Slow Bucking Read online

  T’Zara followed Leticia’s lead and placed the most beautiful cake down in the same general area.

  “We’re leaving—NOW!” T’Zara said loudly and directly to Letty. “It was good to see you again, Tyce.” Leaning low, she placed a sisterly kiss on Regina’s cheek. “Call me when you get time tomorrow.”

  “Hell, the only thing she is gonna be callin’ is the Lord! Did you see the way he was eyeballing her? I bet we come in here tomorrow and if this table ain’t broke, the food will be exactly where we left it and moldy,” Letty stated in what one could only assume she thought was a whisper.

  T’Zara smacked her friend on the head and shoved her through the door. Regina ducked and listened for the sounds of her friends leaving. The action also hid her face behind the cloud of her dark locks and gave her a moment to try and cool her flushed cheeks.

  “I think it might be awful hard for you to eat from way down there,” Tyce’s voice rumbled through the dining room like thunder.

  “Umm, yes, but suddenly I am…”

  “Go on. Suddenly you’re what?” Tyce encouraged her, his molten gaze willing her to fling herself on the table and become his plate. She wanted nothing more than to be the vessel he took his meal from—wait, strike that. She wanted to be his meal, every meal, but she couldn’t get ahead of herself. She wanted to be devoured by this man. Even if only just one time. It was a memory she’d be able to carry for the rest of her life.

  Tyce waited, willing Regina to speak. The sound of her smoky voice reminded him of good blues and sultry nights. Those not so sly looks were smoldering, stoking the flame he’d been carrying for years. He’d known the moment she’d opened the door that there would be no business discussed tonight.

  With the way Regina batted those long kohl-darkened lashes and nibbled at her full, honey-coated lips, she wasn’t giving off business vibes. Nor were her friends, who kept sneaking peeks at him and winking before drifting back to the shadows with hushed giggles. Everything about tonight told Tyce that it was going to be business all right—the business of passion.

  But his practical side cautioned him. They had to settle some things first. Chiefly, the “duration” of their business. Tyce wasn’t looking for just one night. He needed Regina Clouldwalker to know that this was a forever kind of deal. There would never be any buy-out clauses or takeover bids. She wouldn’t be able to cash in her shares of his heart. Once they sealed the deal, it would never be broken.

  Tyce tipped his head and watched as Regina began to fidget under his gaze. There was something bothering his little butterfly. Something stronger than her obvious lust for him. He decided he may have to turn this seduction down a notch or two. It was going to be hard to bring the boil of his blood to a simmer, but he was in this for the distance, not the sprint.

  Closing his eyes briefly, Tyce prayed for patience he wasn’t sure he possessed and willed his body to relax. He needed to be able to move the food to her end of the table, and right now, the way his dick was straining against his jean-clad thighs, even the act of breathing was torture. Rising slowly, Tyce carried both plates of food to the opposite end of the table and placed one directly in front of Regina. The other plate he deposited by the chair directly to her right, in front of the chair he planned to take. His pants squeezed tighter under her gaze, but he breathed out slowly. He forced himself to stand upright, trying to avoid inhaling too much of her siren scent. Her husky voice stopped him in his tracks before he could return for the cake.

  “Leave it there. If you bring it down here I’ll ruin my waistline by eating the whole thing.” A small shy smile played at her lips.

  Tyce remembered that smile. It lit up his heart and tugged at his soul. He wanted more than that small little flash. He wanted to see the whole thing. Wanted to watch it light up her face and warm the room.

  “The only thing that’s going to ruin your waistline is when your belly is heavy with my children.”

  Chapter Four

  Regina snapped her head up to look Tyce in the eye. She was sure she hadn’t heard exactly what she thought she’d heard, but she was about to question it nonetheless. That was until she saw the flush of embarrassment creeping up his neck. Tyce hadn’t meant to speak out loud. Of that she was sure; she was also sure that wasn’t a pistol in the front pocket of his jeans, either. She was eye-level with what Letty would have described as “something a man should have a permit to carry and a woman needed a black belt in coochie-lates to ride.”

