Rough Riders Bundle 1(books 1, 2, 3) (29 page)

“Right. Doesn’t Daddy keep an eagle eye on you, since you’ve been known to get into a fair amount of trouble?”

“Yes.” Keely’s smile vanished. “An eagle eye in the form of Amy Jo Foster. We’re sharing a room, which means I have to be very quiet if I want to sneak out at night.”

“What’s Amy Jo doing here?”

“Daddy’s attempt at matchmaking.”

Gemma glanced at Channing and then away quickly. Channing knew something was up. She didn’t dare ask, because she was more than a little afraid of the answer.

“Plus, she’s keeping the buckle bunnies away from him.” Her blue eyes widened. “Shit, here comes Daddy. You didn’t see me,” she said and squatted down, before she scooted away, ducking through the throng of people until she vanished in the crowd.

A tall, sturdy man sauntered over. He looked to be around sixty, ruggedly handsome with a square jaw, high cheekbones, those familiar compelling blue eyes. Dark hair beneath his cream-colored cowboy hat. He flicked a quick glance at Channing and focused his attention on Gemma. “Where’d the wild child go?”

“Why, whoever do you mean?” Gemma asked innocently.

He rolled his eyes. “If you see Keely again, tell her I’m lookin’ for her. I’ve survived raisin’ five rough and rowdy sons. That one little girl is gonna give me heart failure yet.”

“They say what goes around, comes around.”

“Her mama and me weren’t ever that wild.”

Gemma lifted a brow. “That ain’t what I heard.”

The man merely grinned.

“Carson, this is my friend Channing Kinkaid.”

Carson tipped his head. “Nice to meetcha, Miz Kinkaid.”

“Same here.”

“Where’re you from?”

“Massachusetts.” Right then, Channing knew she couldn’t be more ostracized than if she’d answered
Mars
.

“Ah,” Carson said.

A moment of forced silence.

“Channing is also friends with Colby,” Gemma added.

Carson’s gaze narrowed. “You don’t say.”

Sweat dripped down her spine in the wake of Carson McKay’s accusing stare. She waited for him to quiz her.

But he decided to ignore her. He and Gemma started dishing dirt on other rough stock contractors. Channing’s feet itched to make tracks for the door. They’d only been here an hour and she was ready to leave.

A minute later firm male hands landed on her hips. “Dance with me.” She turned and Trevor tugged her away from the table to the dance floor.

There wasn’t much chance to talk as Trevor whirled and twirled her through three fast songs. When the power ballad “You Look So Good In Love” began, she fully expected they’d exit the dance floor. But Trevor pulled her into his arms, keeping her at a respectable distance as they swayed to the beat.

“Are you havin’ fun?” Trevor asked.

“No. Are you?”

“No. Bein’ here around my family makes me realize how much I love bein’ on the road.”

Channing laughed.

“It ain’t funny. Times like today I
am
tempted to pack up and move to Brazil.”

Trevor danced her backward. She looked behind her to make sure she wasn’t about to plow over someone, when across the way she saw Colby, his hands clamped on the ass of a young, willowy blonde whose mannerisms and carriage screamed
real cowgirl
. They did the old bump and grind, oblivious to anything but each other.

Her breath caught and something inside her broke. Any secret stupid hope that she had about a future with Colby McKay evaporated like smoke.

Trevor noticed she’d gone rigid. He peered over her shoulder to the couple dirty dancing and froze. He whispered, “Ah hell. I’m so sorry, Chan.”

Breathe
. She remembered Keely’s matchmaking comment. “Is she the one his dad brought here?”

No answer.

“Trevor?”

“Yeah, Carson brought her. Her family’s ranch borders the McKays’ and—”

“Don’t tell me any more.”

“All right.”

Channing couldn’t stay on the dance floor, pretending her world hadn’t just crashed around her. When it felt like her heart was being stomped on by dozens of pairs of spiked cowboy boots. She stepped away from Trevor so fast she stumbled into the couple behind her. Her clumsiness set off a chain reaction, which reached Colby and his new paramour.

