The Wildest Ride--A Novel

by Marcella Bell

  “Why might a bed be better than a couch, Lilian?” His voice caressed her name and a shiver ran down her spine hearing him say it in English for the first time.

  She still managed, “Sleep. If you want to go to sleep, a bed is better.” And if her voice was breathy, it still delivered the words.

  His dimple peeked out. “Smartass.”

  “I went to college.”

  He chuckled and said, “Well, I want to get you naked. That makes it better than the couch.”

  Lil choked on spit, which set off a fit of coughing. When she could finally speak, she said, “I thought you were here for a slumber party.”

  “Yeah. This is the slumber part.”

  “Naked?”

  “I always sleep naked. Don’t you?”

  He was ridiculous, but her lips curled up just the same.

  “I don’t. I sleep in underwear and a T-shirt.”

  He nodded, sagely. “Yes. Classic. So do you typically sleep in a thong, as well?”

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to ask a lady things like that.”

  “You’re right. I’m supposed to already know when it gets as intimate as panties. I’ve seen them, after all,” he continued, “which means I’m close enough to be allowed to take them off—”

  Lil crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I see right through you.”

  AJ’s eyes lit like she’d issued a challenge. He sighed, “You’re right. It’s too much to ask how the meal I’m planning to devour is usually dressed...”

  “Not working.”

  It was absolutely working. Her body was going haywire with every word, filling her mind with images not only of his mouth trailing kisses down her stomach and lower, but of her doing the same to him.

  Her mouth watered. She swallowed. He watched her throat move.

  Their eyes met.

  He reached an arm around to cup the back of her skull and draw her into a kiss. She leaned in and opened for him immediately, even as images of taking him in her mouth flickered through her mind. The combination swirled inside of her, heating at the same time, until her system was one humming mass, a tropical storm brewing.

  They were both breathing heavily when he finally broke the kiss, chests rising and falling in time. As if the movement drew his eye, AJ’s attention dropped to her chest. Her breath caught when his hands replaced his eyes. A moan escaped her as he cupped her and began rubbing her nipples with his thumbs.

  His name slipped out on a sigh. “AJ...”

  He groaned. “Mmmm. Yes, Lil?”

  She didn’t know. She wanted him to hurry up and to never stop at the same time as she wanted him standing naked while she kneeled in front of him and worshipped him with her mouth.

  He moaned in her ear like he could not only see everything she thought, but that he wanted it all just as bad as she did, and a wave of pleasure rolled through her, nearly breaking her apart in the process.

  “Take your clothes off,” she urged.

  He didn’t say anything, just obeyed. His shirt flew off first. She didn’t notice where. She was busy pressing kisses across his newly bare chest as he pushed his pants down his hips.

  Naked, he was otherworldly. Her heart stuttered and she wondered if she would ever be able to get used to him. Of course she wouldn’t, though. Perfection never ceased to amaze, and she wouldn’t have him long enough to even test the theory. But she wouldn’t let thoughts like that dampen the moment. Not when she had him hot and hard and at her command.

  “Lie down,” she said.

  He obeyed.

  She took him in her hand and wrapped her fingers around him, squeezing firmly and evenly as she slowly began to move her fist up and down.

  He moaned her name: “Lil.”

  Then she replaced her hands with her mouth. His body jerked and the noise he made didn’t sound like any single word.

  He shuddered, one hand coming to grip her loose braid. He wound it around in his palm, twice, gently increasing the pressure of the pull as she took more of him in with each bob of her head.

  She continued until the pressure neared boiling for both of them, stopping only when he reached his hands down, grabbed her shoulders, and pulled her up to capture her mouth with his own. She shivered, her nipples tightening against his chest, setting off even more electric charges along her skin.

  There was a slight growl to his voice as he said, “That was wonderful, darlin’, but I don’t want the party to be over before I get to any of the things I had in mind.”

  She shuddered, desperate for him to do each and every thing that he might be thinking, but unwilling to admit it.

  His grin stretched fully across his face and the chipped tooth that looked so charming when he smiled for the cameras suddenly took on a more predatory look.

  He trailed his palms down her sides to her hips, each finger slowly caressing the outer edge of her breasts along the way. When each hand arrived, he gripped and lifted her hips and adjusted his own so that he was positioned just outside of her entrance.

  She shuddered, her entire being now focused on the juncture where their bodies nearly merged. She tried to wiggle closer only to have him stop the movement of her hips with his hands.

  Digging her fingers into his shoulders, she moaned his name: “AJ.”

  “Lilian. Lilian. Lilian. It’s too late. I must have you now.” He repeated her name like a prayer before pressing a soft kiss against her temple. “You’re perfect.”

  He shifted her body slightly and slid inside of her, threatening to send her hurtling over the edge.

  Her inner muscles squeezed around him, pulsing around him. She cried out his name, fearing there wasn’t anything left of her to fall apart. He shook his head.

  “Hold on, Lil. Ride’s not done yet.” His words ripped out between clenched teeth and rough exhales, but he didn’t slow and she didn’t, either.

