Chapter Thirty-Five
THE WEIGHT OF MACK’S HEAVY body pressed my back into the soft earth beneath the blanket. His breath was sweet and his mouth insistent, the scratchy surface of his shaved upper lip giving me a thrill as it slid across the sensitive skin of my lips and neck. His hat tipped off and fell into the grass next to my head.
“What if someone sees us?” I asked, feeling his growing need pressing into my leg.
“No one’s out here except you, me, and the horses, and they don’t care what we do, so long as we let them eat in peace.” His lazy smile arrested my heart. “Just relax and let me love you.” He dipped his head down and kissed the hollow of my neck, pulling the neckline of my t-shirt down to expose my skin and kiss there too.
I closed my eyes and ran my fingers up and down his back, loving how the muscles bunched up and relaxed as he covered me in his affection. He was such a strong man. I felt safe with him. Turned on just at the thought of him.
“Do you like this?” he asked, nuzzling my ear and giving me chills.
“I like everything you do,” I said softly. “Everything feels amazing.”
He came back up to my face and kissed me on the mouth hard before pulling away. “Get up.”
“What?” The fog that had started to take over my conscious mind quickly dissipated, leaving me confused.
“Stand up and take your clothes off for me. Strip, sexy girl, I want to watch.”
I giggled. “Get out of town.” My face flamed at the idea of him seeing me in the broad daylight like that.
“No, I’m serious.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss against my lips, forcing them apart and pushing his hot tongue inside. My nipples went rock hard. I reached for him blindly as my eyes slid shut, but he pushed my hands gently to the side and pulled away. I opened my eyes and pouted.
“Nope. I want to see you naked,” he insisted. He sat up and bent his legs at the knees, letting one leg fall to the side and leaving the other upright so I had a perfect view of his jeans-encased crotch. He rested his forearms on his knees and winked at me, lifting his chin in a gesture of encouragement. “Go for it.”
“I want to see you naked,” I responded, challenging him with my grin.
“You first.” He moved his eyebrows up and down in a promise of future play.
I felt energized for some reason. Daring. I got up from the blanket and stood a couple paces away.
“What should I take off first?” My cheeks were still burning with embarrassment and anticipation, his focused, serious gaze causing a flush to come over my chest and neck too. He was so gorgeous, sitting there in his jeans and t-shirt, looking so carefree and oblivious to his charms. His hair was rumpled, curling around the edges from the heat and sweat. Keeping my hands off him took monumental effort.
“Shoes,” he ordered. “Take ‘em off.”
I kicked the ugly moccasins off and they went flying over his head.
He grinned. “Shirt off. Show me what you got.”
I pulled the t-shirt up from the bottom and let it slide down my arm to drop at my feet. An answering wetness started between my legs when he reached down and put his hand on his crotch, pulling at it a little and adjusting it. I’d never before been turned on by the idea of a man touching himself, but yep, it was happening now. Big time.
“Bra.” He dropped to his side on the blanket, one hand propping up his head and the other stroking the front of his jeans. The bulge underneath was impossible to miss.
I raised an eyebrow at his command. I thought for sure the shorts were going to be next. I shrugged. If he wanted to see me naked from the waist up, who was I to argue? Reaching behind me, I unclasped the only thing keeping my naked breasts from being exposed to the whole world. I’d never been without clothes in public before and I expected to hate it, but as the air touched my skin, I suddenly felt wild and free; like I was taking a risk and loving every minute of it.
“Jesus, you have a nice rack.”
I laughed. “A nice rack? Wow, that’s sexy. What am I, a deer?” It was kind of sexy, having my womanly parts referred to in such a man’s way. I reached up and put my hands underneath them, pushing them up a little and rubbing the last vestiges of heat away.
“Better stop doing that,” he said, his face going dark, his hand stilling its movements on his jeans. The muscles in his jaw tensed, and he looked like a lion considering whether to attack its prey.
My hands froze. “Why?” I asked the question, but I already knew the answer. I just wanted to hear him say what his expression was already telling me.
“Because I’m not done with the strip tease, but if you don’t quit doing that I’m going to tackle you.”
I couldn’t stop smiling. “Fine.” My hands fell to my hips. “What’s next?”
“Shorts. But turn around. I want to see that ass.”
