I grinned. “I actually have to run tomorrow. You’re more than welcome to join me.”
Rue smiled. “As much as I’d like to say yes, tomorrow is my rest day. I’ve learned not to ignore the aches and pains of my body as I’ve aged.”
I grinned. Hopefully I’d learn that one day, too.
After the dishes were done, and the parentals went to bed, it left Zach and me on the back porch looking out over a rolling back lawn that stretched out for what looked like miles.
There was a howling song of coyotes serenading us, and I shivered at how close they sounded.
“It sounds like they’re right there,” I murmured.
“They are probably right on the other side of the fence,” he jerked his head in that direction. “But sounds carry out here. It’s all the flat pasture land. No trees to block anything.”
I snuggled in deeper. “Why’d you ever leave here?”
He curled his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in tighter.
“Well,” he said. “I don’t think that you’re going to like hearing why I actually left.”
“It was Juniper, wasn’t it?” I guessed.
“It was,” I confirmed. “Juniper asked me to leave with her. She wasn’t able to get into any of the nursing schools around here, so she went where they would take her. And since I already had friends in Kilgore, I thought, why not?”
I lifted my feet to rest on the seat underneath me, then curled my arms around my upraised knees. “Do you regret it?”
He frowned, his eyes gazing off into the distance.
“I regret Juniper in a way, yes. Mostly because I think I had a lot more interest in her than she had in me. I wish that when I’d made that decision to protect her, to take that man’s life, that I would’ve known her true feelings. Maybe that would’ve made me react differently in the heat of the moment.” He paused. “That guy was as good as dead anyway. He had a piece of glass embedded in his heart. I just helped him along a bit faster.”
I snorted. “Don’t do that for me, please. I’d regret not having you here more than I’d be appreciative that you saved me from something like that.”
He curled his arm around my shoulders and rested his head against my own.
“Don’t get hurt, and we won’t even have to contemplate it,” he countered.
I didn’t like that he wouldn’t give me a promise.
I also didn’t like that he said it in such a way that made it sound like it was final, and that we wouldn’t be discussing the matter any further.
“Your friends.” I decided to change the subject. “Are they coming over here tomorrow, or are we going to them?”
His finger found a lock of my hair, and he started to twirl his finger around it as he spoke.
“We’ll probably have to go to them. It’d be easier on them, anyway, with the new baby and all.” He paused. “I think I’m more terrified of seeing them than I was of seeing my own parents.”
I leaned my head up to stare at his face in profile. I studied his nose, and the dark beard that covered the lower half of his face. The hair that was above his eyes, making bushy eyebrows that likely would’ve looked ridiculous on anyone that wasn’t him.
“Why?” I asked.
He sighed. “I’ve been a coward these last few months. Doing shit that I never should’ve done. Avoiding anything and anyone that had to do with my old life like the plague. I just… I’ve got no excuse. I just didn’t want to see them. Honestly, I’m kind of pissed that none of them confronted me on Juniper. Do you know how many freakin’ times I heard, ‘I never liked her’ or ‘she always struck me as a bitch’?”
My brows rose. “Really?”
“Really,” he confirmed. “Ashe and Ford, who we’re going to see tomorrow, were my best friends. And both of them made a comment like that when they heard that Juniper didn’t want to see me anymore. Neither one of them ever said a word. I guess I was just… hurt. Why would they not say anything? If the situation was reversed, you damn well better bet your ass that I would’ve said something. I was seconds away from asking Juniper to move in with me. Would they have said something then?”
I felt a distinct anger ignite in my belly, as well as a sadness that felt pretty awful.
I didn’t like that they hadn’t told him.
But then again, if I’d been around, would I have wanted to tell him something that I thought should be obvious?
I honestly didn’t know.
“Do you…” I hesitated. “Would you have taken that information and done something with it? Or would you have gotten pissed at the messenger and never spoken to him or her again?”
He shrugged. “I guess we’ll never know.” He paused. “But I would’ve had that niggle of doubt. I would’ve been able to look at it a little more rationally once I’d had time to calm down. Not to mention, the people that felt that way were some of my closest friends and family. I wouldn’t have been able to tune them all out if they’d all spoken up.”
He did have a point.
“What would you say, right now, if someone told you that I was like they were thinking Juniper was?” I asked curiously. “What would you do?”
He sighed. “I’d tell them all to go fuck themselves, drive us home, and not come back until they weren’t all dumbasses.”
I burst out laughing. “God, I really freakin’ love you.”
Then I immediately wanted to shoot myself.
Son of a bitch!
My mouth!
When I stiffened, he noticed, and then pulled me into his arms, his eyes taking in my face as he said, “You didn’t want to admit that again?”
I drew in a deep breath. “I didn’t want to pressure you. You just opened up about how your family all hated the last girl you brought home. I didn’t… I feel like maybe it’s a little soon for you.”
“Is it too soon for you?” he countered.
I licked my lips, then slowly shook my head. “No.”
