Long Hard Ride (Rough Riders #1)(28)

“I don’t like fighting with you.”


“Same goes, darlin’.”


Relief made her reckless and she ground her pelvis against his and discovered he was already hard. “Mmm. Maybe I need a refresher on the responsibilities of being your best girl. You can leave out the ass whooping this time.”


“Channing—”


“I hated the way you left me today, and we didn’t get anything resolved, especially after the way you put your mouth on me, I was so close to coming—”


Colby growled and clamped his hands on her gyrating hips. “Unless you want me to f*ck you right here on the dance floor, knock it off, Chan. I’m not kiddin’.”


“I’m not either. I missed you. Let me show you how much.” She stretched to her tiptoes and brushed her lips across the pulse thrumming in his throat.


Tonight he was clean-shaven. A subtle piney scent teased her from beneath his starched shirt collar. She loved his smooth, square jaw and the way he considered her from beneath his ridiculously long dark eyelashes. She loved how his nostrils flared when he was aroused and the determined set to his mouth just before he kissed her. Everything about this sturdy, sexy, sweet man intoxicated her.


In between nibbling bites on his neck, she whispered, “I want to be with you, Colby. Running my hands over your skin as your rough flesh rubs against mine. Digging my heels into your tight little cowboy butt as you slide in and out of me. Looking in your gorgeous blue eyes as we’re barely a breath apart. Tasting your kisses. Seeing those dimples wink at me when I do something that turns you on. Your sweat mingling with mine, how it lets our bodies slide together perfectly—”


“Enough,” he said hoarsely. “Jesus, I only got so much willpower where you’re concerned.”


“And that’s bad because?”


“Because I gotta cool down or it’ll be over before it even starts. Damn, girl, I need a diversion.”


Rather than towing her from the dance floor like a man on a mission to get her naked, he sauntered to the back corner of the bar by the dartboards and introduced her to some of the other guys she’d recognized from the circuit.


Normally she wasn’t tongue-tied in social situations but tonight she felt shy. Especially when Colby plopped down and rather than finding her another chair, he pulled her on his lap. Her butt straddled his thigh, high, near his groin.


A beer bottle dangled from his fingers and if she wanted a drink, he held it up for her to sip. She swore the heat from his lips left an impression on the glass, and her own lips fit that dent perfectly.


His insistence on catering to her and showing every one of his pals they were together didn’t make her feel like a piece of property. It made her feel special. Like she belonged.


Colby and the guys talked specifics on their rides and times and pros and cons of certain rough stock. Channing paid close attention because it fascinated her. The other women didn’t seem to care. Because they’d heard the stories a million times? Or because the dirt on rodeoing full time was old hat to them?


Cash swung by to make sure she was all right before he bid the crew goodnight. The hardcore partiers—young, fresh-faced cowboys barely old enough to shave—gave Cash a rash of crap for being an old timer. Cash winked at her and took it in stride. Channing noticed Cash politely excused himself from the clutches of several buckle bunnies and left alone. What was up with that? Very few cowboys opted to say no to willing female flesh. Ever.


During the latter part of the conversation with a group of tie-down ropers, Colby started lightly stroking the exposed skin on her lower back where her shirt gapped from her skirt. An idle, fleeting touch, which should’ve been comforting but packed a powerful punch of sexual promise. Every lingering caress of his blunt, rough finger felt like he was stroking her *. Didn’t take long for her panties to become soaked through.



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.”