Loving You: A Cowboy Romance (Texas Hill Country Romance Book 1) (23 page)

She wouldn’t look at him, even as she knew he was watching her. 

After saying good night to Amber and Jimmy, she turned around, not sure of what to do. She looked for her life line, Calista. Just as Cord was starting to walk over to her she walked to Jake instead.

“Can I get a ride home?”

“Sure, babe, but wasn’t Rory going to drive you and Cord back?”

“Yeah, but...” She looked over his shoulder then back to his eyes again. “Can you just take me home, please?” she asked, sounding like a little girl.

“Sure,” he said, lifting his thumb to wipe the tear that fell from her eye.

She walked to his car and got in the back seat.

Cord was struck by her action. Jake caught sight of him and walked over to him.

“She asked me to take her home. What was I going to say? No?”

“No, of course not,” Cord said as he blew out a breath, clearly sounding frustrated.

It was a hot Wednesday evening and Annie and Calista were in the air conditioned pool house watching last Sunday’s episode of True Blood on demand. They were lounging on the couch waiting for Rory to bring over food from Wong’s.              

It had been three days and Annie still hadn’t talked to Cord. He texted her once since Sunday, simply saying ‘Call Me’ and he called her once which she ignored and he didn’t leave a message. She was hurting and she poured her heart out to Calista.

She was angry with Cord for ending a discussion they were having, at least she considered it a discussion, abruptly, as if his word was final, that arrogant man. But what really pissed her off was that one word when she started walking to him. ‘Don’t’.

The door to the pool house opened just as Roman got killed.

“Hey, ladies,” Rory said as he came in with the bag of food.

“Oooh, food,” Calista said as Annie said hi, without taking her eyes off the TV.

“Seriously, babe? Food? Yay, Rory’s here, is what I was expecting,” he said laughing.

Calista stood up on the couch and threw her arms around Rory, giving him a big kiss on his lips.

“Yay!” she said laughing. Then she caught sight of Cord by the doorway. “Cord! Hey there,” she said smiling.

Annie was surprised to hear his name. She turned around and their eyes met. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

He couldn’t read Annie, she was expressionless. He turned to Calista.

“Hi, darlin’,” he said to Calista. 

“Look who I found at the phone store next to Wong’s, buying a phone,” Rory said.

“Another phone,” Cord said sarcastically. “It’s my second phone in two weeks. They keep breaking on me.”

“Maybe you should stop throwing them,” Calista said, and Cord, Rory, and Calista laughed while Annie just stared at Cord.

He started walking to her with a forlorn look and she said simply, “Don’t,” softly.

He stopped in his tracks and searched her eyes.

Rory and Calista heard it and paused, then quickly busied themselves.

Annie wanted to laugh at their reaction, but she wouldn’t dare anger Cord. She already felt bad that she had just embarrassed him.

He nodded then turned, uncomfortably, and sat in the recliner on the other side of the couch, closer to Calista.

While Rory was out getting the food, the girls set the coffee table with plates, flatware and napkins, so as Calista was taking the food out of the bag, Annie got up to go to the kitchen to get an extra setting and a beer for Cord and Rory.

She was stretching over the sink into the cabinet for the dish when Cord came up behind her and extended his arm on the counter, boxing her in on one side as his other arm was still in a cast.

“Please don’t do this to us, Annie,” he whispered in her ear, and she got that wonderful feeling he usually caused when he was that close.

She turned around to face him. God, he smelled so good and he looked so freaking hot.

“I didn’t, Cord, you did, Sunday night, and ironically it was with that same word, ‘Don’t’,” she said softly. Their eyes locked on to each other.

“Annie, can you bring me another beer, too?” Calista asked from the living area.

“Sure,” Annie answered Calista. She shoved the plate she was holding into Cord’s chest. He took it as she sidestepped him to go over to the refrigerator.

“Can we talk later?” Cord asked.

Annie closed the door to the fridge, balancing three bottles of beer in her fingers. She turned to him again and paused.

His expression changed from one of hope to one of dejection. He started to turn to walk into the living room.

“Okay,” she said, and he turned back to her with a small, very small, smile, for he didn’t want to take anything for granted. He nodded then waited for her to pass and he followed her, and he thought about how much he loved to follow her, into the living room.

They ate and made small talk. Half way through the meal Rory brought up the fundraiser at Cord’s parent’s house that coming Saturday.

“Storm ready to compete Saturday?”

“No,” Cord said quietly, while chewing on a fork full of roast pork lo mein.

“Really? You’re cutting it close there, don’t you think?” Rory said as he shoveled more chicken and broccoli into his mouth.

“Rory, I pulled out of the competition. In fact, I’m not even going on Saturday.”

Then all eyes in the room were on him but he just looked at Annie.

“Cord, are you kidding?” Calista asked dumbfounded.

Cord looked to her.

“Cord, man, you’ve done nothing but brag about how Storm is going to help you retain your first place status,” Rory said and then Cord looked to Rory. Then he looked to Annie.

“Cord, between your ticket and Annie’s, you’re throwing away two thousand dollars, you know that, right?” Calista said, and Cord shot an annoyed look at Calista, and Annie shot Cord a jaw dropping look. Cord looked back to Annie then to Calista and Rory.

“I don’t care about that. I’d rather hang out with Annie on Saturday.” And all eyes were on Annie, making her feel uncomfortable.

She got up and went to the kitchen to refill her glass of wine. When she came back, she saw that Calista was cleaning up the table and she helped her. Within ten minutes, the place was cleaned up and Rory and Calista said goodnight and walked out the door.

“What just happened?” Annie asked, bewildered.

