Page 18 of Claiming Cowboy
I grip her ass hard and jackhammer into her. I know it’ll push me over the edge, but we’re past the point where either of us can hold onto restraint or control. We deserve everything and we’re going to have it. All night, tomorrow, forever.
“Yes! Oh, yes. Yes!” Paige whimpers in my ear as she comes, her pussy massaging and squeezing my cock until I finish while buried deep inside her.
She sighs in my arms and nuzzles my neck, tightening her hold on me. “Can we stay until morning?”
I chuckle. “A good first date.”
She smiles against my neck and kisses my cheek before whispering in my ear. “A really good date. The kind that doesn’t feel like it’ll ever end.”
***
Paige wakes me when she shifts beside me ... well, half beside me. Our legs are tangled and she’s half on top of me since we only have the couch, but I like it. She’s warm, so soft, fits me perfectly to soften all my harsh angles. I open my eyes and look around. It’s not even morning. The first streaks of light stretch across the sky without fully dulling the stars that shine through the unfinished large windows.
“Sorry,” she whispers.
“For what?” I ask, rubbing her back and into her hair. It cascades over her shoulder and teases my chest. I kiss her softly. “Reminding me this is real?”
“I’m on top of you,” she points out.
“Not like you were earlier,” I tease. I adjust her so she’s more fully on me. “You’re better than the blanket. I like you here. I want you here. Right here.”
She shakes her head slowly. “Ridiculous. Do you have a single thought you don’t say?”
“With you, absolutely not.”
Because the canyon isn’t just bridged, we started filling it in. I’ll work years on it until there’s no memory of that giant gap that made me question what we could be. My Paige isn’t going toremember her doubts. She won’t remember a single reason she pulled away. I’ll bathe her in joy, create a life for us that we can both make the most of.
She looks toward the big windows, then back at me. “It’s getting cold in here,” she says softly, fingers brushing my chest like she’s not entirely ready to move away. “You could… come to my place tonight. More space. A real bed.”
My chest tightens in a way I don’t expect. That small invitation feels bigger than anything I’ve heard in weeks.
“I’d like that,” I answer, my hand still tracing lazy lines down her spine.
Her lips brush my chest, right over my heart. “Good,” she whispers, settling under my chin. “I like you, Ryder. More than I should.”
“I’ll give you every reason to keep liking me,” I promise against her hair. “Starting with a proper bed.”
She laughs quietly, a sound that curls around me like warmth, then drifts back to sleep.
I lie there awake a little longer, holding her close, breathing her in. This — her in my arms, the weight of her body pressed against mine, the quiet between us — is the kind of night I want for the rest of my life.
And if the last few weeks have proved anything, it’s that I can have it as long as Paige is involved.
Epilogue - Paige
Eight Months Later
The early summer fair is in full swing. School is out for the kids, everyone’s enjoying the climbing temperatures, and I can’t wipe the smile off my face. My dessert stand is a hit among everyone in town and Ryder’s happily by my side, talking with some of the students he now has. He teaches bull riding and runs a rodeo camp while I still work with Maya when I’m not enjoying the finished cabin.
He finished it two months ago and insisted I moved in. After all, it’s only proper. We’re doing plenty backwards or out of order, but I can’t care. Not when we enjoy rocking in our side-by-side chairs on the porch enjoying misty mornings and nights evenings with fireflies lighting the woods. The house he made for us, three bedrooms, a lovely kitchen that opens to the “modest” living room.
Everything is modest by Aspenbrook standards according to Ryder who insists I deserve more ofeverything. It’s overwhelmingly huge based on city standards. We’ve talked a lot about it, but moving in felt as natural as dating after having a silent gap between us and fixing it with conversation and sex.Great sex. Unbelievably, mind-melting, can’t-catch-your-breath kind of sex.
I’ve felt like I’m glowing for months and considering I’m now five months pregnant and just starting to show, all of Maya’s comments about my radiant skin, my happiness, my extra energy and everything else feels like it makes sense. Now that I’ve stopped overthinking Ryder, my place in Aspenbrook, and what I feel, life has fallen into place.
The man of my dreams is happily handing out sweets next to me, slipping extra dollars into our already overflowing tip jar whenever he isn’t beaming at me like I’m his whole world. When I bend over, his hand finds the ledge of our stall so I don’t hit my head. If I start to get off balance, he’s right there, stabilizing me like it’s second nature. When my back hurts, he pulls he has me sit just to ‘save the chair’ as if someone is going to steal it from under me.
Not to mention the t-shirt that says ‘TAKEN BY THE BAKER’ across it that he bought and surprised me with this morning. He tugs me towards him when our customers leave and kisses me slowly, like it’s the first time all over again. Impatience and relief, tenderness and hunger, he’s a constant war that hasn’t simmered. Just like the heat between us, the way my heart always thunders louder when he touches me, and the way we ‘gaze’ at each other according to customers and Maya.
