Ride by Cat Johnson Page A

Garret.
    “Check her out.” Garret tilted his head toward a woman a few people behind the couple Chase had just finished with. “She’s totally your kinda girl.”
    Garret was matchmaking even as he smiled for a fan and signed his name on a T-shirt for her.
    “What?” Chase frowned. What the hell was Garret talking about?
    “That chick. Invite her to the party tonight. She looks like your type.”
    Curious now as to what Garret thought was his type, Chase couldn’t help but take a look. Her baseball hat was pulled down low over her eyes. He couldn’t see much of her face beneath the brim, and she was still pretty far away, but he saw enough to determine she was cute.
    Strangely there was no smile on her face and none of the usual fan interaction. She simply moved from one rider to the next until she was standing in front of the guy seated next to Chase. She silently thrust her program at the Brazilian bull rider. The hair the cap didn’t cover was long and a silky brown, just like he liked it. It swung across her shoulders as her head swiveled and she glanced toward the doors.
    She turned back to take the program handed to her and then took a step to the side until she was at Chase’s table. With him sitting and her standing directly in front of him, he could now see beneath the brim of her hat. He saw her green eyes open wide as she recognized him. It was just about the same moment he recognized her.
    He tempered his outward reaction, mainly to prevent Garret from noticing who she was. Dressed down in jeans and a sweatshirt with no makeup, and away from the strip club, it was a good possibility none of the other guys would connect her to last night. He wanted to keep it that way. Chase didn’t react on the outside, but inside he reacted in a big way. His pulse began to race and his mouth went dry. That didn’t prevent him from doing the one thing he regretted not doing the night before though.
    Reaching for her program, Chase asked, “What’s your name? Who should I sign this to?”
    With sweaty palms, he waited for her answer, hoping she didn’t say something like, oh sign in for my father, Bob. He should have worded the question better.
    Had she come to see him specifically? Did one of the guys tell her last night who they were and where they’d be today? A dozen questions raced through his head, but for now he’d settle for the answer to just one. Her name.
    For some reason, she appeared as nervous as he felt. He watched the tip of her tongue shoot out. He couldn’t help picturing that tongue elsewhere, licking something else. Something on him. Something that was beginning to wake up.
    She hesitated. “It’s Leesa, spelled L-E-E-S-A.”
    Her voice cut a path right through him. If there had been any doubt in his mind as to who she was before, it was erased when he heard her speak. Memories of that voice against his ear not much more than twelve hours before caused a visceral reaction and he felt himself stiffen even more inside his jeans.
    Chase swallowed away the dryness being near her again seemed to cause in his throat. He hadn’t felt this nervous around a woman in a long time. “That’s a really nice name. I’m Chase. Chase Reese.”
    “Nice to meet you, Chase.”
    Nice to meet you?
    He frowned. She was definitely trying to act like they didn’t know each other. Why? She spoke in a level tone that held no recognition, but she didn’t control the look in her eyes as well as she did her voice. She remembered him.
    She watched him closely, until she glanced at the doors one more time.
    That brought up yet another question. Why was she acting so nervous? Who did she keep checking the entrance for? Did she have a boyfriend? Maybe she didn’t want him to see her with a customer she’d been pretty intimate with the night before? Or maybe she didn’t want her boss or coworkers to see her. Maybe not dating the customers was a club rule, not her own.
    If that was the case, why was she here in the