And she might’ve succeeded in pretending his peck was just a friendly gesture if he hadn’t kept inching those clever lips down her jawline. If he hadn’t made that nearly imperceptible growling noise in the back of his throat. If he hadn’t tenderly smooched the tip of her chin on his way to tenderly smooching her mouth. Once. Twice. The third kiss lingered. No hint of tongue, just a gentle press of lips on lips. Somehow his left hand had curled around her neck. Somehow, her hands ended up clamped onto his biceps.
Ava expected he’d keep the kiss slow and easy. So when Chase kissed the living shit out of her, she understood she didn’t know this Chase at all. The Chase who trapped her face in his big hands. The Chase who ably slipped his tongue past her teeth and fried her circuits with a kiss that stirred something inside her she’d never felt with any man.
Lust with an edge of danger. Lust that had no boundaries.
Just as Ava was about to lose herself in the sensation of surrender, Chase broke the kiss.
And then he’d apologized.
So yeah, she’d had that girlish sense of glee when he admitted he wasn’t sorry. She could work with that.
A clement breeze wafted over her. The warmth of the leather soaked into her back and she was lulled into total relaxation. She sighed and closed her eyes.
“Ava,” he whispered, “Come on.”
“What?” She scrambled up and looked at him.
“Scoot over.” Using the stirrup, Chase vaulted onto the back of the mechanical bull.
Ava watched him get situated; it wasn’t much different than when he readied himself to ride a real bull. He offered his hand and hauled her closer, laughing at her shriek of surprise as he draped her thighs over the top of his.
“I’ve been dying to do this,” Chase murmured, and that sinful mouth lowered to her neck, bestowing hot, sucking kisses that set her blood on fire. His tongue traced her collarbone from her shoulder to her throat. “Put your hands on me, Ava.”
Chase nearly purred when she thrust her hands through is hair. He nuzzled her cleavage while he unbuttoned her blouse and flicked open her bra so her breasts tumbled free. A low groan of male pleasure vibrated through her body as he sucked her nipples with single-minded devotion.
“So sexy.” Chase scattered kisses up to her ear. “You ready to take a real risk?”
Head muzzy from his kisses, she mumbled, “Sure.”
“Good. Hold on to me. I’m gonna turn the machine on slow.”
“What? Oh no.”
“Oh yes.” The back end of mechanical bull lifted, sending Ava sliding forward. Her whole body tensed as her weight rested on Chase fully.
“See, that’s why I’m on the bottom.”
The bull spun to the left and she closed her eyes.
“Look at me.”
Ava blinked at him. Then Chase’s mouth was on hers. His hands were on her. His body moved with the rhythm of the bull, and he urged hers to do the same.
She fell into him, giving herself over to his gracefulness, his athleticism and his sensuality.
“That’s it,” he muttered against her lips. “Relax, baby, trust me.”
The constant swoop of her stomach faded, mostly because Chase distracted her. And what sweet, hot distraction it was. His rough fingertips stroking the inside of her thighs. His blistering kisses. His sexy growl against her skin. The pressure of her clit pressing into the hard muscle of his abdomen with the bull’s every downward drop.
His hot breath flowed over her ear, sending a shiver of anticipation through her when he whispered, “Are you wet for me, Ava Rose?”
“You kiss me once and I’m ready for you.”
The bucking stopped. “Scoot back for a sec.” Keeping his fiery blue eyes on hers, Chase unbuttoned his jeans, unzipped and pulled his cock out. He reached around to bring her back onto his lap. “You ride me. I’ll ride the bull.” He lifted her and all that male hardness filled her in one deep plunge.
After Chase turned the bull back on, he reconnected to the rhythm of sex. Feeling his muscles flow in accord with the machine brought another level of appreciation for his riding abilities.
The spinning apparatus added another dimension. When the bull slanted forward, she shifted her hips side to side, trying to create friction on her clit. Even as she impaled herself on Chase’s cock fully, it wasn’t enough.
