Page 39 of Nashville Lights

“Because the band was just taking off and you were leaving the next day to go on a two-month tour, remember? The first big one.”

“Yeah.” I remember. “We were all completely caught up in it.” It was a roller coaster of crowds and the non-stop frenetic energy that went along with sudden, crazy fame.

“You were. Understandably. The four of you were so tight and they expected so much from you. What was I supposed to do, ask you to come back to the farm with me, just as everything was going stratospheric for you? Admit it, Tuck, you didn’t have time for me even if Ihadtold you how I felt. And I was coping with all the shit going on here anyway. Not that any of that is an excuse. You’re right. I should have told you then how I felt. I wish I had. Fuck, I wish I had.”

“Rumors were that you had…girlfriends.” My brothers always talked about Nate Boone like he had a whole harem on the go.

“I never had girlfriends. I’m not going to lie to you, Roxie, I wasn’t a choirboy back then. But none of themstuck because none of them were you. If you really want to know, I never actually evenlikeda single one of them.Youwere always the one I wanted. And you were always the one I couldn’t have.”

“I didn’tknow.”

“Well, now you do, baby girl.”

Nate pulls up my dress, taking it off. He pulls at the tie of my bikini top, letting it fall away, releasing the bouncy fullness of my breasts.

“Fuck,” he growls. “Lookat you. How can anyone be so fucking perfect?”

He takes my breasts in his work-roughened hands and squeezes them, rubbing his thumbs over the painfully-sensitive peaks. “Tell me,” I whisper.

“Tell you what?”

“Tell me how you feel.”

“You want to know how I feel?”

“Yeah,” I barely breathe.

“Well, Tuck, Ifeellike nothing ever compared to you. Ever. Not even close. Not since that day in the barn. Sincebeforethat day, if we’re getting real here. Everyone else just seemed so fuckingdullin comparison. No one has your hair, with its little curls at the end.”

He moves one of his hands from my nipples—and I’m so warm and wet by now I can feel that my bikini is soaked through and is starting to wet his jeans—to finger an end lock of my hair, where there’s a ringlet, as though fascinated by the softness of it.

“None of them have your cute little face. Yourface, Tuck. I fucking love your face. Like a sultry little angel with a sprinkling of freckles and a sassy attitude that always felt like it was just for me. Mine. It’s haunted me, because no one else has that. No one looks like you.”

Nate runs his thumb along my cheekbone, like he’s simply appreciating me.

“Or your blue eyes, Tuck. Do you know howblueyour eyes are? I’ve never seen eyes so blue.”

Nate leans over me and takes one of my nipples into his mouth.

I have never in my life felt anything remotely as good as what he’s doing to me right now. Soft, strong suction and warm fire. His tongue flicks and histeethgently bite.

I moan.

“I won’t even get started on yourbody,Roxie Tucker. Because you were always off-limits and I was never supposed to look at how insanely gorgeous you are. But fucking hell, darlin’. Do you have any idea how hot and sweet andbeautifulyou are?”

I can’t answer him or even think because he’s sucking on my other nipple and I think I might be a puddle on the floor at this point. A warm pulse is taking hold inside me that feels like a lava melt of sensation getting ready to overflow.

“Nate.”

“Right here, baby girl, taking what’s mine.”

He’s moving lower now, kissing a slow line down my stomach, making me squirm.

“And it’s more than that. It’s much more than how perfect youlook. It goes bone deep. It’s your smile and it’s the sound of your voice. Your laugh. I love making you laugh.” His tongue dips into my belly button and I gasp a squeal. “It gets me hard, Tuck, that’s what it does. Really. Fucking. Hard.”

And lower.

“It makes me fall in love with you.”

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