I ran my hands over the fence rail. It was rough and weathered, scarred, like the soul of the man behind me, cursing as he worked on the Harley that had crapped out on us two hours earlier. I heard his spanner hit the ground and his feet crunch on the gravel as he walked toward me.

“Looks like we’re stuck here for the night, Love. My cell’s dead, and there’s no fucking way we’re hiking back into town tonight. I’d rather rough it here, and take our chances with the coyotes than get run over by some fuckwit as we try and make it in the dark …you game?” I felt his hands on my waist, then his arms slipped around me. They were strong and sure, so knowledgeable of my body, and he held me close, nuzzling under the hair that fell just past my shoulders until he reached the skin at the back of my neck. I shivered as his lips touched me there, trailing soft kisses from the nape out toward my shoulder. Was I game? Hell, yes. Where he was concerned, I was game for anything …any time, any place, any way he wanted me. He returned his hands to my waist and turned me to face him.

“Scared?” I shook my head. Not as long as he was there to protect me. According to my friends, I should be afraid of him …but they didn’t know him as I did. They didn’t know the man behind the tough facade, the man with the soul of an angel behind the angry, bad-boy face he gave to the world. What’s the line from that song …oh, yeah. “You give us a tantrum, and a know-it-all grin.”^* Yes, he did that, and probably always would, because it kept the world at arm’s length and thus far, his tantrums had kept them from finding out about me. While the rest of the world bemoaned his temper, I was grateful for it, possibly because it had never been directed at me. Thank God for that, because I wouldn’t want a blast of that magnitude within a thousand miles of wherever I might be.

“It’s going to be cold tonight …temp’s already dropping.” His arms were so tight around me now, keeping me warm, making me warmer.

“I’ll be fine …you’re doing a great job.” He laughed, that almost feminine giggle that I loved so much, and which was so out of character for a man of his size and bulk.

“Christ knows, I’m trying,” he laughed. Unfortunately, my stomach chose that moment to rumble with hunger, and his answered in kind. “I’ve got cheese crackers and water in the saddle bags.” His lips were nuzzling my neck again and suddenly, food was the last thing I was hungry for …and he knew it.

“Ummm, you got anything in those saddlebags that we can actually sleep on, or do we just pull up a chuck of dirt and hope for the best?” He took my hand, pulling me with him to the bike, and opened one of the saddlebags, tugging out a thermal blanket and what looked like an ancient Army blanket, and smiled at me.

“This good enough?” I nodded. Oh yeah, that was more than good enough. Still, I just had to rag on him a little; he’d probably have been disappointed if I hadn’t.

“Were you planning on getting stranded tonight, or is that just insurance that you carry with you for my benefit?” He gave me that slow lazy smile, the one he knew from experience was absolutely guaranteed to get him anywhere …and anything …he wanted.

“A bit of both, perhaps? Is it working?” Was he testing me? The man knew exactly how to get to me, and had since ten minutes after we’d met. I’d often thought I was the least challenging woman he’d ever met, and still couldn’t understand why he was still hanging around almost three years later. Perhaps he was still here because I didn’t treat him as everyone else did; to me, he was simply a man, the man I loved. And yes, it was working …it always did.

“All right, Cowboy. Show me what you’ve got,” knowing absolutely that he would. He tucked the blankets under one arm and walked toward a huge Texas Live Oak tree that stood perhaps fifty feet from the road …within easy sight distance of headlamps on high beam once it was dark, and turned to look at me.

“Coming?” He knew the answer to that, too, and the smile tugged at his lips again as I walked toward him. He shook open the Army blanket, and after kicking away a few small stones, spread it on the ground and held his hands out to me. I took them and he tugged me to the ground with him, his hands moving to my waist again, pulling me down and on top of himself as he lay back. His hands were twisted in my hair now, pulling my mouth to his. Oh, God, his mouth …hot, wet, searing a path to my soul as he kissed me, ramping my passion up to match his own. He was already rigid, his cock pushing hard against the fly of his black leather jeans, and he rolled, taking me with him, as his hands swept down my body and his tongue plundered my mouth, sucking, teasing me, then moved from my lips to my jaw, trailing fire in its wake down my neck toward my breasts.

Hands that were amazingly gentle for their huge size expertly unbuttoned my shirt, pushing it aside, as his lips sought and found my breasts, one hand going behind me to unsnap the hooks on my bra, freeing my breasts to his seeking lips. When he took my nipple in his mouth, I gasped, his gentle sucking sending jolts through my willing body, straight to my cunt, making me ready for him. My fingers found his belt and unbuckled it, the damned button initially unyielding, then cooperating and I unzipped his fly, freeing him to my hands. I stroked his length, pulling back the foreskin and caressing the tip, feeling the drop of moisture there, and heard him groan as his hands unzipped my jeans and slid them over my hips and down.

Stopping only long enough to pull off my boots and remove my jeans before toeing off his own boots as my hands tugged at his jeans, he stood and jerked them off followed by his t-shirt, kicking both aside as he lay full-length on top of me, crushing me beneath his weight. His long, probing fingers sought and found me already slick, wet, and he laughed softly. He knows me better than I know myself. His lips were on my throat again, and he knelt above me, nudging my knees farther apart, and then he was inside me, encasing himself hard and fast to my core, hilting himself completely. He lay there for a moment, not moving, as if waiting for a signal from me.

My hands went to his ass, pulling him in tighter, kissing his throat where I felt the pulse pounding beneath his skin, and he began to move, slowly at first, then faster as he rose on his elbows, looking down at me, his eyes glittering in the late afternoon sun, his smile so soft as I gave myself over completely to his body. I felt my climax approaching ….

“Yeah, Love, give it up, cum for me now,” and I did. I could no more have stopped it than turn the tides, and it came thundering through me like an approaching storm, shaking me violently at first, then leaving me rigid and tightly clenched around him before I relaxed. He was still within me for long moments, kissing my face, my neck, my breasts, then he began to move inside me again, this time with even stronger intention than before, bringing me swiftly back to that peak of ultimate sensation, leading me, carrying me with him, until the floodtide burst from us like a volcano, leaving us battered and panting on some primal sexual beach.

He moved off me, pulling me into his side as he lay back on the blanket, his arm tight around me, holding me close, the other behind his head cushioning it from the ground as I snuggled into his shoulder; we dozed for a while before the sound of a passing car roused us. I sat up, looking about and he sat up behind me, pulling me between his legs and back into his body. The sun was setting, casting long shadows through the trees, streaking the Heavens with colour.

“It’s beautiful,” I whispered, relaxing against him.

His voice rumbled in my ear as he pulled me back down again and into his embrace. “Sky blue and lavender.”

NOTES