Page 79

“Who’s the idiot now, Addie Dawson?” he asks with a laugh, pulling me into his arms.

But there’s something vulnerable beneath the smile now, like admitting that out loud cost him something. This man I spent years thinking was just another irresponsible cowboy is looking at me like I hung the stars and moon myself, and suddenly I don’t want to be anywhere else. I want this. I want him. Not just until we get home. Not just while we’re on the road. Not just sex. I want every aggravating, complicated piece of him for as long as he’ll let me have him.

Son of a bitch!

I’m in love with Chace Walker.

Chapter thirty

Chace

The sun is just barely peeking above the horizon, but I can only focus on the sound of our bodies slapping together as I thrust in and out of Addie. It’s not even five a.m., and I’ve already had her screaming my name twice.

I shove her leg up over the small table in the camper and drive in harder, gripping her hair in my fist, hand now cupped on her breast as I relentlessly pound into her from behind. She’s breathless, gone limp in my arms as I drive into her just like she begged me for thirty minutes ago. The wet slapping of our thrusts rings in my ears, just encouraging me more.

I think she says my name, but I’m too far gone to comprehend reality. She clenches around me, her release sliding down between us, but I still don’t relent. I just pull her hair back harder, and lose control pounding into her over and over until that familiar tingle runs down my spine, through my hips and straight out my cock, and I spill into her for what feels like an eternity.

“Oh… my… God,” she whispers, almost incoherent.

“I told you I could go again.” I laugh breathlessly against her ear as I pull her closer, planting a kiss on her neck.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to ride today.” She laughs weakly. “I can’t even hold myself up.”

“Lucky for you, I can.” I tighten my arms around her and lift her off her feet, carrying her toward the bunk. I plant a kiss on her beautiful lips before lifting her onto the bed. “Now you’ll think of me every time you’re bouncing around those barrels.”

“You’re insufferable,” she teases, pulling the blankets around herself.

I probably should’ve let her get more sleep last night. Hell, I know I should have. She has an important run today, and instead I kept reaching for her every time she started to drift off. Kept kissing her until kissing turned into touching, and touching turned into me finding another excuse to be inside her. I just couldn’t make myself stop.

We’re packing up today and heading back to Ashford Ridge as soon as she finishes her run, since we’re only a few hours from home anyway. After weeks of falling asleep beside her every night, waking up with her tangled around me, and having her within arm’s reach whenever I damn well want her, the thought that last night might have been the final one leaves a pit in my stomach.

This has long since moved past just sex, and we both damn well know it. The other night, when we returned the bulls to Cole, that proved it. When I told her I didn’t care what Eli thought, I meant it. I really don’t give a fuck. But that doesn’t mean I know what the hell we’re supposed to do next. We can’t exactly waltz in there holding hands and announce to the world that we’re a thing now. I need to figure out how to tell Eli myself. In my own way, on my terms, when the moment is right. That moment is definitely not at his engagement party.

So we decided to play it cool until we figure out what comes next. We still haven’t put an official label on anything, not that I’m sure we even need one at this point. I told her she was mine, and she didn’t hit me, so I’m taking that as an encouraging sign.

The party is tomorrow afternoon. Tonight, the plan is for me to spend the evening with Eli and a few other guys we hang out with around town. Hazel, Addie, Shae, and a few other girls will be decorating for the party and doing whatever other pillow party shit girls do when they hang out.

So, one thing is certain. Tonight will be the first night I won't sleep next to Addie Dawson in almost a month. It was that thought that kept me reaching for her all night. I bend down and pull on my sweatpants, then lean over and whisper in her ear, “Coffee?”

“Mmm,” she mutters, already drifting back to sleep.

“Okay,” I laugh. “Get some rest. I’ll take care of Dusty and wake you up in a couple of hours.”

She mumbles something in response that I don’t understand, but she clearly agrees. I step out of the camper and rub a hand over my face, already running through everything we need to get done to break down camp today, when someone clears their throat behind me.

I turn around and freeze. Shae is standing a few feet away with two large coffees in her hands, staring at me. Her eyes flick from my bare chest to the camper door behind me, then back to my face as one eyebrow slowly climbs upward. “I fucking knew it!” she squeals, way too enthusiastic for this early in the morning. “I knew you two were going to hook up.”

Fuck me. Just what I needed. There’s really no point in denying it. I’m stepping out of Addie’s camper before sunrise wearing nothing but a loose pair of sweatpants. Even I can admit how obvious this looks. I sigh in resignation. “Shut up, Shae. She’s still sleeping.” I gesture back toward the camper.

“This is going to be so fucking epic.” She moves closer and hands me one of the coffees, still grinning like she just won the lottery. “But you are so dead. Eli is going to kill you.”

And that’s exactly why I need her to keep her mouth shut. She’s Hazel’s best friend, which means anything she knows could make its way back to Eli. I need her to keep this to herself until I figure out what the hell to do next.

“Eli doesn’t need to know, right, Shae?” I smile at her. “What happens on the road stays on the road. How’s Ryder doing, by the way?” That should get her. I seriously doubt she told Hazel about her little road-trip tryst, because last I knew, Hazel was trying to set her up with some banker she knows from Billings.

A mischievous grin spreads across her face, and for one terrifying second, I’m pretty sure she’s going to make me beg. Instead, she drags her fingers across her lips like she’s zipping them shut, then tosses away an imaginary key. “I see you, Walker. Your secret is safe with me.” She smiles at me. “Now tell me all about it!”

Eli finding out has been sitting in the back of my mind for weeks, but somehow being this close to going home makes it feel a hell of a lot more real. He trusted me to take care of his little sister, not spend the better part of a month fucking her every chance I got. And that’s not even the part making my stomach turn anymore.