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“Thank you.” She slid her hands back around his neck and buried her face against the crook between his shoulder and neck, taking comfort from him. His body tensed, but quickly relaxed as he hugged her tight.

“You don’t have a damned thing to thank me for darlin’, not a damned thing.”

~*~*~*~*~

“Can I admit something to you?” Connor asked, parking the Jeep and glancing over at her in the passenger seat.

She cocked her head to the side and her brow furrowed. “Depends, am I going to like it?”

He clucked his tongue off of the roof of his mouth, pretending to consider.

“Connor! Just say it.”

“Even though I feel the clothing you brought from New York isn’t all that suited for here, you look incredible in it.” His eyes wandered down the length of her in a red satin mini dress. “I’m almost hesitant to take you into the tavern, because I suspect I’ll be spending most of the night competing for your attention.”

“Thank you.” She smiled wide and bright, a faint rosy glow colouring her cheeks.

After their talk earlier in the day, at the river, it was nice to see a smile on her lips. After their kiss she’d been uncharacteristically quiet for the remainder of the day and he’d begun to worry that she had taken his stopping things from progressing personally.

He’d wanted to, God only knew he wanted to. Just thinking of the feel of her body against his and the smell of her shampoo gave him a serious hard-on. It had been near impossible to get work done since his thoughts had been dominated by her.

“Ready to try out the town’s equivalent of a nightclub?”

She crinkled up her nose. “But it’s Sunday. People actually go out to party on Sunday here?”

“Yeah, Ma’am.” He gave the brim of his hat a little tap and was rewarded with another smile. Damn, he loved her smile, it brightened her entire face and left a gleam of happiness in her eyes. “Truth is, there’s not much else to do around here aside from drink and hang out at the tavern.”

Getting out of the Jeep he made his way around the front of the vehicle and to her door, opening it for her. As she stood to get out, he slipped an arm around her waist and lifted her out, not because she really needed much assistance, but because he wanted an excuse to hold her.

She giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding tight. “I could have gotten down on my own.”

“Wouldn’t want to risk you breaking a neck getting down in those shoes. Then I’d be stuck taking ya to the county hospital and I wouldn’t be able to show you how we don’t restrict the party to just Friday and Saturday night.”

“Oh, I see.” Her expression turned serious as she stepped out of his arms. “You know, you don’t have to take me here. I know you don’t usually go out –”

Taking her hand, he pulled her back to him, cupped her cheek in his hand and lowered his lips to hers.
One kiss, one sweet taste of her lips. No harm in that,
he reasoned with himself. She responded beautifully melting into him, moaning softly against his lips. The sound of her moan took his intention of indulging in a simple, sweet kiss to one that was more feral, demanding.

He pressed her against the Jeep, placing a hand on either side of her head and boxing her in. His cock went from semi-hard to rock solid in seconds, sending an ache of need through him. At that moment he questioned his decision to take things slow with her. Had he just given in to his need for her earlier in the day he’d be indulging in every inch of her beautiful body right now, instead of dry humping against the Jeep with the townies eyeballing them as they walked by.

“Okay, we need to stop before this gets out of hand,” he groaned, lifting his lips from hers. He pressed his forehead to hers and attempted to push down his desire for her.

“How out of hand can it get in the parking lot?”

A grin spread across his lips as he cocked a brow at her and straightened up, pulling his hat back down. “The queen of the society pages for her scandalous behavior is asking me how out of hand it can get?”

She caught her lower lip between her teeth and ran her finger down the front of his red button-down shirt. “I meant, how out of hand would
you
actually get in a parking lot?”

“Are you accusing me of being some sort of prude?” Connor asked, chuckling.

She released her lip and gave him one of the sexiest, coyest smiles he’d ever seen. “Not at all.” Stepping past him, intentionally brushing her breasts against his arm, she began walking toward the entrance of the Wild Horse Tavern.

He didn’t move immediately to catch up. Instead he watched her walk away; there was a little extra sway to her hips, no doubt for his benefit. Her legs seemed to go on forever before disappearing beneath the short skirt. His effort minutes ago ended up being in vain as his cock jerked alive again.