“Then don’t assume it’s too soon for me. I’ve gotten over her. I’ve been over her. The only reason we’re talking about this right now is because you asked. And there’s never going to be a single thing that I won’t tell you.” He tilted his head sideways, both of his hands finding either cheek and pulling my face in close to his. Then, with barely an inch between us, he said, “And I love you, too.”
I felt warmth pool inside of my heart as his words bathed my entire body in delight.
“Zach,” I said, trying to be sensible. “You don’t have to say it just because…”
His mouth slammed down on mine, cutting off my words with his lips.
When he pulled back, it was due to neither one of us having any more oxygen.
“You make my head spin,” I breathed, my fingers clutching his shoulders as I tried to get myself under control.
I knew that the two of us had a disposition for public displays of affection, as well as only a smidgen of inhibition when we got a little heated. But there was no way in hell that I was going to get naked with my man on his parents’ back porch. Even if they’d been in bed for an hour now.
“You make my heart race and my desire to do bad things notch up,” he growled. “Let’s go to bed.”
I knew what he meant by ‘let’s go to bed.’
Which was why I was hesitant in saying what I said next.
“Zach.” I bit my lip lightly. “I think we should, uhh, not do anything here. I’m not normally quiet when I’m with you, and I really don’t want your mother hearing what you do to me.”
He squeezed my hips. “My parents have a barn.”
I wiggled into his lap a little more thoroughly, then wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in tighter until there wasn’t a single inch of space between us.
“Do you have any objections to that?” he asked as he made to stand.
I was impressed by the power he had used, and I told him so in the next instant.
“Do you know,” I said breathlessly. “When
you run, I can’t stop looking at your leg muscles? Or your calves? You have great calves. Not saying that you don’t have great abs and chest, but holy cannoli, you have great legs. Even in ugly ass prison garb, I could see the power in them.”
He hoisted me higher, his hands going underneath my ass as he started toward the barn near the back of the yard.
“You want to know what drew my eyes when it came to you?” he asked, reaching the barn and yanking open the door.
“Yes,” I said when he slammed it closed behind him, reached blindly along the wall for a light switch, and then cursed when he couldn’t find it. “Just do it in the dark.”
He growled and kept searching. “But I want to see. I like looking at you. I like seeing that stubborn jaw work when you’re trying to be quiet.”
I snickered when he dragged one finger along the length of my jaw, making me hold on tight with both legs wrapped around his waist and my arms securely locked around his neck.
“Are you sure there’s a light in here?” I wondered.
The light flicked on, and I blinked at all the pieces of equipment that were in the barn.
A small tractor. A big tractor. A riding lawn mower. A tiller. Something with blades that were on the side of the machine. Multiple weed whackers. Then a push mower.
“Holy crap,” I said as I looked around.
He set me down on my feet and then bent down to pull my leggings down the length of my legs.
Since I wasn’t wearing shoes, the leggings slipped all the way off easily, leaving me in a big t-shirt that was his from his high school days—one I’d commandeered when I’d gotten here today—and underwear.
Seconds later he was shucking out of his jeans, underwear, and shirt, and tossing them all on the tractor seat closest to him.
“Climb up here,” he ordered as he started to climb the big tractor. “And lose the clothes.”
I snickered as I did just that, admiring his ass and legs as he climbed and settled onto the yellow tractor seat and then waited impatiently for me to disrobe.
“Geez,” I said as I pulled my shirt off, then started on the bra. “If you wanted it done fast, you should’ve done it yourself.”
He stood back up, and I got a bird’s-eye view of his cock, now very hard and pulsing, aimed directly at me.
I’d never had the chance to really study the underside of his cock before—all of our sexual encounters to date had been mostly fast—so it was a surprise to see the vein that ran along the length of him.
It was thick, juicy, and pulsing.
I’d never really had a thing for veins before. Not until I met Zach, that was.
Then I admired them all.
The ones on his arms that were prominent no matter what he did.
The ones on his legs that liked to pop out after he ran.
And now the one on the underside of his cock that was pulsing with each beat of his heart.
“Do you need me to come down there?” Zach asked, fisting his cock and giving it a couple of tugs.
That movement caused his balls to swing, and his thighs to tense, which then caused his quads to pop.
I just didn’t know where to look.
I found all of him so attractive that it was unfair.
My poor eyes just had too much to concentrate on at once.
“I was…” I paused as I started to undo my bra again.
“You were, what?” Zach teased, once again giving his cock a tug.
I growled and yanked my bra off without undoing the clasps and threw it in the vicinity of the tractor seat where all the other clothes were waiting. Then I started to climb up the steps to where Zach was standing.
When I got to the second step, his cock came into my line of sight, and I couldn’t stop myself from licking the tip free of the drop of precum that’d gathered there.
He growled, his hands going to my hair.
“Get up here,” he said as he pulled me up to my feet on the platform beside him.
I gasped in surprise at the height we were standing at and then wrapped my arms around him seconds later when I saw how close I was to the edge still.
He sat down on the seat and then pulled me to straddle him.
