Page 19 of Big Burly Foreman

“My cosmetologist said it’s great for puffy skin after a night of drinking. After you left the restaurant, your father and I had no choice but to drink two more bottles of wine to make it through the rest of dinner. So, this is your fault, really.”

“Well, you’ve gotten your revenge at the price of a few years off my life,” I say, sliding off the bed and walking to my en suite bathroom. I flip on the light and tune out my mother’s chatter about skincare and how I’ve been neglecting it. I spy the bags under my eyes and figure she has a point, but I can’t regret them, because they serve as proof of what happened last night between Logan and me.

When he said he’d been bottling up his desire for two years, he wasn’t kidding. The soreness in my body is proof of that, and yet, I want more.

I want to see him and experience my first time all over again with him.

I want to hear him tell me he loves me over and over again.

There’s a high probability I won’t be able to say it back, but I want to hear the words whispered in my ears in a breathy sigh, I want to feel them on my skin as he trails his lips down my body for the third, fourth, fifth . . . however many times it takes until they’re imprinted on me.

I don’t want him to stop loving me despite my inability to say the words back to him, but I am a coward.

I have given Logan nearly everything. My body, my heart, my soul, but I hold onto my promise. It’s the one thing I have left, and a part of me is afraid to let it go.

“Ashley!” I jump when someone taps my shoulder, my mother’s mask startling me afresh and no doubt shaving a few more years off my life. There is no getting used to it. “For goodness sake, I have been calling you forever.”

“You have?”

“Yes, your dad and I are leaving for a trip to Houston for a couple of days. I wanted to know if you’ll be okay staying here by yourself, or if you would like to join us.”

“I’ll stay,” I say, without missing a beat, wincing at my eagerness, but I can’t help it. The thought of being with Logan without having to worry about my parents catching us is too tempting to pass by. “I’m twenty, and there are like fifty people on the ranch. Plus, I have Magda. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” she says, her eyes narrowed at me suspiciously, but I smile innocently at her.

My parents are barely off the property before I am running to seek out Logan. It’s only ten in the morning, but work on theranch starts at five,so I figure they must’ve been working for hours already.

I find him in the hay barn, and for a second, I wonder if this is meant to be our secret hideout. There are close to twenty buildings on the ranch, but we always find ourselves in here.

There are three other men in there with him, and they all exchange a look before they file out, leaving me and my cowboy alone in a room filled with hay. His face is already glistening with sweat, and he grabs a rag and runs it over his forehead, all the while watching me.

“Hi,” I say shyly, brushing my hair behind my ear. The bravado from earlier is gone, and now that I am here, I don’t know what to do or say.

Do we talk about the weather?

I’ve had his tongue buried in my most intimate parts, and now, I have no idea how to tell him I want it to happen again.

“Come here.”

I don’t wait for him to say it again before I am stepping into his space. He wraps a hand around my waist and pulls me flush against him.

“You didn’t wake me up to say goodbye.”

“You needed the rest,” he whispers, his voice so deep and rough that it sends lust curling in my stomach and hardens my nipples. Before Logan, I had no idea someone’s voice could turn me on.

“But—”

Logan slides his erection against me, and I groan deeply. “Feel that? If I had woken you up, there would have been no stopping me from fucking you again.”

I don’t think I would have minded that. Waking up to Logan fucking me into the mattress would have been way better than what I actually woke to, but I don’t get to tell him that before he leans in and locks our lips together.

I gasp against his lips when he slides his fingers under my dress, squeezing my ass in his rough palms and grinding his erection against me as he devours my lips.

“Oh!” I gasp when he runs his fingers over my throbbing sex. “Are you sure we’re safe here? Anyone could walk in . . .”

“Then we better be fast,” he breathes against my lips, slipping his finger past my panties, and I moan into the kiss, but it’s no longer a kiss. Our lips are just pressed together, breathing heavily against each other as he drives me mad with his finger.

“I need you, please,” I whimper, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and arching my neck when he starts to kiss a trail down from my lips.

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