Oh dear God what am I getting myself into
, he asked himself as he locked the Jeep and rushed to catch up to her.

Chapter 8

“What are you doing? Please don’t eat those.” Connor placed his hand over hers, stopping her from popping the handful of peanuts that she’d just scooped from the bowl on the bar into her mouth.

“What?” Samantha looked down at his hand covering hers, confused. “Why not?”

“Because they have pee on them.”

He had such a serious expression on his face and his statement was so silly that she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “What are you talking about?” She attempted to pull her hand from his, but he refused to release her.

“I’m talking about all the hands that go into that bowl. We’re at a tavern. People getting drunk, forgetting to wash their hands, then putting their pee-covered hands in the bowl.”

“How do you know that?”

“Aside from the fact it’s true, I owned a nightclub and we had bowls of nuts for the patrons so I’ve seen it.”

“Whoa, wait a second. You used to own a nightclub?” She couldn’t picture it, not at all. The fact he lived somewhere else had been a shock; he seemed liked he belonged here just too much.

He nodded. “Before I moved back here I lived in Miami. My brother and I went in together and opened a nightclub. He was a silent partner and I ran it.”

“What kind of club? Like an actual dance club?”

He shrugged. “Yeah. Techno shit, kind of a college kid, party club.”

She crinkled up her nose, confused. “Then why would you leave to come back here?”

“I was done with Miami. This place is more my speed.” He suddenly began to look uncomfortable, making her wonder why talking about Miami made him uncomfortable.

“Did it do well?”

“Yeah, it was popular.”

“So you just up and sold it?” It seemed so hard for her to believe. Nightclubs were risky ventures, they could either put someone into bankruptcy or make you extremely well off, so to sell a profitable one seemed insane to her.

“Pretty much. Sold it. My brother and I split the profits, I moved back here and you know the rest.” He looked down at their hands. “So, are you going to release the peanuts, Princess?”

Laughing, she shook her head. “I was until you called me Princess. I thought we were past that. So now what’s going to happen is as soon as your hand leaves mine those peanuts are going into my mouth.”

“You’re threatening me with pee peanuts, seriously?” A grin was beginning to emerge on his lips.

“What’s it to you anyhow? I’ll be the one eating them.”

“Yeah, but later in the night when I kiss you again, I’m going to know in the back of my mind that I’m kissing the woman who ingested a stranger’s pee.”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” In truth, she really didn’t give a shit about the peanuts. In fact, after he planted the tidbit of knowledge in her mind, the idea of eating them was quite repulsive, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Okay, what do I have to do to convince you to release the peanuts?”

Leaning in closer to him, she brushed her lips along the side of his neck. She was rewarded with a low grumble coming from him. Once her lips reached his earlobe she gently nipped. “What will you offer me?”

Closing her eyes, Samantha awaited his response as she enjoyed the deep woodsy smell of his cologne. She respected he wanted to take things slow and appreciated his consideration of her – no other man had ever offered her the same courtesy – but the entire day her thoughts had been dominated by him.

“What about a dance?”

“Oh, I think you can do better than that, Cowboy.” Releasing the peanuts into a small pile on the bar, she slid from the stool she’d been perched on. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting him to offer or what she really wanted – well, aside from what he wouldn’t give her, that is.

Grabbing his hat, she removed it from his head and inspected it. It was a light brown, which had developed a darker brown patina along the brim. Instead of placing it back onto his head she placed it on her own, pulling it down. It was somewhat big, dipping low on her forehead.

Connor adjusted it on her head, pushing it back a smidge, as a grin spread across his lips. “Looks pretty cute.”

Returning his smile, she slipped her hands behind her head and struck one of her sexiest poses, a pose she normally reserved for lingerie photo shoots. “Would I make the cover of
Vogue
?” Although she was teasing, the truth was that that had been her ultimate goal since she was a little girl. Her one dream. Now she wasn’t so sure. She didn’t know if she could or even wanted to go back to a life where everyone was out for themselves and no one gave a shit about her, only what they could get from her.

