“We should just forget about her,” I say into my coffee.

Clay doesn’t answer but I can feel his surliness. I look at him over my steaming mug of dark roast.

He’s leaned back in one of the kitchen’s rickety old chairs, the remnants of our breakfast still sitting on the table between us. He pushes back his hat and scratches his forehead. “Yeah, we should.”

A long moment follows. It’s not what I wanted him to say.

I don’t want to forget about Cheyenne, though I’m having trouble figuring out exactly why. The Town of Cody isn’t the biggest place in Montana, but it’s got its fair share of women. Clay and I could be catching any we wanted. We could even call up some girl from a neighboring town. We’ve fucked them at every rodeo stop. More women than I can count have told us they’re in love with us. Plenty of them would drive up to two or three hours just for one romp.

But I don’t want to do that.

Though I’m hating it, right now I’m wanting the one woman who ran away from us last night.

“It’s because she was a virgin,” I say out loud.

Clay questioningly looks at me.

“She’s innocent,” I explain. “It’s doing something to my head.”

The legs of his chair hit the linoleum with a heavy thud. “Yours too?”

“Damn, she was amazing. She just gave herself over.” I bite down on my lip to stop my yammering. I’m way too turned on already.

I sigh and sip some coffee. “I just can’t figure out why she got scared.”

“I can’t either.”

“We went easy on her.” I chuckle. “If she knew only half of what I really wanted to do to her…”

Clay runs his thumb over his lower lip. “She’s not going to be able to stay away.”

“Yeah, but how long till she comes back? I’m not willing to wait for days. We’re gonna be out of here in a week and a half. If we’re wasting our time on Cheyenne I want to know right now. Ten days is a long time without any fucking.”

“We’ll take her out.”

“Huh?” I stare at him, waiting for him to tell me he’s gone crazy. We never take girls out. We fuck them. End of story.

“It’ll show her she doesn’t need to be afraid. It’ll make it easier for her to come home with us.”

“Hm.” I give it some thought. “We’ll make an exception for her. You have her number?”

He shakes his head.

“What, were you gonna send a dove over there with a note in its beak?”

“Shut up,” he grumbles, grabbing his plate and taking it to the sink.

My phone buzzes on the table. I check it and find another unknown number calling.

Clay watches me from the sink. “You owe some people money or something?”

“No.” “I’m debt free and I just changed my number. Whoever it is won’t leave any voice mails. They’ve got the wrong number.”

I grab my black hat and jam it on my head. We’re off from the rodeo today but there’s still work to be done. We promised Clay’s dad we’d do a once over on the ranch to make sure everything’s running fine.

A few hours later and we’re all done and heading back to the house. We pass some of the ranch hands and wave to them. I can’t help but stare at their mud-splattered jeans and torn shirts. I get beat up myself every day at the rodeo, but it’s a different kind of beat up.

I’d much rather be spending the day out in the open, taking care of grazing cattle instead of doing barrel stunts and wrestling animals to the ground. Being in the rodeo is an imitation act.

I wish I could enjoy the real thing.

Clay and I round the side of the house. I jump onto the front porch and nearly trip over my own feet. Cheyenne stands at the front door, looking at us with unblinking eyes.

“Hi,” she slowly says.

Clay bumps into me then halts. “Hello.”

I tip my hat at her.

Cheyenne looks down at a plastic wrapped pie in her hands. “My mom wanted me to bring you this. It’s to tell you thank you for the work.”

I grin and cross my arms. “It’s just from your mother? Not from you too?”

Her eyes flash. “Yes, it’s just from her. Did you think I baked you a pie to thank you for taking my virginity?” Her eyes flash.

She stomps across the porch and shoves the pie at Clay’s chest. She’s probably wanting to throw his balance off but he doesn’t budge as much as an inch.

“Stop having regrets,” he says. “Stop running away.”

Cheyenne relaxes, and gazes up at him. She looks terrified. She’s also turned on. If she weren’t she would have backed away from him by now.

