Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

“That doesn’t mean that he can’t go out for drinks with me later, though.” She batted her eyes at me. “You’d like to do that, wouldn’t you, sugar?”

Codie snorted.

“He’s mine then, too,” she lied. “He can’t stay up late because he’s taking me to go eat breakfast with Santa tomorrow. Then we’re going to feed longhorns and turkeys.”

I blinked, as did Manda.

“You’re… what?” she asked.

“He’s taking me to eat with Santa,” she repeated. “But today, we have things to do and we can’t do them on time if you don’t let us get our workout in. Colt’s gonna be pissed if we’re late. Sorry.”

Then Codie was tugging me away from Manda and toward Colt, who’d signed up to help the new gym-goers figure out how to plan out their workouts and how to operate the equipment.

It was a new thing for Colt to help, and honestly, if I was going to choose anybody, it sure the fuck wasn’t him.

However, Colt had been put on the spot, and since he was back from the shack out in the back forty acres of my land, I surmised that he was seeking something to keep his mind occupied.

“Thanks,” I muttered to her when she let my hand go like it was on fire. “Manda’s… Manda.”

Codie snickered as she looked over at me with a grin on her face. “Manda is Manda is an apt description.”

And really it was.

Manda was the prom queen in high school. Manda was also the class slut, as well as the girl who got pregnant and wasn’t sure who the father was. Manda had an abortion after that and then went on to become a stripper.

She was actually a highly sought-after person at this point, and there wasn’t a day that went by now that I lived here that I didn’t hear Manda’s name mentioned at least once.

See, Manda was also the mayor of Tyler’s daughter. The mayor who, despite his dislike of her job, loved Manda anyway.

Surprisingly, Manda didn’t get any bad flack—at least not that could be tracked back to one particular person.

“Saw you almost got handled in the doorway,” Colt muttered, not bothering to look over at me when we walked up.

“Fuckin’ Manda,” Callum growled. “I don’t even understand why she’s here. I mean, there’s not a single stripper pole for her to work on.”

Desi choked on her water.

Callum grinned widely at her, happy with himself and the reaction he got out of her.

Codie stayed quiet as she bent over to stretch her legs.

She was quite flexible and managed to touch her toes without so much as a grimace. She made flexibility look effortless.

I tried not to make it look like I was watching, but eventually I just gave up and outright stared.

She’d moved from going straight down to spreading her legs in a V and bending to one side, her nose touching her knee.

She moved to the other side for a count of ten, and then Colt elbowed me in the ribs.

“What?” I asked.

“Are you going to stretch?” he questioned.

I shrugged. “I hadn’t planned on it.”

I never stretched. Though I saw the point and realized that it was better for me, I just never did.

Callum rolled his eyes at Colt. “Did you honestly expect him to?”

Codie came up from her stretch and glanced at me. “You don’t stretch?”

I grunted out a ‘negative’ sound.

“I don’t see the point,” I admitted. “I came from riding bareback on a bronco. My muscles are loose as fuck.”Chapter 9You can have him.

-Jolene

Codie

I told myself not to look at him. I also told myself that today I wouldn’t be as affected by him as I’d seemed to be in the past.

I’d pumped myself up, told myself that he wasn’t as good looking as I was making him out to be.

Then he walked in wearing those sweatpants.

This time, they were a pair of Under Armour sweatpants.

They had the big UA on the side of them, up near his thigh. The sweatpants were the usual gray color, and the UA logo was a bright red.

Only, the bottom of the A came down to a point, right above where the head of his cock lay vividly behind his pants.

Swear to God, there was no way in hell the man was wearing any underwear.

If he was, I wouldn’t be able to see the shape of his cock so easily… right?

I mean, his brother was standing right next to him in his sweatpants, and yes, I could see the faint outline of his cock as well—and damn, the Valentine men weren’t slouches in the cock department—but I couldn’t make out the ridge and veins like I could on Ace’s penis.

Desi elbowed me, and I looked guiltily at her.

“What?” I swallowed hard.

“They’re asking if we’re ready to start,” she said softly.

I swallowed hard.

“Yeah,” I said, looking around at all the men who had once been surrounding us talking. Now they were dispersed around the room on various machines. Ace was loading large weight plates onto a bar that I assumed he was about to squat.