Unbridled: Lone Star Lovers, Book 1 (4 page)
Read Unbridled: Lone Star Lovers, Book 1 Online
Authors: Delilah Devlin
Tags: #contemporary romance, #Red Hots!
“Why don’t you ever let me fuck you?” Rowe had asked quietly after Justin had taken them to hell and back again. “Do you see me as a woman?”
Justin grunted. “As if.” Rowe lay inside Justin’s arms, back against his belly. Justin didn’t know the answer to that one. But then again, maybe he did. Maybe the fact he’d never let himself be fucked kept him feeling above the gnawing need. “Maybe I’ll let you fuck Dani’s ass. While I watch.”
Rowe had stiffened inside his arms. “Shit. We can’t do this anymore. She might not be able to handle it.”
“Think she’ll tell?”
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Delilah Devlin
“No. She’s not like that. But I hate hurting her.”
“I don’t think she’s hurting—not the way you think,” Justin drawled.
“You see something I didn’t? She looked like she’d swallowed poison.”
Justin smoothed his hand over Rowe from his belly to his chest. “You’re looking from a place of guilt. I’m not.”
“Because this doesn’t mean anything to you?”
Justin clasped Rowe’s shoulder and kissed the back of his neck. “Because I don’t happen to think we’re wrong. Just because this isn’t what everyone expects of you doesn’t make it so.”
Rowe sighed and edged away. “I’m going to see her in the morning.”
Justin came up on an elbow. “Won’t you just let it rest? Let her come around to you?”
“Might work better for her but I can’t stand her being angry with me.” Rowe sat on the edge of the mattress and raked a hand through his hair. “We’ve been friends a long time.”
Justin grunted.
Friends.
He’d never been friends with a woman. What was the point? “Do what you have to.” He’d do what he had to do.
Which is how he found himself outside her home as the lights inside blinked out one by one. With too much time on his hands and memories swirling in his head. He’d already figured out which bedroom on the second floor was hers. A light had blazed behind lacy curtains while her brother Cutter checked the horses in the barn then ambled back through the kitchen.
Justin watched in the dark like a thief, waiting for the house to quiet. Waiting for big brother to fall asleep. Then he leaned the ladder he’d scoped out in the shed against the upper floor balcony and silently climbed upwards.
Standing outside the French doors to her bedroom, he tried the handle, but found it locked. He knocked softly.
The curtains inched to the side. A wide-eyed gaze stared back. Then Dani’s face screwed into a fierce scowl.
He couldn’t help it—he chuckled.
The door flew open, a hand reached out and closed around his forearm and she pulled him inside.
“Are you insane?” she whispered harshly. “If Cutter catches you out here, he’ll pepper your ass with buckshot!”
“Worried about my ass?” he asked, closing the doors behind him.
“No, just how I’ll break the news to Rowe that you got yourself killed trying to sneak into my bedroom. What are you doing here?”
“Thought we might talk.”
Dani crossed her arms over her chest. Had she just now noticed how thin her cotton camisole was?
“You and I have never had a conversation. Why start now?”
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Unbridled
Justin took a step toward her. “Want me to get down to business?”
Her eyes nearly crossed, and she placed a hand against his chest to halt him. “You’re crazy. Crazy and a pervert.”
Justin grinned. “Which turns you on more?”
She gave a high-pitched squeal of frustration, but Justin cut it short, covering her mouth with his hand and forcing her against the wall beside the door. “Hush now. I really did come just to talk.” Although her eyes glared daggers at him, her body stopped wriggling. “That’s better,” he whispered, slipping his hand slowly from her mouth and letting her slide down the wall.
Dani swallowed. “We can’t talk here. This is my bedroom, but it’s my brother’s house. Doesn’t feel right.”
Well, well…
Little Missy wasn’t exactly telling him to get the hell out. “Wanna shimmy down the ladder with me?” he asked, dropping his voice to a sexy purr.
Her hand shot to her blonde hair, which pulled thin cotton taut against her beaded nipples. Her gaze slid away. “Are you crazy? I’m in my nightgown.”
Justin took a step closer, leaning down to whisper just above her lips. “I’ll wait while you change.”
She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “You have to turn around while I get dressed.”
