Chasin' Eight: Rough Riders, Book 12 (22 page)

“Been there myself more times than I care to admit. Started the junior events at fifteen. Got my pro card at eighteen. I’ll be fifty-one next month. So a long damn time.” Another brown stream landed in the dirt.

“You get tired of it?”

“There are days. But it ain’t like I got other skills. Ridin’s all I know.”

Sobering for Chase to admit that he might be Taz in a few years.

That’s when Ava sauntered into view. Smiling at assorted cowboys as she shooed them aside and set up her video camera. Fuckin’ hell, the woman was something else.

“She sure is,” Taz said.

Shit. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“I saw her last night at the bar on Main Street.”

He’d been too pissed off and filled with pride to track her down after she’d left. “Any guy in particular catch her notice?”

“Hmm. I believe one did.” Taz snorted. “If I were twenty years younger, I’da given that guy a run for his money. Man. He was all over her.”

Chase wanted to demand what the guy looked like. If he was tall. If Ava and the putz had danced together. Or whether they’d snuck off early. They could’ve gone back to his place right after they’d met. She could’ve ended her sexual drought and he wouldn’t know it. That thought turned his vision a dangerous red and he wanted to rip something to pieces with his bare hands.

“Didn’t see Ryan last night until late neither. Kid still had a grin on his face this mornin’. You got time to have a beer at the campsite tonight after the event?”

“I’ll swing by. It’ll be an early night since I’m hitting the road tomorrow mornin’.” He clapped Taz on the shoulder. “Gotta get my head on straight about this ride. See you in the chutes.”

He’d gone about fifty feet when Ryan tracked him down and blurted, “I need your help, man.”

“You nervous?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. I don’t know—”

“You’ll be fine. You’re in the home stretch. Just treat it like any other ride. Concentrate on staying on, ridin’ hard, and that’s it.”

Ryan shot him a baffled look. “Huh-uh. I’ve heard guys talking and I know there’s more to it than that. I’ve got the basics down, but I need…ummm…advice with the fancier stuff I ain’t tried before.”

“Fancier stuff?” Chase frowned. “Explain that.”

His cheeks turned cherry red. “You know. Like usin’ my mouth on her and different positions.”

“Whoa.” Chase stepped back. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. You ain’t talking about ridin’ in the final go-round, are you? You’re talking about ridin’…a girl.”

“Ssh.” Ryan glanced around, owl-eyed. “Sheesh. Of course I’m talking about a girl. I know how to ride a bull. I need to up my game with Allison tonight. You know, do some different sex stuff to impress her.”

“For the love of Christ, Ryan. Seriously? You want my advice on sex?”

“Come on, everyone knows your reputation with the ladies. It’s been all over the rodeo magazines and the fan sites.”

“Don’t believe everything you read.”

“I don’t see you denying it. Chicks still line up to get with you, even after that video, maybe especially after that video, so it’s gotta be true.” Ryan crossed his arms over his chest. “Besides. You owe me.”

Of all the… Chase counted to ten. “How do you figure I owe you?”

“You threw me to Allison last night. And she… Well, she was all over me. Tonight I wanna show her that I can do more than just lie there with a stupid grin on my face wondering how I got so lucky to get naked with her.”

That comment hit home on many levels. Chase sighed. “You ever gone down on a girl before?”

Ryan shook his head.

Fucking awesome. “Okay. Take your time getting down there. Don’t just dive in. Especially not the first time. Use your mouth and your hands.” His eyes searched Ryan’s. “You do know where a woman’s clit is?”

“Yes. I’m not stupid,” he said sullenly.

“Well, you’d be surprised how many men are. Take your cues from her. If she’s moving and getting wetter, then you’re doin’ it right. If she acts bored, she probably is bored, and you need to try something different. When she says ‘Don’t stop’, for Godsake, don’t stop.”

“How will I know when she’s about to…”

“Come? You’ll be able to feel it. Trust me.”

“Some guys say they don’t like it.”

“Then they’re fuckin’ idiots.”

“But women like it, right?”

Chase grinned. “Women love it.”

Again, Ryan briefly looked over his shoulder. “What about different positions? We did it the regular way once, and then she blew me, and then she rode me.”

“It’s more important she’s hot to be nekkid with you than it is to try every position you see in porn.”

“Oh. Okay. That makes sense.” Ryan grinned and punched Chase in the shoulder. “Thanks, man. I wish I could tell my buddies I got sex advice from Chase McKay.” He bounded off.

