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“Listen, as far as I’m concerned, nobody else should be looking at you this closely. That’s my job.” He scoffs, turning to face me. “Are you feeling possessive after one time, Gwen? That’s adorable.”
“But do you know the only thing I’ve been able to think about all fucking night, Gwen?” “What?” The fire blazing in his eyes entrances me. He looks vicious, rugged, and downright feral. “The only thing I’ve been able to think about is that I don’t want him so much as looking at what’s mine.” His voice drops to a growl. “It’s driving me fucking crazy, knowing he’s had you.”
“But I really don’t think I can stand the thought of heading back down to that party without knowing how you taste.”
“I love this skirt,” he murmurs. “Such easy access.” He hikes it up around my waist, bunching it up in his hand. “Hold this, Guinevere. Keep it out of my way.”
“Bash, I am going to lose my fucking mind if you don’t put your mouth on me.”
“Frustrating, isn’t it? Try being me, having to live in the same house as you while you traipse around in those flimsy fucking leggings, Gwen. Been dreaming of this pretty little cunt for months, so you’re just going to have to suffer while I take my time enjoying it.”
All I can see is her. All I can feel is her. All I can taste is her. I’m fucking drowning in her and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“What I told you earlier today I’ve dreamed of. I have a laundry list of ways I plan to fuck you. And overlooking the lake is at the very top.” “Now?” I step out onto the balcony, tilting my head to listen. All sounds of outdoor conversation are gone. The low mumble of voices comes only from inside the house. “Yes. Now. I can’t wait any longer. I’ve waited long enough. And no one can see up here anyway,”
before she can even finish coming, she’s impaled on my cock. Her pussy is snug and hot and my brain short-circuits as I take a moment to get my bearings. “Fuck, fuck!” she cries out again, and it’s too loud. I reach forward, cupping a hand over her mouth. “Gwen, baby, I need you to be quiet. You can scream for me later. But right now, I need you to shut your mouth and take this cock like the good girl I know you can be.”
“Fuck me…that was—” “Just the beginning,” I finish for her before dropping a kiss to her back. “Dear universe, I forgive you,” she murmurs with a delirious giggle, and I can’t help but shake my head. Yeah, the universe messed with us. But it also gave us this. And we’re only getting started.
But something else about me looks different. Something less tangible. Happy. I squint like that couldn’t be right. But it’s written all over me, plain as day. For the first time in a long time, I’m happy.
Maybe I can come back again during the offseason?” He turns wide, hopeful eyes on me before adding, “I’d love to fly with you again.” My heart swells, and I nod. “I’d like that,” I say. And it’s true. I would like that. The problem is, I’m not sure the offer will still stand when he finds out what I’ve done.
Memories of him on his knees in his closet last night pummel me, but I shake them off, knowing I have to stay in motion, or I’ll crawl back into bed with the beautiful man who is gawking at me like I’m his favorite treat.
“My eyes,” I say, “they’re up here.” He grumbles, gaze flicking up to mine but only for a beat. “I know that.” He drops his gaze back down again. “I wasn’t trying to find your eyes.”
“He was not making something else. He’s been nervous cooking since he got up. This man is so obsessed with you, he doesn’t even know what to do with himself.”
“Damn,” he announces, jabbing his fork in Bash’s direction. “If she doesn’t marry you after this, I might.”
It was only one night, but in an endless sea of nights that were only ever numb, she made me feel something. And that feeling has never left me. I’ve clung to it almost desperately. A beacon of light that has kept me swimming through rough waters.
“I’m home!” Next, I hear Clyde yell, “That lovesick fool is waiting for you on the back deck.”
“What have we got here? Did you spend your day in the kitchen making me a lovesick little picnic?” I laugh. “Gwen, so help me. If you don’t let that one go, you’re gonna pay for it.” Her eyebrows shoot up on her forehead. “Now you’ve got my attention.” She salutes me. “Reporting for duty, sir. Ready to pay for it.”
