by Gary, Codi
Thrusting deep, he started alternating his rhythm between quick, shallow strokes and deep, slow ones until she was making fast, panting sounds. The inner walls of her passage tightened around him and he kept going, wanting her to finish again before he did. When her muscles spasmed around him, he let go, pumping into her as he hollered his release. To his relief, he heard her cry out again as she came and collapsed against his chest, her lips pressed against his shoulder. More than anything, he wanted to please Katie.
When his galloping heart finally slowed, Chase moved his lips over her cheek as he reached between them. Cupping her chin in his hands, he tipped her face back and kissed her softly, sliding his tongue inside to explore every sweet surface.
You just haven’t been with the right guy.
His words rushed back through his head and he struggled with what they meant. When had his feelings for Katie started to change from mild curiosity and lust to this feeling of . . . completeness? When he was with her—hell, even when he thought about her—it was like the sun was shining. He felt warm, content, and . . . home.
Crazy talk, dude. You just had amazing sex. It’s the sex talking.
Whatever it was, he needed a chance to think, and she needed to get dolled up for her pageant. He patted her thigh and said, “I should probably get you back to town so you can smile, wave, and kiss babies.”
Frowning, she pinched him and said, “Hey, pageanting is hard work. I’d like to see you stand around in heels for hours, showcasing your talent, and talking to a crowd of people who are either mocking or ogling you.”
She turned away to grab her clothes from the front seat and he asked, “So why do it if you hate it so much?”
“I didn’t ever want to do them, and after tonight I never will again,” she said as she looked over her shoulder. “My mom loved pageants. She used to do them when she was a kid with her mom, and she enjoyed seeing me up there, all decked out. She said they were a great confidence builder for me and it was, as long as I said the right things and always held my tongue.”
“When did she die?” he asked, grabbing his T-shirt and pulling it over his head.
“Three years ago.”
“Why did you do it last year?”
She blushed. “Jimmy wanted me to.”
“I see.” And Chase hated it. He hated that Katie had done the pageant for Jimmy. The guy hadn’t deserved her.
And you do? You aren’t exactly a good guy either.
“Do you see my underwear?” she said, frowning as she shook out her skirt.
Looking along the floor with her, he didn’t see them. The thought of Katie standing on stage in a pageant dress after wild sex with him and missing her panties was enough to make him want to start all over. “No, I don’t.”
Pulling her skirt over her legs with a grumble, she started to work it up over her bare thighs while he watched hungrily. Trying to distract himself, he prodded, “So your mom wanted you to be confident and have opinions as long as they went along with hers?”
She stopped and glanced at him sharply. “My mother just wanted me to be polite and have the right morals and values.”
Swiping his boxers off the front seat, he stepped into them and pulled them up. He didn’t know why that comment rubbed him wrong, but it did. “I’m guessing Mommy Dearest wouldn’t have approved of me, then. I’m not exactly the boy next door.”
Her expression changed from mildly annoyed to darkly furious in a flash. “First of all, do not call my mother that. She was a wonderful woman who just wanted what was best for me. She might have been strict, but she was also there for me, always. And second, I don’t know why you’re attacking me, but if I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be.”
Chase wondered what life would have been like if his mother had been more like Katie’s. Would he have spent so much time alone and still discovered art? Or would he have ended up playing football and becoming a lawyer? Who knew? He liked his life, was proud of the things he had done, but he realized that despite her mother’s wacky ideals, he actually envied Katie. Growing up with a parent who only wanted you to be happy and succeed?
Must have been nice.
“I thought it was just because I offered,” he said.
“No, you idiot, I’m here with you because I like you. You are handsome, accomplished, and I’m happy when I’m with you,” Katie said.
Her words hit him like a ton of bricks and he reached out for her, surprised she came so willingly when a few seconds before she’d looked like she wanted to throttle him. He stroked her wild curls and kissed her hair. “I’m sorry I was being a dick. You aren’t like the other women I’ve been with. You’re . . . well, nice.”
