Page 16 of My Cowboy Kiss
“Nah. It’s the same old, same old. I let myself get pulled in thinking this time it’s going to be different. This time, she’s going to choose me by choosing to get help.” I bite down hard on my lower lip.
“It’s not you, the reason she acts the way she does. It’s the addiction to alcohol.”
“I know but…those guys hanging around there…that’s what I had to put up with almost every day.”
River stiffens. “If you tell me one of the men your mother used to have hanging around hurt you, I’m driving back there to find him.”
I shake my head. “I knew which ones to avoid. If they showed up suddenly when I was there, I either ducked out of my bedroom window or I piled furniture in front of my bedroom door. I told my mother repeatedly that I wanted to live with my grandmother, and it never mattered until one day she told me to pack my stuff because I was leaving for good.”
I hate thinking of those days. River doesn’t say anything, and I poke my finger into his side. “Why don’t you look surprised by what I said?”
“She let you go because of me. I badgered the hell out of your mom to make her let you go.”
This news surprises me. “You did?”
“I drove to find her day after day. I interrupted her at bars, when she was with men and when she was with her friends. I made myself a pain in her ass.”
“But I hadn’t told you everything about what was going on then.”
“I suspected there was always more beyond what you’d told me.”
It’s like him to see what no one else sees and it’s just like him to save me when no one else could. I snuggle close and put my head against his chest. His heart thumps beneath my ear.
And lower, I feel the thick bulge between his legs harden. I lay perfectly still, my brain racing a hundred miles an hour.
He doesn’t move either. I don’t know how to handle this.Nice cock, could you put it away?Saying that would preserve the boundaries of our friendship. But what my body wants me to say isnice cock, could you put it in me?
The lamp I have set to an automatic timer clicks on as shadows deepen in my bedroom.
I stir, moving back an inch and I swear his cock is following me. The best way to handle a situation when you don’t know what to do is with humor. Or that’s how I do it.
“Do you want to put your cock on a leash or is he planning to follow me around?”
River’s chest rumbles with laughter. He shifts, backing up and giving me space. “I didn’t realize it was obvious.”
I lean up on one arm and look down at him so he can see me rolling my eyes. “Really? News flash. You don’t have a teeny weenie. It’sveryobvious.”
“I’m not sure if I should gloat or be embarrassed.”
I push against him with my knee. “Go to the bathroom and take a cold shower.”
“It won’t help if I’m near you. This isn’t an issue around anyone but you.”
“So…instead of flowers you bring me a hard on?”
River laughs again and sits up, scooting back to rest against the headboard. He crosses his arms and nudges me with his foot. “Wanna watch TV?”
“No.” I wouldn’t be able to concentrate due to thinking about that bulge.
“It’s too early to go to sleep.”
“I know.” I yank my pillow up and pummel him with it, then with the element of surprise on my side, I leap from bed and run into the living room. I reach the sofa and dart behind it, my pillow raised. “You know I’m good at this. I’m the champion whomper of pillow fighting.”
“You think you are. I’ve always let you win.”
“Sure.” I swing wildly at his chest and miss. He bops me on the shoulder with his pillow. There’s no force behind it because he’s always careful in everything he does with me to ensure I don’t get hurt.
With that thought, a lightbulb goes on. If I did let myself be more than his friend, he wouldn’t hurt me. He’d lay his life down for mine, I know that as sure as I am that I’m standing here. I also know that I want him.
