Cowboy Take Me Away (Rough Riders #16) Read online

  “But it’s okay for you to yell at me when I want to touch you? Wrong. I want to leave.”

  “You got more than a little sass in ya, doncha, sugar?”

  “You’ll see a whole lot more of it if you don’t take me back to my car right now.”

  “Look me in the eye.”

  She shook her head.

  “Turn around and look me in the eye when you let me have it.”

  Such a condescending… She whirled around and stood toe to toe with him. “Happy?”

  “Not even fuckin’ close to happy right now.”

  “Good.”

  He lifted the one eyebrow that managed to be both sexy and annoying. “Why’s that good?”

  “Let’s just forget tonight ever happened.” Although I doubt I’ll ever forget how mad you got when I threw myself at you.

  Then his hands circled her upper arms and he yanked her close enough to get in her face. “That’s what you think? I got mad at you because you asked me to have sex with you tonight?”

  She’d said that out loud?

  “Well?” he demanded.

  “Well, what else was I supposed to think when you yelled at me and stormed off? I don’t have any experience with this, Carson.”

  “You think I don’t know that? You think maybe I’m feelin’ guilty for lettin’ it get that far out of hand in the first place? When I said you could set the boundaries as to how far you were willin’ to go with me? Then the second I put my hands on you I lost my goddamned head. The next thing I know, you’re askin’ me to fu—make love to you. And I see you—this perfect, beautiful angel, layin’ there half-dressed, with love bites on her chest and I got pissed off at myself. Not at you—never at you.”

  Totally bewildered, she asked, “Why?”

  “Because you deserve more for your first time than me rutting on you on top of a rickety picnic table and getting slivers in your ass.”

  “Oh.”

  He pulled her against his chest. “With the way I look at you and the way I was touchin’ you tonight can you honestly tell me you thought I didn’t want you?”

  “I thought you did…then I wasn’t sure.”

  “That’s one thing you can be very sure about.” He kissed the top of her head and smiled at her. “You ready to go?”

  She nodded.

  They walked back to the truck in silence. Carson held her hand but she could tell his mind was elsewhere.

  The silence continued on the drive back to her car. After he parked, he kissed her—more chastely than she was used to from him. “I want to see you tomorrow night.”

  Her mouth opened before her brain engaged. “Where and when?”

  “This same parking area around seven?”

  How would her father react if she told him she was going out again?

  Do you really care?

  No.

  Can he stop you?

  No.

  Carolyn wreathed her arms around Carson’s neck and kissed him greedily. He had the skills to seduce her completely, but from this moment on she’d be a full participant in that seduction. He didn’t get to call all the shots. She didn’t relinquish his mouth until she’d had her fill of it.

  For now.

  She smiled and kissed that spot on his throat that made him groan. “See you here tomorrow night at seven. Don’t be late.”

  Chapter Six

  Carson

  Carson leaned against his pickup, his elbow resting on the box, trying to look casual as he waited, even when everything inside him was wound tighter than a ball of baling twine.

  Goddamn he had it bad for her. So bad he’d damn near sliced off his finger today. He’d been so lost in thought, remembering his hands roaming over the smooth expanse of Carolyn’s belly, that he’d nipped his knuckle with the wire cutters and it’d bled like a sieve.

  After he’d returned from the lake last night, he’d suffered through a lecture from Cal about slowing things down with Carolyn. Which Carson had taken to mean break it off with her. That hadn’t gone over well; until Cal explained he’d meant slow as in proceed with caution, not as in come to a complete stop.

  Which just proved how fucking antsy and touchy he was about her. How crazy in love he was with her.

  After six fucking days.

  Her car appeared on the horizon. He remained in place, watching as she parked, his pulse quickening when she climbed out.

  Grinning, he held his arms open and she launched herself at him.

  As soon as she’d wrapped herself around him, nestling her face in his neck with a soft sigh, Carson closed his eyes as he squeezed her tight. Yeah, this woman was his.

  They remained locked together, not speaking, just…being.

  His fingers twined in her hair and he tugged her head back to get at her mouth. He focused on tenderness with her. Brushing his lips over hers. Teasing and nibbling. Sucking her sweet breath into his lungs.

  Impatient, Carolyn tried to wrest control. Framing his face in her hands and pulling him closer.

  But Carson wrapped his fingers around her wrists and gently removed her hands. “Sugar, what’s the rush?” he whispered against her lips. “All day I’ve been lookin’ forward to takin’ my time to enjoy this.” He lightly licked the seam of her lips; his tongue followed the bottom of her teeth. She tasted like sweet sin.

  When Carolyn released a shuddering sigh, he slowly kicked up the heat level of the kiss from warm to molten. By the time he broke the seal of their mouths, sweat dampened his skin and his cock pressed against his zipper.

  Whoa. Her hands were on his ass, holding his pelvis to hers, forcing the teeth of his zipper to bite into his cock as her lips trilled over every hot spot in his throat.

  “Uh, Caro?”

  “You always smell so dang good.”

  “You wouldn’t have said that earlier when I was covered in dust and sweat.”

