Maybe Yates wasn’t so far off.
“I’m okay. I’m glad you showed up when you did. He’s a filthy creep.”
“He reeked of alcohol. I’m just glad I saw you guys when I did.”
As if he’d just realized how close we were standing to each other, he dropped his hands to his sides and stepped back. That’s when I notice his bloody knuckles.
“Oh no,” Reaching out, I grip his hand, pulling it into my stomach to hold it as I study his knuckles. “You’re all torn up. Are you okay?” I lightly rub my fingertips over his bones, enjoying the feel of his rough hand in mine. The heat from his hand feels like it is scorching my shirt, marking me.
“It’s nothing. Look, I better go. You’ll be okay?”
No! I didn’t want him to leave. We’d just experienced a huge moment together and I wanted to utilize this chance to bring us closer together. This was our chance…my chance. I had him, I had to think fast and keep him with me. It had been too long since I’d saw him and much too long since I’d been pleasured by any man, the way he had pleasured me. This was my opportunity; I had to do something. So I did what only I would do.
“No. No, I’m not okay. I’m scared. What if he comes to my house tonight?”
“After that episode, I doubt he will. Besides, you can always call the sheriff.”
“Oh come on, call the sheriff? You know as well as I do that calling Jackson would do no good. Yates is his cousin, Ryan.”
His nostrils flared as he took a deep breath, hopefully contemplating what to do about me. I was trouble and I wanted to trouble him. I would do anything if it meant being together just another moment longer.
“What the hell are you getting at Miranda? What do you want from me?”
My pussy clenches in response at the way my name rolls off his tongue. His eyes are steel, unwavering as he watches and waits. I war with myself on whether or not I should tell him the truth or accept defeat and let him walk away from me. Instead I answer his questions with one of my own.
“Why are you so hell-bent on ignoring me?”
He cocks his head to the side, smirking, “You know why.”
I lick my lips, rolling my tongue along my bottom lip extra slow. “I don’t. Not really.”
“I have enough going on in my life. I’ve worked hard to get where I’m at-”
“And you think by messing with me, I would ruin your reputation?” I was starting to get angry…hurt. Because I wanted him to want me like he’d wanted me at the wedding. It’s not like I didn’t know what most of the town thought of me but somewhere deep down in my heart, it really felt like Ryan was different than all of them. I resented that fact. I was a full-grown woman who no longer created a mess everywhere I went. But no one ever cared about that and all of these long glances he and I shared, I felt like there could be more to us than rumors and sex. Like maybe, if he allowed it, we could have a real friendship.
“It’s not like that,” he wouldn’t look me in the eyes and that’s how I knew it was exactly like that. The realization that he wasn’t much different from the rest of the town sort of surprised me. But it was the tightening feeling in my heart that traveled to the back of my spine that had me feeling like shit.
“It’s exactly like that, Ryan. Is it because I’m not what you generally look for in a female? Not Tammy Burns that never has a hair out of place and wouldn’t be caught dead in her pajamas.” My chest ached because of his gorgeousness and the truth of why he was avoiding me. This was the first time in a long, long time I was regretful about my harsh past. How many people, men and women, young and old, had I not given a fuck about how they could possibly feel about what I’d done in my past? Even when I made those choices to vandalize their houses with spray paint or to smoke marijuana behind the library. Only until I’d interviewed him after his parent’s death, did I begin to regret. Because he spoke to me without indifference and with respect. This was a first. He was a first.
“I don’t care about your past, Miranda. I don’t care what people say about you,” he shakes his head at me and it really feels like he is telling me the truth.
“Right. That’s why you want absolutely nothing to do with me.” These past two months, I’d conjured up what a great man he was: loyal, trustworthy, honest and I’d basically talked myself into loving him and he didn’t even respect me. Another, in the long line of people who already didn’t like me. What was one more, right? Why did it make me feel so bad, though?
He stalked closer to me, taking up my personal space and holy hell if my body didn’t betray me by wanting to jump into his arms. His smell had my pussy aching again, as I recalled his big fingers shoving into my wetness at the wedding reception. My hands ached to reach out and feel his strength, the solid lines of his body, his cock that I knew would turn hard at my touch. His eyes blazed with fury as he pressed his torso into my chest. The rough cloth of my blouse rubbed the points of my nipples as his hands locked onto my waist.
“You being a naughty, dirty-minded girl in the past, has nothing to do with your actions now,” I was actually believing that he meant this. He continued, “Why would I judge you on who you used to be? Fuck, we were all kids once. I think you’re still dirty-minded, you just pretend you’re not. I don’t believe that you’re deceitful or cause unnecessary trouble anymore. But this is why I have to stay away from you, Miranda.”
His voice is deep and husky as he pushes his erection into the thin cotton of my skirt, grazing my vagina. Oh my god, why is he torturing me? I couldn’t comprehend what he was spouting off at the mouth telling me no with his thick cock pressing into me which was signaling a clear yes. All he would have to do is let his dick swing free, slide my panties to the side and he would be home free. That’s it. Those two little movements and Ryan John would be nestled deep inside me where he belonged.
