The Wildest Ride--A Novel

by Marcella Bell

  He looked at his watch instead. A minute had passed.

  Waiting on a woman was a novel experience.

  It was a relief when she arrived five minutes early, particularly as it took another five minutes thereafter to reorient the world upon seeing her walk through the door.

  Her dress was white and off the shoulder, decorated with colorful Mexican embroidery. Her hair was unbraided and curly, falling to one side, leaving the bare side of her head exposed, the other hidden in an explosion of riotous glossy black curls. The smooth bare brown skin of her shoulders looked as silky and soft as he knew it to be, and in the restaurant lighting, her eyes swirled and flashed like a summer storm.

  He fought the urge to stand and stride over to her and trace the fine-boned architecture of her shoulders and collarbone with his fingertips—not because he didn’t know she’d welcome him, but because he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop himself from sliding his hand up her thigh, and her dress along with it, at the same time.

  The dress ended midthigh, leaving plenty of gorgeous muscled leg on display and causing AJ to send a thanks up to the lord for bulls and this reckless woman who rode them.

  Everything about her glowed, including the sweet, shy smile she wore.

  She was stunning, her legs looking even longer than usual in the platform sandals she wore, and he wondered what it’d be like to kiss her with the extra height. He closed the remaining distance between them to find out.

  As he’d suspected, the additional inches made it that much easier to capture her full lips with his own and make her forget they stood in a restaurant lobby. To remind her how well they fit.

  When their kiss ended, her cheeks were dark from blushing and her eyes dazed. Taking the sight in, his heart flipped over in his chest.

  “Hi,” she said when she finally found words. Her voice was a breathy rasp that went straight to his groin. He loved how responsive she was—that he could distract her from the entire world while he made her dizzy with his kisses.

  “Hi.” He smiled. “Glad you could make it.”

  “I had a cab take me into town earlier. Finding a dress in time was harder...”

  His grin flashed, wicked and satisfied. “Worth it. You look phenomenal.”

  Her dusky blush darkened even more. “Thank you,” she said, before looking away, around the restaurant, taking in her surroundings for the first time. “Where are we?”

  “Spanish steak house. Felt somehow appropriate...”

  She laughed. “How do you know I’m not a vegetarian?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You’re a rancher. And I’ve seen you inseminate a cow.”

  Her laughter was like a wind chime. She nodded. “You’re right. And I happen to love steak.” Her grin showed her canines and he considered skipping the date and dragging her back to the hotel.

  But that wasn’t the point of tonight. Tonight he was taking her out. And there were cameras all over the hotel. Escaping them had required creativity.

  “Somehow, I got that impression,” he said, his voice only faintly hinting at the heat rising in his body.

  Her pulse picked up in her neck and he knew she caught it anyway. She reached out her hand to him palm up, an electric nervousness to the movement, and said, “So are we on a date, then?”

  He took her arm into the crook of his and walked her toward the secluded corner where their table was. “We are.”

  She looked up at him through her eyelashes as she took a seat in the chair he’d pulled up for her, a slight lift to one corner of her mouth.

  She said, “You didn’t ask,” as he pushed her chair in and he laughed.

  “I didn’t,” he agreed, moving to take his own seat. “You didn’t have to come.”

  He didn’t expect her to counter with just as much suggestion in her voice when she said, “That’s debatable...”

  He chuckled, flames leaping in his eyes, “Glad you remember.”

  She snorted. “You’re impossible.”

  He grinned. “You started it.”

  Laughing, she picked up a menu. The laughter stopped abruptly when she opened it up, closed it, and set it down. “I can’t eat here. It’s robbery.”

  This time AJ laughed. “Yes, you can. It’s a date, Lil.”

  “I can’t. A meal here could run the ranch for a day.”

  “You sound like The Old Man, so I’m going to tell you what I tell him.”

  Lil raised an eyebrow, head faintly cocked. “And what’s that?”

  AJ grinned. “Order whatever you want.”

  She couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across her face—he watched her try and lose the battle, and he loved it.

  A waiter came to take their drink order and he watched her discuss the wines with a strange tightness in his chest.

  Her brightness and spirit shone through, whether she discussed Tempranillo or rodeo. Parts of her were as raw and wild as the animals they rode. Other parts as refined and focused as the sharpest professional. She was fire, but she’d been right when she’d said she knew how to be ice when she needed to be. A whole set of contradictions and the perfect balance was Lil. He could spend the rest of his life diving into her and never get bored.

  When the waiter left, she placed her elbows on the table and leaned toward him, resting her chin in her hands, eyes bright and mischievous in the flickering tabletop candlelight. “So, what’s the occasion?”

  AJ raised his eyebrow. “It can’t be just wanting to have a nice meal with the beautiful woman I’m sleeping with?”

  Another blush colored Lil’s cheeks at his words but she didn’t give up. “Slept with, past tense. There hasn’t been any time for that lately. And if that were all, we could have done that with room service at the hotel and it would have been a whole lot easier. This took effort.” She gestured around the full restaurant.

