by Myla Jackson
Pulling up to the barn, Connor set the kickstand in place and turned off the engine. "Grant is out of town and Ed won't be here until later to feed the animals." He spread his hands out to his sides. "So, basically, we have the place to ourselves."
A thrill of anticipation skittered through Charli's insides, her body warming to all sorts of naughty things they could do in the barn, in the hay, against the wood fence, out in the open where no one but the birds, bees and horses would see them. Her core tightened, juices stirring as she slid off the leather seat and stood. She dug her hands into her back pockets, throwing back her shoulders, emphasizing the swell of the pink rib-knit tank top, the patterns of the lace demi-bra pressing through, the thin fabric.
Oh, yeah. Ever since her encounters with Original Sin, Charli couldn't look at any situation without seeing endless possibilities for sex. Wow, what did that make her? A nymphomaniac, whore or a bitch in heat? With a deep breath to steady her galloping libido, she smiled. "Well, we're here, so what's next?"
Connor unstrapped her helmet and set it on the back of the bike. "Another ride."
She tilted her head. "If we're going for another ride, should I leave the helmet on?"
"Not on the bike, we're going to take it a little slower." He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and grinned. "Don't look so disappointed. I promise, we'll have fun."
Connor disappeared into the barn and emerged seconds later leading two horses, saddled, bridled and dancing around in the dirt, anxious to get going.
Her body tensed and Charli stepped back. "We're riding those?"
Connor laughed out loud. "Yes. Don't look so skeptical. I got the most calm mare of all of Grant's stock. Sassy'll be no problem."
"But there's plenty to do here. Why go farther?"
"Are you afraid of horses?"
"No, of course not," Charli lied. "Only the last time I was on one, I was ten. And that horse was supposed to be the most tame of all of them. I was thrown, ended up with a mild concussion. Had a touch of temporary amnesia along with it."
"Oh." His face fell and his shoulders drooped. "I guess we could drive across country on my motorcycle, to where I had in mind."
Feeling like a downer, when Connor had gone to all the trouble to set up this little production, Charli sucked up her fear and brushed aside his suggestion. "No. I really need to get back up on a horse to get over this fear. Let's do it."
Connor's face beamed. "Good. All you have to do is put your foot in the stirrup and swing your leg over the top." He handed her the reins and climbed up on his horse.
Too proud to admit she didn't know what she was doing, Charli reached her foot high and placed it into the stirrup.
Sassy picked that time to dance to the side.
With her foot in the stirrup and nothing to hold onto, Charli hopped several times then fell back on her butt in the dirt, her pride and her ass suffering greatly. She cringed, waiting for the laughter on Connor's part. What self-respecting woman in Temptation, Texas couldn't ride a horse?
This one. So much for impressing the war veteran.
"Hmm. Maybe we need to rethink." Connor swung out of the saddle, handed the reins to his horse to Charli. "Hold on to Sundance, while I settle Sassy back in her stall."
On one hand, Charli was glad they wouldn't be riding, so she couldn't be too unhappy about babysitting the beast while Connor tended the mare.
On the other hand, Sundance, a large black horse, stood a couple heads taller than Charli staring down his long, sleek nose at her. He sniffed, his nostrils twitching.
"What? You don't like perfume?" She looked away, hoping the horse didn't try to run off. He had to weigh ten times as much as she did.
Sundance dipped his head and nudged her, sending her stumbling forward.
"Hey. Watch it. You get to go inside next. Just hold your horses." Her choice of words made her grin.
Connor stepped out into the open about that time, took the reins and climbed into the saddle.
Charli waited for him to ride the horse into the barn. Instead he held out his hand.
For a long moment, she stared at it.
"Are you coming?" he asked.
"Up there with you?" she squeaked as realization dawned that he expected her to ride double. She shoved her hands behind her back."I think I'll stay here. You two can go without me."
"I promise to take good care of you." His eyes shone down at her, a glint of humor twitching at the edges of his sexy lips.
