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He tipped his head forward, remarking casually, "Right back here."
She swallowed. "In the pasture?"
"Cattle's been moved to the North farm. There's nothing back here to worry about."
She wasn't exactly worried about the cattle. She worked her lip between her teeth as she looked around. He was driving extremely slowly now, down a trail that was barely wide enough to get a four-wheeler through, let alone a regular-sized pickup truck. A couple of mesquite branches hit the window as she sucked in a breath, agitation and excitement screaming down her spine.
The trees seemed to swallow up the vehicle. Ethan cut the lights, and abruptly Ava couldn't make out anything farther than about two feet in front of them. But Ethan seemed to know exactly where he was going, and after making another curve, he braked and put the truck into park.
She could make out a narrow clearing and a vague impression of something that wasn't a tree out of her window. "What's that?" she asked, pointing, trying to make small talk, as if she didn't completely grasp his purpose for bringing her here—when she had more than a pretty good guess.
"Number three," he replied succinctly as if that were explanation enough.
"Number three?" she repeated, now truly at a loss. She'd thought it was a small barn or something.
"Number three bow stand. For hunting, you know?"
Hunting, yeah, okay. "Y'all have three stands to shoot from?" she asked, attempting to keep a conversation going.
"Eight," he replied curtly as he cut the ignition and turned to her.
Damn, the dude was talkative. Take a deep breath, Ava. "So, you hunt a lot? Or just your dad?"
At her question, he nodded swiftly but seemed uninterested in the conversation. Lifting the console between them, he pushed it up and out of the way, revealing a hidden, third seat. Unclipping his seatbelt, he moved over until he sat in the middle of the truck. With precise, economical movements, he bent over and unsnapped her seatbelt as well. Two seconds later, she felt roughened fingers close around her right wrist as he began tugging. Her butt came off the seat and as he continued to pull, her torso twisted as her chest landed against his, her legs straddling him intimately, as had been his intention.
Her heart slammed against her breastbone at both the suddenness of the move and the position he put her in. "Ethan—"
One arm enclosed her waist as a hand sank into her hair. "Yeah?" he mumbled so deeply that her stomach spiraled into waves of heat, but he never gave her time to answer. His lips closed over hers and Ava's brain short-circuited as she closed her eyes and gave herself up to his kiss.
His lips were firm, hard, and even rough, like he was outside in the elements a lot, and at the feel of the masculine touch against her softer skin, her mind exploded with a hot rush of pleasure.
He nipped at her once, twice, and then his tongue plunged inside. A flare of white light erupted inside of her, slid down her spine, and coalesced into a thousand pinpricks of heat between her thighs.
Her brain busted a fuse—Ethan Jackson. God. She was out in the woods in the middle of nowhere inside the cab of Ethan Jackson's truck. Delight sent a wicked shimmy of heat through her veins as she gave over completely to his kiss.
His hand held her hair tightly as he began kissing her as if he couldn't get enough. Yes. She struggled for air and knew she felt exactly the same. Her breathing hitched at the same time that she felt him turn his head and suck in oxygen. His fingers tightened, his arm pressed her torso more tightly into his, his lips found hers again and stars exploded in her brain in a dizzying whirl of lights.
She'd been kissed before—of course she had—even by him. But dear Lord, nothing like this. She'd always known it would feel like this with Ethan, she'd dreamt about it more times than she could count.
With her heart banging in her chest, she held onto his shoulders and kissed him back. A deep groan came from his chest as he tilted his head, adjusted his hands, and then went back for more, his tongue lashing hers like he'd found what he was looking for and wasn't about to stop now.
A fervor of emotions washed over her, feelings she'd never felt before, adult feelings that made her wish they were married and in a bed somewhere. God, what she wouldn't give for that to be so.
As if reading her mind, his hand slid to her breast and he found her nipple. Ava let out a small whimper, loving it but feeling like she needed more of something. She began to rub against him, her torso on his, needing friction so badly that she could hardly stand it.
