“What?” I asked.
“Boots or heels, you always look so fuckin’ good,” he rumbled, his eyes eating me up.
I felt my nipples tighten and things below my belt start to tingle.
But he shook his head. “As much as I’d like to take advantage of that look on your face, I can’t. I have to help my brothers today. They need to pull some fence on the new property we just bought. They’ve been waiting for me to get home.”
I stood up and stretched my arms up high over my head.
“Let me grab my laptop and…” Banks kissed me, bringing his arms around my body and pulling me flush against him.
I wrapped my upraised arms around his neck and squeezed him tight, returning the kiss with vigor.
When he pulled away, his eyes were bright.
“What was that for?” I asked curiously.
“How attached are you to this house?” he asked.
I shrugged, wondering why he was asking.
“Not really,” I admitted. “I’m more attached to my chickens. And since my donkey seems to like your place better, I really have no problem staying at yours… if that’s what you’re asking.”
His eyes were bright as he said, “Good. Tomorrow you can stay at mine. I’ll come back with you to feed the chickens when I’m done working. Then we get to sleep in… or use the extra thirty minutes to do other, more enjoyable things.”
I understood exactly what he was talking about then and my girly parts nearly shouted with agreement.
“Ready?” he asked when he finally pulled away.
I held up a finger and went to find my purse, keys, and laptop.
He took my keys from me and tossed them on the counter.
“I’ll need those to—”
“You can take mine,” he interrupted me. “I don’t want you driving this early by yourself.”
I would’ve argued, but before I could, he bent down and practically tossed me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“Umm,” I said as I stared at his beautiful ass. “That’s not the way to win an argument.”
He chuckled. “No, but I like the outcome of where you ended up.”
To punctuate that statement, he rubbed my ass with the palm of his hand, then promptly smacked it.
I squeaked, and would’ve reciprocated, unfortunately I had my hands full.
“If we feed the chickens before we go,” I said breathlessly. “I won’t have to come back tonight.”
“What about feeding your dad?” he asked.
I cursed. “Shit. I forgot about that. And there’s chicken in there that I have to use, or it’ll go bad.”
“Then you can spend the day with me. Go home. Cook. And I’ll be by after I’m done doing what I’m doing and join you,” he rumbled, dropping me to my feet right outside my front door.
I smiled at him and headed with him to his truck once he’d locked it all up.
“What do you want me to do today?” I asked. “When I’m done?”
He held my hand all the way to the truck, then opened the door for me.
Watching me hop in, he waited until I swung my feet around into the floorboard of the truck before slamming the door closed.
I grinned when he came back around the front.
“You do know, right, that this is a newer vehicle? You don’t have to slam the door like you did your old one,” I said.
He looked over at me curiously.
“How do you know that I used to slam the door of my old one?” he asked curiously.
I felt my face flush as I remembered how many times I’d watched him from the back of some store, or the corner of some building.
Then I decided, fuck it. He needed to know that I was halfway psycho.
“I used to watch you,” I said as he reversed out of my drive. “You’d pull up at the grocery store, and I’d run behind my truck. Or you’d come down an aisle in the store, and I’d rush to the next one. But I used to watch you in those little mirrors at the top of the aisles.”
Banks’ lips tipped up. “Why do they even have those mirrors?”
That, I didn’t know.
But the grocery store all the Kilgore natives frequented had them at the end of each row. I assume so we didn’t get into any major collisions in the produce aisle.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“I used to watch you, too,” he admitted. “You’d be at the feed store, and I’d have one of the boys distract you while I loaded up your truck.”
I gasped.
“They told me that they made special accommodations for me since I was such a long-time customer!” I cried out. “All this time and it was you?”
He grinned unrepentantly. “How do you think you would’ve reacted if you’d heard it was me loading your bags of feed and not one of the boys?”
I snapped my mouth shut.
I wouldn’t have handled it very well.