Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 20145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 101(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 101(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
She’s also forward as hell and I kind of like that.
Danny would have my head, though. Guy can turn vicious when people look at his little sister wrong. He promised his parents he’d look after her when she joined him on the rodeo circuit, and he took that promise to heart.
But I don’t think she’s ever looked at anyone besides me.
I’d never do anything to hurt June. Unfortunately, Danny doesn’t seem to get that. He gives me angry looks sometimes when I talk to his sister. It’s kind of sad, like he doesn’t trust me even though we’ve been best friends for ten years now.
It’s getting harder to avoid that conflict now that June is nineteen years old and has every right to be her own woman. Of course, almost every freshly stamped adult deals with that period where your guardians don’t want to stop guarding you, to your annoyance.
Dad and I had a brief clash about it, just like he did with most of my brothers, but I guess we’re blessed that he has faith in us not to do anything stupid.
I mean, getting on angry bulls and trying to ride them is stupid as hell. No doubt about that. But it’s a Burly thing, and I think Dad understands why I have to do it.
June sighs, looking around the room. “Can I ask you for some help? I usually bug Danny, but he’s off getting his hot dog and I kind of want to get this done before gravity starts pulling the zipper in the other direction.”
“Zipper?”
She turns around, reaching for a zipper on the back of her dress. She’s in a frilly dress that wouldn’t look out of place on a square dancing floor. It shows off a lot of her curves, and, well, I always have a hard time not staring at them. The dress combined with a hat, a pair of boots, and a denim jacket is her usual outfit when hitting the dirt with her trusty steed, Fillia.
“Can’t get this up. I think my tits have grown another cup size when I wasn’t looking, the wonderful, accursed things.”
I laugh.
“Zip me up, Jennings. It’ll stay fastened once it’s up all the way.”
I’m too much of a gentleman to deny her, my hand sliding up her back. God, she feels just right. So soft through the fabric. My imagination runs wild imagining being able to touch her, to feel her. To enjoy her without any clothes between us. I urge the zipper up to the top, hitting its little protective latch.
“Thank you kindly, sir,” she says, fluttering her eyelashes at me. “Maybe sometime soon I’ll let you help me take it off.”
“I think I’d like that, June.”
God, she’s giving me a boner just by looking at me.
This isn’t out of nowhere. Hardly. I’ve been Danny’s friend for ten years, and I’ve watched June grow from Junebug into a real woman. For the longest time, our age difference made acting on any feelings we may have shared wrong, but someone should have told her that.
June has always been a motivated girl. Always knew what she wanted. Two years’ difference was never enough to stop her, and ever since she turned eighteen it really shouldn’t have stopped me either.
But there’s the whole Danny thing. Her big brother is a man I respect, even if I never let him know it. And at the same time? I also respect June as a woman. She should be the one to make her own decisions.
And her decision really seems to be me.
We’re still close. She doesn’t create any distance after I finish zipping her up. She’s inches away from my face. It’s invoking those quiet fantasies I had, of our little flirtations becoming so much more than they are.
And she wants it too. She’s wanted it forever.
I think we've been teasing this tension between us for a while now. Especially since June joined us on the rodeo circuit. Always seeing her smile, all dressed up, cute as a button. And knowing that she wants me?
There’s only so much a man can take.
I think instinct gets the better of me.
I kiss her.
It’s not a conscious decision. It’s just something that happens. My lips go for hers, and it’s an oh-so-sudden peck.
And it’s not one she withdraws from. She leans into it. She throws herself into me, and I can’t help but embrace her back.
I’ve crossed a line here.
And I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to step back from it.
2
JUNE
Did I just do what I think I just did?
Because it feels like I did.
Jennings Rowdy was the first crush I had on a boy. When the hormones of puberty hit me and started suggesting that maybe boys were more than a nuisance who tried to put worms in my hair, my mind fixated on him.