Pick Me (5 page)

God she was killing him. His entire body was on the verge of combusting. He wanted to take her right here, right now. Strip her naked, drop his pants and bury himself between her thighs.

“Is my position better?” she asked, her voice thick and sexy as hell.

He wanted to remind her that this was one of his favorite positions, but he had to keep his mind focused on the target and the gun she held, not on sex. “Perfect, now take aim.”

Her breathing quickened as she shifted the Magnum. She steadied the weapon and tensed against him as she pulled the trigger. The blast forced her body to push against his. Out of instinct, he grabbed her waist and held her to him. Peering over her shoulder, he released a chuckle. “You blew a hole clear through the target. Lay another one on it.”

She did, firing one shot after another. With each pull of the trigger, he held her, his hand inching up her waist with the power the gun unleashed. By the time she’d released the last bullet, they were glued to each other. Her back molded against his chest, her rear cozied up against the erection he couldn’t seem to lose.

With his hands still around her ribcage, brushing the underside of her breasts, she lowered the weapon, then dropped it to the ground. Beneath his palms, her heart raced, her chest rose and fell. Adrenaline, he figured, but then she pressed her bottom against him.

The need to have her, to possess her right here and now consumed every part of him. But he had to caution himself, whatever happened next, had to be on her terms. “Valentina,” he whispered against her ear, then brushed his lips along her neck. “You’re making it damn hard to be good right now.” Unable to help himself he tightened his hold around her torso, slipped his other hand to the waistband of her khaki’s and pressed her against his aching cock.

Reaching her arms over her head, she wrapped her hands around his neck, the movement causing her breasts to jut forward. “You
are
damn hard,” she said as she ground her rear against his arousal.

Releasing a slight chuckle at her playful teasing, he cupped her breasts, and snagged her nipples between his fingers, then sobered when she released a husky moan. He’d initiated things last night, and she’d shut him down. Now here she was, grinding her bottom against his cock, and offering her breasts to his greedy hands. She’d done a complete three-sixty, and had him confused as hell. “What do you want from me?” he asked, needing to know, but needing her more.

She abruptly swiveled in his arms. Her dark eyes devoured his lips before she raised her hungry gaze to his. With a small smile, she knocked his hat off his head, then ran her hands through his hair. She gripped his scalp, brought her mouth closer to his and whispered, “You.”

Chapter 4

Valentina stood on tip-toes as she drew Colt’s mouth toward hers. He tensed and held his head still. Searching his eyes, seeing the smoldering heat, the lust and want, she shoved away the sudden insecurity over her uncharacteristic boldness and toyed with his hair.

“Was that the wrong answer?” she asked, then nipped his chin.

He pressed the small of her back, pushing her belly against his erection. “What do you think?”

Reaching between their bodies, she cupped him, ran her hand along the bulge beneath his jeans. “That six months is a long time to go without this.” She squeezed his arousal and was rewarded with a low groan.

Eyes still on hers, he wrapped his big hand around hers, showing her how to apply the right pressure as she stroked him through his jeans. “I’m not complainin’.” He moved his other hand underneath her tank top, then cupped her breast. “But what happened to that no sex rule you threw at me last night?” he asked, and teased her lace-covered nipple.

Finding his zipper, she slid it down, then snaked her hand through the opening. Her inner thighs throbbed with desire as she gripped his rigid length. She didn’t want to explain her motives. She just wanted to feel him. In her mouth, between her legs.

When he’d stood behind her, helping her as she’d raised the Magnum toward the target, she’d known then and there, she was a goner. With his big body surrounding her, his heat radiating against her back, and his thick erection pressing against her rear, she’d barely been able to concentrate on the target. All she could picture was him sliding in and out of her, his hot breath against her neck as he gripped her hips and drove deep.

“Valentina,” he said, and stilled her hand. “I need to know.”

Lifting her gaze to his, she drew in a deep breath. If she told him the truth, he’d likely walk away. She wanted him, wanted what they’d shared in Denver, but on her terms. Sex, and only sex, for the next four weeks. None of the emotional stuff she’d fancied herself feeling after she’d left him six months ago. Besides, she didn’t have time for love and romance. She had her career to think about. Once the show ended, she’d leave to do the next one. Long distance relationships never worked, she knew that for a fact. So what was wrong with looking at the next four weeks as if it were simply a series of one-night-stands?

God, did she really just think that? The notion even sounded stupid in her head, but there it was, her only explanation.

While he stared at her expectantly, she rubbed him, and made up her mind to be as honest as her role of
Pick Me’s
bachelorette allowed. “Did I mention that you were my very first one-night-stand?” she asked, and slipped a finger through the opening of his boxers.

