Jeremiah (Stud Ranch 5)

Jeremiah’s face was blank.

“At least you’ll finally be rid of me, right?” I tried to joke.

“Don’t you think your best friend deserves the truth? Especially since she sent the wedding gig your way. I thought the whole reason was so you could put down money for a house around here.”

“I’m still gonna use the money for a down payment on a house. Just… not around here.”

Jeremiah blew out a breath. “That’s cold.”

I blinked, cut by his judgement. “That’s not fair. She’s got her whole life ahead of her here. And I’ve got—” I threw my hands up in the air. “Nothing! Just memories. Not a future. Charlie would want the best for me. Sorry if that’s too much for your pea brain to comprehend.” I crossed my arms over my chest, the cards forgotten on the bench between us.

“Oh, my pea brain gets it well enough. I understand loyalty and family.”

“Yeah, well,” I cut my eyes toward his judgmental face, “all my family’s dead.”

He wasn’t moved. “It’s not just the people you’re born to. Charlie’s your family.”

“It’s not like I’m cutting her off. Why do you always have to be such an asshole? I’ll come visit her every chance I get. People change and move apart. Just because you suffocate your brother and don’t know how to let him have a life of his own doesn’t mean that’s how everybody does it.”

I glared out my window, head turned away from him. If it wasn’t pouring cats and dogs outside, I would’ve shoved out of the truck. Anything to get away from this asshole and his judgmental, asinine—

I waved a hand to fan myself. God, it was getting stuffy in here. I turned back toward Jeremiah, but only so I could reach across him and turn the key to the ignition.

“What are you doing?” he asked, sounding aggravated.

I glared at him. “Turning on the truck, duh. It’s a thousand degrees in here and humid as hell. I need the A/C.”

He put his hand on mine to stop me. “We don’t have that much gas. You’ll just have to suffer in silence, Princess.”

To which I leaned over even further to look at his gas gauge. It was teetering at a little under a fourth of a tank. “Oh, that’s rich,” I said, withdrawing my hand. “So what was all that bullshit about never letting your tank get near a fourth because of the sediment, huh?”

He glared at me, his jaw tense. “If I hadn’t been driving your ass around town all day long, I would’ve stopped to fill up.”

“Yeah, right.” I patted his thigh. “Or you love to be Mr. Know-It-All when really, you’re just as human as the rest of us. Face it.”

Again his hand came down toward mine, but instead of swatting it away, his big man paw clasped around my wrist. “Don’t test me, little girl.”

I could feel my pulse pounding underneath his grip.

I all but bared my teeth at him as I leaned into his space. “I’ll test you if I want to. Maybe that’s your problem. You don’t have enough people in your life who dare talk back to you.”

The space in the cab seemed to steam up even hotter, the windows all fogging as his eyes went dark. “I know one way to shut you up.”

I smirked at him, feeling electricity race down my body. “I’d love to see you try.”

And then he wrenched me forward into his lap and our lips smashed together.

4

Jeremiah

I was kissing Ruth. I hated Ruth. Ruth hated me.

But she was kissing me and tugging at the buttons on my worn denim shirt as if for once in our lives, we were on the exact same page.

And dammit, we were.

I grabbed her plump ass and dragged her all the way on top of me. The erection that had suddenly sprung up hard as iron was happy, so happy, to feel all of her soft, womanly heat against it.

Fuck, she felt good.

And these damn shorts she had on. I could reach right up them and there—oh fuck, there was her skin. Her ass. I squeezed it in my hands and gloried in how it felt. After all these goddamn months of watching her strut it in front of me.

Then she started sucking on my neck and fuck—

I yanked back from her and took her lips again cause if she kept sucking my neck like that, I was gonna embarrass myself and come before I meant to.

And now that this was finally fucking happening, no way was it gonna slip away from me.

After she had enough buttons undone on my shirt, I pulled it off over my head. It wasn’t easy since it was still wet, and it near got stuck on my shoulders. But Ruth, for once in her life, was helpful instead of just laughing and nit-picking. She helped yank it off the rest of the way.