by Regale, Rhea
“Your heart ain’t in Ryder anymore. We all know that.” Her voice was quiet, just above a whisper, but he noted the slight tremor.
“My roots are.”
“You can’t grow a broken plant. Any member of Ryder’s farmin’ community knows that. Heart and roots together grow a promisin’ crop.” Mandy looked down at their still-entwined fingers. “You can uproot and flourish elsewhere, but you can’t take a flower and expect it to anchor in somewhere new.”
“Philosophical thought process.” Brody played her words over and over, trying to see how they fit him. He was aware of Mandy’s high intelligence, and he knew she spoke in regards to him. Her smarts was a heavy turn-on, as was her wit, her beauty, the way she walked, and the sound of her voice. Everything. “I like that.”
“I can put on glasses, tie my hair back into one of those slick buns, and dress up in horrible wool suits and bulky shawls like the librarian wore when we were kids.”
Brody laughed, her lighthearted comment lifting the dense sensual charge from the stuffy car. Mandy’s hand squeezed his. “You do that, baby, and I’ll have a lot of fun unleashin’ the wild vixen from her constrainin’ attire. You’ve got my imagination goin’ now.”
“I’d love to know what that imagination is building.”
Brody cast her a lingering glance. Her eyes dropped to his mouth, down lower to the seat of his pants where his cock created a bulge in his jeans, and then traveled back to his face.
“Well, baby, there are two ways of findin’ out. One is through listenin’.” Brody untangled his hand from hers and slid his fingers around the curve of her upper thigh. She stiffened slightly. “The other is through firsthand experience.”
Chapter Five
Mandy looked up when Brody returned to the table, slipping his phone into his pocket. He flashed her a smile that highlighted his handsome dimple and white teeth, as well as the hint of lines at the corners of his twinkling eyes.
“Sorry ’bout that. Greg’s checkin’ in on me,” Brody said. Mandy took a sip of her water, watching him over the rim of the glass. The call shouldn’t have bothered her like this, stirring her stomach into a sickening soup that left little desire for ribs or beer. She knew going out with Brody Allen wouldn’t lead into anything but a fun fling, because he’d head out of town within the next week to return to his life in the spotlight, beautiful women, and fame.
But this wasn’t Brody Allen. This was Brody Ryder to her, and this was their time, not his touring partner’s time.
Brody’s smile dimmed, his eyes narrowing with concern. Mandy lowered her glass and started tearing the meat off her ribs. She’d eat her entire meal if it killed her. There was no way in hell Brody Allen Ryder would find out how much that call bothered her. His heart was far from this town, the town she considered home, and he would never return. That fact hurt, but if she kept it alive, their parting wouldn’t be so sorrowful.
Craig, on the other hand…
Oh, don’t you dare go thinkin’ about Craig while sittin’ here with Brody.
“You okay?” Brody asked.
“I have no reason not to be,” Mandy said, keeping her voice light and meeting his probing gaze long enough to make her statement seem authentic. She gave him a tight-lipped grin and popped a piece of pork into her mouth. The sweet-salty sauce made her belly grumble. She was starved, and the small taste of some of the best ribs in Kansas quickly soothed her nausea. “What’s tourin’ like? Bein’ in front of thousands of people? Don’t you get stage fright?”
“The first couple times I performed in front of large crowds, I was damn near shakin’ in my boots. I had been singin’ in small joints and honky-tonks around Nashville, sendin’ demos out, and trying to get a deal. Small crowds didn’t bother me, but when I couldn’t see where the crowd ended ’cause it stretched far into the distance, that choked me up my first go-’round.” Brody took a healthy drink of his draft and peeled off a rib from his rack. Mandy tore a yeast roll in half and licked the butter from the top. Brody’s eyes darkened. He cleared his throat and dropped his gaze to the rib. “I enjoy the rush I get from performin’ now. It’s better than a buzz from good whiskey.”
“You mean a headache from good whiskey. I always get headaches when I drink whiskey,” she said and took a bite of the warm roll.
