Tough and Tamed (Moon Ranch Book 1) Read online

  Zayden sighed heavily into her ear. “Why do you keep doing this to yourself? You’re worth more.”

  Without words for her own defense, she could only burn about her choices. But she could fix that. Starting now, she was turning her back on assholes.

  “Where are you right now?” Zayden asked.

  “Ronaldos.”

  “Meet me at the Pub Pizza again, but don’t go inside—wait for me in the parking lot. I’m coming.”

  Like last time, Zayden ended the call without even a goodbye. She cradled her phone and stared at it. He was…coming? To meet her?

  For a moment, she had no idea what to do. Call him back and tell him not to bother? What if she really wanted to see him, though?

  Whether she met him or not, she definitely needed to get away from this place, before her date realized she wasn’t coming back and came looking for her. At least the man lived out of town and he didn’t use the credit union for his finances, so she never had to set eyes on him again.

  It was time to put that man in her past, and she couldn’t peal out faster. She started her car and stepped on the gas, tearing out of the parking lot of the restaurant, and headed to the Pub Pizza.

  When she reached the place, she parked and sat in the dark, waiting for Zayden to pull in.

  What would she say to him?

  Only a few minutes later, her heart clenched to see the old truck bumping into the lot. He parked beside her and climbed out. Even in the dark, the sight of his sexy body made hers fire on all cylinders.

  She reached for the door handle, but he slid into her passenger seat. Huge, gorgeous, sucking all the air out of the car and raising her internal temperature about a hundred degrees.

  He raked his gaze over her, taking in her hair and face, then working down the coat she’d thrown on and landing on her legs in her skirt and pantyhose.

  “Bad date?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “So you called to tell me about yet another asshole treating you bad.”

  She dropped her head. “When you put it that way, I sound like more of an idiot than I already feel like.”

  He made a noise, low in his throat. Slowly, he reached out and cupped her face. The strength and warmth of his hand made her burn for more of his touch.

  “You go out with these jackasses and then call me when it all goes wrong. Are you seeing a pattern?”

  She didn’t realize she had been doing that, but she couldn’t deny she’d used Zayden.

  “You pick all the wrong guys,” he stated.

  She shivered as he ran the pad of his thumb across her lips.

  His voice sounded rough. “Let me show you how it’s done.” His low words smeared across her soul, and she felt herself leaning toward him.

  He lowered his head in increments, his gaze latched to her lips. She wet them, and he growled.

  “You don’t want to get mixed up with me,” he said.

  “It’s just for sex.”

  When his crooked grin hit his handsome face, she laughed, low.

  “It’s not the worst decision I’ve made tonight to take you home with me.” She tipped her face up to his, almost begging for his hard lips on hers.

  “Am I sensing some revenge sex here? If that’s the case, I’m your guy. I can show these assholes what they’ve lost.” Zayden moved in, a breath away from nuzzling her just like she wanted.

  Her heart slammed against her chest, and she could barely drag in a full breath, especially with him filling the car with his masculine scent.

  She nodded, rubbing her nose against his. “Maybe.”

  “Then let’s do it right, sweetheart.” Suddenly, he released her, and she slumped in her seat, panting with want. “Drive.”

  * * * * *

  Thank God that Esme’s house wasn’t far, because he was hard as steel and aching to glide into that curvy body of hers.

  When he’d gotten the call from her, he’d been sitting in the dark living room, fantasizing about having her beneath him anyway. So fate brought them together, and now there was no stopping him from showing Esme just how she deserved to feel with a man.

  God, her thighs drove him nuts. He had ten visions of parting them and diving into that dark shadow between them before she pulled up in front of her house.

  He got out and shot around the car before she completely gained her feet. He grabbed her under the round globes of her ass and lifted her against him.

  She moaned, and their mouths connected. He thrust his tongue between her soft warm lips gathering more of her sweetness, all before he kicked her car door shut.

