“You really have to stop reading Cosmo.”
“But now I can finally utilize some of those sex tips I’ve been saving up.” She ducked out of the barn to the sound of his frustrated male groan.
A few minutes later, Cord propped his boot on the fence next to her, which looked casual to the casual observer, but wasn’t casual in the least.
“Better?”
“No. I want you so fuckin’ bad, I’m thinkin’ takin’ you for a roll in the hay in the barn in broad daylight might be worth someone discoverin’ us.”
Her hopeful sex sent a rush of wetness south.
He pointed to Lucy. “Ever think about breedin’ her?”
“I wanted to this year. But it’d be too much work for Ma.”
“You upset about Flo sellin’ the ranch?”
Yes. “I’m not really surprised. She isn’t spry enough to run this place on her own, she wasn’t years ago when they made me do it after Dad…”
“What? After he died?”
Damn. No one knew what’d gone on in the years before her dad died and she intended to keep it that way. “She’s been struggling since I went to school, though she doesn’t want to admit it. I panic when I think how things might’ve turned out if Jenn hadn’t found her right away that day.” AJ winced at the image of her arthritic mother laying in the pasture with a broken hip.
“Take a deep breath. Come on, baby doll, she’s all right. So are you. Accidents are part of life. A big part of ranch life, we both know that.”
A moment of silence passed.
“Sometimes I wonder if I won’t be out checkin’ cattle and I’ll find my dad has done some fool thing and broke his fool neck. Then I’m amazed that Ky hasn’t busted more bones from all the stunts he’s pulled.”
“Like father like son, huh?”
“Somethin’ like that.”
They talked about Ky. About the time AJ relaxed, Cord said, “You sore from last night?”
“Didn’t bother me when I rode Lucy, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“No, I’m askin’ purely and simply because I cannot wait to have you again. Can you come to me tonight?”
AJ’s belly did a little flip. “I don’t know. Jenn and the kids moved in, and if she’s upset and needs someone to talk you, I can’t blow her off to blow you.”
“Amy Jo that was just plain…raunchy.” He paused. “I like that side of you.”
“Not so sure you’ll get to see that side of me tonight.”
“Wrong. I expect to see you tonight. You’d better find a way to make our deal work.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll create a suitable penalty.”
“Penalty? I didn’t agree—”
“Ah ah. You agreed to whatever demands I make.”
“Like?”
“Like if I tell you to bend over this fence, I’d expect you to do it. If I decided I wanted to spank your butt until it turned the same pink as your pussy, you’d let me do that too.”
“But—”
“No buts. There are consequences for disobedience. I don’t see you as the disobedient type, but I hope I’m wrong because dishin’ out penalties oughta be interestin’.”
“Have you…penalized women before?”
Cord stared straight ahead. “What if I say I’ve always wanted to but I’ve never had a woman willin’ to give me that much control?”
“I’d say no is a much safer answer for me than yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d like to give you something no other woman has. Do your ideas for kink go beyond spanking me?”
No answer.
“You want to tie me up?”
“AJ, I’m warnin’ you.”
“What?”
“Stop talkin’ before you get yourself inta trouble.”
“Hah! You can’t do a damn thing to me right now.”
“I can make you pay for it later.”
She loved the dangerous glint in his eye. Loved that she could incite him to cut loose, to show a side of himself to her no one else knew. “You’d like to take me to that edge. Make me beg. And isn’t it just a little sweeter to know that I’ve never begged another man for anything? No man has ever touched me like you plan to? Or done any of the things you’re itching to do to me?”
“You are so in for it tonight, baby doll.”
AJ faced him. “Go ahead and think up a penalty, cowboy, because I’m telling you right now, I plan on being a little late.” She whirled on her bootheel and returned to the house.
She heard him say, “Big, big trouble,” and she smiled.
When Jenn and the kids showed up a few hours later, AJ and Jenn struck a deal. As AJ was the daytime caretaker, she wanted her nights free. Jenn didn’t argue, although AJsensed her disappointment that she wouldn’t be around in the evenings.
Only within the safety of her room did AJ wonder what she’d gotten herself into taunting Cord McKay.
