Cowboy 12 Pack
Page 175
She lifted her head from his shoulder, the rest of her body still holding tight to his. “I think I won that hand. Care to go again?”
Wade laughed. “I’m always ready to go again with you. I told you, cowboys never fold.”
The End
Unexpected Eden
The Eden Series: Book 2
Coming Spring 2015
For updates, sneak peeks, and special prizes, sign up to receive the latest news from Lexi at http://eepurl.com/D3MqT.
Also by Lexi Post
Masque
Passion’s Poison
Passion of Sleepy Hollow
Cruise into Eden (The Eden Series: Book 1)
About Lexi Post
Lexi Post spent years in higher education taking and teaching courses about the classical literature she loved. From Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death” to the 20th century American epic The Grapes of Wrath, from War and Peace to the Bhagavad Gita, she’s read, studied, and taught wonderful classics.
But Lexi’s first love is romance novels. In an effort to marry her two first loves, she started writing erotic romance inspired by the classics and found she loved it. Her books are known for “erotic romance with a whole lot of story.”
Lexi is living her own happily ever after with her husband and her cat Giz. She makes her own ice cream every weekend, loves bright colors, and you will never see her without a hat (unless she is going incognito).
Lexi enjoys hearing from readers. She can be contacted at lexi.post@yahoo.com or through her website www.lexipostbooks.com.
For an excerpt from Cruise into Eden, Book 1 in The Eden Series, read on.
Chapter One
WHAT HAD SHE been thinking to come on a nude cruise?
Erin Danielson maneuvered around the naked people sunning themselves on the deck above the pool, the drone of her mother’s voice on her cell phone like white noise in the background of her growing uneasiness. Ascending the stairs to yet another deck, she moved the phone away from her face and sighed in relief as five empty lounge chairs came into view. She brought the phone back. “I’m sure she didn’t mean it, Mom. Maybe you took it the wrong way.”
Dropping onto the lounge at the end, she tried to keep track of her mother’s story, but it was hard to concentrate after all the stares she’d just received. Some people found her sexy new bikini funny, while others looked baffled.
“Erin. Erin. Did you hear that?”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I was distracted for a moment.”
“I need you to listen to me. Here I am telling you about the worst insult I’ve ever had in my life and you—Oh, I have to go, Janice is calling. I’ll call you back later.”
“But I might not have cell—” The silence on the other end made it clear her mom was long gone. Tucking her phone into her bag, Erin spread her towel and pulled out the coconut 50 SPF suntan lotion. She didn’t want to burn on the first full day.
She should never have let Craig talk her into coming on this nude cruise with him. It wasn’t as if he was interested in her, not in that way. He had needed her in order to come aboard since it was for couples only, but they were just friends, had been friends for years, like every other man she’d met since she was seventeen. Thank God she’d lost her virginity before then because an eleven-year dry spell had made her desperate enough as it was. Then again, maybe it would have been better if she’d never known what she was missing.
As she covered her legs with lotion, the scent distracted her from her ruminations. She was proud of her legs, but to be fair she had her mom and her running to thank for them. The coconut fragrance had her envisioning warm tropical beaches with aqua-blue waters and maybe a cabana boy. Yes, definitely a hunk of male to fulfill her every need. She shook her head. The chances of that happening were equal to her finding a wormhole on the Lido Deck, and yet she still held out hope.
She couldn’t completely blame Craig for her being on the cruise. She’d come aboard for one last attempt. If she couldn’t get a man interested in having sex with her on a nude cruise, she would give up the hunt. Besides, this new adventure seemed better than jetting off to Cancun for the eighth time with her friends. She’d lost two of those friends because of her decision to go with Craig. They acted as if they couldn’t plan the vacation without her, while they had no problem with Craig backing out.
She smoothed lotion over her flat stomach, shaking her head. Craig, who she’d seen naked in college too many times, was a little too self-involved for her taste. She and her friends were sure the only reason he got drunk was for an excuse to take off his clothes. It didn’t surprise her that he wanted to come on a nude cruise.
The least he could have done was come outside with her to rub lotion on her back. He’d never find her two decks above the pool. Last night at dinner, he hadn’t stopped scanning the crowd once. Everyone had dressed for the meal, but some of the clothing revealed more than it hid and he had enjoyed the views. This morning he left the cabin butt-naked, and she hadn’t seen him since.
She glanced down between the railings at the naked bodies below. The term “clothing optional” cruise was obviously a misnomer. Everyone was naked. Everyone. Old, young, fat, thin, even those with missing parts and scars. She had expected a lot of buff, model-type people, but they weren’t. They were like the people she met at home, except they didn’t have any clothes on.
It hadn’t occurred to her to actually walk around nude. She stood out simply because she chose the “option” of wearing her bright-yellow bikini. She’d never expected to feel uncomfortable because she had her clothes on.
