Branded as Trouble (Rough Riders #6)(64)

It was weird to think she’d helped choose the furnishings for Colt’s room, from the color palette to the bedding. And now she’d be sliding around naked with him on those striped cotton sheets?


Weird indeed.


His muffled footsteps stopped behind her. He was close enough his body heat burned her naked back, but he didn’t touch her. “What are you thinkin’ about right now?”


“I remember when we went to Cheyenne and picked out the bedding. How you insisted on nothing too ‘girlie’. Heck, I Branded As Trouble


remember picking out the bed. Bouncing on the mattress and laughing, trying to freak out the salespeople by pretending we were having sex. I never imagined you and I would actually be…”


“Didn’t you? Didn’t you really? It never once crossed your mind that you’d be in my bed?”


India couldn’t answer, mostly because she didn’t know the right answer.


Colt’s lips landed on the nape of her neck. “Lemme show you all the things I thought about doin’ to you in my bed.”


Tingles raced down her spine.


He took her hand and tugged her behind him. He tossed the pillows to the floor and yanked back the coverlet. Facing her with a wicked grin, he patted the mattress. “Hop up. Get in the middle.”


A bout of nerves hit her as she set the box of condoms up in the corner and lay flat.


Then Colt was hanging above her. Kissing her with fire and sweetness. “Indy—” he said her name between kisses, “—put your arms straight out so I can see you. All of you.”


She did.


He nuzzled her neck, nipped at her jaw. “Tell me about your tattoos.”


“Which one?”


“All of them on the front.” His callused finger traced the designs on her right arm, from the ball of her shoulder down to her wrist. “Why’d you go with a sleeve on one arm and not the other?”


Colt’s mouth on her skin was beyond divine, but it was hell on her concentration. “It wasn’t intentional. I wanted a cool snake curling up my arm, with the tail on my wrist and the head on my biceps. I had no idea my buddy GG planned to ink a flesh-colored snake until it was done.”


“It really is unique.”


“Then I knew the skin around it needed to be brightly colored with geometric shapes and abstract images so I designed those.”


“It’s sexy as hell.” Colt bent his head and licked, from the tail of the snake up to the fangs.


“Oh. Wow. That’s the first time…”


“The first time what?”


Any man has paid homage to my tats with his tongue. “You’ve said anything about my tattoos.”


“Really? I love them. All of them. Especially the twisted barbed wire circling this biceps. It looks so real. The drops of blood on the tips of the barbs are a realistic touch.”


“Is that why you had me do one on you?” She traced the thick black lines on Colt’s biceps. His tat was a far better design than hers. She’d killed herself drawing it, and spent extra time inking him, desperate for Colt to be proud to have it on his arm.


“Yep. If I had the guts, I’d have you continue all the way down to my wrist so it looks like my arm is trapped in barbed wire.”


India’s head started spinning. That would actually make a kick-ass tattoo.