The Rancher's Rules

How could she help but satisfy him? She longed to give him every bit of pleasure her body was capable of providing.

She smiled in welcome as Grant lowered himself over her, pressing the head of his erection against the sensitized flesh of her femininity. Her legs widened of their own accord to make a place for him.

“I want you.”

“I’m glad, querida.” His voice sounded strained.

She arched her hips against him and the head of his shaft slipped inside. He groaned and pressed into her, but she was tight and he was big. Bigger than she’d expected. She bit her lip and did a little shimmy with her hips, which allowed him another inch of access.

She tried to relax, but she felt so stretched. Yet the sensation of his invading manhood felt so right that she vacillated between wanting all of him and fearing that she couldn’t take it. She could only say a prayer of thanks that she’d been riding horses since she was three. There was no fleshly barrier that had to be torn for him to gain entrance, no source of pain to mitigate the pleasure of their joining.

He rocked against her, pressing inexorably closer, and her swollen tissues gave all at once, allowing him to seat to the hilt. She moaned. The sensation of his hard shaft inside of her and the press of his pelvic bone against her splintered her thoughts and tormented her senses.

“Oh, Grant.”

“I know, Zoe. I know.”

She didn’t know if she could stand it if he moved, but she wanted it. Oh, man, she wanted it. “Grant.”

He seemed to read her mind, because he pulled back and rocked forward in a withdraw-and-plunge move that rasped every nerve-ending in her feminine core. Pushing her legs together and settling his outside, he forced his hardness against her clitoris with every thrust. She felt the excitement building again, even more shattering than when his mouth had been on her.

She tried to move under him, and succeeded in small pelvic thrusts that seemed to drive him wild. Grant’s movements became more forceful, until he was driving into her like a jackhammer. Her body tightened like a bow, pushing against his muscular length, forcing him to fight her for the embrace. Which he did, with amazing success, pushing her closer and closer to a mindless pleasure unlike anything she’d ever known.

“Zoe, baby, come! Come for me. Now!”

And she did, feeling him bucking with his own release as she felt all the wonder of the universe coalesce in her mind and body for one timeless moment.

Afterward, she lay under him, completely undone.

Zoe woke to the delicious sensation of Grant’s warmth surrounding her. She snuggled closer, enjoying the feeling of rightness being in his arms engendered. He was sleeping soundly. Poor man. She had worn him out. She smiled with satisfaction. She had never felt this intimate with anyone before.

The only thing that marred her perfect happiness this morning was the realization that she and Grant had started an affair last night, not a forever. A small voice that would not be silenced taunted her with the idea that a future together was not such an impossible scenario. She wasn’t supposed to want that. She’d meant this to be about sex.

But after what they had shared she could no longer deny that, far from being a clinical satiation of her sexual drive, last night had been the culmination of nearly a lifetime of loving. She was one hundred percent, head over heels in love with Grant. But she still wasn’t sure she could trust him with her heart. He’d explained The Night. He’d even explained why he’d asked Carlene out, and both explanations had made sense.

If Grant didn’t love her, if his desire for her was the physical thing she’d tried to convince herself hers had been, then it would make sense that he’d wanted to protect her from his “evil lust”, as he’d put it. He wouldn’t have wanted to hurt her by making love to her and eventually moving on, but she’d made it clear she was open to a physical relationship with him and, like he’d said, he hadn’t been able to help himself any longer.

She didn’t know what he felt about the future and, like an ostrich with her head buried in the sand, did not want to ask. What if she were right and he only wanted a friendly passion between the two of them? She’d rather deal with a broken heart down the road than now. If she waited to find out, she could enjoy the time they shared now, and maybe, just maybe, that time would bring Grant to a realization that he was as deeply in love with her as she was with him.

Their giving into the attraction between them had happened so abruptly that she still felt like she was in the aftermath of a tailwind. She definitely wasn’t prepared to force a “relationship discussion” with Grant.