Chasin' Eight: Rough Riders, Book 12 (19 page)

Maybe you can wave your magic wand from the prop department and generate world peace. This negativity and second-guessing is not helping. You’ve never needed a man’s approval to feel secure or to define you on any level—personally or professionally.

That wasn’t true. She’d managed to fake that self-assured air so many of her peers owned—at least when it came to her career. But she failed miserably when it came to presenting the
I’m-so-hot-don’t-you-want-me-baby?
attitude around men. Give her a script and she could act brash and sexy. Not so easy in the real world.

Sad thing was? Even the small scrap of relationship confidence she’d gained after being Jake’s girlfriend had vanished after the tabloid story broke. For those months she’d been half a couple, she’d felt good about herself, knowing a beautiful, desirable man like Jake was attracted to her. Didn’t that make her beautiful and desirable too? Which afterward, sort of made her feel pathetic, that she’d needed validation badly enough she overlooked the warning signs in their relationship. Before Jake had entered the picture, she’d sworn to herself she’d step out of Hollywood and find a man who wasn’t in the entertainment industry. Like most single women she was mortified at the idea of asking her parents for a fix-up. So she’d been
this close
to signing up for a private dating service. She’d spent way too many weekend nights alone in her pajamas watching TV, eating ice cream straight out of the carton. Wouldn’t that make a great tabloid headline?
Actress Ava Cooper—why are Ben & Jerry the only men in her life?

Dammit. For the first time in years Ava felt totally comfortable being herself around a man she was wildly attracted to. Yes, she’d been fun and flirty, sexy even, but it didn’t feel like acting. She’d taken a chance and shown Chase the real Ava. He hadn’t run away calling her a freak, yet he’d still relegated her to the “friend zone” probably permanently. She could tell herself over and over that his refusal to become her lover was nothing personal, but that broken, feminine part inside of her took it very personally. Problem was, she didn’t know what to do about it. Did she move on to another man in hopes he’d burn up the sheets with her? That idea held little appeal for her now, even when many of the cowboys she’d crossed paths with had made it very clear they’d love to take her for a ride.

Wanting what you can’t have will only make this trip miserable. And this trip isn’t only about getting down and dirty with Chase McKay.

Also true. Disgusted with herself for wallowing, she focused on the task at hand for today—finding a motel within their budget.

Chase wandered to check out the contractor’s rough stock.

Ava wasn’t content texting him; she called. “Hey, I found us a room. I actually comparison shopped. This place isn’t as nice as the first one I checked out, but it does have free Wi-Fi.”

It amused the hell out of him that she sounded so damn proud of herself. “It’s less than a hundred bucks?”

“Of course. Be nice if you had a little faith in me, Sundance. Anyway. I’m starved. I’ll probably try to find something healthy before I head to the rodeo grounds. Did you want me to pick you something up?”

“If it’s healthy? Hell no. I noticed a couple of tempting treats as I wandered past the vendor stands.”

“We are talking about
food
treats, right?” she said sharply.

“Be nice if you had a little faith in me, Hollywood,” he shot back.

“Trusting lot, aren’t we?”

“Goes with the territory for both of us.”

“This goes with the territory as well. Please, please be careful tonight, Chase. Promise me.”

Touched by her genuine concern, he said gruffly, “I promise.”

“Good. And I expect you to share your idea of a tempting treat with me after the rodeo ends.”

No way could he confess she was the most tempting thing in his life right now. Imagining her beautiful form stretched out nekkid on his bed as he worshipped every millimeter of her body. With his hands. His mouth. His tongue. At least twice.

“Chase? You still there?”

“Just thinking about the treat I’m gonna offer you.”

“Can you give me a hint?”

“It’s long and hard and filled with sweet white cream.”

Ava sighed dreamily. “Am I perverted for admitting I can’t wait to wrap my lips around it and taste it?”

He chuckled, even as he inwardly groaned at the sexy mental image she provided. “Are you in for a big surprise. See you later.”

“You do realize you’re supposed to stay on the bull a full eight seconds and not hop off at six point nine,” Ava said after he’d cleared the contestant’s area.

“Funny.” Chase tried not to limp, but he’d taken a real ass buster.

“It sucks I can’t go behind the chutes.”

