Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
The last time I’d seen him, he’d been barely legal to get into the local roadhouse with his brothers and me to drink a few beers. Now here he was, all grown up and stroking all the lumberjack fantasies I’d never known I’d had.
Was it okay to want to punch him and fuck him? Because I wanted to do both. Hard.
I bit into my sandwich as he took his outside to wander around. I could see him through the window over the sink. Nacho pranced around him trying to lure him into sharing a bite of his sandwich. The early-afternoon sun dappled through the trees, laying out a path of lighter spots here and there for him to follow toward the hellhole we’d been tasked with renovating.
The place was a disaster. We’d for damned sure been baited and switched by someone at Stallion Tools. They’d told us that the property had been previously used as a hunting cabin, but it looked like the last hunters to use it had been hunting wild buffalo on the plains with bows and arrows. I’d taken one peek inside and scampered back to the land of the living. I had a feeling I was going to be spending plenty of time hugging the modern facilities of this RV and praising Stallion’s generosity for arranging it for us.
A loud whistle blasted through the air. My eyes shot to Nine’s face and noticed the thumb and forefinger in his mouth I recognized as the Winshed Whistle position. It bugged the shit out of me when Eli did it, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let Nine summon me that way. I wasn’t a dog.
I continued eating my sandwich.
The whistle rent the silence again, making me jump and knock the mayo-covered knife onto the pristine floor with a clatter.
“Cut that shit out!” I shouted as I leaned down to pick up the knife. “I’m not your beck-and-call boy!”
I tossed the knife in the sink and cleaned up the splotch of mayo from the floor with a paper towel. Then I went back to eating my sandwich with shaking hands and my shoulders up to my ears.
Sure enough, that fucker turned right around and stared at me through the window as he whistled one more time. Now my nerves were on edge, and every molecule of my being wanted to obey and go to him. I refused. That would set a precedent that would doom me from day one.
“Knock it off,” I cried. Nacho’s ears perked up at my voice, and he took off at a lope toward the RV, his happy smile wide enough to allow his tongue to loll out one side. He was going to love living in the woods all summer. I could only imagine the mischief that dog was going to get up to.
“Hi, baby,” I cooed, leaning down to scratch his ears. “Miss me? Did you miss me, sweet boy? Yes you did.”
By the time Nine gave up his alpha male bullshit and came back inside, I was on the floor in full-on dog snuggle mode.
“Have a little pride,” Nine muttered. “Don’t you know where that tongue has been?”
Before I could defend my love for his dog, Nine met my eyes with a smirk and finished his sentence. “Nacho.”
“The man’s a comedian, everyone,” I said with an eye roll. “I’ll have you know this tongue hasn’t been anywhere in a very, very long time.”
Time stood still for a moment while we locked eyes. Why had I said that? It was none of his business. Now I sounded like a loser.
“Not for lack of opportunity,” I added stupidly.
Shut up.
“Good to know. And here I was wondering what your tongue had been doing.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Not. Feel free to keep your sex life details to yourself.”
I felt a flip in my gut. He’d never been overtly homophobic to me, but I needed to remind myself he was from small-town Wyoming. Nine and Eli’s family was traditional, salt-of-the-earth Christian conservative. They hunted on Saturday and praised Jesus on Sunday. Even though Eli had never been intentionally homophobic toward me, it was still obvious his upbringing had tons of built-in ignorance regarding anything LGBT related. It was a detail that could really come back to bite us in our current situation.
I returned his glare. “Considering you are my sex life right now, I don’t think I’m going to keep it to myself.”
The surprise on his face was comical, as if he’d just now put two and two together to realize it added up to sex. “We’re dating, remember? You’re my boyfriend and we’re in love. Two little lovebirds renovating a cabin in the woods for their luxury love nest.” I stepped closer to him until our chests almost brushed. Nine sucked in a breath as I leaned in and drew the tip of my index finger down the center of his chest. “Right, sweetie?”