CH 13 - #nope
#nope
Luke
Three days had passed since the tornado blew across the ranch.
Madison, Bella, the Livingstons, Hayden, the other cowhands, and I were lucky to have survived.
Madison’s parents were also lucky that the damage to the ranch house and the other buildings wasn’t major, unlike what happened to my cabin.
I could repair it, though. It was just going to take a little time.
I found out that the tornado didn’t go directly over my cabin, but close enough to terrify Madison.
I was used to the unruly spring weather, having made it through several tornadoes with my family over the years.
Madison was better after processing everything, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if she returned to Dallas with Bella soon to avoid experiencing another panhandle storm.
I saw her several times in the past 72 hours as we picked up debris outside and cleared space around the ranch house so a contractor could start repairing the damage. She also helped me around my cabin. I didn’t need her to, but I was happy to have her near me.
We worked well together as a team. However, neither of us had mentioned what we were discussing right before my cellphone alerted me about the tornado: Madison letting me into her heart.
I knew she’d opened its door, though. The proof was in the adoring way she looked at me now with her shining emerald eyes that I regularly got lost in.
“You know you’re still welcome to stay with my parents, Bella, and me until the electric company gets power back to your cabin,” she said as we stood in the ranch house driveway beside my truck.
“I sincerely appreciate the offer, but I’ve got that generator.”
“Have it your way, you stubborn cowboy.”
“You know, you could come stay with me,” I half-teased.
Madison gave me a mile-wide smile that made me want to pull her into my arms and kiss her full lips, but I was determined to keep taking things slow with her when it came to our physical interactions. I knew it was best to let her make a move toward me first.
“If I stayed with you, it would be too tempting,” she softly said, searching my eyes.
“Tempting to do what?”
“You know.”
I nodded. “If you change your mind, you know where I am.”
I left for the barn to check on Casper. He was fine, as were the two quarter horses in their stalls that I’d been working with.
As I passed by the ranch house, heading to my cabin for the night, I noticed Madison sitting on the front porch in one of the rocking chairs with a cup of coffee or hot tea in her hand.
She waved at me, making me smile. I lowered the passenger side window and waved back, her face lighting up even more.
She, her parents, and Bella were fortunate not to have lost power at the ranch house after the tornado. Even if they had, the place had four generators that would’ve kept everything running until power was restored.
After I got to my cabin, I worked on the exterior, continuing repairs.
After a couple of hours, I was covered in sweat and dirt, ditched my clothes in the backyard, and started rinsing off in the outdoor shower that I’d installed next to the back porch.
I was standing beneath the water, letting it run down over my body with my eyes closed, when I heard, “Oh!” I snapped my head to the left and saw Madison standing yards away with her back to me.
She had just seen me in nothing but my birthday suit.
“Hang on just a sec,” I told her.
She raised her hand in the air to tell me okay.
Suddenly feeling like messing with her to see what she would do, I didn’t wrap the towel sitting on the table near the shower around my waist to cover myself. I grabbed my cowboy hat instead, held it over my dick, and walked to Madison.
“I wasn’t expecting you to come here,” I said, her back still to me.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you naked.”
“Did you like what you saw?”
She giggled, shaking her head. “Um, yes, I did. Are you decent now?”
“Pretty much.”
She turned around, her eyes immediately going to my hat in my hand, and then she looked up at me. “You’re a wild man, Luke Harrison.”
“I’m a cowboy.”
“Yes, you are,” she said, her expression turning serious.
“What did you come here for?”
“I wanted to give you something.”
“And what would it be?”
“Something I hope helps you sleep well.”
“Have you got some Advil PM in your shorts pocket or something?”
“No. I wanted to give you a goodnight kiss.”
I glanced at her lips, remembering how incredible they felt on mine and how delicious they tasted when Madison and I were on the dance floor at Midnight Rodeo. “I’ll take that kiss, but only if you really want to give it to me.”
“I really do.”
“What made you want to?”
“It’s just you.”
“What about me?”
She didn’t answer, but she did step closer, place her hands on my chest, raise onto the tips of her toes, and press her soft lips to mine. I closed my eyes and breathed her in. Seconds later, she ended our kiss and stepped away from me.
“Sweet dreams,” she said, her emerald eyes shining.
“Sweet dreams to you.”
I watched her as she headed toward the side of my cabin to go around to the front and leave in what I knew was her rental car, since her BMW was in the repair shop for external body damage. Then she stopped walking and looked over her shoulder at me, grinning.
“By the way, you have one fine ass, Luke.”
“Is that all?”
Madison’s eyes moved across my shoulders, chest, down my abs, over my covered dick, down my legs, and back up. “Nope.”
I smiled at hearing what she said about my body and also her using my word. It was the first time I had ever heard her say nope. The country boy in me was rubbing off on the city girl.
As she turned around to leave again, I kept watching her. Once she was out of my sight, I took a deep breath, relieved because she was letting me into her heart even more.