Downpour: Chapter 18

My adrenaline was still pumping after lunch and the ride back to the ranch. Brooke was shaken, and I hated that with every fiber of my being.

The old me would have clocked that punk-ass kid across the face the minute he looked at Brooke. A little sidewalk brawl was fun now and then.

The man I was now couldn’t. I was tempted to punch him in the balls, but I didn’t.

Brooke was sitting on the couch, scrolling through her phone.

I made sure the doors were locked before wheeling into the living room. Something about the run-in on the sidewalk just didn’t sit right with me. Those kids knew too much about me. I didn’t like it.

I was used to people knowing shit about my life—especially around here.

I grew up in Temple, then went off and made a name for myself on the rodeo circuit. My accident was nationwide news for a week. When I finally woke up in the hospital, it ran the gamut of media outlets for three more weeks. I turned down interview requests by the dozen, even though I probably should have cashed in on them.

I never minded being famous, but I hated being infamous.

It wasn’t absurd to think that Brooke’s roommates followed the story of my accident, but I didn’t think that’s what was going on.

“You okay?” I asked as I made a neat turn around the corner of the sectional couch.

Brooke’s eyes barely lifted from her phone. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Your roommates are dicks.”

She let out a soft breath. “Tell me about it.”

“They’re the reason you came back early over the weekend?”

She swallowed and didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Yeah.”

Instead of heading to my recliner, I pulled up in front of her. “Look at me.”

She barely gave me a peek at her blue eyes.

“Brooke.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry we ran into them.”

“Why are you apologizing to me?”

“Because it’s embarrassing! I got myself tied up in their mess because I was desperate for somewhere to live. Now they won’t stop harassing me. I just want to be done with them.”

“Then be done.”

She laid her phone on her stomach and closed her eyes. “Can we just… not fight today? You can fire me tomorrow.”

“Brooke, I’m not firing you.”

“Right.” She shifted, turning her head away from me. “Because you need a shiny little distraction.”

What the hell was her problem? The sunshine that always beamed from her was completely shrouded by the clouds in her eyes.

“Help me up.”

She peeled an eye open. “You… want me to⁠—”

“I said what I said.” I reached out for her. “Give me your hand.” I clasped my hand around hers and eased onto the couch beside her. “Come here.”

“I don’t want your pity. I’m sorry we ran into them, and I’m trying to figure it out.”

I wrapped my hand around her ankle. Brooke let out a squeak as I dragged her across the couch until her butt bumped against my leg.

“Will you just get over here and stop apologizing for shit that’s not your fault?”

She huffed and sat up.

“Do you need to get out of here for a while?”

She looked away from me. “I don’t really want to leave unless you don’t want me around.”

“I want you here,” I tucked a curl behind her ear. “I just want you to stop blaming yourself for that run-in earlier.”

“But I know it bothered you, and I’m sorry.”

I chuckled. “It bothered me because I don’t like seeing you shaken. I’m fine.”

She looked up at me with doe eyes. “You sure?”

“Promise.” For no other reason than the fact that I wanted to, I pressed a kiss to her temple. “Don’t give it a second thought.”

Brooke curled into my side. “Thanks.” Her finger trailed along one of the lines of my tattoo sleeve. A single touch of her finger made my blood simmer.

My cock thickened when her hand brushed my thigh. I let out a slow breath to try and get it to calm down.

“What’s the matter?” Brooke asked like the innocent devil she was. Her fingers skimmed the edge of my shorts.

“Nothing,” I said between labored breaths.

“Really? Because it looks like you’re⁠—“

“I have to start wearing more than gym shorts around you.”

“What? Why? You should wear whatever’s comfortable. It’s not like we’re in an office or something.”

The lines I had been trying so hard not to cross disappeared. I brought her hand to the front of my shorts and pressed her palm to my cock. “That’s why.”

Her lips parted as she looked down.

I gripped her chin and forced her eyes back up to me. “Don’t look so surprised. You did this to me the night we kissed outside. Hell, you’ve done this every day since you showed up in my driveway.”

“Ray—” Her breathless whisper of my name made my dick throb against her palm.

Brooke squeezed.

“Baby—”

A wicked smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, and she squeezed again.

“You’re a fucking tease,” I rasped as I breathed through the urge to come right then and there.

“Is it wrong if I want you?” Her breath turned ragged as she slipped over to straddle me. Her knees sank into the couch cushions. Our lips lingered a breath apart.

She leaned in, but I slid my hand up the back of her scalp, fisted her hair, and yanked down, exposing her throat.

“Yes,” I growled. “It is.”

“You’re my… boss.” She gasped when I latched onto her throat and sucked.

“That’s right.”

“And I… I signed… an…”

“You signed what?” I said as I kissed up her jaw.

She swallowed. “An agreement. That I… that I wouldn’t…”

“Spit it out,” I said as I licked up the shell of her ear. Her skin tasted like summer. I wanted to know what she tasted like everywhere.