I move closer to her, brushing my leg against her hand. “You liked what we did to you, Cheyenne.”

She clenches her jaw and looks at the porch boards.

I go on. “And that was just the beginning. I didn’t even get my dick in you yet. I know you want to know what it would feel like to have us both fuck you at the same time.”

She actually gasps. I chuckle, pleased with myself.

Clay rests his hand on her shoulder. “Go out with us tonight. We’ll take you bowling.”

Cheyenne’s brows push together. “Why?”

It’s a good question. I thought Clay and I answered it this morning in the kitchen but now I’m not sure.

There’s something different about Cheyenne. Or something different about what happened between us. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just that I don’t like looking like a dick who helped take a girl’s virginity. Though Clay and I will be leaving town soon it would be nice to show her we’re not all bad.

“It’ll be fun,” I tell her.

“Okay,” she says. “But I want to go to that new place on the other side of Powell.”

Clay looks quickly at me but I have no idea what it means. We’re getting Cheyenne out for the night. That’s good enough for me.

“We’ll pick you up at six,” I say.

She nods and then jumps off the porch. We watch her saunter across the yard, her tight ass swaying in her jean shorts.

“She doesn’t want to be seen with us,” Clay says.

“Huh?” I look at him for a further explanation.

“The bowling alley on the other side of Powell isn’t the closest one.”

“So?”

He looks at me like I’m dumb. “We probably won’t know anyone. She won’t have to worry about people seeing her with you or me. Not that I care. Fuck what other people think.”

“Fine by me.” I snicker. “You want people to think she’s your girlfriend or something?”

“No,” he grumbles. “I’m going to take a shower.”

The door bangs closed behind him. I look back across the lawn. Cheyenne’s disappeared around the tool shed. A cool breeze comes across the yard, bringing with it the shouting of ranch hands.

I hook my thumbs in my belt loops and take in a deep breath. Fresh country air and a pretty girl with a firm body that’s just waiting to be claimed.

Life doesn’t get much better.

I lean against the corner of the house and watch the direction Cheyenne went in. She pops up again, small and headed across the field towards her house. My limbs jerk at the sight of her.

Not thinking twice, I jump down from the porch and jog across the yard. The tall grasses in the field whipping against my jeans.

“Cheyenne!”

She turns to face me, hair dancing all around her cheeks. “What’s up?”

“I...”

Shit. What am I doing?

I have no clue why I followed the girl. My body took charge and brought me here and now my head is asking questions.

Cheyenne folds her arms. “I know I was pretty dramatic last night.”

“Aw, come on.” I wave my hand. “It was a big night. You don’t need to apologize for anything.”

She shrugs and eyes me. “Do you guys do this a lot?”

I debate how to answer.

“Never mind,” she says. “I know you probably do. Clay...” Her eyes drift towards the Murphy house. “He kind of has a reputation around here.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“You’ve got the same?”

“No. I don’t stay around anywhere long enough to build a reputation.”

Cheyenne smiles and looks down. She kicks a tuft of grass. “I freaked in the hay loft. I didn’t think it was really going to happen… and then suddenly it was… and...” She shakes her head and looks at the clouds. “Wow.”

“That good, huh?” I take a step closer to her. “It gets better, you know. Usually a girl’s first time isn’t good at all. Just think of how great it’ll be tonight.”

Her eyes fall to mine, the pupils quickly shrinking and growing. Her chin tilts up. I stop a breath’s space away.

“We can do things you’re afraid to dream about.” I pause and let her make her own assumptions. Her lips twitch and a soft pant escapes her.

Her body is a magnet pulling me to it. My hands crackle with the desire to touch her.

But I can’t do it.

I’ve hooked up with women without Clay. Women we’ve both already screwed. There isn’t really much off limits regarding our relationships with women. We never set up any ground rules. One night we discovered just how much better fucking a girl becomes if she’s shared and we kind of ran with it.

