“Then kiss me.”

“After. I’ll knock your teeth out if I kiss you now.”

“Do something,” she wailed. “I need your mouth on my skin.”

Her plea nearly undid him. Without decreasing his strokes, Cord brushed aside the damp hair by her cheek with his chin. He placed his mouth over her ear and sucked.

“Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.” Her whole body stiffened as her pussy crimped around his cock like a metal vise.

His balls tightened and long, hot pulses shot out, pulses that didn’t seem to end. A tingle raced straight up the center of his torso from his dick to where he felt her teeth sinking into his throat.

When he quit moving she moaned, “Don’t stop, I’m coming again, there, like that.”

Cord felt another set of rhythmic pulls and stayed with her until the final vibration.

He brought her legs down to the rug and lost himself in the sweetness of her kisses.

AJ didn’t push him away. She seemed content to kiss him, caressing the planes and angles of his face. Running her fingers through his damp hair. Squeezing the muscles in his back and arms. Not only did she enjoy touching him, she understood he craved the closeness in the aftermath of loving.

When his sweaty skin began to cool and she shivered, he looked at her and saw a smirk. “What?”

“If that was my penalty for being late, I can pretty much guarantee I won’t be on time ever again.”

Cord laughed.

She outlined his mustache and goatee. “Can I ask you something?”

A tiny bit of unease made him tense up. Was she going to grade him on his performance? “I guess.”

“Is sex always like this? Needy, hot and out of control? Because I’ve had three outstanding orgasms and I’m sore, but I can’t wait to do this with you again. Does that make me some kind of a slut? I look at you and want you like a drug?”

No. That makes you perfect.

Shaking aside that thought, he said, “If there was a line of men outside the door waitin’ for their turns with you, maybe that’d be considered slutty behavior. However often you and I are naked together or what we do behind closed doors ain’t nobody’s business but ours, AJ.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Glad I can ease your mind on that account. Anything else?”

No answer.

“What?”

“You said there’s some other things you’re interested in trying that might be considered, well, kinky.”

An image arose of her naked. Her arms bound behind her back with his favorite bright blue nylon rope—a vivid slash of color against her pale skin. She’d be bent across a hay bale in the dim light of the barn, wearing those “fuck me Big Daddy” high-heeled silver boots and nothing else. Her feet spread-eagled, her ripe mouth, her juicy pussy and the tiny rosette of her ass at the ideal level for his cock.

He’d stroke his erection as he circled her, deciding which hole to try first. She’d whimper with want, plead with her eyes, and he knew she’d love whatever he did to her.

First, he’d fist his hands in her baby soft hair and fuck her mouth. When his cock was good and saturated with her saliva—all the lube he needed to fuck that tiny virgin portal—he’d move behind her. Separating those pearly white ass cheeks to watch the thick head of his cock and his blood-darkened shaft disappearing into that tight, hot hole until he was buried balls deep and her untried muscles clenched around his dick like a fucking wet dream.

“Cord? You gonna teach me what they are?”

He blinked. “Not yet. You’re already earnin’ an A-plus plus plus, baby doll, you’re surpassin’ all my expectations, but I don’t wanna do too much too soon.”

“I expect you’ll need to feed me soon. I didn’t have time to eat before I left home and I’m starved.”

When he pushed back, his sated cock slipped out easily. Lord, it turned him on to see her sex shiny-wet with the mix of their juices, knowing her pussy was all pink and puffy from him loving on her.

Fucking her. Get it right. No love involved here, old man.

“I’ll use the bathroom upstairs to clean up if you wanna use the one down here.”

AJ snatched her clothes and hustled down the hallway, leaving him to wonder if he’d said the wrong thing.

***

AJ scrutinized her reflection. Swollen mouth. Swollen nipples. She wiped between her legs and winced. Yep. Swollen there too. She’d brought that overwhelming show of sheer strength and power of Cord’s lovemaking on herself. Not that she had regrets.

Did he? Did he know she was crazy in love with him? Why else would he send her to Ky’s bathroom? The last two nights he’d been so thoughtful, cleaning her up.

You’re worrying too much. Cord doesn’t believe in love, he believes in lust and that’s all he’ll see when he looks at you because he can’t offer you anything else.

Cord knocked on the door. “AJ? Baby doll, you okay?”

