I shrugged.
“I tried to talk to them once, and the investment banker lost his shit. Mom asked me not to come around anymore,” I said.
“You refer to that man as an investment banker?” Banks snorted.
“That’s what you got out of her entire explanation? That she refers to him as an investment banker? How about the part where she said her mother asked her not to see her brothers and sisters?” Darby snapped.
Banks closed his mouth and lost the grin.
Darby looked back at me, his eyes intense.
“How old are they now?” he asked.
I rattled off guesstimated ages.
“I’m not actually sure,” I admitted. “When I was allowed to see them, I knew. But it’s been years now, and I’ve forgotten. That makes me a bad sister, doesn’t it?”
Darby shook his head. “I don’t even know how you live this life, Waylynn Jennings, but you amaze me.”
Candy’s ‘awwww’ made me look at her.
“Darby,” Candy said. “I think that was the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
Darby’s eyes stayed on mine as he said, “Not that I don’t like you, Candy, but why are y’all here?”
Candy punched her husband in the shoulder.
“I appreciate you watching out for me out there,” Banks said with the utmost reluctance.
Darby’s eyes lifted to meet Banks’.
“When Paul said that you didn’t have a fighter, I told him I would do it because I don’t want you out there unprotected,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that I have to like you while I protect you.”
Banks nodded once.
“I know that,” he said softly. “But I appreciate it nonetheless.”
I allowed my eyes to flick back and forth between the two brothers.
“I’m gonna go get a shower,” Darby said as he stood.
“I just put Arnica all over you, Darby.” I laughed.
Darby’s eyes met mine.
“You can do it all over again when I get out,” he murmured.
Then he was gone, leaving me in the room with Candy and Banks.
I turned to survey his brother, who was now staring at the picture on the wall of a couple of white tail deer jumping over a barbed wire fence.
Candy was looking at her husband, looking as if she wanted to throttle him.
“He’s a really good man, you know,” I told Banks.
Banks’ head turned so that he could see me more clearly.
“You don’t give him a chance,” I told him bluntly. “You don’t see everything he’s doing. He’s literally killing himself to make everyone happy, and it makes me hate all of you because you don’t see that.” I stood up, crossing my arms over my chest. “I haven’t been in the picture long, but I’ve been here long enough to see that you’re going to lose him if you keep taking advantage of his love for y’all.”
Banks narrowed his eyes, opening his mouth as if to say something back, but I held my hand up.
“Y’all aren’t his parents,” I said. “You’re his brothers. He’s a grown adult, doing grown adult things. He’s working, has a real job, helps y’all every single morning requiring him to get up at the ass crack of dawn—I should know because I’ve been helping him do it. When he can’t do it, he works it out with the hands to get it done. He came back around at about nine at night the other day because he hadn’t been able to help riding fence that he promised y’all he would do.” I tilted my head. “Did you know that he ripped his side open on some barbed wire, duct-taped it up, and then went on working?”
Banks ran his hands over his face.
“We’re hard on him.”
I raised my brows at him. “Ya think?”
“He was an awful kid,” he explained.
I tilted my head at him and snorted. “You realize that he’s not that person anymore, right? From what I gather, Darby was an angry kid. And an even angrier teen. He hasn’t told me the all of it, though, but based on the stories that Gibson tells me, they were definitely wild. But Gibson told me that they hadn’t been wild for a long time. That, in fact, they’ve become people that he doesn’t recognize. People that neither one of them were when they were teens.”
Banks looked away.
“He threw a full can of Coke at a cop once,” he said.
I snorted. “He also told me that he apologized. Got right and straight, and now Nico loves him. Did you know that their kids call him their favorite uncle when you’re not around? Do they say that to you when you’re alone with them?”
Candy answered for him. “No.”
“Because apparently he spends a hell of a lot of time with them. Does his fair share of babysitting. Let me ask you this,” I said. “If Nico and Georgia forgive him, why can’t y’all?”
Banks stayed stubbornly silent.
“Also, from what I understand, Georgia doesn’t work at the ranch,” I said. “And she still gets dividends. What’s any different with what she’s doing than what Darby’s doing?”
Banks sighed.
“You have a point,” he admitted.
I rolled my eyes.
I knew damn well I had a point.
I also knew that Darby wouldn’t be in the shower much longer.
“I’m going to order pizza,” I said. “Please, make yourselves comfortable.”
Candy walked to her husband and wrapped her arms around his middle.
I ordered pizza.
And we all waited for Darby to come out and join us.
He looked like he’d rather pull his hair out than have dinner with his brother.
But he manned up and did it anyway.
Because that’s what adults did.
Did stuff that they didn’t want to do.
Chapter 12
I want a chiropractor to crack my entire body like a glowstick.
-Text from Darby to Waylynn
Darby
“Who wants to introduce themselves to the class?” I asked, standing at the front of the classroom with my arms crossed over my chest.
