Cowboy Pick-Up Read online

  He gave her another of his I’ve-got-you smiles. “Not at the moment, though I’m certainly leaving my options open. What I want is for you to empty your pockets so to speak, starting with your shirt.”

  The words were barely out of his mouth when her nipples tightened even more. Not caring whether he noticed, she pressed her legs together. Heated hardly described what was going on in her crotch.

  “You don’t want to piss me off,” he continued. “Believe me, that isn’t pretty. Now, get going on those buttons.”

  Either someone had turned off a light somewhere or her ability to see was shrinking. She was still aware of the crowded conditions, but with Tadd’s voice directing her, she dismissed them.

  Getting her fingers to unbend took concentration. Her palms were hot, her fingertips cold. When she took hold of the fabric around the top snap, it was as if someone else was doing the job for her. The snap on the brand new top resisted, causing her to risk ripping the cloth. Finally, though, the halves of snap number one were no longer fucking.

  “Keep at it. I’ll tell you when to stop.”

  Damn but he could do a lot with a whisper. The way he’d rested his chin on his crossed forearms said he was only mildly interested in what she was doing. However, he occasionally slid his ass over the chair, giving away the truth.

  About to comply, she decided that she could play cool as well as he did. Instead of watching for any change in his expression, she gave an exaggerated yawn and stared at a dusty, cobweb-coated set of deer antlers on the wall to her right. She must have gotten the hang of things, because the second snap didn’t put up nearly the resistance the first had. She wasted no time freeing the third, again pretending to yawn as she did.

  “That’ll do for now,” Tadd told her. “Now push the shirt back on your shoulders.”

  Her kingdom for a mirror. For a thirty-year-old, she had pretty perky breasts. They could be larger, not that, given her lifestyle, she wanted them getting in the way. Not caring what Tadd thought, she glanced down at herself. Her nipples were still covered, barely, with the upper swelling well displayed.

  Smiling a smile of her own, she pulled the shirt up a bit so she could slide it farther off her arms. Of course she could now barely move her arms, but she’d remedy that when the time came.

  “When do I get that drink?” she asked, tossing her hair provocatively as she’d seen women do on TV and in the movies.

  “You’re getting closer.”

  “That doesn’t tell me much. How much further do I have to go?”

  His chuckle sent chills running up and down her spine. She was getting lightheaded. At the same time, blood flowed to her pussy and made it heavy. “When you’re wearing nothing except those fine boots of yours, I’ll buy you as much as you can drink.”

  Not bothering to point out that she couldn’t step out of her jeans without first taking off her boots, she hooked her thumbs over her waistband. “I know better than to get falling down drunk so, mister, if you’re thinking you can get me plastered and then fuck me, get that thought out of your mind.”

  “Point taken. “ He rubbed his whiskered chin, something she wished she could do. “Those jeans as tight as they look?”

  She wiggled her ass, blushing when several men laughed and someone clapped. “What do you think?”

  “I think you’d like nothing better than to get out of them, starting with unzipping so you can breathe.”

  He was right. The waistband dug into her. Why hadn’t she bought a size larger?

  Because this pair showed off the curves her crazy, busy life seldom gave her time to think about.

  “You know,” she said as she slid her fingers over the metal fastening against her belly button, “the time’s going to come when I’ll want the same from you.”

  “Yeah?” He looked as if that hadn’t occurred to him.

  “Yeah. You ever hear of equality? Giving women the vote?”

  “Sounds vaguely familiar, but that doesn’t cover the present situation.”

  “You’re just afraid your bod won’t meet muster.”

  “Oh, I don’t think you’ll have any complaints.”

  She had to stop talking and trying to snag another glimpse of his cock. Otherwise she’d never be able to put her mind and fingers to working the metal button through the buttonhole. That done, not waiting for the command she had no doubt was on the tip of his tongue, she grabbed the zipper tab and pulled down.

