Unbreak My Heart (Rough Riders Legacy Book 1)

by Lorelei James

  I wore the mermaid dress—nicknamed such because the metallic material resembled shimmering fish scales and the skintight fabric fit to my every curve—whenever I needed a pick-me-up. “I already told you I’m not going.”

  “You are killing me here. This isn’t like you. Lying in bed navel-gazing.”

  “It’s been a rough week. I’m taking time to regroup and reassess.”

  “Reassess tomorrow. Hit the party for one hour. If it sucks you can go.” Her pause lasted like fifteen seconds. “Kyler is your family. Today was a huge game for him. You know he wants you there helping him celebrate.”

  “I was at the game, which is the important part. Besides, I doubt he’d even notice if I didn’t show up—and that is not a statement of pity.”

  “It’s a statement of fear. You’re skipping the party because you’re afraid Boone will be there.”

  “Afraid?” I snorted. “Uh, no.”

  Lu flopped on the edge of my bed. “You’re giving Boone way too much power. You were happy living your life before he showed up. And you’ll be happy living your life after he’s gone. A blip in the radar. That’s all he is.”

  Boone wasn’t a blip on the radar. That was the problem. He was the whole fucking map.

  “You need a mood enhancer. What’s the shot your sister Rory always makes?”

  “A ‘bang me from behind’?”

  Lu snapped her fingers. “Let’s pregame with those. I’ll line up the shot glasses, you find that inner slut and let her come out and play.”

  It was impossible to resist Lu in a party mood. I loved her for that. “Fine. I’ll get ready. But I’m not wearing the mermaid dress.”

  Lu knocked back three shots to my one. Mine was more like a half shot, which turned me into the DD.

  Parking was a bitch. Why did the neighbors in this upscale neighborhood put up with this? It wasn’t like the house was just down the street from frat row.

  I’d never seen so many people. Lu spied her senior design project partner and they strolled away, arm in arm, singing the school fight song.

  As I wove through the throng, I didn’t recognize a single person. Maybe I oughta take it as a sign I’d outgrown these parties, because a few kids looked like high schoolers. What was Mase’s personal liability if the cops showed up? Maybe he wasn’t home. That would upset me more, to think Kyler was throwing parties because he thought he deserved it.

  Stop being Debbie Downer and have some fun.

  A bunch of jocks were standing on the steps, obstructing the entrance to the house, assigning a number to every female that walked by.

  “Four.”

  “Six.”

  “Jesus, are you guys drunk? She’s a two at best.”

  Laughter.

  Tempting to kick every one of these douchebags in the nuts. As I tried to slide in behind them, I accidentally bumped one of them.

  He whirled around with, “Watch it.”

  “Then quit standing in front of the door.”

  That had him blocking it even more. “Aw, hey baby, don’t be like that. You’re hot. Hang out with us. We’ll show you a good time.”

  “Pass. I’m meeting someone. Now let me through.”

  Surprisingly, he moved. I’d just made it inside when I heard, “Face and body a solid eight.”

  “Yeah. Too bad she opened her mouth ’cause it dropped her to a three.”

  Bite me, fuckers.

  Music blasted. The air temp inside was stifling. I scanned the clusters of people, hoping to spy Lu’s pigtails, when I caught a glimpse of the action in the living room. A guy sat in the center of the couch, two topless blondes straddling him, one chick riding each thigh. They were making out like crazy. They took a break to focus on the man whose eyes were closed and he wore a stupid, happy grin.

  Yeah, Mase was completely down with this party.

  I was jostled. I was groped. I was cajoled into taking pictures.

  I was so over all of this.

  Thirty minutes had passed when I finally gave up looking for Lu. I cut through the dining room, hoping to find Ky.

  He wasn’t at his usual station in the kitchen. I fought the crowd and ended up outside.

  It was a zoo out here too.

  Anton and his group from rodeo club were in the backyard, leaning against the fence in that sexy casual way cowboys were so good at. Anton smiled at me, tipped his hat and returned his attention to whatever tall tale his buddy Diaz was spinning.