Yeah. Sex advice from the guy who currently wasn’t getting any. That was something to brag about.

Somehow, Chase put sex out of his mind. At some events, the leader rode last, but this one he was scheduled to ride fourth. Helmet on, mouth guard in, a good wrap, a good seat and he was ready to hit it.

The bull went crazy, three jumps and then into the wildest spin Chase had ever experienced. Gritting his teeth, he held on by sheer strength. Soon as he heard that buzzer, he released his hand and hit the ground flat on his back. Luckily the bad dismount didn’t knock the wind out of him, but he was so damn dizzy he could barely stand. The bullfighters helped him stagger to the fence as he awaited his score.

Eighty-eight. He’d won. No other rider could catch him. Chase allowed a smile as he waved to the crowd.

Ryan finished third, Taz not in the money. Ava taped the prize handout, but then she disappeared.

He had a single beer with Taz and lumbered across the grounds and highway to his motel room. He hadn’t taken off his chaps, vest or even his spurs. Pausing in front of the room, he dug his keycard from his duffel bag and opened the door. It hadn’t occurred to him that Ava might have made plans—nekkid plans—until he saw her stretched out on the bed in her birthday suit.

“Chase?” Her feet kept slipping on the cheap nylon comforter as she scrambled up the bed. “What are you doing here?”

He dropped his bag to the carpet absentmindedly. Holy hell, did she have a rockin’ body. Golden skin that boasted curves, curves and more curves. As he took a step toward her, he noticed panic in her eyes—not heat or even that tempting sexual challenge he’d never be immune to. His gaze tracked her mesmerizing body, from the flare of her hip, to the contour of her belly, across those glorious tits and the graceful line of her neck.

Seconds after Chase noticed a full box of condoms, bottle of lube and two bandanas on the nightstand, a dude wearing chaps and a cowboy hat sauntered out of the bathroom with a hearty, “You ready for the ride of your life, toots?”

What the fuck?

After his shock wore off, Chase snarled, “Jesus, Ava,
this
is the type of douchebag you came up with? A wannabe cowboy with a fake drawl who calls you
toots
?”

“Who are you?” Douchebag demanded.

“The guy tellin’ you to get the hell outta my room.”

The douchebag looked at Ava. “I thought you said this was your room.”

“Hey, fuckface, eyes on me, not her.” When douchebag turned, Chase stabbed his finger at the clothes by the bed. “You’re done. Grab your shit and get gone.”

“Nuh-uh.” Douchebag gestured to Ava. “I get gone when she tells me to, not you, little man.”

Ava said not one word.

Chase’s anger hit the boiling point. Instead of yelling, his voice dropped lethally low. “Get. The. Fuck. Out.”

“Or what? You gonna throw me out?” Douchebag sneered. “You’ll have to eat your spinach and grow some first.”

Faking calmness he didn’t feel, Chase scooped up the man’s belongings, opened the door and dumped the pile onto the walkway.

“What is wrong with you?” Douchebag loomed over Chase.

“You have fifteen seconds to get out of my room and out of my face or I will beat you bloody. You’re not the first asshole who’s tried to take me on, believing a short man is a weak man. But by all means, I’m more than willing to offer you proof that’s a mistake.” Chase locked his cold gaze to the man who had six inches and a good fifty pounds on him. “Get out. Right. Fucking. Now.”

Douchebag glared, but ultimately retreated. He sent Ava a dark look before he muttered, “No piece of ass is worth this bullshit,” and stormed out.

Chase slammed the door, locked it and engaged the safety chain before he faced Ava.

Immediately she started babbling. “Chase. I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Oh, I know what you were thinking, sugar tits.” He shucked off his vest as he ambled toward the bed. “You don’t mind if I call you sugar tits, do you? Because, I gotta say, it’s a whole lot better than toots.”

“Very funny.”

“You were thinking you wanted to get laid.” Chase popped the buttons on his shirt. “But that douchebag was the best you could do? In an arena filled with real cowboys, you picked…him?”

“He wore a hat. And boots. And chaps.”

