Cash plopped on the couch, keeping her straddled across his lap.

“Can I take off the blindfold now?”

“No. But let’s get rid of the shirt. Lift.” In one quick movement her tank top disappeared. He eyed the front closure on her pink bra. Well, well. This presented an intriguing opportunity. “Lean back and put your hands on my knees.”

She did so without arguing.

Cash nibbled on her lips, not quite kissing her as he unhooked her bra. The cups split and he slid the straps over her shoulders and down to her wrists. Three quick twists and he lifted his foot to step on the thicker back strap, leaving her wrists trapped in the stretchy arm bands.

Gemma froze. “What are you doing?”

“Makin’ sure you can’t get away. I wanna take my time tasting these.” He flicked his tongue across her nipple. “And I know you’re a little squirmy.” He blew on the wet spot he’d created and watched the coral-colored skin tighten into a pointed tip.

She jerked back.

“See? I gotcha right where I wantcha.” His hands curved around her ribcage and he swept his thumbs back and forth across her beaded nipples. “Tell me what you like.”

She arched into his hands and rolled her chest closer.

“Huh-uh. Don’t go shy on me. I’ll do whatever you want, but you gotta tell me first.”

“Suck them. Put your mouth on me, Cash. Please. It’s been so long…”

While drawing lazy circles on her left breast, he bent his head and latched onto her right nipple. Suckling deep and long until she whimpered and thrashed. He used his teeth and his tongue until he smelled her creaming again. Then he switched his attention to the left nipple and started the process all over. Slowly. His cock stirred as she ground her wet pussy into him and made sexy, needy moans.

But Cash wouldn’t be rushed no matter how much she pleaded. He took his time, learning every nuance of her reactions. What made her sigh. What made her clench her thighs. What made her curse and gyrate her hips. As he licked a path up her neck, she shuddered and gooseflesh appeared beneath his tongue.

“Cold?”

“God, no. Please. You’re torturing me.”

“What do you want?”

“Take the blindfold off. Untie my hands. I feel so helpless.”

“Mmm. Ain’t it a bitch to have no control?” He growled against her throat, “This is what I’ve been feelin’ since the first time I saw you. You’ve had me all tied up in knots, Gem. Just thinkin’ ’bout all the things I wanted to do to you. Now that you’re right where I want you, I ain’t inclined to let you go.”

She buried her face in the curve where his collarbone met his neck, trilling her lips across his skin until he shivered. “I’ll make it worth your while. Lord knows there are other places on you I wanna kiss too.”

“Got a specific place in mind?”

“Uh-huh. Need a hint?” She blew in his ear.

He smiled. “Why, Gemma Jansen. You offerin’ to blow me?”

“Yes.” She scraped her teeth down the cord in his neck. “Please.”

“No.” Cash took her mouth in a consuming kiss. After he broke away, he said,

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m dyin’ to have those sweet lips wrapped around my cock, watchin’ you takin’ me deep in that hot mouth, feelin’ your throat tighten on the head as you swallow every drop I give you, but it ain’t gonna happen tonight.”

“Why not? Because you’re showin’ me who’s boss in the bedroom?”

Her pouting attitude didn’t help her cause. “Yep. I warned you I planned to be in charge. You agreed. That’s all you need to remember.” He reached for a condom package, ripped it open and rolled it down the length of his erection. “Scoot your knees closer.”

“Why?”

“So you can ride me, cowgirl.”

“Oh.”

“I’ll even let you take the reins—” he nipped her chin, “—this time.”

Gemma kept her balance, even though the bra straps stretched more tightly around her wrists as she maneuvered in position. She canted her hips and sank down on him.

The slick feel of her pussy tightening around his cock made him grind his teeth together to stop from howling his satisfaction like a beast. “You’re so wet for me. Do you know how sexy that is? You bein’ so slick and hot again?”

She groaned softly in his ear.

He smoothed the hair from her cheek. “What?”

Resting her forehead to his, she said, “Kiss me while you’re fucking me, Cash. I wanna be skin to skin and mouth to mouth with you when I come.”

“Whatever the lady wants.”

This time was slower. Sweeter. More intimate, more like making love than straight up fucking. Keeping his mouth attached to hers, he shaped her luscious breasts with his hands, avoiding her pebbled nipples entirely. Contenting himself with tracing her lush contours, a teasing touch of his fingertips on the upper swell as his thumbs swept the side near her armpits, until she began to shake with increased desire. He caressed the strong muscles in her bare back and squeezed the delicious curve of her ass as she lifted and lowered on his cock. They sustained the languorous kiss until the very end when the thrusts grew shorter and faster.

