“Somebody had to.You were getting way too big for your britches.”She stepped a little closer, hoping her little maneuver hadn’t been too rough on him.“Are you okay?”
“What if I’m not?”
Instantly she regretted her impulsiveness.She hurried toward him.“Oh, Quinn, I didn’t mean to hurt you.I only wanted to prick a hole in your pride before it got out of control.”Anxiety twisted in her stomach.“Can you stand?”
“I don’t know.”
Dammit, why had she allowed herself that moment of revenge?“Where do you hurt?”
His head drooped.“All over.I don’t think there’s a single inch of me that doesn’t hurt.”
“Oh, Quinn.”She dropped to her knees in the mud beside him and put her hand on his mud-caked shoulder.“Did you twist your ankle?Is that why you’re afraid to stand up?What can I do?”
His head lifted slowly.She had the space of a heartbeat to see the wicked gleam in his eyes before he grabbed her and wrestled her to the mud.She shrieked and fought, but he unsnapped her slicker and started smearing mud down the front of her shirt.
“Stop that!I’ll kill you, Quinn Monroe!”
“Devil woman,” he said, laughing as he rolled with her in the muck.“How dare you make that horse rear?You turned him into a regular water slide.”
“How dare you tell me how to handle him?Let me up!”
He pinned her to the ooze and proceeded to rub mud all over her.“Not until you’re as covered with this goo as I am.Dump me in the dirt, will you?”
“You were getting too cocky!”Her breathing became labored as she struggled to free herself.Or maybe it was the other sensation, the one of having his hands all over her, that was causing her to gasp for breath.
“I deserved to be cocky.”His chest heaved as he gulped in air.“I got up at the crack of dawn and busted my butt, literally, on that spoiled horse of yours.And by God, I rode him.”
“I think it was more like he took you for a ride!”She continued to squirm away from his touch, but her heart wasn’t in it.In fact, the squish of the mud was beginning to feel sort of good.And she was feeling a bit warm and oozy inside as well as outside.
“That horse knew who was boss.”His hand grazed her breast as if by accident.“I was in control the entire time.”
“Were not.”
“Was, too.”He grabbed her wrists and held them as he rolled on top of her.
Surely she hadn’t meant to make a cradle of her hips.Surely he hadn’t meant to ease himself between her thighs.Surely neither of them had intended to end up in the perfect position for her to discover that he was fully aroused.
“Were not,” she whispered, looking into his eyes.
“Was, too.”His eyes darkened as his gaze searched hers.“Jo...”
Her heart beat like a rabbit’s.“Don’t kiss me, Quinn.”
“Okay, I won’t.”He lowered his head.
“You are.”She was quivering.“You’re going to kiss me.”
“No.Brian Hastings is going to kiss you.Think Brian Hastings.”
When his mouth found hers, she didn’t think at all.She sure did feel, though — cool lips that quickly warmed against hers and shaped themselves into the soul of temptation in no time, a tongue that told her exactly what Quinn would be doing if they didn’t have two layers of denim between their significant body parts.She liked everything about this kiss, even the mud that squished between them as he eased his chest to press against her breasts.
The only thing she didn’t like was that he stopped kissing her.“More,” she whispered, keeping her eyes firmly closed.
“Can’t.”
“Can so.”
“If I kiss you some more, I’m liable to unzip your jeans and start getting serious about this maneuver.”
