Cowboy Up (Coming Home #3)

“Baby,” he breathes.

I lift my hips, moving one hand to his abs, the other wrapping around his thickness, moving my body until he’s kissing my entrance. I swirl the blunt tip around my wetness, moaning when he hits my clit. My head rolls while my body burns with need. Then I stop my hand and drop my hips, impaling myself on him. He shouts a deep grunt that turns into a low moan when I roll my hips again. We don’t look away from each other as I begin to move, both our mouths open. Our heavy breathing fills the room. He lets me drive as I take his body, using my legs to pull my hips up and drop down. Each time he hits that sweet spot deep inside of me, I feel myself growing wetter and wetter. I won’t last much longer.

Feeling it build, my body trembles. “Help me,” I beg, moaning when he takes my hips in his strong hands and starts lifting me, pulling me down, and thrusting up from the bottom. My cries turn wild when he quickens the pace. “I’m goin’ to come, honey,” I breathe, my vision getting hazy as fireworks start to explode behind my eyes. I clamp down on him and cry his name out, his own groan of completion echoing around us.

I fall to his chest, sucking in air as my body comes back to earth. His heart thumps wildly against my cheek and I smile.

“I would’ve put money on us makin’ another baby just now, but . . . seein’ that you took care of that weeks ago, I’ll just enjoy the practice.”

He jolts under me, the hands that had been roaming my back stopping, and I lift up to look at him. His eyes are wide, happy, and wet.

“You tellin’ me my baby is growin’ in there?”

“Yeah honey,” I sigh, tears slowly cascading down my face and landing on his chest.

“You tellin’ me I’m goin’ to get more beauty from you?”

I sniffle and nod.

“Linney, love,” he breathes, kissing me deep and quick.

“Are you happy?” I ask, knowing he is, but still worried about my handsome husband.

“God, yes.”

“Good, honey. I am too. So happy. Tate did a scan and said everything looks perfect.”

He frowns slightly. “Tate? Darlin’, how long have you known you were carryin’ my baby?”

I shift, making both of us groan from the connection we haven’t broken. “A few weeks. I didn’t . . . I, well, I wasn’t sure if it was a good time to tell you before now.”

His face gets soft and I know I don’t need to clarify. Three weeks ago, the day I found out I was pregnant again, Clayton took a call from his brother, and after he said hello, he didn’t speak again. Not during that call, or for hours and hours after. He ended his call, placed his phone on the counter, and walked out the back door. It wasn’t until four in the morning that he came back. I listened from our bed while he moved through the house, seeing his shadow enter Harlow’s room before coming into ours with her in his arms. He got into bed, made sure our girl was situated, and reached over to pull me into his chest.

With my daughter’s face close to mine, the heart of the most important man in both of our lives beating under us, he told me that his mother had passed away. I kept my mouth shut but tightened my arm over his body. He didn’t say anything else about it, just kissed my head, then Harlow’s, before all three of us went to sleep.

And until today, I hadn’t been sure how to tell him that I was pregnant because I wasn’t sure if he was handling his feelings over his mama.

“I understand why you didn’t tell me, but darlin’, you don’t need to worry. I didn’t have her in my life for a long time. I don’t miss her, haven’t in a long time.”

“You haven’t talked about it though, Clayton. I’ve been so worried about where your head’s been that I wasn’t sure if it was a good time to tell you about the baby.”

He tightens his hold on me, and his lips form a tiny smile. “I let her go that night. I left because I didn’t want her—even the thought of her—in our home with our daughter. The only thing I could think of, even now, is how anyone could walk away from their children. When I think of Harlow, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her. I’d die for her—you—and any children we have. When I think of my mama now, the only thing that goes through my mind is how thankful I am that, because of her inability to love her children, I know I’ll never be what she was. She didn’t have what it took to cowboy up and live each day for someone else. But I do.”

“I’ve been so worried.”

“I know, darlin’, but I wasn’t keepin’ it from you. I meant what I said: she doesn’t have a place under this roof.”

I nod, understanding what he’s saying. “Okay.”

“Okay.” His smile grows, teeth flashing, and the corners of his eyes crinkle. “You, Caroline Davis, are the best thing that happened to me.”

I rock my hips, my happiness mirroring his. “Ditto, honey, ditto.”

His hands move from my hips to my lower belly. “Just when I think I couldn’t love you more, you go and give me more beauty. Give me your mouth, baby, and let me love you slow this time so I can show you how much you givin’ me another baby means to me.”

I squeal as he flips us and moan when he starts slowly gliding his hard length in and out of my body. He takes his sweet time, not breaking the steady rhythm he’s built. His eyes hold mine and his lips part only a breath above mine. I’m surrounded by and filled with the man that owns me—heart and soul—as he loves me slow and steady. My heart pounds against my chest, calling out to his, and with his name leaving my lips on a whisper, I tumble over the edge. Clayton follows me not even a minute later, turning our bodies, keeping us connected, and wrapping his strong arms around me.

“Never dreamed that this existed. You fill me with so much, darlin’, that a lifetime will never be enough for me to repay that.”

“Far as I can tell, honey, it’s me who gets filled to the brim. I reckon if we both keep tryin’ to repay the other, there won’t be a day that passes where we aren’t ridin’ high.”

“I’ll love you forever and always, Linney.”

“And I’ll be lovin’ you right back forever and always, Clayton.”

- -

Fifteen years later

High on the hill located on the back end of Clayton and Caroline Davis’s property, there isn’t a face without a smile on it. The painful memories that used to haunt the three Davis children are a distant memory. Each in the arms of his or her spouse looks down from the gazebo that’s stood through six tornados over the years and only grown since the eldest Davis realized just how important this spot had become not just to his wife, but to his family, as their children run, laugh, and love. There hasn’t been a day that happiness didn’t sound from the Davis property for the past fifteen years.