Page 81 of The Wildest Ride

She opened her mouth to say something but her face stalled as another molten wave of pleasure crested over her. Whatever words she had were lost in a moan.

His thrusts grew deeper and harder, and with each one she grew wetter, her body delighting in his bombardment.

Her hips found his rhythm, leaping to meet his, striving to give him greater access. To take more of him in.

He groaned and the sound reverberated through her from the inside out. She gasped as her inner muscles began to clench, yet again, surprised that there was anything left of her to fall apart.

He growled, “Let go, Lil,” and she did.

She ceased to exist, once and for all, fragmenting into a mere collection of sensations—tremors and moans driven by a primal pulse of grip and release—until finally it was too much for him, too. His last thrust sank deep, the deepest yet, and he roared her name as he came.

22

The sound of restless cows was the first thing Lil noticed when she woke. The second was that she had, after all was said and done, snuggled into AJ during the night. What made the situation more complicated was that he had done the same.

It was still dark outside, but she knew it was morning, probably somewhere around 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. She was on her back, her head resting in the crook of his arm, her side snug against his. Somewhere during the night, he had wrapped his arm around her, crossing her chest and stomach, his palm cupping her hip bone.

He smelled good. Really good. His scent was fresh and earthy, not like hay, but somehow tangible and right in the same way. It was the smell of steady mornings through changing seasons. It smelled like safety, and a place to turn to—and everything that AJ was not.

Dragging her mind away from its waxing rhapsodic about his body chemistry, she turned her attention instead to the arm draped across her chest. She’d have to move it if she wanted to get untangled.

He’d missed her nipples, but barely, and both of them, not to mention the places where her breasts touched the weight of his arm, were very aware of the fact, sending charged signals to her brain to let her know it’d only take a little movement in either direction to make things interesting.

Enough of that, she thought. She was an adult woman. She was just going to lift his arm and scoot away. She reached for the hand on her hip.

He responded by pulling her closer and murmuring some form of protest, his strong arm drawing her closer into his chest, pressing the length of her body against his. Close enough that suddenly all her focus was on the fact that the hot, hard length of him pressed against her thigh.

Her body flushed and, interpreting the contact as the sign that all bets were off, readied for round two, nipples hardening and skin turning needy again, demanding she roll over, lift her face, and kiss him.

Instead, she blew a breath through her mouth and shook her head clear. What she needed to do was to get away from him. Pronto.

He solved the problem for her by waking up. His eyes flew open—he looked at her, looked down at their position, then grinned.

“Well, isn’t this a nice way to wake up,” he drawled. His accent, like his voice, and...other parts of him, was thicker in the morning.

Lil pushed his arm off and sat up, body protesting the sudden movement.

“You’re shameless,” she said. “You haven’t even gotten out of bed yet.”

“Mmm,” he said. “That’s when it’s the best...” His voice carried an offer to prove it, but Lil inched away.

AJ sent her a “suit yourself” shrug and sat up. The sleeping bag pooled in his lap, and if there was a force in the world with a chance of tearing her eyes away from the broad expanse of him, Lil didn’t know what it was.

She had a problem. She refocused her attention on her own body, hoping the concrete sensations of discomfort would be an anchor against the sea of input that was AJ.

After being thrown from her horse, sleeping—and other things—under the stars, she certainly wasn’t going to feel good when all was said and done—especially since “all said and done” was yet to be concluded with timed sorting and penning—but she wasn’t so hurt they’d be out of the challenge. Which was as it should be. This was rodeo and there hadn’t been a day in all its history that rodeo had ever been about feeling good when all was said and done.

Lil’s voice was all business when it came out. “We’re both up. Might as well get going.”

Not moving, AJ laughed, “No breakfast? We’ve got more marshmallows.” He said the last bit in the same cajoling tone that Gran had used to get Lil to try new things when she was little. Lil responded the way she always had: she gave one shake of her head, pursed her lips into a stubborn line, and drew her eyebrows down, face turning dark and serious.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and said, “We’ve got to make up for lost time. Best get going.”

AJ’s eyes took on a competitive spark and he nodded. “You’re absolutely right. Early bird and all that.” He slid out of the sleeping bag and stood up as he spoke and Lil’s mouth dropped open.

They might have slept out in the open under the stars, but the man could pitch a tent. Lil’s entire body flamed so fast she was sure she blended in with the red of her long johns.

He was huge.

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