“This is ridiculous,” I mutter, pulling Rita away from the weeds she’s starting to munch on. “It’s completely ridiculous.”
“Welcome to small-town life,” Jesse says, his voice low and intimate.
“I’ve lived here my entire life. It’s never been this ridiculous.”
“You’ve never been caught on McCoy property with wet… things before.” His eyes drop to my chest where my shirt is still clinging. “Wet everything, actually.”
The observation floods me with heat again.
“I’ve never been caught on McCoy property at all.”
“That we know of,” Boone adds with a grin that’s far too knowing. “Maybe you’ve been thinking about it. Maybe you’ve been wanting to cross that line for a while. Maybe you’ve been hanging out on our property all along and this is the first time we’ve caught you.”
“Look,” I say, trying to sound reasonable and mature and not at all like someone whose panties are soaked for reasons that have nothing to do with water. “We need to agree that nothing can happen between us.”
The words taste like ash in my mouth, fighting against every instinct to step closer, to see what would happen if I just gave in.
“Nothing,” I agree, forcing myself to look each of them in the eye even though Wyatt’s intense stare makes me want to drop to my knees, Jesse’s heated gaze makes me want to melt, and Boone’s surprising hunger makes me realize he’s not a boy anymore. “No more... whatever thiswas. No more flirting, no more conversations. No more hair-fixing or hose-borrowing or goat-related emergencies.”
“That’s a lot of rules,” Jesse observes.
“They’re not rules, they’re survival tactics.”
“Same thing. But what if we don’t want to survive? What if we want to burn?”
My lips part involuntarily, and his eyes darken.
Wyatt crosses his arms, the movement making his biceps flex. “She’s right. About the rules.”
“Thank you,” I say, even though his agreement feels more like rejection than validation. Even though my body is screaming at the loss.
“We stay on our side, you stay on yours,” Wyatt continues, his eyes on my lips. “No contact. No emergencies. No exceptions.”
“No midnight visits,” Jesse adds, his voice dropping to a whisper. “No accidental meetings. No giving in to what we all clearly want.”
I nod, trying to ignore the way my stomach twists with disappointment, the way my body clenches with need. “Exactly. Complete separation.”
“Like the Berlin Wall,” Boone suggests as he moves closer too.
“The Berlin Wall came down decades ago, little bro,” Jesse says.
“Bad example, then.”
“Like the DMZ,” I say, my voice shaky. “Heavily guarded. Dangerous to cross.”
“Are you planning to install land mines?” Boone asks.
“If necessary.”
Jesse’s grin suggests he finds the idea of me installing land mines more amusing than threatening. “You’d never keep us out if we really wanted in.”
The promise in his words makes my knees weak.
“So we’re all in agreement,” Wyatt says, his voice flat but his eyes burning. “No contact.”
“No contact,” I repeat.
“None,” Jesse agrees, but he leans down so his mouth is near my ear. “Even though we all know you were wet before the water hit you. Even though we all saw how you responded to our touch.”
