Rough, Raw, and Ready (Rough Riders #5)(40)

“I thought I’d hate it. Before, in the kitchen? When we were just talkin’? I figured I’d probably jump in and put a stop to it if it was more than I could handle.”


“You didn’t stop us.”


“No. Part of me was relieved.”


“Why?”


“Because now I know it isn’t me.”


He squinted at her. “What wasn’t you?”


Chassie focused on the continual stroke of her thumb over the cut of muscle in Trevor’s biceps. “You have a voracious sexual appetite, Trev. I understood that when we hooked up. And I…well, I told you I wasn’t overly sexually experienced.”


“That never bothered me, just like it didn’t bother you that I’d been with more’n my fair share of women. Even some women you’re good friends with.”


“I know. It’s just sometimes, right after we’d made love or had sex or whatever, you’d get this far off look in your eye. You didn’t realize you even did it. Bein’ paranoid, I had it in my mind that I hadn’t measured up and you were disappointed in me in bed and didn’t want to say anything.”


“Chassie, baby, you know that’s not—”


“Let me finish.” Chassie mustered the courage to look in Trevor’s eyes. “Today, after seein’ this, I realize that was wrong. You weren’t critiquing my performance. You weren’t even thinkin’ about me, were you?”


He briefly squeezed his eyes shut and blinked them open. “Fuck. I’m sorry.”


“Don’t be. Like I said, I’m more relieved than anything.”


“Relieved? That I was thinkin’ about another…man?”


“Crazy female logic, right? It hurts, yeah, but it probably makes no sense when I admit I’d be even more freaked out if it were a woman lodged so deeply in your thoughts.”


A scowl distorted his face. “But now?”


“But after seein’ you and Edgard together, I understand you get something from bein’ with him, something I can’t give you, even if I become the perfect lover. You do the same for him. There’s a need. There’s a connection. I saw it and it felt a lot more like love than experimental man-lust from your past.” When Trevor’s eyes darted away, she demanded, “I’m right, aren’t I?”


“You askin’ me if I love him?”


Chassie shook her head. “I’m tellin’ you I’d understand if you did.”


A heavy pause lingered before Trevor met her eyes.

Her stomach lurched at the raw emotion he didn’t bother to hide. “Jesus, Chass.

What did I ever do to deserve you?”


They’d suffered enough emotional turmoil with no clear solution, so she strove to lighten things up. “Maybe the question oughta be what should you do to keep me? I need reassurance you find me as enthralling as the Brazilian. Because, darlin’, he is one smokin’ hot specimen of man flesh.”


Trevor frowned.

Chassie wasn’t finished. “You’ve got that All-American boy next door look, tall, built and handsome, with your tousled blond hair, blazin’ blue eyes and shit-eatin’ grin.

Then there’s this jaw that seems made of granite and the sexy dimple in your chin.” She let her fingers trace the delineated lines of his triceps, biceps and forearms. “You’re all hard muscled shoulders, chest and pecs, ripped abs. This set of pipes are highly lickable.”


She bent her head, her tongue following the path her hand forged. “And don’t get me started on your lower half.”


“Am I sensin’ another ‘but’ here, wife?”


“Yep. But I’d totally be lyin’ if I didn’t admit feelin’ a bit lightheaded when faced with Edgard’s dark good looks, slumberous eyes, killer smile and sexy accent. All those yummy extras wrapped up in a lean athletic body that knows its way around ropin’, ridin’ and ranchin’? Mmm. He fills out a pair of Wranglers like nobody’s business. But when Ed stripped to nothin’? And I caught my first look at his big, long—”


Trevor smashed his mouth to hers. When their tongues twined, she was slightly shocked at Trevor’s altered taste—she detected a hint of Edgard’s mouth as well as a hint of semen. This close, she could smell Edgard’s scent on Trevor’s skin. Just then Trevor seemed to remember Edgard had come in his mouth not ten minutes past and he stiffened.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind,” Chassie said against his lips and took the kiss to the hungry, needy pace she craved.

Before too long Trevor’s hands started to wander. Thumbing her nipples through her shirt, squeezing her breasts. Impatiently unsnapping the buttons on her blouse and releasing the front clasp on her bra.

She loved the way his callused fingers rasped against her hot skin and gooseflesh broke out across her chest and arms as a result of his touch.

His hand spanned her belly and eased over her waistband. He tapped her knees, a signal for her to spread herself open. When he stroked the seam of her jeans and found them damp, he abruptly ended the kiss. “Christ. You’re ready. From watchin’ me and Ed together?”