****
There are a few ways I thought tonight would go. Shining my phone’s flashlight over a bull-rider’s shoulder while he unlocks an ancient-looking lock on a stables’ pair of front doors an hour shy of midnight was not one of those ways.
I hear the lock click open and Jesse holds the door open. “After you, ma’am,” he says. I can’t see him very well, but I’m pretty sure he tips his cowboy hat to me.
“Haha, nice try,” I say. “You lead the way.”
As he walks into the darkness I reach into my purse and hold my cell phone. The drive here was the opposite of creepy—Jesse explained in a friendly tone that we were headed to stables that belonged to the family of a rodeo friend of his. He asked questions about my writing, and actually seemed interested in my answers.
Still, I think, tightening my grip on my phone, better safe than sorry. Deserted stables in the middle of nowhere would be pretty much the ideal location for a murder.
“Could you shine your light over here, Annabelle?” Jesse’s voice calls.
With some reluctance, I pull out the phone I’ve been fondling and shine it in his direction. He’s standing in a stall next to a powerful-looking black stallion.
“This is Colt,” Jesse introduces me. He puts his hand in front of Colt’s nose and the horse noses his hand just like a cat eager for petting. The tender expression in Jesse’s eyes as he pets Colt stamps out my axe-murderer concerns in a hurry.
“He seems to like you,” I comment, joining him beside the horse. Colt only gives me a brief look of acknowledgement before he goes back to nosing Jesse’s hand.
“We’ve been training together for a month now,” Jesse replies. “We’ve had some time to get to know each other.”
I lift a hand and pet Colt’s silky black mane. “He’s beautiful.” I pause. “You’re also crazy if you think I’m going to ride this big bastard.”
Jesse laughs. It’s the first real, full laugh I’ve heard out of him. He’s in his element here: standing inch-deep in hay, surrounded by horses. Without a word, he grabs my hand and leads me to the next stall over. A much smaller but no less impressive yellow-tan horse neighs at the sight of us. Jesse reaches up to pet her and she instantly calms down. It seems I’ve wrangled myself a horse whisperer.
“This here’s Buttercup,” Jesse tells me. “She’s real gentle—great for beginners like yourself.”
I try to help as Jesse saddles the horses. Jesse moves to help me onto Buttercup’s back and I hesitate. “What’s wrong?” he asks. He’s so sweet—almost too sweet. Aren’t handsome, alpha men like him supposed to be assholes?
“I’m afraid I’ll fall,” I whisper.
On the outside, I’ve always acted like I was above the horses everyone else in this town is obsessed with—really, I’m terrified. I mean, we all saw what happened to the little girl in Gone With the Wind, right?
He leans closer. “I won’t let that happen,” he whispers in my ear. “Trust me.”
I do. I manage to get up onto Buttercup’s back without too much difficulty, aside from my skirt bunching up around my hips. The dress was most definitely a mistake. We make our way out to the enclosed dirt pen. Jesse literally rides in circles around me and Buttercup as she slowly walks around the pen. He makes riding a horse look as easy as breathing.
I actually don’t do too horribly. After a few minutes, I realize that everything Jesse taught me about how to stay on the mechanical bull applies to horses. By the end, I’m even able to steer Buttercup in one direction or the other using the sides of my feet.
Jesse smiles up at me once we’re back in the stables and he’s dismounted. “Not too scary, huh?”
“Not scary at all,” I reply.
I stumble getting off the horse and fall right into his arms. He twirls me around, away from the startled Buttercup. “Are you alright?” he asks. His arms are tight around my waist while mine loop around his neck.
“I’m actually great,” I reply.
Neither of us makes the first move, exactly. One second, we’re looking into each other’s eyes, and the next, we’re kissing. I can’t get enough of the taste of him and gently bite at his full, beautiful lips. He walks me toward the wall without moving his lips from mine.
He presses me into the wood and moves from my lips and down to my neck. His lips feel so soft on my skin. I wrap my legs around his waist and the feel of his hardness against me makes me wet. He bites the area where my neck meets my shoulder and I shiver.
“What should we do now?” he asks into my neck.
In response, I place my palm over the hardness between his legs. “I know what I want to do…”
I know there are rules about sleeping with a guy on the first date but 1) I’ve never been a big fan of rules, and 2) He’s leaving in a few weeks, anyway, so it’s not like there’s any future here.
He kisses me again on the lips, then pulls back and smiles. “Good.”
His kisses trail back down my neck. He reaches up to untie the halter straps of my dress and pushes down my bra, leaving my breasts exposed. I’d be embarrassed about being half naked in front of all these horses, but then Jesse starts kissing my nipples and I can’t think about anything but his lips, his mouth, and the soaking wetness between my legs.
Without taking his attention away from my breasts, he reaches down under my skirt and grabs my ass. “This right here is a work of art,” he whispers in my ear, giving my bottom another extra-hard squeeze.
“Glad you like it,” I reply, and grace my hand over his ass. It is firmer than I even knew asses could be. “Yours isn’t too bad either.”
I unbutton his jeans to reveal his manhood, which is every bit as impressive as the rest of him. I reach out to touch it, but after a few strokes of my hand, Jesse backs away. “Not yet,” he says.
Then he kneels down in the hay in front of me, his head a little above the hem of my dress. He pulls the skirt up to reveal my flowered silk panties.
“Well, hello again,” he says.
I hike an eyebrow. “What?”
He snaps the elastic on my panties. “We’re old friends. I caught sight of ‘em when you fell off Bessie.”
I turn scarlet. “Is that why you came over to talk to me?”
“I came over to talk to you because you’re beautiful,” he says, kissing my upper thighs. “The fact that you flashed me was just a bonus.”
He pulls my now soaking wet panties down over my legs and feet and flings them away, spreading a few more kisses around my upper thighs. Then, Jesse thrusts his long tongue inside me; my knees go weak, but he winds his strong arms around my thighs to hold me up. Two of his thick fingers replace his tongue, which is now slowly, agonizingly circling my clit.
Maybe the dress wasn’t such a mistake after all.
Warmth spreads from my inner core through the rest of my body and I can feel my toes go numb. “Oh God, yes,” I whimper as I begin to come, my orgasm wracking through me. Jesse pulls his fingers in and out, intensifying the waves of pleasure crashing over me.
Jesse pulls away to smile up at me. “Well,” he says. “That’s one. Let’s see how many more times I can get you to come.”
He sticks yet another thick finger inside me and picks up the pace with his tongue, which is now pressing firmly against my sensitive bundle of nerves, rubbing deep, fast figure eights around my clit. I’m not sure if I’m coming over and over, or just having one long, magnificent orgasm. I can’t say I really care either way. I almost feel like I’m watching myself from above, floating on a cloud of ecstasy.
Eventually I can’t stand, even with Jesse’s help, and take the chance to kneel down in front of him. I begin to slowly lick up and down his shaft, planting little kisses here and there. He moans every bit as much as I do, which is an enormous turn-on. I hate always having to guess whether what I’m doing feels good or not.
Jesse doesn’t leave me guessing, and after a few minutes he pulls me up and into another passionate kiss.
I take back every bad thing I ever said about one-night stands, I think, wrapping my legs back around Jesse’s waist. One-night stands are wonderful…