by Em Petrova
And men like Jake Rawlins had gotten a chance to appreciate her beauty. Not that Ridge was jealous—she was just his friend, after all—but Jake had a degree in asshole with a minor in douchebag. What had she seen in him?
Ridge set the cruise control and relaxed back, nudging his cock into a more comfortable position. He had to keep from glancing Kashley’s direction so his cock would go down.
She made a quiet hitching noise in her sleep, and his cock was at full mast all over again. He glanced at her, and his dick gave a hard twitch.
Her top had ridden up, allowing him a glimpse of smooth tanned skin. All of a sudden, all he could think of was pumping hot droplets of his cum all over that expanse of flesh while she stared up at him, bound and gagged.
“Fuck,” he whispered. He was getting more depraved by the minute rather than calming down.
He rolled over another bump in the road, and her breasts jostled again. Was it sick that he wanted to slam the truck into reverse and drive over that bump again and again?
She’d been great just when he needed her most. She’d singlehandedly wiped out his email marriage proposals and was still picking through the Twitter ones, as hundreds of new ones popped up daily. And it seemed like all the holistic mumbo-jumbo she’d dumped down his throat to help his knee actually had done some good.
Plus, she was easy on the eyes—very easy.
All that long blonde hair. It was a family joke that Calhoun men preferred blondes after Buck married Channing and Ryder married Joy. Ridge had been about to walk down the aisle with a blonde too. And now here he sat burning for another woman with blonde hair and the most interesting eyes he’d ever seen.
Kashley was very different from Anna, though. She was a country girl without a care for the trappings of material items or appearance. Yet she was a natural beauty, and that body…
Stop. Pull over and beat your meat so you can put an end to these thoughts.
He swallowed hard and rolled down the window a crack to get a rush of cooler air. It didn’t help, because they’d hit a bad stretch of road with a lot of bumps, and Kashley’s tits were jiggling like crazy, and that band of flesh at her waist was getting wider as her shirt rode up.
“Were you looking at me?” Her shocked tone held equal sprinkles of amusement and the grogginess of sleep.
He tore his gaze from her midsection to her face and latched onto the plump lips he’d been fantasizing about sliding his cock between.
“Fuck. Hold on.” He crossed lanes of interstate traffic and hit the roadside.
“What’s wrong? Ridge?”
With jerky movements, he stopped the truck and set it in park. Then he reached across the console and pressed a thumb into her seatbelt clasp. It sprang free, and she was barely unharnessed before he yanked her out of her seat and into his arms.
She landed with a soft thump of ass and breasts. He didn’t give her time to react before he wrapped her hair around his fist and slammed his mouth over hers. She made a sound of surrender that hardened his cock to pure steel. It poked against her curvy ass, and he groaned into her mouth.
She answered with a moan of her own. The instant her lips parted, he took advantage, thrusting his tongue into her mouth. In the back of his mind he watched a slideshow of Kashley as an awkward kid with pigtails flying as she ran across the field. Of her with a bleeding knee after her horse dumped her. As each flash of memory came, he plundered her lips.
He loosened his grip on her hair, and she made a soft mewling noise that sounded like disappointment. Jesus, she couldn’t like it rough, could she?
He lost his inner battle and jerked her head back with his fist in her hair again. She cried out, and he withdrew from the kiss to stare into her eyes. They weren’t bright with pain or confusion but a hunger that rocked him.
“Fuck, Kashley. I have to stop.” Even as he said the words, he knew he couldn’t. Not yet. He dipped his head just as she met him halfway. Their lips crashed together in a searing kiss.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing her round tits up against his chest. He slid his hand over her midriff. Warm flesh met his hand, and he didn’t bother to stop his hips from jerking upward, grinding his cock against her ass.
“Yes,” she cried, wiggling against him.
A series of blaring horns cut through his horny haze, and he pulled free in time to see Lane’s truck flying by with a cameraman hanging out the back window, recording the moment.
“Hell.”
* * * * *
When Kashley registered the change in Ridge, her heart hit the toes of her boots and didn’t come back up. He released his grip on her hair and pushed her away an inch, which was all that was available in the driver’s seat.
But his cock didn’t go down—it seemed to pulsate under her. Or was that the throb in her pussy? She struggled for air.
He’d been staring at her, had acted like a madman pulling off the road and then yanked her out of her seat to kiss her.
What had she missed while she’d been sleeping?
“Ridge,” she started.
His brown eyes loomed close, just cooling from the passion he’d displayed a moment ago. “They got that on film.”
“I’m sorry.”
He gave a shake of his head. The action seemed to settle a mask over his face, and he gently lifted her off his lap and guided her into the passenger’s seat.
She sat there a minute, panting and flushed. Her clit and nipples were hard and aching.
“Kashley—” His voice grated over her senses, sending electric pulses through every inch of her. When he threw her a pained look, she winced.
“What the hell just happened?” she whispered.
He ripped off his hat and raked his fingers through his hair. Leaning over the steering wheel, chest heaving, he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you. And your hair—I’m sorry if I pulled it.”