  “Take me to bed, cowboy,” she murmured against his lips.

  He bit into her plump lower lip and tugged. “Hang on to me.”

  She slid her arms around his neck, and he lifted her. She hooked her thighs around his hips as he walked to the front door. Her skirt rode up, and the liquid heat from her center bumped against his erection with every excruciatingly slow step.

  Need created a harsh blast of flames, and she fumbled with the key and front door before they stumbled inside.

  They took one look at each other, and it was game on.

  She started tearing at his shirt buttons, and he held the curves of her ass in his hands, kneading her soft globes as he captured her mouth again. This time, she kissed him back with all the fervor he needed to get him harder than he’d ever been in his life.

  Her cool fingers found skin where she’d opened his shirt, and she explored his pec. When her fingertip brushed his nipple, he groaned and let her slide down his body till her feet hit the floor.

  She kicked off her high heels, dropping her a few inches in height. The glow of her eyes displayed unmistakable desire.

  His hands hovered over her—and in one swift jerk, he ripped the red coat off her. It crumpled at their feet.

  “Zayden…” It came as a soft plea.

  “Fuck yeah.” He lashed an arm around her middle and yanked her off her feet again, carrying her a few steps to the sofa in the middle of the room. They collapsed to it in a tangle of tongues. He tugged her skirt all the way over her hips so it became a wad of fabric around her waist. Under her pantyhose, he discovered she wore a nude-colored thong, and he almost lost it.

  Esme finished with his shirt buttons so the garment hung all the way open, and she leaned back to look at him. Her gaze traveled over his chest to his abs and downward to encompass the bulge in his jeans.

  His cock throbbed.

  Reaching for her hair, he pulled whatever pins held the wild mass in place. All he wanted were the unruly curls brushing his skin when he sank his dick inside her.

  She moved in for another kiss, gliding her hands in the open flaps of his shirt and removing it from his shoulders. He bracketed her face with his hands and angled her where he wanted for the deepest, dirtiest kiss ever.

  God, the woman was a wild one, and he was barely holding back from flipping her over and plunging into her.

  He grabbed her hair in one fist and twisted his mouth free of hers to latch it onto her throat. She cried out. He sucked lightly and released her again, moving down the column scented by perfume, to her collarbone. He kissed along it and then jerked her top over her head.

  Her curls bounced. Her breasts bounced. And he had to get her completely naked—now.

  As this thought hit, she went for his belt buckle, and the girl knew how to undress a man, her touch tormenting him to the point of blowing. When her fingertips brushed his fly, he put an end to her teasing.

  He tossed her back on the sofa, and she grinned.

  “How do I get this skirt off?”

  “There’s a zipper on the back,” she panted.

  “Fuck.” He flipped her face-down, and she shook with giggles as he worked the cloth back down from her waist, over her hips, and then unzipped it and ripped the garment from her body.

  He paused to look at her. In only a bra and that sexy thong, with her pantyhose still intact, the view from the back
was something to see.

  She turned her face from the couch cushion to look at him. “You perving on me, Zayden?”

  “Oh yeah. You have no idea how hot your ass looks in those pantyhose.” He delivered a slap to her backside.

  She squealed and flipped over. She wiped her hair away from her cheeks, eyes burning up into his and a grin on her beautiful face.

  He braced his elbows on the narrow sofa around her and leaned in to claim her mouth. Soft cries escaped her as she explored his body with her fluttery touch. Need blasted like dynamite through him, and he felt his balls draw up in preparation.

  “Don’t make me beg,” she whispered between long passes of his tongue over hers.

  He flashed a grin. “I never do anything halfway.” He popped the clasp of her bra, freeing her round tits.

  * * * * *

  Her nipples throbbed beneath his stare, and she arched upward, urging him to take one of the needy buds into his mouth—between his teeth…anything to ease this ache inside her.

