Ted Porter, the owner of the hardware store in Leakey, came with his delivery truck that was almost big enough to fit a car inside. He delivered all the supplies that Mustang had me order for the roof repairs.

“How are you holding up down here?” Ted asked.

“Besides a few minor hiccups, everything's going well,” I answered.

“This place used to be so nice,” he pointed out, but when I looked at him with a frown, he corrected himself. “No offense, of course, ma’am. The McCawley’s loved this place.”

“Did you know them well?” I asked.

“Ever since they moved in here. Mrs. McCawley loved to bake, and she’d bring breads and cakes to the store every week. It was because of her that I picked up nearly twenty pounds.”

Only twenty? I raised an eyebrow and briefly glanced at his round stomach.

“After she died, he was heartbroken.”

“I can imagine. It must have been lonely for him here by himself.”

“Oh, he still had Mustang. The two of them were really close.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah. They shared war stories, and the trauma that goes along with it.”

“I didn't know that.”

“How could you? It’s not like Mustang is the talkative type.”

“True, yeah,” I sighed.

“Well, I must be going, ma’am. It was nice to meet you, and just give me a call if there’s ever anything I can do for you.”

“Thank you, Ted. I appreciate that.”

“And good luck with the roof,” he said as he turned and walked back to his truck.

“You don’t need luck when you have me,” Mustang suddenly said beside me and I jumped.

“Holy crap! Could you please stop doing that?”

“Doing what?”

“Just appearing out of nowhere.”

He looked at me with a confused look on his face and shrugged.

“I’m just walking around like a normal person,” he said. “What’s the problem?”

“No, you don’t. You slip around like a ghost and sneak up on me. I never hear you until you’re right on top of me. It’s creepy.”

“You should learn how to pay more attention to your surroundings then. It will keep you safer out here when I’m not around.”

“Like how?” I asked.

“Always be listening. Learn to recognize all the normal sounds, the birds, the sound the wind makes. Learn to hear a truck coming from way down the road. Watch the sky and look for thunderstorms coming. You can’t live life being oblivious to things going on around you.”

“If I learn all that, will I hear you slinking up behind me?”

He grinned.

“Probably not.”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“That’s what I thought. I’ll try to do better.”

He nodded wordlessly and walked to the stack of supplies on the ground.

“Okay, let’s fix your roof then, before it rains again. I’ll start carrying up the supplies. This might take a while to finish.”

“That would be great,” I muttered as I ran my fingers through my hair and stepped back into the house.

Hours later, my head was throbbing with a migraine headache.

I knew I wanted my roof to be fixed as soon as possible, but the nonstop banging of Mustang’s hammer against the roof over my head was about to drive me mad.

I couldn’t very well complain since he’d been at it since this morning. He stayed up there for hours at a time, working away, but every time the hammer hit its mark I wanted to scream.

I’d tried hanging around outside the house during the process, but the rock formations on every side of the house echoed the hammering, making me hear double the number of blows. Somehow, it seemed quieter inside the house.

I moved through the house, avoiding the little drifts of sawdust that fell as he worked.

Damn! I didn’t realize the roof was about to cave in on me. No wonder he didn’t want to step inside the house.

As I moved through the kitchen and into the living room, I heard a very distinct sound.

“Psst.”

I looked up and saw Mustang looking at me through the hole where a roof slat belonged. He stared at me for a minute, then slowly smiled for no reason.

He had to have known the effect it had on me, and I appreciated how much effort it took. I smiled back, then on a whim, I slid the fabric of my button-up shirt aside, flashing him a quick look at my breasts.

“What are you doing?” he asked hoarsely.

I noticed his eyes darkening in desire as he looked at me.

“Oh, nothing.”

He raised his eyebrows, watching me, so I grew bolder. I began to undo the buttons one at a time, looking up at him and biting my lip as I did so.

“Yeah, that sure looks like nothing,” he muttered and started hammering again.

Harder this time.

“I wish he’d hammer me like that,” I muttered under my breath.

The hammering stopped immediately.

“Did you say something to me?” he asked.

Well, that was one way to get the hammering to stop.

“No. I was talking to myself. I said it was getting hot and stuffy in here.”

He watched intently through the hole in the roof as I opened my shirt all the way, revealing my breasts before running my hands over them and tracing my nipples with my fingertips.

Mustang swallowed hard as he watched me move.

