Momentum (8 page)

“Well, I’m not going to leave you like that. If you don’t want to have sex I can take care of you in another way.”

“Oh? Tell me.”

Natalie felt a blush creeping over her skin that had nothing to do with the heat of the bathroom. “Well, um, I can use my hand or my mouth.”

“Or both.”

She giggled. “Or both. Is that what you want?”

Marco looked at her as if she were an alien species. “What man does not want his woman to pleasure him?”

“Good point.” Dropping to her knees as Marco had earlier, she licked up one side of his red, throbbing shaft, over the head and down the other side. Moving back up, she took the head into her mouth and sucked hard, hearing Marco’s breath catch. She smirked a little. Men were so easy to please.

“Your mouth is perfection,” Marco told her and then let out a low moan when she tightened her lips and went all the way down his shaft, swallowing him. Natalie pulled up, suckled the head again and then went back down, the neatly trimmed hair around Marco’s cock tickling her nose. She didn’t have a whole lot of experience in this area, but Marco certainly didn’t seem to mind.

It wasn’t long before Marco put his hands on top of her head and began thrusting into her mouth. Even in this he was a considerate lover, never forcing himself down her throat. She hummed around him and he gasped. “I’m going to come,
amante
.” Natalie didn’t pull off and he spilled into her mouth with what sounded like a tortured groan that had been ripped from somewhere deep inside him.

She rose and put her head under the spray to re-wet and settle her hair after Marco’s hands had tangled in it. Natalie loved that she could make him lose control like he had, but her hair would not thank her later when it was a snarled mess. Marco waited until she was finished and then pushed her up against the wall of the shower, cupping her breasts and moving back and forth between them as Natalie’s head fell back, thumping the hard tiles behind her.

He kissed her then, pushing his tongue between her open lips to conquer her mouth. She knew he must taste himself, but it didn’t seem to bother him. If anything, he was getting off on it. Marco pulled away, panting for air as Natalie tried to catch her own breath.

“We need to get out. You have stuff to do today,” she reminded him.

“I don’t care what I have to do. I’d rather stay here and make you come.” He threw her a wolfish grin and waggled his eyebrows, then turned her to face the tiles. “How would you like to feel me deep inside you?”

Natalie moaned. She couldn’t help herself. Marco drove her to heaven and back with every touch and she refused to be ashamed of that.

“I’d like that, but later. We have to go.”

“I’m holding you to that.” Marco turned off the taps and Natalie reached for a towel, handed it to Marco before snagging one for herself. Stepping out, she quickly dried off before using the towel to get some of the excess moisture out of her hair. She looked up and Marco was watching her intently.

“What?”

“Your hair is so beautiful. I love to run my fingers through it and feel how soft it is. But isn’t having long hair a difficulty for you?”

Natalie shrugged. “Daddy preferred long hair, so after my mom left I grew mine long so he wouldn’t miss her so much. I guess I never considered cutting it.”

Marco left the room and Natalie dried her hair as best she could but decided to put it in a bun. It was easy and mess-free. With that task completed she threw on a Western-style shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. When she exited the bedroom Marco was signing the breakfast tab, and her mouth watered as the various smells wafted toward her. He pushed the cart farther into the room and she took a seat at the small table. With a flourish he lifted the lid from the container with her Western omelet and set it in front of her.

“Wow, this looks delicious,” she remarked and then groaned with delight after taking the first bite.

Marco raised an eyebrow. “We’re never going to be able to leave the room today if you keep making sounds like that.”

She grinned and continued to eat. Shortly thereafter they took a cab down to the arena, as Paolo had taken the car. “What should I do now? The competition doesn’t start for a few hours.”

“Hang out with me. I’ll have to go get my gear ready a little later, but since you are right that there’s still several hours before the competition starts some of the riders should be okay with talking to you.”

“Thanks again for doing this. I really appreciate it.”

He stopped her and palmed the back of her neck, leaning down to kiss her briefly. “It’s my pleasure,
cara
.”

They came upon a group of guys and Marco introduced her all around. Several were intrigued when she mentioned wanting to become a bull rider and freely shared tips and techniques with her. Conner walked up with the man she recognized as Brady Parrish, the top bull rider in the world. Brady cast a less-than-friendly glance at Marco, but when Conner introduced her to him he smiled and seemed fine. Natalie could see why the Olympic figure skater Leah Fitzpatrick had fallen for him. He was something, especially when he smiled.

Wonder what’s going on between him and Marco.

She didn’t have time to speculate, as the riders began to depart for their preparation area backstage. Marco kissed her and left, and she went to find her seat, pulling a paperback out of her purse. She loved reading, but with her dad’s death and subsequent fallout she hadn’t had time lately to do so.

Natalie was engrossed in the murder mystery she’d rested on her propped-up legs when someone plopped down next to her. Startled, she dropped the book.

“I’m sorry!” Jessica cried, reaching for it before Natalie could react. She handed it back to Natalie and said, “Conner keeps telling me I can’t just barge in on people and that I should make my presence known.”

“Eh, you’re fine,” Natalie assured her. “I was just involved in the storyline.”

“Do you want me to let you get back to it?”

“No, no. I’d rather talk to a human being. A book can always wait.” It wasn’t entirely true, but Jessica was sitting next to her, so she turned to the other woman. “Tell me your story.”

A brief shadow passed over Jessica’s face, but then she steeled her expression and smiled. “Not too much to tell.”

“Oh, I bet you’re wrong there,” Natalie answered, tapping Jessica’s sizable engagement ring. “Tell me how you met Conner.”

“It was here on tour, actually. I was working for the tour last season when he rescued me from this jerk who’d grabbed me.”

Natalie felt her eyebrows shoot up. “Grabbed you?”

