Chapter Thirty-Six
Gentry
I had spent half my morning in town Christmas shopping for Krys and had been coming up empty handed. Two calls to my sister proved just as useless. It was hard to buy for the woman who could get whatever she wanted. This year I wanted something special.
I was debating on getting her, her own saddle. But I was late in the game and everything worth having had to be special ordered and that would take weeks. The thought of buying her a horse of her own had also crossed my mind. However, she would need to test ride it and that would ruin the surprise. Besides, she had all but claimed Thunder as her own. After all the years of loyalty to me, he now preferred her.
She swore up and down on the way home after a trip to the vets and then Fi’s for puppy supplies that Duke was all she needed for Christmas. But he had been free and she had swiped her card at the checkout before I could even catch up and pay.
We pulled into the ranch yard in time for evening chores and so I unloaded the puppy supplies while Krys carried Duke around introducing him to her horses. I put his kennel in the barn and she gently pushed him in it, locking the door as he whined.
“You’re safest in here,” she told him, petting his nose through the gaps in the wires. Most of the horses had paid no mind to him except Thunder who appeared annoyed. He wasn’t pleased about having to share his mother’s attention with the new kid.
I stroked his neck, knowing just how he felt. I left Krys to her chores and went to attend to mine.
“How was town?” Ethan asked as I stepped into the cattle feed room in the other barn.
“Don’t ask.”
“When was the last time you bought a gift for someone you weren’t related to?”
“The last time I bought for Krys.”
“No wonder you were a confirmed bachelor.”
“She got herself a puppy in town. She says me letting her have him is her gift.”
“Oh, don’t fall for that trap.”
“I’m trying not to,” I opened up the feed grinder and started filling buckets of grain for the herd of cattle kept in the closest feed lot.
“Did you ask Gloria or Melissa? Those two have been spending a lot time together lately.”
“I think Melissa would like to spend a lot more time around here too,” I tossed out, it was pretty much obvious to everyone but him.
“I’m sure she’s ready to come home. Melissa doesn’t seem like a city girl to me.”
“Not at all where I was going with that.”
Ethan glanced at me with this dumbass look on his face. Boy was he dense.
“You and Alyssa have been broken up for what? Eight months now? She’s dating again you can too.”
Ethan kicked the toe of his boot in the ground and shrugged. “She did a number on me.”
“Yeah, but you can’t become me. Mine’s a total fluke and a miracle that it’s working out this long. Besides, you don’t want to be forty and waiting around on her, living in this bunk house.”
“Just focus on your own problems Gentry. How it’s six days to Christmas and you’re giftless.”
“And you’re a dick.”
***
Two days later I was still giftless but I had taken the day off to spend with Krys. The last two nights had been full of puppy yelps until she snuck him into our bed when she thought I was sleeping.
Duke always started at the end of the bed and ended up snuggled between us. And he snored. But other than that he wasn’t to annoying. Plus, he made Krys laugh so that was worth it.
I rode out to the cabin on the lake soon as Doc had eaten his breakfast. I started a fire and swept the room and cleared the front stoop of snow. I had brought smoked sausages, cheese, crackers and red wine. I put fresh blankets on the bed and waited for Krys.
Friday brought the bad news that the acreage had sold and I had yet to tell Krys. I hadn’t the slightest clue who had bought it but I hoped arrange, at the very least, the passage of our heard as we were accustomed to.
I was putting another piece of wood on the fire when I heard Doc nicker. He was greeting his stall neighbor. I walked out the front and greeted Krys and Thunder. She rode naturally and confidently as any other cowgirl. Her long dark hair was braided down her back and I couldn’t wait to undo it in the fire light. We had made love every night for weeks now.
This was different. The cabin was just what I had told her on the first day here, a place for making love. I wanted a much better image of the homestead in her mind. I had been cruel to her the last time we were here. I wanted the memory gone.
I also had plans on asking her to make her move here permeant. An offer for me to fly to New York and help her make arrangements for her things was even included. Just so she would know how serious I was.
I kissed Krystina hello.
“You’re freezing!” I told her feeling her cheek on mine. “Get in here and let me warm you up.”
Her laugh rang out. “That sounds a lot like a ‘let me give you a back-rub offer’ from last week.”
“You wound me sweetheart.”
I shut the door behind her and began undoing her clothes. “But I’m cold remember?” she said between kisses as I tugged her sweater off.
“Body heat warms quicker.”
I soon had us both in nothing but our skin and I lie her under the thick quilt on the bed. She wiggled, antsy and wanting to move things along. Wanting me in her. I kissed her and she grated her hips into me, hands on my ass pulling me to her.
I growled and she groaned but I held my own. This was going to take a good long time. I was going to please her in all my favorite ways. I nibbled at her wrist and placed them at her head, out of my way.
Our hands found each other and interlaced as I kissed her collar bone and the top of her breast, working south with every nibble and lick. She spread her legs, bucking her hips into my mouth as I slid my tongue between her folds and gripped her hips with my hands.
As I licked and sucked and nibbled her thighs clenched and shuddered as her juices flowed into my mouth as her moans rang freely in the small cabin. Her hands tangled in my hair and I smiled knowing how much pleasure I could bring her.
I kissed the inside of her thigh and worked my way back up her. Stiff and aching to feel her sleek skin around me. I entered her and felt her nails rake over my skin. Long gone was the perfect manicure that had dug into my back after her first week here. The bite of her nails drove me deeper into her. It was never enough. Never close enough. I thrust so deep there was nowhere else to go yet, I needed more.
I needed to be one with Krystina. And I wasn’t sure how to make that happen.