When I looked up and saw the need on his face, I smiled and started removing more of my clothes. I swayed slightly as I stepped out of my jeans, then slowly inched down the see-through fabric of my underwear before stepping out of them.

When I was naked, I stretched out on the floor beneath Mustang, giving him the best view.

I kept a hand on one of my large breasts, massaging it with an achingly slow rhythm and teasing my nipple into a hard point, while the other hand slid down my flat stomach and reached the soft hair above my mound.

I teasingly traced circles around my clit, watching Mustang’s face silently as I put on a show just for him. His breath caught when I dipped one long finger inside myself, sliding it in and out.

Finally, I beckoned to Mustang with one crooked finger, inviting him to take over where I’d left off.

I saw him struggle with what he wanted, the desire to feel me and taste me again, fighting with his primal need for safety above all else.

When I suddenly realized with horror that I’d been hinting for him to come inside, my expression softened. I immediately jumped up to run to the door, snatching a blanket off the back of the couch on my way out.

Mustang met me halfway, coming down from the roof and grabbing me in his arms as I reached the edge of the porch.

“I’m sorry,” I said in a rush. “I didn’t mean for you to come inside the house.”

“I was coming for you one way or the other,” he replied in a hoarse voice. “Wild horses or a wooden door couldn’t keep me away.”

He pulled me to him, his hands feverish, moving down my back and over the swell of my ass. His skin smelled like sunshine and like a man.

Not like a man in a fancy business suit.

A real man.

My need for him eclipsed everything. I wanted him to drag me to the ground and fuck me with the intensity that I knew was simmering right below the surface.

His arm brushed the side of my breast and I leaned closer into the pressure.

I ran my hands along his back, pressing hard into the corded muscles on either side of his spine. I didn’t stop at his waistband. Instead I kept right on sliding until his firm ass filled my hands. I squeezed and pulled him closer.

He lifted me up so my legs were around his waist while all the while kissing me roughly and passionately.

“You make me want dirty, hard sex,” he whispered into my ear.

Whoa.

His simple, direct words set me on fire, sending an electrified pulse of lust through me. I could barely think. My want and need for Mustang overrode all sensibilities.

He traced the edge of my ear with his tongue, then buried his face in the curve of my neck.

“I want you so fucking bad,” he murmured, his beard scraping against my tender skin.

His words made me feel cherished, and sexy.

My legs quivered and I was glad his strong arms were holding me up. Reaching for his shirt buttons, I quickly undid them and pushed the shirt off one muscled, tattooed arm and then the other.

He placed my feet back on the ground, turned me around and braced me against the porch railing. My heart pounded. His fingers traveled down the sides of my ribs and over my hips. I jerked when I felt his bare chest press against my back.

His skin was hot from the sun, sending pleasurable sensations all the way down to my toes. I heard him unbuckle his heavy tool belt and drop it on the porch with a loud clang. I inhaled sharply.

Damn!

The wait was killing me.

The denim of his jeans scraped across the back of my upper thighs and the cold metal of his belt buckle pressed against my hip. His fingers dug into the sensitive flesh.

It felt so good.

Nothing about Mustang felt wrong.

Ever.

I desperately needed him inside me now.

To take me again and again.

“Mustang…please.”

He rubbed a calloused hand across my ass in slow, tantalizing circles. I shivered at his touch and my legs trembled. I twisted around to look back at him and my mouth dropped open.

The tight muscles rippled on his naked chest, and a wild, hot hunger burned in his eyes.

I watched as he pulled his massive cock from his open fly and stroked the full length once and then again, readying himself for me. Whirling around, I knelt in front of him. Before he could stop me, I covered his hand with mine and stroked. When he groaned in pleasure, I lowered my mouth and licked him all the way from his heavy balls to the bulbous tip.

"No,” he choked out, grabbing my head. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to,” I replied firmly.

I opened my mouth wide and took his cock all the way in until his thick head touched the back of my throat. He moaned and I slid his cock all the way out then back in again.

His hands tightened in my hair, but he let me move at my own pace. Suddenly, he grabbed my head tightly and pulled my mouth away.

“I need to be inside you,” he said. “Now. Turn around.”

I quickly turned around and bent slightly to hold on to the porch railing. He touched my bare feet gently with his cowboy boot to urge them wider apart.