I spun, losing my balance a little and giggling as I worked on the button and got my feet back under me. Once they were unzipped and on their way down, sliding over the roundest part of my rear end, I looked at him over my shoulder.
He was hypnotized, staring at me with his hand rubbing his crotch slowly. Maybe I should have been shocked at his blatant male behavior, but instead, I was turned-on beyond rational thought. To think that he was getting so turned on just by seeing my naked body was blowing my mind. I’d always gotten undressed in the dark, self-conscious about my flaws. Here with him in this bright meadow, I felt like the goddess of sex.
The shorts hit the ground at my feet and I stepped out of them.
I was facing away from him again, wearing nothing but my panties.
“What’s next?” I asked, my voice carrying out into the clearing in front of me.
I heard a rustling, and before I could react, he was behind me on his knees. His face was against my lower back, kissing me while he held onto my hips with his strong hands. My legs trembled as his thick fingers hooked into the top of my panties and slowly dragged them down.
“I want… I want…” I tried to use words to express my desires, but they wouldn’t collect in my head properly. Every time I attempted to form a coherent thought, he licked my skin and then kissed it - sometimes with a feathery lightness and other times with a strong suction that would leave a mark - leaving me senseless once again.
“What do you want, sexy girl?” He turned me around by the hips, forcing me to face him.
I looked down at his face, burying my hands in his hair at the sides of his head, running my fingers into the thick, sweaty, wavy mass. “I want … you.” My face was flushed with passion. Seeing him down there and fully dressed with nothing between his mouth and my naked lower body was enough to make me have a heart attack.
He moved closer, wrapping his arms around my backside and leaning in towards me. I gasped as his tongue touched my folds, going right inside without hesitation to sear me with its wet heat.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, looking down at his head, feeling it move under my hands as he worshipped my body. My legs shook and I went from holding on for pleasure to holding on for support. I would have fallen without his strong shoulders to keep me up.
I moaned as his tongue found my most sensitive places and my folds became swollen with need. Slick wetness gathered, prompting my desire to feel more of him between my legs. “Mack … please.”
He leaned back and spoke in a dangerous voice. “Lie down.”
My breath hitched as I realized things were about to get real. This is what my body needed … to feel him inside me, filling me, taking me on the ride that would end with me screaming and lost.
I gathered what was left of my wits and did as he said, walking around him to lie on the blanket. I reclined onto my back, my breasts relaxing down towards my ribs. I opened my legs and bent my knees a little, waiting to see what he would do. My hand moved to my folds where I touched the wetness he had caused.
He stood and pulled off his t-shirt in one quick move, revealing the rippling, lean muscles beneath. He didn’t say anything. He looked angry, but I knew it wasn’t that emotion that was going through his mind and heart as he stood before me. Passion looked a lot like darkness on him. It made my blood run hot.
His boots, socks, and pants came off next. That’s all he’d worn to our little picnic and now in the bright sunlight I was finally able to fully appreciate the man I’d married in all his muscled glory. Shadows from the curves of his muscles highlighted their dense structure. Even without the hard physical work he did on the ranch, he’d still have a body to die for, but with all that cattle management came a big payoff, and I felt like the luckiest girl in the world to be enjoying it right now.
And my luck didn’t stop at his totally built physique. His cock was a marvel too, its length and breadth something that shouldn’t have worked; how it was able to fit inside me was some kind of miracle. It stood out in front of him, making it perfectly clear what he wanted to do with me. I spread my legs a little farther and ran my fingertip over my *, making it burn with need.
“I like it when you do that,” he said, his voice husky.
“I like it better when you do it to me,” I said, never breaking eye contact with him.
He pulled a condom from his pants pocket and put it on. When he was finished, he walked over slowly, his hard length swaying with every step. Bending down, he grabbed my wrist, pulling it away from my wetness and moving it to a spot over my head.
“I’m going to make love to my wife now,” he said, his voice deep and soft, a sexy promise I was ready to beg him to keep.
A thrill ran through me to be called that word … wife … and to be promised that joy, even though it was wrong. Even though I shouldn’t have encouraged him to see me that way.
