Probably because they know you won’t call them back.
With nothing else to do, he brought up the search engine on his phone and typed in Ava Cooper, just to see what shook loose.
Chapter Five
Ava downloaded her footage to her computer. Groggy from the heat in the trailer, she stripped, stretched out on the bed and fell sound asleep.
She woke at eleven o’clock at night feeling refreshed. After slipping on her clothes, she wandered into the kitchen.
Oh, looky there. The delicious dish known as Chase McKay sat on the counter, looking good enough to eat.
Why yes. I’d love to be your appetizer, entrée and dessert. One serving of hot, hunky cowboy coming right up.
Behave, Ava.
“I figured you’d gone to bed,” Chase said.
“I’ll admit I did crash for a while. Before that I had some things to catch up on. Takes a boatload of time to download everything from my cameras into the right folders on my laptop. Then I transferred the notes I jotted down so I don’t forget things.”
“Sounds tedious. Why are you doin’ this again?”
“I’m trying my hand at having a hobby,” she said sardonically. “And no, I’m not getting paid. Don’t you ever do something just because you’ve always wanted to?”
“Can’t say as I have. In fact, it’s just the opposite. I find myself doin’ stuff I don’t wanna do all the damn time.”
Ava’s smile vanished. “You could’ve said no if you didn’t want to squire me around today.” She turned and walked away.
A thump sounded and then strong hands circled her waist, spinning her around. He got in her face, as much as he could despite her height advantage. “Will you let me finish? I wasn’t talking about you. Or today. Today was great, Ava. I had a blast.”
“But?”
“No buts. Seems I never do things like that. At least I don’t take the time to do them because I’m so busy doin’ other things I don’t wanna do. These last two weeks off have shown me I’m not really living my life. I’m just killing time between bull ridin’ events. And I don’t make the best decisions on what to do with that free time.”
Mollified and surprised by his honesty, Ava forced her hands to remain at her sides. She freely gave casual affection to friends and lovers alike, but something about Chase’s body language cautioned her to hold back, afraid he’d misread her friendliness as a sexual come-on. Didn’t mean she wouldn’t flirt her ass off with him, but touching without invitation was a definite no-no. “Don’t you have buddies you hang out with when you’re not rodeoing?”
“Sometimes. Truth is, I’m a little low on friends. So, thanks for today.”
Did Chase show anyone this sweet side? Probably not. Why that filled her with warmth was stupidly juvenile. “You are welcome. I’m a little low on friends myself, so I’m glad I didn’t kill you with a karate chop to the head last night.”
He laughed. “Death by nekkid ninja don’t sound so bad.”
Do not give me false hope you’ve been imagining me naked. “What have you been doing?”
“Nothin’. I sat outside and watched the sunset. You really oughta tape it tomorrow night. I was rummaging in the cupboards for food and found this.” He reached around her and waggled a bottle of Maker’s Mark whisky.
“Ooh. Liquid dinner? I’m all over that.”
“Good. ’Cause there’s really no food, but I did find a six-pack in the vegetable drawer.”
Ava stood on tiptoe to reach two shot glasses from the top shelf. She spun around and Chase didn’t bother to pretend he hadn’t been ogling her ass. After they sat at the table, she said, “Let’s have a toast.”
“To what?”
To the sexy way your hat shadows your face. To your full lower lip that looks so succulent I wanna take a bite out of it. To your hands, big and scarred, and how that rough flesh would feel dancing across on my skin.
“Ava?”
She swallowed her escalating lust. “Oh, I dunno. We could toast to Kane and Ginger for allowing us to hide out here.”
“Sounds good.”
Ava poured them each a shot. They held the shot glasses aloft. “To Kane and Ginger.”
He chinked his glass to hers and threw back his whisky.
She followed suit. The alcohol disappeared down the hatch, leaving a trail of fire, and she sputtered.
“The second one will be better.” Chase refilled their glasses and passed out two bottles of Coors Light.
“Another shot?”
“Come on. I thought you were a wild party girl, Hollywood. Least, that’s what the tabloids say about you.”
“And I thought you’d have me tied to the bed with your bull rope by now, making me scream your name as you rode me hard,” she retorted sweetly. “That’s what the rodeo mags say about you, Chase’n Tail McKay.” Ava leaned forward, gifting him with an excellent view of her cle**age. “Did you Google me while I was sleeping, cowboy?”
Took a second for his eyes to meet hers. “Yeah.”
“And what did you find?”
“No juicy YouTube videos of you caught in indecent sex acts. But I did check out your website. I realized I had seen you in something a while back. A TV movie.”
“Which one?”
“The one where you played a prep school girl hooked on…some kinda drugs and you sold your body to feed the addiction. Until a young priest rescued you, setting you back on the straight and narrow.”
“Ah. Naughty Girl by Night. One of my first roles. I’m surprised you even know what Lifetime TV is, say nothing of catching the ‘ripped from the headlines’ drama every week.”
“I was killing time one afternoon before a PBR event, and I distinctly remember I kept watching just to catch a glimpse of your legs in them short miniskirts.”
“So you’re a leg man?”
“Sugar,” he said with a silky rasp, “I’m an everything man. Any woman I find attractive? Every single part of her is sexy to me.”
“But you’re still going to give this abstinence thing a whirl?”
His face turned somber very quickly. “I have to. My career is at stake. I’ve worked too damn long and hard to be forced out because I f**ked the wrong woman.”
“He says with a bitter edge.”
“Funny. We’ve gotten off track. My turn to make a toast. But I’ll warn ya, I’m not very original.”