Scraping her nails lightly down his chest, she kissed him with every ounce of passion inside her. The dips and swells of his chest spurred her need. She angled her head and flipped her tongue against his seductively.
“Mmm, Whiskey. You’re so eager.” He pinched her nipple with the perfect pressure, rolling it until she squirmed. Kissing a path over her jaw to the sensitive spot behind her ear, he tweaked her other nipple.
“We only have a short time. I’m due in a meeting.”
Lilly arched over him. Her hair tumbled around them, and he gathered it into a bundle on her nape. Yanking lightly, he forced her head back so he could place bites on her throat.
By the time he was done, she was wild to get him inside of her. She leaned back and rolled a condom into place in one deft movement.
Amusement crinkled the corners of his eyes. “You’re pretty damn good at that now.”
Her heartstrings tugged at the idea that she wouldn’t have this for much longer. She caught his hands and entwined their fingers as she sank slowly over his thick length.
They shared a hiss of pleasure as he filled her completely. His balls settled tight against her body, and she longed to let him pound her hard, to feel his power. But she couldn’t risk him pulling his shoulder or wrenching his knee.
He has to be in top shape to get back to his life.
Heat coiled in her belly as she began to move, rocking gently over his shaft and hurrying the pace as their need increased. His pupils blew wide with ecstasy. She clenched her inner muscles around him, and he groaned.
Working his hands over her breasts and belly, he hooked a pinky in her belly ring. His obsession with it would live in her mind forever. He’d spent countless hours staring at it, fondling it, and even licking it. She loved how sexy his distraction with the small bit of metal made her feel.
Pulling upward, she slid to the end of his cock. In a sharp thrust, she impaled herself on him again.
Soft squeaks left her. A knowing look crossed his face, and he plastered his hand over her mouth. She bit into his fingers, tasting his salty flesh. Recently, she’d been unable to withhold her sounds of bliss, and Juss had taken to squelching her noises with a hand.
Over his fingers, she met his gaze. Held it as she rubbed her pussy on him. The knot in her core tightened, and the heat increased. He throbbed within her, watching her ride him with an expression that seared her heart.
“Come on me. Take what you need.”
She whimpered behind his hand. He reached between their bodies with his free hand and stroked her clit. She moaned, juices spilling over him.
He squeezed his eyes shut as he pressed her clit into her body. The first pulsations made him open his eyes in a flash. Their gazes connected, and she tipped over the edge. Release slammed her.
Waves of lust overloaded her system. She cried out, and he pressed his fingers into her mouth to keep her from being heard. His muscles coiled under her, his cock throbbed, and suddenly heat bathed her.
As he came, she watched his features shift with a pleasure that was almost pain. For a long shuddering minute, she wished she could tell him what was in her heart as she came apart around his body.
She opened her mouth to release his fingers and collapsed forward into his arms. He hitched her against him, running his hand through the light perspiration coating her spine. With his rasping breaths in her ear and his cock still embedded in her, she was the happiest woman on Earth.
JUSS’S THROAT CLOSED off. Flexing his arms around Lilly’s curvy body, he held her more tightly. The need to get closer never left. If anything, it was increasing. And to think he’d believed he could get her out of his blood by having a few more rolls with her.
His plan had backfired in a big way. This sweet little woman had woven her way deep into his psyche.
No, this couldn’t happen. He was leaving tomorrow. Back home to his parents’ ranch for more recovery, and then onto the Tour once more. He’d be hundreds of miles away from Lilly and this place where he’d felt the first stirrings of his heart.
Sometimes when she looked at him, he thought he saw the strange feelings in his chest mirrored in her eyes, but he must be wrong.
For both of our sakes, let me be wrong.
The last thing he needed was a commitment. He was a whirlwind, blowing through towns with little time to think of anything but his performances. Lilly deserved a steady guy.
The mere thought of another man having her boiled Juss’s blood.
Fuck. In too deep.
Shifting Lilly to his side, he pulled his cock free.
“You’re getting stronger,” she murmured, face buried in the tangled sheets.