  Theirs was the best table.

  He shrugged. “Most things don’t take much effort when you’re AJ Garza...”

  She snorted. “There’s not room at this table for your ego and the rest of us.”

  He brought a hand to his chest. “Words hurt more when they come from gorgeous women, you know...”

  She laughed. “You’re outrageous.”

  “I’ve heard.”

  Talking with Lil was like playing with an electrical outlet, every time he got buzzed, he wanted to come back for more.

  “I’m not surprised. Your poor mother.” She sighed, doing an excellent job of looking serious and regretful for his mom.

  “My mom adores me.”

  Lil patted his hand on the table. “Of course she does.”

  He was chuckling when the waiter arrived with their drinks—a glass of wine for Lil and a sipping tequila for AJ. When they were alone again, he raised his glass.

  “To the Closed Circuit.”

  She lifted her glass to clink it against his. “The Closed Circuit?”

  “Without it, we wouldn’t have met and you’d still be a virgin.”

  Lil made a choking noise in her throat, quickly looking around the room and AJ kept his face carefully neutral.

  When she could breathe again, she said, “Don’t say things like that in public.”

  He looked around the room innocently. “Oh, I hadn’t noticed there were so many people around...” When she made another pinched sound, he gestured to her glass. “Here, have some water.”

  They had to ask for more time when the waiter returned for their food order. When he came back, Lil ordered a flank steak, AJ a T-bone.

  “You’re a Texas stereotype, you know,” she said.

  He sat back in his chair and took a sip of his tequila. “I’d better be. My people’ve been in Texas longer than it’s been in the US.”

  “You talk about your dad’s side a lot,” she observed. “Where’s yo
ur mom’s family?”

  He shrugged. “She was an only child and her parents were estranged from the rest of her family. We know who they are, but aren’t connected.”

  “That’s too bad. Must be hard for her, not having anybody outside of you.”

  He shook his head. “Not too hard. She’s got my dad’s family.”

  Lil raised an eyebrow and he continued. “I’d be lying if I said my grandmother didn’t care about a paper marriage, but to her, once you bring a Garza into the world, you’re a Garza for life.”

  Lil smiled. “She sounds fierce.”

  AJ nodded. “She is. Kicked my dad’s ass with a spoon when he left my mom. For the whole first year after the divorce she wouldn’t invite him to holidays—just my mom and me.”

  “She liked your mom?”

  He chuckled, shaking his head. “Not at first. When my dad introduced my mom to her, the first words out of her mouth were, You couldn’t find a woman who speaks Spanish?”

  Lil frowned. “I thought your mom taught Spanish.”

  “She did! And my grandma knew it, too. She only warmed up to my mom after I was born.”

  Lil’s eyebrows lifted. “Clearly—if she picked your mom’s side after the divorce.”

  Still smiling, AJ shook his head. “She picked family. Nothing is more important to her, certainly not her third son’s midlife crisis.”

  “So you’re mom’s not alone?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. She lives alone in Houston, but we spend Christmas in Oaxaca every year with my cousins, and Thanksgiving at my grandma’s.”

  Lil’s eyes sparkled. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”

  “Oaxaca?” AJ leaned toward her without meaning to.

  She nodded. “I’ve wanted to go ever since high school. I bet Christmastime is wonderful.”

  “It is.” The combination of the tequila and the company lent additional warmth to the memories, softening the edges of images in his mind enough that he realized he missed it. That a part of him missed it all—his home and family—more than he ever let himself acknowledge. Not when there’d always been another shiny buckle on the horizon. “When I’m not traveling,” he added, “we go for Día de los Muertos, as well. It’s just not quite the same anywhere else.”

  “I bet!” Lil’s eyes were bright. Her head was tilted to the side, a wide, dreamy smile on her face as she pictured it, and he knew she’d hate how revealing of her heart the gesture and expression were.

  “Do you like to travel?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

  She nodded. “I do. Haven’t made it far, though. Spain, and most of the southwest, is all. My choir went to Canada once. The ranch keeps me pretty close to home these days.”

  His interest piqued. “You were in choir?”

  She cocked her head toward him, eyebrow lifting. “Yes.”

  “Will you sing for me?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Pretty please,” he begged, grinning the whole time. “You sing for me now and I’ll make your body sing later.”

  “No. And all your Spanish and travel and dirty talk won’t change my mind.”

  Judging from the flush in her cheeks and the way she shifted in her seat, they were already working their magic, but he wasn’t going to rub it in. Yet.

  Smile knowing, he reached for his tequila, letting his shirt stretch tight against the muscles of his arm as he did so, before taking it back for a slow sip. She watched the whole thing as if her eyes were magnetized to him. He licked his lips, and she swallowed and he felt the sound in his soul. And the growing bulge in his pants.

  “How’s the wine?” he drawled heavy at her, and her eyes darted back up to his.

  “Hmm? Oh. It’s nice,” she said.

  “Nice?” he asked with a smile.

  “Nice,” she repeated and their eyes locked. She said softly, “I’ve had the best.”

