Riding Home

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  “Sadly, no.”

  “Zach, I just thought of something. I can take a nap at the Bunk and Grub, but you have to work. When will you sleep?”

  “I get off at two tomorrow, so I can grab a quick nap before the party at five.”

  “That doesn’t seem like enough time.”

  He grinned. “Ask me if I care.”

  “I care. Let’s leave now so you can grab at least an hour or two before you have to head to work.”

  “Let’s not.” He reached over and loosened the belt of her robe.

  Her heart started thudding faster. “Are you still fixated on that chocolate mousse?”

  “Oddly enough, I’m not. I’m more in the mood for good, old-fashioned sex.” He looked into her eyes. “Would that be okay with you?”

  Her breath caught. The emotion in his gaze matched the warmth she was feeling. It was no longer simply lust between them. Something more was going on. Considering that fact, playing around with chocolate mousse might be a safer option than face-to-face lovemaking.

  Funny how the issue of stepping out of her comfort zone had just shifted to include missionary-position sex with a man who was supposed to be essentially a one-night stand. “Yes,” she said. “Totally okay with me.”

  7

  ZACH LEFT THE bed so he could get out of the rest of his clothes. If he’d started this meal the way he’d intended, he wouldn’t have to do that, but if he’d started the meal naked, they would have been rolling around in that bed in no time. Wearing the jeans had been a good thing, a lesson in postponing sex so he could actually get to know a woman. And himself.

  The more he got to know Jeannette, the more he chafed against their abbreviated time together. But he’d worry about that later. At the moment he had no worries whatsoever, because she was waiting for him in that big bed.

  He rolled on a condom before he joined her there, because he wouldn’t be playing any games this time. Games were fun when you had all the time in the world, but he and Jeannette didn’t. Despite having fun doing it on the floor and the various oral variations that had followed, he secretly loved this way the best.

  As he climbed back into bed and moved between her thighs, he realized that he’d denied himself this favorite position most of the time. He’d been afraid his partners would find it unimaginative and boring. Luckily Jeannette didn’t look bored.

  Her green eyes were bright as she slid both hands up his chest and around his neck. “Welcome.”

  “You don’t think this is clichéd?”

  Her laughter was breathless. “You have been in Hollywood too long.”

  “Yeah.” He would get down to business in a minute. First he wanted to remain braced above her so he could watch her skin flush as the tip of his cock nudged her entrance.

  “Mmm.” She lifted her hips and took him in a fraction more.

  Adrenaline shot through him, tempting him to accept her unspoken invitation to thrust deep. But he was still enjoying his view. Her breasts quivered with every rapid breath she took and her nipples were tight buds of arousal. “I’d almost forgotten how much I like having sex like this.”

  “I do, too.” She kneaded his shoulders. “I like watching your eyes change color.”

  “They do?” No one had ever told him that.

  “Uh-huh. Light to dark.”

  He pushed in farther. “So do yours.”

  “Not...surprised.” She flattened her hands against his chest. “You feel good.”

  “Where?”

  “Here.” She rubbed his pecs.

  “Here?” He rotated his hips.

  Her eyes flashed green fire. Then she clutched his hips, wrapped her legs around his and lifted up, taking him all the way. “There.”

  If he’d had any breath left, he would have laughed, but she’d taken it all away with that feisty move. If he’d thought he was in control, she’d just proved him wrong. He didn’t care. He was exactly where he wanted to be, buried to the hilt in her warmth.

  Settling down on his forearms, he gazed into her eyes and gulped in air. “Nice move.”

  “You were dawdlin’.”

  “My apologies.” He was securely anchored and he loved the feeling, but he thought they both might benefit from a looser situation. “Gonna let me move?”

  She smiled. “Only if you promise to be nice.”

  He leaned down, his mouth hovering over hers. “What’s nice?”

  “You know perfectly well.”

  He touched his mouth to hers and slid his tongue inside. After stroking back and forth a few times, he lifted his head. “Like that?”

  “You’re gettin’ the idea, cowboy.”

  “Then ease up so I can be nice where it counts.”

  She relaxed her grip but kept her legs wrapped around his.

  Propping himself up a little more so he could watch her expression, he began a slow rhythm. “How’s that?”

  “It’ll do.”

  God, but she made him smile. The heat in her gaze told him that she liked it better than she was letting on, but he loved her saucy attitude. Here he’d been worried that missionary-position sex would be a cliché.

  He doubted that sex would ever be a cliché when he made love to Jeannette. They brought out the playfulness in each other. Teasing her and being teased back was as natural as breathing.

  And speaking of breathing, hers was getting a little rapid, as if she might be excited. Imagine that. Shifting his angle, he drove in deeper, with a slightly faster pace. “Like that?”

  “For...the time bein’...” Her little whimper gave her away.

  “I think you’re getting hot.” He sure as hell was. The blood rushed in his ears and his cock wanted more, and faster yet. So he gave his bad boy what it longed for, and thrust in time with a wild, primitive beat.

