Page 19 of Sheltered by the Lawman

Chapter 6

“WITH A RING on your finger and a baby on the way, don’t you have a curfew?” Cull laughed and tossed the football.

Kace caught it against his chest and frowned. “No, I don’t have a curfew, although I did promise I’d be home before it got too late.” He returned the ball. “If you’d open yourself up to dating you might eventually find someone who’d like you too. Then you’d stop making jokes about marriage and commitment.”

Cull sniffed. “I’m not looking.”

“Is that right?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dropping the football to the ground, Cull grabbed his water and downed it.

“It means, I saw it.” Kace swiped the back of his hand across his sweaty brow. “I saw the way you looked at her. Who is she anyway?”

Leaning against the rail to the arena, Cull shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I invited her here to the ranch because she didn’t have a place to stay.”

“You didn’t quite answer the question. By the way, I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Tyler saw it too.”

“Don’t do that, man. Just don’t.” Cull shook his head.

“Do what?”

“Because you’re in a happy relationship you think everyone should be in a happy one too. I’m okay with me as I am.” He crushed his bottle and tossed it into the trash bin.

“Oh, you mean you enjoy being a sour puss?” Kace laughed.

“Sour puss? Is that what married men say? By the way, how’s work?”

“Another bar fight break up. This time I saved my phone, but my back wasn’t so lucky.” He stretched his arms above his head.

“Go see the chiropractor.” Cull’s gaze automatically moved to the garage apartment. He hadn’t seen Monica since dinner last night. He’d left the ranch early to take care of some business and came back to do his chores, ignoring the need to go knock on her door to see how she was doing.

“I’ve got to go, bro.” Kace buddy-slapped Cull on the back. “I miss my wife.”

“Fine, run home. I have things I need to do anyway.”

What he was ready for was a nice, long cold shower. He stepped inside the house and inhaled. Something good smelling filled the air. His Ma was probably already preparing dinner and his stomach growled. He couldn’t wait. Although he wasn’t jumping for joy that he was back living at home, it did have its perks. Outside of the satisfaction of his belly being satisfied, he also loved his childhood home. His father had built the house with his own two hands and his Ma had decorated it to accommodate five hellion boys and a daughter who could hold her own against her brothers. That house had suffered some wear and tear over the years, but it was sturdy.

He stepped down the hall following the aroma of Ma’s cooking to stop dead cold in his tracks. Bent over a mop with her behind stuck up high wasn’t his Ma, but the woman who’d occupied his thoughts most of the day. Monica.

Lord have mercy.

For a moment he’d forgotten how to breathe, and he had to force air into his lungs to stay alive.

She was vigorously scrubbing the floor and had no clue she was no longer alone. He opened his mouth to alarm her of his arrival, but snapped it shut and clenched his teeth. All blood drained from his head to his cock as he watched her. Her rounded bottom was encased in a pair of cut-offs and the fringed hem landed on firm, rounded thighs that made his fingers itch to grip. He ran his hungry gaze down the length of her toned legs to her bare feet when his phone vibrated from his back pocket. He ignored it as his blood pressure skyrocketed and a burst of familiar heat burrowed behind his zipper.

He had been lured by the scrumptious smell of something in the oven, but his stomach’s needs were forgotten in the wake of the beauty who seemed to be taking all her frustration out on the floor.

She turned slightly and he could see her tongue rolling in and out of her mouth as if she concentrated fully on her task. Her hair was pulled up into a messy topknot and so messy that tendrils of hair had fallen around her rosy cheeks. His mind wandered down a no-end road wondering if this was what she looked like after making love. A man would be lucky to have the privilege of seeing that expression in bed…

Stop, man. This was nowhere to allow the mind to go.

God, why couldn’t he help himself.

She was breathtaking. Sure, he’d noticed this fact before, but there was something genuinely sexy about her all sweaty and hair a mess.

Cull didn’t have a clue where he should look first because every part of her drew him like a fish to a worm. Tight shorts that lifted on her bottom ever so slightly when she moved. That gorgeous heart-shaped ass that made him salivate. Her legs weren’t too long, but they were toned and would fit perfectly around his hips. He would bet his life that she tasted like the wild honey from the combs they had out back. Or the plump blueberries in the patch by the barn. He’d sit there for hours, plucking and eating the fruit—just as he would sweet Monica, that was if she wasn’t off limits.

She was tiny. A little under weight. No doubt he could wrap his fingers around her waist and touch his fingertips, yet her curves were like a back road. When he moved his eyes upward he noticed the little jiggle to her breasts as she scrubbed joyfully. His palms itched to move forward and hold them, support them, suckle them. Give them the attention he’d been craving for since he’d seen her naked. Hell, since he held her in his arms.

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