Reece held up a hand. “It’s not Katie. She’s fine. Upstairs resting, as a matter of fact. Have a seat.”
Jake would have preferred to stand, but he looked at the serious expression on Reece’s face and dropped into the chair next to the desk. “Okay, what’s up? From the look on your face, nothing good.”
“I just got off the phone with Trish. She—”
“She called you?” Jake interrupted. “Why didn’t she call me? What’s wrong? What the hell?”
“Take a breath, will you? That’s exactly why she called me. She figured you’d freak. Besides, she knows my reach is longer than yours.”
“If there’s trouble, she’s damn right I would.” He made himself take a deep breath. “It must be pretty bad if she called you, so let me have it.”
“I gather you’re aware she’s been having trouble with one of the other barrel racers. A woman named…” He looked at his scratch pad. “Lily Kirklin.”
“That bitch. She’s been dogging Trish, telling her she knows she cheats on her times. Which as you know is a near impossibility.”
“I hear you. But apparently this Lily says she has proof on how Trish got the judges to rig her times.” He looked over at Jake. “It’s near impossible with the electronic ones although it can be done. But at the smaller rodeos, well, that’s another issue altogether.”
“Damn.” Jake banged his fist on the arm of the chair. “And if one result gets dirt thrown on it, they might suspend all the others. So what’s happened now?”
“Apparently, Lily Kirklin has filed an official complaint with the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association.”
“What?” Jake leaped out of the chair. “That’s—”
“Sit, I said.” Reece glared at him. “Wait for all the information. Okay, a meeting has been set in Colorado Springs for tomorrow afternoon. Trish just now got the notice. She was trying to make plane reservations and arrange for Misty to be boarded and her truck and gear to be stored while she’s gone.”
“Shit, Reece. They gave her less than twenty-four hours notice.”
“Apparently, this female put some pressure on some important people.” Reece’s mouth turned up in an evil grin. “We have important people, too.”
“What does that mean? I have to go to her. Listen, the bulls are in good shape. I can leave things set up—”
Reece held up his hand. “Stop. I made all the arrangements before I called you up here.”
“What arrangements?”
“First of all, I called an attorney I know in Colorado Springs. He’s going to meet with the two of you at the hotel where I reserved a room for you.” He handed Jake a slip of paper. “Secondly, I have someone doing some digging behind the scenes about this situation. He’ll report in to your attorney.”
Jake removed his hat and raked his fingers through his hair. His pulse was triphammering with anger, and he wanted more than anything to hold Trish in his arms. “Where is she?”
“She’s in Oklahoma. I called your old employer, and he’s getting someone to bring all her stuff down to his ranch. You go pack. I called the pilot who flies for us. He’ll get the ranch plane gassed and ready to go and will fly you to Colorado Springs with a detour to pick up Trish.”
Jake didn’t know what to say. “You’re kidding! You’d do this for me?”
“We’re friends, right? At least, I assume we are. That’s what friends do. Now, give me your radio and get your ass home and pack. One of the boys will pick you up in fifteen minutes and take you to the airport. I’m going to call Trish and tell her you’re on the way. And that you’ll call her on the road to the airport. Get going.”
Jake didn’t wait until he was on his way to the airport to call Trish. He pulled out his cell as he drove like a maniac on his way home to pack.
“I’m okay,” she tried to assure him.
But she didn’t sound okay. Far from it. In fact, she sounded scared shitless. This was her career they were dealing with. He wasn’t about to let anyone mess with it. She had called Reece and asked him to ask Jake to come there. She wanted
him!
He wanted to pump his fist in the air. But he knew what she wanted was his strength as a man, not as a Dom. She didn’t want him to ride in on a white charger. Besides, Reece had already put the white knight’s hat on his own head. Jake was just the cleanup squad.
“I know you are, darlin’. But I’m hoping you’ll be better as soon as I get there.”
“You know I will.” He heard the relief in her voice.
“Reece told you where the plane will pick you up?”
“Yes. And Jake? He’s done so much for me. I don’t know how I’ll repay him. Ever.”
“You’re a friend, Trish. And Reece told me that’s what friends do for friends.”
