Unbreak My Heart (Rough Riders Legacy Book 1)

by Lorelei James

  I squinted at Lu as she shook out four Excedrin tablets. “You don’t look too hung over.”

  “Oh, I am.” Lu popped the pills and took a big drink of water. Then she looked over at Boone. “Thanks for keeping me from getting arrested last night and for dragging my drunken ass to Raj.”

  “No worries.”

  “I’m glad it didn’t mess up your plans with Sierra.”

  “Nothing would’ve kept me from her last night.” He repeated, “Nothing.”

  That swoopy sensation started in my belly and spread lower. Boone’s gaze hooked mine and I was powerless to look away.

  “Knock off the eye-fucking,” Raj said with a sigh. “We gotta talk about some stuff and then you two can go back to rockin’ the rafters.”

  Lu stopped beside me and rested her head on my shoulder. “I’m gonna punch your cousin Hayden in the junk next time I see him for making me drink shots last night.”

  I petted her hair. “Poor baby. I warned you not to fall prey to his Fireball challenge.”

  “True. Now I can add that to my ‘never ever’ list of booze.”

  “So what did you need to talk about?” I asked.

  “Living arrangements,” Raj said.

  Boone and I exchanged a look. Good thing we’d already discussed this. Well, not this part specifically. “Since you’re as crazy about Lu as I am, and you’re used to living with Boone, you’re welcome to move your stuff here, Raj.”

  He grinned. “While that is downright sweet and thoughtful, for now, I think my woman wants to move in with me. At least until my sister gets back and kicks us out.” He dipped his chin toward Boone. “West is staying with you?”

  “Yes.” Imagining waking up with Boone every morning and sharing the same space the rest of the time…hello belly flip. But I’d never had a roommate besides Lu. What if Boone and I weren’t compatible with the day-to-day roommate stuff?

  “Then it’s settled. Lucinda Grace, baby, get your things.”

  “You’re ditching me?” I said to her.

  “Temporarily.” She lifted her head. Something in my face had her turning toward Raj and Boone. “Can you guys give us a moment?”

  “Sure.” Raj said, “I’ma make you get your stuff outta my car anyway, West. Come on.”

  As soon as they were gone, Lu slumped against the counter and snagged her water bottle. “You were baking first thing this morning, S.”

  “Just making breakfast for my man.”

  She rolled her eyes. “How freaked out are you about Boone moving in?”

  “It was my idea. It’s just surreal. Yesterday we weren’t together and now we’re living together.”

  “I might’ve been slam-a-lammered last night, but Boone was frantic to get to you, Sierra. Frantic.”

  I smirked. “That’s because I blew him and ran off before he’d put his pants back on.”

  Lu choked on her water. “No way. At the party?”

  “Yep. Classy, huh? I didn’t plan to blow and bail, trust me.”

  “No wonder he tossed me onto the sidewalk and peeled out as soon as he saw Raj’s pearly whites.” She laughed. “That is fucking hysterical, S. Another classic Sierra moment to add to the others.”

  “Promise you won’t tell Raj.”

  “I’m sure he already knows and Boone asked him not to tell me.” Her smile faded. “I don’t want to lose the ability to talk to you, or you to me, because we’re juggling keeping lovers’ confidences now too.”

  “Me either.”

  “And if me’n Raj call it quits, and Boone is living here with you…” She snorted. “I can’t even voice that possibility because it’s so ridiculous.”

  “What? You and Raj breaking up?”

  She nodded. “Won’t happen. With him…all the pieces just clicked. For both of us.”

  “I’m happy that you found the one true dick that fits.” I dodged her arm punch and laughed.

  “So I’ll just ask you straight out; is this thing with Boone about sex and making up for lost time?”

  My kneejerk reaction was I don’t know.

  But you do know.

  “The man is a fucking machine. Sex with him? Ah-may-zing. Physically we’re in synch. But we spent a lot of time talking last night and things are different for us. More solid.” I groaned. “Jesus, Lu. Please tell me I’m not letting my body make this decision and I’m ignoring common sense.”