  Something snapped in Regina as she sat there not even pretending not to stare at the throbbing bulge that was long enough to have its tip hidden under Tyce’s gigantic rodeo buckles. She’d waited years to be in Tyce’s arms, and with thirty knocking hard on her door, she had no intentions of waiting any longer. She could go back to mediocre men later…maybe. But she had a plan and more than a few itches that needed scratching. And now that she knew Tyce wouldn’t be opposed to at least one part of her plan, well, hell, it was time to cowgirl up and ride.

  “Listen, Tyce, sit down. I need to talk to you about this bull business. I have a counter offer.” Regina spoke calmly though her heart was racing in her chest. She reached up to touch Tyce’s large hand and was immediately zapped by static electricity.

  When she went to jerk her hand back, Tyce quickly caught it in his own work-roughened one as he took his seat. He didn’t release it once he was seated. Instead he held on to it. His large hand engulfed her smaller one. His thumb caressed a path from her wrist to her knuckles in maddeningly slow circles.

  Regina forced herself to pull her hand away. Part of her realized that she could probably get part of what she wanted without actually making a deal with Tyce. The evidence of that was burning in his eyes. But from the moment she’d thought of the plan, she’d known she could never do anything that sneaky and underhanded. This had to be entirely above board, or she could risk losing what would be her greatest treasures. Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, she began.

  “I know you want my bull, and if I was a complete bitch and didn’t love the damn thing like a child, I’d sell him. Hell, I’d give him to you to avoid the cost of feeding him,” she said with a short laugh before casting a glance at Tyce.

  “Technically, all I need is his sperm,” Tyce interjected.

  And technically, all I need is your sperm, she thought.

  “Well, therein lies the other problem. For a long time when he was on the circuit, we thought Little Horns Big Noise was gay because he wouldn’t have anything to do with any of the cows. Would downright bully them. In fact, the only other animal we could keep near him was the steer his momma birthed the year after him. Pop said he’d heard of such a thing before and blamed the bull’s condition on me coddling him too much. Just after Daddy died, I had the vet look him over. Turns out the old boy is just sterile and angry about it.”

  Regina searched Tyce’s face for any reaction. She swore she saw the corner of his mouth tick. When she glanced in his eyes, she definitely saw humor flash in their electric depths before he shielded them from her by lowering those maddeningly thick lashes.

  “Well,” he said and then stopped to clear his throat. “That, umm, does seem to be a small bit of an issue there.”

  Regina rushed to finish. “I do, however, have something you might be interested in.” She paused to gage the level of Tyce’s “interest.”

  When he indicated that she should go on, she rushed onward.

  “I have the frozen embryos of Cheesy Grits and Biscuits.” Again she paused to gage Tyce’s reaction.

  “As in the sire and dame of your bull? You have Little Horn Big Noise’s siblings. I thought Cheesy Grits was put down after siring Little Horns Big Noise. Didn’t he almost kill a rider in Amarillo?”

  “He did and he was, but the thing was he never actually bred with any of the cows. It was always done artificially. My dad selected Biscuits to be the dame because he thought their names were funny. By the way, I’ve named all the embryos alrea
dy, so I’d like it if you’d at least keep one of them. Luckily it only took one. Dad had the rest frozen. He wanted to gage the temperament of Little Horns before we ‘created’ anything else.”

  “Wait, did you just say you named the frozen embryos?”

  “Yup, I’ve named all the cattle on the ranch since I was little.”

  “So you named a bull Cheesy Grits and a cow Biscuits?”

  “I was little and hungry.” Regina shrugged and reached for her water cup. The butterflies in her stomach fluttered, causing it to rumble. She hoped Tyce hadn’t heard it, but just in case she reached for her plate.

  Tyce followed her lead and reached for his plate as well. However, before she could cut into her steak, he reached out and grabbed her hand. He bowed his head with his eyes closed and waited a heartbeat. Obviously he intended to say grace. Regina had offered up a silent prayer in her head, not knowing how religious Tyce was to begin with. She was surprised by his gesture. Pleasantly. Closing her eyes, she bowed her head and gave his large hand a squeeze to let him know she was ready.

