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Dakota
By the time five o’clock rolls around, I am ready to go home, kick off my heels, and open the bottle of white wine in my fridge that has been calling my name all day. My afternoon didn’t get any better since receiving Chance’s flowers. In fact, it only got worse, as if the universe was reminding me that bringing anything from him into my life asked for nothing but destruction.
Pushing the doors from the office lobby open, I take a deep breath, taking in the early evening air. It is still hot from the afternoon sun, but it smells like heaven after being in my office all day.
“You know I don’t like to be kept waiting,” a deep voice that I know all too well shoots through my body. My eyes snap open to find Chance waiting for me, looking sexy as hell as he leans against the side of his truck. He’s wearing his signature black cowboy hat and sunglasses, which shield his face from me, but I would recognize him anywhere. Recognize the voice anywhere.
I soak in his tall frame, clothed in clean denim and a button-up black shirt. As sexy as he looks right now, all I can think of is the other night, and how amazing he looks out of them.
Which completely goes against the vow I made with myself just a few short hours ago.
I catch a few women on the street looking his way and can’t help but smile to myself when I realize that he never stops looking at me. Or, at least he doesn’t turn his head toward them since I can’t see his eyes behind his dark tinted glasses. I can’t mistake the weight of his gaze on me, and how, the closer I get to him, the straighter he stands.
No, he’s looking directly at me, and I’m drinking it in, like I’m dying of thirst.
As soon as I’m within distance, he grabs me and pulls me into him; one arm wraps around the small of my back, one hand in my hair and he kisses me.
Holy hell, does he kiss me.
If there was ever a shred of a doubt in anyone’s mind that we were together, this borderline obscene kiss he’s giving me right now would convince them.
Hell, I’m nearly converted.
His tongue runs along the seam of my lips, demanding me to part for it. I deny him at first, needing to put up a little bit of a fight so I feel some sense of control, only to have him hold my hair in his fist tighter, letting me know he’s not going to be putting up with any of my sass at the moment—which makes me smile.
I give in, knowing that we need to sell our relationship in a way that’s never been done with him before. People in Whiskey Falls need to know that I am the true anti-buckle bunny and I’m going to stay around longer than any woman has before.
Not much longer—since the rodeo isn’t far away—but longer than any woman has before.
“Well, hello, Cowboy,” I saw hoarsely once he pulls back, still keeping me in his embrace. “What do I owe the surprise?”
“I wanted to see you,” he answers simply, straightening and letting go of my hair, only to take my briefcase from me. “Plus, I told you in the note we were having dinner tonight.”
He opens his truck door and places my briefcase gingerly inside, still holding on to my waist.
I decide to let the command of our dinner date go, not wanting to cause a scene in the middle of the street.
“Thank you for the flowers. They’re beautiful. Plus, they caused a stir in the office. I couldn’t so much as get a glass of water without someone asking me about them.” While at the time I saw it as only adding to the disruption of my day, after that kiss, I welcome them. Even if my mind is screaming at me to stick to my vow. To remember this isn’t real.
My heart? My heart is a traitor.
“You’re welcome,” he answers simply as he helps me up into the truck, tipping his hat to me before closing the door. I take a break as I watch him round the front of his truck. I take the moment alone to calm my breathing.
This isn’t a real date.
He’s just here so people in town see us together.
The words he says to me mean nothing.
I repeat the words in my head over and over as I take in his truck. It’s so overwhelmingly Chance. Everything from the lifted extended truck with the black leather seats to the smoky and spicy scent that fills the cab surrounding me in the big, sexy man that’s climbing in next to me.
My mind goes into overdrive when I’m around him, as if it’s in a constant battle with my body and my heart over what I should do. My body feels alive for the first time in my life. He makes me feel things I didn’t know I was capable of feeling until our weekend together. He played me like he knew my body inside and out, when we’d never done more than that first kiss together.
At the same time, I can’t help but hear the constant ringing in the back of my head that it’s not real. That I mean nothing to him. After the rodeo, our time is over and we go back to being alone and acting as if we don’t know each other.
But how can I do that? How can I pretend that I don’t know the sounds he makes as he thrusts into me, or the way that he holds my body so tight after?
No, I can’t get attached, no matter how hard he makes it. I need to place a barrier around my heart, or I’ll never make it out in one piece.
