Destry (9 page)

“You could have broken your neck!” His dark tone was both unwarranted and ridiculous.

“I’m fine!” I spat through clenched teeth. “You don’t need to be an asshole.” I pushed myself up until I was sitting, the remnants of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

“You didn’t need to be actin’ like a fool climbing a tree,” he grouched back, running his fingers across my head and flicking his gaze over my eyes. “Are you hurt?” When I didn’t answer fast enough for him, he focused and asked again, “‘Melia, are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine,” I sighed and looked away from him, feeling like an idiot. I wasn’t incapable of climbing a tree. I just hadn’t done it in a long time. A long time, as in, since I was eight years old. Ladies didn’t climb trees; we weeded gardens and planted pretty flowers.

“What the hell were you doing up there?” Destry ground out between his teeth.

“There was a beehive. I was getting honeycomb,” I told him, looking back up through the branches to where the hive was.

“Honeycomb?” he asked incredulously. “You risked getting hurt and possibly killing yourself for damn honeycomb?”

“Don’t be dramatic, Destry,” I told him as I went to stand up. My foot was stinging a little so I figured I needed to check it out and maybe put something on it.

“Dramatic?” he huffed and stood up as I was getting to my knees. “You scared the life out of—“

“Ouch!” I yelped and reached out as Destry caught me before I hit the ground again. “Damn it!”

With a grunt, he swept me up into his arms and walked over to where the quad was sitting. Braxton placed the first aid kit down and started riffling through it while Destry sat me on the quad and knelt down in front of me.

“I need to see your foot. To do that, we’ll need to take this shoe off, darlin’. I’m afraid it’s going to hurt some.” He looked up at me apologetically as he explained.

I nodded and bit my lip, unshed tears pooling in my eyes as my foot throbbed painfully. Destry cringed as he unlaced my shoe and stretched it carefully. Holding onto my lower leg, he pulled it off as gently as possible; still, I made a muffled protest.

“Fuck. I’m sorry,” he apologized as he slid my sock off and started inspecting my foot and ankle. “Wiggle your toes for me,” he asked softly.

“I’m pretty sure it’s just a sprain,” he told me when I managed to move my toes. Braxton handed him a gauze bandage and he set about wrapping my foot up, his gentle way of doing so stunned me. He was being so careful not to hurt me any more than necessary, and even if he hadn’t been, I was sure the closeness of his panty-melting body and the smell of his aftershave mixed with fresh sweat, was enough to take any girl’s mind off a busted up ankle.

“Brax, can you grab me some ice from the cooler and throw it in one of those ziplock bags?” Braxton had already moved to do so even before the last words left Destry’s mouth.

“Thank you,” I whispered after I’d cleared my throat. Our gazes locked for a moment, both of us trapped by the tension that continued to crackle between us. Destry opened his mouth to say something when Austin pulled the pick up alongside us and jumped out.

“You’re okay?” Austin said as he let out a long loud breath and looked at me. “You about gave us a heart attack, girl.” He pulled his hands up to his hips and glared at me.

“Let’s get you home,” Destry, who was still observing me, said quietly. Leaving me no option, he scooped me up again, my hands instantly sliding around his neck as he carried me with a gentleness one wouldn’t think could come from his large frame. Once he had me in the truck, he walked around to the driver’s side. I found myself watching and contemplating the entire time.

In a few short days, I had formed more feelings for Destry than I had in two years with my fiancé. I thought I’d loved Wesley or grown to love him rather, but I hadn’t really; I’d just convinced myself of it. Our entire relationship had been a series of chores, from the actual engagement, right down to the sex. I hadn’t been a virgin when we’d met and he didn’t have a clue I’d given my innocence to a guy I thought I could run away with. A guy who broke a little piece of me when he turned out to be nothing more than a cocky cowboy, hence my trepidation when it came to Destry. She found herself thankful that the recent shift in Destry’s attitude had moved him out of that category.

He could be a right ass yet sweet as pie all in a thirty-second time span. I watched the way his muscles moved as he navigated the truck through the open pasture toward the house, obviously taking care not to jostle me and my bitch of a twisted ankle any more than necessary. He was a contradiction to everything I thought a real cowboy was. A quiet ride home led to Destry insisting on helping me upstairs where I had a quick bath and a few painkillers. Once the medication started to kick in, I hobbled to bed only to find he’d brought up dinner and left it on my bedside table. He really was quite sweet once you got past his walls.

That night, I had a fitful sleep. The whole night I was invaded by dreams. Some left me hot and bothered, and included Destry's mouth ravishing my body with hot sweet kisses, while others left me cold and angry. Flashes of my sister's betrayal, images of Wesley slamming in to her, startled me from my sleep on more than one occasion. I was sure at one point I'd been calling out before a soft hand had touched my brow and a soothing voice had lulled me to sleep. Damn, fucked-up, crazy dreams.

My alarm pulled me from my pretense of sleep, exhausted and sore from the fall. I groaned as I turned to switch the stupid thing off. Before I got chance to swing my legs out of bed, a light knock appeared at my bedroom door. Needless to say, I woke up exhausted from lack of sleep and sore from my fall.

“No work today. We’ll be hanging around the house,” Destry said when he poked his head inside my door. His eyes roaming very slowly over my virtually naked form caused my nipples to harden almost instantly. The fire in them was almost searing my skin; it was that hot. I was about five seconds away from potentially molesting him when he shook his head and looked at the wall behind me. A wave of disappointment I probably shouldn’t have been feeling washed over me. I had been engaged not even two weeks beforehand, yet I was looking for any situation possible where I could jump a guy’s bones, who I barely knew anything about. A mini me dressed like a hooker popped up on my shoulder and pointed out “He’s the best sex you’ve ever had and then some.” My mini angel who should have been talking some sense into me was nowhere to be found. She was probably off having the amazing sex I might not be getting again. Tramp.

