Maverick (Star Valley Book 3) (6 page)

He narrowed his eyes at her in the darkened room. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “It’s safe.”

Needing no more encouragement, he tore at his belt and zipper frantically, wanting to get inside her before she clawed his face off. And judging by her expression, she just might.

He shoved his pants and boxer briefs down to his knees and surged forward. She made a surprised noise as he gripped her hips, lifted her, and set her down on his aching, freed cock. Austin let out a loud groan as he inched his way into her tight channel. Leah cried out loudly and he panicked, forcing himself to stop. He set her on her feet and pulled back out, body rigid with fear. He glanced down at the end of his throbbing erection. Just to be sure.

God, she’d been so tight!

“
What are you doing?
” she shrieked. “You can’t stop!”

He blinked, unable to see very clearly in the dark. But there was no blood that he could make out. He sighed audibly, relieved. “Sorry, sorry, rabbit,” he mumbled, lifted her, and sank back in. He grinned and felt for her thighs again, wrapping her legs around him once more. She knew what she wanted, he had to admit, and it was obvious now that she’d had it before, if not recently at least. That made him feel so much better. This was no way for a girl to lose her cherry, sloppy drunk and fumbling around in the dark. It was all good, though. They were safe.

He spread her legs wide and plunged in over and over, causing her to cry out again, though this time he was certain.

Any minute now the manager would probably bang on the door and ask them to keep it down, so
Austin
banged his little rabbit harder,
faster
, trying to finish before someone else finished
them.

He erupted inside her with a wrenching growl and collapsed against her, panting and sweating. It was nearly a minute before he recovered enough to push his weight off her and set her on the floor. He gathered his jeans, didn’t bother with fastening them, and flopped onto the unused bed. He felt the mattress dip as she lay down beside him.

The room was spinning even faster now. He gave her a lopsided grin, rolled, and closed his eyes with a groan. “Ride a cowboy,” he said quietly into the hotel’s cool soft pillow, finally realizing what it was she’d meant to say earlier.

“Yee haw,” she replied with a breathless giggle.

His lower belly clenched with renewed interested, but the whiskey had done him in. He tried to respond but fell asleep instead.

‡

L
eah opened her
eyes in the darkened room and it took her a moment before she remembered where she was. She’d had a dream about the dam, of walking along the bridge in the summer sun, listening to the birds that often gathered at the water’s edge. Still riding on the wave of contentment, she turned to gaze at the man lying next to her.

He was still asleep. Thank God for that.

It had been a crazy night. The craziest she’d ever had, by far. She didn’t know what his favorite food was or even his last name. The sex had been incredible, if not exactly perfect. So what if she hadn’t had an orgasm of her own? This was still the hottest guy she’d ever even laid eyes on…let alone been laid
by
. It was certainly worthy of anyone’s reverse bucket list. She swiped a hand through her frazzled hair and imagined what he’d see if he opened his eyes right now. A mess, she decided. And not even a hot one. She didn’t relish the idea of him seeing her this way.

She carefully slid out from under the blanket and crawled around in the dark for her heels and her panties. After she dressed in the dark, she slipped out of the room, leaving the large cowboy snoring loudly, warring with the air conditioner humming underneath the curtained window.

In no time at all she was back to her room, with no keycard, though, and a towel-clad, dripping Candace flung open the door on the third knock. “There you are! I was getting a little worried. You should’ve taken your phone with you.”

Leah wrinkled her nose apologetically. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about stopping by the room to get it.” She glanced at it, sitting on the nightstand where she’d left it charging.

“In too much of a hurry to get to his?” Candace asked.

Unable to help herself, Leah grinned. “Maybe.”

“Maybe? So how was it? What happened? Tell me everything! Give me details!”

“
Details?
”

“Well, give me
something
,” Candace insisted.

“It was good!” she said, giving up on her limp hair.

“How good? Like you had five orgasms before you started to lose count and you might’ve had another one in your sleep dreaming about him?”

Leah blushed and looked away. “It was…fine,” she amended quietly.

“What does ‘fine’ mean?”

“It means…I don’t know! Fine!”

Candace pursed her lips and scrutinized her. “How many times did he get you off?”

“Um…” Leah looked away and reached for some lipstick. It all looked garish to her, though. She wasn’t a Gilded Pink kind of girl.

“How many?” Candace pressed.

Leah sighed. “None.”

Candace’s Raspberry Rush lips formed a perfect O, which was its own kind of irony. “
What do you mean none
? That guy had muscles in places where no one has muscles! Surely he had skills, stamina, and at least one signature move!”

Leah frowned at her. “Well, we were drunk,” she reminded her. “I could barely stand up for most of it and he passed out right after.”

“Oh, lord!” Candace wailed, tossing her eyelash curler into the sink. “You left him your number, right?”

Leah bit her lower lip and shook her head.

“What? What were you thinking? Why not? You don’t know where he’s from. He could be a semi-regular thing, to get you back into the dating game.”

“Back?” said Leah with raised eyebrow.

Candace snorted. “Okay, true. Get you
into
the dating game. Like training wheels on a bike.”

The whole idea of dating seemed daunting. Leah had a couple of backseat encounters with a high school boyfriend, but no one wanted to get serious with a girl who might not be around to go to the prom. “Well, I didn’t give him my number.”

