One Night With a Cowboy (17 page)

Shit. He was not going to get soft over this woman. Time to take back some semblance
of control of this situation. Bracing one hand between her shoulder blades, he pushed
her torso lower, which raised her ass higher. Perfect. He widened his stance, grabbed
her hips, and pounded into her until he hit the point of no return.

Tuck had intended to be selfish this time. To only concentrate on himself and his
own needs. He thought it was what he needed to do to get rid of his hurt and anger,
and protect his heart. As it turned out, it proved impossible to block Becca out.
He couldn’t do it. She invaded his every sense, from the feel of her surrounding him,
to the sound of her breaths as they quickened, to the look in her eyes when she glanced
over her shoulder just before the orgasm hit him.

Coming inside her took him off his feet. Tuck felt his knees buckle. He wrapped his
arms around her and had them both crashing head-first onto the bed.

Becca, crushed between his weight and the mattress, gasped for breath beneath him.
With his face buried in her hair, he was having a hell of a time catching his own
breath. He rolled them both onto their sides and rested his head above hers. They
lay there for a while, until he went slack inside her, but he still didn’t move. Neither
did she. But just because his body wasn’t moving didn’t mean his mind wasn’t racing.

All this thinking about a woman was surely not a good sign. Finally, he couldn’t take
it anymore. “Why didn’t you tell me that first night about the position at OSU?”

“I honestly never even thought about it.”

It shouldn’t matter to him, but it did. They’d just had great sex. Well, he had; it
probably hadn’t been all that great for her, but still, sex should be enough for him.
It wasn’t. He might be less pissed now after the bout they’d just had, but he still
wanted answers.

“Why not?” He hated the tension he heard in his own tone.

“Honestly?”

“No, I want you to lie.” He rolled his eyes even though in their current positions
she couldn’t see. “Yes. Honestly. Please.”

He wondered if he’d regret saying that.

She turned in his arms and looked at him. “Because I figured it didn’t matter even
if I did get the job and move to Oklahoma, because I thought you traveled the country
riding bulls for a living. Different city every night. Different girl every night.”

Becca shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but he could tell from how she wouldn’t meet
his eyes it did.

“I don’t.” His heart and his voice softened toward her. “I mostly ride right here
in Oklahoma. Sometimes in Texas, but that’s it. No traveling the country. I’m right
here in Stillwater almost all the time, working or working out with the cadets, or
helping to coach the rodeo team.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“I know. And as for the rest—no, there isn’t a different girl every night. Not lately
anyway. I won’t lie to you, Becca. I went through a bad time and a lot of women right
after the divorce, but that’s all in the past. Things haven’t been like that for a
long time now.” He brushed a hair off her face. “You okay with that?”

She bit her lip and then nodded. “Yes.”

“So, is that the only reason you kept your moving here from me? Because you thought
I was working my way through every buckle bunny on the rodeo circuit? Honestly.”

She glanced at him, then away again. “That’s not everything. I’m fresh out of a two-year
relationship. I’m not ready to start anything new.”

Tuck nodded. He was about a year ahead of her in the healing and moving on department.
That was fine. He could wait. Hell, he should wait because after his divorce, he wasn’t
ready for the deep water yet, either. Dipping a toe into the shallow end was enough
for now. “Understood.”

“And . . .” Becca winced. “Emma wanted me to look you up and call, but I was afraid
we didn’t have anything in common. I mean, we’re so different. From such different
places. We’re good at this, but—”

“But sex isn’t everything.” Sad but true. If having good sex together had been enough
to build a relationship upon, his ex wouldn’t have been catting around with other
men while he was deployed and he’d still be married.

“Right.” She let out a huff of air.

“Okay, so I guess I can see how you could think a city professor and a country cowboy
wouldn’t have anything in common, but I do have one thing to tell you about the nothing
in common part. My ex-wife and I had pretty much everything in common. Same hometown.
Same interests. Same education right down to the same teachers all through school
. . . You’ll notice something, though. In spite of all that common ground, she’s still
my
ex
-wife now.”

