Page 80 of Holding Penalty

37

NASH

When I get home from practice, I find Piper rummaging around the shed in the backyard.

“Boo,” I try to startle her when I peep into the shed to find her back facing me, but she doesn’t flinch.

“I heard your truck pull up and you’re not sneaky,” she says breezily, not even turning to face me.

I huff a chuckle. “You sure know how to keep a guy’s ego in check.”

“That’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me.” She turns around, pointing to what I noticed sitting outside the open shed door. “What’s that?”

“Oh, that’s the ATV I bought when I moved here,” I answer. “Never really used it much, though. Got too busy too quick after settling in.”

“It’s still charged,” she says. “When I tried to see if it ran, it almost went through the wall.”

I sigh. “I should expect that you’d almost knock over various structures if I leave you alone for too long.”

She just flashes me a cheeky grin, and it makes my heart skip.

She walks past me, and when she’s out of the dark and under the light of the sun, I notice what she’s wearing, and my blood thickens.

Cut-off jean short shorts that show off her long, tanned legs. My eyes feast on the sight of her thighs, lips itching to know how it would feel to drag across them, my mouth moving slowly to their apex.

But it’s when I notice what’s on the other end of her legs, that I really feel my cock pulse.

“You …” I swallow thickly. “Got new boots.”

She’s wearing a pair of damn cowboy boots, brown leather adorned with intricate floral designs. My jaw immediately sets hard, teeth pressing together, and an intensity rushes through me that has me flexing my hands by my sides just to maintain composure.

Piper wearing a pair of cowboy boots, cut-off shorts, and a white tank top that makes the round, firm swell of her tits only too noticeable is downright torture for my self-control.

“Can I ride it?”

My muscles coil at Piper’s choice of words. The wind punches out of my lungs. “What?” I practically cough the question, feeling like I’ve been body checked.

“Can. I. Ride. It?” Piper repeats each word, as if that’s not going to make my brain short-circuit even more. “The ATV,” she adds after a long beat of discombobulated silence.

“Oh,” I scramble. “Uh. Yeah, sure. But be safe.”

She looks off into the rolling grassland that expands past the house, the horizon dancing under the sharp, hot rays of the sun.

“It’s so sunny, though,” Piper says, shielding her eyes with her hand. “Oh, I have a great idea.”

She walks up to me and snatches my baseball cap right off my head, tugging it down on hers.

My jaw falls open at the sight of my wife wearing my hat, her wavy brown hair spilling from underneath the brim. Electric current sizzles through my veins.

Cowboy boots, cut-off shorts, and my fucking hat on her head. It’s a miracle I don’t pass out on the spot.

Luckily, she turns around before I make a flagpole in my pants. She swings her shapely leg around the seat of the ATV, straddling it, and a sharp pang twists at the base of my balls.

My brain might be jelly in my head right now, but I have enough self-awareness to call out, “Be safe,” as she starts the engine.

She shoots me a thumbs-up before taking off, plumes of dust rising in the wake as she rides away, exuding a cowgirl energy that turns me on way, way too much.

I get back home late that night, after attending a team dinner at Cooper’s house. It’s a monthly ritual Cooper initiated as team captain in the middle of last season, and, honestly, it probably played a hand in how much our chemistry and teamwork improved afterward.