My thoughts are definitely not safe for work.
“Sweet mercy …” Topper mumbles.
My eyes cut to him. “You wanna keep your teeth, Westin?”
He lifts both hands. “Hey, you know, excuse me, I was noticing a … a rare Pigmy Nuthatch in that tree over there, okay?”
“Better stop while you’re ahead,” I growl.
“Right, I better, uh … Imma see what I can help Rusty with.”
“Everyone else clear out. I need to have a word with Roxanne,” I command. While the others are still craning their necks to catch last glimpses of the view, I feel like I’m standing in cement. I can’t move and I swallow hard. My pulse pounds in places it shouldn’t be pounding right now. A low heat unfurls in my belly, tight and unrelenting, traveling south with dangerous precision.
“We should also set up a perimeter,” Topper says as he walks out with the others. “No one is in allowed within a five-mile radius, friends. This is about to get messy.”
Roxanne struts to the outdoor shower tucked off the patio. Her fingers reach for the handle. A twist, a spray and then she tilts her head back and lets the water pour over her. Her breasts lift and shift with every pass of her hands as she rinses off. My whole body is thrumming, blood hot and thick, my restraint shredding like paper in the wind.
I run my hands through my hair and realize I can’t take any more of this. I storm over to her because she needs to stop! She has her back to me now, running her head under the water, and I say nothing as I reach over and shut it off.
fever
ROXANNE
“Are you trying to kill me?”Duke shouts from behind me.
I turn, wring out my hair and tilt my chin toward him. “Oh, Duke, I didn’t see you there.”
“Cut the shit, Roxanne, you’re runnin’ around here looking like?—”
“Looking like what?” I ask with a smirk.
“Looking like …”
Something breaks in his expression, like restraint giving way to something darker and deeper. He grabs my arm—not rough, just fast, and pulls me into the wet sauna next to the outdoor shower. He pushes me up against the wall. The door clicks shut behind us and he releases me, but he’s still standing so close that I can feel his breath.
“Damn it, I can’t think straight around you.”
“That’s good,” I say, stepping up to him.
“No, it’s not! You’re beautiful when you’re laughing, when you’re crying, even when you’re stomping around my place in flannel pajamas, but this?” His gaze drops for a second,and when it returns to mine, it’s practically burning. “This bikini, drippin’ wet, with every man on this ranch catching a look?—”
“I was only trying to getyourattention.”
His eyes drag over my body, and he licks his lips. “Well, you’ve got it, now what can I help you with?”
“I want to talk to you.”
He takes another tiny step toward me but doesn’t say a word. He just stands there, wild-eyed, chest rising like he’s trying to calm something that’s been pacing inside him for weeks.
“Really?” His voice is low and ragged. “Is that all you want?”
I don’t waste another word. My lips claim his mouth, and I’m kissing him with more energy than when I ran from a dingo in Australia. I gasp when he snatches both my arms again.
“Now you wait just one damn minute!” he protests.
I give him a lazy smile and with a couple tugs, my string bikini top falls to the steamy cedar floor of the sauna. “I want you to kiss me.”
His eyes walk down my body, darkening like the Colorado skies before a storm. “Fuck it.”
