Rodeo Riders Read Free Page A

further from how she felt.
    Instead of answering, he rocked back and looked at her. He rested his hands on her knees, holding her in place, letting her know how easily he could spread her legs.
    “It could have been worse. At least Rampage didn’t gore you.”
    He does in my nightmares. “No, he didn’t. Cougar…”
    “Do you want me to leave?”
    “No,” she blurted. “No. Do you want to?”
    “No. Jordan, if I stay here, you understand what’s going to happen, don’t you?”
    “Yes I do.”
    “And you’re all right with it?”
    She licked her lips. “It’s what I want.”
    He stood, work-honed muscles effortlessly bringing him to his feet. His legs pressed against hers. She had to place her arms behind her and look up in order to see him. How could this man she’d known nearly all her life be so intimidating, so overwhelming?
    Because he is.
    He took hold of her shirt and tugged the halves apart. The snaps gave way. She knew what he was looking at: practical white bra designed to minimize the jiggling caused by a galloping horse. He pulled the shirt away from her breasts and as far off her shoulders as the fabric would stretch. She could have finished the job, but she continued to let her arms support her while he gazed at her newly exposed flesh. Pinpoints of energy flickered over her throat, breasts, belly. Beneath the clothing waited a woman too long denied her sexuality. Nothing else mattered.
    “You’re beautiful,” he muttered. “When you started changing from a child to a woman, every time I looked at you, it hit me anew.”
    “You never said anything.”
    His mouth curled upward, and he rested his hand at the back of her neck. “We hardly ever spoke to each other, did we?”
    “No, we didn’t.”
    “Because you were the boss’s daughter.”
    “No.” When she shook her head, his hand shared in the journey. “That wasn’t it. At least I never felt that way.”
    “Then what?” He leaned closer, brought his mouth dangerously close to hers. His hold on her neck tightened.
    “You intimidated me! All right. You intimidated me.” Just as you’re doing now.
    “Did you think I was going to scalp you?”
    “Don’t go there! Maybe it was your name.” Thinking had gotten so hard. She couldn’t find the words for what she needed to say. “Cougar. A predatory animal.”
    He started tracing the top of her bra with the side of his thumb. Each step of its journey resonated through her. Beyond caring about the consequences, she spread her legs and welcomed him in. He pressed his knee against her crotch, the touch saying everything.
    His mouth turned up. “My mother wanted me to have a white-bread name, something she thought would make it easier for me to fit in when and if I moved away.”
    His family and various relatives and friends lived in a sparsely populated section of the Eastern Oregon county, in what she’d always thought of as an informal reservation. The children attended the small district school, but for the most part, whites and Natives stuck with their own kind. His relatives and friends wouldn’t think twice about a black-eyed, black-haired boy named Cougar but that boy wouldn’t spend his entire life in that closed-in world.
    “I’m glad she didn’t win. Your name is right for you.”
    “Even if it intimidated you?”
    I still am—only maybe what I feel now has everything to do with my being a woman and you a man.

Chapter Three
    She loved the sound of snaps popping. Even more rewarding was the sight of his dark chest once she’d finished unsnapping his shirt. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the reality of what she’d just done, but she wasted no time running her tongue over his flesh. A bold and hungry creature had taken control of her.
    Apparently, Cougar had no objection to being treated like her personal boy toy because as she bathed his silken yet hard flesh, he explored her arms with calloused fingertips. She’d taken a few seconds to shuck off