Page 69 of Ride the Sky

My cock still throbs in my pants.

I could escape. Go beat off to her relentlessly in the guest room, but I’m here to take care of her, ain’t I? I have a fucking job to do and it’s not acting like some starved horndog.

Even if that’s exactly what I am.

I’ve stayed loyal to Fallon ever since she left. Even if we weren’t a thing, even if we didn’t make promises, the only woman I’m aching for is her.

I keep a slow lope behind her, making sure to match her pace as she heads to the kitchen. The rubber feet of the walker squeak as she hobbles over the tile. With effort, she drops into a kitchen chair, eyes closed, breathing heavily.

Hands fisting at my side, I stand over her, silent, wanting to help, to make her okay. I open my mouth.

She cracks an eye. “Wyatt, if you ask me how I feel again, I will throttle you.”

Shaking my head, I set the bologna sandwich in front of her. Tomorrow I’ll make something better, something homecooked, but for tonight, this’ll have to do. Not like she’s planning to eat it. The way she picks at the crust tells me she’s exhausted.

Fallon crosses her arms when I sit across from her. Gives me a bored icy look. “So, if I have to put up with you hovering for the next however many weeks, we need to talk. What do we do with this?”

“With that?”

Her nostrils flare. “All this. Living together. Coexisting. We’re married, for fuck’s sake.”

“It worked out, didn’t it?” I snap, harder than I mean, and she flinches. “You need the insurance for PT.”

“Yeah, it all worked out fucking fabulously.” Her eyes cloud as she glances down at her body. Then she puffs out a frustrated breath. “My body is fucked. My dad hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you, Fallon. He might murder me in my sleep, but not you.”

Curiosity lines her expression. “Why?”

I sigh. “I promised him I wouldn’t touch you.”

It’s why Stede’s pissed. I made a promise, and I broke it. A cowboy’s been killed for less. Still, I didn’t like the way he treated Fallon. I earned Stede’s wrath; she hasn’t.

She laughs, heartily. It’s a beautiful sound, a real sound, and I smile. “You did? When?”

“When I started training you,” I grit out, feeling like a monumental asshole.

She scoffs. “I was sixteen. And that isn’t fair. Davis gets a pass with Dakota, why shouldn’t you?” Her honest, puzzled eyes make me feel better.

Because I’m a fuckup. A cowboy. But who I was before Fallon and after Fallon aren’t the same person. She’s changed me. In every best possible way.

“Besides.” Her lips curl, feline and naughty. A look I’m familiar with. “I was the one who came onto you.”

At the memory, my fingers curl on the thighs of my jeans. Fuck.

“And we were both willing, legal, consenting adults.”

My cock pulses, and I shift in the chair. “Fallon, that ain’t helpful.”

She smirks.

I’m obsessed, and she knows it. Obsessed over this girl who hates my guts. I can picture her beneath me. Tan muscular thighs locked around my hips. All that caramel hair wrapped in my fist. Those sharp, red lips never once kissing me, because all they wanted to do was curse my name. And still, I’d eat it up. Every damn time.

“I don’t know why he’s so upset. It’s all fake anyway,” she says, effectively dousing cold water on my erection.

Fake.

I’ve been riding in the rodeo for twenty years, I’ve broken eight bones, been rolled on by a horse, but nothing hurts worse than that fucking word.

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