Burn for Cowboy (Stampede Sizzlers) (5 page)

With shaking hands, she washed her hair. Her hands moved down to her breasts when she turned her back to the spray. The ache was there too. Her breasts were tight and swollen, her nipples tingled and throbbed when she touched the tips. Oh God, she thought. Inside and out, she burned.

She turned off the water and then pushed aside the white curtain. It was hard to miss what was on the bathroom vanity and she was suddenly very thankful she hadn’t masturbated. Four padded cuffs rested beside her brush.

The towel chafing over her feverish skin made her groan with arousal. Desperately, she prayed she didn’t orgasm from the friction. She quickly brushed the tangles from her hair.

She barely recognized herself in the mirror. Her grey eyes were glassy, her cheeks flushed, her body lush with the need for sex and Mike. Already her thighs were slick and shiny from where her pussy wept with anticipation.

The hotel suite was dark; not even city lights sparkled through the window. Goosebumps slid down her back and her sex pulsed as she walked into the bedroom. Mike was naked and sprawled on the bed. He was breath-taking. It was the raw, masculine strength of him, she thought. The muscles of his stomach tightened as he sat up on the side of the bed.

The night of his teasing had built up inside her. He leaned forward; his blunt-tipped fingers slid over her cheek, then the room went absolutely dark as he laid one of his ties over her eyes. He moved behind her to knot the ends, sending her into a dark, warm world. When he caressed down her arms, every primed inch of her jumped and twitched, begging for more.

“I do so love you like this,” he said softly against her ear. “Cunt wet for me, body submitting to me, soul begging for me.” His fingers tangled in her wet hair and he tugged her head back hard enough to make her gasp. “Are you mine, little love?”

“Yes,” she whispered back, not hesitating.
Yours, yours, yours.
The word whispered through her head and wrapped around her heart.

Fingers slid between her legs and one brush over the tiny stud in her clit had her screaming as she came. Finally. His other hand slid behind her neck to hold her up, heat exploding from her body. “I have wanted you all night,” he said in her ear. “I have waited for you all night.”

She nodded, her hips rocking into his touch. She was dizzy when he tumbled her onto the bed, her lack of sight making everything inside roll as if she was on a ride down at the Stampede. The feel of his weight between her legs made her cry out and arch into him.
Michael
.

“All those eyes watching you,” he continued, the head of his cock teasing her. “Watching you beneath my crop, admiring you, wanting you. Watching another man’s cock in your mouth” His mouth covered hers, his tongue muffling her cries. “My beautiful little love. Mine,” he growled and thrust deep into her. She screamed at the penetration, her body bowing into hers.
Yours, yours, yours,
she thought in time to his hard thrusts.

He kissed her. It was hard, it was possessive. It was wonderful.

She curled against him afterwards, her body sated. “Why? Why did you…”

He eased above her, his body a comforting weight. “Because I want your trust, Meri. And I don’t think I have it. You trust me to not hurt your body when we play but…beyond that I don’t think you trust me.” She saw the frustration in his eyes. Saw the hurt. Cautiously, she ran her hands up his back. “There is nothing more intimate than what we do, Meredith.”

His fingers were gentle on her cheek. “Why did I let another man touch you? Let another man inside your body? Because I want you to realize that everything I do to you, everything I do
for
you is because I love you.” Everything inside her went still at his declaration. “And I see the panic in your eyes and it’s hard. I don’t know who hurt you, Meri, but I know it wasn’t me. I want you to realize that nothing I do inside or outside our bed is designed to bring you pain. Not even another man making you come.” He eased off her and turned off the light.

His thickly muscled arm curled around her waist and drew her against him. “I hate that my loving you scares you, Meri,” he whispered in the dark.

She hated it too.

****

The restaurant’s patio was already full and he gave the number of cowboy hats an amused look. The Stampede. Mike had forgotten how wonderfully cheesy it was. There were cowboys with belly’s hanging over jeans too tight, girls dressed like slutty cowgirls, kids looking adorable in their western wear. Tourists. Those things were everywhere. He scanned faces, searching for that scared, angry teenage boy who became so lost. Twenty years later, he still looked for Charlie. He would never stop looking for Charlie.

