Creamy skin covered with practical cotton underwear had him smiling. He liked her simple underwear. Showed she wasn’t interested in fooling around with the frilly stuff. A woman after his own heart.
But after those panties were on the floor with her jeans and boots, he was smiling for a whole different reason.
“I hate when you look like that,” she grumbled.
“Like what?” Red let his fingers trail down her center, pausing with every shiver of her body.
“Like right now. You look like a wolf stalking a helpless sheep.”
He did a quick roll that put Peyton on top. “Helpless, my ass.”
And with a wolfish grin of her own, Peyton took to her newfound advantage like a duck to water. She ripped at his shirt, shoving aside the material so fast he was sure he heard seams pop. But he’d have gladly torn the thing to shreds himself to help her once she put her mouth on his skin.
Her tongue traced around his belly button, then down the happy trail to his waistband. Then the pink tip darted under the elastic of his boxers and he nearly lost it.
“Jesus, Peyton. Take them off or just kill me already.”
She laughed, enjoying her power a little too much. “Anxious, cowboy?”
“Honey, I can’t think straight, I want you so much.”
Her eyes shifted to a dark, almost blue-black, color, and she tugged hard at his belt and the button of his jeans. While she finished undressing him, he reached into the bedside drawer for the box of condoms, tossing one onto his stomach. Before he could sit up to roll it on, she grabbed it and did the deed herself.
God, her hands around his cock, even with something so practical as protection, hammered him with sensations he needed to lock down if he was going to make this last longer than five seconds. He rolled once more so she was under him, then had the satisfaction of watching her eyes go glassy when he pushed into her, pulsed fully inside her.
When he didn’t move, didn’t set the pace, Peyton’s hands streaked up and down his back. “Red, I can’t wait. Don’t make me wait.”
Her small plea broke his need to take it slow, and he gave up all hope of lasting. He pulled back, pushed in again, and shuddered when she tightened around him. Jesus God, the woman could drive him crazy on every level.
He breathed her name as he thrust again and again. The satisfied sound of her climax barely had time to register in his mind before he fell over the cliff of completion himself.
The last thing he thought before they both drifted to sleep, with Peyton tucked firmly beside him, was that there was no way he would willingly give this up.
Hours later, Red kissed the top of Peyton’s head and opened the side door to the main house. “Good night.”
She smiled back up at him and bumped his arm with her shoulder. “You didn’t have to walk me back. This isn’t a date or anything.”
“No, not a date.” At least, none of his dates before had ever been so much fun. “But it’s still my job to make sure you get home safely.”
She rolled her eyes in the weak light, but the corners of her mouth twitched. Answering the temptation, he swooped down and kissed her once more, hard and fast. “Go to bed. Boss needs to be in top condition tomorrow.”
She rolled her eyes again, but scooted out of reach when he made a lunge for her. “You go to bed. My prize trainer needs to perform.” With a wink that left him a little dumbfounded—did Peyton really just wink?—she closed the door behind her, and he heard the dead bolt slide home.
Grinning like the fool he was, Red shoved his hands in his pockets and walked back across the dirt path toward his apartment. Somehow he managed to resist the urge to whistle. He couldn’t remember a time when he’d ever felt like things were going so right in his life. It wasn’t ideal, he admitted. Sneaking around like horny teenagers trying not to get caught by mom and dad wasn’t really how a man in his thirties wanted to handle his love life. But for the moment, it was what Peyton was comfortable with.
Eventually he could ease her into a more open relationship. But he knew it’d take some time. Pushing her would be a surefire way to have his ass kicked off the property pronto.
A movement, a shift of shadow, caught his eye and he turned toward the barn. Someone stood in the dark shade of the overhang of the side door that led to Arby’s office. Immediately the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Definitely not Beatrice, and not one of his guys either.
But it was definitely a man. A man Red shared DNA with. Before he could decide whether to try to sneak around the side and catch his father unaware or sprint full out at him, the shadow turned and ran in the opposite direction. Red ran after him, doing his best to make up for the head start, ready to tackle his father to the ground, but as the man rounded the corner of the workout arena, it was as if he disappeared into thin air.