Everything inside her screamed to jump back into his lap and let him have his way with her, even if it was a one-time deal. She was confident their relationship could withstand it if he said he never wanted to lay a hand on her again. At least she wouldn’t go to her grave without knowing his touch—without knowing how he felt moving within her.
She must have made a sound, because he jerked his head to look at her. Whatever he saw on her face ripped a curse from his lips as he reached for her again. She crawled into his lap, uncaring that the console dug into her side. As he pulled her head down more tenderly this time, he twisted so his back was at the door, giving her more room to fit snugly in his lap.
“You taste so fucking good.” He moaned as he swept the interior of her mouth with his tongue. She opened wide for him, trembling with need. Touching him this way was blowing her mind. Maybe she was dreaming, or he’d driven off the road and she was really dead. This couldn’t be happening.
To test her theory, she bit his lower lip—hard.
He grunted, pulled back. His dark brows drew over his darker eyes, and she feared she’d gone too far, but his expression intensified as he hooked a hand around her nape and pulled her in for a bruising kiss.
She threw herself into kissing him back, mind spinning, her body fevered. Prickles of heat rolled over her, and he found her stomach coated in goose bumps.
He murmured something that sounded like “tormenting woman,” but her senses were haywire and she didn’t trust her hearing. She skimmed her hands over his shoulders and down his chest. He slid his hands up her torso and cupped her breasts.
She cried out as he swathed each nipple with a big thumb. What she wouldn’t give to be naked and feeling those callused thumbs against her sensitive, needy buds…
He yanked free again, breathing hard. “We can’t do this.”
“The camera crews are past us.”
“But we’re on the side of the road, Kash.”
“I’m into voyeurism.”
He stopped for a second, his pulse pounding in his throat, and then he laughed. A rich, fu
ll-bellied, genuine Ridge laugh.
Her heart brimmed and overflowed with love for this cowboy. She cupped his angular jaw and brought her lips to his—gently this time.
A switch flipped in him. He stiffened and held her in place. “Kashley, honey, we can’t do this. You’re my friend.”
“Friends with benefits sounds good to me about now.”
He laughed again, but this time it held a more mournful tone. “You’d hate me for this later. I just can’t risk it—you’re the only ally I have right now. The only person I can turn to.”
Her heart shattered for the part of her who was so fucking in love with him. But another part of her heart appreciated every word he’d just said.
“I don’t want you to feel awkward with me,” she said quietly, still seated in his lap, aching for more.
He met her eyes, searching between each and finally focusing on the brown one. “I don’t want that either. That’s why we’ve gotta put the brakes on.”
She nodded, but it hurt her to do so. She felt like screaming that she was in love with him, had been forever. But the moment he’d stopped was when she’d shown him tenderness. When he’d been pulling her hair and she biting him, he’d been all for it.
So he didn’t want a relationship—she got it. He’d had a bad breakup and wasn’t over Anna yet. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t work out some tensions with her in bed, right? Or in a truck.
God, she’d had a feeling he would be the one who could match her darker desires for rougher affection. The way he’d pulled her hair and the need on his rugged features after she’d bitten him…
He set his hands on her waist, sending tendrils of heat up to her breasts and south to her pussy. She dragged in a ragged breath and climbed off his lap. Plopping back into the cold passenger’s seat felt a million ways wrong.
He didn’t move, just continued to stare at her.
“We okay, honey?”
She swallowed hard and met his gaze. “Of course. Best get on to Kansas.”
He made a grating noise in his throat and pivoted to face the steering wheel again. Before he fastened his seatbelt, he reached for his hat, which was on the floor. None the worse for wear, it seemed. As he set it on his head, he put the truck into drive.
“You’re right—on to Kansas. So I can hunt down that camera guy and destroy his tape.”
Her throat closed off as she realized he didn’t want their kiss to be made public knowledge. The fire of her hopes died.
Chapter 4
They didn’t make it five miles down the road before Ridge had regrets. He didn’t regret kissing her—no, that was hot as hell. But he did regret what he’d said about the footage. It made him sound embarrassed to be seen touching her.
Sure, part of him was thinking of Anna. If the film leaked out, he’d be the rebound guy, which wasn’t true at all. This was Kashley—he wasn’t about to start a relationship with a girl he’d seen flat-chested as a boy, skinny-dipping in the water tank on her folk’s ranch.
She’s not flat-chested now, though.
He pressed his lips together and watched her from his peripheral vision. She sat still, hands in her lap. She appeared relaxed. Maybe she hadn’t been affected by their actions.
He sure as fuck was. He still couldn’t sit right, and his brain kept leaping back to the way her breasts had felt in his hands.
What he regretted most of all was not finding a better place to pull over, because he wouldn’t have stopped at kissing and touching. But he wanted more privacy when he did it.
Was he seriously thinking of finding a rest stop and ravishing Kashley?
His pulse throbbed in time to the ache in his cock. Yeah, he was. What a dick he was being. He couldn’t touch her again.
“Ridge, I’ve been thinking about…what just happened.”
He jerked from his thoughts, his mind latching onto her sweet voice and remembering those sweeter moans she’d made.
“Yeah?” His throat closed on the single word.
She didn’t wrap her arms around herself or angle in his direction. She sat straight as an arrow, her hands still in her lap. He flicked his glance to them.
