Someone had let the dogs in the living room-dogs with muddy feet.
Then the boys had left their manure-covered boots inside the kitchen door, so now her kitchen reeked like cow p.o.o.p.
Dishes covered the counters. The last person who used the milk hadn"t bothered putting it back in the refrigerator.
Carolyn followed the wreckage to the living room. Dirty socks, comic books, Ag magazines, toys and more pieces of clothing littered the floor. Not to mention wrappers from Halloween candy were everywhere-on the couch and chairs, the coffee and end tables. She even found gum stuck to one of the lamps. In two places.
Gum!
The dining room table was piled with book bags, textbooks, crayons, coloring books, glue sticks, school projects and papers thrown haphazardly on the floor, on the chairs and on the sideboard.
With her blood pressure rising, she headed down the hallway and poked her head in the small bathroom. The toilet lid was up; it looked as if someone had sprayed the toilet, the walls and the floor with urine-oh, and then had forgotten to flush the toilet. The sink was covered in grimy soap sc.u.m and the bar of Lava was on the floor. She glanced in the mirror-not that she could see herself clearly because someone had smeared soap everywhere.
That did it.
She"d been gone since one o"clock this afternoon to work the election polls. This was how her sons reacted to being unattended in the house...for just a few hours? She shuddered to think what she would"ve found if she"d left them alone all day.
Enough.
She stormed out of the house and found her five little pigs between the machine shed and the barn, on the old barrel they"d rigged up for Colby"s bull riding practice.
"Cord, Colby, Colton, Cameron and Carter McKay, get your b.u.t.ts up on the porch p.r.o.nto!"
When they weren"t moving fast enough to suit her, she barked, "Now! Or so help me G.o.d I will get a switch and use it on each one of you!"
Even after they were lined up on the sidewalk, the five of them were s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around, pushing each other and shoving. Cam was trying to bench press Carter over his head.
"You will stand there like statues and listen to every word I say. Is that understood?"
Mumbles.
"I said, do you understand?"
"Yes, Ma."
Carolyn glared at each boy in turn, from her oldest to her youngest. None met her gaze.
"My job is taking care of my family. It"s a job I take great pride in. Raising good boys, making our house a happy place to live and to come home to." She paused. "Do you think I was happy to come home today and find that G.o.d-awful mess? It looks like I"m raising bears in that house, not boys. Bears! But I could forgive bears, because they are animals and do not know any better. But you boys are not wild animals and every one of you knows better. I will not let you disrespect what I do every day. I work just as hard as your father and you"d never do to him what you did to me. What do you think would happen if you just went into the barn and took his tack and threw it all over the place?"
They looked at each other warily but were smart enough not to speak.
"So why is it all right to destroy the inside of my house in four hours? Just because I"m not here to tell you not to? The don"t-be-pigs rule is the same regardless of whether I"m here or not! Did you a.s.sume I"d clean it up like I"m the hired help? Or do you think because you"re boys that you can just leave all the inside dirty work to women? I don"t appreciate..." She began to melt down.
Just as Carson started up the driveway.
Carolyn hastily wiped her tears. This wasn"t something she wanted him to see. Or deal with because he ended up meting out the boys" discipline most of the time.
"Ma. We"re really, really, really sorry and we"ll clean up our messes and do everything you want and it"ll never ever ever happen again; just don"t tell Dad," Colby said in a rush.
"Yeah, Ma, please don"t tell him," Cord added. "We"ll go in and fix it and we"ll be really fast."
Colt was totally panicked. "We"ll be grounded until next summer if Dad sees you cryin" "cause he"ll know it"s our fault."
"Dad said any time we made you cry he"d whip our b.u.t.ts," Cam added. "He"ll probably even take away Christmas!"
Three-and-a-half-year-old Carter didn"t really know what was going on-not that he was innocent on the mess-making front, but he let out a horrified, "No Santa?"
Cam whispered something in his ear that had Carter blurting out, "Sorry, Mama."
