Chapter 2
Amos
“What did you just say?”
The words came out of my mouth, but my brain was three seconds behind, trying to catch up to what Shelly had just asked me.
The din of the Bear Den kept going on around us. Somebody fed the jukebox, and a new song kicked up, one with a heavy boot-stomping beat.
Nolan and Cedar erupted in laughter when someone sank a shot at the pool table.
The whole bar was alive, buzzing with Friday night energy.
But suddenly none of it registered, because every single cell in my body had just locked onto Shelly Anderson.
My cock went hard so fast it nearly knocked the sense clean out of me.
I tried to laugh. I could hear myself doing it, a short, deflecting sound that I used when I needed to buy a second to think.
“Shelly,” I said her name like it explained everything. “You know you’re not just some woman at the bar to me.”
“I know that,” she said, and her cute little chin came up.
“You’re my friend. My Shelly Bear.” I spread my hands like that settled it, even though my eyes were doing a full, slow tour of her face, before dipping lower without any permission.
Her curly hair was loose tonight, bangs flopping down, and she had my favorite top on, a low-cut floral shirt that sat off one shoulder, highlighting her perky little breasts.
And those thick hips of hers were doing something absolutely criminal in her skirt.
It was a new skirt. I’d never seen her wear it before.
Shelly was a curvy diva, and she didn’t hide her extra pounds under layers of loose clothing. She put them on display in a way that always made my dick quiver with excitement.
Shelly was beautiful.
Perfection.
Fucking hot as hell.
I could vividly see what she’d look like spread out across her bed, those wide lips of hers parted and flushed, her chunky thighs spread wide, inviting me to Nirvana.
Out of nowhere, the bar turned boiling hot.
“Amos,” Max’s voice cut through from behind the counter. He was leaning over the worn wooden bar top with a raised eyebrow. “You two ready for another round?”
“No,” I growled, putting my empty drink down. “Not now, man.”
Max moved on without a word, running his rag across the counter as he left.
Shelly hadn’t moved.
She crossed her arms over her chest, which did absolutely nothing to help me think clearly. And she was looking at me with that expression she got when she’d already thought three steps ahead of me.
Shelly was the quintessential girl next door. A small town ray of sunshine that was at the top of my list of friends.
I had very carefully worked to put her in the friend zone.
And I’d successfully kept her there until approximately thirty seconds ago.
“Maybe you never tried,” she said, her voice steady even though I could see a faint flush climbing her throat, “because you assumed I wouldn’t go with you.”
The words landed somewhere deep inside me like a challenge.
She knew I could never back down from one of those.
I stared at her.
She held my gaze with a look I’d never seen on her face before. Fierce determination mixed with a little anger and a healthy dose of nerves.
Underneath it all, I saw the fear she was hiding inside. I always knew when Shelly was scared and right now she was absolutely terrified.
Shelly wants to fuck me.
The thought expanded in my chest like a slow detonation.
She was the person I went to when I was mulling over something serious and needed advice.
Or when I wanted a little comfort.
She always saw through my bullshit faster than anyone else, and she wasn’t afraid to call me out on it.
And Shelly was the best at couch-snuggling.
In fact, she was the only woman I ever couch-snuggled with.
I’d always kept her in a special category, separate from other women.
Shelly mattered to me too much to risk her over a quick fuck.
But now I slid the idea around in my mind.
She wanted me to take her home tonight.
Should I?
Hell no.
This was Shelly.
She was the one line I wasn’t supposed to cross.
And the feeling in my cock right now was exactly how you ruin something good.
The more important question was, would I?
I looked at her face. Nervous, determined, all in.
And I knew I was already screwed.
Because if I took her home, I wouldn’t be able to pretend she was like the others.
And if I didn’t… I was going to risk losing her in my life.
I could see that in the fire in her eyes.
There’d been something sparking between us for years.
That’s when the feral part of me took over.
Fuck first. Regret later.
All my restraint snapped loose.
Not the part of me that chased women for a good time.
But the part hidden deep inside me that had been holding back from her for years.
“Maybe it’s time we found out,” I growled quietly, even as my chest tightened, warning me I wasn’t going to walk away from this one clean.
I closed the distance between us. Then reached out and tucked one loose curl back from her cheek, letting my fingertips drag lightly across her face as I did it.
Her breath caught, a shiver running through her.
She does want to fuck me.
The confirmation shot straight down my spine, then landed in my cock.
“Are you serious right now, Shelly-Rae?” I growled quietly.
Her throat moved when she swallowed, but she didn’t look away.
“I need to make sure you’ve thought this through,” I told her, quieter now. No more playing. Shelly meant too much for me to play with her emotions.
She held my gaze without flinching, and her lips curved into something that was barely a smile.
Then she stuttered out the words, “Why don’t you try to find out?”
The air between us ignited.
And for one brief second, I wondered if this was a mistake we wouldn’t be able to undo.
But that was the last coherent thought I had before my cock took total control of the driver’s seat.
I didn’t think. I stepped forward, slid one hand around the curve of her waist and pulled her flush against me.
Then I kissed her right there in the middle of the Bear Den, surrounded by half the town.
This wasn’t a soft, teasing kiss. This was a real one.
For a split second, I stilled, her mouth still under mine, her fingers fisted in my shirt, because this kiss wasn’t like the others.
