Page 33 of All Night with the Cowboy
She dropped to her knees then saw the surprised look on his face. Lauren laughed. “Easy, tiger, it’s not what you think.”
She started to rub his leg, massaging it again, kneading deep into his skin. “I might have hurt you before, but my number-one priority while we’re here is healing you.”
“I know a better way you could heal me,” Tanner said, hissing when she pressed hard into his thigh. “That damn bull broke my body, but you were the one who broke my heart.”
“Shut up with the broken heart stuff,” she said, not wanting to dwell on the past. She already felt guilty enough about what she’d done back then, even though she’d also hurt herself in the process, not just him. It was why she was never going to put herself in that position again—her future husband or long-term partner was going to be a sensible choice, someone who fit the little list she’d made for her potential mate. Steady, reliable,loving. Not someone who made her blood run boiling hot one minute and ice cold the next—that kind of attraction was too explosive, and it made a breakup almost impossible to recover from. Or to survive.
“Or what?” he asked. “What exactly are you going to do to me if I don’t shut up?”
She pressed harder into him, making him squirm. “Maybe I’ll mount you again and squeeze so hard with my thighs I’ll make you scream.”
Tanner laughed then, but he was soon howling when she upped the pressure. She was so focused on treating him, trying to keep her own raging libido in check, that she didn’t realize he’d leaned forward. His hand suddenly closed around her hair, pulling her up.
“Ouch!” she complained, having to move to relieve the pain. “Stop that!”
“Come here then,” he demanded.
Lauren glared up at him, but he’d caught her and she couldn’t extract herself without it hurting even more. She clambered forward and ended up leaning over him, his smug smile telling her everything she needed to know. He was a patient man, but he wasn’tthatpatient.
“You don’t tease me like that, offer me up sex on a platter, and then just switch to work mode.”
“I thought I was the one calling the shots?” she asked, her breathing shallow as her heart beat overtime.
“Just because I’m injured doesn’t mean you’re the boss,” he said. “I’m the man, and I say get that pretty little ass over here, sweetheart.” He patted his knee.
Lauren wanted to swipe the smile straight off his face, but there was something exciting about his back talk. She was never going to be a girl who was told what to do, but in a fantasy world where she could trust theguy? Right now it was sounding kind of fun, especially when the guy doing the demanding was the man who teased and taunted her over and over in her dreams. And that made it even more obvious to her that this was just a fun thing, it being so far outside her comfort zone of what she’d ever normally engage in.
“Don’t you think we should work on you before we…” she said, playing with her almost-dry hair and pulling it over one shoulder.
Tanner looked her up and down, and she knew she’d be blushing from her roots to her toes. But this was Tanner. It was the weirdest blend of excitement at being with someone for the first time and anticipation because she’d already been with him and knew exactly how good it would be.
“Sure,” he said, as if waiting wasn’t difficult, as if he didn’t give a damn when he bedded her.
Lauren squirmed on the spot, swallowing and wishing she could just body-slam into him, taking what she wanted. But Tanner was injured, which meant she couldn’t treat him as her plaything.
“You want me to massage you? Do you want to take a walk and go for a swim? Maybe we should start practicing for that run you want to do?”
He nodded, clearly trying to act nonchalant when in actual fact she’d bet he was as desperate for her as she was for him.
“You told me you don’t like to mix business with pleasure, right? So maybe we should be strictly professional during the day.”
Lauren felt like her insides were about to explode. He was repeating her own thoughts to her, and she wished to God he hadn’t been listening to her when she’d proudlyannounced that she’d never been involved with a client. He was toying with her, and she didn’t want to take the bait.
“Works for me,” she said, trying so hard to stay calm while praying he couldn’t detect the rapid beat of her pulse.
“So it’s a deal then? We work hard then play harder?” he asked, one eyebrow arched.
She balled her fists, defying the itch of her fingers as they begged to stretch forward. They wanted to touch him, to explore him; just like her mouth did. “Come on then, Tan, let’s put you to work.”
He opened his mouth to say something but she lunged forward and gripped his hair, her fingers too fast for the hand that grabbed at her wrist to stop her. Just like he’d done to her, she locked him in place, tilting his head back and bending to claim his mouth. She kissed him so hard and so long that it stole the breath from her, left her panting as she slowly released her fingers.
“You can be the boss after dark,” she murmured, leaning back in for one more quick kiss, reassuring herself that it was the right thing to do when her stomach erupted into flips. “But when the sun is shining, I’m the boss, and you do as I damn well say.”
Tanner’s eye glinted, the challenge undeniable. She was in big trouble now—and she couldn’t wait.
Her phone rang, breaking the tension and the silence. Lauren waited a beat, not wanting to be the first to look away, but when he didn’t back down she just laughed and jumped up to grab it. She didn’t recognize the number, and within a second of her missing the call it started again.
“This is Lauren,” she answered, presuming it would be work related.