“So you’ve said. After every performance,” he said dryly. “You’re shit outta luck unless you can miraculously prove you’re a stock contractor, a promoter or a member of the media.”

Ava stopped and looked at him. Her eyes narrowed. “Have you been snooping on my computer?”

Why the hell would she ask that? “No.”

“Have you even looked at any of the rides I emailed to you?”

Probably not wise to admit he’d fallen behind watching the rides she’d so painstakingly taped. But he was riding a hundred times better than just two weeks ago. He carried enough rodeo superstition that he feared watching it might jinx his run of good luck. So he deflected. “Come on, sweet thang. It’s time for that treat I promised you.” He towed her to a food booth by the carnival grounds. “We’ll take two fried Twinkies.”

“That is not what I was expecting from your description, Sundance.”

“I gathered that, Hollywood.” Chase paid and handed Ava the stick, warning, “Careful. It’s hot.”

“Maybe I’ll just blow on it a little.” She held the phallic-shaped object close to her pursed lips.

This was a bad idea.

“Or, maybe it’d be better if I sucked on just the very tip. That’s always the best part.” She opened her mouth and those lush pink lips enclosed the end. Her cheeks hollowed as she sucked and emitted throaty groans of satisfaction.

Then she licked all the way around the head. The tip. No, the top of the Twinkie.

Dammit. Chase could not tear his eyes away from her avid mouth, nipping teeth and flashing tongue.

“Oops. I’d better be careful not to let that sweet, hot cream explode and coat my lips before I have a chance to swallow it all.”

This was fucking torture and she knew it.

Keeping her eyes on his, Ava opened her mouth and the entire Twinkie disappeared inside.

Holy fuck. She was deep throating it.

Then she slowly, sensually, slid it back out, a little at a time. She licked her lips. “Mmm. You were right. This is delicious.”

Chase had to turn away when she noisily started sucking again. He was hard as a fucking post just from watching her. He counted to one hundred before he chanced a look at her.

Mistake. She’d eaten down to the middle of the Twinkie and she’d dip her tongue inside before licking the outside rim. Her eyes danced with pure mischief. “Something wrong with your Twinkie, Chase?”

Time for a little payback. “Not at all. Just waiting for it to cool down. See, my favorite part is the warm, juicy center. I like to taste it slow, licking from bottom to top a few times before I bury my tongue deep.”

She froze.

Chase held up his Twinkie and traced it from top to bottom with the tip of his index finger, creating a small crack in the batter. Then he spread the two sections apart, bent his head and licked straight up the slit and back down. Three times. Stopping at the center to suck with gusto. He lifted his mouth and growled, “God I love this. Love having my face covered with stickiness. Love to feel that sweetness sliding down my throat.”

Ava drew in a sharp breath.

“So warm. So soft. So tasty.” He locked his gaze to hers as he lapped up every bit of the filling.

Oh yeah. With the way her body shifted from side to side, look who was all hot and bothered now. “You all right? You stopped eating.”

“Umm. I’m full.” She walked to the garbage and tossed away the last half of her Twinkie.

Chase ate the rest of his quickly because he really did love the damn things.

When Ava sauntered back to him, his eyes zeroed in on a white dot by her mouth.

“You’re staring at me. Do I have something on my face?”

“Yeah. You missed a spot.”

Ava rubbed her fingers across her lips.

“Come here. I’ll get it.” Chase should’ve used his thumb to wipe it clean. But some primal instinct urged him to use his mouth. He curled his hand around the side of her face, letting his tongue follow the bottom arc of her lip. He nibbled at the corner of her smile, tasting the sweet cream filling and the sweetness of her mouth.

This woman turned him inside out. Everything about her tempted him in ways he’d never been tempted.

They stayed like that for several long moments, neither willing to break the tenuous connection.

“Thanks,” Ava said softly. “It would’ve been embarrassing to walk around with a white spot on my face.”

He murmured, “Especially when we both know what it looked like.”

“Think people would’ve checked to see if I had dirty knees too?”

“Probably discreetly. Then they’d be checking me out to see if I was wearing a big ol’ grin.”

“But you probably wouldn’t have been so eager to lick that spot away if it was…?”