  Her lips parted and her gaze took on the intensity of her looming orgasm. He watched avidly as her expression signaled that her moment was near. Oh, yeah. This was why he loved this position.

  “I think you’re gonna come,” he murmured softly. He stroked swiftly, his attention on her eyes. “You’re gonna come right...now.” He pushed deep and she closed her eyes and arched upward with a helpless cry of surrender. It was the sweetest sound, the greatest gift.

  With a groan, he unleashed the climax he’d barely been able to contain. Gasping, he pulsed within her and thanked his lucky stars that this woman had entered his life. If he had his way, it would be for more than one night.

  When his breathing had slowed, he kissed her softly. “Beautiful.” For him that was a global statement that covered her and the sex they’d just shared.

  “It was.” Her eyes fluttered open. “But now we should probably—”

  “In a little bit. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.” Reluctantly he eased away from her, sat up and swung his feet to the floor.

  “But I should get up, too.” She pushed herself to a sitting position.

  “Not yet. Please.” He stood and turned to her. “Just stay there, okay?”

  She hesitated before sliding back down. “All right.”

  “Great.” He hurried into the bathroom while he wondered how in hell he could avoid the separation that was about to happen. He’d see what they might be able to work out, because he wasn’t ready for this to be over.

  When he came back into the room, she was lying on her side, her head propped on a pillow as she gazed at him. He climbed in and mirrored her position. “I can’t speak for you, but I’m not ready to end this.”

  She sighed. “Neither am I, but I don’t know what else to do. I’m not going to risk sneakin’ you up to my room at the Bunk and Grub.”

  “You could stay in my Airstream.” He figured she’d say no, but he had to put it out there. />
  She regarded him silently for several long seconds. “That wouldn’t do my reputation any good.”

  “Probably not.” He couldn’t very well deny it. “Okay, forget that idea. But I just...” He cupped her cheek. “I just hate to think you’ll be so close, and yet so far.”

  “I know. I’ll be thinkin’ of you the whole time.”

  “Same here.”

  She sighed again. “And we’ll both be miserable.”

  “I’ll try not to be, but yeah, I’ll pretty much hate seeing you at the party and knowing I can’t be with you after it’s over.”

  “Come to think of it, my reputation isn’t in very good shape as it is.”

  Maybe all wasn’t lost, then, but a sense of fairness made him remind her of her original goal. “I thought you were trying to fix that.”

  She pressed his hand against her cheek. “I was, until we had this time together. The people that matter most to me, Regan and Drake, won’t care if I spend the rest of the weekend with you. As for everybody else, their good opinion doesn’t seem so important if you and I have to suffer in order to earn it.”

  “Are you sure about this? I don’t want to let you in for more of what you’ve been through.”

  She gazed at him. “When I weigh that against us having more time together, their disapproval doesn’t matter so much anymore.”

  “Ah, Jeannette.” He gathered her close and combed his fingers through her hair. “I’m trying not to think of how selfish I’m being by wanting to take you back with me.”

  “But I want to go.” She hugged him tight. “I’m dyin’ of curiosity about that solar shower.”

  Laughing, he rolled her to her back. “You’ll love it. We’ll take a shower together when I come back from work, before we get dressed for the party.”

  “Which I now have a date for, right?”

  “You most certainly do.”

  “We should get started back, then, so we can pick up my stuff and my car before you have to go to work.”

  “We will.” He reached for a condom on the nightstand. “But first we need one for the road.”

  * * *

  AN HOUR LATER, they were headed back to Shoshone, and he was glad he’d only had a few drops of champagne licked from Jeannette’s sweet body. His head was clear and his imagination was busily concocting scenarios of what would happen when they reached his campsite. Jeannette seemed determined that he’d get an hour or so of sleep, but he doubted it. Traffic was light, which allowed him to jack up his speed.

  “You should sleep on the way home,” he told her.

  “Not on your life. We need some tunes, is what we need.” She leaned over and switched on the radio. His favorite classic rock station came on with a number by Billy Joel. “Do you mean to tell me you don’t have a country station locked in to go with your big bad truck?”

  “Sorry. If you want country, you can search around and find some.”

  “What if I like this?”

  He glanced over at her. “Then I guess we’re good.” Were they ever. Each similarity they discovered underlined how good they would be together. He wondered if she’d noticed that. “I figured you’d like the newer stuff.”

  “I like some of it, but my parents were older when they had me, so they played this kind of music all the time. I grew up on it.”

  “So did I, although my parents weren’t terribly old when they had me. If you went to school with Regan and Drake, you must be what, thirty?”

  “A lady doesn’t discuss her age.”

  “If you won’t discuss it, I’ll have to conclude that you went back to college after working several dead-end jobs and you’re now pushing forty.”

  “I am not!”

  “Okay, I’ll go first. I’m thirty-six.” When he was with her, though, he felt like a teenager with his first crush.

  “That old, huh?”

  “That old. When I graduated from law school, you were a wet-behind-the-ears freshman in college. It’s a wonder we connect at all.”

