THEY KEPT AN easy pace for about an hour and then crested a beautiful rolling hill when Rian pointed at the gate. “There’s the south gate. Watch as you come down the hill.”
“I could handle this terrain at five years old.” To emphasize her point, she spurred Amelia into a run, laughing with abandon as the wind whipped her hair and she left Rian in the dust. Amelia had good legs and within seconds they were galloping down the gentle slope and into a grassy meadow. Her heart light, she came skidding to a stop as they reached the gate. She reached down and patted Amelia’s damp neck, crooning with approval. “You’re a good girl. I bet you could handle even more than that, can’t you?” She straightened and Rian sidled up to her, his eyes flashing with good humor, and she sent him a saucy grin. “I win.”
“No fair. I didn’t know we were racing until you shot off like a bat out of hell. Nice riding, by the way. You weren’t kidding when you said you were comfortable on a horse.”
“Did you think I was lying?”
“Well, maybe not lying but perhaps stretching the truth a bit. I mean, city girls aren’t usually ones for riding in the country.”
“Well, I’m only part city girl.”
“I see that.” He slid from his horse and grabbed his tools from the saddlebag to check the gate. She watched as he lifted the gate and started hammering the hinge. His biceps bulged with each clanging hit on the metal and she found herself shifting in the saddle, very aware of her body. “This shouldn’t take too long. If you want to pick a spot for lunch, that’d be good,” he said.
She nodded and slid from Amelia, giving the pretty horse a playful rub on the nose before unpacking the picnic cooler and the blanket strapped to the horse’s flank. She spread the gingham woolen blanket and began to unpack the cooler, humming to herself as she went. Birds flitted from the trees and bees buzzed. The metal clanging sounded out of place with the beautiful landscape, but CoCo was delirious with the simple joy of the moment. Nothing was perfect but this moment came pretty damn close.
Once she had all the fixings laid out, roast beef sandwiches, chips, drinks and even a few oatmeal raisin cookies, she waited for Rian, who followed a few minutes later. He took a nice, long swig from his water bottle and then plopped down beside her. “So I hope you like roast beef because that’s what’s on the menu,” she said, suddenly a little nervous, though why she didn’t know.
“Sounds great,” he said, grabbing his sandwich and taking a hearty bite. There was something that tickled her insides—something so feminine—about making a meal for Rian, though she’d never been one to appreciate domestic stereotypes before. However, now that she thought about it, her father hadn’t exactly been a feminist—he’d always preferred female cooks in the kitchen because he said they just knew more about making good food than men. So yeah, maybe her dad was a male chauvinist and she’d never noticed! She giggled at the uncomfortable thought and caught Rian’s puzzled stare as he chewed. “Something funny about roast beef that I’m unaware of?” he asked.
“No, I was just—randomly—thinking of my father and how he might be a male chauvinist, but in the nicest way possible. He doesn’t believe in putting women down or anything like that but he does play into the gender stereotype a bit.”
“How so?”
“Well, all our cooks were always female. He said that women inherently knew what to do in the kitchen because it was in their blood.”
“All the executive male chefs in the world might have something to say about that.”
She shrugged. “I know. That’s why I giggled. I just never realized that about my father.”
“There could be another reason your dad hired only women...” He wagged his eyebrows and she laughed. He shrugged. “Just pointing out the obvious.”
“The cooks were always plump, older and a little bossy. Kind of like Adeline.”
“Hey, I’m not here to judge,” he said, trying to hide a laugh, and she playfully pushed at his shoulder. “Each to his own right?”
“Eww, I don’t want to talk about my dad’s love life. And no, he wasn’t chasing after the cooks.” They ate in companionable silence and then CoCo broke a cookie in half and handed him the other half. He accepted it with a smile and gobbled it down. Then he shocked her when he scooped up the other cookie and gobbled it down just as quickly, giving her a cheeky grin when she gasped and tackled him. “We were supposed to share!” she said, laughing when she landed on top of him. His arms wound around her and he looked adorable lying in the sunshine, the light playing with the highlights in his subtle waves. “Are you always such a pig when it comes to cookies?”
“Always,” he said without a hint of apology, his grin widening. “It’s one of my flaws.”
She smiled and brushed her lips across his, murmuring, “I guess you’re entitled to one or two...” and then she deepened the kiss, needing desperately to taste him again, to feel him moving inside her. His tongue swept her mouth and she climbed on top of him, remembering the last time she was in this position, and she deepened the kiss, getting more aroused by the second. This time would be different because he wasn’t doped up. She wanted to experience sex with Rian when he was in full control of his faculties.
His touch became more urgent and he rolled her onto her back, his hips and groin matching up with hers with delicious pressure in all the right places. But just as things were beginning to get to the point where clothes were going to fly, he slowed with a groan and pulled away, rolling to his back to stare into the sky, agitated.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, confused. “Was it something I did?”
He shook his head. “No, we can’t do this.”
She frowned. “Why not? We’re both consenting adults.”
