He tried to ignore how false that excuse was.
She paused. “I’ve considered it, but I’m going to stay in New York for now. Maybe I’ll move someday.”
She was holding back something. He wanted to ask, but if she didn’t want to talk about it, that was fair. This wasn’t a long-term relationship or anything.
That thought bugged him more than he wanted to admit.
She pointed her fork at him. “And what about you? You have a ranch, but I don’t really know what that means. Are there cows or something? Do you spit tobacco into spittoons after you’ve rustled up some cattle thieves?”
Her questions amused him to no end. “Is there anything you know about ranches that you didn’t get from a movie?”
“Well, I’ve read Of Mice and Men. It’s one of my favorite books. Is it more like that? Wrestling grain bags and all that? Are you the owner’s son who picks on Lennie and gets what’s coming to him? You don’t seem like a Curley, but that’s all I’ve got to base my guesses on.”
“Yeah, you’ve clearly read that book too many times. Ranches aren’t exactly like that anymore. I’ve got some people who work for me, but they come to work every day like normal people. No bunkhouses or anything like that.”
Her smile widened and she raised one eyebrow. “Sounds like I’m not the only one who’s read that book too many times.”
He smiled back. “Yes, but that’s not where all my working knowledge of ranches come from. I don’t base my entire concept of New York on Catcher in the Rye or something.”
“Well, then tell me about it and stop getting off topic. I’ve been waiting for, like, five minutes to hear about ranches.”
God, he loved talking to her. She could add fun twists to any conversation, it seemed, and her dry humor was incredible. “There is a small garden with vegetables, but that’s just a side thing because going to the store is a pain and I thought it would be fun. We mostly do horses. We give lessons and enter competitions, but most of the income is from breeding and selling.”
She gestured at the opulent room around them. “It’s so weird to me that selling horses earns enough to let you get the fancy suite when you go to Vegas. Do you always get to live the high life, or is this just a once-a-year thing?”
He never really liked talking about his money, but he felt it would bother him more to not explain the reality of the situation. It would almost be like lying, and he didn’t want to lie. Not to her. “Well, I don’t normally spend crazy amounts of money on things, but money isn’t really an issue. My parents bought the ranch before I was born. A few years later, when I was a little kid, they found oil on the land. There’s enough saved up to keep things going.”
He hoped she didn’t ask more questions, because he didn’t want to have to say exactly how much money his family had.
“And you’re still on the ranch? Why didn’t you go all Beverly Hillbillies and find someplace else to live in a city or something?”
“My parents bought the ranch because they wanted to live on a ranch, so the oil was just a bonus. They got a divorce and my dad moved to Houston when I was about seventeen. They sold the mineral rights to the oil so they could split everything, but my mom refused to give up the land. She loved the ranch and stayed there until she died six years ago. I came back from college to keep everything running smoothly.”
“And you still live there. Is anybody else there with you?”
“No. I have a sister, but she moved to Washington, DC, for college and hasn’t even considered coming back. My dad’s still in Houston.”
He didn’t like dredging up the past, and hoped she wouldn’t ask any more questions. His dad’s infidelity, his parents’ divorce and his mom’s death were topics of conversation he avoided whenever possible. Her eyes held sympathy for him, which with most women would have annoyed him, but with her it was almost a little comforting.
“Do you want to talk about all this?”
“No.”
He waited to see if he’d been too blunt, but she just nodded and stood up, piling their plates together. “Well, then, what should we do? We can go out on the town, watch a movie or whatever else comes to your mind.”
“You realize I’m a guy and you’re wearing nothing but a robe in my hotel room, right? Because if you’re serious about doing something that comes to my mind, it could get graphic pretty fast.”
He smiled at her to show he was teasing, but instead of laughing or rolling her eyes or any of the reactions he expected, she walked over to him and straddled him on the chair, her flowing robe leaving little to the imagination. She leaned in close to his ear, and in a velvety whisper said, “That’s what I was hoping for.”
Before he could react, she was up again and sweeping the dishes into the sink. He shook his head, trying to get his bearings back. How could she be so consistently astounding? He was instantly aroused, and she was standing in the kitchen as if nothing had happened. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Seemed like the thing to do,” she responded airily.
He watched her as she tidied up. Though she didn’t look at him, her lips turned up at the corners into a devious smile. She was probably very pleased with herself. He couldn’t help smiling, too. She might kill me before the weekend is over.
He walked up behind her and slid his hand inside the robe’s opening, sliding his palm across her stomach and lower to her hip, only inches from her core. He pressed himself against her, nipped lightly at her ear, and breathed, “I think we should—” He paused to suck lightly on her earlobe for a second, causing her to inhale sharply.
Then he moved away and turned toward the living area and finished with “—watch a movie.”
He sat on the couch, barely able to keep from laughing as he turned on the TV. She came over to sit as close to him as possible, her hip pressed against his. He turned slightly toward her, and their eyes connected. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her toward him. She curled herself into his hold and shifted her legs off the floor so they were lying across his. She pressed her lips to his, and he held her closer.
For a moment, his mind flashed with regret that this would be gone from his life as quickly as it had entered, but then he focused once more on the kiss and shoved away that unpleasant thought.
Jessica pushed him down onto the couch, her legs straddling him, his erection pressed against her stomach as she leaned in and kissed him.
“This is a much better choice than a movie,” he said against her lips, his voice rough and throaty.
“Much better,” she agreed, and the deep whisper shot all the way through him, settling pleasantly in his groin.
She shifted herself higher, sliding along him and making him moan from the sensation, his head falling back onto the cushion as he tried to hold himself together. She was so sexy he could hardly believe it.
And then her weight was gone, leaving him alone on the couch. He sat up, disappointed, but only for a moment until he realized where she was going.
Jessica scurried over to the bed and went straight for the drawer where he’d placed a pack of condoms. He smiled at her as she came back to the couch at a near-run. “You seem a little impatient,” he teased, ignoring how his cock jumped at the sight of her breasts bouncing with her movements.
She set the condom on the nearby coffee table. “Just want to have it nearby. For later,” she explained.
Instead of resuming her place on top of him as he expected, however, she knelt on the floor beside the couch and slid her tongue along the length of him before taking him into her mouth.
The hot wetness of her tongue made him groan. Whoa. “That’s not fair,” he managed to get out between clenched teeth.
“What do you mean, ‘not fair’?” she asked, her hot breath sending even more sensations rolling through him.
Instead of answering—which he wasn’t sure he could even do at the moment—he lifted her back onto the couch in one quick motion and kissed her long and hard, enjoying the taste of her until she was panting.
Then, before she could get her bearings enough to continue with her relentless teasing, he slid one hand along her thigh, dipping into her wetness. She gasped, but he kept kissing her as he played with her, feeling her body react to his touch.
She pulled away just far enough to say, “Get the condom,” and then she was kissing him again, her tongue sliding urgently into his mouth, demanding more.
He considered making her wait, but she was too goddamn sexy to do anything but obey. In seconds it was on and she was pushing him down on his back again, straddling him, her opening poised above him. “Ready, cowboy?”
She gave him no time to answer, even if he’d been able to. Without hesitation, she slid down him, enveloping him. He groaned her named as she moved on top of him, her movements fast, almost desperate.
She was in control, taking what she wanted, and he was loving every second of it. He looked up and watched her, her hair falling over her shoulders, her beautiful body on display just for him.
He didn’t know what he’d do when they parted ways, but he was definitely enjoying the ride.