Without You (Love Wanted in Texas 1)

Nodding my head, I agreed. “We still throwing the field party tomorrow night?”

He looked over at me and gave me a funny face. “What the hell is wrong with you? Hell yes, we are still throwing it, and I plan on getting drunk off my ass.”

I let out a gruff laugh. “Why?”

“I just need to forget shit for a bit.”

“Dude, that doesn’t help.”

His eyes grew sad, and he smiled weakly. “It will for a little bit.”

I watched as Libby talked to Lauren, Lex, and Grace. I was so glad my sister was coming to A&M with me. Jason had been hanging around a little too close to Libby all night, and my patience was running thin with him. He had asked Libby to dance twice, and she’d turned him down both times.

I glanced over to Colt while he was dancing with Rachel. The bastard looked miserable. When my eyes caught Mike, I balled my fists. The fucker was whispering something to a girl I’d never seen before. I quickly looked back at Grace, who noticed Mike, too. Her smile faded, and she just stood there, watching.

This wasn’t the Grace I knew. The Grace I knew would walk up to the bastard and kick him in the balls. The girl handed Mike a piece of paper, and he stuck it in his back pocket. I looked back at Grace as she downed her beer.

I walked over to where the girls were standing. I made my way to Grace and smiled weakly. “Grace, tell me you’re not letting him get away with cheating on you.”

“What?”

I shook my head as I took her by the arm and pulled her off to the side. “Grace, I know you saw that girl give Mike her number. Why are you putting up with his shit?”

“I know what I’m doing, Will. For once in your life, will you please keep your nose out of my damn business?”

Taking a step back, I held up my hands. “Fine. You know what? If you want to be treated like that, have at it, Grace. It’s your choice.”

I turned and walked up to Lex. I kissed her on the cheek and asked, “Wanna dance?”

She nodded her head quickly. “I sure do, cowboy!”

Lex and I danced and laughed for most of the night. I knew we were both just trying to hide the fact that we would be leaving for college in two weeks.

She pulled me closer to her as she whispered, “Make love to me.”

Smiling, I asked, “Where?”

She looked around and bit down on her lower lip. “The river. Right now.”

My mouth dropped open. “Are you nuts?”

She started laughing, and then she began running to the river. I quickly followed after her, but there was no way I would have sex with her in front of all these people—dark river or not.

Lex stripped out of her T-shirt and then pulled her boots off. Next came her jean shorts. Two seconds later, she was jumping into the river in her two-piece suit.

Right before coming to the party, we had all jumped off the rope swing into the river—well, mostly Colt and Luke had jumped off it, trying to outdo the other—so we still had on our swimsuits from earlier.

I pulled my T-shirt over my head and took off my sneakers. I’d opted to just wear my swim trunks here and not sweat my ass off in jeans. I glanced around. No one else was in the water.

I turned back around and looked at most everyone dancing. Taylor and Lauren were dancing with their friends, and Maegan was making out with some guy she had brought from Fredericksburg. Some people were standing by the fire we’d started in the fire pit. I saw Luke talking to Libby. He was already drunk, so I just prayed he wouldn’t say anything to hurt her.

I looked back at Lex, and she was holding up the bottoms to her swimming suit.

Motherfucker. She’s gonna kill me.

I quickly checked my pocket for a condom and ran toward the river. I jumped in, and she let out a small scream. I made my way to her and pulled her to me. My dick was already hard as a rock, knowing she was half-naked in the water.

She wrapped her legs around me, shoved her swimsuit bottoms into my pocket, and stuck her hand down my shorts. She slowly began stroking me.