  “Wrong. You’d still smell good. Like earth and man.”

  He groaned when her sassy tongue flicked his earlobe.

  “I like that I can get you to make that noise,” she said softly.

  “You make some pretty sexy noises yourself when my mouth is on you.”

  She stilled. “Last night wasn’t a dream, was it?”

  “No.” He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. “You still all right with it? No regrets?”

  “Just that you stopped.”

  Jesus. “I didn’t wanna stop. You know that.”

  “I know you’re worried we’re going too fast. But I’ll bet if I was any other woman, besides a virgin, you wouldn’t have reined it in.”

  “You don’t compare to other women and not just because you’re a virgin.”

  “Then why?” she demanded.

  Because you look at me like no other woman ever has. Like you see beneath the surface of a hell-raising cowboy to the man inside. The man I want to be.

  “Carson?”

  “Because you’re you. From the moment I met you I’ve thought of nothin’ but you. I can’t explain it any better than that.”

  “I’ll let it go…for now. But please don’t treat me like I don’t know my own mind, okay?”

  “Okay.” He fused his mouth to hers and the kiss soothed the restless parts of him. Parts he hadn’t realized needed soothing. “Come on. Let’s hit the road.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.” He boosted her into his truck on the driver’s side and slid next to her. She rested her head on his shoulder and her hand on his thigh.

  “What did you do today, rancher McKay?”

  “Besides check cattle? Fixed fence.”

  “Didn’t you do that yesterday?”

  “Yep.”

  “Do you do that every day?”

  “We could.
We should. But we don’t. Just happened we did it two days in a row.”

  “What does fixing fence entail?”

  “A fifth of Jack Daniels.” He grinned at her. “Kiddin’. It’s a tedious job that’s never ending.”

  “Because the McKays have so much land?”

  “Not that as much as there’s a lot of fence. No matter how well the fence is installed, the elements and the cattle make a mess of it. Summer is slow until haying starts, so that’s when we do the majority of the repairs.”

  “No wonder you wanted to cool off in the lake last night. But it didn’t help much since you got us both all hot and bothered.” She sighed. “That’s all I thought about today. How it felt to be skin to skin with you. And how much I liked having your mouth all over me.”

  He hadn’t even put his mouth where he most wanted it.

  “I liked it when you bit on my neck almost as much as when you sucked on my—”

  “Jesus, Carolyn. Stop.”

  “Language,” she chided.

  “Then you watch what you’re sayin’.”

  “What?” she said innocently.

  He snorted. “You know what.”

  Her pause chilled the air in the cab despite the eighty-degree heat.

  Aw hell, she hadn’t been playing coy. She doesn’t have enough experience to do that, remember?

  “Oh. So that’s how it is.”

  “How what is?”

  “The virgin/whore thing. I’m a virgin so I couldn’t possibly be thinking dirty thoughts about you and me naked, nor am I supposed to voice those thoughts.”

  “Not true.”

  “But you’ve said I’m different than other women, so do you separate them into the other category? What happens after my virginity isn’t an issue? Then I’m a whore?”

  Dangerous to have this conversation at sixty miles an hour. He kept his hands on the steering wheel and his eyes on the road. The woman would push and push and push… Yet he admired her for that trait. Just because she was innocent didn’t mean she was a pushover. “How about we cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  “We crossed that bridge last night, Carson, when I was in my underwear spread out on a picnic table.”

  The image—the beautiful image of her writhing under him hit him hard. “What is it you want me to say?”

  “The truth.”

  Don’t do it.

  But his mouth opened of its own accord. “Last night I wanted to fuck you. I will fuck you but it won’t be on a whim on a hard goddamned picnic table. It’ll be in a proper bed where I can take my time so your first time is special because God knows mine wasn’t. It won’t make you a whore. It’ll just make you mine.”

  “Oh.”

  “And sugar, if you wanna talk dirty to me, I’m good with that. But I’d rather you didn’t do it when I’m behind the wheel ’cause I’m liable to wreck my damn truck.”

  Silence.

  After a minute or so of dead air, he chanced a quick look at her.

  The woman wore that I’ve-got-a-secret smile that spelled trouble.

  Shit. “Say something.”

  “Now that that’s sorted out, where are we going?”

  “I thought we could see a movie in Spearfish.”

  “Do you know what’s playing?”

  “Nope. But it’ll be dark, you’ll be next to me so I don’t really care.” Did that make him sound smarmy? He changed the subject. “So tell me about your day.”

  “My mom’s friend Maxine Granger stopped by. She takes in mending and ironing, plus she does alterations and some custom tailoring. Maxine’s daughter had a baby and she’ll be gone to Kansas for at least a month. She’s asked me to fulfill her sewing and alterations jobs during that time. Which will work out because I can do it from home.”

  “Won’t that be a lot of work?”

  She shrugged. “I’m used to it. I think my fingers are finally healed from last summer.”

  He frowned. “What’d you do last summer?”

