Riled by the Rider

by Ana Lewin

  Chapter 2

  Levi

  The woman underneath him - he felt like an asshole for not even getting her name - cursed and scrambled up as best she could with her jeans caught around her knees. She was a vision, he had to admit. Small tits with nipples that begged to be sucked on. Pale, blemish-free skin that he now knew was as soft as it looked. That short, dark brown hair with the curls that he’d mussed up when she’d been blowing him. He never went for women with shorter hair, but then again, nothing about this woman was what he typically went for.

  Finally fishing the phone out from her purse she rolled her eyes and answered it. “Whores for the boring. Would you like a suck or a fuck today?”

  His mouth dropped open, but he realized that she was joking around. Her eyes narrowed into slits as if she could project her annoyance through the phone. Levi couldn’t hear the person on the other end, but he was pretty sure she cut him off. “Look. How about a fuck off? That’s what I’m interested in today.”

  Not even waiting for an answer she hung up and clenched her fist around the phone. One deep breath later and she was smirking over in his direction again like the exchange had never happened. “Sorry, that’s a bit of an inside joke.”

  Cock already half-awake for round two, he mourned the fact that she didn’t seem interested. A quick tug got her jeans and panties back up her legs and a second later she had the shirt pulled back over her head too. “How long are you in town for?” he found himself asking.

  That was a red flag. If this woman was a good enough lay to have him asking for a repeat, that was a sure sign that a repeat shouldn’t happen. Even if it had been the best sex of his life, without contest. She only laughed, grabbing her purse. “Look, Levi. This has been great. Nice witty banter, awesome sex, all that. But I don’t do repeats. Especially not with handsome strangers I meet at diners. You might want to put some pants back on before I open this tailgate and head back to my rental car.”

  The way her voice caressed his name almost distracted him from what she said. OK, so he had just been thinking about how a repeat wasn’t the best idea. But for her to turn him down instead of the other way around? Who the hell was this woman? “Unless you’re some kind of exhibitionist. I can open this tailgate right now and see what happens.”

  Her immaculately manicured fingers went out to open it and he cursed. “No, nope. Don’t do that. Give me a second.”

  “There we go, there is someone in there! I was worried for a second that I’d broken you with that rejection. Are you the one who usually turns people down, cowboy?”

  The way he glared was enough to tell her that she hit the nail on the head. When his pants were on she didn’t waste any time hopping out of his truck and onto the pavement. No one was around, and he was glad that he knew exactly when they got all their deliveries. That was how he had his truck parked over here without having to worry about it being towed. “Can I at least get your name?” he asked, watching the sway of her hips as she started to walk away.

  “Nope,” she shot him a cocky grin over her shoulder. “You can put my name in your conquest book as ‘that tiny brunette from the diner.’ I’m sure you’ll remember. Have a nice life, Levi.”

  Turning back around she raised a hand in the air as a goodbye. And then she was gone and he was left more speechless than a woman had left him in fifteen years.

  It took him a minute to shake it off, to shake her off. Especially when her scent was still hovering around him. Tropical, coconut shampoo and some kind of flower. He got in the cab of the truck and sat there, willing his cock down from half-mast. Only when he was sure he was settled did he turn the key in the ignition, the engine roaring to life. That was that. He’d never see her again, but she would go down in history as the best and sassiest lay he’d ever had.

  That was that.

  By the time he walked into the Town Grocer, a small everything store downtown, he’d almost convinced himself that she was out of his mind. “Levi!” Hank bellowed out a greeting from behind the counter, waving him over. “How are the horses doing?”

  Chuckling, Levi shrugged. That was always what Hank asked first but as the owner of this little shop, he was always here. Which meant that Grant had told him exactly how all the horses were doing yesterday. “All great. No injuries or anything at the moment, and hopefully none for the rest of the summer.”

