Page 18 of Wrangled Up

“What’s uh-oh?” Christian reached for her again, running his hands up the sides of hertorso, over the outside swells of her full breasts. The man couldn’t keep his damn hands off her either.

“I know that smile,” Tucker said a split second before Claire rolled out from under him, twisting like a trick rider. She locked her arms around Tucker’s neck and wrestled him to the mattress. Excitement swirled in his groin. Several hours and orgasms later, and he was ready for her again. Especially when she shimmied around in the saddle of his groin and slid over his condom-covered cock reverse cowgirl style.

“Jesus God,” he groaned.

Her tight pussy hugged his shaft perfectly, milking him before he had anything to give. But when she extended a hand to Christian and drew him around to the foot of the bed so she could lean all the way forward and suck his cock, Tucker thought she might kill him with ecstasy.

The golden cheeks of her ass wiggled in his face as she rose and fell over his length. Dark pressure built in his core, mirroring the almost delicious ache in his heart. He stared between her legs as her wet sex swallowed him.

Christian made a choked noise. Hell, had his friend ever looked so absorbed with another woman? No. With Tucker, alone? Maybe.

Christian’s tanned skin rippled on his stomach when Claire released his cock with a softpop.Immediately, she caught it in her mouth again, still fucking Tucker with a brand new rhythm that made his balls clench.

Tucker gripped her hips and rammed his shaft home. The head bumped something deep within her body. She cried out, so he did it again. And again.

Over her body, his and Christian’s gazes collided. Sparks sprayed like metal sheered against metal. Throwing his head back, Christian broke their connection. He dug his hands into Claire’s hair and churned his hips. She made a humming noise and sent Christian over the edge.

Tucker’s own orgasm rushed up, stronger than the last. Spurts shot from his engorged prick. For a split second, he imagined filling her body without the barrier of a condom. Of truly owning this woman.

She wanted him to.

Her throaty cry echoed at the moment her tight sheath contracted around him. Palms on her ass cheeks, he parted them slightly to watch her muscles squeeze and release him. Long seconds spiraled between them as the sexual haze dissipated. Outside, a steady drip from the gutter tapped a beat.

Heather loved lying in Tucker’s arms, listening to the rain. Would Claire?

Christian slid his arms around her, gathering her trembling body close. The coarse hair of his friend’s legs brushed Tucker’s, sending a warm splash of wanting against the walls of Tucker’s heart.

Without warning, more images of Heather rose in his mind’s eye. No, he couldn’t feel these things for anyone else. She was it for him. Forever.

Claire collapsed fully into Christian’s arms, and he drew her down onto the mattress, cradling her with his body from head to foot. A lump of jealousy formed in Tucker’s throat, but he had no right to feel it. Slinging a forearm over his eyes, he fought down rising panic.

Nothing had changed tonight between him and Claire. He couldn’t give her his heart, because it was buried in a cemetery on thesouth side of Reedy. He’d been wrong to toy with her emotions, but maybe something good could come of it.

Judging by the way Christian had clamped her to him, some feelings were stirring there. But could Tucker handle that? Knowing Claire was in Christian’s bed, giving him those smoldering you’re-my-universe looks? And if Christian had her, that meant he wouldn’t come around Tucker’s place as often.

Controlling a weighty sigh, he blew it out in small increments. A slideshow of happy moments with Claire slid through his mind. The time she stripped off her boots and ran barefoot through the mud, uncaring of it splashing up her tight calves, until he caught her around the waist and swung her off her feet. They’d crashed to the ground together, rolling in the mud as he delivered lingering, open-mouthed kisses. Or the time she’d jumped the fence to chase Tucker’s dog, Rocky, romping like a child.

Christian gave a stuttering sigh that indicated he might be falling asleep. Tucker opened his eyes wide to strike away the images of his friend shooting hot droplets all over his fist and Claire’s round breasts.

Too much, he loved seeing that son of a bitch come. When had Christian’s pleasure gotten all tangled up with Tucker’s? It was like they were a goddamnunit.

The drip outside increased. With a jerk, Tucker realized his mind was on the people in his bed, not with Heather on this rainy night. Guilt wove into his chest. He scrambled for a memory of his sweet little fiancée—any memory. Threads waved in his mind, but he couldn’t catch one.

Guilt transformed into anger directed at himself. He locked his jaw and glared at the black pane of glass until a thin band of light appeared on the horizon.If I stay here with them, I’ll lose her.

The notion materialized like a ghost walking out of the swirling fog.

Easing out of bed, Tucker quietly crossed the bedroom. As he drew on his clothes, he stared at Claire’s lovely features. Blue light played over her long brows and cast shadows in the hollows of her cheeks.

Tucker’s heart was too full—his head too full. He needed to strip these images of Claire and Christian from his mind and fill it onceagain with Heather. There was one place in particular where he could do that.

Her family’s house.

Clutching his boots and hat, Tucker crept out of his room, in search of the ghost that haunted him.

Driving through Reedy in the pre-dawn hours afforded him some calm. Heather’s family lived on the outskirts, up in the mountains. The twisty road was a gray ribbon, unfurling for him, greeting him like an old friend. He’d driven this road countless times.

By the time he reached the homestead, the sun’s golden fingers were stretching into the dusty blue sky. Just as he expected, the two-story house was lit up as the family sat around a big, scrubbed table and shared a hearty breakfast before a hard day was put into caring for the animals and working the land.

---