She reached over her shoulder as best she could to rub the lotion in. Sighing, she gave up and put it back in her bag and lay down. The motion of the ship was almost nonexistent, but if she concentrated hard, she could feel a slight side-to-side movement as the giant white playground slid through the water. Up this high, the noises from the pool and waterslide were muffled, leaving her in a peaceful haven.
“Excuse me, but are these taken?”
Shading her face with her hand, she opened her eyes to find the most gorgeous man she could imagine, because she was sure she hadn’t actually seen a person so perfect. It was as if she’d stepped into a long-lost episode of Star Trek and the crew had just discovered heaven. He had to be well over six feet tall. His short, wavy brown hair was a bit messed from the breeze and his dark eyes were set above a perfect, straight nose. His lips curved in a grin that could melt the polar ice cap, and was definitely causing her own temperature to rise. The dark stubble along his chin gave him a rugged look that said he had a bit more testosterone than she was usually treated to. He appeared to have a round tattoo of some kind on his left biceps, but she couldn’t tell what it was from where she sat. She let her gaze move lower to find large pectoral muscles with no sign of hair followed by a six-pack a bodybuilder would kill for.
She couldn’t help but look lower only to flush at the sight of a very large cock nestled above a significant ball sac. Snapping her gaze back to his face, she shook her head. “Hmm, uh, no, they aren’t taken.”
“Do you mind if we join you?” His deep, slightly accented voice brought her senses into hyperalert and it took her a moment to understand what he’d said.
“We?”
“Yes, my friend and me.” He pointed to her right and she forced herself to stop looking at him only to find another feast for her eyes.
She had to be dreaming. Maybe she was in some kind of time warp and had been whisked away to another planet because there was no way men like this existed on Earth. The second man had long black hair and eyes that seemed lighter than the other’s, but she couldn’t tell the color because the sun was behind him. His cheekbones were high and his chin sharper than his companion’s. His lips, however, were distinctively full, which had her licking her own. Luckily, he didn’t smile and simply nodded once.
The sun suddenly became stifling, so she sat up. “Of course you can join me.” She st
ared as the long-haired man walked around the other one, lifted a lounge chair with his free hand and bent over to set it on the other side of her, giving her a view of the back of his taut thigh muscles, ass, and balls. Holy shit. She might come just looking at these two.
Wait. If these two men were together, they must be a couple. Her blood cooled. Damn, just her luck.
“My name is Nassic Wild, but everyone calls me Nase.” The first man held out his hand.
She grasped it silently, still reeling from the man’s attractiveness and his unobtainability.
Nase grinned. “My friend is Wareson Night, but we call him Ware.”
She looked at the other man, who once again simply nodded. “Ware? Like in Werewolf?”
Nase laughed. “There’s no such thing as a werewolf.”
She attempted a smile, still too blown away by their physicality to be sure she succeeded.
“And you are?”
Nase’s voice sent her senses into hyper mode. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Erin Danielson.”
The man’s gaze shifted to Ware for a moment before he looked at her again. “It’s nice to meet you, Erin.”
Now what was that about? He said the word “meet” as if he’d heard of her, but that couldn’t be. Unless Craig had sent them up to show her what she couldn’t have. If he’d done that, she would kick him out of their stateroom so fast he’d skin his bare ass on the doorsill on his way out.
Nase stepped in front of her, blocking the sun for a moment, helping her body to cool a bit. “I’m going to the bar to grab a couple beers. Would you like anything?”
“I would love a bottled water.”
“A bucket of beers and a couple waters on the way.” Nase strode off, completely comfortable in his nudity, and Erin completely comfortable with the view of his rounded backside.
She glanced at Ware, who now sat on the lounge chair next to her rubbing lotion on his bulging biceps. Above those massive muscles on his right shoulder was what looked like natural beauty marks, but they were in an odd shape, two dots in a row above three dots in a row. Despite the fact the man was as dark as someone from Greece, they stood out clearly. How odd.
She stared as Ware protected his skin, all of his skin. The man had no tan lines. He was a bit bigger than Nase, and broader, but not by much. He still hadn’t said anything, and she suddenly wanted to hear his voice. “Have you taken a nude cruise before?”
He stilled mid-rub and looked at her. His gaze was intense and now that he was next to her, she could see his eyes were a forest green. Absolutely breathtaking, though it could have been her anticipation of his voice that had her holding her breath.
“No. This is our first one.”
The deepness of his tone wrapped around her like a cocoon that she never wanted to leave. His accent was heavier, but from where? The tension she felt around Nase disappeared with Ware, which left her clearheaded enough to remember the two men were a couple and she had no right to ogle them. “This is my first one, too. Though I’m not sure I will ever get into the ‘nude’ part.” She forced herself to stop staring at Ware’s perfect male body. She closed her eyes and lay back on her lounge.
“Why?”
The dark, sensuous voice slid over her skin again, and she could feel him looking at her. No, not looking, exploring her with his sight. She opened her eyes and watched him. Every place he viewed suddenly became sensitized, as if he had lightly run his fingers along her body. She swore she could feel his gaze as it traveled across her stomach, up her ribs, over her breasts, along her neck, and through her hair until she found his eyes riveted on hers. “Why?”