  Horse injuries in the summer could hurt their business. If he didn’t have enough horses to keep up with the demand for lessons… well. He’d leave the accounting behind it to Grant and Oscar. His job was to make sure that the horses went to Finn as soon as they started displaying any unusual behavior. “Well then, how are you doing?” He never knew how to answer when Hank asked him that. Levi was doing fine, he was always doing fine. The same as he was last week, and the week before, and the week before that. This time Hank didn’t even give him a chance to answer, going for the meat of the matter instead. What he really wanted to know. “Have you thought about settling down now that Grant and Olivia are all lovey-dovey back at the ranch there?”

  His first reaction was to snort. Grant was his best friend and boss at Honeydew Ranch, and Olivia was his new girlfriend. He loved them both. Their relationship was the most solid one he’d ever seen, now that they’d overcome their differences. But to think that seeing a couple all the time would make him want to be in one? No. That wasn’t happening. He blatantly ignored the fact that the woman from earlier flitted across his mind. “Settling down with one woman isn’t on the table. Not now and not ever.”

  Hank shrugged one shoulder. “I think it would be good for you. Having a woman to keep you in line. Living life alone isn’t much fun.”

  The older man would know. He’d lost his wife three years prior. All he had in the world was his daughter. Levi told himself that was the only reason he didn’t get into it with Hank over the topic of women and love. “I’m pretty sure I’ve fucked my way through the whole town by now, excuse my language. And I’m not even remotely interested in spending the rest of my life with any of those women. They all want something from me and I’m not interested in that.”

  When he said they wanted something, he didn’t mean love and affection. If it was just that, he could handle it. He had women asking him for money and free edited pictures and horse riding lessons. Material things that they shouldn’t be asking for, especially not when they still barely knew him. It proved to him what he already knew. Everyone had a price and when a better offer came along they would take it.

  The bell on the door jingled and he glanced over to see the newcomer, only to regret it when her gaze lit on him. Allison was a tall blonde with huge tits and she was the woman he regretted sleeping with most. Which was saying something, considering how many women he’d slept with and how many he’d regretted. Her long legs brought her over to the two of them within seconds and she gave Hank a small smile. “Levi, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you! Can we chat?”

  She didn’t wait for an answer, the cold hand on his bare arm leading him into the aisles. Having her touching him reminded him of how much different the other woman’s touch had been. Warmer, not masking lies. “Allison, I don’t know what we have to talk about,” at least, he didn’t want to know.

  “Well, you haven’t been calling me back,” the pout on her lips made him wary. “I was hoping you would be able to take some pictures of me. Since you’re so good at it and everything.”

  Barely managing to avoid an audible sigh, he tried to step a bit away from her. It was like she’d come in for the sole purpose of proving the point he’d been trying to remind himself of earlier. Everyone wanted something from him. “My packages started at $300 for a thirty-minute shoot and fifteen edited images.”

  The pout deepened and he discreetly shifted back in the direction of the front counter. He didn’t want to be around long enough for her to get to the begging part. “I was hoping you would be able to do it as like, a favor,” she asked, those cold hands still grabbing at h
im. Like he was hers to touch whenever she wanted. “Since we’ve been seeing each other for a little while now.”

  Levi laughed. He shouldn’t have, it was rude. But he couldn’t help it. If they were ‘seeing each other’ he was dating half the damn town by this point. In his world, one night of sex and a promise to never do it again was about as far from a relationship as he could get while still having regular sex. Allison’s definition must be a lot different. “Listen, I’m sorry. We’re not seeing each other and I don’t work for free. It was nice running into you today.”

  Before she had a chance to cry or yell or come up with some other tactic he pulled away from her frigid grip and fled the Town Grocer empty-handed. The supplies could wait.

  ***

  The rental car he was following was shiny, sleek, and completely out of place in Pelmsemet, Tennessee. It was also going slower than anyone ever did on this road and he was ashamed to say that he was right up on its ass. He couldn’t help it, he was tense. He’d thought that a quickie would tide him over for a few days at least. Seeing Allison had made him more desperate to see the woman from the diner again. She was everything Allison wasn’t.

