Hard-Riding Cowboy (Kinky Spurs 3)

Nash tucked a finger under her chin. She met his soft eyes. “Things will calm down.” He took her hand in the strength of his. “You knew this was going to cause some ripples today. And that’s what happened. But things will settle.”

But will they? kept echoing in her heart.

God, she hoped so. Though deep in her soul, a real fear arose that if she did nothing, her child would be torn between loving two men. Just like Megan had been for so long. Sure, Megan had handled that torment over the years. Well, maybe not entirely well, since she’d resorted to verbally showing her irritation toward Nash, all to pretend she wasn’t crushing on him hard. But she couldn’t fathom a child wanting to love his or her daddy and grandfather, but feeling like they had to pick between them.

Emotion tightened Megan’s throat. Sure, she wished Nash and her father could make peace. She wanted Thanksgiving dinners around the table. Christmas together. But she could cope with not having that. It was her child who shouldn’t have to.

At the very thought, tears welled in Megan’s eyes.

“Ah, Freckles.” Nash cupped her face, brushing away a fallen tear. “Don’t do that.”

“I’m sorry,” she managed to choke out.

Only sweet softness stared back at her now. “Christ. Don’t be sorry either.”

Before, frustration had led her decisions. Frustration over this stupid feud. Now, a motherly emotion she had never known before overtook everything. “I don’t know how many more ways I can say that I need you two to stop fighting each other.” More tears rushed down her face, making Nash’s face blurry. “It’s like everything calms, and people make promises, but those promises never last.”

Nash’s brows drew together. A long sigh spilled from his mouth. “You have no idea what those tears do to me.” He cupped her nape and nuzzled her neck. “It breaks me, Megan.” His mouth sealed across hers, and she decided she liked that plan too.

She wanted desperately to feel better. To be happy again. But she had more to say—more that she had realized today while she wasn’t around Nash or her father or the outside forces making all this impossible. She broke the kiss, breathless. “I want to be happy. About us. About the baby.”

He slid his hand against her growing belly. “There’s only happiness here.” Then he kissed her pulse and planted his mouth by her ear. “So let’s be happy.” She felt his grin spread across her neck. “Preferably naked and happy.”

Heat and desperation coursed through her. She grabbed his shirt then straddled him. His mouth came to hers, and in a second, he had an arm around her middle. He lowered her onto the blanket beneath them, his mouth sliding in perfect rhythm with hers. All her concerns melted away. Because that was what his kisses did. They made her forget. Even more, they made her want.

“Nash,” she whispered.

He groaned low and deep then blazed open-mouthed kisses across her pulse point. She lifted her hips and rubbed her sex against his hardened length in his Levi’s. He moaned deeper now. “Fucking hell, Megan, I need you.”

He lifted his hips slightly, getting his pants and boxer briefs down, and removed her panties before he sank in deep. She moaned against the perfection. Because here was where everything was so simple and made sense. There was no anger, only pure emotion that was raw and real and everything she needed.

She clung to him as he rode her with slow, long, deep thrusts, arching her up into him. She slid her hands across his firm ass, the muscles flexing beneath her fingers every time he drove inside her. She arched her back as his kiss turned wicked hot, deepening and demanding so much more. He growled, leaning away to tuck one leg onto his arm, and she held him tight, desperate for him to get closer.

He dropped his body against hers, but even that wasn’t close enough. She gripped his ass so hard, clinging to him.

“Goddamn it, Megan.” His voice was pure, rough masculinity and made her ache. He reached beneath her to wrap an arm around her shoulder. When his head lifted, she stared into eyes so heated that her inner walls convulsed in response.

She held his stare, just wanting him. Like this. Together.

He cupped her face, brushing his thumbs beneath her eyes. “When you look at me like this, you fucking own me.”

“Nash,” she whispered, emotion intertwining with the pleasure.

His jaw clenched and unclenched before a low moan passed through his mouth and he began rocking into her. Hard.

She forced herself to look at him until the very last second when the pleasure washed over them both. There wasn’t much she remembered after the first wave of sensation hitting, except for one thing which somehow broke her heart and warmed it at the same time.

The last thing Nash said.

“Don’t hide from me again. You’re all I’ve got.”

Chapter 14

The following few days were uneventful. Nash had done his best to stay clear of Clint. He’d seen Clint once in the grocery store, and Clint scowled in his direction. Nash glared back, and that was that. Except for that slight annoyance, his days were good. He spent the early mornings deep inside Megan when she came home after working her late shift. And he spent the remainder of his day at the ranch, trying to make sure everything worked like clockwork. With the one-star reviews on his mind, he needed a good month of perfection to get some better reviews to outweigh the negative. Everything had fallen back into the normal show . . . until the night of the music festival when Nash, along his brothers, stood dumbfounded as their mother walked down the porch steps of Shep’s farmhouse, with Harper and Emma behind her. Ma wore a white dress with a yellow cardigan. Her hair was down, and there was some sparkle on her eyelids. Nash blinked and squinted a little, barely recognizing his mother.

“You look beautiful, Ma,” said Shep, finally breaking the silence.

Chase whistled.