“Not that that didn’t feel good,” he said, all growly and yummy sounding. “But I want my dick inside of you, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
He was so sweet sometimes.
That sweetness left the building, however, when he pulled me into his lap facing away from him, tested my readiness with a fingertip, then lined his cock up with my entrance.
“Hold on to the steering wheel,” he urged, pushing his cock in just far enough that he didn’t have to hold his cock with his hand any longer.
When he returned his hands to my hips, I reached forward and grabbed the steering wheel.
The moment I was steady, he pulled my pussy down to sheathe his cock.
One second, I was empty, and the next I was so full of him I felt like I might burst.
But it was always like that with Zach. I never got used to him, no matter how many times that we did this little dance.
“Jesus Christ,” he hissed, his voice sounding strained and his hands clenching on my hips. “Having you pressed up against me for hours today, paired with you being here, in the place that’s always been home, has made me want you so bad. Now I have you, and it’s like you’ve been thinking the exact same thing all day.”
I laughed, looking over my shoulder at him.
When his eyes flashed up from where we were connected to catch mine, I said, “You do realize, right, that being on the back of that bike is like riding on a massive vibrator? Wearing jeans was the worst idea ever, too, because jeans have this seam that runs along the crotch. That seam was pressed up against me the entire time we were riding.”
His grin was wicked as he began to pick up the speed.
My breasts started to jolt with each thrust of his hips, and soon that rhythm went from slow and steady to fast and furious.
Just the way that Zach and I always seemed to end up.
I felt that familiar niggle deep in my belly, the one that said that I was about to come, and there wasn’t a single thing that either one of us could do about it.
He pushed into me faster still, and that little niggle turned into a full-blown punch.
Seconds after his speed increased, my orgasm burst out of me, as well as a scream of release.
Or a squeak.
Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure.
I tried to keep it down, just in case his dad had superpowers and could hear things that were not only outside of the house, but far away.
But when an orgasm produced by Zachariah Caruso happened, sometimes the wits were scrambled, and things happened that were out of your control.
He growled and repositioned his hands on my hips, his fingers sinking deep into the meat of my stomach as he followed right behind me.
That’s when the sound of coyotes joined in… right outside the barn door.
Oh. My. God.
And what did the jerk who was still inside of me do? He laughed. Like the wild animal he was.
CHAPTER 18
Name a book that made you cry: Algebra.
-Crockett to Zach
CROCKETT
I woke up to slow kisses being trailed down the length of my neck.
I blinked open my eyes and smiled at the way Zach’s morning face—oh, what a cute face it was all lined with indentions from his pillow and wild, crazy hair—pushed in close to mine.
“You hungry?” he asked. “I can smell bacon.”
I closed my eyes and inhaled, smelling the same exact thing.
Right on cue, my stomach growled.
“I have to have a fasted run first,” I frowned. “It’s a short one, luckily. Only seven miles.”
He frowned.
“I was going to eat, give it an hour, then go. But if you want, I’ll go with you,” he offered, sounding like he’d rather do anything but.
Not only was I running farther than he was, but he didn’t believe in fasted runs.
I, on the other hand, needed to learn to train with an empty stomach because there was no way in hell that something light would last me throughout an entire marathon. I had experience with that.
That, and I had a nervous stomach.
Meaning, no matter how I ate, I always—always—had to go to the bathroom before a race. I would much rather it not be in the middle of a race if I could help it.
I’d learned what worked well with me. He’d learned that running on an empty stomach didn’t work for him.
“If you can promise me that those coyotes from last night aren’t going to follow me down that back road, I don’t need you.” I blinked innocently at him.
He pulled back with a laugh. “Coyotes are nocturnal. You’ll never see one during the day unless it’s rabid.”
My eyes widened, and he rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t happen too often.”
I grunted out a ‘whatever’ and rolled out of bed, heading for the bathroom and cleaning up from our nocturnal activities before brushing my teeth and getting dressed for my run.
When I arrived in the bedroom once again, Zach was nowhere to be seen, but the door was wide open, and I could hear laughter from what I assumed was the kitchen tinkling down the hallway.
Picking up my socks and running shoes, I headed out to the kitchen to find Zach standing at the stove stirring bacon, and Cleo and Rue nowhere to be found.
I frowned. “Where’d everyone go?”
“There was a big box delivered by the UPS guy before he even started his shift. My dad’s going out to get it, and my mom is directing him on where to put it. Apparently it’s a Christmas present, so she had to make sure that he wasn’t opening it… which is something we both do. We’re curious by nature.”
I snorted.
“Your mother is delightful,” I whispered. “I can’t believe that she only had one kid. She’s a great mother.”
Zach sighed. “My mother was pregnant with another baby not long after they had me, but she lost it at about sixteen weeks. The baby had a congenital heart defect. Something that would’ve made the fetus incompatible with life.” He paused. “It crushed my parents, and they decided that they didn’t want any more children after that. Their heartache was too great. So that only left me.”
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