Heat builds within my core. I rock against his hardness, my panties and Daisy Dukes providing a bittersweet friction. It’s too much, and not enough, but I still fall headfirst into the sensations. Colt’s calloused hands pinch and tease my nipples. I see stars as heat and pleasure collide within me and I cry out, but my begging is swallowed by the sweetness of his tongue stroking my own. “Oh my God!”
Colton smiles. “That was seriously the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
I giggle. “Sure. I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“No. I’ve never done that with anyone else.”
“Really?”
“Swear on my mama’s life. God rest her soul.”
I frown and stare at him, confused. “Why not? You could have any girl in this town, or in the tristate area for that matter.”
His grin is sincere and so deliciously sweet because it’s all mine. “There’s only one girl I’ve had my eye on since I was old enough to know what kissing was.”
I slap his chest playfully. “Shut up.”
“I’m serious. And I am seriously in love with her, with everything she does, with everything she thinks, feels, and says.”
“Well, you’ll have to introduce me so I can kick her ass. I can’t have my man obsessing over some other girl.”
He laughs and tugs at my Daisy Dukes. “In case you didn’t know, it’s you, Lemon Winchester.”
I grin and slide off him, unfastening the button and zip on my shorts. Then I wriggle out of them. I still have my panties on, and he’s still wearing his jeans, but Colt pulls me close to him as if he can’t bear not touching me. His hands slide between my legs, and I know he can feel the wetness soaking the thin fabric. He pushes them aside and gently caresses me, the pads of his fingers seeking out my honey and sliding up to cover my clit. He draws tiny circles around my swollen flesh and my knees threaten to give out.
“Colt.” I pant. His lips find my neck and shoulder as he intensifies his stroking. “Colt, please?”
“Come for me again, Lemonade,” he whispers against the shell of my ear, causing gooseflesh to erupt over my skin. My legs quiver and my breath comes in short, sharp pants. I’m so close to coming again that I don’t want to stop, but I need him inside me. I grab his wrist with every intention of yanking it away, but I can’t. Fireworks explode behind my closed eyelids and tremors rock my body. He kisses me as he lays me down on the blanket.
I’m a limp noodle. I’m euphoric. I’m floating, and all I can do is watch as he takes off his jeans and fishes a condom out of his wallet, tears into the foil wrapping with his teeth, and rolls it on. His dick juts out proudly, and I’ve never seen one up close and in real life, but he is perfect. A dusky rose, thick and long, and definitely hard.
I swallow and Colt glances from my breasts to my face. “Are you sure you wanna do this?”
“Absolutely,” I say with a courage I no longer quite feel.
“It’s okay to back out, Lemon.”
“Colton Hayes, do you wanna have sex with me or not?”
He grins. He freaking grins as if I’m the most adorable thing he’s ever seen. He glances down at his dick and back at me. “I think we both know the answer to that.”
“Then do it already.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He eases my panties down, then he climbs between my legs, his much larger frame lowering over mine and settling between my thighs. I wasn’t expecting him to be quite so heavy, and I feel like I’m suffocating as his weight presses me into the hard ground. He seems to realize this because he supports his weight with one elbow as he guides himself inside. Pain tears through me, paralyzing me beneath him. “Lemon?”
“I’m okay,” I say, but the words turn to a whimper as tears roll down my face to melt into my hair.
“Shit. Darlin’, I’m sorry.” Colt hangs his head and tries to pull out, but I cling to him.
“Don’t stop. Please, Colt.”
“I don’t wanna hurt you. Maybe we should wait?”
“Wait for what? Me to be old and gray?”
He chuckles and it does interesting things to my insides. A little of the excitement and heat I’d felt just moments ago arcs through me again.
“Why don’t you slip your hands between us and show me how you touch yourself when I’m not around?”
I bite my lip and wriggle my hand into the space between our bodies as Colt lifts his hips. I touch my clit, the sensation so electric with the pressure of him inside me. As my hunger for him, for pleasure, and for release grows, I feel my walls start to relax. A new tension twists through my body—want, need, desire—all for him. Only for him.