“You’re a client.” He sat up, scooting back. That tiny bit of distance hurt her feelings. One minute he was all over her and now she had the plague? “I don’t mess with clients.”
Maybe he thought his explanation would soften the blow but it hadn’t. She blinked back tears and tried to play it off that he hadn’t just punched her emotionally. “So the only reason you slept with me the other night was because of the drug,” she said, as if it was no big deal. “I get it. Sure.”
He groaned. “I wish it were that easy.” He turned to her and tried to explain but she didn’t want to hear it. What difference did it make why he didn’t want to be with her? He caught the shake of her head and pulled her abruptly back to his mouth, shocking her with the sudden movement. He took her mouth with the same intensity as a man who might die tomorrow, with a faint air of desperation tinged with anger at the world, and she happily drank in the sensation of drowning in his urgent touch.
There was something to be said for ignoring all the reasons why you shouldn’t and just embracing the fact that it’s going to happen. And she was good with that.
* * *
THE LITTLE VOICE that managed to stop him in the beginning was fading fast under the sensual onslaught of CoCo’s touch. She was like ambrosia and he couldn’t get enough. Her skin glowed in the bright sunshine and he was already working up a sweat in anticipation of tasting those rose nipples again, loving the way they tightened and pearled beneath his tongue, the breathy rasps of her voice as he brought her to a shuddering end. His arms felt empty without her in them and he couldn’t blame the drug this time. But what was he doing? He could practically hear Kane’s censure, the heavy weight of disappointment weighing on him for deliberately ignoring the good sense screaming at him to stop.
But stopping was the last thing he wanted to do. His hands shook with the need to feel her naked skin against his. There was something incredibly hot about the idea of sex in this field with CoCo, something that plucked at a previously unknown exhibitionist streak that revved his engine hard.
CoCo frantically tore at his shirt, shoving it off his shoulders and practically tearing it from his body with a sexy growl that made his blood race. She bit at his shoulder with a giggle and pinched his nipple as she rose up to claim his mouth again. God, she was so damn hot. She was both dominant and submissive. The two divergent qualities working in tandem cranked his gears until he was practically blowing steam from his ears. He couldn’t touch enough of her to feel satisfaction. A never-ending hunger to know her body, to wring those sweet gasps and cries from her mouth, drove him mercilessly until they were both naked, panting and desperate to feel one another.
He reared up, his cock bobbing with eagerness for that willing, slick heat, but he had the wherewithal to briefly pause with a tortured gasp to ask, “Are you...? I don’t have any condoms...”
“You silly boy, I’m on the pill. What do you take me for?” She grinned and pulled him down, sucking in a wild breath as he thrust into her, his thick length sliding in easily until he was buried so deeply inside her that he was surely touching her womb. “Oh, Rian...” That breathy cry thrilled him to his core as he moved slowly against her, building the friction to unbearably pleasurable levels.
“God, yes...yes! That’s it...just like that...” She wiggled against him, moaning, and he grinned, using one hand to grasp her arms and stretch them above her head, holding her there while he pumped into her. She bucked, moaning loudly, and he took pride in the fact that he was doing the job right. He angled his hips as she lifted hers and he hit that spot hard and suddenly she gushed with a guttural cry, her nipples tightening so hard that they pointed to the sky, begging for a mouth to suck on them. He wanted to oblige but he was too focused on watching the pleasure build in her beautiful face.
“R-Rian, oh, my God, R-R-Rian!” And then she shattered apart, everything clenching inside, gripping his cock with her internal muscles as they coaxed his own orgasm with each tightening band. He lost control, his thrusts became erratic and suddenly her sweet core was milking the juice right out of his body. He filled her, shuddering as he emptied. He collapsed and rolled to the side, sweat rolling down his bare back as the warm sunshine quickly dried his wet, softening cock and he closed his eyes, barely able to breathe.
That was the most epic sex he’d ever experienced.
Far better than the drug-induced hard-on from hell.
Hell, far better than any carnal activity he’d ever participated in since he’d first discovered sex.
And now that he’d gone and done the one thing he said he wouldn’t...what happened now?
He didn’t know. He was out of his depth. What was it about CoCo that made him throw out all the rules and do what he knew he shouldn’t?
He didn’t want to be like all the other guys she strung along for her entertainment. But then, he didn’t want a relationship, either. So what was going on between them? Something dangerous, that much he knew.
Maybe he ought to tell her this was a bad idea and they couldn’t do it again. He ought to put his foot down and just say the words even if he didn’t quite mean them. But the fact was, he wanted to do it again and again and again. Hell, if they could spend the rest of their time in Kentucky screwing each other raw, he’d be okay with that. And that was a terrible idea!
Even knowing that, he knew the words wouldn’t cross his lips. He wanted CoCo in the worst way and having her had only increased his appetite for more.
You done it now, boy.
Not even the echo of his older brother’s voice was enough to snap him out of this dangerous mind-set.
He had to figure things out.
But it wasn’t going to happen today, that was for damn sure.