Chapter Four
Ryan
Why did I do that? I should’ve kept my distance from her but there was something so fucking sweet about her, I couldn’t stay away. She was like an addiction, all five feet, two inches of her. Her scent alone had me hard in an instant and the sweet sounds of pleasure that kept coming out of her mouth – I don’t think she even realized she was doing it – had me wanting to stick my dick there and feel those sweet moans as they vibrated around my cock.
She made me lose control over my thoughts and actions. Which is exactly why I had to stay away from her, but despite that, I could feel myself being pulled in. I bent my head, my lips a breath away from hers, I knew I shouldn’t be fucking doing this, but maybe just one sweet taste – one last sweet taste, I told myself – would rid me of these heavy fantasies I kept having about her. I could jack-off in peace without her bright hazel eyes, invading my soul.
She didn’t push into me the way I thought she might. Instead, she teased me. She stood there with her mouth slightly open, waiting for me to take the lead. I almost backed away. I should have because what came next was far better than what I kept remembering. Her tongue peeked out and swept her lower lip, slow, tantalizing me, and I was done.
My fingers gripped her tiny waist tighter than was necessary and if we weren’t in public, I would have fucked her right where we stood. I was a hypocrite and I didn’t give a shit as I gloried in the feel of her perky tits against my chest. As my tongue devoured her berry-tasting lips, I reconsidered my stance about fucking her in public. I was still carrying blue balls from the night I’d left her tight pussy satisfied at the reception two entire months ago. My dick betrayed me. Battling with my brain that only she would be the one who would be able to rid me of them.
Her lithe arms surrounded my neck and somehow, my hands had managed to unbutton the top button of her blouse. Her tits called to me on some cosmic level, promising me that they were all mine and I could do what I wanted with them. Kiss them, lick them, slide my cock in between them and fuck them. I had to see more of what I’d caught a glimpse of inside the community center. So much more. My thumb and forefinger tweaked
it away from her chest and I pulled away from her to see something I knew I was missing.
It was better than I had thought. Her pink nipples were definitely begging for my touch. The mounds of her breast were covered in tiny goose bumps that could barely be made out in the street light. My tongue couldn’t wait to smooth over the bumps and take the more important ones into my mouth. Bite them so fucking hard she’d have to dig her nails into my skin to make me stop.
“Come home with me. One night, Ryan. My body is aching for you.”
Fuck, if that didn’t break my train of thought and ruin the moment. Her hands unwound from my neck, gripping my arms. Her blouse was still partly open as I took a step back. I regretted the pain I could see in her eyes. Directly caused by me. Because I was too chicken shit to fuck her like she wanted yet not manly enough to keep my hands to myself. I knew I was being a dickhead by taking what she was offering me yet cowering in the corner because I didn’t want the good ole’ folks of Lone Star to know I was fraternizing with her.
“I shouldn’t be doing this. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“Why do you keep doing this?” her eyes pleaded with mine seeking an answer that I…well, had no answer for.
“I don’t know. I’m sorry, Miranda.”
“Don’t do this. I don’t understand. Do you think I’ll ruin your reputation if you so much as look at me?”
It wasn’t me I was worried about, I told myself. It was my little brother and my little sister who looked up to me for guidance that had me worried. I couldn’t risk doing anything that would hurt them – directly or indirectly. I wouldn’t do it. They deserved the best I could give them and fucking around with Miranda would do them no good. In the end, it would be a simple fuck and while it would be fantastic, it’d do me no good in the long run either.
“I thought you might be different than everyone else. God, how wrong was I? I’m such a fool to even think you would be interested in someone who was less than the perfect bimbos you’ve dated in the past!”
I cringe at the disdain in her voice. The harsh truth. She buttons the button I had undone on her blouse, her fingers shaking. After kicking the shit out of Yates in her honor, and treating her the way I just did, I feel like the biggest horse’s ass in Gibson County.
I didn’t want her leaving here thinking that I judged her like everyone else. I wanted to give her that. I wanted her to know it wasn’t her or her reputation I was worried about. Not exactly but sort of.
I grab hold of her hands, “Listen to me, please.”
She meets my gaze, her beautiful lips still in a semi-pout and God, if I wasn’t being mesmerized by her again. She was a witch who’d cast some kind of spell on my ass and it was unbelievably hard to break it. Hard to stick to my stance about having nothing to do with her.
“What?”
“I’m the only one my brother and sister have to look up to and learn from. I’m on the city council-”
“And being with me would ruin your reputation. I get it.”
“No, you don’t get it. I have to take care of them the best way I know how. I can’t do that if I’m out all night fucking women I have no intentions of bringing home.”
Her eyes widen. Fuck. I rub my eyes. I’d hurt her again by speaking the truth. Because that was the truth. I wasn’t going to bring random women home and set a precedent that it was okay to fuck random people and leave them. Even if that is what I did. Or have done in the recent past. Brianna and Alex couldn’t live that way. Their lives would be families, white-picket fences and going to Lone Star High School’s football games every weekend. Not like mine. Single at thirty, slept around a dozen times over with the right and ready women who were good enough for the night, but not good enough for forever.
