by Marla Monroe
“Ah, hell,” Billy hissed out when he saw her.
“Sir! Sir. It’s not Billy’s fault. He didn’t push that inebriated man. I did. By accident. I lost my balance and fell into him. Then he turned around and almost hit me, but Billy moved me out of the way and the man decked him. That’s how it all started, so you don’t have to take him in, do you?” She continued to rub her head while pulling on the deputy’s sleeve.
The man ran one hand over his face and shook his head. Turning to the other deputy who had one arm of the man she’d knocked into, he sighed.
“We’ll take them all in and let the sheriff sort them out. I’m not about to get in the middle of this one.” Turning to Kayley, he looked at her. “I need to see your ID. Have you been drinking, ma’am?”
Chapter Three
“What did I tell you about her?” Billy asked in a snarl as they pulled out of the sheriff’s office parking lot.
Craig sighed and looked over his shoulder at where Kayley sat with her head down in the back seat of the truck. He wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her, but that would start something he couldn’t, wouldn’t finish.
“Billy, it wasn’t her fault. She tripped over someone’s feet that were sticking out. You can’t blame all of this on her.”
“The hell I can’t!”
“I said I was sorry.” Kayley’s soft, Southern voice almost whispered through the truck.
“Don’t say a word back there. Not one word,” Billy muttered as he drove toward Kayley’s place.
Craig didn’t know what to do to settle him down. For some reason, he had it in his head that Kayley was a walking disaster, and as much as he wanted to disagree, when the two of them were anywhere around each other, shit happened. Probably the best thing he could do was give up on the thought of one day convincing Billy that she was someone they could have fun with. It wasn’t going to happen in this lifetime.
“And what in the hell possessed you to cut your hair, anyway?” Billy asked, gripping the wheel with white knuckles.
Craig wondered if he was going to break the steering wheel or his fingers first. Just the fact that Kayley could get him so riled proved that the man wasn’t unaffected by her. If he would only give her a chance.
“I don’t see how it’s any business of yours, Billy Wainwright. I don’t answer to you or anyone else.” Her sweet voice with the Southern lilt took most of the intended sting from her words.
“Stubborn female,” Billy muttered under his breath.
Craig smothered a grin and looked out the side window before Billy noticed the smile he just couldn’t get off his face. The two of them had been going at each other since high school when he’d tried to kiss her one day after school and ended up on his ass. She’d leaned into him so that he lost his balance and fell over the three-foot brick wall outside the gym. It might not have been so bad except at the time there were over a dozen of their classmates there to witness it. It earned him a year’s worth of taunting that he got bowled over by a little kiss from a freshman. The insinuation that he couldn’t handle a kiss had, in part, instigated his need to conquer every female around.
He’d never been a kiss-and-tell type of guy, but he didn’t linger with the women either. By the end of their senior year, Billy and Craig were sharing women, and they had the reputation of being able to satisfy a woman to the point that she would pass out from the pleasure. To say they had plenty to play with didn’t even scratch the surface. Women were always coming on to them in hopes of earning a night in their arms.
It was getting old. Craig wanted more than one-night stands or long weekend play parties. He wanted to wake up with the same women between them every morning, and come home to the same one at night. He wanted to watch her grow round with their child and grow old sitting on the porch in a rocking chair holding hands. He leaned against the seat, letting his head drop back on the headrest. They weren’t getting any younger, and Billy was growing restless. Worry drilled a hole in his gut.
“Well, you shouldn’t have cut your hair to try to be someone you’re not, Kay-Kay.” Billy wasn’t going to let it go.
“Stop calling me that! I’m not ten years old anymore,” she fumed behind them.
“No fucking kidding,” Billy muttered under his breath.
Craig cocked his head and lifted a brow at Billy’s comment. When Billy looked over at him with a scowl, Craig knew his friend hadn’t planned for him to hear that comment. He chose to let it go since saying something with Kayley in the truck with them would only make things worse.
