Page 30 of Bucked Hard

They are such a contrast. Enrique stout size with warm caramel skin against Vanessa’s near translucent complexion and ivory blond hair. They met at the community college a few towns over and from the way Enrique tells the story, she was his the moment he set his eyes on her.

Chad looks up as my boots hit the first step down off the back porch. I’m wearing my usual farm jeans and shirt. I thought about putting on one of my skirts and a pair of my patent leather flats I like to wear when I work at the bar, but it felt too hopeful. I didn’t want to look like I was trying.

My skin ripples as his sky blue eyes follow me down toward the group. It’s not just a glance either, he’s locked onto me. Challenging me to break the stare. My stomach dances under my shirt.

He is so fucking beautiful…

His jeans are perfect, just the right side of casual, loose but still straining a bit over his thighs. He wears a red and blue plaid shirt that’s unsnapped, with a clinging white tank top underneath. His pectoral muscles pressing on the white fabric and a hint of his dark chest hair decorating the scoop of the neckline. With wide spread knees his long fingers dangle down between his legs as he sits on one of the upturned logs that encircle the fire.

I think I have lost the power of speech.

“Hey, come on over here.” He jumps up, offering me his seat. “I’m jealous sitting here next to Enrique and Vanessa all coupled up. What do you say we give them some competition?” He tips his head to the side, urging me toward him. The flex of his square jaw moves with every word.

Vanessa and Enrique lean into each other with a soft chuckle. Four of their kids are running around making machine gun noises as they play army with sticks. The other one is asleep near Vanessa’s feet, settled in a travel bassinet lined with quilts. The night air is full of the sounds of children, the crackling fire, and crickets, but all I can hear is my heart beating out of my chest.

“Okay.” I fuss with my shirt and jerk one shoulder toward my ear as I step closer to the fire.

Okay? That’s what you have to say? I’m an idiot.

I glance at Jessie who doesn’t try to hide the wry smile on her face. I tighten my lips and glare at her with my best ‘don’t even start’ eyes.

“Can I help with anything?” I ask Vanessa.

I lick my lips and try to keep my voice steady as Chad steps sideways, politely giving me a bit of room to move past him. But his eyes inspect me from top to bottom, tracing each curve like they belong to him.

“No, you sit.” Vanessa winks. “Have fun. The food is almost ready.” Enrique winks at me as well and I feel like the poor fat girl being set up with her cousin for prom. Except no poor fat girl ever had Chad as a cousin.

His hand grazes the small of my back as I step past him, and it’s not accidental. His simple touch ignites a cascade of heat that makes the fire look frigid. He leans down and whispers in my ear, and I swear he draws in a breath like he’s smelling me.

“You can help me.”

Parts of my body just melted. “I can?”

I settle my behind onto the upturned stump that was his seat until a moment ago and scratch at my temple.

I’m still having a very hard time absorbing the fact that Chad is the mountain man from last night and I have to wonder whether it’s actually a coincidence that he ended up here again today. Or, that he’s the one that came along last night. That’s an awful lot of coincidences.

And there’s also a steaming portion of embarrassment inside me right now over what actually did happen in the back of my pickup truck. I mean, less than twenty-four hours ago his fingers were inside me and his tongue played me like a fiddle.

Oh, and the things he’d said to me. Oh my God.

Who would have thought that kind of dirty talk would directly connect to my lady parts and send me rocketing into the night like some harlot? His eyes are on me, and I swear I can actually feel it. Everywhere his eyes go, my skin tingles. And I can read his face. It’s like we have a seductive secret and it’s only multiplying the tension twisting around the flecks of bright ash swirling in the air around us.

“Yep. You can help me remember how good it feels for a dumb ole cowboy to get a pretty girl like you to sit with him.”

My cheeks turn into hot coals.

Is he serious?

Vanessa and Enrique chuckle, and I know if I look over at Jessie she’s going to know right away. My chest aches at the thought of his tongue. That first brush against my sensitive flesh. The way I opened my legs so wide for him, giving myself over.

A shiver takes my shoulders. Chad only smiles bigger, like he knows what I’m thinking.

Last night is a night I’ll never forget. I mean, for a girl’s first real kiss, I could have done a lot worse.

And something tells me it won’t be the last.

ChapterTen

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