He smiled. After sex she was wiped out, lying immobile for several minutes. Juss liked to believe he did that to her. Then again it was dangerous if that was the case.
I can’t leave her heartbroken. What if she’s feeling more for me than sexual hunger?
“I’m much stronger.”
She cracked one eye open. “You’re ready to continue your recovery on your own.”
Was that a wobble he detected in her voice? No, it couldn’t be. Imagining emotions she didn’t feel for him wouldn’t do him any damn good.
He rolled off the bed and gained his feet with practiced ease. The wrap on his knee was much better to deal with than the splint. Lilly flipped onto her back to watch him dress.
Over the past few days, she’d grown increasingly more bold—lying in his bed nude and uncaring about the world outside this room. He figured if she were going to be fired for her behavior, it would have already happened. So apparently the staff and her boss weren’t going to put up a fight because she was sleeping with the cowboy in bed four.
Or this is one of the facilities my father supports
. His pa had a hand in anything that supported the rodeo. He had bits of money sunk into many ventures. Actually, the more Juss thought about it, the more he believed this had to be the case. No one would allow a staff member to sleep with a patient unless that patient happened to be the rodeo champ son of a man with deep pockets.
He shook it off. Whatever his pa’s interests, it didn’t affect him. But Lilly did.
“What happens when there’s a cowboy in bed five?” he asked, concentrating on stepping into his shorts.
“What?” She sat up.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of her waves skimming her golden shoulders. Need surged in his gut. “You know. If someone else you like comes in…”
She jumped off the bed, anger and hurt crossing her face. Her throat mottled red. “You think this happens all the time?”
“Well, no, I don’t. I just wondered if it might happen again.”
She whirled away and shoved her feet into her panties, then her pants, and finally threw on her shirt.
Remorse cut through him. He didn’t want to spend his last hours with her pissed off. Or maybe he did? If he shoved her away now, it might not hurt as bad when his time was up.
Her eyes shot sparks. The warm depths he’d come to love were almost indistinguishable from the cold. She pointed at his chest. “I don’t just go around sleeping with patients.”
He stared at her hand, wanting to enfold it in his but refraining. Touching her would only extend his pain.
Break it off clean right now.
“How dare you suggest that I do?” She stormed to the door, where she’d kicked off her shoes. With violent thrusts, she slammed her feet into the abandoned slip-ons.
“Lilly—”
She twisted the lock on the door and vanished through it. The heavy metal slab slammed after her. Juss stared at it, a lump of emotion choking him. Was that an official
Fuck-off, Juss
? Sounded like it to him. The moment reverberated through him, rotating in his mind until he hated himself as much as Lilly probably did.
With just a few words, he had hurt her deeply. It made their last two weeks seem cheap and unimportant, when that perception couldn’t be further from his perception of their time together.
Huffing out a sigh, he reached for his cell phone. As he flipped through his contacts looking for his friend Waylon, disgust rose in his chest. His phone was full of the names of girls he’d had short flings with. Buckle Bunnies, almost all of them. Did he want to allow Lilly to become one of them? He’d told her she was different. She was.
So why hadn’t he treated her differently?
He limped to the door and threw it open. At the desk, three people gaped at him as if he were a madman. He jammed his fingers through his hair, sending it into spikes.
“Where is she?”
The staff members knew exactly who he meant. The staff had linked the pair of them whether he’d admitted it to himself or not.
“She signed out,” Katie said.
“What?” He moved to the counter and leaned over it to peer at the wall where a calendar of all the staff members signed in and out. Lilly’s name was there in blue dry-erase marker, the loops of her L as perky as she was. Beside her name, in the OUT square, it said
Sick.
His stomach plummeted. Sick. Yeah, he was sick too—sick over what he’d said and done to hurt her.
“Give me her cell number.”
“We can’t do that,” the CNA named Ryan said.
“Yes. You. Can,” Juss said through clenched teeth.
Katie intervened. “I’m sorry, Mr. Rossie. She’ll be back tomorrow, I’m sure.”
“But I’m leaving tomorrow.”