“Chase. I’m close. I need…”
“I know baby. Me too.” He stopped the bull at a steep angle. Kissing the upper swells of her breasts, he said, “Lie back.”
When her spine met the hard surface, Chase hooked his feet in the stirrups and stood. His hands slid beneath her butt, raising her so he could thrust into her hard. His gaze winged between her face and the way her breasts bounced with his every thrust.
“Touch yourself,” he panted. “I wanna watch you get yourself off.”
Ava covered her mound with her hand, scissoring her index and middle finger over her clit, before sliding down to where Chase’s cock plunged in and out, performing the same motion.
His molten eyes snared hers. “Teasin’ me?”
She shook her head. “The second I touch my clit I’ll come.”
“Do it.”
She dragged her middle finger up the wet seam of her sex. Once she reached her clit, she rubbed up and down and quickly unraveled. Blood pulsed beneath the pad of her stroking finger, tightening her pussy muscles around Chase’s cock.
He whispered her name, and thrust powerfully, staying buried inside her on the last stroke as he came.
Then Chase angled forward, remaining imbedded in her body, trapping her hand between them, placing his forearms by her head as he kissed her. A kiss unlike any other.
Ava felt weightless. Boneless. Dizzy. Buzzed.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
She batted away the annoying insect but it kept buzzing around her head. Go away. I’m basking in afterglow. She swatted one more time and her hand connected with a solid object.
Her eyes flew open.
Stars twinkled above her. She was still stretched out on the mechanical bull. But she was alone. No heat and stickiness between her thighs. No weight of Chase’s body on hers as he kissed her sweetly in the aftermath of zealous lovemaking.
It’d just been a damn dream.
The truth was, she knew that for at least the next two weeks, the only place she’d get down and dirty with him was in her dreams.
Chapter Ten
Ava checked the guard on the electric clippers. Better to leave it a little long than trim it too short. She bent down, letting the ends of his dark hair tickle her cheek as her lips grazed his ear. “You ready?”
Chase released a shudder and she smiled. He wasn’t the only one who could send mixed signals.
Standing above him, she wedged his knees between her thighs as she wrapped the fingers of her left hand around his jaw. Keeping his head at the proper angle, Ava warned, “Hold still,” and clicked on the clippers.
The first strip of hair to go was dead center, front to back. Then she moved to tackle the right side and finished with the left side. She brushed the hair from his shoulders, wishing some had landed on his arms, giving her an excuse to feel those bulging biceps. “Have a look.”
He stood and meandered to the mirror. Ava watched him smooth his hand over his scalp. “Wow. That looks different, huh?”
“Ever worn your hair that short?”
“Nope.” Chase slanted this way and that.
“Is it good? Or bad?”
“Good, I guess.” Chase’s vivid blue eyes met hers in the mirror. “What do you think?”
I think cutting off your gorgeous black locks just increased your hotness by a factor of ten million.
“I like it.”
He mugged in the mirror. “I like it, but I think I wanna go just a hair shorter—ha-ha.”
“Fine. Stop admiring your handsome self and sit so we can get this done.”
He plopped back on the chair.
Ava s
traddled his legs and held his head in place. The second trim didn’t take as long as the first. She shaved the hair on the back of his neck. Her hands took one last lingering sweep over his shorn hair, down his beautiful face, to his broad shoulders. She scooted back. “You look good with short hair, Chase.”
“Thanks. Do I look recognizable?”
“The goatee helps.”
He snagged the broom from her. “I’ll finish up. We need to get on the road so I can make my check-in time.”
“How far is it?”
“Four hours.”
Once they were cruising down the blacktop, Ava cranked her window open for fresh air. “Where are we going?”
“A one-night rodeo in Broken Bow, Nebraska. Then we’ll hit smaller rodeos within driving distance during the week. Next Thursday, Friday and Saturday we’ll be in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. At some point I’m thinking we’ll head to Cody, Wyoming. Their rodeo is set up differently. During tourist season, they have a new slate every night, and hand out a new purse every night.”