She let them sweat it out until Carson parked. "Okay. You"ve got one chance. I want every bit of the mess gone, including the muddy dog prints, including the disgusting bathroom, including the barn boots that somehow ended up in my kitchen. You will work together, you will get it done in two hours, and then you will tuck yourselves in bed without any supper. Got it?"
"Yes, Ma, thanks, we"re so sorry-"
Carolyn pointed at the house. "Get. Moving."
Their shoes left tread marks on the concrete they left so fast.
Carson meandered up to the house. Lord, she loved her husband"s ambling walk; it allowed her plenty of time to check him out. Dressed in his new Wranglers and a white b.u.t.ton-up shirt with subtle stripes of navy and gray, wearing a gray wool vest, his black hat and black boots, he was a man who turned heads-especially hers, since he was every bit as handsome and s.e.xy as the day they"d married.
He kissed her first, like he always did. When he pulled away to ask questions, she pulled him back to deepen the kiss. Which only stalled him for so long.
Those blue eyes were mighty skeptical. "What"s goin" on with the boys?"
"Nothing. I was giving them last-minute instructions."
"On what? "Cause from where I was sittin" it looked like you were givin" them what-for."
Carolyn looped her arm around his waist, directing him toward his truck. "I told them since I"d dressed up to work the election, and you were in your cattleman finery after spending the day at the St. Onge sale barn, that you were taking me out for supper."
"That right?"
"Do you have a problem with that?"
"None whatsoever. Where you thinkin"?"
"Twin Pines." They had notoriously slow service, which just might save her boys behinds and give her a chance to cool down.
"Why there?"
"Maybe I wanted to dance with you. It"s been a while."
"That it has." Carson helped her into his truck. On the way to the supper club he held her hand as they talked about their days.
As always, living in a small town they ran into several people they knew at Twin Pines. In the last decade the McKay Ranch had become a very successful cattle operation and Carson"s advice was sought after. As for Carson"s claim people had long memories around here, none ever brought up his wild drinking and fighting days.
The food was good. Carson teased her about choosing linguine with shrimp for her meal, but it was definitely something she didn"t cook at home.
Afterward, they headed to the bar side. The piped-in music wasn"t great, but she didn"t care.
"That was a happy sigh, sugar."
"I"m happy when I"m with you and you"re holding me close like this."
Carson put his mouth on her ear. "You think sweet talkin" means you"re gonna get lucky tonight?"
His deep voice sent a shiver of want straight to her core. "I"m hoping."
"I"ll warn ya. I like my women wild and I"ll expect kinky things."
She nuzzled the edge of his jaw. "I can be kinky."
"How well I know that. And what a lucky man I am for it."
"But...between the kids and all the day to day stuff of being a wife and mother... What if I"ve forgotten?"
He leaned back to gaze into her eyes. "I"ll remind you." Carolyn tried to duck her head, but he demanded, "Look at me."
She hadn"t seen that s.e.xual fire burning in his eyes recently and it instantly made her wet, needy and achy.
"How about if I just drag you home right now, haul you up to our bedroom and f.u.c.k you hard for an hour straight?"
Her stomach swooped. "I suggest if we wait another hour, the boys will be in bed and there won"t be any parental duties to interfere."
He grinned that same wicked grin that"d charmed, infuriated and inflamed her the first time they"d danced together. "So for the next hour I can rub my body against yours and whisper all the dirty things I"m gonna do to you?"
"And I can do the same."
"Hot d.a.m.n."
They stayed on the dance floor the entire time. Teasing each other with words and subtle touching.
By the time they left-they almost got it on in the front seat of his truck-Carson hinted he"d last longer if she gave him a hand job on the way home.
After she finished jacking him off and licked him clean, he swore she hadn"t lost her kinky edge.
The house was dark and quiet. Carolyn"s focus wasn"t on checking to see if the boys had followed her edict. Her sole focus was getting naked with her husband.
As soon as he shut and locked the bedroom door, Carson was on her. Making short work of her clothes. The man hadn"t even taken his boots off and he had her spread on the end of the bed, his mouth buried in her p.u.s.s.y. That lethal tongue driving her up, up, up and over. And then doing it again.
