The hotel was not well insulated, and a few hours later, a stream of noisy chatter and stomping feet went by. Tex woke briefly, marveled at Laura, blissfully still in his arms, and went back to sleep himself.

When he woke later, the hotel was still, but Laura was stirring in his arms, and the feeling of her curves under his hands was more appealing than more sleep.

He stroked the line of her hip, the sway of her side, the cup of her breast, kissing the line of her neck as she woke.

“Well, hello Cowboy,” she murmured, and Tex pressed his determined member at the small of her back. They were both still naked, tangled in a single sheet together. Outside, it was raining, as it so often did at night.

In darkness, they were reduced to other senses. He reveled in the silky dream of her skin, the smell of rain mixed with the heady, hot scent of her desire, and the little sounds she made when he touched her. A hand to her thigh slipped higher, curving around to appeal at more intimate places.

She moved against him, rising like a goddess over him, and he could just make out the curve of her breasts in what light there was.

She encased him in one smooth move, descending on his member and raising him to some new level of sensation.

He growled in need and lust, but let her set the pace, hands on her waist, enraptured by the feeling of the curve of her hips, and the way her ass met her back.

She rode him carefully, like she was testing his paces, slow, then fast, then slow in tantalizing waves.

He obliged her, meeting every stroke with a thrust of his own, until she was gasping and groaning and the cheap hotel bed was creaking like a door from a bad horror movie being played in fast forward.

Using every inch of his control, Tex saved his climax until she had gained hers, moaning and writhing on top of him.

It wasn’t until he was unwinding from his own coiled knot of orgasm that he heard the pounding on the hotel wall.

Laura collapsed on him, giggling and giddy.

“Oops!” she stage-whispered near his ear.

The bed gave a last wheeze of protest as she settled beside him.

“I hope you don’t get fired for disrupting the peace,” she teased him.

“It would be worth it,” Tex laughed back at her. “Did you really think that you could deny being my mate?” The words were out before he could stop them.

It was the first time either of them had said it aloud, and Laura’s laughter stilled as her body stiffened.

“I thought I had to,” she told him quietly. “I thought it was the only way to keep my cover. You’d already met Jenny, and she might have thought you were cute, but you were definitely not her mate.”

“You about drove me out of my mind,” Tex had to confess. “I wasn’t sure which end was up.”

“I’m sorry,” Laura said, but Tex felt like it was rather chilly, and she was stiff in his arms.

“It couldn’t have been easy,” he tried to comfort her.

She sighed. “It was so hard,” she confessed. “She was always the good sister, I was always the bad one who made terrible choices.”

Tex pulled her closer. “You aren’t bad,” he said fiercely, his bear agreeing vehemently in his head.

“Everyone always thought I was,” Laura said quietly. “If Jenny suggested something, everyone agreed. If I suggested the very same thing, my motives were always questioned, and everyone did the opposite.”

“It’s hard, being in the shadow of someone who seemed better,” Tex agreed.

“Do you have siblings?”

Tex laughed. “An older brother who hung the moon. And probably invented sliced bread.”

Tex felt Laura’s laugh through his arms, rather than hearing it.

“It was pretty funny watching you trying to make sense of me,” she chuckled.

“Funny?” Tex rolled over and growled near her ear. “I’ll show you funny.”

And he proceeded to tickle her until she was wheezing through her laughter for mercy, squirming and wiggling and jiggling in a most distracting way.

“Are you actually ready for another round?” Laura asked admiringly when she could breath again. A lazy finger traced around his erect member, getting all of his attention. “They might knock on the wall again.”

“Let them,” Tex said, kissing her deeply. “They can get complimentary earplugs at the spa if they want to sleep.”

“I can think of better things than sleep,” Laura agreed. “But I might be too sore to sit tomorrow…”