  For what felt like a full minute, he skated his gaze over her, drinking in her face, her hair, her breasts and lower to her thong, now soaked with desire.

  She looked at him too. She’d never seen such a beautiful man outside of photos. He was carved in all the right places, his abs ridged to his belt that hung open.

  Urging him to suck her nipples, she cupped her breasts together in offering. She’d never been so wanton, but there wasn’t anything to lose, and Zayden was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

  When he groaned and lapped at one of her straining buds, she focused on the scalding feel of his tongue.

  “Hold them just like that for me. Hell, you’re delicious.” He licked her nipple again and again, then moved to the other. This one he took in the heat of his mouth, and she bucked with a cry.

  He grazed his teeth over the tip and nibbled before releasing it and turning to the other for the same attention. She flung her head back and succumbed to sensation. His mouth moving over her breasts, sucking and biting her into a frenzy, was just what she needed to feel like a desirable woman... To feel alive.

  As he raised his head, she clasped his nape and realized somewhere in the flurry of stripping each other, he’d lost his hat. The longish strands of his hair felt soft under her fingers, and she twisted them, dragging him back down to her breasts again.

  “You haven’t been kissed this way in a long time, have you, sweetheart?”

  She shook her head, but he wasn’t paying attention, because he moved lower on her body. Between her breasts, he placed a line of kisses all the way to her navel.

  He dragged his rough, angular jaw over her skin till it prickled. But when he hooked his fingers in her pantyhose and eased them from her body with exquisite and mind-blowing slowness, her chest heaved for air.

  His eyes bore into hers. “Ready for this?”

  “For what?” Her voice wasn’t her own.

  “For the best pussy eating you’ve ever had in your life?”

  Dear. God. Yes.

  The next second, her pussy was bared, her thong shredded right off her body.

  Zayden ducked his head to her pulsating center and parted his lips over her pussy. She shook in the grasp of his hands on her hips. As he slipped his warm, wet tongue over her seam and circled her clit, she spread her legs wide and cried out.

  When he said the best pussy eating she ever had in her life, he meant it. The man should win an award. He should… he should… She sucked in sharply… keep going.

  Each flip of his tongue through her drenched folds caused her to spike higher and higher. The need to have him filling her made her inner walls clench. He dragged his tongue down through her slick heat to her opening. He circled it once and then dived in.

  With his hands on her thighs, pressing them wider apart, she gave him full access by lifting her ass off the sofa. Hell, she’d serve herself up with a side of blow job as long as he got her to the blissful finale.

  Her thighs shook, and he poured attention into his task, coaxing more cries from her lips that soon became guttural moans. He tongue-lashed her channel, somehow finding a spot that tipped the scales even more harshly toward the end in sight.

  Grinding her hips, she pushed her pussy into his face and begged for the pleasure he was so good at giving. He opened his mouth wide, resting his upper lip on her bundle of nerves as he tongued her.

  “Oh my God,” she squeaked, no air left in her lungs.

  He rumbled against her soaking flesh, and it was all over. Her orgasm hit hard, with a blinding explosion she couldn’t see or think through.

  * * * * *

  While she pulsated on his tongue, he gathered her sweet juices and allowed himself a moment of need so fucking strong and powerful that he didn’t know how to harness it.

  He savored her another moment, teasing her before lifting his mouth from her drenched core.

  Jesus, one look at her splayed wide for him and he was tearing open his jeans, shoving them down his hips. He kicked off his boots and shimmied out of everything before realizing he needed a condom.

  With a growl of impatience, he located one in his wallet. He shoved it to the base of his erection and hovered over her, looking into her eyes.

  Her hair created a cloud around her face, her eyes big and hazed with passion. Her lips swollen, bitten even.

  Hell, she was begging him with those green eyes of hers, and how could he resist?

  He fucking couldn’t, and there was no reason to.

