Page 61 of Bucked Hard

“Blood is rushing to my head and I can’t breathe.” She sounds pained.

Finally, some rational words.

I speed my steps, my boots crunching on the dirt and gravel of the parking lot. The breeze has kicked up, the clouds rushing over the sky giving momentary glimpses of the moon.

Pausing next to the truck, I turn my head. “I’m going to put you down, and you are going to get in this truck and start talking, understand?” I’m talking over my shoulder, making sure she hears.

“Just put me down.” The lioness is sounding more like a lamb.

“Nope. Promise me you aren’t going to try to run. If you do, I’m getting out the rope and you’re going in the truck anyway, you’ll just be tied up.”

She huffs from behind me, then presses her hands onto my back to stabilize herself.

“Fine.” Her voice loses the edge. “I won’t run. Just please, put me down.”

I crouch down, then pop her up off my shoulder and catch her around the waist on the way down, keeping her close enough to feel every inch of her softness drag down my body.

I don’t waste time. I’ve got her eyes on mine as I reach out and open the passenger door of the pickup, one arm still around her waist guiding her forward. Leroy is panting and hops through the back window and into the truck bed, wagging his tail.

But she’s not moving.

“Get in, Rachel. I swear to God, you are getting in this truck. I get it, you’re stubborn and you’re mad as a hornet about something, but trust me, I’m ten times more patient than you are stubborn. I don’t retreat, Dove, now get in.”

She glares at me and wrinkles her nose.

She turns and grabs onto the side of the open door to climb in, then turns to face me.

“Leander is your brother.” It’s a statement, not a question, so I try to control the dread that the sound of his name sets inside me. “I’mRachel.”

Another statement, but I’m still fighting the connection. Praying it’s something else and knowing it’s not.

“Yes, Leander is my brother. Well, half-brother.”

Her eyes widen as she blinks at me like I’m an idiot, and I can’t say I always disagree with that assessment.

“RachelSweeting.I changed my name to Gordon, Jessie’s last name a few years ago. My real name is Sweeting.” She stares at me and my head is throbbing along with my cock. The angrier she gets, the more I want to fuck her as if that is the solution to whatever is going on here.

“Okay, so yeah, I know who you are, I know who my brother is.” Bile bubbles up the back of my throat even as I try for a split second to pretend I’m not putting the pieces together.

Please God, don’t let this go where I think it’s going. Please.

She shakes her head and her eyes turn from angry to sad. In a flash, I know. She turns and sits in the truck, staring straight ahead. “I’m the one that put your brother in jail. I’m the girl he did those things to. I’m the one.”

ChapterTwenty-One

Rachel

Ifeel like I’ve touched a live wire. My skin is rippling with current, zapping me like I’m holding onto an electric fence and I can’t let go.

“Just tell me, did you know who I was when you came to work for us?”

The look in his eyes tells me the answer. He looks like a ghost, white face and wide eyes, and for a moment I’m afraid he’s not breathing.

But he shakes his head without a word and I see him swallow hard before he turns away, steps back toward the bed of the truck, and grabs on to the top edge, locking his elbows, his head falling between his arms.

I hold my breath trying to keep my stomach from coming up.

Chad’s fingers tighten on the truck bed and he starts to rock his body back and forth, the tendons in his forearms standing out like cattle rope.

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