Page 12 of Revelry (Cowgirls Do It Better #2)

“Gertrude, you’re pulling me backwards! Can you shimmy round to my front?” I asked, right as her arm twisted around my neck and choked me.

“Ooh, sorry!” she huffed in my ear as she worked her way around to my front, sliding her legs.

I brought a knee up to stabilize her and then she was shimmying, squeezing herself between me and the trunk.

“We’re not too far from the ground now,” I said.

She nodded, her curls bouncing over my face, the scent driving me wild, and damn, my dick decided to notice how close we are.

I gritted my teeth and tried to step down a branch with her koala’d around me.

I tipped backwards and threw my weight forward to right myself, pinning her between my chest and the tree. Her breath puffed over my face, vodka and sweetness. Then I spotted the moment she felt my dick.

“Tate,” she breathed, and my dick decided to get even harder. I practically slid us down the tree I scaled it that quickly, needing to get away from her before I did something stupid.

We finally touched down but she didn’t unwind her legs from around my waist.

“Shall I get down?” she whispered. I refused to look her in the eye even though her face was all I could see.

“No. Let’s get you inside, the ground is muddy, full of sticks and stones.”

I marched us inside, her still wrapped around me, pressing against me so perfectly that I just wanted to throw us down on the nearest surface and stare deep into those eyes, watching them go wide as I pressed into her.

My jaw clenched so hard it cracked.

Her back door was thrown wide open and the lights of the kitchen shining bright. Once we were at her kitchen table I stopped and stood still. It took her a moment to realize we were there and I finally looked at her.

She was staring at me with an expression I hadn’t seen since we were teenagers.

Taking me back to the night she asked me to kiss her and I refused, like a fucking idiot.

Her tongue swiped out across her plush lower lip and her eyes dropped to my mouth.

My heart was beating like a battle drum in my ears and I swear my eyes fluttered closed.

Then I came to my senses.

“First aid kit?” I rasped.

“Bathroom cabinet,” she murmured. She didn’t drop down and I headed around the table, hoisting her higher up, getting a good grip on her. My hands rested under the fleshy cheeks of her ass. So badly I wanted to dig my fingers into the skin and rock her into me.

But I didn’t.

Because I don’t want this. I don’t want people in my life. I don’t want closeness because it gets messy. I can’t cope with messy.

And Gertrude is the messiest person I know.

I flicked on the bathroom light and rummaged in the cabinet, snagging the first aid kit. It was only when I leaned down and placed her on the toilet seat that she untangled herself from me.

“Let me take a look at it,” I said, my voice harsh. She sat there, petite and cute, staring up at me with big, luminous eyes and a sexy mouth like she was just waiting for me and I could barely stand it. Did she know what she looked like?

I clicked my fingers three times to distract myself.

“Gertrude,” I snapped, pulling her out of her daze.

She jolted, staring at the fingers I just clicked and frowned before raising her foot. I sat on the floor and opened the kit, pulling out an antiseptic wipe and began cleaning it. “I don’t think it’ll need stitches,” I said, just to fill the thick silence.

“Are you a doctor?” she teased.

I pinned her with a stare. “Yes.”

Her mouth rounded in surprise. “Oh. Wait, I thought you were a farrier?”

I turned back to her foot and began dressing the wound. “And a vet.”

She hissed in a breath, foot twitching. “You’re a vet and a farrier?”

My lips twitched but I locked it down, refusing to smile. “People can be two things.”

“But why? Do you have time for both?”

“Sure.” I shrugged. “There are a few ranches that always need something and it’s a small town so although my practice is busy, it’s not overwhelming. I fill all my time.”

“But what about your social life?”

I rolled my lips inward, not replying what social life . I taped up the bandage and tapped the side of her ankle. “Wiggle your toes for me?”

She did the best she could which meant the bandage was tight enough and I ignored her adorable pink-painted toes. “If it hurts take some Tylenol for the pain and try to stay off it until it heals.”

“Tate,” she began softly. “Do you have friends?”

I prickled, why was everyone so obsessed with me having friends? We stared at each other and her eyes dropped to my mouth.

“Okay, well I’m done here.” I looked around at the wrappers from the bandage and the used wipe. It killed me not to tidy it away but I just wanted to get out of here. “Let me know if you need anything else. Goodnight Gertrude.”

“Night Tate,” she murmured and with a final look, I fled her house and went back to the lonely, bare, silent sanctuary that was mine.

And for the second time since Gertrude came back to town, I didn’t like how quiet it was .