MY CHEST EXPANDED sharply, humid air filling my lungs and forgetting to leave, and my foot reached for the brake pedal as if that would stop this whole scene unfolding before me.
I couldn’t look away as they lowered their tailgates and part of the group settled into cheap folding lawn chairs in the back of Wyatt’s truck. Aubrey skipped over to the dually and waited until West lifted her up to the high truck bed, his hands spanning her whole waist. She dropped down into one of his orange bean bags, wiggling her barely-covered ass into the vinyl, and stretched her long legs out in front of her, angling them across the space.
West hopped up into the truck bed, plopped on the other poof, and rested his head back against the toolbox, staring up at the sky, his whole body sagging.
A twinge of sympathy swelled—he looked exhausted—but I smothered it, burying it under a thick layer of I-don’t-give-a-shit.
The movie started, and I forced myself to face the oversized screen, although I couldn’t help stealing covert peeks. The brightness from the projector did a decent job of lighting the field, and I was a glutton for punishment, intent on watching how my own personal horror show was going to play out.
After my fifth or sixth glance to the side, Rue got annoyed.
“Sadie!” Her loud voice carried over the background music of the opening credits. “What in the hell do you keep looking at?”
She stood up on the seat of the Jeep and turned to her left, her chestnut and pink hair a beacon, causing several heads to turn in our direction.
My face burned hotter than last week’s sunburn, and I slunk as low as I could in my seat, wishing I could bury myself under all the wrappers on my floorboard.
From a few spots down the field, I heard Wyatt’s voice answer. “Rue? Are y’all here too?”
Rue lifted her hand in greeting, squinting in his direction, and then she turned her big brown eyes to me, silently asking me questions I didn’t know the answers to.
I focused on my breathing, squishing my eyes shut in mortification. In, out. Slow and easy. Repeat.
A whoosh of air signaled my door being yanked open, and I grabbed the steering wheel as if I was in danger of falling out.
His presence was palpable as he loomed over me—I could feel his eyes raking down my body, a hot caress that had my traitorous thighs pressing together in response. Only West had ever made me feel that way—a visceral awareness that seeped through me, saturating my limbs with pure, unadulterated desire. I fought it, battling it into submission.
My body was weak. I knew it. He knew it.
I needed to let my head handle this conversation, not my worthless fluttering heart.
“Sadie?” His voice sounded low and rough, and I bit my lip, ignoring the curl of desire flaring inside me at just the sound of him.
Oh, now he wants to talk to me?
My inner bitch reminded me of the Italian princess currently warming his truck bed, and the flame fizzled out. My fingers relaxed, uncurled, and dropped back into my lap.
Tilting my head up to him, I responded in a curt voice. “Yes?”
“What are you doing here?” He sounded thrilled, a grin slashing his face, and he ran a warm hand down my cheek, cupping my jaw.
Rue snorted beside me. “I think the better question is—what is she doing here?” There was no mistaking the distaste in her tone as she nodded toward West’s truck.
He glanced over, running his hand through his hair and gripping the back of his neck. Turning back to me, he shrugged. “Wyatt brought her. I didn’t even know she was coming.”
I looked him in the eye and kept my question soft, fighting my growing need to yell at him from sheer frustration. “What are you doing here?”
He snagged one of my hands and starting tugging me from the Jeep. “Now? Watching a movie with my favorite girl.”
One foot was on the ground, one still in the Jeep when I pulled free, shaking my head. “Nope. You gotta do better than that.” I picked up my beer and took a swallow, needing to break physical contact with him.
The body is weak, the mind is strong.
Propping his arms on the doorframe, he leaned down, catching my gaze. He opened his mouth to speak, but Theo interrupted before any sound escaped.
“Damn, this is better than the movie. Is it going to be R-rated too?” He crunched on a handful of chips and held the bag out toward Rue.
I ignored him.
West moved closer and ran his fingers along my hairline, pushing a chunk behind my ear. “Sadie?”
My chest rose and fell as I gritted my teeth against the instinct to lean into his hand.
The mind is fucking strong.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I pushed my skull farther into the headrest. “It was a good question, West. What is she doing here?”
“Watching a movie, I guess. What are you getting at? I already told you I didn’t know she was coming. She rode with Wyatt.” His brow furrowed, and he backed up a step.
