Slow Hand (Hot Cowboy Nights, #1)(21)

He leaned in closer still, murmuring hot and low in her ear. “How? By giving her slow and easy, when what I really want is hard and fast.”

She ran a finger leisurely around the rim of the glass, and then stuck it in her mouth, slowly sucking off the salt residue. She released it with a pop, then leisurely licked the remaining salt from her lips. His Adam’s apple visibly bobbed as he tracked every flick and dart of her tongue. He shifted in his seat. Torturing him like this tickled the hell out of her.

She met his gaze with a mischievous smile. “What makes you think every woman wants slow and easy?”

*

Holy shit. She’d given him a hard-on with a simple question. It wasn’t the wording as much as the way she’d posed it—with a challenge. Her body language said gimme what you got, cowboy, loud and clear. He suspected the tequila had a lot to do with it, but the hungry look in her eyes made him want to give her hard, fast, and furious right there on the table.

It was definitely time to go.

“Are you ready, Nicole?” he asked, already grabbing his hat.

“What’s your hurry, cowboy?” She gave him a sloppy grin that pricked his conscience.

He hadn’t set out to get her drunk. That was her doing, but he certainly hadn’t discouraged it either. He’d enjoyed the hell out of watching her inhibitions vaporize and wondered how many, or better yet, how few, still lingered. He wondered if she’d be passive or bold in bed. He was mighty eager to find out.

“C’mon.” He took her by the arm and gently coaxed her from her seat. “You’ve had enough for one night. I’m taking you home.”

“Home?” She cocked her head at him. “Home where? If you think you’re gonna sweet-talk my panties off, you got another think coming, Wade. I already told you how I feel and you haven’t changed my mind. No indeed-y. I got your number.”

“Do you now?” He threw some money on the table and guided her to the door.

“Yup. Sure do, after seeing how those waitresses were all eyeballing you like a herd of hungry sows waiting at the feeding trough.”

“A herd of sows? That’s not a pretty picture you paint.”

She gazed up at him in earnest. “I was simply making an ob-obzervation, Wade.”

“Sure you were.”

He let her babble on until they got to the truck, where he was struck by an overwhelming impulse to silence her—with his mouth. He managed to restrain the urge until he reached around her for the door and found himself thigh to thigh with Nikki, her breasts pushing against his chest and her arms entwined around his neck. She looked up at him all soft and warm and welcoming.

Damn, but it was just too much!

He pinned her to the door, expecting at least some token resistance after the way she’d been sounding off, but instead, she laced her fingers in his hair, pulled his face down to hers, and then licked his chin! He jerked his head back “What the hell was that?”

She giggled drunkenly. “That dimple of yours is driving me crazy. I’ve been dying to do that since I first saw you.”

“Oh yeah?” He grinned back at her. “You can lick any part of me you like, darlin’, as long as you let me reciprocate in kind.”

Her brow wrinkled. “Really? You like that kinda thing?”

He was taken aback by the question. “Hell, yeah. Find me a man who doesn’t.”

“I’ve found plenty of ’em,” she replied dryly.

“Is that so? Then I’d be more than happy to make amends for all those selfish bastards.”

“Are you for real?”

“Do I look like I’m bullshitting?” He clasped her hand and brought it down between them, pressing her palm against his engorged prick. “Here’s your proof, sweetheart. The thought of putting my mouth on you has me rigid as rebar.”

Her eyes widened.

“Why so surprised?”

“Because I never met a man who wanted to give it before he gets it.”

He shook his head with a tsk. “Then you’ve been with boys, sweetheart, not men. A man takes care of his woman. While I’m a firm believer in equality, I was also raised to be a gentleman. The rules of gentlemanly conduct are pretty damn clear—ladies always come first.”

She slumped against him with a muffled moan.

It was an invitation he couldn’t resist. He dipped his head to claim her mouth, but this wasn’t the leisurely exploration he’d conducted earlier. He was hungry as hell. All that roundabout talk had his mouth watering to taste her—all of her.

His mouth eagerly melded with her soft and supple lips while his hands cupped her ass. He palmed it with both hands, just the way he’d fantasized about from the first time he’d laid eyes on her, giving it a good hard squeeze, and loving the soft and firm feel of it. She had a great ass.

She ground herself into him, sending a surge of blood straight to his cock. Growing needier by the second, he thrust his tongue into her mouth and tasted—tequila.

Shit.

He couldn’t do it. Yeah, he wanted her in a bad way—in an aching-balls way—but not bad enough to take advantage of her. He’d be the worst kind of heel to take advantage of a grieving woman who’d had too much to drink. As much as he wanted her, she was too boozed up and vulnerable to think straight.