“Jesus, Lemonade. I’ll never grow tired of watching you fuck yourself while your pussy clamps around my cock.” Colt groans in my ear, and I realize it’s me who’s moving. He’s given me all of the control in this situation, and I’m the one bucking beneath him, taking my pleasure from him and not the other way around. I can feel the tension in his whole body, the restraint he must be using to hold back and let me explore this new world of craving and carnality, but I want to feel him lose control too.
“Colt?” I pant.
“Mmm?”
“I … I want you to fuck me.”
His eyes hood over as he searches my gaze. “Are you sure?”
I nod and bite my lip, keeping my fingers circling my clit as he slides deeper and pulls almost all of the way out. His arms tremble as he supports his weight, and I draw him to me, wanting to feel our bodies connected everywhere. He kisses my lips, gentle nips at my tender flesh as he pistons his hips. Pleasure, heat, and anticipation collide within me, pulling me under like a current, sluicing through me as all of my nerve endings and synapses fray and fire. I come harder than I ever have, clutching his body to mine, my legs wrapped around his, my heels digging into his ass, pushing him deeper as he follows me into the sweet and wild abyss.
“Lemonade, we gotta wake up.” He rubs my arm under the blanket, and I mumble and bury myself deeper in the crook of his shoulder. It’s warm here and we’re naked and I don’t want to ride back to the ranch on my own. I don’t want to be without him after what we just did.
“Just a few more minutes,” I murmur.
“Okay, just a few. And then we’re going back.”
“Hmmm.” I nod, but I think he’s already asleep.
I sit bolt upright as hooves thunder toward me and for a moment, I can’t get my bearings. I don’t know where the hell I am, and then Colt stiffens beside me.
“Shit, shit, shit. We fell asleep.” He’s on his feet in a second, tossing my shirt at me as he pulls on his jeans.
“Oh my God! My daddy is gonna kill you.” I throw on my T-shirt and panties, but I’m not even sure where my shorts ended up.
“West is gonna kill me first.”
“You’re goddamn right he is,” West says, as he comes from out of nowhere and punches Colt right in the jaw.
“West, no!” I’m half dressed, and I lunge toward them, but Wade pulls me back. I scream and buck against him, thrashing my arms and legs in an effort to get away. “Let me go!”
West hits him again but Colt doesn’t fight back.
“You’re my best friend. And you’ve been fucking my little sister.”
“It isn’t like that.” Colt spits blood on the ground by his feet.
West darts forward and sucker punches Colt right in the gut. Colt crumples to the ground and I bring my elbow up into Wade’s face. He shouts and releases me, and I dive between my eldest brother and Colt, using my body like a shield. “West William Winchester, you stop right now!”
West’s lips turn up in a sneer. “Move, Lemon.”
“No! I love him.”
West shakes his head. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You’re too young to be in love.”
“You don’t know. You probably wouldn’t even know what love was if it slapped you in the face.”
“Get out of the way, Lemon.” West steps towa
rd me.
I throw my arms wide, and steel my resolve as I stare down one pissed-off brother. “You wanna hurt him, you have to go through me.”
West’s eyes narrow, darting between his best friend bleeding on the ground and his half-naked little sister protecting the one-hundred-and-fifty-pound boy next door. “How long has this been going on?”
“Long enough, dumbass.” I turn and kneel by Colt’s side, tears welling in my eyes at the sight of blood on his busted lip.
“This is all my fault,” Colt says. “I’ve been in love with Lemon for years. But I never planned to touch her. I didn’t chase her, West. I swear. It just happened.”
“You think that makes it better?” Wade shouts.
“No. If anything, you probably wanna kick my ass even more.”
“You’re damn right I do.”
“No one is kicking anyone’s ass.” I glare at West. “I was the one doing the chasin’. I came onto him, and you know what happens when I set my mind to something I want.”