Ethan groaned again as his mouth fell to her neck, his fingers continuing with the magic manipulation that was making her begin to gyrate against him. His lips trailed down her neck, to the vee of her shirt, where he tasted her skin like he was addicted. She was addicted for sure, and as she let out a tiny moan, his lips found hers again, smothering the sound, sending a chemical reaction straight from her brain to her mons.
The kiss continued, wilder than anything she'd known could exist. He explored her mouth, ran his hands up and down her spine before landing on her face and holding on tightly. Ava was in heaven, sheer heaven.
But then, he lifted his head and his words came out of nowhere. "You ever done this before?" Even as he asked the question, she felt his muscles seize up underneath her palms, almost as if he were afraid of the answer she might give.
Swallowing hard, she used her hands against his shoulders to lift herself away enough to study his expression. It was useless, a cloud had covered the moon, the night was pitch black around them and all she could see were the lines of his face. "Make out?" she asked, trying to clarify his meaning as a thick sexual fog scrambled her brain.
His thumb took another swipe of her nipple. "Yeah."
Electricity made her back arch. "I've—I've been kissed before."
"You ever been touched before?" he snapped out.
"Touched how?" She truly hadn't been, but his jealousy was showing through and it was tempting her to keep him guessing for a few more blissful seconds, even though she knew it was wrong.
He squeezed her nipple, a stroke of heaven that made her gasp. "Like that, Ava."
Suddenly, the games were over and she only wanted him to know the truth. "No, not like that."
"Yeah?" he panted. "Good. So, just kissing?"
"Yeah."
"Who?"
She felt a blush rise that thankfully, he couldn't see. "I'm not giving names."
"You'd give names if I really wanted to hear them, wouldn't you?"
When she remained mutinously silent, his hand strayed from her breast, down her back, and landed on her butt, where he grasped her with such concentrated heat that she felt the answering current between her legs. Holy shit.
Abruptly, she understood his warning about 'being careful'.
His mouth fell to her ear and his breath was a heated rush before his words penetrated her foggy brain. "Okay, I'll let it go. It was in the past. I have a past as well. But remember this—going forward, it's just you and me—that's it." He lifted his face and pinched her chin. "That's all it's ever gonna be."
That was all she'd ever want. "Okay." As she mumbled the answer, her eyes finally began to adjust to the dark and the force in his gaze almost scared her, but she refused to let it. She was ready for this. She was more than ready for this. She was sixteen years old and she finally had Ethan Jackson.
Seriously. There was nothing to worry about. She had Ethan. What more could she ask for?
Chapter Four
Fall bled into winter and Ava was content. What she had with Ethan was indescribable—totally perfect. But what made it even better was that Hannah finally had what she wanted as well, and that was Josh Turner. And because Josh and Ethan were just as close as Ethan and Ty, it made everything really fun. The four of them went places together, played pool in the garage game room that her dad had put together for them, and just basically all hung out together.
Everything was really good. Mostly.
Even though she tried to compare
notes with Hannah, Hannah seemed very secretive about her relationship with Josh. Sometimes it drove Ava crazy. She'd tell Hannah what she and Ethan were doing, because she wasn't ashamed of what they were doing, and it wasn't as if they were doing it, so why not tell Hannah?
Hannah was always ready to listen to her and she seemed to be completely interested in Ava's blooming romance with Ethan, but the girl was keeping her lips sealed about her own relationship. Seriously, her friend wouldn't offer up even the slightest bit of information. Ava was dying to talk to somebody about Ethan, but because Hannah was so closed-mouth about anything the least bit sexual, Ava finally quit trying. It clearly made Hannah uncomfortable, so what was Ava to do? Ava didn't know why, but as the months flew by, she became used to it and decided it was okay. She and Hannah were still best friends and Ava had Ethan, so how could everything not be okay?
