“You ready for my dick inside you, Brea?”

She gripped his arm, held his fingers inside her, wanted him even deeper. “Yes. Yes, I want it.”

He rose and went over to his jeans, pulled a foil packet from his pocket.

A condom.

Finally.

He laid the condom aside and leaned over to press a kiss to her belly before reaching for her panties. He smiled up at her, then ripped her panties into shreds.

Shock filled her, followed by the slow melt of liquid heat that spread through her.

“I believe that was one of your requests.”

“Yes,” she said between heavy breaths. “It was.”

He tore open the condom packet, skillfully slipped it on, then shifted her to face him, her legs dangling over the sofa. He kneeled in front of her and pulled her to the edge of the cushion, slid one hand underneath her, and used the other to smooth over her sex.

“I can smell you,” he said, staring down at her sex before lifting his gaze to hers. He moved in, nestling his c**k against the entrance to her pussy. “Sweet and hot and ready.”

He slid between her pu**y lips, the glide easy because he was right—she was ready for him. With one thrust he was in.

Her body pulsed around him, squeezing his shaft until pleasure burst inside her. Gage stilled, looked down at her, and Brea just . . . felt. The stirrings of excitement only grew as he pulled back and pushed inside her inch by delicious inch.

She waited for him to pound against her, to start f**king her with relentless thrusts.

But he didn’t. Only sweet, easy movements that teased her cl*tevery time he brushed up against her, ratcheting up the tension until she reached for his arms and dug her nails into his skin.

“Yeah,” he said, his gaze glued to her face. “Your pu**y squeezes me tight every time I slide deep inside you.”

Oh, God, his voice was dark, soft, made her tingle all over. He smoothed his hand over her breasts, her ribs, snaking down over her belly until it rested against her sex.

“Widen your legs, Brea,” he said, his thumb dipping down to circle around her clit. “Let me have this.”

Panting, she did, and he swirled his thumb over the most sensitive part of her. She swallowed, then gasped as he moved inside her at the same time he applied pressure to the engorged bud. She lifted against his questing fingers, rocked her pelvis against him, and began to meet his thrust as pleasure burst through her.

She gripped his arms and pulled herself toward the source of that pleasure. Gage was relentless, never breaking rhythm as he brought her closer to what she’d never experienced before. His c**k seemed to swell inside her, stretching her, sliding against her walls and making her nerve endings sing. She wanted to savor every second, and yet she knew she was close, so close to having this magic. She wanted it more than anything.

She doubted at first, but now she was beginning to believe, especially as Gage applied more pressure, deepened his thrusts so he ground against her whenever his body met hers. He murmured encouraging words to her that thrilled her, aroused her, and took her right to the edge, all the while watching her with his dark gaze that she couldn’t look away from.

And he held on, waited, seemingly in no hurry to get to the finish line himself, as if they had hours to do this. She felt no pressure to release, and it made getting there so much easier.

With his free hand he gripped her butt and lifted her, brought her closer to him and rolled his h*ps against her.

With a cry she splintered, her orgasm such a huge surprise she shuddered, her body pulsating around Gage’s cock. The sensations were like nothing she’d ever felt before, so much deeper, more intense, like the sweetest pleasure both inside and out. She threw her head back and let go as sensation poured out of her in a never-ending maelstrom of hot pulses.

Gage gathered her to him and ground against her, groaning as he pumped furiously with his own release, which sent her catapulting even farther into the abyss of pleasure.

It had never been like this—never. And she knew she was going to want it again and again and again.

Tiny throbs of pleasure continued to spark inside her long after. Gage still held her against him, stroking her and kissing her neck. She was out of breath and still shocked that it had happened.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissed his shoulder and was certain she never wanted to let go of this moment.

Finally, he withdrew and went into the bathroom, coming back with a washcloth to clean her up. He pulled her onto the sofa with him and they reclined there side by side, facing each other, not saying a word.

She didn’t have anything to say, felt giddy and warm and . . . satisfied.

Gage smoothed his hand over her hair. “So now you tell those other guys to shove it.”

She laughed. “I suppose so.”

“Feel better?”

“I do.”

He dragged his thumb over her nipple. It hardened.

“There’s not a damn thing wrong with you, Brea. You’re hot, you’re sexy, and you can come just fine. But there was a lot wrong with those guys.”

Her heart swelled with emotions she knew she needed to bury deep. This was just sex. Really good sex, but just sex and nothing more. “Thank you. I see that now.”

He kissed her, and her toes curled. “Don’t thank me. Sex is always a joint effort. I got just as much out of it as you did.”

And then he did something totally unexpected. He pulled her against him and just held her, stroking her back and kissing her softly. He held her like that for the longest time, talking to her about mundane things, as if he was in no hurry, as if this wasn’t just about the sex.

Brea would have to guard her heart around Gage. He was truly someone . . . unexpected.

Finally, they dressed and started back to the ranch. Once in the barn, Brea helped Gage remove the saddles from the horses and return everything to the tack room. It was still early enough that everyone else hadn’t returned from town yet, which was good. She wasn’t in the mood to answer questions from her nosy sisters. She wanted time to settle in her room and think about the incredible night she’d shared with Gage.

“I guess I should head on back to the house.” She figured he’d want to get back to the bunkhouse before people started returning.

“Wait,” he said, turning the light off in the barn. “I’ll walk you back.”

Surprised, she waited, and was even more shocked when he slid his hand in hers as they walked the path back to the main house. He took her right to the front door, turned her in his arms and gave her a kiss that melted her to the wood porch.

“I had a great time tonight, Brea,” he said as he pulled away from her.

“Me, too.”

“Good night.” He stepped off the porch and headed to the bunkhouse.