“Yeah. Be right out.”

She used another cloth to swipe her face and neck before she put her clothes back on.

He’d slipped on a pair of jeans and a clean T-shirt. She found it incredibly intimate his feet were bare. The man rarely exposed his body or his thoughts, so maybe he was opening up to her a little. A tiny bit of hope surfaced again that she was making progress with him.

“You want scrambled eggs? Or a sandwich?”

“Eggs are fine, but you don’t have to cook for me. I can make it myself.”

He walked over and kissed her nose. “Sit. It’ll be done in a minute.”

AJ knew Cord was completely at home in a kitchen. Her father never had been. She suspected Carson McKay wasn’t either. But up until a couple of weeks ago Cord had been mother and father to Ky and he’d had no choice.

He slid two steaming plates piled with eggs and toast on the breakfast bar, then came around to sit beside her.

“Looks good. Thank you.”

“No problem. You need ketchup?”

“Yuck.”

“Ky won’t eat eggs without drownin’ them in red goo.”

“Hopefully my palate is more developed than a four-year-old boy’s.”

Cord’s fork stopped above his plate. “I didn’t mean—”

“I know. I was teasing.”

They ate the rest of the meal in silence. Cord picked up the plates and shoved them in the sink next to the frying pan and the breakfast dishes.

“Since you cooked you want me to do those?”

A strange, tight look crossed his face. “That’s not necessary.”

“I don’t mind.” AJ squirted dishsoap in the sink and turned the water on. “So I know it’s probably too soon, but did you and your dad talk about what you’re gonna do with our ranch?”

“Some. We’ve talked about plantin’ buffalo grass in the north pasture to see if it’ll take.”

“Smart. I’ve always been worried about overgrazing in that section. My dad wasn’t vigilant as far as rotation. Before you bought us out I’d planned on having mom talk to you about resting the grazing field to the south this fall anyway. Looks a little rough for the wear.”

Cord seemed unusually quiet, in a considering way, and AJ realized she’d revealed she knew too much. She scrambled for a subject change. “As far as plans for our house?

It needs some work. Major work.”

“Guess we won’t make any decisions until…”

“We’re gone, right?” She scrubbed the plates and placed them on the left side of the sink.

“Sorry, that was kinda thoughtless.”

“It’s okay. I haven’t really wrapped my head around the fact it won’t be my home anymore.” She dropped the cleaned forks next to the plates. “Keely said I could come home with her whenever I wanted, which was sweet, but visiting won’t be the same as living here.”

“You talked to Keely?”

“Of course I talked to her.” AJ rinsed the soap from the dishes. She reached for the dishtowel, but Cord had it in his hand and plucked up a plate to dry.

“What else did you talk to my little sister about?”

“Why don’t you come right out and ask me if I talked to her about us making mattress angels?”

“Fine. Does she know?”

“Yes.”

“That’s just fuckin’ great.”

She whirled around. “I trust her. I don’t care if you are pissed off about it. She’s my best friend and I talk to her about everything that’s going on in my life. The fact you’re her brother doesn’t matter and if it bothers you—what the hell are you staring at?”

“Put down the fryin’ pan, AJ. Unless you plan on smackin’ me upside the head with it?”

“What?” AJ looked at her hand and saw she’d been shaking the soap-covered cast iron pan in his face. “Sorry.”

Cord took the pan and rinsed it. He dried it before speaking again. “Would it bug you if the situations were reversed and I blabbed to your sister about everything goin’ on between us?”

Attempting to stay calm, AJ unplugged the sink. Rinsed out the dishrag and twisted it, spreading it out to dry over the edge of the counter before she answered him. “A—I don’t blab; neither does Keely, so you can rest assured no one in the McKay family will find out that you and I are boinking like bunnies. B—If I have to choose between screwing around in secret with you for a few weeks or having Keely as my friend for the rest of my life, then no contest, because she wins. Hands down.”

AJ made it to the door before Cord caught her.

“Wait a minute, that wasn’t fair.”

“You’re right. It wasn’t.”

He stared at her, that brooding expression darkening his handsome face, as if he expected her to say something else. To apologize for something that wasn’t her fault.

“Thank you for tonight, Cord, it was…great. It’s been a crazy day and I’m a little on edge. I’ll see you later.”