“And I’m not trying to be something I’m not, Billy. I’m just me, and I wanted to cut my hair. I didn’t need your permission,” she said.
It was obvious that Kayley was oblivious to the pressure building between the two of them. Craig could see Billy gearing up for one of his famous blowups. The signs were all there. His tight grip on the steering wheel, the way his jaw bunched as he ground his teeth, and the tick at the corner of his right eye all said that disaster was eminent. What Craig wasn’t sure of though was whether to head it off and cool things down or let him explode and see where the fallout took them.
As it was, he didn’t get the chance to do anything. Billy pulled up in front of Kayley’s house just as she sealed her fate.
“Besides, it wouldn’t have mattered if you had told me I couldn’t. I would have done it anyway. You don’t have the right to tell me what I can and can’t do.” She popped open the passenger door and climbed out of the jacked up truck, landing on her heeled boots with a wobble.
Before Craig could stop him, Billy threw open his door and jumped down from the cab. His friend had Kayley pinned with her back to the door she’d just slammed before he managed to get out on his side. When he ran around to the other side to try and talk some sense into Billy, it was to find the other man pressed intimately to Kayley’s body, devouring the surprised woman’s mouth as if he hadn’t had anything to eat in days.
Craig’s cock hardened at the sight of the woman he’d wanted for years being kissed by his best friend. Blood boiled in his veins as his balls tightened. Billy had Kayley’s wrists pinned to the truck on either side of her head as he pressed his body tight against hers. You couldn’t have gotten a piece of paper between them if you tried.
He looked to be sure Kayley wasn’t fighting his friend. He would have been forced to put a stop to Billy’s punishing kiss. To his relief, Kayley had quickly warmed to the kiss and, even now, was lifting one leg to wrap it around his friend’s hips.
Almost immediately, Billy pushed away from her. Taking a step back, he glared down at her. Craig closed his eyes and waited for the fallout.
“You better get in that house and stay there, Kay-Kay. Don’t come anywhere near me again. Nothing but trouble follows you, and it always bleeds all over me.” Billy was breathing hard as he spewed out his anger. “Besides, you have no business going out to bars and picking up strange men. You’re going to end up getting hurt.”
Without another glance in her direction, Billy stomped back to the still open driver’s door and climbed up in the cab. Craig stared at his friend with disgust. He turned to try and ease things with Kayley, but she pushed past him and kicked the truck’s front tire, wincing in the process. Then she walked with her head high to her door, unlocked it, and slammed it closed behind her.
“You coming, Craig? If you are, get your ass in the truck. I’m leaving.” Billy threw the truck into gear, barely waiting for him to scramble around the front and climb inside before he was pulling away from the curb.
“Well, that was interesting,” Craig said.
“Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear one word.” Billy’s hands weren’t gripping the wheel anymore, and the telltale tick at the corner of his eye had calmed.
* * * *
Kayley fumed and paced in her bedroom, wanting to wrap her hands around Billy’s neck and squeeze for kissing her like there was no tomorrow then dropping her like a hot potato. She had never
felt like that before. All of her senses had gone wild at the smell and taste of him as he kissed her. The scent of soap, beer, and male sweat had her hormones tripping, while the flavor of his kiss had her girly parts on fire. She had no doubt her pussy was soaked and her panties drenched.
“The nerve of him! He can’t just kiss me and then leave me like this.” But he had.
The muffled sound of her phone ringing as she started pulling off her boots made her sigh and reach into the tiny purse she’d carried with her to the bar. When she checked the number, it turned out to be Bea.
“Hey, Bea. I’m home.” She struggled to get at least one of the boots off.
“Are you okay? I can’t believe they arrested you! I’m going to give Sheriff Gates a piece of my mind when I see him again.” Her friend’s outrage made her smile.
“They didn’t actually arrest me, Bea. They just took me in for questioning to straighten everything out. Actually, it was sort of cool.” They hadn’t handcuffed her like they had the men, but she got to ride in one of the SUVs with Deputy Cletus Jones, wedged between Craig and Billy.
