Cowboy Proud

Tipping her chin forward to give him better access, she mumbled, “I did. I said I didn’t realize I was so stressed.”

“That’s not what I was after, Emma, and you know it. Are you involved with anyone?”

She shifted in her seat, forcing Cade to move his hand. His fingertips brushed over the thin skin protecting her life vein. He paused, only briefly, but it was long enough to experience the thunder of her pulse beneath his thumb. He dropped his hand to the console between them. “You’re single.”

“You can’t be sure of that,” she objected. “I haven’t answered you.”

“Don’t have to.” Had she been seeing anyone, he had this innate, inexplicable knowledge she would never have taken the bet. She wasn’t that person. That was answer enough at this point. It also left him with plenty to consider. He cranked the radio up, trying to buy himself time to think.

A gust of wind caught the truck and pushed the behemoth like it was no more than a paper kite in the wind. The storm clouds had taken on a deeper greenish-gray tone that colored the land an odd, pre-twilight color that was impossible to mistake. Mother Nature was advising everyone in the county that she was about to unleash a can of whoop-ass. The wise man would hunker down. Problem was, there was no way Cade could get them to the ranch before the heavens loosed their fury. If it hailed, it could total his truck. Lightning posed the largest threat, though. They’d be okay on the flats if they stayed in the car.

As a rancher, he spared a thought for the poor animals. They didn’t always have a way to get out of this kind of mess, and if they balled up in a fence corner, the ranch would lose a few to electrocution when lightning struck the metal fencing.

Emma unbuckled her seat belt, twisted around and half climbed into the backseat.

“What’re you doing?”

A gust of wind slammed into the pickup, shoving the big vehicle hard enough it knocked Emma into him. She landed with her hip on his shoulder, that luscious ass in his face. The urge to nip it was nearly too much.

Her muffled reply caught him off guard. “Grabbing my camera.”

“Your camera?”

Another gust of wind parked her hip over his shoulder. She pushed herself up, clutching a black bag large enough to hold decent digital equipment.

Then she realized the predicament she was in. She had one knee solidly between his thighs and the other rested against the outside of his right hip. Her breasts were pressed intimately against his chest and arm. Her far hand was digging into his pectoral pad. She dipped her chin and peered down at him, her eyes wide with surprise. “How did I end up in your lap?”

His right hand moved of its own volition, coming to rest on the indention of her waist. “Your camera, Emma.”

She swallowed hard and nodded, a couple quick jerks of her chin. “The storm. I wanted a picture of the storm. I’ve never...”

“Never what?” he asked, urging her to finish her statement.

Without breaking her gaze, she set her camera bag in her seat and wrapped her hand around the nape of his neck. “I’ve never experienced anything similar to this. Never encountered anything so wild and free, something that acts without consequence or—”

“There’re always consequences.” His voice had devolved into a gruff whisper. “Always,” he repeated, tracing his thumb over her bottom lip.

“I’ll live with them,” she said, voice husky.

“All of them? Just like that?”

“Every. Single. One.”

So be it.

* * *

EMMA COULDN’T LOOK AWAY. Cade’s voice, sultry and wanting, had wiped out her every effort to maintain her composure. From the moment she’d met him, he’d had her heart rate speeding up in all the right ways. And for the last hundred miles, she’d been crossing and recrossing her legs in an effort to assuage the mild ache in her core. Then he’d sung. Just a few notes. That’s all it had taken to push her over sanity’s edge.

Driven by madness or not, she couldn’t give him complete control. No one held that over her head. Not ever. She would manage the way this happened—and it would happen. The undisguised desire on his face, that same face that had been so passive since meeting her, now empowered her. It was the type of desire a woman didn’t want to discount any more than she would the impressive bulge fighting to destroy his zipper.

She tossed her glasses onto the seat beside her before tipping up the rim of his cowboy hat. Tracing her fingers along the rough stubble lining his jaw, she leaned forward and laid her cheek next to his, her lips against his ear. “Just so I’m completely clear. You’re not involved at any level? Because I’ll never be anyone’s other woman or second choice.”

“Not involved, and you’re far from my second choice. You’re the first woman who’s ever crawled under my skin like this,” he replied, tension threaded through every word. His grasp on her hip tightened.