  Instead, her hips lifted to meet his, her rhythm driven not by his demand, but hers. The storm brewing inside promised to tear apart even the memory of who she was. No one would be able to put her together again.

  “That’s it,” AJ gritted out.

  The pressure built, strangely emanating from her chest, and the sound that came out of her was somewhere between a cry and a moan.

  Heat flooded her, so much she knew she was on the verge of melting, and as it rose, AJ’s rhythm skipped a beat.

  He shuddered but held, his fingers digging into her hips as he pulsated, ready to explode. The knowledge that he was near climax, teetering as she was on the brink of something far larger than a simple orgasm, pushed her over the edge.

  Lil bucked and the world went black. AJ’s growl of triumph surrounded her and his hands came to grip her hips as he slammed into her with three monstrous thrusts before landing deep and shattering with a roar.

  26

  AJ came back to himself to Lil’s cheek resting on his chest, her breathing long and slow and in time with his. He brought a hand to the side of her head and hugged her to him, pressing her close against his heart.

  She sighed and snuggled against him, and he felt anchored for the first time since he’d announced his retirement.

  “Why’d you go to Spain?” he asked.

  Lil snorted. “That’s what’s on your mind right now?”

  AJ smiled, eyes closed. “Yeah.”

  Her answering smile was in her voice when she said, “Why do you think it was anything more than a familiar language and Mediterranean climate?”

  “You’re not the beach type.”

  Spinning a finger in lazy circles on his chest, she said mildly, “You’ve figured me out so quickly?”

  He grinned, recognizing a trap when he saw one. “No, ma’am.”

  Her voice went soft. “Guess why.”

  He was quiet for a moment, r
eviewing everything he’d learned about her. Raised by grandparents. Ranch girl. Stubborn. Rodeo lifer...

  He guessed: “The running of the bulls?”

  She pushed up to her forearms to stare down at him smiling. “Close, actually. And I did go to that, too. But, no, that’s not why I went.” Above him, faintly blue and backlit from the flickering laptop screen on the table and the camper’s low wattage lights, she looked soft and open and everything he’d ever wanted.

  Her braid, nearly all out now, fell to the right side of her head, with random curls escaping every which way, highlighting and framing the elegant bare lines of her skull and neck. The corner of his mouth lifted in a dazed little smile.

  “Why’d you go?” he asked.

  Lightning flashed in her gray eyes. “Bull dancing.”

  “Bull dancing?” He’d been through Spain on his tour, but had made only a few stops so there were likely local events he’d missed. This was one he’d never heard of.

  “You versus the bull—on foot.”

  “Like a clown?” he asked.

  Lil frowned. “It’s more elegant than that...”

  “I’ve seen some elegant moves from the clowns...”

  She laughed, “You know what I mean. You try to move as smoothly as you can—‘dancing’—to avoid getting gored in close range. It’s lovely.” Her eyes glowed.

  He reached up to tuck a curl behind her ear. It bounced free almost as soon as he released his hand.

  “And they do it in Spain?”

  She nodded. “It wasn’t officially part of the program but I got permission to participate.”

  He laughed, “You signed a waiver.”

  She grinned. “Pretty much.”

  “Sounds risky,” he said.

  She said nothing in response, merely raised an eyebrow.

  “That’s why it’s fun,” he conceded. “Where’s it from? I didn’t see it at any of my rodeos in Spain.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not rodeo. It’s a modern revival of ancient Minoan bull leaping.”

  This time AJ raised an eyebrow.

  “Have you ever seen pottery with figures flipping over bulls? It’s that. But modern.”

  “Ancient cow tipping with bulls?”

  Lil laughed. “No. No. No. There are stories of athletes who leaped at the heads of bulls, used their horns and foreheads as springboards and flipped their bodies in the air over the animals.”

  AJ looked incredulous. “You went to Spain to do that?”

  Again, Lil shook her head. “No. I just did the dancing. That’s all you can do anymore.” Her eyebrows came together, face turning thoughtful. “Although, I suppose you could always just try on private property. People are probably doing it everywhere...”

  AJ’s tone was dry enough to rival Diablo’s. “Somehow I doubt that...”

  Lil chuckled. “You’re right. People are more interested in staying alive than ancient bull leaping, I guess.”

  AJ smiled at the longing that was still obvious in her voice. “Not all people. Did you enjoy it?”

  She said, quietly, “It was wonderful.”

  AJ gave her a squeeze, happy for her for the experience. It was a hell of a lot more unique than traveling all the way around the world only to do the same damn thing over and over again.

  She laid her head back down on his chest and nuzzled close and for a few moments, neither of them spoke.

  She finally asked: “What are you most proud of about your career?”

  He grinned. “That’s easy—the kids I’ve mentored.”

  She smiled.

  “That’s sweet of you to say.”

  “It’s true. CityBoyz changed my life, gave me passion and drive during a dark time. I was a loose cannon for a long time—like Hank. When I started, I was angry and couldn’t control my temper.”

  “But after control, you were still angry?” she asked, picking up on what he hadn’t voiced.