  Tug and the other players wearing Sun Devils Football jerseys were gathered around the keg. Ky had to be close.

  I found him out by the grill, each arm around a girl, a cup of beer in his hand.

  When Ky noticed me, he forgot the women and barreled over, an enormous grin on his face. “Sierra! You came!”

  That damn smile. I couldn’t help but grin back. “Sweet game today.”

  “You were there?”

  “Don’t be a dumbass. I never miss any of your games.”

  “Man, it just…gelled. The last quarter we were in the motherfucking zone! It was beautiful.”

  “I know. I’m so proud of you, QB.”

  “Thanks for coming tonight. It’s kinda crazy and I’m a little drunk but it means a lot that even now that you’re a company bigwig, you’re not too cool to hang out.”

  “Never, cuz. I’m a McKay-kateer for life.”

  “Damn straight.” Laughing, he picked me up and tried to spin me around, but forgot he was holding a beer and spilled the entire thing down the front of my shirt.

  I leapt back. The empty cup hit the ground.

  “Shit! Sorry, sorry, sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Nothing says I had a rip-roaring Saturday night more than reeking of sour beer.”

  The girl to my left snickered.

  When I looked at Ky again, he was blushing. “What?”

  “Uh, your shirt is transparent when it’s wet, and you can tell, I mean, it’s not like I’m staring at your…but, uh, it’s kinda obvious you’re not wearin’ a bra.”

  I glanced down. Sure enough, the wet shirt was as clingy as plastic wrap.

  Fucking fantastic. I crossed my arms over my chest. “Thanks, Ky.”

  “I said I was sorry.” Kyler shoved his hand into his pocket, pulled out a key and thrust it at me. “Here. Grab a T-shirt from my room.”

  Confused, I said, “You keep your bedroom door locked?”

  “During parties? Yeah. Don’t need people fucking or puking in my damn bed.”

  Smart. “Thanks.” I snatched the key and pressed my forearm across my chest again. “I’ll be right back with this.”

  “No rush.”

  The chick on Kyler’s left said, “Why does she get a key to your bedroom and I don’t?”

  “Because I said so.” He smacked her ass. “Run along now. I’ll come find you later.”

  Lovely, Ky.

  As I walked away, I heard him say to his other female companion, “Can I get you to do me a favor, sweetness?”

  “Anything,” she said eagerly.

  That man had women lined up around the damn block.

  I saw a flash of pigtails and flattened myself against the wall; I couldn’t deal with Lu right now. When the coast was clear, I wove through the drunken people clogging the stairs.

  Few revelers had breached the second floor besides a couple sucking face on the bench seat and another couple playing strip poker as they waited to use the bathroom.

  I headed down the hallway to Ky’s room. But first I stopped at Hayden’s door and turned the handle. Locked. Interesting. Next I tried Anton’s door. Also locked. So there was a difference between this place and a frat house.

  I’d just unlocked Kyler’s door when I heard, “Sierra?”

  I froze.

  Boone.

  My flight instinct kicked in. I pushed the door open just far enough to sneak inside and then I slammed it shut and locked it.

  That was the height of maturity.

&nbs
p; Heart hammering, I pressed my shoulders against the door and tried to calm down after that spike of adrenaline.

  Three soft raps vibrated by my head. “Funny, McKay. Let me in. I want to talk to you.”

  “So talk.”

  “I’m not saying this through the goddamned door,” he snarled. “Let. Me. In.” Pause. “Or I’m coming in.”

  “Empty threat since I’m the one with the key.”

  Boone could just wait a damn minute until I didn’t look like I’d entered a wet T-shirt contest.

  I crossed the room, eyeing the stack of T-shirts neatly folded on the dresser. I had a split second to wonder if Ky did his own laundry or if one of sideline bunnies did, when I heard the locking mechanism click.

  I wheeled around, watching in shock as the handle turned, the door opened and Boone stepped inside.

  His focus stayed entirely on me as he shut and locked the door behind him.

  “What are you doing in here?”

  “I told you I was coming in.”

  “You’re so determined to corner me that you picked the fucking lock?”

  “No. Ky gave me a key.”

