Turn and Burn (Blacktop Cowboys 5)

“Know what I’m thinking about? How badly I want my hands on you. My mouth on you,” he murmured. “I’d start on your tits as I’m kissing you. I’d rub my palms over your ni**les, until they were diamond hard.”

Her ni**les immediately constricted.

“As much as I wanna put my mouth on those rigid tips, I’d save that for later. Too much naked skin tempting me to kiss and tease. I love when your breath catches as I touch you here.”

His fingers on her belly lightly brushed the skin between her hipbones. A little gasp escaped.

“There’s the sound.” He adjusted his upper body and bent his head to place a kiss on the tender area on the inside of her arm. “I’d run my fingers along the muscles from your wrist to your biceps. Stopping to trace the bend in your elbow. The ball of your shoulder. Your collarbone. Your neck. Your strong, stubborn jaw. All beautiful feminine places.”

“I have other feminine places,” she said a little breathlessly.

“Believe me, I know. I like watching your face as I’m kissing a path down your belly to gorge myself on that slice of heaven between your thighs.”

Fletch kept telling her all the wickedly raunchy things he planned to do to her. Explicit things. But he didn’t touch her beyond caressing her thigh with his thumb.

Rather than being wound tight, Tanna relaxed against him completely. The deep, modulated cadence of his voice was a perfect complement to the easy cadence of the horse.

She felt a stab of disappointment when the barn appeared. She hadn’t wanted this horseback ride to end.

Wait. What did that mean?

Imagining strapping on the feedbag, Gus picked up the pace.

Tanna held her breath, expecting that panicked feeling would overwhelm her.

But nothing came.

“You all right?” Fletch asked.

“Yes. I am. I really am. Thank you for this.”

“My pleasure. This riding double thing is awesome.”

She laughed softly.

“I’m gonna swing down and open the gate.”

Leaving her alone on Gus.

Fletch dismounted and walked them through the gate.

He helped her dismount.

Tanna stood in the dirt, watching Fletch deal with the horse.

She’d survived.

In fact, she felt exhilarated.

Alive.

Wanting to celebrate this feeling—this victory—with more than just a kiss.

She paced outside the gate and as soon as Fletch exited, she pounced on him. She kissed him as she tried to scale his body.

Fletch returned her kiss with equal enthusiasm, until she reached for his belt buckle. He released her with a groan, stopping the motion.

She wasn’t ready to let him go. She latched onto his neck and whispered in his ear. “I need you, Fletch. Fuck me against a tree or on the picnic table or even in the dirt. But I need—”

“Slow down.” He stepped back and took hold of her hands. “Sugar twang, there’s no rush. Let’s just chill for a minute.”

“But . . . I thought we would . . .” She knew she looked bewildered and didn’t care.

“No.” He kissed her knuckles. “When we get back to the Split Rock, we can hit your bed, or my bed and do all the things we talked about. But not here.”

“So why would you say all those . . .” Lightbulb moment. Duh. “You were distracting me.”

“Yep.”

Tanna fought back tears. For Fletch’s thoughtfulness and that she’d become such a basket case that she needed soothing in the way he knew would be effective on her. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He brushed his mouth across her forehead. “This is about you. Sex is about us. In this moment we’re gonna talk. Really talk about where you think you can go from here. No holds barred, beautiful.”

She really loved this man. “Okay.”

Fletch led her to the picnic table. They sat side by side, her small hand engulfed in his bigger one, her head resting against his bicep. She took a deep breath. “I was so f**king scared when you told me I was getting on a horse today that I considered faking a recurrence of my knee injury so you’d change your mind.”

He laughed. “Clever. But wasn’t happening. Go on.”

Baring her body was a lot easier than baring her soul. But she did it.

Fletch didn’t run. He didn’t pass judgment. He just listened. Then he kissed away her tears.

He’d helped her take the first step. The rest was up to her. And for the first time in months, she had a feeling of hope.

The first thing Tanna did when they got back to the Split Rock was call Eli and ask if he had a gentle mount she could ride first thing tomorrow.

The next thing she did was convince Fletch she needed lots of help on reclaiming her riding skills as she led him to bed.

Chapter Twenty-seven

With the warm breeze drifting through the open windows in the cab of his truck and his sense of anticipation, Fletch could almost imagine this was the beginning of his vacation instead of the end of it.

Where in the hell had six weeks gone? Six weeks ago he’d wondered how he’d fill his time. Now he made a mental list of all the things he hadn’t done.

It’d been a week and a half since the horse incident, which Tanna referred to as “the day the horseshit hit the fan” and things had never been better between them. Even when he’d known it was the beginning of the end.

He’d convinced her to spend the last two days of his sabbatical with him at the lake.