Ride: Studs in Spurs, Book 3

by Cat Johnson

  They arrived in record time, mostly due to his speeding. The moment he turned off the ignition, she was in his lap.

  With her mouth covering his, and her straddling him in the tight space between his body and the steering wheel, he somehow managed to reach down and slide the seat back farther. It still didn’t give them a whole lot of room, but she didn’t seem to care.

  She kissed him like it was the last time. He pushed that thought out of his head quickly. Uncle Gary wasn’t even back from his case yet. They had time together. At least a week. Not that a week would ever be enough.

  Leesa reached between them for his belt buckle and thoughts of his uncle fled only to be replaced by how he was going to reach into his pocket for the condom he’d stashed there just in case.

  As she worked on getting his jeans open in the close quarters, he had no problem sliding his hands beneath her dress. Dresses were marvelous things. Women should wear them all the time. He had a handful of smooth warm flesh, and he hadn’t had to work very hard to find it, unlike Leesa who was still struggling with his jeans button. He could have helped her, but he decided to enjoy touching her first. He dipped a finger beneath the elastic of her underwear. She drew in a sharp breath. He explored her further and found her hot wet core.

  Chase was glad he was still trapped inside his pants because it was too tempting to slide inside her. First he wanted to give her a time she’d never forget.

  A bed would be so nice right now, but that was not in the cards. He’d have to limit himself to what he’d been given. His finger found and worked the spot guaranteed to make her squirm. He worked it until she was trembling against him. Then he worked it some more until she cried out and clung to him like he was the only lifeline she had in the world.

  “There’s a condom in my pocket.” He spoke against her ear and she shivered.

  “Get it.” Her voice was breathless.

  He claimed her mouth again, not nearly done with her yet. She moved back enough for him to wiggle his hand into his pocket and pull out the packet. She took it from him, tearing it open with her teeth, as if she couldn’t open it fast enough. With a grin, he reached down and freed himself from his jeans and boxers. It wasn’t going to be perfect with him half in his jeans and the steering wheel pressing into Leesa’s back, but he was with her and alone, and that was good enough.

  Once she covered him and he slid into her, he couldn’t have cared if they were standing on hot coals. He wouldn’t have noticed. All he felt was how tight and hot it felt to be inside her. The only thing he cared about was that they fit together perfectly. That her body responded to his like they’d been made for each other.

  He could easily do this every day, twice a day, and never get tired of it, of her. If only she’d let him.

  She moved faster over him, and he buried his head against her chest, breathing in the scent of her. She smelled of a combination of the soap his mother kept in the shower and something that was uniquely her.

  He held her tightly to him as her hips moved, taking him to new heights. He didn’t want to finish and leave her, and he didn’t think she’d be willing to stick around for round two considering they were parked where another car could possibly drive by and see them. He held on until her body began to grip his. Chase felt her come and couldn’t hold back any longer.

  They clung to each other and Chase vowed he was going to do whatever it took to convince this girl to stay in his life.

  He came to that realization just as she laughed in his arms.

  Chase pulled back to look into her face. “You’re going to give me a complex laughing while I’m still inside you.”

  “Sorry, but your pants are vibrating.”

  Now that she mentioned it, he felt it too. “I put my phone on vibrate while we were in the restaurant. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. You want to answer it?”

  He was still buried deep inside the woman in his lap and he had no desire to leave, in spite of the fact he was fading fast and would have no choice in the matter very soon. Still the answer was clear. “No.”

  She laughed. “You never answer it.”

  “I do when I’m not occupied with someone much more interesting than whoever is on that call.” With that he nibbled on her neck and felt her sigh against him. “I will definitely answer any time you call me.”

  He only hoped that she would. Then something odd struck him. “Do you have a cell phone? I’ve never seen you with one.”

  “I, uh, lost it recently. I didn’t have time to replace it.” She pulled back from him and started to get off his lap. He knew immediately there was much more to her story than she’d revealed.

  He had to deal with cleaning himself up so he didn’t try and stop her when she moved back to her own seat. Besides, he had run out of ideas of how he could get her to confide in him. He guessed she needed time. Unfortunately, time was not something he had a lot of.

  After fastening his pants and belt again, he turned in the seat to face her. He laid his head against the head rest and simply took in the vision of Leesa, freshly loved and still a little breathless.

  She smiled and broke eye contact. “You make me nervous when you look at me like that.”

  “Nothing to be nervous about. I just like looking at you. Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?”

  The truck was only lit with the pale glow of moonlight, but he would make a bet she blushed. She was a woman who didn’t like getting compliments, but he intended to keep giving them to her until she got used to it.

  “I don’t, but thank you.”

  “You do. And that dress suits you perfectly.”

  “It does. Thank you again for that and for dinner.” She laughed. “It seems like I owe you a lot.”

  He leaned closer and took her hand in his. He fingered the ring on her finger. “Yeah? Hmm. I guess I’ll have to come up with a way for you to pay me back.”

  She shook her head but smiled. “Oh really. What do you have in mind?”

  “I’ll think of something. Ready to go home?”