“He’s older than you!” West closes his eyes and takes several deep breaths. “Four fucking years older. He shoulda known better.”
“It doesn’t matter, West. I love him and he loves me. You wanna kick his ass, then you better be prepared to kick mine too, because from now on, Colt and Lemon are a package deal.”
I can hear more horses in the distance, and West glances down at me. “Get dressed. Daddy’s commin’.”
All my hot air deflates like a balloon and I kiss Colt, despite the busted-up lip, and scramble to find my shorts. My brothers turn their backs as I slip on the tight denim and I wrap the blanket around me because I can’t stop shaking. I don’t know if it’s fear, shock, or the early morning chill, but there’s cold deep in my bones as I glance at Colt. He slides on his T-shirt and hangs his head. I eliminate the distance between us and slip my hand in his. He won’t look at me, so I step in front of him, cup his cheek and force him to.
“West is right,” Colt says. “I shoulda known better.”
“I don’t care what West or anyone else thinks.”
My brother folds his arms across his chest and scowls.
“They’re over here, Daddy,” Wyatt says, coming around the side of the red oak on his horse. He takes a beat to assess the scene. My hand in Colt’s, the blankets, lanterns in the trees, and he whispers, “Oh, shit. Y’all are so dead.”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, boy?” Colt’s daddy is the next to stumble across the scene. His gray eyes, so much like his son’s, burn into Colt’s. He jumps off his horse and glares at our joined hands. Colt tries to extract his hand from mine, but I hold on for dear life.
My daddy charges around the tree, looks me over from head to toe, and settles his gaze on Colt like he’s fixing for a fight. “Lemon, you get yourself on home now.”
“No.”
Daddy’s eyes narrow. “What did you just say?”
“I said no, Daddy.” My voice breaks over his name and I swallow hard because I’ve never told my father no in my whole life. “I’m stayin’. Whatever you say or do to him, you do to me too.”
“Don’t test me, Lemonade.”
“I don’t mean no disrespect, Daddy, but I love him, and I will not leave so your conscience is clear because you don’t want to give him a whooping in front of your little girl.”
He shakes his head. “You’re not my little girl anymore.”
Tears fill my eyes and I wince, but he won’t break my resolve. “You’re hurt, so I won’t hold that against you, but I am too your little girl. No matter how many boys I give my heart and body to.”
“Go on back to the house, Lemon,” he hisses. “I can’t even look at you, right now.”
His words sting, an arrow right through my heart, but I’m not backing down on this. “No, Daddy. I’m not going anywhere without Colt.”
“What the hell were you thinkin’, boy?” Mr. Hayes shouts.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Colt says, looking first at his daddy and then mine. “I know we shouldn’t have been out here, and we shouldn’t have been sneakin’ around behind everyone’s backs.”
“You’re damn right you shouldn’t,” Mr. Hayes says.
“You wanna court my daughter,” Daddy says, stepping closer to Colt. “You come sit at my table. Don’t you ever disrespect me or my little girl like that again.”
“Daddy, this isn’t his fault.”
My father’s eyes are cold and unforgiving as he glares at me. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“I asked him to meet me here.”
“You ask him to take your innocence too? He’s older than you. He knows better than to let some little filly throw herself at him. Or at least, I thought he did,” my father says.
“I’m not some little filly. I’m not a goddamn horse, and would y’all just stop judging me for doin’ exactly what the boys have done since they were old enough to kiss a girl. I’m a young woman. I trust my head and my heart, and both belong to Colt.”
My dad winces like my words leave a sour taste in his mouth, and I step forward and grab his hand curled into a fist at his side. “I love him. And he loves me.”
“You’re too young to know what love is.”
“I’m seventeen and a half, Daddy. Weren’t you the same age when you met Mama?”
“That’s different.”
“How? How is it different?”
“Because you’re my daughter,” he bites out.
I wipe away my tears with the back of my hand and nod. “I am, and I love Colt. Nothing anyone says or does is gonna change that.”