“Well, thanks . . . I think. Why would you date mean women?” she asked.
“Just the type I usually attract,” he said.
“Lucky you,” she said sarcastically. “I usually attract selfish, cheating buttheads, so I guess we both have bad taste.” Snuggling against his chest, she added, “I’ll give you a pass this time on account of you usually dating harpies. Next time, though, you’re in trouble, mister.”
“Are you going to punish me?” he asked.
He felt a light nip on his neck. “Oh yeah, big time.”
“Spanking?”
“Possibly.”
“You are such a tease.” He groaned.
Pulling away, she looked up at him, raising one perfectly arched eyebrow. “Who said I’m teasing?”
She just kept surprising him: sweet and warm to feisty and flirty in zero to sixty. Chase liked that about her.
Moving out of his embrace, she reached up front for her purse, grabbing the strap and pulling it back into her lap. She stuck her hands in to grab her phone and sighed. “Great, it’s 5:43. I have to be at the community center in fifteen minutes to get ready or Mrs. Andrews is going to have my head.”
Chase pretended to shudder. “That woman is terrifying.”
“Tell me about it.” Katie, fully dressed, bent all the way over and peered along the floor. With a groan, she sat back up. “I give up! I have no idea where they went.”
“What? Your underwear? They’ll turn up when I clean this thing out,” he said.
“That doesn’t exactly help me now,” she said, starting to crawl over the middle console. With her cute little rear in the air, he couldn’t resist giving it a pat.
She flopped into the front seat and he caught her glare as he grabbed his jeans. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself.”
“Do you know how cave-mannish it is to slap a woman’s butt? Next you’ll be yelling, ‘Honey, can you get me a beer?’”
“I think ‘Barmaid, get me a beer’ sounds better,” he said, pulling his jeans up and zipping them with a grin. “Too bad I don’t keep beer in the Blazer.”
“You’re incorrigible,” she said.
Gathering up his socks and shoes, he crawled into the driver’s seat and said, “No, I’m recidivous.”
Katie blinked at him. “What does that mean?”
Giving her a smacking kiss, he said, “Incorrigible.”
“You think you’re so smart,” she said, fighting back a smile.
“And I’ve got the college degree to prove it, Firecracker.” He had managed to pull on his socks; they were pretty soaked, but he could deal. His shoes were a bit harder to finagle in the cramped space, but he finally managed and put the keys in the ignition.
As he started the engine, he looked out into the blurry landscape and could hardly see even with the wipers on. The rain was really coming down hard.
“I can’t believe I lost my panties. What if I dropped them along the trail?” she said.
He grinned. “Then some lucky teenage boy will find them and use them when he gets”—she smacked him and he rubbed his shoulder—“ow, cold! I was going to say he could use them for a hat.”
“Sure you were,” she said dryly.
He wiggled his eyebrows and fingers at her. “Besides, I like you this way. Easy
access.”
She sat back with a groan and said, “Let’s go before you make me late. If I get an earful from Mrs. Andrews, I’m going to make you suffer.” As if anticipating his naughty comeback, she added, “And not in a good way.”
Chase backed up the SUV, laughing, and the car struggled along the muddy back road. He kicked it up to four-wheel drive and joked, “I guess I see now why everyone drives big redneck trucks around here.”
“Didn’t you have the same type of thing where you grew up? Nevada isn’t so different from Idaho,” she said.
The car swerved as it fought for traction along the bumps and grooves of the road. “I was more of an indoor man. Played a lot of video games. I’d draw and write. I think the only thing I did outside was swim. Loved swimming.” He leered. “Especially naked.”
As they started along the uphill slope of the canyon, his hands gripped the steering wheel nervously. The one-lane road was a smoother ride than the bottom had been, but still, the cliff growing beside his window made his palms sweat.
“Are you scared of heights?” she asked.
“No. Why?” he said.
“Because you’re white knuckling that wheel,” she said.
Loosening his grip a little, he felt a rush of relief as they made it to the top.
He looked over at Katie, who had a little smile on her face, and slid his hand over to rest it on her knee.