Her cheeks were flushed and her chest heaved with each intake of air she brought into her lungs. Maybe I could make an exception. She tormented me bad. Knowing this wasn’t a good idea, her and I, I couldn’t stop myself from wanting her. I couldn’t remember ever having met a female that had me in such knots. Ever. I couldn’t convince myself that it wasn’t okay to want to kiss her sweet lips, to smell her juices on my fingers like I had before, to think of how tight her pussy would feel riding my cock as her tits bounced freely above. My semi-hard-on definitely didn’t understand what the fuck the problem was.
She was trouble. This is why I hadn’t so much as left the farm lately. Because I didn’t want to run into this bombshell of a babe and lose my control.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I can’t get involved with you, Miranda. I’m off limits. No matter what.”
Chapter Five
Miranda
No matter what. He’ll see. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get him beneath me. Over me. Behind me. I don’t care. All I know is he is my drug. I have to have him. I’m going to have him.
I started working as a receptionist for Lone Star’s paper when I was eighteen years old. The owner back then was seventy-eight and she had taken pity on me. Lone Star’s population was almost two thousand people at this point, but when I was a teenager, it was barely half that. No decent place ever wanted to hire me. I worked at a nursing home ten miles away as a janitor until there was the opening at the newspaper.
I wanted the position but my lack of secretarial experience pretty much ruled me out. At least, I thought it would. I was shocked when Golda McClanahan called and told me I was perfect for the position. She had been an amazing mentor and had become like a grandmother figure to me over the years. She trained me on everything she knew and did for reporting and taking pictures. She had even paid for me to go to school not too far from here to get my degree in Journalism.
She never told me why she had taken an interest in me and I never asked. The truth was, I was grateful to have her loyalty and support so I never wanted to question it. Maybe it was because neither of us had a family around and being in each other’s lives was so much better than the alternative.
She finally sold the newspaper when she turned eighty-four to a newspaper conglomerate – one of those companies that already owned the other three local papers. Local meaning the few towns in a hundred-mile radius of Lone Star. Which suited me just fine. I did my job and did it well and the owners had no backstory about me growing up. They didn’t judge me like the rest of the town did.
Let’s face it: the town put up with me. That was the truth. They dealt with me because I was the reporter – I kept them up-to-date on all of the good and bad things going on around town. I wasn’t totally wallowing in self-pity; I brought a lot of this upon myself. I wasn’t the best child growing up. If there was something that could be broke, I broke it. If it could be ruined in anyway, I did it. If I could get fucked in the process, I spread my legs wide open and took it happily. Funny how none of the boys I went to high school with had ever been ridiculed for all the females they fucked. Or any of the men of this town for that matter. I longed for the days of equality. Sex was sex. It felt great and just because I was a woman who enjoyed it, didn’t mean it should be held against me.
I have become a better person than I was. I didn’t get into trouble any more. I was a lot more honest and trustworthy. I didn’t sleep around…really. There were a few men I had had relations with outside of Lone Star in the past few years but that was it. Oh God, I hope I didn’t dry up into some old hag! Golda had helped me become a better person. Some people in life are lucky to find a friend that makes them a better person and doesn’t make them a worse person. Golda had been good for me.
She had died two years ago and left me with her house – which I love – I just miss her like crazy. I confided in her, trusted her, loved her like she was my own flesh and blood. She made my life brighter and my days shorter. In fact, she was the only person who knew about my infatuation with Ryan. She’d known I had the hots for him since I’d done the article on his parent’s death. I had wanted him then and well, obviously he wasn’t in any shape to notice me.
But he knew me. He knew I was the reporter of Lone Star. I knew he’d noticed me. At his little brother’s football game last season, I had done a feature on, I’d noticed he was trying to peek down my shirt. I wasn’t naïve. I knew what he was after then and I damn well know how he feels now.
The bottom line was, Ryan wanted me. I could see the desperation in his eyes. I could feel it in his hands, the way his mouth sucked my tongue and lips greedily like he wasn’t getting enough of me. His rock-hard cock against my abdomen was just one clue in a sea of many.
“Here. This is the new spreadsheet you asked for,” the receptionist pulled me out of my daydream.
“Thanks, Abby.”
“No problem.”
“Hey, do you want to grab dinner tonight at the West Side Tavern?”
“Sounds good to me. I didn’t grab lunch today so I’m starving.”
“Me too! I can drive and then can bring you back here to get your car.”
“Actually, let’s go separate because I have to pick up Thayer from his uncle’s by seven. Adrian’s out of town so that leaves me.”
She tells me this in a resentful tone and I get the feeling she’s tired of Adrian being gone so much. Adrian is a salesman/supplier for agricultural chemicals and not only deals with trying to sell them to farms and ranchers but also has to deal with the companies that make the chemicals. I’m sure it would be hard with a five-year-old at home and being the only parent present. I gather he is busy or out of town a lot of the time.
Wet: A Small Town Romance (Love in Lone Star Book 1) Page 3