“And what about on Saturday?”
He regarded me steadily, meeting my gaze head-on. “My grandmother called me on Friday to ask Wyatt and me to please join her for a family dinner on Saturday. I didn’t realize she had invited the Perottis over for dessert to discuss the gala.”
I forged ahead. “And the picture?”
“What picture?”
“Palm tree, her wrapped around you, ring a bell?”
West clenched his jaw. “Her mom asked to take our picture. I didn’t want to cause a scene at my grandparents, so I posed for the damn picture. Hailey and Wyatt were standing right there too. We took a group shot after that. What’s going on here, Sadie?”
“Why haven’t I heard from you since Friday?”
Just then, Aubrey slipped up behind him, wrapping her arms around his bicep, tugging on him and licking her lips while staring straight at me, her eyes bright with victory.
“West, baby, you’re missing the movie. Come back to the truck.”
I saw red.
I saw motherfucking matador red.
“Hey, Sadie. I hope you’ve been getting the referrals I’ve sent your way.”
I attempted a smile of acknowledgement in her direction but ending up baring my teeth at best.
Sneaky bitch.
Aubrey pulled on his arm again.
Theo mumbled something behind me, and Rue shifted, pressing against my side, but whether it was to urge me on or to hold me back, I couldn’t tell. Holding my breath, I kept my attention fixed on West.
He inhaled and shot an irritated glance over his shoulder before pulling his arm free. “I’m good here.”
The corner of my lip twitched, but he saw it.
And then he swooped.
I was cradled in his arms and most of the way to his truck before I figured out what was happening. My hand pressed against his chest, and I froze, paralyzed between holding on tight and pushing him away. I couldn’t see where Aubrey ended up, but really, I didn’t give a fuck.
“Don’t even think it.” The warning fell hot against my temple, and my fingers curled into his shirt, still indecisive, fisting the worn cotton.
His muscles flexed beneath me, and I failed to stop the shudder that ran through me.
The body is weak, so fucking weak.
West set me on the tailgate before vaulting up next to me and pulling me into his lap on one of the beanbags. My ass rubbed against his crotch as he settled deep into the seat with me across him, stretching his legs out wide to cradle me in between them. He buried his face in my hair and took a deep breath, his chest pushing outward, and then he exhaled with a happy sigh.
Like a recurrent nightmare I couldn’t shake, Aubrey appeared at the tailgate with her hands on her hips, glaring up at me. Rearranging her sneer into a pout, her voice dripping honey, she appealed to West. “You gonna help me up too?”
I stiffened, my eyes narrowing to slits, but he wrapped his big arm around my middle, forcing me to conform to his relaxed posture.
He yawned before answering. “Nope. Why don’t you go sit with Wyatt and them? Do you want the other bean bag? I think me and Sadie can make do with one.” He flexed his hips and pressed his growing length against my side.
She couldn’t have seen his movement, but she must have noticed the change in my expression because her eyes widened and she stepped back, sucking in a breath and stumbling as she turned toward the other truck. Her words were ripped away by the breeze, and, while I didn’t catch the specifics, her angry tone wasn’t lost on me. I didn’t watch the rest of her retreat.
Instead, I rounded on West and pinned him with a flat look.
He gazed back at me through sleepy eyes, one side of his mouth hitched up. “You didn’t want her to stay, did you?”
I huffed out a breath but didn’t respond, continuing to watch him.
His brows drew together, and he brushed his thumb over my cheek. “Are you mad at me?”
My tongue traced my upper teeth in sheer frustration, and I pushed his hand off my face.
“I don’t get you,” I seethed. “You cancelled our date, ignored me all week, met other girls here, and now you’re acting like we’re together?” I tried to shove off his lap, but the slippery vinyl under me made it difficult.
West sat up straighter, leaning down until our noses were almost touching, his eyes glittering. His voice was dangerously soft. “You sound an awful lot like the whiny girl who just slunk away from here. And that’s not you. Now what’s going on?”
It wasn’t a question, it never was with him, and I swore under my breath.
