Page 75 of If You Loved Me

I will not put up with your disobedience any longer. We made a deal and you broke it.

Message after message streamed in. Each one worse than the last.

“Is everything okay, Sarah?”

I looked over my shoulder at Willow. Her eyes were narrowed with concern.

I cleared my throat. “Yes. All good. Just texting Stephanie something about the bakery.”

“Okay,” her voice was wary.

More text messages had my phone vibrating in my hand, but I couldn’t stomach looking at them anymore so I sealed my phone away in my purse and tried to focus on what the seamstress was telling Willow about adding a few additional silk flowers to the skirt.

But now you will be forced to face the consequences of your actions, Sarah.I couldn’t get the image of my mother’s words out of my mind. She’d always been vindictive. If things didn’t go exactly the way she wanted them to, there were significant consequences. I knew this time would be no different.

Closing my eyes, I thought back to last night when Ranger and I fell asleep in front of the fireplace, bundled together in blankets. How good it felt to be wrapped in his arms with no one else around. A calmness settled over me, slowly easing the tension from reading the barrage of text messages from my mother.

She could taunt me and even punish me for living life the way I wanted to, but the one thing she couldn’t take away from me was the love I was starting to feel for Ranger. Because love was the one thing that could transcend hate and cast out darkness.

Chapter 32

Sarah

I wasn’t sure if it was divine intervention or some stroke of luck, but nothing had changed by way of my bakery being busier than ever after my mother sent those threatening text messages. And every night since then, Ranger and I had split time between our two places, exploring one another in the best way possible.

I’d never been a fitness babe, but I was finding that I might need to increase my cardio to keep up with the man’s salacious appetite. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other it seemed. Not that I was complaining. He was fucking hot as hell. If I could live with him between my legs, I would.

Lost in my debaucherous thoughts, I knocked over the tub of buttercream that I was using to fill the piping bags. “Shit!” Icing was everywhere and I was already behind on this order for a baby shower.

The door to my kitchen creaked open behind me as I grabbed the container from the floor. I looked over myshoulder to see Ranger assessing the damage all over the kitchen tiles.

He must have come straight from the ranch because his shoulder-length curls were peeking out from under his black cowboy hat. A shadow of stubble lined his lower cheeks and jaw. My center throbbed as I remembered what it felt like to have his stubble graze the inside of my thighs. How his lips felt pressed against my core as his tongue worked on me, drawing blissful pleasure with each stroke.

A clatter sounded from next to me and I jumped. I’d dropped the container of icing too far off the counter and it clanged against the metal, hitting the wooden spatula next to it.

“Need some help, sugar?”

Raising my frosting covered hand, I showed him the mess before I turned toward the sink.

A hand reached out and gently grabbed my arm, stopping me.

His voice was guttural as he said, “I think we can remedy that.” He took two steps closer to me. I backed up, feeling overwhelmed by his presence and insecure with the amount of baking ingredients that were splattered all over me. I definitely wasn’t looking my best and certainly wasn’t worthy of this man’s presence given my current state.

I watched as he tucked the long strands of my loose hair behind my ears and then he took my icing covered hand, raising it to his mouth.

My hand felt so small between both of his large ones as he gently massaged my open palm. A storm of desire turnedhis blue eyes molten like a flickering flame as he brought my index finger to his lips. I gasped in complete awe as he opened his mouth and placed my finger inside and sucked.

“Oh,” I moaned, letting my eyes close as I felt the swirl of his tongue along the length of my finger. His mouth was warm and his tongue gentle as he worked every bit of icing off. I pressed my thighs together in search of any friction that might grant me release from the growing ache for him to put that tongue to work somewhere else.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself leaning into him. Needing something sturdy to keep me from toppling over.

Satisfied with the first finger, he moved on to my middle one. This time, a moan escaped him as I wrapped my other arm around his waist and slid my clean hand into the back pocket of his jeans. I’d lost all sense of reality as I watched his cheeks hollow slightly as he suckled the tip of my finger.

Heat soared through me. Squeezing my thighs together, I tried to create more friction with the inseam of my jeans. Anything that would ease the ache between my legs as he continued down the line of my fingers. Paying special attention to every single one until he finally released my pinky from his mouth and my hand fell slack to my side as his hands roamed my back and he pressed me flush against him.

“That’s certainly one way to greet a lady.” My voice came out sultry. I hardly recognized it.

“I’ve been missing you,” he whispered against my neck, his breath tickling the rim of my ear.

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