Promises Keep (The Promise Series) (41 page)

The jar clattered as he dropped it to the table. She jumped as he brought his hand down on her buttock, the smack stinging pleasurably through the folds of her dress. Her breath caught for a totally different reason and she clutched his wrist to steady herself.

“My touch, however I want it,” he reminded her as he brought his hand up to cup her cheek, his fingers threading through her hair, his thumb coming to rest under her chin. With pressure on the base of her neck, he tilted her face up.

“Now, you want to tell me what subject you’re dancing around?”

“Not like this.”

“How not like this?”

She swallowed. “Looking at your face.”

He shook his head and strands of his hair fell forward, sliding against her breast, tickling the sensitive flesh. He backed her up four steps, until the top of her hips hit the edge of the big cherry kitchen table.

“Exactly like this.”

“Why?”

He shifted his grip to her waist and lifted her up. “Because I want it.”

She wiggled back onto the table only to look at him with surprise when he caught her by the thighs and brought her hips to teetering on the edge.

“Stay put and talk.”

“I can’t.”

“What?”

“Sit like this,” she finished in exasperation as she almost slipped off again. He held her steady.

There was a tight edge to his smile that had her pulse doing double time. “Spread your legs.”

She almost sobbed with frustration when the skirt hampered her movement. He reached to his waist and the big knife was moving in her direction again. She held as still as possible while he slit the skirt from hem to waist. She was vastly relieved when he left the waistband alone and just parted the material. His hands covered her thighs, his flesh dark against the white of hers. His thumbs dipped into the silky cream coating the soft inner flesh.

“Damn, you’re pretty.”

He wasn’t looking at her face, and again she marveled that he found her attractive. He looked up, caught her watching him and smiled. “Now, what did you want to say to me?”

He pulled her thighs wide and stepped between, allowing her to lean against his chest for support.

Just inches from her pussy, she could feel the heat of his cock. She balanced on the edge of the table, caught between the erotic promise of his touch and the embarrassing end to their conversation.

He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head back. Lord help her, but her pussy wept with pleasure at the small tingles radiating out from her scalp.

His eyes were dark with things she didn’t understand as he said, “Answer me.”

She struggled to find a way to say she was boring without actually spitting it out. “I’m probably not as bold as…some of your other women.”

“Ah.” He touched the inside of her thigh. She instinctively moved them wider.

“You’re worried I don’t find you exciting?”

She stared hard at his chin. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“I never do anything,” she whispered.

“You mean when we’re private?”

He unbuttoned the fly of his denims. His knuckles brushed the damp folds of her pussy as he worked his fly open. She couldn’t help the surge of her hips at the butterfly movement.

“Yes.”

“And you think that bores me?”

Her big eyes turned to his. “Don’t I?”

“Take my cock out.”

Cougar smiled as her lids dipped under the impact of the command. He loved the way she melted at the thought of his touch. There was that little hesitation followed by that erotic little shiver, then her hands obediently slid into his pants and gently pulled his cock free. Immediately, her fingers fluttered along his length in possessive caresses that brought a groan to his throat.

He held her hand on him, squeezing her fingers, unable to help the groan that slid past his control. Her gaze flew to his.

“It turns me hard as a rock,” he explained, “knowing that you’re waiting on my command, ready to give me what I want, when I want it, however I want it. That you get wet at the thought of me coming to you. That you trust me to give you what you need, no questions asked. I’ve never had that before.” He brought his mouth to hers, bit at her lips until she parted them, took her gasp and then speared his tongue straight into her mouth, plundering her depths, taking her taste as his. She tasted of tea and sweet, willing woman. He pulled back. “Trust me, Angel,” he rasped, trying to find breath to speak normally. “I intend to hold onto it as long as I can.”

She frowned up at him. “I told you I wouldn’t leave.”

He kissed her quickly. “I know.”

But that promise could only hold until the truth came out. He touched her cheek. “Now lean back on your elbows.”

She did. He knelt, draping her legs over his shoulders, staring up at her from between her spread thighs. She looked hungry, apprehensive and embarrassed all in one shot. “I want you to watch.”

She closed her eyes briefly and then asked breathlessly, “Couldn’t I just imagine what you’re doing?”

This close, her scent was intoxicating. He pressed a kiss to her left labia and then to the right, her shaved flesh soft as satin against his lips.

“No.”

“Oh.”

Such a soft, melting sound. And he knew she was melting. Against his lips, her pussy pulsed its pleasure with his presence there. Her juices coated his lips and tongue as he pressed past her outer lips and lapped at the smooth pink flesh within. He parted her with his fingers, rimming her vagina with his tongue, teasing the tiny opening, resisting the pressure of her calves on his back to increase the pressure. He owed her for this afternoon and payback was going to be a deliciously long, drawn out, pleasure-filled bitch.

He worked his way up to her clit, running his tongue over her smooth flesh in a zigzag pattern, slowing his approach as he neared, feeling her anticipation in the increased tension in her thighs. He heard her breath hitch as he parted her folds with his fingers, exposing her clit as it rose from its protective hood.

It was swollen and hard. He touched it with the tip of his tongue. An experimental flick to gauge the extent of her readiness. She jerked, and her pussy spasmed. Her juices spilled onto his fingers, her small scream telling him that she was at the edge. He didn’t make her wait this first time. He took her clit into his mouth and sucked lightly while rubbing his tongue around the small protuberance, first using the tip and then flattening his tongue for a broader, more encompassing caresses. He slid his finger into her pussy, fucking her with the same slow pulse of suction that he applied to her clit. Her inner muscles grabbed at his fingers, protesting his retreat, welcoming his return. Her calves wrapped around his head, dragging him closer as she worked her hips against his face. He tilted his face, whiskers catching and dragging on the slick flesh, the increased stimulation driving her higher, her movements punctuated with small breathless screams. When she was on the edge, one heartbeat from coming, he removed his fingers, removed his mouth, and unwrapped her legs from his shoulders. She stared at him mindlessly as he stood between her legs.

