Page 102 of Heartland

Like Ellie. And Rickie, surprisingly. Those two are unexpectedly tight. So when Chastity walks through our kitchen door on a Tuesday evening in early December, I’m not actually sure who she’s here to see.

I am, however, happy to see her. “Hey! I was just thinking about you.”

“Really?” She looks a little taken aback. “Whatcha making?” she asks, hanging her coat on a hook. Her cheeks are pink from the cold, and I just want to gobble her up.

“I’m reheating some tomato soup. Want some?”

She shakes her head. “I already ate. Plus, Rickie is waiting for me.”

“Again?” I laugh out loud. “What’s the movie this time?”

“Something about a cowboy and a puppy. I forget the title.” She shrugs. “You’d hate it.”

“Puppies are okay,” I point out. “But I could take or leave the cowboy.” I really don’t understand the pact that my roommate and Chastity made. They agreed to watch twenty-four Hallmark movies together before Christmas. “Can’t imagine cowboys are your thing either, right? Didn’t you grow up with cowboys?”

“This isn’t arealcowboy, Dylan,” she scoffs, pulling off her boots. “He’ll have a shiny belt buckle and dimples. And he’ll carry the Christmas tree around while his muscles bulge inside his T-shirt.”

“But nobody gets naked,” I clarify, just to double check. “I’m not missing any action, right?”

“Theremightbe a kiss at the end.”

Like I said, I don’t understand it. “But I’m still getting action later, right? Come here. I need a moment with you.”

As always, Chastity obeys. She crosses the kitchen to stand in front of me, flushed and happy. “What? The movie is starting.”

“Before you go ogle a fake cowboy, I need a real kiss.” I crook my finger. “Make it a good one.”

She steps closer, and I drop the wooden spoon onto the counter and pull her in. As soon as my warm mouth joins her cool lips, she parts them for me.

And then it’son. There’s never just one kiss with Chastity. We always get carried away. It isn’t long before I’ve spun us around to pin her against the countertop. Her hands are in my hair, and my tongue is in her mouth.

“CHASS!” yells Rickie from the other room. “You’re missing out! The cowboy just saved a kitten!”

We break apart, panting a little. “You’d better go,” I say hoarsely. “Don’t miss the fake puppies and kitties.”

“The animals are real,” she whispers back. “But very well-behaved. Unlike you.”

“You don’t want me to be well-behaved,” I point out. “You like me naughty.”

“Guilty.” She lifts her chin to smile at me. “Catch up with you later?”

“You can count on it.”

Chastity leaves the kitchen, and I turn off the heat under my soup. It’s hot enough, and so am I. I have a chem lab to write up, but it’s going to be slow going. I know I won’t be able to stop thinking about her.

Last night I had her on her hands and knees until she screamed my name. I’m hard just thinking about it.

When my soup is all gone, I clean up and peek into the living room before heading upstairs. Chastity and Rickie are shoulder to shoulder on the sofa, an ugly afghan stretched over their knees. They’re sharing an enormous bowl of popcorn and dissecting the movie.

“I think the sheriff did it,” Rickie says. “That man is dirty, and not in a fun way.”

“You can tell because he parts his hair in the middle,” Chastity agrees. “I think the dog is going to rat him out.”

“No, the horse. He looks smarter than the dog.”

Chastity laughs, and the sound makes me smile.

I turn and walk upstairs to get a little work done. With any other girl, I’d be a little freaked out at the way she so quickly became a fixture in my life. Maybe I’m just too sexually satisfied to care.