Seen-it-all, done-it-all, kinky California chick couldn’t even say the words? Interesting. Chase whispered, “Would I lick my come from your mouth after you finished blowing me? In a fuckin’ heartbeat. I’d love to taste myself on your tongue, Ava. It’d be hot as hell.”

Her breath caught.

“I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean—”

“Don’t lie to me and tell me you didn’t mean it,” she sniped, “when I know damn well you did.”

Enough. This had gotten way out of hand. He stepped back. “Look. We’re both tired. A little punchy. Let’s just forget it and head to the motel.”

Chapter Fourteen

Ava parked in front of the orange door of room 116 at the Westward Ho Motor Inn. Schlepping her duffel bag, Chase’s bag and her assorted electronic bags made her long for a bellhop.

Inside the clean, small room, she picked the bed by the wall just to be ornery, because she knew Chase didn’t like sleeping by the window. Which served him right. He’d been standoffish the last day, insisting she leave him at the Scottsbluff rodeo grounds, even when no official bull riding events were scheduled.

She flopped on the bed, turned on her computer and messed with the mockup websites for an hour before she called Hannah.

“If it isn’t Wyoming’s newest cowgirl,” Hannah said drolly.

“Hah! The joke is on you. I’m not in Wyoming.”

“Where are you?”

“Nebraska.”

“That’s actually worse because I’m from Nebraska. Anyway, you calling to rub it in you’ve gotten laid by a smokin’-hot cowboy or two?”

“I wish. The sex part of my summer vacation hasn’t happened.” Yet. “I’m calling because I need you to do something for me. Something that might be…well, not illegal per se, but a little on the shady side.”

“And what’s that?”

“I need you to make me a couple of press passes.”

“Okay. I’ll bite. What for?”

“So I can get access to the rodeo contestant area to videotape bull rides. It’s manned by security, but media is allowed. So I thought, Hannah deals with media passes all the time, she’d know exactly how to fake a couple of good ones.”

Hannah sighed. “Ava. I love you, but I’m not going to jail for you.”

“Jail schmail. Seriously, this will be a piece of cake. Alls I need is the name of the magazine, my picture and my name laminated on an official badge.”

“And no one will check to make sure you’re legit?” she asked skeptically.

“Of course they will. Are you by a computer? Sorry. Stupid question. Go to
Faces of Rodeo
dot com.”

“I’m there. What is it?”

“A new magazine I created,” she said with pride.

“Seriously, Ava, this is your brainchild?” Computer keys clicked in the background. “The
Check back for more details
on the main page is vague.”

“Which is perfect for my purposes. Anyone who checks it—and me—will believe this is a brand-spanking-new magazine, still working on a web presence. Ooh, now go to
Behind the Chutes
dot com.”

“Why do you need two fake magazines? Why not just one?”

“So I have options.”

“You’re scaring me. You did all this?”

“Yep. Thank God for cheap, quick and easy websites.”

“
Behind the Chutes
—all the news and current standings of the stars of the PRCA. Now that is a great magazine tagline.”

“Thank you.” Filled with nervous energy, Ava hopped off the bed. “So what do you say? Can you get these made up this afternoon and Fed Ex them to me by tomorrow?”

“I should say no, but I haven’t heard you this excited about anything in a long time. What name are you using for these? Ava Dumond?”

Ava paced to the window and peeked out the curtain. “No. How about just initials? A.R. Dumond. I’ll take a picture and email it to you. You can use it for both IDs.” She picked up the guest services guide and rattled off the address. “I know this is last minute, but I really need to have these in hand by tomorrow, because we won’t be staying anyplace this long for at least another week.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

As much as Ava trusted Hannah, she hedged on divulging Chase’s identity. “A bull rider. He’s showing me the sights in exchange for me taping his rides.”

“Ava.” Hannah heaved an exasperated sigh. “Did you hit your head or something? You’re never this trusting. How can you be sure this dude isn’t taking you for a ride as a smooth-talking con artist?”

“Because he’s related to Ginger’s husband. I’m being careful. And I’m having fun.”

“Fine, but I’d appreciate you keeping in contact with me.”

“I will. Oh, and one other thing? Can you grab three pairs of jeans out of my closet and send those too?”

“Why don’t you just buy new ones?” When Ava didn’t answer right away, Hannah demanded, “What the hell is going on, Ava?”