Wrangled and Tangled

  all the time.”

  I’d like to bend you over your desk all the time.

  She placed her eyeglasses on the coffee table and repositioned herself on his lap with her knees tucked by his hips. Her brown eyes were nearly as black as her pupils. Her lips were as plump as berries from their kisses and as cherry red as the wine. “Much better.”

  His cock hardened, feeling the heat from Tierney’s groin bearing down on his. Renner’s fingers traced her spine from the dimples above her butt to her nape. When his fingertips connected with the elastic band taming her hair, he slipped it off, freeing the silken tresses.

  He tilted her head back to blaze a path of kisses down the column of her throat. While eking sexy coos and moans from her, his fingers worked the buttons on her pajama top, until the silky fabric separated, revealing her pearly skin. His hands circled her waist, sliding to cup the sweet mounds of her breasts. He flicked the tip of his tongue across the rigid point of her nipple.

  When Tierney arched her back and thrust her fingers through his hair to hold him in place, he couldn’t wait to see her reaction when he went down on her. He switched to her left nipple, raking the tip with his teeth.

  She rocked her pelvis, her hands gripping the couch cushions behind his shoulders. The friction of her ass grinding over his cock practically had him shooting in his Wranglers.

  “Bed. Now.” Renner clutched her lower back, bowing her backward as he scooted to the edge of the couch. Balancing her body weight on his knees, he stood and clamped his hands on her ass as his mouth swallowed her surprised cry.

  He moved them into the bedroom so fast he accidentally smacked into the wall, and Tierney broke their kiss with an, “Ouch.”

  “Sorry.” Out of habit he slammed the door shut behind them. Her bedroom was a black hole. But he’d gone beyond caring. He’d spend time paying her naked body proper homage after he had her once.

  The front of his shins hit the foot of the bed and they fell on the mattress. Somehow he managed not to crush her. Somehow he kept kissing her even as he fought to get his shirt off. He palmed a condom after he unzipped his jeans. Next he yanked her pajama bottoms until her smooth, bare skin rubbed against his. When he kissed her knee and let his lips follow the curve of her quad, Tierney shrieked and scooted across the bed away from him.

  He laughed. “It’s a little late to play hard to get, doncha think?” He balanced on his haunches and put on the condom. Then he was trying to read her body position in the pitch dark. Ah. There she was. The warm, soft, female part of her.

  His fingers gently traced her slit as he scattered kisses up her torso. “I wanna flip on the lights and look my fill of you.” He licked the indent of her solar plexus and nibbled the bottom curve of her breast. “Take my time and taste you everywhere. But I’m too damn impatient. Been waiting for this for so long, Tierney.”

  “Me too.”

  He growled. “I wanna fuck you. Feel you wrapped around me. Inside and out.”

  She made a soft noise, which he took as a sign that she wanted the same thing.

  Renner nuzzled her chest, her neck, her jawline. So soft. So sweet-smelling. So fucking desperate to have her now, he layered his body atop hers, parting her thighs with his hips.

  But Tierney’s entire body instantly went board stiff beneath him. Legs clenched, her arms woodenlike by her side, her head turned away from his questing lips.

  “Sweetheart?” he whispered, wishing he could see her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  “Just go slow, okay?”

  “Sure. Anything you want.”

  The tip of his cock nudged her entrance. She didn’t cant her pelvis or circle her legs around his waist. Renner began to push inside her. Although she was wet, she was extremely tight. That, coupled with the motionless way she lay there, tensed from head to toe, barely breathing, not touching him at all, gave him the impression she’d never done this before.

  Don’t be ridiculous. She’s got experience. She sure as hell didn’t blow you like a woman unfamiliar with a cock.

  Sexual pep talk aside, he forged inside her channel inch by inch, gritting his teeth against the temptation to thrust hard and fast and as deep as he could.

  Jesus. She was so snug. And hot. And slick.

  And not moving. At all.

  Renner lowered his head and kissed the first piece of flesh his lips connected with, the skin below her ear. He murmured, “Sweetheart, help me out here,” and eased inside her to the hilt.

  She gasped.

  A groan left his throat. He counted to sixty. Then he rubbed his cheek over hers. The moisture on her face could’ve been from sweat, but he started to suspect another source. As he moved his mouth down, he felt the dampness on her jawline, the cool skin beneath his lips and the taste of salt. Not Tierney’s sweat. Tears.

  He froze.

  What the fuck?

  Renner wanted the lights on right goddamn now. Wanted to know why in the hell she was crying while they were having sex, for fucksake.

  Just as he was about to pull out and scramble off her, she turned her head, pressing her face into his throat, almost as if she were trying to disappear into his skin. “Sorry. I just didn’t know it’d hurt this much. It’s sort of obvious I don’t know what to do.”

  “Darlin’, you’re confusing me. What do you mean you don’t know what to do?”

  Her nonanswer was his answer.

  No. This couldn’t be. “Do you mean this is the first time in a long time you’ve had sex?”