His curse wasn’t as mild or quiet as mine when he yanked me closer, putting his full lips close to my ear. They brushed against me as he spoke in an angry, rapid whisper. “It’s been a week from fucking hell, and I’m not sure what’s got your panties in a twist, but running into you here has been the best goddamn thing that’s happened to me since I crawled out of your bed a few nights ago. I know I haven’t texted, but I left you two paper planes explaining—”
“You what?” I interrupted, my body betraying me and turning pliant in his arms.
His arms softened around me, and he tugged on my earlobe with his teeth, his gentle caress at odds with the growl in his voice.
“Didn’t you read my notes? I told you it was going to be a crazy week, and then yesterday someone fucked with my boat, sliced my bean bags, and fucked up one of my engines. I’ve spent two days driving all over three damn states tracking down parts and getting these new seats from the manufacturer. Last night, when I crashed for a couple hours in the back seat at some shitty truck stop along the interstate, all I could think about was your soft bed and your long, sexy legs wrapped around me. I was heading home to you when Wyatt called and told me him and the guys were coming out here to hang tonight. Asshole guilted me into stopping by for awhile.”
Long fingers snagged my chin and turned my face so he could look into my eyes. I lifted my hands up to hold his wrist, my thumb rubbing over my hair tie that was still there.
“I didn’t know she was coming, Sadie. I don’t give a fuck about her. I was going to drink a beer or two with my brother, catch a nap, and come knock on your window. You were my destination.”
His last words echoed in my mind, and my eyes raced over his face, taking in the bags under his eyes, the harsh set of his jaw, the fierce slash of his brows as he waited on my reaction.
“I didn’t get the planes.”
He scowled at me. “What?”
“I haven’t heard from you since you cancelled our date.”
His face fell, and he leaned his forehead against mine, his arms tightening around me. Then he pulled back, putting space between us so I could see him in the dim light.
“I’m sorry.”
His whispered words, sincere and simple, floated between us.
Unexpectedly, my eyes filled with hot tears, and I sucked in a shaky breath, determined not to let them fall. He swore and hauled me against him, nothing between us but two thin layers of cotton, and rubbed his hand over my back and through my wind-tangled hair. “Sadie. You make me crazy. Did you really think I could just forget about you?”
His mouth pressed against my forehead, my eyelids, the tip of my nose, the corner of my mouth.
“What about tonight?”
His brow crinkled in confusion.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
His gaze softened, and he traced my bottom lip with the rough pad of a finger. “Babe, Wyatt called me when I was twenty minutes from here. He bitched about not hanging out much recently and made it sound like a guy’s night. I was gonna make a quick appearance and bail. I had no idea those chicks were tagging along. Aubrey said she needed to talk about the gala real quick. You fucking saved me from dealing with her shit any longer.”
I bit my lip hard, emotions swirling within me, but it all boiled down to him, the way it felt in the places where our skin touched.
His lips brushed mine, dissolving the last of my anger.
Exhaling, I mumbled against him, “Is that why you smell like General Beauregard? ’Cause you slept in your truck last night?”
He stilled against me. Then his chest vibrated with the force of his laughter. Setting me away from him, he leapt over the side of the truck and pulled open one of the doors. When he ripped his shirt over his head, my mouth fell open in appreciation. The reflected lights danced over his torso, highlighting sharp planes and ridges that I wanted to map, to memorize. Pulling a fresh shirt over his head, he rejoined me on the bean bag, settling me in his lap with my back to his chest, his legs framing mine.
“Better.”
Since it wasn’t a question, I stayed silent, but reached back and ran my hand over the two-day scruff on his cheek. He nuzzled my palm before nudging my hand out of the way to rub against the sensitive skin on my neck. His lips kissed a path along the angle of my jaw before stopping just below my ear.
“What do I have to do to wake up tomorrow smelling like you, hmmm?”
His teeth nibbled a retreat, a hum of approval buzzing in his throat. Callused fingers crept under the edge of my long tee, tracing the waistband of my shorts and dipping just under the top.
I slammed my hand on top of his, cutting his exploration short. “Easy there, tiger. This is a bit of a public venue.”
Leaning forward and forcing me to do the same, he opened the toolbox behind us and withdrew an oversized striped beach towel, throwing it over our lower bodies and draping it across our bent knees.
He moved my hair until it all fell over one shoulder and then placed hot kisses along the nape of my neck, sending a shiver straight down my spine.
