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“We can hang out, get to know each other better, that kind of thing. But we gotta promise to keep our hands off each other, because if I kiss you again, there’s no way I’m not going to want to do more.”

“Sounds like you thought a lot about this,” she said. “Do I have a choice in the matter?”

I studied her face. She didn’t look mad, more like she felt like she should be putting up a protest.

“Look, you’re new to town and don’t really know anyone. I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve had a lot of women friends over the years so if we’re acting friend like, no one will think anything of it,” I explained. “Then when I go back to my regular job, we’ll be free to be more than friends.”

“What if I don’t want that? What if you’re still stuck in the friend zone?” she asked.

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take to get to spend time with you.”

“Okay, we can do that,” she agreed. “It’s a good plan.”

She opened the door, but I stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“The heat between us, Jordan? That’s not going anywhere. When I finally make you mine, it’ll be all the sweeter after waiting. The next few weeks is gonna be like foreplay.”

She made the cutest squeak as she hustled out of the truck.

Jordan

Iwas probably an idiot agreeing to Jim’s plan to hang out together, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to spend more time with him. Surely if I was around him enough, my inconvenient little crush on him would dissipate, right?

Unfortunately, four weeks later it was just getting stronger. True to his word, Jim had been one hundred percent platonic and friendly with me. No flirting, no touching, no double entendres. Other than his ongoing habit of watching me with those dark eyes, he was a perfect gentleman.

I was the one with the problem. I couldn’t get his foreplay comment out of my head, and every minute I spent with him I became more obsessed with him.

We’d been hanging out for a month, going for drinks with people after work, watching movies, eating lunch at the same time, and texting each other when we weren’t working. It was totally tame stuff, both of us carefully avoiding saying or doing anything romantic. Until the day he suggested that we go horseback riding.

His friend George’s aunt and uncle had a ranch partway between our town and Houston, and apparently Jimmy had an open invitation to stop by. It was the first time I’d ever ridden a horse – the first time I’d ever even been close to a horse – so George’s uncle gave me ‘a tame old girl who wouldn’t hurt a fly’.

Having never been around anything besides household pets, I was nervous as hell to be on the back of a horse. They were way taller than I expected. But after a while I started to relax and enjoy the ride through the large swath of land that made up the ranch.

Jim had packed us a picnic lunch, and we stopped at the halfway point, which just happened to be right near a creek that separated the ranch from the neighboring land.

Jim spread out a blanket, then we unpacked our lunch and ate it side by side while watching the river flow past. It was incredibly peaceful there, the only sound around us coming from the river and the animals who lived on the land.

“Mm, I could get used to this,” I said, leaning back to stare at the blue sky. It was funny how the sky seemed so much bluer here in Texas, probably because we were out in the country.

Jim stretched out next to me, and I turned to my side, propping myself up on my elbow to look at him. Today he was wearing jeans and a faded button down shirt, with honest to God cowboy boots. With his broad shoulders and windswept hair he looked like a cowboy on a romance cover.

Jim turned to face me, and I suddenly realized that our lips were only about six inches apart. Our eyes met, and my heart started pounding furiously in my chest.

It felt like the most natural thing in the world to lean forward and press my lips against his. I’d been dying to kiss him all day. If I was honest, I’d been dying to kiss him ever since he kissed me by his trunk a month ago. I’d lost count of the number of times I’d fantasized about that kiss going farther than it had.

I pulled back slightly, and we stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment before Jim surged forward, pushing me to my back and hovering over me. I had exactly ten seconds to protest before his lips crashed down on mine. I gasped, and his tongue swooped in, claiming my mouth in a kiss that was so intense I forgot why this was supposed to be a bad idea.

My fingers crept up to his hair, sliding between the strands and pulling just enough to make him groan against my mouth. When he lifted his head, I pulled him back down for another kiss that left us both breathless.

I felt a shift, and suddenly Jim was on his back, with me laying right on top of him like a human blanket. I recognized that he was letting me be in control of what happened next, and I loved him for it.

I froze for an instant as I realized that wasn’t the only thing I loved about him, but then I reminded myself that I had a hot Texan underneath me. I could obsess about my feelings later.

Settling my elbows on the ground, I lowered my head and kissed him like my life depended on it. My nipples pressed almost painfully against the hard planes of his chest, as arousal rushed to my core, soaking my panties. When I felt the bulge against my belly, I didn’t hesitate to open my legs so I could give myself the pressure I needed.

There was another shift, and suddenly I was the one flat on my back, Jim’s fingers frantically working at the buttons of my shirt. I arched my back so I could reach behind myself and release my bra, then Jim pulled that off along with my shirt.

In the back of my mind I knew it was probably a bad idea to be half naked out here, but then again, we hadn’t seen a single soul since we left the ranch. This property was secluded.