“I’m not kidding, Candice. Don’t touch me.”
I frown. He doesn’t want me touching his eye or him in general? My finger moves lower. Now it’s aimed at his throat.
“You’ll be sorry,” he warns.
“I highly doubt that,” I say, moving even closer.
We’re both staring down at my finger that’s centered on his chest.
“Trust me,” he says. “You’ll be very sorry if that finger makes contact with any part of me.”
Without warning, I quickly flick my hand up, boinking him on the nose. “Made ya look!”
Without warning, he grabs me and picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder.
“Whooop!” A scream leaves my lungs along with the rest of my air.
He smacks me hard on the butt. “I warned you, woman!”
“Ian!” I screech. “Put me down right this minute!”
“Oh, I’ll put you down, alright!”
For the next few seconds all I can feel is his solid shoulder digging into my gut. Then I’m flying through the air.
“Aaaaaack!” I yell, just before I land on my back in a big poof of something crunchy.
A bunch of dust and bits of hay fly up over me as Ian stands spread-legged at my feet.
“What the hell …?” It takes me a few seconds to figure out where I am. My arms go out to test my theory. “Did you just throw me into a pile of hay?”
“No. I just threw you into a pile of straw, City.”
“Same thing. Now help me out of here. My hair’s going to be ruined.” I hold up both hands for him to take.
He scowls. “Worried your new boyfriend won’t like it?”
I pause my struggling and let my arms fall to my sides. “My new boyfriend?”
“Tate. I heard you had breakfast with him today.”
A slow smile breaks across my face. If this isn’t jealousy in his expression and tone, then I’m a talentless hack in the beauty department. The question is, do I tease Ian about this or soothe his hurt feelings? Hmmm … what to do, what to do …
“Don’t try to deny it. Everyone in town saw you.”
I lift an eyebrow. “You didn’t.”
“No, but other people did.”
“How’d you find out about it?”
“Never mind about that. Point is I did. And you should be careful around that guy. He’s got a bad reputation in town.”
“Awww, isn’t that sweet? You really care about me, don’t you, Ian?”
He scowls some more. “You’re my sister-in-law’s friend. I suppose I feel obligated to make sure you don’t get talked bad about while you’re visiting.”
“So that’s what this is? Friendly concern? An obligation?” Now I’m mad. Why can’t he just be a grown up and admit his feelings? He obviously wants to get in my Diesels. I’d have to be blind not to see that.
“Yeah. Exactly. And now I’ve met my obligations.” He turns around and starts to leave.
I scoff. “So you’re just going to leave me here in this hay?”
His voice sounds muffled as he gets farther away. “I told you it ain’t hay. It’s straw.”
I’m infuriated on two levels. First, he actually is leaving me here, and second, he’s using that word I know for a fact he uses just to piss his mother off.
“Ain’t isn’t a word!” I yell, but he ignores me.
I climb out of the hay or straw or whatever the hell it is with two fists full of the stuff. Running up behind him, I wait until I’m practically on top of him before I let loose.
I fling that hay stuff as hard as I can at the back of his head. As it surrounds him in a giant mushroom cloud of yellow, I stop, admiring the view.
Wow. I had a lot more of it in my hands than I realized.
He slowly turns around, and I back away. His head and shoulders are covered in crud and he looks very confused.
“Did you just throw straw at me?” he asks, incredulous.
I cross my arms. “I’m pretty sure it’s hay.”
He takes a step towards me. “That was a bad move, girl.”
I take another step backwards to keep some distance between us. My heart is racing now, and not from the exertion. It’s more from the danger I see in his eyes. But I can’t let him know he intimidates me. “Not from my point of view it wasn’t.”
He lowers his shoulder like he’s about to tackle someone.
I realize too late that someone is me.
Screaming, I turn around to run, but that only makes it easier for him to take me down. Two seconds later, we’re both buried in straw.
“Get off me, you idiot!” I yell, trying to throw some into his face.
He dodges me and buries his face in my neck. “Stop throwing that shit everywhere! It’s itchy!”
I pause to catch my breath and to see if he’s telling the truth. I don’t know if it’s an actual fact or just his suggestion working its magic on me, but I am kind of feeling uncomfortable.
“You’re the dumbass who threw us in here.”
“You asked for it.” He lifts his head and stares at me.
Our bodies are pressed together from our stomachs to our chests. I can feel his heart beating rapidly through my coat, the rhythm matching mine.
“You wish,” I say, my voice going way down in volume. I can hear the swishing of straw in another part of the barn that I write off as being Candy the baby cow. We’re alone but not really alone. It’s strangely sexy.
“Maybe I do wish,” he says.
My heart does a double back flip.
He shifts his weight so more of him is on me. I can feel his waist there against mine, and his dick is as hard as a rock.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god … What’s happening?! My brain is spinning out of control. I can’t think straight. Are we about to do it in the hay?
“I don’t get it,” I finally say. When in doubt, just say what’s on your mind, that’s my motto. “What’s happening here, I mean.”
“I don’t get it either.” He’s not smiling.
“Are you mad about that?” It seems kind of silly to be mad at your own feelings, so I smile.
