“I could have walked.” Each word felt squeezed out of her as he started walking rather quickly considering he was carrying her and a basket of food.
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“Boone, you should probably put me down. You might injure yourself before tomorrow.”
He lightly swatted her bottom and she squeaked in surprise.
“What was that for?” She couldn’t believe he’d spanked her.
“For doubting my cowboy manliness.” He walked a bit further while Piper tried unsuccessfully to stifle her laughter. He stopped. “Is the blindfold still on?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Don’t look yet.” He gently lowered her to her feet, and then sat her down on what felt like a rock. “It’s safe right here, Piper. It’s a big granite rock that was sheared off probably eons ago in the Missoula floods. Pieces of these rocks are scattered as far away as Oregon. Imagine the power and fury of that water surging thousands of miles.”
Piper felt along the rock with her fingers while she waited. She could hear Boone moving around. Then she heard the pop of a small cork and liquid pouring. Her heart fluttered.
“Did you get champagne?”
He gently untied her blindfold and tucked it in his back pocket while she blinked at him.
He handed her a glass of sparkling wine. “Just a split since I’m riding tomorrow and you don’t drink much. You’re supposed to be looking at the view,” he said quietly.
“I am,” Piper said barely able to swallow as emotion swamped her.
“The other view.” He smiled.
Boone settled near her on the rock and she looked out over gently rolling hills, with a narrow ribbon of river flowing through it.
“You’ve showed me so many beautiful places, Boone,” Piper said softly thinking of all the national parks they’d visited in Montana and Utah. All the mountains they’d hiked in Colorado. “We aren’t trespassing are we?”
Boone hesitated. He looked pensive as he stared across the valley. “Not exactly. It’s been Crawford County land forever, but I heard it’s going up for auction soon. Too soon,” she thought she heard him mutter.
“Thank you for sharing your favorite view with me.”
He nodded. Released a long breath much like a pricked balloon.
“Boone?”
He startled almost as if he’d forgotten she was there.
“Sorry, Piper.” He took her hand. She waited. Felt like she was holding her breath. “You warm enough? Gets cold when the sun goes down.”
“I’m fine. Boone, what is it?” She’d already put on a sweater.
“Let’s just enjoy the view a little bit.” Boone slipped his arm around her shoulder and they sat quietly, watching the sun sink and the pink and gray claim the blue of the sky. Piper’s heart raced. Boone seemed like he wanted to say something, and part of her wanted to insist he tell her, but another, larger, cowardly part insisted she remain silent.
His thumb sketched circles on her back, and Piper relaxed in to him. She was torn. She wanted to discuss what she’d learned today—about the potential to open a massage studio in Amanda Wright’s Salon, and she wanted to discuss their future—if they had one. But as she turned the words over and over in her head, she could feel her courage bleed out. The view was beautiful. Boone had packed a picnic. He wanted to be alone with her. If this was one of her last memories with him, she wanted to enjoy it, not spoil the moment by overanalyzing and planning out every move. She admired Boone’s spontaneity, and should try it on sometimes.
But no. She knew that wouldn’t ultimately work for her. She had to make decisions. And she needed to know where she stood with him. She sucked in a breath.
“I brought food,” Boone said. “You want me to make you up a plate?”
“Sure.” He’d gone to so much trouble. And he had an active life. He must be hungry.
She settled on the blanket across front him, their knees bumping.
“Do you like Marietta?”
“Love it,” he said as he scooped some rice on her plate, cucumber and tomato salad, chickpeas and roasted peppers and a chicken skewer.
Piper laughed. “No wonder you wanted to go off by ourselves—this is not typical cowboy fare.”
Boone handed her the plate along with a fork. He grinned.
“It’s true you’ve introduced me to some pretty unMontana things. Other competitors on the tour are beginning to notice. I might lose my tour card.”
“I haven’t unmanned you, cowboy,” she teased. “I’ve upped your game.”
“You have, Piper.” He smiled, and Piper caught her breath.
He was so physically perfect, effortlessly handsome in a way that always made him seem a little unreal, and out of reach. But it was his innate goodness and the way he took care of her that always undid her. And how he would try new things to please her. So maybe she should help him now—help him to tell her what was bothering him.
“We’ve been traveling together for four months, Boone,” Piper said softly, wanting to somehow jump-start the conversation about the future without getting heavy.
He nodded, his face not closing off entirely, but he seemed to turn inward. His blue eyes met hers and held. Then he leaned forward and kissed her. Her lips immediately went pliant under his, and she quickly put her plate off to the side so she could hold on to him.
“Behave now,” he said softly breaking off the kiss, his breathing elevated as he rested his forehead against hers. “I could kiss you forever, Piper. Never get tired of it.”
“Me too,” she breathlessly agreed.
“But we always take it to the next level pretty quick and I’m trying to be a gentleman tonight.”
“You’re always on your best behavior,” Piper defended.
He laughed a little ruefully and filled his plate. “I’m pretty sure your father, the colonel, wouldn’t agree.”
Piper waved her hand, dismissing her father. He hadn’t agreed on anything she could remember, and she doubted he cared or thought about her much.
