Page 74 of The Banker and the Blue Collar Man

And inside me, pleasure built itself, outrageous joy and the scream of something wild that I had never experienced before. I paused in my fucking to bend close and bite the back of his neck, a claim. He was mine.

In response, he turned toward me, his hand coming back. A reach for a touch, a connection. As I kissed his palm, tasting the salt from his skin, I slipped out. I wasn’t as tall as he was, blast it.

I shifted down and tucked myself behind him once more, then pushed back in. A little hard. Hard for me, at least. He grunted. His ribs rose, and he buried his face in his arms again. This was how he wanted it. Like a punishment he must endure. Gritty and rough.

I paused at that thought, but I wanted to finish. I wanted him to feel me finish. I wanted to sigh when I came and collapsed against him, sweaty and worn out. But more, I wanted him not to feel ill-used. Jesus Christ, what a hard balance. I picked up my rhythm again, my hands gripping his hips, just about growling as I took the pleasure he was offering.

I came in a burst, no stuttering into orgasm but a sudden bolt out of the blue. Beneath me, he shifted into my last hard push, right before I pulled out, dribbling semen everywhere, it seemed, to collapse on his back.

I licked the back of his neck and gently clasped his head, tugging my fingers through his hair. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to be in his arms.

My body shuddered down from its high, a weighted thing that threatened to fall and fall, bound now by gravity rather than pleasure. “Okay?” I gasped. “Was that okay?”

“Yeah.” He sighed the word. He rolled onto his back and gathered me in his arms. Heat and sweat slithered between our bodies as our breaths slowed.

I wanted to see his expression, but the curtains were drawn, and the only light was from the bathroom, where the door was half-closed. There was no bonfire outside, no shadows on the wall to make me feel like we were in a cave. Leaving me with no way to know if he’d enjoyed himself. If I’d done it right.

I guessed I needed more than a single word to tell me I’d not performed like some lunkhead who didn’t know how to pleasure his partner. I needed to know because I was selfish, though I wished I wasn’t.

“I mean, did you like it?” It sounded like I was choking because I couldn’t catch my breath. “I’m so bad at this. Usually I’m on the bottom, but?—”

“Shhhhh.” He placed two fingers on my lips, and if he wanted me to shut up, then I was shut up. “How could you ever doubt that you are the most perfect thing? The prettiest thing in the whole wide world?”

I became very still in his arms. My eyes widened and prickled with heat. I wanted to bury my face in his neck so he wouldn’t see me bawl like a little kid.

Every time we talked, it was always the same:You are pretty. You are amazing. You are perfect. You are exactly what I need.

My life hadn’t contained anything like the things he said to me. I doubted his had either. I needed to remember that so I could tell him, too, though it was so hard to articulate all the things I thought about him. What he was to me. Tall. Strong. Good. Unbelievably handsome. And kind. Utterly, utterly kind.

That’s when I buried my face in his neck, trying to hold back from bawling, but failing.

“Sweetheart,” he said in a whisper. “Sweetheart, don’t cry. Please don’t cry.”

Those soft words and his gentle clasp of my neck with his calloused hands just about did me in, if I’d not already been done in.

“You can bottom next time,” he said in the same voice he’d used when he’d told me I was special and perfect. “And we’ll get more lube. A whole bucket. We’ll leave a bucket in every place on the ranch that there is.”

That made me laugh in spite of myself. I pulled him on top of me and sighed as his body settled on me. All that weight grounding me to earth so I wouldn’t fly away.

“Okay,” I said with a gasp and a laugh. “You tell me your favorite brand, and I’ll have it delivered. Two-day air. Fast, fast, fast. So you can fuck me, and I can fuck you without feeling like some kind of beast who doesn’t care about his partner.”

“I like it like that,” he said, very low, as he bent to kiss me.

He was resting on his elbows, like a gentleman. And he was telling me very plainly that he liked it rough.

I wanted to teach him to like it gentle, but I also made a vow to always listen to him when he said what he wanted. To listen to what his body would tell me. In the dark. With shadows coming through the windows as the wind whispered through the trees.

Chapter 23

Dalton

By the time we cleaned ourselves up again and made it out of bunkhouse six and arrived at the dining hall, the dinner hour was indeed nearly over. And, knowing that Jake was always hungry, I realized his idea of going to the saloon was a good one. He’d said something about triple cheeseburgers, so that was a big yes for me.

“I can drive us into town,” I said. “Is it too late to call about Daybreak?”

I opened my car, and sure enough, my cell phone was beneath the driver’s seat. Poor little thing was hot as lava, so I held it in my hand and let the breeze wash over it.

“Here,” I said once it had cooled off a bit.