It seems to take some of the anger away for him. His expression relaxes. “Maybe. I’m not sure.”
I wiggle around a little, trying to get a thing in my back to stop poking me.
“You better quit moving around like that,” he warns.
The devil in me sparks to life. “Why?” I wiggle around some more. “What’ll happen to me if I don’t?”
He pushes his hips into me and settles his hard length into my softness. “You’ll be sorry because I won’t be able to control myself anymore.”
“Who said you have to control yourself around me?” I move my hips in a slower rhythm, but one he won’t mistake for irritation at pokey straw.
We stare into each other’s eyes for what seems like forever. Then I move my hips some more and he closes his lids, pushing into me in response.
“You are in so much fucking trouble,” he whispers.
“You’re the one who’s in trouble, not me,” I whisper back, opening my legs to give him better access.
His eyes come open really slowly and then his lazy smile is back. “I’m not sure I’m hearing you right. Are you saying you want a little roll in the hay? With me?”
I giggle. “I’m pretty sure we’re already doing that.” I move my eyes around to emphasize the fact that there’s nothing but hay around us.
He grabs my left hand and puts it up above my head, trapping it there under a hard bale of the yellow stuff. “I told you, Candice …” he lowers his face until our lips are a hair’s breadth apart, “… it’s not hay. It’s straw.”
And then he’s kissing me.
Chapter Thirty-Five
HE REACHES DOWN AND UNBUTTONS my jeans.
“I could help you if you’d let go of my arm,” I say.
“You just keep your hands where I can see ‘em,” he says, a warning in his tone. He takes my oth
er, stitched-up arm more gently and places it above my head too. “Leave ‘em there.”
He gets up on his knees and pulls my pants down.
“Oh my god, it’s so cold in here!” I say with a squeak.
“Don’t you worry, baby, I’ll get you warm real quick.”
I open my mouth to ask him how, but stop when he starts showing me. He lowers his face to my panties and kisses me through the thin material.
“Oh my,” I whisper. I’m already wet, and all he’s done is this. I am in so much trouble.
He licks around the edges of the cotton and then slides a finger under the edge of it near my inner thigh. He’s still kissing, pushing hot air through the material as his finger slides inside my panties.
My breath comes in gasps and my hips move a little, first left, then right. His light touching is killing me.
“Easy now,” he says, rubbing my thighs up and then down as he pushes his face into my soft parts.
His hands come up and pull my panties down, slowly, slowly. He looks at me with a dark expression before putting his mouth to my folds.
When his hot tongue comes out and goes inside me I nearly scream with delight. My legs tremble with need. I have to bite my lip hard to keep from telling everyone in a quarter-mile radius what we’re doing.
“You’re so wet,” he says, looking up at me. “I’m not going to last very long. It’s been a while.” He’s apologizing to me for being too turned on. At this point, Ginny is the dumbest woman on the planet as far as I’m concerned.
“We’ll go slow,” I say, holding out my arms. “Have sex with me now.”
“But you taste so good,” he says, putting his mouth on me again.
I moan, torn between wanting more of this and needing to feel him inside me, more of him, the part that will bring us both pleasure.
“Ian, please … I’m not going to last very long either if you keep doing that.”
“Are you complaining?” he asks, a low chuckle coming from deep in his chest.
“No. I just want to come with you.”
He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a condom from his wallet. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
He pulls his jeans down and I finally get a look at that package I’ve been admiring for days. Seeing him running out of the shower didn’t do him justice. When he’s hard, there’s some sort of nature’s miracle going on down there.
“You ready for me?” he asks, back on his knees and poised between my legs, his hand on his dick.
“Are you ready for me, is the question.” I open my legs wider and move my hips a little, ignoring the straw poking me everywhere from the waist down. I must look ridiculous with my jacket still on but bare parts below, but I’m not willing to freeze my boobs off to look a tiny bit sexier.
Ian moves in closer and guides the head of his dick to my folds. He’s concentrating on being careful, but I can see the instant he finds the warmth that is me. His face relaxes and pleasure takes over.
“Oh, baby,” he says, “you feel so good.”
I hold my arms out. “Come inside where it’s warm.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” he says, lowering his weight down on me and pushing the rest of his length inside.
I moan with happiness. This is heaven, right here in this pile of straw.
He moans too and starts moving in and out. I meet every gentle thrust with one of my own. It’s tender but demanding. Intoxicating. I’m so close to orgasm, which makes no sense since we just started, but it’s a fact. It’s because it’s him. It’s Ian on me, the man who makes me crazy who I want to hit with snowballs and piles of hay. He’s on me and in me and he wants to make me come. He claims I make him crazy, but he wants me. He wants to possess me, to have sex with me. It’s blowing my mind, making me question everything. What does this mean? Will we be a couple now or is this just a game? I hope it’s not a game to him because it’s not to me.
His rhythm picks up and every muscle in his body is tensed. “Babe … I’m sorry … I’m going to come …”
“Me too!” I gasp, suddenly aware of the fact that I’ve lost control of everything … my thoughts, my body, my desires. I’m hanging onto him for dear life, ready to cry with need. “Me too!” I try to catch my breath. What’s happening?! “Oh my god!”
