I beat Emma up to the roof and had the cover off the hot tub, the water bubbling, the tiny white lights hanging from the pergola on, and the wine poured by the time she appeared, wearing a white terry cloth robe.
Her look of surprise might have rubbed me the wrong way before, but tonight … tonight I was seeing a different side of her.
“Cowboys can do romance too, Emma.”
Her eyebrows hit her hairline. “I didn’t know romance was part of the deal.”
I stepped forward, bringing us toe-to-toe, and wrapped my hand around the belt of the robe. “It is if you want it to be.”
She studied me, apparently seeing something that met her satisfaction, because she nodded. Her hands slipped beneath mine and she unknotted the belt. The sides of the robe fell open, revealing a turquoise bikini, with a tiny triangular top and tie bottoms. A smile stretched across my face.
“You are a good girl.”
Her shrug was not only endearing, it made her tits bounce deliciously. When her cheeks flushed, I held out a hand. She took it and climbed the stairs to the hot tub. Stepping carefully into the water, she sank beneath the surface until only her shoulders and the tops of her breasts were visible. I followed her in and settled on the bench diagonal to her. I grabbed the glasses of wine off the edge and started to shift closer, when her easy expression turned hard.
“You do this often? With your parade of women? It seems like a pretty practiced seduction scene.”
What the fuck? Practiced?
Her tone turned sharper when she added, “Do you do this often with Celeste?”
I set the wine glasses back on the edge of the hot tub with a clink. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“This.” She lifted her hands out of the water, droplets flying. “The wine, lights, and stars.”
I couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “The stars? I can’t take credit for those, sweetheart.”
“You know what I mean.”
She fought so hard to keep her expression stiff, but even Emma looked like she was about to laugh. I slid along the bench until my thigh touched hers. I reached up and brushed a lock of now damp hair from her face. “I’ve never cooked for a woman before tonight.” My tone was soft, almost like I’d use with a spooked horse.
“I thought you were cooking for yourself, not for me,” she replied.
“You think I’d really go to all that trouble for myself?”
She shrugged, and her breasts lifted out the water for a second before the frothing bubbles covered them again. My attention dropped—because I’m a red-blooded man, and all of the blood in my body was heading to my dick—before I lifted my eyes back to her face.
“And Celeste?” she asked.
All I could do was shake my head. “Celeste has never been part of the parade, as you called it. I know what she is—just a woman looking to get her hooks into a man. She’s only interested in me as the son of a wealthy ranch owner. Besides, I don’t know how you could you think, with you in this house, that I could ever look twice at her? You’re all I see, Emma. Doesn’t matter if I’m looking at you or not. You’re everywhere. All the time. Under my skin. In my blood.” I stroked my thumb over her cheek, still amazed at how fucking soft her skin was. “Like when I’m lying in bed at night, aching so fucking bad for relief because I swear I can feel you only a few feet down the hall. And when I wrap my hand around my cock and jack myself off until I come, it’s your name on my lips.”
Her mouth dropped open into a small O.
“That mouth of yours gives me ideas, Emma. Like how fucking good it’d feel to have your lips wrapped around my cock.”
Her pupils dilated and her breathing turned shallow. I assumed no one had ever been so blunt with her before. She’d have to get used to it, because I planned to tell her every filthy fucking thing I wanted to do to her.
I leaned in closer. “Do you like that, Emma? Do you like when I tell you what I want to do to you? Does it make you wet?”
She swallowed but didn’t respond.
That wouldn’t do at all.
“I expect an answer when I ask you a question, sweetheart.” I wasn’t sure when I’d decided that I wasn’t going to call her pet, like all of the others I’d taken, but something in me had switched over where this woman was concerned.
She nodded.
“Words, Emma.”
“Yes … yes, it makes me wet when you tell me you want my lips wrapped around your cock.”
Fuck. Me. “And it makes me hard as a fucking rock to hear you say that, sweetheart. Do you remember your safe word?”
“Pink,” she replied.
“Good girl. Do you remember when to use it?”