Chapter One
May Nineteenth
Tucker
Lifting a greasy double cheeseburger to my mouth, I scan the restaurant. Just as I sink my teeth into the juicy burger, I see Lacey heading my way. What the hell? This is the third time in a week she’s just happened to be wherever I am. No way is this shit just a coincidence.
I take her in, looking every inch a beauty queen. Even though she turned over the crown four years ago, Lacey still wears the moniker of Miss Kentucky with pride. It shows from the top of her overdone hair to the bottom of her expensive high-heeled shoes. When I first started making nightly visits to her house, I got off on the fact she was high class. Now that I’ve been there and done that, it gets on my fucking nerves.
“Hey, baby,” she says, placing a kiss on my cheek and taking a seat across the booth from me. “Funny running into you at the Dairy Dip.”
“Oh, yeah,” I reply, setting down my burger and grabbing a French fry. “Considering it’s suppertime, and there’re only two restaurants in the entire town, it’s real damn hard to believe you’d run into me here.”
White Chapel, Kentucky has a population of just over three-thousand. It has two restaurants, a gas station, and a brand spanking new Piggly Wiggly. That’s about it, so it’s not hard to find someone. Especially when you’re stalking their ass.
Ignoring my sarcasm, she starts muttering about some shit that I couldn’t care less about. I learned to block her ass out a long time ago, because the only time she is quiet is when I’m fucking her. Then, sadly, she’s as quiet as a mouse. Sometimes, just to make sure she isn’t dead, I go extra deep. The resulting squeak is the only sign I ever get that the body below me is something other than a blow-up doll. Thank fuck, all that is behind me.
“I decided to go with the red,” she says, just loud enough to break through the wall I’ve built. “Do you think I made the right choice?”
“Sure,” I mumble before sticking another French fry in my mouth.
She doesn’t seem to notice I’m not paying attention. Hell, she probably doesn’t care. Lacey is definitely one of those women who enjoys hearing the sound of her own voice. I’m sure she spends half her time looking in the mirror and yapping her gums.
“Tucker, are you even listening to me?” she asks, proving my assumption wrong.
Losing my appetite, I push my food away. “Nope.”
Her eyes flash with anger as she sticks out her bottom lip. “What is wrong with you? You know how important this is.”
“What’s wrong with me?” I growl, placing my hands flat against the top of the table. “I think the better question would be, what in the fuck is wrong with you? You’re the one who has been following me around for the last week.”
Lacey opens her mouth, but I cut her off with a quick shake of my head. “Monday, you just happened to be getting gas at the Grab & Go at the same exact time I was.”
“I was almost on empty,” she states, straightening her shoulders.
I shake my head again, letting her know not to spew any more shit. “That could have been a coincidence if it didn’t happen to be six o’clock in the fucking morning. Not to mention, everyone in town knows I bring in the farm truck for a fill-up every Monday morning.”
She starts to say something else, but I raise my hand and continue. “You know damn good and well, I take Mom shopping at the Piggly Wiggly every Wednesday afternoon. This week, you’re there picking up milk at the same time.”
“White Chapel is a small town,” she explains with a shrug. “We’re bound to run into each other from time to time.”
“Now, I’m grabbing supper at the Dairy Dip, the same thing I do every damn Thursday, and you’re here, too,” I growl, getting more pissed with each word that leaves my mouth. “You are following me, Lacey, and it’s got to fucking stop.”
This time, she doesn’t even try to deny my accusations. “Well, you won’t answer my phone calls, and we have to talk.”
Picking up my sweet tea, I suck back a quick drink. “Considering you haven’t been in my bed for over a month, I’m thinking we don’t have shit to talk about.”
She just sits there staring at me for a moment, like she can’t process my words. “But what about the Breeders Association’s annual ball? It’s just a little over a month away, and we haven’t even talked about what we’re going to wear.”
