Page 56 of Rough
Wilder snorts in agreement from behind me, so I make quick work of wrapping it around her legs as well.Holy fuck, she’s spittin’ mad now.
“Remy! I swear to God, if you don’t let me go right now, I’m gonna murder you in your sleep. Your momma won’t even blame me for it! Let. Me.Go!” Her scream at the end has me erupting in laughter.
Pushing her back against the wall, I throw the end around the post and tie it off, tying her in place so I can step to the side and check out her injury. In her fight against the rope, she’s dropped the rag and there’s a steady stream of blood dripping down her arm.
“Jesus, Bets. How the hell did you get this?”
I dodge her when she tries to head butt me. With her chest heaving, she grits out, “I’ll tell ya when you untie me.”
“How ‘bout you tell us, then we’ll consider it?” Clyde asks as he moves to my side, holding the first aid kit. He drops into a squat and starts tearing open gauze and antibacterial wipes, handing them up to me. Wilder is a foot away, fighting off his nausea from the blood, keeping his eyes on our girl.
I press some gauze to the four-inch slice on her arm, then use my other hand to start cleaning up the blood. Meeting her eyes briefly, I can tell how furious she is with my high-handedness, but also that her arm hurts. “Sorry if it stings, country girl,” I murmur.
“Frank threw me.”
Wilder stands up straighter, uncrossing his arms. “Why? What happened?”
She’s still locked in a staring contest with me, but eventually she drags her gaze away with effort to look at him. “Don’t know. Probably a snake or somethin’, but he got spooked. Rock sliced my arm. Are you boys done? I’d like to head to the house and change.”
Checking over her cut now that it’s cleaned up, I stick a bandage on and notice there’s blood staining her shirt. “Don’t think you need stitches. It’s not too deep, but I’d wash it up real good again tonight.”
“Thanks,” she bites out, then wiggles under the ropes. “Gonna let me go now?”
Taking a step back, I let my eyes run down her body, and feel my heart do an extra pump at the vision she makes. She’s straining against the bindings, her breasts pushing against her shirt as she breathes harshly, legs and arms pinned together, and hair coming free from the braid she always keeps it held back with.
“Sweet Lord.” Wilder finally comes back to the present, realizing what I’m seeing at the same time.
Clyde is still squatting down in front of her, head tilted back and his jaw slack.
Muttering out of the side of my mouth, her face flushes bright red when she hears me say, “Well, I was not expecting this…”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Clyde
Iliterally cannot move from where I’m lowered in front of Betsy. We were all concerned about getting her cut cleaned up, but now that Remy’s got it bandaged, the position we have her in now is jarring. I’m frozen in place.
“You look beautiful.” My voice is low and filled with want. She hears it too, the undertones that come out guttural and lustful. When her eyes jerk down to me, I see both heat and fury filling her.
It’s not until her eyes water do I force my body to move, quickly untying her. “Sorry,” I whisper, but she doesn’t answer.
Digging her teeth into her lower lip, she keeps herself controlled and still until I get the ropes unknotted. Remy’s, “Oh shit,” tells me he sees what’s going on as well. “Sorry, Bets. I shouldn’t have kept yo—”
The moment she’s free, she steps forward, grabbing Remy’s shoulders while he’s mid-sentence. Briefly, the thought that she’s going to kiss him flashes in my head, but that’s not what she does. Betsy jacks her knee straight up and nails him right in the balls, then shoves him away from her body. He falls to the ground hard, groaning and cupping himself.
Spinning around, she glares at me and points to Wilder at the same time. “Either of you come near me right now, you’ll get the same. He got it ‘cuz he threw the rope first, but don’t think ya’ll are off the hook. Fuckin’ cowboys thinkin’ you have a right to lock me down like that.”
“We, uhh…” Wilder clearly has no clue what to say. When she snaps in his face, his eyes jerk back up to her, completely focused, swallowing hard.
“My eyes are up here. Keep ‘em off my tits until you get permission. Take your friend home and have him ice his balls.” Stepping over to Remy, who’s now on his back taking deep breaths to stop himself from puking, she squats down and pats his cheek. “Don’t worry, Remy. I’ll take Zeus out for ya. I reckon you won’t be ridin’ for a few days.”
She walks away from us, heading back to Frank, but I clear my throat and jog over to her. Softly, I plead with her. “Lemme put him up for you. I know you wanna get out of here and your exit would be a lot more epic if you left now.”
The guys don’t hear me, and when she meets my eyes for a moment, I nod at her look of thanks. Handing over Frank’s reins, she leaves the barn, and I finally let my lip curl up in amusement for the way she handled this whole altercation.
As soon as she disappears, I feel like my heart just left with her. Without looking away from where I last saw her, I call to Wilder. “Take care of Frank. I’m gonna make sure she’s okay. Rem, you gonna live?”
“Yeah,” he chokes out, then coughs out a laugh. “Fuck, she got me good.”