“That’s a powerful statement.” She nipped his ear. “Power is seductive, is it not?”

His breath came out in a rush. “You’re playing with fire, darlin’.”

She couldn’t help but agree any more than she could stop the rush of heat up her neck and down through her belly. This man was sin incarnate, from his boots to his jeans to his very, very fine body. Everything about him appealed to her. She’d never experienced this crazy rush of desire, the raw cravings that made her want to accept his stupid challenge and discover just what two weeks might bring. With absolutely no intention of falling in love, she could still enjoy the chase, the seduction, the touching and... She shivered.

Then she smiled, the stubble on Cade’s cheek leaving a slight whisker burn on her delicate skin. “I understand exactly what I’m doing, darlin’. I may be single, but I’ve never been celibate. I take liaisons as more than a casual fling but less than a plea for serious commitment. Clear?” She pressed closer, her lips brushing the shell of his ear. “And as for fire? You have no...idea...just how good it would be to burn with my particular brand of heat.”

Cade silently worked his jaw, the muscles and tendons in his neck standing out in sharp relief. She’d balanced herself by placing one hand on his headrest and the other against his ribs. Beneath the one hand, his heart pounded out a hard, fast rhythm. And she’d caused it.

Satisfaction rolled through her. It blazed, reducing any remaining hesitation to ash and clearing the path for her to touch, to taste, to experience this man who’d clearly kidnapped her common sense. This so wasn’t her norm. She was adventurous and fun loving, yes. To do her job, she had to be. But in her private life, she was far more cautious, always weighing the risks. Because once two people crossed a certain line, there was no going back. Ever.

“Hold on,” Cade snarled before he braked rapidly and yanked the wheel. Hard.

Emma tightened her thighs around his to keep from being tossed across his lap. She clutched his shirt in one hand and wrapped her other arm around his rigid shoulders, clinging to him and not sorry for the action or the opportunity.

They hit the dirt road at speed.

A shout of exhilaration escaped her as he wrestled the fishtailing behemoth into submission before stomping the accelerator. This, this was what she’d been so sure he could give her. In a lifetime of structure and boundaries, she was suddenly living, alive in a way she’d never been before.

They flew down a two-track dirt road, kicking up an impressive dust trail. The walls of the canyon rose around them and grew steeper the farther they went. They crossed a cattle guard so fast the truck hardly chattered over the pipes, but Cade still accelerated. Images outside the windows became blurred. But all she could focus on was the fierce, untamed expression that had taken over his entire appearance.

Daylight had abandoned them almost completely. They rounded a curve in the road and, before Emma realized what was happening, Cade left the two-track lane and headed across a wide field. She shifted to watch as the headlights flashed over a huge copse of aspens, their white bark startling in the halogen glare.

Canyon walls closed in tighter around them and drew the eye up, showcasing the building storm. Thunderheads roiled. Lightning flashed, nature’s strobe, and thunder rumbled a bass line. The storm would roll over them in minutes, but at the moment? The sliver of deepening night sky that could be seen was filled with brilliant pinpricks of starlight.

Cade rolled down the front windows.

The smell of rain and the charge of electricity in the air filled the cab.

Her last coherent thought fled, leaving nothing but instinct in its wake. She yanked at his shirt to pull him toward her, or her toward him. She wasn’t sure. Didn’t matter. The hem pulled free and her knuckles brushed down the edge of his abs and into a gutter created by his lats. She’d been relatively certain he was built. Now she had to revise her opinion to acknowledge he was honed and defined in a way that could make a woman’s common sense take a vacation while her body enjoyed the fruits of his labor—thick cords of muscle, ridges and valleys of definition, smooth skin interrupted by only the thinnest line of hair from his belly button and disappearing into his pants.

His arm banded around her.

She instinctively tightened her grip on him.

He slammed on the brakes, sliding the truck to a stop amidst the trees. A dust cloud rolled over them, but it was quickly blown away by the storm’s volatile winds.

Thunder boomed louder.

Ozone tickled her nose.

Cade shoved open the door and, pulling her into his arms, took her with him when he hopped down from the cab. He carried her with sure steps to the rear of the truck before he set her down.