He smiled tightly. “Sure. As long as we don’t have to wait around for them because I’m starvin’.”

“I’m pretty hungry, too.”

His gaze landed on the parcel centered on the mattress in the sleeping compartment. “Close your eyes, and hold out your hands—I’ve got a surprise for you.”

For a second it seemed as if she’d argue, but she complied, although the pulse in her throat jumped. He was beginning to recognize all of her nervous quirks.

Colby reached up for the package and slid it out of the plastic bag.

Feeling a little silly, he hesitated. Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea.

“Colby?”

“Yeah. Here.” He pressed the box against her chest until her arms wrapped around it and he stepped back, ready to make a run for it if need be.

She opened her eyes and looked down at the object she held. Her startled gaze zoomed to his. “A coffee pot? You bought me a coffee pot?”

“Ah. Yeah. There should be coffee and filters and junk in the bag on the bed, too.”

“B-b-but why? You won. You scored a ninety-point ride.”

“I know. But I could’ve just as easily lost.”

“So this was just hedging your bet?”

“You might say that.”

She didn’t look convinced. “When did you buy it? Maybe I should ask, when did you have time to buy it? Weren’t you behind the chutes all day getting ready to dethrone Jace Bailey as the number one All-Around Cowboy?”

“Yeah. And I didn’t actually buy it. I gave Cash some cash and sent him to Wal-Mart after my ride with instructions for him to buy the nicest one they had for you.” He frowned. “Is it okay? You don’t hate it or nothin’, do you?”

“Omigod, it’s perfect!” Channing hugged it once more and then set it on the table before she threw herself into his arms, peppering his face with kisses. “Colby McKay, you are the sweetest man on the planet. I-I—I can’t believe it. You bought me a coffee pot! You didn’t have to.”

“I know, darlin’. But I wanted to.”

“Oh. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Her eyes swam with tears.

“That’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me in my whole life.” She kissed him with so much heart and sweetness, Colby felt himself getting choked up. If he weren’t careful, he’d find himself falling head over heels for this precious woman.

Trying to keep it casual, he nipped the end of her pert nose and retreated. “Play with your new coffee maker, darlin’. I’ll be right back to take you out for supper.”

They ended up eating dinner by themselves, a nice candlelight romantic dinner for two. Then they headed to the Wild Bronc. Colby didn’t protest when Channing danced with Cash and Trevor—as long as she danced every slow tune with him.

Edgard had opted to catch up on his sleep in the horse trailer rather than partake in the celebration, which wasn’t anything new.

Colby was having a good time drinking beer and shooting the shit with his friends. Although he was happy Channing had made new pals among the wives of the rodeo crowd regulars, he was restless.

As the night wore on he found himself getting more and more anxious. It seemed as if it’d been days since he and Channing had been alone, naked and sweaty, wrapped up together in an intimate lovers’

embrace, when in reality it’d been half a day since he’d woken up beside her.

Damn. He glanced at the horseshoe-shaped clock above the bar for the fourth time in so many minutes. Channing and Mary laughed hysterically at something and knocked back another round of kamikazes.

Cash chuckled. “She’s havin’ a good time. But you got someplace you’d rather be, kola?”

“I could be a total asshole and point out that where I’d rather be tonight is an option that an old timer like you don’t have with a hot young thang like her. But I’m feelin’ sociable, so I’ll let it slide.”

“Generous of you, McKay.”

Colby tipped his bottle at Cash in a mock toast. “I thought so.”

A few more minutes passed and Cash sighed.

“What?”

“This ain’t like you. Usually you see something you want and you take it—be it bulls, broncs, calves or women. Whatcha waitin’ for?”

“A sign that my travelin’ partner is gonna be occupied elsewhere so he won’t see us sneakin’ away and follow us, hopin’ we’ll entertain him until the wee hours.” Colby had promised Channing he wouldn’t share her with Trevor tonight, but the logistics of getting alone time with her were making him crazy.

“Shoot, that’s easy enough. Leave him here. He’s half-drunk anyway.

He can bunk with me tonight. I got an extra bed in my room. If he acts like a jerk to me, he can sleep it off with the horses.”

“Really?”

“Yep. And like you pointed out, it ain’t like I’ll be doin’ no mattress dancin’ myself tonight.” He gestured with his head. “Go on, take her and get out of here before I change my mind.”

He grinned and gave Cash a friendly whack on the back. “I owe you one, buddy.”

“Don’t think I won’t collect one of these days.”

Colby drained his beer and stared at Channing until she glanced up at him. Their gazes locked. Heated.