“Yes. Why would you not allow your body to enjoy the sun fully?”
She pushed her hair behind her ear. “I… I—It’s hard to explain.”
He cocked his head and stared intently at her.
Obviously her answer had not satisfied him. “I’m guessing you are not American. In my country, we wear clothes all the time. It’s what we’re used to. I know there are a few countries that are more open about nakedness, but I’m not from those.”
“I believe many of the people on this ship are from America.”
Erin was too focused on the extra emphasis he left on the final letter “a” in “America” to at first grasp his point. When she did, she flushed. “True, but I never knew they existed. This is all very new to me. I just learned last night why there are piles of towels in the main areas of the boat. I guess everyone is supposed to use them to sit on if they are nude. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot more about this by the end of the week.”
As if her answer had pleased him, he went back to rubbing lotion on his dark body. She couldn’t help but watch as he finished covering his hard stomach, but as his hand dipped between his legs, she closed her eyes tight. The last thing she needed was to have an orgasm watching a gay man put on suntan lotion. Luckily, Craig had stayed out late last night, so she’d been able to pleasure herself. Maybe she should be a bit more appreciative of her roommate’s habits.
She sensed Nase’s return and opened her eyes. Shielding her face, she swallowed hard. The man moved with confidence. It was as if the air parted before him. If she were air, she would stand in his way and let him push that large cock, that swayed as he walked, right up against her. His thigh muscles rippled as he strode and too soon he had dropped onto the lounge next to her.
“Here you are. One bottled water for now and another in the bucket for later.” He held out the water. She sat up and shook off the condensation before opening it. Taking a gulp, the cold liquid glided down her throat, cooling her a bit until it hit her stomach.
“Ware.” Nase lobbed an open bottle of Heineken over her to his friend who caught it effortlessly, not a drop spilled. These two had obviously been together a long time. She wanted to know more, but it would be a waste of time. The cruise rules were everyone had to be with someone. The organizers did not want people coming on the cruise to try to hook-up. That’s why Craig had needed her, so he could pretend he was part of a couple. She’d like to think the men flanking her had done the same thing, but she doubted it. They were too familiar with each other.
Nase opened another beer, a foreign brand she didn’t recognize and took a few swallows. The cords in his neck moved as he chugged the liquid. His tanned skin glistened with sweat and she licked her lips to keep herself from licking him. When he brought the bottle down, he faced her, his legs spread wide, his cock on display.
Sunglasses. Why had she left her sunglasses in the room? She just wouldn’t look. It would be impolite.
“So what is your life like?” Nase leaned his elbows on his knees, distracting her from his question for a moment. His tight forearms sprinkled with dark hair had her body revving.
A low noise from her other side returned her attention to the topic. “My life? Do you mean what I do for a living?”
Nase shrugged, and took another sip of beer.
“I’m an IT manager for a science fiction television station that sells stuff online. Actually, it’s more like a district manager as my boss has many product centers under his purview and I’m his right-hand man. It’s a good job that I can leave at the office. What about you?”
Nase grinned. “I’m in defense, but I can’t talk about it.” He gestured toward Ware with his beer. “He’s in government. Very into laws and justice and what’s fair.”
Erin turned to find Ware on his back watching her. She took another sip of water. “So I guess you do take your work home.”
“Always,” Nase grumbled. “That man is always thinking. He needs to have more fun. Maybe on this cruise.”
She nodded halfheartedly. Yup, they were definitely a couple. It was too heartbreaking to contemplate any further. Taking another sip of water, she capped her bottle and lay back on the lounge chair.
“Why do you wear clothes?”
She opened one eye and looked at Nase. She wanted to be irritated, but he was just too attractive to be mad at. “I’m exercising
the option to be clothed.”
At her answer, his brows lowered. “But you’re gorgeous. Stunning. And you have a sexy body. I would think you would be proud to show it.”
She flushed from the inside out at his words.
“And I bet your breasts are perfectly round with strong, hard nipples that beg to be sucked.”
Even as moisture gathered between her legs, Ware interrupted. “Nase.” The single word said low and sternly was enough. The other man shook his head in puzzlement and settled in to apply lotion to his own taut body.
Erin closed her eyes tightly and tried to relax. How could she let a gay man make her wet? She must be more desperate than she realized. But to be fair, the men on either side of her were sinfully built and no one could blame her.
Wait. Why were they on either side of her? If they were a couple, wouldn’t they want to be next to each other? Then again, they could simply be protecting her. She had a couple gay friends who would do that, kind of look out for her. That must be it. Still, she could certainly dream if she wanted to, and she would, next time she had the chance to relieve her fast-growing sexual need.
Cupid’s Cowboy
A Cowboy Way Novella
Becky McGraw
‡
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
CUPID’S COWBOY, copyright © January, 2015 by Becky McGraw.
All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.