Her chest was slick with sweat. As was his. When she bowed backward, changing the angle so he could thrust deeper, his thumb found her clit and he brought her to the brink, keeping her there, greedily watching the pleasure cross her face, until the pivotal moment, her internal muscles clamped down on his cock and he smashed his mouth back to hers, swallowing her cries as they sailed over the edge of insanity together.

While she slumped against him, catching her breath, Cash released her hands, rubbing them vigorously to return blood flow.

Gemma nuzzled his jaw, the coarse cotton of the blindfold catching on his cheek. “I never imagined it could be this good again.”

Part of him wanted to ask if she meant their second round of sex, or whether she meant with a man other than her late husband, but a larger part of Cash couldn’t stand to hear the truth.

She sighed. “You’re quiet. You okay?”

“Fine. Great. Just tired.”

“No round three, then?” she teased.

“We’ll see.”

“Speaking of seeing…could you take this off?”

“Sure. Can you stand up first? I’m getting a cramp in my leg.”

“Oh sorry.”

He was reluctant to remove the blindfold, though he did so, his gut clenched in fear at what he might see in her eyes. Or what she might recognize in his. Cash tenderly kissed her eyelids, her eyebrows, the corners of her eyes, the bridge of her nose, every part that’d been covered by the cloth. She didn’t melt into him, rather, held herself stiff.

With a sinking sensation, he whispered, “I’m gonna head upstairs.” And he turned away so she couldn’t see his face.

After he hit the bathroom he crawled in bed. A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.

Was she staying away, wallowing in regret?

Eventually Gemma entered the room. He feigned sleep as she climbed between the cool cotton sheets. She didn’t snuggle up to him. They stayed on their respective sides of the queen-sized bed, back to back. Cash had almost drifted off for real, when the bed creaked and he heard her get up. Her light footfalls stopped at the window.

He laid there in silence, in misery, pretending sleep as he listened to her soft sniffles.

Never a good sign to hear the woman you’d just spent hours making love to, crying as if her heart was breaking.

Chapter Seven

Lord it was hot.

Macie wiped the sweat from her forehead with the inside of her arm and dropped the empty bucket near the water pump. A low groan drifted out from the barn. Weird. The door was ajar. Curious about the strange noise she heard, she stepped inside and immediately was plunged from bright sunshine into darkness. She picked her way through discarded tools littering the dirt floor, the scent of hay and feed and horseflesh overwhelming her senses. She rounded the corner by the last wooden stall and stopped.

Three men were crammed in the small space. Three men, naked, except for their cowboy hats and boots. She couldn’t see their faces, but at the moment it wasn’t their faces she was interested in.

They were all buck-ass naked. Oh, man, it’d be a damn shame to cover up such glorious bodies under chaps, jeans and long-sleeved shirts. These hunky cowboys should be all nude, all the time.

Two men studied a man who was bound. His muscular arms were stretched above his head, his strong wrists tied together and hooked to a long rope. His feet were spread wide, though the tips of his boots scarcely touched the hay-strewn ground. His bulky thigh muscles were rigid from the strain. A single thin golden sunbeam blazed between the wooden slats, highlighting his sweat-coated skin.

Macie’s eyes drank him in. Of the three, he was the most striking. Wide, defined shoulders. A hairless chest with sharply sculpted pectorals. His biceps bulged with corded muscles and thick veins. As her gaze swept down to his ribcage and his tapered waist, to the dent in his navel, the other two naked cowboys blocked her view of his groin.

Damn.

But she watched in fascination as the men murmured to him before each one latched onto a flat bronze nipple. The bound cowboy arched, but no sound emerged. The blond man suckling his right nipple reached down between the man’s legs. Although Macie couldn’t see specifics, by the way the bound cowboy bucked, and by the way the guy’s hand moved up and down, she had a pretty good idea what was being done to him.

A fireball of heat blazed through her.

The dark-haired man on the left brought his fingers to the bound cowboy’s mouth.

The bound man parted his lips and sucked the offered digits to the knuckles. The man withdrew his wet fingers and reached around the bound cowboy’s hip, his arm dropping below the phantom belt line.

A stuttered breath left the bound cowboy’s mouth and he jerked once before a low-pitched groan escaped. Sweat beaded his upper lip. More perspiration coated his golden skin. He twisted beneath the men’s ministrations and the ropes, yet his cowboy hat remained in place, covering his face.