Cowgirl Crazy (#2, Cowboy Way) (13 page)

She twisted the knob and opened it a crack to
stick her face out through the opening. Her heart squeezed then
shot up to her throat, when she saw Ryan standing there with a
wilted bunch of wildflowers in one hand, and a brand new box of
Twinkies in the other.

CHAPTER
NINE

Stunned, Twyla stepped back to open the door.
Ryan walked inside and she shut the door, then flipped the locks.
She turned, and their eyes met. There was something different in
his deep blue eyes now. Remorse, and maybe an apology. The prickly
attitude from earlier, his arrogance from an hour ago, was
gone.

“
I bought these earlier on the way
here to apologize for what happened at the barn.” He held out the
gifts to her. “I forgot them in the truck when I saw you leaving
with Boss Hog.”

Twyla just stared at the gifts until he shoved
them into her chest. Her hands shook a little as she took them from
him. Who was this man and what the hell did this mean? More of the
push and pull she’d been dealing with for years? In all the years
she’d watched him chase women, Twyla had never seen Ryan buy any of
them flowers. He’d bought her Twinkies before, because he knew they
made her feel better when she was upset.

His shoulders tensed, his mouth opened and
closed a couple of times, before he huffed a breath and put his
hands on his hips. “I just wanted to give them to you.” He dropped
his chin to his chest and started at the toes of his boots. “I,
ah…also wanted to say goodbye, and to tell you to take care of
yourself.” He sighed deeply. “If you ever need anything, just call
and I’ll be here, Twy.”

Anger surged through her. Her brother had come
back up here with a peace offering. These weren’t gifts from a man
to a woman he was interested in. They were to appease his guilty
conscience evidently. Grease her up, so when they met up at family
things in the future, there wouldn’t be any hard feelings. Well,
there certainly were hard feelings, and she didn’t want the gifts,
or his apology. The only thing she needed from him was him to
leave.

Enough was enough.

Twyla shoved the box and flowers into his
chest. “I don’t want ‘em. Maybe they’ll keep until you get back to
the rodeo. You can pawn them off on a bunny to get you a little.
Leave, Ryan. Don’t come back.” How many times had she told him that
now? Too many. Why wouldn’t he just leave her the hell
alone?

His eyes flew up to lock with hers, and what
she saw there shocked her. Heat, passion, and something that looked
like desperation to her. His chest rose and fell rapidly, as his
eyes burned her. He continued to stare at her until Twyla’s fingers
went numb from gripping the box and stems so tightly.

Suddenly, his hands shot out to grab her
shoulders. The flowers and box fell to the floor between them. “I
didn’t buy them for a fucking bunny, Twyla. I bought them for you,”
Ryan growled, and before Twyla could catch a breath, he jerked her
into his body. His mouth slammed down over hers, and a tremor shook
her as his incredible taste shocked her system, his heat and
delicious outdoorsy scent surrounded her. Her heart stopped, then
took a giant leap in her chest that left her dizzy when the kiss
turned even hotter. Twyla moaned as every bone in her body melted
under his fierce assault on her mouth. She leaned into him to keep
from falling as her knees turned to water. The kiss was all that
she’d ever imagined it would be and more.

But this whole thing bordered on the surreal.
Was she dreaming this? Had she gone off the deep end? Or was Ryan
Easter really standing in her living room kissing the stuffing out
of her?

He slid his mouth from hers, dragging in heavy
breaths. His hands shook as his fingers found the sash on her robe
and he jerked it open. Cold air rushed over her still damp skin and
her nipples pebbled to tight points. Ryan’s hot blue eyes fixed
there, and it felt like they branded her skin. “And I don’t fucking
want a buckle bunny. I want you.” He met her eyes and repeated the
words she’d waited ten years to hear, as if they cost him dearly.
“I want
you
, Twyla.”

An electrical field of tense emotion buzzed
between them, and Twyla was too shocked to move. Twenty-thousand
volts and ten years of pure awareness heated Twyla’s blood, but she
held back, because she didn’t trust him. This could be another of
his games to get her to go back to the rodeo with him.