With her, the world looks so different. So much better. For the first time in years, I feel excited about the future. With her, anything is possible.
“Gwen, how am I supposed to trust you to name our first child if you can’t even give this raccoon a respectable name?”
“Do you remember,” she starts, “that night in the airport? How badly I put my foot in my mouth when I went on about us having a night to tell our kids about one day?” I chuckle softly. “How could I forget?” She nods, teeth strumming over her bottom lip. “Now we’re even.”
when I step inside our room and find the balcony door open. I can see Gwen. Buck naked, wet hair slicked down her back, bent over the railing. Waiting for me.
“Thank you,” I whisper. And I don’t elaborate. I don’t need to. He knows. I think he’s always known and he’s always seen me differently than my father did.
“I’m always in your corner, Gwen. You ever need a pick-me-up? I’m your guy.”
I wonder if this is what it feels like to be loved. And at the very least, I fall asleep feeling incredibly fortunate that this guy—out of all of them—has decided to be mine.
This feeling now? It’s incomparable. Consuming. And it’s all new. Everything between us feels perfect.
“What are you doing here?” “Coming to see my girl,” he responds, but he makes no move toward me. He just continues standing there, staring at me. I grin. “In that uniform? You’re a filthy tease, Rousseau. I hope you know that.” “Sorry, I’ve been called out to a bushfire. I don’t think I’ll be gone too long, but I wanted to come check on you before I left.” “Check on me or parade around in that slutty little outfit?” He smirks and my panties disintegrate.
“Guinevere, what are you doing?” I smirk and ditch the bra too. “Giving you a parting gift.” “Fuck,” he groans. “This is not helping me want to leave.” I shoot him a sultry wink. “Gotta keep you coming back for more.” He sobers for a beat. “I’m never going to get enough. I can promise you that much. I’ll always be coming back to you.”
“You’re such a filthy little tease. And it’s hot as hell, baby. Never change.”
Making Sebastian Rousseau—Mr. Always in Control—fall apart is my crowning achievement.
“I spent my entire life being told my dad was some loser deadbeat who didn’t want me. They didn’t pretend Eddie was my biological dad. They told me I was unwanted. That my dad found out about me and took off. Like that was somehow more palatable. So imagine my surprise when you showed up. Started texting me. Taking an interest. That was almost too good to be true. It all felt like one big cosmic joke, one that I was never quite sure was real.”
“So in the past several months, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my mom is a manipulative liar and that the man who fathered me did actually give a damn, but I missed years with him because of whatever fucked-up family dynamic I have. I tried to tell you. I wanted to tell you. But the timing was never right. Now I find out you’re…what, dating my ex?”
I can’t explain the choices your mom made. I don’t condone them. But I won’t spend a lifetime paying for them either. She’s already taken enough from me. I want a relationship with you. That’s true. But I’m not giving up Gwen. That’s also true. I’ve spent far too long missing out on things that make me happy, and I’m not choosing between these two things. It might take time, and I know we’re going to need to have more conversations, but I just… I’m not giving her up, Tripp. I’m sorry.”
“West,” I say, raising my voice to grab his attention. He turns to face me, looking panicked. “I know someone who might be able to help. I’m going to call him.” He nods with a quick “appreciate it.” Then he’s gone. I head out to my truck, where I call Emmett, one of my most tried-and-true friends. The world knows him as Emmett Bush, suave, cocky, championship bull rider. But I know him as Emmett Brandt, sarcastic, complicated, longtime friend.
“Why are you calling so late? Do you need me to sing you a bedtime song to help you sleep?” “Cute, really cute, but I’m going to cut to the chase. We’ve got a bushfire burning on the back side of the mountain in Rose Hill.” “Oh shit.” His tone turns serious. “Yeah, and one of my best friends needs—” “What the fuck, Bash? I thought I was your best friend.” “I said one of, you big baby.” I can hear the low rumble of amusement from the other end of the line. “Anyway, if you’re done being a territorial little bitch, I’ll finish my story. One of my best friends runs a training operation, a ranch
...more
“I’ve got an eight-horse, and I can be there in four hours. Send me the address.” “You just said five hours.” “Oh, nah. That’s with a trailer full. Empty trailer, middle of the night, I’ll be fast.” For a moment, I find myself smiling because that’s just the type of guy Emmett Brandt is. Kind of an asshole, but you don’t even need to ask for help before he’s promising to show up anyway—shaving an hour off his travel time, no less.
