Page 20 of This Time Around
Eight
Cooper
Hot water sluiced down my shoulders and my back.My hands were braced on the tiled wall in front of me, head bowed.I swiped water off my face, deep breathing to will my body to calm down.
I was a man, and despite all my rage at Camilla, I apparently wasn’t in enough pain to kill the desire flooding my veins.
Every day I spent with Rebecca was a day I grew more attracted to her.Two weeks, twelve hours a day if not more, working side-by-side made it increasingly difficult to hide that attraction.
I had never been around a woman like her.She was strong physically, doing more during the day on the ranch than I’d ever thought her capable based on her lean frame and stature alone.But it was more than her body, how lithely she moved, and how graceful she appeared while she moved cattle or strolled through the barn, or how comfortable she was on an ATV.
It was the serenity I felt being next to her and outside in the fresh air.I ended every day feeling more accomplished than I ever did on a day on set.
The cattle on this farm fed millions of people throughout the country every year.She did something meaningful, providing nutrition, and often at night when she was on the patio, in front of the fire with a glass of wine in hand, she was also perusing farming magazines, constantly learning about new approaches to farming or how to become more efficient.
The ranch and her land wasn’t just heritage, it was in her blood.It was her passion.
I had never seen a woman before so enthralled with something as simple as a hayfield as she was.I could watch her work for hours and never grow tired of it.
Working beside her was no longer about a summer away from the crap in my own life, it was growing on me.
Ridiculous.Two weeks working on a ranch and I was feeling like some homegrown cowboy.
I couldn’t deny my pull to Rebecca any longer than I could will my erection away as I stood in the shower.The damn thing had a mind of its own when it came to Rebecca, the flare of her hips, the curves of her chest, the small waist I’d had my hands on just once when she tripped over a branch.I’d caught her right before she stumbled to her knees but the searing heat from my hands on her, even through the flimsy material of her worn shirt, had stayed with me for hours until I was able to get back to my guesthouse and take care of my physical needs.
Much like I was trying to avoid doing now.
I wanted her.But there was no way in hell she was ready to get even an inkling of where my thoughts went when we were together.
I had to remember that she was someone I was helping for the summer courtesy of my damn agent.
Rebecca wasn’t the kind of woman a man used to slake his physical need.She was a woman to be treasured, cherished, and taken care of every day for the rest of her life.
That man would never be me.
But hell, if I couldn’t have her, I could at least imagine being with her.If I took care of my need now, I’d be able to hide it better later.
The last thing I needed was my attraction to her obvious while we were around her friend Brooke, the human lie detector.
Forgoing my self-control, I wrapped my hand around my length.Closing my eyes, I imagined Rebecca, even when I tried not to.She wormed her way into my fantasies and I didn’t bother kicking her out.
I pictured her thighs, trim and muscled, wrapped around my waist, her back pressed against the tiled wall, her hands digging into my shoulder as I moved inside of her.
I imagined all that long black hair of hers, tangled and twisted in my hand as I slammed my mouth to hers, kissing away her pleasured gasps until her heat slickened walls were clamping around me.
I held her tighter, held myself tighter, thrust into her in my fantasy at the same time I tightened the grip on my erection.I groaned out my release, slamming my hand against the tiled wall as I cursed myself for not being able to stop thinking about wanting to fuck Rebecca, and yet reveled in the way that at least in my fantasies, she wasso damn beautiful.
I flipped the spray of water toward my face and turned the water to ice cold.
“Shit.I am so screwed.”
“Max, what is this?”
I bit out the question while glaring at my laptop and gripping my phone so hard in my hand it might shatter.
Good news, I found something that could finally settle my erection.I just had to think of my soon to be ex-wife.
“I told her she didn’t want to do this when I caught wind of it, but she’s determined, Cooper.”