You’re getting exactly what you want: the full scope of his passion. You aren’t a little girl or a shrinking violet; you are a woman going after what she wants. This might be all you ever get from him, so be greedy and take it while you can get it.
No fear, no apologies, and no regrets.
Words to live by.
Chapter Twelve
Cord half-listened to his parents discussing the purchase of the Foster place. Yeah, it was exciting to transition from leasing the prime grazing land to owning the whole kit and caboodle. The amount they’d offered Florence meant they’d have to borrow money from the bank to cover the associated costs. Usually that sort of financial issue concerned Cord, but he couldn’t seem to focus beyond the thought of AJ taking the penalty he planned to mete out.
To hear her talking so boldly…it’d been more than he could stand. She about got her first lesson right there against the fence.
Luckily his folks chalked up his distraction to worry, which was fine by him. Better that than them seeing how desperately he wanted little Amy Jo Foster naked, tied up, trussed up, at his every wicked whim, right there in public—to hell with any kind of decorum.
Chores kept him from going crazy the last few hours.
Cord sipped his beer and messed with the recording on the TV screen. He heard her tires crunch on the driveway and he couldn’t help but grin with anticipation.
AJ knocked. He yelled, “It’s open.”
The screen door slammed and she stood in front of him looking sexy and…wary.
“Evenin’, baby doll. You’re late.”
“I thought you’d be happy to hear that my chat with Jenn went well and she’s agreed to take over caretaking duties when she gets home from work.”
“Which leaves you where?”
“Here. Starting at around 6:00 every night.”
“It’s 7:00 right now. Where you been?”
Two spots of color dotted her cheekbones. “I told you.”
“You owe me an extra hour. Now c’mere and kiss me.”
Her face relaxed. She bent down to brush her mouth across his. Not in a teasing manner, but tentative.
Cord kept the kiss easy. When AJ began to get more demanding, he backed off. “Did you shut the front door?”
“No.”
“Go shut it, make sure it’s locked and come back here.”
By the time she returned he’d finished the beer. “Take off your clothes. I wanna see nothin’ but that gorgeous bare skin.”
Her fingers started at her throat and worked the buttons on the sleeveless blouse until it fluttered open revealing a bra the color of sun-ripened peaches. Pop pop pop and the fly of her jeans showed a slice of skin and matching peach panties. She shimmied the jeans to the floor and stopped.
“There a problem?” he asked.
“N-no. I just didn’t know if you meant completely naked.”
“I did.”
AJ’s whole body flushed a rosy pink as she stripped. Her platinum hair fell across her face, obscuring her expression.
“Baby doll, look at me.”
She tipped her head up and met his gaze.
“Come sit on my lap.”
“Aren’t you gonna take your clothes off first?”
Cord shook his head. He patted his thighs.
She tried to sit sideways with her left hip pressed to his, but Cord reversed her so her ass was nestled against his groin. “Relax.” He positioned his hands on the inside of her knees and urged them open.
AJ obediently stretched out at his command, but she was strung tight as a new roll of baling twine.
He stroked his hands down the outside of her legs.
“Is this my penalty? I’m naked and you’re not?”
“No.” He kissed the tender rise of her shoulder. “We’ll get to the penalty portion later. Right now, I’m gonna touch you however I want while we watch TV.” Cord grabbed the remote and hit PLAY.
The image on the screen solidified. A naked woman. On her knees and unzipping a man’s pants with painstaking precision. Oohing and ahhing over the bounty she’d discovered as she fondled his cock with her hand. Then she rubbed the length over her enormous tits, wiping the tip of his cockhead on the tips of her hardened red nipples. She teased his dick over her cheeks and jaw in complete ecstasy, finally stroking her full, glossy lips across his stiff prick.
AJ’s breath caught.
“Ever watched porn with a man?”
“Umm. No.”
“Good.”
“Why are we—”
“You’ve never given a real blowjob, have you, AJ?”
She shook her head.
“Watch. Learn.” He nipped her earlobe. “There will be a test later.”
“Oh. Wow. Okay.”
The woman onscreen licked up and down the man’s shaft with the flat part of her tongue. Then her pink tongue flickered from root to tip in a zigzag pattern. Up and down.