Big Easy (Cowboy Craze) Read online

  “Just the best swimming hole in the world. A totally unique spot where crystal clear water rumbles over glass smooth pink granite. You can wade, swim, or tube. Have you ever been tubing?”

  “No.” Jewel clung to his arm, basking in his warmth and attention.

  “Oh, girl! You’ve missed out. We’re going to have to quickly remedy this horrible deficit.” He leaned over and kissed her brow. “Tubing is when you get into a slow-moving body of water with an inflated rubber innertube surrounding you. The idea is to drape yourself over the tube and let it carry you along on the current. I’ve spent so many hours tubing the lazy rivers of the Hill Country. If you added all the hours and miles together, I’ve probably drifted around the world. Wiggling my toes in the water. Hell, my latest donut-shaped wonder came equipped with drink holders.”

  Jewel rested her head on his shoulder. “I’d love to do that with you.”

  “It’s a date.” He rubbed his face on her hair. “We’ll have to wait until we go to Packsaddle. These waters are way too snaky.”

  “Agreed.” She sighed happily. “I do so enjoy spending time like this with you.”

  “Me too.”

  “You’re just so…different than I imagined.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nicer. Sweet. Attentive.”

  “Hmmm.” He picked up her hair to kiss her collarbone. “You’re easy to be sweet to.”

  Jewel giggled. “Am I? Why?”

  As he trailed kisses over her soft skin, he considered his answer. “You fascinate me. You draw me. I feel like a bee returning to the same flower over and over…” Easy nipped the tender flesh of her neck. “Because I’m so addicted to you, I can’t stand to be apart from you for very long.”

  “Oh.” Her heart hammered as he found her lips, drinking from them like they were the source of precious nectar.

  “Can I have you, treasure? Right here? Now?” he asked between kisses.

  All Jewel could say was… “Please.”

  Anxious to feel her skin to skin, he removed her clothes, then his, using them to make a soft pallet on which she could rest. Once she was bare to his gaze, he feasted his eyes on her perfect curves, her skin so creamy it appeared to be sculpted marble in the moonlight. “God, I love your body.”

  Jewel almost fainted at the sheer ecstasy of being held by him, his strong arms cradling her close. “I love yours too.” She ran her palms up his chest, kneading the muscles she found there. A full-body shudder radiated through him. With a groan of agonized pleasure, he dipped his head and kissed her.

  With no hint of resistance, she seemed to melt against him – her mouth, her body, pressing their softness to him. The unequivocal surrender pushed everything but hunger from his thoughts. All he could do was want, seizing the moment and holding her tight. Careful not to crush her, Easy covered her body, holding himself aloft on forearms and knees. This way, he could touch her, rub against her, tease her to the point she craved him as much as he craved her. Moving his body against her, Easy let her feel enough of his weight to tantalize, enough of his cock so she’d know how crazy she made him. He closed his eyes as the sensual contact of their bodies intoxicated him. She was so soft where he was hard – the contrast shook his control. “Like that?” He ground against her. The added pressure made his erection throb intensely enough to hurt.

  “I love it,” she whispered. I love you, her mind added as her body stiffened at the unexpected epiphany. Easy didn’t seem to notice, he just held her gaze as he lowered his lips to hers.

  His blood blazing with passion, he drove deep into her mouth, hungry to taste, claim. When he captured her tongue to suckle, Jewel cooed like a startled turtledove. He felt his head spinning at the thrill of her holding him, clinging to him. Sliding his mouth from hers, he nipped her neck, her shoulder, the upper swell of her breast. God, he wanted to eat her alive.

  Again, he kissed her hard, deep, working his mouth over hers until she whimpered. All the time, he scrubbed against her, his cock strutted with desire. “Hold me,” he ordered in a harsh whisper and he was gratified when her nails pricked the sensitive skin of his nape. “Fuck me,” he growled as a bolt of lust speared his loins. “Do you want me?” Lifting off her a fraction, he ran a hand between them to the softness between her thighs. To his gratification, she was slick and warm, completely prepared for him. “Oh, yea, you’re ready for me, aren’t you?”

