Texas Kissing (11 page)

I stayed silent while he grabbed my ankle and fitted it into the other stirrup. I was so pumped full of hormones, at this point, that just the strong grip of his fingers around my ankle and the rattle of the leather and metal as he pushed it in unleashed dark thoughts of bondage.

He swung himself up onto Apollo in one smooth movement. “You okay?” he asked with a grin.

I assessed things. I seemed to be at least a hundred feet off the ground—death was a certainty if I slipped off. I had visions of rotating completely around and dangling underneath the horse, or it could bolt and carry me off into the distance, or hurl me from its back and trample over my body.

“Yep,” I croaked.

He made a clicking sound with his tongue and Apollo obediently trotted forward.
Wait—he can speak horse? I can’t speak horse!
I looked at him helplessly.

“Pick up the reins.”

I’d been completely ignoring the reins. I snatched them up.

“Lily,” Bull said chidingly, eying my white knuckles. “You can relax.”

I relaxed my grip a millionth of an inch.

“Good. Now press with your legs a little. Gently.”

I’d been trying to avoid thinking about the fact I had a huge, warm-blooded animal between my thighs. I looked down at my legs and felt his gaze there, too, which didn’t do anything to cool me down. Thank God I was wearing jeans. Why hadn’t he warned me he was taking me riding? What if I’d worn a skirt?

Had he been hoping I’d wear a skirt?

I squeezed my legs together, feeling the hot mass of muscle and power between them.

“Not
that
gently. She’s not made of marshmallow.”

I squeezed a little harder and Caliope started walking. Suddenly, I was bouncing up and down, her warm body pressing hard up against my groin and then falling away. She walked straight past Bull and Apollo and towards the door.

“Um—” I started.

I emerged out into the light, blindingly bright after the dim stable. Caliope turned right and headed down the ranch’s driveway, walking faster. I felt about a thousand pairs of eyes on me—ranch hands, visitors, even the horses. All staring at the dumpy girl on the horse.

A horse that was—yes, we were definitely speeding up.
Oh shit.
I made the mistake of glancing down at the ground and the hard-packed dirt was flashing past. This was almost certainly a gallop. I was going to die.
Help!

I twisted the reins around my fingers, but I had no idea what to do with them.
If Bull comes and saves me now, I’ll kiss him. He can have me naked and willing. I’ll do every depraved thing he wants—

Bull rode up alongside me. “How do I stop?” I called.

He blinked. “Stop? You’re barely trotting. Relax.”

Annoying, arrogant idiot!

We approached a bend in the drive. “How do I turn?” I yelled. “How do I stop? I don’t understand the controls!”

“Relax your legs. You’re still squeezing.”

Ridiculous, I’m not—Oh.
I guiltily relaxed my legs and Caliope slowed to a gentle walk.

He showed me how to gently pull on the reins to guide her. “What are you so scared of, exactly?” he asked, sounding genuinely bemused.

“That she’ll get out of control!”

Bull made another of those weird noises with his mouth and both horses stopped, very close together. His dangling leg brushed mine.

“I don’t think that’ll happen,” he said, looking at me seriously for a second. “She’s pretty sensible. She knows what she’s doing.”

And he leaned in towards me.

Bull

I got within an inch of her, my lips close enough to hers that I could feel her trembling breath. Then she sat up straight in her saddle and said, “What are you doing?”

I fixed her with a look. “You know exactly what I’m doing.”

She stared at me for a second, those fabulous breasts rising and falling under her blouse as she panted...and then she jerked the reins and Caliope trotted on.

I sighed and fell in behind her. This was getting to be a problem. Any sensible guy would have given up by now. And
me?
I should have given up right back at the arena, the first time she didn’t hurl herself into my arms. What the hell was I doing?

Her ass was bouncing in the saddle right in front of me. Perfect and rounded, curved and full. Watching it come up off the saddle and then thump back down into it again, the cheeks separating just a little, the denim stretched tight over them, was poetry in fucking motion. It was impossible to watch it and not think of her on top of me, riding me as she took my cock. However frustrated I was that I hadn’t slept with her yet, just the sight of that firm yet pliant ass bouncing up and down was enough.
I’d rather be here, watching Lily, than off in the barn fucking Kirsten,
I realized.

I couldn’t remember ever being this into a girl.

And it wasn’t just her body, fine as it was. Or even that gorgeous face with those luscious green eyes, all huge and liquid. It was the way she didn’t let anyone get the better of her—not even me. Hell, she wouldn’t even put up with me, and
everyone
put up with me. No one ever told me “no.” So that fascinated me.

I mean, I still sure as hell needed to teach this girl a lesson. Sooner or later, these games were going to get too much for either of us to take
,
and then she was going to wind up over my knee. Or up against a wall. Or bent over the nearest available object.

There was something else, too. Something was wrong with this girl, and not just her weird city ways. Some folks are loners but Lily was lonely—
isolated—
in some deeper way I couldn’t get a handle on. Like she hadn’t just foregone friends and family but actively pushed them away. Hell, she’d pushed me away, too. It was only my stubbornness that had kept me coming back.