“Baby, I’ve already seen everything you’ve got.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Can’t you be a gentleman for five minutes?”
“No one ever taught me manners. Expect me to learn right now?”
Dani huffed away, stepping inside her closet and closing the door behind her.
He hadn’t expected that, but he grinned. He’d let her think she’d won this round.
By the time she’d changed and they’d climbed down the ladder, only ten minutes had passed. Justin led her to where he’d tied his horse off behind the barn and helped her into the saddle before climbing on behind her. “Scootch up,” he said, nudging her bottom.
“We’re not going far, hear me?” she said, but she scooted toward the saddle horn.
The hard-on pressing against the leather saddle had him silently agreeing. Justin reached around her, ignoring her stiffening spine, slipped the reins he’d looped around the horn and clucked softly to get his horse moving.
While Dani remained rigid, he relaxed. Sitting this close, inhaling her sweet, musky scent was heaven enough. For now.
He had a pretty good idea how Dani felt about him. They shared the same intense, animal attraction.
But she’d always tried to resist it, aware of his reputation and wanting to remain loyal to Rowe.
Today’s revelation had to be making her nervous as she reassessed her feelings. If he could find a way to tap into her attraction for him, use her love for Rowe, maybe they could all be happy.
“Do you have to breathe down my neck?” she whispered, sounding grumpy.
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Delilah Devlin
“I can’t move back any farther and not fall off this horse. Tell the truth. I make you nervous.”
“I’m not nervous. But I don’t know why you thought this might be a good idea. We don’t have anything to discuss.”
“Rowe’s worried about you.”
“He could have picked up the phone.”
“I didn’t want him to. I thought maybe we should clear the air between us first.”
“How will that help? You’re the problem.”
“Yes, I am,” he said cheerfully, knowing it would put a kink in her tail.
Moonlight filtered through the live oaks framing the trail he chose. When they were far enough away from the house their voices wouldn’t be heard, he turned toward a rise that emptied into a dark hollow.
They both dismounted and he unsaddled his horse, stripping the saddle and the blanket from his gelding’s back.
Dani eyed him suspiciously.
Justin shrugged, widening his eyes innocently. “We may be talking for a while. Might as well get comfortable.”
Her eyes narrowed to suspicious slits. “So long as you stick to your side.”
He spread the blanket beneath a tree and took a seat, leaning back against the trunk and lifting one knee.
Dani sat cross-legged in front of him, staring at his boots. “All right, you have me here. What do you wanna talk about?”
Justin nodded then took a deep breath. “What you saw today…”
Dani shook her head. “It’s none of my business. You needn’t worry about me saying anything. I’d never want Rowe to be embarrassed or worse. I know how people are around here.”
The fact she didn’t give a damn what people might think about him stung. “You’re not shocked?”
“Just a little disappointed. I’d thought Rowe and I…” She shrugged and raised her head. “Guess you know.”
“Don’t be so hard on him, Dani. I don’t think he intended for things to go this far. He was just curious…at first. Like you.”
Dani’s sharp intake of breath said she hadn’t expected the conversation to drift back to their one encounter. “That was a long time ago.”
Justin paused, letting her remember. “And yet, you never told Rowe about it,” he said slowly. “Not something a woman who expects a ring should ever do.”
Her lips tightened. “So I’m not perfect. He never gave me a blow by blow of every girl he ever dated.
Besides, we hadn’t made any promises.”
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Unbridled
“Still haven’t.” Justin drew a deep breath and let his gaze trail over Dani’s hair. It shone as bright at the moon above them. “Maybe Rowe’s just sowing some wild oats. Think you can forgive him? Could you put this behind you?”
Dani’s haunted gaze lifted to his. “I could. But I don’t think Rowe can let it go. I saw his face, when you…were making him do those things. He wanted it bad, even while he was ashamed. How the hell can I compete with that kind of need?”
“Do you really want to?”
She gave a soft, feminine snort. “I always had this vision of myself, my future. On Rowe’s ranch, raising kids with him. It’s all I ever wanted.”
“Can’t be completely true. You stayed gone a long time.”
“I wanted to make myself the best possible partner. Run the business end of the ranch.”