  “I was. I brought it to the bull.” He felt her grimace against his chest and laughed. “Landed on my ass a lot.”

  “Granddad said it’s the surest way to get beat,” she said.

  “Your granddad was a smart man.”

  Lil smiled.

  “It took me a little longer to learn that one,” he said.

  “Yeah?”

  He nodded, a faint smile on his face at remembering. “But the hard way had its benefits. I learned how to muscle through everything first. By the time I figured out how to keep my cool, I’d bulked up. Strength and control are a deadly combo.”

  Lil laughed softly. “That sounds like an interview line.”

  “It’s true, though. That’s what drove me so crazy about you when we met. It was so obvious you had strength and skill—I hated to see that wasted by lack of control.”

  “I have control.” Lil’s body had gone as stiff as her words.

  AJ smiled. “You started a brawl at the registration table.”

  “Not my lack of control in that case,” she pointed out. “I am stone-cold.”

  He snorted. “Really? Can’t say it’s been my experience of Lil Sorrow...”

  “On the bull,” she ground out. “I learned to be stone-cold up there a long time ago.”

  He heard her glare rather than felt it, and grinned. “That’s lucky. It took me a while to catch up. Of course, once I did, I realized it was one of those rodeo lessons that applies outside of the arena, too...”

  She pinched him, and his smile widened. He said, “You lose when they get to you. When I stopped letting them get to me, it drove them crazy—didn’t matter if it was the other competitors, broncs, bulls...women.”

  This time she punched him and he laughed out loud and kissed the top of her head, breathing her in deep at the same time. Squeezed her close again. “Bulls, rodeo, and more bulls. Not your typical pillow talk.”

  She chuckled, “I don’t imagine so. Wouldn’t know myself.”

  “For shame, Lil. I didn’t peg you as the love ’em and leave ’em type.”

  He’d been joking, but he felt her go faintly rigid.

  Her words were bright but brittle when she responded: “Oh, you know, more of the never love ’em in the first place type...”

  Sensing a fragile point, he rubbed his palms up and down her back and spoke softly, keeping his tone easy and light. “You got something against emotional attachment?”

  She exhaled and relaxed into him once more. “No,” she said after her breathing evened out. “I just didn’t want my body calling the shots.”

  AJ chuckled. “And here I thought I had control issues.”

  “When your story sounds like an after-school special, it makes you cautious.”

  “About falling for someone?” he asked.

  She snorted. “Having sex.”

  He frowned. “What are we talking about?”

  She answered, “Having sex?”

  That she’d responded with a question, and one delivered with a slight thread of uncertainty woven through it, didn’t immediately register in his mind.

  Instead, he was stuck on a catch-up loop that kept coming back to the same thing: Lil had been a virgin.

  Had been.

  Until him.

  The knowledge gave him a strange sense of vertigo even as it made him hard again. Her weight still rested comfortably on him; they still breathed in unison; he still ran his hand up and down her back—but suddenly he had become a permanent feature of her story. Vertigo spun him around as it sank in that unlike his typical encounters, they were both forever changed. He had never been a part of someone’s life story in that way, and with the powerful shift it brought, he realized he liked it. He wanted to be a milestone in her life. For the first time, he wanted to be more.

  Like rodeo, she would be a demanding and
tempestuous mistress, one who would never go easy on him, as likely to break him as she was to save him. Like the sport he’d given everything to, her mere existence called his best forth and refused to accept anything less. But, unlike the other great passion of his life, Lil was an experience entirely his own. One he realized he wanted to keep. Maybe forever.

  In fact, for the first time since he’d decided to retire, the future didn’t look like a long stretch of watching from the sidelines, a slow decline the only thing left to him after reaching his pinnacle.

  Instead, it looked like Lil. Lil in the morning, Lil at the dinner table, Lil at night. It looked like holding her hand through hard times, and watching her grow even more cantankerous with each passing year.

  The squeezing sensation that was becoming familiar whenever Lil was around returned to his chest as his erection throbbed. He wanted her again, now more than ever, but knowing she was new to it all—making love as well as being the subject of complete focus—he worried she’d need a break. He wasn’t small. She was.

  His mental groan was half desire and half guilt. She would be the death of him. A part of him, the part concerned with mortality and survival, resisted, even as his body knew it was the death he’d been running toward his whole life. He pressed against her, and she made a little noise of approval that shot straight to his rigid heat.

  And then he remembered her first time had been on a sleeping bag in the middle of a field.

  He was a grown-ass man and the first time he’d given her had been worse than most high schoolers. He winced.

  “AJ?”

  He kissed the top of her head.

  She tilted her face up, gaze questioning, and he caught her mouth with his own. She opened for him immediately and he almost growled. She was his, alright, and he would hold on—but first he needed to make up for her first experience being more akin to a pioneer diary rather than a fairy tale.

  She settled against him, and he gave her shoulders a squeeze. Her breath soon took on the even rhythm of sleep, while he continued to stare at the overhead storage compartments.

  Hours later, leaving her just before dawn broke, it was still on his mind.

  She made a mumbled protest as he pulled away from her.