I pushed Apollo a little faster so I could ride alongside and just slightly behind her. She had her head up, now, gazing at the road ahead, and I thought I could see just the tiniest suggestion of a smile on her lips. She was enjoying herself. She’d never admit it, of course, but she was.

And then my eyes tracked down and I could see how the neck of her blouse was flapping open and, because I was at just the right angle, I could peek in and see the upper curve of her breast in its bra cup. Her bra had some delicate lace edging right where I’d want my thumb to go as I swept along that smooth skin.

I glanced up. She was looking right at me and, if I could read her eyes right, she was halfway between shocked and turned on that I’d been looking at her. I felt my cock swelling and thickening in my pants.

And then she snapped her gaze forward and trotted on, and I was back to the view of her ass again.

I started imagining what it would look like in a swimsuit, or maybe a short, tight skirt—one that could easily be hauled up to bare her.
Damn…..
I loved the fact that she didn’t drape herself in huge, tent-like clothes, like some curvy girls did. Her blouse and jeans fitted well, even if they were a lot more modest than the stuff Kirsten and her friends wore. She seemed shy about her body—maybe some idiot had said something to her, once, and dented her confidence. Maybe the same idiot who’d made her so closed-off and secretive.

I wanted to kill that idiot.

I called out directions when we hit the street. I saw Lily tense up when the first car passed us, but Caliope had done this so many times she plodded on calmly, and that calmness seeped into Lily, too. Soon, we turned off the street and down a trail, heading out into the desert.

“Where are we going, anyway?” Lily asked.

“You got someplace you need to be?”

“I have work to do.”

“What
do
you do, for work?”

She shrugged.

“What does
that
mean?” I asked.

“Internet stuff,” she said. “You wouldn’t understand.”

I was riding behind her, so she couldn’t see my expression. I made the most of it. “Guess you’re right,” I said sadly.

I saw her catch herself and look around. I just had time to adopt a tough-but-pained look, staring off at the horizon like I’d been told my dog was going to die.

“Shit,” she said. “Sorry. I didn’t mean—”

I shook my head. “Nah, you’re right. No point me asking what I’m not going to understand anyway. I guess I must seem pretty dumb.”

“No! Not at all!” She looked horrified. It was difficult to keep my face straight.

“Truth is,” I said, “I don’t really get computers. Like, I’m not sure how you people fit all that information about everything in the world in one itty bitty box.”

She gave me a pitying look. “Well, it’s not
in
the box, it’s the internet, it’s—” She frowned. “Wait a minute. You’re on fucking Facebook!”

I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I threw my head back and roared with laughter. Lily’s mouth was hanging open, which only made it funnier. “You must think country folk are dumb as hell!”

She gave me a death-ray glare. “Not all of them,” she muttered. “Just you.”

“
It’s not in the box...it’s the internet,”
I mimicked, and collapsed into laughter again. And this time, finally, she managed to relax enough to smile at herself.

“Okay,” she said at last. “Yes, okay. I’m sorry. I’m just not used to talking to locals, yet.”

“
Yet?
How long have you been in Gold Lake again?”

She shifted uncomfortably. “Two years.”

I was desperate to find out why. Why did she live all by herself? Why had she never been to Lucky Pete’s until that week? But I didn’t want to push her too hard. So I just said, “So what
do
you do?”

She took a deep breath. “I write documentation about web server interfaces.”

It was completely unremarkable. Boring, even. Exactly the sort of thing you’d say if you didn’t want someone to dig any deeper. And she’d said it as if she’d said it a thousand times before, which didn’t make sense given how few people she seemed to know. Almost as if she’d rehearsed it in the mirror.

We rode on into the desert, out where there’s nothing but sky, rock and sand. “Are we heading anywhere in particular?” she asked at last.

“Should we be?”

“I thought there’d be a destination. Like, some hill or the world’s oldest tree or something.”

I studied her.
Interesting.

“What?” she demanded.

“You always gotta be heading somewhere,” I said. “Always doing something. Achieving something. Don’t you ever just...relax?”

“Oh, I should be more like you?”

I grinned.

“I do just fine, thank you,” she said. “I can
relax.”
She managed to stay quiet for all of five seconds. “So where
are
we heading?”

I couldn’t stop myself grinning. God, I liked this girl. I tugged on the reins and Apollo came to a halt. “We’re here,” I said.

She looked around blankly.

“Trust me,” I said. “Best show in town.”

And then I just sat there and watched as the sun started to sink slowly behind the mountains, our shadows drawing out into long tails behind us, the light turning from yellow to gold to red. Distracted by the sunset, Lily finally started to relax in the saddle. She gazed up at the sky, spellbound, as the clouds were lit up from behind in shades of pink and orange and scarlet that no postcard can do justice to. Soon, it looked as if the whole sky was on fire.

There’s nothing in the world like a Texas sunset. I’d watched them all my life and I still wasn’t tired of them.

But I didn’t watch it; I watched her.

I watched as the golden light streamed through her blouse and showed me the faint outline of her body. I watched as a light breeze picked up and molded the fabric to her breasts. I watched the sun paint her hair with bronze and copper and I held my breath as the wind played with strands of her silken hair.