  Spotting the sign for Honeydew Ranch coming up on the left, he nearly rear-ended the tiny black car when it slowed down, blinker going on. What the hell was some out-of-towner doing going to the ranch? There were no lessons or tours this early in the morning and it’s not like they had a hotel on site. It wasn’t that big of an operation. Following the car down the drive, his confusion grew when they didn’t pull into the client parking. They continued along to the back, along the pot-holed ground, until they got to the staff parking area. Staff parking couldn’t be seen from the road, so you kind of had to know where it was.

  Both vehicles parked and he hopped out of his, going over to the driver’s side window of the rental and leaning down. Through the open window he could see a woman in sunglasses, dark brown hair in messy curls down to just above her shoulders. The same dark brown curls that he’d been tugging on earlier that morning. Popping her sunglasses up onto the top of her head, she cocked an eyebrow. “I have a bad feeling that you’re not stalking me.”

  Before he could ask what she meant by that and what the hell she was doing here, he spotted a tiny redhead running down the hill. Olivia. “Oh fucking hell,” he muttered under his breath, stepping away from the car so she could get out.

  Grant followed behind Olivia, grinning and waving at the woman. “Maeve, I’m so excited that you’re here!” Olivia was yelling as she enveloped the woman in a hug. Maeve, apparently. So much for calling her ‘that tiny brunette from the diner’ for the rest of his life. “You’re going to love it. I know you will. I’ll make you love it.”

  “I doubt that,” Grant commented. “I think there’s a bit too much dirt and stuff around here for her.”

  Maeve looked down at her feet, clad in strappy black heels. “I’m already mourning the loss of my shoes. I still can’t believe you convinced me to come down here instead of making you come visit me in New York.”

  “Oh come on, it was your idea.”

  Witty banter continued back and forth as it became clear that Maeve didn’t reserve it for him. Or for men who hit on her in diners. This was her all the time. What he was most confused about was how the hell he didn’t know that Olivia’s best friend was coming down to stay with them. He would think that would be something that came up at dinner. “You’ll meet the rest of the guys later, but I guess you and Levi got here at the same time. This is Levi, he’s the riding instructor.”

  Olivia was still beaming and in his panic, he wasn’t sure how to react. Pretend they didn’t know each other? Admit that they did but lie about how? A weak smile on his face, he offered Maeve a hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  She took the hand he offered, shaking it daintily. “Considering we fucked in the back of your truck not two hours ago, I think I’d say that we’ve met,” that revelation was met with stunned silence. “But I suppose I should officially introduce myself. My name’s Maeve.”

  The silence continued until Grant let out a short laugh and pulled Olivia against his side. “That’s fucking typical, Levi. She was in town for what, ten minutes? You have an uncanny ability to find women you haven’t fucked yet,” looking at Maeve, he shrugged. “Sorry about him. I’m sure he was an asshole.”

  At that one, Olivia laughed. The shock must have worn off. “Grant, you’ve got it backward. I can almost guarantee that Maeve was the bigger asshole.”

  Maeve smirked in his direction and his cock went half-hard remembering how she’d looked at him in the back of the truck. It wasn’t obvious enough for Grant or Olivia to notice, but he was positive that she did. “Regrettably I have to admit that I was not the asshole here.”

  “You didn’t even know her name,” his boss still sounded skeptical.

  “She refused to give it to me,” he countered.

  “It doesn’t matter who was the biggest asshole, because it’s not going to happen again. Liv, you know I don’t do repeats,” Maeve looked at him as if daring him to challenge that.

  “And neither do I,” he hastened to confirm.

  The happy couple shared a glance that Levi couldn’t decipher, but it didn’t matter. Maeve would be staying here for however long she would be staying for and they would keep their hands firmly off of each other. It was what they both wanted. Although, as the conversation turned from the topic and they started walking into the house, he couldn’t keep his eyes from straying to the curve of her hips and the round globes of her ass. Hands off might end up being something of a challenge.