“Hmmm.” His eyes lazily scanned the length of her body. “Any magazine would be crazy not to feature you.”

She’d heard it all before.
You’re beautiful. Photogenic. The camera loves you. You’re going to be the hottest new face of couture.
All the compliments seemed so shallow now. They were all things that were said to appease her, the same things said to dozens of other young women whose parents were big deals in the fashion world.

But Connor’s compliment was genuine; she could see it in the way he looked at her. Instead of reinforcing her sense of arrogance, like compliments normally would, his words caused her to flush like a teenaged girl with a crush.

“Come on.” He stood and placed a hand at the small of her back and ushered her to the small roped-off wooden dance floor at the center of the tavern. “I think this is ‘your jam.’”

She paused her step and listened to the music. Sure enough it was the song she’d claimed to love at the barn dance, although she still had no idea what it was called. Connor gave her a nudge forward and onto the dance floor. He led her to the less crowded part of the dance floor and pulled her into his arms. As she slid her arms around his neck, she took a moment to survey the tavern. Pretty much everyone who’d been at the barn dance was there now, even the Cooper brothers. They’d both greeted her in passing, but that was the extent of it.

“What are you thinking?”

She redirected her attention back to Connor. “So the whole town just hangs out together?”

He clucked his tongue off of the roof of his mouth and shrugged. “Yeah, a lot of the time. In the evenings anyhow. Especially single people. During the daytime people are generally working, or going into the woods with ATVs or whatnot. It’s a pretty relaxed lifestyle here.”

“And you prefer it that way?”

“Sure do. It’s a good community. People smoke weed and there’s a lot of drinking, but that’s about it. Not like Miami. The more popular the club became the harder it was to keep the drugs and the violence out. It wore me out.”

She nodded. She knew full well the amount of drugs that circulated the club scenes. She’d partaken a number of times, because that’s just what people in her social circles did. Each and every time she made the headlines of the New York society pages for scandalous behaviour, alcohol was always involved. The sad part of it was she didn’t even care for the feelings the drugs had brought out in her. Only a few days away from that life and she wondered why she’d ever indulged in it.

“Hey,” he said, cupping her chin and forcing her to look at him. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know what I want…”

His brow furrowed. “I’m not following.”

“I don’t think I want to go back. I don’t even know if I want to model. My entire life has been parties and pictures and indulging in everything. But, I’m not sure if that’s what I really want.”

He smiled. “Well, there’s no better place to be than here to figure that out.”

“You’re right.” She pushed her musings to the back of her mind and a smile appeared on her lips. “So come on, spill. What’s it with you and not dating anyone? Are you anti-relationship or something? I mean, come on, if you ran a nightclub then you would have had women fighting to get with ya in Miami so there had to be someone. Even here, there’s not a lot of available women, but there’s enough, and from what I gathered last night, they’re more than happy to lavish you with attention. One word and I’m sure their panties would be off and in a cornfield, no questions asked.”

He chuckled. “That’s so crude.” Releasing her chin, he grabbed his hat from her head and placed it back onto his.

“It’s true.” She snuggled in tight to him, running her lips along the side of his neck. She didn’t have to think about home, or keeping up appearances while in his arms. She could be herself, even though she wasn’t quite sure who that person was anymore. “Honestly, though. Why?”

His arms tightened around her and his lips brushed against her temple. “I have my reasons.”

“But you don’t want to talk about it?” It saddened her. She’d opened up to him, but he wasn’t willing to open up in return. She supposed she could call her mother and find out if she knew anything, had it been a few days earlier she wouldn’t have thought twice of it, but now it felt like it would be a betrayal to him. Hopefully, he’d come to see she could be as much of a rock for him as he was becoming to her.

~*~*~*~

Connor held Samantha tight to him, taking comfort in the softness of her and the smell of her shampoo as they swayed to the music, allowing it to flow over and through them. Her questions were stirring up thoughts and emotions within him that he’d spent the past few years burying. It wasn’t her fault, she wanted to get to know him.