“What are you smiling about?” he asked.
She turned that seductive smile on him and reached down to cover his hand with hers. “Nothing. Just you.”
Trying to concentrate on the road was difficult with her hand over his. “What about me?”
She shrugged. “I’m just really happy right now. I’ve been so miserable trying to make it, trying to survive one day at a time, but with you, I can just relax and have fun. Be myself.” She squeezed his hand and added, “You are the reason I’m smiling. So thank you.”
He turned his hand over and laced his fingers through hers. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d held hands with a woman, but with Katie it felt right. Her palm was warm and soft against his, and he trailed his thumb over her silky skin.
The last few miles, Chase shifted his eyes from the road to look over at the woman who was beginning to get to him. Her smile, which brightened every room she entered. Her laugh, sometimes accompanied by the cutest snort at the end, and when it escaped, her cheeks would turn pink, which he thought was adorable. How unselfishly she put other’s feelings before her own, even the ones who didn’t deserve it.
He pulled into the parking lot of the community center and parked by the back entrance. Katie unlocked her seat belt and started to get out, but he reached across to stop her. She smiled at him in that soft, happy way and he had to kiss her, had to show Katie she was the most amazing woman he’d ever been with and that he didn’t want anyone else.
Cupping her cheek in his hand, he brought her lips to his and tenderly covered her mouth, hoping his actions would show her exactly what he wished he could say. Expressing his emotions had never come easy to Chase, but as a man of action, he hoped she understood that this thing between them wasn’t just casual or simple anymore.
And if nothing else, he wanted to show her that she made him happy too.
Chapter Eight
* * *
KATIE COULDN’T BELIEVE her day. So far she’d broken every one of her so-called rules to keep this thing between them uncomplicated, and she’d loved every second of it. Kissing Chase in his booth, by the bathroom, at the waterfall . . . their incredible sex in the Blazer, and now they were making out in the parking lot of the community center. She couldn’t seem to pull away, and if her phone hadn’t started screeching, she could have stayed right there all night.
Reluctantly, she broke the kiss and reached into her purse for her phone. Mrs. Andrews’s number was flashing across the screen and she groaned.
“I’d better get in there,” she said, grimacing.
Chase’s hand smoothed back her hair and he gave her a quick kiss on the nose, something that should have made her feel like a kid but instead made her feel cared for. Like Chase felt more for her than just lust.
“I’m going to go home and shower, but I’ll be back. Maybe after the pageant you can come over to my place and we could watch a movie or . . . something?” he said, smiling suggestively.
She returned his smile. “I’d love that.”
“All right, then, you’d better go before dragon lady comes looking for you.”
Laughing as she opened the door and jumped out of the Blazer, she raced for the community center door, the rain pouring down over her, soaking her to the skin. Yanking it open quickly, she made her way toward the sounds of angry women and high-pitched laughter.
“Where have you been?” Mrs. Andrews’s voice practically burst Katie’s eardrum, it was so loud and shrill.
Katie looked at her phone. “It’s only 6:08. I have plenty of time to get ready.”
“Just look at you! That shirt, what there is of it, is practically see-through, and you’re not even wearing a bra! You look like you’ve been out necking in a hayloft with some boy.”
Actually, it was the backseat of an SUV, and he definitely wasn’t a boy. Katie tried not to smile as she said, “I got caught in the rain, Mrs. Andrews, and I’m freezing, so if you don’t mind letting me dry off and change, I would appreciate it.”
“I saw you with that man. Kissing him like some floozy. And I heard about the little show he put on at the kissing booth. He is a bad element, and you are too nice of a girl to get involved with him,” Mrs. Andrews said firmly.
Katie didn’t feel like smiling anymore. Instead she felt like grabbing the nearest glass of water and seeing if the witch would melt. How dare she treat her like an errant child, like her errant child! Even on her worst day, her mother had never come close to Mrs. Andrews’s obnoxious, overbearing attitude.