I swear to god I could call him in the middle of the night and tell him I need to bury a body. The only thing he’d reply with is on my way.
“Everything from my Maya is in that house.” If I thought my heart was broken earlier, I realize now that it was only cracked. Because hearing Clyde’s voice tremble, knowing he might lose every piece of his late wife, breaks it entirely. “I’m so sorry” is my quiet reply. He just nods, sniffing as he looks away, as if he’s shielding me from his grief.
And when I finally realize that I can’t lie here doing nothing, I get out of bed and do something profoundly stupid instead.
When I pull up, the first thing I see is an exhausted-looking Ford Grant stepping into his Mercedes G-Wagon. He has a small plastic box in his hand. I hop out, coffee in hand, squinting to get a better look. I can see a small, gray mouse inside the box. When he catches me gawking, he deadpans, “Don’t even fucking ask.”
THEY PROTECTED THE MOUSE!!!!! 😭😭😭
“Did you just get here?” “No,” he grumbles. “I’ve been here all fucking night trying to”—he holds his free hand up in air quotes—“‘evacuate’ Rosie’s stupid mouse.” “Rosie’s stupid mouse?” Ford glares at me. “You know what? You’re right. I promised I wouldn’t ask.” “Let the record show that I love Rosie enough to spend all night sitting quietly in a shitty little bunkhouse just so I can catch her favorite rodent.”
“I say take it all,” he carries on. “No point in leaving the hay to get burned if it does end up that way.” West looks ghostly white, like the prospect of everything burning is gutting to him. Emmett faced this years back, when we first met. In fact, fires are a common occurrence in Emerald Lake. So I’m not surprised by the level of detachment he takes in talking about it. For West, though, this is not the norm.
“The thing is, last night when she came home, I was… Well, you know, I was feeling down about the possibilities of what could happen to my house. In a dark moment, I kind of said something about that all my stuff was there, everything from Maya. Just sort of having a moment about losing all those memories.”
“And, Clyde, no matter what, while I’m up there, I promise to fly over your place. I’ll check, okay?” “Okay,” he says, voice cracking with emotion. “But, Bash?” “Yeah?” “Find Gwen first.”
“What are you doing here?” I grumble before realizing he’s the only person I haven’t called that might know where Gwen is. “Well, despite the fact that you clearly think I’m a shitty person, I’ve been up watching the news all night, and I figured I might as well help out since I’m here. So I went down to the community hall, and they sent me here to help load straw bales.”
“Don’t touch me,” he spits, clearly still furious with me for what happened with Gwen. “Tripp, for fuck’s sake, can we please put our differences aside for a moment? I need you to tell me honestly if you’ve seen Gwen.” “Why would I have seen Gwen? She’s made it clear she only wants to spend time with me if it’s in your presence.”
“Dude, go. I got this. You have zero game. If there’s a girl who actually likes you, you need to go find her.” I press the heels of my palms into my eyes. Leave it to fucking Emmett to shit-talk me at a moment like this. Strangely, it’s comforting. If he went all soft on me, it would only stress me out more. Tripp chuckles and it rankles me, but Emmett doesn’t let him get away with it. “What are you laughing at, pretty boy? The hay bales are over there. Get to work.”
I LOVE Emmett, he better have a book
But the truth is, I might let it all burn if it means finding her. If Gwen is gone, nothing else matters.
After loading up my truck with every remotely sentimental thing I could find, I spent the entire night adjusting sprinklers and hoses around Clyde’s property in a desperate attempt to save his home.