“I’ll have one of the boys bring up breakfast for you,” Destry told me before quickly exiting the room and closing the door behind him. Seconds later, I heard a thud followed by a string of muttered cuss words. Smiling to myself, I snuggled back down in the soft, warm bed.

Hours later and I was more than bored. I needed to do something; the sitting around staring at the walls was doing my head in. While my foot was a little tender, it wasn’t nearly as bad as we’d thought. I could walk on it with minimal pain and it wasn’t swollen any longer. I would have gone stir crazy if I was unable to move. I made my way downstairs and poked my head out into the kitchen. Seeing the coast was clear, I shuffled across the room and threw a few things in the bag I was holding. The boys would tell me off and order me back on bed rest if I got caught.

I slowly snuck out the back door, ducking and weaving around like the expert ninja I thought I was, when in reality I probably looked like a three-legged elephant dancing to my own tune.

I lifted my head from under the hood of my pick up when I heard the car come to a stop on the gravel drive behind me. Pulling the rag from my back pocket, I wiped my hands as I moved to lean against the side of my Chevy, watching the unfamiliar vehicle from my peripheral vision. Typically, we didn’t get people out this way unless they were trying to buy the property. I assumed this guy was no different especially when he stepped out of his Audi in a suit.

I lifted my head and watched as he walked toward me; I’d made no move to greet the pretentious looking ass.

“Help you with something?” I asked in a bored tone, while rubbing my grease-covered hand with the dirty rag. Previous experience proved if you weren’t real friendly, they didn’t come back a second time.

“I’m looking for a young lady by the name of Amelia Highsmith.” My body locked up tight at the mention of ‘Melia’s name; it wasn’t at all what I expected to come out of his mouth.

“What’s a guy like you doing poking around for some girl?” I feigned ignorance for the sheer fact I had no idea about her past or who this guy looking for her might be.

“Well, that’s a private matter you see.” The guy was practically pouring money and slime; I didn’t like it one damn bit. His reluctance mixed with the fitted gray suit he wore rubbed me the wrong way. I hung the rag I was holding back into my jeans pocket and walked back to the hood of my truck.

“Sorry, can’t help you.” I grabbed my wrench, leaning down into the engine and continued fastening the bolts around the starter.

“I was told I could find her here,” he pressed on; I shifted my eyes up to his, not stopping what I was doing and looked at him hard, not bothering to disguise my annoyance.

“Like I said before, I can’t help you.” ‘Melia was hiding something, but I wasn’t the kind of guy who’d feed anyone to the wolves and this guy was definitely in that category. “Best be on your way now,” I told him; the intent in my voice clear. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a silver cardholder, removing a crisp white card and holding it out to me.

I looked at his outstretched hand and shook my head; he was a bit slow this one. “If you happen to see or hear anything, all my details are on here.” He flicked the card between it fingers still holding it out. I looked from his hand to his face, and then stuck my head back under the hood of the Chevy, making sure I’d fastened the bolts properly and tossed the wrench back into the toolbox by my feet.

I closed the hood of my pickup a little harder than necessary and repeated in a hard tone that left no room for confusion, “Best be going now.” A few moments passed before the suit put the card beside the hand I had leaned on the car, and then made his way back to his overpriced dick extension, leaving in a cloud of dust. “Jack ass.” I mumbled to myself pocketing the card and jumping in my Chevy.

A few minutes later, I pulled up by the lake and turned the engine off looking around for Amelia. Firstly, I wanted to find out if she was in some kind of trouble. I wasn’t about to throw the girl out; her car wasn’t even ready, but I didn’t want to be housing a murderer or a thief. Okay, so maybe my mind had gotten away from me; she was too damn sweet to be anything of the sort, but hell if I didn’t wanna know what was going on. She thought she’d snuck off a few hours beforehand; however, I’d leaned against my truck watching her try to be as stealthy as she could, while I chuckled to myself over her less than graceful moves. The best part was the triumphant smile that was plastered across her face when she’d finally maneuvered my ATV out of the barn and rode off on it.

Walking up to the tree line, I pulled up short at the sight in front of my feet. A pile of clothes sitting on the top a pair of lace blue panties. “Shit,” I mumbled to myself, my cock going immediately hard when I realized she had to be buck-ass naked in the large pond.

The internal battle started; did I give in to it and join her or leave quietly before she noticed? The first time, we agreed was a slip, just a buildup of tension. We’d agreed it wouldn’t happen again. I’d been lying out of my ass though. I wanted back in there for as long as she was here. I wanted to spend my time showing her it wasn’t a mistake. It was the best sex I’d ever had and I was craving more. She was like an addiction I didn’t need but I wanted all the same. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and it was wreaking havoc on my day-to-day doings. Moving hay bales with a raging hard-on wasn’t exactly an easy feat, and with my mind constantly wandering to her, it was now almost a permanent condition.

I toed my boots off and simultaneously pulled my shirt over my head. I then shucked my jeans and boxer briefs. Her back was turned to me as I quietly walked into the still water. Thankfully, it was fairly warm. I kept going until I was waist deep, and then ducked under the water, swimming forward until I surfaced just behind her.

“I heard the truck pull up,” she said, startling me; my plan to sneak up on her had backfired. I took a step back, momentarily wondering if this was a bad idea. She may tell me to go and get fucked if she realized what I was up to. Amelia stepped back bringing her out of the water enough that if she were facing me I would be able to see the swell of her breasts, her very soft, perfectly perky breasts. My train of thought had just put me between a rock and a hard place, literally. Every step she took back, I took one too, causing me to bump into the large cluster of rocks in the middle of the water while sporting a boner.