“Well, they never should have taken you in the first place. None of that was your fault. Men are always looking for a reason to fight.”
Kayley heard Sam in the background urging Bea to calm down. That made her smile, too. Sam was so laidback, and he let Bea have her way about most everything. She loved him like a brother because of how he treated her best friend.
“It’s all over now. I’m home, about to take a shower, and go to bed. It’s after midnight, and I’m tired. I’ll stop by tomorrow and tell you all about it. Did you know there are urinals in the cells with no walls around them?”
“Oh, Kayley. Did they put you in a cage?” Bea asked with a cry.
“No, but Deputy Jones let me see one while I was there.” She finally got the stubborn boot off and started working on the other one. “Look, I’m getting undressed, Bea. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“I’ll be expecting you, Kayley. Don’t you back out on me.”
Kayley said bye and pushed end before tossing the phone on the bed. After stripping down, she walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower to get warm. The house had two bedrooms and two baths, but she used the other bedroom as her office. Her bedroom and bath had been totally updated so that she had a nice sized walk-in closet and spacious bath. The soft buttercup yellows were soothing to her, and if she didn’t shower off in a hurry, she relaxed in her claw foot tub and read.
Now, she was too keyed up to enjoy a relaxing bath and chose the shower so she could get in bed. Bea wouldn’t care that she had been up late. Her friend would expect her there by lunchtime to eat and gossip. True to her nature as a beautician, Bea loved gossip.
Stepping into the warm spray, Kayley quickly washed, using her favorite scented body wash, and rinsed off. When she smoothed her fingers through her pussy, some of the arousal Billy had left her with flared back up, making her moan. She leaned against the cool ceramic tile and let her fingers tease her folds, not surprised they were still wet with her juices. Closing her eyes, she drew on the memory of Billy pressing her against the truck and plastering his hard body tightly against hers so that there was no mistaking the long, hard feel of his cock against her belly.
Growling, she grabbed the little bullet that was waterproof off the shower shelf and turned it on. Setting one foot on the built in bench, spreading her legs so that she had plenty of room to work, Kayley teased her wet folds with the little vibrator. Images of Billy staring down at her with his shaggy black hair, sooty in color, falling into his obsidian black eyes sent tingles down her spine. At six foot, Billy’s muscular body, honed from hours of hard work in the shop, was enough to set any woman’s heart to racing. She’d seen him without a shirt often enough over the years to know that he sported an eight pack that she ached to trace with her tongue.
As the tension built in her body, she began to add more pressure to the little vibe and circle it around her clit before running it up and down the slit of her pussy. Her cunt quivered at the need for more, but all it would get is the release she was building toward for now.
As she leaned into the wall with her foot propped up, she pictured Craig’s heavily muscled body with its sprinkling of light hair across his chest. He stood an inch or so taller than Billy and was wider and heavier in build. He had gorgeous ginger-blond hair that he kept cut short so that it spiked up about a half inch, and he had the prettiest denim-blue eyes she’d ever seen.
Both men really revved her engines, and together, she was sure they could take her to the moon and stars. Only it wasn’t going to happen. Billy hated her, despised her. Or at least he acted like it most of the time. That kiss, though. It hadn’t been from a man who couldn’t stand to be around her. It had been from someone who wanted something more than he was willing to admit.
Kayley moaned as heat built in her body, her clit aching to be touched. Still, she avoided it, needing to increase the fire so that when she came, it would be enough to allow her to sleep without dreams of Billy and Craig touching her, loving her, and taking her together. She needed to hold off long enough that she didn’t still ache for them long after the pulses of temporary pleasure died away.
Even as she used thoughts of them to fuel the raging need racing through her veins in order to reach orgasm, she prayed it would be enough this time to wipe them from her mind so she could sleep dreamlessly.
