Cowgirl Up and Ride (Rough Riders #3)(15)

But then AJ remembered how hot Cord’s eyes burned every time he’d looked at her last night. He wanted her, but he didn’t want to want her.


Too bad. If he did show up, she’d pull out all the stops and make herself impossible to resist.


She scanned the bar. Decent crowd tonight, lots of folks she knew. Then again, she’d lived in Sundance, Wyoming since birth; there were few people she didn’t know. She waved at Bebe shooting pool at one of the back tables. Smiled at her buddy Liza and her fiancé Noah cozied up in a corner booth. When AJ spun back around, her pulse leapt. Her sexy fantasy man was chatting up the bouncers as he paid the cover charge.


Cord glanced up. Their eyes met. He moseyed along, checking things out.


She drained her beer, hoping he’d come to check her out.


Cord stopped in front of her. “I’m here.”


“I see that.” Her heart thumped wildly as his big frame practically cast her in shadow.


“Buy you another?”


“Sure.”


“Don’t go nowhere.”


“I’ll be right here.”


He ambled away, gifting her with a glimpse of his tight buns and muscular legs encased in dark blue Wranglers. A denim shirt stretched across his wide shoulders. Oh man. Just looking at him made her melt. What would it be like to touch him? Feel that rough skin all over hers?


Barely a minute passed before Cord was back. Maybe he was anxious too. He handed her a bottle and offered a toast. “To a new attitude.”


“I’ll drink to that.”


He rested his elbow on the table and studied her face as if he’d never seen her before.


“You look different.”


AJ resisted the urge to smooth her hair or wet her lips. “Bad different? Or good different?”


Cord’s forceful gaze traveled from her mouth to her breasts and back to her eyes.


“Oh, definitely good. Very very good.”


Her belly quivered.


“So, AJ…you weren’t pullin’ my leg last night?”


She shook her head.


“You up for some fun and games?”


Her mouth was so dry she just nodded.



“Flattered as I am… Why me? You gotta know any one of the young guys in here would kill to have a shot at you.”


AJ broke eye contact and scraped at the label on her beer bottle. Shoot. How was she supposed to answer that without giving herself away?


Cord’s rough hand curled over her wrist and he idly stroked her knuckles. Her stomach jumped again. She glanced up, overwhelmed by the lust in his eyes.


“Jesus. You have the sexiest mouth I’ve ever seen. I can’t think beyond tastin’ that mole by the corner of your lips. Runnin’ my tongue over it. Kissin’ every inch of it on the way back to kissin’ every inch of your mouth.”


Warning. Don’t let him sweet-talk you until you get a chance to speak your piece.


She blurted, “Do you wanna dance?”


“Not to this.”


“Why not?”


“Because the first time I put my hands on you, I want you close. Real close. Close as we can get with our clothes on without getting kicked out for lewd behavior.”


The silence between them grew. AJ felt her confidence slipping. This was not the way she’d envisioned her night of seduction.