Chapter 1 #3
I check my watch. “It’s only ten, Sunny. We’ve got a lot of hours until sunrise. Better get started.”
Sunny
Iverson tosses his beige cowboy hat in the back seat and loads me into his passenger seat.
Is it a bad idea to go somewhere with a man I just met? Yes.
Do I stop him when he takes off out of the parking lot and heads deeper into the wilder parts of Huckleberry Springs? No.
I’ve always loved this part of town. It’s closer to the mountains.
There are steeper dips and turns in the terrain, less ranching, and more wilderness.
The trees grow taller and are less bushy, and the Stillwater River cuts through the land, twisting and turning while giving gorgeous glimpses of blue between the green trees.
If it was daylight, I’d have my hand out the window and enjoy the drive.
Instead, the knot in my belly cinches tighter.
Not out of fear. I might be willfully naive right now because the cowboy next to me looks like he could rope a girl five different ways, and she’d love each and everyone and ask for more.
The only dangerous vibe I’m getting is right to the chest.
I’ve known guys like Iverson before. Men who work hard all day and party hard all night.
They’re attractive enough, with that twinkle in their eyes and the permanent smirk on their lips.
The scruff on the jaw only adds to the appeal, and on Iverson, it adds a lot.
I usually stay away from men like him. But something about that contemplative look in the eye got to me.
The lost glint that settled deep in his brown irises.
I want to dance on the wild side, and he looks like a good partner.
My skin tingles. Will I feel the rough tips peppering his jaw on my skin? Will I get beard burn? A shiver caresses down my spine. God, I hope so.
The moon doesn’t add very much light to the path of the headlights, but Iverson slows and turns into a drive. Trees almost conceal the opening, but it’s an actual road that disappears into darkness.
I lean forward and peer out the windshield.
“I can go back,” he says in that delicious, rough voice of his.
“I’m not scared.” I should be. I’m with a strange man in the middle of nowhere. But god, I need to live a little. One night. That’s all I want. One night.
Please don’t be a dud.
He gives me a sidelong look. Is he reading my mind?
“I know I should be,” I admit. “You’re not going to kill me, right?”
“No. You’re not going to rob me?”
“How would I do that?” He’s too big, and I’d be an idiot to run off into the wilderness in the dark. I’d become a mountain lion’s breakfast.
“Wait until my pants are around my ankles, and then take my wallet and my truck?”
I snicker at the image. “I have a feeling that if your pants hit your ankles, I’ll be too distracted.” I lean over the console. “I feel like you have a really big…wallet.”
He barks out a laugh, and my heart does a flip.
The faint lines that wing out from his eyes match his laugh lines.
This guy can do both brooding and funny.
All the moody cowboys I’ve met stay that way when they’re around me.
I’m supposed to keep my mouth shut and do what they say.
I’m supposed to stay quiet and wait at home for their next instructions.
The trees thin and a wide parking lot opens in front of us.
The hulking shadow of an old building towers over us. He swings the pickup around to point the way we came. Then he throws it in park. I’d love to see this view in the daylight. It’s been so long.
I really should be scared. We’re alone. Does anyone ever come out here? In school, my friends even stayed away from it. Usually, because I knew of even more private places to party. “Aren’t there security cameras?”
“No.” He chuckles. “Nothing worth vandalizing.”
I recall that. It’s an old empty mine. This guy clearly knows the lore, and he’s probably brought enough women out here to know that he’s not getting caught with his pants around his ankles. “What about explorers?”
“Not at night, Sunny.”
The way he says my nickname sends warm tendrils twining around my heart. That organ and my brain are coming up with fantasy futures with this man. He’s sweet, funny, and seems aware of how I’m feeling. I haven’t known him for more than an hour, and I’m already picturing a fairy-tale ending.
I can’t delude myself. I haven’t even known him for an hour, and I’m romanticizing him. At the end of what I hope is at least one orgasm for me, he’ll take me back to my car if he’s not a murderer, and we’ll go our separate ways. A casual fling. Easy peasy. I press a hand to my stomach.
He runs his calloused fingers over a lock of hair. “Nervous?”
“Is it a stereotype to say I don’t usually do this?” I lick along my lower lip. “I’ve had hookups, but not like picking-a-stranger-up-at-the-bar hookups.” My face grows hot. “Just stupid college stuff.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “Make me less of a stranger. What’s your favorite color?”
