Chapter 11
There was This Girl
Cash
Callie’s blush was the most adorably sexy thing I’ve seen in a long time. I didn’t even need to say anything, and she broke out in goosebumps, her nose and cheeks pinking. I can feel my cock twitching in response.
She’s definitely interested and intrigued. I want to get on my knees, right here next to the river, and worship her like she deserves, taste her on my tongue. Feel her quiver beneath my hands.
Too soon, Cash.
Slow down. She isn’t ready just yet.
Hearing talking behind me, I look over my shoulder and see a couple standing there. Now that they have my attention, the man steps forward.
“Hey, Ashley, big fan, man. World Championships last year, a ninety-four? So unbelievable. I can’t wait to see what you do this season.” He holds out his hand for me to shake. I look over at Callie and see confusion written on her face. Doesn’t seem like anyone has told her yet.
“Hey, nice to meet you. Always nice to see people out and about. Yeah, it was a good show. It was Colossus as much as me.” I see his girlfriend standing awkwardly behind him.
I hold out my hand. “Ashley Colter, ma’am, nice to meet y’all.
” She smiles and sensing my dismissal, she drags him away. He looks a little starry eyed.
“Ashley?” is the first thing Callie says to me when she has closed her mouth.
I chuckle. Of anything she could have pulled out of the conversation, it was Ashley?
“That’s me, darlin’.”
“But every single person I’ve met calls you Cash,” she tells me a little stilted.
“Well, for the past week you’ve been around people who have known me since I was practically in diapers. Those people,” I point to the retreating couple, “they don’t know Cash. They only know Ashley.” I try to explain it in a way she will understand.
“But who is Ashley? What was all that?” I honestly can’t believe no one has mentioned it to her. Maybe I’m not as big a deal as I think.
“Well, Cash Colter is a small-town rancher. I run Colter Ranch, a 5,000 head cattle operation out of Inspiration, Montana.” I duck my head, a little embarrassed to have to even say this part.
“Ashley Colter is a rodeo champion. I’m a bull rider, darlin’.
” I lean back and grab my buckle and tilt it toward her.
“I won this last year at the Bull Riders World Finals.”
Her jaw drops open again, before realization dawns across her face.
“That’s what Kayla meant.”
“What?”
“She told me to ask you about the buckle since you didn’t get it from your good looks, though she found that part debatable.” She huffs out a laugh.
“Yes, that’s what she meant. When I’m home, I just want to be a rancher. I don’t want to deal with all this stuff.”
She nods her head sagely. “I get it. It makes sense. I bet you’re hot shit on a bull.”
The laugh bursts out of me without me even realizing it. “I’m alright.”
This time, she laughs. She pulls out her phone. “I’m totally going to find some videos.” She starts typing furiously.
“Oh Lord,” is all I can say before she starts playing the first video—it’s my ride from the finals two years ago. The ride that got me second place in the world. Watching it over her shoulder, I try to picture what she’s seeing.
“It’s so…scary. Scary is what it is. Oh my God.” When it’s over, she looks at me. Awe in her eyes, like she just discovered something amazing.
“It’s a little scary. I’m just Cash to you,” I tell her, pointing my finger at her. “The season just started Tuesday. I had my first ride right before the snowstorm. I came in second, behind Miles Wilkes,” I say resentfully. “I won calf roping though, so there’s that.”
“Calf roping?” She looks at me horrified. “What are you doing to calves? You can’t hurt babies, Cash.”
I try not to laugh since she seems sincerely concerned about the calves. “I promise no calves are hurt during roping. It’s the same thing we do on the ranch. Look up a video, everyone is fine.”
She does and soon she’s laughing at the little calves running around.
Her phone beeps with an incoming text as we are watching. We both watch the text flash across the top of the screen.
Grumpy Not-Cowboy
No thunderstorms today. And your car is back. It was good to see you.
Her eyes raise to mine, a little fearful but mostly defiant. She thinks I’m going to have an opinion on who she’s talking to.