  “If by a long time you mean ever, then yes.”

  “Ever,” he said slowly, “as in . . .”

  “The dreaded V word. Yes. I’m one of those. Or, I was one of those until a few moments ago.”

  Renner was so shocked he couldn’t think of a blasted thing to say.

  “Please. Can we talk about this later? After . . . ?”

  “After what, Tierney? After you get this over with?” What the hell kind of game was she playing?

  “No. After you teach me what to do.” Her fingers tentatively moved up his arm. “I don’t have any hands-on experience in this either.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me—”

  “Because I didn’t want it to be like this. It’s not about me; it’s about us, being together as lovers. Show me how to be your lover. Please. Don’t stop. Renner. I want you or I wouldn’t be here. I just need a little . . . direction. And probably some patience. Lots of patience.”

  Tierney’s bewilderment coupled with her curiosity did him in. He commanded, “Put your hands on me. Touch me.”

  “Where?”

  “Everywhere.”

  Her fingertips arced over the dip of his shoulder and slid down the length of his back. She paused; then her hands squeezed his ass.

  Gooseflesh rippled up his back. “I love that. Now, I’m gonna move.”

  “Move . . . how?”

  Renner smiled at the panicked note in her voice. So Miz Brainiac was the play-by-play type. He pulled out halfway, then thrust home again. “Like that.”

  “Oh.”

  He paused, waiting for her signal. Damn, damn, damn, she was tight. Sweat beaded in his hairline and he gritted his teeth against the temptation to plow into her.

  “Do it again,” she whispered.

  He did it again. And again. “Angle your hips, baby. Rock into me like you did on the couch.”

  Tierney gasped when that angle forced a direct connection to her clit. “I like that.”

  “Thought you might.” He picked up the pace. The good thing about her being a virgin? She had no comparison for how long this was supposed to last.

  Her hands roved over his body, making him tremble. She buried her face in his throat, kissing, licking and God—biting, holding on as his hips pumped faster.

  Then he was in that suspended moment where his balls emptied as he thrust, harder, deeper, each spurt shooting out of his dick hotter, better and more intense than the last pulse, until he was wrung out and pa
nting for his next breath.

  As soon as he reclaimed his senses, he kissed her forehead. “Where is the closest light?”

  “There’s a lamp on the nightstand to your right. But I think—”

  “Don’t move.” It was a stretch, but he managed to find the button and click it on.

  A dim glow erupted. They blinked at each other.

  Framing her face in his hands, Renner bestowed a long kiss, then another. And another. Pulling back to ask, “A twenty-six-year-old virgin, huh? How the hell did that happen?”

  Tierney squirmed. “You really want to do this right now?”

  “Yep.”

  “Get off me.”

  “Nope.” He pressed his nose to hers. “The truth, Tierney. Now.”

  How weird was it to be as close as humanly possible to Renner but also feel miles away from him? He wasn’t exactly a lightweight. He was sort of squishing her.

  You like it. You’ve waited a long time to be squished beneath a man’s body.

  “It ain’t exactly a hardship having you beneath me, but you oughta know I’m not goin’ nowhere until you talk to me.”

  “I know.” Her shyness resurfaced when she thought of confessing her relationship ineptitude to this gorgeous, virile man who’d probably never had a problem connecting with the opposite sex.

  He whispered, “Come on, sweetheart. Please. You must trust me on some level, because you trusted me enough to be the first man in your bed.”

  Tierney blurted, “I stayed a virgin because I’m not exactly a guy magnet.”

  “Darlin’, you couldn’t be more wrong.” He kissed her. “Keep goin’.”

  “I never thought about it much when I was in my teens because I went to a private all girls’ school. A lot of my friends were still virgins our senior year—we were all academically motivated, not boy crazy. Then I went to college and focused on my bachelor’s degrees. And my master’s degrees. The club scene in Chicago just drove home the point I’m socially awkward. I’m not all that comfortable carrying on conversations with guys I don’t know. I can’t dance very well. I’m not spontaneous. I don’t have many hot, single girlfriends, so there was no reason for guys to look at me.”

  “Are all men in Illinois blind and stupid?”

  Her face burned. “You’re kinda smashing me.”

  “Hang on.” He rolled until they were lying face-to-face. Renner kept their bodies close enough they might as well still be joined. He kept touching her. It didn’t soothe her though because it wasn’t a comforting caress, but a very possessive one. “So tell me, was it your big brain that kept guys away? Or did your daddy carry a big club?”

  “A bit of both. I tend to stick with friends I’ve had for a long time, which limits meeting new people.”

  “None of the douche bags you went to college with ever asked you out?”

  How sweet that he was concerned that she hadn’t ever been properly pursued. “A few did. I went on dates. But I never got to the point I saw myself getting naked with any of them.”

  Renner didn’t say anything. He didn’t look away, either. He just continued the gentle, erotic stroking from her bare shoulder to her wrist. “You weren’t keeping yourself chaste for religious reasons?”

