I stared at her until she tilted her chin down in a little nod of acknowledgement. “I’m jealous. I know he’s too old for me but he’s really hot. I would die if he looked at me the way he looks at you.” Her teeth flashed in a saucy grin. I really did like her and felt slightly kindred with her. I hoped she had it in her to help her family find their way to happy. I wish someone with clearer perspective from the outside had knocked some sense into me when I was busy being a miserable mess. “Maybe I’ll switch my attention to Lane. He’s closer to my age and he actually seems like he knows how to have fun. Cy seems pretty boring.”

He was the opposite of boring but I could see how his stern and no-nonsense demeanor could come across that way.

I told Evan she should stick to boys her own age in her own state, and I stole Emrys away from the card game so she could keep me company while I finished my coffee and tried to quiet my jangling nerves. She apologized some more for making me come on this trip to which I laughingly replied that coming on this trip was the best thing that had ever happened to me. And since she was my best friend she wanted a play by play of exactly how the oldest Warner brother had gone about blowing my mind. I didn’t mind giving her vague details, but with Cy floating around somewhere beyond the thin walls of the tent I didn’t want to get into the nitty gritty. Those were my moments and memories and I was covetous of them.

I must have fallen asleep despite the caffeine, but at some point in the early morning, I was woken up by the sound of the zipper of my sleeping bag sliding open and to cold hands rubbing briskly over the skin under my shirt. I blinked my eyes and tried to get them to adjust to the dim light but all I could see were gray eyes looking back at me and the slash of that heart-stopping smile daring me to take a chance.

“What are you doing? Where’s Em?” The tent was too small for three of us, it was barely big enough for him to stretch out all the way, which he did . . . on top of me. His hands found my unrestrained breasts under the soft fabric of my long sleeved T-shirt and I bit down on my lip to keep the strangled sound that lodged in my throat back as he squeezed the plump weight and then brushed his fingers over the rounded sides.

“Sutton showed up a half hour ago. Ran right into camp because he was following the river the whole way to where he thought we would be. Lane’s taking over the watch and Em was helping Sutton get his horse settled. She said she couldn’t sleep so she was going to head to the river and try and catch some fish for lunch since our plans have changed and we won’t be stopping as many times for the rest of the ride. One of my brothers will go down to the water with her.” His nose nuzzled into the side of my neck and it made me shiver. He was cold and blazing hot at the same time. “If they fight over who gets to go with her then we have a problem.”

The hand caressing the side of my breast moved so that his palm was rubbing slow, agonizing circles over my nipple. The peak pulled tight and poked enthusiastically into his touch.

“Do they do that? Fight over the same girl?” The words were breathy and broken as his teeth dipped into the collar of my shirt and started to nibble on the side of my neck. I shifted my legs restlessly under the weight of his, which had him grinding his hips into the cradle of mine. There was a bulge behind his zipper that refused to be ignored.

“Not usually, but your girl is a stunner and knows how to handle a rod and a reel. That makes her something worth fighting over around these parts.” His teeth dragged down the entire side of my neck as I leaned to the side to give him room. He nipped languidly at the pulse throbbing and ready at the base of my throat and pulled his hand out from underneath my shirt so he could work on getting the barrier off over my head. I put my hands around his wrists to still him.

“Em could be back any minute.” And while she had gotten a basic rundown she didn’t need to walk in and get an eyeful of everything Cy was working with.

“She’s not gonna interrupt. She knew I was headed your way and your girl has your back.” He chuckled and I felt it move all the way across my skin. “And my brothers know better. Not much in life I take for myself, so when I find something I want, they don’t get in the way of it. It’s too early for anyone else to be up yet so be quiet . . . or don’t. I don’t give a shit either way.”

“You want me.” It wasn’t a question because the answer was clear in his shimmery eyes. I exhaled and curled my fingers into the strong tendon on the back of his neck as he started to tug on the waistband of the soft sleep pants that hardly kept the heat coming off of his erection from scorching my skin. Once I was naked and sprawled underneath him he reared up and began working on his own clothes. He shrugged his black Henley off with an impatient jerk while I tackled his belt and getting his jeans out of the way of that impressive arousal. Somehow, we twisted and ended up with him half-dressed and trapped below me while I ran little kisses all over his chest and across his defined abdominals. It was like sitting on top of a stone statue but his cock felt like velvet and silk where it pressed into the apex of my legs. I moved myself lower down his torso, intent on having all that hard in my mouth.

I practically snarled his name when he diverted me from my very pleasurable task and pulled me back up his body so that he could plant a searing kiss on my pouting lips. He ran his hands up and down my sides while looking up at me from under lowered brows.

“We gotta ride out in just a few hours and I need to get some sleep. There isn’t time to play those kinds of games, as much as I’d love nothing more.”