“YOUR BRAIN IS on fire, isn’t it?” she asked, rolling to her stomach to regard Rian, who’d gone silent. They were still naked as the day they were born but neither was in a rush to get dressed. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
He smiled. “Isn’t that a little dangerous?”
“I’m brave. Go ahead, try me.”
Rian laughed. “I think I just did.”
CoCo giggled and rose up to brush a playful kiss across his lips. “You know what I mean. I promise I won’t bite.”
“What if I like it when you bite?” he asked with a half grin twisting his mouth. “I mean, there’s something to be said for a little nibble here and there.”
“C’mon, tell me what’s on your mind. I know you’re probably dealing with some kind of guilt, right?”
He nodded with a chagrined chuckle. “And here I thought I was mysterious.”
“No, not really,” she said, shaking her head. “Sorry to burst your bubble.”
He sighed and rose up on his elbows. “Okay, yeah, I’m feeling guilty because I just broke my own rule about messing around with a client. I mean, I could forgive myself for the first time because I was under the influence of something, but I can’t use that excuse this time.”
“Are you saying you need an excuse to have sex with me?” she asked, raising a brow. “Because that doesn’t make me feel very good. And neither does the idea that you’re just ‘messing around’ with me. Makes me feel...you know, cheap.”
“No, not like that, I’m sorry,” he rushed to clarify. “It’s just that I have rules in place for a reason and they’re good reasons. I deal with celebrity clients all the time. It’s my job to protect the reputation of the company by remaining professional at all times, even when the client is dead-sexy and hotter than Georgia asphalt.”
His frank comment thrilled her. A slow smile formed. “Are you saying that I’m hotter than Georgia asphalt?”
“You know you are,” he growled, pulling her so that she straddled him. “You’re the hottest woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“You know what they say about rules... They’re meant to be broken.”
His hands filled with her breasts, his gaze darkening as he gently squeezed the plump flesh. A small groan escaped as he rose up, tucking her legs around his torso and suddenly grabbing a handful of her ass. “Some rules, yes. Others, no.”
“Says who?”
“Says me. If word got out that I was sleeping with a client, we wouldn’t get more jobs. This is our livelihood. I couldn’t do that to Kane.”
She appreciated how much integrity Rian had. It was a refreshing change from the usual people she hung out with but that didn’t mean she was going to suddenly stop wanting to have sex with him. “How about this...while we are here at the ranch, we do whatever we want with each other but once we leave...we’ll pretend that nothing ever happened.”
He eyed her curiously. “That would work for you?”
“Sure. As cute as you are, I’m not sure a relationship would really work out, but we have the kind of chemistry that’s hard to deny so why should we if we don’t have to? At least for the moment, right?”
He was beginning to warm to her logic. “So, you’re okay with having sex all day long while we’re here but the minute we leave, it’s cold turkey between us?”
“A frozen turkey,” she promised, though a small part of her wondered if that were actually possible. Their chemistry was off the charts. It might be hard to just shut it off. But she’d deal with that later. Right now, she’d say or do anything to get Rian to agree to her idea.
She wiggled against him, her wet core sliding across his cock, reminding him of what he’d done to her. His gaze flared with instant lust and she sucked in a wild breath as she felt his cock stirring to life. Damn, his stamina was incredible. “Careful, country boy, don’t start the engine if you’re not ready to drive,” she taunted him with a sweet, daring smile. Oh, that was like throwing gasoline on a fire! She laughed as he buried his face against her neck, sucking the soft skin of her shoulder, and they tumbled to the blanket, completely comfortable with one another as they quickly banged out round two, leaving them both breathless and barely able to move by the end. At this rate, riding her horse back to the ranch was going to be a challenge.
But she didn’t care. There was something about Rian Dalton that she couldn’t get enough of.
A voice at the back of her mind warned that this could become a problem. But CoCo had discovered she could effectively drown out her inner voice with epic bouts of sex, which was exactly what she planned to do with the very willing, very sexy country boy at her disposal.
Yeehah!
* * *
BY THE TIME they returned to the ranch, it was nearing four o’clock and they had to hustle to shower and get ready for supper. Of course, a shower necessitated nudity and nudity encouraged monkey business, so the shower took a bit longer than usual but Rian wasn’t complaining. In fact, when he remembered what CoCo had done to him in the shower, he nearly blushed.
He was almost in awe of the woman’s sexual skills and that was saying a lot. He wasn’t a prude by any means but that woman...she made him feel like a teenager without a lick of practical knowledge. It was sexy and intimidating at the same time but he wanted more.
“How’d you learn that little trick?” he asked, bracketing CoCo against the bathroom wall as she was drying off. “That was pretty epic.”
“Europeans are less squeamish about sex,” she answered with a shrug and a smile. “My first lover was an older man. He taught me a few things.”
Rian pushed off, intrigued. “How much older?”
“Old enough.” She dropped her towel and he momentarily forgot what he was talking about and she switched subjects. “So what’s going to happen at this dinner? I think for the sake of appearances we should keep things professional, easier to avoid awkward questions that way. Do you agree?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, not caring about dinner. He wanted to know more about this older guy. “So, when you say older, what does that mean? Was he, like, some old man?”
She cast an irritated look his way. “Really? Does it matter?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“Oh, my God, you’re being a baby. Do you really want details about something that never concerned you?” When he remained stubbornly silent, she rolled her eyes and shimmied into her sundress, saying, “Okay, I was seventeen, he was forty-two. He was a business associate of my father’s and I met him on his yacht. We had chemistry and we acted on it. Discreetly, of course. End of story. We did our thing for about two months and then we parted ways without harsh feelings. It’s not as if I was looking to marry the man. I enjoyed that he was a generous lover and he was far more attentive than any of the silly boys trying to get my attention who didn’t know what to do with a hole in the ground.”
Why was he jealous of some guy from her past? What did it matter? “That’s quite an age gap,” he said, unable to help himself. “I mean, if it’d happened in the States, he could’ve gone to jail because it’s illegal.”
“Well, it wasn’t here. Can we drop it?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Good. I’m starved.” She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him, then said, “If it matters, as good as it was with him, it’s so much better with you and I’m not just saying that to soothe your ego. If the sex wasn’t electric between us, I wouldn’t waste my time.”
That did help a little. He allowed a smile and surprised her by hoisting her onto his hips. She smiled as she hooked her legs around his torso. “We have time for a quickie,” he said and she laughed, assuming he wasn’t serious, but right now he was already hard and ready. To illustrate that point, he pressed her against the wall and pushed his erection against her. “See? I’m ready if you are.”
“Tempting,” she groaned but shook her head. “I’m not about to formally meet your family with sex hair. Cool your jets, country boy.”
He let her down with a reluctant sigh and attempted to shift his boner into a less obvious position. “All right, princess. But all bets are off as soon as we get back.”
She cast him a devilish grin. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I don’t.” That’s right, baby. I’m going to ruin you for other men. “C’mon, let’s get over there before Adeline sends a search party,” he growled, wanting nothing more than to blow off dinner so he could feast on CoCo, but he’d never do that to Warren and Adeline. But just as CoCo was about to open the front door, he jerked her into his arms for a searing kiss that left them both breathless. “Something to tide me over until dinner is over,” he said, burning holes into her with his need to touch her.
She nodded, her lips glistening, her eyes wide, and then he turned her loose. When her gait was slightly tipsy, his ego swelled in proportion to his eager cock. Yeah, nice to see that that road traveled both ways.
He loved Adeline and Warren with all his heart but right about now, he wanted to skip dinner and go straight to dessert.