  “Bull. Ky gave me the key.”

  “Evidently he has more than one key.” He started toward me—a smooth predator that’d spied his prey. His gaze moved down the column of my throat to where the shirt gapped and then homed in on the transparent material clinging to my breasts.

  I fought a shiver at the hungry way he studied my chest. His gaze darted from one stiff nipple to the other. I felt the need to blurt out, “Ky spilled his beer all over me.”

  “Remind me to thank him,” he murmured.

  Then he invaded my space completely.

  My dizziness wasn’t from lack of oxygen to my brain. That twisting, turning, yearning sensation was all because of him. His scent, the heat from his body, the way his breath buffeted my exposed flesh in choppy, staccato bursts.

  No man ever looked at me the way he looked at me right now.

  I was tired of fighting this.

  Why was I fighting this?

  No. More.

  I trembled when his index finger followed the edge of my shirt from my collarbone down to the first button. On the painstakingly slow journey up the other side, he used two fingers; the rough edges of his knuckles made a whispering sound across my skin.

  He stroked the center of my chest, opening his fist like a flower and flattening his palm beneath the hollow of my throat. We weren’t looking at each other, our mutual attention focused on him touching me.

  When he inched his hand beneath the edge of my shirt and encountered the upper swell of my breast, his patience vanished.

  Almost blindly Boone curled his hand around the nape of my neck and brought his mouth down on mine.

  He wasn’t asking.

  He was taking.

  And I let him.

  Boone tasted like whiskey and need.

  When that falling sensation hit me again, I realized just one taste of him and I was drunk on him.

  Tonight I needed to do more than I’d done the other night—clutching him tightly while he made a mockery of every man who’d ever kissed me. I’d waited a lifetime to experience his primal need and raw hunger.

  Boone ripped his mouth free to trail kisses down my throat. Then his hot, wet mouth engulfed my nipple. Sharp teeth, teasing tongue, suctioning kisses on the stiff peak. Boone savored me as if he had all night.

  I wanted him frantic. I wanted grunting, growling, rasping vocal evidence of him losing his cool. I wanted to crack the lid on the passion he bottled up.

  “Boone.” My nipple slipped from his mouth and he nuzzled the valley between my breasts. “My turn. Don’t move.”

  As I smoothed my fingertips over the deep cut of his triceps and the muscled grooves of his forearms, I rubbed my lips across his left pec. When the hard nub of his nipple rose up to greet me, I opened my mouth over it, blowing a hot puff of air out through the cotton fabric.

  A deep groan rumbled and then he pulled away.

  Looked like my turn lasted about thirty seconds.

  Next time? I wouldn’t ask.

  He curled his hand around the front of my throat and reconnected our mouths. His tongue fucked along mine, thrust and retreat, again and again until my head spun.

  My brain functioned enough to keep touching him. I inched my hand down the center of his body until my fingers connected with the waistband of his athletic shorts. The elastic stretched as I pulled it down. The stubborn material caught on his hipbone, but another tug and his athletic shorts hit the carpet.

  Handy that Boone wasn’t wearing underwear.

  I formed my fist around his hardness covered in warm, satiny skin.

  Somehow we’d ended up against the edge of the bed. Using both hands, I pushed his ass to the mattress. Then I was on my knees, my hair teasing the insides of his thighs when I bent my head and enclosed the tip of his cock between my lips. His musky scent, his salty taste…I opened wider to take more of him, when his strong hands—and even stronger will, apparently—tilted my head back, dislodging his cock from my mouth.

  “Jesus, Sierra,” he hissed. “Stop.”

  “No.” My eyes issued a challenge as I pushed the head of his cock just past my lips, letting it rest on my bottom teeth as I flicked my tongue over that sweet, sweet spot beneath.

  The way his eyes and nostrils flared…yeah, he hadn’t really meant stop.

  But he choked out a soft, “Why?”

  “Because I want you. I want you like fucking crazy. But that’s not obvious with the hot and cold way I’ve acted. So let me show you how hot it can be.”

