Page 172 of Ride a Cowboy

He shrugged. “Has it been cold this winter?” His fingers began to caress the back of her neck. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“You keep that up and I’m going to straddle you in this booth right here and right now. I’m just going to say to hell with the crowd, my dad, your job and ride you hard.”

He groaned, then reached down to adjust his jeans. “Dammit, See. I was hoping we could sit here and talk. Problem is, if you’re within fifty feet of me, all I can think about is touching you.”

“Talk about what?” she asked.

“I thought it might be nice if we spent a little time getting acquainted with one another.”

She tried to ignore the extra skip in her heart, tried not to read too much into his words. He’d never acted like he intended to be more than a casual lover, someone to help her kill the hours between sunset and sunrise. “Why?”

“Do I need a reason?”

Did he? No. And she was a fool to fight what she wanted too. She shook her head. “Actually, I feel like you know me a hell of a lot better than I know you. I’ve sort of spent weeks monopolizing the conversations with all the Josh bullshit. So fair is fair. Tell me about your last girlfriend.”

Daniel didn’t balk at her request. Now that she thought about it, there wasn’t anything he hadn’t shared with her willingly. Though she knew he didn’t like to talk about his injuries or his brother’s death, he’d told her about them, given her that tiny peek inside. After watching him the past few months on the ranch, she noticed he didn’t open up that way with anyone else.

“Last girlfriend. Let me see.” His brow creased, and she sensed he was actually thinking about it.

“You don’t remember?”

He’d started to take a sip of his beer, but he put the bottle down again. “Well, I assume when you say girlfriend, you don’t mean women I’ve slept with.”

A tiny spark of jealousy flared before she could tamp it down. “No. I don’t need a list of your past lovers. Thanks anyway.”

He chuckled. “Now, don’t get your feathers all ruffled. It’s not like there were that many.” He stressed the word that just enough to jerk her chain again.

His grin grew when she scowled. “Just answer my damn question.”

“Fine. My last—and only—girlfriend was Jessie. We went out our senior year in high school.”

“High school? You haven’t dated anyone since then?”

He shook his head. “Why do you sound so surprised? Not to criticize or anything, but didn’t you just stop seeing your high school sweetheart?”

She crossed her arms. “We’re talking about you. Not me. So what made Jessie so special?”

He shrugged. “She was pretty. We were in a bunch of the same classes. She let me fuck her.”

“Ug. Seriously? These were the deciding factors that made her your first—and only—girlfriend?”

“I was seventeen years old, See. Sorry to say, sex was a pretty big deal back then.”

Her gaze drifted lower, her eyebrows lifting to indicate that fact didn’t seem to have changed much.

He grasped her hand and directed it to his lap, pressing her palm against his denim-covered erection. “You don’t have to be shy,” he teased.

“I thought we were talking.” She didn’t bother to move her hand away even though Daniel had released her.

“Don’t see any reason why we can’t do both.” The arm wrapped around her tightened.

“Were you close? In love?”

Daniel considered her questions. “We were kids. I walked her to class so I could sneak kisses in the hallway. We went out on the weekends, parked in the woods so we could have sex in my backseat. I’m sure I thought I loved her at the time. Maybe I really did.”

“Why did you and Jessie break up?”

“We graduated. She was going off to college and I was heading West.” His finger lightly traced the shell of her ear. She tried to ignore the pressure building in her pussy.

---