Chase laughed. “He wore a Toby Keith party hat. His boots were brand spankin’ new. And the chaps? Hell. Them I can’t even explain.” He toed off his boots. Unhooked his chaps and let them fall to the floor in a dusty
whoosh
. The fact Ava’s eyes never wavered from watching him strip prompted him to bare it all. He unbuckled his belt. Once the zipper loosened his jeans, he slipped them off along with his briefs. He grabbed the back strap of his chaps. Felt goddamn stupid putting them back on nekkid, but he did it anyway.

He thought about what his brother Ben said about being a man. Being in control. Reading what his lover wanted and acting on it. He felt almost as clueless as Ryan tonight.

“Chase?”

Man up
. “If you still want to get laid by a cowboy, just say the word. Say the word and I’ll give you a night you’ll never forget.”

“But what about your self-promise to abstain? I don’t want you blaming me afterward that I enticed you into fucking me.”

“You’ve been enticing me since the moment I laid eyes on you. I consider it a personal victory that I held out as long as I did with you, Ava, because you are something else. Beautiful. Smart. Funny. Sexy. And in case you haven’t looked at a calendar recently, the month is up.”

“Is that the only reason you’re doing this, Chase? Because I’m convenient and the calendar is giving you the all clear to revert to your love-’em-and-leave-’em ways?”

Chase climbed on the bed, straddling her hips. “Not even fucking close.” He bent his head, studying the turbulent emotions in her beautiful eyes before he pressed his mouth to hers. Lightly teasing her sweet, warm lips. Sucking in her rapidly expelled breaths deep into his lungs. Fueling the need, building the sexual buzz.

When Ava playfully sank her teeth into his bottom lip and tugged, Chase shuddered. He thrust his tongue inside her mouth and intensified the kiss until she thrashed beneath him, attempting to force full-body contact.

He ripped his mouth free, panting as if he’d just climbed off a bull. Resting his forehead to hers, he said, “Damn. A man could lose his head just kissin’ you.” Chase smooched her plump lips twice more before following the curve of her jaw up to the sweet spot in front of her ear. “You’re mine tonight, Hollywood. All night. Any way I want you. As many times as I want you. Make no mistake: I want you. And it doesn’t have a goddamned thing to do with you being convenient, or any fucking calendar, understand?”

Her rapid-fire, “Yes,” caused him to growl against the pulse beating wildly in her throat.

“You always smell so damn good.” He nuzzled below her earlobe. “Girly. Like summer flowers.” His tongue traced the shell of her ear. “And sugar.”

“It’s my lotion. Orange blossoms.”

“Mmm. Good enough to eat.” Chase let his lips drift down the center of her body between the deep swell of her cleavage. But he didn’t stop to tongue those tempting nipples, or rub his mouth all over her succulent curves, he kept moving south. He felt her thighs clench between his when the very tip of his tongue circled her belly button. He swept openmouthed kisses from hipbone to hipbone. Then he brushed his goatee across the damp path his mouth had made, using his warm breath and the rough texture of his facial hair to make that delicate flesh quiver.

But he stopped mere inches from the rise of her mound. Her completely bare mound. “I like you so silky-smooth.” He placed a tender kiss on the section of skin right above where her sex parted like a flower.

“Chase. Please. It’s been so long…”

His gaze snapped back to hers. “So long since a guy went down on you?”

Ava nodded.

“How long?” he demanded.

“Since right after Jake and I started dating. He did it once and…” Her laugh resembled a groan. “Didn’t like it.”

Chase scooted back until he was between her thighs. “That shoulda been your first sign the man was gay.” His tongue trailed down the seam of her sex and he licked back up to her clit.

Ava whispered, “Thank you.”

That response did him in. No teasing her endlessly this time. A primitive growl rumbled free and he roughly pushed her legs apart, baring every glistening pink inch of her sex. He lowered his head and inhaled the aroma of pure Ava before he plunged his tongue inside her pussy. Hot and wet. Spicy sweet.

She bucked, but his grip on her legs held her steady, keeping her in place as he tasted her thoroughly. He flattened his tongue, lapping the honey from every hidden fold. As he sucked her pussy lips into his mouth, the tip of his tongue sought her clit. Flicking that little nub over and over until it plumped.

“Oh. Yes. Like that.”

Chase narrowed his oral worship to just her clit, suckling softly but firmly until she arched against his mouth. Ava’s fingernails dug into his scalp as her orgasm overtook her. Her sexy, low-throated groan escalated into gasps. Her entire body trembled and Chase didn’t relent.

As soon as she finished coming, she attempted to scramble back, attempted to close her legs, attempted to regain control.