Dirty Player: A Rough Riders Novel (28 page)

“Wow, you know how to calm a girl’s nerves.”

“Just preparing you,” I said, smacking her rear end. “I’ll take Hulk out later and exercise him, but he’s too ornery for a slow ride, and I didn’t want him getting the other horses excited. Next time, when you’re ready, I’ll put you on Winne. She’s a bit more feisty, but something tells me you’ll be able to handle her in no time.” I brushed my hand down Ralph’s crest to his shoulder until I knew he was calm. “Ready, boy? Be good to her. She’s new to this.”

As if he understood, he neighed and dipped his head and met Shannon’s gaze. 

“Hey, Ralph,” she whispered, reaching out to touch his neck. “You’ll be nice, right?”

“He’ll sense your nerves,” I warned her. “So he might be jumpy at first, but hold on tight and sit with your back straight, centering your balance, and he’ll calm once I’m on Winne. When I get on her, I’ll take your reins and guide him for a bit, okay? All you have to do is hold the pommel of the saddle.”

I pointed to where I meant on the saddle and waited for the sign that she was ready.

It rolled through her like it did every time I suggested something outside her comfort zone. It was usually about sex, but her nerves brightened and then evaporated much the same way now as she blew out a breath.

“Okay. I’m ready.”

I told her how to hold on to the saddle of the horse and helped her up, holding on to Ralph’s reins around his throat to keep him steady. He wiggled a bit once she was on, and I saw her eyes flash wide when he sidestepped, pulling me toward him a bit, but he quickly settled back.

“You good?” I looked up at Shannon and the force of her smile hit me like a meteor straight to my chest. It made my lips part and my ribs burn as she grinned down at me, so fucking excited she could light up the sky.

“Ready, old man.”

“I’ll show you old man,” I grumbled teasingly and hoisted myself onto Winne. Once I was saddled, I reached over and took Ralph’s reins. Shannon’s giggle echoed through the air every time Ralph moved in a way she wasn’t suggesting.

We took two laps around the large ring while I helped her with her balance and gave her basic instructions for digging her heels in and how to pull on the reins to make him stop or slow down.

The entire time, her grin kept her lips spread wide and she continued that sweet giggling sound even though I knew she was focused on paying attention and learning too.

She was like Beaux in that moment, enjoying the hell out of life while at the same time focused on doing her best.

For the first time since I could remember, it made jealousy burn deep inside me. That both of them lived like that. Carefree and focused. Kicked back but paying attention. I’d been so focused on one thing for so long, I hadn’t realized until that moment with Shannon how much I’d forgotten to have fun along the way.

“Thank you,” I said, walking Winne next to Ralph until I could reach over and place my hand on Shannon’s thigh. “Thank you for doing this with me today.”

I let my sincerity shine in my eyes, hoping like hell she could read everything I felt in that moment. It was perfection. Something I wanted to remember forever.

“I should be thanking you,” she said, her voice awed and soft. “For teaching me this. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had so much fun.”

Neither did I. Something told me this wouldn’t be the last time I had this much fun, though. Not with Shannon next to me.

“Ready to hit the trails?”

“Trails?”

“Yup. You didn’t think we’d stay in the ring all day, did you?”

She frowned a bit and then shook her head. “Well, yeah. Sort of, but let’s do it.”

Chapter TWENTY-ONE

SHANNON

I was on a horse on my way through a wooded trail with Oliver on my left side, and we were going to have a picnic lunch.

It was not what I was expecting us to do the minute we arrived. I figured it’d involve seduction and fucking and lube and butt plugs.

I hadn’t determined if I was disappointed by this or thankful. Apprehension had chilled my skin when he’d first sent the text telling me to remember the plug. I could practically see the glimmer in his eye as he’d sent it, knowing what that one sentence would do to me. Yet I hadn’t hesitated in packing it either. What he wanted involved a certain amount of trust, and while we hadn’t been together long, Oliver was showing me that he was the guy who could be trusted with everything I had to give him.

I was falling for him, against my original plans of moving to Raleigh to make something of myself and figure out who I was without a man. Oliver didn’t detract from those plans, though. With his obvious interest in my day and in my business and in his appreciation for my work, plus his sexy, alpha side I saw all the time when we were together, he was proving to be a man who could stand at my side, supporting and encouraging me in equal measure to what I gave him.

Yeah. I was falling—falling fast and hard, and I didn’t even care about having a safety net.

Next to me, Oliver led us to the left a bit farther and then pulled the horses to stop at the tree line.

I gasped as I saw where he’d brought us.

“Wow.” I sighed. “This is beautiful.”

In front of us was a small lake that jutted up against the tree line except for the small, beachy area where he had led us.

We were surrounded by trees, the sun high in the cloudless sky. Cerulean blue and emerald green filled my vision as my gaze wandered around the water until I was looking at Oliver. In the bright sun, the baseball cap he generally wore was turned backward. His eyes were as bright as the trees.

“This place is beautiful.” 

“I come here a lot,” he said, dismounting from his horse. “Helps me think after a shitty game.”

I licked my parched lips, taken aback at the admission.

He was always so strong and confident, arrogant and bossy. I imagined after a shitty game, he went and punched something or ran six miles or did something manly like wood chopping or hay baling to release the adrenaline.

Visions of Oliver in his glasses, hands pushing back his hair while he sat in the stillness of this location, never would have occurred to me.

“That surprises you,” he stated as he walked around Winne and reached up to help me off Ralph.

I grinned, thinking of wood chopping and hay baling again. I must not have hidden my surprise very well.

