Ridge (6 page)

Ridge’s hand flashed out, and he smacked the radio button off. A ringing silence followed.

Then without warning, he veered off the highway, taking an exit ramp too fast and sending Kashley leaning hard into the console. “Where are we going? You’re not turning around, are you?”

“I’d like to hunt down that reporter and tie her tongue in a knot, but I won’t waste my time. I need some coffee and fresh air.” He drove out of the turn and came to a stop sign, launching Kashley forward against her seatbelt. He had the grace to give her an apologetic glance. “Sorry.”

“You either need to stop driving so recklessly or get the holy shit handle replaced. I can’t keep being tossed around this way, Ridge.”

He grunted, which to her meant
okay, I’ll try harder.
She sat back again, satisfied. When he pulled into a coffee shop, she was happy to get out of the truck for a few minutes, though they’d been on the road less than half an hour.

He got out and looked around.

“What are you searching for?” she asked, approaching from the side.

“Camera crew. They didn’t follow us off the exit. Good riddance.”

God, he was in a fit of temper today. She felt helpless to ease him at all. Then she remembered that a grumpy man could often be soothed with food—and sex. But since he wasn’t open to sex with her, she grabbed his hand and led him into the coffee shop.

He ordered for himself and then stood back. “Get what you want.”

“I’ll pay for myself,” she said, trying to choose between the cinnamon roll and the glazed donuts hot out of the oven.

“It’s a travel expense. Get what you want, Kash,” he repeated.

Her heart sank. She didn’t want to be a travel expense. She wanted so much more, and buttoning her mouth shut was getting increasingly more difficult the longer she was around Ridge.

He took their tray and led her to a table near the windows where they could look out on the fresh air he’d mentioned needing. He picked up a donut and bit off a big bite while she nibbled on her own. The sweet, yeasty goodness lifted her spirits a little, but she still had no idea what she’d gotten herself into.

What if Anna showed up at the event and she and Ridge got back together, leaving Kashley to stand by aching and green with jealousy?

There was only so far she’d go for her friend, even though she loved Ridge in every sense of the word.

He lifted his jaw her direction. “How’s your coffee?”

“I haven’t taken a sip yet.”

“They have the best here. Try it.” He stuck his sticky fingers in his mouth and began to suck them clean.

Kashley’s mind flip-flopped in a heartbeat. Watching a big hunky cowboy lick his fingers clean of donut glaze was well worth any discomfort her heart suffered on this ride. Besides, she really did want to see him happy again.

And maybe at some point he’d view her as more than a friend.

* * * * *

Ridge’s jeans had been too damn tight for the past sixty miles. Ever since he’d seen that hint of red satin bra, he’d been like an animal with the need to rut on his mind. Twice he’d thought about getting off at a rest stop and taking care of his lust in the men’s room, but that was barbaric.

Everything about her was driving him crazy right now—a sure sign he needed to get laid. She was his friend, the girl he played hide and seek in the corn with while their fathers shot the breeze.

Yet her full, ripe breasts jiggled temptingly every time he hit a pothole. And she wiggled her curvy ass down into the seat every so often, torturing him. When she’d curled her legs under her, he’d had to grip the steering wheel to keep from touching those curvy thighs.

And now she was asleep, her perfect fucking pink lips parted slightly and an angelic expression on her pretty features.

When had she grown up so much? He’d missed her blossoming, and he was a little annoyed by that. He wished he’d seen her unfold like a flower from a gawky bud.

And men like Jake Rawlins had gotten a chance to appreciate her beauty. Not that Ridge was jealous—she was just his friend, after all—but Jake had a degree in asshole with a minor in douchebag. What had she seen in him?

Ridge set the cruise control and relaxed back, nudging his cock into a more comfortable position. He had to keep from glancing Kashley’s direction so his cock would go down.

She made a quiet hitching noise in her sleep, and his cock was at full mast all over again. He glanced at her, and his dick gave a hard twitch.

Her top had ridden up, allowing him a glimpse of smooth tanned skin. All of a sudden, all he could think of was pumping hot droplets of his cum all over that expanse of flesh while she stared up at him, bound and gagged.

“Fuck,” he whispered. He was getting more depraved by the minute rather than calming down.

He rolled over another bump in the road, and her breasts jostled again. Was it sick that he wanted to slam the truck into reverse and drive over that bump again and again?

She’d been great just when he needed her most. She’d singlehandedly wiped out his email marriage proposals and was still picking through the Twitter ones, as hundreds of new ones popped up daily. And it seemed like all the holistic mumbo-jumbo she’d dumped down his throat to help his knee actually had done some good.

Plus, she was easy on the eyes—
very easy.

All that long blonde hair. It was a family joke that Calhoun men preferred blondes after Buck married Channing and Ryder married Joy. Ridge had been about to walk down the aisle with a blonde too. And now here he sat burning for another woman with blonde hair and the most interesting eyes he’d ever seen.

Kashley was very different from Anna, though. She was a country girl without a care for the trappings of material items or appearance. Yet she was a natural beauty, and that body…

Stop. Pull over and beat your meat so you can put an end to these thoughts.

He swallowed hard and rolled down the window a crack to get a rush of cooler air. It didn’t help, because they’d hit a bad stretch of road with a lot of bumps, and Kashley’s tits were jiggling like crazy, and that band of flesh at her waist was getting wider as her shirt rode up.

“Were you looking at me?” Her shocked tone held equal sprinkles of amusement and the grogginess of sleep.

He tore his gaze from her midsection to her face and latched onto the plump lips he’d been fantasizing about sliding his cock between.