If Charli wanted to find out more about Connor Mason, she had to climb on the darned horse. She held out her hand and placed her foot on top of his in the stirrup. Before she could say a shaky ready, she was swinging up and onto the horse behind Connor and the saddle, her butt landing softly on the horse's warm backside.
Sundance sidestepped and whickered.
With a yelp, Charli wrapped her arms around Connor's waist and held on for dear life.
"Hang on, Sundance likes to fly with the wind."
"But—"
Connor barely nudged the giant of a horse and Sundance was off, galloping across the prairie grasses.
Scared out of her mind, Charli clutched Connor so tightly, her face bumped into his back with each of the horse's bounces until she settled into the smooth rhythm of the gallop. Before long, Charli loosened up and dared to look around. Long stretches of pastures flowed by, the wind bending the tall grasses in a gentle sway, lifting her hair from her shoulders, fluttering the strands out behind her.
Like the motorcycle, there was a sense of freedom in the graceful strength of the horse beneath her.
As they approached a dip in the landscape, Connor brought the horse to a trot. Without stirrups to push against, Charli clenched her teeth against the bone-jarring jouncing, until the horse slowed to a walk and finally a halt.
"You first." Connor held out his arm for her to hold onto while she clambered down from Sundance.
Then he swung his leg over the horse and dropped to the ground with a hell of a lot more grace than she had.
Charli's teeth ground together and she almost gave him a piece of her mind, when she caught sight of a bright red and white checkered blanket spread beneath a gnarled oak tree beside a crystal clear stream. The blanket was anchored by a small cooler and a woven picnic basket.
The setting and the trouble he'd taken to pre-plan their lunch date charmed her and she bit back her nasty comment about the wild ride across the ranch on the back of a beast.
"Very nice." Charli waved toward the blanket. "You went all out."
"Only the best for my date." Connor led the horse to nearby shade and tied his reins to the low hanging branches of a willow tree. "I wanted to show you that a cowboy could be a gentleman too."
He moved to the basket, extracted a bottle of wine and a corkscrew. "Would you like a glass?"
"Yes, please."
He popped the cork, briefly spooking the horse and poured a glass for her and one for him. Then he raised it toward her. "To many more first dates with a beautiful woman."
"This will be our last first date, silly." She frowned as she thought of his words. "Unless you plan on dating many more women."
"Oh, no, I've had my eye on you. You're special enough to warrant many more first dates." He nodded over his wine glass and drank.
Charli sipped more slowly, unsure what to make of Connor. Original Sin had taken a lot of time preparing the dinner date last night. But he hadn't spoken of future dates or future anything.
Connor sat on the blanket and patted the spot beside him. "Sit. I have our lunch all here. I wanted to get away from everything so that we could spend some time getting to know each other."
"What would you like to know?"
He smiled and patted the blanket beside him. "Lots of things."
A flash of guilt swept across Charli's mind. She hoped he didn't ask about her sex life. Last night had been highly satisfying, but she didn't want to lie to Connor from the very beginning.
Imm
ediately on the tail of that thought was the defensive thought of, she didn't owe Connor anything. This was their first date. They didn't even know enough about each other to make any kind of monogamous commitment.
Connor fished out sandwiches, chips and napkins, waiting on her like she was the queen, careful to tend to her every need. "I've always dreamed of owning a place like the Flying F Ranch."
Charli swallowed the bite of sandwich she'd been chewing. "Really, why?"
"I love the animals, the wide-open spaces and the thought of lying naked under the Texas sky with the woman of my dreams."
Her next bite of sandwich lodged in her throat as a molten rush of heat pooled low in Charli's belly. She could imagine the dark night, the stars shining overhead, lying on a blanket much like the one she sat on now. Her lover lying by her side, running his fingers over her cool, naked skin.
Charli swallowed hard and choked on the bread.
Connor leaned forward and patted her back, rubbing his big, coarse hands over the thin tank top.
