He continued to drive along the fence line, checking for breaks and downed wire. Music filtered through the driver’s side window, and he eased up on the accelerator.
The dirt road he drove along followed the fence line, circled the pasture, and led him within a few hundred yards of the back wall of the Calworth’s garage before veering northward.
His truck moseyed along the dirt trail and the engine’s roar fell to a low hum. The music blared louder. Suzi Calworth.
“Damn, can’t she turn down the volume?”
If the rumors had it right, she arrived back in town the prior weekend. She attended church and talked to almost everyone in town. Everyone except him it seemed, because the people he’d met over the last several days had enjoyed telling him of the fact. They all had offered him advice too.
“Just marry the girl and have yourself a house full of young’uns.”
Hey, right. After the mistake, he’d made when she left, it wasn’t likely she’d welcome him back into her life with open arms.
Hell, it wasn’t his fault she hadn’t listened. He’d told her more than once that he had no plans of ever getting married. However, somewhere in the two years they had dated, she’d lost sight of the fact. He’d hurt her. Bad, if he wasn’t mistaken, and he didn’t like himself much for doing it.
What else could he do? Marry her? Pain bubbled up into his chest. “No, damn it, she deserves better.”
Slamming his truck into park, he cut the engine. Dust backwashed through the truck’s open windows, adding a dry scratchy ache to his already parched throat. A love song floated on the wind and the urge to see her again booted him into action. He tugged the keys free of the ignition and swung open the driver’s side door.
“Nothing’s wrong with being neighborly.” He provided himself a plausible reason to visit and stomped through the dirt to the narrow gate leading to her backyard.
He strolled along the side of her garage as the song on the stereo changed. Shania Twain’s voice played on the light breeze. Fast and upbeat, the music soared even louder when he rounded the corner of the garage.
His gaze immediately fell on a figure dancing in the back yard. Arms waving in the wind, Suzi’s willowy body flowed with the erotic beat of the song. Her legs, free of clothing, stretched up for an eternity before the fringe of her very short denim shorts played over her thighs. The rolling sway of her hips teased him with a peek-a-boo show of her ass and robbed him of the ability to swallow the wet need pooling on his tongue.
Spinning in a circle, her long blonde hair flying, the sleek line of her back turned into a bountiful vision of cotton-covered breasts. Nipples excited by her sensual movements peaked behind the white stretchy material.
His cock instantly hardened. He couldn’t fight the testosterone surge and imagined all the things he loved doing with—to Suzi. If she’d only let him, he’d strip off her clothes and make love to her right here in the back yard on a soft bed of grass.
Man, how could he resist?
Unable to stop, he stomped across the gravel driveway. The crunching noise must have alerted her because she paused. Her hands dropped and her crystal-blue gaze locked onto his. Plunged into a wet dream, he struggled to catch his breath.
She blinked and without a word, turned. Hips swaying provocatively, she walked up the back porch steps and pressed the power button on the stereo.
Silence hit Clint with almost as much force as the blare of music had unsettled him earlier. The fantasy of her lying naked on the ground, her wet pussy enticing him closer stayed with him for a brief moment more before it faded.
Get your head out of your jeans and say something.
****
Banished Page 30
