Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
“Thanks for dinner.” He put his plate in the sink and left the room.
I watched him go. I tipped my head back in frustration. “He’ll come around,” I reassured Sia as she got up to put away the dishes.
I waited at the table until she was done, checking in by text with Styx and Ky. When Sia started shutting off the lights, I walked her to her bedroom door. She looked up at me and swallowed. “Night, Cowboy. Thanks for helping today.”
“Not a problem, darlin’.” I shuffled closer. “I had fun.” Sia nodded, her chest falling hard with each breath as I stepped closer still. I could feel the warmth from her body pushing against mine. “I get to see you practice barrel racing tomorrow, yeah?”
“Yeah. I got a rodeo in a few weeks. I gotta train if I’m gonna keep my top spot.” I smiled, already fucking hard at the thought of seeing her in diamond-encrusted jeans, flying around those fucking barrels, Stetson on her wild curly hair. Her chin tipped up. “As long as I get to see you train one of my broncs.”
“Oh . . . you can count on it.”
Sia smiled, and unable to fucking resist, I dipped my head down and put my thumb and finger on her chin. She sucked in a breath as I kissed the side of her mouth. “Bonne nuit, cher,” I whispered against her soft skin, dragging my nose up her cheek. Then I backed away to my door.
Sia stared after me for a few moments before quickly ducking into her room. I groaned, my head tilting against our bedroom door. Finally pulling my shit together, I turned the doorknob to the room Hush and I were sharing. I had only just shut the door when Hush said, “Ky will fucking murder you if he knows you’re doing this shit.”
Brother had heard everything.
“Shut the fuck up, Val. We’ve wanted her for a fucking age. Don’t pretend that shit ain’t true.” I grabbed my dick through my jeans. “I’m just not a pussy, afraid to go after what I want.”
In the light coming in through a split in the curtains, I could see my brother lying on his stomach in bed. His shirt and jeans were gone. My eyes fell to the fucking tattoo on his back, the one that tried to cover the burn that always would be there. The ink did its best to meld the mark into the design. But all I ever fucking saw was that damn mark.
Hush sat up. I shed my shirt and jeans and climbed into the bed beside him. He glared down at me. “Enjoy your ride?” He spoke in Cajun French again. I knew it was so Sia wouldn’t know what was being said if she overheard.
“Yeah. Felt real fucking good to be back in the saddle.”
Hush slumped back down to the bed. “Sure it did. Help you reminisce about the good old days, did it?”
“Fuck off, Val. I ain’t gonna let you come at me just because you’re pissed you weren’t out with us.”
“I was checking the perimeter.”
“All afternoon?”
“They could come at any time.”
“Styx and Ky got brothers up and down the way here every day checking for anything suspicious. You’re fucking avoiding her.” Hush was quiet. “She reminds me of you.”
Hush tensed beside me. I rolled onto my back and looked at him from the side of my eye.
Hush stared back. I knew he wanted to know what I meant, but it took my brother a real long fucking time to grit his teeth and relent. “How so?”
I thought about how to say it. Finally, I just said the fucking truth. “Because she’s broken, Val. Real fucking broken.” Hush’s eyes closed and my fucking chest tightened. “Damaged like you too, brother. You could help each other. She’s all alone. She fucking needs someone.”
Hush opened his eyes, gaze determined. “Then be that someone for her.”
I knew the pain it caused the stubborn fucker to say that shit to me. So I just tore off the Band-Aid. “We could be those someones for her.” He held his breath. “She knows about us anyway.” His eyes snapped to mine, exhaling quick. “About how we like it.”
“Why the fuck did you tell her that?”
“So she knows how we are. Knows the situation.”
Hush’s teeth ground so loud I could hear them. “Then, for once, ignore all that and just fuck her.” He got up on his elbows and looked me in the face. “I give you permission, Aub, okay? Be there for her. However she wants and needs you to be.”
“We don’t fly solo. Never have.”
Hush covered his face with his hands. “Yeah, but that’s with sluts and club whores.”
“And?”
“And she’s not one! She’s nowhere near a slut. She’s . . . just . . . more.”