“That I wouldn’t have a relationship with a client.”

I tightened my hand in her hair. “Who said this is a relationship?”

“Then what is it?”

I smirked against her lips. “This is just kissing, baby.”

Her breath was warm and sweet. “Then let me kiss you.”

But I wanted so much more from her. Things that I couldn’t rightly ask for. I kept her mouth off of mine with my hand in her hair. “Hands behind your back.”

She moved immediately, clasping her hands together.

I released her hair and took her in. Brooke’s chest rose and fell in steady breaths as she panted. Her thighs squeezed against my hips as she tried to relieve the ache in her core. My cock tented my shorts and pressed between her legs.

She didn’t make a move to grind down on me, though.

Brooke sitting there with her hands behind her back, waiting for direction, told me everything I needed to know.

She didn’t want to be in control here.

She didn’t want to make out.

She had the same hungry look I did.

The same craving.

I leaned back against the couch and stretched my arms out across the back of it. The only part of our bodies that touched were her thighs on either side of mine.

“If you want this, you can have it. But we do it my way. You will do exactly what I say. No strings. And not a word to the agency you work for.”

Brooke shifted. Her legs squeezed against mine, and she whimpered but kept her hands behind her back.

Still obedient.

My eyes flicked down to her shorts. “You’re wet for me, aren’t you?”

Her lips parted, and her eyes closed.

“Drop your shorts. I’ll get you off. Get you feeling good.”

“I want you,” she whispered, arching her back and pushing her tits toward me. “I want your cock. Please.”

It was the ‘please’ that did me in.

“I don’t have condoms, baby. I hadn’t thought about sex in a long time. And then you showed up wearing those fucking shorts that show off your little ass, and these tank tops that make me want to bury myself between your tits. And now it’s all I can think about. I fuck my hand every time I’m in the shower because I can’t stop thinking about you. And I shouldn’t. You’re too damn young for me.”

Heavy lids lifted enough for her eyes to meet mine. “I’m a consenting adult.”

“You’re twelve years younger than me.”

Instead of using her words, she widened her legs and dropped down on my cock, pressing it between her legs. “I’m on birth control. And I had a physical before I got this job. All my results were clear. And considering you’ve seen nearly every doctor in the state, I’ll take a guess and say you’re good.”

She was trying to kill me. I was sure of it.

A thin strip of denim hid her pussy from me. I reached between her legs and cupped her sex. “You want me to fuck this pussy raw?”

Brooke tipped her head back and whimpered. “Please.”

I slipped a finger under the gusset of her panties. She was warm and wet and absolutely dripping for me. “My way.”

“Yes.”

“You can tell me to stop, but that’s all. You don’t get to dictate a thing.”

Brooke tried to rock to get more pressure from my finger. “That’s what I want. You. In charge.”

I pulled my hand away. “Then go into my room, take all of your clothes off, and get on the bed on your knees.”

She scrambled off the couch.

“And Brooke⁠—”

She froze mid stride and looked at me.

A slow smile stretched up my mouth. “If you touch yourself before I get in there, I will make you regret it.”

She bit her lip, fighting a smile, and clasped her hands behind her back.

“Good girl.” I tipped my head toward the bedroom. “Go on.”

When she disappeared through the door, I adjusted my dick and eased back into my chair.

I had thought about sex since the accident, but mostly in the context of realizing I’d never have it again.

But this… Her…

Brooke came out of nowhere.

She wasn’t a buckle bunny, chasing me for clout and shiny things. She didn’t pick me because I looked like an easy target.

Maybe I was overselling myself on the possibilities, but I had never thought about life after those eight seconds.

The mattress creaked as I rolled into the bedroom.

Brooke was kneeling in the middle of my bed, completely naked. Pert breasts were diamond-tipped in the chill of the AC. Her ankles were crossed, pretty as a picture, making her ass look like a heart.

My heart seized in my chest. All those motivational thoughts about taking that next step for myself went out the window. She was perfection—flawless in every way.

I didn’t want her to watch me fumble around. I didn’t want her to see me struggle to move my body.

I grabbed my sleep mask from the nightstand and placed it in front of her, raking my eyes down the front of her body. “Put that on.

“But I⁠—”

“My way,” I reminded her. “Do you want to do this?”

Brooke nodded and grabbed the mask.

“You can always say no. No harm. No foul.”

“Your way,” she said as she slid the mask over her eyes.

With her unable to see me, I stripped off my shirt and shorts. I reached into the nightstand drawer and pulled out the long rope I had been practicing with. I trailed the coil up the side of her hip and thigh.

Brooke shivered.

“Have you ever been tied up?” I asked as I found the end of the rope and shook out the loops to straighten it.

“No.” She shifted her ankles. “But it… It turns me on. The thought of it. I want to try it.”

“Do you trust me?”

She was quick to answer. “Yes.”