Page 53 of A Rancher's Vow
She leaned back, head twisted slightly until their faces were close. “Sex with you—and I’m not trying to stroke your ego here—it’s been good.”
Amusement trickled in. “Ego stroked, nevertheless. Thanks, and back at you. Like I said, knowing what’s working helps. Much better than wondering if I’m in the right spot or if she’s so bored she’s thinking about what’s on her chore list later in the day.”
“Oh God, that’s a terrifying thought.”
“Hey, I assume I was relatively horrid at sex the first few times I tried. I think we all are. Masturbating lets us figure out what we like. Teamwork to get to the same point takes practice.”
Charity’s stomach quivered under his hand as she laughed. “That it does. And I like that phrase, teamwork. I think it took a dozen tries before I had my first orgasm duringteamwork sex,and that wasn’t because I wasn’t having fun.” She paused. “My sister was my source for all things sex related. Chelsea was real, and honest, and blunt. Just the type of person everyone needs in their lives.”
Dustin paused. To hell with it—a little embarrassment wouldn’t kill him. “I got the talk from Caleb. And Luke.AndWalker.AndGinny. Not at the same time, but during the same time frame. Almost as if they knew I was getting interested and brave enough to experiment.”
“Too funny.”
“Lots of different perspectives, that’s for sure. But while I got the information I needed, and the warnings about how to be careful, plus so many details from Ginny that embarrassed the hell out of me but helped, I have to say two people taught me the most. The first was Tucker. He smacked me down hard a few years ago when it came out that he and Ginny had a sexual past going back for years, and I had a hard time with it.”
Her confusion was clear. “But Tucker and Ginny are amazing together.”
“They are. But they weren’ttogetherthen. And in my head, I had somehow categorized sex as either a fun thing people did as a one-night-stand, or a thing people in a committed relationship did.”
Charity shook her head, her curls brushing his cheek. “Not the strangest of concepts to come up with. I got my uber-embarrassing talk from Chelsea when I couldn’t figure out how she and Suz had sex when neither of them has a penis.”
It was Dustin’s turn to laugh. “Oh boy. That would have been a fun conversation to eavesdrop on.”
“I wish more people could overhear stuff like that. Talking about sex—talkingperiod—solves so many issues.”
“It does. And that’s why after Tucker gave me hell, I decided I needed someone to talk to who’d shoot straight with me no matter what.”
They were nearly out of the trees, Beach pacing slowly up the trail. The sun was headed toward the distant mountains to the west, but for now the sky remained bright blue and clear.
Charity rested her hand on his thigh. “Who’s your sex guru?”
“Kelli.” At Charity’s surprised gasp, he laughed again. “I worked with her for years before she and Luke became a couple. She had the best attitude toward talking about sex, and she’d proven many times over she was willing and able to kick my butt if I was being an idiot. I asked her a few questions, and one thing led to another. Luke knows, not because she needed his permission or anything, but so it didn’t feel strange. We don’t talk as much anymore, and never about specifics between her and Luke, but for a while, it really helped to have a woman I could do a brain dump with. Have her fix my bullshit ideas, and then have my wrong thinking gone instead of hanging over my head forever.”
Charity twisted enough to press a kiss to his cheek. “I owe her a beer then.”
“I owe her beer from now to eternity. She was the one who really emphasized that consent was key.”
Up ahead his friends were guiding their horses to the side of the hill, dismounting and pulling everything from blankets to bags of chips from saddlebags.
Beach walked himself to the edge of the gathering and began to graze lazily. Dustin slipped off then reached up to help Charity down. Sliding her against his body en route to the ground was a nice reward.
“Charity. Sit next to me,” Coralee ordered.
“Why would she do that when she could sit with Dustin?” Keith asked.
“Better conversation. If she sits with him, all they’ll do is kiss, and that’s boring for the rest of us.”
Charity squeezed Dustin’s hand. “We’re being separated. Obviously, we’ve been kissing far too much.”
“No such thing.” Dustin proved his point by leaning in and connecting their lips. Short and sweet was the plan.
Charity had a different idea. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him until he was running out of oxygen. Which, fine by him. He’d die happy.
The whistles and laughter were like a warm hug wrapping around them.
Over the next hour the sun slipped below the horizon, turning the sky into strips of gold, red and peach. Conversation flowed and beer was consumed. Coralee had brought a bag of marshmallows, and Keith cut long sticks to roast them over the fire.
Small insects flickered in the fading light, and a colony of bats appeared, swooping in silently to dine overhead.