“
I finally write you off and try
to move on, and now you tell me this?” she asked incredulously then
took a step back. “You’re definitely a slow mover, cowboy. Too
slow.”

Ryan grabbed her shoulders. “I’ve missed the
hell out of you, Twy…”

“
You missed me?” Twyla’s heart
melted in her chest, but then she stiffened her shoulders, as
another thought hit her. He’d been without his buckle bunnies for a
few days. “Or are you just horny, and any willing woman will
do?”

“
No
!” he shouted, jerking
her back to him. Ryan’s arm was a tight band around her waist.
Twyla put her hand on his chest to keep some space between them,
and his heart pounded against her palm. Her eyes met his burning
gaze and her own heart tripped in her chest. “This has been going
on too long. I’ve
let
it go on too long. We need to see
what’s going on between us, regardless of your brother, or if I
lose your family because I can’t keep my hands off of
you.”

A knot settled in Twyla’s throat, and she
couldn’t find her voice, so she just nodded. Her body relaxed
against him, and Ryan’s arm loosened around her. A smile that she’d
only seen him give other women eased up the corners of his lips,
and Twyla put her palm on his beard-roughened cheek. His eyes spoke
to her, as his head lowered. His mouth hovered over hers for a
moment, his sweet, uneven breaths brushing her lips.

His lips finally met hers gently, and Twyla
sighed. After several fleeting passes of his mouth over hers, the
tip of his tongue rasped over her lower lip lighting up every nerve
ending in her body. The nerves at the top of her thighs beat in
time with her heart, as her body anticipated him deepening the
kiss, wanted him to deepen it. Needed it more than her next breath.
But Ryan took his time making several more slow passes over her
mouth, before he stopped a moment to hover there with their lips
millimeters apart.

“
Remember you wanted this
tomorrow,” he growled, then shock rocked her when his teeth clamped
down on her lower lip, and he tugged it as he roughly shoved her
robe from her shoulders. Cool air swept over her upper body and she
shivered. Without the padding of her new bras, Twyla knew he would
find her lacking there. Heat flooded her face, as she tried to free
her arms to cover herself, but his fists closed in the material
trapping her arms at her sides.

His hot eyes drank their fill for several
moments, before he muttered, “Fucking perfect.” His dark head
lowered toward her left breast, Twyla held her breath. Ryan’s lips
only whispered over her nipple though. Instead he made slow
irritating strokes over her nipple with his beard roughened chin,
nuzzled it with his equally rough cheek.

It felt like sandpaper on the sensitive bud,
and was painful. Her nails curled into her palms, and she bore the
pain until she couldn’t take anymore. Just as she opened her mouth
to protest though, something shifted inside of her and the damndest
thing happened. The pain suddenly transformed to the ultimate
pleasure. Sharp pangs of desire hit her in the center of her being,
and instead of complaining, Twyla threw her head back to moan long
and low in her throat. Ryan’s tongue made soothing circles around
her nipple and she mewled.

The wet heat of his mouth finally covered her,
but he wasn’t gentle with that either. He sucked her nipple into
his mouth hard, and Twyla felt the tug at her core. She screamed
his name, her inner muscles clamped down, and her knees went weak.
Ryan held her upright by the lapels of her robe, and turned her
toward the door. He slammed her limp body against it, lifting her
before pinning her there with his hips. He looked up into her eyes,
as he reached between them to shove his hand under her robe,
between her legs. He ran a finger along her folds and dipped it
inside of her. Twyla whimpered when he carried her moisture to
where she throbbed and slathered it there. His voice low and
tortured, he said, “You have been every woman I’ve fucked for the
last ten years. I want the real thing.”

His mouth drifted down to cover her right
breast, but his words floated through her lust-clouded brain to
settle there, and a shock wave rippled through her. For ten years,
while he’d been fucking those other women, she’d been waiting for
him. Wanting him to be her first. Now that it was finally
happening, how the hell did a cowgirl tell a man she was a
twenty-six-year-old virgin? She’d had opportunities, but between
her brother and him, those opportunities were lost. She should be
pissed and not want anything to do with this man for reminding her
of that, but she couldn’t get there. She was too turned on, needed
him too badly. Had waited too long.

