Page 217 of Forbidden Heroes

I white-knuckle the beer I’ve been nursing for the past hour.

Friends from school circle her on all sides and block my view so I make my way to the opposite side of our back yard for a better view. Friends we’ve grown up with try to catch my eye in passing. I raise my bottle in salute and keep moving. Hunter and Austin must have invited half the damn town to this shindig.

I finally find another opening on the opposite side of the dance floor. Tiny tables for two, three max, rim the floor and I grab the nearest, easing my heavy weight into the creaky folding metal of a chair. Dusk is just setting in and strands of lights hanging around the place play in her blonde hair, making her look like the angel she is. Dressed in a short white number that shows way too much of those creamy thighs with impossibly thin straps that keep falling off her shoulders, she even looks that part. A tempting, dick-teasing angel I can’t take my eyes off.

When she came to live with us after her parents stabbed us and half the town in the back, we all vowed that nothing would tarnish this girl’s life from that day forward. Not a person in this world would be able to hurt her. We’ve kept that promise. Loved her and protected her. Only now my dick thinks the sweet little thing that’s all grown up is no longer off-limits.

She is. Forbidden as the Texan summer days are long. Gorgeous, tempting as fucking sin and the sweetest person on this planet. I shake my head. What am I thinking?

About taking her virgin pussy, is what. Giving her an orgasm so wild she’ll only want my dick and then watching her belly grow with my child.

What remains of my erection dies at what I see when I draw my gaze from the swaying crowd back to Harper. She has her head thrown back, laughing at something some twig of a boy whispers in her ear. A solid right hook of jealousy slams into my gut at seeing someone else put that smile on her face.

I take a deep breath, trying to control my anger when a boy a couple of years older than Harper wraps an arm around her shoulder from her other side.

Like fuck. I set my empty beer bottle to the side. A twangy two-steppin’ number plays over the Bluetooth speakers and draws a huge crowd to the floor. Including Harper and the boy.

“Hey, Boone, baby. I’ve been lookin’ for ya.”

I wince at the heated tone of that voice.

Ah fuck.

Sweet Southern notes hit my ears, and once upon a time they would have had my dick hard and me looking for the nearest room in the Urban mansion to take our redheaded neighbor for a quickie-turn-all-nighter while everyone else danced the night through. With fifteen rooms to pick from, finding a spot was never the problem.

“Sophia, glad you could make it out.” I tip my hat and notice the polished nail running down my arm. Sleek black jeans cover a curvy beautiful body that used to tick every box on my score sheet for a woman, but my dick isn’t interested. In her or anyone. Crass as that sounds, it’s the truth.

The reason for that is currently being pawed by inexperienced boys and looking on raises my blood pressure with every jolt of my heart. I catch her sky-blue eyes through the moving crowd.

An unwelcome weight settles over my lap, and I’m taken by surprise when Sophia wraps her arms around my neck, her ass in my lap. I pull my gaze off Harper and pin them to the woman trying to do her best impersonation of an octopus. Those bedroom eyes she’s flashing at me say she’s in for the kind of night we used to share a couple of years back.

I scrub a hand down my face and tuck my hat a little lower. Deep shadows hide the irritation pulling at my expression from the woman I thought I’d one day put a ring on. But something changed. She’d cheated on me. One morning while out for an early ride, I thought I’d stop by my girl’s place and surprise her with breakfast in bed. Seeing the sheriff's car parked outside maybe my insides freeze up. Turns out from the scream and grunts coming from the kitchen window I wasn’t the only one thinking about a morning fuck over Sunday breakfast.

I didn’t say anything, just walked away and never looked back. Maybe that means my heart wasn’t really in it to begin with. I don't know. I’m not usually one to analyze shit like that. Who has the time? Harper is always saying I’m out of touch with my feminine side whatever the hell that means.

Apparently, Sophia still hasn’t gotten the memo that we’re through. Have been for over a year now. Nearly two. Some people are just that hardheaded.

A bright red smile beams up at me. “You wanna get out there and have a little fun? Show these youngsters some real swanky moves? Get back to our roots a little, sugah?”

I don’t answer. Seeing Sophia doesn’t do a thing but irritate the shit out of me, and it takes a goliath amount of restraint to keep my mouth shut in order to not ruin Harper’s special day. So I stay quiet.

“You’ve been dodgy as fuck for forever, hun.” The red-tipped finger pushes my jaw her way until our eyes lock. My days as an Army Ranger beat out my impulse to act first and think later and that’s a good thing. Luckily all the habits and life changes I went through under the care of Uncle Sam stuck with me, or Sophia might find herself dumped on her ass and walked over in front of half of the town.

I brush her hand away. “Nah, not dodgy, just busy.” I leave it at that and slowly push to my feet, forcing her to slip from my lap. A hand to her shoulder keeps her from falling to her ass. See, I’m not a total ass.

“What the fuck, Boone?” she blurts, and I sidle a look her way that cuts grown-ass men down a few pegs.

She draws back, eyes wide.

“Don’t start, Sophia. Find someone else to do a two-step across the floor with. I’m sure that won’t be a problem. Maybe ask the sheriff. But it won’t be with me, for damn sure.”

“Why the hell not, Boone? Look at me!”

A hand on my shoulder has me turning. Looking in her eyes, I see confusion and hurt, and the acidic words on the tip of my tongue dry up. “I’m not interested anymore, Sophia. In case the last eighteen plus months have not clued you in, we’re over. Now kindly find someone else to bother.”

Austin and Hunter catch my eye overtop her head and they give a quick chin nod, knowing what I need.

The high-energy song fades into a slow dance, and my eyes immediately zero in on the crowd to find Harper. Soft, sweet, innocent and so full of life it radiates from her like fucking light. I should have bugged out and stayed away, but I can’t any more than I can drain the blood from my veins. I’ve already been keeping as much space between us as possible while working the ranch. It’s almost foaling season and I should be on the back portion of our acres taking care of the mares about to drop their colts. Instead, I’m heading across a dance floor, one thought in my head.

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