“No. I can’t believe I did that.”
Wedid that, but I don’t correct her. I’m keeping this glorious moment to myself.
She’s about to slap her hands against her cheeks, but she gawks at the one she used to get herself off.
I take the bottle, turn her palm up, and pour a splash onto her skin. She rubs her hands together like it’s sanitizer. Close enough.
I don’t back away from her. “Now go back out there, smile, and know that I’ll be seeing how you orgasm in my dreams tonight.”
Shock flickers in her gaze a heartbeat before she looks stricken. She’s stiff again as she ducks out from under me. “They can’t know.”
“They won’t. You only need Stanford to suspect to make him suffer. If anyone asks why you’re flushed, say you got too much sun out riding.”
She takes a step, then stops. “This can’t happen again.”
If I never get to experience another one of her orgasms, I’m going to die a sad man. “Maybe you should wait and see how well it works first.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Campbell
I sit with Jamison at the house she and Iverson built. The big picture windows face the mountains. They’re Durban’s neighbors, but I can’t see his place from here. I’m taking a much-needed break from Hawthorne Ranch and wedding planning. Nothing was planned for yesterday, but somehow, I’ve become the official vacation guide for the Baldwin family. After suggesting they go to Bozeman and try some of the amazing restaurants in town, they actually listened and left me alone for the day. Alone with my thoughts about the family dinner two nights ago.
I can’t believe I did that.
I can’t believewedid that.
Those two sentences have been on repeat since I got off in the storeroom with Durban. Somehow, I managed to avoid him the rest of dinner.
It worked, though. The way Stanford narrowed hiseyes when I breezed out of the storeroom lit me up with the most invigorating satisfaction. Even better—when January noticed her fiancé noticing me. The punch of insecurity in her gaze was watered-down payback for all the times I worried about whether Stanford was actually working late.
And when Stanford’s parents got snide about the quality of food in the middle of nowhere, Montana, their insulting tone rolled off my freshly orgasmed skin.
Only one thing overshadowed the entire experience. Once the bride and groom and their family cleared out, I ditched the place too. I went to my parents’ house, hid in my childhood bedroom, and tried to answer the question of how I wasn’t messing up my redemption story. If someone had walked in on us? I’d have looked like a floozy who couldn’t control herself through one dinner—and it would have been true.
I would’ve climbed Durban like a mountain if he’d asked me to.
He didn’t ask, but he told me to do a lot of other things.
“I would ask what’s wrong, but I know better,” Jamison says, her hands wrapped over her belly. She’s officially on maternity leave now, but she’s climbing the walls. Her husband called me in to make sure she at least keeps off her feet instead of cleaning an already clean house while he takes Kacey to the playground in town.
“The usual,” I lie.
I’ve been replaying the storeroom climax over and over and over. Between reruns, a litany of questions streams through my head. Is he really single? I can’t ask anyone without them wondering why. What would I say?Well, you see, he talked me through masturbation during the family dinner, and I don’t want guilt on top of that.
If he is single, when did he and Natalie break up? He told me at the tasting, but guys say a lot of things to get what they want. Every interaction we’ve had since I’ve returned to town is studied in a new light, but I have no new answers. And the loop starts again. His gruff voice in the dark. The way he loomed over me, cloaking me in his body heat and caramel-whiskey scent. I stroked one out, right in front of him, on the other side of the wall from a bunch of people who I had thought would one day be family. Somearemy family!
I was on the clock. At my job. With my sister’s brother-in-law.
I’m a hussy and I need to be ashamed.
But I can’t deny that it worked. The release took a lot of stress with it. I have a naughty secret, and Stanford can suck it.
Male voices sound from outside.
Jamison sits up, keeping her swollen legs on the footrest. “Haven and Durban are here.”
I bolt upright, and all the confusion from the last two days knots in my stomach. “I should get going.” Shit. I can’t. Iverson’s not home yet. I’m on sister duty. “Never mind.”
