wasn’t quite ready to have him leave. She was on her own so often, and at times missed having company or people to talk with.
After the ramen and sandwich, he’d taken a shower while his clothes dried in the dryer, and she had doubled checked her equipment to make sure nothing was damaged. But once his clothes were dry, and the storm had abated, he had dressed to check on his horse and prepare to leave. She might have been annoyed by his initial interruption at the start of the storm, but now she just wanted him to stay.
Colt shot her a speculative look with those quixotic eyes of his that reminded her of the slate blue waters off the Alaskan coast.
“We don’t even have to have sex. You can sleep in the bed and I’ll take the couch. That way it will give the ground time to dry before you head out. If you left at first light, it would be better for you both. I know I would feel better not worrying whether you made it or not with the terrain so treacherous.”
“So if I stayed, sex would be off the table?”
Her body quivered. She didn’t want it to be off the table. In fact, she wanted it on the menu as many times as she could get it. That initial encounter had fried all her circuit boards. It left her with a deep abiding desire to extrapolate whether the carnal experience was a one-time only, in the heat of the moment deal, or if it had been that earth shattering and scintillating because the sex had been with him. “Only if you want it to be. I don’t want to step all over your manly ego if you’re a once and done type of guy and all that. Not when you’re being so sweet to cover for me with your boss to make sure I can stay here.”
The stare he blasted her with, infused with enough heat to power a nuclear reactor, called her a fool for even suggesting he wasn’t up to the task. It told her that he could show her a thing or two about stamina and recovery. If she wasn’t worried about potential splinters in her ass, she’d drop her robe and have him take her against the barn room door. That would be a bad idea all round; might make his horse agitated enough that Colt would leave. “I’m a Dominant, Avery. We are well-known for our excesses in the bedroom.”
Lust curled in her belly. Of course. He made more sense to her now. The way he’d fought her in bed. She’d been ready to ride him like a cowgirl, and he’d wrestled control from her until she surrendered to his greater strength. “Do you think it scares me? The kinky aspect of your personality?”
Avery wouldn’t back down from her stance. She wanted him again. She wanted him to stay. And if that meant letting him take charge in bed again—she shivered at the thought of all those hard muscles bending her to his will—he could dominate her all night if that was the case.
Colt studied her. He nodded and turned back to his task. “All right, let me bed this one down for the night. I’ve got more feed in my saddlebag that should get him through the night and morning. Although, I could use more than ramen noodles and a half sandwich.”
“I do have eggs and apples,” she said. His horse tossed his head at the mention of the fruit. She approached the stall gate and the big, beautiful stallion. “You want an apple, big guy?”
The horse nodded his head up and down and stomped his right hoof on the ground.
She laughed at the horse’s antics. “I’ll take that as a yes. Be right back.”
Avery rushed back inside the cabin, excited by the prospect of overnight company. She pressed a hand over her belly at the thought of more sex with the fascinating, sexy cowboy. It had been far too long since she had been with a man. And she couldn’t recall any of her partners ever being as deep-in-the-gut alpha and rough around the edges. Colt was a man’s man, and that was saying something given the men she’d encountered on her treks: the outdoorsmen, the thrill seekers, and the scientists. He outshone them all with his domineering swagger and mouthwatering sex appeal.
Having Colt here was an unpredicted boon on a trip that had started off on the wrong