“If I call myself Sunny, it has to be yellow. Yours?” Oddly enough, this is helping me feel less like I’m acting out of character. Going to Bootleg should’ve helped with that, but I never thought that, of all places, I’d pick up a guy there.
“Blue.” He leans his head on the headrest. “Blue skies, blue water, blue jeans. I’m a simple man.”
I smile. His tone hints that it’s a bad thing, that he’d like to be complex, but I’ve met too many complicated men in my life, and it usually means I’m strung along because they can’t figure themselves out.
I almost ask him what he does for a living, but I need him to be a stranger, or I might go looking for him after this. Men don’t like flings tracking him down, right? I don’t need more ties to Huckleberry Springs. I need freedom to make my own choices. Just like I did to land me in this pickup.
Yet I want to know more about him. “What’s your favorite song?”
“‘9 to 5’”
A laugh sputters out of me. “Dolly Parton?”
“Surprised?”
“I expected a Waylon or Johnny or even a Morgan or Luke.”
The corner of his mouth tips up. “I know each singer you’re referring to, but they don’t beat Dolly. ‘Jolene’ is a close second.”
“Happens to be one of my favorites. Don’t ask me to pick a top song. It changes with my mood.”
He adjusts his position to angle toward me. “Favorite food?”
“Steak.”
“That’s my girl. Same.”
I did nothing, but pride explodes in my chest. God, I’m easy. “Favorite animal.”
He snorts. “A horse. If I could have one sleep at the foot of my bed, I would.”
“Why can I picture it?” We share a grin, but the moment passes and sudden shyness strikes me. Can I go through with this?
“Tell me one thing no one else knows,” he says softly as if he sensed my shift.
His headlights automatically shut off and bathe us in shadows. We’ve been sitting for a few minutes.
One thing no one else knows. Some days, I feel like everyone knows everything about me. Or thought they did. Tonight was my night for anonymity. After tomorrow, that would change. And I’d taken my night and asked this man to give me a good time.
His question weighs heavily. Something no one else knows. “You first.”
His face is shadowed, but he looks away. “I want more.”
Surprise breaks down the anxiety his question created. “Really?”
“I’m thirty-eight. I have this pickup and not much else.” He stares at the shadowed building. I put a hand on his arm. “I want something for myself,” he says softly.
I can pretend for tonight that thing is me. “I know the feeling. People wouldn’t think so, but I do.” Since he was more vulnerable than I ever expected, I think about my answer. “I feel like I’m betraying myself.”
He traces the back of his finger down my cheek. “How so?”
“I have a path that I’m expected to stay on, and I shouldn’t complain. I’ve been very fortunate. I was born fortunate. But it’s just…I thought I’d have more freedom as an adult.” I don’t want to get into specifics, so I keep it general. “There are people counting on me.”
“Same, sunny day.” He wraps his hand around the back of my neck and strokes his thumb along my bottom lip. “I’m not such a stranger now, am I?”
“No,” I whisper. His leather-and-fresh-linen scent fills the cab. There’s no overwhelming cologne smell with Iverson. He’s nothing like the guys I’ve dated since I left home.
Then his lips are on mine, and I forget everything. He starts slow, and I relax even more, draping myself over the console to get closer to him, to get more. His lips are soft, but there’s nothing but firm man under them.
He knows what he’s doing. From building slow pressure to parting his lips until my mouth is open and he licks inside.
I meet his tongue with mine. The caramel flavor of the whiskey he was drinking hits my taste buds, and I groan. He sensually strokes against me. Little more than our mouths are touching, but he’s consuming me. The hot tips of his fingers are on my skin. His taste is in me.
He pulls back ever so slowly. I open my eyes like I’ve been drugged.
“I want you to get into the back seat, Sunny. I’m going to devour every inch of you.”
He digs in his pocket, and I think he’s going to remove a condom, but it’s his key fob.
He drops it into a cup holder. “You ever feel like you gotta get away from me, jump in the driver’s seat and take off.”
Touched, I stare at the fob. The silver on it picks up slivers of moonlight. “What about you?”
“I’ll be just fine, Sunny. Don’t ever worry about me.”
He tells me that while he’s concerned about how safe I feel?
I could fall hard for this guy.