He mouthed the word “now” and her face flushed prettily.

She sucked down the rest of her drink as he ambled toward her, a man on a mission, not bothering to hide his intentions from her or anyone else in the bar.

By the time he’d reached the table, his dick was hard as concrete.

Channing scrambled to her feet and stammered as she said good night. Colby didn’t hear the lewd suggestions from his friends. He didn’t see the knowing looks, the winks and nudges. Everything swam out of focus but her. Channing.

He sensed her nervousness, yet surprisingly, she didn’t jabber mindlessly as they walked back to the motel side by side. Not touching.

Her womanly fragrance enveloped him like a drug so invigorating he didn’t trust himself to even hold her hand.

Colby unlocked the motel room door and shut it behind them, sliding the deadbolt and the chain into place. When he wheeled around to look at her and saw that her yearning matched his, he had to take a moment to regain his control, lest he tackle her to the bed and rut on her like a stag in season.

He flipped on the lamp on the table by the windows. The low wattage and the burgundy lampshade sent a soft pink glow across the room. It wasn’t candlelight, but it was better than the screaming white fluorescent tubes shining down like a spotlight from the ceiling.

Finally, he found his voice, though it didn’t sound like his voice at all, but a low and husky rumble. “Darlin’, take off them clothes before I tear

‘em off.”

“Colby—”

“Now.”

“Are you—”

“That was your second warnin’. There won’t be a third.”

Keeping her hot gaze focused on his eyes, she shimmied her orange tank top over her head and flung it in his face.

He brought the soft cotton to his nose and inhaled until her perfume filled his lungs to bursting. Then he tossed it over his shoulder. “Keep goin’.”

The sassy, little “fuck me” heels with yellow flowers on the pointed toes were kicked off, and kicked over, right on top of his shitkickers planted in the shag carpeting.

And still Colby didn’t move.

Then the skintight, rainbow-striped capris were peeled down her slim thighs and pooled at her feet. One loud click of the front clasp and her sheer bra was gone. And as the sexy, defiant—yet strangely shy—woman stood before him in just a tiny wisp of lace panties, he lost it.

Colby scooped her up and tumbled her on the closest bed.

Her startled girlish shriek vanished in his hungry mouth as he clamped his lips to hers.

Channing was as ravenous as he was. She tugged and pulled at his clothing—vest, Western shirt, Wranglers, boxers, sock and boots—until the pieces ringed the floor around the bed and he was bare-ass naked.

As he kissed her, he realized tonight she tasted different, darker, a heady sexual cocktail of tequila and a smoky hint of fear.

With one shaking hand he stripped the polyester comforter from the bed and spread her out across the plain white cotton sheets. She writhed and twisted beneath him as he glided his legs over hers, knowing the contrast of the coarse hair on his thighs rubbing against the satiny smooth flesh of hers made her crazy with want. Made her mad with lust.

Colby pinned her arms above her head. Instead of letting fast tongues and deep wet kisses escalate their mutual passion to a frenzied rush, he slowed down and nuzzled every naked, delicious, utterly bare section of skin she’d presented to him. And some areas she hadn’t offered up he decided he’d take on his own.

His lips brushed the crown of her head. The desire-warmed angle of her cheekbone. Her elfin chin and her damp neck. The tasty sweep of her slender shoulders. The sinew and softness of her arms. The tempting pillow of her breasts. Her dainty ribcage that he could nearly span with his wide hands. The cute belly button, peeking out from her flat abdomen, above her line of dark pubic hair.

When he purposely ignored her pussy, already wet and fragrant and eager, she made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat.

Without missing a beat, he dragged his parted lips along the tender inside of each thigh and zigzagged a moist trail over the tops of her legs, down to her small, perfect feet. He relentlessly tongued her anklebone and she nearly shot off the bed.

“Colby!”

He growled and flipped her on her belly, keeping his palm in the small of her back as a signal for her not to move. Then he repeated his mouth-watering exploration of her oh-so-feminine dips and valleys, heedless of the quaking in her limbs and the way she tilted her ass toward him like a mare waiting to be mounted.

Since Channing couldn’t see his face, he didn’t hide his grin as he tasted the dimples above her butt before he licked a slow path up her spine. He nibbled on her shoulder blades, then he let his breath drift across the nape of her neck. Not kissing her, not teasing those downy soft hairs hiding beneath her tousled mane, not even touching her. He stayed still, just letting her sense his primitive need to take her, to make her his, by showing her the changes her nearness had wrought upon his breathing.