Long Hard Ride (Rough Riders #1)

Sighing, she wiggled closer to his chest.

He subtly inched away, only to continue battering her senses with the lazy assault.

Two can play this game, Channing thought. When she rhythmically clenched her butt cheeks together on Colby’s thigh, he stood so quickly he almost knocked her on her ass.

Amidst catcalls and high-fives and suggestions for positions (spread-eagled across the horse trailer hitch?) they exited the rowdy bar.

Outside in the chilly mountain air, she shivered in her thin T-shirt.

Colby didn’t notice. They didn’t talk at all until they cleared the main thoroughfare and were hidden in the shadows of the motel outbuildings.

Pine trees towered above them. Moonlight was conspicuously absent.

Colby twirled Channing around, pressing her back against a metal shed as he devoured her with his lips, teeth, and tongue. His hands squeezed her breasts, his thumbs rasped over her hardened nipples, his knee separated her legs and he ground his brawny thigh into her crotch.

His lips slid to her ear. “I can’t wait. I’ve wanted you all goddamn day.

‘Bout killed me to walk away from you earlier, leavin’ you with them. I can’t think but for wantin’ you. Right here, right now, Chan. Darlin’, say yes. I’m dyin’ to feel you around me.”

“Yes. Yes. Please, Colby.”

“Wrap your legs over my hips.” He lifted her off the ground. “Have I told you how much I love this naughty little skirt? Mmm-mmm. Gotta

’preciate this easy access.” His thumb swept the damp cotton of her panties, and then wiggled under the elastic leg band. Finding her already hot and slick, he groaned. “Shug, you heat up as fast as my woodstove.

Makes me a crazy man that my touch makes you so wet.”

Frantic from his sexy admission, Channing tugged on his championship belt buckle. The zipper slid down fine, but the skintight Wranglers were a problem. “Maybe you should start wearing skirts too, cowboy, because there ain’t nothing easy about getting these jeans off.

Did you borrow a pair from Dwight Yoakam? Damn, these things are really snug.”

Colby laughed. “More snug in some places than others.”

“It’s not funny! Help me.”

“Hang on.” He set her down, hooked his thumbs in the belt loops and yanked. Stiff denim and the soft flannel boxers slid down to his knees.

He picked her back up and practically threw her against the building.

That supremely hot, long male flesh teased her belly, trailing a bead of pre-come above her navel. She arched, wanting that hardness buried deep in her molten core. Now.

“Stop bouncin’ around.” Colby peeled her T-shirt and bra up and feasted on her nipples. “God, I love your tits.” He sucked powerfully enough to leave a mark. “I want to spend hours—”

“Not hours and especially not now. Geez, afterward you can play with them until they fall off, but right now, fuck me, Colby. Just bend your knees and slide it in deep.”

“You sure have a dirty mouth. It’s one of the things I like best about you. Well, besides this.”

He shifted his hips, hunkered down to a shallow squat, and just like that, he filled her in one mighty stroke. He caught her whimper in a tongue-tangling kiss.

The potent sensation of his cock thrusting inside her, sleek and thick and hot, made her forget her first foray into exhibitionism and everything besides satiating her sexual greed for this man.

He fucked her slowly, steadily and seamlessly. The jagged line of pubic hair above his cock abraded her clit, creating friction so profoundly delicious she couldn’t concentrate on their kiss and she had to break it off.

Channing gasped for breath. Her mind spun and her head fell back against the cool metal, giving Colby total access to her neck. Like a heat-seeking missile, he zeroed in on the sweet spot; his moist lips left a tingle on her skin that burned hotter with every flicker of his scorching tongue.

“Oh, God, like that, don’t change a thing.”

“Not even like this?” On the upstroke he canted his pelvis slightly and that extra concentrated pressure did the trick.

Her pussy clenched, that liquid pulsing began slowly, picked up speed like a runaway semi-truck, faster and faster and faster and then roared through her as she shattered.

Colby shifted again, grinding side to side as his teeth nipped the cord straining in her arched neck. “Come on, darlin’, take me with you this time. Bear down, bring me deep as you can.” As he pressed her knees out, she countered by squeezing her interior muscles.

“Goddamn. Yeah. That’s it, Chan, hang tight.” He didn’t plunge faster, he just let her pulsing body coax the orgasm from him, pulling him deeper as they rocked together with sweet intensity.