“I’ve been fucking dying to touch you again, to feel you clench around me and smell you on my fingers. Have you thought about that this week, Sadie? When you were washing your hair with that watermelon shampoo, did you think about my hands on your tits? Did you play with those tight little nipples, wishing I was there?”
His hands snaked under my shirt, teasing the soft skin of my stomach and stroking just under my bra. I squirmed against him, his words making my breasts swell and bead against my cotton bra. His thumb slipped just under the elastic band, brushing the bottom swell on my left. I moaned, and he withdrew his hand, lowering it to circle my belly button.
He tsked in my ear and nodded toward Wyatt’s truck, where our friends drank beer and laughed, barely paying attention to the movie. “Can you handle this, Sadie? Can you keep quiet while I touch you?”
I looked around us. The truck bed came almost to our shoulders, and his truck was higher than most to begin with, but with the lawn chairs in the back of Wyatt’s truck, we weren’t totally hidden. Especially if someone was trying to watch us, like the way Aubrey was glaring at me over her shoulder.
Smirking at her, I raised an eyebrow in her direction, catching her attention, and she whipped her head back around, her hair flying around her shoulders.
I licked my lips and nodded.
He groaned behind me and pulled me against him, pushing his cock against my back. “Do you know what you’re doing to me? I’ve been hard for you every night, aching to sink inside you again, feeling your hot pussy squeeze me.”
I spread my legs under the blanket and laid my head back against his chest, surrendering to him, to the moment, to the heat building in my core.
“Take your shorts off. But leave those little cotton panties on that I felt earlier. I want to feel how wet I’m making you.”
Wiggling under the terry cloth covering us, I slid my nylon shorts down to my knees and slipped one leg out, giving him full access. Rough palms slid down my stomach, over my hips, and across the tops of my thighs, his fingers spread wide.
He moved his hands between my legs, skimming me as he approached my center. Unable to help myself, I lifted my hips, my pulse thrumming an erratic beat in my throat.
“Easy, Sadie. All in good time. I’ve waited all week for your sweet pussy. You can wait a few more minutes.”
Using just his middle fingers, he followed the lacy trim on my panties, teasing the crease where my thighs met my mound, before following the lace lower, his fingers just outside my sensitive folds.
Shifting, I ground against his cock and felt it pulse against me.
“Which do you want more? My fingers, thrusting deep inside you, stretching you, filling you? Or do you want me to play with your greedy little clit? Is it swollen for me? Begging for attention?”
The palm of his hand cupped me fully, and I stilled, my eyes falling shut at the sensation. The heel of his hand ground against my nub, and his fingers stroked me through the wet cotton.
“You’re ready for me, aren’t you.”
Not a question. Because he knew. He could feel it.
His breath rushed past my ear, hot and heavy, and his rough hands gripped my thighs.
Moments later, he shoved a hand under my soaked panties, two fingers pushing deep, and I arched against him, helpless to stop myself. He brought his other arm across my chest, pinning me to him, and I buried my face against his bicep to keep from crying out.
Working my slippery channel, he twisted his fingers, plunging in and out at a pace that had tension building like a tornado inside of me, focusing all of its power on one tiny spot, swirling higher and faster.
A whimper escaped my lips, and I clenched around his fingers, wanting more, wanting less, so it wouldn’t ever end, wanting West.
“Fuck, Sadie. Do you know how hot you feel? Can you feel how hard you make me, just touching you with my fucking hand? When we get back to your house tonight, I’m gonna wrap those silky thighs of yours around my waist and bury my aching cock in your wet heat, and I’m not stopping until I’ve pumped myself fucking dry. It’s gonna be hard, fast, slow, rough, and any other way I can think of between now and then. Are you ready for that, Sadie? Do you need that as much as I do?”
His words had me balancing on the edge, ready to fall, and the light scrape of his thumb over my clit was all I needed.
I bucked in his arms as he held me to him, my long, low moan smothered against the hard muscle of his shoulder.
As aftershocks rocked my limp frame, he lifted his hand to his mouth, licking my wetness off his fingers, his eyes bright and his body taut underneath me.
“I hope that sweet body of yours is ready for me, Sadie. Because I haven’t even started yet.”