“I’ll be sure to keep the whiskey away from you.” Brody bit into his meat and licked the sauce from his lips. Mandy motioned toward the band playing old country tunes that drew a small crowd onto the cramped dance floor.
“That used to be you and your crew, huh?” she asked. Brody nodded and laid his finished rib on the extra plate. He sucked each fingertip with a pop, cleaning off the sauce before wiping his hands on his napkin. A flutter swirled in her chest. She wouldn’t expect a big name in the music industry to eat so carefree. Maybe Brody wasn’t all heart in the famous world…yet. “You excited about hittin’ it big?”
“As long as I can sing, I’m happy. The fame comes second.”
“Well, good to know that singin’s first and fame second.” He was forgetting one very important structure in his life, but she wasn’t about to go into that haunting topic. “When’re you leavin’ to go back to Nashville?”
“I’m headin’ down to Alabama next week. Greg and I will finish up our tour for the year. My manager is puttin’ together a solo tour to begin in February of next year. We’re workin’ on a new album that should come out shortly before I hit the road, as long as production goes accordin’ to plan. I’ll be attendin’ the CMAs in November.”
Mandy listened to him go on about his blossoming career. She was happy for him, truly happy for him, but this Brody was far from the down-home, truck muddin’, skinny dippin’ Ryder she had a serious crush on from the early years of her youth. And still, the air around him was a churning vat of unsettlement.
“Do you miss simple life, Brody?” Mandy finally asked, pulling another chunk of meat off her fork. Brody’s forehead pinched. The light in his eyes dimmed.
“Back-breakin’ work from sunup ’til sundown?” Brody lowered his face, his expression closed. She didn’t miss the slight frown that tugged the corners of his mouth. “Who’d miss that?”
A small inkling of hope stoked alive inside her. He spoke with no passion behind his words, leaving her to guess she hit a soft spot.
His cell phone went off again. Mandy straightened up in her chair as he pulled the phone from his pocket and groaned. A wrinkle marred his brow. “I’m sorry, Mandy. I’ll be right back.”
Mandy sighed, watching Brody weave through tables until he disappeared somewhere at the front of the dive. Her appetite fizzled, despite how delicious the ribs tasted. The beer in her glass had lost the foamy head, but bubbles climbed along the sides. She should’ve been enticed by it, but everything that enticed her kept walking away from the table to take phone calls.
She dropped her head in her hand and pinched her forehead. The band played a song about a man born for leaving, the somber tone leaving a thickness in the air around her. Mandy shifted her chin to her fist and gazed down the restaurant, unable to spot Brody among the crowd. He was a man born to leave. He’d break her heart faster than a storm would destroy an old barn. His phone calls were more important than an hour dinner with her.
“Craig never answers a call when we go out, and we’re only friends,” she muttered. Craig always made her the center of attention when they were together, and made her feel important. She liked him, maybe a bit too much, because he wasn’t going to be sticking around Ryder for long either. Right now, she felt like another girl to add to Brody’s fuck list, and she wasn’t about to drop to that level of low.
The server came by and smiled down at her. “You gettin’ ready to box that up?”
Mandy let out a sharp breath and shook her head. She dropped both hands on the table and shoved her chair back, climbing to her feet. The young server’s expression dropped.
“I’m done. Thanks.” She dug out a twenty fro
m her purse and handed it to the girl. “That’s for my half of the meal. I don’t need change. He’ll take care of the rest when he decides to come back inside.”
Snagging her jacket from the back of her chair, Mandy wove through the maze of tables to the side exit and slipped into the cool night. She slid into her jacket, glancing up and down the sidewalk, and started away from the building. The breeze had kicked up to a light wind that blew her curls across her face. She brushed them behind her ears and hugged herself against the slight chill in the air.
“He ain’t nothin’ but good looks and a shallow heart,” she muttered under her breath. There was a time Brody had heart, had depth to his soul. All of that changed after the scandal with Caroline, but she never expected to see the strong-willed cowboy fold away from his true self and hide behind stardom.
