Ride Me Cowboy #4 (The Cowboy Romance Series - Book #4) by Alycia Taylor

aren’t you getting up?”
    I laughed. “This is my room. I don’t have to get
up.” She laughed, too, and hit me a few more times with the pillow before she
left.

 
    CHAPTER
SEVEN
    LEXI
    I woke up the next morning content and practically purring
like a cat. It’s amazing to me that all of the men I dated in the city I love
put together didn’t equal one of the man that Mark is. I didn’t intend to fall
so hard for him, but sometimes you just can’t fight the chemistry that’s there.
I laid there in bed and thought about sharing my life story with him. There
were very few people in my life that I’ve ever shared any of that with. The
other men that I’ve been with, even the ones that I’ve had serious
relationships with, had no idea. For whatever reason, I just never felt close
enough to them or trusted them enough. I don’t regret telling Mark and my soul
actually feels lighter now that I’ve shared with him.
    I was about to get out of bed when there was a knock
on my door. “Who is it?”
    “Me.” It was Mark. I smiled like an idiot.
    “Come in.”
    He opened the door and when he saw me sitting up in
bed all disheveled and still in my pajamas, he grinned. “Hey, gorgeous,” he
said in a low tone.
    “Hi.”
    “Dad and Lydia are leaving for church and then going
to a barbecue afterwards. I was wondering if you’d like to go for a ride today
while they’re gone. I’ll make us a picnic lunch.”
    “A ride? Like on horseback?”
    “Um…well, I do have a motorcycle, too, if you’d
prefer…”
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “You know what I mean.
What about your hand?”
    “I can ride one handed. Sarge knows what to do.”
    “You can saddle and all of that with one hand?”
    “No, but that’s where you – my happy helper – comes
in.”
    I laughed. “I don’t know anything about saddling a
horse.”
    “I’ll teach you.”
    Apparently, he had all of the bases covered. “Okay,
let’s go for a ride…I guess.”
    “Okay, Dad and Lydia are leaving in about an hour.
I’ll meet you out at the barn then.”
    “Good, it’ll give me time to shower and dress.”
    I stood up and he ran his eyes down my body and back
up to my face. My blood heated just from his gaze. He had a lustful look on his
face and he said, “You’re welcome to wear what you have on.”
    “Get out of here, I’ll see you…fully dressed in an
hour,” I said with another laugh.
    “Kill joy.” He left and I got in the shower, still
smiling. By the time I got out to the barn, he already had the saddle thrown up
over Sarge’s back.
    “You were supposed to wait for me.”
    “You take long showers.”
    I smiled. “I like to smell good.”
    He sniffed the air and said, “It worked,” with a
wink.
    I looked at the horse with the saddle thrown over
his back and said, “Okay, so what do I need to do?”
    He talked me through tightening the cinch and when I
finished, he told me how to check it. “Okay, now lower the stirrup.” I did and
he announced, “Amazing. You saddled him like a pro.”
    “A slow pro,” I said.
    He shrugged. “You did it and you did it right,
that’s all that matters. You want to saddle another one, or you want to ride
with me?”
    “I’ll go with you,” I told him. I wasn’t sure enough
about my riding skills to take it on too far alone.
    “Don’t laugh at me. I can’t grab the horn with my
right hand so I’m going to get up on the left. It might look a little awkward.”
I nodded and watched him tuck his toe in the stirrup, reach up with his left
hand and throw his leg over the horse. Left side or not, he looked like a pro.
“Your turn,” he said. He was reaching down at an awkward angle with his left
hand so I went on the other side. I put my left foot in the stirrup and with
his left arm holding onto me, I swung up behind him. I slid my arms around his
waist and he let out an, “ Mmm .”
    Laughing I said, “Stop it pervert.”
    “You shouldn’t be so hot then,” he said