“What’s been the biggest change having me on tour with you?” Piper impulsively asked when he filled a plate for himself—more chicken and no chickpeas.
He picked up his chicken kabob, his eyes out the horizon, as the sun slipped lower. “Everything is better,” he said, thrilling her.
“But you’ve done the rodeo since you were eighteen. You must have had other girlfriends travel with you.”
Boone shook his head. “I told you I never did before. I mean I…you know…met up with girls over the weekends and had drinks and danced and sometimes more if they wanted.” He seemed uncomfortable with the conversation.
“Why me?”
Boone ate the chicken straight off the stick. He shrugged a little.
“Don’t you wonder why we hit it off so fast?”
“We just did.” He picked up another kabob.
“But you’d never done that before, met a woman and clicked instantly and invited her to travel with you for a few weeks or a month or longer?”
Boone shrugged. “Too distracting. Too irritating.”
“You never get short with me, Boone. I can’t imagine you ever being so solitary. Why did you invite me after only two days of knowing each other?”
“I didn’t really analyze it, Piper. It just sounded fun and you were game and it’s been a good ride.” He seemed ready to climb out of his skin. “Why did you come?”
She stared into his face, wondering if she should tell him—if she could explain it to him in a way he’d understand without scaring him to death.
“It sounded like an adventure. And very glamorous.”
He laughed. “Yeah, all the dust and manure and animal smells and taping up my body. And going on extra ice runs after I compete. Totally glamorous.”
“It was you, Boone,” Piper said. “You. The way you looked at me and smiled at me. It made me feel alive and connected in a way I never had before,” she admitted in a broken
whisper.
He met her gaze and held it, and Piper felt totally exposed. She was on a ledge. She could jump or walk it back.
“But then it was taping up your bruises. And I always did have a kinky thing for ice,” she said taking a giant metaphorical step backward to safety.
“Ice, huh? I did pack some ice to keep your kale salad cool.”
“Careful, cowboy, those are serious seduction words.”
Piper picked up a chickpea from off her plate. “Try it,” she said. “I dare you.”
He made a face. “What will you give me?”
“Probably another one because you’ll ask so nicely.”
He took the chickpea from her fingers swallowed it, likely without tasting it, but sucked her finger deep into his mouth. His tongue lightly stroking it. Piper felt her entire body go soft and damp. “Please, Piper. Pretty please. Can I have another…” He let the sentence stretch, his smile wicked.
“Chickpea?”
He moved his plate off his lap.
“No,” he said softly, his voice as deep and dark as sin. “That’s not the word I was thinking of. Unless—” he drew out the S sound “—you let me put the chickpea someplace more interesting.”
“I dare you, cowboy.”
She was already unsnapping his shirt, and tugging it out of his jeans and off his shoulders, her hands greedy and intent.
He smiled. “Careful, I might take you up on that.”
“Go ahead. I double dare you,” Piper said, her hands busy. She pushed on his chest, and he allowed himself to be forced back on the blanket.
“Damn, girl, I love how you’re always as eager as me, but I’m getting cheated. You have on all your clothes. Again.” Still, he let her undress him, toeing off his boots. Her hand was at his buckle, snaking the leather through his belt loops.
But when he reached for her, she was already straddling him and taking the belt and looping it around his hands. “Jesus, Piper.” His eyes flared with both surprise and arousal.
“Seems only fair. You blindfolded me. And spanked me.”
“That was not a spanking. Not even close.”
“Still, take your punishment.” Piper looped the belt around his wrists. It wasn’t effective but Boone played along. She liked him like that, willing to play. Stretched out for her. His chest bare, his arms above his head, and his arousal obvious and pressing against his jeans for release. It gave her a sense of control she’d felt she’d lost since yesterday. She straddled his thighs and caught the fabric around the first button of his Levi’s with her teeth and tugged.
A groan ripped from Boone’s throat and his hips jerked upward. Piper licked at the opening and then tugged open another button.
“Be still,” she said as he writhed under her.
“I want to…”
“This is about what I want tonight,” Piper interrupted and she exhaled warm air along his skin.
“Oh, God,” Boone breathed out.
It still amazed Piper the power she had over him sexually. And he over her. He’d turn the tables in a second. Boone might be sweet and gentle, but he was dominant in bed and she loved that side of him—the side where he’d catch fire so quickly and have to have her. Have to.
But she wanted to control this a little because she had a surprise for him. She undid another button and lapped at the opening with her tongue as her hands pulled his jeans over his hips and down his legs where he kicked them off. Piper cupped his balls, rolling them gently when she took him into her mouth. She loved the way he tasted and felt—silky but oh so hard.
Boone gave up the pretense of handing over control. He tossed the belt somewhere and his hands were buried in her hair while he hoarsely whispered encouragement. Piper loved this. Loved bringing Boone pleasure. She liked it even more than when he did this to her. She never had any idea sex could be so intimate, that she could feel like she was part of another person so entirely, feel like she was deep in their skin and blood and wrapped around their bones, and he inside her.
She swirled her tongue around his leaking tip, savoring his salty masculine essence. Torn, she wanted to keep going, but she wanted to ride him as the sun set and twilight took over. She wanted to lie with him under the stars.
