Page 28 of The Triple Threat

I shrugged. “Maybe. Especially as what I really want to do is string him from Archer’s tree by a rusty chain from his nut sack.”

Hunter visibly winced, making me laugh.

“What was it that mentally hurt, Archer’s tree, the rusty chain or the nut sack?” I asked.

“All of the above. The last two would be fucking painful, but if I had to be hung from my nuts with a rusty chain, Archer’s tree is not where I’d want to be.”

Archer’s tree was right on the edge of Archer land and somehow looked like a witch. The branches grew to a point for the hat, there were two gnarly old knots in the trunk that looked like eyes, and a big hole below them for the mouth. Legend also had it that Archer land was haunted by old man Archer. He told his son on his deathbed that if he ever married one of the Perkins girls, the daughters of his old enemy, he’d haunt him and the land forever. As Willie Archer knocked up Dotty Perkins and married her just three months after his dad died, everyone was convinced old man Archer had kept his promise.

“Chicken,” I muttered.

“You get yourself hung up from it then. See how you like it.”

“Ah and that’s where you’d fail,” I said, smirking at him. “I don’t have balls you can hang me from.”

Hunter’s eyes immediately went to my girls, earning him a back hander in the stomach.

“Shit, Ellie. You sure you don’t have balls? That hurt.”

“Good,” I replied, shivering as a wind gusted around us, blowing the front of my tiny skirt up.

I quickly smacked it down, but I knew it was too late when Hunter’s eyes lit up.

“Never realized that white panties could look so hot.”

I lifted my hand to hit him again, but he quickly stood up and moved at least three paces away from me.

“Like I said, chicken.”

Hunter laughed and lifted his bottle. “You want another?”

I shook my head. I’d barely drunk any of the one in my hand and still had a full one on the wall next to me. I’d had the one shot of Alaska’s bourbon and two mouthfuls of beer and just wasn’t feeling it. Maybe it was the cow fright earlier that had put me off.

Hunter disappeared and I wondered whether I should go back inside and join the rest of the party. Looking through the open terrace doors, I could see there was still a game of beer pong going on, and some dancing in the middle of the room. Over in the kitchen area some guy was being held upside down while Belinda’s two brothers emptied the keg into his mouth via a funnel – the male of the species never really grew up.

When a roar went up from the beer pong, I lifted slightly to get a better view to what had caused the excitement. To be faced with Mindy Larkins putting her own nipple in her mouth was not what I expected. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great skill, but not one I wanted to be a party to. As I sat back down Hunter appeared with a beer and what looked like a cover of some sort.

“Got you this.” He put his bottle down and then shook out what I realized was a throw. He reached behind me and draped it around my shoulders. “Better?”

I snuggled into the thick wool and nodded. “Yeah, much.”

When he sat down next to me, he was a little closer than before and I could see the goosebumps on his arms. It had gone chilly pretty quick.

“Come on,” I said holding out the throw. “I’d be cruel to leave you out there in that wind.”

Hunter raised a brow. “You sure?”

“Yeah,” I replied with a sigh as if I didn’t really want to—total lie.

As fast as a rattlesnake, Hunter was under the throw and squeezing himself close to me.

“Thank fuck for that. My balls were about to freeze off.”

“Can’t have that,” I said, putting my bottle on the floor. “What the hell would I hang you up by?”

Hunter laughed and poked my side. “As if you would, who’d help you with your plan if you did?”

“Yeah, well like I said, I’m not sure it’s a good idea now. Why would I push anyone with him?”