He sucked in a breath as she made contact with the soft skin surrounding his hard erection, and shook his head.

Sliding several more fingers through the opening, she grasped his length. “Do you know how many times I’ve fantasized about that night? How many times I’d lay in bed imagining you touching me, tasting me, filling me.” While pumping his penis with one hand, she ran the other under his shirt, over his flat abs and hard chest. “That teaching job I’d told you about, well, a few weeks after I’d moved to Dallas the school district that had hired me cancelled the contract over budget issues. So the only reason I’m sticking around is for the show.”

She let out a gasp when he gripped her rear. “What do you mean? You’re leaving Dallas when the show ends?”

Without missing a beat, she continued to stroke him. “That’s what I’m saying, and while I don’t want to get involved in a relationship, I do still want what we’d shared in Denver, even if it’s only for a few weeks.” There, she said it. She wanted sex, not a relationship. She’d laid it out there and threw the proverbial ball in his court.

Instead of acknowledging what she’d said, he forced her feet backward, never breaking contact, until they reached the Ranger. His hands cushioned her bottom from the metal, which would have been softer than the grip he’d held on her ass. Not that she was complaining. She liked having his rough hands on her, but she didn’t like the way he stared at her. A mixture of disappointment and frustration crossed his face, setting his jaw on edge and narrowing his eyes.

“So you just want to do the show, have sex with me, and when your time in Dallas is over, leave?”

God, he made it sound bad. And it did sound bad. She nodded anyway, because it was the truth, well, for the most part. Even if she wasn’t the fabricated school teacher she’d led him to believe, she’d have to leave after the show ended. Welcome to the fabulous world of reality TV.

He finally relaxed his hold on her. “Let’s get this straight. We’ll have sex for as long as you’re in Dallas doing the show.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Okay, what about the other bachelors?”

“What about them?” she asked, crinkling her forehead.

“Are you going to have sex with them, too?”

“God no,” she blurted. “I just told you I don’t do one-night-stands. Jeez, Colt, I haven’t even been with anyone else since Den—” She stopped her tirade when she caught the teasing glint in his eyes, and she gave his erection a tight squeeze.

The amusement in his gaze turned to desire as he ran a hand to the small of her back. “I didn’t think so, but I was just checking,” he said, and moved his other hand to her hair. Sifting his fingers through her untamable curls, he stared at her lips, before lifting his gaze to hers. “Okay, I can do that.”

Caught up in his touch, his masculine scent, the way his penis pulsed in her hand, it took a moment for his words to register. “Wait a minute. Do what?”

He pressed his pelvis forward, forcing his erection to slide through her fingers. “This,” he murmured, and drove both of his hands through her hair, knocking the loaned hat off her head before crushing his lips against her mouth.

As she released a surprised gasp, he slipped his tongue between her lips, kissed her with an overwhelming passion that had her toes curling in her hiking boots, and her hand pumping him beneath his boxers. While caught up in his kiss she couldn’t help the trickle of irritation running through her head and seeping into her chest at how easy it was for him to look at the next four weeks as just a bunch of sex.

Last night, he’d said they didn’t need the show. That now that they were both in Dallas, they could date. How quickly he’d changed his tune when she straight-up offered sex instead.

That’s what you wanted, her inner bachelorette reminded her.

True, but maybe she’d wanted him to at least protest a little. She was not the one-night-stand type, and had never had sex for sex sake, until him, and even then she’d become emotionally warped with ridiculous ideas of a happily ever after. Regardless of the way he’d blatantly taken her up on her offer, she still wanted him. Needed him. The comfort and familiarity—even if it lasted for only four weeks.

When he slipped his hand under her tank top, she stopped thinking about their agreement, and let herself
feel.
His bold touch, as he cupped her breasts, his dominating kiss, the thickness of his arousal nestled in her hand.

“Too many clothes,” he said as he broke the kiss, and removed her hand from his jeans and boxers. “I’ve missed seeing you naked.” In a matter of seconds, he had her bra tossed on the grass, and her khaki cargo pants, along with her panties around her ankles. Taking a step back, he ran his gaze from the clothes bunched around her hiking boots, up her thighs, her breasts, until he met her eyes. The way he’d looked at her, as if he were committing her body to memory had her thighs clenching and her belly tingling. Her breasts seemed to swell as her nipples grew harder, and she wished he’d either strip down, or touch her. Actually, she wanted both.

“Your turn,” she said, and reached for his belt buckle. For whatever reason, the big hunk of metal intrigued her. Or maybe it was the erection that lay beneath it that held her fascination.