Brea sighed and went inside, nearly floating up the stairs to her room. She took off her clothes, climbed into bed and shut off the light, staring out the window at the stars overhead and thinking about lying on that blanket with Gage.

It had been an incredible night. One they probably wouldn’t repeat. She felt a wistful ache all over at that thought. But at least she’d had this one night. It had changed her, had shown her that those guys before Gage were totally and completely full of shit.

Gage had shown her that.

And he was right. There wasn’t a damn thing wrong with her.

six

gage wiped the sweat from his face and handed the reins of the unruly stallion he’d been training over to Grizz, who grinned and spit a wad of tobacco juice out of the side of his mouth.

“That one’s gonna try to take a bite out of your ass,” Grizz said.

Gage looked back at the stallion. “Many have tried. He’ll come around to my way of thinking soon enough.”

Grizz just laughed and whistled for a couple extra hands to help him with the stubborn horse. Gage hopped over the rail and went to the cooler for a bottle of water. While bent down, he saw Brea coming out of the house with her sister Valerie. They were assisting John Dowring, one of the old-timers who had come to Valerie for medical care and needed some help getting back into his truck.

Once John had taken off, Valerie went back inside. Brea lingered for a few minutes, her gaze skirting over to the corral. Gage stood, smiled at her, and she grinned at him before heading back up the stairs and into the house.

She walked with her head held higher and a lightness to her step since they’d had their time together a couple nights ago. Unfortunately, since then, they hadn’t had any time alone together. Walker had brought in a new herd of horses that had kept Gage busy from sunup to sundown, and he hadn’t had time to do much more than just ogle Brea from afar whenever he caught a glimpse of her.

Which didn’t mean he wasn’t thinking about her. He had been ever since he dropped her off at her front door that night.

Brea wasn’t at all like the women he was used to. They were all pretty forward, and much more experienced. While he liked that just fine, there was something about Brea that was different. Her shyness around men was cute, her lack of experience endearing, but it was more than that. She was fresh and sweet and soft and had an innocence about her most of the girls he knew had lost around age sixteen or so.

But the other night he had a feeling he’d woken the sleeping tigress. And he wanted to explore that further. A lot further. Which meant getting some alone time with her, which wasn’t going to be easy on this ranch with all these people breathing down their necks.

Brea stepped outside again, this time with Jolene, who as usual was going someplace in a hurry. That woman could eat up a stretch of dirt with her long strides faster than a cheetah on the hunt. Brea raced to keep up with her sister, and Gage enjoyed the view of her quick-stepping it down the path toward the barn. He especially liked the back view of her fine ass in tight jeans.

He also noticed that despite nearly running to keep up with Jolene, Brea took a second to glance his way as they passed the corral. He tipped his hat and winked and even from across the fence he saw her cheeks turn pink.

“You’re wading in dangerous territory, my man.”

Walker had come up and laid his forearms across the top bar of the corral fence.

“Yeah? How do you figure?”

“Brea is one of the owners of the Bar M now.”

“So?”

“So her, Jolene and Valerie are our bosses.”

Walker always was a little too worried about that kind of thing. “Again, so?”

“You mess around with Brea and piss her off, your job is history.”

Gage shrugged and grabbed the rope hanging from the hook on the outside of the fence post. He climbed over the fence, then looked at Walker. “Wouldn’t be the first job I was fired from. I can always get another. Besides, it’s not in me to stay in one place too long anyway.”

Walker frowned. “Being fired over f**king a woman is a shitty reason to lose a job.”

Gage laughed. “You got that wrong, Walker. Being fired over f**king a woman is the best reason to lose a job.”

“good gravy, brea. pay attention.”

Brea turned her focus on Jolene and a couple of the other hands. How she had gotten roped into working the calves in the pen today was beyond her. She supposed she’d spent entirely too much time holed up in the house working on her computer. She knew she couldn’t hide from Jolene—or chores—forever. She had been helping Valerie, until Jolene dragged her outside and said since she was part owner she could damn well earn her share.

Not that she had considered herself an owner of the Bar M. She intended to put her time in because Jolene had insisted, but she had a life—and a job—in Tulsa. While it was true that she had a computer and could do her job pretty much anywhere there was an Internet connection, it didn’t mean she intended to do it on the ranch. This wasn’t home for her anymore. It was Jolene’s place. Okay, and now that Valerie had settled in with Mason again, she supposed the two sisters could split ownership of the ranch.

Brea’s life was computers and programming and books. Not horses and cattle.

Though one horseman sure had caught her interest.

She helped push the cattle down the chute and looked across the yard at Gage, who over the past few days had managed to sweet-talk one unruly stallion into doing what Gage wanted him to do. No small feat, considering the stallion had strongly objected to the bridle and bit and then the saddle.

But Gage had an infinite amount of patience and had worked diligently with the horse until the stallion had finally acquiesced and given up the fight. And all without a whip or any damage to the horse’s beautiful spirit, which still showed through when the stallion tossed his nose up in the air.

The way Gage broke a horse—or trained it—was one of the things she liked most about him. He always let the horse keep its dignity, but Gage made it clear he was the one in control.

“You know, Brea,” Jolene said, huffing and puffing as she managed cattle that didn’t want to be led where Jolene wanted them to go, “if you’d quit drooling over Gage and pay attention to what we’re doing here, we might be able to finish this job before midnight.”

She snapped back to Jolene. “What?” Realizing the cattle were trying to mutiny and head in the other direction, she wrested control back and started moving them again. “Sorry.”

“Uh huh.” Jolene closed the chute gate and leaned on it. “If you’re going to be useless, I’ll just call someone else over.”

Brea followed Jolene toward the opposite end of the corral. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

Jolene glared at her. “Physically, yeah. Mentally, not so sure. I think your mind is across the way, undressing Gage.”