Page 32 of Bucked Hard

I lean in to Rachel, wanting nothing more than to steal her away right now. Even over the smoke and delicious food smell, it’s her. A sweetness hangs in the air around her and I need it more than my body needs oxygen. I want to live off her body, she’s all the sustenance I’ll ever need.

“You’re the most beautiful badass I’ve ever seen,” I tell her, watching her pull her shoulders up at my words. I lower my voice so only she hears. “And that ass is mine.”

ChapterEleven

Rachel

We all laugh, and cut up and eat all the delicious food Vanessa cooked. We drink up the beer and wine, and revel in the cool air of late summer and I’m as close to heaven as I think God made here on earth.

Much to my surprise, Chad doesn’t knock back the Budweiser’s with Jessie and Enrique. And after some pushing from Jessie, he finally sips a bit of red wine from a Dixie cup but clearly the drink is not what he’s here for.

“So, where are you from?” I pluck up a bit of courage to ask the gorgeous cowboy next to me an innocuous question.

“Well, I’ve been living out west for a few years. Oklahoma.” He clears his throat and I watch his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallows. Even that part of him is sexy as heck; I imagine my lips there, feeling the masculine part of him move with the rasp of his day of beard under my lips.

“And before that?” I bite into my last tamale, the red juice squirting out and dripping down my chin. Trying to slurp it back and hold it with one hand, I feel around for my napkin with the other before realizing I already tossed it in the fire.

Why do I do this to myself? I was sure I wasn’t going to eat the last tamale because my stomach was already fit to burst.

Before I stand up to go wipe my dripping chin like a four-year-old, Chad’s fingers are there, scooping the liquid off my chin.

When he brings his fingers to his lips I can barely hold back the whimper that threatens to squeeze its way out of me. Some part of me wants to spread my legs for him right here and let him take what he wants, but instead I watch wide-eyed as he sucks his fingers clean, looking at me with eyes full of lust.

“Delicious.” He bites his lip and another pair of panties bites the dust.

As the night draws on, Enrique and Vanessa take the family and head off to their cabin.

“I’m going inside too,” Jessie adds. “Now you kids stay out here and make the most of the evening…” Jessie looks over at me, then nods at Chad.

“Wait. Jessie. Are you sure? I’ll come and help you clean up inside.”

What is wrong with me?

“Sitdown,Rachel. I’m old but I’m not helpless. You stay out here, have a little fun.”

“Yeah, Rachel, have some fun.” Chad’s mocking tone spins my head around.

“Hey…I have fun!”

“Really? When? I want to know what you do for fun,” Chad challenges.

“Lots of things. All the time.” I try to think of the last time I had fun. Writing is fun for me. Drawing and painting. In my head it sounds lame so I pinch my lips together and say nothing.

“Tell me.” His eyes regard me up and down, not even trying to hide the fact that he’s giving me more than just a friendly glance. He’s ogling me and I like it. “I want to know all about how you have fun. I want to know all about you period.”

An eruption of warmth surges up my chest and into my cheeks.

That was flirting. For sure.

“Oh yeah?”

Jessie leaves us and Chad takes the conversation. He doesn’t takeoverthe conversation, but he leads it and it’s that quiet confidence that makes me flutter and float on the night air.

I don’t remember ever talking so much with someone before, except maybe Jessie and Tabitha. She couldn’t make it tonight, but we have a girls night scheduled for tomorrow.

I keep people at a distance, guard myself from them, but Chad has made quick work of chipping away my normal armor and I can’t even be sure when or how he did it.

He asks me all kinds of questions and then helistensto my answers. You know how most people are when you first meet them, they ask you something, but they’re really waiting for their turn to talk. The moment you take a breath, they jump in and want to tell you all about them, the things that they think are interesting, and whatever you could possibly want to share becomes a distant memory.

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