“And now for your punishment.”

He didn’t wait for concern to replace confusion. Instead, he lightly snapped the back of his hand against the swollen wet folds of her cunt. She gasped and her body jerked taut. He slapped her again, watching her carefully, increasing the strength behind the blow as she wiggled on the table, unable to get away or get closer. As her fingers clawed at the smooth wood, her panted pleas for release grew incoherent. He turned sideways and worked two fingers into her greedy pussy, fucking her hard and fast, in keeping with her hip’s silent demand. On the fourth thrust, he smacked her hard on her clit. Her scream was a high-pitched cry of satisfaction. The strength of her orgasm jerked her torso off the table. He caught her behind her neck, easing her back down, his fingers buried in her pussy, keeping her hips still for his attentions.

“Cougar,” she sighed as he worked his fingers in and out.

“At last, we’ve got that right,” he murmured, glancing up over her heaving chest at her flushed face. He kissed her stomach, working his way up her torso.

“As if I could forget,” she groaned, her inner muscles still spasming around his fingers.

He smiled at the grumpy edge to her voice. He lapped at the bead of sweat between her breasts, relishing the salty taste, the feel of her flesh against his, the way she gave herself to him.

“You took your punishment well,” he said as his face came even with hers. He caught the frown lingering in the pleasure of her expression. He pulled his fingers free of her pussy, added a third and then worked them back in. “Did you like it?”

Her lip slipped between her teeth and she shuddered around him before she answered self-consciously. “You know I did.”

He kissed one flushed cheek, and then the other. “But?”

“Should I have?”

“Oh yeah.”

He brushed her nose with his, shaking his head so his hair fell around them. “Open your mouth.”

She immediately fisted her hands in his hair and did as he asked. He slid his tongue between her lips once, twice, before asking, “Can you taste yourself on me? Can you taste how sweet you are to me?”

“Yes,” was a soft, embarrassed sigh. She pulled his hair as he chuckled and nibbled at her lips.

“I want to taste you, too,” she protested as his thumb slid up through her cleft until it rested on her clit, while his fingers worked lazily in the wet grip of her pussy.

“You had your turn this afternoon. This is my time.”

“That’s not fair,” she gasped, lurching as he raked her clit with his thumbnail.

“I’m not interested in fair.” He kissed the side of her neck. He loved the way her breath shuddered when he did that. “I’m more interested in hearing you scream.”

She tilted her head back, facilitating his exploration. “What about what I want?”

He nipped the cord between her shoulder and neck and then sucked the flesh into his mouth. He held it until she moaned and then let it go with a soft pop.

“I tell you what.” He kept his thumb on her clit while he increased the pace and force of his fingers in her pussy, letting the friction and pressure drive her passion. “You come for me five times in the next hour and I’ll give you anything you want.”

She arched her spine off the table. “Anything?” she groaned.

“Anything,” he promised as his lips settled over her straining nipples and he began to suck.

Chapter Twenty

When he’d agreed to anything, he’d been thinking along the lines of fucking, not standing in the middle of an unruly crowd listening to an Easterner preach about women’s rights. But, he’d been bound by his word, and when Mara had stated her want, he’d been helpless to deny her. Bringing Mara to Cheyenne and risking someone mentioning the Pleasure Emporium, and maybe his part in it, had not been in his plans for a long while yet. However, hogtied as he was by his word, he was stuck. Though he damned well was going to talk to Elizabeth about the subjects she brought up with his wife. He did not want Mara turning into a suffragist because of some misguided need to be in charge.

Anna Dickinson left her podium amidst cheers and heckles. None too soon, to Cougar’s way of thinking. The crowd was turning nasty. He reached for Mara’s arm just as she turned. Her nose collided with his chest. Stepping back, she rubbed the offended appendage, her eyes crossing as she checked for damage.

“Is what she said true?” she asked, holding her fingers to her nose.

“Depends what part you’re wondering on.”

“Is it true that if I leave you, my children, my property, and my money stay with you?”

“You’re not leaving me.”

“But if I wanted to, would it be true?”

Cougar didn’t answer as he saw a couple of wranglers to the right start throwing punches. He caught Mara’s arm and steered her away from the crowd. Crowds in Cheyenne had a habit of turning nasty in the blink of an eye. With the ammunition of that easterner Anna Dickinson’s speech, things looked like they were going to get out of hand very fast. Sure enough, the fight began to spread. He picked up his pace.

Some annoying tugging in his wake alerted Cougar to the fact that Mara was not trotting happily behind him. She was deliberately hanging back, presumably operating under the theory that ninety pounds of nothing was going to slow him down.

“Is it true?” Mara shouted over the lively discussions going on all around.

Keeping a firm grasp on her arm, Cougar raised his voice to a bellow. “I’ll discuss this with you someplace else. This could get nasty.” A meaningful glance around alerted Mara to the fact that several mean-looking types appeared ready to charge into a fight. The last thing she wanted was to be involved in violence. With a nod of her head, she indicated for Cougar to lead on. An unnecessary gesture, since he was already opening a path for her.

Mara expected Cougar to pause when they cleared the crowd, but he just kept going, his long legs eating up the distance with enviable ease. Panting and skipping, Mara struggled to keep up. All of a sudden, Cougar stopped.