Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
S hae
Rage was live and well within me when I stormed outside to give Boon a piece of my mind.
How dare this egotistical man parade around in front of my window, hip gyrations and smirky smile ten times the wattage it was when we were in high school?
The man had aged well, that was for sure.
And it made me want to break things. We’d gone toe-to-toe, just like all those years ago, proving that some things don’t change.
And then I saw him get sideswiped by a goat and the rage flittered away to be replaced by a deep guttural laugh I hadn’t engaged in for the better part of my life. Seeing him get love bombed by Thistle and the geese was just icing on this animals-gone-wild scene.
The sound that blew out of my mouth when I saw him hop over the fence, goat in his muscly arms, fear in his golden-brown eyes, would have made me embarrassed if it had actually been heard over the crazed honking of the geese.
As it was, I had to cross my legs to make sure I didn’t pee myself from laughing so hard.
The geese tried pecking at his legs through the fence. I knew from living next door to Timberwolfe Farms for my entire life that it was just a matter of time before they found a way through, over, and around that fence to get to what they wanted. So I ran.
At apparently the same time Boon made a retching noise and put down Thistle, because one minute I was looking at my friends’ hilarious faces through the window and the next my shins were colliding with something solid and the world tipped upside down.
I landed in the dirt with a thud that rattled my teeth.
Even the geese gave me a moment of silence, which I appreciated.
I was still trying to figure out what happened, and why I couldn’t seem to inhale oxygen into my lungs, when Boon’s concerned face hovered over me.
I knew in an instant I had a concussion because he’d never shown me much concern before.
I wasn’t sure he possessed the genes that enabled empathy.
His sweaty and muscled torso took up my field of vision, blotting out the darkening sky entirely.
“Have I gone to hell?” I wheezed.
The smirk that had haunted my teenage years came out to play. “That’s one town over, but I have to agree these animals are the devil’s playthings.”
And then he scooped me off the ground and into his hard chest like I weighed no more than Thistle.
The aroma of sweat and man and something so freaking good I thought I might have to bury my nose in his chest to draw it permanently into my lungs wafted over me.
My arm landed around his neck and my hand plopped down on his chest. I was touching a half-naked Boon Wolfe.
“You okay?” he asked, voice so deep and rumbly I felt it more than heard it.
I stared at him, words lost to me. His gaze dropped down my face to focus on my lips. The flames of hell nipped at my skin and I knew my face had gone crimson. Time warped and I wasn’t sure how long we stood there, me in his arms, his gaze on my mouth.
“Are you okay, Shae?” one of my friends hollered from the house.
It broke whatever was happening here and Boon lifted his gaze away from my face. Immediately, he began to march me up to my house. Somehow my face was able to flush hotter, realizing my friends were watching…whatever this was. Little dots of sweat broke out across my top lip.
“Put me down!” I hissed, slapping his chest when what I wanted to do was skim those fingertips across his pecs and check out all the muscle he’d put on over the years.
No. No, I didn’t. Ew. Gross. Absolutely not.
I started struggling in his arms and his footsteps faltered.
“Knock it off, Fletcher, or I’ll drop you,” Boon huffed.
I thought about how I weighed considerably more than Thistle, the love goat, and knew that if I didn’t get out of his arms in the next two seconds, I would absolutely die of mortification.
Without really thinking anything through because of said panic, I grabbed his exposed nipple and twisted.
The man yelped and managed to let me down without dumping me on the ground. I scrambled to get my feet under me, hair bun mostly on the side of my face now instead of on top of my head. Boon held his nipple, his mouth hanging open.
Even that wasn’t unattractive. Damn him.
“What the fuck, wiz?”
My hands went to my hips. “I said put me down!”
He advanced on me, crackles of lightning flashing through his eyes. “I thought you were hurt. I was helping you.”
I held my ground, nose held high in the air. “I don’t need your help, bat boy.”
“Sure looked like you did,” he snapped back. “You tripped over a fuckin’ goat.”
My mouth dropped open. He’d just gotten rammed and love bombed by the goats and you didn’t see me running around picking him up and acting like a damn fool! “You know, you should be nicer to me. I’ll be one of your daughter’s teachers.”
