Page 46 of Rogue Cowboy
He was quiet while she turned in the horses for the night.He helped.Of course he did.Horses and helping were second nature, but his mind was grappling with the almost frenetic energy wafting off Riley.She seemed amped and yet nervous.Not the vibe he wanted.
He fed Cinnamon a treat of carrots and apples and stroked Riley’s horse as if it would provide him with answers.Tonight had been…a fantasy—much like the two nights they’d spent playing in LA.But he craved real.Permanent.He now felt like he was straddling an invisible line—and if he jumped the wrong way, he could lose her or set her back.
And yet hadn’t he come here to push for more?
What was best for Riley?
“Hey, little man; hey, Rascal,” Riley cooed, facing out toward the dim lights and scattered bonfires in the makeshift campground.“Did you get some dinner?I saved something from you.”Riley took a few steps and crouched, and he tried to ignore how her skirt rode high on her slim thighs—tried and failed to not speculate if her panties matched her bra.
Riley pulled something wrapped in a napkin from her purse.The dog crawled forward, and then as Riley leaned in—perhaps to pet him or try to grab a handful of fur, the dog jumped toward her, knocking her off-balance and seizing the chicken and piece of wurst from her fingers.
“Ugh.”Riley popped to her feet before he could help her up.“Zero points for cunning and even less for grace,” she said ruefully, swatting at her backside.
“That too is my job,” he said, lightly brushing her pert bottom.
“I keep thinking I can catch him,” Riley said.“He’s nearly feral and while he looks healthy, he needs a home.”
Cole paused, his hand still on her bottom.The words struck him, personal with their significance.
“What?”She turned to look at him.
He removed his hand from her ass, though she hadn’t seemed to notice him lingering.She caught his wrist as he moved away.
“I did get a little something for you today, for us,” she said, her voice deeper than usual, a touch husky.
“Tell me.”
“It’s…ah…in my trailer.”
“Okay.”He followed her, feeling even more like the damn stray dog.
Riley unlocked the door, but Cole by habit stepped around her and entered first, making a quick scan, ready for her to protest.
“I’ve decided I like how you do that.It’s weird but sweet.”
“I’m not sweet.”
He felt edgy, poised to snap.Her heat, her scent, her shiny hair, her soft, glowing skin all yanked the chain linking him to his primitive side that craved and hungered.He didn’t want to feel so much.He didn’t want to scare her, but not for the first time did he doubt his control.
He’d thought he’d had discipline during the past agonizingly long nearly six years.He hadn’t touched a woman.But two days with Riley mocked his ‘control.’Riley had been the one for him the second he’d seen her up on a stage singing her heart out, full of yearning emotion and snapping energy.
“Sit,” Riley said.
Cole sat.
“You are sweet,” she stated.
He wasn’t.If she’d knew half of what he’d done, what he wanted, she’d scream, and he’d have twenty cowboys rushing to her rescue.
She reached into a cabinet and pulled down a copper-colored bag, similar to what he picked up today at the Copper Mountain Chocolate Shop.It amused him that they’d both snuck off and done some shopping for their date and apparently for each other.
“It’s a dessert,” she said.“I thought we could do a taste test.”
Cole was relieved he was sitting—no longer sure his legs could have held him up.Would it be too obvious if he put his hat in his lap?
Riley switched on some soft music—sounded like Zach Bryan’s ‘Something in the Orange.’He didn’t take his eyes off her.Riley grabbed the handle of the trailer’s door.She paused, swayed a little, and he could see her pulse kick up in her neck.
“Riley, we had fun tonight.The evening can end now.”