  “If that were true, it’d be the first time since I’ve known you.”

  “Thank you for that.”

  “You’re welcome.” Lu drained her water. “Come on. Help me pack some stuff.”

  I waved her off. “Go on. I don’t need to see your sex toy collection again.”

  She stretched and her shirt rode up, giving me a glimpse of the hickeys in a heart shape around her tattoos.

  “Cute love bites,” I said.

  Lu glanced down. “Oh. Those. They’re starting to fade. You should see the ones on my ass.”

  I blushed and said, “Pass.”

  “You’re so cute, pretending you don’t have marks like this all over yourself.” Before she walked out of the kitchen, she said, “While I’m sorting through my sex toy collection, you sure you don’t want me to leave the big, black dildo? Since I don’t need it anymore?”

  Do not blush. “No! It’s not like I can repurpose it.”

  “Maybe you can’t, but I can.” Lu smirked. “Come on. Maybe I can give you a few tips.”

  I could not keep my hands off Sierra.

  Not that I’d tried.

  Not that she acted like she wanted me to back off.

  She couldn’t stop touching me either.

  I’d never been high, but if it felt anything like this? I could understand it.

  Because Sierra had become my addiction.

  In less than twenty-four hours I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

  I’d said as much to Raj when he’d swung by to drop off my stuff a few hours ago.

  He’d opened the back end of his SUV and unloaded my few belongings. I didn’t own much besides clothes and the college medical textbooks I’d kept. I’d never stayed in any place long enough to accumulate more than a few basic household items—most of which were in storage in Fort Hood.

  “This is all your stuff?” Raj asked.

  “I’ve got a few boxes in my car, but this is all I brought to your sister’s place. Why?”

  Raj shot a look at Sierra’s house. “Only people I’ve ever known our age that lived in a place like this were drug dealers.”

  I laughed. “Sierra is a dealer of sorts—a wheeler dealer in the real estate market. Don’t worry. Everything is on the up and up with her.”

  “That ain’t what concerns me, B.”

  “Then what?”

  “You have a chip on your shoulder about paying your own way in all things. You’ve never let me buy you a beer without repaying me in kind. So how’s it gonna work with her? No matter how crazy you are about her, I don’t see you agreeing to livin’ in her house without—”

  “A detailed spreadsheet of who pays for what?” I supplied.

  “Something like that. I’m betting you haven’t discussed it at all.”

  “Actually we have. Not as detailed a discussion as we need to. Sierra already knows about my pride, or the chip on my shoulder, or whatever you wanna call it. She understands since she knows where I—where it—came from. Dividing up the grocery and utility bills isn’t a concern compared to my fear that my honesty about how I feel about her is too much for her to handle.”

  “Since you’re basically a relationship virgin, I’ma give you some advice. Women love that honesty shit.”

  “So I didn’t fuck up by telling Sierra I loved her after our first night together?”

  Raj’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding me.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, man. I’m messing with you. I didn’t say the ‘L’ word, but I did tell her that she’s it for me.” Since I’d kept my true feelings
from her before, this time she deserved to know from the start that I wasn’t fucking around with her heart.

  He sighed. “Just…cool it down from here on out. Give it more than a damn day before you get into the serious stuff.”

  “Like you gave it more than a day with Lucinda? You barely gave it more than a minute.”

  Raj appeared ready to argue. He wanted to tell me his situation was different. Instead he just sighed. “We’ll check this convo for now.”

  “Fair enough.” I carried both duffel bags and my suitcase into the house and dumped them outside Sierra’s bedroom.

  Where they remained three hours later.

  A soft hand landed on my belly and I jumped.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you,” Sierra said.

  “What’d you think I was asleep?”

  “You were frowning. I thought you might’ve been having a bad dream.”

  I covered her hand with mine. “Not possible when I’m living the dream with you.”

  She laughed. “You do realize that not every day will be like this.”

  “Like what?”

  “Lazing in the sun by the pool after a night of hot sex.”