She paused a beat, then nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You do that.” He couldn’t let Miss English Professor think she was right all the
time, because in this case, he knew from personal experience she was dead wrong. They’d
spent hours that night at the rodeo, talking, laughing, enjoying the time together.
The differences weren’t as big a deal as she’d assumed. Not when all the rest was
so good.

“Do you think we could start over? Be friends?” An adorable crinkle appeared between
her eyebrows as she frowned, looking concerned.

Crap. She’d just told him she wanted to be friends. He wasn’t ready for the kind of
serious hold this woman could easily get on him. Yet in spite of all that, he couldn’t
stop thinking how cute she looked or how good she felt, either. “We could do that—be
friends—or we could be slightly more than friends. Friends with benefits would be
nice.”

He shouldn’t have suggested that. Hell, he shouldn’t even be thinking it. Even so,
his gaze dropped down her body. He reached out and laid his hand low on her belly.

Becca glanced down at his hand. “I think we already are.”

“Yeah, I guess we do kinda have that part covered.” He leaned closer, about to kiss
her, before he held back. Tuck pulled away one more time. “You don’t have anything
else to tell me, do you? Anything at all. Kids? More job interviews? A husband? Prison
record?”

Might as well cover all bases and start this thing, whatever the hell it was, with
a clean slate.

She smiled. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Good.” He didn’t want any more surprises from the new friend he was hoping to get
very friendly with again in the next few minutes. He owed her an orgasm. No time like
the present.

Becca’s hand on his chest stopped his downward descent toward her mouth. “Hold on
a minute. What about you? Any other surprises for me,
Sergeant
?” She cocked a brow.

“Surprises?” He smiled and moved his hand down her belly, heading for a spot he was
anxious to get to. “Yeah, I may have a few more tricks left up my sleeve, but don’t
worry, because I’m about to show them all to you right now.”

T
he phone rang way too early in the morning considering how late she’d been up having
sex with Tucker the night before. Becca slapped at the nightstand until she found
her cell. She managed to answer it through the hazy remnants of sleep. “Hello?”

“You’re still in bed?”

“Emma, I’m in a different time zone.” Maybe one day her sister would remember that.

She glanced at the closed bedroom blinds. Okay, so the sun was up, but that didn’t
mean she had to be. She threw one arm over her eyes. Good thing she hadn’t moved to
the West Coast, or Emma would be calling her at four in the morning and wondering
why she wasn’t awake yet.

“It’s still pretty late there, even with the one hour time difference, and you didn’t
call me or respond to the text I sent you last night. I was worried.”

She remembered hearing a text come through. It was about the time Tuck had wrapped
her legs around his waist, hoisted her off the bed, and carried her to the bathroom.
Thank goodness that curtain rod was good and sturdy, because at one point she’d been
hanging on to it while they did things she’d never even thought of doing in the shower.

“Sorry, I was, uh, busy.” Becca’s belly let out a rumble. She was awake, and hungry.
Might as well get all the way up and see what was in the kitchen. She and Tucker had
managed to eat at one point last night, in between . . . other things, but she remembered
him shoving take-out containers of leftovers into her fridge. Since Becca’s morning
laziness knew no bounds and it would be all she could do to manage to brew a cup of
tea in her current state this morning, she figured that tasty side of macaroni and
cheese he’d brought over with the barbecue would make a good breakfast reheated.

“Oh, my God. You saw him!” Emma’s accusation woke Becca up more than her morning tea
would have.

“What?” How the hell did Emma know that? They’d barely said a handful of words to
each other.

“Tucker. You saw him again. Were you out with him last night? Is that why you didn’t
call me back? Or, wow . . . was he there?
Is
he there right now? Is
that
why you’re so tired?”

“Okay, hang on. He’s not here. But yes, I saw him.” She was too tired to even bother
trying to lie as she stumbled barefooted onto the cool kitchen floor.

“Oh, my God! Tell me everything.”

“Emma, please, you have to dial it down a notch until I get some caffeine in me.”
She glanced at the clock on the stove as she set the kettle on the burner. Seven.
Poor Tuck had been at some sort of workout with the ROTC people since six. She couldn’t
even imagine. The most physical activity she was planning today was maybe some more
unpacking followed by a shower and a nice nap. She had to take advantage of the free
time she had before the new semester of classes started in just days.