Boon was right on top of me now, his nostrils flaring as his chest pumped in and out with each breath. If I leaned even the slightest bit forward, we’d be touching. He paused, scanning my face before answering.
“You wouldn’t be mean to her.”
I narrowed my eyes. He didn’t know me. “Oh yeah? Willing to bet your daughter’s happiness on that?”
Boon leaned his head down just a fraction of an inch, his words now a whisper meant just for me. “Yes, because I know when push comes to shove, you can hate me all you want, but you won’t take it out on an innocent teenager.”
I opened my mouth to refute that, but he was right. Dang it. I sniffed, changing course quickly and unwilling to back down. “You’re right. Which probably comes as quite a shock. You’re not right very often. Congratulations.”
I dipped my head in some kind of weird mock bow and then darted around him, intent on getting away from the pheromones that were pumping off that man like the sound waves off a speaker at a rock concert.
I could feel his hot gaze on my back the entire time it took me to make it back inside my house.
I allowed myself one last glance at him before I slammed the door shut.
Oddly, he was looking down at the ground, geese still squawking behind him like his own little fan club.
My back hit the door and I leaned into it, not trusting my shaking legs. I could feel my friends clustering around me, each of them about to burst at the seams.
“What…the hell…was… that ?” Lydia demanded, clearly the leader of the pack.
I opened my eyes one at a time. I felt like I needed a cold shower and a long nap.
Neither of which I could do with my friends here.
They weren’t going to just let me shrug and change the subject.
If the roles were reversed, I’d park my butt on their couch and demand answers.
I let out a shaky breath and pushed off the door, headed for the living room.
“Have I mentioned how much I hate that man?” I began.
The girls all took various seats around the room and I sank into the couch.
“Yeah, so why was that so hot, then?” Hattie asked, fanning her face dramatically.
“You should totally hit that,” Lydia deadpanned.
I scoffed while Fifi and Rosemary cheered. “Seriously, this is the directive of the HAGS, baby. We’re looking for good sex, and we already voted that Boon could supply it.”
I huffed, looking around at these friends who were already falling under the Boon Wolfe spell.
“No, he couldn’t! I hate him! We’d tear each other’s eyes out before the clothes came off.
He’s a freaking professional athlete. The sex would be…
” I swallowed hard, refusing to even imagine it in my head.
“Terrible. He’d be a selfish lover, I’m sure of it. ”
“I don’t know,” Rosemary answered. “I think you should give it a go and let us know if the hypothesis holds.”
“Girls!” I shouted over their excited chatter. “Did you forget the part where I said I hate him?”
“Exactly why you should fuck him.” This, of course, was from Lydia.
“Yeah, hate-fucking is hot,” Hattie added.
I rolled my eyes and immediately changed the subject. By the time they left, I had a headache, and this time, it wasn’t from the red wine.
I slept like crap, mostly because I kept waking up with night sweats due to inappropriate dreams starring a certain nemesis of mine. Dang those friends for putting R-rated visions in my head. So, I did what I always did when I was overwhelmed and stressed out. I baked.
I had two dozen each of peanut butter cookies, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars, and gingersnaps by the time I heard the deep rumble of the truck next door leave the property.
Not that I’d admit it to anyone, but I may have snuck around my house in a half crouch, peeking out the windows to make sure Boon had left his mom’s house.
Then I grabbed the plate of cookies, put a sheet of tinfoil over it, and stepped out my front door.
A brown paper lunch bag sat on my welcome mat, right on top of the swirly writing that announced Science Nerd .
I stooped and snatched it up, unrolling the top and peering inside to find my glasses.
I sucked in a quick inhale. I wondered where they went.
I had to get out another pair last night when I tried to read to settle my brain.
They must have fallen off my head when I took a tumble yesterday.
And Boon must have found them, cleaned them off, and brought them back.
I turned in a circle, unsure what the hell I was going to do about that.
It was out of character for him to do something nice for me.
Had I actually hit my head yesterday? Was I somehow living in an alternate universe where Boon thought about someone other than himself?
It was discombobulating to say the least.