“Mrs. Andrews, as you are neither my mother nor my boss, I would ask you to keep your opinions to yourself.” Katie said it as calmly as she could, but even she noticed the tremble in her voice. Doing her best to distance herself from the situation, something her mother always told her helped during a conflict, she started to turn her back on the older woman. Too bad New Katie took over just long enough to say offhandedly, “Oh, and by the way, it was the backseat of his car, not a hayloft.”
Mrs. Andrews gasped and Katie walked away, a mixture of horror and pleasure warring within her. She’d always been taught that talking about sex and intimacy was a private matter, but the look on the nosy old bat’s face had been so . . . satisfying. She’d probably regret it later, after Mrs. Andrews had told anyone who’d listen, but for right now she felt good, like she was ten feet tall and bulletproof.
She walked past all of the young girls and women, barely noticing their curious glances as she reached a storage room, which doubled as her private dressing room, and opened the door.
Becca and Steph were inside and they turned to her simultaneously. Becca closed and locked the door while Steph hissed, “Where have you been? Mrs. Andrews has been walking around asking everyone if they’ve heard from you.”
“I took Chase to see Rainbow Falls.”
“That’s code for sex, right?” Becca asked.
“Oh my God, you had sex with him?” Steph shrieked.
Katie wanted to bang her head against something. God knew she loved small-town life in most instances, but the nosy, gossipy way everyone was in everyone else’s business made her crazy sometimes. Even when one of the nosy neighbors was her best friend. “Okay, yes, we did; no, I don’t want to talk about it right now and, may I ask, why are you two back here anyway?”
Becca grabbed a garment bag hanging from a metal shelf of cleaning supplies and said, “I could not let you wear that gangrene-colored monstrosity of a dress again, so I brought you something else.”
“And I thought I could help you with your hair and makeup, just like in high schoo
l,” Steph said innocently, but Katie didn’t buy it for a second. Her suspicions were confirmed when Steph continued, “And I wanted to know what happened with Chase. Everyone is talking about him dropping three hundred bucks at the kissing booth and—”
Katie interrupted. “I will tell you everything later, but for right now, can we just get me dressed so I can do this stupid thing?”
Steph frowned at her. “Are you serious about him? I thought this was just a casual thing.”
That’s what Katie had thought originally, but now she wasn’t so sure. “I like him. Not sure about anything else, but can we discuss it later? I am so late.”
Steph remained silent, but Katie could tell by the stubborn tilt of her jaw that they weren’t done discussing it.
Becca, bless her heart, unzipped the garment bag with a flourish and grinned. “Let’s do this thing!”
CHASE WALKED UP the aisle of the community center, feeling out of place with the people in the crowd staring at him. He recognized the back of Becca’s multicolored head and took the empty seat next to her. “Have I missed anything yet?”
Becca shook her head and held out a little bag of popcorn. “Nope, still have a couple minutes before it starts. I love beauty pageants. Want some?”
“No thanks. I’m surprised. I would’ve thought you would despise them,” he said.
“Nope, love them. The fashion. The competition. The drama. It’s better than anything Hollywood could dream up.” She shoved a handful of popcorn into her mouth, and the lights dimmed. She elbowed his side. “Wait until you see Katie. She looks smoking hot.”
Chase looked past Becca and saw Steph glaring at him but didn’t have time to ask her what her problem was before the stage lit up and Harold Martin grapevined into the spotlight. Harold did the afternoon show at LMKZ 105.9, the local country station, and his smooth voice called, “Who wants to see some foxy ladies tonight?” The crowd cheered. “Yeah, that’s what I like to hear! I just want to thank everyone for coming out tonight to support the thirty-sixth annual Canyon Queen Pageant. These women aren’t just beautiful, they are smart, talented, and some of them even laugh at my jokes. How sweet is that?” A few chuckles. “Just a reminder that the fireworks have been canceled due to the rain, but as soon as we can figure out the best day to light up the sky, we will announce it. Now, I’d like you all to welcome last year’s Canyon Queen, Ms. Katie Connors. Louder, everyone, she needs to feel the love in here!”
