Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
His eyes snap up immediately. “Kicker. Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I play coy, pinching my bottom lip between my teeth and wiggling my knees together, then apart, like a pussy butterfly.
His lips turn into a determined line. Roman won’t budge, and I get it.
His birth mom was a dancer at the club my dad owned and ran with Allister.
I don’t know much about that, only that she’d cleaned up her life, became a medical tech, but still was shit at picking men. Roman’s father was a one-night stand that left her giving birth to a baby just weeks before she started having trouble breathing. Her heart took it tough from some old lifestyle choices and carrying Roman, and her body sort of just gave out.
She had no one else, and she had to make some decisions. She couldn’t have chosen better than Aunt Leah and Uncle Allister to raise Roman, but in his soul, he wishes things were different.
Call it PTSD from a situation he can’t even remember, but he will not risk baby-making without a foundation built on a marriage and a father who can and will provide.
He pushes my legs together in a firm rejection of my offer.
“Get those rhinestone pockets back on that ass before I get out the crop and my spurs.”
Just as I’m about to sass back, his phone rings through the Bluetooth on the truck’s speakers. Roman heaves himself up and out of the back seat, leaning through the console to hit the accept button.
“Bruh.” Roman grunts, squeezing his Montana-sized body forward through the space into the driver’s seat and dropping his legs down under the steering wheel with a grunt.
I wiggle my jeans back up my hips, then my socks and boots onto my feet as Roman checks his perfectly messy hair in the rearview and puts his hat back in place.
Casey’s voice fills the truck through the speakers. “I’m calling the cops.”
My cousin Carrie’s voice is in the background. “We see your truck down there, and the windows are steamy in the middle of freakin’ July!” She giggles. “You need another layer of blackout, big brother, because I swear I just saw a bare ass in the back seat...”
I giggle-snort as I grab the backs of the front bucket seats, the soft, creamy leather under my fingers as I pull myself through and drop into the passenger seat, grabbing my backpack from the floor.
“You did not! I’m fully clothed, and so is your brother.”
Roman looks at me and winks.
“Well, whatever, we know what you are doing and it’s gross. So get up here. We have a whole plan, and you are messing with my schedule.” Carrie’s voice takes on that high pitch when she’s getting anxious.
We are yin and yang. I run buck wild, and she lives her life by a spreadsheet. I can barely set an alarm, and she has a panic attack if she’s not fifteen minutes early for anything.
“On our way.” Roman hits the button, killing the rumbling diesel engine and leaving us in a vacuum of silence.
Most men would work their whole life for a truck like this. It’s the one thing Roman conceded to his parents. He let them match the money he’d saved for his dream truck by working as a horse trainer, as well as winnings from riding, reining, and cutting horses all through high school.
A hundred and twenty thousand dollars later, we get to fool around in Ford F250 King Ranch luxury whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Our family may be loud and chaotic, gruff and messy, but it’s also wonderful. Our parents love us, and the four of us have always been like brothers and sisters.
Roman and I getting married might be a little weird at first, but in the end, I know it will only close our family circle even tighter.
I just can’t wait for that to happen.
And to get that dick.
3
Roman
We’re on the stairs leading up to my brother and sister’s condo when I grab Emily’s wrist and jerk her around, pushing her up against the wall. She’s grinning, starting to squirm, but I ain’t playin’.
“Easy, Cowboy. You want me to spread my legs right here, you only have to ask.”
I growl. “I need to hear it.”
“This again?” Her eyes turn serious and sad. She knows the darkness I carry inside me, the fear that I’m not good enough for her. Her hand slides down my arm, her fingers twisting with mine. “What happened to your mom was tragic, but it wasn’t your fault. You’re a good man. She would be proud.”
I blink back rage tears, tears of hatred for myself, the size I am, the things I’ve done. Carrying me for nine months turned out to be more than my mother’s body could take, and that’s a darkness inside me I’ll never shake.
“I’ve waited for you, Emily, when every bone in my body was screaming to marry you, fuck you, breed you, fuck you some more. I need to hear it.”