“Fuck. Hold on.” He crossed lanes of interstate traffic and hit the roadside.

“What’s wrong? Ridge?”

With jerky movements, he stopped the truck and set it in park. Then he reached across the console and pressed a thumb into her seatbelt clasp. It sprang free, and she was barely unharnessed before he yanked her out of her seat and into his arms.

She landed with a soft thump of ass and breasts. He didn’t give her time to react before he wrapped her hair around his fist and slammed his mouth over hers. She made a sound of surrender that hardened his cock to pure steel. It poked against her curvy ass, and he groaned into her mouth.

She answered with a moan of her own. The instant her lips parted, he took advantage, thrusting his tongue into her mouth. In the back of his mind he watched a slideshow of Kashley as an awkward kid with pigtails flying as she ran across the field. Of her with a bleeding knee after her horse dumped her. As each flash of memory came, he plundered her lips.

He loosened his grip on her hair, and she made a soft mewling noise that sounded like disappointment. Jesus, she couldn’t
like
it rough, could she?

He lost his inner battle and jerked her head back with his fist in her hair again. She cried out, and he withdrew from the kiss to stare into her eyes. They weren’t bright with pain or confusion but a hunger that rocked him.

“Fuck, Kashley. I have to stop.” Even as he said the words, he knew he couldn’t. Not yet. He dipped his head just as she met him halfway. Their lips crashed together in a searing kiss.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing her round tits up against his chest. He slid his hand over her midriff. Warm flesh met his hand, and he didn’t bother to stop his hips from jerking upward, grinding his cock against her ass.

“Yes,” she cried, wiggling against him.

A series of blaring horns cut through his horny haze, and he pulled free in time to see Lane’s truck flying by with a cameraman hanging out the back window, recording the moment.

“Hell.”

* * * * *

When Kashley registered the change in Ridge, her heart hit the toes of her boots and didn’t come back up. He released his grip on her hair and pushed her away an inch, which was all that was available in the driver’s seat.

But his cock didn’t go down—it seemed to pulsate under her. Or was that the throb in her pussy? She struggled for air.

He’d been staring at her, had acted like a madman pulling off the road and then yanked her out of her seat to kiss her.

What had she missed while she’d been sleeping?

“Ridge,” she started.

His brown eyes loomed close, just cooling from the passion he’d displayed a moment ago. “They got that on film.”

“I’m sorry.”

He gave a shake of his head. The action seemed to settle a mask over his face, and he gently lifted her off his lap and guided her into the passenger’s seat.

She sat there a minute, panting and flushed. Her clit and nipples were hard and aching.

“Kashley—” His voice grated over her senses, sending electric pulses through every inch of her. When he threw her a pained look, she winced.

“What the hell just happened?” she whispered.

He ripped off his hat and raked his fingers through his hair. Leaning over the steering wheel, chest heaving, he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you. And your hair—I’m sorry if I pulled it.”

Everything inside her screamed to jump back into his lap and let him have his way with her, even if it was a one-time deal. She was confident their relationship could withstand it if he said he never wanted to lay a hand on her again. At least she wouldn’t go to her grave without knowing his touch—without knowing how he felt moving within her.

She must have made a sound, because he jerked his head to look at her. Whatever he saw on her face ripped a curse from his lips as he reached for her again. She crawled into his lap, uncaring that the console dug into her side. As he pulled her head down more tenderly this time, he twisted so his back was at the door, giving her more room to fit snugly in his lap.

“You taste so fucking good.” He moaned as he swept the interior of her mouth with his tongue. She opened wide for him, trembling with need. Touching him this way was blowing her mind. Maybe she was dreaming, or he’d driven off the road and she was really dead. This couldn’t be happening.

To test her theory, she bit his lower lip—hard.

He grunted, pulled back. His dark brows drew over his darker eyes, and she feared she’d gone too far, but his expression intensified as he hooked a hand around her nape and pulled her in for a bruising kiss.

She threw herself into kissing him back, mind spinning, her body fevered. Prickles of heat rolled over her, and he found her stomach coated in goose bumps.

He murmured something that sounded like “tormenting woman,” but her senses were haywire and she didn’t trust her hearing. She skimmed her hands over his shoulders and  down his chest. He slid his hands up her torso and cupped her breasts.

She cried out as he swathed each nipple with a big thumb. What she wouldn’t give to be naked and feeling those callused thumbs against her sensitive, needy buds…

He yanked free again, breathing hard. “We can’t do this.”

“The camera crews are past us.”

“But we’re on the side of the road, Kash.”

“I’m into voyeurism.”

He stopped for a second, his pulse pounding in his throat, and then he laughed. A rich, full-bellied, genuine Ridge laugh.

Her heart brimmed and overflowed with love for this cowboy. She cupped his angular jaw and brought her lips to his—gently this time.

A switch flipped in him. He stiffened and held her in place. “Kashley, honey, we can’t do this. You’re my friend.”

“Friends with benefits sounds good to me about now.”

He laughed again, but this time it held a more mournful tone. “You’d hate me for this later. I just can’t risk it—you’re the only ally I have right now. The only person I can turn to.”

Her heart shattered for the part of her who was so fucking in love with him. But another part of her heart appreciated every word he’d just said.

“I don’t want you to feel awkward with me,” she said quietly, still seated in his lap, aching for more.

He met her eyes, searching between each and finally focusing on the brown one. “I don’t want that either. That’s why we’ve gotta put the brakes on.”

She nodded, but it hurt her to do so. She felt like screaming that she was in love with him, had been forever. But the moment he’d stopped was when she’d shown him tenderness. When he’d been pulling her hair and she biting him, he’d been all for it.