Their eyes met. His registered surprise, then guilt. Hers, she knew, held nothing but desolation.

Channing fled. She thought she heard someone shout her name but she didn’t stop. She skirted the area where Gemma was fending off Cash and ran straight out the door. She didn’t quit running until she’d arrived at the horse trailer.

She madly packed the few personal items she’d brought with her. She dialed a cab company to pick her up and take her to the airport. She didn’t care where she escaped to as long as it was far away from here.

While Channing scrawled a quick note to Gemma, she sucked down a beer. She was totally unprepared for the vicious hammering on the metal trailer door.

“I know you’re in there, Channing. Open up,” Colby said.

She didn’t budge. She mouthed
go away
to him.

Several more ferocious knocks rattled the whole trailer. “Goddammit. Open this fucking door right now or I swear to God I’ll bust it down. And you know I don’t make idle threats.”

‡

S
eething on the
inside, but maintaining an outward calm, she opened the door.

Colby burst in like an angry bull out of the chute, nostrils flaring, eyes red, his bulky body shaking with rage. He latched on to her upper arms, jerked her against him and smashed his mouth to hers.

Channing fought him. Kicking, biting, digging her nails into his shirt, trying to claw his heart so she could rip it into shreds like he’d done to hers.

After she nearly bit his bottom lip, Colby swore, spun her around and braceleted her wrists in his hands behind her back. “Knock it off, you little hellcat.”

“No. Let me go and get out. I don’t want you here.”

“Tough shit.”

“I’m not kidding. Stop manhandling me. Maybe your girlfriend likes it, but I don’t.”

Instead of releasing her, he tightened his grip and put his mouth right next to her ear, laughing softly with a hint of malice. “She is not my girlfriend. If you’d give me a goddamn minute to explain—”

“I don’t care about your stupid excuses.”

Colby hissed, “Sure you don’t, shug. That’s why you’re actin’ all jealous like this.”

Channing twisted her wrists in his rough hands. “I’m acting like this because I’ve got a cab coming any minute. I’m leaving. So let me go.”

“That sounds good. We’ll take the cab to my motel so we can hash this out in private.”

“We have nothing to hash out.”

“Wrong.”

He wheeled her around and cupped her face between his hands. He settled his mouth over hers, foregoing the earlier brutal kiss and giving her sweetness and tenderness that brought her tears to the surface.

Damn him. Channing realized she was starved for this man’s touch. The way he alternately inflamed and cherished her. The way he instinctively knew which one she needed.

Yet, her breath hitched in her chest, reminding her of the pain that’d been circling her heart for the last day. She broke the kiss. “Colby—”

“Don’t leave me.” He tracked soft kisses up her jawline. “Please. I missed you, darlin’, something fierce. Stay with me tonight.” Over and over his lips brushed the hair covering her ear as he seemed to breathe her in. “Promise me you’ll stick around so we can talk this through, okay?”

Say no
.

A thick pause hung in the air.

Finally, she swallowed her pride and whispered, “Okay.”

“Thank you.” He hefted her satchel over his left shoulder, grabbed her right hand and they sprinted to the waiting cab.

Channing paced as she waited for him to unlock the door to the motel room. “How’d you get a room?” she asked, when she meant “
Why
did you get a room I didn’t know about?”

“My folks had an extra reservation because my brother Cord and his son were supposed to come. They gave it to me instead.”

“Oh.”

The room wasn’t anything different than the other cheap rooms they’d crashed in for the last week. In the darkness her senses were attuned to sound. The thump of her bag on the carpet. The rattling wheeze of the air conditioner kicking on. The click of the chain as he secured the door. The blood rushing in her ears. The
shush shush
of his bootsteps on the carpet as he moved in behind her.

“We’ll talk later. Right now I need to be inside you before I lose my ever-lovin’ mind. Let me show you how much I missed you.”

No. She would not relinquish control to him this soon. She turned and sank to her knees. She had him unbuckled, unzipped and in her mouth before he knew what hit him.

“Goddammit, Channing, that’s not what I wanted… Oh fuck that feels good. Oh, darlin’, just like that. Baby, don’t stop.”

