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)
Less dick, to be specific. A lot less dick and a lot more feminine amenities.
While he’d stolen my very soul with a touch of his finger over my cheek and a kiss that I knew no other man would ever be able to stand up to, he’d been kissing the damsel in distress, clearly having no clue what was nestled between the thighs of his fair maiden.
Even now he was probably scrubbing his mouth and lips with mouthwash while I’d taken care not to wipe mine with my wrap as I’d cleaned my face.
I ran my tongue over my upper lip. It was faint, but I could still taste him. I wished there was some way I could bottle up that taste, along with the sensation of the kiss that I’d been graced with.
“It’s better this way,” I murmured as I righted myself in the driver’s seat and pulled the door shut.
It was better this way. I could store that kiss away in my memory, minus the shitshow that had followed of course, and it would always be there. It would be the last kiss I felt before I fell asleep and it would be the first one to greet me in the morning. It would be there whenever I needed it, and the best part… the best part was that since I never had to see those gorgeous lips and their even hotter owner again, I could come up with any ending I chose.
I turned the car on and flipped down the visor so I could check my appearance in the mirror. I should have been focused on the nasty black and blue mark forming beneath my skin, but all I could see were my full lips with the tiny spots of red along my lower jaw where my cowboy’s beard had scratched my skin.
My cowboy.
I put the visor back up and as I pulled onto the road, I could feel a smile forming. I’d finally gotten what I’d been bugging Brooks for since he’d left for Wyoming.
A hot cowboy of my own.
Okay, so the “my own” part wasn’t quite what I’d intended, but for that handful of seconds, Hot Cowboy had been all mine.
What did it matter if the man had a completely different perspective of what had happened in that alley? It wasn’t like he’d be around to have a say in it.
With that, I ran my tongue over my lips once more, then tried to lift my spirits by thinking about all the cowboy eye candy I’d get to drool over when I reached Black Hills Ranch. No matter how hard I tried, though, a heaviness in my chest made it feel as though I’d lost more of what little of my spirits remained. By the time I reached the foot of the mountain, I’d made what would hopefully be the first good decision I’d made in a really long time.
No more cowboys. It didn’t matter how gorgeous they were or how their hairy, muscled chests glistened in the sun. I didn’t care if they walked around the ranch in assless chaps. I didn’t even care if a dark-haired stranger with a voice as smooth as cognac, eyes the color of whiskey, and forbidden lips that God and the devil himself had to both have had a hand in creating strode right up to me, dropped to his knees, and reached for my zipper. It wasn’t going to happen.
I found myself letting out a soft chuckle. I wasn’t a particularly religious guy, but just in case there really was a man upstairs, I wasn’t going to press my luck. I’d literally taken the hand of the devil so I could have a taste of perfection in Eden.
In Eden.
Damn, you couldn’t make this shit up. Hopefully God had a sense of humor about my metaphorical bite of the forbidden apple that had included a lot more tongue and no taste of any apple. If the Bible thumpers were right and I was going to hell anyway, at least I’d gotten my moment of heaven. I didn’t think it mattered that my heaven had taken place with a stranger in an alley, but I didn’t really care either way.
I spent several long minutes reliving that kiss before realizing that the worst part was probably also the best part.
I didn’t know the guy’s name and never would. His face and touch were already etched into my brain, but I’d never have to worry about yelling his name while some other guy was fucking me. A silver lining, I supposed.
A shiny, untarnished piece of silver surrounded by nothing but rust.
Chapter Three
FLYNN
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I said in disbelief as my horse reached the final bend in the steep dirt road that signaled what I’d already known for a while—that I’d reached my destination.