  “Same thing I’ve done every summer since I was twelve. Lived with my aunt and assisted her in the custom tailoring business she owns. It’s a family thing on mother’s side. My mom used to be an amazing seamstress and she started teaching me to sew when I was five. Then because of the arthritis…” She cleared her throat. “Aunt Hulda took over since she’s a seamstress too. She paid for our private schooling and in exchange I worked in her shop on weekends and half the summer.”

  It’d be hypocritical if Carson said expecting a twelve-year-old girl to help out was child slavery; he’d been doing chores and learning the ways of the ranch since he was a boy. “Those sewing skills are obvious because you’re always wearin’ such nice clothes. Did you make ’em?”

  Carolyn smoothed her hand down her skirt. “Yes. Do you like them?”

  “Yes, I surely do like that you look like you stepped out of a magazine.” But I’d really like to see those pretty clothes in a pile on my bedroom floor. Or the floor of this truck.

  Pervert. Slowing things down, remember?

  They parked in front of the movie theater. Arabesque didn’t look all that interesting to him—he preferred a western—but with one theater in town there wasn’t much choice. Unless… “Want to go to the drive-in? There’s gotta be something better playing.”

  “I’ve never been to a drive-in. Sounds like fun.”

  They joined the line of cars waiting to get in to see El Dorado—a John Wayne picture he’d looked forward to seeing.

  Once inside the lot, Carson chose a spot away from the high school partiers. “You want popcorn or a pop?”

  “I’d take a Coke.”

  “Stay here. I’ll get it.”

  She looked at him funny.

  “What?”

  “Embarrassed to be seen with me, McKay?”

  “You caught me. It’s such a chore to have a beautiful, classy blonde on my arm. Come on, then.” He helped her out, keeping his hand on her lower back as they crossed the gravel parking lot to the concession stand.

  Just after they’d cleared the line he ran into Jim Hagar, a guy he’d graduated from high school with. “Carson McKay at a drive-in? What, are all the local bars closed for some reason?”

  Given his reputation, he probably deserved that. But also given his reputation, Jim oughta know Carson had no problem popping a loudmouth for a smart comment.

  A boy of about two and girl of about four, both wearing pajamas, were running around, weaving between Jim’s legs, yelling and hitting each other. He snapped, “Knock it off.” Then he looked at Carson. “Bringing the kids to the drive-in gets me’n Barb outta the house without having to pay a sitter.”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  Jim’s gaze landed on Carolyn. “This your wife?”

  “No.”

  “I’m not surprised a wild man like you ain’t married yet. What was it you used to say? You’d strap on that old ball and chain only when you were too old to keep running from the women trying to shackle you.”

  “Yeah, well, we all say shit at sixteen that makes us cringe now. If I recall you said you wanted Barb for one thing—her oral skills, and not the ones she used to become a Declam contest champion.”

  Jim blushed. Then he said, “Come on kids,” and hustled away.

  “Good friend of yours?” Carolyn asked dryly.

  “How’d you guess? Livin’ in the same area I’m forever branded by stuff I’ve done in the past.”

  She stopped and faced him. “Are you bothered by what he said?”

  “No. That kinda shit always dribbles out of his mouth.” He touched her cheek. “But that doesn’t mean I wanted you to hear it.”

  “While he was saying that stuff about you, I watched his ankle biters throwing rocks at each other. I was hoping they’d miss and hit him.�
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  Carson laughed.

  Once they reached his pickup, he opened the passenger side and slid in next to her, then draped her across his lap. “What? You think I’d rather have a steering wheel in my lap than you?”

  “No complaining if your legs fall asleep. Or if I fall asleep.”

  He swept her hair from her face. “Been thinkin’ about how much I’d like to have you fallin’ asleep in my arms.”

  She touched the brim of his hat. “Take this off. It bumps my face when you kiss me and it keeps me from running my fingers through your hair.” As soon as he set it on the seat beside her, her hands were on his head, nails gliding over his scalp. “Your hair is like black silk. Not too long. Not too short. Why hide it under a hat?”

  “I don’t know how to answer that… Ah, damn. That feels good.”

  Carolyn tugged him closer by his hair and kissed him with sweet seductiveness.

  His brain focused on the image of her using her mouth on his cock the same way. The thought of teaching her exactly how he liked it, of knowing she’d never done it to any other guy…

  The speaker crackled and she jumped, breaking the kiss.

  “Sounds like the movie is about to start.”

  She shifted sideways and he draped his arm behind her. “Now I wish I would’ve gotten popcorn. But it’s annoying when one person is eating it and the other isn’t.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” He played with her hair and watched the previews.

  “I can’t remember the last movie I went to. Wait. Last year. My aunt wanted to see The Sound of Music which was pretty good. Did you see it?”

  He lifted a brow.

  “Right. Big, tough, hard-livin’ cowboys ain’t got time for that kinda musical nonsense.”

  Carson put his fingers over her lips. “You plan to talk through the whole movie?”

  She opened her mouth to nip his fingers. “The movie hasn’t started. And besides, I was hoping we wouldn’t see any of the movie because we’d be doing other stuff.”

  “Carolyn.”

  “If you don’t want to mess around with me, then why am I sitting on your lap?”

  He shut her up with a kiss. “Behave. You might not want to watch the movie but I do.”