Understanding lit Katie’s eyes. “If she calls in, I’ll tell her you’re asking for her. You could write her a note too.”
Juss’s heartbeat thundered in his ears. She was gone, and he had no idea how to get in touch with her. He could overturn the contents of the staff desk searching for Lilly’s personal information, but for her sake he needed to maintain control. He’d already caused enough trouble by jealously hoarding all her time, keeping her by him. She hadn’t complained once, but it wasn’t normal for her to leave—at least not in the time he’d been here.
He knew that now—just as he knew there wouldn’t be a cowboy in bed five who she gave a damn about.
Swallowing hard, he turned away from the desk and went back into his room. There he gathered up his few belongings into the duffel his ma had brought at the beginning of his stay.
He punched the numbers on his cell with a finger and called a cab company. He was set to go, checking out early. Without Lilly, this was an empty place.
Juss stood at the door, looking at the space where he’d lived an entire lifetime with his little physical therapy assistant. So many warm memories of dreams shared and late-night talks, their lovemaking, laughter, and banter. Some of the best times of his life.
Turning away, he left it all behind. He tried to tell himself that the stab in his heart was just sadness that he wouldn’t get a chance to tell her good-bye. But he couldn’t even conjure the energy to tell that lie.
Chapter Five
Lilly slowed as she passed room four. Knowing that Juss no longer graced the rehab center with his devilish good looks was damn depressing. Of course another bull rider had been brought in, but she didn’t have the heart to do more than smile as she passed his room. Katie had taken to the man like a horse to a saddle. All day and night she smiled.
Lilly knew how she felt. Falling for a badass cowboy was no good though.
When Lilly had come back to work, she’d been shocked to find Juss had left early. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she’d cleaned his room personally. Removing the hidden condoms, his tissue box, even his toothbrush had caused more distress than she’d ever known.
She feared she’d lost her heart. Forever. The time she’d spent in his arms had been the best of her life. Of course, it wasn’t all about sex with the hunk. It was mind-blowing and toe-curling, sure. But the quiet moments when they lay talking or holding hands meant as much if not more to her.
At least now weeks later, she was able to look at the room without tears flooding her eyes.
“Lilly.”
She walked past the staff desk on the way to fetch Mr. Seville some pain meds.
“Earth to Lilly.” Ryan, one of the senior assistants, waved a hand to get her attention. She glanced at him and stopped. Smiling tightly, she fought for a relaxed demeanor even when her heart ached.
“Wow, you’re in your own world today. Didn’t you hear me say that you have mail?”
“Mail? Why would I get mail here?”
Occasionally she received a thank-you note from a client, but that hadn’t happened for a while.
She accepted the small white envelope from Ryan and stared at the looping scrawl on the front. No return address, and she didn’t recognize the handwriting.
“Thanks, Ryan. Mr. Seville needs something for pain. Could you take care of it?”
“I’m on it.”
She smiled her thanks and turned toward the break room, slitting the envelope with a short nail as she did. By the time she reached the small, brightly lit room, she needed to sit down. Her knees sagged as if injected with jelly.
Juss.
She sank to a chair, head spinning.
An invitation.
To a charity ball.
In a dark, spiky hand, three words were scrawled.
Please come, Lilly.
She checked the date. Saturday. This Saturday!
It had been a horrible, Juss-less month. After the way they’d left things, she’d thought never to see him again let alone hear from him. And now to receive an invitation to a formal gala with the cowboy?
She shivered, nipples peaking. With her legs squeezed together, she fought her rising arousal even as her mind flipped through the contents of her closet. She owned scrubs, running pants, and a few pairs of jeans. One skirt and a sundress she sometimes threw on to go to the beach. But an elegant gown? Nope.
The other question was could she go through with it? After their argument, she’d stormed out of the rehab center, reeling with the thought that he believed she’d pick up with another cowboy when he left.
He’d walked away too, choosing to leave early rather than face her and apologize.
We’re both cowards.
But he’d sent the invitation. Wasn’t that a way of saying he was sorry?