As per Waylynn’s orders, I hadn’t worn my hat.
And, unfortunately, she was right.
I didn’t get near as much attention as I did with it on.
It was Tuesday, four days after my mishap with the bull and a fence, and I was, as you could say, sore.
Sore was actually too mild of a word.
Wrecked was a good one.
I wasn’t limping or anything, but it hurt to breathe. It hurt to stand. It hurt to sit. It hurt to lie down.
Pretty much, it hurt to live.
A woman in the front row raised her hand and smiled prettily.
She was young, a few years younger than me, and looked as if she stripped for a living.
In fact, I was fairly sure that I’d seen her at Judy Bosoms a time or two before when I’d visited during business hours.
“Oh, me!” she cried happily.
I leaned my hips against the desk, tried to hide my grimace, and waited for her to start.
Since I didn’t have any other volunteers, I decided that it was okay for her to do the talking.
Sadly, I should’ve listened to my instincts and pointed at someone else.
“I’m here because I heard that this class was easy,” she chattered on endlessly.
In fact, she chattered so much that by the time that she finished, we only had about ten more minutes of class.
“Next time,” I said when she finally leaned back in her chair. “Everybody else gets to go.”
Everyone in the room around me chuckled.
I handed out an assignment—a collection of soil from their house—and told them to find out everything that they could about the area in which their place was built on.
Dismissing them five minutes early, I was just gathering my things when I heard a feminine voice clear beside me.
I looked over to se
e the stripper—and yes, I’d found out from her long dialogue about her life that she was, indeed, a stripper—standing there with a smile on her face.
“So I’ve seen you around Judy Bosoms,” she said.
I looked at her with raised eyebrows. “My best friend owns the place.”
“Oh, you know Gibson?” she asked.
I rolled my eyes.
If she’d seen me around the place, she’d seen me talking to Gibson. She’d also seen that we were good friends.
Of course I knew the man.
“Yes,” I answered shortly.
“So that girl that came in with you a few days ago. Was that your girlfriend?” she asked. “She was nothing to write home about. You’re a very sexy man. I would—”
I held my hand up, anger starting to get the best of me.
“Yes, she’s my girlfriend,” I snapped, trying to hold my temper in check and doing a piss-poor job at it. “Now, this is inappropriate for us to be discussing, seeing as I’m your teacher. If you’ll please…”
Her eyes narrowed.
“And it’s not inappropriate to be best friends with a strip club owner?” she asked, voice slightly acidic.
My brows rose.
“Ms…” I waited for her to give me her name.
“Duncan,” she offered.
“Ms. Duncan,” I said. “Please leave before I go visit with administration and get you permanently removed from my class. And all my future classes.” I paused. “I understand that you need this one to graduate, correct? If you don’t get it here, the closest one to offer it is two hours away. That’s a whole lot of driving to do on a single mom’s salary, correct?” I paused again. “Though, saying that, my best friend does OWN the establishment that you work in. I’m fairly sure he’s overlooked a few things that you’ve done, like calling in sick quite a few times because your son was sick. It’d be a shame if he overlooked his good nature and let you go because you were sick at least once a week.”
Ms. Duncan shut her mouth with an audible snap, seeing the error in her ways very quickly.
Without another word, she turned on her heels and marched out of my room, leaving me in blissful silence for all of two seconds before a light clapping began.
I looked up, annoyance written all over my face, to see Waylynn standing there looking proud.
“That was, quite simply put… beautiful,” she said. “Seriously, I’ve never seen anyone put someone down quite so elegantly.”
I rolled my eyes and jerked my chin toward her.
“Come down here and give me a kiss,” I ordered.
She grinned and took the steps down two at a time, practically falling into me the moment that she got within arm’s reach.
“That was sweet,” she said breathlessly, getting up onto tiptoes to press her lips against mine.
“Whatever,” I said, taking advantage of her open mouth to sweep my tongue inside.
She moaned and pressed farther into me.
I pulled back when I started to need oxygen, loving the way she smiled up at me.
“I was hoping to take you out to lunch,” she said. “Before you had to be at your other job.”
I looked at my watch and realized that if we left right now, I’d have exactly thirty minutes to eat, then ten to drive to the office.
“Sounds like a plan,” I said. “How did you get here?”
I caught her hand up in mine and led her out of the lecture hall.
“Gibson dropped me off,” she said. “I’m supposed to meet him back at the strip club. He had an emergency there. Something about a lighting issue that required his attention. He said he’d be there for a couple of hours, and to take all the time that I needed. So I’m doing lunch, then I’m going to go over there and look through more job applications before we open in three weeks.”
I nodded.
“He said something about a light looking loose,” I said. “He was worried that it might fall onto a dancer. So he had a couple of repair places give him quotes on how to fix it.”
She hummed happily, walking along beside me while I spoke about Gibson.
When we arrived at my truck, I opened her door and helped her inside.