  Tierney shook her head.

  “You weren’t abused at some point and have issues with sex?”

  “Not at all.”

  “You don’t fantasize about women instead of men, and thought if you hooked up with a studly cowboy I’d cure you?”

  She laughed. “God, no.”

  He smiled. “This didn’t happen just because I was handy and you wanted to get it over with?”

  “You seduced me tonight, remember?”

  “True.” He brushed his lips over hers. “Sweetheart, I gotta admit I’m confused by all this.”

  “Why? It might sound strange in your world of cowboy studliness and uninhibited cowgirls chasing after you, but in my world, the opportunity for sex is limited. The longer I waited the weirder it got. So it morphed into this gigantic thing. At a conference in Vegas last year I mustered the guts to pick up a brochure for a male escort service, figuring a pro wouldn’t think my virginity was laugh-worthy. When I started to make the call . . . my father knocked on my hotel room door.”

  “You’re shitting me.”

  “No. I worried I’d become the female 40-Year-Old Virgin. After I moved here, I tried to remedy that . . .” She dropped her gaze to the sculpted muscles on Renner’s chest. Goodness. These differences between male and female bodies amazed her. And she was so glad she’d picked this sexy man as her foray into sex because he was a prime example of masculine perfection.

  Insistent fingers tipped her face up. Renner’s eyes blazed. “That’s what you were doin’ that night in Buckeye Joe’s when I first kissed you. Picking out a cherry-poppin’ guy?”

  Tierney blushed. “Yes. Not that it happened.”

  “Goddamn good thing.” Then Renner’s mouth swooped down, commanding hers with molten kisses that set her whole body aflame. He rolled her to her back, batting aside pillows so he could pin her arms above her head. He hung above her on all fours. “Well, sweetness, I will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about bein’ my lover and then some.”

  “So this isn’t a onetime thing?”

  “No. But we are gonna set some ground rules.” He beamed a cocky smile. “Oh sugar, by the mutinous look on your face, you don’t like that one little bit, do you?”

  “Like you’re a big rule follower, Renner Jackson.”

  Still grinning, he kissed her. “Rule one—you don’t get to tell Daddy nothin’ about what goes on between us.”

  Like that would pose a challenge since she and her father currently weren’t speaking. “Done. Is that it?”

  Renner shook his head. “Rule two—same deal for the Split Rock employees. All of them. Complete discretion. Everyone knows your father gave me the financing for this place and I don’t wanna give anyone the chance to whisper that I’m with you for any reason besides I wanna be with you.”

  “That’s sweet. But I so wanted you to nail me on a dining room table during breakfast,” she cooed.

  “Smart-ass. But I do have a whole host of ideas on how we can christen your desk.”

  She lightly bit his chin and let her tongue trace the indent near the tip. She recited, “Rule three—same goes for the guests. Rule four—same for the people in Muddy Gap. I get it. Now can we move on to the teaching me about sex part? Because I have lots of—”

  He fused his mouth to hers, devastating her with a kiss that proved she had a lot to learn about having this man as her lover. When he pulled his lips away to peer into her eyes, she was so dizzy and wanting she couldn’t speak.

  “I’ve figured out a way to shut you up,” he murmured.

  She arched, rocking her hips into him. “Do that again. Please.”

  “In a second. Two other things. What happens between us on a personal level won’t affect our business dealings.”

  “So if you do something asinine regarding the Split Rock, and I demand an explanation, and we have a big blowup, you won’t use that as an excuse to withhold sex from me?”

  “I oughta take offense to the word asinine. But I’m trying to stay focused even though you are nekkid.” His finger followed the curve of her neck to the hollow of her throat. “You’re so pretty right here. We haven’t been at each other’s throats nearly as much in the last month. Why is that?”

  Because I might go broke trying to do my part to keep this place afloat and now I have loads of work to do strictly for cash. I don’t have time to dissect everything you do or obsess over potential mistakes. “Umm . . . because we realized we have a common goal?”

  “Maybe. But I’m glad we ain’t snapping at each other all the time.” Renner kissed her forehead. “Last thing, if we’re together, then there’s no one else. You wanna break it off with me, fine. Do it. But I won’t stand for cheating.”

  She outline
d the rugged angles of his face, committing to memory his bone structure. “How could any woman ever cheat on you? You’re so good looking. And you have this magnetism.” Her eyes searched his. “I’m jealous. You don’t know what it’s like to be shy. Or to be the least interesting person in the room.”

  “Sweetheart, you’re so wrong. You’ve had my interest since the day you stepped your high heels at the Split Rock and glared at me from behind them sexy glasses.”

  A blush stained her cheeks. “I’m not fishing for return compliments. I’m just . . . pretty stunned that you’re attracted to me at all.” She traced the twin slashes of his dark eyebrows. “We’re complete opposites.”

  “In some ways. But in other ways”—Renner touched his lips to the