Her body tensed. “Ryan, I,
ah…well.”

He lifted his eyes to hers, and his eyebrows
slammed down over his eyes. He tempered the fierce look with a sexy
smile she felt in her gut. “No changing your mind now, Daisy. The
cow is out of the barn, and the branding iron is hot, hard and
ready.”

She knew the women Ryan was used to were
experienced, as far from virgins as women could get. They were like
the women she danced with at that bar. This was finally happening,
and Twyla was not about to disappoint him by being
inexperienced.

Daisy
. The stage name that Leon had
pinned on her. She needed to channel her inner Daisy to get through
this.
Fake it til you make it
.

That had been Heather’s advice, and so far it
had served her well. So had her new test of asking herself what
Heather would do, given the same situation. Twyla forced what she
hoped was a cocky grin. “You really are slow moving, aren’t you?”
She swallowed the bitterness on her tongue before it could seep
into her tone. “I’ve watched you fuck those women for ten years and
wanted to feel you inside of me. Now, get a move on, cowboy. I
don’t want another ten to go by, while you work up the courage to
fuck me.”

Ryan’s cheeks turned red, and his smile faded.
With a growl he eased her down to her feet, and yanked her robe
downward. It whispered down her body to pool at her feet, then he
grabbed her wrist to tow her behind him toward the breakfast nook.
Jerking out one of the plain wooden chairs he spun it to face her,
then pinned her with an angry glare. “You got whiskey and a shot
glass?”

“
Um, yeah?” She crossed her arms
over her breasts, suddenly self-conscious now just standing there
naked in front of him.

“
Get it,” he ordered flatly, as he
unfastened his jeans. “I need a damned drink.”

Twyla felt his eyes burning her back as she
stumbled into the kitchen. She opened the cabinet over the sink,
and pulled down the bottle of rotgut bourbon that Heather kept
there for emergencies, as she called it. Twyla felt sure this
situation qualified. She found the shot glasses on the bottom
shelf, and grabbed two.

The way things were going, the only way Twyla
would be able to maintain her Daisy confidence and persona was with
a little false courage herself. She sat the bottle down and opened
it, poured herself a shot then downed it. The bitter taste numbed
her taste buds, as the fiery liquid scorched all the way down to
her toes. Thankfully, she felt the edge on her nervousness blur, as
she recapped the bottle and picked up the spare glass. When she
rounded the corner, she stumbled as her eyes fell on Ryan, who was
completely naked now, leaning on the table with his arms crossed
over his muscular chest.

A sly, sexy grin creased his face. “Good
girl,” he praised, as he took the bottle and glass from her numb
fingers to slam them down on the table. Uncapping the bottle, he
filled the shot glass, before turning back to her. He motioned to
the table and the amber liquid swirled in the shot glass. “Now, hop
your pretty little ass up on that table.”

Disbelief shot through her.
“
What
?”

“
I want my gut shot with a
Daisy
chaser,” he informed, toasting her with the
glass.

A shiver worked itself down her spine to
settle between her legs. Heather taking a shot off of her stomach
didn’t do a damned thing for her, it was an act. Somehow, she
didn’t think Ryan was acting. And she had a feeling she wouldn’t
have to fake the result either.

When she didn’t move his eyes narrowed. “Who’s
a slow mover now, Daisy?” he taunted smugly. “I thought you were in
a hurry to get to the fireworks?”

“
I, ah…”
haven’t ever had sex,
much less on a table
.

Ryan tossed back the shot, and flinched,
before refilling the glass. “Better hurry up, or I might be too
drunk to perform,” he said without looking up. He slapped his hand
to his forehead, as he stood. “Oh yeah, what am I thinking? You’re
used to drunk men pawing you. Probably fucked plenty of them too,
right?” He gave her a nasty wink, and a leering grin.

It was obvious he was trying to hurt her, by
making her feel like a piece of meat. He was doing a good job of
it. “Fuck you,” tumbled out of her mouth, before she could stop
it.