Justin nodded although he remained dubious. “What about the married part? Him and you. Is that all you ever wanted? Can he give you everything you need?”
A bitter grimace stretched her mouth. “This the part where you tell me you know I hesitated because he couldn’t fulfill all my needs?”
“I wouldn’t say that to you.” When her eyes narrowed, he smiled.
Dani tilted her head as she stared at him. “What’s in this for you? Why do you care if I’m not happy married to Rowe? You want to be my little bit on the side if I keep quiet about you two?”
“Not what I was going to say, but interesting you went there.”
Dani’s mouth crimped into a sneer. “You’re impossible. Don’t know why I thought we might actually have a conversation without you ending up mocking me again.”
“But we are talkin’. Maybe it’s not all that civil. But I haven’t touched you.” Justin gave her a sly smile. “Is that why you’re gettin’ all worked up?”
“I’m not all worked up!”
Justin’s body hardened the hotter Dani grew. That he could get under her skin so quickly had to mean something. “No? Are you angry I didn’t comment on the fact you aren’t wearin’ a bra?”
Dani’s shoulders hunched. “Maybe I just didn’t want to take the time.”
“I think you’re still hot and bothered. You came because you hoped something would happen. That I’d take the choice of exactly what might happen right out of your hands. You’re not so different from Rowe, you know. You both like to pretend you’re better than this.”
Her eyes glittered in the darkness. “You’re so full of yourself. Do you get off on being the one in charge?”
Her defiance pleased him. And he almost softened toward her, but he knew instinctively this wasn’t the time to let her know she could trust him. Dani was stubborn. Liked to think she wanted to be in charge.
“Tell the truth. The only reason you’re angry right now is because I haven’t made a move on you.”
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Delilah Devlin
Dani’s breath blew out, but she didn’t respond with a caustic comeback.
Justin lifted an eyebrow then eased away from the tree, coming to his knees in front of her. “Did I guess right?”
Her head bowed. “I hate you.”
Her softly muttered statement didn’t wound because he knew she lied. Eyeing her bent head, tenderness filled him. He took a breath, and forced steel into his voice. “No, you don’t hate me or you’d be backing up fast.” His hands closed around her upper arms and he pulled her to her knees. With his mouth hovering just above hers, he whispered, “Last chance, Dani-girl.”
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Chapter Three
Dani still didn’t move, didn’t fight his hold. Her green eyes remained wide open—whether from fear or excitement, he didn’t really care. He could make either work.
She waited for him to make that first move.
Justin laid her on the blanket and knelt over her. “Open your legs,” he said gruffly.
Hesitantly, she did so, spreading herself while a deep, delicious sigh sifted through her lips.
Justin stretched his body on top of hers, anchoring her to the ground. His cock rode the top of her feminine mound.
Her eyes glittered in the moonlight. Her tongue stroked her upper lip then disappeared.
His body, already hot and hard, tensed, and he fought the urge to ravage her. He wanted to savor the moment. So much had changed in the six years since he’d last taken her. She’d been a slender girl, now all those lush, womanly curves lay beneath him, ready for him to explore.
He settled onto her and bracketed her face with his hands. He rubbed a thumb lazily over her moist mouth and glided his lips along her cheek before drawing back. “I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did. About me and Rowe. But I’m not sorry at all that you know.”
Dani drew in a short, shivering breath. But her hands glided along his sides. “It’s wrong. You. Him.
Me.”
“Why?” he asked, pressing his mouth against her then pulling away again. “Because this isn’t what you saw for your future?” He nuzzled her cheek, her ear, felt her tremble and smiled before lifting his head again to watch her expression.
“Something like that. I don’t know where this can all lead except to hell.”
He scraped his thumb across her plump lower lip. “Do we have to be going anywhere?”
Her tongue darted out, wetting her upper lip again then gliding over the tip of his thumb. “Our families…”
Justin watched her hot little tongue, fighting the image of it stroking his cock. “Your brother. Rowe’s on his own now. Just like me. Who’s gonna care?”
“You say this doesn’t have to go anywhere, but is that what you really want? Because I don’t know if I can settle.” Dani’s voice was breathy, but her gaze didn’t waver.