Jessica nodded. “Yeah. He was a stock contractor and didn’t much enjoy being told he had to do things by a girlie such as me.” She rolled her eyes. “So I threatened to disqualify his bulls.”

“And if you’d done that he wouldn’t have made any money at that event,” Natalie answered and Jessica nodded again. “Wow, gutsy.”

“Well, if Conner hadn’t been there that time and the time the same jerk chased after me, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

“Good thing he was there, then.” Natalie gave Jessica’s shoulder a good-natured bump and then realized how long it had been since she’d just had a normal conversation with a girlfriend. Too long. Far too long, really.

“Hey, where did you go?”

Natalie looked up to see Jessica gazing at her, worry clear in her eyes.

“Nowhere important.” Turning more fully toward the other woman, she continued. “So you worked for the tour?”

“Yeah, but I got fired when they found out about me and Conner’s relationship. Said it was a conflict of interest.”

Natalie snorted. “They were covering their asses.”

“I was still out of a job. For now, I travel with Conner, but we’re making plans for the future—you know, kids, his ranch.”

“That sounds nice. I miss my ranch so much.”

Jessica winced. “Marco told us a little about what happened. I promise he didn’t break any confidences, but what you told him upset him and I think he just wanted someone objective to vent to. I’m so, so sorry about your father and having to sell the ranch. It was thoughtless of me to bring it up.”

“Not at all,” she answered, wanting to put the other woman at ease. She needed all the friends and allies she could get right now, and besides, she genuinely liked Jessica.

“Do you have any idea what you’ll do if, you know, you, um…”

“Don’t make the bull-riding tour?”

“Yeah.”

“Not really. I figure, take one problem at a time. Right now my problem is making the tour. If that doesn’t pan out, I’ll have a different problem and I’ll take care of it then.”

“God, you have such a great attitude.”

Natalie shrugged. “I don’t have any other choice.”

The announcer came on the horn then and she and Jessica settled back to watch the competition. Jessica was a font of information herself, both about the riders and their techniques and the bulls themselves. Natalie found herself wishing she could reach inside Jessica’s head and instantly transfer her knowledge to her own brain. Her hand was starting to cramp from the note taking.

The first group of riders took their turns and the break in between them and the top-ranked riders came with only enough time for both women to make it to the bathroom and back. Marco was slated to ride third, Conner fifth and Brady ninth. Another younger rider, Garret, would go last as the tenth rider.

Jessica explained all about the draft and the things these bulls might do that the so-called easier bulls wouldn’t. The first two riders went and then it was Marco’s turn. Natalie watched him get situated, with Conner and Garret and his brother Paolo, who’d been in the first group of riders, assisting him. She bit her lip as the bull jumped in the chute. Why did he always get bulls that seemed crazier than the others?

Jessica reached over and forcibly removed Natalie’s hands from the bleachers she was clutching as if it were a lifeline. “He’s fine, Natalie. Just give him a chance. He’s a very good rider.”

Natalie nodded, her attention completely on Marco. It was strange. She’d only met him a few days ago and already she felt a kind of protectiveness about him and his safety. Marco nodded and the chute swung open. Marco moved fluently with the bull, his free hand high and away from his body, which Natalie knew would earn him extra points. She didn’t dare chance a glance at the time, but knew he must be getting close to the required eight seconds.

Then the bull spun and Marco was thrown off, landing almost ten feet to the side before rolling and jumping onto the rail as the bullfighters did their job to distract and corral the bull. Natalie could see even from where she was sitting how angry he was, and when she looked at the time, she knew why. He’d lasted 7.2 seconds, just shy of the eight seconds he needed to get a score.

Undoubtedly he would’ve gotten a decent score at the very least and she knew he must be fuming. Marco climbed over the rail where the other riders were waiting for him and began gesticulating back toward the arena. It looked as if he was doing play-by-play and asking the other riders what had gone wrong. Conner put a hand on his shoulder and shrugged. Marco nodded curtly and then spun away from the crowd, heading for the riders’ preparation area.

“Should I go after him?”

Jessica shook her head. “Let him cool off first.”

“Are you sure? I mean—”

“Trust me. Let him swear and throw stuff around and then you can call him and see if he needs you. Don’t force yourself on him.” She smiled a little as she undoubtedly recognized the double entendre. “Scratch that. Sex after being bucked goes a long way toward improving a cowboy’s mood.” She waggled her eyebrows at Natalie, who couldn’t help but laugh.

“How did you know?”

“Oh, honey, it’s written all over both of your faces.” Jessica grinned. “Reminds me of Conner and I in the beginning.”

Natalie scoffed. “And not now? I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”

“Well, yeah. But now we know what we are to each other. We’re married and settling down. You and Marco are still learning and you’re in that first blush of attraction. God, I thought Conner was going to singe me from the inside out.”

Natalie forced a smile, but her thoughts told a different story. She wanted that with someone, someday. But first she had to figure out who she was and where she was going in life. It wouldn’t be fair to bring anyone else along for that inevitably bumpy ride.

Conner’s turn came quickly and Jessica clapped and whooped when he stayed on his bull. Natalie joined in and Conner tipped his hat to the two of them once he’d reached safety. They stayed in their seats to watch the rest of the riders, Jessica continuing to give her the golden nuggets of information that Natalie hoped would give her the edge she needed to make the tour.

“Hey, do you mind if we sit together at the other events? I’m going to be on tour for another couple of weeks. It’s nice to know someone, especially a person who’s chock full of knowledge.”

Jessica turned to her and grinned. “Chock full of knowledge? I have to be sure to tell Conner you said that. He thinks I’m a know-it-all.”

“Seriously, this has been so helpful. Thank you.”

“No problem. I had fun.” She rose as the crowd began to disperse. “Wanna go watch the draft?”