“It’s okay, Callie. You don’t have to look at me like that.” Relief floods her face. “I would like to think this is our first date and if it is, I’m hardly allowed to have feelings or opinions on who you’re friends or more than friends with,” I tell her, holding her hands in mine.
“Are you sure?” She looks a little like she’s holding her breath, her lower lip between her teeth.
“Callie, I want to earn the right to be possessive of you because you choose me, not because I bullied you into it. So, I am asking you, right now—are you giving me the chance?”
She nods her head yes and I reach up, pulling her lips from between her teeth, before leaning forward and pressing my mouth against hers.
She inhales sharply, and I take the opportunity to slip my tongue through her parted lips.
She opens more to me, tilting her body my way, angling herself until she is between my spread thighs.
Looping my hand in her hair, I gently tug, eliciting more gasps from her.
Sucking her lip into my mouth, I bite it gently, before plunging my tongue back in, tasting her the way I have been dreaming of.
Well, one of the ways I have been dreaming of.
My hand finds her waist and I hold her tightly, pulling her against my body, as close as our positions at the railing will allow.
We break apart, both of us breathing heavily, stunned expressions on our faces.
We fit perfectly together. Her mouth against mine felt so right, so perfect, and I want to claim her now, make her mine.
But I want her to be ready, and she isn’t yet.
I need to take it slow with her. I want her to choose me.
I didn’t know until now I had competition but now that I know? I will make her mine. Inhaling through my nose, I get another shot of her vanilla and strawberry scent and my cock is instantly hard, as if the kiss wasn’t enough. She leans in, pressing the tip of her nose to mine.
“Yes, Cash, you have a chance.”
I smile before sticking my tongue out and licking her lip, making her giggle. As she leans back, she looks down at our bodies and sees my straining erection pressed against the zipper of my jeans. She looks back at my face and I cock a brow at her.
Got something to say, Hurricane?
Placing her hand on my thigh, she runs it slowly up my leg, getting closer and closer until right before she touches me.
Then she lifts her hand and slides it under my shirt, rubbing her soft palms across my stomach muscles, tracing the ridges with her fingers.
Leaning my head back, I groan, equal parts pleasure and frustration.
This causes more giggles.
“Very nice, Cowboy,” she sasses with a wink.
I drop her back at Lizzie’s so she can go to her job interview and drive over to the park. Sitting down on a picnic table and staring out over the land, I find myself excited for the future for the first time in a while.
I want to be worthy of her, I want to hold her in my arms, knowing I earned every minute I get to spend there.
She is, by far, the most interesting woman I’ve ever encountered.
I’ve brought dozens of women to my bed over the years, and no one has ever fascinated me the way Callie does.
Maybe because she isn’t throwing herself at my feet, begging to worship me but I don’t think so.
I respect no matter what they choose to do with their own bodies, and I have never judged a woman for jumping into bed with me or anyone else, so I don’t think it’s the chase—the fact that I have to work for it.
I want to be seen by her. I want her to see the public version of me and the private version and love us both.
More than anything, I want her to stay, and to choose me.
I want her in my bed, yeah. But what’s more?
I want her in my life. I want to wake up to her laugh and fall asleep to her voice.
That’s the part that scares the hell out of me.
Standing, I walk to the truck, pulling my phone out of my pocket.
Hey, you home? Figured we could hang for a bit before I head back to the ranch.
DW
Yeah, come on over. I’m throwing some steak on the grill. I have enough for two.
Pulling up in front of the small craftsman house on the edge of town, I’m proud that my best friend, the man I’ve known for most of my life, bounced back from his divorce and is making a new life for himself.
It would be nice if he met someone, but we both struggle with it. He’s so aloof and hard to get close to that women tend to not stick around to sort him out. I don’t think he has even been on a date since Indie left.
Bounding up the steps, I knock on the door, once, twice. I hear the dogs lose it inside, excited for a visitor. He pulls the door open half a second before two giant dogs come running out, nearly knocking me over.
“Hank, Dolly, leave it.” They immediately stop and pad their way back inside. “What’s going on, Cash?”
“Not much. I was just in town and figured I would stop by, catch up. You know.”
“Come on in then, brother.”