“Good girl.” I smirked, her brown hair flopping loose from her pony tail.
“I’m not a dog.” She scowled, her hands going for the loose skin of my bicep.
I caught her before she could do damage and watched her glossed lips puff into a pout on her face. Her eyes didn’t look at me but at the hand around her arm. She didn’t tug it loose. She just stared at it. As if waiting… I wondered what for?
Just kidding.
I tugged her forward until her chest crashed into mine. My face dipped as hers looked up to mine in surprise, exposing what I desired. I caught her gasp as I took her lips and fulfilled her need in a quick, swift gesture.
When our mouths parted, tasting the faint strawberry balm she put on earlier, I licked my lips to secure the sweet taste.
“What was that for?” she whispered, her own hand going to her moist lips like a sweet virgin having her first taste of a man. It was the expression I saw any time I kissed her sweetly. My gentle side seemed to bring out her innocent side, and her tomboy façade faded from the girl who lacked experience.
While I didn’t know her past, I knew she wasn’t a virgin, but when it came to a real man, I had been with enough women to know she was ignorant in the face of one.
“I wanted to.” I shrugged. “If I can do it, why shouldn’t I?”
“You’re so full of yourself.” Ronnie rolled her eyes, huffing her hair away from her face. She tugged loose and I let her go. There was no need to fight a woman who had no intention of escaping me.
This one was mine. Not borrowed. Not temporary. She was permanent. And most importantly, she belonged to me alone.
“Stop it,” Ronnie grumbled, pulling me out of my wandering thoughts. I was staring at her, and it wasn’t a surprised she noticed my intense glare.
“Why should I?”
“Jeez, were you always this obnoxious to the girls you’ve dated?” she tutted, busying herself with untacking Max’s reins. The beast was nibbling on the side of her hair as Ronnie ducked under her neck to fiddle with the straps around her chest.
“I’ve never dated any girl.”
“Never?” Ronnie gasped, her head popping out from Max’s shoulder like a mutated growth. Even Max, at the sound of Ronnie’s voice, whipped her head to stare at me. Both of their eyes stared me down with surprise and an unjustified amount of disbelief.
“Why is that so surprising to you?” I grumbled, feeling offended.
“Well, I just… I mean.” Ronnie fumbled, eyes going everywhere but my face.
“That I’m a man-whore?”
Sure, I’d had one-night stands, long weekend sex parties, and the occasional fuck buddy, I wouldn’t deny it. But the truth was that there hadn’t been a girl to keep my attention long enough for me to become attached. Girls had been like water slipping through my fingers. I hadn’t cared to hold onto them and never felt bad when they left. Girls came and went like the tide. That was just the way it was for me.
Until Ronnie. She was like a dog pawing at my feet for years, begging to belong to me. To wear my tag around her neck and be at my side at every moment.
I bet Ronnie would look nice with a collar on.
Or even a leash.
I tugged at the rope around my shoulder, fingers running along the coarse knots, my mind calming with the motion.
“So, you’ve never even been on a date?” Ronnie shook her head, my words still rebounding off that rock-solid head of hers. “What about those girls in high school?”
“They were in it for the sex. Nothing like a ride on the hottest cowboy to make you feel more mature.”
“Ew. Gross.” Ronnie shook her head, tucking herself back around Max’s front as the leather straps came loose. She went around to her other side to unbuckle her saddle and pull up her stirrups.
“You’re not mad at me for it, are you?” I frowned, picking up my feet and going around the front of Max until I was around her side, watching her unfasten the belts with concentration.
“Mad at you?” Ronnie glanced up at me. “No, I’m not mad. I’ve known you’ve been a huge flirt since you walked out the womb, Jax. I figured that’d be the one thing that wouldn’t change with you.” A smirk pricked at the corners of her lips, and yet I felt like I was standing on shaky ground.
I’d seen so many brothers meet the wrath of their old ladies for their past with women. Especially the club whores. Many civilian girls couldn’t handle that kind of club life, and the men would end up punished because of it. I never understood it.