  “Sarcasm.”

  “Do you think?”

  “In actuality, a thirty-six-year-old man is about right for a thirty-year-old woman. Women mature faster than men.”

  He decided to ignore that comment. “So you admit to being thirty?”

  “I do. I was supposed to be married by now. I was on track for it, too.”

  “If you were supposed to be married by now, what about me? I’m way past the age when I should have found the perfect woman and settled down.”

  “Come to think of it, you are old to never have been married. Are you divorced?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why not?”

  He laughed. “Because I didn’t get married. It’s kind of hard to get a divorce from a wife you’ve never had.”

  “I said that wrong. Let’s try that again. Why haven’t you ever been married?”

  “Damn, now you sound like my mother. She’s been pestering me for years about that.”

  “And what do you tell her?”

  He focused on the white dividing line rolling past. “I tell her the same thing I’ll tell you. I haven’t found the right person.” A small voice whispered that he might have found her now, but that was a ridiculously premature idea. “I did get engaged once, but we both figured out it wouldn’t work and broke up.”

  “Smart. Regan and I should have done that. But on the other hand, if we had, I never would have met you. I’m glad for whatever circumstances brought us together.”

  “Me, too.” More than she’d ever know, probably. “I take it your parents were pushing you to get married, too. Expecting you to give them grandkids and all that.”

  “Get married, yes. That’s generally what Southern girls are supposed to do. I don’t think they were particularly eager for grandchildren, though. They didn’t intend to have me in the first place.”

  “Oh.”

  She sighed. “Blame the late hour. I didn’t mean to blurt that out. Please don’t think I dwell on it, or think of myself as some kind of mistake. Once they had me, they were very proud of me and what I accomplished.”

  “As well they should be.” But his heart ached for her. No wonder she’d tried to be Miss Perfect all her life. She’d been trying to justify her right to exist.

  He had the crazy urge to coax her away from Virginia and what sounded like a toxic situation. Maybe she wasn’t all that happy at work. “Tell me about your job.”

  She seemed grateful for a change of subject. “It’s terrific. My firm has a lot of clients who own and race Thoroughbreds. Sale contracts get complicated, especially for a foal that might go on to be a Derby winner. Everyone’s always looking for the next Triple Crown hopeful. Very high-pressure, but I love it.”

  “And the horses can’t show up drunk or stoned. That would be a plus.”

  She laughed. “Some of the owners might, though. Wherever there’s money, there’s excess. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that.”

  “Sure don’t.”

  “I’m about to make partner.” She said it softly, but with a touch of pride.

  “No kidding? That’s great!” Not for him, obviously. His tentative idea that she might consider moving to Jackson Hole and open a practice seemed doomed from the start.

  If she’d worked her tail off for this firm and was about to be offered a partnership, she wouldn’t want to give that up without a really good reason. He was willing to try to provide her with a reason, but that was a tall order, even though he’d stretched their one-night-stand into a three-day affair. A long-distance relationship was an option, but he’d never been a fan of those. He’d seen too many Hollywood couples break up because they didn’t spend enough time together.

  “My folks are happy about the partnership.
”

  “I’ll bet.” Yeah, they would be. They might have suffered through botched wedding plans, but they could take solace in their daughter’s professional success. Zach didn’t think he’d like them very much.

  Even if they hadn’t planned to have Jeannette, why tell her so? Only selfishness, insensitivity or both would motivate a parent to blab something like that to a kid. He didn’t have much patience with either, especially when he witnessed the fallout—a woman who thought she had to do everything just right.

  Then “Jailhouse Rock” came on, and Jeannette started singing along. He thought that was so cute that he joined in, and soon the two of them were belting out the song at the top of their lungs. They both made love better than they sang, but it didn’t matter. Cruising down the highway in the wee hours of the morning, singing along with Elvis, he couldn’t remember when he’d ever been happier.

  She knew the Buddy Holly song that came on next, too, and they ended up singing like fools for the rest of the trip. He’d made the drive from Shoshone to Jackson several times in the month he’d lived here, but it had never seemed as short as it did tonight. Logically he should be exhausted, but being with Jeannette gave him a second wind.

  The streets of Shoshone were deserted at this hour, but when Zach came to the intersection, the light turned red. “It always does this. Jack says Elmer Crookshanks, the guy with the gas station on the corner, has a sensor so you have to stop and look over at his station.”

  “You could run it.”

  “I could, but Elmer used to have a traffic camera hooked up, too. Jack swears he made him take it down, but I’ve heard others say it’s still running. Might as well sit here until it turns green.”

  “This is a quirky little town.” She looked over at the Spirits and Spurs. The neon sign depicting a cowboy on a bucking bronco had been turned off. “That bar looks like fun.”

  “Supposedly it’s haunted. That’s why Josie calls it the Spirits and Spurs. Kind of an inside joke.”

  “I met Josie today while we were working in the kitchen. Pretty lady, long blond braid.”

  “That’s her.”