Daddy shakes his head. “It ain’t right, Lemonade.”
“Says who? Colt’s been a part of my life as long as I can remember. He loves me, he takes good care of me, and you can tell me not to see him, but that’s not gonna stop the way my heart feels. He’s my whole world, Daddy.”
All of the anger leaves my father’s face, replaced instead by a sad sort of resignation. He shakes his head and turns to Mr. Hayes. “Best you take your boy on home now.”
Mr. Hayes nods and glares at Colt, and I worry what Colt’s daddy might do when everyone is not there to temper his anger. Colt got his heart and his sweetness from his mama, but the only similarity I’ve seen between him and his daddy is the way they look. He don’t talk about it much, but I know Mr. Hayes is harder on Colt with a belt or his hands than our daddy has ever been with us.
I clutch Colt’s hand as he passes and give it a small squeeze, and then he and Knievel are gone, along with Mr. Hayes. I glance at my own father, and then at my brothers all standing there stony-faced and full of their own sense of selves, casting judgement on me and Colt.
“Well, are y’all just gonna stand there gawking at me, or are you gonna get back to the house before Mama feeds all our breakfasts to the dogs?”
I roll up the blanket and stomp toward Pete, then climb into the saddle and take off for home at breakneck speed before anyone else can vocalize how disappointed they are in me.
CHAPTER NINE
Lemon
I wake early, shower, dress, and apply a minimal amount of makeup—or war paint as my daddy called it—and I head downstairs. Mama isn’t in the kitchen, but she’s already served up grits and biscuits for breakfast. I don’t want to eat, and I settle instead for a strong black coffee. The mood in the kitchen is somber, and I can’t help but notice the absence of Cash and Colt. “No extended family today?”
“They’ll be at the church,” West says, pouring the remainder of his coffee down the sink and leaning against the counter.
“So how is this going to work? Shall I drive Mama?”
“I can drive myself,” Mama says, coming down the stairs in her finest church clothes.
Wyatt proclaims, “I’ll drive Mama and Lemonade in her car.”
Over my dead body.
I give him a stern look. “I can drive my own damn car.”
“Lemon, just let me drive. Please? When the
hell else am I ever gonna get behind the wheel of a Ferrari?”
“Fine, but I’m not insured for anyone else but Stavros and I, so if you break it, you bought it.”
Wyatt kisses my cheek. “Thanks, Lemonade.”
“I mean it, Wyatt. Do not crash my car.”
“Never.” He gives me a willful smile as he heads to the key holder by the back door and plucks my key fob from the hook.
Mama wrings her hands. “I still don’t see why I can’t just drive myself?”
“Come on, Mama. What’s wrong with showing up in style? Daddy woulda loved it.”
She smiles sadly. “No offence, Lemonade, but your daddy would have called that car a hunk of European junk.”
“It’s a lot of money on a car. Why, I bet you could sell it and fund this ranch for several years to come,” West mutters.
“Now you hush, West William Winchester. That car was a gift, and Lemon ain’t selling it to make you happy. I’m ashamed you’d even suggest such a thing. And on today of all days.”
West turns and leaves, the screen door slamming behind him.
“He’ll come around, Lemonade.”
“I’m not so sure.” I shake my head, staring after my brother. I don’t know why the others can forgive me and West can’t, but he doesn’t seem to be warming to his little sister any, and I don’t know if he ever will. “I’m not sure I deserve it.”
Daddy’s funeral went much the way I imagined it would go, with copious amounts of tears, and townsfolk I haven’t seen or thought about since I left offering empty platitudes and invitations to visit with them. I don’t bother telling anyone that they made my life here a living hell and the only intentions I have are to leave them in my rearview as soon as I possibly can.
Back at the ranch, I put Mama to bed and drink several glasses of wine as I heat up a casserole in the oven for the boys. I set the table on autopilot, and I lose it when I accidently place a plate at Daddy’s spot.
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