Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
The poor guy was so on edge that Lovey began to squawk in his hold and even my horse turned his head to nudge his arm.
“And what happened with the laundry. I was being a dick. It was just one of those things but instead of thanking you for trying to keep me from getting hurt, I got all defensive and stupid and embarrassed. I know none of it meant—"
I was on him before he could even finish the sentence. I caught his mouth with mine and swallowed down the rest of his words. He squeaked in surprise but within seconds he was kissing me back. His back was pressed up against my horse’s neck and he still had the chicken in his arms, so that made it a little easier to break off the kiss. “If you say it didn’t mean anything one more time—”
“Won’t,” he blurted and then he was kissing me.
I’d only kissed him to shut him up so he wouldn’t keep marginalizing that first kiss, but I forgot about all of that when he opened his mouth under mine, inviting me in. At some point, he’d either released the chicken or she’d slithered out of his hold because his arms went around my neck. He was desperately trying to pull me down as he stood on his tiptoes.
I had to stop it. I just had to because nothing good could come of this. If I was certain he knew it would only be about sex, I wouldn’t have hesitated to take him right there in a shadowy corner of my horse’s stall. “What’s your name?” I growled against his lips when we were forced to come up for air.
“Jules,” he responded and then he was slashing his mouth over mine again. At some point, my horse had moved or maybe I’d moved him, I wasn’t sure. Either way, it allowed me to back Jules up until his back hit the wooden wall behind him.
“Jules,” I breathed against his mouth.
It fit him perfectly.
Just like he fit me perfectly.
When I grabbed his ass and lifted him so we’d be eye level, Jules automatically wrapped his legs around my waist. I could feel my heart racing in my chest, beating exponentially faster with every touch, every press of his lips against mine. It was getting harder and harder to catch my breath and before I realized it, the panic that I’d thought I’d left behind me returned with a vengeance. I practically dropped Jules, so he was forced to hold his own weight. I tore my mouth from his and backed up several paces. I bent at the waist and rested my palms on my knees.
“Flynn?”
“Don’t!” I snapped when I sensed Jules reaching for me. “Don’t touch me,” I warned. I backed away from him until my back hit the opposite side of the wall. It wasn’t until a fuzzy nose bumped my face that my senses began to return to me. I didn’t even remember how I’d come to be sitting on the floor of the stall or how long I’d been there. Jules was long gone.
What the fuck had happened? I hadn’t experienced a bout of that kind of panic for more than a year. Why now?
I looked up at the wall opposite me. The one I’d been ready to fuck Jules against.
I shook my head in disbelief.
Well, you wanted to keep your distance from him.
“Mission accomplished,” I whispered against my horse’s cheek. “Mission fucking accomplished.”
Chapter Six
JULES
It was too loud.
Just too fucking loud.
A ranch high in the mountains in a bumfuck of a town was loud.
I laughed harshly because only I could draw that kind of conclusion.
There was some logic behind it, though. If you were going at it hot and heavy with a guy one second and then he was pushing you away like you were a piece of garbage, living in a big city meant you could easily escape, whether it be in the form of grabbing a cab or just disappearing in the endless crowds of people lining the sidewalks. The familiar sounds of the city would act as white noise so if someone needed it to, it could drown out everything else, including the last words the guy had spoken, no, yelled at you before he’d called foul on the whole thing.
Problem with bumfuck was that there were enough people, specifically cowboys, moving about the ranch that trying to run as fast and far as you could to escape somewhere that you’d be able to lick your wounds was impossible. Between the unfamiliar turf, the strange men calling back to each other in their weird cowboy talk, and the endless sounds of the different farm animals going about their business, there was no white noise to hide behind.
Jules.
Don’t.
In a matter of seconds, Flynn had been whispering the first word—my name—and shouting the second in disgust.