Cowboy Up (Coming Home #3)

Then, her hand drops, but her smile grows.

“Oh my God,” she gasps, giggling a beat later, the ring forgotten as she points to where the horses are grazing, patiently waiting for us. “Dell . . . he’s all white, Clayton!” My fingers tighten when I feel her laughter in the walls of her pussy, still surrounding my cock. “You,” she snorts, unaware of what she’s doing to me. “How did I not see it before! You rode in on your white horse, knocked me on my butt, but saved me in the end. My knight in pressed flannel and Wranglers.”

“You’re a nut, darlin’.”

Her giggles multiply and I can’t help but join in. “I’m goin’ to make a whole section on hot, flannel-wearin’, white-knight cowboys when I get The Sequel back open. Just you wait.”

Her body rocks against mine as she continues to laugh softly, looking at our horses again with a tiny shake of her head. Unable to stand it anymore, I thrust my hips. Her giggle quickly turns into a whimper.

“I love you, Linney,” I tell her, giving her a few more thrusts.

Her soft brown eyes darken and her lips take on a smile that will forever be branded in my mind. The sun is still swirling around every inch of her as I look up from my spot on the ground. She’s never looked more beautiful than she does in this moment, joined with me as we start our forever.

“Never gonna stop lovin’ you, Caroline.”

Her breath hitches. “And I love you, Clayton. Always.”





22


CAROLINE


“Forever and Ever, Amen” by Randy Travis

- -

“I don’t want to wait,” I tell him, helping him pack up the rest of our lunch. He stops folding the blanket we finally climbed off of to actually eat the lunch I was cleaning up, but seeing the material in his arms against his naked chest makes me want him all over.

“Wait for what, darlin’?”

I place the last empty storage container into the basket before looking back at him. The rush of him loving me is still surging through my body and mingling with the euphoric high I’ve had since he knelt in front of me, making me feel as if I could take on the world and win it. And right now, becoming his wife is just as grand in my mind of owning the world would be.

“To become your wife,” I answer confidently. No more, not with him, will the shy Caroline Michaels hold back because of her insecurities.

His shoulders move in silent laughter. “What makes you think I’d want to wait?”

“That’s usually what happens, honey. Man asks woman, woman spends every waking moment planning her dream wedding until months of stress and preparation form the most perfect day that you’ll ever experience.”

His lips twitch before he smiles his heart-stopping grin. His green eyes squint as his smile grows. “Darlin’, you planning on takin’ that long?”

I shake my head. “Well, no.”

“How long you need?”

I tilt my head, thinking about it, but don’t get far before he starts laughing deeply. He tosses the blanket on top of the picnic basket a second before his arms are around me. The light peppering of hair against his rock-hard chest tickles my palms and I regret getting dressed before we ate when my nipples harden. I love the feel of his chest hair against my skin as he takes me.

“Linney?”

“Hmm?” I answer, rubbing my hands over him.

“How long do you need?”

“For what?” I lick my lips when I feel him grow harder, the length of him no match for the denim covering it.

“Baby.” He laughs.

I blink, looking from his chest to his face. “Don’t laugh at me, mister.”

“You loved me hard, Linney, then you still let me take you slow. My cock shouldn’t have anything left, but with you lookin’ at me like that it damn sure does. How about you answer me and I can get you home, in our bed, with my cock buried deep.”

I feel his words dance through my body, lighting a fire of need in their path, wetness dampening my panties.

“I forgot the question,” I tell him honestly, breathless for him.

“How much time,” he starts, pressing his mouth to mine quickly, lifting his head to smile down at me, “do you need to plan our weddin’?”

“None,” I hum, pressing myself closer and shifting my hands to glide over his skin until I’ve got a palm against each side of his neck and my face tipped up to look into his. “I don’t need any time, Clayton. I just need you.”

“Baby,” he responds thickly.

“I don’t want anything big, Clayton,” I say. “Your family, Lucy and Luke. That’s it, honey. I don’t want to wait weeks, months, years. We’ve both wasted too much time in our lives while we dealt with our ugly in order to find our beauty. I don’t need to continue to waste time now that it’s even more precious. I just want you. You and me and whatever blessings we find together.”

“You sure you don’t want somethin’ big?”

“Why, Clayton? You have your brother and sister, their families, and I have Lucy and Luke. There aren’t grandparents; my parents and yours didn’t have siblings. I don’t want the town turnin’ our weddin’ into somethin’ crazy because they’re just nosy. All we need is a small ceremony, our family together, and us.”

He drops his forehead to mine, smiling. “I like that, Linney.”

“I don’t want to wait,” I reiterate.

“Then don’t. I wouldn’t have asked you to be my wife if I wasn’t ready to make that happen. You aren’t the only one not wantin’ to wait, darlin’. I don’t want you lookin’ back and wishin’ you had some big weddin’ though either.”

“I would never.”

“Then, Caroline, don’t wait.”

“The whole town’s goin’ to think you knocked me up. They went crazy when news got out about us livin’ together, I can only imagine what they’ll think when they hear about us bein’ engaged.”

His eyes flash, something I don’t quite understand flickering there for only a second before vanishing. I feel his heart thundering against my chest as the silence continues. His throat bobbles when he swallows.

“Clayton?”

He clears his throat.

“I don’t want to rush you,” I finally say when it becomes clear he isn’t going to stop staring at me mutely. My words get his attention, but I keep going. “I’d marry you tomorrow, but I don’t want to rush you.”

“Tomorrow will still be longer than I care to wait.”

“What?”

“Caroline,” he breathes, “I’ve had that ring for damn near the whole time we’ve been together. I had you one night and it took everything inside of me to walk away. I might be a foolish man, but when I saw you at the girls’ baby shower, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to walk away a second time. Every single day since, I’ve been ready, and every day from this moment will feel like it’s not soon enough. Trust me when I say there isn’t a damn way to rush somethin’ that every second you don’t get it feels like a lifetime.”

“Oh,” I say lamely.

“Take the time you need to plan the weddin’ you want. Small, big, or in between. Just don’t take that much time, darlin’.”

“I won’t,” I mutter.