Spent, a single satisfied shiver traveled through him and she felt it as deeply as if her own body had generated it. With his face nestled against her collarbone, his labored exhalations cooled her dampened skin.

He muttered, “Shit.”

“What?”

“No condom.”

“Oh shit,” she said.

“Yeah.” He angled back to look at her, apparently not caring that his hat was completely cockeyed. “Bad timing, huh?”

“Maybe not.” She dipped her head and studied the alabaster snaps on his shirt.

“What?” He tipped her chin back up. “Darlin’, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, really. Okay, I mean, there is something, it’s not wrong per se. I have a confession to make and I don’t want you to get mad at me.”

His eyes narrowed. “What?”

She blurted, “I’m on the pill. You probably figured out I don’t have much sexual experience and I’ve heard such horror stories about the STDs floating around out there that I wanted to make sure that I was always protected on all fronts. And damn. I’m sorry. After what happened with Jared, it just seemed safer to keep that information to myself.”

“Ssh, darlin’, stop babblin’. You don’t have to be defensive with me, all right? Believe it or not, I understand. And if it’ll ease your mind, I ain’t 98

been with a woman without wearing a condom since I was a green lad of about sixteen.”

“So you’re not mad?”

“Hell no.”

Channing closed her eyes. “Good. Thank you.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

He shifted his hips, and a stream of moisture trickled down as he eased his spent cock out of her tender body. “When it’s just you and me, can we skip the rubbers? ‘Cause I sure like really feelin’ you—just you—bare against me. There ain’t nothing like it in the world.”

She rubbed her cheek along his. “Sure. Speaking of you and me…where am I sleeping tonight?”

“Maybe the question oughta be where do you want to sleep tonight?”

“With you.” She felt him smile against her cheek.

“Good answer. We’re bunkin’ in the horse trailer. You need anything from the motel room before we hit the hay?”

“Just my toothbrush now that we’ve got that pesky condom issue cleared up.”

Colby chuckled and pressed a soft kiss on her forehead. “You sore?”

“A little.”

“Mmm. Have we really only been together a coupla days?”

She stiffened up. “Yes. Why? Is time dragging?”

“No. On the road, time usually drags like an old dog. But it seems like you’ve always been around. I’m glad you’re here, darlin’.”

Probably not the first time he’d said such sugared words, but she’d take it since it was the first time anyone had ever uttered them to her.

She grinned. “Me too, cowboy.”

Chapter Nine

Colby was up early the next morning. As much as he wanted to start his day off with a bang and loll in bed with Channing, he knew she was sore. With good reason. He couldn’t get enough of her.

He kissed her exposed nipple, grinning when she purred and snuggled into him. Damn distracting woman.

Fortified with free coffee from the motel lobby, he knocked on the door to the room. “It’s Colby. Open the damn door.”

A click of the slide latch moving and then Trevor swung open the door. “Hey. What’s up?”

Colby peered over Trevor’s bare shoulder at the rumpled bed.

“Where’s Edgard?”

“Shower. He’ll be out in a minute. Before you ask, he’s already checked on the horses this morning.” Trevor yawned. “Where’s Channing?”

“Sleepin’ in the horse trailer.”

“Is she okay?”

“She is now.” Colby sipped his coffee and flopped in the chair by the windows. He told Trevor what’d gone down the previous night. “So, I don’t want her goin’ nowhere alone. She snuck off for that rowdy bar down the street and some greasy trucker was sniffin’ around.”

“You set him straight?”

“Damn right.”

“Did you get everything straightened out with her?”

Colby grinned. “Damn right. Why you think she’s sleepin’ like a baby?”

Trevor high-fived him. “Goddamn, Colby. If there was a woman alive who could change my wicked ways and make me want to settle down, it’d be her.”

“Amen, brother. But you’d have to fight me for her. So you understand why I want us all to keep a better eye on her.”

“Keep an eye on who?” Edgard said as he cracked open the bathroom door.

Colby relayed the scene from the bar.

It was a typical morning. They talked rodeo. Advice was offered and taken. Aches and pains were detailed. When Trevor and Edgard began to argue strategy, Colby made his getaway. He refilled his coffee and stopped to chat with a couple of young bull riders from Utah before he went to check on Channing.

In the horse trailer, Channing sat slumped over the table, naked, listlessly stirring her half-eaten bowl of Raisin Bran.