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“What’s that?”
“I have to show you how good I am at slow and easy, let’s-get-acquainted sex.”
She rolled her eyes, and he flipped her onto her back. He hadn’t had a chance to look at her properly yet, and a naked Lexie deserved to be fully appreciated. Her hair was tangled and spread all over his camp pillow, and her full lips were swollen from his kisses. Her breasts were gorgeous, tipped with coral nipples that drew to a peak as he looked at them. His dick twitched in response. Letting his gaze drift downward, he was pleased to see her thighs part just enough to let him know he was welcome to explore if he wanted to.
He definitely wanted to.
“Let me kiss it better,” he said, sliding down between her legs. “I’ll be nice.”
She had no objections.
When she woke, the tent was disconcertingly bright, and Tom was gone. Lexie was accustomed to getting up when it was still dark out, but the events of the night before had worn her out. She felt drained and a little bruised, both physically and emotionally.
When she emerged into the light, he was nowhere to be found, so she walked over to where her tent was pitched, a little apprehensive until she saw that Lance’s tent and bike were gone. Good riddance to bad rubbish, as Mom always said. Quickly grabbing her bike clothes and shower kit, she headed for the bathrooms.
Tom was walking toward her along the path. He was freshly showered and shaved, his black hair still gleaming wet. He looked gorgeous and stern, as usual. Anxiety flooded through her. Her feet stuttered to a stop, waiting for him to draw closer. She didn’t know what their agreement meant in the light of day. How were they going to be with each other now?
He stopped a foot away from her, a little too close for casual acquaintances, a little too far away for an embrace. Frowning, he lifted a hand as if to touch her, then let it drop. “How are you doing this morning?” he asked finally.
Her eyes filled with tears for the second time in two days, and she pressed them tightly shut, ashamed of herself. “Not so great, actually.” She wanted him to hold her, but daytime embracing might not be part of the companionship deal. Why should it be? She was just going to have to get a handle on herself. Maybe a little surge of morning-after emotion was to be expected, but Tom didn’t have to know about it.
“Can I—” He trailed off, obviously struggling with something. He looked irritated, embarrassed, and she felt a surge of empathy for him. “Ah, hell, Lex. Come here.” He closed the gap between them and wrapped his arms around her, blanketing her in the steady warmth of his presence. Immediately, she felt better. He kissed her temple, making her shiver, but in a good way.
Maybe this didn’t have to be so complicated.
“You still going to ride with me?” she asked.
“Of course.”
The reassurance thrilled her more than it should have. She was going to have to be careful here, or she’d find herself way more attached to Tom than was healthy. He would be her riding companion, her lover. But they had a deal. He wasn’t going to be her boyfriend, and she definitely wasn’t going to fall in love with the guy. That would just be stupid.
She rose to her tiptoes and brushed a kiss over his mouth, enjoying the little wave of warmth that washed all the way down to her toes. “Good. I’m going to take a quick shower, and then let’s get out of here. I’m ready to put Montana behind me.”
“Fine with me.” He burrowed his fingers into the hair at the nape of her neck and tipped her head back to kiss her properly, slowly and thoroughly and with enough sizzle to make her forget they were in the middle of a public campground. Before Tom, she’d had no idea kissing could be so hot. She’d always considered it sort of a warm-up act, but Tom made it feel like the main event. A girl could get used to being kissed like this.
He broke off and smiled then, that slow, sexy grin she liked so much, and said, “You sure you don’t want to hang around here a little longer this morning?”
“What, and go see Old Faithful?” she asked, pretending ignorance. “You know, I haven’t really taken in the sights yet.”
Tom’s lip curled, but his eyes remained playful. “Old Faithful’s not the sights. Old Faithful is a bunch of tourists trying to keep their brats happy with potato chips until the geyser goes off so they can take a picture with their phone and e-mail it to Grandma before they pile back into the minivan.”
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“Only you could be so cynical about the nation’s most beloved park.”
“It’s not the park I hate, it’s the people. Yesterday, I saw a bunch of tourists who’d pulled over to the side of the road so they could stalk buffalo with cameras. One guy got within fifteen feet of a full-grown adult bison. He could have been trampled to death, and he was shouting to his kids to come closer, waving his arms around like a wanker.”
She smiled up at him. He was a cranky bastard, but he was her cranky bastard. “So what you’re saying is, you’d rather be alone with me?”
“Much.”
Lexie gave his ass an affectionate squeeze—taking an extra second to appreciate what a fine ass it was—and then started down the path to the showers, turning to walk backward so she could deliver her parting comment.
“That’s good, because I hear the part of Wyoming we’re heading into is pretty desolate. No tourists at all. Just you, me, and the big blue sky. We’ll have to hope you don’t grow weary of my company.”
“Not a chance,” he said.
The crazy thing was, he actually sounded like he meant it.