  “Seriously? Good thing I didn’t fall for your trickery and unpack all my stuff.” I pushed up out of the chaise as if I intended to leave.

  “Boone.”

  I leaned over her, shoving my shades on top of my head. Then my hungry gaze tracked every delicious inch of her. “I love the way you say my name.” I bent to place a kiss between her tits, which were all but popping out of her red bikini top. “Hang on.” I slipped one arm beneath her knees and the other arm beneath her shoulders and lifted her from her chair.

  Sierra wreathed her arms around my neck. “What are you doing?”

  “Making you wet again.” I nuzzled her ear. “I’m annoyed that you only mentioned the hot sex from last night and not the hot pre-breakfast round. When I had my face between your thighs and then I fucked you on the kitchen table.” I sucked on her earlobe and bit down, tightening my hold when she squirmed. “Or did you forget?”

  “God no.”

  “Good answer.” I started down the steps into the pool.

  She sighed when I submerged us a little deeper than hip level. “You meant this kind of wet.”

  “Disappointed?”

  “If I say yes…you’ll go all sexy, growly He-Man and make me wet that way too, won’t you?”

  I placed a kiss below her ear just to watch her shiver. “Probably.”

  Sierra shifted her body, facing me, wrapping her legs around my waist and crossing her ankles behind my back. “This is good too.”

  “Agreed.” I squeezed her ass cheeks in my hands and took her mouth in a teasing kiss. I only ended the kiss so I could plant kisses down her throat to the edge of her bikini top.

  “You are going to unpack your bags tonight, right?”

  “Uh-huh.” Almost. If she’d just arch a little I could nose aside the fabric and get my mouth on her nipple.

  “Do you want your stuff in my room or would you rather have one of the empty bedrooms?”

  I lifted my head and looked at her. “It’s your house, Sierra. Tell me what you want. Tell me where you want me and my stuff.”

  “I want you in my bed, Boone.” She ran her wet hand across my cheek and the side of my head. “My closet is a little full. I can clean a few dresser drawers out for you, but I’m thinking until you’re more…settled, it might be easiest to keep your stuff in the small bedroom across the hall.”

  “But you only want my things across the hall, not me.”

  “Yes.” Sierra kissed me. “I don’t want you to feel trapped. So maybe you’d feel less panicked if you had your own space to retreat to if need be. Then you could gradually move into my room, or maybe you’ll decide you prefer to have a dressing room of your own.”

  I studied her eyes, hating to see wariness. “I don’t have a ton of stuff. Moving a lot guarantees I travel light. That said, I’m not gonna cram more into your overstuffed closet. I’ll keep my clothes in the spare room. But I would like one of the nightstands and a couple of dresser drawers. It’d be a pain to have to get my bondage equipment out of the guest room whenever I wanted to use it on you.”

  She laughed. “In that case you can sleep in the guest room.”

  “Not a chance.” Keeping our eyes locked, I brushed my mouth across hers. “I want everything I’ve never had. I want to know what it’s like to fall asleep with you in my arms.” I nibbled on her bottom lip. “I want to wake up in the middle of the night and do wicked things to you until you’re awake, wet and frantic.” I licked the inside of her upper lip. “I want your face to be the first thing I see in the morning.”

  “I want that too.”

  “So this isn’t going too fast?”

  “It’s going as fast as we let it, Boone.” She pressed her mouth to mine. “If it careens out of control we can always pull back.”

  “Such a smart woman.”

  “But I do have to ask you a favor.” She played with my chest hair. “I told you my mom is getting remarried. Would you come to the wedding with me?”

  “When is it? So I can ask for that day off.”

  “It’s on a Saturday afternoon… Three weeks from yesterday, actually.”

  Fucking figures.

  “Excuse me?”

  I glanced up at her after I realized I’d said that out loud. “I said it fucking figures because that’s the day I’m supposed to be meeting my dad in Flagstaff.”

  “Oh. After what you told me last night…I’m surprised you keep in touch with your dad.”

  “That’s the thing. I don’t. But he called me out of the blue…that day I tricked you into showing me around Phoenix.”