  Leesa nodded. “Yes. Do I look all right? I mean will your family know what we’ve been doing?”

  Chase laughed. “Cody is going to assume it whether we did it or not. My parents are going to hope we never have and they’ll turn a blind eye just to keep believing that. And we’d be lucky if Christine noticed if the house was on fire the way she’s so involved in her television. So no, I wouldn’t worry. I think our secret is safe as far as the family goes.”

  “I’m glad. I like your family.”

  His hand paused on the key and he glanced at her. “Good.”

  Maybe they would be one more thing to sway her to stay in his life. He started the truck and headed for home.

  It was hard saying goodnight to Leesa at the door of his room when all he wanted to do was pick her up and toss her onto the bed. But he managed it and then went to his temporary quarters in Cody’s room.

  Luckily Cody was out, so he had some privacy to think about everything. All Leesa had told him. All that he was sure she hadn’t. It was also nice to think back on their time at the lake without being under Cody’s scrutiny. Chase emptied his pockets and remembered the missed call on his cell phone. It had been Garret again. He flipped it open and noticed there was a message this time. Feeling guilty for dodging the calls, Chase punched in his code and listened. Garret was probably good and pissed by now he hadn’t been answering.

  “Chase, man, I’m sorry. Okay? It was just a little joke. It’s nothing to stop talking to me over though. Call me back.”

  He frowned. What was just a joke? He hit the button and waited for the ring and then for Garret’s voice. “Chase. Hey.”

  “What was just a joke?”

  “You don’t know? Why haven’t you been picking up your phone if you’re not mad at me?”

  A feeling of doom descended, settling smack in the middle of his chest. “Garret. Tell me. What joke?”

  “The rings. The fak
e marriage license and receipt.”

  Chase swallowed hard. “What are you talking about?” He hoped against hope he wasn’t hearing what he’d just heard.

  “Didn’t you take all that stuff with you when you left? When we found it and you gone and you wouldn’t answer your phone, I figured you were mad.”

  “Just tell me exactly what you did.” His heart was pounding now and the steak threatened to come back up.

  “When you and that girl fell asleep so early, Skeeter and I thought it would be funny to play a little joke on you. We went down to the gift shop and bought a novelty marriage license and two cheap rings. Then it was Skeeter’s idea to make up one of those tear off receipts to make it look more authentic. You know those receipts like waitresses use when they take your order at a diner or whatever. So we asked one of the cocktail waitresses for a blank one and we made up a receipt. We didn’t mean to get you mad though. We just thought it would be funny.”

  Chase dropped down onto Cody’s bed and buried his face in his hand. It still didn’t make sense though. “How did you get our signatures?”

  “Dude, how many autograph signings have we been to together? I mean I could forge your signature blindfolded.”

  “What about Leesa’s?”

  “Yeah, that I feel kind of bad about, but it was actually Skeeter’s idea so you can get mad at him too. Her wallet was lying on top of her duffle bag. We opened it and got out her driver’s license and copied the signature from there. I’m sorry about that. We shouldn’t have gone through her stuff, but we were kinda drunk. You know?”

  Chase drew in a shaky breath. “Yeah. I know.”

  He’d just lost any hope of keeping her around and found out he’d been living a lie thinking he was married for the past few days. It hadn’t been very long at all, but knowing it wasn’t true…he almost felt like he was mourning the loss of it. It had been real to them.

  Thank God he hadn’t gone to his uncle with some novelty marriage certificate forged by his two drunk friends. It was bad enough he’d have to confess it all to his parents. And worse, tell Leesa.

  Then what? He dreaded even thinking of that.

  “Chase. I’m really sorry.”

  “It’s all right. I’m not mad.”

  “Okay. Good. So what’s up? What have you been doing? Ooo, what happened with that girl? You left so fast the next day and I haven’t gotten to talk to you.”

  It was back to business as usual with Garret. He had no idea what news he’d just delivered to Chase and how it had affected him.

  Cody walked through the door. He only had to look at Chase’s face before he frowned. He mouthed, “What’s wrong?”

  “Listen, Garret. My brother just got home and I gotta talk to him. I’ll call you back later. Okay?”

  “Yeah, sure. Later.”

  Chase hit the button to disconnect the call and sat, phone still in his hand.

  “What happened? Did one of the guys get hurt?”

  “No.” The question shook Chase out of his shock. Finally he shut the phone and tossed it onto the dresser. He glanced down at his hand and let out a sad laugh. “I’m not married.”

  “The divorce went through that fast?”

  “No. We were never married. The guys were playing a practical joke on me.” He pulled the ring off and tossed it next to the phone. “It was all a big joke.”

  “This is good news, bro. Now you don’t have all the divorce stuff to go through. You two can just date like normal people.”

  Chase shook his head. “I’m not sure Leesa wants that.”

  “Did you ask her?”

  “No.”

  Cody threw his hands up in the air. “Then how can you know that?”

  “I don’t know. I just do.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to tell her the truth.”

  “I know.” Chase ran his hands through his hair. Could he put it off until tomorrow? Not that he’d get any sleep tonight. “Maybe she’s sleeping already.”