  Despite the never-ending country music, she heard the ripping sound. Another look at her surroundings told the tale. All conversations had ceased. She and the cowboy she’d picked up—or who had picked her up—had become the front-row entertainment.

  To hell with the audience.

  Only Tadd and the need knifing through her mattered.

  Driven by too many nights alone, she worked her jeans down until she’d exposed her belly and he could see the wisp of black lace panties she’d bought online.

  “Shit.” He leaned forward, pushing the chair off balance as he did, and ran a rough finger over the fragile elastic clinging to her hipbones. “I didn’t expect that.”

  “A girl’s gotta have a few tricks up her sleeve.”

  “Your sleeve has nothing to do with it.” He sounded a little out of breath.

  She waited until he was done checking out the merchandise she’d worn tonight for the first time. “You like?”

  “I’d have to be dead not to, and believe me, I’m not.”

  Fueled by the energy inside her, she said, “I have to take your word for it.”

  He rocked back. “What are you talking about?”

  Head held high and legs melting, she again hooked her thumbs over her waistband. Hopefully her stance made him think of her as a Western outlaw calling out the town marshal. “A while ago you let me handle the merchandise. Now I can’t see it. Hell, maybe it’s gone into hiding or asleep.”

  “Believe me, there’s nothing sleepy about my merchandise.”

  Someone guffawed. “Go on, show her,” someone else shouted.

  Tadd shot the speaker a look. “I don’t need no help.”

  “No,” she agreed. “He doesn’t.”

  More laughter followed her defense of Tadd. The thrill of hard-driving banjos coming from the ceiling speakers soaked into her skin. Too hell with a drink. She was already high.

  Standing, Tadd spun the chair around. Instead of sitting back down, he widened his stance, shoving his hands in his back pockets as he did. They stood looking at each other, challenging in their separate ways while banjos played on and people breathed. Her heart felt as if it was working double-time. Tadd’s jeans strained against a bulge she wasn’t sure she could adequately cup let alone house.

  “You first,” he announced. “Jeans down.”

  “Oh yeah? What if I don’t want—”

  “Hell, you want. Get to the getting.”

  Crissy’s unexpected command distracted her as she looked around for her friend. Crissy stood off to the side with the tall cowboy who’d picked her up draped over her like a blanket. Her blouse was half undone to accommodate the hand under her bra.

  “What are you doing?” Loria asked her.

  “Taking notes. Getting pointers. When it’s my turn, I want to do it right.”

  Laughter briefly drowned the music. By the time it fell away, the banjos had been replaced by a slow, single guitar that played in her head and heart. Her pussy twitched and then let go. As her juices drenched the denim, she tugged her jeans even lower. Whoever was behind her had an unobstructed view of several inches of butt crack. Going by Tadd’s expression, he was content to study the vee beneath the thin, hot-red panties.

  “See something you like?” she asked.

  “I’m trying to decide.”

  On the verge of telling him he must be blind, she realized he was trying to goad her. “Well, I’ll tell you what. How about you let me know once you’ve made up your mind? In the meantime, I’m going to entertain myself.
”

  Crissy’s laugh led the way. Loria’s cheeks flamed, and she had to work at getting her breath, but damn it, she was in too deep to back out even if she’d wanted to.

  Another tug exposed a few more inches of ass. As Tadd’s lips parted, she licked her fingers and slid them between flesh and silk. She’d shaved her pussy this morning. As a result, her fingers glided over smooth, lotioned and perfumed flesh. Even though the jeans prevented her from separating her legs more than a little, she managed to reach her slit. Her wet slit.

  She swallowed. Just the same, her voice came out high and thin. “Now I’ll admit I’m no expert in what turns a man on, but I have had a little experience. Those experiences tell me that you’d like to be the one doing this.”

  Encouraged by his flared nostrils, she extended her fingers as far as they’d go. A single, quick touch of her clit left her with no doubt that she risked tipping over the edge if she did that again.

  Withdrawing her hand, she held it up so the light bounced off her wet fingers. “By golly, look what I found. And since you’re still trying to make up your mind whether you’re interested in the merchandise, I’m sure you won’t mind when I do this.”