This was my Shelly Bear.
Then she made a soft, needy sound, and whatever restraint I had snapped clean in half.
I cupped the back of her head and tilted her face up to mine. Then I kissed her like I’d been waiting years to do it, because some part of me had been.
She made a small sound against my mouth that unraveled me completely, while I drifted one hand up to softly cup the curve of her breast.
Shelly gasped and tilted her head higher, deepening our kiss while she fisted the front of my shirt. From the way she was acting, I was an oasis after a long, parched walk through the desert.
I kissed her until her legs wobbled underneath her, and I knew she was absolutely, positively mine… at least for the night.
I think it’s fair to say we forgot we were in a public place because I walked her back a step until she sat down on the barstool behind her. Then I parted her legs and stepped in to close the distance between us, the front of my jeans colliding against her.
We stayed like that, testing each other out until the song changed and a new one came on. She’d gone soft and warm against my chest, and tiny, hitched breaths escaped out of her.
When I finally pulled back, we were both breathing hard.
I looked down at her kiss-swollen lips and the dazed look in her eyes, and felt that familiar satisfaction.
I liked making a woman go weak in the knees.
But to make that happen to Shelly? It was the hottest thing I’d ever experienced in my life.
“So,” I rumbled quietly, so only she could hear. “You think you’re up for a ride on my bronco tonight, darlin’?”
A few people nearby had gone quiet, watching us like they’d just caught the start of something they shouldn’t be seeing.
Her eyes went wide, and a little laugh escaped her mouth even as her face went scarlet.
“The question is, can you handle me?” she said, with a conviction that was only slightly undermined by the way she was still gripping my shirt like a lifeline. Those wrinkles might never come out.
Without thinking it through, I turned to the bar, pulled a fold of cash from my back pocket, and tossed enough bills down to cover our drinks and then some.
Then I put my arm around Shelly, tucking her firmly against my side, as I walked her toward the door with a serious swagger in my step.
A whoop went up from the direction of the pool tables. Brady hollered something I didn’t quite catch. I grinned and lifted my free hand in a lazy wave without slowing down.
The stranger who’d been eyeing me earlier, the one in the hot pink shirt, scowled as I walked by with Shelly on my arm.
And, uncharacteristically, Shelly scowled back.
Shelly leaned into me even closer, and I realized I was at the center of a quiet catfight.
Was that woman the reason Shelly had come on so bold tonight?
Maybe.
But that didn’t matter.
All I knew was Shelly wanted me to take her home tonight.
The woman was forgotten a moment later, at least by me.
As we passed her roommate, Mina, near the edge of the dance floor, Shelly said, casual as anything, “I don’t need a ride home tonight. Amos will take me.”
Mina raised her eyebrows and grinned. “I won’t wait up!”
I pushed the front door open and walked Shelly out into the cool night air.
The door shut behind us, muffling the music, and for half a second the night felt too quiet.
She looked up at me, breath still uneven, eyes wide like she couldn’t quite believe what we’d just done.
“We don’t have to—” she started.
I cut her off with another kiss.
There was no time to reconsider my bad decisions, because I had her now.
And now that I’d kissed Shelly, I needed to keep kissing her.
She gasped into my mouth, and I slow-marched her backward toward my truck, kissing her the entire time.
I’d parked on the far edge of the gravel lot, far from the front entrance and its dim light. My truck was in shadows, and it was the perfect place for what I wanted to do to her.
When we got there, I tugged her around to the front of my truck, then backed her up until she bumped against the hood.
I was on fire for her. What I wanted to do had to happen now.
With her back to my truck, I slid one hand down to her breast and palmed her through her shirt, giving her a generous squeeze.
I paused for half a second, looking down at the precious woman in my arms. Her face was flushed, her eyes wide with wonder, and it hit me again that this was Shelly.
And she was going to be mine tonight.
That thought alone pushed me over the edge.
“Last chance to walk away,” I growled against her mouth, my hand tightening on her waist as my heart hammered in my chest.
Shelly arched into me and moaned against my mouth, “Don’t stop.”
A second later, I tugged the front of her shirt down, freeing her breast to the cool spring air.
Shelly broke the kiss with a sharp inhale, her head tipping back.
“Amos,” she breathed. “Anyone can see.”
“Naw. Look around, it’s dark here,” I growled while I gave her nipple a savage little pinch.
It was true. Anyone looking could catch us. But no one was paying attention, and my truck was blocking most of the view. We could do anything out here.
I nipped her neck softly with my teeth. “Shelly-Rae. I’m going to wreck you tonight.”
She rolled her hips forward, evidently pleased with my promise.
Then I pressed back hard, pinning her against the hood of the truck, grinding slow and deliberate while I kissed her throat and massaged her breast until I felt her fingers dig into my shoulders.
That’s when I let the devil loose inside me, tracking my hand straight down, down, down as her eyes got wide.
“What are you doing?” she whispered as someone crunched across the gravel thirty feet away.
Somewhere behind us the muffled bass of the bar’s music thumped on, but out here it was just her and the dark and the heat building between us.
Those footsteps would be gone in moments, but I couldn’t wait that long.
I lifted the hem of her skirt and slipped through her damp curls until I found her, all slicked up and wet for me.
Tugging her panties aside, I slipped across her folds, teasing her with my touch.