  Chapter 3

  Maeve

  Two days of watching Levi work with the horses, sweating in the hot Tennessee sun. It had only been two days and she couldn’t keep her hands out of her pants. Masturbating this often was rude considering she was staying with friends. She was glad the ranch had more of a ‘frat house’ vibe than anything else. None of the men would admit that, though.

  Of course, today was even worse. Being on the ground with Levi was an entirely different experience than watching him discreetly from the shaded balcony. But Olivia had insisted she try riding, just once, and Levi was the only one who had the time and ability to teach her. She could sense the setup from a mile away.

  Falling for it wasn’t an option. One time. That was all men got with her. Levi had his turn with her, and she had her turn with him. So why did the feeling of his big hands grabbing her hips and helping her up onto the horse make her pussy slick with the desire? Figuring out the reason for that was going to be the hard part. His hands lingered for too long after she was settled and she slapped one away, yelping when the horse moved under her. “Calm down, I’m trying to make sure Daisy is calm for you.”

  He looked cocky, but she was convinced that he’d been touching her without needing to. The more he touched her the more she wanted to pull him into the house and go for another round. No matter how much he touched her, that wasn’t an option. A man was a distraction she didn’t need right now. “She seems pretty calm to me,” she retorted.

  Levi rolled his eyes at her, moving so that he was holding the reigns out in front of the horse. Unfortunately for her, that meant that she had a great view of his ass in those jeans. His ass had no business looking that good. Daisy shuffled again and she grimaced, holding onto the saddle for dear life. She was higher up on the horse than she’d expected. “She can tell that you’re uncomfortable.”

  “I’m not uncomfortable.”

  Even she knew that was a lie. Her entire body tensed up as she sat with her back straight. Fingers grasping the saddle, her knuckles were going white. When Levi urged Daisy forward a couple of steps her head spun and she wondered if she was going to fall right off. Riding a horse should not be this difficult, or this terrifying. If she wasn’t scared of heights or spiders or snakes, why the hell did she have to be scared of riding a horse?

  Getting off felt like giving up and she wasn’t going
to do that. Letting Levi see her weaknesses was not going to happen. But as she was led around the edges of the training enclosure, her heart started beating faster in her chest until she was hyperventilating. If she could see herself, she was sure her face would be either ghostly white or bright red. She couldn’t tell which. The next time Levi looked up at her he had to do a double-take. “Are you OK?” he asked, stopping Daisy and moving to stand beside her. “We can stop.”

  “I’m fine,” she didn’t mean to whisper, but her voice didn’t come out at its full volume.

  “No, you’re not. Come on, let me help you down.”

  His hands reached up for her and she shook her head. “No. I’m fine.”

  It was obvious that she wasn’t as her entire body clenched in panic. Had she known she would react like this to horse riding, she would have told Olivia definitively that she didn’t want to try. But she wasn’t scared of anything else, so she wasn’t expecting to be scared of this. “You’re insufferable,” Levi grumbled, his hands moving to grab her hips. “Get off the damn horse.”

  This time she didn’t fight, moving with him until she was standing with both feet firmly on the ground. Taking a deep breath, the panic scattered away into the fields around them. “I would have been fine. Just needed some time to get used to it.”

  “You were frozen and about to pass out,” Levi didn’t let her get away with the lie. “It’s OK to be scared of horses, you know. Plenty of people are.”

  “I’m not scared of horses.”

  Technically, that was true. Now that she wasn’t sitting in the saddle, Daisy looked like a gentle giant that she could have fun getting to know. Feeding her apple slices, watching her make her way around a field, all that. Just not riding her. Levi didn’t believe her, starting to lead the horse inside as she was left to follow, her borrowed riding boots weighing her feet down. She sat on an upturned bucket nearby as Levi untacked Daisy, getting her settled in her pen again. “Don’t tell anyone about this. Make up something about me being too prissy to get dirty, I don’t care. But if you tell them about what actually happened I’ll ruin your life,” she figured it wasn’t worth keeping up the lie. Further away from her panic, she knew how obvious it was that she’d been terrified.