“Yeah, a little.” I threw a leg over the side of the horse and placed my hands on Oliver’s shoulders. His hands went to my waist and he slowly helped me off the large and gentle beast. “Thank you for the ride,” I whispered, running my hand down Ralph’s’s shoulder. “That was great.”

“I take you on the ride and you thank my horse.” Amusement lit Oliver’s voice and I turned back to him, rolling to my toes so I could reach his lips with mine. 

“It was beautiful,” I whispered. “Thank you, again.”

His gloved hand gently brushed along my cheek. “Anytime.”

I wanted to be on that horse again. Lots.

He reached around Winne and unsecured the cooler he’d brought with him. He nodded toward a thick, low branch hanging from a tree a short distance away. “Can you hold this while I secure the horses?”

“Of course.” While he led the horses away, I stepped through the knee-high grass and out onto the sandy beach area. Kicking off my boots, I bent down to pull off the thick socks he’d also given me and then slid my toes deep into the hot sand until I reached the cool, wet sand beneath the top layer.

“I should have brought a blanket,” Oliver said, stepping up to my side and slipping the cooler out of my grip.

I was thinking of cool sand and clean water and sunshine when I replied, “I don’t mind getting a little bit dirty.”

The bright summer sun had nothing to do with the heat that suffused my cheeks.. I looked at Oliver through half-lidded eyes and his expression said he noticed. 

“I know. It’s one of the many things I like about you.”

“That’s not what I meant.” I shoved him playfully, not moving the large man a single inch as I laughed.

“I know that, too.” He slung his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to the water. “But I still mean it.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

He tugged at the messy bun on top of my head and grinned. “I know. It’s one of the many things you like about me.”

He was right. Besides being stubborn and arrogant, his playful side was often hidden behind his surly veneer, but I liked it when he shed that for me.

“Come sit with me.” He kicked off his own boots and took a seat in the sand. Pulling his knees up, he set the cooler in between his spread feet while he opened it. I didn’t waste time joining him as he dug through the cooler, emptying the contents before I saw the meal Sue had prepared for us.

“Wow. Lee wasn’t kidding when he said Sue made us a feast.”

There were containers of pasta salad, fruit salad, two sandwiches filled with thickly sliced prime rib on large hoagie buns, crackers, cheese, and several small bottles of water.

“It all looks delicious.” I didn’t know what to choose first when he handed me silverware. 

I chose the pasta salad and closed my eyes when the cool flavor hit my tongue. “So good.”

When I opened my eyes, I found Oliver’s gaze fixed firmly on me. “How can you be so sexy even when you’re eating?”

I blushed and looked away, pushing a small chunk of escaped hair behind my ear. Changing the subject away from me, and the way his words affected me, I looked out at the water and asked, “Do your parents come to your games often?”

“Yeah, they come whenever they can, although it’s easier for them to get away after the harvest in August and September. But come fall, they travel wherever they can get.” His voice trailed off a bit and he took a bite of his food. “Dad’s getting older, moving slower than he used to. He wouldn’t admit it, but I know keeping up the farm and all the traveling is getting hard on him.”

I saw in my memory banks my own mom, too young to be so frail and working herself to the bone. Stress and depression along with pneumonia and exhaustion stripped the life right out of her. “I’m sorry.” I leaned over and rested my hand on his knee and squeezed. “It’s hard to watch your parents decline and get old.”

“Yeah.” His voice softened along with his eyes. “But they’ll be there at the first home game in a few weeks. You’ll get to meet them then. I know you usually watch the game in the seats Beaux gets for you, but it’d mean a lot to me if you and Melissa would watch it with them from the box.”

My body stiffened from the shock before I could hide it and his jaw hardened. 

“You don’t want that?”

I shook the surprise away and found my bottom lip sucked in between my teeth. “No, I do, I guess I was surprised you’d want me to. It’s soon.”

I realized my mistake as soon as I said it. His eyes flashed. 

“Game’s not for three weeks, Shannon. That’s almost two months together. That is what we are, isn’t it?” He leaned forward, setting his sandwich down before he moved to me, stealing the breath from my lungs with his intensity. “Tell me I’m not the only one thinking we were building something here.”

“God, no. I’m sorry.” Shit. Damn it. I didn’t want to hurt him. I hadn’t meant to hurt him. It was clear that I had, and I hated the pain mixed with anger I saw warring in his hazel eyes. I set down my pasta salad and scrambled into his lap, loving that not only did he let me, but he settled me right against him, holding me tight at my waist. “I’m sorry,” I said again, dropping my hands over his shoulders. “I was just surprised, that’s all. Of course I’ll meet them. Melissa and I would love to.”

His lips fell to mine, his tongue demanding entrance into my mouth. I acquiesced quickly, loving the taste of him and the feel of his hot skin against my fingers, burning through his thin shirt.

“We’re together,” he commanded, pulling back and leaving me needing more of him. The kiss was over too soon, and too intense to end at all. His hands cupped my cheeks firmly, his gaze seeking mine, seeking the truth in my eyes before it spilled from my lips.

“Yes,” I gasped. “Of course we are.”

My body heated against his as he held me there, not doing anything except roaming my face and my body with his eyes before he pulled me back to him. Right before he closed them and pressed his lips to mine again, I swore I saw something different…something softer and filled with longing and relief, as he kissed me.

“Eat,” he growled when he pulled back this time. His thick erection pressed against my sex.

Food had been forgotten and my lips parted at the one-word command.

When he saw my eyes flicker with confusion, he smirked.

“Eat and then we’ll get back to the house. You’ll need your energy later.”

A full-body tremble rolled down my spine, making him laugh when he set me back to the ground and handed me my sandwich.

I smirked when I saw him adjust himself and let loose a low groan.

Biting into my sandwich, I grinned back at him. “Can’t wait.”