  “Father God, thank you for all your blessings in our lives. Thank you for watching over us and bringing us to abundance in your Name. Bless this food, Lord, so that it nourishes our bodies and gives us strength to continue on your path. Bless our tongues so that all that we say may be pleasing to your ear. And bless our friendship so that it will only grow in your Grace. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

  Regina felt a little tug at her heart. She knew she had to lay it all on the table now. The man had just asked God to bless their friendship. Was she sure she could look at him and say, “Hey, I wanna fuck for a few hours and hopefully get knocked up!”

  Taking a deep breath, she lifted her head. As she did so she found herself staring directly into the same beautiful eyes that had enthralled her all those years ago. Pulling her hand back from him, again she picked up her flatware and proceeded to cut into her steak. After a few moments Tyce spoke.

  “You know, I can see offering you more money for those embryos. It’s no wonder, really, that you held off. The embryos of Cheesy Grits and Biscuits…” He paused with a slight smirk on his face, as if he was forcing himself not to laugh. “…are potentially worth millions.”

  Regina didn’t hesitate. Still moving the food around on her plate and cutting her steak into bite-size pieces, she said in a rush, “Well, I rather thought we’d come to a different agreement on that. A trade, perhaps. I give you, say, two embryos—and you father two children with me.”

  Chapter Five

  For what seemed like an eternity Tyce stared at the side of Regina’s head, waiting for a second or third head to sprout from her neck. She seemed completely calm, as if her proposition was the most logical, natural thing to have said. The only indication that she was even remotely bothered by the situation was the telltale tick of her pulse frantically beating under the exposed skin of her neck. Tyce watched as she pushed the food around nervously on her plate. Somehow the fact that she was anxious gave him the strength to focus. First on swallowing the food in his mouth, then on the situation at hand.

  “Well...” Tyce started only to have to stop and clear his throat.

  He pushed away from the table to stand. He needed to move, to think. To formulate his words. Was she crazy? Trade a bull for a baby—what the hell? Did she not think she was worthy of a having a man? Or maybe she didn’t want a man. Maybe she was one of those man haters. Whatever. She had life messed up if she thought he’d father a child and walk away. Hell, she had life messed up anyway. She would be having his babies all right, but they were doing it the old-fashioned way. With rings and vows and honeymoons and anniversaries and all that stuff.

  Tyce abruptly stopped his pacing and turned to where Regina was now sitting with her hands in her lap and her head ducked low, hidden by the veil of her hair.

  “Okay, so that took me by surprise,” he said with more calm than he actually felt. “And it’s not that your offer doesn’t have some merit…you know, some substance.”

  He continued as he approached her. “It’s just a little flawed,” he finished as he knelt next to her seat.

  Reaching up, he gently cupped her jaw and forced her to look at him. He could feel her whole body trembling. She’d tried to deliver her little salvo as if she regularly propositioned men that way, but her heart was beating so frantically Tyce swore he could hear it in his own ears.

  Or maybe that was his heartbeat. He’d waited for years for this moment. He’d known when he was nineteen that he’d be here someday. About to lay it all on the line. But now that the moment was on him, he didn’t feel like a grown man of nearly thirty-two years. He felt like a fumbling kid trying to ask the prom queen to go steady.

  Taking a deep breath and holding it, Tyce closed his eyes and tried to focus on reassuring Regina that he had every intention of making a deal with her. The deal of a lifetime.

  “I’ll gladly father all the children you want, but there’s got to be a big change in the terms. We can breed as many bulls as you want, but they aren’t going to be part of this arrangement. This is a lifetime contract between me and you and God in Heaven. You’ll have to be my wife in order for it to work. I feel like I’ve waited my whole life to ask you. And I understand if you need a moment to decide, but once you say yes, if you say yes, there will be no LONG engagement.”