Craig held his pain close to his chest, but he didn’t dwell on it. Seldom did they ever discuss Brody when they went out. Instead, Craig made her laugh with boyhood stories, and she earned herself a teasing that often left her face burning up in embarrassment when she divulged her secret spying expeditions to him. He made her heart thump a crazy rhythm and left her warm and comfortable.
Right now, she didn’t feel that with Brody. Maybe fantasies were best left at that. Fantasies.
“Mandy!”
She ignored the shout and turned the corner, trying to slip away before he caught up with her. Unfortunately, her shorter legs were no match for Brody’s long, powerful ones. He grabbed her arm and came up in front of her, stopping her in her tracks with his hands on her shoulders.
“Why’d you leave?” Brody asked, sucking in a long breath. Mandy gazed out across the street, gathering her thoughts, and then she met Brody’s curious and hurt eyes.
“I think you have business that needs to be handled before you start takin’ me out,” she said, keeping her tone carefully tempered.
“I shouldn’t be bothered anymore tonight. I told ’em I’d speak with them tomorrow.” His thumb swiped over her chin, and a small grin touched his mouth. “You missed some sauce there.” Straightening his shoulders, he nodded toward the brick building beside them. “Did you want to go back? Or can I take you away from here?”
Mandy let out an exasperated sigh, tightening her arms around her belly. She tapped her foot on the sidewalk, turning her face down to avoid his watchful gaze. If he knew how his actions affected her, he didn’t let on.
At last, after making him simmer in his own anticipation, she pursed her lips and nodded once. “Okay. We’ll leave. I’m not hungry anyhow.”
* * * *
Twenty minutes of Brody asking questions about her life settled her licking ire enough that she started to melt under each light touch he brushed over her knee or down her cheek. He was careful to avoid talk about his career, keeping to the simple stories of his youth when they’d match hers.
By the time he reached their destination, a reborn lightness filled her chest, and laughter came easily. The night sky glowed overhead through the open sunroof. Music filled the truck, songs they both sang to between conversations. His phone remained silent, leaving her to believe maybe, just maybe, he really did tell his managers and agents and crew to leave him be for the rest of the night.
“Stay there,” Brody said, sliding out of the new rental SUV that fit him far better than the first car. Mandy watched him jog around the hood, cutting through the blazing headlights, and come up to her door. He pulled it open and swiftly slipped his arms behind her shoulders and under her knees, scooping her against him. She shrieked and broke into laughter, clinging to his neck as he twisted, shut the door with his hip, and carried her to the back of the vehicle.
“I’ll hop onto the roof first and help you up.” He dropped her feet to the ground and steadied her. “Might want those shoes off.”
“I can climb with them fine,” Mandy assured. Brody shook his head, dropping to his haunches. He grabbed her ankle and worked the strap from the buckle then slipped the shoe from her foot. His finger trailed down the middle of her sole, sparking a new arousal and a douse of wetness through her pussy. She wiggled her toes and laughed. “That tickles.”
He lifted her foot and kissed the inside of her ankle. The strangest sensation crept along her leg as he kissed the hollow between her ankle and heel again, his tongue flicking out in a light swirl. She pressed a hand to the truck to steady the sudden rush of dizziness that threatened to leave her ass-bound. How did he make that kiss so damn hot?
Turning his mischievous eyes up to her, a sensual grin playing along his mouth, he asked, “You sure?”
She swallowed the growing lump in her throat as she watched Brody’s hand curve around the back of her calf and lower her foot to the soft, patchy grass. The dusty dirt sifted up between her toes like cool sand.
“I like your pretty pink toenails,” he said, working the buckle and tossing her shoe aside. She held her breath as both his hands cupped the back of her calf. He bowed over and nipped the front of her ankle, sending a shock wave of tingles through her body that settled heavily in her pulsing clit. She licked her lips, fighting to keep her wits about her. “I love these legs.”
“They used to be bony and gangly,” Mandy reminded. “Like the rest of me.”
