Edgard groaned. “Are you guys going to be f**king around back there all day? Because if you are, ride in the horse trailer. It’ll be damn distracting to hear your moans and smell sex as we’re trying to keep us on the road and in one piece.”
“Yeah,” Trevor chimed in. “I thought we were waitin’ until tonight for any more action?”
“Feeling left out?” Edgard asked.
“Don’t pout. It ain’t my fault you didn’t join in earlier,” Trevor shot back.
Great. Colby was acting like a pu**y-whipped greenhorn who couldn’t think beyond getting in Channing’s pants. No way in hell would he admit that weakness to his traveling partners. Instead, he returned Channing to her side of the truck.
“Sorry. Yeah, we got carried away. You sure you don’t want me to drive? Because I’m thinkin’ me and Channing back here together, even with all our clothes on, is a bad idea.”
She snickered.
Trevor gunned the engine. “Hang on, it’s gonna be a tight turn to get out of here.”
Automatically, Colby and Edgard reached up for the handles hanging from the ceiling as Trevor whipped the big rig around.
Channing smoothed her hands down the outside of her thighs, then busied herself with compacting the trash. She leaned over the front seat.
“You guys have any junk up there that needs to be tossed out? It’s all picked up back here.”
Edgard glared at Colby. “You were making her clean up?”
“Hell, no! I didn’t make her do nothin’. Must be a woman thing, it was something she did on her own.”
“Well, someone has to do it,” she retorted.
“Gracias,” Edgard said. “I promise we’ll try a little harder to keep it tidy now that you’re bunking with us, right, amigos?”
“Sounds good to me,” Trevor said.
Channing set her chin on her forearms, which were resting along the back edge of the front seat. “How are the sleeping arrangements going to work? There’s hardly enough room in the horse trailer for two people, let alone four.”
Trevor signaled and pulled onto the freeway. “We don’t all stay in the trailer. We rent a motel room. It’s easier to shower that way. Two of us stay in the room, and one of us sleeps out here. We rotate, so someone is always keeping an eye on the horses.”
“Someone meaning me usually sleepin’ with the damn horses,” Colby grumbled.
“Besides, sometimes we need privacy. A break from each other,”
Edgard said.
Trevor shot Edgard a strange look.
Channing glanced at Colby over her shoulder. He shrugged at her puzzled expression. She’d learn to deal with the two of them sniping at each other, or she wouldn’t. He preferred to stay out of it.
“Like I told Colby, I can’t eat fast food all the time. I don’t mind cooking if I’ve got the right supplies.”
“And like I told you, we don’t expect you to cook and clean for us, darlin’,” Colby said testily.
“Especially if you’re gonna make us eat vegetables.” Trevor shuddered. “Give me jerky and chili dogs over any of that green shit any day.”
Edgard nodded. “Don’t forget the Mexican delights of Taco Bell.”
“Or meat and potatoes,” Colby added.
Channing rolled her eyes. She dug in her satchel and untangled her iPod. Once the earpieces were in place, she balled up her fleece-lined jacket to use for a pillow, rammed it in the corner, and closed her eyes.
Instead of gawking at Channing, looking far too tempting, even in sleep, Colby dry-washed his face and stared out the window at the landscape, a flat blandness spreading as far as the eye could see. The dirt in Oklahoma was an odd shade of pinkish orange and the horizon never changed from a washed-out, dirty gray.
He missed the brilliant blue Wyoming sky, with snowcapped mountains teasing in the distance. The rolling hills and valleys dotted with clusters of cedar and sagebrush. Herds of antelope running free among the wide-open spaces.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Channing shifting to get comfortable. She might look little, sweet and innocent, but the woman definitely knew her own mind and didn’t hesitate to speak it.
Colby tapped Edgard on the shoulder. “Wake me up when we gas up.” He leaned his shoulders against the seat, tugged his battered Resistol over his eyes and drifted off to the familiar sound of the wheels clacking on the highway.
Chapter Four
“Channing?”
She blinked at the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the window and scrambled upright. “What? Where are we?”
Trevor grinned and traced his fingers over her sleep-creased cheek.
“We’re about an hour outside Limon. Just wondered if you needed to use the bathroom before we get back on the road.”
“Wow. I slept for five hours?”
“Four. I’ve got a bit of a lead foot so we made good time.”
“I guess so. Where are Colby and Edgard?”
“Inside. Why? Did you need them for something?” Her skin was so smooth. How long had it been since he’d paid attention to the supreme softness of the skin on a woman’s face? Such a contrast from a man’s rough skin and stubble.
“No. I was just curious.” Channing smiled and angled her head more deeply into his touch. “Mmm. That feels nice. I probably should get out and stretch my legs and visit the little girl’s room.”
“Let me help you.” Trevor clamped his hands over her slim hips and scooted her from the cab. When her boots hit the ground, he slammed the door, and crowded her against the truck bed. “But first, how about one of them sweet kisses, darlin’?”
She rose to her tiptoes and gave him a loud smacking smooch on his Adam’s apple. “Like that?”
“You got a mean streak, Chan.”
“No, sir. How about if you show me how you want to be kissed, Trev, so next time I won’t have to guess.”
Trevor tilted his black Stetson further back on his head and lowered his face, keeping their eyes locked. When his mouth was close enough their breath mingled, he licked his lips and swept them across hers.
Lightly. Softly. Not applying pressure, not nibbling or teasing, not using his tongue, just feeling the warm fullness of her lips parting in expectation of his.
He brought his hand up to her shoulder and lazily rubbed his thumb over the pulse beating in the hollow of her throat. Then he rimmed the inside of her full lower lip with inside edge of his upper lip. Back and forth, creating friction and heat and moisture. Just that slick, barely-there slide of mouth on mouth made her whimper.