  Sierra head-butted me. “You mean the day you lied about your friend moving to Phoenix.”

  “You’re always gonna lord that over me, aren’t you?”

  “Yep. Keep talking.”

  “He asked if I could meet him because he had some things to talk to me about face-to-face. I said sure, never believing he’d follow through with it.” I paused. “But he did follow through. He called me this week and said he scheduled the load he has to drop off with a firm date and everything. But I can cancel it.”

  “No. If you haven’t seen him in almost a decade, that’s more important.” Her eyes roamed over my face. “Do you have any idea what he wants to talk about?”

  “Not a clue. But I’m not going to waste time thinking about it.”

  Sierra squeezed my shoulder. “I’m here anytime you want to talk to me, Boone, about anything.”

  “Thanks.” I kissed her and realized I already felt less anxious about the meeting. No matter what Dax West said, for the first time in my life I’d have someone waiting at home for me to talk about it.

  Later, we were curled up on the couch, watching football highlights before the Sunday night game started, when the doorbell rang.

  Sierra looked at me. “Did you order pizza and forget to mention it?”

  “No. Maybe it’s Lu and Raj?”

  “Lu would’ve used her key.”

  “True. You weren’t expecting anyone?”

  “No.” She groaned and stood. “God, I hope it’s not my mother.”

  “Did you tell her about us?”

  “Omigod, no! If I tell her I have a live-in boyfriend, she’ll accuse me of trying to steal the spotlight from her wedding. I haven’t texted my dad the news either.” She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “I’m selfish. This is our time. We’ve waited long enough for it.”

  The doorbell rang three more times.

  “Impatient, whoever it is.” I followed her to the entryway.

  Sierra opened the door.

  Kyler, Hayden and Anton were on the steps with four pizza boxes and a twelve-pack of soda. Kyler studied us both, head to toe. Then he grinned. “Doesn’t look like we’re interrupting anything important.”

  “Not that we’d
leave even if you’d answered the door in your robes,” Hayden added. “But we figured there’d be a chance of finding Boone strung up by his balls and who wants to miss that kind of entertainment?”

  “Jesus, Hayden,” Anton said.

  “Why are you here?” I asked.

  “To watch football,” Ky said. “We brought food.”

  “I see that. But what’s wrong with your TV?” Sierra asked.

  “Nothin’. We just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  On one hand, fuck them for implying I’d ever hurt Sierra. On the other hand, thank fuck for them for looking out for her.

  “Come in. There’s room on the coffee table for the food.” Sierra kissed Ky’s cheek as he walked past—and then socked him in the stomach.

  “Hey! What was that for?”

  “The kiss was for giving Boone a key to your room last night. The punch was for making me smuggle Miss Underage out from under the cops’ noses.” She propped her hands on her hips. “I can’t believe Mase is okay with all the parties you’ve had lately.”

  “He’s not okay with it, especially not after last night and the cops showing up and busting people,” Ky said. “I never expected it’d get out of control so fast.”

  “That’s what happens when you’re a football star,” Anton said. “Everyone wants to bask in the glory of your presence.”

  Ky flipped him off.

  “Where is Mase?” I asked.

  “Watching game tapes before he leaves in the morning. He asked for peace and quiet so we’re giving it to him,” Hayden said.

  “We figured you’d have the game on tonight,” Ky said to Sierra. He tipped his chin toward her Cardinals jersey. “Ugly shirt, by the way.”

  His Broncos T-shirt earned him a sneering once-over. “Back atcha. Past time to retire the Manning T-shirt. Oh right, that’s the only reminder of the Donkeys’ former glory years, since they suck donkey dick this year.”

  “Knock it off, you two,” Hayden said. “Focus on the common goal of jeering at the Panthers and the Vikings the next few hours.”

  Hours? So much for my plans to keep her occupied on that couch, not thinking about any balls besides mine.

  You are such a romantic, classy motherfucker, West.

  Anton drawled, “Interesting addition to the entryway, Sierra.”