He took her into the bedroom and eased her onto the mattress. She reached for him, ready to pull him down with her, but now she was the one stopping when Josh peeled off his shirt. Then his boots and jeans. Even though she was burning for him, she watched.
And lusted.
She lusted a lot.
Oh, he was perfect. She’d seen the backside of him the day after his shower, but the front side was even better. He had a six-pack. Of course he did. And he had a really interesting chest, complete with enough tight, tanned muscles...
He dropped his boxers, and she forgot how to breathe.
Forgot how to move, too, but Josh had that worked out, as well. With all those inches right there so close to her face, he started shimmying her out of her clothes. Hope was too spellbound to help, but she slowed him down when she managed to get in a lick of her own.
Josh cursed her and then he set a speed record getting her out of the rest of her clothes. Somehow, he’d managed to hold on to some of his common sense because he put on a condom that he took from the nightstand drawer.
“We’re not doing page sixteen,” he mumbled.
Color her clueless as to what that meant. Nor did she care. That’s because he got on the bed with her, his body against hers again. But this time, they were butt naked. Front naked, too. She got more kisses. More touches, and she finally got those inches.
All of them.
He pushed into her and just kept pushing. The man was a pro at finding the right angle. The right spot. The right pace.
Of course, Hope figured that was because he was the right man.
And with that thought flashing through her head, she let those inches work their magic, and they silenced the beep, beep, beep.
CHAPTER FIVE
JOSH HEARD THE bang, bang, bang, and he cursed because someone was knocking on his flippin’ door. Hell’s bells. He’d intended on spending the next hour or two with Hope, and he didn’t want any interruptions. Apparently, neither did Hope because she latched on to him when he sat up.
“Who is it?” Josh yelled to the idiot banging.
“It’s me—Termite. Uh, boss, you got a visitor. He says it’s important.”
“Is he gushing blood?” Josh growled. “Or does he have the solution to world peace?”
“Uh, no,” Termite answered. “He didn’t say anything about peace, and he appears to be okay.”
“It’s me,” someone else said, and even though Josh had only heard the man’s voice at the party, he recognized it.
Roger.
“Great,” Hope grumbled. “Maybe he’s here to give us another lecture about diddling. Not what I had in mind for a post-orgasmic orgasm.”
Despite the interruption that had pissed him off, Josh smiled, but then, Hope could usually make him smile when things went south. But this was going to be a temporary, short venture in the southerly direction because Josh would send Roger and Termite on their way.
Josh dragged on his clothes. “Stay naked,” he told her when she, too, started to get dressed. He looked at her then, naked and reaching for her panties. “In fact, get back in bed. It’ll speed things along when I finish with our guests.”
He didn’t bother putting on his boots or buttoning his shirt. Josh just went to the door, unlocked it and threw it open, and he hoped his ornery expression conveyed that he wanted this to be a very brief visit.
“Whoa,” Termite said, obviously noticing Josh’s disheveled appearance and expression but not being bright enough to figure out what might have been going on. Of course, Termite might not have seen Hope come into the cabin.
“You can go now,” Roger told Termite, and when the hand walked off, Roger would have walked right in if Josh hadn’t stayed put, blocking the doorway.
“I thought we’d said all there was to say,” Josh reminded him. He wouldn’t remind Roger that he’d been a jerk not just to Josh but especially to Hope.
Roger glanced around and shuffled his feet. “I’ve heard some talk,” he said. “Talk that Hope and you aren’t really lovers after all.”
Obviously, Roger hadn’t listened to the same gossips as Termite had. Or taken a whiff of Josh because he had Hope’s scent all over him.
“I heard you and Hope put on that show at the party because you were trying to get your parents off your backs,” Roger added. “Trust me, I understand that. I’m forty-six, and my mom keeps trying to fix me up. I hate it, probably just as much as you do. So, that’s why I’m here, to tell you that I understand and that our deal is still on. I haven’t found another buyer for the horses, so I can sell you all you need.”
Josh couldn’t have been more surprised if Roger had slugged him. Or so he thought. His surprise went up a notch when Hope came out of his bedroom. Obviously, she’d heard every word of their conversation because there was only about ten feet of space between the front door and the bedroom.
Roger’s surprise-notch went up even more, causing Josh to groan. He wouldn’t have lied to Roger by telling him that nothing was going on between Hope and him, that the version of the gossip the man had heard was true. But Josh wouldn’t have admitted the truth, either, because that would have ultimately cost Hope those horses. Apparently, though, Hope intended to set things straight no matter what it cost her.
“You really shouldn’t listen to gossip,” Hope told the man. She was dressed for the most part, but she’d obviously done that in a hurry because her bra was dangling from her shirt. One of the back hooks had caught onto the fabric.
Roger volleyed a few glances at both of them. Then more glances at her breasts. “So, you two are—”
“Diddling, yes,” Hope verified. “And despite the fact this is none of your business, you should know that it doesn’t affect the ranch one bit. That’s because Josh isn’t just a ranch hand. He’s my partner. We run this place together.”
Josh wanted to give her a high five. And a kiss. As soon as they got rid of Roger, he’d do both, along with thank her for what she’d just said. He’d known she felt that way, of course, but it was nice to hear it.
“Together,” Roger repeated, and he didn’t make it sound like a curse word. “So, it’s not just a fling.”
Josh frowned and was about to tell this clown that wasn’t any of his business, either, but Roger just kept on.
“Well, good,” the man concluded. “My mom wouldn’t have liked it had she heard about me doing business with someone when there was just diddling going on. She can be old-fashioned about things like that. But if it’s not diddling or a fling, if it’s something more serious, then she would approve. So, I’m here to finalize the deal on those horses.”
Hope looked at him, but Josh knew they were on the same page—again. She motioned for Josh to deliver their verdict.
“The deal will go through with a new condition,” Josh told him. “You drop the price by ten percent. And before you start howling about that being unfair...” But Roger had already started howling out a protest, one that Josh and Hope ignored. “You need to make this deal as much as we do, and your piddling around has cost us time and money. That ten percent will compensate us for that.”