  “Always,” she moaned as he moved down her body, spreading her legs. “Please, Easy,” she begged as he fit his wide shoulders between her thighs and began to feast on her pussy. “Please…” She arched her back and reveled in his perfect attention until another need overwhelmed her. Moving one hand to caress his hair, she beckoned him, “I love what you’re doing, but I need more.” By the light of the Louisiana moon, she could see his face as he lifted his head to gaze into her eyes. “I need you inside me, Easy.”

  Placing one last kiss to her clit, he rose. “You read my mind, psychic.”

  As if in response to his teasing, she garnered a glimpse into his mind’s eyes, seeing herself as he did. She gasped at the way he saw her – truly beauty lay in the eyes of the beholder. For a split second, she allowed herself to become one with his thoughts, his emotions. What she felt stole her breath. Desire. Tenderness. Hunger. Adoration. She was amazed to find Easy wanted her beyond words.

  Aching to give him what he needed, she wrapped her legs around his hips, then closed her hand around his thick shaft to tuck the wide head of him close to her opening. “I ache so much. Help me.”

  “What you do to me.” Rising over her, Easy used the light of the full moon to look his fill. “God, you’re gorgeous.” Her breasts were beautiful. Soft, creamy mounds, topped with rosy pink nipples. Bending to her, he held himself up as he drew one delicious tip into his mouth and began to suck.

  Jewel’s response was instantaneous. She moaned, clasping his head. “Oh, I love when you do that.”

  While attending to one breast, he cupped the other, tweaking the nipple as he sucked. Her throaty whimpers did it for him.

  “So, so good.”

  Easy agreed. This was fucking amazing. Burying his face in her tits, he nuzzled the valley between them, licking the globes and lapping at her nipples.

  “Need you,” she whispered and her request was music to his ears.

  “I’ll make it good. Promise.” Holding his cock in his hand, he rubbed the tip between her slippery folds.

  “Now, I can’t wait!” she demanded. “Please, Easy.”

  “I’m here, baby.” Lining up his cock to her opening once more, he began to push in. “Oh, fuck me,” he groaned. “This feels so good.” Easy reveled in the welcome he received. “Heaven.” Pure heaven. She was perfect. Snug. Warm. Wet. He held himself over her, pulling out and pushing back, finding the perfect rhythm. He was in awe at the way she tightened around him as he filled her. She wasn’t just accepting his attention; she was relishing it. Her hands came to his chest and she gripped his shoulders, moving her hips in tandem with his. Easy moaned at the ecstasy of his cock sliding in and out of her wet heat – in and out, over and over. Harder. Faster. The more he gave, the more she seemed to want. As he fucked her deep, she ground against him, seeming to seek the perfect friction she longed for.

  A desperate sound escaped his lips as he rolled his hips, pressing deep enough to touch her womb. “Fuck, you feel so good.” Fitting his mouth to hers, he kissed her with increasing desperation as he flexed his hips, filling her up again and again.

  Jewel plastered herself to him, loving how his stubble scored her chin, and how his big chest heaved so hard, creating a mind-blowing friction against her nipples. All the time he was pumping inside of her, his fingertips gently traced the features of her face, conveying both a gentleness and a possessiveness that drove her hormones crazy.

  “More. More.” She held him as he surged forward, pounding her, owning her. His possession gave her untold pleasure, but even more than that, it wa
s the closeness to him she loved. Being one. Feeling him inside of her, tremors passing through her body. Jewel licked a path up his neck, taking a nip of his flesh, wishing she could press this moment between the pages of her mind forever. “Give me everything, Easy.”

  “Oh, damn, yea,” he whispered as the blood rushing to his cock heated to the boiling point. Bliss. This was pure fuckin’ bliss. Being with a woman who mattered. Craving to please her. Why had he limited himself? Why had he starved himself of this mind-blowing intimacy? As he moved in her body, as she moaned and sighed – as the sound of their bodies joining filled the air – Easy knew the answer.

  He’d been waiting for her.

  Without a doubt, this woman was under his skin, inside his bones. For the first time he looked forward to holding someone through the night – the same someone through many nights. Hell, he craved the feel of her skin against his so much he couldn’t think straight. Give her everything?

  Not a problem.

  Holding himself over her, he pulled his throbbing flesh from where it longed to stay and rammed it back into the hot perfection of her pussy. Repeatedly. Soon, she was shaking and writhing in his arms as he plowed into her, his hips hammering. Every muscle in his body tensed and prepared for their impending release. “Is this what you wanted?”