  In one hard jerk, he filled her with his cock. Her slippery heat enveloped him, and he closed his eyes on a growl. The points of her nails dug into his shoulders, and he covered her with his body, mouth moving with hers as he withdrew nice and slow.

  Her breath hitched. He was about to shatter.

  Since that first night on the mountain when she’d been in his arms, he’d wanted her. Then again when she’d ground her ass against him on the dancefloor. Just having her beside him in the truck that day he’d picked her up on her way to an appointment had been a battle of wills to keep from touching her.

  The call tonight sent him over the edge and he knew there was no use in holding back—there was an animal fire between them, and he had to have a taste or die trying.

  He buried himself again, balls deep. She wrapped her arms around him tighter, moving with his every thrust as they galloped too damn fast toward the finish line.

  Taking a woman this way was outside his norm. He usually got in and out just to satisfy his needs. But when she curled around him, mouth to his ear, and shook with her next orgasm, he floundered through some turbulent waters of the unknown.

  She was fun and easy to talk to. Sexy as hell and even naughty enough at times to make him want to see more. So much more…

  His release rushed up, tearing through him till his cock erupted with a harsh blow that stole his breath. He buried his face in her sweet neck and churned his hips through the ecstasy.

  The haze went on for what felt like an hour. Dammit.

  He rolled off the couch with her onto the floor, and she giggled as she curled up in his arms. Her hair pooled over his chest and shoulder, and he closed his eyes at the soft feel. Gently, she traced a fingertip over his pecs and down his abs.

  When she shifted, he flexed his arm to hold her in place.

  That couldn’t be good—the first step toward getting far too wrapped up, something he’d sworn not to do.

  He and relationships were fire and gasoline. His upbringing ensured he was a fucked-up mess for whatever woman tried to get him to commit, and engaging in late-night sex and living fast and loose were his style.

  He may have enjoyed giving Esme enough pleasure to curl her hair tighter, but she didn’t need another jerk in her life.

  She came to me. She called me.

  He liked being the hero in her life, the man she needed when feeling low, and that scared the hell out of him. The messed-up thinking was probably yet another byproduct of his childh
ood. He played the role of the fixer—always had. She called, and he ran to her when he should have walked away. Instead, he’d stripped her and fucked her good.

  When she rolled atop him, plastering all those damp curves to his body, he sucked in a deep breath. He was already starting to lose his mind a second time.

  She smiled, the soft bow of her lips accompanied by an undeniable warmth in her eyes. “I think you did it, Zayden.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Exorcised my demons. After that, I can’t even remember my exes’ names.”

  He rumbled a laugh and stroked her spine. She shivered in the wake of his touch, and he couldn’t stop himself from brushing a kiss over her lips. For now, he wouldn’t overthink things. He had a naked woman sprawled atop him, and he wouldn’t waste the opportunity.

  “I have more condoms,” she whispered in his ear. “In my bedroom.”

  In a flash, he lifted her in his arms bridal style and moved through her dark house to find that bed.

  Chapter Eight

  Monday afternoon at work, Esme still couldn’t shake her brain back down from the cloud that Zayden put it on. She had to count her money drawer twice to correct her error, and it was all the sexy cowboy’s fault.

  The man had done more than give her the best sex of her life—he’d burrowed into her psyche, and she could hardly think of anything but him.

  After doing his best to use up every last condom in her nightstand drawer, he’d chosen to leave her in the middle of the night. Though she’d been deprived of sleeping in his arms like she had on the mountain, he’d departed in the best possible way. Leaning over her, kissing her softly, telling her to get some rest and he’d text her in the morning, which he had.

  He’d said all the right things too, leaving them on the best terms, even if they never slept together again. Now, days later, she still burned from the feel of his hands on her flesh, and she wasn’t even upset that he hadn’t texted again since the morning after.

  “Esme, did you hear about the position opening up?”

  She looked up at Natalie, hoping she didn’t see any residual lust there from her Friday romp.

  “What position? Who’s leaving?”