“Where are you now?” As brave as she was trying to be, he still heard the edge of fear in her voice.
“Almost home and ready to pack. I’ll see you before you know it. And Trish?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.” He disconnected before she could tell him not to say it. She’d better get used to it. He planned to say it a lot.
****
“I’m not sure I’ll ever stop shaking,” Trish said, flopping on the oversized king bed in their hotel room.
“Are you kidding? You should be jumping for joy,” Jake told her. “We’re going to celebrate.”
“I’m shaking from anger,” she told him. “I am so furious with that bitch I could kill her.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to.” Jake chuckled. “She’s got some pretty high-placed people angry enough with her. One of the committee members told me they plan to ban her from competition.”
“As they should.” Trish sat up. “Can you believe she slept with people to get them to lie about me?”
“You’ve got some very good friends on the circuit, Trish,” he pointed out. “It’s the only way she could beat you, and she knew it.” He pulled her into his arms. “But as far as I’m concerned, you’re unbeatable. You’ll always be a winner in my book.”
“I don’t think she expected people to actually dig past her lies,” Trish said.
“A lot of folks on the circuit admire you, sugar. People who discovered what Lily was doing and got the proof to give the rodeo association.”
“I’m so very grateful to them.”
“It’s no less than you deserve. Than you’ve earned.”
Trish blinked back the tears gathering in her eyes. This was Jake talking, Jake the man, not Jake the Dom. She was still amazed that he’d dropped everything and raced to her side to give her help and support. Throughout the entire miserable meeting, he’d been a solid presence at her side, an anchor. How had she managed to get so lucky? “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to properly thank you for everything.”
“Reece did most of it.” He gave a soft laugh. “Man, by the time I got up to his house, he had all the pieces in place and just told me to get my ass in gear.”
“But you came here to be with me. I won’t ever forget that, Jake.”
He brushed his mouth softly against hers. “Maybe you can find a way to properly reward me.”
“Do you have any suggestions?”
“I do. They start with you removing your clothes.” Heat danced in his eyes. “Now, girl.”
And just like that they were in D/s mode.
Trish took a step back and pulled her sweater over her head. Jake’s eyes fastened on the red lace bra she was wearing. He drew the tip of one finger across the upper swell of her breasts, then briefly pinched each nipple through the fabric. Hard.
“I love to pinch your nipples.” His voice had deepened. “They swell so nicely and turn such a gorgeous shade of dark pink. Must be why I brought a set of nipple clamps with me.”
Trish stared at him. “In the five minutes you said you took to pack, you bothered to grab nipple clamps?”
He nodded. “And a few other things. I knew we’d beat this, and I wanted us to celebrate properly. So you’d better get those clothes off. Now.”
“Yes, Sir.” She couldn’t help giving him an impish grin.
In less than a minute, she’d removed her boots and the rest of her clothes and stood naked before him, awaiting his next directions. He took a long moment to let his gaze roam over every bit of her, twirling his finger so she knew to turn in a circle for him. Anticipation skittered over her.
She watched as he opened his duffel and took out a small velvet bag. When he moved back to her, she saw the tiny gold nipple clamps in the palm of one hand.
“I wanted to put these on you since the first night we were together.” With great care he sucked each nipple into his mouth, nipping them with his teeth before he slid each one into a clamp and tightened the screws. The pain was instantaneous, and so intense, so pleasurable, her breath caught in her throat and the walls of her pussy throbbed. Jake took a moment to admire his handiwork, a hungry grin tilted the corners of his mouth. Then he reached into the duffel again.
This time he brought out the blue silk rope he’d used that first night at Rawhide. Only instead of beginning the intricate process of binding in a Shibari pattern, he fastened a large loop at one end, took a step back and whirled it over his head. While Trish was still figuring out what he was planning to do, he let it fly and it dropped neatly over her head. Pulling on the long length of silk, he tightened the loop so her arms were effectively pinned to her sides.
“I’ve lassoed horses and a lot of bulls,” he told her, gathering the rest of the rope in his hands. “I thought this time I’d rather lasso you.” He was standing directly in front of her. “You’re well and truly caught, girl. Keep that in mind.”