“What kind of purse? Because I’d like to win a purse.”
Chase laughed. Hard.
“What’s so funny?”
“You. In rodeo, purse means the amount of money paid out to the winners.” He laughed again. “Ain’t like a purse you can buy on Ro-day-o Drive in LA.”
“You are getting a huge kick out of me being such a neophyte.”
“Check you out, using fancy words to confuse a simple cowboy. What’s a neophyte?”
“Someone who’s inexperienced in a certain area.”
“You mean a greenhorn. Or a tenderfoot.”
“Of course you’d prefer old Western terms.”
“As long as we’re on the subject, we need to get a few things straight about this road trip. Traveling partners split the expenses fifty-fifty. The goal is to get to the next event as cheaply and quickly as possible. Sometimes that means no time to check into a motel and clean up, especially if the events are geographically spread out.”
“Was it my imagination, or did you emphasize cheaply?”
Chase grinned. “Glad to hear you picked up on that. We ain’t gonna be staying anyplace as fancy as the Cooper hotel chain.”
“I sorta figured,” she said dryly.
“Is that gonna be a problem?”
“Why would it be?”
“Because, Hollywood, you’re rich.”
“So?” Ava said a little abruptly.
“So your idea of roughin’ it and mine are likely polar opposites.” Chase took his eyes off the road and peered at her over the top of his sunglasses. “I ain’t askin’ this to be a nosy dick, but have you ever tried to live on a budget?”
She’d had no reason to. “What does that have to do with anything? I can pay my half of the traveling expenses, no problem.”
“In cash? We ain’t using credit cards at all on this trip. We’re both supposed to be under the radar. Heck, we’re even using fake names.”
“Give me some credit, Chase. I actually know how not to leave a credit card trail.”
“But that still doesn’t tell me if you’ve ever made a budget and stuck to it? Do you know what it’s like to be completely out of money?”
Ava fought a shudder at the very idea of being out of money permanently. “No.”
“Didn’t think so. How much cash do you have on you right now?”
“I don’t want to discuss money with you,” she snipped.
“Tough shit. How much?”
She debated on telling the truth, or lying and stealthily lining her pockets with cash from an ATM during their next stop.
Chase eased onto the shoulder. “Dump your purse and count out the money in your wallet.”
“Why do we have to do this right now?”
He offered her a wolflike smile. “Because I don’t think you’ll play fair.”
Ava gasped with total sarcasm. “You callin’ me a liar or a cheat, McKay?”
“Both, I reckon.” He patted the bench seat. “Lay it on me, baby.”
I’d like to lay something on you—my lips, my hands, my whole body.
Friends, Ava, remember? Friends, buddies, pals. Focus.
Hiding her superior look because she had planned for using only cash, Ava unsnapped the billfold portion of her wallet. She counted out seventeen hundred dollars and dug in her purse, finding another two hundred dollars worth of crumpled and folded bills.
Chase took out his wallet and counted out twenty-one hundred dollars, then reached in the glove compartment, coming up with five hundred more.
Holy crap. He had more money than she did. Not fair. “Can we stop at a cash machine so we’re even?”
He shook his head. “We’ll never be even. Remember I hafta pay contestant entry fees outta that.”
“But if you win…you’ll have more money.”
“I’m not keeping anything I earn. Don’t know what I’ll do with it yet.” He shoved his money back in his wallet. “So I gotta know, Hollywood. You up to the challenge of living like those of us who don’t have an easily replenished pile of cash?”
“If I say no?”
“Then I’ll know you ain’t serious about wanting to experience something real, ’cause living on a budget is as real as it gets for most people.”
Ava understood why Chase was pushing her. Didn’t mean she appreciated it, but if she said no, everything would end before it began. What was she out? Wasn’t like the temptation for gourmet dining would be an issue. Or boutique shopping for designer originals. Or forking over big bucks for a mani-pedi at an exclusive spa. Or buying pricey cocktails at trendy nightclubs.