He unbuttoned his shirt, then shrugged it off his broad shoulders, while she tried to figure out how to unlock the barrier leading to what she knew would rock her world and give her multiple orgasms. When the thing wouldn’t come undone, she dropped to her knees and eyed the clasp with frustration. Fiddled with it some more, every now and then accidentally brushing his erection with her wrist or the back of her hand.

“Stop,” he ordered, his tone rough and raw. Glancing up, she realized exactly why. With the grass cushioning her knees, her hands on his belt, and her mouth only inches from his erection, she knew what was going through his mind. And she liked it.

Licking her lips, she gave up on the buckle, slid her hands inside his zipper and drew his penis out from his jeans. While she wanted him naked, she was too impatient to wait, and immediately took him in her mouth.

Sucking in a deep breath, he ran a hand through her hair, then fisted it in his hand, while he easily unclasped the buckle with the other. Too caught up in tasting him, and loving every deep intake of breath he took, she’d missed how he’d undone the buckle with such ease. But, at this point, she didn’t care. Instead, she let him slide from her mouth, reached up, grabbed the waistband of his jeans, and sent the denim and boxers to the ground.

Like Colt had done moments ago, she ran her gaze from the clothes piled around his ankles, over his long muscular legs, to his thick erection, up his flat abs to his big pecs. She loved the light brown hair dusting his torso and chest, wanted to run her fingers through it and feel the hard slabs of muscle beneath her palms. But that would have to wait. She eyed his arousal again, then cupped his testicles and took him in his mouth.

He released a groan, and bent slightly to pull her hair away from her face. She looked up at him, as she licked and sucked, loving the concentration, the intensity crossing his face, and the deep desire in his eyes. When she lightly grazed her nails along his sac, his knees buckled. Tightening his hold on her hair, he drew her lips away from his erection, now wet and glistening from the moisture of her mouth. Pulling against the hold he had on her hair, she ran her tongue up the length of him and gave the tip a final kiss before rising to her feet.

As soon as she was standing, he captured her lips. Their noses knocked and smashed together when he pressed her against the Ranger. Metal, warmed from the sun, heated her rear, but didn’t compare to Colt’s hot mouth and hands. Tearing his lips away, he cupped her breast and took a nipple in his mouth. She arched her back, and held onto his shoulders as he circled the areola with his tongue, nipped, then licked the tip. Sifting her hands through his thick hair, she held him there.

She hadn’t lied about him being her only one-night-stand, or that she hadn’t been with anyone since—something she hadn’t meant to let slip. Although she’d like to think her unusual brazenness today was simply caused by her lack of sex for the past six months, she worried lack of sex had nothing to do with the way she’d reacted to Colt. That maybe she hadn’t learned to differentiate the fine line between sex and—he dragged his lips away from her breasts. Pressed open mouthed kisses along her belly until he reached her inner thighs.

When he spread her lips and dipped his tongue between her thighs, she lost any thought of differentiating anything. The only thing that mattered was that she was with him again. This strong, sexy, incredibly fun man who’d made her realize not all men were jerks. Too bad she only had four weeks with him. She wasn’t opposed to commitment, she wanted a loving husband, children, but under the current circumstances, she’d have to settle for hot sex.

Oh, and he was hot. She stared down at him, never taking her eyes off his mouth as he kissed her sex like he’d kissed her lips. If only her clothes weren’t working as restraints around her ankles. She wanted to spread her legs wider, give him better access. Frustrated, she fought the clothes, while spearing her hands through his hair.

He abruptly drew away and stood. For a second, she thought he’d misunderstood her hindered movements, then he spun her around, and placed her hands on the hood of the Ranger. Dragging his palms over her arms, he ran them down her back until he cupped her ass. She glanced over her shoulder, expecting him to be standing behind her, only he’d dropped to the grass again, and spread her cheeks.

She tensed when she realized what he was up to. While they’d done quite a bit of sexual experimentation in Denver, he’d never done this, and she wasn’t sure if she could. Feeling open and exposed, she turned to protest, but he beat her to the punch. Drove his tongue deep, penetrating her, licking, nibbling, his nose brushing one ass cheek, then the other.

When he zeroed in on her clit, she searched for something, anything to keep her body steady. The Ranger offered her nothing. Her damp hands slid along the surface, leaving a trail of sweat behind until she made contact with the edge. Overcome with the building sensations, she gripped the smooth edge and pressed against his mouth. Searching, seeking, what she knew only Colt could give her.

His hands bit into her hips, as he circled her clit with his tongue. Belly quivering, legs shaking, she released a harsh moan and rode his mouth, losing herself in an incredible orgasm. While she gasped for breath, he kissed each one of her ass cheeks. Awakening from another well needed climax, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and eyed him.