Page 26 of All This Time (Blossom Peak #1)

“Good. Let’s dance then.” Yanking on my free hand, she pulls me to the dance floor in the center of the bar. High-top tables are situated all around the hardwood floor full of people swaying their hips, and on the next level up are pool tables, dart boards, and neon signs all over the walls.

“Don’t You Worry Child” pulses through the bar as we move into the crowd. Yvonne pulls me to the middle of the dance floor, only releasing me to put her hands in the air as she shakes her ass to the beat of the song.

Knowing there’s no way she’ll let me sneak away, I give in and let the music overtake me. I sip on my drink, feeling my body get warm as the tequila does its job, and after a few minutes, the tightness in my chest starts to loosen up.

Maybe Dilynne was right. Maybe I just needed a night out to take the edge off. That doesn’t mean that I have to go home with anyone, and honestly, I’ve already decided that I’m not. But, being out instead of alone on my couch watching reruns of Friends is exactly what I needed to shake things up.

I’m so busy dancing that I fail to notice a man approaching me from behind.

“Hey, darlin’,” he says in my ear before stepping in front of me. “Name’s Easton.”

“Laney,” I say while staring up at him, his face etched from stone and his dark hair covered by a cowboy hat.

I bet this man knows how to ride that mechanical bull.

“Mind if I join you?” he says as his feet start moving to the beat of the next song.

“Uh, sure.”

He moves closer to me, planting his hands gently on my hips. My eyes land on his chest, admiring how broad it is. The flannel he’s wearing is almost bursting at the seams as his arms move. When I look back up to his face, I lock eyes with his.

“How come I haven’t seen you around here?” he asks, his voice deep and gravelly.

“Oh, uh… I don’t go out very often.”

“Shame.” He grins and I admire the dark stubble dusting his cheeks and his green eyes that are framed by dark, thick lashes.

God, he really is handsome.

Maybe Dilynne and Ginny are onto something. Suddenly, I have sparked an interest in cowboys, which is a far cry from football players, am I right?

“Easton!” One of his friends calls out to him from the side of the dance floor, gaining our attention.

“What?”

“Come here!”

As my eyes volley back and forth, I realize that Easton and his friends are the group of men that Ginny was scouting earlier, as indicated by their similar attire and cowboy hats.

“I’m busy!” he calls back before looking down at me again. “Sorry about them, sugar.”

“It’s okay. You can go over there if you need to.”

His grip on my hip tightens, pulling me closer. “I’d rather stay right here.”

“I think you should go over there,” a deep voice says from behind me, making my entire body tense up.

“Do you?” Easton challenges as he looks directly over my shoulder. I don’t have to turn around to know who he’s talking to.

“I do.” His words are clipped, but I hear the warning in his tone.

Easton dips his eyes down to me. “Do you want me to go?”

“Easton!” His friend calls again from the side of the dance floor. Easton’s eyes bounce back and forth between mine, waiting for my answer.

Shrugging my shoulders but fighting off my irritation, I say, “Maybe it’s for the best.”

He sighs, releasing me from his grip and glaring at the man behind me before stomping over to his friend.

I watch him leave and don’t bother looking behind me before moving in the opposite direction, but I’m pulled back by warm hands before meeting another broad chest, this time at my back.

“Laney…” Fletcher murmurs in my ear as we stand still, bodies dancing all around us.

I look up at him over my shoulder. “What are you doing here? Are you stalking me?”

“I swear, it was purely coincidence,” he replies, his breath ghosting across the sensitive skin at my neck.

“Well, next time, you should just pretend you never saw me, okay?”

His grip on my waist tightens, and the way his touch feels compared to Easton’s is like night and day.

Easton was polite, not too aggressive, and genuinely interested in me, or so it seemed.

But the way Fletcher is holding on to me right now is filled with possessiveness, and I can’t deny that it makes me want to obey anything he tells me to do, even though as soon as I get the courage to open up to the possibility of someone new, he appears out of thin air.

Seems to be my luck, doesn’t it?

“You act like that’s easy to do,” he says as his body starts swaying behind mine, his hand commanding my body to follow suit.

My breath hitches as his fingers find the sliver of skin between my denim skirt and white tank top. “It should be. You’ve done it before.”

“I planned on turning away, had every intention, but then that guy came over here and started dancing with you, and I just…”

“You what?” I ask breathlessly, borderline embarrassed at the extent this man is affecting my breathing.

“The thought of him touching you…” His growl is low, but I don’t miss it. “It made me want to put my football cleat to his chest and dig it in as far as it would go.”

“What is it with you and these murderous tendencies?”

“Well, that’s how you make me feel. In fact, I haven’t stopped feeling this way since the cake tasting, when you admitted…”

“I told you to forget about what I said.”

He pushes his very hard body closer to mine—and when I feel just how hard every part of him is, wetness builds between my legs.

Glad to know there are no cobwebs down there, but the fact that it’s Fletcher making me aware of that is an even bigger problem to manage.

“There’s no forgetting something like that, angel.”

The nickname rolls off his tongue so effortlessly that it makes me forget where we are.

“In fact, seeing that guy touch you made me realize that any man you are with is going to leave you disappointed.”

“And how do you know that?”

He inhales deeply before muttering against the shell of my ear, “Because none of them are me.”