Page 58 of Rogue Cowboy
“No,” Riley said.“I just do everything fast.”She smiled and jumped just as she felt a sharp pain near her nipple.And then another.And another.
“Ouch.Ouch.Ouch.”She hoped around pulling on her shirt and wiggling out of it blindly.“Get it out.Get it out.Get it out,” she shrieked tossing off her shirt.
Cole’s hands were on her skin under her bra there, even as she felt a fourth or was it a fifth sting.He unhooked her bra and tucked it in his back pocket to examine her tender flesh.
It hurt too badly to be embarrassed.
“Wasp.”He flicked the offender off her tender flesh and crushed it under his boot.He examined her skin, and it took Riley a moment to realize she was totally exposed.His hand gently cupped her breast, his thumb soothed over her.
“I saw baking soda in your trailer.I can make a paste.”
“I can.”She tried to see the damage, which hurt far more than it should.“The baking soda’s old.It’s been years since I’ve been stung.”
“It got you good,” Cole agreed, picking up her blouse and smoothing it back into place.
Riley saw the stray dog sitting on the path near them, head cocked, watching them.He looked sympathetic.
“No treats,” she said to the dog.“But I have some in the trailer.”She always kept dog treats on hand as many rodeo cowboys and cowgirls and stock handlers traveled with their canine sidekicks.
Her brother’s friend and business partner, Calhoun Miller, never went anywhere without his dog Kai.
“I need to see to the girls first,” she said, clenching her teeth together so she wouldn’t whine like a baby.Her breast really throbbed.
“Let’s treat the bites first.”
Once Cole made up his mind, Riley figured she might as well go along.
They walked quickly through the makeshift campground, and he took her key from her pocket to unlock the trailer.He lifted her inside.
“Keep the door open,” she said quickly.The pain was bad enough.No need to trigger a panic attack.
Cole grabbed the box of baking soda and made a quick poultice.
“Let me see,” he said, stepping closer and lifting her up on the fold-out table.He eased half of her shirt up.
“I can do it,” she said.
He opened the square wrap of antiseptic and brushed it over the pink area, which was turning red and swelling.Fabulous.He finally saw her naked—sort of—and she looked like a red-pink pincushion.Cole gently smoothed the poultice over her left breast.
Something must be wrong with her that she found that weirdly arousing.
“You still have my bra, right?”
“Back pocket.”
“Give it.”She snapped her fingers, embarrassed.“It’s not a souvenir.”
“It could be.”
She stared, surprised by his playfulness and fascinated as his lips curved in a fleeting smile.
“I bet you’ve collected a lot of bras in your time, cowboy.”
His navy blues bored into her eyes, and she had the sensation of both falling and landing.
“What happened before we met is part of who we are but doesn’t always need to walk beside us.”
Had he been so strong and sexy and appealing when she’d been nineteen?How had she been so confident to do more than stammer and look at her boots then?
