Page 35 of Belong With Me

Chapter Twelve

Ryder

“So far, the men I’ve slept with haven’t been up to par in any department.”

Holy shit, she was tempting. Whether she knew it or not, her voice called to me like a siren, pretty much beckoning me to her. I was all but helpless to resist.

The space between us was almost non-existent. With my lower body pressed firmly against her smaller frame. I was so tempted to just close the gap and kiss her. To kiss her the way I had been thinking about since the first time I saw her. Those full lips of hers looked soft as anything. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the thought of how she would taste out of my mind either.

She looked up at me through long lashes that created shadows on her cheeks. I could see the desire in them, and that fanned the desire within me and the need coursing through me to kiss her.

But I wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. Not now. Not when we had only just started to get to know each other. If I rushed this, I could push her away before I even got the chance to pull her closer.

It’s not that I didn’t want to kiss her. Hell, I wanted to kiss her urgently. But I was raised to be a gentleman. To never take from anyone, especially not a woman. Not unless it was freely given. But as her hands curled against me, I could no longer stop myself from leaning forward, brushing my nose just below her ear. Her skin prickled and she trembled against me as I whispered, “He sure as hell never leaves his woman wanting for anything in the bedroom department.”

Wasn’t that the truest statement of the year? I might have been out of practice, but any real man knows that making your woman feel good is the most important thing when you’re making love to her. The fact that Sienna hadn’t met that man yet, both angered me and made me happy in equal measure.

My mind began to wander to all the things I would do to her if I got the chance, but then as my mind enjoyed possibilities, I swear I felt her freeze against me.

There was a heat coursing through me that made me want to forget everything I’d just told myself I wouldn’t do. But I couldn’t let that part of me win. “You have no idea how much I want to kiss you now, woman.” With a strength I didn’t know I possessed, I moved back enough to put the smallest space between our bodies.

“I thought you said you would never leave a woman wanting.” Her comment made me smile as that mouth of hers sprouted a tone full of sass.

Leaning even closer, I stopped a hair’s breadth from her lips. “Oh, darlin’. I’ll never leave you wanting.” The words left my lips, then not even a second passed before I closed the distance between us, and pressed my lips against hers. They felt incredible.

The moment it hit me, when I realized what I’d done, I pulled back again. That wasn’t meant to happen. My complete lack of control where she was concerned had me feeling like a randy teenager. Something she seemed to be bringing out in me a little too much.

Skimming her face, my eyes locked onto hers, just as she murmured, “Don’t stop now, cowboy, it was starting to get good.” She shifted onto her tip toes and pressed even closer against me. Using her hands that were fisted in my shirt, she pulled me closer to her, before sliding one of them up my chest, over my shoulder and wrapping it around my neck to pull my lips to hers again.

I was lost in her. She tasted like one of the fine whiskeys I enjoyed drinking at the end of a hard day. I was becoming an addict with each passing second.

There was a snort beside us as my hands coasted over her ass, and Ducky nudged her shoulder. “Scoot, Ducky.” I gently pushed his nose away and then spun us, so I was the one against the wood. Sienna made a noise of surprise but took it in stride and pressed against me harder. Her long black hair tickled my fingers as she tipped her head back and eagerly started kissing my neck.

I’d never had my neck kissed before, but heck, there was a lot that I’d apparently been missing out on. Her teeth grazed against the area where my shoulder and neck met and hell it felt good. So good that my whole body reacted in pleasure.

“Ah fuck it,” I groaned, before sliding my hands down over her ass to cup her upper thighs. Firmly gripping them, I lifted her off the ground, and she wrapped her legs around me. Her lips didn’t leave their spot and I was starting to grow impatient. I wanted more of her, I wanted to taste her again.

My lips began trailing over her cheek, but I’m the one interrupted this time as Diablo’s loud whinny rang behind us. I managed to hold in my groan of disappointment and instead released a sigh. “It seems we have company.”

Her answering giggle set the hairs on my arms standing upright. It was a wonderful sound, one I could happily listen to. “Seems so.”

She pressed another kiss to my neck, but I lowered her to the ground anyway. I wasn’t about to lose all sense of dignity and have a make-out session in the middle of a public place, where anyone could walk in. Even if that was my family’s barn and the people who could walk in on us were my brothers and sisters.

Clearing my throat, I took a painful step away from her, putting distance between us even though every part of me wanted to press further into her. I needed to get us out of there, fast. “Do you want to go for a ride? See the property perhaps?”

Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were full of mischief. But she straightened a little, wrangling her emotions before nodding. “Yeah. Maybe a ride would be nice.”

Eagerly, I gathered the required tack and started to saddle up both Ducky and Cisco. Although I would have preferred to keep her close to me, preferably in front of me on the same saddle, having the two horses at the ready was the better choice, for both of us.

She helped out by doing bits and pieces as I moved from one horse to the other and it wasn’t long before I had Ducky ready beside her. I helped her get astride him, before getting myself on Cisco.

Finally, we were mounted and I was leading her out of the barn toward the riding rink. “You have a barrel race setup?” she asked as we passed the barrels set out in a cloverleaf pattern.

“Yeah, Savannah’s been practicing for the rodeo circuit.”

“Do you all compete in the rodeo?”

Her interest in my family caused my chest to expand. Surely, she wouldn’t just be doing this to be polite? Or would she? It’d been so long since I’d had any kind of in-depth conversation with a woman that I could have been reading this all wrong.

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