“Excuse me for being excited for you. If you were a normal woman, you’d be excited,
too. Jeez, another night with that hot cowboy—do you know how many women wish they
could be in your situation?”

That would be a clear case of
be careful what you wish for,
because her situation was kind of messed up. She wasn’t sure she was ready for a
boyfriend right now. Not one who’d been divorced for only a year. Especially not one
whom the army could probably send away at any second. She’d have to research this
ROTC thing better and see if these guys got shipped off to war. And who knew what
Tucker wanted? Sure, it was obvious he was as interested in sex as she was, but they
hadn’t talked about having a relationship. Last night could have been simply a booty
call with barbecue. Not a bad thing by any means, but she definitely had to make sure
to remember that was the extent of it. Falling for a booty call would be bad.

“Well . . .” Nothing clever came to mind, so she gave up and wrapped up with, “those
women should think again.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Nothing happened.” Well, nothing but some sex on the bed, and then some sex in the
shower, followed by some creative after-play on the bed again—she’d never forget the
vision of opening her eyes, glancing down, and seeing Tuck looking up at her from
between her thighs. Her belly twisted at the memory. She was in deep trouble.

“Rebecca!”

“What?” God that had come out sounding whiny, but Emma was being too demanding for
this early in the morning.

“Tell me what happened.”

If Becca knew her sister at all, she was wearing a deep frown and breathing heavily
right about now. She enjoyed that image.

The water in the teakettle started to make bubbling sounds. That was promising. She
managed to get her mug out of the cabinet without dropping it, which also boded well
for her hope there would be caffeine in her near future.

“I called him. He came over with takeout. We decided to be friends.” Friends with
benefits. Very, very nice benefits. She smiled at the memory of exactly how nice and
grabbed a teabag out of the box in the cabinet.

“Just friends? Are you crazy—” Emma’s rant was cut off by the beeping of another call
coming in on Becca’s phone.

“Hang on. I got another call.” She certainly was a popular person this morning. After
dropping the teabag into the mug, she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked
at the caller ID; the number she saw stopped her dead in her tracks. Finally knocking
herself out of the shock, Becca brought the phone back up to her head. “Em, I gotta
go. I’ll call you back later.”

Emma had begun to protest when Becca hit the button and switched to the incoming call.
“Hello.”

“Hey there. I didn’t wake you, did I?” Tucker’s deep, sexy voice filled her ear.

“No, I was awake. Just making some tea.”

“You find your tea cup all right?”

She laughed. “Yes, smart ass. I know where that is. Right next to the stove, where
it should be.”

“Of course. Because that’s where the hot water is. On the stove.”

“Exactly. See, there is a method to my madness.” She smiled. “How are you this morning?
You get up in time for your workout?”

“Yeah. Just finished that. It was just a run . . . well, a run in full combat uniform
including our packs, but it was only five miles so not so bad.”

Her eyes opened wide. “Oh, sure. That’s nothing. I do at least that every morning,
you know, before tea.”

He laughed. “I’m sure. So, what are you doing today?”

“I don’t know. No big plans. You?”

“I was thinking it might be my duty, as your friend and all, to show you around town.
Someone needs to teach you where all the good bars and restaurants are so you don’t
keep thinking there’s nothing more around here than those take-out places down the
street from you. It may be a college town, but there is more than takeout in Stillwater,
you know.”

“That would be nice. I am getting tired of eating like I’m living in a frat house.”

He let out a chuckle. “I bet you are. So, I can be over at, like, ten. We can explore
a little, then have lunch if you want.”

“That sounds great.” Just two friends, hanging out . . . Sure. Her heart had started
to pound the moment she’d heard his voice. “I’ll see you then.”

“See you then.” He disconnected and she spun toward the teakettle, willing it to whistle
already. She had to shower, figure out what to wear, blow-dry her hair, put on makeup,
avoid talking to Emma, and make the bed . . . just in case.

Her pulse pounded harder. Just friends, her ass.