42. Five Times The Man
42
FIVE TIMES THE MAN
DAKOTA
“ R eally, Boone? You’re just showing up unannounced? We’re busy,” I cross my arms, pissed off that he has the audacity to strut up to my dad’s front porch.
He takes that damn toothpick out of his mouth. “I need my jacket for a rodeo this weekend, so I thought I’d stop by. I warned you.”
“Well, I don’t have it with me, so go on, now.”
He rocks back in his boots, frowning a little like that comment hurts him, and I have no clue why he looks like that. I don’t trust that look. “I just want to talk, Kodie.”
“The last thing I want to do is talk to you,” I cut out. “We’re done.”
The unmistakable heavy thud of footsteps thumps behind me, and instinctively, I know it’s Wyatt. I’ve memorized the sound of his reassuring cadence over the years.
The heat from his body meets mine, and he places a steady hand on my lower back. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be possessive or reassuring, but either way, his silent support is comforting.
“When a woman tells you to leave, you leave,” Wyatt rumbles in his dad voice . That’s what I call it when his drawl takes on that deadly calm tone.
It’s my favorite voice of his.
And the sexiest.
“Patterson,” he scoffs. Boone’s eyes flick between Wyatt and me, his jaw tightening. “Of course you’d be here. Figures you’d finally move in on her. You never could stay away from her every summer.”
There’s a pause.
“What can I say?” Wyatt rasps, confidence rolling off him in waves as he pulls me closer. “I’ve been obsessed with this one for a while now.”
I just about rip his jeans right off. I don’t know why him claiming me in front of my ex is the hottest thing that’s ever happened to me, but it is, and I’m relishing in this moment.
Boone scoffs. “That much was obvious, man.”
Wyatt’s body tenses behind me, a ripple of protectiveness radiating through him. Then, he wraps his arms around my shoulders, his chest to my back, drawing me against his muscular frame.
I feel his breath tickle my skin before he presses a gentle kiss to my neck, and I lean in. Partially to seek more of his warmth and partially to drive the point that we’re together home.
“You want him to go, honey?” he replies nonchalantly, looking down at me with tender eyes, but his jaw is tight.
“Yes,” I say, not even having to think about my answer. “You best be going home. We’ve got to get back to our poker game.”
Boone’s expression hardens, and he opens his mouth, but before any words can escape, Wyatt’s voice cuts through the air, silencing him mid-breath. “You heard her. Go on, now.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Boone smirks, annoyingly calm as his eyes linger on the way we’re wrapped around each other. “Didn’t know you had it in you, Patterson. ”
He narrows his eyes in my periphery. “Didn’t know I had what in me?”
Boone ambles closer until he’s right in Wyatt’s face like he’s about to deliver the blow of all blows. I never realized how much taller Wyatt was until this very moment.
“Oh, nothin’ really,” he sneers. “It’s just that I never pegged you for a guy who’d steal another man’s girl. Looks like you’ve actually got a backbone after all.”
We both rush forward, but I’m smaller and quicker, so I move faster. I pull myself out of Wyatt’s grasp, getting all up in Boone’s face. I might let shit roll downhill when it comes to me, but disrespect the people in my life?
Yeah, I get angry all right.
“Leave, Boone,” I spit out, pointing to his truck. “You’ve got no business being here. Wyatt’s five times the man you’ll ever be.”
That wasn’t the fanciest declaration, but I’m sure I’ll come up with a beautiful romantic speech three days from now when I’m washing my hair.
My chest heaves, and then slowly, so slowly, Wyatt’s hands form a possessive cage around my waist, and I feel his thumbs brushing everywhere on my body.
Wyatt drawls with an arrogance I rarely hear from him, “You heard her, Bowman. Five times the man. You better hope she’s not talking about size.”
I sputter a laugh, wishing I had his comebacks.
Luna hobbles from the hallway and growls a low rumble. She never much liked Boone, but he wasn’t a dog person like Wyatt.
I scratch the spot behind her ear with a proud grin. “Good girl.”
Boone looks between us with narrowed eyes and exhales a heavy sigh. His shoulders slump in defeat as he trudges back to his pickup truck, kicking up dust in his wake.
“Oh, and Bowman,” Wyatt calls out over my shoulder, tucking me against his hard chest. “You can’t lose something that never belonged to you in the first place.”
All Boone does is shove that toothpick back in his mouth. The setting sun casts long shadows across the rugged fields, painting an orange glow that highlights Boone’s lonesome figure. He slams the door, but he doesn’t start the truck. He stays right there in the gravel driveway, watching us.
No one’s ever stood up for me like that, had my back. I lean up to give Wyatt a thank you kiss, but he only smiles against my lips, slow, tantalizing.
“So, five times the man, huh?” he teases. “It kind of sounds like you’ve got a little crush on me, honey. When did that happen?”
There’s a note beneath his playful voice that I think he’s trying to hide, or maybe downplay, and I can’t tell if it’s pride or something else, but it sounds like angels blowing trumpets.
I circle my fingers through his belt loops, using the leverage to bring him closer, playing along. “I think it started when you took your shirt off.”
“And here I thought it was ’cause of my ass dimples.”
“Those too.”
He chuckles, but then nods to where Boone’s still sitting in his truck. “What’d he want?”
“Do we really have to talk about him?” I groan, looping my arms around his neck. “I don’t want to waste any breath on him, and things are long over between us.”
“Mm-hm. Maybe for you, but he’s still out there in his truck, so I don’t think they’re over for him.” He skims his hands up my waist, driving me absolutely wild. “Talk to me. I want to know what’s going on in that head of yours, then maybe you’ll get the kiss you so desperately want.”
He playfully nips my bottom lip.
I try to pull him closer for more, but all he does is smile against my mouth, keeping me wanting, yearning.
“Fine,” I grumble. “He needs his protective vest back for some rodeo. That’s all. Now, can I have that kiss I so desperately want?”
He smiles, though it doesn't quite reach his eyes, and it’s almost a little too quick. A flash of a grin. “Then you better make sure you bring it, but…” He trails off, eyes falling to my lips, staying, sticking.
“But what?”
He looks back at where Boone is still waiting in his truck, cocks his head, curls his lip, and then jerks me forward by my hips. I crash into his hard body.
My lips part in shock when Wyatt goes in for a demanding, feral kiss. His hand cradles the back of my head, pulling me in deeper, closer, fusing our bodies together. His tongue invades my mouth with a wild urgency, exploring fervently, and it’s everything I never thought to want in a kiss.
God, he’s the best kisser.
A rough, needy groan breaks free from him, sending shivers rippling over me, and this kiss isn’t just intense—it’s untamed, voracious, wild.
If a kiss were a middle finger, it’d be this one.
His hands find the backs of my knees, lifting me effortlessly until I’m sitting on the front porch railing. Coming closer, instinctively, I wrap my legs around his waist as I anchor myself to him, using my fingers to latch onto his hair. I tug on the strands, desperate, and I can feel him hardening against me, right over my center.
I try to move, just needing friction to ease this building ache. My nipples stiffen to peaks, and I can feel this clawing heat sinking lower and lower, pooling between my thighs, and then, all of a sudden, he drops me back down on the porch.
“But the next time you meet up with him,” he growls, his breath almost as heavy as mine. “I hope you’re still thinking about that kiss.”