No twisting fingers, no fidgeting. She was calm and cool.
“I don’t think we should do that again.”
He met her gaze, and his heart gave a wild tumble at the blank mask she wore. Dammit, now all she’d done was make him want her more. He wasn’t a man for games of cat and mouse, and his ego had taken a helluva thumping recently from Anna. But that wasn’t why he wanted Kashley so bad.
After seeing her in the throes of passion and feeling her trembling with want, he wasn’t willing to go back.
“Maybe,” was all he’d say on the subject.
“Maybe?”
Maybe we should get this out of our systems—one night of bliss.
And risk losing her friendship for a few spurts of sperm? No, he was being a dick again.
Silence descended over them. He shifted in his seat, both to ease his half-swollen cock and because his leg was getting stiff.
Kashley picked up on it right away. “Your knee’s bothering you.”
Actually, he’d felt it pull when he’d pushed off the floorboards to situate her more comfortably on his lap, but he wasn’t saying that. When he didn’t respond to her, she said, “Maybe we should get out and walk around a little. Do some of those stretches.”
That made him laugh, and her mismatched eyes widened in surprise.
“Why is that funny?”
“Do you expect me to do that headstand thing in a McDonald’s parking lot?”
Her full lips tipped upward. The breath whooshed from him—all he could think about was her biting him. Jesus, how was he ever going to look at her the same way again?
“Okay, that yoga pose wasn’t one of my better ideas. But it was funny. Why don’t we stop at the next exit so you can stretch your knee?”
He pushed a button on his truck dash and brought up the GPS. He’d driven this stretch of road to this very rodeo for years, but he was hoping there was something even closer than what he remembered. No such luck. Guess he’d have to try to concentrate on anything but getting Kashley undressed.
“When was the last time you’ve been to a rodeo?” he asked her.
She hesitated and when he glanced over, her face was beet red.
“I detect another secret. Tell me, Kash.”
She threw him a desperate glance, her blue and brown eyes pleading. “I was actually at the Tulsa Invitational when you took the prize last year.”
He opened his mouth but nothing came out. “You were there? You never came to say hi.”
She just shook her head, but the action made him wonder what she was hiding. Had she gone to see Jake Rawlins? Had they been dating back then?
“I saw a few of your brothers and waved, but all of you are so popular that you were swamped for autographs.”
“But you know about the Calhoun circle, right?” Before any event they all gathered to bow their heads and placed thanks where it was deserved. They also added a “for Dad” that was being repeated all over because of the TV show.
“Of course. Everybody knows it.”
“You would have been welcome. You should have come to find us.”
The redness in her cheeks got a little hotter but she kept her lips sealed. Damn, a dew of perspiration had broken out at her hairline, which only drove his thoughts toward getting her in bed.
He had to stop thinking about it. She’d suggested they didn’t try it again.
Pushing his mind toward the rodeo, he named a few competitors who might outperform him, especially if his knee gave out.
“I’ve read up on their latest scores, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” she said.
“No? I’m not so confident this time around.”
She reached across the space and touched the back of his hand. He jerked as an electric shock ran through his skin and up his arm. When he swung hi
s gaze from the road to her, he saw a similar expression on her face. She’d felt it too.
“You’re…” she faltered as if still stunned by their exchange, “lacking in confidence all around right now. It’s understandable. I think you need to get on that bronc and clear your mind. Forget about everything but the horse and the ride. Don’t think about your knee or Anna or even Taylor Swift.”
Strangely, Anna’s name didn’t steamroller him as it had every single time it was mentioned. He nodded at Kashley. “You’re right. It’s not easy, but I’ll try.”
“I knew I should have made you meditate. It’s not too late, you know.” She gave him a mischievous grin that made him think of her on the back of a four-wheeler, covered in mud, hair streaming. While all of them had been enjoying some springtime fun as teens, she’d run to his ATV, jumped on and taken off before he could. Then she’d reveled in riding back and forth in front of him, taunting him and throwing mud on him.
They had a lot of history. A good reason not to smash it to smithereens. But it was impossible not to see her as the beautiful, sensual woman she’d become after he’d ground his cock against her.
“Maybe meditating is a good idea,” he said.
She laughed, sounding like a bell going off in his head. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. Athletes do it, right? And I’m an athlete. I gotta keep my head on straight, and I feel like a freaking mess lately. Cameras are bad enough, but fans throwing out questions about Anna plain sucks.”
She didn’t stumble over his mention of his ex either. “Don’t forget the marriage proposals you’ll get.”
He scrubbed his knuckles along his jaw, creating a rasping noise though he’d just shaved this morning. “Maybe I’ll stay drunk up until the time I ride.”
“Because you do so much better hungover,” she teased. “Ridge, it’s going to be all right. I’ll find something to keep you focused.”
He shot a look at her long hair, smoldering eyes and curves for miles.
That’s what I’m afraid of.
* * * * *
Kashley watched Ridge cross the parking lot of the gas station, focused on his gait and whether or not his knee looked unstable. It was pretty damn difficult to remain focused when his entire body called out to her to do very bad things to it.
