that now. We’d wasted so much time being proper. I didn’t intend to waste the rest of my time here. I wanted to fuck this man every day until I went back home, and then I wanted him every night in my dreams.
I lifted my hips, inviting him to enter me, and he responded with a deep thrust of his own, burying himself into me to the hilt. I cried out against his mouth, and he moaned, the exhalation of breath further stoking that flame, the itch between my legs getting even worse as he started an even, deep motion inside me.
“You’re so big,” I moaned, and tilted my hips even higher, wanting him deeper, just wanting the shape of him to fill me completely. It felt like he was opening me up in a way I’d never been opened before. I wrapped my arms around him, and he brought his lips to my neck, sucking hard as he moved in and out of me, his strokes deep, drawing small moans from me. I ran my hands over his back, loving the feeling of him, the rock hard expanse of his back and the firm curve of his sculpted ass, how the muscles rippled under my hands during his strokes.
“Don’t stop,” I begged him. “Go deeper.” It was difficult to speak, but it got even more so when he began to obey me, lifting onto his elbows and pushing harder, filling me up even more than he already was. I screamed his name behind clenched teeth.
“Is this what you want?” he asked, purring the words in his deep drawl, which only got me more excited. The sensations were coalescing inside me around the shape of his long, hard cock that was impaling me a little more with each stroke. I never wanted this to end. I wanted to be in this bed with him for the rest of my life, the pressure building inside me, a fire burning that only he could quench.
I cried out with the strength of my orgasm, the luscious warmth spreading from between my legs all the way up my body, igniting every nerve, the heat tingling in my cheeks and causing my body to break out in gooseflesh from head to toe.
Cash growled as he pushed inside me as deeply as he could go. I arched my back into him, getting him deeper, our bodies straining, muscles pushing past sweet exhaustion. I loved the sensation of the shiver moving through his body as he came, both of us climaxing so closely together and then relaxing, our muscles going soft as jelly, our bodies melting, mine into the mattress and his into me, our mingled breath and sweat baking the air in the bedroom.
He slid off of me, leaving one arm and leg draped over my body. I closed my eyes, just wanting to let the pleasure move through me, committing every second of our time together to memory, the way I did with most things, not just in case I wanted to write about them, but for myself too. This was one of those times I knew I’d want to remember later when I was alone in my Manhattan apartment, daydreaming about the musky smell of Cash’s sweat as his body moved over mine.