Page 55 of The Wildest Ride

This late in the day, his face was all five-o’clock scruff and shadowed planes in low lighting and she fought the urge to run her fingers along his jawline.

The look in his dark gaze shifted, becoming arresting, capturing her own and holding her in place, promising that he would hold her to it, if she decided to probe the secret places her eyes were begging to explore.

For a moment she hesitated. They stood outside the second-place RV—Winnie, as he insisted on calling it—the sounds of the caravan dying down around them. Cowboys were bedding down, lights going off, blinds drawing closed all around them, but they remained where they were.

“It’s late and we’ve got a show tomorrow. Better get to sleep,” she said, wishing she’d said a million other things but that.

He nodded, but neither of them moved.

And then she was kissing him again, pulling him toward her until their lips met with the urgent need of a drowning person gasping for air.

She reached her arms around his neck, and his palms came to her hips to lift her. She wrapped her legs around his waist as the déjà vu of their lips connecting threatened to overwhelm her.

Just like at the qualifier, they became a world unto themselves, with Lil only dimly aware of the fact that in the process of lifting her he’d also carried them up the three steps to her door, opened it, and carried them inside.

How he squeezed them through the door with such ease, she’d never know, but he set her down gently once they were inside before turning to close and lock the door.

Because they’d kissed again and because she wanted to again, all she could think of to say after kicking her boots off was, “You got my purse.”

With a chuckle, he nodded. “I did.”

Something simultaneously melted and clicked in her chest, though she’d have been hard-pressed to explain the kind of mechanism that behaved that way in the human body.

“Thank you.”

Stepping closer to run his fingertips along the edge of her cheek, he said, “Thanks for playing with me.”

Shivers followed the path of his fingers, her skin tightening in response, breaths turning short. “I’m not usually one for games.”

“I could take or leave them. I was more interested in playing with you.” His words were suggestive and the look in his eyes said he meant them to be.

Lil’s pulse leaped in her throat, a stuttering and fluttery beat gone erratic in the face of the man before her.

The appreciation in his gaze would have been enough to carry her away, her desire to reach into the unknown stronger than it had ever been before, even if he hadn’t been AJ Garza, the only other man besides her granddad that she’d admired in her whole life. But he was. It was AJ Garza looking at her like that.

Unable to tolerate any distance between them, she closed the space, bringing their bodies flush against one another as she lifted onto her tiptoes, face tilted toward his.

He was happy to oblige, smoothly capturing her lips, drawing her closer, lending his strength so that she could lean more fully into their embrace, trusting he would hold both of them steady.

She didn’t realize he was guiding them to the bed until gravity shifted around her as he drew her down on top of him.

Never breaking contact, for which she was grateful for, he rolled them around, so that he enveloped her with his body and his warmth, bathing her senses in him.

Even then, it wasn’t enough. She wanted more of him, wanted him closer, though he had already come closer than she let anyone get.

When his hands came to the top of her jeans, she wiggled her hips impatiently. He made quick work of them, rolling the tight denim down and over her hips with practiced ease. A barrage of sensations followed: the kiss of air on skin, the caress of his calloused hand along the bare skin of her inner thigh, the sound of her long sigh rippling through the quiet of the RV.

“You ready for this?” he asked. His eyes were fixed on hers, hungry in a way that sent a tremor through her body. She nodded, ready in a way that she had never been, and the light that lit in his eyes was possessive and triumphant all at once.

He covered her again, his body radiating heat and strength as his hands came to her breasts beneath her shirt.

She moaned on contact, the sound a loud outburst that had her clamping a hand over her mouth. The RVs were remarkably soundproof, but there was only so much they could do.

Above her, AJ laughed quietly, leaning down to press a kiss behind her ear while his brilliant fingers found her nipples to the sound of her gasp.

She was breaking down into a jumble of sensations and impressions, no longer a woman, but a series of simultaneous occurring phenomena that all had to do with AJ: What AJ was doing with his hands, what AJ was doing with his mouth—was it possible to press even closer to AJ?

Finally impatient with the barrier of her shirt, in a smooth motion he pulled it open, freeing all the snaps with ease.

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