Her heart beat frantically at his words. Was there hidden meaning behind them? Did she want there to be? She stood there while he wound the silken cord around and around her until she was caged in it from her shoulders to her hands, almost no skin visible between the coils except her breasts. The silk was wound carefully around them in such a way as to compress the flesh around the nipples. She watched him carefully, wondering what he would do next as he stripped off his clothes and tossed them onto a chair.
Then he came to stand in front of her again. “We have some things to straighten out before we go any further. Pay attention.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I came here today not as your Dom but as a man who loves you. Could I know that so quickly, you might ask? Damn straight. I think I knew it even during those few seconds in Oklahoma. It is a blessing to me to find a woman I can love this way who also loves the D/s life as I do.”
She opened her mouth to say something but he pressed two fingers to her lips.
“Not yet. I’m not finished.” He scraped a fingernail over the tip of each painfully compressed nipple, the resulting erotic sensations cascading through her body. “I want you, Trish. And I love you. And I want us to find a way to work this out.”
Her mouth was suddenly dry as she realized she wanted this, too. She knew it the moment he stepped off the Halliday Ranch plane in Oklahoma when he fetched her, and she knew it even more when he gave her his strength and support during the dreadful hearing this afternoon. As they cabbed back to the hotel, she realized she wanted him for more than two weeks a year and a weekend here and there. It was a revelation to her that he wouldn’t try to control her except in the bedroom. That he would never ask her to stop competing, a profession that suddenly seemed less important to her than it had for so many years.
“I-I’ve been thinking about this,” she told him.
“You have?” He pulled the rope a little tighter. “And what have you been thinking?”
“Th-That I might take Liz Wright up on her offer to work for her. You know, training horses and riders for barrel racing.”
“Yeah, that’s right.
I recall she
mentioned it.”
Trish nodded. “She’s been after me for a long time.”
“You know,” he drawled. “You could still compete, only on a more limited basis. Just take the events that are really special.”
“You would be okay with that?”
He studied her face closely. “I don’t want to own you, Trish. I don’t want to do anything to kill that fiery spirit. That’s part of what I love. I just want some concessions here so we can be together.”
Trish felt suddenly as if a huge weight had been lifted from her. She wanted Jake, and she wanted to be with him. She had reached a point in her career where she could retire at the top. It was time to expand the other areas of her life, and Jake Keenan was the one she wanted to expand it with.
“Okay.” She grinned at him. “Let’s work it out.”
He tugged on the rope again, pulling her even closer. “Just remember, when that bedroom door closes, I’m in control.”
“That’s what I want.” Then she added in a mischievous tone, “Sir.”
“I think I’ll have to do something about that irreverent sass.”
Before she realized what he was doing he’d lifted her and placed her face down on the bed, hips at the edge of the mattress, legs spread wide. She was trying to wiggle herself into a more comfortable position when she felt the slap on her ass.
Crack!
The familiar heat suffused her thighs and her pussy.
“No moving. I have you just the way I want you.” His fingers probed between the lips of her cunt. “Soaked. Good, because I can’t wait to get my cock in you.”
She heard the crinkle of foil as he ripped open a condom and held her breath as she visualized him rolling it on. Then, with just one prod at her entrance, he thrust into her hard and deep.
“Get ready, girl,” he told her. “This is going to be a hard and fast ride.”
With her entire upper body contained by the ropes, every sensation was concentrated below her waist, except for the streaks of pain from her compressed nipples. He rode her hard and fast, showing her no mercy, and she loved every single moment of it. He read the signals of her body accurately, sensing exactly when she was riding the edge of release.
Reaching beneath her, he pinched her clit, hard, drove into her twice more and took them both over the cliff. Her body shook with spasms, her pussy clamped down on his pulsing cock again and again, and everything ceased to exist except for this mating of their bodies, the ultimate connection, and she gave herself over to it completely.
Trish had no idea how long they lay there, Jake leaning on her back with his arms braced on either side of her. Finally, he lifted a hand, brushed aside her sweat-dampened hair and placed a soft kiss on the nape of her neck.