  “Want it all.”

  “Ah, sugar, you slay me.” He buried himself to the hilt as feelings he couldn’t define swept over him. He wanted to please her. Fulfill her. Give her exactly what she needed. Threading his fingers in her hair, he fucked her even harder. Deeper. Circling his hips as he feathered kisses over her face.

  “Yes,” she gasped, her fingers digging into his shoulders as he fucked her. “You’re exactly what I need.”

  Teetering on the brink of a mind-bending orgasm, he lifted her legs, tilting her hips until the center of her pleasure was rubbing against his rock-hard flesh. “Easy, my God!” she panted, canting her hips as she rocked against him, celebrating the perfect sublime bliss she was feeling. “How…”

  “Take it. Take what I can give you,” he grunted the words, his head spinning with the pressure to maintain control until he’d wrung every bit of pleasure from her that he could. Easy wanted her to need him. Only him. With this objective in mind, he pumped between her thighs – thrusting and pounding – until she was screaming his name.

  “Easy!” Jewel felt euphoria saturate her being. She was standing on the edge of the world, about to dive off into the sea of pleasurable oblivion. “My God, Easy…” She scored his back with her fingernails, burying her face against his chest as her whole body jerked with one incredible spasm after another.

  When her pussy clamped down on his dick like a velvet covered fist, Easy lost his grip on reality. He held her tight, moving his hips in a circle, grinding against her as an avalanche of rapture began to rock him from head to toe. “Oh, treasure, my treasure.” He burrowed his face into the curve of her neck and bit the soft flesh he found there. Pleasure coursed through him in immeasurable, incalculable waves. Bolts of heat spiked from his cock, to his balls, and up his spine. He gave her the last few strokes they needed, fucking her with an intense abandon until a full-body shudder shook him to the core. Jets of passion rushed from him, filling her to the brim.

  With a moan, he collapsed on top of her. The moment he realized what he’d done, he tried to move – but she wouldn’t let him.

  “Stay.” Jewel cradled him to her, loving the full measure of his weight. “Feel safe.”

  He didn’t move, only propping himself up so as not to crush her. “Now that was the perfect end to a not so perfect day.”

  She kissed his chest, looking up into his eyes. “Just what we needed.”

  Easy felt his heart swell in his chest as he kissed her lips. “You are just what I need.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “Hurry back,” Jewel muttered as she cuddled under the covers. “I’m sleepy. You’ve worn me out.”

  After their rendezvous on the dock, they’d made love again in the shower. “Glad to be of service, love.” He kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll be quick.”

  “Tomorrow I’ll do a washer of your clothes. K?”

  “That’d be great, sweetheart.” As Easy left the bedroom, he grabbed his keys off the dresser. All he needed to do was gather clothes for the next day. Soon, he’d have everything he owned at Jewel’s.

  After leaving her house, he made the short trek across the yard to Hazel’s house. He’d no sooner let himself in that he heard a noise. Stopping short, he listened. The house was probably settling. Flipping on a light, he stopped a second to allow his eyes to adjust. Once they did, he couldn’t help but notice that the table containing the chessboard was now sitting in the center of the living room. Instead of scaring Easy, this amused him. “Trying to tell me something, Cotton?” Obviously, for the past few days, he’d neglected their game. “Okay, let’s see what you did?”

  Stepping over to see what move had been made, Easy could see he was being outplayed. “Hey, no fair. I think you’re cheating.”

  At his pronouncement, there was another distinctive bump in the house.

  “Is that you, Cotton?” Easy called, thinking he might be right. “I hear you. I’ll take my turn, then I gotta go.” Bending close, he ascertained his best move and made it. “If you get lonely, why don’t you come spend the night over at Jewel’s? I’m sure she wouldn’t care.” He hoped not, seeing he was being so free with the invitation.

  After returning the table to its proper place next to the hearth, Easy set off for his room for a fresh change of clothes. Crossing the threshold, he flipped on the overhead light and moved to the dresser to fetch a pair of jeans, underwear, and socks. Next, he turned to the closet to select a shirt. As he closed the door, Easy caught a movement out of the corner of his eye.

  The curtain moved just slightly.