  Feeling as if someone else had taken hold of her senses, she stuck her fingers in her mouth and loudly sucked. The taste of her excitement fueled another flood in her pussy.

  “Damn you,” Tadd grumbled. “Think you’re calling the shots, do you? You’re mistaken.”

  His catlike smile returned as he pulled his hands out of his pockets and tipped his hat back a little, making her half believe she was looking at a town marshal ready to face off against the outlaw she’d told herself she was. Damn but this was fun! Damn but she was turned on!

  “So far I’m seeing a standoff,” she said. “What do you have in mind? Maybe lassoing me and hauling me off to your corral.”

  Tadd gave his hat another shove. “No corral for you, little filly. I’m taking you to the hoosegow.”

  “Not as long as I’m armed.” Risking dislocating her back, she thrust her pelvis at him.

  Appreciative laughter followed her comment. Tadd’s expression changed until it lost all resemblance to a cat and turned cougarlike. Goose bumps prickled on her shoulders and arms. Unable to stop herself, she rammed her hand between her legs again, this time outside her panties. “This is what I mean by armed,” she managed.

  “Shit. Enough.”

  There was something dangerous about his tone, an unsubtle warning. Responding to it, she let go of her crotch. Now standing before him with her arms at her sides and her clothes half off, she breathed in air coated with the scent of sweaty men and beer.

  Hell, good!

  His gaze held her tightly as any rope could while he unsnapped and unzipped his jeans, dragging them down a little in the process. Not bothering to acknowledge their audience, he reached in and pulled out his cock.

  “Ride that, cowgirl.”

  Chapter Two

  Loria’s mouth filled with saliva but that was nothing compared to the flood between her legs. Closing her mouth was out of the question, and her breasts ached so she had no choice but to cup them. Holding them tight against her body with her damnable unwanted shirt between her and tender flesh, she closed her eyes. When she opened them, Tadd’s expression had softened a little so she no longer thought of him as the town sheriff.

  He was a man. Weary from weeks on the range, much of it on horseback breathing in dust and sleeping on the ground, he’d come into the Sidewinder to wash away the range and lonely nights.

  “Now? Here?” she asked.

  He blinked. “Yeah.”

  Planting a sweaty hand on the table, she lifted a leg and tugged off her left boot. Then she did the same with her right.

  When she straightened, she took a moment to glance around. Although men predominated, she spotted two women in addition to Crissy. Neither of the other women was alone. Their snap shirts were undone and bras exposed. One was thin to the point of scrawny while the other’s abundant flesh spilled out over and under her bra. The men draped over them seemed oblivious to everything except where their hands were.

  Crissy had lost her shirt.

  Breathing in more sweat and energy, Loria stepped out of her jeans. “Your turn,” she told Tadd. “The panties are staying put until then.”

  “Hell, a standoff,” someone announced. “Come on, man, don’t let the little hooker win.”

  Just like that, she thought Tadd was going to punch the man who’d called her a hooker. Arm muscles bulged and his strong jaw clenched.

  “Sorry,” the man backtracked. “I was just joking.”

  “No one’s laughing,” Tadd shot at him. “Shut up.”

  “Look, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

  Anger slowly drained out of Tadd. As she waited for him to turn his attention back to her, she noted a long, thin fresh scratch on his left forearm. Funny that seeing the half-healed injury could take her attention from the cock she had no doubt would wind up inside her.

  Tadd sat down. His exposed erection fairly reached for her. Mouth dry now, she slid closer.

  “Ride it,” he ordered.

  Her blouse had ridden back up while she was getting rid of her boots and jeans yet she still felt hot. Stifling air heated her breasts. To hell with it. Until Tadd told her to shed her top, she’d keep it on. A girl had to have a measure of modesty when she was in public, right?

  Not right.

  Most of those in the Sidewinder were familiar. Soon she’d face them in daylight. If she was anyone except who she’d become this evening, she’d dread those encounters.