A frustrated breath pushes its way past my lips as I remember promising to take her to the stupid thing. Every year, the Kentucky Horse Breeders Association throws a charity ball. People come from all over the state, under the guise of raising money for underprivileged kids. In truth, the fuckers are just getting together to see who has the biggest dick. I’m ashamed to say I planned to do the same this year.
For the first time ever, Brady Brothers Farms has bred and raised a horse that will probably run in the Kentucky Derby next year. We’ve had three to run the Preakness Stakes and two at Belmont, but this will be our first time at the Derby. My brother and I are proud as fuck of Stardust, and we plan to make sure everyone knows it at the Breeders Ball. Still, there is no way I’m taking Lacey.
“Shit,” I grumble out, running a frustrated hand through my hair. “It’d be best if we just forget about going.”
“But,” she starts but stops to pull in a lungful of air. “I just told you that I spent nearly five-hundred dollars on a dress.”
Leaning back in my chair, I pick through my memories. “Red, right?”
“Yes,” she squeals, a smile covering her face. “I even bought you a red bow tie to go with your tux.”
“It’s not the fucking prom, Lacey,” I reply with an aggravated shake of my head. “I’ll pay you back for the dress, but we’re not going to the ball.”
She starts in again, begging me to reconsider. Trying to ignore her, I push away from the table. Just as I’m about to stand up, I notice the two women walking away from the front counter. I recognize one of them immediately as my neighbor’s daughter, Willow. She only holds my attention for a second before I zero in on the black-haired beauty at her side. One look and my dick is pushing against my zipper.
Her hair hangs smoothly halfway down her back, nearly as dark as a raven’s wing. Even from a distance, I can see a twinkle in her dark chocolate eyes. Her face is makeup free, showing a natural type of beauty that I’ve never seen before. Her skin is sun-kissed, giving it a gold tint. Her lips are plump and the color of the apples Stardust loves to munch on. She has one of those button noses that tells me she is going to look young long after her black hair turns gray.
Her body… Fuck, what can I say? She probably only stands an inch or two over five-foot, but God gifted her short frame with more than her fair share of curves. Being a man, I consider myself a bit of an expert on tits. My guess, she has to be packing a very full C-cup. She’s wearing a pair of cut-off shorts, showing off her tan legs. Just looking at her juicy thighs has my dick twitching to get loose. I can’t see her ass from this angle, but I’m figuring it is just as sweet as the rest of her.
Peeking across the table at Lacey, I realize this might not be the best time to introduce myself to the woman who will be sharing my bed tonight. But when I look back, my dick makes the decision for me.
“Hey, Willow,” I shout, grabbing her attention. “Pull up a seat.”
She waves in my direction and grabs my next conquest’s arm. They head my way, coming to a stop at the end of the booth. Willow looks at Lacey then back to me and scrunches up her nose. “Hey, Tucker.”
“I didn’t know you were back in town,” I say to her, but keep my eyes firmly locked on the woman at her side.
“Yeah, it’s summer break,” she says, then starts telling me all about her first year at the University of Louisville.
When she finally slows down to take a breath, I try to guide the conversation to the one thing I want to know. “Who’s your friend?”
“Oh, this is my roommate, Hadley. Her parents are on some kind of second honeymoon in Paris, so she’s here with me for the entire summer.” She pauses long enough to look at Hadley and smile. “She plans on leaving in two weeks, but I’m not gonna let her go home to an empty house.”
Oh, hell no. That shit’s not gonna happen. She isn’t going any fucking where until I’ve had my fill of her sweet pussy.
Nodding my head in agreement, I scoot over just a bit, grab Hadley’s hand, and pull her into the seat beside me. “No reason for a pretty girl to be all alone when there are people here that will take good care of her.”
Hadley’s eyes jerk to mine as she attempts to pull free of my hold. “Let me go.”
“You don’t really want me to do that, do you, little girl?” I do as she says, just long enough to sling my arm over her shoulder and pull her into my side.
Willow laughs as she pushes Lacey over and sits down beside her. “Hadley, this is my dad’s neighbor, Tucker.”