Her mind already several layers of clothing ahead of him, Charli turned to stare at Connor. "Is that one of your sexual fantasies?"
"No, not necessarily. Ever since I went to war, I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted."
"And what's that?"
"I want what most men want." He smiled and tipped the wine bottle, refilling her glass.
Her hand shook as she recalled what her ex-fiancé had wanted. "Most men want sex with every gorgeous woman he comes in contact with."
"Not most." With a shake of his head, he frowned. "Do I detect a bit of cynicism?"
She shrugged and waved a hand in the air between them. "Rightly earned. You know—once burned and all that."
"He must have been a real jerk." Connor traced his finger down her cheek. "I want the house with the white picket fence, a wife to come home to and kids."
Swallowing hard, Charli fell into the sincerity shining from his eyes. Dang, he was good. She could almost believe him. "Some dream you have there, cowboy."
He brushed his thumb across her full bottom lip. "I expect it will be a reality when I find the right woman."
"Who is the right woman?" Charli asked, her breath catching. "Have you met her yet?"
"I think I have, I'm just not sure she knows she's the right one yet." He poured more wine into his glass and touched the rim of his to hers. "Here's to starry nights."
She sipped from the glass, her gaze meeting his over the rim. "What can you do on a starry night that you can't do on a sunny day?" She challenged him, shaking through some of the heavy content of their conversation.
Charli hadn't thought of houses, picket fences and husbands since her last failed relationship. But Connor made them sound real appealing.
She shook her head. No. She didn't dare dream of that kind of forever relationship. They didn't last.
Right now, she wanted to concentrate on sex without commitment.
Would Connor take her up on her challenge and give her a little taste of his sexual prowess? Maybe demonstrate what he had in the way of competition with Original Sin?
After all of Audrey's haranguing, Charli had looked forward to her time with Connor, hoping he possessed the heat to drag her lusts away from her cowboy in the black hat and all of his friends. A more open and honest sharing of bodily contact and fantasies.
With a long assessing glance, Charli summed up Connor as perfectly capable of turning her on. He had all the right equipment from what she could see. Built like a rock, handsome, charming and attentive. From the sound of it, he was also perfect husband material, wanting a wife, kids and home of his own. Pretty heady stuff for a woman who'd sworn off long-term relationships. Preferring to have sex with whomever, whenever she wanted.
Connor seemed the type who'd want full commitment. Charli wasn't interested in that line of thinking. Not yet. But it would be nice to make love to a man whose name you knew. One you could find in a pinch.
Most importantly, how could she make a decision to give up one hunky man for another without test-driving each?
Now if Connor would just kiss her again, and let nature sway the beast, she'd have something to compare with.
Other than speaking of starry nights lying naked with his woman, he hadn't made a pass at her, hadn't tried to turn lunch into anything more than an occasion to eat and talk. If she wanted more, she'd have to lead the dance in that direction with a little more in-your-face foreplay.
Charli set aside her wine glass and lay back against the blanket, scooting her shirt higher, displaying a lot more midriff. "The wine is making me hot, what about you?"
"Mmmm. Yes, ma'am." He unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it from his shoulders, tossing it over a low-hanging limb. Connor stretched out beside her, lying on his side, staring down into her eyes. "You have beautiful eyes, did you know that? They're a kind of brownish-gold. Darker when you're angry and lighter when you're not."
She studied his pale green eyes, liking the way they appeared almost gray when he looked up toward the sky. "Are you going to kiss me?"
Connor chuckled. "What, no foreplay?"
She curled her hand around his neck and pulled him down to within an inch of her mouth. "Isn't kissing a form of foreplay?" She waited, giving him the opportunity to close the distance. "Besides, foreplay is overrated, don't you agree? Why not skip all that?"
"I don't know." Connor ran a finger along her cheek and across her jaw. "I think foreplay can be even more exciting than sex."
Charli's brows rose. "Are you a man or a woman?"