Sipping his coffee, he watched the parade of urban cowboys and cowgirls trickle by. How many were already drunk at nine in the morning? Classy.

“Hey man, I thought that was you.”

Mike looked away from contemplating the wonderful invention of short shorts and squinted behind his sunglasses. It took a few seconds for his brain to compute that he knew someone. “What are you doing here?”

Adam Payne dropped into Meri’s chair in a well-practiced sprawl. Payne was one of his clients. A hockey god, if he was honest. The man’s slap shot was what had caught Mike’s attention back when the kid had been a student at Magerin Hockey School. There had been some exceptional players that year, not that MHS doled out shitty players. His own years at the school had taught him a lot. Including how to survive when his hockey career had gone in the toilet.

Adam flicked his fingers at the waitress then ordered a cup of coffee. “Was a bit bored. Decided to come to Calgary for the Stampede. Shit, lot of hot chicks.” He tilted his sunglasses down and watched a couple of girls in tiny denim shorts walk by. “You?”

Nine a.m. Mike thought with a mental head shake. Classy. “Checking out the rodeo.”

“Always working. You need to relax, man. Cut it up a bit. A couple of guys are doing a pub crawl tonight. You should come along.”

Mike sipped his coffee, remembering last night with a grin. He was plenty relaxed. “Not my thing,” he said. The thought of a night of bar hopping with a pile of drunk hockey players made his brain hurt.

Meri stepped outside and he smiled. She grinned in return, weaving her way through the tables. His body remembered last night. The club, their room after. Hunger churned in his belly. Her blonde hair shone beneath the morning sun, the capris she wore hugged her lean legs. Sexy. She was so damn sexy she made his blood boil.

Her gaze shifted to Adam and he watched her go still. She stared at the hockey player and Mike fought the urge to growl. It was hard to argue the fact that Adam was one good looking guy. His looks were one of the reasons why he was so popular. Cameras loved him, girls suddenly decided they liked hockey when they saw him.

Meri gawking at him though was different.

Adam glanced up then did a double take.

“Adam Payne, this is–”

“Meri-girl,” Adam whispered as he yanked off his sunglasses.

Mike watched Meri. She knew Adam? How the hell did she know Adam? She rubbed her thigh. “Hello, Adam.” Her voice was soft, her grey eyes wide. He may as well not be sitting there. The two stared at each other, Meri’s hand in constant motion. Frowning, he reached over and laid his hand over hers. Her head snapped around and she blinked in surprise. “Mike.”

Yes, he thought. Mike. “Sit,” he said softly. “Breakfast is here.” Her gaze bounced from him, to Adam then to the waitress who appeared. She sat down.

Her face was pale and beneath his fingers, he felt hers tremble. She turned her hand over and gripped his hard. That made his head tilt. Hm. His gaze moved from Meri to Adam. “You know
my
Meri?”

Possessive much, Michael? Yes, he thought as his thumb gently brushed over her hand. Yes he was. Her hand slipped away and he watched her knead her thigh. She didn’t even know she was doing it as she stared blankly at her French toast. Mike, though, was very aware that she was trying to rub through the cotton to get to her leg. At the base of her throat, her pulse was beating visibly. Finally he looked at Adam.

Adam stared at her. His green eyes taking in every inch of her face, sliding down to her breasts then back up. Mike laid his hand back over hers, stopping that nervous movement.

“You could, uh, say that,” Adam said. Once again the other man stared at Meri with a familiarity that made something primitive inside of Mike want to kill his client. The look in his eyes clearly said that once upon a time he had seen Meri naked.

Mike waited until those green eyes, that women swooned over when they flocked to hockey games, met his. Maybe once Adam had seen Meri naked but Mike had her now.

“Are you two…?”

“Yes,” Mike said, interrupting the stupidest question on the planet. Why else would he be sitting at a restaurant’s hotel patio with Meri?

Dark gold eyebrows twitched up at Mike’s answer. Beneath his hand, Meri’s hand went still, relaxing. As if his one worded response was all she needed to relax in the presence of Adam Payne.

