Forbidden Cowboy (Rocky Ridge Creek #1)

Chapter Nine

HOPE

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PURE ECSTASY.

Flames of passion rise through my entire body.

My head leans back against the wall. My eyes fall closed. His mouth is on me, making love to me with his tongue. My body is numb as his mouth makes me tingly inside. I clench fistfuls of the material of his T-shirt. His tongue laps me. I’m drowning in the most intense sensation. I never want it to end, but I’m close. My orgasm teases, just out of reach. He slides two fingers inside and pushes me over the edge.

“Oh yes, yes!” I clench my teeth tighter as fireworks explode inside me. I shudder and gasp, riding the wave of my climax. I’ve never been so in sync with a man before. I’ve never let a man take me in public, even if the door is locked. I’ve never wanted a man as much as I want Levi.

When I finally come down from the clouds, he’s standing with me, supporting, holding, and loving me.

“Hi.” His sultry voice ignites me again.

“Hi.” I tease him with a small kiss. I stroke his hardness. “There’s no way you can go back out there like this.”

He groans and leans his forehead against my breast. “You go out first. Give me a few minutes. I’m right behind you.”

“If you insist.” I slip away from him and collect my shorts and panties off the ground. With every movement I make, I can feel his eyes boring in my back.

I glance at him over my shoulder. His back is against the wall. His chest rises and falls in deep breaths. His hooded gaze never leaves me.

I climb onto the horse-drawn sleigh. It’s stored here until winter when local sleigh rides are an evening event.

I face him and drop my shorts and panties on the ground. I can’t believe how brave I feel, standing here with only my midriff T-shirt, exposed and vulnerable.

I grasp each side of the sleigh frame opening. “Or, I could take you for the ride of your life.”

“There’s the outgoing gal I remember.” He’s across the space in seconds, gathering me in his arms. “Tomorrow we go on a date. A proper date.” He says between kisses.

“Cross my heart.” The words barely make it out of the mass of kisses.

His jeans are off, and he sits on the sleigh. He pulls me onto his lap to straddle him. I sink onto him. His erection swells inside of me. He cups my ass. His thick fingers dig into my flesh. We rock back and forth, slowly at first. We’re still kissing and groping. I gasp when he squeezes my nipples between his index fingers and thumbs.

“Yes, baby, moan for me.” He caresses one breast and lowers his mouth to the other.

Then we’re rocking faster until he surges into me one last time. I cry out his name again, and he follows me over the edge this time.

We stay wrapped in each other’s arms longer than we should.

I draw designs on his shirt, wishing we’d shed it with his pants. “I wish we didn’t have to leave.”

He strokes my hair. “Soon enough. Today we convinced the town and our siblings. Tomorrow our parents.”

“And Jade and Hart,” I remind him.

“What will they say if we have our parents on board?”

I shrug. “Time will tell.”

He nudges me. “Let’s go finish what we started.”

After we’re dressed, we walk hand-in-hand through the town hall. I inwardly sulk when he releases my hand to open the door. But like he said, all in good time.

Outside, the laughter and calmness we’ve left have exploded into an argument. And at the head of the fight is Hart and Jade.

“Shit.” Levi breaks into a run.

“Jade!” I race behind him. Our backs bounce against each other as we step between my sister and his brother.

“Jade, please, stop.” I hold up my hands in her direction.

“Don’t, Jade, please stop me.” The nervous woman standing in front of the Fox staff is replaced by whatever fuels my sister when it comes to these Wildes. “This is why everyone took the day off? To slum with some Wildes?”

“Don’t get your pretty little skirt in a twist.” Hart’s calmly relayed insult turns Jade’s cheeks fire red.

“Egotistical asshole!”

“Jade!” I shout.

“Hey! Hey!” Levi’s stern shout lands on either side of us.

I can see the crowd taking sides, slowly shuffling behind his brothers or my sisters. We’re going backward, and my heart is sinking with every ticking second.

“You going to let your boyfriend talk to us like that?” Jade’s words hush the crowd. If it’s one thing Whisky Ridge Creek enjoys, it is gossip.

“Boyfriend?” Hart grits out. “What the hell is she talking about?”

Levi takes a step toward his brother. “Listen, Hart—”

Jade cuts in. “I guess Hart doesn’t know about all the sneaking around you two did growing up.”

The crowd gasps at the secret she divulges. A secret that doesn’t belong to her. My heart breaks at my sister’s betrayal in front of the entire town.

“A Wilde can’t date a Fox.” The shout comes from the Wildes crowd.

“Foxes don’t want to date Wildes!” Chants from both sides increase.

“Everyone, stop!” I shout. “We’ve spent the day having fun. It didn’t matter whose side you were on.” My pleas are ignored.

An open can of red paint soars from the Fox side and splats over the Wilde crowd. The strike ensues a full-on western brawl.

“You steal blueberries from our patch to make the pies you sell for a profit!”

“Your eggs aren’t grass-fed!”

“If you don’t cut down the tree on our fence line, I will!”

Some fight with words. Others run forward, fists swinging. Within minutes, the entire area is ransacked. Tent poles are kicked in half and ripped down. Chairs are tossed, and tables of food are overthrown.

Levi runs in the middle of throwing punches to separate people.

“Mrs. Miller, you liked the flowers, remember?” I try to break up the shouting matches, but there are too many, and I’m pulled in all different directions. We’re losing. It’s two of us against an entire town. I’m desperate to change a single person’s mind, but no one is open to anything other than fighting and arguing.

I smell the burning wood before I see the smoke billowing.

“No, no, no !” I shove my way through the crowds. I’m too late. Flaming fire licks the kissing booth from base to top. “We need water! The hose! Where’s the hose?”

Levi catches my arm. “It’s too late.”

“This can’t be how today ends.” I glance around the dust-up of conflict. The fire stops no one. “This can’t be how it ends.” The sentence repeats in my head like a broken tune.

Cold metal snaps against my wrist. My gaze flickers down to find handcuffs on my wrist.

“I warned you, Hope.” There’s no mistaking the irritation laced in the sheriff’s tone. “Hope Fox and Levi Wilde, you are both under arrest.”