But instead of swinging her legs into the cab of the truck, she stopped with them splayed wide and hooked her finger around my belt loop to haul me closer.
I went willingly, my hands going to her hips as I moved so close that my hips came into contact with her jean-covered pussy.
My cock instantly went from partial stiffy to full hard-on within a blink of an eye.
Everything about Waylynn did that to me.
I was so focused on her, though, that I hadn’t paid attention to my surroundings.
It was only when I was kissing her breathless that a couple of wolf whistles pierced the fog that covered my mind when only Way was around.
“Shit,” I breathed, pulling back. “We should probably go.”
She tilted her head slightly to the side, then pouted.
“If I didn’t think you needed to eat to be able to finish out your day, I’d totally say let’s go find a deserted parking lot…”
Chuckling, I pulled away and rounded the truck, uncaring that my cock was probably blatantly hard for all to see.
When I got in the truck, I drove straight to the first fast food place that I saw.
“What do you want?” I asked her, pulling up to the drive-through speaker.
She told me her order, and I placed both mine and hers, tapping my fingers restlessly on the steering wheel.
“What has you all hyper?” she asked, a grin wide on her face.
I gave her an unamused look.
“You know exactly what,” I told her.
She was unaware of my plans, however, thinking that she’d tease the shit out of me but not have to back up her talk.
In the end, I was the last one to get a laugh as I pulled into the deserted spot behind the feed store, yanked her into my arms, and started to kiss her.
“Darby,” she whispered. “What are you doing?”
I didn’t answer her as I continued to kiss her.
“Darby,” she whispered again.
I divested her of her shirt in the next moment, causing us to separate long enough for her shirt to go flying across the cab of the truck.
“I always wanted to bring a girl here,” I said teasingly. “Thought about bringing you here a couple hundred times, but the time never seemed right.”
She pressed her hand to my chest and tilted her head. “What’s so special about here?”
I trailed my fingers down the length of her torso, loving the way goosebumps chased my fingers down.
“This is where I decided to get my life together,” I said. “This is where Gibson and I made a pact to be a new us. A better us.”
She smoothed her hands down the length of my chest, her eyes meeting mine.
“You’re a good man, Darby Valentine,” she said softly. “I didn’t know the boy, but I know the man. And you’re everything that I’ve been looking for in a man, and even some things that I never knew that I wanted.”
My hands gripped her hips, and I leaned her back against the steering wheel so that I could press kisses to her exposed flesh.
“Lose the bra,” I ordered.
She did, pulling it off with the expertness of a woman that did it daily.
I moved forward until I could pull her nipple into my mouth, then gently circled one turgid tip with my tongue.
She shivered, her nipple pebbling even further.
“Darby.” Her hands gripped my hair and urged me forward, telling me without words that she wanted more.
I growled and switched to the other breast, cupping it with my palm and bringing it more fully to my lips.
“Jesus, Darby,” she whispered. “Jesus.”
I didn’t stop what I was doing until both of her nipples were slick with my saliva and peaked
to perfection.
“Get the jeans off,” I ordered.
She moved over onto the other seat and smooshed our lunch with her ass.
“Oops,” she said as she pulled her jeans down and kicked them off onto the floorboard.
I chuckled as I lowered my pants and underwear until my cock popped free.
“Get back over here,” I ordered.
She did, coming back to straddle my thighs, trapping my pulsing cock in between our bodies as she leaned in and kissed me.
I kissed her back, fumbling with my cock and pushing her away from me so that I could position myself at her entrance.
She continued to kiss me as she lifted her hips, and the moment she felt me where she wanted me, she sank down. One delicious inch at a time.
Her breath exhaled into my mouth as she slowly sheathed me fully.
When the backs of her thighs met the top of mine, she froze, clenching her inner muscles to try to adjust to my size.
“Swear.” She pulled back, her eyes hot. “I don’t know how the hell we fit, but thank God that we do.”
I pulled her in closer to me, once again going for her nipples.
“Ride me, baby,” I ordered.
She did, taking it slowly at first, but quickly picking up speed.
I could feel her inner muscles tightening on me, her impending orgasm getting closer and closer to the pinnacle.
And when she stopped, slammed her hips down, and cried out?
Yeah, I had no recourse but to follow right along with her.
My cock had already been feeling really good. But the moment that all of her muscles clamped down so hard that my cock felt like it was going to explode? I didn’t bother holding back.
I grunted as my seed left my body and entered hers.
My abdominal muscles tightened as I came so hard that they hurt.
“Fuck,” I breathed, clamping my teeth down on the cord of her neck.
She eventually collapsed on top of me, her breathing labored.
I wrapped my arms around her small frame and pulled her in tight, burying my face into her neck.
“I love you, Darby.”
Everything inside of me froze.
“I don’t want you to say it back,” she said slowly. “I just want you to know that you have someone in your corner.”
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