Channing sucked him off, taking her own sweet time to build him to madness. Dangling him over the edge of reason again and again before she relented to his begging whimpers and finished him in her mouth.

Colby staggered backward and sagged on the bed.

She escaped to the bathroom. Maybe if she cowered in there long enough he’d fall asleep and she could sneak out because being here was a bad, bad idea.

Two seconds later, two raps sounded on the door. “Channing? You okay?”

Crap. “I’m fine.”

“You gonna hide in there all night?”

“Maybe.”

Colby laughed. “Well, as long as I’ve got your undivided attention, let me set you straight on a few things.”

“I can turn the water on so I don’t have to hear you,” she said with false syrupiness.

“And I can break down this cheap-ass door so you’ve got no choice but to listen. You really want that, darlin’?”

“No.” Before he could sweet-talk his way around her, Channing blurted, “Did you ask Amy Jo to come to Cheyenne?”

“No! Why would you ask—”

“Because Trevor hinted
you
told your dad to bring her here for you.”

“Trevor was drunk. My dad’s been tryin’ to fix me up with her for the last year. Poor thing is shy and unsure of herself and she needs a little—”

“Little Amy Jo didn’t look so shy and unsure of herself when you two were dirty dancing,” Channing retorted.

He chuckled again. “Amy Jo asked me to teach her to dance like that because she don’t know how. And it appears she’s already set her cap for some cowboy back home. So she’s tryin’ to shed her wholesome image. I showed her some pointers. Plus, she wanted to rub it in Keely’s face. My cheeky little sister deserves it after taunting Amy Jo all these years.”

“Oh.” What else could she say that didn’t make her sound like a jealous idiot?

Silence. Colby sighed. “Shug, please come out here.”

Channing cracked the door an inch and peered at him. “You left your ropes in the horse trailer, right?”

“Yep. Just me, just you.” He held out his empty hands. “See?”

“Okay.” The second she scooted out, he blocked her attempt to dodge him and hugged her spine to his chest.

She tried to squirm away.

“What’s this? I thought you liked me? Now you’re treatin’ me like a leper?”

“I still like you. I just don’t know why I’m here.”

Colby kissed her crown. “Because I missed you. Talkin’ to you. Touchin’ you. Getting to know you. We’ve had fun learnin’ about each other, haven’t we?”

“Do you mean in the biblical sense?”

He tapped her ass. “No. I meant in every sense. I want to be with you, Channing. And not just with my dick in your mouth.”

She leaned back, allowing his solid warmth to seep into her. “You didn’t like it?”

“I loved it. But I don’t know why you felt you needed to distract me. I wanted to touch you, too. Lord, I’m achin’ to put my hands on you. But I can wait until you’re ready. And. Ah. It don’t have to be tonight.”

That shocked her. Wasn’t this thing between them supposed to be about sex?

Colby whirled her to face him. A hint of hesitation darkened his eyes. “Are you comin’ to the afternoon rodeo tomorrow to watch me compete?”

“I’d like to but I don’t have a ticket. I’ve heard they’re pretty hard to come by.”

“I bought one for you today.” He sifted her hair through his hands. “Your hair is so soft. You smell so good. Everything about you is soft and warm and sweet.”

Channing was melting. Giving in.

“And after the rodeo I’ve planned something special for us.”

“Do we get naked for it?”

Colby scowled. “Maybe I’d like to spend time with you with our clothes on, Chan.”

“That’d be a first.”

“You’re pushin’ your luck, darlin’. I’m tryin’ to be civilized. Givin’ us a chance to talk this out.”

Channing stood on her tiptoes and licked his neck. “I like you uncivilized and wild. Talk is overrated. I’d rather fuck it out.”

Another weighty pause. “Your choice. But now that you’ve made it you don’t get to change your mind.”

Then he was on her. Kissing her, tearing at her clothes. In the blink of an eye she was naked and at his mercy.

They crashed to the bed in a tangle of arms and legs. Colby crushed her to his chest and rolled with her so she was writhing beneath him.