Hitched(12)

Her fingers are hooking into my belt loops.

Her lips are parting.

The roots of my hair are tingling like I’m inches from a live electrical wire, but all I want to do is get closer. If I’m going to short out, kissing this woman is a hell of a way to go.

The sun beats down on us as she scrapes her teeth over my lower lip and presses her hips into my rapidly hardening cock, which isn’t behaving itself like I told it to.

Of course it’s not behaving.

Hope St. Claire is the sexiest woman I’ve ever known in my life.

Much as I’ve tried to deny it the last four years, it’s true. She’s all passion and heart and I’m a sucker for both.

“Is he still watching?” she breathes against my mouth.

“Yes. Definitely.”

I angle my mouth and trace kisses from the corner of her mouth to her ear, and then down to her jaw, her skin like honey on my lips.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to get into my pants,” she murmurs through soft gasps while she hooks one leg behind mine, trapping me in yards of satin and that fluffy white netting stuff that makes her look like she’s sitting on a cloud of cotton candy.

“You’re not wearing pants,” I reply. “Problem solved. Are you wearing underwear? No, don’t tell me. Don’t ruin the fantasy.”

“Quit fantasi—oh.”

I suckle harder on her neck just below her ear, and she shifts to spread her legs and straddle my thigh.

“This—isn’t—”

“Shh. The sooner we get you that llama, the better for both of us.”

“Alpaca.”

I know it’s an alpaca, but she gets pissed when I call it a llama, and I need her to get pissed.

I need to have a reason to stop kissing her neck.

The truck metal is hot, but if I move my hands to touch her, I’m going to get arrested for public indecency.

I’ve waited four years to touch Hope again.

Hell if I’ll be able to stop myself from touching all of her.

Her breasts.

Her hips.

Her pussy.

“He’s driving away,” she gasps.

The purr of an expensive car engine fading away confirms that we don’t have to keep kissing.

But she’s not blowing up circuits or griping at me for baiting her or tempting me by smiling so brightly at one of her rescue dogs that I want to throw her over my shoulder, march her to the barn, and kiss her until she admits she still has feelings for me.

But I am kissing her.

And maybe if I keep it up, she’ll see she’s been wrong, that she never should have walked out on me that steamy morning in Vegas.

“Blake. Stop.” She pushes at my shoulders, and I pull back. “We’re not doing this,” she adds in a shaky voice.

I lift a brow. “Being married?”

Her gaze darts to the attorney’s office. “Meet me at my place at seven. I need to get home and make sure all the chores are done around the sanctuary. And you need—something, probably.”

A cold shower?

Yes.

I have a dozen things on my to-do list, but first, a cold shower.





Six





Hope





* * *



I’m mucking the goat stalls when I hear a familiar voice.

“Hello? Hope? Are you in there, lovely?”

“Olivia! Come in!” I set the shovel against the rough wooden wall and turn to wave at my favorite California girl. The willowy blonde has a little bundle of joy tucked into a sling on the front of her chest and is beaming in the way only Olivia can, with sunshine radiating out her pores and her presence bringing peace to all humble peasants like me.

And she’s not alone. “Cassie!”

The shorter brunette smiles at me as well, and I go momentarily speechless as the reality of my situation sets in.

These two are married to Blake’s brothers, which means…

We’re sisters for real now. At least for a little while.

“Is it true?” Cassie bounces on her toes, making her glasses slip. She pushes them back up her nose with a giddy grin. “Did you and Blake really elope this morning at the courthouse?”

The gossip took longer than it probably should have to reach them, which I’m guessing means Blake didn’t call his family to tell them the bad news—I mean, happy news as soon as we left Mr. Ashford’s office.

“I—we—yeah,” I say awkwardly, biting my bottom lip. I should have thought of how to handle this, but I haven’t. Before running into Kyle at the lawyer’s office, I would have just told both of my besties the truth, but now…

Cassie and Olivia both squeal, and suddenly I’m enveloped in a girlfriend hug.

Tears sting my eyes, both because these two have become so dear to me over the past year, and also because I know they’re going to hate me when Blake and I break up in a few months.

“You should’ve called us,” Cassie says.

“Your auras are so compatible, even when you fight,” Olivia adds with a happy sigh. “Sometimes fighting is the best foreplay, don’t you think? I’m going to pick a fight with Jace when I get home in your honor.”