Page 33 of Jensen

I hesitate, knowing I need to stick to the plan. It’s hard, now that I’m here with him, feeling all the things he makes me feel. But I have to stay focused.

“Tennessee,” I say.

“I thought you had a little accent,” he says lightly.

“Some of my folks are from Kentucky, some from Ohio, West Virginia,” I say. “I reckon I’ve got some accent from all over.”

“It is a bit all over the place.” His lids flicker, but his face stays neutral.

We decided saying a little bit of the truth but twisting it up was the best way to handle Jensen. He’s smart, but easy to manipulate if you can get under his skin. That’s what I was told. Now that I’ve met him, I believe that statement. Underneath all that cowboy roughness, I feel he’s got a sensitive side. I hate that I’m taking advantage of it.

Am I really, though?

I study him. Whatever I’m feeling, it’s not fake.

“So, you have farm hands out here helping you?” I say, trying to change the subject.

“Yeah, I got a couple who keep things running, but they’ll be out in the fields by now,” he says.

I have a sip of coffee, the bitterness spreading over my tongue. I was worried about what would happen when I finally got him alone. Would I feel safe? Or would I be wishing I had a pistol in my boot the way Leland had me feeling?

Instead, I feel the safest I’ve felt since my daddy was alive, sitting on his porch with this man I barely know. I swallow hard. It’s not fair we had to meet under these circumstances.

“You got anybody else?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “I work a lot, stay pretty busy.”

“No friends?”

He shrugs. “Yeah, I got some.”

My coffee is about halfway done, and it’s cooling off. I set it on the railing and close my eyes, turning my face up to the sun. My skin is hungry for touch, and my heart is starving. Snapping my eyes open, I climb down the steps, walk down the short path to the grass. It’s soft near the house, just starting to brown.

He gets up and goes to the railing.

“You said nobody was around?” I say.

He nods, taking a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He lights one and inhales, holding it as he gazes at me. Slowly, I strip his shirt off my body, leaving me fully naked. His lips part, a little trail of smoke rising from them. I step backwards, letting the shirt drop to the ground for dramatic effect.

He lifts a hand and runs it through his hair. That’s when I notice he’s got a little cross tattoo on his ribs. Surely, he’s not religious. That would be strange, considering what we did last night.

He reaches down to adjust the front of his pants. That’s enough to distract me from the cross, my eyes moving to the outline of his hard cock hanging by his thigh. I let him look, hands tucked behind my back. But in my head, I’m trying to draw the lines between the bullseye on his chest, the cross on his side, and the Ruger on his dick. One plus one plus one equals…what?

Nobody told me what to expect when I met him. He’s a mess of flavors I wasn’t anticipating.

He clears his throat. “You trying to get me to make a mistake?”

“How is a little fun a mistake?” I tease.

He comes around the railing, standing halfway down the steps. “I don’t have a condom, but that might not stop me.”

My stomach flip flops, but not for the reason I thought it would. That shocks me from my head to my feet. Is it possible I could want him enough to sleep with him bare? After what Leland did? That has to be some kind of miracle.

“How about that parking spot you promised me?” I say.

He cocks his head. “Parking’s free before noon.”

“Oh, well, I’d better hurry up then.”