  Her attention once again locked on Tadd, she swung a leg over his and came down on his lap. She’d positioned herself so his cock pressed against her mons and was within easy reach. His mouth was scant inches from hers. She smelled hops on his breath. It would be so easy to kiss him, but this moment was all about sex. Rutting.

  As her fingers slid around his cock, he gathered her top in his big working-man’s hands and yanked. Three simultaneous snaps said he’d dispensed with rest of the fastenings. Her breasts were exposed.

  “Holy shit,” someone muttered. “You guys going to get a room?”

  “Later,” Tadd said with his hands around her waist. “Right now there’s no waiting in me.”

  Or in me either, Loria silently admitted. His cock fit her hands, his sleek flesh like magic against her palms. Her pussy pulsed and burned. Unable to still the whimper in her throat, she leaned forward and rubbed her breasts against his chest, or rather against the shirt she longed to rip to shreds.

  Much as she hated releasing his cock, she did so she could haul his shirt out of his waistband. Then, as he’d done, she gripped the fabric and yanked. The snaps parted. Licking her lips, she ran her hands over his chest.

  “Fuck it,” he muttered and splayed his hands over her buttocks.

  “We’re getting to that,” she managed. “But first, I want to handle the merchandise some more.”

  Laughter and scattered applause followed her announcement. Heat rising in her again, she turned her hands so her knuckles were on his chest and traced unseen lines from his collarbone down to his underwear. In her mind’s eye, she saw the dark, curling hair standing guard over his groin. She could probably pull the elastic over and then under his cock, but that might prove uncomfortable for him. Content with what she could touch and see, she tested her self-control while rolling her knuckles over and around his chest. His hold on her buttocks tightened until she had no doubt his fingertips were leaving indentations in her flesh.

  No one stepped into their space. They were being given distance if not privacy. She, who’d never considered herself an exhibitionist, had offered her body up to whoever wanted to look at it. A few might be so drunk they’d have no real memories of what they’d seen, but most would remember this for the rest of their lives.

  Didn’t matter. Touching and smelling Tadd kept her on the edge of sanity. She wan
ted one thing in life.

  To fuck him.

  To have him inside her.

  Leaning over his erection again, she raked her teeth against his shoulder. Growling, he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back.

  “Damn you, woman. You’re going to draw blood.”

  “Good, because that way I can taste you.”

  His blink said he didn’t expect that.

  “What’s the problem, cowboy? Got hold of more woman than you can handle?”

  “Oh, I can handle you all right,” he announced loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “Then prove it.”

  Several men muttered that Tadd’s honor was at stake, but judging by the feral look back in his eyes, he wasn’t concerned. He slapped her naked buttocks.

  “What the fuck?” She raked his chest, leaving five reddened stripes. “You want to play rough, cowboy?”

  “There’s only one thing I want.” A stinging slap punctuated each word. “And that’s you riding me. This can go easy or hard. I don’t care which.”

  “Hard works for me.” Not giving him time to guess what she had in mind, she bit the top of his shoulder. Okay, so she took care not to break his skin. Nonetheless, he had to realize she wasn’t messing around.

  “You said it, cowgirl,” he growled. “Too late to take it back.”

  His eyes were on fire, letting her know as clear and clean as she’d ever known anything that from now on it was only going to be the two of them. Before they were done, their bodies would become one.

  Bring it on. Give me everything you have.

  His hands dug into her sides as he lifted her so she was no longer sitting on him, pulling her closer at the same time. She didn’t have to look down to know her pussy was now over his reaching, straining cock. She dripped, couldn’t remind herself to breathe.

  Sighing, she planted her bare legs under her and slowly, carefully lowered herself onto him. Determined not to harm his cock, she slid a hand between their bodies and gripped the base of his erection. His tip kissed her labia and she moaned.

  “Oh fuck,” someone cursed. “I’m going home to my old lady. If she ain’t ready, I’m jerking myself off.”