Bucked (The Invincibles 6)

“Why not?”

I pushed against his chest with my hands; he didn’t loosen his hold on me. “Buck, there is someone out there, waiting for us.”

“Why not?” His tone was more demanding.

“Because I don’t like looking forward to things.”

“And then not having them happen?”

“That’s right.”

Buck rested his forehead against mine. “It’s gonna happen, Stella. I guarantee it. Same way I guarantee that, as soon as I can, you’re going to be on that bed, legs spread, with me so deep inside you, you won’t know where I end and you begin.”

I wanted that more than anything, and I didn’t want to wait. And that was a problem. I’d told Buck that I couldn’t afford distractions, and now the work I needed to do in order to find Barb’s killer was becoming a lesser priority than having sex with him.

He brushed my lips with his, kissed my forehead, and let me go. I watched as he raced across the hallway to put on clothes I didn’t want him to wear.

I stayed in the bedroom, eavesdropping when Buck stalked out to the main part of the cabin and unlocked the door.

“What can I do for you, Irish?” I heard him say.

“Decker is trying to get in touch with you. Stella too. He finally called and asked me to walk over and see if you were both okay.”

“Hey, Stella,” Buck hollered.

I peeked my head out of the bedroom door. “Yeah?”

“As you can see, she’s okay and so am I. Anything else?”

“He wants you to call him.” Irish spun around and stormed out of the cabin. Buck shut the door, locked it, and pulled out his phone.

“Hey, Deck.” There were a few seconds of silence. “Yeah, Stella’s here.” More silence. “Sure, I’ll go get her.”

I stepped out of the bedroom and walked over to where he stood. I watched as he put the phone on mute.

“He wants me to put it on speaker.”

“Go ahead.”

“Okay, Deck, Stella and I are both here.”

“’Bout damn time the two of you got up.”

“Oh, yeah? Are we operating on someone else’s clock that I wasn’t aware of?”

Decker laughed. “Nah, just giving you some shit, young Buck.”

“Why did you want me to call you?”

“Right. I have to go to Tennessee for a few days. Rip says they’re about to wrap things up on the security system. Since I can’t get there right now, you and Rock can handle the final testing.”

“Roger that,” said Buck. “If you don’t mind my asking, what’s in Tennessee?”

“You know Smoke Torcher, don’t ya?”

“Of course I do.”

“Putting in a system like yours at his place. And before you ask why I’m working on that one and not on the one at the Roaring Fork, I can tell you that his is going to be a hell of a lot more complex.”