Candace threw her a sharp look in the mirror. “You know where he is! Go do it now!”

“I…I’m not…”

“Go! Gawd! You can’t let an opportunity like that pass you by, Leah. You’ve gotta seize it by the…horns,” she said with a lopsided grin.

Leah groaned but couldn’t deny that the idea was tempting. She stripped off her borrowed, rumpled dress and threw on a t-shirt and jeans. She straightened her shirt while looking closely at herself in the mirror. She still looked a little flushed, maybe even a little
different
. She didn’t want to leave just yet and head back to Cody. She wanted to hold onto the whiskey-soaked memory of last night a bit longer. Maybe it didn’t have to be only a memory.

Impulsively, she snatched the door key off the sink ledge and shoved it into her jeans pocket. “I’ll be right back!” she called out over her shoulder.

Candace laughed. “Get
his
number, too!”

Leah hurried down the hallway and hopped onto the elevator to ride it up to the third floor. When she stepped out onto the low-pile carpet, she saw the hallway mostly empty save for a large housekeeping cart parked outside the room next to Austin’s. Leah hurried past and before she could talk herself out of it, reached out and knocked on the heavy door.

She waited, heart hammering in her throat. What would she say if he answered? Thank him for last night? Invite him down to breakfast? Would she
really
have the nerve to ask for his number?

Her frantic heartbeat slowed a little, disappointed, as seconds stretched out into a minute with no answer. Beside her, the door to the adjacent room opened and she jumped a little. A small, thin Hispanic woman stepped out into the hall, gripped the cart and began to push it forward, toward Leah. “Your room?” asked the woman.

Leah shook her head. “No. Um, no. Not my room.
Wrong
room,” she replied, disheartened. She moved out of the way as the woman knocked loudly.

“Housekeeping!” she called out but there was no answer for her, either. The woman smiled at Leah and stuck her passkey into the electronic lock as Leah moved away slowly. Unable to resist, she glanced into the room as the door opened, not sure if she really expected to see her cowboy on the other side, trying to avoid her. The room was empty though, the sheets flung back and the curtains pulled wide.

Leah’s heart sank as she turned and headed back toward the elevator.
Oh, well
, she told her self as the heavy metal doors slid closed. That’s what a one night stand
was
. A series of mistakes that led to a collision. She was dented a little, maybe, but she’d come through it okay. Back in the room Candace’s eyebrows were raised as she stepped inside. Leah shook her head, letting the door close behind her. “He’s gone,” she declared.

Candace sighed. “Shit. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Leah replied and flopped down onto the bed.

“Well, anyway…” Something hit Leah’s chest and she opened her eyes to see a white plastic pen with the hotel’s name stamped on it. Candace laid out the list on the mattress. “You can cross it off.” Then she gave Leah a sly smile, “unless you’d like to try again and get it right the next time.”

Leah snorted and picked up the pen. “I think once was enough. And no matter who I meet from now on, no one’ll be as hot as that guy.”

“Amen,” Candace declared. “Too bad he was shit in bed. Or against the wall.”

“Shhh!” Leah hissed as she crossed off item number one. “He wasn’t shit.” And he hadn’t been. Not really. Leah wasn’t sure
what
he’d been. Or what
she’d
been. It had probably been mostly her fault, inexperienced as she was. Whatever the case, she didn’t regret it. “I could die happy,” she sighed, laying back against the pillow.

Candace glared at her.

“Sorry,” Leah mumbled.

“Let’s get back to Cody and start working on the rest of that list.”

‡

A
ustin woke with
a splitting headache and a sharp disappointment to match when he rolled over and found himself alone in the bed. Indeed, when he forced himself to sit up and take a look around the room, there was no sign that anyone had been there with him at all. No hangover in the world would mask the ache behind his zipper at the moment. A sweet morning send-off would’ve been just the thing. And it still would be, if he could find her fast enough.

He grabbed a mint from the nightstand, popped it into his mouth, and snatched up his room key. Downstairs in the lobby, he ducked into the bar, which was empty, of course, this early in the morning. Across the room, he spotted the barstool he’d been sitting on when she’d first come up to him. No sign of her now, though. One lone staff member was vacuuming the carpet when he looked up and switched off the machine.

“I…misplaced something last night,” Austin told him. “I suppose the bartender who was on shift isn’t here now.”

The man shook his head. “No, sorry. You can check with the front desk, though. They might have it.”

“Thanks.” Austin stood in the lobby again, watching the other guests walk by. Every blonde got a second look, just in case, and every time the bell rang over the elevators he craned his neck to see who was coming out. He scrutinized the front desk and weighed his odds of getting the receptionist to help him. It was a man, though, behind the counter, not a woman, and Austin doubted his winning smile and a few well-placed compliments would get him anywhere. Some of the cash in his wallet might, though.

He reached around to his back pocket, fingers on the well-worn leather when the bell rang again and instinctively he turned to look. It wasn’t his little rabbit that exited the car, though. It was Walker, suitcase in hand. Austin stifled a groan.

“Where’s your stuff?” Walker asked, his own room key in his hand.

“Upstairs.”

“Well, go get it. Come on. We’re burning daylight,” Walker told him. “I’ll check us out. Meet me at the truck.”