Waves of pleasure are coming for me. I can feel them. Approaching, building…
“Candice!” he yells. “Dammit!” And then a series of grunts and growls come from his throat as he slams into me over and over.
I lose it when he’s halfway done. Sounds are coming out of me that make no sense. They sound like they should be words, but they’re not. I hang onto his jacket for all I’m worth, riding this crazy merry-go-round until it finally stops spinning.
He goes still, collapses his entire weight on me, and we both sink deeper into the straw.
As I’m coming down off my sex-high, I start to notice straw bits poking me in parts that are really uncomfortable. Like, really, really uncomfortable.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Kind of squished, actually.” I try to laugh but it comes out kind of wheezy.
He rolls off to the side, pulling out in the process. “Better?” he asks.
I nod.
He closes his eyes and flops back over on top of me.
I can’t help but smile.
“Ian?”
“Yes?” he moans into my neck.
“You said I was going to be sorry.” I’m practically breathless which makes talking difficult.
“Yes, I did.”
“Guess what?” I ask.
“What?”
“I’m not. I’m not sorry one bit.”
He lifts his head and looks into my eyes. “Neither am I.”
We’re both grinning like fools. I feel like I could jump off this barn and fly back to the house. Now I know what that expression love gives you wings means.
“Wanna go again?” he asks, the devil in his expression.
I open my mouth to answer, but then the sound of a very unhappy cow baby interrupts me.
Ian rolls his eyes. “Hold that thought.” He kisses me hard and then gets up on his knees. “Gotta feed the calf.” He pulls the rubber off and stuffs it in a tissue he takes from his pocket. Getting to his feet, he pulls his jeans up and buttons them. He has straw bits everywhere.
“I thought you said you already did it.”
“I lied.”
“You butthead.”
“Yeah, what can I say?” He gives me his most charming grin. “I’m a butthead sometimes.”
“I want to do it!” I say, struggling to get up out of the mess. My butt is quickly losing the warmth it gathered from our exercise. “Holy mother it’s cold in this joint.”
The sound of a door rolling open interrupts my next thought and then Maeve’s voice comes from around the corner. “Candice are you in here?”
My eyes bug out and I freeze. Ian does too.
“She’ll be out in a sec, Ma!” he yells. Throwing me my pants, he scrubs his hair, trying to dislodge all the straw from it. He’s only partially successful.
“Okay,” Maeve says. “Tell her to come to the house. I have some responses for her we need to discuss.”
“Responses?” Ian looks at me. “What’s she talking about?”
I’m finally on my feet and mostly dressed, pushing him out of the way. “Nothing you need to worry about.” I zip and button my jeans as I try to get out of the pile.
He grabs me before I can get past him.
I’m all set to complain, but then he’s leaning down and kissing me warmly on the lips. It kind of puts a spell on me and I forget that Maeve wanted me for something.
“Tell me all your secrets,” he says playfully.
I sigh in defeat. That’s all he needs to do is give me that look and I’m ready to surrender. “Fine.” I blink a few times trying to remember what the secret is. “Oh, yeah. So I’m putting together a baby shower for Andie.” r />
“What for?”
“To try and help her get some friends.”
Ian detaches himself from me. “Say what, now?”
I sigh out heavily, annoyed that I have to explain myself when Maeve needs me. “She doesn’t have any friends in town if you haven’t noticed. And that’s all because of Hannah spreading rumors around town. I’m going to fix all that.”
“How are you going to do that? And how do you know all this shit anyway?”
“Tate told me all I needed to know. And I’ve decided that all Andie needs is an opportunity to meet with these girls on her home turf and they’ll all see what a great person she is and want to be her friend.”
Ian snorts. “You think so, huh?”
I cross my arms as the fever from our sexy time dissipates quickly into the freezing cold air. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “You’re getting that look on your face again.”
“What look?”
“The one that begs me to take you down into the straw again … calm you down.”
I reach out to hit him, but he catches my wrist.
“Calm me down … who do you think you are?”
He pulls me close, until our chests are touching again. “I’m your guy, that’s who.”
“My guy?” I suppose it’s kind of silly, but it makes me go all warm inside to hear him say that. I can’t feel the cold anymore. Even my nostril hairs have thawed.
“Yeah. If you want me to be.” He looks down at my chin, like he’s afraid to look me in the eye.
I sigh with a mixture of happiness and sadness. “I’d love for you to be my guy,” I finally admit. “The only problem is that we live a million miles apart.” I’m not even sure that I’m talking about actual distance or the fact that we come from different worlds.
“So? You’re here now, right?”
I know his words were meant to be encouraging, but all they do is remind me that I won’t be here for long. I move away from him and smile. “Yeah. I’m here now. But I have to go talk to Maeve.”
He gestures towards the barn doors, his voice sounding resigned. “Go ahead. I’ll feed Candy for ya.”
“Thanks, Ian.” I walk away and leave him there to take care of my chores once again because being around him anymore is going to start making my heart hurt.