Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“How long has this property been in your family?”
After pressing her index finger to her lips, wordlessly requesting for me to lower my voice, she answers with a whisper, “For centuries. It is one of the biggest ranches in the country.” Nothing but pride is heard in her hushed voice. “Do you want something to eat before going to bed?”
Stealing my chance to reply it is barely nine, she tiptoes to a large industrial refrigerator in the middle of a massive kitchen to pull out a loaf of bread, lettuce, bacon, and two tomatoes.
“Your family must be true farmers.” When she peers at me with a crinkled brow, I nudge my head at the bacon she spread across a skillet before placing it on the gas stovetop. “No man I know sleeps through the smell of bacon cooking.”
“It’s a daily occurrence here. They’d probably froth out of the mouth if you turned up with Chipotle.” I grimace, which makes McKayla laugh. “Exactly.” After moving to an eight-burner toaster on the counter in the corner of the kitchen, she asks, “One BLT or two?” When I hold my index finger in the air, she asks, “Are you sure? You’ll need the energy.” I don’t know what flares in my eyes, but it makes her cheeks gleam for the hundredth time today. “For the harvest. Breakfast won’t be served until the first crop is harvested.”
“Then I guess I better have two.” After flipping over the bacon crackling and hissing as loudly as my stomach, I ask, “Did you tell your parents I was coming?” It is my turn to glare this time around when McKayla acts ignorant. “Why didn’t you tell them?”
“Because they would have stayed up to meet you.” She spins the top of the bread bag and knots it before tossing it into the bread bin. “And I didn’t want to share.”
She socks me in the stomach when I say, “So you are from that part of the South? I didn’t realize we traveled so far down.”
“I meant this.” She waves her hand between us cooking either a late supper or an early breakfast. “We’re usually with your frat brothers, teammates, or—”
“Being kicked out of the library because you don’t know how to laugh quietly.”
“I do so.”
When she shouts her reply, I grip her shirt, drag her until she is mere inches in front of me, then push my finger to her lips. “Inside voice, Einstein.” One touch of her mouth and the tension that’s been eating us alive the past two weeks returns stronger than ever. “How many guns?”
“Huh?” McKayla murmurs, her smarts blinded by lust.
As my eyes bounce between hers, I ask, “How many guns does your father own? Real guns, not those air rifle ones that will bruise my ass but keep it in one piece.”
Her lips raise against my finger. “A few. Why? Are you worried about another slaughter, probie?”
“Yep,” I admit, nodding. “But not enough not to do this.”
I kiss her.
Not a peck.
Not a sloppy cheek kiss.
I kiss her as I’ve been dying to do since she spun around and faced me in the drama quadrant four weeks ago.
And she kisses me back.
It is an embrace that fades the world away and hardens my cock to the point it is painful. I kiss her with everything I have, uncaring that my impatience will burn the bacon.
Regretfully, a house of farmers can’t sleep through a smoke alarm.
As McKayla pushes back with wide eyes, a man with arms bigger than tree trunks and boxer shorts double the width of mine races into the kitchen with a fire extinguisher in his hand and a snarl his thick mustache can’t hide.
“Sweet mercy, McKayla. What the hell were you doing to let bacon burn?” His accent is thick and full of annoyance. “It was only smoked last week. If you wanted it extra dead, you should have asked Pa to put an extra bullet in it.”
I’ve never once felt small in my life—until now.
The man ruining the salty strips of goodness with foamy white spray would have to be at least seven feet tall. And he is almost as wide as he is tall.
“I got distracted—”
“Distracted while making food? No such thing.” He snaps his eyes to mine. “So who the heck are you, and what did you do with my baby sister?” When McKayla’s brother spots my frozen stance, he slants his ginormous head to the side before hiking a brow. “Oh, darn it, we seem to have gotten ourselves a roach.” He shifts his eyes back to McKayla. “Should we squish it or leave it for Pa to take care of?”
“Roddy, play nice.” After squeezing my hand to assure me she can handle bigfoot, McKayla moseys to his half of the kitchen. “And if you tell Pa I burned his bacon, I’ll tell him about the time you dated a vegetarian from Kansas.”