Carolyn had barely floated back down from that head rush when Carson"s hot, hard, body was on top of hers.
His rough voice vibrated against her breast. "How kinky you feelin" tonight, Mrs. McKay?"
"You just made me come twice. I"m feelin" pretty loose at the moment."
"Then sugar, I"m gonna tie you up a bit." He pushed off her.
"Where are you going?"
The man"s eyes held a depraved gleam. "Grabbing some rope."
And he wasn"t joking when he returned from the closet, a length of rope dangling from his right hand.
"How long has that been in there?"
"A while. Been savin" it for a special occasion. Face and shoulders on the bed, a.s.s in the air."
Even when Carson was a s.e.xually charged man, the times he went even more over the top in the bedroom made her hotter than ever.
Carolyn rested the side of her face on the mattress, watching him eye her naked body. Birthing five kids should"ve made her self-conscious of her less-than-ideal physique, but the way her man ate her up with his hungry eyes gave her the s.e.xual confidence to be in this position.
"d.a.m.n, woman, you"re s.e.xy. Arms behind you."
She crossed her wrists in the small of her back and the rope dragged against her side as he tied her. Then he moved in behind her, his work-roughened hands clamped on her b.u.t.t cheeks.
She held her breath, expecting him to plow into her. But he fed his shaft in slowly and stopped. She wiggled to get him to move. But he remained like that, buried deep. "What"s the holdup, cowboy?"
"Told you I was gonna f.u.c.k you for an hour. This way first, then we"ll see how creative I can get." Carson stroked in and out of her steadily. And as always, she lost herself in him, in them, her world boiling down to his hands, his c.o.c.k, his mouth, reveling in the s.e.xual intensity that was only ever for her. It was heady stuff that after almost fifteen years she still satisfied his s.e.xual appet.i.te.
He reached around and lightly stroked her c.l.i.t, purposely not giving her the speed or the pressure that"d get her off, just keeping her primed for what came next.
He pulled out and lifted her up by her shoulders. His voice rumbled in her ear. "I wanna suck on you as I"m f.u.c.kin" this hot p.u.s.s.y of mine."
She loved the way he treated her with such care, while at the same time turning her inside out with his insistent touches, raunchy words and blatant desire.
Carson sat in the middle of the bed with his legs stretched out in front of him. "Straddle me on your knees." As he helped her into position he latched onto her nipple; the rough sc.r.a.pe of his five o"clock shadow was a harsh contrast to how softly he suckled. He poised his c.o.c.k at her entrance and held her hips, helping her lower down.
Feeling his fingers at her wrists untying the rope, she sent him a quizzical look.
"Enough kinky. I need your hands on me," he said gruffly.
Carolyn wrapped her legs around his waist. He couldn"t move inside her much, but that was his intent, teasing her and prolonging this connection. While he sucked on her nipples and her neck, his hips rocked forward and she ran her fingers through his silky black hair.
She loved that he"d honed every muscle the hard way from ranch work. So strong in body, so strong in heart. Tough enough to go head to head with ornery bulls and mean mama cows, but gentle with their babies. She sc.r.a.ped her nails down his muscular back and squeezed his hard b.u.t.t cheeks, then dragged her fingers up, curling her hands around his powerful arms.
His kisses grew fevered, his movements hurried. He said, "Hang on," and rolled down to the mattress so he was on top.
Carson plowed into her with the force of a battering ram. His solid body crushed her, filled her, moved her, owned her, destroyed her. As many times and as many ways as they"d made love, this was her favorite: face to face, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, heart to heart.
Hitting that detonation point happened simultaneously. She arched her neck; he panted against her as the stormed surged through them both. When that rush abated, he smiled against her throat.
"What?"
"Who needs kink when we"ve got this?"
He kissed her and eased out of her, rolling to his back and tucking her against his side.
Sated and sleepy, she rested her chin on his chest and played with his chest hair. "You always know."