She rolled one nipple between her thumb and forefinger, ruthlessly pulling at it then moving to the other one. She quickly swiped the little vibe over her clit once, twice before thrusting it deep inside her wet pussy. The need just kept building. Before long the ringing in her ears had her desperately rubbing the bullet back and forth over her clit, still pinching and pulling on her nipples. She was almost there. Just a little more.
When her climax hit, it zapped all of her strength, sending shards of pleasure splintering through her body. The release was wonderful and disappointing all at the same time. She all but collapsed against the tiled shower wall, panting and fighting to stay upright. Why couldn’t it be enough? It was never enough. She still ached with need and the knowledge that once she climbed into bed and closed her eyes, she’d dream of them and wake the next morning with her hands between her thighs.
Chapter Four
Friday afternoon, Craig and Billy closed the shop early so they could get packed up and get an early start the next morning. They weren’t going far, just down to the river and their usual spot, but every second wasted packing in the morning would be lost to them on the river. Billy wondered if there would be many others out this time of year. While he didn’t mind the occasional camper or two, he preferred not to have to deal with an entire river full.
The one thing he didn’t like about the place was that it had also become a popular make-out spot because of the many secluded places along the river. Mostly teenagers fooled around in the backseats or in truck beds out under the stars. He didn’t blame them for wanting time alone, but at that age, they weren’t responsible enough to protect the girls. It led to pregnancy, disease, and broken hearts.
He’d been itchy all week, putting it down to being ready to get out to the river. He ignored the fact that camping didn’t usually give him a hard on that wouldn’t go away. In the back of his head, Billy knew what, or who, was causing that problem. He refused to go there, though. He was not infatuated with Kayley Clayton! End of story.
“Hey, man. You with me?” Craig asked as they worked on loading the truck.
“Yeah, what?”
“I asked if you wanted to take the grill or the portable stove.” Craig stared at him.
Billy didn’t like the look on his friend’s face. It meant he was about to get all touchy feely with him.
“Grill. I like the steaks better that way.” He shrugged and picked up both rolls of bedding.
Craig followed him to the truck with a box in his arms then dogged his heels back inside the house. They c
ontinued on like that in silence for several minutes. When the two of them started to carry the portable grill to the truck, the sneak struck.
“So why the sullen attitude, man? We’re going to the river, going to have a good time fishing, drinking, sitting by the campfire telling ghost stories,” Craig asked.
His friend’s good humor was going to drive him crazy if he didn’t nip in the bud. He started to tell him to mind his own fucking business when it hit him. He should be happy. This shit was getting old. He needed to lighten up or what the hell was he doing going in the first place? He could be pissed at home.
“I’m fine. Just ready to get there already. Maybe we should head on out tonight and set up. Then we won’t waste time doing it in the morning. We’ll still have enough light if we hurry up and finish packing.”
“I like how you think. Sounds good to me.” Craig grinned at him.
By the time they’d finished packing, Billy felt much better. See, that was all it was. He hadn’t wanted to wait until morning to head out. Hell, he wouldn’t have slept tonight anyway, all hyped up on getting an early start. This was a much better idea.
As soon as Craig had all of the food they’d need in the portable fridge, they loaded it up, plugged it in, and got on the road. Thirty minutes later, they pulled into their favorite spot and started setting up camp. He didn’t even mind Craig’s crazy whistling. The other man couldn’t carry a tune or whistle worth shit, but he sure tried. Billy found himself grinning despite himself. Life was good.
“Damn it feels good out here,” Craig said as they relaxed, sipping beers and gazing out over the river.
“Almost forgot how peaceful it is out here,” Billy said. “Even as far out as our house is, it isn’t like this.”
“It’s the sound of the river rolling by.”
“That and the frogs,” Billy added.
They sat there in silence for several more minutes, soaking up the sounds of nature and the setting sun. The peaceful feeling helped settle his soul. He started planning in his head what they would do the next day, maybe start out early fishing and fry up anything they caught for dinner that night.