Women loved Adam. Mike was secure enough to admit that the hockey player was fucking gorgeous. He had all his teeth, his face unscarred from fights on the ice. As if the hockey gods couldn’t find it in them to break up the beauty of his face. It was because of Adam that women had been going to more hockey games in Seattle, Washington where he played. It wasn’t Adam’s pretty boy face that made Meri tense and nervous. The man was doing that. Mike was ready for his client to piss off and stop upsetting Meri.

“How about that?” Adam sipped his coffee. “What are the odds?”

Beneath his fingers, Meri’s twitched as if she wanted to resume the slow back and forth motion on her thigh. “Pretty good actually,” Mike said. “I’m a sports agent. She’s a coach.” But what were the odds that her ex-boyfriend was Adam freakin’ Payne who was attending the Stampede at the same time? It would be like him running into Erica at a hockey game. Pretty fucking slim.

The irony gods were laughing their asses off. To borrow Chance’s favorite phrase: what dickheads.

Adam pulled a ringing cell phone out of his pocket. He glanced at the call display then he stood. “Look I gotta go. Good seeing you, Mike. Meri.” 

Mike lifted her hand up and kissed her fingers.

“How do you know Adam?” Her voice was faint, her eyes haunted.

He reached out to draw a gentle line under her right eye. “He’s a client. How do you know him?”

She blinked, her attention on the plate. “From home.”

He waited for more. You didn’t call a passing acquaintance Meri-girl. She slipped her hand free and massaged her thigh again.

He wanted to wake up to her every day. He wanted her in his bed every night. He wanted her stuff scattered on his dresser and her presence touching everything in his home. He didn’t want his home anymore. He wanted
their
home. And that freaked her right out.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that he wasn’t the one who owned her heart. He wanted to. The same way her body was his, he wanted her heart.

He gambled on decisions all the time: was an athlete and an endorsement a good match? Would management say yes to an increase in wages for one of his clients? Was this athlete capable of winning something big?

He was about to take a huge gamble this moment. “You dated him, didn’t you?” She jerked in surprise. Her face went even whiter.

“For awhile,” she answered softly.

Mike watched her hand sliding back and forth on her thigh. “Meri?”

“Do you mind if I skip the rodeo? I’m not feeling that good.”

He reached out to touch her cheek and froze when she jerked away. They both froze. Not once since their first date had she ever pulled away from him. He nodded, hurt spreading through him. She excused herself and bolted from him.

His thumb ran over his finger and he stared at the empty chair. What the fuck had just happened?

He wanted to hunt down Adam Payne and find out what he had done to her.
Meri-girl
.

He was a smart guy. He knew exactly how Meri knew Adam.

Suddenly he didn’t want to go to the rodeo either. Mike called for the check, scribbled the room number on it then followed her.

Chapter Five

Adam. Adam Payne.

She folded an arm over her stomach as she stared blankly at the elevator doors. Last night seemed far away with the arrival of Adam Payne. Swallowing, she reached out and hit the button again.

A hand settled on her back. She jerked at the touch and spun to see Mike standing there. Her heart was beating fast and loud. Could he hear it? The doors finally slid open and they stepped in. Mike slipped the key card into the slot and hit their floor. Adam was here. He knew Adam.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded, easing away from his touch. A soft curse came from him and she wanted to move close to him. When her hand lowered, he caught it before she could erase away the phantom pain.

“Let’s try that again,” he said as the doors opened on their floor. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she lied. Adam, Adam, Adam. The name thundered in time to her racing heart. The walk to the room took forever. “I’m going to…”

“Tell me about Adam Payne.”

She stared at him then walked into their room. “There’s nothing to tell.” Was she going to throw up? It certainly felt that way. She swallowed again, trying to unwedge the knot in her throat.

“You’ve already lied to me twice. That says that there is something to tell. Tell me about Adam, Meredith.”

She shook her head as she turned on the television. Anything to stop him from talking.

Mike muted the television then rested his elbows on his knees. He stared at her with eyes hidden by the dim light. “Because I’m pretty sure I’ve spent ten months with him in our bed. And I’m tired of it.”

Something painful turned in her chest. “That’s not fair, Michael. That’s not fair at all.”

“Okay, not ten months. How about two?” He held up two fingers. “I can tell you the exact moment he came into our bed and that’s when I asked you to move in with me. Tell me I’m lying, Meredith. Tell me.”