His fingers reached under me to cup and tease my heavy breasts. My nipples hardened when he pinched and rolled them between his thumb and forefinger.

“I can’t wait any longer,” I panted.

Sliding his hands down to my hips, he held me tight and pressed his fullness against my pussy.

I gasped and pushed back against him to take it all.

I needed it all.

His thick cock pushed into me with agonizing slowness, filling and stretching me completely. I could tell by his breathing that he was keeping a tight control and trying not to rush me.

I closed my eyes and allowed the pleasurable sensations to wash over me.

Mustang stroked in halfway, pulled out then pushed in all the way to his balls with a loud grunt.

I bucked and writhed beneath him, wanting him desperately to go deeper and harder. He tortured me with his every careful movement, calculated to drive me mad.

Over and over, he pumped into me, taking me right to the edge of climax then slowing down and letting it ebb only to build right back up again.

My knees threatened to buckle underneath me. I sagged against the porch railing and he gripped me tighter; stroking deeper inside me until he buried himself completely.

“Fuck,” he swore under his breath.

Then it was like something primitive broke inside him. Something that he had tried so hard to keep a tight rein on.

He drove into me fiercely now, over and over as I called out his name until my voice was hoarse.

An orgasm crashed over me and I jerked against him, my pussy convulsing around his cock.

“Mustang,” I whimpered.

Two quick, deep pumps and he was coming with me, his cock throbbing and pulsing with every release.

Afterward, we sank down onto the porch, our bodies wrapped up together.

Mustang held me in his arms and kissed me tenderly, smoothing away the animalistic, aggressive passion from only a few minutes before.

When I could finally stand, I smiled at Mustang and sauntered into the house, daring him to follow me.

He stood on the porch, buttoning his jeans again and looked at me. I couldn't quite figure out the look on his face, and I stepped towards him.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he blew out a breath. “Just a little winded.”

“I didn't know soldiers got winded so easily.”

The moment I said it, I regretted it, but it didn't seem to faze him as much as I thought it would.

“It’s been a while.”

“What’s been a while? Being a soldier or having hot, passionate sex?”

“Both,” he said and looked at me.

“Sure.”

“What?” he asked with a confused look.

“Nothing.”

“You look like you don’t believe me.”

“A hot guy like you not having sex is a little hard to believe,” I said.

“Why?”

“Because I couldn't keep my hands off you.”

“That’s because you were lonely,” he teased.

“How the hell did you know that?”

He tilted his head and was about to answer but I stopped him.

“On second thought, I don't need to know how you knew that.”

He suppressed a smile and lowered his gaze.

“I was joking,” he said. “Was I right?”

“I’m not answering that,” I replied. “You don’t need to know everything. If you thought that, you could’ve just told me.”

I turned away. Then I remembered about the water tanks and turned back to him.

“Oh, and you could have told me about the water tanks too, you know.”

“What water tanks?” he asked nonchalantly.

“The four water tanks that were installed a few years ago.”

“Who told you about those?”

“Kurt.”

“Kurt is a jackass.”

“Why? He was the one who told me about them. You didn't.”

“You didn't ask me about water tanks.”

“I have to ask about everything in this place?”

“How else will you know if you don’t ask?”

I tilted my head and glared at him for a second or two.

He crossed his muscular, tattooed arms and looked down at his boots.

“I should have told you,” he finally admitted. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

“Yes, you should have. You would have saved me a lot of frustration.”

“If it weren't for those frustrations, you wouldn't have jumped on me under the tree.”

“Probably not,” I sighed.

“I should get going, and you should get dressed.”

“Where are you off to?” I asked.

“I have a few things to do.”

“Like the roof,” I said pointedly and glanced at the roof.

“That too.”

“Tell me what you do when you leave here.”

“Not today. I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Back inside and back in my clothes, I noticed the hammering didn’t start back up. I looked out through the window and caught the last glimpse of Mustang off in the distance, just as he drifted from sight.

A normal man would have returned to work on the roof. The way he’d left would’ve been insulting to me if I hadn’t already begun to understand and even anticipate his strange ways.

He was strange, but I loved that about him, and even though he managed to sneak up on me on numerous occasions and scare the living daylights out of me, I liked having him show up unannounced like that.

It made me feel safe knowing that he was always around even if I couldn’t see him.

Safer and better than I had ever felt in my entire life.

He was my protector, always watching and ready to catch me if I started to fall.