This was just a blip in time and neither family would appreciate our closeness. Why did I care at this point? Why was it that I always tried to talk myself out of enjoying something I wanted to do just for me?
I’d taken dance lessons because my mother had said it would make me more ladylike.
It hadn’t.
I’d joined the choir in high school because my best friend had said I had a lovely voice.
I didn’t then and had yet to carry a tune.
I’d taken a job in Billings instead of New York or LA because my parents had convinced me being that far away wasn’t a good idea.
See where doing so had gotten me?
This was my choice to make. My little moment of revenge against all the unwanted and ridiculous decisions I’d made in my life.
My one shot at enjoying myself just for me.
He took my sudden silence as an affirmative that I’d remain a good girl. Now that wasn’t anything I would ever agree to. However, he’d already unfastened the drawstring on the sweatpants and tugged them past my hips before I could fully connect with the man or his actions.
He was enjoying the hell out of himself, especially when he yanked the material down until it was around my ankles.
Something ripped at the very heart of my inner sanctum, the desire for him almost angry in nature.
I could tell by the oppressive look in his eyes that playtime was over. He lifted me onto the counter, ripping the sweatpants aside. When he leaned over, planting his hands on either side of me, there was a moment when I was that girl again.
But there was no denying that he was all male, the years creating a perfect masculine body.
There were no words needed, no more time for second guessing.
With his eyes hooded and his chest rising and falling, he brushed his palm and the tips of his flexed fingers down my chest, taking his time to study every inch of me. Including the goosebumps already popping along the path.
When he reached the tender area of my stomach just above my pussy, he hesitated one last time, lifting his gaze and waiting for my response.
If I answered him in words, I feared I would back out like some coward. Instead of risking losing the moment, I blinked profoundly only once.
That’s all the man needed before lifting and bending my legs, spreading me wide open for him.
And dropping his head so he could feast.
CHAPTER 9
Axe
What in the hell was I doing?
Touching a woman who didn’t belong to me and never would. Would some consider it ridiculous I’d held onto the pledge I’d made to an old friend? Maybe, but as terrible a man as some might think me, I did have honor.
At least somewhere deep inside.
Why should I walk away, locking myself into another room? For some sense of doing the right thing? Or loyalty? Yes, which would sound strange to some, but that’s the way of cowboys. A pledge made to my best friend, a man I barely spent any time with any longer. How strange. A promise made first when we’d both noticed some guy we’d both considered a jerk suddenly interested in Kenzie. Then he’d made the cardinal mistake of hitting on her.
Yeah, he’d also learned a valuable lesson.
An oath made over a shot of tequila. A cowboy’s pledge, a fable passed down through generations.
We’d been taught as boys that certain promises, undertakings of honor were not to be fucked with.
And what was I doing?