“Ava?”
She met his challenging gaze head-on. “I’m in.”
“Now the real adventure begins.” After gifting her with his dazzling smile, he returned to the highway.
She dozed off at some point. After she woke, to the sound of crunching sunflower seeds, she asked, “You’ll be okay to ride with as sore as you’ve been the last couple days?”
“Ain’t as bad as it was. I’ll be stiff no matter what I do, so I might as well try making the buzzer.”
“What’s the entry fee?”
“Sixty-five bucks.”
“Do you want me to drop you off so I can find a hotel?”
“Yep. But it needs to be under a hundred bucks a night.”
Ava started humming the music from Mission Impossible and Chase laughed.
“Since you’re dropping me off, you’ll have to park in public parking since I won’t have a contestant tag yet.”
“They have a separate area for contestants?”
He nodded. “Timed-event competitors take their horses and horse trailers take up a shitload of parking space. The competitors who travel with their family have campers.”
“Sounds like the contestant area is one traveling party town.”
“You’d be right. When I first started competing and I didn’t have a nickel to my name, I’d drag an old tent along. Some of the stuff I saw people doin’…gave me quite the sexual education at the tender age of sixteen.”
“Give me the juicy details so I’m not shocked by what I see.”
Chase smirked. “Shocked. Right. I bet you’ve seen wild stuff in wacky Cal-y-forn-i-ay, so the countrified version will probably seem tame.”
“Still not an answer, Sundance.”
He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “I went to the first overnight event by myself ’cause my buddy Jet couldn’t get time off from work. I set up my pup tent. Had a couple of pilfered beers in my cooler, feeling like I was hot shit, right? So I’m sitting in my lawn chair, watching the goin’s on around the campground after the event ended. I hear a noise and creep around my tent to see two guys and a girl at the picnic shelter. They’re having a good time. One guy and a girl are clearly a couple ’cause they can’t keep their hands off each other. I start to back away when the other guy grabs the girl and kisses her. I’m thinking his buddy is gonna p
unch his lights out for touchin’ his girl, but he yanks the girl’s top down.
“The chick starts rubbing herself all over both of them. The guy behind her lifts up her skirt and shoves his hand between her thighs. I see his arm moving and I wondered what he was doing to make her squirm like that. She starts moaning real loud and the guy behind her turns her head to the side and kisses her to keep her quiet.”
Chase’s retelling of the story was making Ava squirmy.
“I figure they’re all done. Except this chick dropped to her knees. At sixteen, I knew what that meant even when I hadn’t found a girl willing to…ah, perform that particular act on me yet. I thought she’d blow one guy at a time while the other one watched. But no, she worked them both at the same time. Switching back and forth. And I was shocked that they were moving, fucking her mouth, not standing there letting her do the work. Then the guys take a half a step back and jack off on her tits. I’d never seen anything like it live and in person.”
Ava rested her shoulders against the door, surprised by his honesty. “Did it turn you on, Chase?”
“Mad me hard as a fuckin’ brick.”
“What did you do?”
His cheeks bloomed a charming shade of pink and he smiled guiltily. “I jacked off right there. ’Course, afterward I sorta felt like a pervert. But it didn’t stop me from checking out the picnic shelter the next night to see if they’d come back.”
She laughed. “So how did seeing that affect you, other than making you horny?”
“I wanted that type of experience for myself.”
“I assume you got to experience that, or something like it?”
“Yep. Eventually.”
That’s when he clammed up. Ava waited a couple of minutes before she said, “Come on, Chase. We’re friends. Friends share stuff like this all the time.”
“Not me.”
“Not even with your brothers?”
“Nope. So can we drop it?”
“No way.” Ava put her hands in the middle of the bench seat. “To show you this friends sharing thing isn’t one-sided, you tell me the rest of the story and I’ll tell you a story about me.”
Chasin' Eight: Rough Riders, Book 12 Page 12