Frankie recovered first. He strolled over, still shirtless and so damn hot he made my mouth water. It was nice to be able to ogle him without worrying that I was going to ruin what we have by making an unwelcome move on my best friend. Still, I frowned down at his sweats. “Aren’t you coming?”
He grinned, “Oh, Querida, I will be coming alright, but seeing you like that,” he bit his bottom lip and I almost moaned out loud. “It doesn’t help my little problem,” he purred, looking down at the front of his sweats and his very obvious erection. If it had deflated even a little, it had shot right back up again.
Frankie leaned forward and kissed me, and I had an inkling he was branding me as his. As his lips seared mine, I didn’t even care. When his tongue slipped past my lips, someone behind us groaned and I pulled away.
Dylan was grinning wide. “Damn, that’s actually kinda hot. Maybe I can get down with this whole sharing thing.”
Beau rolled his eyes, but Branch still looked intense. He didn’t seem like the sharing’s caring type. I stepped away, trailing my fingers down Frankie’s abs, just because I could. Then I turned and smiled at the three remaining guys in my hotel room.
“So, where are we going?”
10
The music in the divey little western bar was all old country. The kind where they lamented how they got their heart broke, and that their woman took their old bluetick coonhound, Boss. The floors were sticky and the smell of cigarettes had permeated the wood paneling. There was a small dance floor and a mechanical bull.
In short, I kinda loved it.
As Dylan and Branch walked in ahead of us, Beau wrapped his arm around my waist and nuzzled my cheek.
“You look beautiful tonight, Nugget.”
I was glad the low lights hid the flush of my cheeks. “You ever gonna stop calling me Nugget?” I asked, arching a brow.
He shook his head and kissed the corner of my mouth. When he pulled back, he gave me a lopsided grin. “Probably not. To me, you’ll always be Nugget. The girl who stole her daddy’s ATV and got it stuck in a watering hole. The girl who got bucked off her horse, got up, dusted herself off and called that ornery old nag ‘the son of a glue-stickin’ whore.’ For the life of me, I still have no idea where you came up with that, but it makes me laugh every time I think about it.” He stopped, looking down at me like I was the only person in the room, and it was a heady damn feeling. “To me, you’ll always be Nugget, who looked up at me with those pretty blue eyes and said ‘Beau Larkin, I want you to be my first kiss and I don’t care what Branch says about it.’ Then you puckered up and I was helpless to resist. I had to kiss you.”
It could have been pitch black, and you still would have been able to see the color in my cheeks right now. I chewed my lower lip until Beau lifted his hand to cup my cheek. His calloused thumb reached over to pull down on my lip, dragging the abused skin to safety. “You keep doin’ that, Nugget, and I’m going to be helpless to resist again.”
He looked over my shoulder as a hard body stopped behind me. I knew who it was before I even turned around. His scent was ingrained in my psyche, I was sure of it. “We got a booth, Beau. So you don’t have to eye-fuck Nugget out here in public like she’s a two dollar hooker.”
My mouth dropped open. “Were you dropped on your head as a baby, Branch Watson? ‘Cause I know your mama raised you with the same manners as she raised me.” For reasons that were only known to Branch and the weird way his brain worked, me yelling at him made him grin, his dimples begging for me to poke the tip of my tongue in them. Those fucking dimples had been teasing me for decades. I swear, if I could date his dimples and not the actual man, I would die a happy woman.
He reached out and grabbed my hand, tugging me toward the back of the bar. The feel of his hand in mine had my heart racing, but the gesture, on anyone else, would be innocent. But nothing about Branch was innocent.
Dylan was holding our booth, a waitress flirting up a storm with him already. Jesus. He was like catnip for buckle bunnies. Some kind of jealous demon possessed me, because I slid past the waitress, who was leaning on the table with an awful lot of boob spillage. I gave her an innocent, friendly smile before I crawled across the booth bench seat and into Dylan’s lap. I grabbed his chin and dragged his face down for a kiss that was equal parts possession and red-hot lust. Dylan, bless his horny dude heart, didn’t even hesitate to kiss me back. His tongue plundered my mouth like it had been there once and couldn’t wait to take up permanent residence. His hands slid down my side, sliding over to grip my ass in his hands with a moan. “I’ve missed this ass so bad. I have dreams about it. About biting it hard enough to mark it, before I dive between your thighs and eat your pussy like a starving man,” he murmured against my lips, and I groaned.
Someone cleared their throat, and I looked over to see Beau grinning. “The waitress is gone, and I think Branch is exactly eight seconds from throwing you down on this table and claiming you like a caveman, Nugget. I had to send him to get drinks before he beat the shit out of Dylan.”
I looked incredulous, but that reminded me of something. I stared hard at Beau’s face, and there, when the strobe light hit him right, I could still see the faint hint of a black eye.
“Jesus, Frankie wasn't exaggerating. Branch did nail you one for sleeping with me.”
Dylan’s hand, which had been stroking my thigh, stilled. “Hang on, what? You slept with Beau?”
My gaze ping-ponged between the two men in the booth. “Wait, you didn't know? They didn’t tell you before you went into this weird agreement?”
Beau shrugged. “I don’t kiss and tell, darlin’.”
Well, this was fucking awkward. “Uh, yeah. Last week. It's kinda what instigated… whatever this is. Not sure I agree with it yet. I don’t date bull riders. You don’t crap where you eat, that's what my daddy always said.”
Beau gave me a sad smile. “He certainly did. You know what he used to say to me?”
I shook my head. “He said, ‘You hurt my little girl, Beau Boy, I will break your nose. Break her heart, and I’ll break your legs.”
I gaped. “He did not!”
Beau was grinning. “He did too. Scared the ever loving shit out of me. I was like thirteen that year, and I guess I noticed you were more than just another kid to play with. You were a girl. When you asked me to kiss you that day, I was half-petrified your dad would jump out of the bushes and break my kneecaps.”
I laughed, because my daddy was like that. Gruff. But I knew for a fact he loved Branch and Beau like the sons he’d never had.
Dylan’s hand had started stroking again, and I looked up at him. “Does it weird you out that I slept with Beau? Because it's not too late to back out. I don’t expect anything from you and we can go back to being friends and co-workers. No obligation.”
Dylan frowned, but shook his head. “Nah. I told you Tessa, you weren’t just a one night stand to me. If I have to deal with the fact that you slept with the pretty boy, so be it. As long as I get another opportunity to taste you again soon,” he whispered the last part, and my eyes hooded. I hadn’t been able to look at the back seat of my truck for a month without having vivid flashbacks of Dylan there, grinding beneath my body.