Chasin' Eight (Rough Riders 11)

Mistake. She’d eaten down to the middle of the Twinkie and she’d dip her tongue inside before licking the outside rim. Her eyes danced with pure mischief. “Something wrong with your Twinkie, Chase?”

Time for a little payback. “Not at all. Just waiting for it to cool down. See, my favorite part is the warm, juicy center. I like to taste it slow, licking from bottom to top a few times before I bury my tongue deep.”

She froze.

Chase held up his Twinkie and traced it from top to bottom with the tip of his index finger, creating a small crack in the batter. Then he spread the two sections apart, bent his head and licked straight up the slit and back down. Three times. Stopping at the center to suck with gusto. He lifted his mouth and growled, “God I love this. Love having my face covered with stickiness. Love to feel that sweetness sliding down my throat.”

Ava drew in a sharp breath.

“So warm. So soft. So tasty.” He locked his gaze to hers as he lapped up every bit of the filling.

Oh yeah. With the way her body shifted from side to side, look who was all hot and bothered now. “You all right? You stopped eating.”

“Umm. I’m full.” She walked to the garbage and tossed away the last half of her Twinkie.

Chase ate the rest of his quickly because he really did love the damn things.

When Ava sauntered back to him, his eyes zeroed in on a white dot by her mouth.

“You’re staring at me. Do I have something on my face?”

“Yeah. You missed a spot.”

Ava rubbed her fingers across her lips.

“Come here. I’ll get it.” Chase should’ve used his thumb to wipe it clean. But some primal instinct urged him to use his mouth. He curled his hand around the side of her face, letting his tongue follow the bottom arc of her lip. He nibbled at the corner of her smile, tasting the sweet cream filling and the sweetness of her mouth.

This woman turned him inside out. Everything about her tempted him in ways he’d never been tempted.

They stayed like that for several long moments, neither willing to break the tenuous connection.

“Thanks,” Ava said softly. “It would’ve been embarrassing to walk around with a white spot on my face.”

He murmured, “Especially when we both know what it looked like.”

“Think people would’ve checked to see if I had dirty knees too?”

“Probably discreetly. Then they’d be checking me out to see if I was wearing a big ol’ grin.”

“But you probably wouldn’t have been so eager to lick that spot away if it was…?”

Seen-it-all, done-it-all, kinky California chick couldn’t even say the words? Interesting. Chase whispered, “Would I lick my come from your mouth after you finished blowing me? In a f**kin’ heartbeat. I’d love to taste myself on your tongue, Ava. It’d be hot as hell.”

Her breath caught.

“I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean—”

“Don’t lie to me and tell me you didn’t mean it,” she sniped, “when I know damn well you did.”

Enough. This had gotten way out of hand. He stepped back. “Look. We’re both tired. A little punchy. Let’s just forget it and head to the motel.”

Chapter Fourteen

Ava parked in front of the orange door of room 116 at the Westward Ho Motor Inn. Schlepping her duffel bag, Chase’s bag and her assorted electronic bags made her long for a bellhop.

Inside the clean, small room, she picked the bed by the wall just to be ornery, because she knew Chase didn’t like sleeping by the window. Which served him right. He’d been standoffish the last day, insisting she leave him at the Scottsbluff rodeo grounds, even when no official bull riding events were scheduled.

She flopped on the bed, turned on her computer and messed with the mockup websites for an hour before she called Hannah.

“If it isn’t Wyoming’s newest cowgirl,” Hannah said drolly.

“Hah! The joke is on you. I’m not in Wyoming.”

“Where are you?”

“Nebraska.”

“That’s actually worse because I’m from Nebraska. Anyway, you calling to rub it in you’ve gotten laid by a smokin’-hot cowboy or two?”

“I wish. The sex part of my summer vacation hasn’t happened.” Yet. “I’m calling because I need you to do something for me. Something that might be…well, not illegal per se, but a little on the shady side.”

“And what’s that?”

“I need you to make me a couple of press passes.”

“Okay. I’ll bite. What for?”

“So I can get access to the rodeo contestant area to videotape bull rides. It’s manned by security, but media is allowed. So I thought, Hannah deals with media passes all the time, she’d know exactly how to fake a couple of good ones.”

Hannah sighed. “Ava. I love you, but I’m not going to jail for you.”

“Jail schmail. Seriously, this will be a piece of cake. Alls I need is the name of the magazine, my picture and my name laminated on an official badge.”

“And no one will check to make sure you’re legit?” she asked skeptically.

“Of course they will. Are you by a computer? Sorry. Stupid question. Go to Faces of Rodeo dot com.”

“I’m there. What is it?”

“A new magazine I created,” she said with pride.

“Seriously, Ava, this is your brainchild?” Computer keys clicked in the background. “The Check back for more details on the main page is vague.”

“Which is perfect for my purposes. Anyone who checks it—and me—will believe this is a brand-spanking-new magazine, still working on a web presence. Ooh, now go to Behind the Chutes dot com.”

“Why do you need two fake magazines? Why not just one?”

“So I have options.”

“You’re scaring me. You did all this?”

“Yep. Thank God for cheap, quick and easy websites.”

“Behind the Chutes—all the news and current standings of the stars of the PRCA. Now that is a great magazine tagline.”

“Thank you.” Filled with nervous energy, Ava hopped off the bed. “So what do you say? Can you get these made up this afternoon and Fed Ex them to me by tomorrow?”

“I should say no, but I haven’t heard you this excited about anything in a long time. What name are you using for these? Ava Dumond?”

Ava paced to the window and peeked out the curtain. “No. How about just initials? A.R. Dumond. I’ll take a picture and email it to you. You can use it for both IDs.” She picked up the guest services guide and rattled off the address. “I know this is last minute, but I really need to have these in hand by tomorrow, because we won’t be staying anyplace this long for at least another week.”