“We shouldn’t,” I said, one weak, last-ditch effort to help him let me go. I was so terrible at doing the right thing. My heart just wasn’t in it. I wanted it all; I wanted to have him for mine and live just for this moment for the rest of my life.
“Bullshit.” He let my hand go and angled his cock up to enter me, using his hand to guide it. Once in position, he put his hands on either side of me and stared deeply into my eyes.
I gasped when he entered me, my head falling to the side as the sensations washed over me and the anticipation of what was to come grew.
“Don’t look away,” he said. “Look at me.”
I turned my face to do as he demanded. His brilliant blue eyes bore into me, causing my heart to fill with overwhelming emotion. He moved inside me, slowly, in and out, all the while never looking away.
I closed my eyes, the passion growing.
“Open your eyes, Andie, look at me. I want to watch you come.”
I forced my lids up even though they wanted to shut out his beauty. I’d never watched a man make love to me, and it was too deep. Too much. Because it was Mack.
Tears welled up, even as the heat did too.
His rhythm picked up and my breasts bounced as his thrusts became more insistent, faster. He never broke eye contact with me, even though his face showed the extreme control he was exercising over his need. He was holding out for me, waiting so that I could come with him. I angled my hips up even more, taking him deeper.
I was mesmerized. He was branding my heart, showing me that he was going to love me whether I liked it or not and that I was his and no one else’s. I’d never had anyone insist on loving me before like this. Tears slipped out of my eyes and dripped down to my ears as the orgasm built. I was on the precipice of a big chasm, a place where I could easily get lost and never find my way out of.
“I love you, Andie Marks MacKenzie. I’m not letting you go.”
I sobbed, but still didn’t look away. Sweat dripped down from his neck and landed on my breasts, tickling my skin as it slid down to my ribs. I drew my legs up and moved my hands to his ass so I could push him deeper into me. I wanted to feel every last inch of him filling my need. I couldn’t help it. We were becoming one in that moment, and I didn’t want to miss any of it. This would be the one and only time I would have this in my life. No man could ever measure up to the standard that Mack set.
His expression became stormy. His eyebrows drew together and his lips pressed into a thin line. Sweat broke out on his forehead and dripped down his face and onto mine. He groaned, his body moving fast, his shaft getting thicker.
The sensation of being stretched and the smooth gliding into my core, combined with his intense concentration and words of love were too much. Too much for my body and too much for my soul.
The heat and fluttering sensations between my legs where our bodies were joined took over, leaving all my reticence, self-doubt, and worries behind. I clung to him as I screamed out his name, crying the entire time.
“Look at me!” he growled, going down on his elbows and grasping my head on either side in his huge hands. I was trapped in his life, his face just inches away.
“I can’t! I can’t!” I gasped out, my face contorting with the effort of managing sorrow and orgasm at the same time.
He crushed his lips to mine and then stiffened, his entire body going rigid for a second before he began pounding into me with short hard thrusts. His mouth became too hard against mine, forcing me to turn my head.
“Andie! Goddammit, Andie!” He was breathing against my face like a freight train as he came inside me.
Anything else he might have said didn’t register. I was too far gone to hear or say anything of substance; all I could do was feel. I was drowning. Love and pain and hope and loss mixed into one big maelstrom of emotion. “Mack!” I cried, hanging onto his back with every ounce of strength I had, bucking underneath him until I couldn’t take the sensations anymore. My cries turned into silent tears and I just let them fall.
He collapsed on top of me, suffocating me with his weight and distracting me from my sadness. When it got to the point where I had to struggle to breathe, he fell off to the side, pulling out of me abruptly. I reached over and slapped him gently on the face.
“What was that for?” he asked, reaching over to wipe the tears from my cheeks.
“That’s for leaving me and being so mean like that.”
He grabbed me as he rolled over onto his back, pulling me with him. I was lying on top of his chest, looking down at him and his passion-flushed face.
“You’re the one who’s leaving and being so mean, not me.”
I frowned, my heart stung by his words. “Don’t say that.” Leaving felt so wrong; it was killing me to imagine myself on a flight out of here.
“Stay.” He reached up and gently pushed a lock of hair out of my face. “At least for the picnic. I want you to meet the family before you go.”
The knowledge that he’d accepted my departure as a foregone conclusion hurt. The masochist in me wanted him to keep fighting for me to stay. I guess I hadn’t caused either of us enough pain yet.
