“Right.” Other guests might have seen them together earlier, but things felt different now. Things between them were different and he wasn’t coming up just to say goodnight. He wasn’t planning on walking back out. “Well, in that case, let me just go freshen up. I’ve never said that before.” She wiggled her eyebrows, so damn proud of herself. Sam chuckled quietly before kissing the back of Amanda’s hand one more time.
“Text me when you’re feeling fresh enough.”
“Oh, I will, baby.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, then climbed out of the car. He waited until she was safely inside before he pulled out of the curved drive. He took a U-turn and drove behind the lodge so he could leave his car in Zach’s parking space. He took his time walking back to the front, breathing in the night air, wondering where exactly he had gone wrong. The truth was that he’d done the best work of his career and been rewarded for it and as a result he was now a thing. He thought he’d been prepared. He couldn’t go anywhere in a hundred-mile radius without someone recognizing him as Jesse Pleasant Sr.’s boy or Zach and Jesse’s little brother, but that kind of notoriety had never impacted his love life before. He had never come close to scaring off someone he was starting to care deeply for.
And yeah, even though Amanda had stuck around, handling the whole situation at Claim Jumpers like a champ, he didn’t miss the shock and hesitation in her eyes. She was so close to hightailing it back to the city. Things were fresh, but so easy between them. He didn’t want to lose her. Not again. All he could do was be cautious and show her that she was his focus now. He stepped into the lobby and greeted the young lady at the front desk with a nod and tip of his hat. He thought about taking a seat in one of the available chairs in front of the central fireplace, but decided against it. Privacy was a firm policy at Big Rock, but at the moment he wasn’t in the mood to even risk being recognized. He headed down the hallway toward Amanda’s room.
He pulled out his phone as he waited outside her door and thought about braving a look at his social media. He wasn’t in the mood for whatever comments were waiting for him on Instagram, but Twitter usually delivered the appropriate levels of humor at a time like this. Sure enough the first thing was that photo that was turned into a meme of Jason Derulo falling backward down the Met Gala stairs almost ten years ago.JASON DERULO FALLS DOWN THE STAIRS ON HIS WAY TO VOTE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY. Sam laughed quietly to himself as he ignored the thousands of tweets hanging out in his mentions and kept scrolling. A few minutes later a text from Amanda popped up on his screen.
Okay I’m ready.
I’m right outside your door.
He rolled his shoulder along the wall reaching over to knock lightly on the door. It cracked open a moment later. Amanda’s smiling face was visible through the small opening. He couldn’t help but smile back.
“Hi,” she said with a hint of playful seduction in her voice.
“Hi.”
“You wanna come in?”
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
“’Kay.” She opened the door all the way revealing the beautiful fact that she was wearing nothing but a white ranch towel that left almost nothing to the imagination. Her cleavage spilled out over the edge of the white fabric that she was holding together with a death grip in her other hand. Her luscious thighs were on full display, the terry cloth just barely covering the juncture between her legs.
“Jesus Christ.”
“Please come in.”
He stepped inside, taking off his Stetson as most of the blood in his body rushed to his dick. “You could have warned me.”
“What do you mean? I thought we decided. We is fucking tonight.”
“Oh, we did. I just didn’t expect you to already be all butt-booty naked.”
“I’m wearing a towel. Gotta leave a little mystery. I took, like, a four-minute shower. I feel like I brought a little bit of Claim Jumpers with me. I wanted to be freshfreshfor when I smothered your face with my thighs,” she said.
“So you’re planning on sitting on my face?” Sam didn’t miss the way she was backing toward the bed. He hung his Stetson on the hook on the door, then shrugged out of his jacket.
“I mean I’ve been thinking about it. Among other things.” The smile had slowly disappeared from her face. Her gaze followed his every move as he toed out of his cowboy boots, then went about unbuttoning his shirt. Sam knew that look, pure unadulterated lust, but he’d never seen it on the face of a woman he wanted so badly. When he spoke again he could hear that same level of arousal coming through his own voice.
“What other things? Tell me.”
Amanda licked her lips as she leaned against the bedpost. “Well. For starters I think you should come over here and see how wet I am under this towel. I didn’t finish drying off all the way.” Sam pulled off his button-down and then his undershirt, then crossed the room, crowding right into her personal space. He looked down at the gorgeous brown skin of her shoulders. There was a small bit of lotion that hadn’t been properly rubbed. Slowly, he used his thumb to finish the job. Then he moved his hand a little lower, brushing the back of his palm over her tit as he went. He helped himself to the warmth between her thighs as he was greeted instantly by the wetness already coating her slit. Her breath hitched as he pressed his mouth to the curve of her neck.
“You been like this long?” he asked as he used his middle finger to slide between her lips. He found the tiny, hard bud easily, but ignored it to tease her slick entrance instead.
“Uh, since my massage this afternoon.”
Sam paused, but didn’t take his hand away. “Sven get you worked up like this?”
“No. I was thinking about how nice it would have been if those were your hands all over me. He did an a’ight job.” She tilted her head back just a bit so she could look him in the eye. “But I wanted it to be you. I’ve touched myself a lot, thinking about you.”
Sam watched her eyes as he slid one finger inside her slick opening. “And how was it?”
“Never as good as the real thing. I want you to fuck me so bad.”
“But?” He leaned down and sucked her bottom lip into his mouth, kissing her deeply. They could get back to their conversation in a moment. “But what?” he said when he finally broke away. Sam nudged her legs farther apart, making room for his whole wrist as he pushed his whole finger deep inside her. She clenched around him, gripping his shoulder with one hand to steady herself. That towel was dangerously close to slipping to the ground.