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Her hands were all over my shoulders, stroking my face, in my hair. I broke apart from our kiss and lazily opened my eyes.
This sight, a freshly fucked Lyric, would stay with me forever. Hooded pale-blue eyes, a messy bun that I’d mussed up more, and a nice flush to her cheeks, all faded against the way she looked at me. As if she saw me and not what she thought I should be. It was something I could get used to every day of my life.
I swallowed the hard lump that suddenly formed in my throat.
No. I wasn’t going down that road. I had too much shit going on in my life to take up with Lyric. I wanted to stay drama-free, and Lyric was a walking argument. She challenged me and everyone else in her path. I liked to witness it, but she’d also challenge everyone inmypath. And that was the issue.
I withdrew, losing the heat of her body, and hating the distance between us. But other emotions were starting to leak in around the blinding lust that had hounded me since I’d touched her.
I helped her set her feet on the floor, and she brushed her skirt down, her movements almost shy—a word I’d never associated with her before.
I was tucking myself in when I froze. My gaze dropped to my crotch and to my extremely satisfied dick that wasn’t softening as fast as it should, like it would be ready for round two if she said the word.
But blood rapidly drained from it as I realized what had happened. “Shit, Lyric, we didn’t use protection.”
I never skipped protection. I never lost my head during sex. I’d lived with a constant reminder of what happened when someone fucked around. Between my mother throwing my father’s infidelity in his face my entire life and my half brother being born and raised in the same damn town as me, I couldn’t forget.
And I never forgot. Until now.
I waited for her casual dismissal, for her to tell me that she was on some sort of birth control, but as I met her gaze, I knew I wasn’t going to hear that. Her eyes were wide, and her gaze jumped from my crotch to my face.
“I-I’m sure it’ll be fine…” She blanched and bit her bottom lip. Despite the growing concern that we’d majorly fucked up, I still wanted to be the one to bite her bottom lip, to run it through my teeth and feel her squirm under me. “I’m clean.”
Her statement took a moment to register. I finished buttoning up. “I always wear a condom.Always.”
“So do I. I mean, so does whoever I’m with.”
Blood roared between my ears again as I plastered my hands on the wall next to her. The last thing I wanted to hear about was her with other guys, which was fucking rich. I was almost thirty-five and had about twenty years of sexual history behind me.
I was about to ask her about birth control when my aunt Kira called, “Stetson?”
I jerked back. “Shit.”
“Stetson.” Kira’s voice drew closer. I couldn’t be caught hooking up with my sister’s friend at a family function on top of the other shit going on in my life. And with the way Mom’s mouth puckered like she drank lemon juice at the mention of Lyric’s name, getting caught would mess up Holden’s big day.
“I’ll go out first.” I straightened my shirt and looked around for my hat. Giving my hair a good finger-combing, I stuffed the hat on.
Lyric was looking at me like she couldn’t believe how I was acting.
“What?”
“Do we really have to hide?” Something that looked too close to hurt shone in her pale eyes. I brushed a lock of hair off her cheek, wishing I could touch her more.
“Stetson!” Kira called, her tone flat, sounding unhappy. “Krystal’s here.”
My body stiffened and I spun away. “Goddammit. What the hell!” I turned to Lyric, my gaze pleading. If I didn’t handle the Krystal situation well, she’d make a giant scene that my family wouldn’t let me forget. But I couldn’t ruin Holden and Emery’s night, not after what they’d been through. “All right. I’ll go out. Can you give me like a five- or ten-minute head start?”
If Krystal saw us together, all hell would break loose. She’d been a jealous girlfriend, and she’d been especially sensitive about Lyric. As my sister’s best friend, Lyric was on my property a lot. Isla lived with our parents, and Lyric was at their house when I was. Sometimes I had made sure to overlap her visit. Hell, maybe Krystal sensed that I wondered way too often what Lyric looked like naked.
Whatever. All I knew was that the breakup with Krystal was the longest and messiest of my life, and for some reason, she didn’t think we were through. She’d probably waited until Holden’s wedding, thinking I’d relent so she didn’t make a scene.
Lyric’s nervous gaze darted toward the entrance of the tack room. Shit, she worked with Krystal. A confrontation could be extra bad. “I’ll deal with her.”
“Stetson—”
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to deal with this.” I stuffed my hat down farther on my head and trotted out of the barn. I’d deal with Krystal, talk to Lyric about the lack of protection and how we couldn’t do this again, and then get shit-faced and try to forget everything. I just wanted one night of peace, but after being with Lyric, I wasn’t sure I’d get that.
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