  His first thought was that he’d left the window open. To be sure, he started in that direction. He’d gone no more than three steps before the heavy drape of fabric moved and a dark figure came rushing out holding something over his head. Easy only had a second to recognize the intruder’s weapon of choice was a stone fleur de lis that had sat gathering dust on top of the armoire. “Find what you were looking for?” Easy asked as he met his attacker head on. Feeling no fear, he launched himself at the man, holding one hand high to counter the threatened blow. He could take this guy no problem. “You’re going down, asshole.”

  Having the size advantage, Easy wrestled the man to the ground. Taking hold of the heavy statue, he wrested it away from his assailant and was about to tear off the ski mask when he felt an arm go around his neck in a chokehold. Dammit! There were two of the bastards.

  Easy fought valiantly, striking out at the man he still held partially pinned to the floor, even as he tore at the limb attempting to choke the breath from his body. When the vise around his neck tightened, he was forced to use both hands to prize the iron band from his neck. The moment he lost his grip on the man beneath him, the would-be burglar managed to reclaim the stone sculpture and was about to bring it down on Easy’s head when…the whole room lit up with an unearthly glow. The jerk attempting to throttle him threw his hands in the air and screamed at the sight of Cotton materializing in their presence. Taking advantage of the distraction, Easy blocked the blow, stood, and dragged his opponent to his feet. Holding onto him was another matter, for he was as mesmerized by the supernatural spectacle unfolding before them as his partner seemed to be.

  Easy’s intention was to detain the pair long enough to phone the police, but when they caught sight of Cotton’s translucent form rushing them, his mouth agape, his arms extended as if to grab them – the frightened duo tore down the stairs and out the door, yelling at the top of their lungs. This didn’t stop Easy from following them, but by the time he made it to the porch, he could hear a vehicle start up a few hundred feet down the road. “Well, hell.”

  Returning inside, he dialed 9-1-1 to
report the crime, then began to check out the house room by room. As far as he could tell, nothing was missing. While he waited for the police to arrive, Easy gathered his clothes from the floor of the bedroom and a shirt from the closet. Glancing around the room, he looked for any signs of the specter who’d conceivably saved his life. “Cotton, are you here, man?” Moments passed while he waited for some sign or some answer. Oddly enough, the house seemed unnaturally quiet. When this eerie silence was broken by the sudden ringing of his phone, Easy jerked in surprise.

  “Hello?”

  “Mr. Blackhawk? This is Thibodaux dispatch concerning the 9-1-1 call you just made. Are the perpetrator’s still on the premises?”

  “No, like I told the operator earlier, they’ve left.”

  “Have you determined what was taken?”

  “As far as I can tell, I interrupted them. Nothing was taken.”

  “I see. Are you injured?”

  “No. I’m fine.” Thanks to his resident ghost.

  “I see. Well, that’s great. In light of ongoing investigations, our department’s resources are stretched pretty thin. If nothing was taken, and you’re all right, we’re going to cancel the response.”

  “You’re not going to investigate the break-in?” Hell, he wasn’t sure how they’d gotten in – that was one thing he needed to check.

  The man chuckled softly. “Probably just neighborhood kids looking for something to hock.”

  “These men weren’t teenagers.” He started to argue, but he’d noticed the men wore gloves. There wouldn’t be any fingerprints and expecting these local yokels to analyze tire prints when there’d been no real damage was pretty farfetched.

  “Perhaps you should install a burglar alarm.”

  Easy cursed under his breath. “Thanks.” He ended the call. “For nothing.”

  Tossing the landline receiver on the bed, he headed downstairs to figure out how the intruders got in. It didn’t take long to find they’d broken a glass pane on the back door in order to reach in and undo the lock. “Some security,” he muttered as he went to find a broom to sweep up the glass. As he worked, he thought how vulnerable Jewel was out here all the time by herself. In light of this and all the other crap going on, he needed to come up with a better way to protect her. After chunking the broken glass in the garbage, he relocked the damaged door and hurried back to check on Jewel. Thankfully, he found her safe and sound, sleeping peacefully. After placing his clothes at the foot of the bed, Easy decided not to wake her up. Quietly, he undressed, joining her under the covers, taking her into his arms. Letting out a long breath, he closed his eyes, admitting the world had gone crazy. Here, with Jewel in his arms, was the only place that made sense to him.