“You look so beautiful Piper but way overdressed.”
She kept her hand wrapped around his erection and gently pumped it. She smiled at him, feeling mysterious, playful and sexy in a way she hadn’t before. Usually she let Boone take the lead, but she had so many questions and worries and emotions rattling around her head right now that she felt more assertive—ready to bust out and take charge.
“I thought you liked this dress.” She kissed her way up his abdomen.
“I’d like it better off.”
“I can still take care of you, Boone. Give you what you want.”
Piper raised herself up a little and guided him to her slick heat. She teased him along her seam.
“Piper, you weren’t wearing underwear this whole time? Damn, I wouldn’t have made it out of the trailer if I’d known that.”
Piper kept herself just out of reach, loving having control. “Then we would have missed the beautiful scenery.”
“All I see are stars. Get up here. I want to taste you. Make you scream.”
Not like he gave her much choice. He gripped her hips and his mouth was on her even as her dress settled over him.
Piper could barely remain upright as his tongue immediately teased her swollen clit with moist heat. She cried out as he stroked her close to a climax and then backed off.
“Keep your dress on,” he demanded, “but let the straps fall down, touch your breasts. You’re not wearing a bra are you? Get rid of the bra, baby.”
It felt decadent and absolutely perfect to have Boone under her, his mouth working magic while she cupped her breasts, and imagined it was his hands on her, his fingers working her nipples, making them peak and ache.
Boone kissed and nipped her inner thighs while his thumb stroked her and two of his fingers dipped deep into her heat. He brought her to the brink again, only this time he tipped her over fast, and even as her body started to spasm, Boone caught her and shifted her weight back so that he was over her.
He hesitated. “Piper, I didn’t bring…”
“It’s okay,” she interrupted desperate to have him inside her. Skin to skin. Nothing between them. “You’re safe.”
“We’re safe,” he corrected. “Piper, I need to take care of you,” he said urgently.
“Then do it.” She wrapped her legs around his narrow hips and tilted her pelvis, catching him, her hands clasping his bare ass, and he sank into her with a groan, and Piper hissed as her muscles clenched around him. And then Boone was inside of her, hot and hard and moving in long smooth strokes through her orgasm. He splayed one hand across her ass cheek to keep the pressure where she was most sensitive and Piper felt herself fly into another orgasm even as Boone kept moving inside of her.
She clung to him, trying to not rake her nails down his back even though she kept them trimmed short for work. She never wanted it to end, never. She felt him tense and anticipating his climax she clenched her muscles and savored his shout, and the splash of his hot seed bathing her core.
Piper held him to her, soaked in the after quakes, and their ragged breathing. Even if she never could be with Boone again, she wanted to remember this moment, nothing separating them. Feeling him fly apart inside of her. But he’d never not worn a condom with her. That had to mean something, right? She tried to stamp down on her stupid, soaring heart.
“I’m too heavy,” he murmured, trying to lift himself off her.
“You’re perfect. This is perfect.” She sighed.
He slipped her dress down to her waist so they were bare skin to bare skin.
He sighed. “Better.”
“The best,” Piper whispered. She couldn’t imagine her life without him in it, but she knew she was going to have to ask him questions. Just not now. But soon.
“Perfect.”
*
“I wish you had one of those old-fashioned trucks with the long seat so I could sit closer to you,” Piper said after they’d packed up everything and were heading back to the trailer.
It was dusk and cool, but Piper still had the window open so she could feel the coming night. She had on Boone’s denim jacket. Usually he had the radio on, but not tonight. His hand was splayed across her thigh. Piper tried to hold on to the intimacy from earlier but it leached away like the light.
“It’s September,” Piper said.
As if neither of them knew that.
“Yeah.” Boone’s voice was a little more cautious now—like he got when she brought up anything too personal, Piper realized with a pang.
Like he wanted to keep her at arm’s length even as he held her close.
“We had talked about me touring with you for the summer.” Piper took the plunge. And held her breath.
“Yeah.”
Not much to work with.
“What are we doing, Boone?”
He didn’t answer for a long time. He turned on the truck’s headlights as he maneuvered down the rutted drive back to a wider gravel road.
“Boone?”
He shrugged, and his face pinched a little. “I don’t really analyze things except my rodeo rides and stats,” Boone finally said. “Never been a planner.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You just rocked my world back there, Piper. Fireworks every time with you. Why can’t we leave it at that?”
Why couldn’t she?
“Because I want more,” she finally said.
The silence in the truck was painful. Boone turned onto a narrow paved road.
“More?” he finally asked, but didn’t look at her.
“Yeah. I think about the future. My future. What I want, and I want to know what you want.”
Boone’s hand left her thigh, and she immediately missed his touch. He pushed his hat back and then forward again, always a sign he was thinking and not really liking where his mind or the conversation was going. He put both hands on the wheel.
Part of Piper wished she’d left it, but another part, a bigger part, pushed on.
“I know we talked only about the summer, but I don’t think it works like that—an arbitrary end date. Tonight with the picnic and making love didn’t feel like we’re through, but it’s September.”
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