But this is different. This is a girl Clay grew up with. If she’s anyone’s woman, she’s Clay’s.

The idea of putting my hands all over her without Clay’s knowledge doesn’t sit right. He’s my closest friend and I don’t shit where I eat.

Cheyenne drops her chin. She looks slightly disappointed.

“I thought you were going to kiss me,” she says.

My lips ache just to hear her say the word ‘kiss’.

“You’re Clay’s.”

Her eyebrows shoot up. “Excuse me? I’m nobody’s. Clay doesn’t have a claim to me just because we’ve known each other all our lives.”

I walk past her, going in the direction of her house. My legs get antsy standing around and I need to get them moving. “There’s a second part, right? You mean because you have a boyfriend?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” She catches up and walks next to me. “What a crazy question.”

“We talked in the bar and you never told me whether you did or not.”

“You didn’t ask.”

“I said something about boyfriends.”

“Right. You asked where my friends and boyfriend were, or something like that. You didn’t ask if I had a boyfriend.”

I break off a tall piece of grass and roll it between my fingers. “How come this field isn’t used? Who owns it?”

She looks around us. “It’s my parents. And they used to use it. But they’re not expanding the ranch anymore. They can barely keep up with what there is to do.”

“They could sell it to the Murphy’s. Or the two ranches could combine. They could become one big one.”

“I guess… But, why would they?”

“You just said your parents can barely keep up with what they do have.”

Cheyenne rolls her eyes. “Are you always this annoying?”

I stop walking and face her. “You’re not exactly close to winning personality of the year yourself.”

Her nose wrinkles. “You’re asking me all kinds of… of...”

“Things you don’t want to answer.”

She looks past my shoulder. “If I had a boyfriend I wouldn’t have hooked up with you two.”

“I gathered.”

Her eyes flash and jump back to mine. “Really.”

“I believe you.”

“I just wanted you to know.”

“Why?”

Her mouth opens and a sharp exhale comes out. It seems she doesn’t have an answer.

“You care about what we think about you.”

“Oh, like you don’t care what people think?”

She’s got me backed into a corner. I’m not here to discuss my pride.

“I’m more interested in talking about you. A girl like you must have plenty of men chasing her.”

Her cheeks grow pink. The color draws attention to a mole on her right cheekbone I never noticed.

“About you,” she says. “Do you ever have girlfriends?”

I twist the blade of grass in my fingers tighter, rolling it into a funnel. “No. They’re overrated.”

“Oh, that’s a great way to talk about women,” she sarcastically says.

“You asked.”

“About girlfriends. And now you’re telling me you don’t like women.”

“Uh-uh. Not my words. I love women.”

“But only while they’re naked? How about the times they’re not down on their knees?”

Cheyenne stares me down. For all her shy appearances, she can be a real firecracker once she’s comfortable.

If I’d known this conversation would be difficult, I would have stayed on the damn porch.

She’s questioning my lifestyle. It’s not right. No one gets to judge me this harshly, yet this woman has me wanting to prove to her what she’s been missing.

“Did you expect something more than just getting naked with us?” I shoot at her.

She flinches at my words. “No. I didn’t.”

I nod. “Good.”

Half of me thinks I should turn tail and leave it there. The other half knows it would be an awful thing to do. Cheyenne just lost her virginity. She doesn’t have a fraction of the experience most of the girls Clay and I get with do.

In a way, she’s innocent. Other women know what they’re getting into with Clay and me. Cheyenne likely didn’t.

She clears her throat. “We don’t have to go out tonight.”

“We are,” I fiercely say. “We’re taking you out and it’s going to be fun.”

One corner of her mouth turns up and her chin quivers. She’s either going to laugh or cry. Who knows which. “How many girls do you take out?”

Again with the questions. She’s good. She’s beating me down.

But I’m not leaving without a fight.

“Just the special ones.”

I don’t give her a chance to hustle up a comeback. I turn and walk back towards the Murphy farm.

“Remember,” I toss over my shoulder. “Six o’clock.”