  A jolt of possessiveness shot through him so strongly that his whole body tensed. Again, he strongly considered abandoning the rest of his plan for the night and taking her somewhere with a bed.

  But beyond having a great night out with a fascinating woman, this was about not throwing her on whatever flat surface he could find. He wanted to show her a different side of himself and his hometown. Tailoring that to Lil had taken planning and it’d be a shame for all the effort to go to waste.

  The waiter arrived with their dinner, putting an end to the debate for the time being.

  Lil took a bite first, vegetables, and made an mmmm of approval. “Delicious.”

  “You start with the vegetables at a steakhouse?”

  “I always start with the vegetables.” She said it like it was a perfectly normal adult thing to do.

  “Why?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “They’re good for you.”

  “I feel like that says something about you,” AJ said, taking a bite of his T-bone. It was a perfect medium rare and served with a chimichurri sauce that tasted like it’d been made fresh for his plate. Perfectly cooked steak and dinner with the most fascinating woman he’d ever met—life didn’t get better.

  An image of Lil’s face as she came apart beneath the stars flashed across his mind and he amended the thought: life could get better, but Lil was the common denominator.

  He had a feeling he’d only scratched the surface as to just how good life could get with Lil.

  And at this rate, he’d be swooning over the simple act of her breathing by the end of the night.

  Breaking into his thoughts, thankfully, she asked, “How do you select the mentees for CityBoyz?”

  “Applications. It’s a fairly straightforward form with a few essay questions. We’re not bringing them into our homes or anything like that.”

  “How many kids do you have at a time?”

  “Up to seven. Beyond that can get dangerous.”

  “I can imagine.” She shuddered. “Seven teenage boys anywhere is a recipe for trouble, let alone around bulls.”

  He laughed, “It can be. But they’re good kids. Rodeo makes them better.”

  Lil raised her glass to that, a half smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. “Hear! Hear!”

  AJ drank her in, though he’d gotten drunk on her long ago and lifted his glass in return. “I didn’t come to woo you with shop talk all night, though.”

  She chuckled, “Why not? It’s working.”

  He didn’t resist the thrill her words set off. “You want to know I’m well-rounded, don’t you?”

  “I know you’re well-rounded.”

  AJ caught her with a mock stern look, laughter in his eyes. “Lilian Sorrow Island. What would your grandmother say?”

  Lil snorted. “Something outrageous.”

  “I like her more and more all the time.”

  “You two are peas in a pod, alright.”

  “Says the woman dirty talking at the dinner table.”

  Lil laughed and he realized the sound had become one of his most favorite—its own form of music. He marveled again at the astounding rightness of her. Her mind, her heart, her body—there was no other way to say it—the girl had a try. And try as he might, he knew he’d never find another that fit him quite so well. The hard part, he sensed, would be convincing her of that.

  “Do you want dessert?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Too full.”

  He smiled. “Perfect. There should be more food where we’re going next.”

  She laughed. “As long as you’re comfortable being the father of my food baby.”

  Her words teased at a primal urge in him, as ridiculous as they were, and his smile went feral. His next words were a risk, but he’d never been known for his caution. “I’m comfortable being the father of any of your babies...”

  For an instant her shoulder
s stiffened, but then she let out a soft chuckle that sounded only faintly forced. “There won’t be any cowboy babies coming out of me, thank you very much.”

  He snorted. “Any baby that comes out of you is arriving with a Stetson and a lasso.”

  Entirely relaxed again, she laughed and countered, engaging rather than avoiding, “With my luck, they’ll love banking.”

  He shrugged, smile wicked. “Then we’d just have to try again.”

  Her eyes widened to two bright gray half-moons in her face, a strange vulnerability clear in them, one that urged him to make the words true right then and there, to prove to her that cowboys could keep promises and stick around and love every minute of it.

  Instead, he laughed at her and signalled for the waiter as she took a gulp of her wine.

  The place they were going next wasn’t exactly private, but there, at least, he’d be able to satisfy his need to touch her.

  Pulling her chair out for her after he’d paid, he slid his hands along her shoulders and down her arms, loving it when she shivered.

  Offering her his arm, he led her out to the rental hybrid parked in the lot.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Electric?”

  He cocked his head to the side. “You got a problem with protecting the earth?”

  She lifted her arms, laughing. “I’m all for it. Just didn’t expect it of you.”

  “Assumptions hurt, Lil,” he said, mock wounded, before he shrugged. “Of course, this is just a rental. I drive a truck at home.”

  She snorted. “See?”

  He made his voice serious. “It’s also a hybrid, though.”

  Laughter burst out of her. “I give up!”

  He insisted, shaking his head. “It is. Love it, or hate it, Lil, everybody’s got to do their part.”

  “You sound like a wartime advertisement.”

  He shrugged again. “It fits.”

  She shook her head with a smile while she buckled her seat belt. When that was done, she looked up, caught his eyes in her stormy gray ones, and smiled.

  He would have given her anything she wanted right then.

  But she didn’t want anything from him beyond a good time.