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She threw her head back silently, and her mouth opened, but she didn’t make a sound as she froze in place and fractured apart against the side of the mountain, with little bits of sunshine still peeking through the roof of the forest, casting a soft glow over her body, waking it up, and making her come alive for me.

* * *

“How was your lunch date?” Rye asked when I got back to the store.

“Good.” I couldn’t help the smirk on my lips, the ones his childhood friend had just been kissing.

My underwear was soaked and sticking to my thighs, but I didn’t care, though it was a little uncomfortable riding back to Abey’s brother’s house on the back of her ATV. Luckily, her mom had decided to stay out at the farm, so I drove Abey back to her truck at her mom’s house while she sat next to me in the cab of my truck. She’d leaned close to kiss my neck while her hands roamed all over me.

Her family had been oblivious to our shenanigans. At least, I hoped they had been, but it was all I could think about. There was something about her.

Something about that Abey Lee.

I knew she had been reserved because her family had been close, but there was something about the way she kept so quiet during sex, like making any sound during her orgasm was forbidden. Why did she come like that, with no sound?

I wanted to make her scream with pleasure, and I had an idea about how I might do just that.

“Oh really?” Rye said like the cat who caught the canary. “Didn’t you go with her mom and Bax?” He laughed. “Uh…” He pointed to my hair and blushed. “You got a leaf there.”

I patted around till I found it and yanked it out. “Whoops,” I said, blushing, too, still remembering the soft feel of Abey’s skin on my fingers.

“Devo. Who are you? I thought you were this innocent little—” He pressed his lips into a line and stopped himself from calling me a little girl. “Sorry. I just didn’t expect you to get some on a lunch date with my best friend’s little sister while his mom and daughter were there. You’re a ba-a-ad girl.”

“Ha ha,” I said, rolling my eyes at his terrible attempt at a sheep joke. “We just kissed.” It was a lie, but c’mon. Like I’d tell him the truth—that I’d tongue fucked Abey with her mom not even a half a mile away? Yeah, right. “This isn’t weird? Talkin’ about this with me?”

“Naw, I’ve known Abey was into girls for years.” He shrugged.

“Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah, Bax told me when we were teenagers.”

“What did he think about it?”

“It was his little sister. He was shocked at first, but he saw how she struggled with it in their family. I think it made him sad for her, and he’s always been protective of her. But don’t tell me too many details. I can’t afford to see Abey as a sexual person. I still see her as a twelve-year-old pain in the ass who followed me and Bax around.”

“Deal. And hey, keep it to yourself, okay? Abey’s discreet. She has to be ’cause of her job.”

That was what she’d said, but it was about more than that. It was obvious there was more to it any time Bax or Abey or their mom brought up their dad. Things got weird and uncomfortable.

Rye held up a hand. “Say no more. Besides, who’m I gonna tell?”

“Thanks for lettin’ me take a little extra time. Abey said she won’t have a day off for a while, but with the new deputies finally here, she could take a long lunch. It was fun.”

“Welcome. You can repay the favor. I need to run an errand.”

“What kind of errand?”

“I, um, I need to pay a visit to someone. I won’t be long.”

“Okay. Take however long you need. I’ll be here,” I said, smiling like an idiot, still basking in the glow from making Abey come with my mouth and fingers. I had all kinds of ideas of things I wanted to do with her.

Now I just needed to get her alone to do them.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ABEY

My radio went off at a quarter to five the next morning.