He sifts his fingers through his hair, just staring at me. I squeeze his thigh and he winces. “Sore?’
He nods. “Training has me busted up.”
Between his legs, after getting each other off, we sit andtalk, and I massage and knead his overworked and sore muscles until it’s time to get up and start the day.
Before I leave his room, he holds me by the jaw and takes my lips in a kiss, then quietly says, “Thank you for this morning.”
I grab his soft cock through his pajamas. “When I want you again, I’ll have you.”
He likes that, the comment earning me a smile. And the rest of the day of filming and helping around the ranch is perfect, because of how it started, and who I spend it with.
CHAPTER 17
HURT CHICKENS HURT CHICKENS
I stareout the windshield at the glob of bird shit. I need to wash the truck. Looking around the inside, it’s not too clean either. A couple of tokens at the car wash and I could have this truck a lot cleaner.
I dig the to-do list out of my pocket and reread it. After this stop, I gotta go by Elena’s office and get the next round of meds for Big Bertha, and another treatment for Daisy, though it pains me to admit I think there’s more going on with her.
Scratching at the side of my jaw, I watch Chuck, a former bull rider, saunter from the hardware store, a plastic bag dangling from his hand.
“Okay,” Quinn says decidedly. “I’m ready.”
She’s been workin’ up the courage for our first public appearance as a married couple. Though we got hitched atthe courthouse last week, the paper just ran our announcement, and we’ve been layin’ low at the ranch. I’ve been training nonstop, and Tate’s been working the ranch with Love to allow for me to train. That means this exciting day of errands to the hardware store, Dr. Vargas’s and the Feed ’n’ Seed is our first time being out in Sable Sky together.
I’ve thought about Amelia recently. What she’d think of this little situation I’m in. She’d hate her parents for doing it to me, but I know she’d be proud to have Quinn be the stand-in wife to get me out of this pickle. The way Quinn is with Sadie is so special, it’s got me thinking about the future and whatcouldbe on the horizon.
I look over at Quinn and remind myself that she isn’t really my wife, though the more she uses me like a sex toy (no complaints), I realize, untangling ourselves at the end of this ain’t gonna be pretty. Maybe young people can turn their feelings off and Quinn’s gonna be just fine when she goes. She’ll miss Sadie, that much I know, but maybe she’ll move on from me, and I’ll just be the old cowboy she banged while she was making her award-winning movie. I don’t know.
What I do know is that I am falling for her, but I can’t admit that or even let myself think too much about it, because right now, I need to stay focused on the rodeo. The win. The money to secure everything I hold dear.
“It ain’t that big of a deal, honey,” I attempt to calm her nerves, but I’m not sure it’s helping. She twists in the passenger seat, wearing her little overalls and white tank top today, lookin’ like a hard-on in the flesh.
“It is a big deal, Landry! I’m already the new, weird, hot girl in Sable Sky, and now I’m married to the town’s most eligible bachelor! They’re gonna hate me, or question me, and then they’ll start digging and they’ll figure out it’s a hoax andyou’ll lose everything and it will be all my fault!” she exclaims, that forehead vein making an appearance again.
I reach over to take her hand in mine, weaving our fingers together, and squeeze. “We’re gonna go inside and I’m gonna buy some wood to replace the kickboards in the stable. We’re gonna check out, and if anyone asks, I’ll say,Why yes, this is my wife, the new, weird, hot girl in town.” I take my hat off the dash, where it sits while I drive, and place it on my head, still holding her hand. “No one is gonna hate you. And I’m not this eligible bachelor that you stole from the market.”
She tsks, shaking her head. “Typical hot guy. You don’t even know the whole town wants you.”
“I’ve been single for six years, and not once have I woke to a mob of pantiless women on my porch, eager to get with brokenhearted Landry Vaughn and his run-down ranch.”
Her nerves slide away, and disappointment replaces where anxiety was. “Don’t talk about yourself that way.”
I snort. “What? Honestly?” I drape my hand over my chest. “Honey, I’m here with you right now because I’m about to lose my daughter. Now, that’s just the stark cold truth. I’m not trying to spin a sad tale. It’s just how it is.”
She looks at the blue-and-white upholstery of the seat, tracing the vinyl piping with one fingertip, the same fingertip that traced the crown of my cock the other morning. My cock stiffens just watching her touch the damn seat in my truck. Watching her go at the end of this may kill me.
I shake my head and give our joined hands a little tug. “C’mon. I need to get that wood so we can get to Elena’s before she gets busy.” I peer out at the hardware shop, then back at Quinn. “How’s that? Now I got you all sad instead of nervous.”
She laughs, but it falls away quickly. “Okay, I’m ready.”
No one in the hardware store seemed to notice we existed, so the big moment of announcing herself as my wife never happened. Quinn bounces her leg next to me as we sit on a tiny vinyl bench in the veterinarian office, waiting for Elena.
She’s always making me feel better, with the way she talks to Sadie, or surprising me with a hot meal, or sneakin’ into my room to suck my dick. Jesus, I can’t believe that really happened. Either way, as her fake husband, I’ve taken it upon myself to make Quinn feel better. To return some of the favor. Right now, she’s nervous, and while I don’t think for one second she ought to be, still, I know I can’t say that. Women do not like when you tell them not to feel what they’re feelin’, that much I remember. Instead, I choose to take her mind off it.
I bump my knee into her thigh and almost chuckle looking at our legs together. This woman is half my size. I could toss her over my shoulder like a sack of feed and not even feel it. “Hey,” I whisper, because office lobbies make me whisper, even though it’s not really necessary here.
“Hmm?” she bumps her knee into my thigh in return.
