G’day and welcome Down Under for my stop on the Cowboy Heat pre-release tour.

I’m Cheyenne Blue, and my story in Cowboy Heat, “Cowboy Downtime”, is set Down Under in Outback Queensland.  I live on the coast in Queensland, and my partner and I love to spend our downtime camping – the remoter the better, out in the dry cattle country inland.

“Cowboy Downtime” is about Mel and Jack, whose long simmering flirtation comes to a head over a game of polocrosse, a rough and tumble sport that was invented in Australia.  It’s a blend of the more refined game of polo with lacrosse.  Instead of hitting the ball with a stick, the rubber ball is carried and thrown using a net mounted on a stick.  Whereas polo is typically played by the moneyed and the gentry, anyone who can sit a horse can have a crack at polocrosse.  There are local teams all over Australia.

The story was born out of a camping trip, where my partner and I pulled up for the night at a community hall on a crossroads in the middle of nowhere.  We thought we were in for a quiet couple of beers under the stars and an early night, but just as we’d got settled the horse trailers and utes started arriving.   A polocrosse game was happening that evening, and we had ringside seats! We got chatting, had a yarn, sank more than a few beers, and had the rules of the game explained in between shouts of encouragement.  Our peaceful night turned into a party, although it didn’t end late, as most people had a long drive back to their stations, and an early rise the next day.

In “Cowboy Downtime” Jack bets Mel she can’t score ten goals.  The winner gets to claim the loser for the night.  But this has been a long time coming, and there are no losers in this bet.

It was an hour later, when people were starting to drift away, back to stations and communities that were a couple of hours’ drive away, that Jack approached her group, and his hand slid around Mel’s waist.

“Time to go.”

His arm lay hot around her waist, each fingerprint scorching her through her shirt. Sliding from his grasp, she said her farewells. Jack loped along at her side and the air between them crackled with tension.

“Where are we going?” she asked, more to break the silence then from a need to know. “I have to take Minty home first.”

“My place. Minty can come along. There’s a stall for her, or you can turn her out in the paddock with the others.”

“You were that confident you’d win?” She knew she sounded petulant, but his casual assumption annoyed her.

They reached her float, where Minty lipped at fallen strands of hay.

Jack grabbed her arm and pushed her so they were hidden from passersby. The slats of the float pressed hard against her spine. Jack’s hands palmed her hips, and he pushed his lower body against her.

His bulk loomed, but his touch was gentle as he tucked an errant curl of hair behind her ear. “Not confidence, Mel. Just cautious optimism. I was hoping.”

His voice was low, smooth and almost tender, different from his normal bantering tone. He moved closer, and the sudden tightness in her chest made her breathe in shallow pants.

His lips moved closer, hovered over her own. “A little something on account…”

And then he was kissing her, and she knew she was lost. His lips teased, tormented, fine lips, surprisingly soft, surprisingly gentle. Her pulse thundered in her ears and her breasts were suddenly uncomfortable, hard and aching, as they pushed against his chest. His kiss went on, past the point where she had breath of her own, past the point where she knew where she ended and he began. She was liquid heat and light, weak with wanting him.

He drew away slowly, returned to taste her once more and then withdrew again. When she opened her eyes his face filled her vision. He was smiling.

When she could trust her voice she said, “And that’s just a kiss. What will happen when we fuck?”

He grinned in delight at her words. “I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”

“What, ‘fuck’?”

“No. For you to admit that we will.”

Cheyenne Blue’s erotica has appeared in over 90 anthologies including Best Women’s Erotica, Cowboy Lust, Best Lesbian Romance, Lesbian Lust, and Frenzy:60 Stories of Sudden Sex. She lives and writes by the beach in Queensland, Australia.

Find her at https://www.cheyenneblue.com, on Twitter at @iamcheyenneblue or on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3338016.Cheyenne_Blue