Page 31 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

Once Bex was settled with an episode ofMy Little Pony, Colin loaded a tray with some fruit and a few of the biscuits that he’d made for Bex. He made sure that Bex was engrossed in her show and carefully made his way up the stairs to his room instead of out to the guest house.

Nancy was awake, phone in her hand, when he opened the door. She put it down and smiled when she saw him. “What’s all this?” she asked.

“Breakfast in bed,” he said. “Thinking about adding it to the amenities list.”

“Oh, really?” she asked. “And what else are you thinking of including with this particular amenity?” Seeing her in his bed, in his tee shirt, flirting with him was too much for him.

He gave her a cheeky grin and put the tray on his bedside table. “What I have in mind probably can’t go in the brochure,” he said. She laughed and went to pull the tee shirt off over her head. “Wait,” he said, stopping her. “Leave it on.” He climbed onto the bed and kissed her. Her hands found their way into his hair, and her fingers played with the hair at the base of his neck. Colin had every intention of rolling her beneath him, but she shifted and tipped him onto his back. She climbed in his lap, and he realized that his tee shirt was quite literally all that she had on. He groaned, cursing his pajama pants that were separating him from her sweetness. “You’re killing me, Nance.”

She smirked at him, then leaned down and kissed him. “I promise you’ll enjoy every second of it,” she murmured, and her lips left a trail of fire down his neck and chest. He felt her like a brand on his skin. Her hands started pulling on his pajama pants, and she kissed any new skin that she exposed to the air.

Before her mouth could drive him completely insane, he urged her back up. She reached into the drawer on the bedside table, careful not to upset the tray there, and grabbed a condom. Once it was in place, she lifted herself up and sank down on him, sighing out his name. He settled his hands on her hips, anchoring himself as she found her own rhythm above him. Colin loved watching her chasing her own pleasure, and when she grew a little too loud, he sat up and kissed her, swallowing her cries. “That’s it, Nance,” he panted against her cheek. “Come on, sweetheart, let it go for me.”

She trembled in his arms, burying her face in his neck, as she came. He rolled her onto her back then, doing his best not to unseat himself, and thrust into her. “Colin,” she gasped out and clutched at him as he drove his hips into hers. Fire licked up his spine, and he kissed her throat, her breasts, her lips, urging her to follow him over that shining edge again. “Oh God, Colin—” The heat overwhelmed them, sent them flying together, and he felt her nails biting in his back. He’d have scratches later; he was sure of it. He wanted them—relished the thought of carrying the reminder of this moment on his skin.

As they came back to Earth, Nancy told him that she needed a shower, and he waved her toward the ensuite. He laid on his bed, letting the world come back into focus, and he heard the buzzing of her phone. He glanced at it, in case it was Evie, and saw an unsaved number.Probably spam. The shower started, and he decided that being naked and wet with Nancy in his shower sounded so much more fun than lying in bed. He followed after her and through the glass of the shower saw her shampooing her long hair carefully, trying not to dislodge the extensions that Evie had put in. He slid in behind her. “Need help?” he asked.

Nancy grinned at him. “Please.”

He took over lathering up her hair. “Your phone rang, by the way,” he said as he helped to rinse the shampoo out.

She seemed to stiffen in his arms. “Who was it?”

“I didn’t answer,” he said. “You waiting on a call?”

“No,” she said, a little too quickly, and busied herself grabbing the conditioner. He took it from her and massaged it into her scalp. The mood had shifted, and while he was still touching her, it felt like her mind was a million miles away.But what would she be hiding from me?

After their shower, Nancy snuck back to the guest house to get dressed for the day. She was taking Bex today so that Colin could get ready for Nick’s bachelor party. Nick had some cousins coming in from Texas, and he’d volunteered to pick them up from the airport. When he left, he kissed Nancy goodbye. Even though she welcomed the kiss, she still seemed on edge about something. Something she still didn’t mention. He did his best not to dwell on it on the ride to Boulder, but the climbs and turns of the mountains around him did very little to keep him from turning it over in his mind. He’d talk to Nick when he dropped off the cousins, he resolved. Nick was usually good for some insight.

Beau and Mason were loud and excited for their cousin’s impending nuptials, so Colin didn’t have the chance to obsess on the way home. When he told them what the night would include, they were sorely disappointed in the lack of strippers and tried their damnedest to convince him to rethink “his decision.” Colin laughed. “I’m not sure if you’ve ever met Nick’s fiancée,” he said.

“Seen pictures,” Beau said. “She’s a pretty little thing.”

Colin snorted. “That pretty little thing has a hell of a temper,” he said, “and she has asked that Nick not be around half naked women days before their wedding. I take my walking orders from her.”And Nancy.

“That’s soft,” Mason sneered.

Colin turned up the radio then. He wasn’t going to argue with these two. They made it to Nick’s in a little less than two hours, and he helped cart their luggage into the house. Nick and Evie were in their living room, saying their goodbyes. Evie was going to stay with her mother until the wedding; it was a tradition in her family. Nick introduced Evie to his cousins, and Colin was glad that they were better behaved around her, all smiles and “yes, ma’ams.”

Evie waved as she left murmuring a “have fun” to him as she went. Fun, right. That’s what bachelor parties are supposed to be, but his stomach was a ball of nerves. Partly over Nancy, but also because this would be the first night that Bex would stay at the house without him. There would be a sitter coming until midnight, after which Nancy had promised to be home at the conclusion of the bachelorette party. He trusted Nancy, but—

Well, he’d just stop that thought there. He did trust Nancy; she was good with Bex. Besides, she should be in bed well before Nancy got home. “I hope Beau and Mason weren’t jerks,” Nick said when the two left to take their stuff to the guest room.

“They were fine. Why?”

Nick leveled a look at him. “You’re practically grimacing, man. I know they can be a lot to take. Are you going to have trouble putting up with them tonight?”

Colin shook his head. “It’s not that.”Not entirely that, anyway.“Nancy got a phone call today, and when I told her about it, she clammed up.”

“Well, who was it?”

“I don’t know. Number wasn’t saved in her phone. I thought it was just spam until she got all weird when I mentioned it.”

There was a soft whistle behind him. They turned, and it was Mason. “The girl I was seeing last year was like that,” he said. “She was always texting someone, never wanted to talk about it.”

“It’s not the same—”

Mason raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I’m just saying,” he told him. “We dated for two years, and she was cheating on me for nearly that long.”

---