I sighed. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Sure it is. What’s one more day going to do? Just stay. My grandma wants to meet you and my mom needs your help.”
I stared into his sneaky blue eyes, frowning at him. “Low blow, Mack.”
He shrugged, not smiling. “I’m going to use whatever tricks I have up my sleeve to keep you here.”
I sighed, not wanting to let him or his mom and grandma down. It was a great excuse to put off my heartbreak for one more day. “Fine. I’ll go to the picnic, but that’s it. After that, I have to go back.” What I was going to do when I got there was still an unknown. The only thing I did know was that I wouldn’t be getting married to Bradley. This little tryst in the meadow had solidified that decision in my mind.
Mack came off me with a push-up and stood, reaching for my hand.
I gave it to him and let him guide me to my feet. “What are we doing now?” I asked, falling against him as his arms wrapped loosely around my back.
He dipped down and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. “Now, we play tag.”
I frowned, going still, not sure I’d heard him correctly. “What?”
“You heard me.” He grinned and pushed me away from him, reaching around to smack me lightly on the butt cheek. “I’m It. Better run.”
I laughed for a second. “What are you talking about?” A tickling sensation started in my stomach as I pictured him taking me down by the heels.
One of his eyebrows went up in a devilish challenge. “Better run. If I catch you, you’re going to get thrown into the lake that’s just behind those trees. And I have to warn you … it’s pretty cold this time of year.”
A huge dose of adrenaline shot into my veins, and I took off running without a second glance at him. The horses lifted their heads as I zoomed by heedless of the snakes that might be waiting for me, only knowing I had to get away from the crazy man who was going to turn me into a human popsicle.
His pounding footsteps came up behind me, causing me to scream and laugh at the same time. Hysterical giggles bubbled up out of my chest and echoed around the clearing.
“Gotcha!” he shouted, grabbing my upper arm.
I twisted away and ran around him, shrieking again when I saw him go into a crouch, his muscles bunching up in preparation for attack.
“No, Mack! No!” I flew over the grass and flowers, my heart racing and my arms pumping.
“Yes!” he growled, hooking me around the waist from behind and lifting me up in his arms.
He strode across the meadow and into the trees with me in his arms, clamping down on me so hard, all I could do was struggle mutely, barely able to move my arms or legs.
“Please don’t throw me in,” I begged, mostly meaning it but partially thrilled with his caveman act. I was so used to being in charge in my life, this was an erotic twist in our relationship I hadn’t expected to like. But there was no denying that I was hoping his next move would be to drop me to the ground and do that thing that he does oh so well, all over again.
Shimmering bluish green water came into view and I pleaded with renewed vigor, imagining how cold it would feel against my hot skin. “Please, I’ll do anything. Please don’t put me in there, Mack. I hate cold water!”
He stopped abruptly. “You’ll do anything?”
I nodded without hesitation, my chest heaving. “Yes. Anything. Name it.”
“Stay. Stay for the picnic…”
I smiled. “I already said I’d stay.”
“…And let me sleep with you tonight. I want our last night to be spent in your bed, inside you.”
A shiver ran through me as I imagined his hard, hairy body next to mine in the small bed of his parents’ house, while we did things we shouldn’t be doing. I looked over at the lake and its cold, deep waters. The decision was a no-brainer.
“Fine. Deal.”
He dropped my legs and put his hands on either side of my face. “I knew I’d get you to see reason.” He kissed me passionately for several seconds before surprising me by turning me around to face a tree. “Now do me a favor and bend over.”
“Why, what are you going to do?” I held my breath waiting for his answer.
He leaned in and spoke softly next to my ear. “I’m going to f*ck you from behind.” He ran his hand up my spine from my rear end to my shoulder blades, pushing forward on my upper back.
A thrill shot through me like an electric shock, and I was instantly ready for him. I smiled, barely containing my excitement as I spread my legs and leaned over, grabbing the trunk of the tree. My breasts hung down, the cool air tickling their sensitive skin as my fingers dug into the rough, hard bark. His velvety hard length came up to touch my swollen place and he gripped one of my hips in his strong, warm hand.
I couldn’t stop moaning as he pulled my hips back and slid into me once again.