Page 50 of Just Say When

Brax

Itook one look at Essie’s damp face and fled.

I didn’t run, precisely, but it wasn’t a casual stroll, either. It was more like a brisk speed-walk, interspersed with bouts of jogging.

I had never considered myself a coward, but standing there with Essie’s taste on my tongue, that stricken look on her face, I knew I had reached my limit. She had come apart for me, my name on her lips, and I was not going to stand there and listen to her say she regretted it. It would kill me.

So I speed-walked my cowardly ass right on out of there.

I was halfway to my truck before I remembered I was her ride. It didn’t matter how I felt, how terrified I was that I had just fucked everythingup, I couldn’t leave her stranded at Lodestar Ranch. She’d kill me. And if she didn’t, my dad sure would, and then my mom would rise up from the grave and kill me a second time for good measure.

I groaned, jangling the keys in my hand.

Which reminded me that one of those keys happened to unlock the door to my old cabin, where Essie had spent the night before our wedding. I changed direction, sending a text to Essie as I went.

Have to take care of something. Meet you at my truck in an hour?

An hour should be enough time to get my head on straight. Or at least pull myself together enough to fake it.

I buried my face in my hands and made a sound of extreme self-loathing. Fucking hell. What had I done?

I didn’t have anywhere near an hour to ponder that question, because about three minutes after I closed the cabin door behind me, it banged open again, and there was Essie.

Shit.

“You have to take care of something?” she demanded. Her cheeks were bright pink from the cold and also a healthy amount of rage, I would hazard to guess. “The only thing you have to take care of is removing my foot from your ass, because I’m about to put it there.”

“Listen,” I started, and then stopped because I hadn’t gotten so far as figuring out what it was I wanted her to listento.

“I don’t want to listen,” she growled. “I want you to fuck me.”

That drew me up quick. “Come again?” I asked, just to be sure I heard her correctly.

“Yes,” she said. “That is exactly what I’m trying to accomplish.”

“But you cried,” I said, like an idiot.

“So what?” She scowled at me. “It was a lot, okay? Sometimes I cry when I’m overwhelmed. Doesn’t matter if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. I cry. Is that too much for you?”

I laughed and grabbed a handful of that oversized sweater she was wearing, using it to pull her to me. “Hellion, you’ve always been too much for me.”

Her face did something awful and she struggled, trying to get away from me without ruining her sweater. But I had her now, and I wasn’t letting go.

I lowered my face closer to hers until she had nowhere to look but me. “So I guess I’ll have to become more, so I can be enough for you.”

She leaned back and her eyebrows furrowed with confusion as she scanned my face. “What?”

“I told you, honey. You’re bigger than the whole damn sky. How could I ever hope to hold onto the sky?”

But she still looked at me with confusion, like she couldn’t make sense of my words. That was fine. Maybe it was even better that she didn’t.

I wrapped a chunk of rainbow striped hair around my fist and gave it a tug. “You want to fuck, hellion? Let’s fuck.”

Her hands were already on my belt buckle before I even finished that sentence.

With a rough tug, she had it open. The snap was next and then the zipper. I loved that she wasn’t gentle or shy about it. Her eyes looked right into mine as she slid her hand into my boxers, nothing demure about it, just desire. I gave a single, sharp inhale as she wrapped her hand around my dick.

And for the first time, she faltered. Her eyes lowered to where her hand disappeared beneath the cotton paisley fabric.

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