Shared By the Cowboys by Cassie Cole

19

Rebecca

I didn’t remember falling asleep. One moment I was jotting down notes for my book, and the next I was being woken by Mister Pam’s incessant crowing. My laptop was no longer on my lap, and I was sleeping on top of the covers.

I got dressed and went downstairs to breakfast. Mason was pouring coffee into a ceramic mug. “Morning, sleepyhead,” he drawled.

I leaned up on my tip-toes to kiss him. “Good morning.” And then, in a rush, I remembered why I had been trying to stay up last night. What we had intended to do.

“Oh no! I fell asleep!”

He smiled down at me. “Not a big deal.”

“It is a big deal! We got interrupted the other night, and I said I would come to your bedroom this time, and I fell right asleep while…”

“Ranching is tough work,” Mason said smoothly. “Don’t blame you for falling asleep. We’ll find the time to roll in the hay.”

I bit my lip. “What are you doing right now?”

“I was about to make breakfast, but…” His hazel eyes glinted with mischief.

“You collected the eggs yet?” Blake asked as he came into the kitchen. “I could go for some eggs.”

“Not yet.” I stepped away from Mason and poured myself a cup of coffee. Blake sat down at the table and kicked his boots up, watching us from under the brim of his black hat. Challenging us to be affectionate in front of him.

Mason gave me a look: maybe another time.

Doing my morning chores helped take my mind off things a little, but I still felt guilty about missing my time with Mason last night. It felt like ages since we had sex in the barn, and we hadn’t done anything else since then. It was like having a really great first date, and then not being able to align your schedules together afterward. I didn’t want the excitement from that first time to fade.

Once I had tended to the chickens and the garden, I walked out to the area where the crops had been planted. It was a big field full of yellowish, waist-high plants. Lentils on the left, field peas on the right.

I had spent an hour doing research on them last night, since the guys thought I had a degree in agriculture. I still didn’t know very much, but now I had a perfunctory amount of knowledge. I checked both crops, bending down to look at the pea pods hanging from the plants. The plants were yellow at the stem and the pods were brown, which meant they were nearly ripe.

After that, Cody and I worked with Wildfire for an hour. He allowed us to put the halter and bridle on without a fuss, but the saddle was another story. We got it on him by the end, but not without a fight.

Mason watched us from the fence. “Want to go for a ride? I could use some help checking on the herd.”

“Really?” I asked.

“You’ve been saying you’re good for more than just house chores. Now’s your chance to show me.”

Cody slapped me on the back. “Get to it, cowgirl.”

I grinned, then ran into the barn to get Beans ready. Then Mason and I trotted out onto the ranch property together.

The herd was about a mile away, gathered near the small lake. Most were clumped together on one side, but there were a bunch of stragglers off to the south.

“New ones like to wander,” Mason said. “Let’s go rustle them up.”

We rode down there and circled the cattle. They instinctively moved away from our horses and shouts, which allowed us to slowly guide them back to the herd. When Mason rode to the right, I took the left side. When he rode up ahead, I circled around to the right to keep the cattle from moving in that direction. It was like a choreographed dance between the two of us, and we grinned at each other whenever we rode past.

“Nicely done,” Mason said when the stragglers were back with the herd.

I beamed at the compliment. “Worked up an appetite. Head back and get some grub?”

“Got a better idea.”

Mason kicked his horse into a gallop. I followed him up to a copse of trees at the top of a hill. We dismounted and tied the horses up. Mason pulled a blanket out of his saddle bag. Wrapped up in the blanket were two sandwiches and a parcel of goat cheese wrapped in wax paper.

“Figured we’d have ourselves a picnic.” Mason laid the blanket on the ground.

“Well aren’t you sweet?”

“On occasion.”

We sat on the blanket and ate our sandwiches. From here we had a sprawling view of the valley below, with the herd of black cattle massed around the lake. The sun was warm and the breeze was pleasant and cool.

“It’s a gorgeous day,” I said while resting my head on his shoulder.

I felt Mason nod. “One of the last warm days we’ll have. Storm’s rolling in day after tomorrow, then a cold front.”