  I nuzzled his shaft where it had bounced back up against his outstanding abs, taking a moment to worship those hard ridges with my tongue. As I slowly jacked his cock, I rubbed my face across the lower half of his abdomen. High on the scent of his skin, drunk on this taste of power, I brought the rigid flesh into my mouth bit by bit.

  His hips jerked.

  When the very tip of his cock kissed the back of my throat, I swallowed.

  “Fuck.”

  I sucked hard and was rewarded with a grunt. I bobbed my head, eager to push past my comfort zone and see how far I could take him.

  “I need my hands on you.”

  I didn’t remind him this was my show, because it was his dick, after all.

  His eyes held a wild look I’d never seen as he placed his hands on my head, his thumbs resting on the corners of my mouth. I started to make a fist around the base of his shaft when he grated out, “No hands. Just this mouth.”

  Okay. Boone telling me what he wanted? Really hot. Keeping my eyes on his face, I set my hands on his thighs and rubbed my lips back and forth across the smooth curve at the top of the head.

  “Lick it.”

  My tongue darted out and licked a drop of precome before dipping into the slit searching for more.

  “Lick lower.”

  I swirled my tongue around the rim, watching his eyes avidly follow every movement.

  So Boone liked to watch. I could definitely work with that.

  “More,” he said in a gravelly tone.

  “More what,” I breathed against his damp flesh.

  He shivered. “Of everything.”

  I smiled. Since he held my head, I had to lean forward to get his cock in more than halfway. Then I clamped down and sucked.

  “Motherfuck. Do it again.”

  That’s when he set the rhythm and the speed.

  I couldn’t tear my gaze from his face, flushed with passion. His eyes glittered with lust as he watched his cock tunneling in and out of my mouth.

  It wasn’t long before Boone hit the boiling point.

  His quads went rigid beneath my stroking fingers. “Sierra,” he warned.

  I increased the suction and he went still a moment before that deep rasping groan left his mouth as warm thick spurts of his release coated the inside of my cheek and the back of my tongue.


  When I closed my eyes and swallowed, he slid his hand to the base of my throat so he could feel me drinking him down.

  That was the hottest act of possession I’d ever experienced.

  I’d barely let his dick slip out of my mouth when someone started pounding on the door.

  Immediately I jumped up.

  “Whoa. Where are you going?”

  “Someone is beating on the door.”

  “Ignore it. We’re not—”

  Louder pounding. “Let me in, dammit. It’s Ky.”

  Boone swore behind me.

  I grabbed the T-shirt that had fallen to the floor when Boone first barged in and I pulled it over my head. I flipped the lock the same time Boone said, “Don’t you unlock that fucking door, Sierra.”

  “I’m dressed. I’ll see what he wants.”

  “Goddammit—”

  I slipped out and slammed the door behind me.

  Ky was at the bottom of the stairs when I caught him. “Kyler. What’s going on?”

  “The cops are here.”

  “Shit.”

  “They’re being pretty cool because things did get out of hand.” Ky set his hands on my shoulders and practically shoved me out the side door. “I need your help.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Ana, one of the girls I was with tonight, got a minor last weekend. She wasn’t drinking tonight, but if she gets caught here…they could kick her out of school since it’d be her third offense.”

  I almost said, Third one for this school year? It’s only the end of October!

  But Ky kept talking. “I don’t need this on my conscience and she knows she better not show her face here again after this. But for now, can I get you to drop her off at her dorm?”

  “This is why you…?” Interrupted my sexy time with Boone? And isn’t he gonna be thrilled that I bailed a-fucking-gain after things got heated between us?

  Fuck. The man would be on a rampage.

  Or maybe he’d be really mellow after that blowjob.

  Either way, it appeared I wouldn’t be around to find out.

  “Aren’t the cops checking IDs of everyone leaving the party? They’ll catch her that way.”

  “Yeah, but, ah, she’s already under a blanket in your backseat.”

  “What! Are you serious?”

  “Look, we were, ah, talking over by the hedge when the cops showed up. She panicked, jumped the hedge and then…fuck, I had to talk to her through the damn hedge before the cops caught her. I told her to look for your Mercedes because you never lock it.”