  Cody frowned at the clock. “It’s a little early for her to be sleeping.”

  He didn’t even have to look at the clock to know that was true. He’d just said good night to Leesa and left her at the door. “Yeah. I know.”

  “Putting it off isn’t going to do any good.”

  Chase knew that was true, but putting it off felt better. At least it gave him a little time. He got up. “All right.”

  “Good luck. And ask her.”

  “I will.” Like a man walking to his execution, Chase headed out the door.

  The hallway had never seemed so short. Before he knew it, he was standing in front of his bedroom. Leesa’s bedroom. He raised his fist and knocked softly. He heard her footsteps inside and pictured her adorable feet. Then the door was open.

  He leaned against the doorframe. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” She was still in the dress she’d worn to dinner.

  She’d only owned it for a few hours, but he already had very fond memories of that dress. He tried not to think of that. It was only making this harder. “We need to talk.”

  “Um, okay.” She backed away from the door. “Do you want to come in?”

  “Yeah. Thanks.” He walked in and closed the door behind him.

  To hell with his parents’ rule. Like Cody said, it was still early and they needed to talk in private. His mother and father would have to deal with it. He was an adult, after all. They both were. “Um, so I talked to Garret.”

  “Good. I felt bad you kept ditching his calls.”

  Chase laughed, wishing he’d ditched him one more time and not listened to the voicemail.

  “He told me something.” This was turning out to be harder than he’d anticipated. “Sit down.”

  Leesa frowned but perched on the edge of the bed. “Okay. I’m sitting.”

  He found himself glancing at the ring on her finger. At the same time, he felt the smooth ringless skin on his own. “It was a practical joke. We didn’t wander down to the chapel drunk or sleepwalking or whatever. Garret and Skeeter forged our names on some souvenir marriage license they found in the gift shop.”

  “What?” She shook her head like she was trying to comprehend it.

  “We’re not married. We never were.” She had no idea how much it pained him to say that.

  “Oh.” She glanced down at her ring and laughed sadly. “I guess I should take this off then.”

  His heart jumped. He walked to the bed and kneeled in front of her. Taking her hands in his, he pulled the ring off her left hand and slid it onto her right. “How about you wear it here? I know it’s not a fancy ring but…”

  “It’ll give me something to remember us by.” Her voice was so soft he barely heard it. He wished he hadn’t. That wasn’t exactly the finish to his sentence he had been hoping for. What Chase wanted was for her not to go far enough to have to remember him, because he’d be right there.

  “I guess we should tell your parents now.” Her gaze met his. “How do you think they’re going to take this piece of news?”

  “After the last announcement we made, I can’t imagine anything I say now will shock them. I’ll handle it though. It was my stupid friends who did this, and my fault I drank enough I slept so hard I didn’t hear them doing it. I’ll deal with it. Besides, my daddy will likely have a few choice words to say about Garret and Skeeter, and I’m not sure they’ll be fit for a lady.”

  She smiled, but it managed to have sadness in it. “I’ve heard pretty much everything, but okay. You can handle it.”

  Chase nodded. “There’s something else.”

  “What else could there possibly be?”

  “Well, now that we don’t have to deal with a wedding we didn’t remember and a divorce we weren’t sure how to go about getting, I figure we might have time to just date each other. Tonight was a really good start.” Oh boy had it been. He wouldn’t mind a few repeats of it and soon. “What do you think? We were pretty good at being married. I’d like to see if we’r
e good at being a couple.”

  He waited for her answer, still holding on to her hands tightly.

  “There is nothing I’d like more.”

  He didn’t understand the tears that filled her eyes, but her answer made him more than happy. “Good.”

  Chase dropped a kiss on her mouth. It was meant to be a quick one, but it somehow became more. Perhaps it was Leesa’s hands tangled in his hair as she kissed him until they were both breathless. Maybe it was just that he couldn’t ever seem to get enough of her.

  He broke away. “If I don’t leave now, I’m never leaving, and I think Mama and Daddy might object to that. Especially now that we’re not even temporarily married.”

  She nodded, her eyes still glassy with what he hoped were tears of happiness. They should have plenty to be happy about. He’d asked her to be his girlfriend, she’d said yes and they didn’t have to go through the divorce.

  One day he’d figure out women. He’d enjoy figuring Leesa out.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Leesa didn’t sleep. She knew she wouldn’t. This was it. It was over. Time to leave. There was nothing left keeping her here besides her pointless desire to be Chase’s girlfriend and see where things went with them.

  She couldn’t do that. Not with Jerry after her, and staying any longer under false pretences was wrong. She couldn’t stay with Chase just because she felt safer hiding here. Besides, what if she was wrong and Jerry’s guys knew exactly where she was and were just biding their time. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to, she didn’t know, blow up the house with her and all of Chase’s family in it. She couldn’t take that risk.

  She’d watched the odometer in his truck on the drive to town. It was only about a mile. She had seen a pay phone at the gas station. She could call information and get a cab from the next town over maybe. It could take her to the nearest bus station. That would put a considerable dent in her spending money but what else could she do?