Kissin' Tell (Rough Riders #13)(58)

As much as she liked being held against his warm, hard chest, she couldn’t help but snicker. “Is this where you call me a tenderfoot?”


He grunted with exaggeration. “I’m stoically bearing the pain for you, little lady, ’cause that’s what us cowboy types do.” He set her down and stretched on the hammock before extending a hand to her.


It wobbled, but she found a balance point, which placed her right on top of Tell, luckily for her.


She sighed. “It’s the perfect temperature.”


“I crash out here in the summer when it’s too hot to sleep inside.”


“Don’t you get eaten alive by bugs?”


“Nah. I must not be sweet enough.”


“I think you’re plenty sweet.” She kissed his pectoral and snuggled into his side.


Tell shifted to tangle their legs together.


All the turmoil from the last few hours faded, and a feeling of contentment filled her as he trailed his rough fingertips over her skin.


After a bit, Tell said, “So what’s the craziest, riskiest thing you’ve ever done?”


“Nothing.”


“Come on, there’s gotta be something.”


“I’ve always done what was expected of me. Either by my parents or by my boss.” Rather than dissect her boring choices, she posed the same question to him. “What’s the craziest, riskiest thing you’ve ever done, wild man McKay?”


He continued stroking the underside of her arm from her wrist to her armpit. “I was tired of bein’ the poor McKay relation. So I took all my money, except for fifty bucks, and entered a poker tournament. I was either gonna go big or go home broke.”


“So what happened?”


“It paid off. I won first place. So I banked half of what I’d won, and used the other half to enter another tournament the next weekend.”


“And?”


Tell chuckled. “I had a winning streak that lasted an entire year. Made a really good chunk of change. Dalton was my partner in crime, so to speak, so we won enough to buy more land to add to our part of the McKay ranch.”


Georgia raised her head from his chest and looked at him. “Good for you. But now that you’ve told me, a game of strip poker ain’t in the cards for us.”


“You’d win. I’d get you half-nekkid and I’d start thinkin’ raunchy thoughts…”


She smiled. “I like your raunchy mind.”


“And sweetness, you ain’t seen the raunchiest parts.” He nipped the top of her ear. “Yet.”


“Are you still sandbagging tournaments?”


“Once in a while. Dalton is still goin’ strong. That runner’s high after winnin’ big is dangerous stuff. But it ain’t like he’s blowing money left and right. We are each other’s checks and balances system, so it didn’t happen to either of us, because we saw so many guys who fell prey to that mindset. Always wanting that next big win. Quarter of a million dollars one week; then they’d lose it all the following week. We treated gambling like a business. Only playing one type of game. Only entering events where the buy-in was high because the payout was high.”


She stared at him, fascinated again by another facet of this man. “I’ve never heard you talk about this.”


“That’s because me’n Dalton keep it to ourselves. Brandt knows we won some money because he’s on the land deed. Our cousin Ben knows because we tried to do a business deal with him a year and a half ago, but it fell through. But no one in my family knows and that’s the way we wanna keep it.”


“I won’t breathe a word, I promise.” She sighed. “I’m boring compared to you. You have this secret life and—”


Tell stopped her protest with a kiss.



After he released her mouth, she rested the side of her face on his chest. He nuzzled the top of her head and continued his caresses on her arm.


A soft breeze blew. Between the sway of the hammock, the comforting beat of Tell’s heart beneath her ear, and the chirping crickets, Georgia could’ve easily fallen asleep. Being with him like this settled every ragged nerve inside her.


“You up for more ice cream?” he murmured a little while later. “Because one bowl doesn’t count as wallowing.”


“Sure. But I am pretty comfy right now.”


“I could tell, bein’s you were snoring.”


“Maybe I did doze off. But I’m blaming you. You’re so easy to be with.”


“I don’t know whether I oughta take that as a compliment or not,” he grumbled.


Georgia pecked his pouting lips. “Fine. I’ll eat another bowl of ice cream if it’ll make you happy. How do we get out of this contraption?”


“Straddle me.”


She sighed. “Nice try, Mr. Insatiable.”


He grinned and lightly tapped her ass. “I’m serious. You bein’ on my center of gravity will stabilize us.”


“Okay. But if I feel your dick get hard, I can’t be held accountable for attacking you.” She balanced one hand on his shoulder and threw her other leg over his pelvis.