Page 17 of Want You Back

“Faster,” he urged. Then, when I complied, jacking him faster, he winced. “Too dry.”

I spit in my palm and tried again. “Better?”

“Hell yes.” Maverick’s head tipped back. The slickness of my grip allowed me to give him the sort of pace my speed demon friend demanded, and it wasn’t long until his body tensed at the top of each stroke. My hips rocked, pressing my dick against his upper thigh. My breathing mimicked his, muscles stiffening each time his did. “Gonna…”

Maverick barely got the warning out before he erupted all over my fist, thick, creamy fluid.Fuck. I did that. I made him come.Pride surged through me along with swift pleasure, the crackle of summer lightning up my spine. I pushed harder into his thigh, some ancient impulse driving me with each spurt of his dick until the pleasure peaked, far faster and higher than when I did this alone. Sharp, almost painful, then a steep drop back to Earth, leaving us both breathing hard.

“Holy crap, did you come too?” Maverick’s tone was full of wonder like I’d done some rodeo trick.

“Appears so.” I sounded dazed, and I was. Couldn’t get over how I’d made us both come.

“Think you can go again?” Maverick ran a hand down my sweaty chest and over my stomach. “I wanted to touch it.”

“I’m—” I started to say that whatever records he was capable of, my dick didn’t work like that, but then he dragged a finger through the puddle of cum and up my dick. My blood surged back south. “Yeah, you keep doing that, and it’s gonna stay interested.”

“Good.” Maverick leisurely played with me. His cock was slightly longer, but mine was thicker. His grip was sure, and the slickness of the cum added to his ability to tease me. “I could do this all night.” He gave a happy sigh, then sobered. “What’s gonna happen tomorrow?”

“Nothing,” I said firmly, eyes shut, enjoying Maverick’s touches and not wanting to think. However, Maverick stiffened, strokes halting. I cracked open an eye. His expression was far too serious. “Nothing’s changed. You’re my best friend.”

“You’re mine too,” he said softly.

“Neither of us is gonna go shouting from the water tower that we kissed, but nothing’s changed.” The sun would still rise. We’d likely get breakfast and a lecture for staying out from Aunt Georgia. School would continue on toward graduation. Maverick would still be headed for California, away from this town, away from me. Nothing had changed except for everything.

Chapter11

Maverick

Now

I was woefullyunprepared for the experience of standing next to Colt at the gate to the indoor riding arena attached to the stables. Colt smelled like a memory, evidently still using whatever brand of soap he had in high school. His shoulders were broader, body more muscular and bulky, voice deeper, but his power to infiltrate all my senses remained unequaled.

My attention should have been fully on Hannah and her first time on a horse. She had helped Kat and Willow saddle Magnolia and had progressed to a slow walk around the arena, following Willow’s lead on Pepperjack. However, Colt was right the hell there after decades of me pushing down the memories of everything we’d been to each other, everything I’d left behind.

“When are we gonna get you up on a horse?” Colt drawled, apparently not content to merely torture me with his nearness.

“If I have any say, never.” I snorted. I knew how to ride, of course. Any Lovelorn boy who didn’t know the basics of riding and ranch chores wouldn’t have lasted long, not with my father at the helm. But horses had never captivated me, not in the way they seemed to have seized Hannah’s imagination.

Taking my focus off Colt, I watched the girls parade around the ring. Had it ever been as magical for me? Sitting up tall, in command of a big animal, learning how to harness its power. Hannah’s expression was one of utter rapture—Christmas, birthday, and favorite band concert tickets rolled into one. Somewhere back at the ranch house were photo albums of the three of us as kids, stacks of pictures of Mel and me, in particular, learning to ride, and not one smile as wide as Hannah’s. Being a Lovelorn was serious business, a lesson I hoped she never learned.

“Uncle Maverick, Willow says there is a trail ride coming up,” Hannah called out, doing an admirable job of keeping her body language straight ahead, not turning in the saddle or jerking the reins. “She says maybe I could go!”

“You’ve only been on a horse all of twenty minutes,” I answered, raising my voice to be heard yet keeping a teasing tone. “Trail rides are long, hard, and honestly, a little boring.”

“Boring? Nah.” Hannah sounded like boredom on horseback was an impossibility when I had vivid memories of a sore ass and burning quads that said otherwise. I’d been forced into more than a few to appease my father. “And I’ve been riding long enough to know I wanna go.”

“If she keeps practicing, she might do okay on the ride.” Kat was absolutely no help as she walked along with the girls. “It’s the annual charity one the ranch sponsors every year, an easy ride and one night camp.”

“There are likely spots left, but all riders under eighteen need an adult present.” Colt managed to agree with Kat while also sounding way too smug for my taste. “Think Faith would mount up?”

“You know that answer.” My voice was tight. In the days since we’d been back at the ranch, I’d tried to keep myself busy, answer questions for Grayson, get up to speed on current operations, and entertain Hannah. Faith, on the other hand, had engaged in long phone conversations with friends back in Houston and taken up day drinking. Or maybe she’d never stopped, a thought I preferred not to dwell on. And with Faith dropping the ball on parenting, who was I to deny my niece the joy the horses were clearly bringing her? “Gah. Hannah really loves this, doesn’t she?”

“She does.” Colt nodded, tone turning more thoughtful. “Resilient kiddo, coming from Houston society life to being a cowgirl. Reminds me of Willow, the way she seems able to roll with change.”

“They do seem like they are friends already.” Across the arena, the girls laughed at something Kat said, and Hannah’s beaming face was all the encouragement I needed to make an effort with Colt. “You wanna stay for supper? I promised Hannah I’d show her how to make homemade pizza on the grill. I’ve got the dough slow-rising in the fridge.”

“You cook?” Colt’s eyes widened. Understandable since he’d known me during the years when my father chased me from the kitchen, and Colt’s aunts and mother did more than their fair share of feeding me. We’d camped together a lot in high school, but hotdogs and marshmallows had been the extent of my outdoor cooking skills. “This I want to see.”

With a busy mother who’d resumed her career as a nurse after his father died and a pack of younger siblings, Colt had more culinary skills than I did back then, producing bacon, eggs, and grilled cheese in a cast iron skillet over the fire. My mouth salivated, a sudden undeniable craving for toasted bread, cheap cheese, and Colt. Always Colt.

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