“Baby, you’re a rose in the cornfield.” He straightened up slowly, climbing along her body like a man devouring a decadent meal with his mind. She followed him as he reached his full height, forcing her to look up into his breathtaking face. She had never realized just how broad his shoulders were until now. The night made him look so much larger, so much more a powerful, intimidating man than she recalled earlier from the diner. Sexual prowess throbbed around him, calling to her, and she wanted what he had to offer. “A rare gem hidden all these years beneath overbearing stalks.”
“A farmer at heart.” She leaned into him, tweaking the open collar of his shirt. He smiled, his finger curling along the inside of her halter top and tracing the lacy hem to the V above her breasts. She arched into is touch as he slid his fingers over the swell of her breast. The hard bulge in his jeans nudged her belly when he tugged her flush against him. “You make cornstalks sound so romantic.”
“Do I?” He lowered his mouth in a motion to kiss her. His hot breath brushed across her lips, and she closed her eyes, waiting to feel his mouth, craving his kiss as much as her body thrummed for his touch. He made her wait, each passing second tormenting. “You inspire that romantic side in me.”
The tingle the moment his lips touched hers quickly died when the familiar jingle from his cell cut through the music pouring from the truck. His hands stiffened against her. He leaned back, his eyes searching her for a brief moment. He dug the cursed phone from his pocket. Mandy bit down on the insides of her cheeks, her flush of pleasure churning into a flush of frustration.
“Mandy, I—”
“Need to take the damn call?”
She scowled, snatching the phone from his hand. She pitched it as far as she could into the dark field, the glowing screen a flashing beacon as it flipped over and over. Spinning back to Brody, his wide eyes and parted lips, she pointed into the distance.
“You want it, you go get it. You get it, don’t expect me to be here waitin’ when you get back,” she spat. “I ain’t a fuckin’ no-name girl you can just come in and take out, wine and dine and woo over with your good looks and smooth lines. I ain’t a groupie who’s gonna fall at your feet and beg to have a night with you. I’m a damn person, Brody, a woman whose time is just as precious to me as yours it to you. I ain’t gonna have you keep walkin’ out to take calls when you’ve offered to take me out.”
She was breathing hard, anger hardening her expression. She took a long step back, away from Brody. The echo of his ringtone barely reached them. She saw the battle waged in his face. He looked toward the phone then back to her, the flesh between his brows pinched. She jammed her hands in her jacket pockets and shrugged.
“Your choice. I’m nobody in your new worl
d, Brody. I’m little Mandy May from small town Ryder where we work hard durin’ the day and enjoy the simple things in life on the weekends. Friendship, family, and the blessin’ of bein’ alive. You ain’t invisible to me like you are to all your fawnin’ fans out there. I know you from the times you dangled in your momma’s oak tree or stole cases of beer from Carter’s pa and got drunk around the bonfire down by the swimmin’ hole. I know you from the times you, Craig, and your cousins would come together and threaten anyone who threatened a member of your family. Then Caroline came, things went sour, and you left.”
She definitely struck a raw wound with that comment. Pain visibly flashed across his face before his expression shut down.
“Maybe you should take your pa’s death as a small blessin’. Take a good, hard look around you while you’re here. See what built you into the man you are now, ’cause without your roots, boy, you wouldn’t have reached your dreams.”
Mandy whipped around and stormed away, fighting back the sting of tears in her eyes. Going into this night, she made it clear to herself it would be nothing but a fun night. Brody wasn’t permanent, even if something deep inside her hoped he might decide to stay. How foolish of her to ever think Brody would see her other than a woman to pass by time in the town he hated and a life he gladly left behind.
Chapter Six
What the hell am I doin’?
From that first moment he saw her in the diner, scrunching her cute little nose after banging her head on the counter, he felt a strange change inside him. No woman he crossed in all his life procured the warm light that filled his chest when she turned those heart-filled brown eyes on him. For that brief instant, he was home. His dream of stardom was forgotten. The estrangement with Craig couldn’t breach the sudden bond that seemed to evolve between Mandy and him.