His chuckle warmed her in places he couldn't possible see, but he could feel if he'd slip his hands inside her shorts. Charli swallowed her frustration and lifted her leg, sliding it along the side of his blue jeans, her pussy rubbing against his thigh. The thought of making love in the daylight had her panting like a dog in heat. She wanted to flip onto all fours and let him slam into her from behind.
Oh, dear. Had the dirty tricks poisoned her from enjoying simple sex with a man?
Connor's lips descended, but instead of claiming hers, he slid them along her cheek bone to her temple, pressing lightly. "A thing of beauty should be savored, slowly and thoroughly."
"What if the thing wants to speed up the process a little?" She shifted her hips.
"Patience, sweetheart. Anticipation is nine-tenths of the fun."
"Screw patience." Charli started to turn her head when Connor's tongue flicked out and tickled the sensitive spot just below her earlobe. "Ummm." A shiver ran over her skin. She settled back against the blanket and tipped her head to the side, giving him free rein with her neck and throat. "That's nice."
"Thought you'd think so." He pressed feather-soft kisses to her neck, trailing them downward to the base of her throat where her pulse pounded a million beats per minute.
Lord, she wanted him to take her now. Forget waiting, forget patience.
Screw me!
His fingers drifted over her collar bone, drawing a line from there to her pointed nipples, poking through the lace of the demi-bra and the thin fabric of her tank top.
Charli's back arched upward. She wanted him to take more, to lean down and suck her breast into his mouth.
But no. His fingers drifted over the swell of one breast and downward to her bare midriff.
Now we're getting somewhere.
She squirmed, his fingers burning against her skin, her body on fire, ready for the ultimate thrust of his cock inside her.
Bring it, baby.
The slow, steady glide of his hand on her skin, slipped lower to the waistband of her cutoffs, where he traced a finger along the edge from hip to hip and sighed.
"Much as I love this, I guess we'd better get going." He pushed to his feet, clamped his straw cowboy hat on his head, and reached a hand down to her.
"Are you kidding?" Charli stared upward, as if he'd completely lost his mind. "We're done here?" She was so far from done, she couldn't think straight.
"Y
es, ma'am. I want to get to know you. All of you before we do anything we might regret later."
"The only thing I'm regretting is coming here in the first place," Charli muttered as she stood, pulling her tank top down over her hips.
"What was that?" Connor stood in front of her, his hand sliding up her arm to cup the back of her neck.
She stared up into his mossy green eyes, her breath escaping through pursed lips. "I want to get to know you too."
"Good." He kissed the tip of her nose. "Think we could do this again, soon?"
How about in the next five minutes? "Let me think about it."
His brows dipped. "Okay. You know how to get hold of me."
He packed the picnic supplies into the cooler and folded the blanket, laying it on top.
Charli stared at the portion of the stream where a big rock blocked the water, forming a deep pool, wondering what Connor would do if she stripped naked and jumped in. Would he be shocked? Would he join her?
She glanced at him, hoping he'd have that same thought first.
Instead, the man was gathering Sundance's reins and mounting.
Charli sighed and took the hand he extended, swinging up to land on the horse's back behind Connor, her arms automatically wrapping around his waist.
Well, damn. All that foreplay for what? The most action her pussy was going to get was rubbing against the seam of her cutoffs while riding on the back of his beast of a horse. Charli ground her teeth as her frustration mounted instead of receding, while she fought to contain her rising desires.
By the time they'd gotten back to the barn, put Sundance in his stall with feed and ridden the motorcycle back to her house, Charli was wired.
Like the gentleman he'd been all day, Connor walked her to her door and kissed her on the lips. Not a long drawn-out, tango-with-her-tonsils kiss either. It was a chaste, getting-to-know-you kind of kiss, sweet, but leaving her wanting so much more.
Connor backed away. "Thank you for a beautiful day. Call me when you know what you want."
Oh, she knew what she wanted. What she needed.
Sex with Connor.
Before he could take another step away, Charli grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him close for a real kiss.