Cord shrugged and laughed. “Not sure,” he said. But, while she was in the kitchen refilling her glass, he had asked Rory and Calista if he could have some time with Annie. He didn’t think they were going to leave that quickly though.

So now they stood, staring at each other. Cord took a sip of the beer that was in his hand. He walked over to her and took her glass from her hand and walked over to the couch and placed the drinks on the coffee table. He didn’t know why. He had no plan. He was nervous.

Annie followed his lead and walked to the couch and sat down.

Good, good,
he thought,
okay, now what?
He let out a sigh and willed himself to stop over thinking.

He sat down near her, not too close, so he could turn to face her.

He watched her watch her hands in her lap. He reached for one of those hands and she gave it. He threaded his fingers in hers and they both watched their hands.

“I’m sorry, Annie,” he said quietly.

She picked up her eyes and saw him looking at her. A single tear slid down her face.

He pulled her into his lap and she went willingly. He placed his free hand on the back of her head and rubbed it gently as she laid her head against his chest.

“I can be such an asshole sometimes,” he said, and he heard a small giggle which made him smile.

“I was hurt that you didn’t want to go with me to my parent’s, then when Dan was all over you, I got angry with you for allowing it.”

“I was trying to get away from him because I knew it would upset you, but when you turned your back and walked away, well, I felt hurt... and then when Dan wouldn’t release me, I got scared. I tried to pull away from him, but he wouldn’t let me go. I panicked and slapped him. Hard, too.”

“Aww, Annie, I didn’t know he wouldn’t let you go.” He paused and Annie noticed his jaw ticking.

“But my girl gave him some shot. I was so proud of you when I saw your hand print on his cheek.”

She peeked up at him and smiled to see the tic gone and a grin on his face. Then she grew serious.

“Cord, please don’t pull out of the fundraiser. You’ve been doing nothing but talking about it. All your friends have been talking about it. I get it, it’s a big deal. I don’t want to be the cause of you pulling out.”

“Annie, it’s one day. No big deal. Our time together is limited and I told you once before, I want to spend whatever time we have left, together.” He brought his nose to her hair and breathed in her intoxicating scent.

“I wanted you there, to be by my side. To show you what I could do.”

“I already know what you could do and you do it so well,” she said seductively.

He pulled her away from his chest to look at her and grinned. Then he bent down to kiss her. She melted into his kiss. He broke the kiss apart.

“I meant bronc riding.”

“I’m pretty sure I experienced bronc riding with you in the past. Wouldn’t you agree?” she said and Cord let out a loud laugh.

“You’re funny,” he said. “And I really want to experience that with you again, but I was talking about the time you saw me on Storm, I fell on my ass.”

“Ah, yes, I didn’t notice that part, that was the first time I saw you in a pair of chaps. You looked so hot.”

He chuckled. “Yeah?” he said shaking his head.

“I do believe I’ve made you blush,” she said.

He grinned and then he claimed her lips. They broke the kiss apart and locked eyes.

“Okay,” she said softly.

“Okay, what?” he asked.

“I’ll do anything to see you in chaps again. I’ll go with you to your parent’s.”

“Yeah?” His face lit up.

“Yeah.” She smiled.

He was so excited she agreed, he kissed her quickly then said, “See if Calista can take you shopping tomorrow for cowgirl stuff for the line dancing competition.”

“Cowgirl stuff? Not even sure I know what that is.” She giggled. “But no, I don’t want to do that. The least amount of attention I can draw to your parents, the better. Please understand, please,” she pleaded.

“Okay.”

“Besides, then you’d ask me where I learned to country dance, then I’d have to tell you Dan taught me.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I wanted to impress you with line dancing and I didn’t know the first thing about it, but then I found out it was like the electric slide I’ve done at various weddings, only a bit more foot kicking, and Dan said he would help me with the fine tuning, and every Tuesday night we’d go to Roxy’s to practice.” She was so nervous telling him that, she knew she was rambling on.

“Wow!” he said taken aback. “I knew you went once or twice with him and the gang, but I didn’t know it was a weekly thing. How come you never told me?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise. Surprise!” she said not laughing cause clearly she could see his jaw muscle ticking away again.

“Cord, nothing happened. In fact, when you let it be known that you didn’t want him near me, I backed out immediately.”

“You did that? For me?”

“Yes.” She leaned against his chest again and he brought his good arm around her back.

He pulled her gently away from him so he could kiss her again. That time it was deep and wet. He tilted her head with his to get even deeper.

Her hands began to roam his chest.

He got up with her on his lap and she immediately wrapped her legs around his waist, clearly noting how hard he was.

He walked her into the bedroom and lowered his upper body to place her down on the bed. She let go and flipped over quickly and got on her knees and he watched her ass as she removed the duvet and brought down the covers. He watched her as he tore off his shirt and kicked off his boots.

She flipped back and seeing that he was half naked, she removed her T-shirt and her black with hot pink small polka dots satin demi bra. His eyes were transfixed on her breasts.

She shimmied down her shorts and he wasn’t at all surprised to see matching panties to go with the bra and he was so fucking pleasantly pleased. This girl did lingerie well.

He got into bed and spread her legs with his knee and moved on top of her, gently kissing her as she fumbled with his jeans button and zipper. He helped her pull them down and remove them then went right back to kissing her lips.

After getting her wet with his fingers, he slid inside of her. Yeah, it was fast but he needed to be inside of her. They rocked and kissed slowly, luxuriating in the feel of each other. No words were spoken, all you could hear was their labored breathing. They both had a body shattering climax that reached deeper than ever before and he rolled off her, spooned her, and they both fell asleep.