“I checked on the crops today. We should harvest the field peas and lentils a few days after it rains, once they have dried.”

“Good thinking.”

He wrapped an arm around me while we admired the view, then removed his hat and placed it on the ground next to us.

“Did I impress you today? With the herd?” I asked.

“Sure did. That’s, ah, not the only reason I invited you out here.”

I leaned back on my palms and looked at him. “Is that so?”

“Nobody to interrupt us out here.” He grinned down at me.

God, he’s handsome, I thought before he kissed me.

The delays and interruptions had caused our attraction to grow, and pure passion pinged between us the moment our lips touched. I tilted my head up and accepted him eagerly as we made out on the blanket. We were finally alone, finally away from all the distractions that got in our way.

Mason covered my body with his and lowered me to the blanket. His handsome face blocked out the sun as he kissed me, rugged and salty and full of all the lust he’d been holding in for the past few days, and the way he held me made me soaked with desire.

He broke away from our kiss so we could frantically undress. I reached for his shirt, eager to feel his warm skin against mine, but he stopped me.

“Relax,” he said.

“I was going to—”

He pushed me back down. “I said relax. Don’t worry about me.”

Mason removed my boots, then my jeans and panties. I pressed my legs together modestly underneath the blue Montana sky, and he pushed his mouth against mine to deepen our kiss. Then his breath whispered across my core as he slid lower, parting my legs with his cowboy kisses.

“Ohh.” I arched my back and moaned into the open air as he kissed my wet heat. His tongue flicked out and the tip brushed against my clit. Electricity filled my body as he began licking me, kissing me, eating me out on the blanket.

“Is this my reward for being a good cowgirl?” I breathed.

He glanced up at me with his caramel eyes. “This is your reward for being so damn sexy.” He bent back to the task, face obscured by a flop of hair as he made love to me with his mouth.

I relaxed underneath his touch and gazed up at the blue sky above me. A few tendrils of clouds drifted across the sky. Mason’s tongue moved faster, and I looked down between my legs again. The sight of his face buried between my legs, waves of brown hair moving back and forth slowly, was an image of pure bliss.

Mason slid one of his fingers up inside of me, then a second one. He twisted them back and forth while his tongue focused on my clit, and the combination drove me wild. I pushed my hips against him, grinding against his fingers while he pleasured me.

When the pleasure intensified and I could barely handle it, I grabbed a handful of his hair and held him against me. I arched my back and cried out to the sky, and since nobody was within hearing range I didn’t have to hold back.

Mason tugged off his boots and pants as I came down from my blissful ecstasy. I grabbed his shirt and pulled his mouth to mine so I could taste myself on him. I reached for his shaft, squeezing him and aiming him toward my waiting slit, and he sank into my wet heat like it was the only thing he’d wanted to do for days.

I was ready for him, had been thinking of nothing but him, and he gave me exactly what I needed. He pulled back, slammed into me fiercely, and then pulled back again. I slid my tongue into his mouth to taste him again, wrapping my legs around his body to urge him to go faster.

We kissed and fucked under the open sky, fast and hard and urgent for each other, until Mason grabbed my hip and buried himself as deep as he could. He cried out with lust and I felt his cock gush inside of me, a trembling spasm as he filled me with his come, until finally we both became still.

I ran my fingers through his hair, savoring the weight of his body against mine. The air was cool on our bare skin as he softened inside of me.

“About time we weren’t interrupted,” he rumbled, kissing my neck gently.

“It was worth the wait.”

He kissed my neck some more, then my shoulder. I closed my eyes and enjoyed his tenderness, until he abruptly paused.

“What’s wrong?”

“Either your tongue is really long, or someone else is licking my thigh.”

I gazed around him and saw one of the big, black cows standing over us. Its head was bent and it was eagerly licking Mason’s bare thigh.

“I didn’t know you cowboys were into that sort of thing,” I teased.

“We’re not!” he laughed and rolled off me. “They like the salt. Go on! Shoo!”

I giggled as he tried to pull his pants on while the cow continued licking his salty body.