  Tyce felt like the words were tripping off his tongue. He’d rehearsed this over and over, and now he couldn’t remember a damn thing. So he stopped speaking and reached in his pocket and pulled out the ring he’d been carrying for the better part of three years.

  He looked Regina in the eyes. “You were right when you said your father always said to look a man in the eye when doing business. He also told me I needed to be one helluva man to be good enough for you. I rode hard, Regina, and worked even harder to be worthy of you. I’ve waited three long years to come to you. I am asking you now. Do you think…will you let me be your man? We’ll raise as many babies and bulls as you want. Hell, I’ll get some horses and chickens and ducks and whatever menagerie of critters you want…if, if only you will just be mine. For always.”

  Chapter Six

  Regina’s breath stuck in her throat, and hot tears raced down her face. Something about Tyce kneeling before her grabbed her heart and pulled. Hard.

  Though the man before her was big enough to block out the sun, his large blue eyes swimming with emotion reminded her of a small child on the first day of school. If she wasn’t in love with the legend of him before, she was head over heels in love with the man that the legend had become in this moment.

  Unclasping her hand, she reached for his strong jaw and cupped it. The prickle of his stubble reminded her of just how incredibly one-hundred-percent male he was. Her heart sang, knowing her answer was yes. She wanted to shout it, but the words were clogged behind the tears in her throat. So instead she nodded, once, very hard and very quickly, before falling on his full lips with her own and tangling her hand in his thick chestnut hair.

  She fell into him, taking his mouth into hers, the two of them becoming one long before the judge pronounced them so, united in heart and spirit and soul with this single kiss. When they broke the kiss at last, Tyce slipped the ring onto her finger, his breath labored. She trembled, swallowed the thick hunk of love, and the tiny bit of fear at what the future would bring. She looked up and into Tyce’s liquid blue eyes, shivering as she watched the passion there turning them from sky blue to cobalt. She knew then it would be all right.

  “You know if we stay in this dining room two things are gonna happen.”

  She quirked an eyebrow and waited for him to continue.

  “One: Letty is gonna win that bet. Two: we’re gonna have to buy a new dining-room table.”

  Chapter Seven

  Two weeks later

  Sunlight sliced through the wooden walls, seemingly split into a thousand strands of gold. Warm and gentle, the sun caressed Regina’s naked shoulders,
sweat-drenched face, and closed eyes. So soft, the heavens couldn’t compare to Tyce’s strong thighs, thighs that rode hard and hung on for the next second. Regina’s lips curved devilishly into a smile.

  “Who’s riding for dear life now? Who’s hanging on until the very last delicious second?” she taunted, mocking Tyce after he’d laughed at her dismal attempt at riding a mechanical bull at one of their many engagement parties.

  Oh, he’d scooped her up, patted her ass as if she’d bruised it, and she loved him for it. But he’d also teased her mercilessly. And now a day before they were set to walk down the aisle, she was showing him who the real cowpoke was. He’d forgotten that she was a seasoned horse-woman, to the tune of several champion barrel racing and cutting horse buckles.

  Through narrowed eyes she looked down at her soon-to-be husband. His tousled hair stood in stark contrast to the clean ivory of the pillow. His kissable mouth had been transformed into a thin lash of sharp determination. If he could, he’d put his hands on her ass, slap her buttocks, and steal her rhythm.

  Nuh-uh—she had this ride. Bareback riding was her favorite. And if he played his cards right, she might teach him a lil’ something old school. They had time for a little side saddle. Either way, it was up to her, as she had him trussed up and tied in knots that a sailor couldn’t untie. Regina smirked wider. She was good at locking down what she wanted too.

  “Yeah, you seem like you’re enjoying yourself up there, cowgirl. Had I known a saddle horn”—he thrust as hard as he could—“was all you needed to be happy, I’da let you ride a long time ago.”

  Regina rode him out...arching her back and rotating her hips but keeping the pace nice and slow. She contracted her inner muscles, feeling the width of him, snug and thick inside her. Shuddering from pleasure, she leaned down and slowly dangled her breasts dangerously close to his mouth. The burnt orange studded bra lay open, the fastening undone.