“Ummm…” Hadley looks up at me and back to her friend, obviously wanting more information.
“Remember me telling you about the naked tractor race?” Willow asks, wiggling her eyebrows. “He was the winner.”
I smile at the memory Willow brings to mind. My half-brother, Gunnar, was up from Tennessee, and he had brought along a few jars of his stepdad’s homemade moonshine. Along with my younger brother, Major, we drained them all in one afternoon and ended up drunk off our asses. I’m not sure whose idea it was to have a tractor race, but I know Major is the one who decided we should be naked while doing it. To this day, I have no fucking idea why I agreed.
Willow’s wrong, though. I didn’t win; Gunnar did. Major and I were raised on a farm, but we breed horses. Gunnar, on the other hand, grew up on his stepdad’s farm, raising corn. He has a bit more experience on a tractor than Major and I combined.
A thought hits my mind, and I jerk my eyes to Willow. “What the hell were you doing there? You couldn’t have been more than twelve.”
Her cheeks pinken as she answers. “I was eleven, and I followed my older sister. I didn’t want to be the only girl in town to not get a peek at the Brady brothers’ goodies.”
I let out a chuckle and return my gaze to Hadley. Her face is a beautiful shade of pink as she eyes my crotch. Judging by the way she’s staring, Willow must have told her about the weapon hanging between my legs. Of course, my cock is pushing against the denim at the moment. The outline is so bold, even a blind man couldn’t miss it. My free hand goes to it, squeezing tightly.
“You can touch it if you want,” I whisper in her ear, causing her cheeks to flush red. “It likes to be petted.”
When she doesn’t respond, I look over to Willow. “Is your girl always this quiet?”
“Oh, yeah,” she replies with a nod. “Virgin Mary doesn’t talk to guys.”
My brain gets stuck on one word. Virgin. Oh, fuck! I swear my dick is fighting my zipper in an attempt to get a chance at fresh meat. My head, though, is telling me to back off. If this woman is pure, she deserves more than to be fucked and forgotten. I fight with my conscience for a minute, then decide to let both my cock and my mind have what they want.
Holding Hadley tightly, I scoot us out of the booth. “We’ve gotta go.”
“Where are you going, Tucker?” Lacey asks in a voice only a few decibels lower than my alarm clock.
Knowing if I do not put a clear stop to this shit right now that Hadley will have to deal with her ass later on, I cut my eyes to Lacey. “We’re over, been over for a while now, so please just leave me the fuck alone.”
“You don’t mean that.” She looks to Hadley and back at me. “She’s just a kid.”
Her words cause me to hold Hadley tighter. “How old are you?”
“Nineteen,” she replies, letting me know she is eight years younger than me.
She’s not jailbait, so I don’t really care. Ignoring her feeble attempt to get away from me, I lift my chin to Willow and narrow my eyes at Lacey. I pull Hadley across the restaurant and out the door before anyone can say another word. Just as we step into the parking lot, she stomps down on my foot. It doesn’t hurt, but I stop anyway and let her have her say.
“Where are you taking me?” she asks, trying to push my arms away.
“Away from here,” I reply, not giving her a reason.
“Why?” she gasps, going still in my arms.
I give her arm a gentle squeeze before answering. “I’m thinking someone might call the law if I strip you down in the middle of the Dairy Dip.”
She starts talking again, but I’m so focused on my goal that it goes in one ear and out the other. Pulling her along, I head straight to my truck. Fishing out my keys, I open the driver’s side door.
I place her in front of the steering wheel, not willing to let her be away from me long enough to let her in on the passenger side and push her to the middle of the solid seat. “Put your seatbelt on, darlin’.”
“I need to go back to Willow,” she whispers, chewing on her bottom lip.
Feeling generous, I lean forward and place a soft kiss on her lips. “Do you want me?”
Hadley seems shocked at the question for just a second and finally nods. “Yeah.”
“Buckle up, darlin’,” I say as I climb in and start the truck. “You’re about to get what you want.”